MISSING….

by Rosemary Lord

I really miss the writers’ conferences we used to have. We were lucky in California; we had at least 2 each year – sometimes more, lasting from Friday through Sunday. Sometimes starting Thursday.

They were usually in Culver City or Pasadena – occasionally downtown LA or in Long Beach.

Our Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America chapters would often pool together to present these. California Crime Writers Conference was another popular convention.

They took a lot of organizing. Planning would start at least a year ahead, sometimes longer. The writing community would be notified of the theme – there was always a theme. One of the Left Coast Crime conferences was called ‘Southwest Sleuths’, ‘Trouble in Tucson” another they called ‘Murders a Beach.’

Way, way ahead the organizers would start a Nominating Committee for attendees to vote on their favorite or best authors in different categories. The culmination of the conferences would be the Saturday Night Banquet, when awards would be given out for each category attendees had previously voted on.

Volunteers were sought – to do everything from greeting attendees, manning the check-in desks, monitoring each of the workshops and running the onsite bookshop where attending authors could sell their books. They’d thought of everything.

The buzz would start about guest speakers and who the keynote speaker would be. The late great ‘alphabet’ series author Sue Grafton was a popular choice.  Canadian writer Louise Penny another. Scottish-born Catriona McPerson was always a crowd-pleaser. They would speak at the evening events including the final night banquet.

The conference would open with a big breakfast event: a chance to see who was attending and catch up with long-lost fellow writers.

Each day, the schedule was filled with different ‘tracks’ or workshops and lectures.  There was usually a series of workshops on the craft of writing: guest writers and teachers on the ‘How To…’ aspects of actually getting something on paper. Then a Promotion Track. Once you’d sold your book and were about to be published, the lectures were on how to promote your book and yourself. This would include different publicity and promotion ideas. Do you need to hire a publicist, or can you do it on your own? That sort of thing.

Other tracks included Forensic workshops. I found these were the most fascinating. They dealt with actual crime scenes, secrets of the morgue and so on. Pictures of gruesome crime scenes – then a talk with the people that clean up all this gore. Who knew that was a job? “And what do you do for a living?” “Oh, I mop up the blood and clean up murder scenes…” How’s that for a party-stopper?

There’d be a workshop on how to murder someone – fun things like that. Discussions on the efficacy of different poisons – and how quick-acting they would be – or not. Painful deaths or a quick ‘you’re dead.’ We must sound quite mad – but when you get all these writers minds together, sparks really do fly! And amazing new thrillers and tales of murder and mayhem get spawned.

Investigation talks from FBI agents, detectives and private investigators would discuss their different approaches and what their work entailed. FBI agents and private detectives talked about their procedures and presented a mock-up of a crime scenes with questions and answers.

The Nick Harris Detective Agency enthralled attending writers with tales going back to their origins as the first detective agency in in Los Angeles starting in 1906. Would love to have been a fly on the wall then!

Agents from the police department would discuss police procedures and answer the writer’s many questions.

There would be field trips. One that I went on was to the city Forensic Lab, where we were shown investigations in progress on different murders. There was a set up with dummies and infra-red lights working out the trajectory of bullets in a dummy corpse. Another was a bench where a young victim’s clothes were set out for examination. Brown grocery bags were stacked with evidence.  Other field trips would be a tour of local murder sites and other fun things!

There would be workshops on historical novel writing, historical research and marketing the same. Aspects of writing novels set in foreign countries. Other ‘tracks’ would be on the publishing side of a writer’s world. Agents, editors, publishers would offer their expertise. Of course, the unpublished writers all hoped to get taken on by one of them. Everything a mystery writer or novelist could want.

One of the best things about these long weekends at the conferences is that we writers would all get together. Writer friends from all over the world would congregate for the weekend. A chance to meet authors of new books we’d read. A chance to compare notes, compare writing methods and swap ideas. We’d catch up with out of towners at the hotel bar – or over the New Authors Breakfasts served in the ballroom, where novice writers were introduced. At the lunches (served in the same room) it was a chance to sit with someone new, make new friends. The Saturday night Banquet was when everyone would dress up and applaud the nominees and winners for the Best First Novel, the Best Historic Novel, Best YA (Young Adult) Novel. And so on. And a grand time would be had by all.

And so, the Sunday morning departures were often bitter-sweet. Time to get back to the real world.

But that was then. It’s a different world today. The Covid shutdowns changed everything. Now the ‘conferences’ are on Zoom.

On the plus side, it’s a lot cheaper. No-one has to travel and people all over the globe can attend. But it’s not the same. Seeing familiar faces in a little square on your computer screen is not the same as the shrieks of joy when you spot an old friend, a fellow writer from far off lands that you haven’t seen for a year.

So, I miss all that razzmatazz of the in-person conferences. Whatever the cost.

And you can’t do hugs on Zoom.

HOW TO GROW A STORY, PART TWO

by Miko Johnston

Those of us who cultivate a vegetable garden should be enjoying the bounty of our spring and summer labor, perhaps getting ready to plant heartier vegetables for the fall. I thought I’d covered all the parallels between gardening and writing last year around this time, when I posted HOW TO GROW A STORY, but I’ve found more.  The comparisons continue in PART TWO:

Choosing what to plant

Your local farmers market sells produce that thrives in your growing zone and the majority of shoppers want to buy. That means you must decide what’s worth planting yourself and what you’d rather purchase. I grow less popular crops as well as those best eaten when they’re fresh picked.

A writer must decide whether working in the more popular genres and following current fads, which might be more profitable, should outweigh the desire to write stories we want to tell, even if sales won’t be as strong.

Support your plants

Some plants need structure, literally – cages for tomatoes or trellises for climbing vines. In writing, the plot or premise provides structure on which to build your story. Aside from physical structure, plants also need healthy soil amended with composted material and fertilizer, ample sunlight and water to grow and thrive.

Writers can fertilize ideas with the works of other writers. Reading books that successfully carry a story through from Once upon a time to The end, as well as books about the craft of writing, provide inspiration and insight on how to make it happen in our own stories. Listening to well-told stories teaches us how to make our written words more visual and captivating. A critical eye, like sunshine, allows us to see what’s best kept in and what’s best weeded out.  We can sidestep preventable errors with technical books like the dictionary, thesaurus, and the Chicago Manual of Style (for fiction). Also, a good fiction writer knows sometimes adding a little – ahem – manure helps.

Protect your plants

From seed to harvest, many pests out there can ruin a crop. Netting prevents birds from eating the seeds or destroying sprouts. Good fencing keeps predators like rabbits, deer and snails out of the beds (sometimes). Weeds must be pulled, plants sprayed or constantly inspected for signs of disease and insects.

Likewise, cliches, repetitive or pointless scenes that divert from the plot, formulaic characters, and excess verbiage can ruin a good story. Rigorously weeding out these elements in our revised draft will strengthen our work.

When in doubt, ask an expert

I’ve learned a lot about gardening through trial and error: Harvest vegetable seeds only from organic plants. Rely on starts for slow growers like basil and tomatoes. Never grow more than one zucchini plant, and monitor it daily unless you want baseball bats and truncheons (same for cucumbers). Many of the lessons I’ve learned about writing came from trial and error as well. But if you’re having a problem in the garden that you can’t solve, go to a nursery, arborist or a master gardener for help. That’s how I discovered why my watermelon radishes didn’t grow – I planted them at the wrong time.

The same goes for your writing. I’ve gotten marvelous advice from my fellow writers, as well as other sources you might not have considered, like a local bookstore owner, history professors who specialize in the era I write about, my doctor, police officers, and librarians. Conversations with family and friends about loved ones in our past have reminded me of personal traits or events that have worked their way into my stories and books. And my grandson helped me murder someone and get away with it – okay, that came out wrong. He’s majoring in forensic science and helped me kill off a character in my novel.

Many readers know a great deal about a great deal, so even in fiction, one false step in a story will put them off. I helped one author correct some technical flaws in his globe-trotting novel because I’d been to the places he’d written about. A sci-fi writer checked a plot point with my husband, a physicist who understands what would really happen to humans outside Earth’s atmosphere. He explained an astronaut would freeze, not burn up, in outer space. Use whatever resources you can to make your story as viable and believable as you can.

***

Even if you don’t have a garden, you can rely on these tips to plant the seed of an idea, then support and nurture it into a fully-fledged story that satisfies the reader’s appetite as much as the bounty of summer.

Miko Johnston, a founding member of The Writers in Residence, is the author of the historical fiction series, “A Petal in the Wind”. Her fifth and final book in the series is about to be published. She’s also a contributor to several anthologies, including the bestselling “Whidbey Island: An Insider’s Guide”. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com

GROUP QUESTION: What advice would you give to your younger writing self, or to writers who are just starting their careers later in life?

Hosted by Jackie Houchin

Once every 2 months or so, we ask our writers a group question. Those who can, reply below for your reading pleasure. Let’s see what they said this week.

G. B. (Gayle) Pool:

Even before I told everybody that I wanted to be a writer at age 12, I wrote stuff. When I was 8 years old, I stapled together newspaper clippings about the movie Lady and the Tramp. My mother kept it, and I still have it. It was technically my first book. But I kept writing things – poems, stories, ideas. It might have taken a while, but I finally completed a book when I was in my thirties. But I never stopped writing until that time. A little while after I wrote the book, though it hadn’t been published yet, I spoke to a kid who said he was a writer. I asked him what he had written. He said, so far, he hadn’t written anything. He was just thinking about it. Well, technically, he wasn’t a writer…yet. Because you have to write to be a writer. So write…something, anything. Put those words and ideas on paper. Hold onto them because they might be the basis of a book or two later on. But if the words don’t appear on paper or in your computer, you aren’t a writer. Writers write. Write On!

My first “clippings” book.

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Jackie Houchin:

Younger self (or mid-life ladies): get an MFA degree (Master of Fine Arts) focusing on Creative Writing (or Journalism, communications, etc.), at a local college (or online) if at all possible. I wish I had, instead of just plunging in “by the seat of my pants,” and writing this and that, making mistakes, giving up, then beginning again. I took a few free or low-cost courses and learned a little. I joined critique groups (like Writers in Residence used to be), and I wrote stories for myself that never saw the light of day. And I even wrote for a couple of local newspapers for a few years (That was fun – maybe I should have studied journalism!). I learned things along the way by trial and error. BUT I COULD HAVE learned them at the beginning, and become a Great American Novel Writer, or a Pulitzer Prize Winner by now. And so today … I’ve never published a book. (I did have a short story published after entering it in a contest, but that’s as far as it got). ***** DO BETTER, younger self!

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Maggie King: 

  • Read, read, read, especially the type of stories you plan to write.
  • Don’t let anyone discourage you. That includes YOU! 
  • Later in life is a wonderful time to write. Think of all the experiences you’ve had, the insights you’ve gained, the stories you’ve read. 
  • Above all, WRITE!

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Miko Johnston:

I can answer that:  I’d tell my younger self to ask more questions of family and friends, engage more with strangers in social situations, and especially to discreetly listen to others’ public conversations (much easier today in our cell-phone world). Having that ability can generate lots of character background, quotable dialog, and plot ideas.

Years ago, a friend had a brief but oddly humorous conversation with a woman in a SoCal movie theater restroom. Two years later, she heard that conversation used verbatim in the movie “Independence Day.”  

..

..

..

.And that’s it for this time!

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The Moral Compass

by Jill Amadio

Defined in most dictionaries as a set of values and beliefs that guide decisions, judgments, and behavior and provide us with a sense between right and wrong, our moral compass can be cast aside for our characters.

While the compass points us north, south, east, and west,  the antagonists in our mysteries can be all over the map when it comes to ethical judgment. How joyful it is to imbue one’s killer with a single gold standard that can, perhaps, offer the reader a glimpse of dastardly deeds.

In one of my mystery series, the plot required the killer to unwittingly reveal herself about a third of the way into the book. I was pleased with my characterization of her. But the more I wrote her, the more I came to like her, and eventually I knew I had to switch the plot around – no small task.

However, the exercise provided the opportunity to keep her on as a permanent minor character in future books. I later reflected that she had served her purpose, which had eluded me initially but made the plot more complicated and thus, to my beta and alpha readers, more intriguing.

I also read that a moral compass can provide direction for trainees, business guidelines, and the direction a person, company, or organization wishes to take.

The term moral compass can sound a bit pompous, but if it is laid out clearly, its use can certainly give the reader an immediate understanding of a character’s motives. Or serve to befuddle.

I also read in my research that the first use of the term “moral compass” was in 184. Should I add that tidbit to my story, or simply brush it aside as a non sequitur?  I often hope that mystery fans take such a mention as a jumping-off point to do their own research, although going off on such a tangent can ruin the flow. One wonders who came up with the phrase, but I stopped reading after six words and never found out.

I don’t remember ever seeing it used in a book, but it could easily be woven into a memoir when describing relatives or friends. Come to think of it, after writing six memoirs and autobiographies and ghostwriting a further 14, the phrase would have been a neat addition to incorporate. On the other hand, my clients never brought it up, but I should have. I guess there are several other ways to indicate a person’s moral compass, but now it seems to me it was a question I missed asking.

In fact, the term sounds rather stiff, old-fashioned, and ultra-formal. On the other hand, it sounds erudite.

Would using it satisfy a writer’s need for acceptance as being profoundly intelligent?

Actually, it can be used as a matter of pride when composing a character’s assets. Giving him or her a moral compass, whether acknowledged or not, can be considered a plus or a minus. Lacking moral judgment, such as committing murder and thinking little of it, is a character flaw many authors give the people in their books. However, do we really need a moral compass to distinguish right from wrong?   

Of course we do! 

Word Pictures

by Jackie Houchin

“One picture is worth a thousand words,” or so they say. (Actually, it was first said by newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane.) And that’s what I try to do.

Six mornings each week, I go out early and walk a couple of miles before the sun is all the way up.  I leave before eating or anything else… well, I do throw out some bread and peanuts for my crow friends as I go. 

I listen to a Christian podcast or two via Bluetooth as I walk, and I usually walk in one of the 4 directions from my house. The routes get familiar, so occasionally I drive to a walking or biking path. 

I’ve discovered 10 Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood along the way, and sometimes I switch books between them (or grab one to read).

It’s cool. It’s quiet. It’s sometimes foggy.  I may see a familiar dog-walker or two, but mostly I’m alone. I LOVE it.

My eyes are constantly roving here and there as I walk.  I’ve been a photographer for many years, and my mind-eye connection often sees unusual, fun, or beautiful sights out of things you would normally pass right by.

Such as a tree with eyes. A big stuffed tiger hanging out of a child’s wading pool. Or a bright cerise rose poking up through a snowfield of dusty-white other-plant leaves. A tiny black crow sitting in the top branches of a wintry black tree skeleton. A silvery Jetstream arrowing straight up and catching the first beams of the sun.  A hidden shell. A mossy side of a fireplace. Wild daisies growing in and through a log fence. Weird oil leaks and stains on the asphalt that look like something to me, which I call “street art.”

I shoot these with my phone and post them online under “Early Morning Walking.”  With a mini-fun description, or possibly a “find me” puzzle, a story, or maybe nothing. 

(A recent post showed what looked like an above-ground aquarium to me with colorful “marine” plants and even a fish swimming among them. Some people could “see” the fish.  Others wrote comments of frustration at missing it completely. (See photo below) I have a writer’s artistic imagination, I guess.

Yes, my family calls me weird. But I enjoy my “visual creative-writing” in my daily walks and pix.

.

See the fish peeking out? (Maybe squint a bit and use your imagination.) This is my above-ground aquarium. Heh, heh, heh. It’s become one of my faves!

I Could Do This: My First Writing Effort

By Maggie King

As a devotee of Nancy Drew, I wrote mysteries in grade school. In high school I poured my considerable adolescent angst into bad poetry. After that, the only writing I did for many years was journaling. During the last year I lived in Los Angeles, three of my co-workers took creative writing and screenwriting courses at UCLA Extension. I read their work and was impressed by their talent. I also thought “I could do this.” I belonged to a mystery book group (it was the model for the Murder on Tour group in Murder at the Book Group) and felt confident that I could turn out a mystery. When I moved to Virginia in 1996 the first thing I did was to register for a writing course at the University of Virginia. Two women, Margaret and Tristan, taught the course and were extremely encouraging and supportive of their students.

Despite the subtitle of this post, “My First Writing Effort,” my actual first writing efforts (the ones inspired by Nancy Drew) have vanished. But in that class at UVA I started a story I called Death Comes Knocking. When I submitted it, I received a lot of helpful feedback from the teachers and students. Here it is (I haven’t changed a word. Honest!):

Deanna unlocked the door of the motel room, flipping the light switch as she entered. She threw her purse down on the chair, sat on the edge of the lumpy bed, stood up, started pacing. Waiting. Clearly agitated. She no longer noticed the holes in the carpet, the cigarette burns on the formica nightstands as well as on the foam-filled vinyl chair cushions, or the steady drip of the shower.

She had been meeting her lover in the sleazy rooms of Marty’s Hideaway many times over the past year, but this time was different. This time they would talk about the future of their relationship, if indeed there was one.

The last time they met, Deanna had hit him with the news that she was pregnant. He didn’t have much to say, in fact he had lapsed into silence for an hour, a silence she wasn’t able to break. Then he said he needed time to think, that he would call her. He was distant.

He didn’t call for several days. Deanna was sure he was going to bolt, that this was the end for them. After a period of fretting, obsessing, and barely functioning, she started to accept his desertion. But then he did call, said he wanted to see her, he’d done a lot of reflecting, “agonizing” was how he put it, about their situation. He had seemed rather excited on the phone, not like his usual subdued self. They arranged a time to meet at “their” place.

So here she was, at Marty’s Hideaway, waiting for him, for his decision. She vaguely resented that he controlled the relationship, but didn’t feel up to addressing that issue now. She knew she couldn’t express her needs, like marriage, family, living happily ever after, etc. she paced some more, drank water from a plastic cup, felt almost desperate enough to peruse the inevitable Gideon bible, a blasphemous joke in this place where the clientele paid by the hour.

She jumped when she heard the knock. As she ran to open the door, she put on a big smile, and tried to pretend that she wasn’t nervous. She was greeted by an enormous bouquet of red roses, so enormous that it totally obscured the face of its presenter. What a nice surprise!—he wasn’t given to relationship niceties like flowers, and this arrangement must have cost him a fortune. So maybe he had decided to take the plunge, and make a commitment to her after all—maybe things were looking up.

Then the bouquet fell to the floor, the beautiful floral arrangement strewn over the ugly, threadbare carpet. Deanna bent down to pick them up, but stopped, startled, uncomprehending at what she saw before her. And she would never be able to reveal what she did see in that moment just before her world went black.

I wish I still had the critique comments from the teachers and the students. It’s not great writing, but, after all, it’s a first effort. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing something with it, perhaps a short story.

It was many years before I published any of my work, but to date my credits include three novels and numerous short stories.

The important lesson for me and one I will pass on to aspiring writers: look at the title and the first paragraph of this post where I told myself “I could do this.” Well, I am doing this. But it took that first effort.

Originally published as “How It All Started: My First Writing Effort” in the Novelspaces blog, June 22, 2018

POV from 4 Perspectives

By Gayle Bartos-Pool

Fiction writers have a choice to make as to “from whence cometh” the viewpoint of the story being told. In simpler words: Who’s telling the story? Of course, the writer is the one actually coming up with the plot, but the writer has a decision to make. Is the narrative to be written in First Person where the guy telling the story is, well, telling the story from his singular perspective or is the writer going to be more omniscient and relate the account from his own point of view? Afterall, the writer knows the entire sequence of events no matter who’s speaking.

I’ve discussed this topic before, but I thought I’d revisit it and take a closer look at the options facing the writer.

First Person – One POV with Strength and Limitations 

The writer does have total control over the narrative, but sometimes a story is better told if one main character lets the reader know what’s happening. Afterall, every human being is master of his own destiny, “Big Brother” notwithstanding. (Read 1984 to get the point if you don’t already know that book by George Orwell.) Outside events affect us all individually and we handle them one at a time or even several at a time when something major happens. It’s the same with a First Person character who has to deal with all the things that impact his or her life.

The First Person POV narrative lets that character reflect on how he handled things in his past and how that knowledge will help him solve the current problem. Knowing things about that character makes him more relatable to the reader. When I was writing my Johnny Casino Casebook series I “discovered” many things in Johnny’s past that explained why some things were happening in the present and also why he was who he was at that point in time. I, as well as the reader, gradually learned new things about the guy that moved the various short stories along. He didn’t just appear out of nowhere. He had a past and it impacted the current story that he was telling.

That earlier knowledge of the main character is also why I always write a biography about him or her so I know more about them and also why they would be doing what they are doing. There are tons of old movies that cover what’s happening at the time with no mention of the character’s past, but writing a book gives the writer and that main character an opportunity to tell the reader about their earlier life.

Take for example Gone with the Wind. The novel tells a whole lot more about Scarlette’s mother and other events that pre-date the story we see on the silver screen. The movie would have to be eight hours long to cover everything as written in the book. A TV series can give the main character a chance to tell some of his past when new characters are introduced sometime during the season. But a TV series can run four or five or even eight seasons so a lot of the character’s past can be revealed over that time period.

But that main character in a First Person POV story can “think” about something from their past that is impacting their present. Just a brief thought can explain why they feel the way they do because of that past episode in their life. And sometimes hearing from the character through his thoughts makes a deeper impression than just having a paragraph explain it. Just like a phone call from a friend who relates a personal story is far more impactful than a text message especially if they don’t spell everything out so “u can read it 4 yourself.” How impersonal.

And who’s better than the character himself telling the reader what he’s feeling inside. It’s sort of a friend to a friend conversation. You’re now part of his inner circle. And you’re seeing something that no one else sees since you’re reading that book alone. It’s up to the writer to dole out those tidbits a little at a time, gradually bringing the reader deep inside the story or should I say deep inside the heart and soul of that character.

That’s why when you write from the First Person POV you need to add those subtle touches that draw a clearer picture of your character. But you can also drop in some hard-hitting truths about the character that make him even more real. Stuff buried deep inside the guy that helped form his personality. And how about some deeper things that only he knows until he finds someone to share them with later in life…if at all. But the reader got to hear them and knows the character better because of those revelations.

That’s what you, the writer, gets to do when you write in the First Person POV.

The Second Person POV isn’t used very often because it uses “you” as the narrator of the story. “You” are the main character, and everything is happening to “you.” There are a few novels done in that style, but in those books “you” don’t really have your hand on the wheel. “You” are being driven around, but “you” have no control of the vehicle. It would be like a Tesla taking you someplace and “you” didn’t get to program the destination.

But what about a Third Person POV and the various options facing the writer. When the writer records what each character is doing as it happens and what each is saying at the time but not getting too deep into anybody’s brain and learning every private thought the characters are thinking, the story is slowly revealed by actual actions. All those hidden truths will be revealed near the end of the book when more and more things are uncovered as one character confronts another and the truth is exposed.

This is more like real life since none of us are mind readers. It can make it even more tense since we don’t know what the hero or other characters are thinking or what anyone might know about the other characters. Not that the hero in a First Person novel knows what the killer or anybody else is pondering or what brought any of them to that place at that time, but he does have insights that he shares with the reader. In a Third Person novel, only the writer knows the truth, and it is revealed slowly as we are nearing the climax.

This “peeling of the onion” as it were tells the story chapter by chapter, character by character, as each person reveals more about themselves and the facts in the story. That’s how real people live their own lives, learning new stuff day by day, encounter by encounter. It also lets everybody in the story have a story themselves. The writer has to let those individuals speak for themselves and not necessarily have the First Person character give a brief biography of each person he encounters. Not that he would be wrong, though when the main character misjudges someone and discovers his mistake later, we do get some great tension.

But Third Person POV allows the writer to let each character speak for themself and everybody, the main character and the reader, has to decide if it’s true or should there be more investigation (or reading) to discover the actual truth.

Then there is the Third Person Omniscient POV. That’s when the author is telling the story strictly from his own perspective and he tells you strictly what he wants you to know at any given time. It’s a much stiffer telling and not my favorite, more like what a lawyer would present in a court case, holding back some things until the right time. The Omniscient POV can do a flashback or take the reader in many directions as the story is revealed. They have done that in the movies when the camera can be somewhere nobody else could be, but it does tell the story. Seeing the past or even the future can help tell a story, but it takes something outside the realm of the characters themselves to get to those places.

So, there are several ways to tell your story. Which one works best for you?

Topics! Again.

by Linda O. Johnson

Last time I did a post here my topic was Blog Topics. This month, for a variety of reasons, I was given a very short time to write my blog—and no, I hadn’t yet chosen any topics for this month.

I went back to others’ posts here at Writers in Residence to get ideas. I admire my fellow bloggers, but still nothing immediately came to mind for me.

Hey, I’m used to writing nearly all the time. New ideas pop into my mind a lot for my mysteries and romantic suspense stories. I’m editing a story in my new Harlequin Romantic Suspense series, the second one, and soon have to write the third one.

I also blog frequently here and elsewhere.

And so you’d think I should be able to come up with an interesting topic right away. I even asked my dogs for ideas, and although they were eager to help—for treats—they didn’t come up with a quick topic.

Well, you can see where my mind went when I started to come up with a new idea immediately.

Anyway, last time when I blogged about topics, I did indicate that my next blog, this one, would be related to writing. And it is.

So, let me ask you this: Do you blog? If so, do you ever have to come up with ideas quickly? And you are finding it difficult. What do you do?

For those of you who comment on this blog site, why not send me ideas for my next post? Can’t promise I’ll use them, but I’d appreciate your helping me out because sometimes an idea doesn’t come as fast as you want and you have to admit that deadlines can be killers, but at least we know we all go through the same thing whether we have published work or are writing our first novel. All us writers are in the same boat and might need a little nudge, but I can guarantee you that I’ll have something next time. Promise.

A Writer Writes

by Rosemary Lord

I’ve had a hectic few weeks writing my new Los Angeles Then and Now book, as I realized the June deadline was looming. Why do we think we always have more time than is really available?

I’d been in England and Greece with my family – which was lovely. But even when I was there, I was mentally figuring when and where I could grab a couple of hours to research and write. Even half an hour would help. But I’m not one of those writers that can sit down – plonk! – and start writing. I’ve come to realize that I need to come down from my everyday life. Then time to mentally flatten things out, before I can switch into writer mode.

I think this is because I am not currently writing fiction – where I find I can, if I need, plonk myself down on the corner of a table and scribble inspired lines, and even paragraphs.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t have to eventually sit down for many hours at a time, day after day, to actually write the novel I promised. But I can also write it in bits and spurts.

But writing this particular, nonfiction, book requires a lot of research. The physical – driving all over in heavy Los Angeles traffic, checking if a building is still standing and in what sort of condition, who the neighbors are and how the neighborhood is looking.  But I also do research about any construction or new plans for the building in question and the surrounding area. Thank goodness for the internet – but I still have to find physical documents from in-person library and record-office visits as well. That is after I have investigated the entire history and Government records.

I’m still begging our local offices for more information on the upcoming Olympic Games to be played in Los Angeles in 2028 – just after my book comes out. No one seems to know where any of it is really happening. They tell me they ‘hope’ but are still not sure. So I have to get very creative to sound as if I have actual facts, locations and dates! Which I don’t! And I have to write in a timeless way so that the book, which is to be published in late 2027, is not out of date and does not sound as if I wrote it in 2026. It needs to be readable for years to come and not sound dated. If that makes any sense. 

That writing project has to be my main focus currently, as I have a publisher and a deadline.

But I’m also still fighting to save the Woman’s Club of Hollywood and have spent a lot of the past 3 years appearing in court, fighting off greedy people that suddenly decide that they should own the historic landmark property! I was even sued by one of them for trying to stop them claiming they own the property now. I have learned far more about the law than I ever wanted to. But I’ve also learned a lot of legal lingo and how attorneys and court officials write and speak. And how to make them listen and believe me. I just wish I could get inspired to write some legal drama – as a lot of writing has been involved. I have written copious ‘statements’ and ‘declarations,’ addressing dishonest or bizarre claims, cleaning up witness ramblings and creating documents that swiftly and cleanly explain the current situation, precluding any wiggle room for misinterpretation. Just the facts, ma’am!  It is a specialized form of writing.  But not enjoyable, other than the knowledge that I am fighting for justice for an historic landmark.

But I do snatch time for my fun writing, as I clear my head of the other ‘stuff.’ My fun writing rambles, but sometimes results in an unfinished short story, another chapter in my second Lottie Topaz book – as yet, unfinished. Writing is therapeutic. Sometimes I just write 3 or 4 pages of what may be an essay on something. Whenever I have the time, I shall go through these scribblings and decide if I think they’re worth publishing. I have a lot of unpublished writings!

It was good to escape to Greece again, as I always manage to clear my head while I am there, and decide what in my life and my writing is worth keeping and what needs to be discarded. I get surprising clarity.

It could be the sound of the ocean just yards away from where we stay. Or the serenity of the old house we rent, where every room has many windows, all with amazing views of treetops and the ocean, or mountains on the other side, or terracotta roofs amidst the endless olive trees, and that characteristic yellow brick of the local houses. Every room has a view. There are verandas that scream for writing time, and a small, tranquil garden. What’s not to like? The challenge is, when one does sit down to write there, is to not be lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves. Especially when this follows some wonderful Greek meal. So, the struggle is enormous.  And I noticed on so many occasions there, that when the house was quiet, my siblings were all reading – before they were lulled to sleep. Everyone got through several books while we were there. We always do.

So now it’s back to reality – and writing deadlines. But I’m grateful to have a deadline and a writing deal – after so many years of chasing publishers and literary agents. That agent bit never came to fruition. But my book writing did. And so, I write on. And as long as I can write – even if it just for my eyes – I am a happy camper.

ASSUMPTIONS, ASPIRATIONS AND ANNOYANCES

by Miko Johnston

While driving through a nearby town, I spotted the flashing lights of a half-dozen police cars ahead. One sat parallel to the driveway of an elementary school and the rest parked outside a housing complex across the street. My first thought caused my stomach to lurch – active shooter at the school! As I drove past the line of black and whites I saw two officers in the walkway leading into the complex and two young men kneeling on the ground, their hands clasped behind their heads. The police had been called about some mischief in one of the apartments. Whew. Nothing to do with the school. On reflection I recalled the police car parked in the school’s driveway did not block the entrance, as I’d expect if a threat existed there. I continued driving, but the incident stayed with me.

You can understand my assumption, given the frequency of events like I’d imagined, as well as the climate of violence and hostility in our country. All signs that led to my incorrect conclusion. But I hated that I automatically jumped to that conclusion because this really happened. Fact, not fiction.

I don’t mind being fooled or misled in fiction; in fact I enjoy it. The “aha!” moment of surprise when I learn the truth is part of the pleasure when I read, watch a tv series or a movie. I aspire to do the same in my fiction writing, with one exception. As an historical fiction author, I never mislead with history. The pleasure of fooling the reader, or being fooled, doesn’t extend to non-fiction, or at least, it shouldn’t.

I worked as a journalist at a television station during the eighties, when the golden era of news began its downward spiral. Until then we presented the news as information: what happened, where, to whom, and if we knew, why and how. Every story had to be verified by at least two independent sources before broadcasting it. Sometimes early reports would be inaccurate, especially in high-drama situations like hijackings, shootouts or terrorism, but we’d always update viewers with corrections.  We limited any opinions to PSAs – public service announcements – separate from the evening news.

I lost that job when I disagreed with the news director’s approach to a story: a man facing divorce and separation from his children was arrested when he hired a “hitman”  (an undercover policeman) to murder his wife. This occurred a few months after a Shiite Muslim man had hijacked an airplane. The suspect happened to be a Shiite, which had nothing to do with the story, but it dominated the lede. Sensationalism boosted ratings, and that became paramount as competition with other broadcast news sources grew.

When I read fiction, go to the movies or stream scripted series, I want entertainment, escape, or just to have some fun. That might include being misled or even tricked into thinking something “is” when it really isn’t. Unlike in real life, part of the enjoyment of a good mystery or suspenseful story, along with figuring out whodunnit, is the expectation that the bad deed rarely goes unpunished. Real life is messy and problems can’t always be solved by the end of the episode or the final chapters of the book. In non-fiction, documentaries and news, I prefer the facts straight up, with no embellishment or opinion. That’s become harder to find when I read the newspaper or switch on the nightly news. Journalists often blur the line between reporting and proselytizing. Too often, they unapologetically violate it. As the late NY senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”

I’ve frequently riffed on Mark Twain’s quote about how fiction has to be believable even if it isn’t true, while non-fiction has to be true, even if it isn’t believable. Now I’m questioning whether that line still exists in present-day media.

We live in an era when the information we get may cause doubt as to its accuracy, in part because we witness or hear things that would defy believability on a daily basis. Situations that would have shocked us yesterday seem, if not normal, then normalized. How – or will – it change the way we view both fiction and non-fiction?  

Miko Johnston, a founding member of The Writers in Residence, is the author of the historical fiction series, “A Petal in the Wind”, as well as a contributor to several anthologies. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com