KN Magazine: Articles

3/9/15 3/9/15

The Writer's Life: Your Protagonist

Beth Terrell wears many hats, and wears them, oh, so well. Besides being a darn good ballroom dancer, she is a successfully published author and serves as Killer Nashville’s Special Projects Coordinator. She also has a passion for helping beginning writers.

In her monthly column, Beth shares her journey while referencing the paths of different writers who have come into our Killer Nashville family. It is a journey worth learning from and it will save years – maybe decades – if you follow along.

Last month, Beth, who writes novels under the name Jaden Terrell, got you to dip your big toe into the world of writing with her piece about growing ideas to become stories. This month it’s all about the main character and the questions you must ask yourself when you create that special someone.

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Can you imagine Miss Marple slugging it out with a hopped-up pimp in a shadowy alley that smells of urine and rotting garbage? Can you imagine Mike Hammer sipping tea in a parson's parlor, quietly ruminating about the psychological foibles of a small-town microcosm of society?

Well, maybe you can—writers live on imagination—but the image doesn't hold up over the long haul. Poor Miss Marple would end up with a cut throat or a broken hip, and Mike Hammer would punch out the parson, and the balance of the universe would be restored. The characters must be true to the story—and vice versa.

The most important character in your novel is your protagonist. Why? Because, while the antagonist’s actions may drive the story, it’s the protagonist your readers are going to be invested in, the one they have to care enough about to follow for the duration of a book, or (in the case of a series) several books. In a crime novel, your protagonist is generally the one who solves the mystery or foils the villain’s diabolical plans. If you already know what kind of book you're writing, you already know a few things about the main character.

If you know you’re writing a cozy mystery set in a small New England town, you can already rule out a few characteristics. Since this subgenre typically features an amateur sleuth, you know your character isn’t a police officer or other law enforcement official. She’s not foul-mouthed or brutal. She’s curious enough and courageous enough (even if she doesn’t know it) to try to solve a crime that most people would leave to the police.

Remember to keep the tone of the book in mind. In a cozy, the protagonist will have flaws and a history, but her baggage can’t be too heavy. She might bite her nails, but she’s probably not addicted to heroin. She might have a strained relationship with her mother, but she probably wasn’t locked in a closet for days and then beaten with coat hangers.

On the other hand, if you’re writing a gritty psychological thriller, you need a character with the skills to defeat a cunning and dangerous killer. Her background and emotional life may be darker and more complex.

You’ll notice that each choice you make narrows your future choices. If your character is a tightrope walker, he's unlikely to also be clumsy—or if he is, you’ll need to explain why he chose such an unlikely profession and how he manages to both keep his job and avoid being splattered all over ring three. By eliminating choices or making (and explaining) unlikely ones, you begin to get a clearer picture of your character. Later, this will help you with plotting.

Ready? Let’s get started.

THE BASICS

First, is the character male or female? What does he or she look like? Some writers choose to leave the character’s appearance vague so the reader can create the character in his or her own image, but even if you choose not to put these details on the page, you should know them yourself. Why? Because how we look affects how people respond to us. It affects how we perceive ourselves and what we expect from other people.

A prime example of this is Jack Reacher. Jack’s sheer physical size is the first thing people notice about him. It gives him an advantage in some situations, a disadvantage in others. It influences his tactical decision-making. A short, small-boned man, even one with the same level of skill and training, would approach the same situations in a very different way.

Imagine two women in a café. Emma is tall and slender. She is, and always has been, beautiful in all the ways our society defines beauty. She’s wearing an expensive dress and expensive jewelry, and her makeup is flawless. Sybil is plain-featured with acne-pitted skin, lank shapeless hair, Coke-bottle glasses, and wears a worn sweatsuit stretched tightly over rolls of fat. How do the servers and the other customers respond to each woman? How does each one carry herself? What body language does each woman use as she interacts with a man she finds attractive or a surly salesperson at a high-end boutique?

Now imagine a third woman. Let’s call her Claire. By all objective standards, she’s beautiful. She could be a super model. But she was a plain, awkward teenager whose parents belittled her and whose classmates teased her about her appearance. The world sees her as an Emma, but inside, she still sees herself as a Sybil. Can you see how that self-image will affect all of her interactions and relationships?

Ask yourself these questions: Is your character attractive or plain? Is he physically strong? Fast? Fit? Is he generally healthy? How does he dress? Is he well groomed, and to what degree? Growing up, was he the kid picked last on the playground, or was he the captain of the team? Is his self-image in line with the way others see him? How does this affect his relationships with others?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true, but your character’s name will create an image in your readers’ minds. You’ll be living with it for a long time, so choose well.

Sometimes a name will just come to you. Sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn’t, skim a few baby name books or browse through the phone book. If you use the phone book, remember to mix and match. If you name your hard-drinking, chauvinistic detective Hubert Saltzwanger, and there is a real Hubert Saltzwanger in your town, you're just asking for problems. Better go with Hubert Fizbing or Alex (or Andrea) Saltzwanger.

Listen to how the name sounds. Does it fit the character and the tone of the book? Hubert Saltzwanger, for instance, is a name better suited to the hero of a humorous novel than a serious one. If you choose it for the hero of a serious political thriller, is your reason for choosing it important enough to offset the jarring or incongruous image it creates in readers’ minds?

PROFESSION

Many of your character’s skills are dictated by (or reflected in) his or her profession. In a thriller or harder-edged mystery, you might choose a professional investigator (perhaps a police officer, federal agent, private detective, or corporate spy) or someone who works in a technological field.

In a cozy or traditional mystery, you’re more likely to need an amateur sleuth. Cozy novels have been written about herbalists, cheese makers, chefs, and quilters, among other things. Lisa Wysocky’s award-winning novels feature a horse trainer. Nancy Cohen writes a successful series about a hair stylist.

Does your protagonist even have a profession? Maybe she's homeless and unemployed. Maybe she's an independently wealthy dilettante. If she's an amateur sleuth, how does she keep getting involved with these murder investigations? And what is it about her that makes her want to?

How did your character choose her profession? How does she feel about her job? What does she love about it? What would she change about it if she could? What’s her relationship with her supervisors? Is she a rule-follower or a maverick? Is she respected in her field? Is she a loner, or does she prefer to work with a team?

If she’s working in a male-dominated profession, what challenges does she face? How does she handle them? How about if he’s a man working in a field that is typically considered feminine?

HOBBIES, INTERESTS, AND SPECIAL ABILITIES

What are his hobbies and interests? Might any of these be useful in solving a mystery? For example, if he's an expert in beadwork, might he notice if a supposedly wealthy suspect is wearing a necklace made of cheap imitation glass beads, rather than the expensive crystal beads one would expect? If he's a hunter, might he be able to read tracks?

Does she carry a gun? Does she study martial arts? Is she an expert with a bow? Does she despise firearms and refuse to carry one? How will she defend herself? One of my characters, Kit Cohen, has never used a weapon and never wants to. When a fight erupts and her date is being strangled, she breaks up the fight by dumping a pitcher of ice water down the aggressor's collar.

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

How about family? Is he married? Divorced? Widowed? If he's divorced, what kind of relationship does he have with his ex-wife? Why did they divorce? If he's married, what is his relationship with his wife like? Is it comfortable, tempestuous, or strained? If it's a troubled marriage, how did it get that way? How does he deal with it? How does she? Are there children? And what is his relationship with them? Is he a serial monogamist, a playboy, or is he celibate? Or gay? If he's single, is he in a serious relationship, or is he looking for one, or does he play the field and like it that way?

Are his parents living? What’s his relationship with them? How about siblings? How many? How well do they get along? What patterns carry over from their childhoods?

Does he have a best friend? Who does he confide in? Does he have a rival? An enemy? What if the rival is also a close family member or friend—someone the character loves?

Does he have pets? If not, why not? If he does have pets, what are they, and why did he choose them?

BACKGROUND AND ENVIRONMENT

Where does she live? What city and state? Does she have her own house? Rent an apartment? Sleep on her mother’s couch? Is she a neatnik, a slob, or something in between? Are her living quarters lush or spare? What kind of security precautions does she take?

Does the story take place near her home? If not, where does it take place and how does she come to be there?

Where did she grow up? Did she stay near home, or home, or did she get as far as away as she could? Why?

LOOKING FOR PATTERNS

Are you beginning to see any patterns? What are this character’s strengths? What are his flaws or weaknesses? Does he have a support network? If so, who are they? If not, why not? How does he interact with other people? Is he charming and personable, or is he a curmudgeon? Is this a façade or a true reflection of his personality?

Do you feel like you're getting to know this person? Keep asking yourself questions until you understand your character. You can make up your own questions or pick and choose from other sources. Most bookstores carry "All about me" books, books full of questions about a person's history, likes, dislikes, etc. These are excellent sources for character development. You don't have to answer every question, just choose those that resonate with you—those that spark ideas about your character.

You can answer the questions in either first or third person. For example, if the question is, "What was your worst birthday experience?" you might write, "On Ronald's fourteenth birthday, the head cheerleader, on whom he had a huge crush, sent him a perfumed note asking him to meet her behind the bleachers, and when he got there, the entire cheerleading squad was there laughing at him."

Or you might say, "In the ninth grade, I had this huge crush on the head cheerleader. Her name was Allison. Allison Linley. On my fourteenth birthday, as we were leaving homeroom, she slipped a note into my sweaty palm. The note smelled like flowers. 'Meet me behind the bleachers after fourth period,' it said. I couldn't believe it. I practically floated down to the football field that afternoon. Never mind that I'd be late for Mrs. Pinchley's Algebra class and would probably have to write 'I will not skip class' nine thousand times. I was in love. When I got there, she was standing beside the concession stand. The rest of the cheerleading squad was gathered around her, and they were all laughing and pointing at me. 'Oh, Ronald,' Allison said. 'You're such a dork.' I've never asked a woman out that I didn't think about that day and break out in a cold sweat."

You’ll discover other things about the character as your story progresses, so leave yourself room for surprises. A long-lost cousin? A secret sibling? Time will tell.

And remember, if you come up with an idea you love that doesn’t fit what you’ve already chosen, you can backtrack and bring your previous answers into line with your new vision of your character. Some things are bound to change as your story grows, but the better you know your character before you begin, the easier you may find it to step into his skin and see the story through his eyes.

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels Racing The Devil, A Cup Full of Midnight, and River of Glass. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com.

3/9/15 3/9/15

From the Classroom: I'm A Teacher

Writers owe a debt to teachers, particularly those who teach reading and writing. Their efforts mold the minds of readers and writers of tomorrow. With any luck, the students of today will be those who purchase or write books in the future.

“From the Classroom” is a column written by real teachers, written for the rest of us.

I’m A Teacher
By Tracy Spruce

Whenever I’m asked what I do for a living I always simply reply, “I’m a teacher.”

Historically, this has proven an insufficient answer because there’s always the follow-up, “Oh really? What do you teach?” Then, my inner smartass responds, because I know that the inquirer wants to know which subject, hence the “what.” My annoying habit is to say, “I teach 10th graders.” Before the third question comes I always toss in, for the sake of my fellow human, “I teach reading and writing. I teach 10th graders more about reading and writing.”

I’ve been in public school classrooms for 18 years now. This school year is my first in a high school, having taught my first 17 in middle school, mostly 8th grade. And it has always been true for me that I must remember from day-to-day, school year to school year, that I teach young adult readers and writers first, and English second. And, everything we do in my classroom is done to help the student be a more powerful reader and writer. But let me tell you, it’s a can of beans, and the richest, most beautiful, real, gut-wrenching work I can do.

When I first started teaching in 1997, I was fueled with knowledge fresh from my Bachelor of Arts in English degree. I tried to teach Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour to 6th graders. I was hell-bent on marching them through literary movements and tried to show the connection between art, architecture, and literature by using photocopies of a Manet painting and a gothic chapel and for a “hands on” activity kids cut up the copies and created a new mosaic of an image. It was my attempt to teach some sort of lesson on deconstruction or postmodernism. The kids had fun with the scissors and glue, but jeez, what was I doing?

I’m a fortunate creature in that it didn’t take me long, the end of my first year in that middle school, to come to the realization that I really didn’t know what I was doing. And it was a student that showed me the way. I recommended a book to a student after talking with him a bit, Geraldo, an incredibly smart and thoughtful young man who was also in constant trouble (there was as stink bomb debacle and something about marijuana). He left with the book, Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez, stuck in his back pocket. The book was a newly published young adult novel about a young Latino man trying to make it in his neighborhood and make the right decisions for himself and his family. It seemed like a novel that Geraldo might connect with and find himself “into.”

Within the next days Geraldo was placed in in-school suspension, for some offense I can’t remember, but I do recall sending an assignment for him while he was on lockdown to write about the book in some way. Who knows what I assigned to him really, but what I got back floored me. He didn’t write about the book. He wrote about himself. He wrote a micro-memoir about getting caught for petty crimes in his neighborhood and at school, and how he wanted to turn his life around.

As I read Geraldo’s notebook entry I noticed something about his writing. He used this beautiful repetition and ended the piece with this fairly long, stringy, and lovely sentence. I grabbed my copy of Parrot in the Oven and realized that what Geraldo was doing was using Parrot in the Oven as his mentor. He wasn’t copying or plagiarizing, he was inspired and learning craft moves from a text he was engaged in reading. He was learning to write about his own life by reading the work of a writer whom he loved. His sentences mimicked the flow and intensity of Victor Martinez’s writing. And he was given the time and the space to do it at school, albeit in a less than ideal situation.

It was around this same time that my teacher friend and mentor, Kenan Rote, recommended that I read Randy Bomer’s Time for Meaning, a professional text about the teaching of literacy in the secondary classroom. This experience with Geraldo, my inability to stop reading, highlighting, underlining, and scrawling, “Yes!” in the margin of Randy’s book, and countless conversations with smart, inquisitive, teachers cemented what has become my non-negotiable, or standard, as a reading and writing teacher: choice. Students must have choice in their literacy lives and education and a good teacher doesn’t bring the content of the curriculum, the students do.

Over the last 18 years in the classroom, from 6th grader Geraldo to my current 10th graders, I realize that my bottom-lines have never changed. In fact, I’ve become fiercely protective of them as I’ve navigated curriculum changes from the state, hung out in debates over national standards and the common core, and survived initiative after initiative and program after program as tides change and big business education moves in and out of a school. I’ve taught in 5 schools in two districts: the largest district in the state of Texas and one of the smaller ones. I’ve participated in countless hours of professional development and I still stand firm and strong on these few principles:

Students need and deserve choice in their reading and writing education;
I can’t teach young people anything about reading and writing if they’re not engaged in the act and practice of reading and writing; and
Writers become better writers by studying and reading the works of those that inspire them.

I am spinning wheels made of worksheets that crumple and go nowhere if I forget these ideals.

And I have found that these basic principles will swallow up any new-fangled hot trend, or recently purchased program in education. My students and I can navigate our way through whatever is considered the new “best practice” if we keep practicing at our best. I’ve worked with some of the most gifted, fierce, intelligent, dedicated, and yes, tired and frustrated teachers and mentors over the years who have helped me forge my beliefs. And the students. I’ve learned more from them than any course, book, professional training, or workshop. I’ve worked alongside young people who have the most privileged lives, two professional parents at home encouraging them and providing them with the best of life, and ones who are facing the most dire and tragic of situations including gang violence, incarceration of a parent (or themselves), death of a sibling, teen pregnancy and any other myriad of social issues. Every one of these young adults brings their life with them into the classroom and I feel like the best part of my work is teaching them to use it when they stand at a bookshelf searching for the their next, just-right book. Or when they open their notebook and start an entry, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about…”

Am I teaching my state’s curriculum? What are my students’ test scores going to be like in this high-stakes testing culture if they aren’t being marched through a prescribed curriculum? Is my class “rigorous” enough if young adults are getting to make decisions about what they read instead of everyone being forced to read the same text, in the same way, at the same pace, and glean the same ideas from it? If we’re all writing, say poetry, or speeches perhaps, is it possible for us to study one or two common texts together for a short time to ask ourselves, “What are the qualities and features of this genre and how do writers craft it in powerful ways?” and then send young writers off in search of texts in the genre that they can relate to and think to themselves, “I want to write like that!”

My litmus test for anything we do in the classroom is the idea that we do the work of real readers and real writers. In fact, we read a class agreement every day at the beginning of class – an agreement that I co-authored with a group of students at Jane Long Middle School in Houston.

The agreement remains an ideal and “pie in the sky” document for my students and me and has for almost a decade now. It begins, “We have a balance of freedom and responsibility, independence and community, choice and challenge. We are up to big work and we are proud,” and ends with the statement, “We imagine what is possible for ourselves and our community and we act in order to live into those possibilities. We think big and we live big.” The crux of the agreement is that we do the work of real readers and real writers. And so any strategy I teach, any activity we do, any project or type of writing we craft has to pass that test.

Is it something I would do as a reader or writer?
Is it something readers and writers in the community and world actually do? If not, it probably doesn’t belong in the classroom. And if it is, I should teach it explicitly and teach it well.

So I ask myself about my own literacy life and I study others’. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a novel, one that charged my heart with words and fire, one that wrecked my soul and thinking, one that left me sick to my stomach with loss and grief and then thought to myself, “Hey, I really feel like writing a summary of this book to prove to everyone that I read it.” Or, “I really need a shoebox so that I can now create a diorama of a scene from this book.” What are the authentic acts that a reader performs after reading a book that’s impacted them? The acts are as varied as the books on a shelf or the readers in a bookstore:

Readers are dying to talk about the book they just finished with someone else who has read it.
Readers set up little scenes before, during, and after reading—with their book, their beverage of choice, or set the book on their legs and take pictures and post them on Instagram or Facebook, and start a thread of conversation inviting others into their reading lives or to recommend the book to their fellow readers.
They log onto Goodreads or Amazon and rate the book with stars and write a review.
They write about it in a reading journal – exploring all of their feelings and thoughts about it, not really worried about whether what they’re writing is “right” or following the format of a 5-paragraph essay or “book report.”
They immediately go out in search of other books by the author or maybe even get a little stalker-like and start a surveillance of the author’s website, social media page, look for pictures of them, friend them on Facebook or write to them about how the book changed their life.
They collect their favorite quotes from the book and try writing sentences like the writer – imitating the style and diction. Or they make memes of the quotes and post them to their Tumblr or Pinterest pages.
And sometimes, they sit with a finished book in their heart and head for days or weeks even, unable to start the next book because they’re not ready to leave behind the characters and scenes quite yet.

And what about writing? What do real writers do in their lives that makes them powerful, effective masters of craft? How do poets, novelists, journalists, speechwriters, memoirists, essayists work? Do they keep a writer’s notebook and if so what kinds of entries do they collect in order to eventually turn their thinking into a piece of published writing? How do these writers know how to write in a particular genre?

I think, just like my student Geraldo, it starts with a genuine desire to study the thing, whatever the thing is and adding the thought, “I want to write like that.” Then using the text as a mentor to ask more questions, like, “Hey writer, how did you do that?” And not being able to have the writer answer back, studying the text for it’s organization, it’s beauty or pain, it’s sentence structure and diction, and continuing to ask questions like, “I wonder why the writer decided to make it like that?” Maybe a teacher could come up with a similar list for the work of real writers:

Writers make time for their writing. They sit every day with pen and paper or open their laptop and they just write and think and observe and wonder.
Writers use their lives, their anger and upset, their joy and ecstasy, memories and current situations as the fuel for their words.
Many writers keep notebooks and they collect artifacts and “stuff” from their lives, clippings and snippets, photos and drawings.
Writers make lists, they rant and rave, they collect favorite quotes and words, they write messy, they make plans and outlines, they rewrite and revise.
And sometimes, writers sit and stare and think and don’t get a word on the page because they are lost in thought or stuck or exhausted.

I have learned that I can absolutely allow all of these acts into the classroom and even explicitly teach these practices as lessons in a unit of study. I can filter state mandated curriculum through a lens of authenticity and choice and keep engagement high. And I can celebrate the moments in my classroom that might otherwise seem like failures or challenges, such as the two young ladies who almost came to blows over a book because one walked into the classroom and announced the ending to the book that the other was reading.

I can respond to the young man who tells me early in the school year, “I hate reading and I’m not gonna do it,” by apologizing for the fact that books and reading have let him down and asking him to try and remember that last book that wasn’t like that for him. I like the times when I’m worried about a student over the weekend because on Friday she told me she has a crush on one of the male characters in her book and I know that he’s going to die before the end of the story. I like when kids are mad when I don’t have the next book in the series they’re reading. Or when, like the other day, one of my sophomores was working on his speech persuading black men that have good jobs to give back to their community by mentoring young boys, he throws down his pen and says, “Why am I doing this it’s not going to make a difference!” And listening as another student talks to him about how it’s important that he write it and that he’s going to get to send his speech to people who might really listen to his ideas. And, my pregnant student who writes me a letter letting me know that she still hasn’t told her grandfather, that she misses her mother, and signs it “#I’mallalone.”

My students’ stories and their lives as readers and writers matter. Their struggles and celebrations are significant, and the making for great literature. This school year has been one of the toughest for me. Mostly because I’ve moved to a high school and two of the classes I’m teaching are filled with students who have experienced reading and writing as doors slammed in their faces. They equate reading and writing with standardized tests that they’ve historically struggled with and failed. And, they are two years older than most of the students I’ve worked with in the past, and they are developmentally angry with me just because I’m a teacher.

It’s taken a lot longer to gain trust this year. It’s February, and I’m still having conversations where I’m saying, “Yes, you should write about that! Your position about half school day/half work day for students who have jobs would make a great topic for a speech,” and having them look at me with squinted eyes and pursed lips, finally sighing and saying, “Whatever.”

But last week Erick and Alejandro did draft a speech together, using Henry Rollin’s “Letter to a Young American” as their mentor text, and using persuasive techniques to help craft an argument to the school district that once students reach the working age of 16 they should be allowed to opt-out of electives in order to work and help provide for their families. They’ve sold me! But now they have to revise their draft, polish it up and get it ready to be performed. All of which is covered in the State of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills – but Alejandro and Erick don’t care about that.

Tracy Spruce is an 18-year veteran English teacher, wife, and mother of three living in Austin. She was a middle school teacher and staff developer for the Houston Independent School District for 13 years and is currently teaching 10th grade at Del Valle High School in the Del Valle Independent School District, in Austin, Texas. She is a poet and expert thrifter, constantly searching for discarded treasures. Photos and her poetry can be found on Instagram at tracytrix_atx.

3/9/15 3/9/15

To Self Publish? Steering Clear of the Slush Pile

By Tom Wood

When Clay Stafford asked me to write about self-publishing for his new Killer Nashville Magazine, my first thought was:

“Really? Why me?” They probably ought to be talking to English author Sheila Rodgers, who writes under the pen name Rachel Abbott. Her three self-published eBooks—“Only the Innocent” and two sequels—have a combined one million sales, according to a story recently published in the Sunday Times.

I’m guesstimating that I am about three zeroes behind in total sales across all platforms for my self-published debut novel Vendetta Stone, a fictional, true-crime thriller.

It has been a whirlwind 18 months since Vendetta Stone was published in August 2013 and I still consider myself a novice at all this. There have been a lot of successes, a few failures—and one very big learning curve.

And that’s why I agreed to write this. It has indeed been a non-stop adventure, one I love—even though I probably work harder at it than I ever did in my 36 years as a sports writer and copy editor at The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning newspaper.

Maybe the journey I’ve embarked on will inspire you, or at least warn you, for what lies ahead.

I’ll explore each of these in detail in upcoming Killer Nashville blogs, but here’s kind of an overview about why I chose to self-publish instead of choosing the traditional route.

After getting the idea for my novel in 2008, I wrote a first draft over the next year, began attending Killer Nashville in 2009 and pitched it over the next three years, as it underwent multiple rewrites—and rejections.

At the 2012 conference, it was suggested to me that I connect with a local editor and give it a hard edit before submitting for consideration. I took that advice and was so happy with the results that I decided it was time to get it on shelves, five years after starting this project. I’d taken an early retirement offer at the newspaper, allowing me the necessary time to devote to complete the project.

The final editing process took about three months, then I spent several months doing all the formatting—I chose to publish through CreateSpace—and hiring someone to do the cover. I saved a lot of money going this route and it allowed me creative control over the process.

And much like Jackson Stone, the protagonist of Vendetta Stone, it put the target squarely on my back. If I was going to succeed—or fail—as an author, it was all on my shoulders.

When I decided to go down this road, I decided that I wanted to be taken seriously as any high-profile author in the genre. I wanted Vendetta Stone to stand up to the same scrutiny, to be of the same high quality, to be considered as much a work of art as anything written by Michael Connelly, Robert Dugoni, Lee Childs, John Grisham, Stephen King or any other author you can name. After all, I am on the same shelves with all of them, competing for the same sales.

If you’re going to aim, aim high. So that was the goal. I think I have succeeded in many ways, not so much in others.

Whatever success I have enjoyed has been the result of my own determined publicity efforts. One of the great highlights of 2014 was being able to discuss my book on A Word on Words With John Seigenthaler before he died last July. John was publisher and editor at The Tennessean when I started there in 1976 and he did the public television show for four decades, interviewing local and national authors and promoting literature. To honor him, in 2014, Killer Nashville created the John Seigenthaler Legends Award. I will forever treasure that opportunity.

I have spoken to library groups and book clubs, participated in and hosted festival appearances and minor events across the South, traveled across three states, talked to numerous bookstore operators and owners of non-traditional venues about carrying my book. I’ve tried to think outside the box and my book is available in several restaurants and even a grocery store.

My approach is that all anybody can say is ‘no thanks.’ I have a pretty thick skin.

One thing surprising to me is that a lot of the ‘no thanks’ responses came from some independent bookstores. I expected that from chains, but not Indies. They hate Amazon and will not carry anything published by CreateSpace. I understand and sympathize with that point of view, but totally disagree.

Not carrying my book is hurting me. And readers. Not Amazon, certainly not them. Sigh. But I’ll press onward and continue to swim against the current.

The Sheila Rodgers Success Story inspires me.

A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series Nashville. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Ask Clay: Making the Most of Writers' Conferences

Clay Stafford, founder Killer Nashville, publisher of Killer Nashville Magazine, and CEO of American Blackguard Inc., is regularly asked a range questions from writing techniques to publishing to marketing. And, they’re always good questions, he says. But often he feels he is unable to fully answer due to time constraints. Writing as a business is important stuff and demands reflection. In our “Ask Clay” column, he will share more than 30 years of experience in what he knows about the writing and entertainment businesses.

You can connect with Clay through www.ClayStafford.com, @ClayStafford, or Facebook.

Making the Most of Writers' Conferences

Question: I am an unpublished writer and coming to Killer Nashville to get discovered. How can I make sure I take advantage of all my opportunities?

First of all, I’m glad you are coming to Killer Nashville. By your proactive attendance alone, you are already saying you are ready to get down to business. Killer Nashville (and other conferences) are a wonderful way to get out of the slush pile. That’s a huge reason why Killer Nashville was created. Frankly, it was my way of giving back to all the people who have helped me over the years. The people who present at Killer Nashville feel the same way. We’ve been given opportunities. This is our way to give back. By coming to the conference, we know that you are a professional. You’ve laid down the money. You’ve made the effort. You’ve made the commitment. And you’re willing to put yourself out in front of people.

Publishing is a long-odds profession. You can lessen those odds by meeting face-to-face with people, rather than simply being another letter in the mail. How many books are published each year? How about 8,000 per day in various forms. Holy cow! How do you compete against those odds? You make friends. You don’t come to conferences to sell books, you come to conferences to make friends. You put a face with the name, a face with the story, a face with the manuscript. It is this that propels you above those who would rather sit at home and send out query letters.

You said something interesting in your question: you are coming to get discovered. Not a great way to look at it. Fact: no one is going to discover you. You have to make your presence known and in a way that is truly positive. We have people who come to Killer Nashville and those who have rubbed elbows with them certainly leave with an impression; but not one that the person probably wanted. The conference is a way to give a great impression to someone face-to-face and create a long-standing positive relationship.

I thought about your question and came up with things I’ve seen work over the past 9 years at Killer Nashville. We have a wonderful success rate of getting people published: from the information and networking that comes from the conference itself, to our agent/editor roundtables, to our social mixers, to our Killer Nashville Claymore Award. Standing out at a writers’ conference requires effort on your part. They are simple things, but they go a long way in making you look professional.

1. Let people know you are coming.

Let people know you are coming (on your social media, retweeting posts from conference itself, alerting those in your social circle that you are coming). Blog on your own site and become a guest blogger on others. Talk about your journey. Write a guest article or do a book review for Killer Nashville Magazine. Conference organizers read those posts and know who the hungry authors are. Agents and editors who are coming read those posts. Both conference organizers and attendees know who is retweeting or sharing their posts. Look at the attendee list of the conference and friend or follow those people, developing a supportive relationship before you ever get to the conference (and be sure you follow back if someone follows you). Knowing people socially before the event will let everyone get a feeling for you even before they meet you. It’s like the old advertising adage of putting the product in front of people in numerous ways. Here, you let people know the product is coming and they better be ready because you are excited and ready to go! Follow the agents and editors who will be attending via their social media and make comments, including how excited you are that they are attending the conference where you are going.

2. Start building a platform now.

Unfortunately, it is not enough to have a great manuscript. You need to let people know the whole package: how you are also positioned to sell it. That is your platform. Create your website and social media platforms. If you are not good at technology, hire someone else to do it. It is worth the money. A bad impression is worse than no impression at all. Start speaking to groups. Tweet and post about your research. Build up excitement for your project – and build in a following (which could translate in the agent or editor’s eyes as potential sales) before you ever get to the conference. For an unflattering, but perfect example of how building a platform can sometimes trump great writing, read this months article on “Celebrity Fiction” by Killer Nashville Magazine British correspondent C.J. Daugherty. Factor great writing into celebrity and you are unstoppable.

3. Research everyone who is attending.

Research the agents, editors, publishers, and even other attendees who will be at the conference with you. None of us like being numbers. It’s nice when someone knows us, including people we’ve never met. Each year, I have attendees I’ve never met come up and introduce themselves. I’d say probably 10% of attendees. We talk. They already know me because they’ve taken the time to wander about the website. In most cases, I know them because I do the same thing. Because they seem genuine and professional, I’m drawn to them. I want to learn more about them. I want to hear their stories – not the ones they’ve written – the stories of their journey to this point. And then – what do I do? – I take them and hand-introduce them to the people I think could help them, individuals I think match their personality. Then they scream after the manuscript is requested from the top of the escalator, hug my neck, and it makes my day. Another 10% will ask who I am. I tell them my name. They ask if I’m a writer. I tell them I try. We get off the elevator and I go down the hall shaking my head. And then about 80% walk by and never say a word. I’ve talked with agents, editors, publishers who attend, and they all have the same experiences I have. If you are in that 10%, you are really going to outshine the other 90%. Researching who is going to be there in advance will save you the learning curve when you get there.

4. Have your manuscript ready to go.

It amazes me the number of people who pitch and don’t have a completed manuscript ready. When opportunity knocks, you need to be ready to take advantage. You know the conference is coming. Get that manuscript into shape. Have numerous people critique it. Research proper format. And when someone loves your idea, you – without sweat – can produce the goods.

5. Bring plenty of paper and pens for notes.

Come to the conference to learn. Don’t spend valuable time in the classroom raising your hand to instruct the professionals on the panel on the industry. They know the industry better than you. Instead of coming to the conference with opinions, come to the conference to listen and learn. By all means, share something if you have it to share. That makes the sessions dynamic. Just don’t hog the microphone. You know the difference. Use the system. Learn how it works. Listen to what the professionals are saying, really saying, through fresh eyes. See an opening. And then strategically make your move. Sometimes if you already have an idea (usually negative) of the odds that are against you, you do not see the actual positive opportunities that are presented. And at conferences like Killer Nashville, they are all around you. When you leave, you’ll be mind-boggled at where to begin to harvest from the field you planted.

6. Have your pitch ready.

Create a TV schedule encapsulation of your story. Two sentences. Thirty seconds. Something that makes someone want to request your manuscript. Believe it or not, that same pitch (for better or worse) will tag along with your manuscript for the rest of its life: from you to agent, from agent to editor, from editor to publisher board meetings, from editor to marketing, from marketing to publicity, from publicity to reviewers, from reviewers to book buyers, from marketing to sales, from sales to bookstore owners or managers, from bookstore owners to employees, from hand-selling employees to customers, from customer (and now reader) to a word-of-mouth recommendation to a friend. Plan your two-sentence pitch well. You might even feel you spent more time on it than you did in writing the book! But the time spent is more than worth it from start to finish.

7. Bring business cards.

Authors are poor marketers. One of the most basic things you need are business cards. Nothing fancy, just well-thought-out. It needs to be clear, professional, and strategically you. Like your website, it needs to look professional. Who wants to work with a sloppy writer? When the person leaves the conference, they need to pull out your business card and remember YOU. How do you do that? By having a business card, for one. Seeing 500 people over the course of three days can be taxing to anyone’s mind. No wonder they don’t remember you. A business card will help you stand out. Next month, I will go into detail regarding the 15+ items that should be a consideration on everyone’s business card. Don’t worry; you have enough time before the Killer Nashville conference to get that together. Just be sure to check back with this column next month.

8. Sign up for everything.

Wherever anyone looks, you are there. That includes the breakout sessions. Guest of Honor and Awards Dinner. Social gatherings sponsored by Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and others. Visit the bookstores. Get critiques of your work (critiques are not just for getting critiques; they are also for getting you in front of those who might be able or interested in helping you later). Don’t stand or sit at a table. Walk around. Mingle. Introduce yourself. Remember people’s names. Take cards. Give cards. When other attendees interest you or you share a common interest, maybe go to dinner or lunch with them. (We’ve had at least 3 couples who met during Killer Nashville and have either gotten married or are dating long term, believe it or not.) You never know whom you might find. Network.

9. Forget the gimmicks.

You don’t need gimmicks. Leave the boxed presents, candy, and cookies at home. You want agents, editors, and publishers to like you, not be freaked out that you are some crazed stalker bearing gifts. You need three things to make a positive impact. You need professionalism, a good manuscript, and a happy, welcoming demeanor.

10. Enter your work in awards contests.

If you are coming to Killer Nashville and have the first 50 pages of your manuscript ready, enter it in the Claymore Award. If you’ve already published a book, enter it in the Silver Falchion. Placing in either of these gets your name out. And who reads and judges these entries? Many times it is the same group of individuals who will be at the conference also looking to represent you. If they read your great 50 pages before they ever arrive, when they finally meet you, they already know you can deliver the goods.

11. Dress for success.

Dress as though you are there for a casual business interview. Because you are. Killer Nashville is not a coat-and-tie event (except maybe for the Guest of Honor Dinner), but you do need to appear as though you would know how to dress if Good Morning America wanted to do an interview with you.

12. Don’t hype or undersell.

Be realistic and honest about where you are. If you’re starting out, you’re starting out. If you’ve been orphaned (your publisher or agent has dropped you), there’s no need to apologize for that. But no matter where you are, you are a writer with a manuscript. That puts you in the club. Don’t be intimidated. There is not a person at the conference who is either not in your same position, or hasn’t been in your same position. It’s like people looking at you in a restaurant when your children are throwing a fit – for those of you who are parents. You feel embarrassed, but next time, really look. Most of the people are smiling slightly. Why? Because they remember (and are probably thankful that their kids are now a little older). You are not the first person to walk this path. If you let people, they will share their experiences and help you along because they have been there previously themselves just as long as you present yourself as you are. Leave the hype at home. And – for a little humor – read the things you should NOT say in agent Deni Dietz’s article this month, Mind Your Ps and Qs: An Editor’s Perspective on the Art of Manuscript Submission.

13. Expect positive results.

Be positive. No one needs to know the bad experiences you’ve had with your previous agent. In fact, your previous agent (whom you are slamming) may be a friend of the new editor you are talking with. No one likes to be a downer. We all know the publishing industry is hard and harsh at times. Who wants more of that? Who wants to hang with people who want to bash rather than build? Don’t put yourself in that position. We only want to work with positive people. There are, honestly, people who are better off NOT coming to Killer Nashville simply because it is such a positive place. Negative people are quickly shunned.

14. Listen to critiques.

Don’t argue with the person giving you a critique. Really listen politely to all critiques and weigh them. Few really want to know why you did what. Just listen. And once you get the critique, don’t just blindly apply it. It may be really poor advice. But weigh that decision on your own. Privately. People will value you for actually (if only in appearances) wanting to know their thoughts.

15. Have 1 physical copy of your manuscript ready.

You probably won’t use it, but you’ll have it. Some people even advise against bringing a copy of the manuscript. If someone wants it, the common view is that they will request you mail or email it to them (or a portion thereof). I’ve seen exceptions, though. Once at Killer Nashville an editor was so excited about a manuscript (and wanted to make an offer before the others) that they wanted a copy of the manuscript to read on the plane back to New York. The author didn’t bring a copy.

16. Bring several copies of your query packet.

Have at least 10 copies of your query packet with you (minus the cover letter). If someone is interested in your work, be prepared to give them your “sales packet.” Don’t miss that opportunity. In April’s issue of Killer Nashville Magazine, we will address what should be in this package.

17. Talk with people outside of the sessions.

Your book deals – believe me – are going to be made outside the pitching environment. Use those opportunities. Talk with everyone. We have buyers (agents, editors, publishers) who are not on the program. They are walking around looking for writers. Make your presence known.

18. Realize agents, editors, and publishers are there looking for talent.

Along with your ego, leave your jitters at the door. The people at Killer Nashville are there either to help you or to work with you. If you’ve been to Killer Nashville before, you know the warm family environment that runs from Day 1 through Day 4, and years thereafter. That’s why we have so many repeat attendees at Killer Nashville – and not just beginning authors! New York Times bestsellers come back year after year because of the environment. Agents and editors are searching for new talent. You can be the solution to their problem. Who can’t love someone who is going to step in and solve their problem? Be that person. And part of doing that is to let your personality and your gifts flow freely so everyone can see them. Cut the jitters. They put the stop-plug on who you are. See the people who are there – no matter how powerful – as approachable. And see yourself as the solution to the problem they need. They want good writers who will compliment their current stable.

19. Focus on the long-term goals.

Some say writer’s conferences are about getting your book published. They are not. That’s short-term thinking. Sure, that may be the eventual endgame for all your efforts, but the main thing to gain at a conference is relationships and information. That’s the mission statement of Killer Nashville: connect writers with other writers, connect writers with industry professionals, connect writers with new fans, and connect writers with information. Focusing on selling your book is a byproduct of the bigger picture. Instead, look at the people you meet as people you want to develop a relationship with for the next 50 years. That’s a more accurate view. And – as a byproduct – you will sell your book.

20. Don’t worry about the other writers also seeking representation or publication.

Sure there are those who might view you as competition, but that’s crazy thinking. No two writers with a genuine voice are the same. Publishers and editors know that. Support each other. Introduce each other to people you meet. There is room for everyone. Agents and editors will leave Killer Nashville with the names of dozens of possible clients. You and your new friends are there to support each other; not be concerned about one upstaging the other. Value the support and take it with you long after the conference is over.

21. Focus on having fun.

Killer Nashville is all about fun. All four days are set up so people not only learn, but they can play in a non-threatening setting so that their true personalities are able to emerge. Have fun. Encourage others to have fun. People like to hang out with those who have fun, including agents, editors, and publishers. (Sometimes we might forget, but they are people, too.)

22. Stay in touch after the conference is over.

Friend people you meet on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. If someone sends you a friend request or follows you, follow back. Always. Connect with other writers you meet via phone, text, and email. And for those who can or have helped your career: send hand-written thank you notes (physical ones). You will be surprised what a difference these make in your unfolding future.

Employ these techniques, bring the marketable goods, be pleasant and appealing, and there is no way that you can’t make the most of Killer Nashville this year. And possibly, just possibly, this may be your year. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Having worked in film, television, radio, and publishing as both a buyer and a seller, Clay Stafford is happy to take your questions regarding the publishing / entertainment industry.

Clay Stafford has had an eclectic career. Not only did he found Killer Nashville in 2006 and Killer Nashville Magazine in 2015, but he has also been an industry executive (PBS, Universal Studios, others), author (over 1.5 million copies of his books in print), a filmmaker (work in 14 languages), university professor (several universities including University of Miami and University of Tennessee), and a much-sought-after public speaker (U.S. Department of Defense, Miami International Press Club, more).

Send your questions here.

3/9/15 3/9/15

Arthur Author March 2015

3/4/15 3/4/15

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

In the animated movie by American songwriter and musician Harry Nilsson, The Point!, the main character Oblio encounters a “pointed man” in the Pointless Forest. The “pointed man” has a few heads with pointy chins, and there are arrows jutting out of his hat and suit. He tells the oval-headed Oblio that “a point in every direction is the same as no point at all.” This is what comes to mind as guest blogger and author Bill Hopkins takes on the topic of points of view. Nailing down a point of view, or views, in your work is elemental to the writing process. And being strategic with your point of view will give your work pointed direction.

Happy reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

My Favorite Points of View

By Bill Hopkins

What is a point of view? One definition I like from Literary Devices is this: “Point of view is the angle of considering things, which shows us the opinion, or feelings of the individuals involved in a situation. In literature, point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers ‘hear’ and ‘see’ what takes place in a story, poem, essay etc.”

There are several different ways to use point of view. Here are my two favorites.

FIRST PERSON

This is a story that is usually narrated by the protagonist. If you use this, then your first sentence–or certainly your first paragraph–should make it clear. “Sally whirled around and slapped me in the face.” You know that someone (the narrator) has incurred Sally’s wrath and he or she is going to tell the reader about it.

Advantages: First person allows the narrator to develop a distinctive voice that no one else in the story has (or should have). The reader will learn to like or at least understand why the narrator acts the way he does. He can ramble on about relevant points inside his own head without anyone else but the reader knowing what he’s thinking. The reader also witnesses the stress placed on the narrator and how that causes him to act in a certain way. The reader learns about the world of the narrator quickly.

Disadvantages: The narrator must be in every scene or he and the reader will be subjected to a lot of retelling by other characters concerning what happened off-stage. But even that may be skillfully handled so that the narrator doesn’t appear to be just a listening post where different folks come to tell their tales. Also, other characters and not the narrator must describe him or the narrator must slip in hints at his appearance. “Sally slapped me so hard that I thought my scrawny mustache had been knocked off my face.” And, please, avoid the cliché of having the narrator look in a mirror and telling the reader what he sees. Finally, avoid as many “I’s” as you can. “I went to the store. I bought some eggs. I took the eggs to Sally.” That soon becomes boring.

THIRD PERSON CLOSE

Advantages: You can describe your character in the narration. As a reader of fiction, I rarely remember what a person looks like while reading the story. As a writer, my descriptions of people tend to emphasize oddities of their appearance or perhaps one or two nods to a physical description. Another advantage that draws me to this point of view is that you can still show the direct thoughts of the person. “Sally slapped him. That’s the second time she’s done that to him!” or “Sally slapped him. That’s the second time, he thought, that she’s done that to me.”

Disadvantages: You must be especially careful not to get into anyone else’s head. You must show us what the other person is doing to determine his reaction to what is going on or, of course, have the other person say something that presents his state of mind. This sounds easy, but it’s tricky. In one story, I had written about the protagonist and two companions doing something like “trudging dispiritedly” (it wasn’t really that bad). My most heartless editor (my wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins) pointed out that I was expressing the thoughts of the other two people as well as the protagonist, which, of course, I was.

Play around with different points of view. See what fits your protagonist the best. You’d be amazed how a character changes when you change that character’s point of view!

If you would like to read more about Bill Hopkins’ books please click here.

Bill Hopkins is retired after beginning his legal career in 1971 and serving as a private attorney, prosecuting attorney, an administrative law judge, and a trial court judge, all in Missouri. His poems, short stories, and non-fiction have appeared in many different publications. He’s had several short plays produced.

Bill is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dramatists Guild, Horror Writers Association, Missouri Writers Guild, SEMO Writers Guild, Heartland Writers Guild, Romance Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. Bill is also a photographer who has sold work in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

He and his wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins (also a published mystery writer), live in Marble Hill, Missouri, with their dogs and cats. Besides writing, Bill and Sharon are involved in collecting and restoring Camaros. COURTING MURDER was his first novel and his second novel RIVER MOURN won first place in the Missouri Writers’ Guild Show-Me Best Book Awards in 2014. His third novel BLOODY EARTH was published in November 2014. Visit him at www.judgebillhopkins.com or www.deadlywritespublishing.com

Submit to our blog! (Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)

3/4/15 3/4/15

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

My Favorite Points of ViewBy Bill HopkinsWhat is a point of view? One definition I like from Literary Devices is this: “Point of view is the angle of considering things, which shows us the opinion, or feelings of the individuals involved in a situation. In literature, point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers ‘hear’ and ‘see’ what takes place in a story, poem, essay etc.”There are several different ways to use point of view. Here are my two favorites.FIRST PERSONThis is a story that is usually narrated by the protagonist. If you use this, then your first sentence--or certainly your first paragraph--should make it clear. “Sally whirled around and slapped me in the face.” You know that someone (the narrator) has incurred Sally’s wrath and he or she is going to tell the reader about it.Advantages: First person allows the narrator to develop a distinctive voice that no one else in the story has (or should have). The reader will learn to like or at least understand why the narrator acts the way he does. He can ramble on about relevant points inside his own head without anyone else but the reader knowing what he’s thinking. The reader also witnesses the stress placed on the narrator and how that causes him to act in a certain way. The reader learns about the world of the narrator quickly.Disadvantages: The narrator must be in every scene or he and the reader will be subjected to a lot of retelling by other characters concerning what happened off-stage. But even that may be skillfully handled so that the narrator doesn’t appear to be just a listening post where different folks come to tell their tales. Also, other characters and not the narrator must describe him or the narrator must slip in hints at his appearance. “Sally slapped me so hard that I thought my scrawny mustache had been knocked off my face.” And, please, avoid the cliché of having the narrator look in a mirror and telling the reader what he sees. Finally, avoid as many “I’s” as you can. “I went to the store. I bought some eggs. I took the eggs to Sally.” That soon becomes boring.THIRD PERSON CLOSE

Third Person: An unknown narrator is telling the story. Generally, the narrator is never identified. Writers and readers have an unspoken agreement that this is a “willing suspension of disbelief” that someone witnessed and is able to tell the story. There are different kinds of third person. What makes my favorite version of third person “close” (other people have different terms for it) is that the narrator is in only one character’s head at a time. “Sally slapped him.” That would be the first line of a book written in third person (close or otherwise). Further on in the story, the reader realizes that the narrator can see into only one person’s mind. “He felt the stinging blow and didn’t like the look on Sally’s face.” In fact, third person close is almost a first person viewpoint using different pronouns.Advantages: You can describe your character in the narration. As a reader of fiction, I rarely remember what a person looks like while reading the story. As a writer, my descriptions of people tend to emphasize oddities of their appearance or perhaps one or two nods to a physical description. Another advantage that draws me to this point of view is that you can still show the direct thoughts of the person. “Sally slapped him. That’s the second time she’s done that to him!” or “Sally slapped him. That’s the second time, he thought, that she’s done that to me.”Disadvantages: You must be especially careful not to get into anyone else’s head. You must show us what the other person is doing to determine his reaction to what is going on or, of course, have the other person say something that presents his state of mind. This sounds easy, but it’s tricky. In one story, I had written about the protagonist and two companions doing something like “trudging dispiritedly” (it wasn’t really that bad). My most heartless editor (my wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins) pointed out that I was expressing the thoughts of the other two people as well as the protagonist, which, of course, I was.Play around with different points of view. See what fits your protagonist the best. You’d be amazed how a character changes when you change that character’s point of view!

If you would like to read more about Bill Hopkins' books please click here.Bill Hopkins is retired after beginning his legal career in 1971 and serving as a private attorney, prosecuting attorney, an administrative law judge, and a trial court judge, all in Missouri. His poems, short stories, and non-fiction have appeared in many different publications. He's had several short plays produced.Bill is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dramatists Guild, Horror Writers Association, Missouri Writers Guild, SEMO Writers Guild, Heartland Writers Guild, Romance Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. Bill is also a photographer who has sold work in the United States, Canada, and Europe.He and his wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins (also a published mystery writer), live in Marble Hill, Missouri, with their dogs and cats. Besides writing, Bill and Sharon are involved in collecting and restoring Camaros. COURTING MURDER was his first novel and his second novel RIVER MOURN won first place in the Missouri Writers' Guild Show-Me Best Book Awards in 2014. His third novel BLOODY EARTH was published in November 2014. Visit him at www.judgebillhopkins.com or www.deadlywritespublishing.com

Submit to our blog! (Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)

3/4/15 3/4/15

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

3/3/15 3/3/15

Live from the United Kingdom: Celebrity Fiction

Sure we have a passion for writing, and finishing a project is the best feeling in the world, but it would be nice to make a little money for the effort. Still, it seems haphazard at best, how some authors achieve fame and fortune over others.

Talent and skill are surely a qualifier, but it still seems a bit of a crapshoot, that is, except when it comes to works by celebrities. Because they are famous, publishers seem to swoon, and stuff gets printed that maybe should have been left in a journal and shoved to the back of a closet.

In the case of hugely popular British vlogger, Zoe Sugg, publishers hit a jackpot when her debut novel was released in 2014. The problem is she may not have written the book.

CJ Daugherty, our U.K. foreign correspondent and expat author living in England, discusses the publishing scandal and why writers end up getting the shaft. Again.

Celebrity Fiction

The great British publishing scandal of 2014 happened at the very end of the year. In December, a vlogger (video + blogger = vlogger) named Zoe Sugg released her first novel. And all hell broke loose.

If you’re over twenty you’re unlikely to have heard of Sugg. She’s an online ‘lifestyle blogger’ known to teen girls everywhere as ‘Zoella’. And when I say ‘everywhere’, I mean everywhere. She has 7.4 million subscribers to her YouTube channel. Her videos have a collective 369 million views.

She blogs about makeup, girl problems, her boyfriend, and her dog. A video she put up 18 hours before I wrote this column already has 780,000 views. Here, you watch it, I can’t bear it.

When her novel Girl Online* was published by Penguin UK, it broke first-week publishing records set by Dan Brown and EL James, selling more than 78,000 copies in its first seven days. In a country where selling a few thousand copies can get you on the bestseller list, that number was mind-blowing.

Despite its fluffy cover, the novel tackled serious issues affecting teens today, including bullying and online harassment. The press couldn’t get enough of it; Sugg was everywhere – TV, newspapers, radio.

The only problem, it seemed, was that almost as soon as the book came out, rumours began swirling that Sugg didn’t write it.

On Twitter, authors muttered under their breath about it. People began putting the word ‘author’ and ‘wrote’ in quotation marks when Sugg was mentioned.

Full disclosure: I was one of those people. Several of my author friends had been approached about ghost writing this book. By the time Penguin found a writer, half the professional writers in the UK knew what was going on.

With so much publicity and gossip, the outcome was inevitable. At the end of December, the Sunday Times newspaper broke the story wide open with a two-page spread on Zoella and her alleged ghost-writer, an experienced, award-winning author of books for young adults named Siobhan Curham.

According to the newspaper, Curham was paid £7,000 (around $10,700 US) and given no royalties on the record-breaking sales. Rumours abounded that she was given only six weeks to pen the 80,000-word novel.

Curham, who allegedly signed a secrecy agreement with Penguin, has never admitted writing the book. Sugg has never admitted not writing the book. Everybody involved uses the word ‘help’ a lot.

In a statement, Penguin said, ‘As with many new writers she (Sugg) got help in bringing that story to life.’

In a separate statement, Sugg said, ‘Everyone needs help when they try something new.’

The only help I got writing my first novel came from coffee – and lots of it. But that’s neither here nor there.

The scandal made national news. The Internet was full of it for days. Teens on Twitter and Facebook claimed either not to believe it, or to be heartbroken, depending on which one you talked to. Either way, they kept buying the book, which has now sold nearly 300,000 copies.

Curham’s name never went on the cover. Sugg is now ‘writing’ her second novel.

Welcome to British publishing, where celebrity is king.

In the midst of the Zoella scandal, few noticed an industry announcement that Scholastic had signed fifteen-year-old Scottish pop singer Tallia Storm to a 5-book deal (FIVE). She’s said to be writing her first novel now.

In February, Zoe Sugg’s younger brother, Joe Sugg, signed a deal to ‘write’ a graphic novel for Hodder and Stoughton. His YouTube channel has 3.6 million subscribers.

And all of this was followed by a few months of the startling successful, and most aptly named book of 2014 – The Pointless Book*.

‘Written’ by Zoe’s YouTube boyfriend, Alfie Deyes (3.6 million YouTube subscribers), The Pointless Book is not a novel, but a notebook that buyers fill in themselves. ‘Write five places you want to go,’ it suggests on one page. ‘Draw genitals on the pictures below,’ another page demands. It sells for £7.99 and has an average 4.2 stars on Goodreads.

When Deyes held a book signing at a large book store in central London last fall, police were called to handle the chaos after thousands of screaming teenage girls crowded Piccadilly Street. Doors to the bookstore were locked. Teens left outside wept in despair.

‘I stood in line for three hours,’ one girl on Twitter wrote accusingly later that day, ‘and Alfie didn’t even hug me.’

Britain loves a book written by a celebrity. One of the bestselling UK children’s writers for those over the age of 8 is David Walliams, the erstwhile star of the hit adult comedy TV series, Little Britain, which took a dark look at life in the UK in the early 2000s.

On December 26, 2014, in the Bookseller Magazine list of the Top 20 books of the week, 15 were either books by or about celebrities including Walliams, or computer game tie-ins (Minecraft), or anthologies (the Guinness Book of World Records).

That means, two of every three books in the top 20 were not necessarily written by the authors credited, if an author was credited at all.

This was not an unusual week. The British publishing industry has long been fascinated by the famous and the easy money celebrity books bring in. But with the Zoella scandal, some writers, who had long tolerated the pretence that celebrities really write those autobiographies and cook books, grew restive.

Within the publishing industry – agents, editors, executives – the Zoella scandal was greeted with baffled dismay. ‘There have always been ghost writers,’ editors and agents wrote in the days after the Times broke the story. ‘What’s the big deal?’

It’s a good question. Maybe it was because the one person who got shafted on that deal, aside from the book buyers, was the writer. And that looks bad.

Perhaps, watching Sugg give interviews about a writing process she had not necessarily gone through was too much to stomach for writers struggling with falling advances.

I suppose in the end, though, the fantasy just went too far. Her readers are so young – most are aged 12-14 – and they believed she wrote the book. Really believed it. They love Zoe Sugg. They weren’t buying a novel, they were buying a piece of her. Something she had created. Or so they thought.

It was unpleasant to watch. Like an industry was lying to children for cash. And they paid and paid.

Like taking candy, you might say, from a baby.

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the next celebrity teen novel. I wonder who’s writing it?

A former crime reporter, political writer, and investigative journalist, CJ Daugherty has also worked, at times, for the British government. She is originally from Texas and attended Texas A&M University. She now lives with her husband in the south of England. Night School is the first in a five-part Young Adult series with an accompanying web series. Her books have been translated into 21 languages.

2/25/15 2/25/15

Writing a Cozy? Follow the Rules … And Mind Your Language / Author Penny Clover Petersen

Nancy Drew never cursed. She was always under duress in one manner or another, but she never let, even the occasional expletive, spill from her titian-colored head. In this week’s guest blog, author Penny Clover Petersen discusses what makes a cozy mystery, and the ongoing debate about the use of bad words.

Read like they are burning books!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Writing a Cozy? Follow the Rules … And Mind Your Language

By Penny Clover Petersen

I began my first novel when I was fifty-nine. Being an avid mystery lover, I had spent most of those fifty-nine years inventing puzzling scenarios for the most trivial occurrences and envisioning dark motives behind the most benign actions. Cookies for a teacher? They are no doubt laced with something in order to avoid the afternoon’s math test. A package delivered late? You know the mailman is up to something, but what?

Poison pen letters, tripping over bodies lying by the side of the road, murder, mayhem, blackmail, all of these fascinating ideas rolling around in my head had me wondering if I were to write a mystery, what would I write?

When the mood finally moved me to get to work I took to heart the adage “write what you know” and figured that I know family, cats and dogs, suburban living, and cozy mysteries. So I determined that a cozy mystery involving two sisters, a goofy mother, and a hormonally challenged dog was something I could achieve.

Now, writing cozies is a bit tricky. The rules are pretty well defined. The first two are actually almost carved in stone and I think that we must adhere to them if we want to call a mystery a cozy.

Number one is all violence will be off-stage. Cozy writers do not depict grizzly murders. Autopsies are avoided. We don’t have psychotic killers torturing hapless victims in gruesome detail. As with many cozy writers, my victims tend to be obnoxious people that no one much likes who are conked on the head and found by the side of the road.

Number two is, of course, sex. That, too, must be off-stage. There are no steamy love scenes, no kinky aberrations. If sex enters into the plot, it generally is glossed over with only the incidental reference to “incredibly tall, slim men with well-cut graying hair and eyes the color of smoky quartz under wire-rimmed glasses.” Perhaps adding “kind of bookish and sexy — quite the studly muffin.” If the studly muffin and the leading lady ever do get together, it is definitely behind closed doors!

Number three concerns foul language. Agatha Christie, the mother of the cozy, did not use any off-color language in her books. But neither did anyone else writing at that time. It wasn’t a part of the culture.

Today, I think this is one rule that can be tinkered with. I have spoken with a number of cozy writers and this is a stumbling block for many of us. We want our characters to be somewhat real and the use of “language” in society has certainly become looser. For instance, my own everyday speech is not chockfull of colorful invective, but I do occasionally throw out a word or two my mother would not approve.

So what is acceptable in a cozy written in 2015? Of the writers to whom I have spoken, many have main characters that use the S-word. Many feel a leading lady is allowed to say, “Oh Christ!” or the like. Damn, hell, and variations seem to be acceptable these days.

But what of, as they say, the F-bomb? Now I don’t advocate throwing it around like confetti, but I do feel there are appropriate times that it might be used. As my children could tell you, if they heard me scream f….., they would most certainly know that I am really, really mad or have gone completely around the bend. And I feel the same holds true in a cozy. A crazed killer saying, “Oh gosh, I think I have to kill you now,” does not have the dramatic effect as something much more strongly worded.

A friend and fellow author, Austin Camacho, suggests leaving the cursing to the peripheral characters — the crazies, the villains — and keeping the leading ladies ‘cozy’. I tend to agree with this point of view. But I think purists probably wouldn’t. And so the question is, just how much is too much — and is it still a cozy?

If you would like to read more about Penny Clover Petersen’s books please click here.

Penny Clover Petersen’s first Daisy&Rose mystery, Roses and Daisies and Death, Oh My was released in December 2013 by Intrigue Publishing. In addition to writing, Penny enjoys spending time with her family, refurbishing old furniture, collecting stories and recipes for the ‘family cookbook’, and savoring new cocktail recipes. She loves historic homes and is a docent at Riversdale Mansion in Riverdale, MD. Her second novel, Roses Are Dead, My Love, will be released April 2015. Penny is currently at work on her third Daisy&Rose mystery. Visit her website at http://pennypetersen.com/

(Have an idea for our blog? Then share it with our Killer Nashville family. With over 24,000 visits monthly to the Killer Nashville website, over 300,000 reached through social media, and a potential outreach of over 22 million per press release, Killer Nashville provides another way for you to reach more people with your message. Send a query to contact@killernashville.com or call us at 615-599-4032. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Maria Giordano, Will Chessor and author Tom Wood for his volunteer assistance in coordinating our weekly blogs. For more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com or www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com)

2/18/15 2/18/15

Comedy That Kills / Author Diane Kelly

William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut knew the power of humor. It’s a great tool to leverage when writing. In this week’s blog, author Diane Kelly explains that humor is mighty: bringing levity to tense dramas, intensifying others, and even making characters appear more clever. Laugh on!

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

Comedy That Kills

By Diane Kelly

Murder and laughter might not seem to go hand in hand, but the contrast between humor and horror can take an ordinary book and amp it up to extraordinary. Humor techniques add tools to a writer’s toolbox, giving an author more flexibility and options as they develop their stories.

When I began writing, I knew only that I wanted to write about strong, feisty female lead characters that were matched with an equally strong male lead. I didn’t set out to write mysteries or funny books. It wasn’t until my third manuscript (the first that sold), that I realized romantic mystery was my genre and that my humorous voice would set my work apart. Once I realized this, I vowed to learn everything I could about writing comedy.

Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned is that there is a place for humor in every book. Whether it is infrequent touches of dark humor in a gritty thriller or laugh-out-loud moments in comedic crime capers like mine, humor has a home in every written work.

What can humor do for you? So many things.

First, humor can stretch a book’s emotional impact. Readers relate with characters and engage with a book via emotion. While many murder mysteries and thrillers set a reader’s heart to pumping and palms to sweating, not many give the reader the extra emotional hit of humor. Add a well-placed laugh or even just a note or two of clever irony to your stories and you’ll give the reader a broader emotional experience.

On a related note, humor can act as a breath of fresh air for a reader after an author has put them through the wringer. Too much nonstop tension can overwhelm a reader. A humorous passage placed after a particularly intense scene can give the reader some comic relief and allow them to better tolerate what will follow.

The flipside, of course, is that moments of levity can, by contrast, make dark moments appear even darker. For example, imagine a scene in which a character has been too busy for grocery shopping and is forced to improvise a dinner of Froot Loops floating in Tennessee whiskey. Funny, right? So when a machete-wielding psychopath appears in her kitchen, the contrast is even darker than it would have been had she been cooking a raw, bloody steak on the stove.

Humor is, at its core, a coping mechanism. Think about the things we find funny: bad relationships, poorly behaved children, financial instability, the loss of physical beauty, etc. All of these are negative things that people have to deal with. Rather than let these problems bring us down, finding the funny in them helps us conquer and control them. In a murder mystery, the characters — and vicariously, the readers — will likewise have to cope with negatives: Loss, Grief, Fear. If the character and reader can find some humor, they can better deal with the situations and emotions they must face.

Believe it or not, a sense of humor can make your characters seem clever. A well-worded, perceptive, or thought-provoking quip signifies intelligence. Think of your funniest friends. Chances are they are also among your smartest. If you want to amp up a character’s IQ, give him or her some funny lines to deliver. Moreover, most novels contain a cast of several characters. Put a few people together in real life and there is likely to be a cut-up among them. Such should be the same with a fictional group.

Humor intensifies a story. In a way, it acts like salt, elevating the flavor of a scene. Why? Because humor grabs a reader’s attention, and when a reader is paying attention they are more engaged and better absorb information.

A bit of warning. However you use this tool, do so with some caution. One person’s chuckle is another’s insult. Be careful what topics you approach with humor to avoid alienating readers.

Bottom line? Humor is an incredibly flexible tool. It can be dark or light, or any of the many shades in between. It can be used often to nail down the material, or it can be used sparingly when a screwdriver or buzz saw are more appropriate. But add some to your work and you’re guaranteed to like the results.

If you would like to read more about Diane Kelly’s books please click here.

A former state Assistant Attorney General and tax advisor, Diane Kelly inadvertently worked with white-collar criminals on multiple occasions. Lest she end up in an orange jumpsuit, Diane decided self-employment would be a good idea. Her fingers hit the keyboard and thus began her “Death and Taxes” romantic mystery series. A graduate of her hometown’s Citizen Police Academy, Diane Kelly also writes the hilarious K-9 cop “Paw Enforcement” series.

Diane’s books have been awarded the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award and a Reviewers Choice Award. Be the first to receive book news by signing up for Diane’s newsletter at www.dianekelly.com. “Like” Diane on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dianekellybooks, and follow her on Twitter @dianekellybooks.

2/11/15 2/11/15

The Junkman Cometh and Sometimes He Writeth / Author Guinotte Wise

Respect your readers, don’t cheat, cut when necessary, and by all means, keep going. I’ve never met this week’s guest blogger artist and author Guinotte Wise, but after reading this blog, I like him. A lot. Not only is he a good writer, he’s a heck of a welder. Nothing would make me happier than seeing a piece of his art and his collection of short stories sitting side-by-side on my office shelf. I’m a bit of a junkyard dog myself.

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

The Junkman Cometh and Sometimes He Writeth

By Guinotte Wise

That third person, man, you can get away with anything. It is rumored that Guinotte Wise came within a hair of winning the coveted … The award-winning sculptor and writer has just written a screenplay that some say … The former adman, who during his career won enough chrome and lucite industry awards to make three Buicks …

Snap out of it, Wise. Okay. Junkyards. I’ve loved them since I was a speed-obsessed kid with ducktails, a loud Ford and a smart mouth. Row upon row of decaying cars, some no longer in production, baking, fading in the summer sun. Smells of solvents, grease, gasoline, burnt rubber, and those unidentifiable odors peculiar to junkyards drifting like the turkey buzzards in the cloudless Missouri sky. Maybe that’s why I started welding steel and writing stories. I inhaled that stuff and it made me odd. But it’s my odd and I like it fine.

I have my own junkyard now, and no beady-eyed, bearded old fart in overalls to follow me around, making sure I don’t pocket a carburetor float or a chrome nutcap.

And if, when I’m writing, I get stuck, I go weld. And vice versa. They’re both fugue activities when I’m holding my mouth right and the coffee isn’t burned.

I don’t just stick stuff together when I weld. I’m represented by some galleries, and have solo shows. I’m serious about the writing, too. It’s just that I do what I want. No formulas, no rules, other than this: If I make something and it’s for others, not just myself, respect those people, give them credit for having probably more operating brain cells than I do, and some taste.

I had a horse named Mighty Mouse who passed away this spring. He’s buried on the place. He was a superb athlete in his day and a legendary horseman in his 90’s said of him, “He never cheated me.” From this guy, it was high praise. I would like readers and art buyers to say the same of me, and more, if they’re not blessed with his laconicism. I’d like them to be pleased. Never cheated.

So junkyards and welding and plasma cutting are metaphorically handy in this blog, which is aimed at writers and readers. The junkyard of my mind is cluttered with rows and rows of materials, ready to form new combinations. I’m not being enigmatic when I say of writing, or welding, it happens in the process. I may start out to weld a horse, and a horse happens, but I have no idea what that horse will look like as I construct a frame, an armature, and begin to give it form.

I wrote a book that way, and my agent liked it. No publishers have clamored for it yet, but who knows. I was putting together sculptures for a show the first of this month, and one piece drew a puzzled look from my wife. She didn’t care for it. I have a lot of respect for her opinion, art-wise and lit-wise—she reads a lot, and makes exquisite jewelry—so I left that piece out for a while.

At the last minute, I took it to the gallery and during the show, I was told it was the favorite of some whose opinion I also respect. Go figure.

I think I’m saying here, when you get rejections, have enough faith in your piece to keep submitting it. Your work is not for everyone. If it is, well, maybe you’ll be a bestseller and more power to you. And if, in your reading, you’re fifty pages in and you hate what you’re reading, toss it. Give it to someone else and they may love it.

The plasma cutter. Great when I need it for making things fit. But I sure hate to look at a big piece and realize I made a major error by welding something that doesn’t belong. The cutter comes into play, and not in an enjoyable way. But very necessary if the final form is to be pleasing: to me, to the viewer. Guess where that not very slick allusion fits in the writing process. I hate to cut, steel sculpture or the printed word. But it sometimes needs to be done.

When the rejection comes and they say, as they so often do, “unfortunately your work wasn’t the right fit for this issue,” (I just picked that up word for word from a rejection I got minutes ago) it could mean just that, or it could mean why the hell are you sending us this crap. Or, heat it up and refashion it some. Or write something new altogether. Roam the junkyard. It’s there somewhere.

If you would like to read more about Guinotte Wise’s books please click here.

Guinotte Wise has been a creative director in advertising most of his working life. In his youth he put forth effort as a bull rider, ironworker, laborer, funeral home pickup person, bartender, truck driver, postal worker, icehouse worker, paving field engineer. A staid museum director called him raffish, which he enthusiastically embraced, (the observation, not the director). Of course, he took up writing fiction. He was the winner of the H. Palmer Hall Award for short story collection, “Night Train, Cold Beer,” earning a $1000 cash grant and publication of the book in 2013, Pecan Grove Press. His works have appeared in Crime Factory Review, Stymie, Telling Our Stories Press Anthology, Opium, Negative Suck, Newfound Journal, The MacGuffin, Weather-themed fiction anthology by Imagination and Place Press, Verdad, Stickman Review, Snark (Illusion), Atticus Review, Dark Matter Journal, Writers Tribe Review, LA, The Dying Goose, Amarillo Bay, HOOT, Santa Fe Writers Project, Prick of the Spindle, Gravel Literary Journal, and just had a story accepted in Best New Writers Anthology 2015. Wise is a sculptor, sometimes in welded steel, sometimes in words. Educated at Westminster College, University of Arkansas, Kansas City Art Institute. Tweet him @noirbut. Some work is at http://www.wisesculpture.com/

2/5/15 2/5/15

Genre Studies: Beginning With Crime

by Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

The crime genre is undoubtedly the core group of Killer Nashville. Within it are over 33 subgenres (depending upon who is counting; and in this case, me). Let’s take a vast look at what this category includes and suggest some books (or films for the visual) to get your taste buds tingling.

Beginning with Crime

CASE HISTORY: FIRST CRIME STORIES

No one knows when the first crime fiction appeared.

Steen Steensen Bleicher, Author of The Rector of Veilbye

Some say the first full crime fiction novel (based upon a true incident; but then, aren’t they all to some degree) was from a Danish writer named Steen Steensen Blicher called The Rector of Veilbye in 1829 (sorry, Poe fans).

Prior to this, there were shorter segments within larger works focusing on crime fiction or creative crime nonfiction; there was the Bible (stories I’m thinking of were probably written in 1440 B.C.) as well as plays (for example, wasn’t Shakespeare all about crimes?) and poetry (a Greek poet wrote “Where the 3 Roads Meet” where a god himself is murdered – can’t remember the author if indeed he is known).

Needless to say, crime fiction (or creative non-fiction depending upon the literality of Cain and Abel) has been with us indisputably for over 3,000 years at minimum in various forms. That’s a huge collective body of work.

BREAKING DOWN CRIME FICTION

Crime fiction is one of those genres that can cross several others and thus explains its mass appeal.

Since the moniker “crime fiction” is so vast, I won’t be as detailed as what is (or is not) contained in this general genre as I will be when discussing crime fiction in its various subgenre forms.

The main focus of crime fiction is that it fictionalizes crime. The subgenres such as detective, locked room, legal thriller, private eye, courtroom drama, police procedural, hard boiled, all come when the differentiation is made between the types of crimes, how they occurred, where they are explored, how they are investigated, and in what time of history or location the incidents happened. At focus, though, is the crime. We never lose sight of the crime.

Usually there is some sort of detection (though not always required, as we will see as we examine subgenres and points-of-view in future columns).

What IS always included are crimes, criminals, and (hopefully, depending upon the skill of the writer) the criminals’ motives.

Interestingly enough, the protagonist in crime fiction does not have to be the individual looking for answers; the story could be told from the point-of-view of the criminal instead.

THE FUTURE OF CRIME FICTION

With the imaginings of science fiction becoming the reality of today, the future of contemporary-based crime fiction is filled with technology. That’s the change from the Perry Mason days. Historical novels, of course, will continue as they are. But for those of you who write in the present day, remember that the focus of this genre is based upon crime, so put on your criminal mind. Based upon my conversations with forensic experts at Killer Nashville, I predict us seeing an increase in:Government and private (think insurance) data collection agencies using private information against the individual (NSA and NGI scare 1984 to death – Orville is rolling in his grave);

Religious-core crime (the rise of extremists everywhere, not just Muslims);
The expanded use of biometric identifiers (human body parts and fluids) in the detection of crimes;
Legal and court-room dramas where the focus is based totally upon forensic method over legal argument;
Cybercrime and computer crime (even crimes committed by computers with artificial intelligence, thus the recent warning from Bill Gates, et al.); and
Greater forensic applications in police procedural novels possibly shifting the protagonist from detective to forensic technician.

And, now, for the research (this is what I tell my family when I want to read or watch a movie).

EXAMPLES FOR EXPLORING THE CRIME GENRE ON YOUR OWN

The focus of this column is again not to tell you what to write. It is to get you to note things on your own from multiple genres that can bring freshness to your own plots. I don’t want to put you in a box; I want you to expand the box. But you can’t do that until you’ve truly explored the box as it currently exists; you can’t have a conversation until you have some knowledge from which to discuss. To get started, I’ve been thinking of some of the most impactful crime fiction films and novels.

Here’s an incomplete list, but it will surely give you something to work with as you explore the crime genre. These are in alphabetical order by title because I’m not sure one is better than another in a particular aspect. But all inclusively, these are some basics of the genre.

For films, I’ve included the director’s name and year in case there are multiple titles (I didn’t note the screenwriter simply because they are harder to search, not a deliberate oversight).

For books, I’ve included title and author.

For some, I’ve listed the book version and for others – maybe surprisingly – I’ve included only the film.

Regardless, you won’t waste time with any of these as you explore the genre of crime fiction and, as you read or view, you will note your own observations of what the genre is and the different flavors of each.

To writers I know and who are a part of the Killer Nashville family, if you do not see your book or film below, don’t fret. I may be saving it for a future column. Believe me, with over 408 book and media genres and subgenres, there is room for all.

A Coffin for Dimitrios / Eric Ambler
A Dark-Adapted Eye / Barbara Vine
A Rage in Harlem / Chester Himes
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman / P.D. James
Anatomy of a Murder / Robert Traver
Arthur & George / Julian Barnes
Beast in View / Margaret Millar
Blackbird / Tom Wright
Blanche on the Lam / Barbara Neely
Devil in a Blue Dress / Walter Mosley
Dust and Shadow / Lyndsay Faye
Eye of the Needle / Ken Follett
Fadeout / Joseph Hansen
From Russia, With Love / Ian Fleming
Gaudy Night / Dorothy L. Sayers
Hound of Baskervilles / Arthur Conan Doyle
I, The Jury / Mickey Spillane
Into the Woods / Tana French
LaBrava / Elmore Leonard
Laura / Vera Caspary
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow / Peter Hoeg
Murder on the Orient Express / Agatha Christie
Mystic River / Dennis Lehane
Ordinary Grace / William Kent Krueger
Painting Death / Tim Parks
Presumed Innocent / Scott Turow
Rebecca / Daphne du Maurier
Remember Me This Way / Sabine Durrant
River of Glass / Jaden Terrell
Sneaky People / Thomas Berger
The 39 Steps / John Buchan
The Alienist / Caleb Carr
The Big Sleep / Raymond Chandler
The Black Dahlia / James Ellroy
The Blue Hammer / Ross MacDonald
The Circular Staircase / Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Complete Auguste Dupin Stories / Edgar Allan Poe
The Day of the Jackal / Frederick Forsyth
The Daughter of Time / Josephine Tey
The Final Silence / Stuart Neville
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson
The Intuitionist / Colson Whitehead
The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett
The Name of the Rose / Umberto Eco
The New York Trilogy / Paul Auster
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency / Alexander McCall Smith
The Postman Always Rings Twice / James M. Cain
The Secret Agent / Joseph Conrad
The Snowman / Jo Nesbo
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold / John le Carre
The Talented Mr. Ripley / Patricia Highsmith
The Third Man / Graham Greene
The Weight of Blood / Laura McHugh
The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union / Michael Chabon
True Confessions / John Gregory Dunne
When We Were Orphans / Kazuo Ishiguro
10 Rollington Place (John Fleischer, 1971)
A Cry in the Dark (Fred Schepisi, 1988)
American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007)
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2008)
Bully (Larry Clark, 2001)
Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Chopper (Andrew Dominik, 2000)
City of God (Katia Lung / Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1986)
Cache (Hidden) (Michael Haneke, 2005)
In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 1967)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
Leon (The Professional) (Luc Besson, 1994)
Let Him Have It (Peter Medak, 1991)
Mesrine (Jean-Francois Richet, 2008)
Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)
Ocean’s Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001)
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)
Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
Seven (Se7en) (David Fincher, 1995)
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)
The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
The Onion Field (Harold Becker, 1979)
The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)
The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)
The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987)
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

Oh, I miss my days in the classroom. Thanks for the indulgence.

CLAY STAFFORD is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has sold over 1.5 million hardcover copies of his children’s adaptations and has seen his film work distributed internationally in over 14 languages. Four of his five staged murder mysteries have had Los Angeles premieres. He has reviewed books, plays, and films, writes near-daily book reviews for the Killer Nashville Book of the Day, has been quoted on book jackets, and has edited several PBS companion books associated with national series. Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.” (PW 6/10/13). He is the founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) and publisher of Killer Nashville Magazine (www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com). He has served on the board of numerous nonprofits. Clay has a B.A. and M.F.A. and has been a professor or lecturer to several major universities. His list of current projects includes the award-winning feature-length documentary “One Of The Miracles: The Inge Meyring Smith Story” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” with fellow mystery writer Jeffery Deaver (www.JefferyDeaverXOmusic.com). Previously associated with Universal Studios and PBS, he is currently President / CEO of American Blackguard, Inc. (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), a publishing / film and television / music / entertainment company near Nashville, Tennessee. More information can be found at www.ClayStafford.com.

2/5/15 2/5/15

Genres 101: A Look at Genres

by Clay Stafford

I read one time that there are over 40,000 official job titles in the United States (all with a separate numerical governmental code). The way I see it, most people in their lives only explore 1-4 of these. That leaves a possible 39,999 wonderful careers completely unconsidered by most people. Can you imagine the number of unfulfilled lives of unhappy workers who might have found joy with just a little more exploration? The same can be true of writers.

I’m a firm believer that the quality of your writing is only 10% of the quality of what you read or view. I’m sure some will argue with that, but that’s my position. I read a lot. I review a lot. I talk to a lot of authors. And my general perception is that most writers are vastly unread and therefore not the writers that they could be. Some limit themselves to a particular genre and miss the color and spark that might arise from exploring different areas.

What I want to do in this series is to explore the twelve main genres that I have personally identified in literature (and film) and then explore the other 400 subgenres contained within those twelve. At heart, I’m an academic, and this is my categorization.

As many know, I’ve reviewed books for years. I probably read more than 400 titles a year. There is much that is rehashed, addressing tired subjects. Readers can be selective in their reading and can fish with a hook for the kinds of books they like; writers cannot and must use a net, casting deeply into many unexplored and dark waters. My hope is through genre exploration and the discovery of new elements the column will serve to inspire something fresh and unique, maybe even in your own writing.

This column will succinctly detail where a particular genre began (if we can pin-point that), what makes the genre distinctive, and – should I be inspired – what I see from my position at Killer Nashville to be the future of the genre itself. The goal is not to tell you what to write; the goal is to share with you some representative great works that others have written. From that, each of you will get your own ideas of how you might push the limits of your own genre by borrowing technique from others.

I also ask you to share additional titles and points-of-view that I might have missed or did not list because of space. Share with other readers here in your comments. Get your other writer or reader friends involved. In the end, I hope to learn as much from all of you as you could ever learn from me.

Take the plunge with me. Over those mountains are many lands you may exploit.

CLAY STAFFORD is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He has sold over 1.5 million hardcover copies of his children’s adaptations and has seen his film work distributed internationally in over 14 languages. Four of his five staged murder mysteries have had Los Angeles premieres. He has reviewed books, plays, and films, writes near-daily book reviews for the Killer Nashville Book of the Day, has been quoted on book jackets, and has edited several PBS companion books associated with national series. Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.” (PW 6/10/13). He is the founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) and Killer Nashville Magazine (www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com). He has served on the board of numerous nonprofits. Clay has a B.A. and M.F.A. and has been a professor or lecturer to several major universities. His list of current projects includes the award-winning feature-length documentary “One Of The Miracles: The Inge Meyring Smith Story” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” with fellow mystery writer Jeffery Deaver (www.JefferyDeaverXOmusic.com). Previously associated with Universal Studios and PBS, he is currently President / CEO of American Blackguard, Inc. (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), a publishing / film and television / music / entertainment company near Nashville, Tennessee. More information can be found at www.ClayStafford.com.

2/4/15 2/4/15

A Cozy, Little Success Story 33 Years in the Making / Author Rosalyn Ramage

Sometimes an idea needs time to mature, or in the case of this week’s guest blogger Rosalyn Ramage, the idea needs to find a genre. I think most authors would agree that stories have to come out one way or another. How they are received is another matter. Ramage explains how her latest book took 33 years to see the light of day.

Happy Reading!

Clay Stafford,
Founder Killer Nashville,
Publisher Killer Nashville Magazine

A Cozy, Little Success Story 33 Years in the Making

By Rosalyn Ramage

It’s a done deal! Millicent’s Tower, Five Star Publishing, 2014. Mission accomplished! But wait a minute, I thought as I sat gazing at the book in front of me. Where did you come from, Millicent? Where have you been? What took you so long to get here? Memories began to flutter in . . .

The year was 1980. I had just received my college degree at Belmont College as an older student with children at home. During that time I had been fortunate enough to do some freelance writing, including the publication of two books of children’s poetry. I was on a roll!

Then, in 1981 our family went on vacation to Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, just across the causeway from Lubec, Maine. We were there for a month, and while there, I wrote a book!

Actually, the main plot of the book had been floating around in my head for a while. I had had situations and characters in mind, but no specific names. As we had embarked on the trip, one of our pastimes was to create names for characters that would be in my book. We named them for places and signs that we saw along the way (like Moose when we saw a “Moose crossing” sign).

I had taken my manual typewriter and a ream of paper with me. My writing space was a small room at the back of the cottage with a fantastic view of Passamaquoddy Bay, looking toward Lubec. It was in that setting that Who? came into being. What, you might ask, is Who? That was the title I first gave my book. I called it Who? . . . as in “whodunit.”

Believe it or not, I accomplished my goal and returned to Nashville with a three-ring binder filled with pages for my book. After sharing it with friends and relatives, I met a literary agent who took a look at it. He reviewed the manuscript and returned it to me, saying, “I like the book, but, quite frankly, I don’t quite know what to do with it. It is family-centered, with children, but with adult topics and situations, like . . . dead bodies and . . . ‘language.’ ” He wished me well. All of this was in 1981.

My reaction to this rejection was to take it to my office, put it on a shelf, and forget about it. Life went on.

Then, 29 years after I had given up on my novel, my oldest grandson, who was in college, brought up the topic of Who? He said, “I’ve always heard people talk about Who? But I’ve never seen it myself. Could I read it sometime?”

Hmmmm. Let me see now. Just where had I dumped that dusty, musty manuscript so many years ago? Ah, yes. Here it is. I pulled it out, dusted it off, began to read … and I liked it. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I retyped it, added more characters and material, extended the storyline, and dared to ask for a critique at a conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in the fall of 2011.

The gist of what my critiquer said was that she “really liked the story, but didn’t quite know what to do with it.” Sound familiar? It really wasn’t a hard-core adult book, she said, but it certainly wasn’t a children’s book. Young adult? Maybe.

And then she said the magical words: “I think what you have here is a cozy mystery.”

“A what?”

“A cozy mystery,” she said. Hmmm.

In my quick research on cozy mysteries, I found that my book had all of the attributes of a cozy mystery.

I was intrigued. So intrigued, in fact, that I signed up to go to another conference known as Killer Nashville, an annual conference geared especially for writers or would-be writers of various kinds of thrillers, mysteries and suspense.

Long story short, I decided to “pitch” my manuscript and, to my surprise, was asked by an editor at Five Star Publishing to submit my full manuscript for review. After a bit more preening, I submitted Who?, which, by now, had been renamed Millicent’s Tower.

And, in January 2013, I was informed by the editors at Five Star that they would take pleasure in publishing my book.

A long journey for a cozy mystery? You bet. But one I have enjoyed creating at every uncertain step of the way. I sincerely hope other writers will find my story encouraging as they pursue the journey for themselves.

If you would like to read more about Rosalyn Ramage’s books please click here.

Rosalyn Ramage is the author of two books of children’s poetry entitled A BOOK FOR ALL SEASONS and A BOOK ABOUT PEOPLE. She is also the author of three middle grade mysteries entitled The TRACKS, The GRAVEYARD, and The WINDMILL. She is a retired elementary school teacher who enjoys writing poems and stories for readers of all ages…just for the fun of it! MILLICENT’S TOWER is her first book for a more mature audience. She and her husband Don split their time between their farm in Kentucky and their home in Nashville, Tennessee. She invites you to visit her website at rosalynrikelramage.weebly.com.

2/4/15 2/4/15

Ask Clay: Incorporating Yourself as an Author

Clay Stafford, founder Killer Nashville and CEO of American Blackguard Inc., is regularly asked a range questions from writing to publishing to marketing. And, they’re always good questions, he says. But often he feels he is unable to fully answer due to time constraints. Writing as a business is important stuff and demands reflection. In our Ask Clay column, he will share more than 30 years of experience in what he knows about the writing business.

Incorporating Yourself as an Author

I’m an author and I’m thinking about incorporating. Do you think this is a good idea?
– Chris J., Crofton, MD

Chris, that’s a great question, but I’m not sure I can give you a complete answer here. I do not give legal or accounting advice, nor do I want you to accept my word on this subject, but I’ll try to point you in the best direction. I’m afraid it depends upon the writer. It depends upon the state in which you live. And it depends upon exactly what you plan to do with the incorporation.

In my own personal journey, I started out writing just as “Clay Stafford.” It was my name and I was happy to see my by-line. Itemized expenses went to my Schedule A, income was reported as personal, liability was my own or the companies that I wrote for, depending.

When I was sixteen, I formed my first “real” company to produce local television and radio programs for a #106 radio and #86 television market demographic town. Even then I didn’t incorporate, but I did change the name of my operations to a DBA (doing business as): The Clay Stafford Company. My writing copyrights still went to Clay Stafford as did my by-lines, as did 100% of the liability, but since I had formally filed a license for a DBA, I was able to move my expenses over to a Schedule C, which allowed me to deduct more than I could have deducted under Schedule A. Plus, it told the world I was a serious writer: I had a license. Benefit: Bottom line. Forming a DBA is something I personally would consider for all full-time to part-time writers who are consistently selling work and showing a profit. You can do this yourself by simply contacting your respective Secretary of State.

In 2002, The Clay Stafford Company changed its name to American Blackguard, Inc. We were expanding into a full media company, increasing revenue, we had numerous projects in the works, and because we were hiring employees and working with numerous media projects, liability was increased and a need to streamline resources yet create separate accounting systems was required. At that point, both attorneys and accountants advised the change to a corporation rather than a DBA. The Corporation is an entity unto itself. It files its own income taxes and makes it’s own business payments. If the stockholders and Board of Directors agree, it will continue long after my death and projects and revenue will still be recognized for my heirs in the future. I agreed to work for American Blackguard as an employee. Benefit to me personally: no business expenses, I get paid as an employee, and American Blackguard, Inc. pays or deducts all taxes, keeps up with various projects, owns sub-companies, and assumes the liability for problems not knowingly or maliciously committed on my part as an employee.

Does this process work well for everyone? The answer is a resounding “no.” Only a tax and legal professional can give advice on your particular circumstance. I can tell you that I know several writers who copyright under a corporation and many more who copyright under their name.

Here’s something to consider, though. In normal circumstances, people who form corporations do so to protect themselves from liability and to create tax advantage. In my case, we did it to create clean bookkeeping (nothing professional gets commingled with anything personal).

What you do not want to do – as someone who will probably own 100% of your corporation – is to allow anyone to be able to “pierce the corporate veil” of your organization. Writers have to worry about commingling finances. They also have to worry about libel and slander. If anyone can sue you and determine that anything you did and / or wrote was coming from you personally rather than from the corporation, the veil has been pierced. If you use a company credit card to buy groceries one day because you forgot your personal card, there is the implication that the corporation is only an extension of you and can be pierced. There has to be a firm, huge black line between business and personal. And something to point out: no matter what your organizational structure (individual, self-employed, DBA, or corporation), slander is slander and libel is libel. Nothing protects a writer from falsehoods or misrepresentation, either real or interpreted.

The other thing to concern yourself with is expenses and taxation. A business requires additional accounting and tax expense. When a corporation is formed, it must pay certain business taxes, not only for its existence, but also matching taxes for employees, of which the writer is now one. So you have to determine is it cost effective to have such a structure? Do the expenses one is allowed to deduct compensate for the loss of income paid to additional taxes? A way to consider reducing those additional tax burdens is to form an S Corp, which allows pass-through of funds, thus reducing some tax burden, but this is to be countered with the more advantageous tax structure, deduction structure, and parent ownership structure of sub-companies contained within a C Corp. As stressed before, these concerns should be discussed with your accountant or attorney before jumping into either arrangement. And please, do not start a company using some form from the Internet. A discussion of your particular circumstances with knowledgeable accountants or attorneys is well worth the investment.

In examining why you are looking at your writing business structure, whatever you decide to do, don’t try to cheat the government. I’ve been subjected over the years to rogue attorneys who try to sell do-it-yourself legal packages designed to protect my assets and allow me to forgo any taxes to the government. Too good to be true? They are. A few years ago, the most audited group of individuals by the IRS were the clergy, followed in a close second by entertainers and writers. Whether this is still true is irrelevant to the point. You are in a profession where lunches and supplies could be questionable. Always, always, take the conservative fiscal perspective.

I’ve given a long response, Chris, and I feel I have written much to not answer your question at all, but hopefully this has given you something to think about. Consult with your attorney or accountant who specializes in entertainment / intellectual property (your real estate attorney or income tax prep accountant will have no clue – even if they say they do). Then, and only then, decide your current path, or prepare your options for the future when certain financial or career personal benchmarks are achieved.

Having worked in film, television, radio, and publishing as both a buyer and a seller, Clay Stafford is happy to take your questions regarding the publishing / entertainment industry.

Clay Stafford has had an eclectic career. Not only did he found Killer Nashville in 2006, but he has also been an industry executive (PBS, Universal Studios, others), author (over 1.5 million copies of his books in print), a filmmaker (work in 14 languages), university professor (several universities including University of Miami and University of Tennessee), and a much-sought-after public speaker (U.S. Department of Defense, Miami International Press Club, more).

2/3/15 2/3/15

Arthur Author February 2015

2/2/15 2/2/15

From Stuntman to Literary Agent

By Maria Giordano,
Killer Nashville Staff

Preparations for Killer Nashville 2015 have been in full swing pretty much since the close of our 2014 conference. It is as it should be as we enter into our 10th year of operation. We’ve got a lot of planning to do.

That’s why we’re delighted to announce the upcoming attendance of agent Alec Shane. A junior agent with Writers House Literary Agency in New York City, Alec will be appearing on panels, serving in agent / editor roundtables, and will generally be available throughout the conference to hear your pitch. He’s actively looking for new clients just like YOU.

“Having attended Thrillerfest, Sleuthfest, and CrimeBake in the past, I have heard many wonderful things about Killer Nashville from my colleagues and am hoping that I might be able to attend,” Alec said in an email.

We said, “Come on down,” in our best Hee-Haw voice.

Alec majored in English at Brown University, a degree he explained that he put to immediate use by moving to Los Angeles after graduation to become a professional stunt man.

After realizing he preferred books to breakaway glass, he moved to New York City in 2008 to pursue a career in publishing. Alec quickly found a home at Writers House Literary Agency, one of the largest literary agencies in the world.

He works under Jodi Reamer and Amy Berkower on a large number of Young Adult and Adult titles.

Alec is now aggressively building his own list and is always looking for great mysteries and thrillers, as well as horror, historical fiction, and YA/middle grade books geared towards boys. On the nonfiction side, Alec would love to see humor, biography, history (particularly military history), true crime, “guy” reads, and all things sports.

Genres he prefers include: mystery, thriller, horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, noir, biography, military history, true crime, sports, action/adventure, dark fiction, and humor.

2/2/15 2/2/15

Tweeting Like a Bird

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

When I first encountered Twitter, I veered onto the twitter-sphere highway flush with skepticism. I posted a link here, a witty comment there. I connected with a few people and discovered that the whole endeavor was a bit of a time-suck and abandoned it with flair.

I mean, 140 characters or less? Pshaw!

But times have changed, or better said, I have changed my thinking since.

It happened when, as a reporter for a local newspaper, I was following an accident that occurred on a major thoroughfare near my office. Right away, people I knew, law enforcement officers and other reporters were sharing real-time posts. It was that friendly, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, to other folks in the Twitter-sphere area not to drive towards what was a major traffic jam.

It was good advice, and I learned an important lesson. When I tweeted, people followed to learn what I learned, and I followed back to learn what they learned. It was like peanut butter and jelly. I became better connected to a different kind of community and I gained followers. Before too long, I was getting more information from Tweets than actual phone conversations. Strange, I know.

All kinds of writers need Twitter. Besides the fact that it is a fun puzzle to unlock – try dropping a heavy concept in 140 characters – it’s a great way to reach likeminded people, other writers, authors, agents, and publishers. It also provides a simple, easy way to promote.

Courtney Seiter, Content Crafter for Bufferapp.com, explained it like this, “Publishers want someone who is willing to work with them and carry a bit of the weight when it comes to book publicity, and Twitter is one of the easiest ways to create or tap into a community that’s interested in what you have to say as a writer.”

Courtney said that she had recently spoken with a writer that told her that a publisher asked about her Twitter following.

A decent-sized and relatively engaged Twitter following provides a bit of social proof to a publisher, she added. “It’s also awesome for fans of your work to feel the personal connection to a writer that Twitter provides.”

But Twitter is an interesting animal. You want to grow your followers and it’s not always the easiest thing to do. Here are some ideas:

Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.

Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”

Start with people you know. Then, branch out, follow other writers you may have heard of and, of course, businesses in the writing and publishing community. You’ll find that others will follow you back. Twitter offers up columns of folks to follow as well.
Give people a taste of who you are. “I just ate a sandwich” might work for Chef Mario Batali, but not for everyone. Stick to what you know. Offer links to your work. Share your latest success.
Keep your posts tasteful. Remember, you are building awareness around your name and your work.
Most importantly? Have a little fun.

Co-Pilot Family posted a tweet recently that said “You’ve gotta dance like nobody’s watching, but post like somebody is.”Follow us on Twitter. (@KillerNashville) We will even follow back!

1/30/15 1/30/15

Publishing Optimism Reigns: The PW Interview

By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff

Not all the numbers are in yet for 2014, but all points indicate that it was a good year for the publishing industry.

In short, print sales appear to be coming back from their downward spiral when eBooks exploded onto the market in 2010-2011, says Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly.

“There are a lot of reasons to keep bookstores in business,” Milliot said. PW is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business.

“Nobody wants Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million to go out of business. Both companies have talked about a good holiday season.”

And how did digital books do? Milliot says eBooks enjoyed slight growth, but preliminary numbers are viewed as being roughly flat, which seems to be the same as compared to revenue numbers for eBooks in 2013.

It appears with the advent of digital books that publishing – particularly in relation to print sales – continues to stabilize. Specifically in the mystery genre, the category is considered solid and is also the most digital-friendly, Milliot said. About 20 to 30 percent of sales of mystery books are digital, he added.

Last year, children’s books, including Young Adult literature, did very well. Some of the titles that fared well include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, and the Frozen franchise, all of which had accompanying film releases. Ten to 12 titles associated with the video game, Minecraft, also did really well.

“Things are more optimistic than it’s been since the recession,” Milliot said. “Print is here to stay, for now.”

This is to not say that the industry isn’t adapting to digital; however, where bookstores were once crazed and fearful about the advent of electronic reading, there seems to be less urgency now, Milliot said.

Many have taken a strategic approach and have incorporated the medium as just another platform.

“(eBooks) certainly were disruptive, and will be going forward, but not in the same way,” Milliot said. “People seem to be experimenting with ways to deliver content.”

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KN Magazine: Articles

The Writer's Life: Your Protagonist

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

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I’m A Teacher
By Tracy Spruce

To Self Publish? Steering Clear of the Slush Pile

Ask Clay: Making the Most of Writers' Conferences

Making the Most of Writers' Conferences

Arthur Author March 2015

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

My Favorite Points of View / Author Bill Hopkins

Live from the United Kingdom: Celebrity Fiction

Celebrity Fiction

Writing a Cozy? Follow the Rules … And Mind Your Language / Author Penny Clover Petersen

Comedy That Kills / Author Diane Kelly

The Junkman Cometh and Sometimes He Writeth / Author Guinotte Wise

Genre Studies: Beginning With Crime

Beginning with Crime

Genres 101: A Look at Genres

by Clay Stafford

A Cozy, Little Success Story 33 Years in the Making / Author Rosalyn Ramage

Ask Clay: Incorporating Yourself as an Author

Incorporating Yourself as an Author

Arthur Author February 2015

From Stuntman to Literary Agent

Tweeting Like a Bird

Publishing Optimism Reigns: The PW Interview

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

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Your ProtagonistBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

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