A Virtual Mystery in the Midlands

by Paula Gail Benson

For the past two years, the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA) have successfully partnered to present Mystery in the Midlands, a mid-summer conference for crime fiction readers and writers held in Columbia, South Carolina. We’ve been able to secure Elaine Viets and Nancy Pickard as previous guests of honor as well as master classes and panels featuring regional authors. In addition, we’ve had a silent auction to benefit the Palmetto Project’s My First Books, an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library that provides free books for children from birth to age five.

This year, we were really looking forward to our third program because Charlaine Harris had agreed to be our guest of honor. We’d scouted out a new, larger venue that had promised to advertise the event on its marquee and we’d planned to add a ghost tour to the schedule.

  

Then, in March, we were confronted with the Covid 19 shutdown. What were our options?

 

Preparing for Mystery in the Midlands
Photo by MA Monnin

After seeing the success of Murder and Mayhem being converted from an in person to an online event and with excellent counsel from Debra Goldstein, President of SEMWA, and agreement from our program committee, we began learning about how to go virtual. We contacted Charlaine Harris to ask if she would be willing to be our online guest of honor and she answered “yes” within minutes. We were on our way!

The key became how to structure the program. We decided to follow Charlaine’s own achievements in short stories, paranormal, and transferring story from page to screen. Following our tradition of naming the panels for Columbia’s reputation as “Famously Hot,” we called them: Slip into Some Shorts (short stories), Spectres Rather than Heat Mirages (paranormals), and Pages Burning Their Way to the Screen.

By going to a virtual conference on Saturday, July 25, 2020, we were fortunate to be able to ask authors to participate who might have found it difficult to attend in Columbia. They came to us from New England, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Oregon. 

Clockwise from upper right: Dana Kaye, John Floyd, Tara Laskowski, and Art Taylor
Photo by Kathryn Kathryn Prater Bomey, shared by Tara Laskowski

Our short story panel, all nominees and/or recipients of the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Macavity, and Thriller, were distinguished both as authors and editors and their advice was invaluable. John Floyd suggested that submitted stories might have an advantage for selection if they were shorter in length, contained humor, and had dialogue. Tara Laskowski said she began a story when she heard a character speaking because “if I hear the voice, I can get that person in trouble.” (John indicated that he always began with plot.) Art Taylor found short stories great vehicles for experimenting with different structures. All three authors gave a template (preferred terminology over “rules”) for approaching a short story: (1) start with a change in circumstances (John); (2) only hint at backstory (Art) or reveal it through dialogue (John); and (3) leave more open at the end (Tara).

Dana Kaye and Charlaine Harris
Photo by Tara Laskowski

Charlaine Harris gave the keynote, which she called Mystery Writers are Always Hot! “Because they are,” she told the listeners. Her most remembered line was “your responsibility is the written word.” She gave some really important advice: (1) dare yourself to do what you find uncomfortable; (2) the real detective work of writing is finding the kink in the hose and fixing it; (3) take the challenge of writing the book in your heart rather than the one you’ve read before; and (4) writers are peers so don’t get caught up in competition. She graciously took questions. By the end of the session, the comments in the chat line indicated that the audience wanted to package Charlaine’s infectious laughter and enthusiastic inspiration for future encouragement.

The talented paranormal panel featured Alexia Gordon (who writes about a musician confronting an Irish ghost), Toni L.P. Kelner (whose protagonist, Sid, is a skeleton), and Gigi Pandian (whose alchemist Zoe is aided by a living gargoyle). Toni pointed out both actual and paranormal writing centered on world-building. She found herself fascinated by motive and tried to use it in different ways with each work. Alexia advocated finding a writing method that worked and sticking with it. She created rules for how the paranormal elements operated and always made sure that the detective had to solve the crime instead of the ghost mysteriously providing the answer. Gigi spoke about how looking at story structure through the screenwriting or cinematic process had been helpful to her, but admitted despite planning before writing, she was wrong about the bad guy every time.

 In the third panel, Dana Cameron, Jeffrey Deaver, and Charlaine Harris discussed their experiences in seeing their novels converted to the screen. They each had interesting anecdotes about contractual situations and experiences on the set. They agreed that series or movies based on novels became great advertising for the authors’ writing. Jeffrey said he had been influenced as much by movies as books so his work was cinematic in structure. Charlaine found her life had been enriched by televised versions of her books, which placed her in unique situations she otherwise would not have known.

Dana described her first day on the set, being unsure if it might be an elaborate joke played by her friends Charlaine and Toni, until she saw the Maine flag had been raised over a Canadian police station where the filming took place. That change in flags convinced Dana it was real.

Dana Kaye expertly moderated the panels, dealing effortlessly with technical glitches. At one point when Charlaine could not hear her questions, Dana wrote them out on a large white board, which Charlaine could see, but not the audience. The only reason I know is that Dana showed the board to Debra Goldstein and me during a break.

BTW, if you ever need a partner in crime (or crime fiction programing) seek out Debra Goldstein. She is truly an asset and fount of wisdom.

We’re particularly delighted that, with support from our sponsoring organizations, our chapters could offer Mystery in the Midlands free of charge. We’re over the moon that we’ve had more than 900 register to view the program or see its replays.

Thank you so much to all our wonderful speakers and viewers!

If you would like to see the virtual Mystery in the Midlands, here’s a link to access the program:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/mystery-in-the-midlands

Have you enjoyed a virtual writing conference this year?