KN Magazine: Articles
The Shadow Knows / Marielena Zuniga
I have always been fascinated with the Chinese philosophy of the Yin and Yang, which is rooted in the idea of contraries. For example, with light, there is darkness, which are complete opposites. But rather than being opposing forces, they are actually intertwined. You can’t have one without the other. Killer Nashville guest blogger Marielena Zuniga touches on a similar concept: the shadow side, or that part of you that is your complete opposite. Awareness of this darker side can be illuminating and a touchstone for writing.
Happy reading!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The Shadow Knows
By Marielena Zuniga
Ever write a book you never intended? I did. Let me explain.
By nature, I'm a quiet, introspective, spiritual person. So naturally I thought my first novel would be much like my persona, the face I put out to the world. I would write in the style of Sue Monk Kidd, who is one of my favorite authors.
Who did I get instead? Sassy, in-your-face Loreen, a convict who has a history of making bad choices. Her worst choice is escaping from a Texas prison by stealing the tour bus of a famous country music singer so she can get home to her dying mama in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. Welcome to Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery.
Welcome to the shadow side of writing. It’s a side you’ll want to befriend because, as some psychologists will tell you, it’s the seat of creativity.
What's the shadow? According to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the shadow side is the unknown “dark side” of our personality. It consists of the primitive or negative aspects of ourselves that are hidden, or that we want to repress or suppress, and can include such emotions as lust, power, selfishness, greed, envy, anger and more.
In books — as in real life — villains are often driven by their shadow sides. But good characters have them as well. Take my heroine, Loreen, who basically has a good heart, but has had a hard life. Growing up poor in Red Boiling Springs, she's never known her father and starts getting into trouble around age 14.
Loreen is a master at repressing “deep thoughts” or any kind of awareness. She has one such insight about her shadow side when she realizes she has been verbally abusing Tilly Davis, one of her unwanted passengers, a woman who has been battered by her husband.
“Then Loreen had another insight. She was abusing Tilly just as men had done. Dang. She didn’t want to do that. These awarenesses were coming too fast and she wanted them to go away.”
During her journey, however, Loreen starts to get in touch with her shadow side. She becomes aware of her selfishness, the bad choices she’s made, and her desire to escape life and responsibility. And, she begins to have “aha moments”.
While I might be prone to selfishness or any other dark part of myself, this doesn’t mean I – or anyone – acts on those traits. It doesn’t make us “bad” people. But when we can acknowledge them, we become more integrated and whole.
Is it terrifying as a writer to examine our dark side? You bet. But when we get to know our own shadow and, as a result, channel it through our characters’ innermost feelings and thoughts, that’s where the magic happens. If Stephen King had hidden from his shadow, The Shining would never have been written, and the same can be said for many other novels, from The Exorcist to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery does not fall into the horror genre, nor is it necessary to go there to tackle a character’s hidden side. You can channel your own shadow into your characters with a few caveats:
The writer’s shadow should inform the story, but never take it over. This isn’t therapy in writing, nor is it a self-serving shadow rant. It’s about drawing from that “hidden” and creative reservoir within you that will give your characters depth and texture.
Along those lines, don’t be gratuitous with your shadow. Shadow material that’s violent or psychotic for its own sake is boring and self-indulgent. This is dishonest writing and serves no one.
Good characters have shadow sides and your characters’ shadows should repel them as much as yours do you. Readers need to see what your characters want to hide – and then how your characters come to peace with those hidden aspects of themselves, or not.
When I started writing Loreen on the Lam, I had no idea where she would take me. What I wasn’t expecting was a character who surprised me with those parts of myself I often keep hidden. So don’t be afraid to go digging into that shadow side of yourself and your writing. It knows.
Marielena Zuniga is an award-winning journalist and creative writer of more than 35 years. She holds a M.S. in counseling psychology.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editor-in-chief Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
The Shadow Knows / Marielena Zuniga
I have always been fascinated with the Chinese philosophy of the Yin and Yang, which is rooted in the idea of contraries. For example, with light, there is darkness, which are complete opposites. But rather than being opposing forces, they are actually intertwined. You can’t have one without the other. Killer Nashville guest blogger Marielena Zuniga touches on a similar concept: the shadow side, or that part of you that is your complete opposite. Awareness of this darker side can be illuminating and a touchstone for writing. Happy reading! 
Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The Shadow Knows
By Marielena Zuniga
Ever write a book you never intended? I did. Let me explain.
By nature, I'm a quiet, introspective, spiritual person. So naturally I thought my first novel would be much like my persona, the face I put out to the world. I would write in the style of Sue Monk Kidd, who is one of my favorite authors.
Who did I get instead? Sassy, in-your-face Loreen, a convict who has a history of making bad choices. Her worst choice is escaping from a Texas prison by stealing the tour bus of a famous country music singer so she can get home to her dying mama in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. Welcome to Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery
Welcome to the shadow side of writing. It’s a side you’ll want to befriend because, as some psychologists will tell you, it’s the seat of creativity.
What's the shadow? According to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the shadow side is the unknown “dark side” of our personality. It consists of the primitive or negative aspects of ourselves that are hidden, or that we want to repress or suppress, and can include such emotions as lust, power, selfishness, greed, envy, anger and more.
In books — as in real life — villains are often driven by their shadow sides. But good characters have them as well. Take my heroine, Loreen, who basically has a good heart, but has had a hard life. Growing up poor in Red Boiling Springs, she's never known her father and starts getting into trouble around age 14.
Loreen is a master at repressing “deep thoughts” or any kind of awareness. She has one such insight about her shadow side when she realizes she has been verbally abusing Tilly Davis, one of her unwanted passengers, a woman who has been battered by her husband.
“Then Loreen had another insight. She was abusing Tilly just as men had done. Dang. She didn’t want to do that. These awarenesses were coming too fast and she wanted them to go away.”
During her journey, however, Loreen starts to get in touch with her shadow side. She becomes aware of her selfishness, the bad choices she’s made, and her desire to escape life and responsibility. And, she begins to have “aha moments”.
While I might be prone to selfishness or any other dark part of myself, this doesn’t mean I – or anyone – acts on those traits. It doesn’t make us “bad” people. But when we can acknowledge them, we become more integrated and whole.
Is it terrifying as a writer to examine our dark side? You bet. But when we get to know our own shadow and, as a result, channel it through our characters’ innermost feelings and thoughts, that’s where the magic happens. If Stephen King had hidden from his shadow, The Shining would never have been written, and the same can be said for many other novels, from The Exorcist to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery does not fall into the horror genre, nor is it necessary to go there to tackle a character’s hidden side. You can channel your own shadow into your characters with a few caveats:
- The writer’s shadow should inform the story, but never take it over. This isn’t therapy in writing, nor is it a self-serving shadow rant. It’s about drawing from that “hidden” and creative reservoir within you that will give your characters depth and texture.
- Along those lines, don’t be gratuitous with your shadow. Shadow material that’s violent or psychotic for its own sake is boring and self-indulgent. This is dishonest writing and serves no one.
Good characters have shadow sides and your characters’ shadows should repel them as much as yours do you. Readers need to see what your characters want to hide – and then how your characters come to peace with those hidden aspects of themselves, or not.
When I started writing Loreen on the Lam, I had no idea where she would take me. What I wasn’t expecting was a character who surprised me with those parts of myself I often keep hidden. So don’t be afraid to go digging into that shadow side of yourself and your writing. It knows.
Marielena Zuniga is an award-winning journalist and creative writer of more than 35 years. She holds a M.S. in counseling psychology.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editor-in-chief Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
The Shadow Knows / Marielena Zuniga
I have always been fascinated with the Chinese philosophy of the Yin and Yang, which is rooted in the idea of contraries. For example, with light, there is darkness, which are complete opposites. But rather than being opposing forces, they are actually intertwined. You can’t have one without the other. Killer Nashville guest blogger Marielena Zuniga touches on a similar concept: the shadow side, or that part of you that is your complete opposite. Awareness of this darker side can be illuminating and a touchstone for writing. Happy reading! 
Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
The Shadow Knows
By Marielena Zuniga
Ever write a book you never intended? I did. Let me explain.
By nature, I'm a quiet, introspective, spiritual person. So naturally I thought my first novel would be much like my persona, the face I put out to the world. I would write in the style of Sue Monk Kidd, who is one of my favorite authors.
Who did I get instead? Sassy, in-your-face Loreen, a convict who has a history of making bad choices. Her worst choice is escaping from a Texas prison by stealing the tour bus of a famous country music singer so she can get home to her dying mama in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. Welcome to Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery
Welcome to the shadow side of writing. It’s a side you’ll want to befriend because, as some psychologists will tell you, it’s the seat of creativity.
What's the shadow? According to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the shadow side is the unknown “dark side” of our personality. It consists of the primitive or negative aspects of ourselves that are hidden, or that we want to repress or suppress, and can include such emotions as lust, power, selfishness, greed, envy, anger and more.
In books — as in real life — villains are often driven by their shadow sides. But good characters have them as well. Take my heroine, Loreen, who basically has a good heart, but has had a hard life. Growing up poor in Red Boiling Springs, she's never known her father and starts getting into trouble around age 14.
Loreen is a master at repressing “deep thoughts” or any kind of awareness. She has one such insight about her shadow side when she realizes she has been verbally abusing Tilly Davis, one of her unwanted passengers, a woman who has been battered by her husband.
“Then Loreen had another insight. She was abusing Tilly just as men had done. Dang. She didn’t want to do that. These awarenesses were coming too fast and she wanted them to go away.”
During her journey, however, Loreen starts to get in touch with her shadow side. She becomes aware of her selfishness, the bad choices she’s made, and her desire to escape life and responsibility. And, she begins to have “aha moments”.
While I might be prone to selfishness or any other dark part of myself, this doesn’t mean I – or anyone – acts on those traits. It doesn’t make us “bad” people. But when we can acknowledge them, we become more integrated and whole.
Is it terrifying as a writer to examine our dark side? You bet. But when we get to know our own shadow and, as a result, channel it through our characters’ innermost feelings and thoughts, that’s where the magic happens. If Stephen King had hidden from his shadow, The Shining would never have been written, and the same can be said for many other novels, from The Exorcist to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Loreen on the Lam: A Tennessee Mystery does not fall into the horror genre, nor is it necessary to go there to tackle a character’s hidden side. You can channel your own shadow into your characters with a few caveats:
- The writer’s shadow should inform the story, but never take it over. This isn’t therapy in writing, nor is it a self-serving shadow rant. It’s about drawing from that “hidden” and creative reservoir within you that will give your characters depth and texture.
- Along those lines, don’t be gratuitous with your shadow. Shadow material that’s violent or psychotic for its own sake is boring and self-indulgent. This is dishonest writing and serves no one.
Good characters have shadow sides and your characters’ shadows should repel them as much as yours do you. Readers need to see what your characters want to hide – and then how your characters come to peace with those hidden aspects of themselves, or not.
When I started writing Loreen on the Lam, I had no idea where she would take me. What I wasn’t expecting was a character who surprised me with those parts of myself I often keep hidden. So don’t be afraid to go digging into that shadow side of yourself and your writing. It knows.
Marielena Zuniga is an award-winning journalist and creative writer of more than 35 years. She holds a M.S. in counseling psychology.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editor-in-chief Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them / Kay Kendall
Balance. Moderation. These are not just words, but the keys to pretty much all aspects of living a healthy, full life from eating to drinking, and now completely applicable to writing. And it makes complete sense! As I’ve heard from wiser people than I, “It’s a marathon not a race.” Killer Nashville guest blog author Kay Kendall shares her own awareness for her desire to sprint, but recognizes that writing is a long-term commitment and, though we stumble, we all need to honestly look at ourselves to find our own sense of balance.
Bottom line: Enjoy; you’re probably doing fine! Take confidence, continue the race using what works for you, and until next time, read like they’re burning books.
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them
By Kay Kendall
Before I began my second career as a mystery writer, I spent twenty-five years as a public relations executive. That time — combined with eight years in college and graduate school—taught me a lot about myself. My preferred work habits featured intense bursts of creativity and fascination with a large, innovative project, followed by fallow periods when I regrouped. That was exciting. Maintenance projects bored me. I was a hare, not a tortoise.
When I set out to become a mystery author, I realized I needed to smooth out my habits. Sure, I could probably produce one book in a frenzy of late nights, caffeinated days, and ignored loved one. But that was no way to build a sustainable career, writing book after book. So, I plotted my new path.
As I moved along toward the publication of my debut novel Desolation Row in 2013, I developed new patterns that enabled the publication in July 2015 of Rainy Day Women, the second in the Austin Starr Mystery series.Remember the old axiom “slow and steady wins the race?” Those are my watchwords now, and here are the turtle-esque rules I use to keep me focused on that new way of living.
Maintain balance in your daily life. Don’t give up anything that you really enjoy. Fit that activity into your writing life. If you are going to be a full-time author over the course of many years, you can’t give up going to movies.
Enjoy them. You can’t give up gardening. Keep doing that, too. Besides, your mind needs a breather. Some new plot twist may well pop up while you’re pulling a weed. I admit that the old myth of the author writing a book in a white-hot fit of inspiration still appeals to me, but I’ve trained myself to see that sanity and calmness and balance have their rewards too.
Make time for your pals. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and trying to get published these days is a killer. I need all the support I can get, and my friends have stayed right beside me on my journey. They keep me going through the darkest days and share my joy upon publication. I’ve also made new friends by joining writers’ critique groups and associations. Many writers are said to be introverts, but I’m not. Two new pals who write mysteries are extreme introverts, and I keep in close touch with them and actively encourage them to mingle with other writers. I’m a staunch believer in the truth of what Barbra Streisand sang back in the Sixties. Remember this? “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Physical activity is essential. Keep walking the dog—or running, spinning, or dancing. Whatever exercise you used to do before you became an avid or full-time writer, don’t stop. Health gurus insist that sitting all day is a terrible habit that can lead to early death and/or dementia. Besides, when I’m on my exercise bike, I zone out and then, given enough time, ideas for my writing zone in. The mind-body connection is worth protecting with sufficient exercise. Even when I’m on a deadline, I try to stick to this rule. However, it’s time for a true confession. I have trouble actually walking the talk on this.
Keep reading. Just because you’re writing your own book, that doesn’t mean you can stop reading other ones. In fact, I’ve read more, not less, since I began to write fiction. I submerged myself in the mystery/suspense genre for almost two years before I started Desolation Row. Picking up tricks of the trade by osmosis suits me better than gulping a dozen dry how-to tomes. Of course, I read a few of those too!
Believe you can achieve your aims. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” I first saw that quote on a coffee mug for sale at Whole Foods and was scared to touch it. How dare I think I could write a novel? Yet I forced myself to buy that mug and drank from it while I wrote. When my first manuscript didn’t sell, I wrote the second, which got published. My friends (see comment above) helped keep me going. I really did “get by with a little help from my friends.” (*Footnote—the Beatles.)
Keep on keeping on. Once you find what works to make your writing life roll along as smoothly as possible, keep on doing it. Sometimes I find guidelines in how-to articles suggesting that my way is not the right way. The best writing coaches add the caveat, though, that there is no perfect method of writing a novel.
I’ve now been at this venture long enough that I’ve come across some authors who do have habits similar to mine. For example, many experts advise you to write a first draft as rapidly as possible, not editing as you go. But I just cannot do that. Just can’t. Feeling a little guilty, I write my way through manuscripts, editing and re-editing as I go. And recently—lo and behold—I read about a bestselling author who said he always begins his day by editing what he’s written the day before. What a relief! I am okay after all. So, as we used to say back in the day, just keep on truckin’.
Kay Kendall, the author of Desolation Row and Rainy Day Women, is a reformed public relations executive who won international awards for her work. Kendall lives in Texas with her Canadian-born husband, three house rabbits and spaniel Wills. She has degrees in Russian and Soviet history, and her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them / Kay Kendall
Balance. Moderation. These are not just words, but the keys to pretty much all aspects of living a healthy, full life from eating to drinking, and now completely applicable to writing. And it makes complete sense! As I’ve heard from wiser people than I, “It’s a marathon not a race.” Killer Nashville guest blog author Kay Kendall shares her own awareness for her desire to sprint, but recognizes that writing is a long-term commitment and, though we stumble, we all need to honestly look at ourselves to find our own sense of balance. Bottom line: Enjoy; you’re probably doing fine! Take confidence, continue the race using what works for you, and until next time, read like they’re burning books! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them
By Kay Kendall
Before I began my second career as a mystery writer, I spent twenty-five years as a public relations executive. That time — combined with eight years in college and graduate school—taught me a lot about myself. My preferred work habits featured intense bursts of creativity and fascination with a large, innovative project, followed by fallow periods when I regrouped. That was exciting. Maintenance projects bored me. I was a hare, not a tortoise.
When I set out to become a mystery author, I realized I needed to smooth out my habits. Sure, I could probably produce one book in a frenzy of late nights, caffeinated days, and ignored loved one. But that was no way to build a sustainable career, writing book after book. So, I plotted my new path.
As I moved along toward the publication of my debut novel Desolation Row
Maintain balance in your daily life. Don’t give up anything that you really enjoy. Fit that activity into your writing life. If you are going to be a full-time author over the course of many years, you can’t give up going to movies.
Enjoy them. You can’t give up gardening. Keep doing that, too. Besides, your mind needs a breather. Some new plot twist may well pop up while you’re pulling a weed. I admit that the old myth of the author writing a book in a white-hot fit of inspiration still appeals to me, but I’ve trained myself to see that sanity and calmness and balance have their rewards too.
Make time for your pals. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and trying to get published these days is a killer. I need all the support I can get, and my friends have stayed right beside me on my journey. They keep me going through the darkest days and share my joy upon publication. I’ve also made new friends by joining writers’ critique groups and associations. Many writers are said to be introverts, but I’m not. Two new pals who write mysteries are extreme introverts, and I keep in close touch with them and actively encourage them to mingle with other writers. I’m a staunch believer in the truth of what Barbra Streisand sang back in the Sixties. Remember this? “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Physical activity is essential. Keep walking the dog—or running, spinning, or dancing. Whatever exercise you used to do before you became an avid or full-time writer, don’t stop. Health gurus insist that sitting all day is a terrible habit that can lead to early death and/or dementia. Besides, when I’m on my exercise bike, I zone out and then, given enough time, ideas for my writing zone in. The mind-body connection is worth protecting with sufficient exercise. Even when I’m on a deadline, I try to stick to this rule. However, it’s time for a true confession. I have trouble actually walking the talk on this.
Keep reading. Just because you’re writing your own book, that doesn’t mean you can stop reading other ones. In fact, I’ve read more, not less, since I began to write fiction. I submerged myself in the mystery/suspense genre for almost two years before I started Desolation Row. Picking up tricks of the trade by osmosis suits me better than gulping a dozen dry how-to tomes. Of course, I read a few of those too!
Believe you can achieve your aims. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” I first saw that quote on a coffee mug for sale at Whole Foods and was scared to touch it. How dare I think I could write a novel? Yet I forced myself to buy that mug and drank from it while I wrote. When my first manuscript didn’t sell, I wrote the second, which got published. My friends (see comment above) helped keep me going. I really did “get by with a little help from my friends.” (*Footnote—the Beatles.)
Keep on keeping on. Once you find what works to make your writing life roll along as smoothly as possible, keep on doing it. Sometimes I find guidelines in how-to articles suggesting that my way is not the right way. The best writing coaches add the caveat, though, that there is no perfect method of writing a novel.
I’ve now been at this venture long enough that I’ve come across some authors who do have habits similar to mine. For example, many experts advise you to write a first draft as rapidly as possible, not editing as you go. But I just cannot do that. Just can’t. Feeling a little guilty, I write my way through manuscripts, editing and re-editing as I go. And recently—lo and behold—I read about a bestselling author who said he always begins his day by editing what he’s written the day before. What a relief! I am okay after all. So, as we used to say back in the day, just keep on truckin’.
Kay Kendall, the author of Desolation Row and Rainy Day Women, is a reformed public relations executive who won international awards for her work. Kendall lives in Texas with her Canadian-born husband, three house rabbits and spaniel Wills. She has degrees in Russian and Soviet history, and her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them / Kay Kendall
Balance. Moderation. These are not just words, but the keys to pretty much all aspects of living a healthy, full life from eating to drinking, and now completely applicable to writing. And it makes complete sense! As I’ve heard from wiser people than I, “It’s a marathon not a race.” Killer Nashville guest blog author Kay Kendall shares her own awareness for her desire to sprint, but recognizes that writing is a long-term commitment and, though we stumble, we all need to honestly look at ourselves to find our own sense of balance. Bottom line: Enjoy; you’re probably doing fine! Take confidence, continue the race using what works for you, and until next time, read like they’re burning books! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
Being a “One-hit Wonder” vs. Sustaining a Career: My Habits and How I Changed Them
By Kay Kendall
Before I began my second career as a mystery writer, I spent twenty-five years as a public relations executive. That time — combined with eight years in college and graduate school—taught me a lot about myself. My preferred work habits featured intense bursts of creativity and fascination with a large, innovative project, followed by fallow periods when I regrouped. That was exciting. Maintenance projects bored me. I was a hare, not a tortoise.
When I set out to become a mystery author, I realized I needed to smooth out my habits. Sure, I could probably produce one book in a frenzy of late nights, caffeinated days, and ignored loved one. But that was no way to build a sustainable career, writing book after book. So, I plotted my new path.
As I moved along toward the publication of my debut novel Desolation Row
Maintain balance in your daily life. Don’t give up anything that you really enjoy. Fit that activity into your writing life. If you are going to be a full-time author over the course of many years, you can’t give up going to movies.
Enjoy them. You can’t give up gardening. Keep doing that, too. Besides, your mind needs a breather. Some new plot twist may well pop up while you’re pulling a weed. I admit that the old myth of the author writing a book in a white-hot fit of inspiration still appeals to me, but I’ve trained myself to see that sanity and calmness and balance have their rewards too.
Make time for your pals. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and trying to get published these days is a killer. I need all the support I can get, and my friends have stayed right beside me on my journey. They keep me going through the darkest days and share my joy upon publication. I’ve also made new friends by joining writers’ critique groups and associations. Many writers are said to be introverts, but I’m not. Two new pals who write mysteries are extreme introverts, and I keep in close touch with them and actively encourage them to mingle with other writers. I’m a staunch believer in the truth of what Barbra Streisand sang back in the Sixties. Remember this? “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
Physical activity is essential. Keep walking the dog—or running, spinning, or dancing. Whatever exercise you used to do before you became an avid or full-time writer, don’t stop. Health gurus insist that sitting all day is a terrible habit that can lead to early death and/or dementia. Besides, when I’m on my exercise bike, I zone out and then, given enough time, ideas for my writing zone in. The mind-body connection is worth protecting with sufficient exercise. Even when I’m on a deadline, I try to stick to this rule. However, it’s time for a true confession. I have trouble actually walking the talk on this.
Keep reading. Just because you’re writing your own book, that doesn’t mean you can stop reading other ones. In fact, I’ve read more, not less, since I began to write fiction. I submerged myself in the mystery/suspense genre for almost two years before I started Desolation Row. Picking up tricks of the trade by osmosis suits me better than gulping a dozen dry how-to tomes. Of course, I read a few of those too!
Believe you can achieve your aims. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” I first saw that quote on a coffee mug for sale at Whole Foods and was scared to touch it. How dare I think I could write a novel? Yet I forced myself to buy that mug and drank from it while I wrote. When my first manuscript didn’t sell, I wrote the second, which got published. My friends (see comment above) helped keep me going. I really did “get by with a little help from my friends.” (*Footnote—the Beatles.)
Keep on keeping on. Once you find what works to make your writing life roll along as smoothly as possible, keep on doing it. Sometimes I find guidelines in how-to articles suggesting that my way is not the right way. The best writing coaches add the caveat, though, that there is no perfect method of writing a novel.
I’ve now been at this venture long enough that I’ve come across some authors who do have habits similar to mine. For example, many experts advise you to write a first draft as rapidly as possible, not editing as you go. But I just cannot do that. Just can’t. Feeling a little guilty, I write my way through manuscripts, editing and re-editing as I go. And recently—lo and behold—I read about a bestselling author who said he always begins his day by editing what he’s written the day before. What a relief! I am okay after all. So, as we used to say back in the day, just keep on truckin’.
Kay Kendall, the author of Desolation Row and Rainy Day Women, is a reformed public relations executive who won international awards for her work. Kendall lives in Texas with her Canadian-born husband, three house rabbits and spaniel Wills. She has degrees in Russian and Soviet history, and her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel / K.C. Tansley
In the middle of downward turn, a spiral out of control, or the dashing of one’s hopes and dreams, no one, and I repeat, no one likes to hear the same tired sayings like, “When one door closes; another door opens” or “You will look back and laugh”. It’s just too painful even if the intent is to instill optimism.
In this week’s Killer Nashville Guest Blog, K.C. Tansley shares her roller-coaster ride to publishing, which despite the turmoil turned out to be the best thing to ever happen.
This is a lesson for all of us: Never give up!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel
By K.C. Tansley
You know the first manuscript that most writers leave under their bed? After seven years of revising and querying, I sold mine to Harlequin in the spring of 2013.
Within a month, I had an agent at ICM Partners and the deal memo from Harlequin. This was really happening. My YA time travel murder mystery, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, was going to be traditionally published! My craziest dream was coming true.
The contract negotiations went on for a while. By early 2014, Harlequin had assigned my editor, and I received my editorial letter. My editor had a way of focusing and tightening the story while staying true to the heart of it. I was happy with where we were going and so excited to share what I knew would be the best version of this book with the world.
In the fall of 2014, I waited for line edits that didn't come. I emailed my editor and she apologized for the delay, but she was really good at being on time. Something felt off. I couldn't shake the feeling. I emailed my agent and asked her to look into it.
I’ll never forget what happened on October 4, 2014. I was sitting at a restaurant, waiting for my friend, when my agent’s reply came in. I knew I shouldn’t have read it, but I couldn’t help it. I clicked on it. And everything changed.
It was the worst-case scenario. My imprint was shutting down. My book wouldn't be published and the rights were reverting back to me. Eventually.
My mind raced with all the things that I had to do. Questions I needed answered. Emails I’d have to send. That kept me busy for a few days.
The worst part came next—weeks of waiting and uncertainty. Finally, my rights reverted back to me, and my agency and I parted ways.
That was when it all hit me. It felt like my world imploded. Everything I'd worked for over the past eight years was gone. Wiped out in one fell swoop. I was back to square one. Again.
It was the first time a dream nearly broke me. I didn’t see a reason to keep trying. It hurt too much. My book deal was dead and my dream had become a nightmare.
Mentally and physically, I was defeated. All I wanted to do was curl up and binge watch “The Vampire Diaries” for a few weeks. Hide in my bed and pretend this wasn't happening to me.
But I still had this novel that was line-edited and almost ready for publication. This story that I had lived with for nine years. These characters that I had poured my soul into. I couldn't abandon them. I wouldn’t abandon them.
But querying? No, I wasn't ready to face that kind of rejection again.
A friend of mine stepped up and passed the revised version of my manuscript around to her industry friends. It ended up with a small press. They shared the vision that my editor and I had for the book, and they wanted to publish it. They even hired my editor to freelance it to completion.
I was still emotionally torn up from what had happened, but I believed in my book. I put aside my personal stuff and gave the book the best chance I could.
This time around, I wasn’t a tiny cog in a massive publishing machine. My publisher wanted my input, and they communicated regularly with me. I felt like I was a partner in the publication process.
We still faced an uphill battle: a small press doesn't have the distribution network or the publicity machine of a major traditional publisher. We needed a promo push for this book so I hired a publicist for the book launch.
My book may be a product that is being brought to market, but it’s a unique product, a way to escape life and go on an adventure. It’s an emotional enterprise, so it is very important that everyone involved is emotionally invested in my book’s success. From the publisher to the editor to the cover designer to the formatter to publicist, everyone is doing his or her best work. And it shows. I feel supported and nurtured. That’s how indie publishing turned my worst nightmare back into my greatest dream. Going indie didn’t just save my book, it saved me.
K.C. Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson and three quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them. Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. As Kourtney Heintz, she writes award winning cross genre fiction for adults.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel / K.C. Tansley
In the middle of downward turn, a spiral out of control, or the dashing of one’s hopes and dreams, no one, and I repeat, no one likes to hear the same tired sayings like, “When one door closes; another door opens” or “You will look back and laugh”. It’s just too painful even if the intent is to instill optimism.In this week’s Killer Nashville Guest Blog, K.C. Tansley shares her roller-coaster ride to publishing, which despite the turmoil turned out to be the best thing to ever happen.This is a lesson for all of us: Never give up! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel
By K.C. Tansley
You know the first manuscript that most writers leave under their bed? After seven years of revising and querying, I sold mine to Harlequin in the spring of 2013.
Within a month, I had an agent at ICM Partners and the deal memo from Harlequin. This was really happening. My YA time travel murder mystery, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts
The contract negotiations went on for a while. By early 2014, Harlequin had assigned my editor, and I received my editorial letter. My editor had a way of focusing and tightening the story while staying true to the heart of it. I was happy with where we were going and so excited to share what I knew would be the best version of this book with the world.
In the fall of 2014, I waited for line edits that didn't come. I emailed my editor and she apologized for the delay, but she was really good at being on time. Something felt off. I couldn't shake the feeling. I emailed my agent and asked her to look into it.
I’ll never forget what happened on October 4, 2014. I was sitting at a restaurant, waiting for my friend, when my agent’s reply came in. I knew I shouldn’t have read it, but I couldn’t help it. I clicked on it. And everything changed.
It was the worst-case scenario. My imprint was shutting down. My book wouldn't be published and the rights
were reverting back to me. Eventually.
My mind raced with all the things that I had to do. Questions I needed answered. Emails I’d have to send. That kept me busy for a few days.
The worst part came next—weeks of waiting and uncertainty. Finally, my rights reverted back to me, and my agency and I parted ways.
That was when it all hit me. It felt like my world imploded. Everything I'd worked for over the past eight years was gone. Wiped out in one fell swoop. I was back to square one. Again.
It was the first time a dream nearly broke me. I didn’t see a reason to keep trying. It hurt too much. My book deal was dead and my dream had become a nightmare.
Mentally and physically, I was defeated. All I wanted to do was curl up and binge watch “The Vampire Diaries” for a few weeks. Hide in my bed and pretend this wasn't happening to me.
But I still had this novel that was line-edited and almost ready for publication. This story that I had lived with for nine years. These characters that I had poured my soul into. I couldn't abandon them. I wouldn’t abandon them.
But querying? No, I wasn't ready to face that kind of rejection again.
A friend of mine stepped up and passed the revised version of my manuscript around to her industry friends. It ended up with a small press. They shared the vision that my editor and I had for the book, and they wanted to publish it. They even hired my editor to freelance it to completion.
I was still emotionally torn up from what had happened, but I believed in my book. I put aside my personal stuff and gave the book the best chance I could.
This time around, I wasn’t a tiny cog in a massive publishing machine. My publisher wanted my input, and they communicated regularly with me. I felt like I was a partner in the publication process.
We still faced an uphill battle: a small press doesn't have the distribution network or the publicity machine of a major traditional publisher. We needed a promo push for this book so I hired a publicist for the book launch.
My book may be a product that is being brought to market, but it’s a unique product, a way to escape life and go on an adventure. It’s an emotional enterprise, so it is very important that everyone involved is emotionally invested in my book’s success. From the publisher to the editor to the cover designer to the formatter to publicist, everyone is doing his or her best work. And it shows. I feel supported and nurtured. That’s how indie publishing turned my worst nightmare back into my greatest dream. Going indie didn’t just save my book, it saved me.
K.C. Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson and three quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them. Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. As Kourtney Heintz, she writes award winning cross genre fiction for adults.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel / K.C. Tansley
In the middle of downward turn, a spiral out of control, or the dashing of one’s hopes and dreams, no one, and I repeat, no one likes to hear the same tired sayings like, “When one door closes; another door opens” or “You will look back and laugh”. It’s just too painful even if the intent is to instill optimism.In this week’s Killer Nashville Guest Blog, K.C. Tansley shares her roller-coaster ride to publishing, which despite the turmoil turned out to be the best thing to ever happen.This is a lesson for all of us: Never give up! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
How Small, Independent Publishing Saved My Novel
By K.C. Tansley
You know the first manuscript that most writers leave under their bed? After seven years of revising and querying, I sold mine to Harlequin in the spring of 2013.
Within a month, I had an agent at ICM Partners and the deal memo from Harlequin. This was really happening. My YA time travel murder mystery, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts
The contract negotiations went on for a while. By early 2014, Harlequin had assigned my editor, and I received my editorial letter. My editor had a way of focusing and tightening the story while staying true to the heart of it. I was happy with where we were going and so excited to share what I knew would be the best version of this book with the world.
In the fall of 2014, I waited for line edits that didn't come. I emailed my editor and she apologized for the delay, but she was really good at being on time. Something felt off. I couldn't shake the feeling. I emailed my agent and asked her to look into it.
I’ll never forget what happened on October 4, 2014. I was sitting at a restaurant, waiting for my friend, when my agent’s reply came in. I knew I shouldn’t have read it, but I couldn’t help it. I clicked on it. And everything changed.
It was the worst-case scenario. My imprint was shutting down. My book wouldn't be published and the rights
were reverting back to me. Eventually.
My mind raced with all the things that I had to do. Questions I needed answered. Emails I’d have to send. That kept me busy for a few days.
The worst part came next—weeks of waiting and uncertainty. Finally, my rights reverted back to me, and my agency and I parted ways.
That was when it all hit me. It felt like my world imploded. Everything I'd worked for over the past eight years was gone. Wiped out in one fell swoop. I was back to square one. Again.
It was the first time a dream nearly broke me. I didn’t see a reason to keep trying. It hurt too much. My book deal was dead and my dream had become a nightmare.
Mentally and physically, I was defeated. All I wanted to do was curl up and binge watch “The Vampire Diaries” for a few weeks. Hide in my bed and pretend this wasn't happening to me.
But I still had this novel that was line-edited and almost ready for publication. This story that I had lived with for nine years. These characters that I had poured my soul into. I couldn't abandon them. I wouldn’t abandon them.
But querying? No, I wasn't ready to face that kind of rejection again.
A friend of mine stepped up and passed the revised version of my manuscript around to her industry friends. It ended up with a small press. They shared the vision that my editor and I had for the book, and they wanted to publish it. They even hired my editor to freelance it to completion.
I was still emotionally torn up from what had happened, but I believed in my book. I put aside my personal stuff and gave the book the best chance I could.
This time around, I wasn’t a tiny cog in a massive publishing machine. My publisher wanted my input, and they communicated regularly with me. I felt like I was a partner in the publication process.
We still faced an uphill battle: a small press doesn't have the distribution network or the publicity machine of a major traditional publisher. We needed a promo push for this book so I hired a publicist for the book launch.
My book may be a product that is being brought to market, but it’s a unique product, a way to escape life and go on an adventure. It’s an emotional enterprise, so it is very important that everyone involved is emotionally invested in my book’s success. From the publisher to the editor to the cover designer to the formatter to publicist, everyone is doing his or her best work. And it shows. I feel supported and nurtured. That’s how indie publishing turned my worst nightmare back into my greatest dream. Going indie didn’t just save my book, it saved me.
K.C. Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson and three quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them. Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. As Kourtney Heintz, she writes award winning cross genre fiction for adults.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
North and South: A Writer’s Journey / Ellen Byron
We all have unique and life-stamping beginnings that stay with us forever, but it’s our life experiences that shape who we are. With any luck we both enhance and challenge ourselves with every new day.
In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, author Ellen Byron shares her journey to becoming a writer and reminds us of the ultimate two tenets of writing: know what you write and write what you love.
Read like they are burning books!
Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville
Publisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
North and South: A Writer’s Journey
By Ellen Byron
Why does a native Noo Yawkuh who lives in the City of Angels always seem to write about the South? It’s a question I’ve often asked myself. And after giving it much thought, I’ve come up with two answers. One is obvious, the other less so.
My initial fascination began as a teenage obsession with Tennessee Williams. I was overwhelmed by the poetry of The Glass Menagerie, the sensual brutality of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the passion and heartbreak of Orpheus Descending.
Eventually it hit this Williams fangirl, what better place to pay homage to my idol than New Orleans? I transferred from a gritty New York state college to the lush, almost tropical campus of Tulane University, and embraced everything about the magical Crescent City. I reveled in its sultry humidity and guested at Mardi Gras balls. I people-watched on the streetcars, wondering if one of the white-gloved society matrons making her way to the French Quarter might have been the inspiration for Blanche DuBois. I wanted to be accepted so badly that I tried to hide my New York accent, and while no one ever mistook me for a Southerner, I did have a customer at the sandwich shop where I worked part-time ask if I was British.
When my parents came to visit, we’d rent a car and explore southern Louisiana. I learned that if you saw an alley of trees that dead-ended in an empty field, odds were that’s where a plantation once stood. I met proud and marvelous Cajuns, people whose ancestors were forced out of Canada in the mid-eighteenth century by Le Grand Derangement, their roots in America pre-dating the Declaration of Independence. People who still spoke French as their native tongue and English as their second language over two hundred years after their diaspora. And gradually this gal from Queens fell utterly in love with a way of life that couldn’t seem more different from her own background.
But was it so different? While mulling this over, I came up with the second answer to the question of why I feel so connected to a part of the country where I only spent a few years of my life.
My mother was born in Italy. She came to America with her parents at the age of three. During the decades that followed, a parade of relatives and pisanes (fellow countrymen) from the little village of Orsogna joined her in the migration. I spent much of my childhood at family functions where the air was thick with the scent of homemade sauces, pastas, and meats. Uncles, aunts and cousins spent the meal laughing and arguing in Italian. I could spend an entire day at a family event and never hear a word of English. It was a world unto itself.
So why do I feel drawn to the South? Because, like my family’s small enclave, it’s a world unto itself— a rich, unique culture within the larger culture of the United States. This is particularly true of southern Louisiana, where I’ve set my debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery The food, the music, and the language all come together in this part of the world to create a singular environment. (By the way, my fascination with the South isn’t limited to Louisiana. In my play Old Sins, Long Shadows, I trade the Pelican State for Kentucky as a family battles for the mineral rights to their land.)
I sometimes worry that this East Coast/West Coast girl might be viewed as some kind of carpetbagger. Then I remind myself of two writing tenets I’ve always adhered to: know about what you write, and write about what you love. Which is exactly what I’m doing. So I hope Southerners see my preoccupation as a form of flattery, and forgive any errors I might make as a wannabe rather than a native. To quote a favorite playwright of mine, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Or, as my late Nonna might have put it, “Ho sempre dipendeva dalla benevolenza di strainer.”
Ellen’s debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, launches in August. Her TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and network pilots. She’s written over 200 articles for national magazines, and her plays, published by the Dramatists Play Service, have been performed around the world. She’s the recipient of a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant, presented by the Malice Domestic Conference.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
North and South: A Writer’s Journey / Ellen Byron
We all have unique and life-stamping beginnings that stay with us forever, but it’s our life experiences that shape who we are. With any luck we both enhance and challenge ourselves with every new day.In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, author Ellen Byron shares her journey to becoming a writer and reminds us of the ultimate two tenets of writing: know what you write and write what you love.Read like they are burning books! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
North and South: A Writer’s Journey
By Ellen Byron
Why does a native Noo Yawkuh who lives in the City of Angels always seem to write about the South? It’s a question I’ve often asked myself. And after giving it much thought, I’ve come up with two answers. One is obvious, the other less so.
My initial fascination began as a teenage obsession with Tennessee Williams. I was overwhelmed by the poetry of The Glass Menagerie, the sensual brutality of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the passion and heartbreak of Orpheus Descending.
Eventually it hit this Williams fangirl, what better place to pay homage to my idol than New Orleans? I transferred from a gritty New York state college to the lush, almost tropical campus of Tulane University, and embraced everything about the magical Crescent City. I reveled in its sultry humidity and guested at Mardi Gras balls. I people-watched on the streetcars, wondering if one of the white-gloved society matrons making her way to the French Quarter might have been the inspiration for Blanche DuBois. I wanted to be accepted so badly that I tried to hide my New York accent, and while no one ever mistook me for a Southerner, I did have a customer at the sandwich shop where I worked part-time ask if I was British.
When my parents came to visit, we’d rent a car and explore southern Louisiana. I learned that if you saw an alley of trees that dead-ended in an empty field, odds were that’s where a plantation once stood. I met proud and marvelous Cajuns, people whose ancestors were forced out of Canada in the mid-eighteenth century by Le Grand Derangement, their roots in America pre-dating the Declaration of Independence. People who still spoke French as their native tongue and English as their second language over two hundred years after their diaspora. And gradually this gal from Queens fell utterly in love with a way of life that couldn’t seem more different from her own background.
But was it so different? While mulling this over, I came up with the second answer to the question of why I feel so connected to a part of the country where I only spent a few years of my life.
My mother was born in Italy. She came to America with her parents at the age of three. During the decades that followed, a parade of relatives and pisanes (fellow countrymen) from the little village of Orsogna joined her in the migration. I spent much of my childhood at family functions where the air was thick with the scent of homemade sauces, pastas, and meats. Uncles, aunts and cousins spent the meal laughing and arguing in Italian. I could spend an entire day at a family event and never hear a word of English. It was a world unto itself.
So why do I feel drawn to the South? Because, like my family’s small enclave, it’s a world unto itself— a rich, unique culture within the larger culture of the United States. This is particularly true of southern Louisiana,
where I’ve set my debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery
I sometimes worry that this East Coast/West Coast girl might be viewed as some kind of carpetbagger. Then I remind myself of two writing tenets I’ve always adhered to: know about what you write, and write about what you love. Which is exactly what I’m doing. So I hope Southerners see my preoccupation as a form of flattery, and forgive any errors I might make as a wannabe rather than a native. To quote a favorite playwright of mine, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Or, as my late Nonna might have put it, “Ho sempre dipendeva dalla benevolenza di strainer.”
Ellen’s debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, launches in August. Her TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and network pilots. She’s written over 200 articles for national magazines, and her plays, published by the Dramatists Play Service, have been performed around the world. She’s the recipient of a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant, presented by the Malice Domestic Conference.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
North and South: A Writer’s Journey / Ellen Byron
We all have unique and life-stamping beginnings that stay with us forever, but it’s our life experiences that shape who we are. With any luck we both enhance and challenge ourselves with every new day.In this week’s Killer Nashville blog, author Ellen Byron shares her journey to becoming a writer and reminds us of the ultimate two tenets of writing: know what you write and write what you love.Read like they are burning books! Clay StaffordFounder Killer NashvillePublisher / Editorial Director Killer Nashville Magazine
North and South: A Writer’s Journey
By Ellen Byron
Why does a native Noo Yawkuh who lives in the City of Angels always seem to write about the South? It’s a question I’ve often asked myself. And after giving it much thought, I’ve come up with two answers. One is obvious, the other less so.
My initial fascination began as a teenage obsession with Tennessee Williams. I was overwhelmed by the poetry of The Glass Menagerie, the sensual brutality of A Streetcar Named Desire, and the passion and heartbreak of Orpheus Descending.
Eventually it hit this Williams fangirl, what better place to pay homage to my idol than New Orleans? I transferred from a gritty New York state college to the lush, almost tropical campus of Tulane University, and embraced everything about the magical Crescent City. I reveled in its sultry humidity and guested at Mardi Gras balls. I people-watched on the streetcars, wondering if one of the white-gloved society matrons making her way to the French Quarter might have been the inspiration for Blanche DuBois. I wanted to be accepted so badly that I tried to hide my New York accent, and while no one ever mistook me for a Southerner, I did have a customer at the sandwich shop where I worked part-time ask if I was British.
When my parents came to visit, we’d rent a car and explore southern Louisiana. I learned that if you saw an alley of trees that dead-ended in an empty field, odds were that’s where a plantation once stood. I met proud and marvelous Cajuns, people whose ancestors were forced out of Canada in the mid-eighteenth century by Le Grand Derangement, their roots in America pre-dating the Declaration of Independence. People who still spoke French as their native tongue and English as their second language over two hundred years after their diaspora. And gradually this gal from Queens fell utterly in love with a way of life that couldn’t seem more different from her own background.
But was it so different? While mulling this over, I came up with the second answer to the question of why I feel so connected to a part of the country where I only spent a few years of my life.
My mother was born in Italy. She came to America with her parents at the age of three. During the decades that followed, a parade of relatives and pisanes (fellow countrymen) from the little village of Orsogna joined her in the migration. I spent much of my childhood at family functions where the air was thick with the scent of homemade sauces, pastas, and meats. Uncles, aunts and cousins spent the meal laughing and arguing in Italian. I could spend an entire day at a family event and never hear a word of English. It was a world unto itself.
So why do I feel drawn to the South? Because, like my family’s small enclave, it’s a world unto itself— a rich, unique culture within the larger culture of the United States. This is particularly true of southern Louisiana,
where I’ve set my debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery
I sometimes worry that this East Coast/West Coast girl might be viewed as some kind of carpetbagger. Then I remind myself of two writing tenets I’ve always adhered to: know about what you write, and write about what you love. Which is exactly what I’m doing. So I hope Southerners see my preoccupation as a form of flattery, and forgive any errors I might make as a wannabe rather than a native. To quote a favorite playwright of mine, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Or, as my late Nonna might have put it, “Ho sempre dipendeva dalla benevolenza di strainer.”
Ellen’s debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, launches in August. Her TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and network pilots. She’s written over 200 articles for national magazines, and her plays, published by the Dramatists Play Service, have been performed around the world. She’s the recipient of a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant, presented by the Malice Domestic Conference.
(To be a part of the Killer Nashville Guest Blog, send a query to contact@killernashville.com. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks to Tom Wood, Maria Giordano, Will Chessor, Clay Janeway, and publisher/editorial director Clay Stafford for their assistance in putting together this week’s blog. And for more writer resources, visit us at www.KillerNashville.com, www.KillerNashvilleMagazine.com, and www.KillerNashvilleBookCon.com.)
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Killer Cocktails: T'Killer Mockingbird
This month’s exclusive Killer Nashville Killer Cocktail: T'Killer Mockingbird
We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to pay homage to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, especially since her long awaited sequel Go Set A Watchman is now available.
Barnes & Noble Bookstores celebrated the new release recently with a nationwide reading of To Kill a Mockingbird aloud, in all stores, from start to finish. The local, all-day read-a-thon featured a variety of special guest readers, including our very own, Killer Nashville Founder and Publisher Clay Stafford.
In our quest to create literary-themed cocktails, Mark “Spaz” Morris didn’t want to go the traditional route. So he created this new, original cocktail that colors the palette with rich strawberry flavor and balances it with soothing, aged tequila.
T'Killer Mockingbird
Ingredients:
1 & 3/4 ounces of Tequila El Mayor Anejo
3/4-ounces of Merlet Creme de Fraise Liquer
2 ounces Le Village Sparkling Pink Lemonade
Ice cubes
Strawberry to garnish
Directions:
1. Pour 1 & 3/4 ounces of Tequila El Mayor Anejo into a shaker
2. Pour 3/4-ounces of Merlet Creme de Fraise Liqueur in to the shaker
3. Add Le Village Sparkling Pink Lemonade - depending the size of the glass - about 2 ounces.
4. This drink doesn't have to be shaken. Just stir it up. Fill glass with ice and pour mixture on top.
5. Garnish with a strawberry. Enjoy!
Send us pictures and comments of you and Killer Nashville’s T'Killer Mockingbird. We’ll share them here along with a link back to you.
About Spaz:
Spaz started in the restaurant/bar business back in 1984 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when he was a student at Louisiana State University. Instead of becoming a chemical engineer, he became a social legend instead, he says jokingly. He later transferred to Knoxville, Tennessee, and received a Bachelor’s in marketing from the University of Tennessee in 1989. He has worked in biker bars to 4-fork-setting restaurants. An avid traveler, he has lived in 13 states and visited 40, so far. He enjoys reading sci-fi and sci-fantasy books. He currently holds court at Red Dog Wine and Spirits in Franklin, Tennessee. Check out the store: www.reddogwineandspirits.com.
T'Killer Mockingbird™ and © 2015 Killer Nashville. Killer Nashville is a ® Federally Registered Trademark. All rights reserved.
Marketing Your Book 101: Are You A Literary Citizen?
Marketing expert Erik Deckers gets to the heart of what Killer Nashville, the vision of Killer Nashville founder and magazine publisher Clay Stafford, and the alumni of the Killer Nashville family are all about.
In his debut column for the Killer Nashville Magazine as part of a new monthly series, Erik discusses what it means to be a good literary citizen. Erik will be sharing his knowledge at this year’s Killer Nashville. His sessions are a no-miss, standing-room-only opportunity.
Are You a Good Literary Citizen?
By Erik Deckers
When it comes to promoting our work, there's no one who can help us better than our competition.
The people you become friends with at all those writing conferences. The people from your writing groups. The ones you smile at and congratulate, but secretly wish they would suffer chronic ass cramps whenever they talk about their latest success.
Those are your best promoters. They're the ones you should tell your fans about. The ones you should send congratulatory tweets to. The ones whose books you should read and tell other people about.
Think about it this way: when you finish reading a book, do you stop reading for the year? Was that your book for the year, and you're finished until some time in 2016? Of course not, you're already on the prowl for your next book.
So, if the author of the book you just finished told you about a book he or she enjoyed, wouldn't you be more likely to check that one out? Of course you would.
Do that for your fellow authors.
That's what my friend and novelist, Cathy Day, calls Literary Citizenship.
Literary Citizenship is the act of being a good citizen in our literary community. Just like in our regular communities, we work together to support each other — it's the whole "it takes a village" approach to living.
We also live in a literary community, and it's important to work together to support each other there.
That means going to each other's readings, buying each other's books, and supporting each other the way friends do. (And waiting to go home and sob, "Why not me?! Why not me?!" But that's a different article.)
Cathy even teaches a course called Literary Citizenship at my alma mater, Ball State University.
In her course description, she says: "A literary citizen is an aspiring writer who understands that you have to contribute to, not just expect things from, the publishing world." She's created six principles we can all follow. Here are three of my favorites:
1) Write "charming notes" to writers.
How do you feel when a reader says they liked your work? Feels pretty good, doesn't it? So how do you think your favorite writer feels when you do the same? Even the big-shot novelists like it. If you want writers to pay attention to you, start paying attention to them first. Send tweets, Facebook likes, Tumblr posts, and so on. Boost them, and they'll boost you in return.
2) Interview writers.
If you're a blogger — I hope you already are; if not, attend my class at the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference — interview some of your favorite writers and writing friends. Email them a few questions, ask them to respond, and then publish the responses. This introduces writers to your readers, and will hopefully introduce you to their readers, because they'll tell their fans, "Check out my interview on this blog!" (More on this in a second.)
3) Talk up (informally) or review (formally) books you like.
Write short book reviews on Goodreads, Amazon.com, or BarnesandNoble.com. Better yet, review books on your blog (remember what I said about introducing writers to your readers?). You can become a trusted resource for good books, which will build your audience. An audience who will be interested in your own writing as well.
The easiest way to be a good literary citizen is with a blog and Twitter.
Your blog is where you're going to post your content. Not necessarily your actual writing (although you won't go wrong publishing the occasional short story), but your thoughts, ideas, plans, and news. Talk about the writing conference you just returned from, the writing residency you were awarded, cover options for your upcoming book, news about your book signings, your various flash fiction stories, and book reviews of your fellow writers. These are all suitable topics for your blog, and a way to keep people interested while you drum up interest for your own published work.
Your blog is going to be the hub of your literary citizen wheel. It's your publicist, your news station, and your own personal magazine. Publish anything and everything that will help your readers learn more about you, and your fellow writers.
Next, get a Twitter account. If you already have one, great. If you don't, get one, and use your own name for your Twitter handle, not something goofy like @Mustang1969BU. Connect with other writers, as well as your readers. Include your Twitter handle on your blog so visitors can connect with you.
Don't be stuck up either; follow people back. Until you become a big name celebrity who's too important to deal with fans, follow people back and communicate with them. Remember, they could be talking to — and reading — anyone, but they chose you. So show some gratitude.
Communicate with your fellow writers too. They're already talking to their own fans. If their fans see them talking to you, the fans are more likely to visit your website, read your work, and become your fans as well. Make sure you tell your readers about your writer friends as well. A little quid pro quo (or twid pro quo?) goes a long way.
There are other social media networks you can always try out, although these are the two you need to get started to build a readership, and grow it exponentially it by networking with fellow authors.
Remember, being a Literary Citizen means it's what you do, not what you get. Promote the work of others, and you'll see your own audience grow as a result.
Erik Deckers owns a content marketing agency in Indianapolis, and is the co-author of four books on social media. He is also a professional speaker and newspaper humor columnist, and was named a 2016 writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House Project. He spoke at Killer Nashville 2013, and will return again this year.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Under the Microscope with Mike Tabor: Finding Victims Through Odontology
Welcome to “Under the Microscope,” Killer Nashville’s very own exclusive Forensics Corner. We will unearth, demystify, and bring you interesting, factual information about the world of forensics from experts in various fields. From dead bodies, to suspicious substances, to computers with a mind of their own, this column will explore the macabre, gory, and unexplainable with the truth in scientific terms for writers to use at their will.
There are about 85,000 reported persons missing in the United States – many of them children – and it is up to members of the forensic community such as Dr. Mike Tabor to attempt to identify them.
Mike has been a veteran of the Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference, sharing his knowledge of forensic dentistry with the goal of identifying individuals through teeth.
Finding Victims Through Odontology
By Mike Tabor, DDS, DABFO
Joe Craig, one of TBI’s leading detectives looked curiously over my shoulder. I stared intently at Chloie’s dental x-ray, then at Gage’s. My brow wrinkled as I gazed back at each child’s photo. This never gets any easier. It seems like I know these kids and I’ve never met them. In thirty years of putting names with dead bodies for the Tennessee State Medical Examiner’s Office, it’s the missing children that really get to your heart. Thousands of families go to sleep each night not knowing whether their son or daughter is dead or alive. Sometimes it’s a runaway, sometimes a marital custody abduction, but all too often it is a child vanishing in the middle of the night. Just like Gage and Chloie.
On September 23, 2012, the home that Gage, 7 and Chloie, 9, shared with their grandparents, Molli and Leon McClaran between Murfreesboro and Shelbyville, Tennessee, went up in flames. Tragically, both grandparents perished in the fire, and for a while, it was presumed the children died there as well. After days of searching by forensic/arson experts, only the grandparents’ remains were located. Forensic anthropologists sifted in vain, through each piece of burned debris to locate the children. We x-rayed every fragment that even resembled a pediatric bone or tooth, but no other human tissue was discovered. The children had apparently just vanished.
What originally was thought to be a house fire killing four people turned into two confirmed adult fatalities and two missing children with many questions unanswered. Over two years later, it still remains a cold case with nothing further known about the children’s whereabouts or condition.
There are about 85,000 reported persons missing in the United States today. Nearly half are children. There are two national databases (NCIC for law enforcement and NAMUS for the general public) whose mission is to match missing person’s records with the John and Jane Does at medical examiner’s offices and morgues around the country. Between, 4,000-5,000 bodies are buried anonymously annually, their identity never discovered. The goal of the forensic community is to reduce this number and bring closure to suffering families.
Identification of these bodies is accomplished by fingerprints, DNA, or dental radiographic comparison. DNA has quickly replaced fingerprints as the gold standard in forensic identification. But sometimes the evidence has decomposed or deteriorated and the DNA is not readable. The fillings or restorations in human teeth are virtually impervious to environmental elements.
Before the advent of NAMUS, only law enforcement officials had access to the database which is so powerful in tracking down missing persons. With the increasing popularity of forensic sciences, NAMUS now provides an easy access for the lay public to become directly involved in helping solve mysteries.
There are many characteristics that can be logged into the database that could help with the identification process. Hair color, height and weight, as well as tattoos and dental record details are among bits of information that law enforcement, lay public, or medical examiner’s offices can add to this database.
Since teeth are the most durable substance in the human body, they are valuable tools in identifying these bodies that would otherwise forever remain a mystery. The clues these teeth hold are virtually indestructible, which makes forensic odontology one of the most reliable forms of human identification in the field of forensic science. With 32 permanent teeth, each containing five surfaces, the number of mathematical combinations for ID purposes is greater than the total number of people that have ever lived on our planet.
Before the introduction of NAMUS, many missing persons had not even been entered into either one of the national databases. An incompletely populated database will, of course, oftentimes lead to a dead-end street with the identification process. It is hoped that with the ever-increasing popularity of forensic sciences on national television will help reduce the number of missing or unidentified persons.
The University of Tennessee, Graduate School of Medicine, located at University Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, is launching the first postgraduate Master of Science degree in forensic odontology and human identification in the United States. It is anticipated that with programs like this pilot, more individuals throughout our country and the forensic world will continue to develop a more thorough presence in the field of forensic identification.
Dr. Bill Bass, one of the founding fathers of forensic anthropology and founder of the world’s first Body Farm is one of the faculty members in this new venture. The program will encompass topics like human bite mark analysis, with guest lecturer Miami/Dade County forensic odontologist, Dr. Richard Souviron, who testified in the world famous Ted Bundy trial.
Several of the faculty, like Dr. Dick Weems from UAB College of Dentistry, have extensive experience with mass disasters such as the World Trade Center attack on 9-11-2001, to the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina. Attendees will actually experience a “hands on” section simulating a mass disaster and missing persons identification.
It is hoped that with ever increasing public awareness about the number of cases like Gage and Chloie, the long and difficult journey of helping to find missing children might someday come to an end.
For more information about these programs contact the course director Dr. Murray Marks at mmarks@utmck.edu.
With a freshly earned DDS in 1973, Dr. Mike Tabor left Carson-Newman College and The University of Tennessee College of Dentistry, and began his career as a family dentist. Ten years later, his career took a unique turn and he found himself in the highly specialized field of forensic dentistry. As one of only a handful of forensic dentists in the United States, Dr. Tabor became a highly sought after expert in this field, performing identifications and examinations on homicide victims, as well as aiding police departments, investigators and medical examiners all over the country in the prosecution of thousands of crimes. He has served as the president of the Tennessee State Board of Dental Examiners, and is currently the Chief Forensic Dentist for The State of Tennessee Office of the Medical Examiner. His first novel Walk Of Death was released in 2013. www.drmiketabor.com
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
The Writer's Life: Anatomy of a Crime
It was an out of body experience. All the pain and guilt and shame moved his hands towards the hatchet and all that he was not surfaced in one mighty thwack. What happens next? Who’s the victim? Maybe, it’s what’s the victim? Who’s having the out-of-body-experience? Why?
Author and mentor Beth Terrell has written in previous columns about building a character with feelings, drives, and motivations, and now she takes us to the next level. What do our characters do? Beth breaks it down succinctly in this month’s column when she focuses on the reason behind the story.
Anatomy of a Crime
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell
For the past few months, we’ve been focusing on your main character. Now it’s time to look at the crime. In a traditional mystery or procedural, the crime is generally a murder. In a caper story, it’s the heist. There may be more than one crime in the course of the story; often, as the investigation continues and the antagonist begins to feel cornered, there are subsequent murders. In a thriller, there may be an initial crime that gets the protagonist involved and an endgame he’s ultimately working to stop.
For each of these crimes, knowing what happened and what your main character needs to learn in order to prevail can help you determine which scenes are integral to your story. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume the initial crime is a murder. Then, we’ll briefly discuss variations for thrillers and other subgenres.
The Victim
Sometimes the victim of the crime is dead before the book begins. Sometimes he dies a few chapters in, after the reader has had a chance to meet him and form an opinion as to whether he was an innocent, a likable rogue, or someone who got what was coming to him. Either way, the identity of the victim and the reasons for his death are important, because they provide the motivation of the killer. Ask yourself these two questions:
Who was the victim? A bank teller skimming money from the till? An honest accountant who’s just realized that his agency’s best client is using him to launder money? A peeping tom who saw something he shouldn’t have?
Why did the killer target him? For revenge? For an inheritance? To cover up a crime? I read once that there are only five motivations for murder: power, greed, love/lust, revenge, and madness. Everything else falls under those headings. You might add fear—physical fear or fear of discovery—but the first borders on self-defense, and the second is redundant, since the thing the killer doesn’t want discovered probably falls under one of the given categories. But whether you distill the killer’s motivation down to one of those five categories or ascribe it to some other motivation altogether, you need to know why the victim died.
The Perpetrator
An intricately planned crime carried out by a hired assassin is very different from a crime of passion committed by a mild-mannered herbalist. Each of these killers is a suitable antagonist for a crime novel, but the former is more likely to be a hard-driving thriller, while the latter is likely to be a cozy or traditional novel. We’ll go into greater detail about your book’s antagonist next month, but for now, just ask yourself these questions:
Who is the killer? Is he physically strong? Agile? Clever? Does he stand out in a crowd or blend into the background? What special skills or resources does he have? Does he have wealth or a title to protect him?
How does he justify the crime? Does he see it as a necessary evil? Something he’s doing for the greater good? A way of getting something he feels is owed to him?
How close is he to the victim? Did they work together? Were they best friends? Were they having an affair?
Some authors like their villains to be terrifying. Others like them to be basically good people pushed to their breaking points—people who stand to lose something they simply can’t bear to lose. Whichever you choose, remember that the killer’s physical and mental capabilities combine with his personality to determine the kind of crime he’s likely to commit.
The Details
Based on what you know about the victim, the perpetrator, and the reasons for the murder, you should have a better understanding of how the victim was killed. Was it premeditated or impulsive? What weapon was used? Were there any witnesses? If so, does the killer know about them? If not, how did the killer make sure there would be none? How did the killer get the victim alone? Did the victim fight back? What time of day was it? Where did it happen? How long did it take? Was there any conversation? Did the victim scream? Were there gunshots? Why didn’t anyone hear?
Envision the scene as clearly as you can. You might even want to write a description of it, even if you don’t intend to use it in the book. Engage all the senses. It can be helpful to envision the scene twice, once from the point of view of the killer and once from the point of view of the victim.
I find it especially helpful to make a timeline of the crime. An excel spreadsheet or Word table works well, since you may want to print it out and keep it for future reference. Mine looks something like this:
Time | Action |
| 10 PM | Violent storm brings down a tree that creates a bridge over the broken glass. |
| 10:15 PM | Tuyet helps Dung escape the shed. Gives her the photo with Jared’s number and address. |
| 10:40 PM | Dung crosses the glass, climbs up the fallen tree, and goes over the fence. |
| Midnight | Guards notice the fallen tree, one goes to check on the women. Boss Man sends men out to find Dung (who has been walking toward the city on her wounded feet). |
| 3:30 AM | W finds Dung, distracts,, etc.. |
| 4:00 AM | Killer is in place. |
| 4:15-4:25 | W drops off Dung. Hispanic girl coming home sees his car, sees K come out of the shadows and put his hands around Dung’s throat. Girl is frightened and accidentally knocks over neighbor’s garbage can. K looks toward Girl, snaps Dung’s neck. Girl, still in shadow runs. K puts Dung in dumpster and leaves on foot. He’s parked his car several blocks away and doesn’t think Girl could have recognized him in the dark. |
| 4:40 AM | W arrives home, makes excuses to wife. |
| 5 AM | K arrives back at compound |
| 6 AM | Boss Man calls client, arranges false alibis for W and K. |
The Cover-up
In real life, if a murder is going to be solved, it usually happens quickly. The police walk in, and the wife is standing over her husband’s body holding a bloody knife, or the gangbanger is caught outside the victim’s house carrying a recently fired gun with bullets that match those found in the victim. The most obvious suspect is often the guilty party.
In fiction, the obvious solution would make for a pretty dull book. And even though I’ve heard many a police officer say most criminals are dumb, the antagonist in your book must be smart—a worthy opponent.
What would this particular character do to cover his tracks? Maybe he hides the body or stages the crime scene. Maybe he tries to frame another character. He wipes his fingerprints off the gun. He establishes an alibi. His skills, knowledge, and resources will determine the steps he takes to throw investigators off the trail.
The Trail
You know what happened, how it happened, and why it happened, and when. You know how the victim and the killer are connected. The next thing to ask yourself is: What clues will the protagonist need in order to solve the crime or keep the villain from succeeding?
If your protagonist is a law enforcement official, she might rely heavily on forensic evidence. She’ll have access to official databases and laboratory testing. Her badge will open doors—and close others.
If your sleuth is a florist, many of the investigative techniques open to a police officer or FBI agent are closed to her. Even if you give her an ally in law enforcement, the bulk of the information available to her will come through interviews or good old-fashioned snooping. You need to place the kind of clues an amateur sleuth could find.
In addition to interviews and snooping, a private investigator might have informants, allies on the police force or DMV, and electronic surveillance equipment. (You can find some ideas at www.pimall.com. Look under the “Spy Shop” tab.)
Make a list of clues and how your sleuth might find each one.
Clue | Where Found/Leaned |
| Distinctive tattoo | Witness describes, forensic artist draws, former snitch recognizes tattoo style |
| K’s history of violence | Interview with suspect’s sister |
| Partial license plate | Witness describes, ally at DMV gives list of possible matches |
You’ll use this list to generate scenes. From the table above, I can see that unearthing these three clues requires at least five scenes: an interview with the witness who describes the tattoo and the partial plate, a scene with the forensic artist, an encounter with a former snitch, an interview with the suspect’s sister, and some interplay with the ally at the DMV.
Some of these scenes will lead to other scenes, so even though I’m not outlining or writing yet, the story is beginning to take shape.
Other Subgenres
But what if you’re not writing a puzzle-type mystery? What if you’re writing a ticking clock thriller or a caper? The process isn’t that much different.
In a caper or heist story, like the film Oceans 11, the protagonist is the one committing the crime, but it’s no less important to know the details of the plan. It may take place near the end of the book rather than the beginning, but it’s a driving force in the plot. If the plan requires an acrobat to dance through a grid of laser beams, your protagonist will need to find an acrobat. You’ll need to know how they plan to escape, how they intend to keep from getting caught, and what their motivations are.
In a thriller, your main character may be trying to stop terrorists from deploying a nuclear device, but he still needs to follow clues to find them, and the terrorists still have a timeline without which their plan won’t work. Whether they hope to escape or plan to die for their cause, they’ll try to misdirect the authorities and avoid capture.
Whatever your story, knowing the anatomy of the crime that drives it can help you make the rest of the narrative more authentic and cohesive, as events grow naturally from the foundation you’ve created.
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
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
Dying for Dinner: Radish, Beet, Carrot Salad and Mulled Chicken
Dying For Dinner
Caught a second viewing of “Fed Up”, a documentary about the obesity epidemic, food, exercise, and the food industry. It will make your jaw drop and rethink the way you eat. Sugar is in all processed foods, and it’s killing us as a nation. Michael Pollen, journalist, professor, and author of such books as the The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
To Die for Roasted Radish, Beet, and Carrot Salad with Fresh Orange and Curried Pecans
By Molly McRae
Like any good mystery, this is a recipe that started with “what if?” My family loves roasted vegetables – root vegetables in particular. One day when we had radishes, beets, carrots, and half a red onion, we ended up with this salad. It’s another creation that I’ve turned over to café-owner Mel in the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries.
Preheat oven to 450º F.
Ingredients for roasted vegetables:
1 bunch red radishes cut into wedges ½ -inch at wide end
4 beets (tangerine to orange in size), peeled and cut into ½ -inch dice
2 carrots, peeled and cut into ¼ - to ½ -inch slices
½ a red onion, sliced into ¼ - to ½ -inch rings, then rings into quarters
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. fresh thyme
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
Ingredients for curried pecans:
⅓ c. pecan halves
½ to 1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. olive oil
¼ tsp. salt
Fresh ingredients to finish the salad:
3 to 4 c. mixed greens (spinach, romaine, etc.)
1 seedless orange, segments cut into bite-size pieces
- Toss prepared radishes, beets, carrots, and onion with olive oil. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning once or twice, cooking until the vegetables are tender and the edges are beginning to caramelize. Roasted vegetables are good – caramelized vegetables are superb.
- When you think the vegetables are 3-5 minutes away from being perfect, stir in the balsamic vinegar and finish roasting.
- Let cool while you prepare the pecans, the greens, and the orange.
- Heat olive oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add pecans, curry powder, and salt. Stir until pecans begin to brown. Remove from heat.
- Put greens in a large salad bowl. Add the roasted vegetables. Top with the orange and the pecans.
The salad doesn’t really need a dressing, but oil and vinegar, Italian and Asiago peppercorn is great.
Mulled Chicken & Brown Rice (serves 6)
By Jamie Mason
I have never included details of food in my writing except once in a ranting essay against picnics, but I do like tasty things that are easy so that my family doesn't feel abandoned when I'm eyeball deep in the writing process. So, here's an easy and killer main dish that cooks for a long time so you can tap out another few thousand words while dinner is made.
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1/2 to 2/3 cup raisins (I prefer the baking raisins if I can find them)
2-1/2 cups boiling water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup
Slivered almonds
Heat oven to 350.
Add the raisins to the 2 1/2 cups water while it's heated to boiling, because it fattens them up, and then mix in the can of soup and the spices.
Combine all ingredients except the almonds in an ungreased 2-quart casserole.
Cook, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours.
Stir, cover with foil, and bake for an additional 25 minutes.
Sprinkle with almonds and serve!
The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries from NAL/Penguin. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990 and she is a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. After twenty years in upper east Tennessee – the setting for her stories, short and long – Molly and her family live in Champaign, Illinois. You can find out more about Molly at www.mollymacrae.com or connect with her on Facebook or Pinterest. And you can find her blogging on the first Monday of each month at www.amyalessio.com and on the 23rd of each month at www.killercharacters.com.
Jamie Mason was born in Oklahoma City, but grew up in Washington, DC. She’s most often reading and writing, but in the life left over, she enjoys films, Formula 1 racing, football, traveling, and, conversely, staying at home. Jamie lives with her husband and two daughters in the mountains of western North Carolina. Her first novel, Three Graves Full, was released by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books in February of 2013. Her latest, Monday's Lie, also from Gallery, hit shelves in February of 2015.
These recipes are so good they should be a crime. If you concoct either of these great recipes, let us know what you think and send us a picture. We may include it here with a link to your website.
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Live From Thailand: Some Notes On A Long, Strange Journey
Publishing is never easy. You feel like an outsider. And being an American in Bangkok, you are.This is bestselling author Jake Needham’s story in his own words. They say persistence pays. Persistence also gives the last laugh…hundreds of thousands of copies later.Here’s Jake’s story Live from Bangkok.
Some Notes On A Long Strange Journey
By Jake Needham
In a review of one of my crime novels a few years ago, the Bangkok Post said this:
“Needham may be the best known American novelist almost no one in America has ever heard of.”
The Post meant it as a compliment, at least I think they did, and there are days on which I can see the humor in their observation. Really, there are. But on other days…well, maybe not so much.
What the Post was referring to, of course, was the oddity that my books were being published in Asia and widely read there when they had never been published in the United States. Worse, at least from my point of view, my books were only being sold in a few countries in Asia and in Europe, and not anywhere else. In spite of my first crime novel selling well over a hundred thousand copies in the handful of countries where it was distributed, not one copy of it or one copy of any of my seven subsequent books has ever been on the shelves of any bookseller in the United States or Canada.
Strange, huh? Take a seat and let me tell you how all that came about…
Once upon a time I wrote a few screenplays, mostly for the sort of uninspired movies cable television loved broadcasting back in the 80’s and 90’s. Occasionally, but not always, I even got credit for them, but at least I always got paid. After a few years, I realized that the movie and television business wasn’t really for me. To tell the truth, I don’t think the movie and television business is for anyone who sees himself as a grown up, but that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, as an escape from writing screenplays, I decided to see if I could figure out how to write a novel. I had always been intrigued by the fall of Saigon in 1975 and I had wondered more than once what had happened to all the currency and gold reserves held in the city’s banks when the North Vietnamese army suddenly rolled into town. I imagined a CIA operation to ship it all to safety and hide it somewhere in Southeast Asia, and from that idea my first novel, The Big Mango, just sort of wrote itself.
When I finished The Big Mango, I carefully composed letters to a list of literary agents whose names I had found in a directory I bought at Barnes & Noble and pitched it to them. Several agents asked to read my manuscript, but then that raised another problem. We were living in Bangkok at the time and we’re talking the 90s here, so forget electronic submission. Can you imagine what it cost to mail six copies of a four-hundred-page printed manuscript from Bangkok to New York? Don’t ask. Just don’t ask.
Anyway, I figured all that postage had turned into a pretty good investment when the legendary Perry Knowlton, the founder of Curtis Brown Ltd, asked to represent me. As it turned out, I was being wildly optimistic. Perry tried for nearly a year, but even an agent as respected as he was could never interest a single American publisher in my novel. It’s just too foreign, New York editors mostly said, and Americans don’t want to read foreign-set novels. Particularly not when they’re set in Asia. Bad memories of Vietnam and all that, don’t you see?
I was less disappointed than you might expect since I really wasn’t all that emotionally invested in the idea of becoming a novelist. Still, naturally I did want to see The Big Mango published somewhere so I gave the manuscript to a small Bangkok-based company that back then was the only English-language publisher in East Asia. They were quite happy to have it because of the story’s roots in the region and they published it almost immediately.
Helped along by the chain of Southeast Asian bookstores the company owned and the near monopoly they enjoyed over the distribution of English-language books in the region, they sold over a hundred thousand copies of The Big Mango within a couple of years in spite of the book’s distribution being limited to a handful of countries where hardly anyone spoke English (but where there were a ton of tourists and business travelers every year who certainly did).
I suspect my publishers were very pleasantly surprised at the book’s success. I certainly was. And that was when I decided I had better start taking this novel writing thing seriously.
After The Big Mango had made its splash, I published four more crime novels over the next five years, but each of them turned out to be with a different publisher. In quick succession I had two publishers in Hong Kong where I published Laundry Man and Killing Plato, one in Singapore where I published The Ambassador’s Wife, and one in the UK where I published A World of Trouble that was acquired by a Singaporean media group barely a month after I signed with them. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get away from Asian publishers.
I didn’t change publishers that often because I was disloyal or indecisive or certainly not greedy. It was simply that each of my publishing relationships quickly became too difficult to survive more than one book. Each was difficult in a slightly different way, of course, but the core issue was the always exactly same. Asian publishers wanted my books because I had a reputation for writing books that sold well, something that very few of their books did, but there were inevitably strong undercurrents of resentment over having to publish a white guy in order to sell books.
Asia cultures are ethnocentric to a degree most Americans have difficulty appreciating. If you’re a visitor, Asia cultures can seem welcoming, even friendly. But if you live there and you’re the wrong ethnicity, it’s made very plain every day that you’re not wanted. Now don’t misunderstand me. The problem wasn’t that I was an American. The problem was that in Thailand I wasn’t Thai, in Hong Kong I wasn’t Chinese, and in Singapore I wasn’t Singaporean.
Because I was an outsider, most editors at my publishers didn’t want to work with me, most PR people didn’t want to promote me, and most sales people certainly didn’t want to sell me. In spite of everybody dragging their feet, however, I got a lot of good press and consistently favorable reviews from most of the major media outlets in the region, and tourists and foreign residents bought a ton of my books…when they could find them.
After publishing five books in environments that ranged from unhappy to down right antagonistic, I’d had enough. I terminated my last print publishing deal and starting bringing out my own titles as e-books. I’ve since published three new books that way – The Umbrella Man, The Dead American, and The King of Macau –and I was also able to bring out all five of my older titles as e-books since I’d hung onto the digital rights to all my titles throughout the publishing deals I had done up until then.
I didn’t take the considerable step of terminating my print licenses simply because of the unhappy experiences I’d had with my publishers in Asia, but far more importantly because of the limited distribution my books were getting. Some of my titles had been published in translation, but the core of my readership was primarily native English-speakers who had either lived in Asia or discovered my books when they were visiting there, and I constantly received emails from people complaining that they couldn’t find copies of my books after they left Asia.
A few titles were sold in the UK and in English-language bookstores in Europe, but not all of them, and not a single title had ever graced the shelves of any bookseller in the United States, Canada, or Australia. Foreign publishers have great difficulty competing with the local players in those markets, so mostly they don’t even try.
E-books have changed all that for me. I no longer get those emails complaining that people can’t find my titles. Now anyone can buy any title of mine in any country at any time of the day or night.
And you want to know in which country I now sell the most copies of my e-books, thousands of them every month? The United States, of course. The very place where my agent was told by nearly everybody in publishing fifteen years ago that no one wanted to read foreign-set books.
Perry Knowlton died in 2007. But I can absolutely swear that somewhere out there I can hear him laughing.
View Needham's books on Amazon.com*
Jake Needham is the author of eight contemporary crime novels set in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Called "Michael Connelly with steamed rice" by the Bangkok Post, and “Asia’s most stylish and atmospheric writer of crime fiction” by the Singapore Straits Times, his books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in those Asian and European countries where they have been available. You can learn more about Jake and his books at his website: www.JakeNeedham.com.
*Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
State of the Industry: Interview with Jill Maxick of Prometheus Books
By Maria Giordano
Killer Nashville Staff
The symbolism behind the name Prometheus Books is not mistaken. Much like the Greek mythological character, Prometheus, who gives fire to mankind, so does the venerated publishing company give to mankind with its unique and an intriguing stable of reputed fiction and nonfiction writers. Think Issac Asimov and Victor Stenger, who are just a couple of the many names among its stable of authors during the company’s history.
Prometheus was self-sold and self-distributed until 2013, when the company started a sales and distribution partnership with Penguin Random House. Jill Maxick, vice president of marketing for Prometheus Books, took some time to speak with Killer Nashville to share insight into working at Prometheus Books, and it’s history.
KN: What is the origin of Prometheus? Who started it? What's the history, and how does its original mission manifest today? What's it like today, and how many people work there today?
JM: Paul Kurtz founded Prometheus Books in 1969 when he was a professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Kurtz, who died in 2012, used to call Prometheus "a hobby that got out of control." The press was started, literally, at his kitchen table, so that Kurtz could put forth ideas that he and his colleagues felt were missing from public discourse at the time.
He wasn’t initially seeking to create a money-making business, but rather, to stimulate conversation, offer alternative viewpoints, and—purposefully through the lasting medium of books—light the way to reason, intelligence, and independence (like the Greek god Prometheus did.) Our list began with mostly the categories of applied philosophy, atheism, secular humanism, skepticism, and critical thinking. Over time, we developed a popular science list that remains one of our core strengths, and ultimately established a very diverse catalog while still preserving those core niches. We publish in psychology, mathematics, social issues, health and medicine, quirky histories, etc., and often find our books bridge the gap between academic application and the popular, consumer market. Our acquisition philosophy was to seek intelligent nonfiction for the thoughtful lay reader―books that inspire thought and require some intellectual commitment and curiosity. Even though we’ve grown to include two genre fiction imprints (Pyr, a science fiction and fantasy line, and Seventh Street Books, a crime fiction imprint) we still keep Paul Kurtz's philosophies in mind and don't often publish nonfiction that's contrary to his ideological principles.
There are 30 full-time staffers at Prometheus Books, primarily based in our Amherst, New York headquarters, although a few editors work remotely from other states. We were self-sold and self-distributed for our entire history until 2013, when we started a sales and distribution partnership with Penguin Random House. That required huge changes in how (and when) we execute nearly every aspect of our business. The past few years have been a period of rapid evolution in many ways—from physical overhauls, like eliminating our huge warehouse; to staff transitions, such as fresh editorial and artistic direction for our Pyr imprint; to operational changes, like tweaking our production calendar and procedures. But the dust is settling, new habits are forming, and we could not be happier with what PRH has added to our company’s success and growth.
KN: Who are some of the most widely known authors published by Prometheus?
JM: In nonfiction, we’ve published books from many influential names in science, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, Victor Stenger, Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman, and well-known forensic personalities like Dr. Henry C. Lee and Cyril Wecht. We’ve had authors like Steve Allen and Peter Ustinov who were familiar arts and culture names. In genre fiction, we’ve been fortunate enough to publish rising stars like Joe Abercrombie, Adrian McKinty, and Mark Pryor, as well as established names like Mike Resnick and Carolyn Hart.
KN: What's it like working at Prometheus?
JM: Thirty employees may sound like a lot for an independent press, but we’ve always published anywhere from 70 to 100 books a year, and kept nearly everything in print, so that’s a lot of titles to manage. We also outsource very little, doing everything in-house from typesetting to cover design, copyediting to publicity, print-on-demand to proofreading. So the workload isn’t exactly light, but there’s never a dull moment! There are some employees who have always worn multiple, even quite disparate, hats, and many of us balance big picture planning with executing everyday tasks. That kind of stretch can be overwhelming, but it’s also gratifying. For example, even a junior publicist can have significant input into the branding and positioning process, and really anyone here can have a significant influence on our product and program.
How Hard Do You Try to Sell?
By Tom Wood
At a recent book-signing event, a little boy followed his parents into the bookstore. He was maybe six or seven years old and walked straight to my table and picked up a copy of Vendetta Stone while the grown-ups veered somewhere to the right.
The silent lad continued to stare at the cover, and then began to flip through the pages, looking for illustrations, I imagine. Friendly as I could be, smiling broadly, I spoke to him in a singsong voice. “Hello there. That’s my book!”
His eyes widened in horror as if I were an ogre yelling at him. He threw the book on the table and ran off, frantically searching for his parents. Another how-to lesson learned.
Know your audience, and be careful how you speak to them.
Approaching the public on how to discuss — and hopefully sell — your books is an on-going debate with some of my fellow members of the Authors Circle in Franklin, Tennessee.
We get a booth at some major events — such as the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, or the Main Street Festival and Dickens of a Christmas in Franklin — where we will have up to a dozen authors and all our books on display under a 10x10 tent.
Some toes have been stepped on, and a few feathers ruffled as we have come to define general booth etiquette. But somehow it works, and we all seem to get along well.
The general debate is this — and it’s one to consider whether you’re doing big events like these or doing a solo signing — are you an active or passive seller?
Do you sit back and allow people to browse through all the available books before them, speaking only when they zero in on one book?
Or do you actively engage them, talking a little about all of the available books? Clearly, at a group event, you can’t have everybody talking at once. We would all be shouting over each other.
Both approaches work, and both are risk/reward. If you wait for them to ask what the book is about, then they might glance at it and move on. Sale lost.
If you approach them too aggressively, they are looking for the first excuse to move on. Sale lost.
There’s no easy answer.
Speaking only for myself (there is divided opinion within our group), I think it helps to have one or two people acting as a group spokesman to say we have fantasy and children’s books here, thrillers and mysteries there, historical fiction over here and non-fiction at that end.
But that’s just me.
I asked a few of my fellow Authors Circle members for their thoughts and here’s what they had to say:
Iscah: “I think it’s wise to work with your personality and strengths, then adapt as best you can to the venue. Your best sales tool is a passive one: a good cover with an appealing (and appropriate) image, title, and description can do a lot of the selling for you. If you’re outgoing and friendly this will be a great asset as you try to engage potential customers. Just take care to read body language and let them go if they're not interested (Aside from being polite, you may be missing other potential readers).”
Bill Peach: “I have thought about one copy of every book on the front table with backup on the side table. Let them look. If they touch or pick up a book and show interest, maybe point to the author if they are close. If the interest continues summon the author for Q and A one-on-one. Don’t push our own book while customer is looking at someone else’s book. Don’t ask any question for which there is a possible negative response.”
Carole Webb Slater: “Selling and marketing my book has been an ongoing trial and error process that has been somewhat successful. Although it reads like a novel it is not a must-read thriller! In fact my book appeals to a specific targeted group of readers.”
What do you think? Send your thoughts to Killer Nashville Magazine and I will use some of them in a future column.
A veteran sports writer and copy editor, Tom Wood has covered a variety of events ranging from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the Atlanta Olympic Games for The Tennessean in Nashville. After retirement, he continues his passion for writing, contributing to the Civil War-based anthology, Filtered Through Time and conducting an interview with Stephen King for Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. In the last year, Tom has begun writing Western fiction short stories, two of which have been published by Western Trail Blazer. “Tennesseans West” is his next project with four other authors involved. He is also an actor and can be seen in several episodes of the ABC series “Nashville”. He also coordinates the Killer Nashville guest blog series. Vendetta Stone is his first novel and he is working on the sequel.
Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale.
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