The Writers in Residence

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.

How I Set A Mystery In The Galapagos

By Guest Blogger, Sharon Marchisello

For as long as I can remember, I had three goals in life: become a bestselling author, meet and marry the love of my life, and travel the world together. And I always figured I’d do them in that order. Although I achieved my dream of being a published author, I’m still working on that “bestselling” part.

When I graduated from the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in professional writing, I realized I’d have to get a “real” job. Not only was I not making a living as a writer; I wasn’t even published. Should I go for an opportunity that involved writing but might drain my talent and energy? Or should I look for something mindless that would pay the bills, so I could focus on my stories during off hours? Then a position as a reservations agent at Western Airlines fell into my lap.

My roommate had a friend who worked there, and one day the friend called to say Western Airlines was hiring. I was the first person to listen to the message on our answering machine and begged to go to the interview too.

The woman who interviewed me said, “You’re overqualified for this job. You just want it for the travel perks, and I know you’ll quit after a year or so. But I won’t stand in your way.” I stayed with the company for twenty-seven years; my roommate left after six months.

But she was right about me wanting the travel benefits, and my first few years, I was on a plane every time I had a day off. I met my future husband at the Los Angeles airport, and together we’ve taken 65 cruises and visited over 100 countries on all seven continents.

Although I kept writing fiction and even published a few travel articles, I never set a story in one of the destinations I’d traveled to. Until the Galapagos.

If you’re looking for the Galapagos on the map, it’s a group of islands straddling the equator, approximately 600 miles off the Pacific Coast of Ecuador. I never planned to set a book there, either, but six months later, I remembered an experience from our cruise that I thought would make a great opening scene for a mystery.

Normally, the guides were conscientious about counting heads and watching over all the passengers in their charge whenever we were away from the ship. In an archipelago comprising 97% national park containing flora and fauna found nowhere else on earth, tourists must be carefully supervised.

But one day, my husband and I left another activity to join a snorkeling excursion already in progress, and neither of the guides assumed responsibility for us.

We were swimming along, marveling at the vast array of colorful underwater life, when I surfaced to see both Zodiac boats motoring back to the ship—without us! I can still feel the panic of being left alone in the middle of the ocean, treading water off the shore of an island populated only by sea lions and blue-footed boobies.

I waved and screamed, bobbing up and down like a spyhopping whale, and fortunately, someone spotted me. One of the boats turned around and came back to pick me up. I didn’t see my husband right away but told the guide he was still out there. In a moment, he’d swum up and climbed aboard. All was well.

But what if… What if my protagonist’s companion didn’t get picked up? And what if the person was left behind on purpose?

I had a great time writing the book, reliving our trip through photos and program notes, plus doing a lot of supplemental research on the internet.

When Secrets of the Galapagos begins, my heroine, Giovanna Rogers, is snorkeling with her new friend, tortoise researcher Laurel Pardo. The two get separated from the group, and Laurel disappears. No one on the ship will acknowledge that Laurel didn’t make it back.

To determine a motive, I recalled a conversation I’d had with one of our guides during a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora, the largest town on Santa Cruz (one of only four inhabited islands in the chain). “I know a secret about Lonesome George,” he said. “But if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”

Lonesome George was a Galapagos giant tortoise made famous for being the sole survivor of the Pinta Island species. Unfortunately, efforts to breed George were unsuccessful, and the ancient tortoise passed away in 2012 without an heir.

But what if someone discovered another giant tortoise from a different subspecies also thought to be extinct? And then a tortoise researcher unearthed information about the animal that the tourist industry didn’t want released?

You’ll have to read Secrets of the Galapagos to find out what happens next.

Blurb:

Shattered by a broken engagement and a business venture derailed by Jerome Haddad, her unscrupulous partner, Giovanna Rogers goes on a luxury Galapagos cruise with her grandmother to decompress. At least that’s what her grandmother thinks. Giovanna is determined to make Jerome pay for what he’s done, and she has a tip he’s headed for the Galapagos.

While snorkeling in Gardner Bay off the coast of Española Island, Giovanna and another cruise passenger, tortoise researcher Laurel Pardo, become separated from the group, and Laurel is left behind. No one on the ship will acknowledge Laurel is missing, and Giovanna suspects a cover-up.

When the police come on board to investigate a death, Giovanna assumes the victim is Laurel. She’s anxious to give her testimony to the attractive local detective assigned to the case. Instead, she learns someone else is dead, and she’s a person of interest.

Resolved to keep searching for Laurel and make sense of her disappearance, Giovanna learns several people on board the ship have reasons to want Laurel gone. One is a scam involving Tio Armando, the famous Galapagos giant tortoise and a major tourist attraction in the archipelago. And Jerome Haddad has a hand in it. Thinking she’s the cat in this game, Giovanna gets too involved and becomes the mouse, putting her life in jeopardy. But if she doesn’t stop him, Jerome will go on to ruin others.

AMAZON

SUNBURY PRESS

Bio:

Sharon Marchisello is the author of two mysteries published by Sunbury Press—Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). She has written short stories, a nonfiction book about finance, training manuals, screenplays, a blog, and book reviews. She earned a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and has been an active member of Sisters in Crime since 1995, currently serving as treasurer of the Atlanta chapter. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, and volunteers for the Fayette Humane Society.

Website: sharonmarchisello.com (https://smarchisello.wordpress.com/)

This article was posted by member, Jackie Houchin. If you’d like to read my review of the audiobook version of SECRETS OF THE GALAPAGOS, click here.

Listening

When I’ve thought about “listening” in the past, it’s been in terms of music. Unfortunately, no amount of listening can improve me musical output in that I’m “tone death.” But what brought me to this post of “listening” in terms of writing was bemoaning my mental lethargy regarding my current WIP. Then my turn came around for my Writers in Residence post! And in starting to get my mind in “posting mode,” I started rereading many of my fellow author’s posts. And there were my answers to get moving.

What I already have are setting (The Mojave of course), general main character outlines, and who gets murdered. I didn’t have – how or who’s head is the third person (narrator me) that tells the tale G.B Pool has talked about listening to your characters, but I’m talking about myself and listening to other authors on topics like…the books we’ve read or are reading… making time for writing, the words we use, and our coaches. Heard for sure, but was I really listening?

Or even listen to my own past experiences? I’ve been stuck before…

Then there’s the listening to the off kilter “noise” in my own brain? I know, what the heck am I talking about here? Admittedly vague (I was a philosophy major ha, ha). A narrator mentioned Ambrose Bierce in a show about aliens with Willam Shatner. A perfect character! Then watching a show on the Middle East, and realizing I’m older than Israel by two years! Which suggested another character!

Midsomer Murders (with John Nettles) is my most favorite drama/mystery/suspense—based on the novels and characters written by Caroline Graham. Re-watching an episode and “listening,” I realized I could hear a symphony of great British Actors, devious plots, beautiful settings…in some ways, maybe not so tone death?

Usually I do “see” my tale in my mind, hear my characters talking, and imagine the events leading to exposing the killer. But somehow, I wasn’t even listening to myself!

And why share my mental meanderings in this post? To point out hearing, reading,sharing, etc. don’t automatically mean one is listening…and because somehow this “listening” perspective has gotten me back to the keyboard.

And therein is the bottom line, I think…if we “listen” hopefully, our readers will “hear” the good stuff in the minds and hearts our character and tales! Which leads me to thinking about better getting my readers to “listen” to the “music” in my tale… “story music” … is there even such a thing?…

All thoughts are welcome!

Happy Listening ”—oops—“, I mean writing Trails

“Letters From Afar”

An Interview by Jackie Houchin

For about a year and a half, I have been receiving by subscription ‘LETTERS FROM AFAR’ through the (snail) mail. They are stories about real places written by the “fearless explorer” Isabelle. I am an avid traveler myself, and these letters feed my wanderlust in between my trips. As a writer, I got curious about who wrote the letters, how they got started and a bit of the process. Was Isabelle really her name? Did she actually travel to these places?

I read up on it on the LETTERS FROM AFAR website, but I wanted more. As writers and readers, I thought YOU might be interested too, so I interviewed the gracious gal and she responded with lots of interesting and encouraging facts.

Jackie – I love your “fearless explorer” Isabelle and her history, but what is your actual name and history?

My name is Shawnee Mills. I’m originally from Texas, but have lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky (where I met my husband), North Carolina, and now New York City. I was homeschooled from the second grade and attended college early at age 14. From there, I decided to pursue cosmetology, and I worked as a stylist for 8 years. Throughout my career, my true passion was always creating art and traveling as often as possible.

Jackie – Tell me about your family. I know you have a husband, but do you have children and pets?

I’m the middle of 3 girls. My parents chose quite a different pathway for us, and I firmly believe it’s led to my current career and lifestyle. When I was nine, my parents decided to sell everything they owned and begin living off the grid in Colorado. My father built our home (a log cabin), and my sisters and I spent our days exploring, pursuing our own unique interests, and avoiding our daily lessons as much as possible. 😉

After that adventure was over, we again sold everything we owned, bought an RV, and traveled the country on a year-long quest to find our next home base. We eventually settled on Kentucky, where I began my adult life and career as a stylist and met my husband, Palmer.

Palmer and I do not have any children, only of the furry variety 🙂 Our two dogs’ names are Izzy and Bronco.

Jackie – What did you do before the LETTERS FROM AFAR? Did you travel for business? Was the painting for pleasure or business?

When Palmer and I decided to sell everything we own (see the theme here? ;)) and move from Kentucky to North Carolina, I left my job as a stylist behind. I decided to dive right in and attempt to make it as a full-time artist…. Which was daunting, to say the least.

My medium of choice back then was oil painting, and peddling my works in local coffee shops and art markets was not panning out as planned. After doing a lot of research on profitable business models, I decided to try to find a way to blend my passions for art and travel into the world of subscriptions.

While I had traveled the United States extensively, I had never actually left the country. In a roundabout way, creating LETTERS FROM AFAR manifested my current life of travel and adventure. My actual life and my business fuel each other.

Jackie – How did the idea come to you for the letters? Was it an “Aha” moment? A passing suggestion from someone? Your hubby or your muse? Which painting were you doing? Were you sitting in a café in Bangladesh?

One day, I was brainstorming and jotting down ideas in my journal. It was a scorching day in July, and I was sitting on the beach on a random weekday.

I had no job, and after my failed attempts at selling my artworks, also had no money. Around that time, I had been reading a fiction novel (cannot remember the name of it), and the main character was traveling and writing a letter to her mother. The idea hit me hard and fast…. Write letters about faraway places, include illustrations of the location, and send the letters to readers on a monthly basis!

I drove home so quickly, and excitedly told my husband all about my idea. His exact words were, “I love the idea. Go for it… if it even pays the water bill, it’ll be worth it.” 😉

Jackie – What was the process from that first idea, to the actual addressing and mailing out the letters? Did you imagine it would spread so widely around the world?

That same day, I pulled out my dusty and rarely used watercolors and a piece of paper and hopped onto my computer to learn as much as I possibly could about Marrakesh, Morocco.

I had never been but had always dreamed of going. After researching, I wrote a letter from the perspective of someone who was there. The character was telling their friend all about the sights, smells, and wonders. At the bottom of the page, I sketched out a scene of Marrakesh and added a splash of color with my watercolor paints. Voila! The very first LETTER FROM AFAR was born. I made copies of the original, folded them with care, and prepared them to be mailed to my future readers

We decided to name the fictional writer of the letters Isabelle. My dad came up with the name. She’s inspired by the real-life Isabella Bird, an explorer that lived in the 19th century and bravely traveled solo.

I created an Instagram page and a website and began advertising my little idea. That first week, five people subscribed to receive my monthly letters. I’ll never forget the feeling. It paid for the water bill in just seven days.

The letters have come a long way since then in terms of style and skill… but this very first letter was and is very special to me. Even then, it somehow felt like the start of something big…. Not in terms of finances but in the idea that I was on my way to “making it.” AKA, truly doing what I love.

Jackie – How many subscribers received the first letters, and about what is your readership now? How did you go about building your mailing list?

We were very fortunate that LETTERS FROM AFAR basically grew on its own. Through word of mouth and occasional posting on social media, it grew to over 1000 subscribers in the first year. 3000 by the second year. My husband was able to quit his job to help full-time. And the third year? That’s when covid hit.

Like many small business owners, I was in sheer panic when the world shut down. Would my little company survive? Would the postal system even be able to deliver my letters? To our complete shock, the pandemic was the catalyst that skyrocketed our monthly readership.

While everyone was stuck at home and no longer able to travel, my letters became a small way to see the world without having to leave. In 2020, our readership grew to over 8000, and in 2021, to 10,000. It’s steadily continued to grow each year since.

Today, we grow and maintain our readership by continuing to post on social media and doing some light paid advertising.

Jackie – I personally began with the letter about Predjama Castle in Slovenia. How many letters came before this one? (I see on your website; you can order past letters. How would a person go about that, and how much would they cost?)

I’ve created a new letter each month since July of 2017. In short, there are many, many letters! Some of them are out of print, and some are still available in our “archives.” The previous letters can be purchased for $7 on www.pastlettersafar.com.

Jackie – Do you write and illustrate ALL of the LETTERS FROM AFAR yourself?

I research, hand illustrate, and write each monthly letter. The process is long, but it’s my favorite part of this whole endeavor. My goal is for the colors of the letter and the story told to portray the true magic of each location.

In the beginning, I started each letter by heavily researching each location. Nowadays, I’m so happy to say that some of the letters are written on location. The eventual goal is for all of them to be written on location. That means a LOT of traveling, the idea of which makes me smile.

Jackie – What gave you the idea to hide objects in the letters for readers to find? (Very clever and fun!) I like the Field Notes and the actual map too. Why did you decide to include that extra insert?

From day one, our audience has been mixed. While half of our readers are children and homeschooling families, the other half are adults who simply love to travel and learn about new places! I added the “hidden images” to entertain my littlest readers. 🙂

I decided to start including the field notes insert so I could be sure to include as much information as possible. LETTERS FROM AFAR is inspired by old-world exploration, and I imagine an explorer would always carry their trusty journal to jot down interesting facts or “field notes” from the journey. It’s just a way to make it a touch more special, in my opinion.

Jackie – I like that you help (with a portion of all sales) to sponsor education in Third World Countries through ‘Pencils of Promise’. A perfect charity for explorers. Thank you.

You’re welcome! I’ve always wanted this project to have some sort of an impact, so I was happy to partner with them.

Jackie – Thank you for joining us today, Shawnee. It’s been fascinating to learn about what you have accomplished in “doing what you love” through the LETTERS FROM AFAR. I look forward to the monthly LETTERS, and when I see that yellow airmail envelope with the golden seal, I open it first, find a comfy chair, and dive into whatever new place you are taking me to.

You are welcome. Thank you and have a great week!

Links:

Website to subscribe – LETTERS FROM AFAR

About – Idea/Destinations/Process

Isabelle – Meet your new Pen Pal

Instagram – letters.from.afar

Facebook – Letters From Afar

A Reason, A Season, A Lifetime

by Maggie King

This is the opening line to an oft-quoted poem by Brian A. Chalker. It describes how people come into our lives for a purpose. According to PsychCentral, these purposes fall into three categories:

Reason: This is when a short-lived relationship brings you a benefit or helps you with a realization. It helps you with a specific difficulty you’re facing, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Season: This is when a relationship accompanies you through a certain period of your life. It lasts for some time and brings you joy and growth. You might learn a lot from the relationship, but it eventually ends.

Lifetime: This is when a relationship lasts a lifetime.

Today I have a story about someone I met for a brief moment. He clearly falls in the “reason” category described above.

One day in 2007 I walked into one of those mall bookstores that probably no longer exist, like Waldenbooks or B. Dalton. There I met James Pendleton and his wife when he was signing Drinkwater’s Folly. I told him I was writing my first mystery and he said, “Don’t ever let anyone discourage you.” It wasn’t just his words that have stuck with me to this day—it was his sincerity and earnestness. And the fact that he came along just when I needed to hear his simple yet sage advice.

Over the years, whenever I felt discouraged, his words would come to me. I considered him an angel on my shoulder. Need I say that often the someone discouraging me was me?

When I finally published Murder at the Book Group in 2014, I wanted to personally thank Mr. Pendleton for his helpful advice that kept me on my writing path. Likely he wouldn’t remember the advice, or even meeting me. No matter, I remembered. Since he didn’t have an online presence I had no way of reaching him other than the old school method: writing to his publisher, Ivy House Publishing Group. As Ivy House was out of business (although they seem to be in business now), that avenue took me nowhere.

I sent my thanks out to the universe and hoped Mr. Pendleton would hear it on some level of awareness. And he will forever have a place of honor on the acknowledgments page of Murder at the Book Group.

Even with James Pendleton whispering in my ear for so many years, I had never read Drinkwater’s Folly, the book he signed for me. One day in 2015 I found it on my bookshelf and read it in one day. Set on historic Roanoke Island in North Carolina, the tale follows a bold, intrepid, and ambitious woman as she navigates the turbulent sixties. The story may not be known to many readers (a sleeper, to borrow movie parlance), but is worth seeking out.

Reading James Pendleton’s work renewed my interest in locating him, and this time I was successful–sadly, I found his obit from 2009. And what an obit! Here are a few of the highlights:

James Pendleton taught at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) for 34 years, and was Dean of Students, Chairman of Freshman English, and Professor of English until his retirement in 1992. He was recognized as the founding playwright of the Creative Writing section at VCU.

At various times in his life he was a baritone soloist, singing in such venues as Carnegie Hall and with the Chicago Symphony; he directed a jazz band, playing lead trumpet; taught Small Arms at the Ft. Benning Infantry School; did stints as a disc jockey, roving reporter, newspaper editor, choir director, and pilot of light planes.

As for writing, he wrote ten plays for stage, as well as a number of TV, radio, and film scripts. He was published in many prestigious newspapers and magazines, wrote book reviews and novels, and won numerous awards including the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award and The Eugene O’Neill New Drama for Television Award.

His travels to Central America prompted him to write the play “Sanctuary,” about political refugees in the US, and his final book, Last Night in Managua.

I sure would have welcomed a “season” relationship with this Renaissance man, but I’ll always value that brief “reason” moment when he gave me so much. According to PsychCentral, “Even a short interaction with a stranger can impact your life in meaningful ways.”

“People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.”

Indeed.

Read the entire poem.

Can you recall someone who came into your life for a reason and left a lasting impression?

Let Your Characters Take Over

by G.B. Pool

Let me repeat myself:

When your characters start talking,

get out of the way and let them talk.

Why do I say this? Because I have done just that and my characters have taken me places I didn’t know I would be going to. They have told me who they were when I thought they were somebody else. This goes for minor characters as well as major characters.

When I was writing CAVERNS about rats eating away the ground underneath the high rises along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, I was going to kill off a cop who first discovers the rats, but as I was writing about him, I realized I liked this guy, so I had him turn into one of the three male leads in the book. I gave him a life with a not-so-great wife, a great kid, and a really nice girlfriend. He kept telling me who he was and the story grew. I even have my female lead in the story help rescue the girlfriend. Who knew there was that much more story to write? I guess my character did, because the cop character kept nudging me to write more about himself.

One of my three detective series features this guy named Johnny Casino. I figured that would be his name. I grew up reading detective novels that my mother had and watching detective shows on television. There were three famous detectives from old TV series and a movie whose name was like a playing card: Spade, Diamond and Heart. Sam Spade from the Humphrey Bogart movie The Maltese Falcon, David Janssen’s TV series “Richard Diamond, Private Detective,” and Robert Wagner who starred in “Hart to Hart.” I wanted my detective to be the fourth playing card, a club. But “Club” wasn’t right for a last name, so I thought: what name means club? How about casino? And Johnny Casino was born.

But wait: Johnny was more than just a name. He started “talking” to me about who he was. The first page of The Johnny Casino Casebook 1, Past Imperfect, the first book in the trilogy, was literally Johnny telling me about himself. I just typed out what he was saying. This is the first paragraph in that book:

My name is Johnny Casino. I’m a retired P.I. with a past. I just hope it doesn’t catch up with me. Before I went legit, I ran numbers in Jersey for Big Louie “Fingers” D’Abruzzo and then busted heads in Miami for Big Eddie “Mambo” Fontaine. But at the ripe old age of twenty-four, Little Johnny beat a hasty retreat to L.A. when somebody slipped the cops a hot tip and all of a sudden, I became the fall guy for the Mob.

That first page was typed out in one continuous effort… No re-writes. This was who the character was going to be. I couldn’t tell you where it came from, but there it was. He knew he was born in Jersey. His dad was a consiglieri to a local crime family. His mother was from another crime family in Chicago. He worked for the mob for a while until he told himself this wasn’t the life for him and eventually moves to California. But Johnny’s real name had been Cassini back in Jersey. He changed it when he made that move to Los Angeles. But in The Johnny Casino Casebook 2, Looking for Johnny Nobody, Johnny finds out he really wasn’t a Cassini. He meets his real mother and her second husband. Johnny’s father, a cop, had been killed before he was born and an unscrupulous organization basically took him from his mother and sold him to the New Jersey pair. And how did I learn all this stuff? Johnny told me when I was writing out more of his biography for the second book.

Biography? Why not? I learned to do this when I took acting lessons in the last century. Back in 1973, I took acting lessons so I could learn how to write dialogue. It was a great way to see what actors needed to do to bring their characters to life. My teachers, Rudy Solari and Guy Stockwell, were fabulous teachers. They wanted the actor to know who they were portraying before they set foot on the stage or in front of the camera, so they had the actor write a brief bio of their character. The script doesn’t tell you everything, so Rudy said create a life for these people that you are portraying. I did it then and I still do it for the characters I write. It can be a paragraph or pages long. Just enough to know where the character came from, who they are, and why they do what they do. It really does a make a difference to the actor. If the character had a rough upbringing, they will hit the stage with attitude. If they were sheltered or beaten, they will hunch over, head down, eyes averted. The actor needs to know this. So does the writer.

Sometimes the character tells me who they are when I’m writing their dialogue. They’ll start saying something that defines them. I did this recently with one of the short stories in the third Chance McCoy book, my third detective series. I wanted a television scriptwriter to write a murder mystery that has something in the plot that rings a bell with somebody who recognizes exactly what they had done in a fairly recent murder. I was going to have the gal be a mousy little writer, but as she started to appear on the page, I realized this lady was no shrinking violet. Chance McCoy might have a lady-friend from book two, but this gal gets him thinking about doing something more permanent about his relationship with that first woman. And it all came about when this new character started talking about herself in her own voice.

I really do this, and I’m not the only writer who “hears voices.” Other writers tell me the same thing. And if you ask an actor who has taken acting lessons, they will tell you about doing “improv.” That’s when an actor will be on stage “in character” and will let their imagination make up dialogue that fits the character and the scene they’re creating on the spot. The Improv Comedy Club in the Los Angeles area and The Second City Improve group in Chicago have been doing this for decades.

So, open your mind and your imagination and let some of these characters you are fashioning tell you a little more about themselves. You never know who will appear on the page to make your story terrific. Write On!