Manners by Nancy L. Eady

I go on breakfast “kicks” where I gladly eat the same thing for breakfast every day for months or years, until whatever fast food place discontinues the particular breakfast food I like or we move and the fast food place I have been going to is no longer near me. When you go to the same  drive-thru around the same time five days a week, you get to know the people serving you at the window. 

For example, when my daughter was little, we went through the same Burger King for three years, until we moved and changed school systems. Even now, Debra, the cashier who has worked the breakfast/lunch register there since 2005, recognizes me when I show up, even though it’s been years since we lived in the area. It’s a fun reunion these days when I’m in the area and go through the drive-thru at the right time. 

My current relationship is with a nearby Wendy’s. Someone new was working the window the other day, and when I pulled up, she asked me how I was.  I answered, “Fine. How are you?” This, to me, is just good manners. However, it does not seem to be standard operating procedure for many Wendy’s customers, because the young lady thanked me for asking, noting that most people just answer her question and don’t ask their own. Today, when I went through the  drive-thru, the same young lady rang up my order and it cost less than normal. Not wanting to cheat anyone, I asked her about it, and she told me she didn’t charge me for my drink. I thanked her, and then she added that I came through every day, I always was nice to her, and she appreciated it. That remark shook me; there’s no reason not to be polite to the person serving you at the fast food window. 

I have noticed a decline in basic manners over the years. I was taught that when someone says “Thank you,” the correct answer is “You’re welcome.” Now it’s one of the things I use to rank fast food places; it is the rare window where I receive a “You’re welcome.” Even the “thank you” is getting farther and fewer between. (For those of you who think I may have an over developed relationship with fast food, that is a blog post for another day!) 

Check-out clerks in stores and waiters in restaurants also are not overwhelmed with daily kindnesses. My husband and I make a point of remembering a server’s name and thanking them, by name, for the things they do for us; this small courtesy makes their faces light up. I feel good for brightening their day, but I feel sad to realize so few people do so. 

These courtesies matter because they convince people I am seeing them, not the uniform they are wearing or the service they are providing. Everyone wants to know that they matter, that they are recognized as a person, not just a position. When we see the position, not the person, we are disengaging the observation functions of our brain to lighten the mental effort a particular task involves. In doing so, we miss the chance to connect. 

In writing, however, encouraging people to see the position not the person might be helpful, especially when the writer is trying to conceal the identity of the killer. I’m interested to know what you think. 

And please, take the time to wish the next sales clerk, fast food server or other service person you encounter a good day. A little kindness can go a long way. 

Vanity Plates by Nancy L. Eady

When I was a young attorney, one of my mentors told me that a good question to put on every juror questionnaire (in those courts where they’re allowed) is “Does the juror have a bumper sticker on the car and if so, what is it about?” The reason, he told me, was that someone had to believe strongly in something to be willing to slap a bumper sticker about it on their car. I suspect that’s even truer about vanity license plates (some of you may call them personalized plates.) 

I have a love/hate relationship with them. I’ve never understood the attraction; why pick a license plate that will make it easy for the police or other drivers you might irritate to remember who you are? On the other hand, I’m always intrigued to figure out the hidden message the owner wants to convey in seven symbols at seventy miles an hour. 

Mark had his third surgery on his knee last week. This time it was a “complete revision.” That means they took out the new knee from December and replaced it with a different one less prone to infection. He spent four days in the hospital, and I wound up spending more time than usual either in the parking garage at the hospital or on the road, so I started writing down some of the vanity plates that caught my eye. 

SOROR is an old friend. She (I think of the owner as “she” because I think SOROR stands for sorority) parks on the parking row ahead of me, which is on a hill above my car, so I see SOROR almost every day. The plate hangs out on a nifty white two-door Mercedes Benz convertible. 

Some plates are easy to figure out. CMEFLY probably wasn’t the smartest choice if you don’t want the police to notice you if you’re speeding. I did wonder who VNGNCE has it in for, and whether JCB IV stands for JCB’s fourth car, or whether JCB is the fourth JCB. Football fans have their fair share of plates, too; those of us familiar with the SEC can figure out GODOGS on the special Georgia license plates that State of Alabama offers for purchase, and MES4UA on the compatible University of Alabama plates is self-explanatory. 

TIPP RN was halfway hard – I guessed that TIPP is a nurse, but I can’t figure out what TIPP might stand for. All I can think of is “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” and I’m 99.99% sure that’s NOT what the real TIPP is thinking about. 4DABOYS is enigmatic; I get that it means “for the boys,” but is the car for the boys of the family to use, and if so, what do the girls get to drive? Or does it mean something else?

Others were more obscure, including 58ANUMY, JILARU, GPS865, A1HDHM and RYBKA3. I’d appreciate any thoughts on those you care to share.  

Have you ever thought about using a vanity plate as a tool to help paint the portrait of a character? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done, but like a bumper sticker — only more expensive—the vanity plates tell the viewer what the owner of the plate cares about. 

Killer Questions - Who in Your Latest Book Surprised You Most ... Why?

Killer Questions – Who in Your Latest Book Surprised You Most ... Why?

Part of writing a book is creating characters. No matter what an author plans, there are times that the writers is surprised by a character. We thought it would be fun to tell you about which character in our latest book surprised each of us most – and why. 

Teresa Inge - How quickly my protagonist, Lainey Gentry defends herself against the killer in “Main of Murder.” I love creating strong, female characters.  

Korina Moss - In Case of the Bleus, how Detective Heath reacted to my protagonist, Willa, at the end of the book surprised me. He’s always begrudgingly accepted her doing things her own way, but as I was writing the outcome this time, I realized this wasn’t something he could brush off. This time, her choices would come with consequences for their relationship.

K.M. Rockwood - I’ve been writing mostly short stories lately. In the one on which I am working now I was pleasantly surprised that the “villain,” the nephew of an elderly woman who had used the barn on her rural property as a meth lab, was fond of her and brought her fresh fish back when he was out in a small fishing boat on the Atlantic picking up shipments of drugs brought up from South America. He knew she liked the fish, and had a limited income, so he took the opportunity to actually fish and bring her some.

Shari Randall - Brandon Terwilliger, teenage ice cream creator and aspiring rock guitarist, started out as a rather shy guy, but now he has a girlfriend, Lucretia. Let's just say she's not the typical teenager. (No spoilers here!)

Nancy Eady - Several of my characters have surprised me by being problem children that require me to keep working with them until we both are happy with the result! 

Kait Carson - Mallory. She’s Hayden’s best friend and Hayden’s change of career created surprising conflict between the two.

Lisa Malice - Lest She Forget is a psychological thriller, which also meant I had to get into the mind of Felix, my narcissistic hitman out to kill my heroine. Making him a real, multidimensional character with a not-so-evil past, a treacherous present borne out of past mistakes, and a future beyond working for a boss he hates was challenging and fun.

Martha Reed - In “Up Jumped the Devil,” a character suddenly appeared on the page when I thought they were imaginary. 

Susan Van Kirk - In Death in a Bygone Hue, Jill Madison’s mentor, a man she revered, has a secret, a dark one that concerns Jill’s deceased mother. I was shocked when I realized this, and so was Jill. Since this mentor dies in chapter one, she’s going to have a heck of a time finding out if she misplaced her trust.

Mary Dutta - My latest short story centered on a bridesmaid. I was surprised by the lengths she would go to to give her friend a perfect wedding.

Marilyn Levinson - A teenager who just graduated high school named Albi Valdez surprised me. Albi asks Carrie, my sleuth, to help his troubled brother Tino, who is suspected of having murdered his two friends. Though Albi is the younger brother, he has been doing his best to look after his older brother. His taking care of Tino almost at the expense of his own future was a surprise to me. 

Margaret S. Hamilton - The victim, Joe Pye. Joe left clues in his sketchbooks and garden mural identifying the campus predator.

Heather Weidner - I’m a plotter, so I had outlined the killer and all the motivations before I started. However, when I got going on this one, the characters took over, and another killer with a much stronger motive appeared.

Annette Dashofy - In my latest release, Keep Your Family Close, I would have to say Eric, Emma’s friend from back home. I never intended for him to take over and be so funny.

Grace Topping - In Upstaged by Murder, Laura Bishop, my main character, receives a visit from someone presumed to be dead.

Sarah Burr - The killer! In two of the books I wrote this past year, I ended up changing the killer at the end. That’s never happened to me before, so I was completely taken aback by how the story evolved away from my outline.

Molly MacRae - Even though I dreamed him up, Emrys the ghost surprised me the most. I had no idea what a full “life” he’d made for himself after he died back in 1750.

Lori Roberts Herbst - Monika Schiff, the young rookie reporter who starts work at the Rock Creek Gazette. When I started with her, I expected her to play a small role, but she moved in and made herself a vital character, so much so that she'll be back in subsequent books.

Connie Berry - The killer—because it wasn’t at all the person I’d planned to pin it on.

James M. Jackson - Seamus's half-sister Colleen Carpetti, who, I now realize, could be a stone-cold killer if she weren't such a nice person.

Debra H. Goldstein – In Five Belles Too Many, I was surprised that two characters, who had become estranged, tentatively found each other again.

“Off the Page” with Elmo Simpson by The Wren (Sarah E. Burr)

A Note from Sarah: For this month’s post, I’m handing the blogging reins to Winnie Lark, the main character in my Book Blogger Mysteries. Winnie runs a popular bookish website called What Spine is Yours (think Metacritic for the literary world). However, she manages it anonymously, and the online community only knows her as “The Wren.” She often interviews guest authors through their characters, and that’s the focus of today’s feature. Enjoy!

Hi, everyone. The Wren, here. I’m delighted to be guest blogging for Writers Who Kill about a new mystery series debuting this fall. From best-selling author J.C. Kenney, Panic in the Panhandle arrives September 26 and is the first book in the Elmo Simpson Mysteries. For today’s feature, I’ve invited Elmo Simpson, the man himself, to participate in one of my “Off the Page” interviews. You’re going to have so much fun getting to know him!

Elmo, thanks so much for being here for “Off the Page.” Tell us about Paradise Springs. How did you find yourself in this little slice of panhandle paradise?

First off, thanks for inviting me to chat with you, Wren! Paradise Springs is a funky little coastal town on the Florida Panhandle. I tell people looking for it to take a right at Panama City, and if you get to Pensacola, you’ve gone too far. The town’s filled with more oddballs, ne’er-do-wells, and misfits than any place I’ve ever heard of. And that’s a good thing! I arrived in the Springs a little over a decade ago. In my former life, I worked in software design. It was a good career until I ended up in the hospital because of all the stress that came with it. In response, I quit my job, sold my house and belongings, and took off in my truck to find a new life where the good times were numerous and the stressors were few. That place turned out to be Paradise Springs, Florida, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else now.

That’s amazing! Good for you, Elmo. Putting your passions and interests first is such an important life lesson—definitely one I can relate to. So, what led you to become an animal removal specialist? That’s a pretty unique career!

It was totally by accident. A friend of mine, Seven Banderas, knew someone who was being bothered by chipmunks burrowing under their house. I love animals and I’d had some experience dealing with the little critters in my old life, so I volunteered to trap and then release them back into the wild. Well, I got the rodents corralled and moved with a minimum of fuss, and one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I was getting calls from people who needed help from Elmo, the critter guy. I rolled with it, and Elmo’s Critter Removal Service was born.

Number one, I love the name Seven. I can’t wait to learn more about them! Number two, it shows how much the people of Paradise Springs have come to rely on you. Do you have a favorite animal to work with?

Bats. A lot of people are freaked out by them, but I love them. I mean, come on, they eat mosquitoes. How great is that? Like pretty much all wild animals, they can be tricky to catch and rehome safely, but it’s always a thrill watching them fly away when I’ve released them.

I’ll admit I’m one of those folks who gets queasy around bats, but after you’ve described them so kindly, I need to reevaluate my opinions! It’s clear from your line of work that you have to be pretty brave going into unknown situations against unknown opponents. So, how did you end up involved in a murder investigation?

I owed a buddy, Rambo Quigley, a favor and he told me it was time to pay up. Seriously, he showed me a kindness my first night in Paradise Springs. When I asked how I could repay him, he laughed and said I could return the favor someday. Well, that day arrived when an alligator was found at the scene of Fran Cohen’s murder. Rambo’s a gator rancher, you see. One thing led to another, and since he and Cohen had gotten into a heated argument about a land development scheme, Rambo was accused of committing the murder. That’s when he called me. I’ve got some amazing friends in the Springs that I’d do pretty much anything for. Rambo’s one of them, so when he said he needed my help, I jumped into action. Well, that’s not quite true. First, I panicked and said I knew nothing about conducting a murder investigation. Then, I remembered that I’d made a promise and got to work.

I didn’t even know a “gator rancher” existed before meeting you and your friends. You learn something new every day, right? You’ve already mentioned a few folks readers will meet in Paradise Springs. Who else do we get the pleasure of meeting? Are you a solo investigator, or do you have a crime-solving crew?

I’m happy to say that I do, in fact, have a crew. First, there’s my girlfriend, Nicola Beecham. She’s fearless and loves an adventure, so when I needed to talk to a suspect who I was afraid of because he might be a vampire, Nic rode shotgun with me. She’s the ultimate partner-in-crime-solving. There’s also Wendell Banderas, who runs the Rip Tide Bar and Grill. Wendell’s been around the block and is always ready with good advice. Earlier, I mentioned Wendell’s daughter, Seven (that’s her nickname, by the way). She’s another part of my crew. She tells it like it is, whether I like what she has to say or not. She’s in her twenties, so she knows the younger crowd in the area. That comes in handy when talking about suspects. Then there’s Rambo, of course. He can get a little emotional at times, but the guy knows everyone within a hundred miles. If anyone’s tuned to the Springs Signal, our version of the rumor mill, it’s him.  

I appreciate how you casually mentioned you interviewed a vampire. Paradise Springs truly sounds like a happening kind of place. Can you share one exciting adventure you had while investigating?

You know how I told you Nic is fearless? There was one night she and I kind of broke into the condo where Fran Cohen was murdered. And by broke into, I mean that I had a keycard to enter the place thanks to my critter removal business, but we still weren’t supposed to be there. Anyway, we were busy looking for clues when we were confronted by a guy pointing an automatic rifle at us. Thanks to some fast talking, we got out of there unscathed. I’d rather not be on the business end of one of those things ever again, though.

Yikes! Does this mean your crime-fighting days are over?

While I hope so, I can’t make any promises. In a town filled with as many eccentrics and people running from their pasts, you never know what the next day will bring. I can promise you that if a friend ever finds themselves in need, I’ll be there to answer the call. That goes for both removing critters and for solving murders.

It sounds like you’re the guy to call! It’s been a blast getting to learn more about you and your new mystery-solving adventure, Elmo. Thanks so much for taking the time to come “Off the Page” with me. Happy Sleuthing! ~ The Wren

 

Panic in the Panhandle debuts on September 26 at your favorite online retailer. Preorder here to join Elmo Simpson in his first mystery.

Learn more about The Wren, Winnie, and the Book Blogger Mysteries at www.saraheburr.com.

A TOUGH LESSON ABOUT SERIES CHARACTERS

By Korina Moss

I love writing the Cheese Shop Mystery series. Having more than one book allows me to keep the mystery at the forefront, while also growing my characters and their relationships. As the series progresses, I also get to introduce readers to more people and places in my fictional Sonoma Valley town of Yarrow Glen. I love populating Yarrow Glen with new shops and fun side characters. However, this is where it gets tricky. 

Those who have been reading my series from the beginning know my core four characters who make up the Team Cheese sleuthing group: my cheesemonger/cheese shop owner protagonist, Willa; her best friend and neighbor, Baz; and her Curds & Whey cheese shop crew, Archie and Mrs. Schultz. They appear in every book. When new characters and possible suspects are introduced with each book, some of them stick around as “regulars”: Roman from the Meadery, the octogenarian Melon sisters, Lou from the market and his dad, Cyrus (who Daisy Melon has the hots for), Sharice and Ginger from the used bookstore, Hope from the bakery… and on and on. Most of these characters played an important role in the plot in whichever book they were first introduced, but I like to bring them back in subsequent books so the town feels alive and real. 

While this might be great for series readers who’ve been slowly introduced to more and more side characters with each book, for a reader whose first introduction to my series is, for example, Case of the Bleus (book 4), each character is a brand-new person they have to visualize, remember, and understand how they’re connected to the others. It’s easy for a TV series (think Gilmore Girls) to throw in your favorites for a scene or two, but in a book, a reader can get confused or frustrated by too many characters.

This especially became an issue when I was writing book 5, Fondue or Die. This is the first book which primarily takes place outside of Yarrow Glen. For reasons having to do with the plot and progressing Willa’s complicated relationship with Detective Heath, I had to set the murder somewhere outside Heath’s jurisdiction. Hence, I came up with the Dairy Days festival in Lockwood, an adjacent town to Yarrow Glen. Willa and Archie have a cheese booth at the festival, and handyman Baz and Mrs. Schultz, with her background in teaching drama, are helping with the Miss Dairy pageant—the focus of the murder mystery. 

As I was outlining the book, this setup worked great. I had my victim and the six suspects, and all four Team Cheese members had reason to be at Dairy Days. But I also had new peripheral characters from Lockwood, pageant characters, plus a new chief of police. Uh oh, the character list was already bulging at the seams! When I started to sprinkle in our Yarrow Glen regulars who were attending the festival, well, my list pretty much burst. It wasn’t until after I finished writing the book that I fully realized it would be way too many characters for readers to keep track of. 

A lot of writers enjoy “killing off their darlings.” Luckily, none of my beloved regulars ever get killed off, but I did have to get tough with who made the cut for Fondue or Die. It all came down to whether they were essential to advancing the plot. Of course, all four members of Team Cheese are there. Detective Heath and Shep help out, as does A. J., the editor of the Glen Gazette. And I introduce a new Yarrow Glen shopkeeper and another character who might become a regular. (I can’t help myself!) It was tough to do, but it streamlined the mystery, concentrated on our Team Cheese sleuthing group, and gave Detective Heath more time on the page (and with Willa) than he’s ever had before. Overall, it was definitely necessary and made for a better book.

As I’m writing book 6, we’re back in Yarrow Glen, and I’ve brought in some important people from Willa’s past. Of course, there’s a murder and new characters who become suspects. I think it’s inevitable for your character list to grow with the number of books in your series. I’m keeping an eye on how many characters make an appearance in this one, so I can make the changes as I’m drafting it instead of after the book is written. Being ruthless about which ones get a place in each book is still hard for me. (I love the folks in Yarrow Glen!) But I know it’s a necessary lesson learned. 

Readers: Are you disappointed when your personal favorites from a series are omitted in some of the books? Writers: Have you had to wrestle with too many characters? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. To learn more, visit her website korinamossauthor.com. 

Clothes Make the Character by Mary Dutta

I always err on the side of sequins.

In the last month, I’ve had three events—a wedding, an awards banquet, and a black-tie gala—that required dressing up. For me, such special occasions mean wearing something sparkly. That confluence of festive occasions got me thinking about clothes, the choices we make for ourselves, and those we as writers make for our characters.

Variations of “clothes make the man” date back to classical times. Do my sparkling ensembles reflect my sparkling personality? Or a need for some sartorial pizzazz to compensate for the lack of one? What about those forgoing the bling? Are they understated? Or undercover? What does it say about a character if he wears a Rolex? What if he’s wearing a fake one? How does a character feel about being overdressed or underdressed compared to the people around them?

Clothing can provide a useful shorthand in our writing. For instance, in my story “The Wonderworker,” one character expresses her New England preppiness through penny loafers and a lightship basket purse. In “Devil’s Advocate,” the protagonist dreams of wearing a polo with the logo of the golf club he longs to join. And in the forthcoming “Deceit by Design,” nautical-themed attire pegs a woman as a cruise passenger.

Some famous fictional detectives have their own trademark clothes, of course, like Sherlock Holmes’s deerstalker hat, or the hard-boiled detective’s trench coat and fedora. But clothing conventions for the rest of us shift over time. My sequins remain inappropriate for a funeral, but I remember when you couldn’t wear black to a wedding. And my mother only wore white between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Those latter fashion choices are no longer faux pas.

Our writing needs to stay current with those cultural markers or we’ve wasted an opportunity to convey a lot about a character with a small detail about what they’re wearing. Style is both a public statement and a very personal thing. Even better, it’s an unlimited resource for writers.

How much do you notice what characters are wearing? And how much do you use clothing to indicate character?

 

The Development of Character by Kris Neri

The worst day of school for me when I was a kid? Had to be the first. Sure, it was fun to see friends again and wear a new outfit. But the first day of school was also when we were invariably assigned to write an essay on “My Summer Vacation.” My family never took vacations. Never. Now I see that to be a minor part of our dysfunction. But then? The embarrassment overwhelmed me. I desperately longed to be more like other people, whatever I thought that meant, but I considered myself hopelessly odd.

 

For a few years I faked my way through descriptions of fictitious trips, always hoping nobody spotted my lies. Then, one year, I decided if I was going to lie, I should lie big. That year I wrote about my family’s vacation trip to the rings of Saturn, fleshing it all out with pure imagination. Did my teacher appreciate my creativity? She did not. She put me outside in the hall to “think about what you did.”

 

What I did? Are you kidding? I wrote a sci fi story! That day in the hall I came to two realizations that continued to develop over many years: 1) I really did march to the beat of a pretty out-there drummer. But I wasn’t odd, as I’d always regarded myself. I was quirky. I was, creative. And, 2) I came to see eccentric people as the most interesting.

Since then I’ve made a career out of writing about one eccentric character after another. 

 

The absolute quirkiest character I’ve ever created has to be Plum Tardy, the protagonist of my latest crime-women’s fiction crossover, Hopscotch Life. In her own words: Plum sometimes wondered if everyone else had received a rulebook at birth, complete with guidelines for every eventuality, which guaranteed a successful life. She knew that she not only hadn’t gotten one, she couldn’t even imagine how it might read.

 

Poor Plum. Between being saddled with a goofy name, to the way she misquotes adages, to her off-beat style of dress, rather than move in lockstep toward successes like more conventional people, naturally, Plum erratically leaps through life as if it were some giant hopscotch court.

 

Still, that doesn’t explain the startling way her life unravels. Plum catches her fiancé Noah Rowle cheating with a coworker. Together Noah and the other woman are pursuing a real estate deal designed to allow the soul-sucking Budget-Mart chain to gobble up blocks of land across the country. Thinking her life couldn’t get any worse, Plum also learns Noah stole money from her. Desperate to flee, she stumbles onto a bag of cash. Assuming that to be the booty Noah took, and believing it to be rightfully her own, Plum runs off with it.

 

She heads toward a destination that’s just a name on a map. There, she finds an unorthodox town that needs someone exactly like her. In one crazy leap, she not only makes that place her home, she thinks she’s hit on a way to stop to Noah’s land score.

 

Too bad what she took wasn’t actually her money. While Plum tries to help her new town halt the steamroller of progress, even with her unconventional perspective, she could not have predicted the way her past would collide with her present. Will her offbeat approach save her, or land her in behind bars in hopscotch hell?

 

Midwest Book Review has described Hopscotch Life as: “Showcasing a genuine flair for originality and the kind of deftly crafted narrative storytelling that keeps the fully engaged attention of the reader from first page to last…”

 

Personally, I still think quirky people rule. But then, you’d expect me say that.

 

Bio:

Kris Neri’s latest novel, Hopscotch Life, was a recent New Mexico-Arizona Book Award winner. She also writes the Tracy Eaton mysteries, featuring the daughter of eccentric Hollywood stars, the Samantha Brennan & Annabelle Haggerty magical series, which feature a questionable psychic who teams up with a modern Celtic goddess-FBI agent.

Her novels have been honored by such prestigious awards as: the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Lefty, and New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. She is a three-time Lefty nominee for her humor, and a four-time New Mexico-Arizona Book Award winner for her own novels, as well as books to which she’s contributed. Kris also teaches writing for the prestigious Writers’ Program of the UCLA Extension School and the Sisters in Crime Guppy chapter. She makes her home in the funky town of Silver City, NM, where she lives with her husband and two pushy terriers.

Casting Characters with Pinterest Boards

By Meri Allen/Shari Randall

 

In Saturday’s post, Rosalie Spielman introduced you to some of the characters in her new book, WELCOME HOME TO MURDER. I thought it would be fun to introduce you to a few characters in my upcoming Ice Cream Shop Mystery, MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER, and show you the inspiration boards I used for them on Pinterest.

 

Confession: I’m a very untidy writer. Scrawls in notebooks, scraps of paper, pages torn from glossy magazines, Post it notes, cryptically named computer files (“book ideas” – note to self, be more specific) are part of my process. Pinterest has proven to be a good help in keeping my characters, or at least their appearances, straight.

 

As is true of any social media, Pinterest is a blessing and a curse. It’s a time sink. Start scrolling through the unending stream of images there and you’ll see what I mean. When I decided that I wanted a fantasy ice cream social in MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER, I went down the Pinterest rabbit hole and emerged two hours later with dozens of photos and an appreciation for the artists who use ice cream as their medium. Ice cream tacos? Thai rolled ice cream? All-black charcoal ice cream? Gelato roses? It’s all there, and a lot of it went into the book (and my stomach).

 

Look at that ice cream!

Here are a few of the inspiration boards I used as I cast my characters for the Ice Cream Shop Mysteries.

For me, Courtney Cox has always been my vision of my main character, librarian turned ice cream shop manager Riley Rhodes. She’s attractive, intelligent, down to earth, a girl next door type, friendly and open, but with an air of reserve. 

Penniman’s handsome veterinarian, Dr. Liam Paul? In a perfect world, he’d be played by Idris Elba.

Katie Kadan, who vaulted to fame on The Voice, is my model for Riley’s frenemy sidekick, the “loosest lips in Penniman,” police department secretary, Tillie O’Malley.

Riley’s best friend, Caroline Spooner, would be played by Flashdance era Jennifer Beals. Those warm brown eyes and wonderful waterfall of hair are just what I pictured for shy but strong-willed Caroline. I don’t have her picture on the board because I have her so strongly in mind. 

No spoilers, but if you’re wondering why Sam Elliott and Ed Sheeran are on the boards, they are the models for characters in Book One, THE ROCKY ROAD TO RUIN. 

In MINT CHOCOLATE MURDER, Riley is invited to create treats for a fantasy ice cream social at Moy Mull, a castle built in the early 1900s by a Scotland-mad Penniman industrialist. The castle, modeled on Connecticut’s own Gillette’s Castle, is now the home of reclusive former supermodel Maud Monaco. I had groundbreaking supermodel Beverly Johnson in mind as I wrote the character, but several beta readers have told me that they thought the character was based on Meghan Markle (for reasons you’ll discover in the book – no spoilers here!)

 The colorful lanterns were decoration for the party.

The handsome dark-haired guy? Again no spoilers, but he’s trouble.

 

The cats? The spunky little black cat with a clipped ear is Rocky, Riley’s rescue. The white fluffy Persian is Sprinkles, a former show cat with the disposition of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. I had no idea how much fun it would be to write feline characters!

If you'd like to see more idea boards, you can check them out on Pinterest @sharirandallwrites.

 

Writers, how do you keep track of your characters’ appearance?

Readers, do you use Pinterest?

Shari Randall writes the Ice Cream Shop Mystery series as Meri Allen. As Shari Randall, she writes the Lobster Shack Mystery series and has written short stories in the Destination Murders and Chesapeake Crimes series. 

Ever notice . . .?

 By James M. Jackson

One thing I find fascinating is discovering what other people notice. When I walk with friends in the woods, I am most attuned to flying things: birds, butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, and recently, different species of bees. I notice bird calls and catch glimpses of them flitting between trees or soaring above us. Lower to the ground, I spot butterflies sampling the nectar from flowers, and as I look closer, I notice a variety of bees (and start thinking I really should buy a good bee field guide). I cheer on the dragonflies and their cousins the damselflies as they clear the air of smaller insects—particularly mosquitoes.

Hunting friends often point to tracks I don’t notice until they show them to me. They recognize small smudges in mud and disturbances of downed leaves as clues to who has wandered by since we were last there.

On a walk with a botanist friend, she identified plants I had scarcely noticed and speculated on what had transpired to allow that plant to exist in its space. (A dying tree here provided nourishment; a slight depression there gathered more water than surrounding areas; a log skidder compressed the soil, preventing this and allowing that.)

One friend spots interesting rocks; another homes in on blueberry and raspberry plants with edible fruit. Even if I were looking for cool rocks or trying to fill my bucket with wild berries, they will find things I walked past.

Walking a city street, one of us notices everyone’s clothing. Another catches all the advertisements. A third notices building materials. A fourth characterizes strangers based on the way they walk, or tilt their heads, or make or avoid eye contact. One friend takes galumphing steps and never trips over roots or cracked sidewalks, while another stumbles over everything as they shuffle along, their feet never more than a micrometer or two above the ground (or so it seems).

We each see the world differently. Skilled authors use these differences to make their characters come alive. What do you notice that others don’t? What do you wish you would pay closer attention to?

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. Furthermore, a novella is the most recent addition to the series. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

On Writing by Kait Carson

 

The five cornerstones of writing are who, what, where, when, and why. Every story, short or long, must answer those questions. Omit one and the story fails to satisfy. Address only those five questions and the story will have bones, but no heart. Heart comes from drawing the reader in and making them care. If your reader sees, hears, tastes, smells, and touches your scenes and story elements, they become an active participant. It’s what encourages them to turn the pages until the end.

 

Taped to the flat of my laptop are two post-it-notes. One has passwords for frequently visited sites, the other reads: Sensory Elements. That one is written in red caps. When I first began writing, I was so busy telling the story that I forgot to let the reader experience the story. This reminder post-it-note has gone from laptop to laptop until it’s nearly worn thin. I’m not sure I need it anymore, but writers are a superstitious crowd. I’m petrified I’ll neglect the obvious if I dispose of it.

 

The mantra of add sensory elements has followed me for so long that I’d forgotten when and where I happened upon it. A recent post by Kate Flora on Maine Crime Writers reminded me. I’d read her original teaching post a number of years ago and attempted all of the exercises. The hardest, and most valuable, for me was describing something five ways each time using only one of the five senses. Now, when I have a scene that seems flat, I consider the five senses and seek one sensory element that sets the scene apart.

 

My characters live in the Florida Keys. Heat bakes skin, breezes bring tangy whiffs of salt and seaweed, rain pounds and bounces from the pavement striking the skin like tiny knives, lightning smells of ozone and raises fine hairs on the body, fall morning air has the taste of a hearty burgundy wine, sand crunches underfoot, the noon sky darkens to midnight black in advance of an approaching storm. These descriptions help the reader participate in the story, and hopefully whet the appetite for more after the current tale ends.

 

Readers and writers, what brings you into a story and makes you want more?

Do You Believe It By Kait Carson

Fiction writers in general and mystery writers in particular ask their readers to suspend disbelief and enter into the story world of their characters. Why mystery writers in particular? Well, unless you’re writing true crime, chances are those body drops are unlikely to happen in the real world. Craig Johnson, who writes the Longmire series, has confessed that he sets every other book away from fictional Absaroka County because, ‘what are the odds that in the least populated county in the least populated state’, the sheriff is tripping over enough bodies to populate a long-running series?[1]

 

Cozy and traditional mystery writers face the same dilemma. At least Longmire is a sheriff. His job is to trip over bodies. But what about your average pastry chef, restauranteur, or librarian? There’s not much chance realistically they will cross paths with the deceased on a regular basis, much less successfully pursue the killer without the help of the police. What’s a writer to do? Make a pact with the reader, of course. If the reader will suspend disbelief long enough to buy into the premise, the writer will deliver a fun and suspenseful story within the parameters of an altered reality. Everyone benefits.

 

This is a double-edged sword when the writer is successfully writing a long-term series. Authors solve it differently. Readers expect body drops in mysteries and kindly overlook the death toll in small towns. Although it’s uncertain if they would consider moving to say, Cabot Cove, ME, where newcomers have a better than even chance of ending up dead. Amateur sleuths give readers an opportunity to exercise their own powers of observation, deduction, and induction. What should be unbelievable, in the hands of a skilled writer who deftly plants clues, becomes logical and believable as the reader and the sleuth partner throughout the book.

 

Character lifespan is the second, sharp side of a long-running successful series. People age. Protagonist’s age. Sue Grafton handled this by having her character, Kinsey Millhone age by weeks rather than years. Over the course of 25 books, Kinsey aged very little. This required the author to dial back technology, but it worked because it was true to the story. Tie something in your character’s life to a date certain event, and, if you are lucky enough to find success, you may have created a problem.

 

P.D. James aged Adam Dalgleish realistically. He advanced in his profession and in his external wealth trappings on pace with the span of years the books cover. Other novelists, whom I will not name here were not so prescient. One introduced a character with memories that began in WWII during the blitz. Based on the storyline, he would be 85 now. A bit long in the tooth for his job. Likewise, another character is identified by service in Viet Nam. Those of us old enough to have been around during that war recognize by the battle dates that the character would be 77 in story years. What are the odds this character is continuing to believably put himself in the path of speeding bullets?

What’s the solution? Frankly, I hope I have the problem someday. As I currently don’t, perhaps I can hazard two suggestions as a reader. First and always, write well enough that readers want to participate in the story and suspend disbelief. Second, hedge your bets. Be nebulous. Don’t tie characters to a specific, easily datable, timeline. That way they can grow in story time and not require any suspension of disbelief.

 

Readers, do you mentally age characters based on events in the books?

Writers, how do you handle character aging?

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[1] Conversation with Craig Johnson in Depth of Winter – statement paraphrased for brevity.

Communing With Your Characters By Shea E. Butler

I am relatively new to the publishing world, having been published for the first time in the November 2019 issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine (a short story titled “Giving Up The Ghost”). Since then, I’ve had short stories published three more times, twice in anthologies and again in Mystery Weekly Magazine (as Sally Field once said, “You like me.”) But I’ve also sold several television scripts, written several feature film scripts and a comic book. They are all vastly different animals in terms of format and structure, as well as character and story arcs. One thing they do have in common, however, is that they all have characters who talked to me.

What, you may ask, do I mean by that? Exactly what I said. They all have characters who talked to me. Creating interesting, multi-faceted characters who are each unique, well-rounded individuals, and who speak and act like real people, is hard. Okay, let’s be real. Writing is hard. But writing great characters that engage your readers is especially hard. We all have our own way of creating those characters and keeping them within their story line and doing what you want (and need) them to do to move the plot and story forward. But they don’t always do what you want them to do. At least, mine don’t, and I have some lively conversations with them trying to convince them to do so.

Do you commune with your characters? I do. In fact, it isn’t until I do start communing with them, whether via a dream, talking out loud with or shouting at them, free form writing or daydreaming about them and what they’d do or say, that I feel like they are really coming alive and popping.

I will freely admit that I’ve gotten some strange looks as I’ve communed with my various characters. Like the time I was sitting by myself at Starbucks writing and having a very lively argument with one of my characters. Out loud, no less. I was totally engrossed in my conversation and unaware of the odd looks thrown my way. Finally, one of the other patrons asked me if I was okay. I was a bit impatient as my conversation with my character had been interrupted. I hurriedly said I was fine and went back to my conversation. Yes, I do tend to be stubborn. I wanted to win that argument with my character. After all, I had created him. But the concerned and genuinely nice patron wasn’t going anywhere. However, as soon as I explained that I was a writer and that I had an ornery character who was insistent that he wouldn’t fall in love with the woman I plotted out for him to fall in love with (Nick told me he had a crush on the guy who lived in the apartment across the hall from him), the worried look left the woman’s face and she burst out laughing. Seemed that she, too, was a writer and totally understood. In fact, thanks to my more-stubborn-than-me (yup, I lost that argument thankfully) character, not only was a new plot line developed for my story, a wonderful friendship was born.

Just like we’re told to have pen and paper next to our beds so we can write down our dreams when we wake up, I use said pen and paper to write down the conversations I have with my characters when I dream about them and the various situations I put them in. I do the same in the car for those times I’m stuck in L.A. traffic and my imagination wanders into the world of my newest story. Helpful to have when my characters start communing with me about what they’d say or not say and what they’d do or not do. I believe (okay, hope) that the drivers next to me think I’m singing along to the radio and not talking to myself. If not, perhaps I’ll make another new friend!

Sometimes, while riding my horse, my mind will also wander into the world of my most current story. My characters will pop up and start going on tangents, straying from their well-thought-out story arcs. Some good (like my character Nick’s new romance), some bad. Riding a horse in the middle of Griffith Park is not conducive to writing down new ideas for your story or dialogue for a character. But not being able to jot down the essence and specifics of an idea or the snappy dialogue your character just gifted you with, is the pits. So, if you see a woman riding a horse in Griffith Park and dictating into her phone a plot point or some spiffy dialogue her character insisted upon, that’d be me. Handy little tool, that cell phone.

I love it when my characters begin talking to me. That’s when that little sizzle of excitement starts tickling my tummy and I know that I’m cooking. I know that all my hard work and laborious plotting and character development is working. I know that I’m racing around the back stretch and the finish line is just around the corner. That’s when the fun really starts.

Do your characters talk to you as you write? I’d love to hear how, when and where they do so. I am always curious about how other writers write, whether they are plotters or pantsers, outliners or freeformers, and I am especially curious about how other writers build and create their characters and bring them to life. Let me know.

Shea E. Butler is, at heart, a storyteller. She’s a storyteller in many different fields: a television writer, a published author and an award-winning director/writer/producer for her short films and web series. She was that kid who huddled under the covers after “lights out” reading a book by flashlight. Born in Cairo, Egypt to American parents living abroad, Shea currently divides her time between Vancouver and Los Angeles. Her love for traveling and exploring worlds and cultures, both past, present, and future, was ignited at a young age. Shea’s most awe-inspiring trip was a horseback riding safari through the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Nothing like being charged by two lions to get your creative juices flowing!

Shea is currently working on her first novel and has a short story appearing on the SHORTZ phone app (chat stories) at end of January called “9-1-1.”

Shea’s Website: www.thebutlerdiditproductions.com

Neon  Nights

Shea’s most recent published work is “Neon Nights,” a short story which explores the age-old question, does the end justify the means? A burnt out, big city detective now working in a small southern town, has to ask herself just that when a serial killer and the FBI come to town.  Sammi’s fractured, tough but vulnerable, having seen too much working the city streets, but she still wants to do the right thing. But what, exactly, is the right thing? “Neon Nights” was published in the September 2020 issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine (available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GV97SWV/)