A new story

After dinner last night, I was talking to my friend Joel who suggested a story to me. Actually, it was the technical aspect of a story. And it was great. Joel is a scientist and it is something I wouldn't have thought of in a thousand years.

So I tossed and turned all night thinking of a short story plotline in which I could incorporate Joel's suggestion. But the hard part will be explaining it. It involves lots of numbers that will appear random but, when translated into a visual image, could be quite specific.

This is one of those times when some serious research will be required. I like research and I do some research in every story I write. Obviously, I can't know everything and I can't remember everything I once learned. But generally, I think you should write what you know, thus limiting -- to some degree -- the amount of research to be required.

I am out of my comfort zone on this one. But the possibility of learning something new -- or, more specifically, re-learning something I was taught in the fifth grade and delving into the subject in greater detail than I was ever taught -- is quite exciting. I don't have a handle on this yet but it is exciting.

So, that's my contribution for the day. Have a productive writing day. And thanks for reading.

When the author gets tired

I was sitting yesterday reading the latest novel in a series from an author I enjoy and discovered the author, whom I will not name, was getting tired. There didn't seem like anything new from characters I have come to love and the plot was so forced it totally stretched my suspended disbelief.

I think the author is near the end of this series.

Now that is okay. Writers get to the end of a series all the time. The problem is resolving all the conflicts that have been sustained over the course of the writing. You want the reader to be satisfied with the conclusion.

For example, I love how the Harry Potter series concluded. It tied up loose ends and the reader felt a sense of closure that was not evidence prior to the end of Book Seven.

I have two series in mind based on characters in books I have written -- Jason Mitchell, the reporter from DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL and THE DEATH OF ART, and private eye David Blaise from AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. I see a number of stories with Jason, who is a lot like me, but a nearly unlimited number of possibilities for Blaise. And he is written in first-person, which is also interesting. I think at some point I would need to resolve certain issues with Jason but could leave Blaise nearly forever.

Anyway, if I am ever successful with either of these, I hope I realize when I have had enough of them. I don't want them to be dry, stale creatures that I keep alive only because of a contract.

But for now, that possibility is long off. I have to actually get a publishing contract first. Well, I am still working on it.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Always bring a pen

As a reporter, when I am going into an interview, I always follow a Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared! And when I talk to students about the craft of reporting and writing, I make a point of that.

As a journalist going out on an interview, I generally carry at least two, sharpened No. 4 pencils -- I prefer taking notes in pencil and I like my pencils to stay sharp, thus the choice of the harder lead No. 4 over the softer lead No. 2. It's hard to find them in retail outlets so I have to order them online -- one or two pens, and a reporter's notebook.

I have never liked relying on recording interviews but I have used recording devices from time to time, though no longer. But I always made sure the recorder was working before heading out and before I started to use it. I also carried extra batteries and I always still took notes in longhand.

Until recently, I always carried a reporter's notebook and a pen in the glove compartment of my car. Since I don't do daily journalism anymore, I stopped that but I still have paper and pen in the car in case I need to take notes.

So you'd think I'd be better prepared as an author. Not always.

Before I headed out last week to a book store for a booksigning for BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, I make sure I had extra copies of the book in the trunk of my car, I had a handful of bookmarks, a 24-inch X 36-inch poster of the book cover and a bottle of water.

I thought of it five minutes before I left but in the end, I forgot to take a pen.

Now I ask you -- what sense does to make to go to a booksigning and not take a pen to sign some freakin' books? Yes, the store had some. One of the other authors let me borrow one of theirs. But going without a pen is just plain dumb.

It's a small detail but it is all about being prepared. I have learned a valuable lesson so heres some advice for you.

Always bring a pen!

Well, that's it this week for this aspiring author. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for reading, don't give up and always remember to take a pen.

Characters

We had a great day Saturday signing books at Mudsock, a cute little book store up in Fisher. (We also have signings tomorrow night at Crestwood in Indianapolis, and at a shop in Muncie on Saturday.) And during a slow moment, one of the other authors, Diana Catt, who is president of our local chapter of Sisters in Crime, and I were discussing short story writing vs. novel writing. Diana prefers short stories because you can get into them quickly and be done. And she has numerous short story publishing credits.

I, on the other hand, prefer doing novels. It provides ample time and room to explore main characters and to develop a plot. But, Diana asked me, what about all those minor characters? What about their development?

I hadn't given it much thought.

In a full-length novel, there can be a couple dozen speaking parts, almost all of which requiring a character with a name. (And you know how I hate coming up with character names. I always struggle with it.) What are the motivations of some of those minor characters? Don't they also have lives?

Diana suggested I consider a minor character I have already created as the main character in a short story. And I said, "Wow! What a great idea."

I have dozens to choose from. Joel Covington, the spoiled rich child in FIGHTING CHAOS who only comes into himself after he abandons his family's career choices and joins the FBI; Marsha Norwood, the girlfriend of the main character in the book; Lyndsay Carpenter, the art museum employee whose murder in the first chapter is the catalyst for the investigation in THE DEATH OF ART; Tony Richardson, the stalwart friend in DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL or King David Armstrong, the numbers runner from the same book.

All of these people could have most interesting lives worthy of exploration in a short story.

I may, in time, get to some of them. But last Sunday I started a short story on the life of an FBI profiler who is looking into a series of serial killings of young women in the Philadelphia area. The idea came from my friend Shonda, who has had civilian FBI training. Shonda suggested several areas to explore as the character, Kendall Hunter, helps in the probe for a killer.

My fiction tends to be character-driven and so this exercise in exploring minor characters through short stories can only help me when I am building characters whom I want and need readers to care about.

And, it's fun, which is also something quite important.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.

Booksigning

This is going to be a big week for BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD. We have three booksignings in the next week, and next weekend is the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All 15 short stories in the anthology are related in one way or another to NASCAR or to the Brickyard 400 stock car race.

Today's signing is at Mudsock Books in Fishers, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. We have another signing arranged by a book seller at a retirement center on the northside on Thursday and next Saturday we have a signing in Muncie, where three of the contributing authors live. The Muncie event will be the first outside of the Indianapolis area. We have others planned this fall for Mooresville, Bloomington and Speedway.

I love signings because of all the attention, but also because it is an opportunity to talk to people about books. It's always a bit of a rush for me. As I strive to become a successful author, I hope that feeling, that rush, never fads.

Anyway, I have to go. I need to be there in 30 minutes.

Thanks for reading. Go out and buy a book, and most importantly of all, keep writing.

My wife is out of town and so, for several days, I am living the life of a single parent. I had hoped it would be quieter than it has been and less stress-filled – I have a teenage daughter, so there is always drama – but that isn’t the case.

But I am now alone in my room, sitting with my back against the headboard and with Pluto lying quietly on the other end. While I miss the companionship of my wife, of course, I do enjoy this scene. I am working on my laptop which is on my lap, something Angela generally dislikes when she is in the room (unless she is also doing work in bed).

To my right on the bed, in the space where Angela would be, is a novel I am currently reading, another I would like to start reading, a printout of a story I saw on MSN on whether it is selfish for married couples to choose not to have children (and boy, do I envy them sometimes), and two stories I am reading for my critique group. On the table to my left is my signed copy of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the notes for a magazine article I am working on and my cell phone -- thus, everything I need.

Our A/C went out for a couple of days last week and though it's repaired, I like keeping it comfortably warm in the bedroom so I can use the circulating fan sitting on the floor. The breeze is nice, the air isn’t too warm and the background white noise in soothing. (Angela hates that, too.)

I love reading or writing in this environment. I can generally shut out the world when I write, wherever I am writing. But in my bedroom with a laptop on my lap, the dog asleep, my daughters off doing something and not bothering me, and my books near – well, it is about as good as it gets when I am alone. Peaceful, though I miss the wife.

Good thing I only get this much peace and quiet a couple times a year. In time, the solitude would drive me crazy.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Some good advice

There's always tons of advice -- both good and bad -- for the aspiring novelist like myself. In fact, I give out some advice myself. But I ran across a small bit of advice this week that I found quite comforting.

It came from Writer's Digest from a panel discussion last week that WD covered as part of its Live from ThrillerFest coverage. Thriller writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Richtel moderated the panel that included spy novelist Alex Dryden, mystery novelist Lisa Gardner, author Alex Kava, and debut author Daniel Palmer. And based on the coverage, it was a great discussion.

Apparently, I lot of the discussion concerned writer's block but the participants also touched on things that have been particularly useful to them. Gardner suggests lighting a scented candle before writing. For her, it jump starts her creativity. Dryden offered two bits of advice he struggles with keeping himself -- write 1,000 words a day and plot every book from start to finish.

Daily goals are good but I don't think strict quotas work, at least not for me. I tell people to set a difficult but achievable daily goal and work to achieve it. And if you don't, try again the next day and just don't give up. As for plotting, I really like to be surprised with the story so start-to-finish plotting isn't truly for me. That having been said, I plotted my last novel and am plotting the next, though I always keep my mind (and the story) open for surprises that I didn't think of ahead of time.

But my favorite bit of advice came from Palmer -- actually, it apparently came from his father -- and it set my mind as ease.

He said, "It doesn't have to be probable, it just has to be possible."

I like that and in most genre I think it works. (Sci-fi and fantasy are probably exceptions.)

In "The Missing CD," which was just published in the racing anthology BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, I lived out a fantasy of mine -- that of driving at speed around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I have been to the track countless times and have walked on the track -- on both the oval and road-course portions -- but have never been in a vehicle on the track. I don't want to tool around at just over walking pace in a tour bus. I have seen the track from a camera-mounted view atop a racing car and I would prefer seeing the track from a speeding -- 65 mph or more -- perspective. It may never happen.

But in my story, a guy in a street car busted through a fence and into the garage area, hanged a left and headed for the track, where he did most of one lap between practice sessions for the Brickyard 400. I loved describing what the track looked like as he drove and how he approached and drove through the turns. It was almost as if I were there with him. Come to think of it, I was.

Now, was that probable? I doubt it. But was it possible? Yes. The chances of it happening are near zero, I think, but it is possible.

So, that bit of advice was helpful to me, though 18 months after the fact. But I will remember it going forward.

Thanks for reading and don't give up.

5 Stages of Querying

I saw a really interesting online article last night at Writer's Digest called The 5 Stages of Querying. While the author admits they are not all encompassing, she listed them as: Conceit, Fear, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The author also included helpful methods for dealing with each.

When I sent out my first queries for my first novel, FIGHTING CHAOS, I was certainly in the first stage. I thought the novel was brilliant and a smart agent would see that. And I was surprised that the first agent I queried rejected me via e-mail in under 15 minutes, which, by the way, remains my record rejection response time.

But as my writing improved, as did my knowledge and understanding of the publishing industry, I came to understand why the query and the book never made it anywhere. The story is still interesting, I think, but both the storytelling and the writing are seriously flawed. It reads like it was written by an amateur, which it was. Some of my favorite parts of the book are the oldest and if I ever totally re-write the novel again -- it has gone through seven drafts -- they will be the first to go, never to be seen again.

I'm not ready for that yet. I still love those parts.

As I have grown, conceit generally hasn't been the problem. Of the five, I battle depression in the form of intense anxiety. I try to accept what might comes next when I send out material but the expectation of a positive outcome generally overtakes me. And if I let the expectations of a negative outcome overtake me, I begin to hesitate sending out more queries or requested material.

The article helped, however. And I always remain hopeful and optimistic over time. Sooner or later, something is going to happen. And until then, I will plan my next steps and work on my next novel (which I haven't titled yet, in case you were wondering).

So, carry on, as will I.

And thanks for reading.

Critique group

One of the best ways for a beginning writer to improve their writing is by joining a critique group. I have joined a couple of online groups but they never seem to suit me. You can get criticism from other writers but often they are more harsh than supportive or encouraging, and often you don't hear from the same people. Thus the value is greatly diminished.

I prefer a group in which you face others directly.

I have been in a group associated with Sisters in Crime for two years. We meet monthly before the SinC meeting. It is a wonderful group of people and I have gained much from them and plan to continue. We actually are broken down into two groups which rotate about every six months. So, you see the same people for a number of months but also ultimately get the perspective of everyone over time.

I was asked this week if I wanted to join another group which meets every other Wednesday and I decided to give it a try. This group also has aspiring writers but they have been published more than my first group and there is slightly more diversity. I am the only man in my SinC-associated group. The new group has at least one man.

I am looking for more perspective in my writing and, by joining a second group, I think I will get it.

I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.