The Writers in Residence

Saying Goodbye is Hard To Do.

By Marilyn Meredith, guest blogger

In this case, it’s saying goodbye to two whole sets of characters who’ve been living in my head for many years. First it was the all the police officers and their families who live in the beach town of Rocky Bluff, as well as many of their citizens. This is the first series I wrote and the first published. Reversal of Fortune is number 17, and the last one. I am going to miss the Rocky Bluff P.D. (I wrote this series using the author name F. M. Meredith.)

When I moved to Springville, I learned we lived near the Tule River Indian Reservation and I became friends with a Native woman who grew up on the rez. I love the little town where I now live and incorporated a lot of my surroundings in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. I’m certainly going to miss Tempe and her husband, Hutch, a pastor, and their good friend, Nick Two John. The latest book is #20,

The hardest part is that I know all these people so well—even knowing how they think, and how each one will act in any situation. In many ways, it’s like losing good friends.

I’ve been asked several questions about this decision. Was I tired of the characters and the settings? Absolutely not. I loved the folks who lived in Rocky Bluff, especially the men and women of the RBPD. The beach community of Rocky Bluff only existed in my imagination, but reflected much of the area where I once lived and other small towns along the coast.

Those who lived in Bear Creek and the surrounding area are near and dear to me since I live in the community that inspired it, with some minor changes. I’ve used much of what is here in many different books in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series: the small river that sometimes floods as it did this year, the Inn as it was in earlier years, and the surrounding mountains. I’m staying where I am, but Tempe and Hutch are moving on.

Another question was had I run out of ideas? No, that wasn’t the problem. With the Rocky Bluff series policing is changing so fast, I didn’t think I was able to keep up with the changes. With the Tempe Crabtree series, I knew in my heart it was time—20 books was enough

So what will I do now? I have another cook book on the back burner—this one with camping recipes. I plan to update one I wrote when I was a Camp Fire Girl leader and we went on many camping trips.

I’m also planning to write either a young adult mystery series set during World War II in Los Angeles, or a memoir. Haven’t really decided yet. My childhood and early teen years were during that period. I have lots of memories during a time that was much different than now.

Like the characters in my books, my life has made some major changes and I am changing along with them.

Marilyn Meredith aka F.M. Meredith

Visit me at http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

Marilyn’s article was posted by member, Jackie Houchin

Writing Scared

The last couple of years have been slow going for me on the writing front. But now I’m mentally back and raring to go—very much wanting to get back into the “writing swing of things.” And I believe—inline with my blog tendency—sharing my meandering thoughts with you might be helpful in case I’m not alone as I make my way along this winding writing path!

I’m also thinking now is a good time to be jumping back in full throttle(mixed metaphor I know—but I like it,) because my earlier series of books aren’t selling well. So, my plan is to jump out and do some “writing things” differently; ie., POV, physicality and attributes of characters, and my approach to revealing the killer. Mysteries are what I love and wouldn’t consider anything else, but there are different styles of telling the story. And my writing heros vary in their approach to getting the story out there. Agatha of course has done it all!

Here are some of the ideas and approaches floating around in my head:

Still third person POV, but from the two story tellers, not just one. (THANK you Gayle for the very good input you’ve given me in that area!!)
Two men working together, or
A man and a woman working together (with or without a love interest?)
In both cases, telling the story while living the story, not just as detectives or sleuths

My writing tenants of scenery and characters are still the number one defining forces, but I’ll be approaching differently? Especially when it comes to story member participation vs narration participation. Tricky divides I think—first person versus third person combined with their story participation. Hmmm…

Now that I’ve written it out here, I guess I’m changing my own personal third-person “voice.” Not a concept or idea I’ve thought about before exactly in those terms…hmmm again. Maybe this winding road has turned in a sharp right or left turn angle—or a complete U-Turn? (just took my CA written renewal test and signs are still jostling around in my brain.) Also, now that I’ve written this all out (not sure if this chattering will help anyone else reading pursue their writing goals)—but for me, I’ve thought and written myself into being excited about writing anew. Starting this wonderful and adventurous trip anew!

Which leads me to the underlining writing concept — no matter what literary thoughts you’re having…if you’re static in your writing thoughts and protocols then you’ve made it! BUT, If you want to go in a different direction, genre, POV, location, etc.—go for it! Scary, but part of the joy of writing.

All thoughts are welcome!

Happy writing Trails

Why I Read Short and Long

by Jackie Houchin

I read a lot of print books and listen to a great many audiobooks each year. I do not read anthologies or collections of short stories unless they contain several stories by authors that have a track record I enjoy.

Recently, I have been “reading” (I will use that word whether I use my eyes or ears) a good many short prequels to book series. If the book turns out to be so-so, I haven’t wasted much time. If I like it, I’ll consider the series. Also, more authors are writing their stories as novellas, which I enjoy too. For me “shorter is better.”

Except!

Except when I read authors that I KNOW will come through with an outstanding story. Then I will read longer. Sometimes much longer. I’m currently reading CITY SPIES by James Ponti. It has 378 print pages and I LOVE it. I eat it up. I can’t get enough, even when my eyes are stinging. I’m already looking for the next in the series. (Okay, yes, it’s geared to 10-12 year-olds, but I’m a kid at heart, and it really IS written well.)

In general, for LONG reading, I like fascinating, immersive, tightly-written books, with unique plots and hooks and plenty of jaw-dropping moments. And the characters better resonate with me. I enjoy relevant back-story told well and within the plot. In mysteries, I don’t want to easily figure out who is the villain or how he did the crime. I want to follow the author step by cleverly contrived step to the WOW ending, which, on second thought, makes perfect sense. I want a story that stays with me for a while.

Charles Todd is one of those authors. His Ian Rutledge historical mysteries are top notch. Here are my reviews of two of those books. You can see why I love them and will READ LONG.

A Pale Horse

A Deadly Loyalty

Historical Novels and Mysteries need to be believable and take me right to that setting and hold me there. If they do, I’ll READ LONG. Here are three I reviewed that did that.

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

The Girl in The Painting by Tea Cooper

A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice by Rebecca Connolly

In a LONG READ novel, I want to be carried along with astonishing characters, vivid settings, and heart-wrenching but hopeful story telling. Here are two I loved.

The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay

Light on Bone by Kathryn Lasky

Here’s one dual-time plot that is outstanding and innovative and that I gladly READ VERY LONG.

When The Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer

And I could name more. I totally enjoy reading Charles Martin (long & intense), Connie Berry (intricate plots), Katie Gayle (addictive), A.J. Pearce (Historical), Spencer Quinn (Humor, a dog’s POV), and my all-time favorite Mary Stewart, which I read and listen to over and over.

All these books are well written and enjoyable. If these authors keep on writing, and others like them, I think there is hope for readers. (At least in my life time.)

NOTE: I hope you don’t mind the blatant self-promoting of my Words and Reviews blog!

And a few fun shots of Jolly Ole England – Afternoon Tea at the Ritz with lovely piano music, 150 Picadilly, London.

Buckingham Palace and Big Ben

Short Stories: The Reader

by Maggie King

A while back, I had a conversation with a well-read young couple. Like me, they enjoyed mysteries, the classics, and literary fiction. When they asked what I was working on, I said I was finishing my third novel and planned to focus on short stories for a while.

“Really?” The man looked doubtful. “I know that writers like writing short stories, but do readers like reading them?”

“I’m guessing you don’t,” I said. “What is it you don’t like about them?”

“They’re too, well, short.”

The woman added, “Just when I’m getting into the characters, the story ends.”

Are their comments typical ones? I expect so.

When I asked my book group members if they read short stories, I got blank looks. One of them, a retired English teacher no less, said, “Well … we read them in school.”

My first short story was published a year before my first novel. Two people I know told me plainly that they would wait for my novel, as they had no interest in reading a short story.

I selected the following comments from reviews of anthologies published by the Sisters in Crime Central Virginia chapter:

“Short stories cannot deliver a good mystery to me. There were a few short ones that were good, but on the whole, not a great book.”

“I am not a huge short story person usually because I don’t feel like I get enough information. I only read this book because of a book club I belong to.”

“My biggest problem is that they don’t end with a clean-cut solution. You pretty much get a ‘feel’ for what will happen and then have to use your imagination to finish the ending.”

And some good reviews:

“Very much enjoyed! I’m a busy mom with not much time for fiction, so I loved that it was a collection of short stories. …. It was truly refreshing to be able to read a good short story and then move onto the next when I was ready! Interesting stories and well written.”

“My first ever mystery story collection. A friend recommended it and I really enjoyed it! Glad I branched out to try something new.”

I asked award-winning short story writer Art Taylor to comment on the reviewer who wished that short stories ended with clean-cut solutions. This is his response:

“Short stories don’t always tie everything up nicely at the end. They often end on an ambiguous note and the reader can draw her/his own conclusion. Sometimes readers complain, as they expect the endings that novels have.

“I do try to strike some balance myself—key questions answered (no information left out) but emotional issues still up in the air a bit, if that makes sense. Maybe what happened is explained, but the fallout is still to come, and the reader can imagine some of that rolling on into the blankness of the page beyond the final word.”

Despite the criticisms, many short stories are being published in anthologies, collections, magazines (the magazines are mostly digital now). For some time, I’ve been hearing that the availability of short stories in digital format has made them attractive to readers. But based on the above in-person conversations and online comments, writers need to do more than digitize their stories–they need to make them appealing. How can we do that? How can we satisfy the reader who wants “more?”

Such a reader might like a story collection. Anthologies present stories by different authors, but the ones in collections are penned by one author.

In Shooting Hollywood: The Diana Poole Stories by Melodie Johnson Howe the mysteries are not only beautifully written, but Diana Poole, actress/amateur sleuth, appears in each one. So if you take a liking to Diana, you’ll find her in the next story. And the next. Perfect for the reader who wants continuity and character growth. Other authors feature different characters and settings in each story of their collections.

Authors with published collections include Ruth Rendell, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, and our own Gayle Bartos-Pool with her outstanding Only in Hollywood. There are many more. Suggestions for non-mystery collections: Maile Meloy’s Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge.

An idea from M. Louisa Locke, who guest-posted for Writers in Residence in 2020: she wanted to keep readers interested while they waited for her novels, so she started publishing short stories based on her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series.

In addition to short stories serving as a marketing tool, they allowed her to develop the minor characters in the series.

Read M. Louisa Locke’s post.

As for satisfying readers who want the clean-cut solutions they find in novels–that’s a tough one. Writers certainly want to please readers, but short stories are not just short novels. In my own stories, the reader will usually know who committed the crime, but vigilante—not traditional—justice is often served. I can only think of one story where I had the villain led away in handcuffs. However, I agree that some authors end their stories on overly vague, even abrupt, notes.

Likely there will always be readers who prefer novels over short stories—and that’s okay. Perhaps the best thing we can do is keep writing, stay true to ourselves, keep improving our craft, and the readers will come.

A parting idea: writers and publishers could work together to come up with effective ways to promote their short stories, collections, and anthologies.

These are my thoughts. Yours?

Coming in September: Short Stories: The Writer.

Images courtesy of book.store.bg, abebooks.com, ElizabethStrout.com

The Future of the Written Word – Will Anybody Remember What Words Mean?

by Gayle Bartos-Pool

Writing Books

This is a Follow-Up to Jill Amadio’s post about words used by younger folk that might need a new dictionary to understand them because they aren’t in my old Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate 1965 edition. We hear slang on TV shows geared to a younger audience and from young folk in our daily life, some of which needs to be defined by the user because the listener has no clue what they mean. But what will books in the not so distant future be like? Here’s a sobering take on this subject.

I was in a writers’ group years before we formed the Writers-in-Residence blog that consisted of aspiring novelists of all ages. The majority of us were older, but the young folks wanted to be writers and this was a good way to have their work critiqued and maybe improved. Each month one person in the group would submit 30-60 pages and the others would read them and make notes and suggestions about that sample. The pages were usually part of a novel-in-progress. None of the younger people had published work, though most of us older folk did have one or two books in print or wrote for a newspaper. We still wanted our work read and have the group toss around ideas to make the WIP (Work in Progress) better.

That was basically wishful thinking on most of our parts. First, the younger folks didn’t understand sarcasm and how it was used in writing. In other words, they couldn’t understand a good joke about life in general. They also didn’t understand references to anything more than a few years older than they were. A sense of humor was foreign to them, as were the names of famous movies or actors or World History or… Anyway, much of the color and character in our work went over their “collective” heads.

As for their work, I remember reading the first few pages of one person’s novel. The lousy spelling and total lack of punctuation made the pages unreadable. I felt like a Fifth Grade teacher grading a kid’s paper who would definitely be getting an “F.” I had to tell the person why I didn’t finish reading his work. He wasn’t happy and didn’t stay in the group much longer. But every one of those younger people wrote the same way: badly.

I have heard that schools aren’t teaching little things like grammar or spelling or punctuation or math or science that you might find in a school book back in the last half of the last century. I’m not talking about the 1800s. I’m talking about 1950-1999. But remember: Gravity still exists. 2 plus 2 still equals 4… so far. A dictionary from that earlier era should still be relevant. We can add words, but not change their spelling or eliminate their original meaning. Or can we…?

If a word can mean anything you want it to mean or its spelling can be whatever you key into your handheld device with your thumbs or if World War Two was won by space aliens and not the Allied Forces, “Houston, we have a problem.”

4 Great Books

But if this Brave New World is what the future holds, the only hope we have is that the people who use these new words can’t spell them, much less understand how to use a pen and write them, so there won’t be any new books out there to read containing these odd words with nebulous meanings. But folks in the future will still have Shakespeare and Agatha Christie and a few books by some of us who still write in a readable language… but that of course does depend on a hope that kids are taught to read in school and right now that doesn’t look too promising. And of course some people are removing great books from schools and libraries or are rewriting them to suit a new generation’s feelings, so that is problematic. Ray Bradbury wrote about a dark future like this in Fahrenheit 451. Orwell saw this coming in his book, 1984. I actually made references to the books 1984 and Brave New World in this post, if you caught the sarcasm. (Look up the meaning of the word if it’s unfamiliar. Use a Webster’s…) So folks, keep copies of these great books in your home library and other books that you have in your collection so future generations can see what people wrote about a century earlier, though you might have to read the book to these younger folk if they weren’t taught in school…

Do I think this is a problem? What part of “Yes” don’t you understand? (Oh, by the way, that’s sarcasm…)

RayGayleClose

This is Ray Bradbury and me.

Words!

by Linda O. Johnston

Some of my fellow Writers in Residence inspired me to write this post by mentioning, in past weeks, their enjoyment of, and working with, words–most especially Miko Johnston, who wrote “Wordplay,” and Jill Amadio, who wrote “You Say Potatoe…” I always enjoy our posts here, but those two really jostled a lot in my mind.

Why? I love words! I always have, from the time I was a very young kid, and still do. Reading, spelling, grammar in grade school? Wonderful!

Miko described her fascination with words and their origins and imagery and sounds and more. Jill focused somewhat on the differences between the U.S. and U.K. versions of the same words and their spelling and uses in grammar.

And me, here? Well, let’s just say I do all I can with words in different schemes and environments. Yes, I write. I’ve always written, since I was a child, but I do a lot more now. My undergraduate college degree was in journalism, and I worked in advertising and public relations before becoming an attorney–and a published novelist. They all involved words!

Besides writing these days, I also do a lot with word puzzles, especially crosswords, cryptograms and acrostics. It keeps me fresh with the words I use as well as learning how others can play games with them, literally. Yes, I sometimes check the answers if I don’t otherwise figure them out, since it’s a good method to learn not only words but different and sometimes strange usages–although I’d much rather figure them out myself.

I find it interesting that I sometimes also have to figure out what recent slang and other words mean, even though many used to come to me just by hearing them and their usage. For example, I had to look up what the current usage of “woke” means. Yes, I had to become woke in its usage!

My own vocabulary was helped over the years by the fact I used to be fairly literate in the French language after studying it for over ten years as a kid. I rarely use it now, though I can often read French, but I don’t always understand when people speak it in my presence unless…they…speak…slowly. Yes, lack of usage has slowed me down, although I can always come up with a sentence in French, probably an elementary one. And if I see French words on a page, I can often translate them.

Plus, over the years I’ve learned some Spanish words, too. And after spending a significant amount of time in Germany years ago, I can sometimes recognize German words as well.

So… Yes, words and I are good friends. Buddies, chums, mates and more. Amies et amigos und Freunden. Guess I’ll keep talking and reading and listening and solving puzzles…and hope to learn even more words.

COLLECTING MEMORIES…..

by Rosemary Lord

Well, it was good to get away and take a break from all the Hollywood goings-on.

I’ve just returned from visiting my family in England – some sunshine, some rain!

It was a special trip that my siblings and I made to a little village deep in the Wiltshire countryside to picturesque 16^th-century village church, where we gave our eldest brother and his wife a final ‘send-off’, surrounded by those who loved them – us siblings, their four grown-up children and grandchildren. It was another occasion for remembrances of childhood escapades – lots of tears and giggles. Followed by lots of tea and cake in the church hall.

Rosie's brother and sinl

After a long, happy marriage, my brother Peter and his wife Margaret – still as much in love as ever – had both caught pneumonia during the bitter winter, and had died within 48 hours of each other. Never to be separated. We remembered the tales Peter had told about various relatives, and especially our Mum and Dad.

That started our quest to find out more about our family. As the eldest, our brother Peter had more memories and information about Mum and Dad, grandparents and assorted relatives and life during World War Two. He’d written down things he’d heard about Dad’s time during active service in the Royal Navy in WWII – and Mum’s own life. I realized that each of us had different tales, different family stories.

Mum would talk to me about her love of Hollywood, planting the seeds of inspiration for the life I have led. How she would send away for Hollywood Movie magazines, follow the American movie stars, from Clara Bow to Joan Bennett. She’d copy their hairstyles and fashions, send away for little pots of ‘eye-black’ or face-creams – guaranteed to give you a’ Hollywood Movie Star complexion’ advertised in the magazines.

I squirreled away these nuggets of information to later be used in my writing. I used a lot of Mum’s details in my Lottie Topaz novels and colored with information I gleaned from Mum and her love of Hollywood. I know she was thrilled when I chose to live here, even though she missed me. She lived vicariously through me.

My brother Peter knew more about Dad’s time during WWII. About the time he was Paymaster on the famous Ark Royal Aircraft Carrier when it was sunk in the Mediterranean, by a German torpedo in 1941. After orders to abandon ship, men scurried to find the life-boats as the ship was sinking. But our quiet, shy Dad pushed past the escaping men, clambering down into the bowels of the ship to retrieve the ship’s code-books and the money from the safe – so he could pay the men. Peter shared tales he’d learned of Dad’s life in the Navy or living in an orphanage after Grandpa Lord died. Dad was in the same kindergarten class as Archibald Leach – later known as Cary Grant. More about that another time….

Children often overhear their elders’ conversations. Thankfully, our family’s young brains retained fragments of tales and characters. Especially me! So we’re now sharing these snippets in order to make one whole cloth of a family story.

Brother Peter met his wife Margaret at a Writers’ workshop. He had stories published in magazines and had written a spec script for “The Avengers” television series. But that writing life got lost along the way after he and Margaret married and the children came along. Life takes us in different directions. So he was delighted when I began to make a living (of sorts) from my writing and published books.

Like our parents, we were voracious readers, discussions about books were frequent. We remaining four siblings have different information about various relatives. Our brother-in-law Peter, skilled at deep research, bringing us dates and facts and lineage, pulling it all together, recently found a photo of our paternal grandpa, Detective Ernest Lord of the Bristol Constabulary.

Photo_2023-06 Grandpa Lord (3)

Now, bringing us all together during this tragic episode in our lives, we’ve been pooling these tales to write our family history. I’d asked my brother Peter to make notes for me, whenever he remembered something. Notes I treasure. Our writer’s minds works continuously, mentally jotting down words, sentences overheard, characters imprinted on our literary brains. I’ve squirreled these away to turn into another engrossing novel.

As I return to my hurried, sometimes seemingly senseless, Hollywood life, I reflect on the time spent with my family. Reflecting on my lovely big brother, Peter, and his devoted, super-smart wife Margaret, who had taken the time to give me feedback and notes on my first draft of my Lottie Topaz novel.

Memories of our childhood, our relatives, families and friends are often invaluable fodder for our stories. Gayle Bartos Pool uses her family history in her profusion of books. Miko wrote of her family’s dramatic history in her Petal In The Wind series. We have so many tales inside us that should be told. Stories to be shared.

Now is the time, I tell myself, I will finally turn them into stories that I can breathe life into for readers to discover. And this is what we do as writers, isn’t it? Tell stories.

Know what I mean?

The Resurgence of Audiobooks

by Hannah Dennison

The saying ‘ask a busy person’ never held truer for me than these past few weeks. I was on a deadline – the kind where you cannot be late because the publisher works to a tight schedule – I visit my mum almost daily in a nursing home, I have a demanding job to pay the bills, and I have energetic dogs to walk – but despite all that, I happily agreed to feed my daughter’s cats adding another 1 ½ hours of commitments to my day. It’s only a 25-mile round trip but those are country miles along narrow twisty roads and if you get stuck behind a tractor …

Miraculously, it all turned out to be a wonderful gift. The weather has been fabulous (ask Jackie – she knows!) so each morning I would take my coffee and breakfast and sit in Sarah’s beautiful garden with Taz and Tilly and listen to the birds and remember to breathe – to literally ‘stop and smell the roses.’

I also rediscovered audiobooks.

When I’m in serious writing mode – I can’t read any fiction. I just don’t have the bandwidth. Not only that, when I do pick up a book, I find it hard to switch off my writer or editing hat, unintentionally critiquing instead of just going on the journey. There are exceptions of course. I just finished Lucy Worsley’s excellent biography Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman and I can’t say enough good things about it. But I digress.

I’d checked out a CD of ‘Outlander’ by Diana Gabaldon from my local library initially for my mother who – at 93 – is a great audio fan. I’d always loved Diana’s time travel series. I’d heard her talk many times, especially at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ where she is their local author.

On a whim, I thought I’d listen to Outlander en route to kitty duty. Usually, I listen to podcasts but I’d forgotten all about audiobooks despite having devoured them on my daily freeway commute when I worked in Los Angeles another lifetime ago. I’d even got stopped by Highway Patrol once for speeding. When I explained that I’d been listening to ‘Shutter Island’ by Dennis Lehane and just hadn’t been paying attention, they still gave me a ticket – clearly not amused.

An article in Wordsrated (January 2023) stated that globally, audiobook revenue for 2022 is projected to be worth over $5.38 billion. Over the last five years, audiobook revenue in the USA has increased by 113.3% making it the fastest-growing book format in the USA. Nielsen reported that in 2022, 27 million audiobooks were sold in the UK alone, an increase of more than 50 percent since 2018 – and the median just keeps on growing. Revenue from audiobooks is expected to grow 26.4% every year from 2022 to 2030 and reach $35.05 billion in 2030. It’s mindboggling stuff so if you haven’t explored this option for your work, now is the time!

Happily, my books are available on audio but full disclosure, I don’t think I can bear to listen to them. I’d hear all the discrepancies or things that in hindsight, I may have written differently. It would be too cringeworthy.

The narrator is critical. Davina Porter has narrated the entire series of Outlander. Deemed a Golden Voice narrator with AudioFile, it’s easy to see why. AudioFile’s founder, Robin Whitten said ‘Golden Voice narrators have superb performance skills, are keenly attuned to their authors, and are practiced in many genres and styles.’

Voice acting is a unique skill that includes accurate articulation, the ability to control emotions, instinctive pausing, being aware of when to use an accent (Davina Porter’s Scottish accent in Outlander is flawless) but most of all, the narrator must be able to differentiate each character to enable listeners to audibly ‘see’ that character and bring it to life.

I know some folks record their own books – and I say good for you! An author friend of mine uses his car as a sound booth – seriously. He stuffs the interior with pillows and duvets and does everything on his phone. It works for him but I wouldn’t have the patience to fiddle with all the editing software.

Audio books are not for everyone. In ‘The Author’ – the UK’s quarterly publication from the Society of Authors, Laura Hackette, Deputy Literary Editor at The Sunday Times, says she ‘doesn’t have the attention span for the format’ and either she drifts off or gets distracted by other things or gets ‘frustrated by the slow-paced narration.’ She even tried listening on 1.5x speed but it just sounded weird.

My cat feeding duty is over now and, to my surprise, I turned the manuscript in three days early – the first time in years. Perhaps it was just taking that enforced time out that made a difference. Who knows? But what I do know is that I have another 8 volumes of Outlander to listen to. I think I’ll just spend more time in my car – even if it is just parked outside my house.

WORDPLAY

by Miko Johnston

Words fascinate me. I think about them constantly, their surface meaning and their subdural meaning. The subtle differences in synonyms when attempting to find the best word in a situation. The unusual pairing of words to create fresh and unique imagery. Formulating a sentence that will dazzle the reader, but not distract them.

We who write in English have an amazing array of words to use. According to a linguist I know, our language stems from our Anglo-Saxon heritage, with words deriving from both cultures. It provides us with an abundance of synonyms.

I became interested in words early on, which is why I wanted to be a poet and have read much poetry. One of my all-time favorites is Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells”, a master course in the use of repetition and word sounds to create different moods. It’s where I learned about onomatopoeia – words that sound like their sound. Poe’s bells tinkled in merriment, rhymed and chimed in happiness, clanged in alarm, and tolled in sorrow.

Before I could read I would hear words and “picture” them by their sound. I would think I knew what they meant, but not always – some didn’t translate into their actual meaning.

Growing up in New York, I ate a lot of delicatessen meats like pastrami, corned beef and tongue. As a child, I assumed the last item to be a homonym of the organ found inside mouths. It took until my late teens to make the connection – the delicacy I’d enjoyed for years was actually…a tongue. Had I not already loved it I would have been grossed out!

I’ve since learned tongue is an autological word – it describes what it is, or expresses a property it also possesses. Examples of autology include unhyphenated, word, and pentasyllabic (a five-syllable word that means a five-syllable word).

Onomatopoeia words sound like they sound. Autological words mean what they mean. However I’m more curious by other categories of words, which have no name that I’m aware of, the first being words that sound like what they mean.

Take alluring. When it’s said out loud it rolls gently off the tongue. You can almost hear the trilling of the R, the sensuousness of the word. I find tranquil to have a soothing sound. To me, idiot sounds ‘fast’ while moron sounds ‘slow’, which is why I ascribe each term to different, um, problematic drivers. I also think stress, beginning with its three hard consonants and ending in the shrillness of double S, sounds, well, stressful. And come to think of it, shrill sounds…shrill. I wonder – do these words sound like their meaning because we know their meaning, or would they sound that way to someone unfamiliar with the word? What would you call words that sound like what they mean?

Then there are words that sound nothing like their meaning. Who came up with pulchritude to describe pleasing beauty? Is gorgeous, with its hard opening G and harsh final syllable, much better? Does relax inspire calmness? One of my favorite and most pleasant sense memories is the smell of summer rain hitting a hot, dry pavement. There’s a word for it – petrichor. Does that sound pleasing? Not to me. Shouldn’t words like these have a name as well?

You can probably come up with other examples of words that sound, or don’t sound, like what they mean, and please do. You might know of a word that describes these types of words, or suggest one of your own. All I know for certain is that my fascination with words and language led me to become a writer.

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 including the recently released “Whidbey Landmarks”. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com

“YOU SAY POTATOE…”

by Jill Amadio

As a Brit I put up with a lot of ribbing in America. Some friends take me to task for pronunciation. Well, I can’t help it if I have a very slight West Country accent as I am from Cornwall. As a writer, though, the ribbing can give me indigestion.

The main problem is spelling. I am warned by colleagues that editors at U.S. publishing houses come down hard if you keep inserting a “u” into words like behaviour, colour, and honour, or substitute a ”z’ for an “s”. Other minefields include using “ae” rather than “e,” as in “aeon” and “eon”. Maybe it’s a matter of simplicity. Americans pare as many ells and u’s as possible while Brits love double ells, such as “levelling” versus “leveling.”

My books are published here first but habits die hard and I usually claim that Brits use the correct spellings. They only got chopped when they arrived in America where unnecessary (to whom?) letters are summarily killed off. Flautists are called flutists, and gaol is jail. Obviously what it comes down to is pronunciation. Americans spell words as they are spoken although it escapes me why tyre is spelled tire.

It’s a huge temptation to some authors who have leapt across the pond to use British spelling, perhaps as a sly signal to agents and publishers they are querying that the writer is a Brit – a sort of literary snobbism one occasionally encounters at conferences.

Then there’s the grammar. Collective nouns in particular give me pause. Is a group, say a government, singular or plural? I have a page from the Associated Press Stylebook permanently stuck to my printer to remind me which to use.

Figuring out past particles is always fun. For instance, Brits say “pleaded” Yanks say “pled”. Oh, and the very, very worst word I hate to see changed is “hanged”. To my mind it should refer only to someone at the loop end of a rope, giving the action a far heftier meaning than the word “hung” as used here. People are not paintings.

Punctuation. I don’t worry about it although when I send in my column to the UK magazine I write for I make sure I place the comma and full stop after the quotes, not before. What else? “Have” and “take” always flummox me. Am I going to take a bath? Or, am I going to have a bath? I read somewhere that this is an example of a delexical verb, which I’m not even going to touch.

While writing my first mystery my beta readers caught another mistake. I wrote, “He drove her to hospital.” Wrong. I was told there should be a “the” in front of “hospital.” I’m sure there’s some kind of diabolical rule about this but I think it’s fine to give an in-house editor something to mark up to justify his/her salary. As for tenses, the past participle in the U.S. for “got” is “gotten,” an ugly word that makes me shudder enough to want to write a thriller entitled “The Dangling Participle and the Dark, Dark Pluperfect”.

While writing the first in my crime series based in Newport Beach, California, whose amateur sleuth is a disgraced Cornishwoman exiled by the palace for discovering a scandal (what, again?), I had to learn the police rankings and figure out who was a sheriff and who was a police officer. Having worked with a reporter at the good old rag, the Sunday Dispatch, I decided to have my sleuth simplify her confusion (and mine) and re-affirm her “foreignness” by using British titles. When caught speeding she addresses a California Highway Patrol (CHiP) officer as “Chief Superintendent,” and calls the Chief of Police, “ Constable.” I am, however, very pleased that sheriffs and policemen can be lumped into a group collectively referred to as “cops”.

When I mention a British pastime such as a pasty-throwing contest, blank stares are common. I talked about nighthawking the other day and no one had a clue as to its meaning. I’m giving the nasty habit to a character in my WIP although I know the explanation could be tedious unless you’re a nighthawker yourself. Both of these words are giving my Spellcheck nightmares.

Even the four seasons can be a challenge. Seeking representation for my first mystery I scoured the agent lists and was rejected by 65 of them. I knew small presses can be approached directly and I found one with whose name I fell totally in love: Mainly Murder Press. However, the website declared, NO SUBMISSIONS UNTIL LATE SPRING!

Ha. I immediately sent in my query along with a note: “Dear MMP, I live in Southern California and although it is only January according to the calendar, and snowing where you are, it is already late spring here. You should see the roses!”

I received an email back within three hours, asking me to send chapters. Which I did. Obviously the publisher was not off in Tahiti but still on the East Coast. Then came a request for the manuscript. By the end of a week I had signed a contract for three books. MMP publishes only 12-14 books a year, but who could resist the name? Sadly, MMP went belly-up before I could finish my third mystery.

So my advice is to go ahead and break the rules, lay it on thick, and change the climate. Worked for me.