Sleuths' Ink

THINGS I LEARNED FROM JANO by Stephanie Jarkins

2012-01-17T12:16:00.000-06:00

At the fourth week, pink dragons are just fine in my text as long as they are described well.
Have an outline, otherwise the pink dragons start killing off characters for no reason.
Writing is work! Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t written enough!
“Writers’ block” is an indulgence of the indolent.
When scenes are flowing a thousand words flies by; when it is all mucked up, a hundred words is a victory.
The highlighter tool is the most valuable one in my toolbar.
Different font colors for the different POVs has saved my hide more than once.
JANO isn’t the end of the world, I need my family and friends to keep my tenuous grip on so-called ‘reality.’
Perfectionism is the murderer of JANO. Just type it – d*mn it!
Have fun, it ain’t worth doin’ if I ain’t havin’ fun!

ARE YOU UP FOR JANO 2012?

2011-12-04T09:15:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to those of you who completed NaNoWriMo in November. It's no small task to complete a 50,000-word novel in a month. Our hats off to anyone who even attempted that daunting goal during a busy holiday season.

Sleuths' Ink, a mystery writers group in Springfield, Missouri created JANO two years ago. Several reasons why we decided that January is a perfect time to write a novel are listed below:

THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER!!!

YOU GET AN EXTRA DAY TO WRITE (There are 31 days in January)

YOU ONLY HAVE TO WRITE 1613 WORDS A DAY TO REACH YOUR 50,000-WORD GOAL!

WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GONNA DO DURING THE COLDEST MONTH OF THE YEAR!

YOU'LL HAVE A NOVEL READY TO EDIT FOR THOSE SPRING/SUMMER CONFERENCES THAT WILL BE SPRINGING (pun intended) UP!

For more information on the great prize categories we'll be offering, check our JANO 2012 page. We'll also be listing the sponsors as they appear.

Keep checking back for more updates on JANO 2012.
Hope you can join us.

Kim Luney From The Southwest Ghost Finders

2011-10-27T07:00:00.015-05:00

How did you become interested in hunting ghosts?

For as far back as I can remember I have had an interest in the paranormal. When we are kids we share ghost stories and weird experiences at sleepovers camp outs or gatherings. I found myself envious of those that had experiences, true or exaggerated, so if the places were in my neighborhood, I would go there. Every neighborhood has a rumored haunted house so I would go there often alone in hopes of having an experience. But sadly most often all I found was a ran down empty house I can’t say that I became interested a certain age, it just seems to have always been there.

Did something happen to spark your interest in the paranormal?

I would see pictures and hear stories of ghost and was immediately intrigued! One of my favorite shows growing up was unsolved mysteries with Robert Stack.

How long have you been doing this?

I have been a team founder and been part of an organized team for 5 years. But like I mentioned before I have been seeking ghosts off and on most of my life. Before I started with a team I would go to cemeteries with a recorder and camera in hand, I would also spend a lot of time online watching the live ghost cams of reported haunted locations in the hopes of seeing something.

What do your family members think of you doing this kind of investigation?

My family has a wide array of thoughts. My husband is non believer (yet it freaks him out to see or hear the evidence, he is a closet believer I think). My children’s thought vary greatly, But they are all supportive.

Have you ever brought a spirit home with you?

No I do not think so. We do small rituals to assure our safety many of us use prayer, but we also have a Wiccan who is on the team and she has own rituals. We have medallions such as crosses, Saint Medallions such St Michael.

What’s been the most haunted place you’ve investigated so far? Can you tell us what you found?

Wow this is a tough question. I have been to many great places it is hard to say which one is the best. Glore psychiatric Museum is a amazingly haunt place. Haunted Hilltop Manor in Des Moine Iowa is another place. A private residence in Pierce City that was a former court house, Jail house and fire house all in one! It was built in the 1800’s. We have had several EVP’s (electronic Voice Phenomena) and numerous personal experiences. For instance at Hilltop manor we were in the attic conducting a EVP session ( where we sit in a group and talk to the spirits and hope to get a response either in real time or on our recorders). I looked behind me and seen a creepy little doll seating there looking at me, so I turned it to face the wall. We had asked the spirits to give us a sign of their presence. We asked that the doll be turned back towards me as a sign of course as we watched nothing happened. Yet when we getting to our feet to leave it was noted the doll was turned to face me again. That was truly awesome!

Is there a place you’d like to visit, but haven’t yet?

I have always wanted to investigate a insane asylum. I believe that some people that is said to be crazy is actually being haunted.

http://southwestghostfinders.webs.com/

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW - B.K. Stevens

2011-09-22T08:20:00.000-05:00

“Write what you know”—next to “show, don’t tell,” that’s probably the advice writers hear most often. It can feel pretty limiting. What if you want to write a war novel, and you’ve never been to war? You can research battles and weapons, you can read soldiers’ memoirs, but can you really know how it feels to run forward as bullets fly past you or hurl a hand grenade at another human being? Can you describe those moments vividly enough to bring them alive for readers? Or should you forget the war novel and stick to writing novels about preparing tax returns, or persuading toddlers to try new vegetables, or doing whatever else you know best?

I don’t think so. I think that we can write what we don’t know, and that we don’t have to feel guilty about doing it. Some of the most distinguished fiction writers have done it, admitted it, and encouraged us to follow their examples.

For example, in his autobiography, Mark Twain says some of his characters are based on people he knew. His mother, for example, provided the model for Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly. In general, though, his knowledge of himself gives him the insight he needs into other people. “Broadly speaking,” Twain says, “we are all alike,” so he learns about others “by studying myself carefully and comparing myself with other people and noting the divergences.”

Is Twain right? If we write mysteries, can we use our understanding of ourselves even when we create killers? Well, the motives for murder definitely include anger and hurt, fear and frustration. We’ve all experienced those emotions; when we portray our murderers, we can start with those. If we also think about what Twain calls “divergences”—if we identify the qualities that keep us from acting on our more dangerous emotions—we can imagine a character without those qualities. That gives us our murderer—someone who’s like us in some ways, unlike us in at least one crucial respect.

Edith Wharton, author of such classics as Ethan Frome, makes a similar point in The Writing of Fiction. “As to experience,” she says, “the creative imagination can make a little go a long way, provided it remains long enough in the mind and is sufficiently brooded upon. One good heart-break will furnish the poet with many songs, and the novelist with a considerable number of novels. But they must have hearts that can break.” The crucial thing for writers, according to Wharton, isn’t experience itself. It’s more important to have emotional depth, “hearts that can break.” An emotionally stunted person couldn’t create characters readers can care about. But writers must also reflect on the emotions they’ve experienced. Only after we’ve “brooded upon” our experiences can we “make a little go a long way.”

Anthony Trollope, a highly successful Victorian novelist, also believes in making a little go a long way. To this day, his six novels centering on the clergymen of the fictional cathedral city of Barchester are probably his most popular works. In his Autobiography, Trollope says people often asked him what cathedral cities he’d lived in and how he’d become “so intimate” with clergymen and their ways. In fact, Trollope never lived in any cathedral city but London and had no close friendships with clergymen.

Instead, Trollope says, the characters in these novels were “the simple result of an effort of my moral consciousness”: “In writing about clergymen generally, I had to pick up as I went whatever I might know or pretend to know.” The first Barchester novel, he says, sprang from a desire to comment on social “ills” involving the clergy and the press. From this desire, combined with Trollope’s “moral consciousness” and his ability to pick up bits of knowledge (or pretended knowledge) came six novels still praised as classics of realistic fiction.

Today’s writers, too, can find ideas in the social “ills” they read about, and can use their “moral consciousness” to write about things they haven’t experienced. Like many others, I was both amused and appalled by two stories that came out late in 2009—the parents who pretended to fear their young son was aloft in a runaway balloon, and the couple who crashed a White House party. In both cases, apparently, the motive for misbehavior was the desire to get on reality shows. Since I write mysteries, I started wondering whether someone might actually commit murder to become a reality-show star. I came up with an idea for a novella involving a rising politician, a fading beauty queen, a slick gun lobbyist, an ambitious television reporter, a determined police detective.

It felt like a good plot, a good opportunity for humor and social satire. One problem—I don’t know any politicians or beauty queens, any lobbyists or reporters or detectives. I don’t even watch reality shows.

As an academic, though, I’ve known plenty of campus politicians. I’ve known people who cling to past glories, as my beauty queen does, people as smooth and unscrupulous as that lobbyist, as driven to get ahead as that reporter. As for the detective, I imagined what kind of cop my husband might’ve been if he’d chosen police work instead of academics. I tried to create a detective with his alert intelligence, his approach to analyzing people and situations, his sense of humor, his sturdy sense of decency. The resulting novella, One Shot, blends a little experience and observation with a fair amount of imagination. I don’t know if there really is a beauty queen like the one in my novella, a lobbyist like mine, a detective like mine. But I feel confident that there could be. Characters can be realistic even if they aren’t, strictly speaking, based on reality.

Henry James, the revered author of over twenty novels and novellas including Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw, also offers encouraging words to writers yearning to venture beyond the bounds of their experiences. In “The Art of Fiction,” James describes experience as a “huge spider-web” that can catch “every air-borne particle in its tissue.” Like the spider-web, an imaginative mind “takes to itself the faintest hints of life.” A true writer can convert those hints into compelling fiction.

To illustrate his point, James describes an unnamed English novelist who wrote a highly praised tale about young French Protestants; when, people asked her, had she observed her subjects closely enough to portray them so realistically? The novelist told James that she’d simply passed an open door in Paris once, and glimpsed some young French Protestants sitting around a table. “The glimpse made a picture,” James says. “It lasted only a moment, but that moment was an experience.” Writers don’t need much literal experience—not if they have active, fertile minds. The crucial thing, James says, is to “try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost!”

“Try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost”—has better advice ever been offered to writers? Some people can pass through all sorts of experiences without gaining significant insights into them, or having anything much to say about them. Other people can grasp at “the faintest hints of life” and use them to create characters and situations that go far beyond their own experiences.

I’ll mention a story of my own here, only because I think it shows how any writer can use the “faintest hints of life” to create a work of fiction. Several years ago, my husband and I had dinner at a less-than-great restaurant in Toledo, Ohio. Not far from us I noticed an elderly man wearing a baggy sweater, sitting alone at a table. The waitress brought him a martini and a glass of water, and he went through what looked like a ritual: Drink a sip of martini, replace it with a splash of water, take another sip of martini, add another splash of water—sip and splash, sip and splash, until both glasses were empty. The waitress then brought him soup, a roll, a basket of crackers. Slowly, he ate the soup and all the crackers, then wrapped the roll in a napkin and put it in his pocket. Next, the waitress brought him coffee and something wrapped up to go—a sandwich, maybe. He took a long time with the coffee. Twice, the waitress refilled his cup and paused to chat; once, someone who might’ve been the manager walked over to chat with him, too. When my husband and I left, the man was still sitting at his table, drinking coffee, eyes roaming hungrily over everyone in the restaurant.

Did glancing at that man from time to time for an hour or so qualify as an experience? Compared to traveling to India or pulling off a bank heist, it wasn’t much. During the weeks that followed, though, I couldn’t get that man out of my mind. Why did he stretch his meal out so long, and why did he take half his food home? Maybe he couldn’t really afford to eat at a restaurant, but felt so lonely that he couldn’t deny himself the small pleasure of being around people for a few hours. Maybe the roll would be his breakfast the next morning, and the sandwich—or whatever it was—would be his lunch; maybe that’s how he justified treating himself to a restaurant dinner. And the food at that restaurant was lousy. Why did the man keep coming back—assuming that he did keep coming back, that the little episode in his life I’d witnessed wasn’t a one-time event?

I found myself imagining a life for the old man, something that explained his apparent loneliness, his quietly odd behavior. And the waitress, the possible-manager—were they just being kind to a borderline eccentric old man? Probably, yes—but since this was to be a mystery, I imagined darker, more complicated motives for them. A story began to take shape.

I called it “Table for None,” and it appeared in the May, 2008 Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Probably, every day, we all miss “hints of life” that could help us write stories. But once in a while, if we work to stay alert, we’ll catch one.

Write what you know? Sure. But also write what you guess, what you imagine, what you conclude after careful thought, what you infer from the inevitably limited opportunities for experience and observation any single human life supplies. If you want to write a war novel but have never been to war, go ahead. Stephen Crane did that, and The Red Badge of Courage has given millions of readers insights into how it feels to be locked into a battle they can neither control nor understand. Take what you know of fear, of desperation, of honor, and translate it into a situation you’ve never directly experienced. If you’ve observed closely enough, if you’ve analyzed deeply enough, if you’ve imagined fiercely enough, you might just have something.

Bio:

Award-winning author B.K. Stevens recently published an e-novella, One Shot, with Untreed Reads. This traditional whodunit, available at Amazon and other online vendors, takes a satirical look at issues ranging from gun control to reality shows. Almost forty of B.K.’s short mysteries have appeared in print, most in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. She’s also published three nonfiction books.

Website: http://www.bkstevensmysteries.com

September Speaker, Linda Apple - Using Our Fiction Skills To Share Facts -

2011-08-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

We all have life-stories to share—stories that can have a positive effect in our readers. But how can we write nonfiction that will capture the reader’s interest and cause them to connect with our work? By using our fiction skills. However, that isn’t all. We also give the greatest gift of all to those who take the time to read what we write—our experience—which offers people hope, guidance, help or maybe just a chuckle to brighten their day.

This style of writing is called Creative Nonfiction. In this mini-workshop we will explore the bones of creative nonfiction and how to put our fiction skills to work in telling stories worthy of magazines and Chicken Soup for the Soul-type books.

Linda Apple is the author of: Inspire! Writing from the Soul, and Connect! A Simple Guide to Public Speaking for Writers. She has been published in 13 Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as numerous devotion guides and fiction anthologies.

She is also a instruction and motivation speaker for women’s and writer’s groups and conferences. Linda serves as the Arkansas Regional Speaker Trainer for Stonecroft Ministries.

Linda lives in Fayetteville with her husband Neal, their 5 children, 3 children-in-love, and 7 grandchildren.

Marketing Not for Dummies

2011-06-16T07:12:00.002-05:00

A couple of days ago the marketing genius Seth Godin wrote a post entitled “The Professional’s Platform,” which consists of 9 ways to build a professional identity http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/06/the-professionals-platform.html

I thought I would translate them into marketing tips for writers:

1) Online forums, FB, and Twitter are great ways to meet other writers and readers. But building a place for yourself in these nearly infinite communities takes time. You are trying to create relationships with people you’ve never seen. Relationships in real life take a lot of work—this is even more true virtually. If you can’t commit to forging real connections, it is probably better not to mention your books at all. In short, people don’t like flybys.

2) If you stop striving to write the absolute best book you can, your books will start to feel stale, and fail to satisfy readers. In the end, writing a great book is the best marketing tool of all.

3) It’s tough to balance writing with marketing. Some writers feel resentful of marketing duties—shouldn’t they just be allowed to write? For better or worse, there are so many entertainment options out there, including a vast sea of books, that you have to make yourself known somehow. If marketing is always given short shrift, the last half hour in the day, you will fail to get the most out of what you do do. Even more importantly, you will fail to reap the rewards that good marketing produces—a bigger, richer world for you and your books.

4) Don’t stop at selling your book to a customer. Build a connection with that person. Find out what s/he likes to read, then recommend another author’s book. Talk to your readers about their lives. Let them know when you’re coming their way. When you meet them, talk more about them than about yourself. Along the way, you may find you’ve sold a few books.

5) Take the trouble to really learn the marketing tools you use. Don’t just hear that it’s important to tweet and throw a few out there. Don’t put up a fan page and never visit. Get to know your marketing arsenal deeply and well so you can avail yourself of all the riches it might bring.

6) Come out at times other than when you have a new book. Do events even if you don’t have a stack of books to sell. When you don’t have a new book, another writer does. Support that writer. Support the industries that support us—bookstores, libraries, and small press publishers—in whatever ways you can.

7) Memories are long on the net. People will recall who you are and how gracefully you acted—even when you’re no longer doing it that way.

8) Start blogging, participating in threads, and finding other ways to get to know the world of writers even before you know will be published. It’s never too early to create an identity for yourself. People will know you when you do get a book out there, and it’s much easier to say hello again than to cold call.

9) Find a few places that are important and rewarding to you—and stay there. The web is too massive to go everywhere. Deep sunk roots are better than many shallowly strewn spores.

The best, most natural marketing takes place when you’re not marketing at all. You’re just having fun in that most uniquely human of ways: building a web of true connections.

"Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New Jersey. She is the founder of the literary series Writing Matters, which draws authors and publishing professionals from both coasts to standing room only events at a local independent bookstore. In 2010 she created Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, a holiday which went viral across the web, enlisting booksellers in 30 states, two Canadian provinces, and England. Jenny is the author of the short story "The Very Old Man", an Amazon bestseller in mystery anthologies. Another short story will be published in 2012 in a book called Adirondack Mysteries II. Her novel, a literary thriller called COVER OF SNOW, is forthcoming from Ballantine."

The Writing's On The Wall - Earl Staggs

2011-05-26T07:30:00.001-05:00

I grew up with an image of what life was like for a writer. You wrote a good book and signed with an agent. The agent sold the book to a publisher. The publisher produced the book, placed it in bookstores, people bought it, you were a financial success, and you wrote more books.

Once I started writing, I found out it may have been that way at one time, but things had changed. A lot. Let’s blame it on the economy. People no longer had $25 or more to shell out for a book so they bought fewer of them. As a result, publishers had less profit coming in, so they produced fewer books. Bookstores were selling fewer books and many had to close their doors, particularly the smaller independent stores. Even the major chain bookstores found themselves in financial straits. Agents found it harder to sell books to publishers, so they signed fewer new writers. Writers found themselves with good manuscripts gathering dust with little chance of ever being published.

So the writing was on the wall. Being a published writer became difficult if not impossible. Self-publishing has always been an option, but with two major drawbacks. First of all, paying a printing company –- or “vanity press” -- to produce your book was expensive. Second, there was an unpleasant stigma attached to it. The feeling was that only bad writers with bad books went that route.

Suddenly, new writing appeared on the wall. A revolutionary concept appeared and everything changed. Digital printing. Books available via the Internet. You simply download them. Since there’s no printing, distributing, shipping or warehousing of physical books involved, the cost is minimal. Amazon introduced the Kindle electronic reader, Barnes & Noble brought out the Nook, Sony has one, and several others are out there. Books are selling for half or less what they used to, many as low as $2.99 or even 99 cents. Many books are free.

All this presents a new opportunity for writers. Self-publishing in the new world of ebooks is not the same as the old-fashioned form of self-publishing. Successful writers from the old school are doing it. Newer writers are publishing ebooks entirely on their own and have complete control over their work and their future. People who buy and read books are learning that excellent, well-written ebooks are available at low, low prices.

Writers, though, have a new challenge. Without traditional publishers providing advertising and promotion, and without bookstores shelving and selling your books, how does the buying public know about it? That falls directly on the writer. You’re entirely on your own, and now that it’s so easy to self-publish an ebook, there are thousands and thousands of them out there. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd. The challenge is daunting to say the least, but if you have a well-written book and are willing to put in the time and effort promoting it, it’s possible to rack up good sales numbers and make good money.

Fortunately, there are pioneers who have blazed the trail. Two of them, Joseph Konrad and Robert Walker, offer their experiences and freely give advice on how to go about it. Their blogs are easy to find, and are well worth reading. What it boils down to is this: Use the social avenues on the Internet to let the world know who you are and what you have to offer. There’s Facebook, Twitter, active groups filled with members who read what you write, and places like Goodreads where you can get involved, get to know people and, most important, let them get to know you.

I know some people will shake their heads and say, “I’m not good at promoting myself.” Fine. You don’t have to. You simply let people get to know you. How? Easy. You’ve been doing it all your life. You mix and mingle.

Think about the last time you started a new job or moved to a new neighborhood. You met new people, you got to know them, and they got to know you. It may have taken a while, but it happened. You eventually came to like some of the new people and dislike some. Some of them may have been too pushy, or maybe you had nothing in common with them. But with some of them, you hit it off. That’s the way it happens in real life. The same thing happens on the Internet. You’re not going to like someone who tries too hard to sell you something or the people who only talk about themselves. Don’t be one of those people. You’ll find people talking about their kids and grandkids. Nothing wrong with that. Talk about yours. Someone may mention a new recipe they discovered for meat loaf. Talk about that. Offer a favorite recipe of yours. Others will talk about TV shows and movies they liked or didn’t like. Join the discussion and give your own opinions. There will be some who talk about the kind of books they read and new authors they’ve discovered. Aha! There’s a golden opportunity to talk about your book. That’s how it goes. Getting to know new people and letting them get to know you. Once you’ve made new friends, you’ll be interested in what they do. That works both ways. They’ll be interested in what you do, and if what you do is write books, they’ll be interested if you don’t try to jam it down their throats. Mention it when an opportunity presents itself. If you receive a glowing review, talk about that. That’s no more offensive than bragging about your kids and grandkids. Put the information in your signature line. That’s not jamming it. It’s just there. (See mine down below.)

No one will know you exist or what you do or that you’ve written a fantastic book unless you get out there and mix and mingle. Yes, it takes time. A lot of time. But that’s the investment you have to make. After all, it’s all on you in this new world of digital publishing, and you can do it. Unless you’re a hermit and live in a remote cave, you’ve been meeting new people all your life, getting to know them and letting them get to know you. The only difference is now you’re doing it on the Internet.

The writing’s on the wall for those of us who write. It’s a whole new world and we have to adapt if we want to take advantage of what digital publishing has to offer. Otherwise, we might as well put our computers away, find an empty wall somewhere, and write on that.

Earl Staggs

SHORT STORIES OF EARL STAGGS not available for $2.99 on Amazon for Kindle and Smashwords for other ereaders.

Here’s one for free: Read “The Day I Almost Became a Great Writer” at earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

Poisons: The Art and Science of Disposing of a Spouse Without Apparent Violence

2011-04-03T19:37:00.004-05:00

John Somers received his BS and MD from the University of Michigan where he also did residency training in Neurology. After a stint at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, he held various positions in the Medical School at the University of Missouri-Columbia and served Chief of Neurology there. He then entered private practice and developed a group practice, Neurology Inc. in Columbia, MO. retiring in 1986 to Springfield, MO. Currently he resides in Springfield after living on the Texas coast for 10 years. He has been active in various computer groups since retirement and helped establish and operate the non-profit Port Aransas Computer Center in Port Aransas, TX. He currently serves as Education Chairman of a local computer group and assists in teaching computer classes in the St. John’s Seniors’ Program.

Join Sleuths' Ink on Saturday, April 9th, at the Library Station on N. Kansas in Springfield, MO to hear John Somers speak. You won't be sorry.

E-Publishing: Changing the Ball Game

2011-03-16T22:46:00.001-05:00

When I decided to place my reverted backlist novels into e-publishing, I researched the hows. I was stunned. So much to learn! Multiple software, formats, extensive networking to promote....

Initially, I wasn't certain I wanted to dedicate so much time to my backlist.. Did I really want to take time away from my new WIP to revive my early books? My gosh, as a seasoned veteran of Berkley, Dell, Avon, and Harlequin books, experienced at promotion/graphics/webwork, I didn't expect the necessity of learning so much, so fast, to self-publish my reverted early books. (Reverted: publishers send a formal letter, a reversion of rights of a particular contracted book to the author or responsible person.)

Okay, self-publishing services, i.e. formatting, cover design, etc. are available, but hey, that costs, and there goes the profit. Plus, I'm a hands-on person, and my reverted book list was long, so I dug in to learn the ball game. And I'm liking it.

NIGHT FIRE is my latest cover effort. You can read more about my actual trip on the Oregon Trail to research at my blog. You can also see the original Berkley cover.

Changing, adapting to the ball game is what writers are doing now, adjusting to a whole new realm of e-publishing and Internet.

One of the main differences, other that writing well in writing to sell today includes more technical knowledge. The writer needs good skills, a good story, and some technical skills at the very least. The majority of selling writers today are familiar with lots of technical stuff, from computer-ease to creating their own websites, blogs, etc. with a high priority on e-mail skill. Experts can be hired, but the more the writer knows, the more the profit, and this is a business, remember?

Writers and writers' organizations are constantly evaluating what works today. !In my opinion, any writers' organization that does not provide some informational programs about e-publishing is deficient. E-publishing is here now, the big elephant, and cannot be overlooked.

Major traditional publishers are now entering this e-reader game, in addition to their regular paper and e-book sales. At this writing, Avon is the latest to start a separate division dedicated to e-publishing; theirs is titled Impulse. There is a realm of e-publishers available for submission. The list of Indie Authors (writers who self-publish) is growing.

Self-published writers like Amanda Hocking or ground-breaker J.A. Konrath have soared to top lists by hitting self-publishing after traditional publisher rejection. Beth Orsoff has a great blog post on her experience.

These writers generated their self-publishing careers by sheer energy and dedication, after rejection from traditional publishers. They used blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Kindleboards and every Internet source possible. (Publishers usually want their writers to be active anyway in these media.) At 26, news-maker Amanda Hocking is a millionaire, after 10 months of grueling Internet work. Konrath's story is legendary, but his road to success took several years. These sellers and others inspire writers to get that "drawer" manuscript out, polish it, and send that baby out into the ball game. Or publish new material, bypassing the traditional route.

There is a big question out there in Writerville now: Do I want to bypass the traditional method of querying an agent/getting a publisher? Or do I want to do my own thing?

Many have decided to self-publish alone. Writers akin to myself with traditionally published books, and those reverted rights are reviving their books, too. E-newsletters remind subscribers when a new title is ready. An online presence is a must, i.e. a blog, etc. Blogger and others are free, drawing reader/buyers to your product.

It's out there, folks, all the how-tos you could ever want, if you want to self-publish. Learn by doing. Almost every writer's site has how-to information. (Please visit my Writers Guide to Survival tag at my blog, and or information at my Writers Tips.)

While my publishers have Cait London paper and e-books available, I'm currently placing my reverted backlist into epublishing and learning every day. Night Fire was a Berkley Diamond 1994 release; Wild Dawn a 1992 release. After Blue Leaf Scanning service provided a Word document of my scanned title to me, and I cleaned the file, I created the new covers, using Adobe Elements 9.

If using fresh copy, this journey is much easier. I've uploaded various formatted versions several times, uploaded different covers in my learning journey. It's smoothing out now, but I am redoing some early tries.

NOTE: The overlay of "Dawn" is really the sunset from my back yard.

Basic pieces of freeware (software that is free) are necessary. For covers, graphic software is available for download called Paint.net, which is pretty good. I've started using some of my own photographs on my covers, which saves on stock photos, such as you can buy at istockphoto and others.

Self-publishing my reverted rights novels is finding me new readers and new sales, plus readers familiar with my contemporary work, are enjoying my early westerns. My early books were under the Cait Logan pseudonym, but it was easy to copyright them all under the Cait London tag. I've also retitled one early book and may retitle another. The ease with which changes can be made, after uplifting the original file and cover is amazing.

One reader wrote that she was glad I was placing my "classics" into e-publishing, because she couldn't find copies and she'd worn hers out! Others appreciate this rebirth because their e-readers allow for enlarging the fonts. I love this feedback.

In this safari to get my reverted backlist novels into e-publishing, I've found that the learning curve is very steep. Remember that services are available. But a determined individual can learn the mechanics and save. As a business person, thinking in terms of profit/loss is ultra-important. Always remember that writing to sell is a business.

NOTE: THE MACLEAN TRILOGY. I'm changing the middle cover soon. All so easy. Just upload new graphic or new edition.

We're not all going to hit J.A. Konrath's heights, but if you're headed for e-publishing, here's basic facts:

1. Most self-publishers use PubIt, Kindle and Smashwords. All have FAQ pages. Read them.

2. As self-publishers, or "Indy Authors", energy invested equals proportionate success. Amanda, J.A., Beth and self-published are pushing hard for sales. You can hire services, cover artists, formatters, etc. but most self-published do their own, or at least until $ start moving. One benefit of working with e-publishers is that they do this for you. If you prefer not to face this steep learning curve, you might choose to go with an e-publisher, rather than publish your own at Amazon's Kindle, or in paper at their CreateSpace, or Lulu or other places.

3. Business attitude. Same as in the old days: good, clean copy, but now Word 2003 is standard. Be prepared to regiment time, i.e. creative writing time, and dedicate a block of time learning the specs, circulating on Twitter, Kindleboards, etc. Through my lifetime as an artist and/or writer, I've found that anything I wanted to learn, would be mine with a dedicated 2 hours per day. Study this animal as if you were stalking big game, and you are. The "game" is now international, and so is the competition. (In my opinion, Twitter is one of the most useful learning and promotional tools available.)

4. If you're not computer savvy, learn. Today's writers must use computers and enter the Internet. Learn how to network on the various loops and communities. Learn how to back up, how to format for Smashwords, an aggregator. (Aggregator: takes your copy and spins it into others for sale at places like Amazon Kindle, Sony, Apple, etc.) Some places (Sony/Apple/etc.) require ISBNs, which Smashwords makes available, or you can purchase from Bowker. (*Each format, print/epub/audio requires a separate ISBN.) Not all online bookstores take from individuals like Kindle or BN's PubIt will, but they will from a licensed "aggregator".

5. Double Note on Formatting: Each e-book reader will have a prescribed format. Every e-book online seller offers either specific or many formats. Learn the difference between formats, i.e. html, mobi, epub, lit, PDF, etc. Every seller has specs: borders, indentations, line space, fonts. Again, Word 2003 is recommended. And it needs to be cleaned of hidden formatting. In this, Notepad is your friend.

6. The following are essential freeware: For epublishing and/or changing formats from one to another for your ereader, Calibre is foremost. Then MobiCreator prepares material for Kindle. Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle for PC, and Nook for PC (available from Barnes and Noble) allow means to check your file, prior to Uploading. I am not Mac-acquainted, but software is available for that format, too. These and Notepad are essential for a self-published author, plus they are free and can be used for e-reading without a Kindle, etc. device. Tremendous amount of free e-books out there now, available for download.

7. Cannot say enough about good editorial work on manuscripts. Writers are hiring editors, which has opened jobs. In e-publishing, quality counts.

The Time Crunch:

Making time (not finding time) to write forward is essential and it's all about priorities, folks. I'm writing new material now, but also dedicated to reviving my "classics". Learning this ball game takes time/energy, too. Did I say the learning curve for self-publishing is steep? Make that double-steep. But highly rewarding. Highly enjoyable.

The first thing to do? Get a ring notebook dedicated specifically for this game, ready for all those passwords and URLs you'll need, like Amazon Associates.

Right now, I'm dedicated and enjoying this journey, and learning more as I self-publish my reverted backlist titles, as many career traditionally-published authors are doing now. At this writing, I am just starting to learn the ins/outs of promotion, such as Daily Cheap Reads and Kindleboards, etc. I'll continue to learn these new emerging e-publishing trends, such as interactive stories--fascinating!

I've written more about my experiences at my blog, Daily or Not. But are you fascinated with e-publishing, too? Either with an e-publisher, or self-publishing? As a reader, do you prefer an e-reader, i.e. Kindle, over a paper book/magazine/newspaper?

Ron Davis to Speak at Sleuths' Ink, March 12th

2011-03-10T10:44:00.002-06:00

Ron Davis is one of the most honored journalists in the Ozarks, with a career spanning all mediums.

Davis has covered the Ozarks and called it home since 1983. In that time, he has won more than 100 local, state, regional and national awards for journalism and writing.

He served as news director of KSMU; special writer at the News-Leader; and founding editor of 417 Magazine. After a brief detour into politics and public relations, Davis returned to journalism in 2007, accepting the position of senior producer at KSPR, the ABC affiliate.

Career highlights:
-Two-time winner, outstanding achievement in writing, Gannett
-Nine-time Best of Gannett winner, newspaper
-National Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting, radio
-Regional Emmy award, television

Of particular note to Sleuths' Ink members: Davis has covered more than 100 criminal cases and more than two dozen murder trials, starting with the Jackie Johns case (1985) and continuing through the conviction of Gerald Carnahan (2010).

RESULTS FOR THE 2ND ANNUAL JANO PARTY

2011-03-05T10:26:00.001-06:00

Shirley McCann was first to 50,000 words
Stephanie Jarkins second to 50,000 words
Lynn Frederickson third to 50,000 words

Best title: Vera Jane Goodin-Schultz
Best Plot outline: Nancy Crandall
Best Setting: Beverly Crandell
Most unique character name: Vera Jane Goodin-Schultz
Most unique occupation:Cecily Cornelius-White
Best promotional blurb: Kelly Henkins
Author's Favorite Line: Beth Carter
Best Cliff Hanger: Sharon Kizzah-Holmes
Best First Page: Cecily Cornelius-White

$100 cash was presented to one of the eight particpants who reached their 50,000-word goal in January. All eight names were placed in a pot, then the winner drawn!!!! That lucky winner was SHARON BUFFINGTON!

Congratulations to everyone who participated. We hope you'll join us again next year.

JANO Party - March 5th at Cafe Rosewitha

2011-02-28T09:11:00.003-06:00

It's almost time! This Saturday, Sleuths' Ink will host its Second Annual JANO party. Congratulations to everyone who participated in this fun, productive event. Eight people managed to reach their 50,000-word goal in January. (As you may recall, a freak blizzard forced postponement of our original February party)

In addition to awarding prizes to the first three people to reach 50,000 words, we'll have ten other prize categorizes, which we'll be voting on at the party. Check back next week to see who the winners are.

Sleuths' Ink would also like to thank our wonderful sponsors who donated prizes for JANO. You can see the list to the right of this post. We couldn't have done it without all your help.

If you missed out in 2011, don't worry. We'll be doing it again in January 2012.

FINISHING THE FIRST DRAFT

2011-02-17T06:39:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I finished the first draft of my third novel. Well, it's not really finished. I left a few blank spaces at the beginning of the book because I didn't start writing until last July and it's due in March and I was anxious to get the thing rolling. So now I have to go back to the beginning and fill in what's missing. But the important thing is, I've written the last sentence. And I added "THE END!" on the last page of the manuscript.

I had fun writing it. I write science thrillers because those are the books I liked when I was a kid -- The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man. But I also like mysteries and literary novels, and I love Stephen King and Lee Child and J.K. Rowling, and when I'm in the midst of writing a novel I often face the temptation of abandoning the whole difficult enterprise and reading someone else's book for a while. So I have to be very strict with myself. I tell myself, "If you want to finish this novel, you have to make it the most interesting thing in your life. Writing this book has to be more interesting than any show on television or any article in the New York Times or any movie that's playing." I didn't always succeed, but there were many mornings when I tossed the newspaper aside and thought, "This is boring. I'd rather work on the book."

But my favorite part is writing the last sentence. I love that moment. And I bet lots of novelists feel the same way. Now I finally know how the story will end. The uncertainty was really bothering me. I worked on these characters for seven months, spending just as much time with them as I spent with my family, and for most of that time I didn't know what was going to happen beyond the next chapter. I had a vague goal in mind but no idea how to get there. I would come home at night and tell my wife, "God, I don't know what Jim's gonna do. He's really in trouble." And she would say, "Who are you talking about? Are you talking about your characters again?"

Now the last puzzle piece is in place. I don't know if it's any good. In all likelihood, many sections of the manuscript are confusing or boring or wildly implausible (or all three) and my editor will advise me to rewrite huge chunks of it. But that's okay. During the revision process I'll try to make the story more sensible and entertaining for the reader. But at this point it makes sense to me.

--------

Mark Alpert, a contributing editor at Scientific American, is the author of the international bestselling thriller Final Theory and its sequel, The Omega Theory, which comes out this month (see www.markalpert.com for more information). His third novel, which has no title yet, will be published next year.

Mark Alpert Guest Blogs on Thursday

2011-02-15T07:34:00.003-06:00

A self-described lifelong "science geek," Mark Alpert majored in astrophysics at Princeton University, writing his undergraduate thesis on an application of Einstein's theory of relativity. After earning an MFA in poetry at Columbia and working as a reporter, he became an editor at Scientific American, where he simplifies bewildering scientific ideas for the magazine's readers. Mark lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.

Join Mark on Thursday and comment for a chance to win a copy of his newest book, The Omega Theory. Marks topic will be Finishing the First Draft.

And Here's Amanda

2011-02-02T12:14:00.002-06:00

Let's Get Organized

2011-02-02T11:18:00.000-06:00

Author Amanda Barke will speak at the February meeting of Sleuths' Ink on Saturday, February 12 at the Library Station at 10:00 a.m. Amanda has been active in and past president of Springfield Writers' Guild. She'll speak on "Organizing the Unorganized Writer."

Based in the rural Ozarks, Amanda J. Barke is a freelance journalist, author, editor, singer, and songwriter. She splits her time between writing Christian Fiction and children’s picture books, editing newsletters, and writing articles for five regional publications. Her work can be seen online at ehow.com, livestrong.com/lifestyle, and amykitchenerfdn.org. When she is not writing, she enjoys traveling with her family’s Bluegrass/Gospel band, The Clarke St. Strings. For more information on Amanda’s many projects go to www.amandabarke.com

Join Us For JANO 2011

2010-12-05T20:57:00.002-06:00

Again this year, Sleuths' Ink will sponsor JANO 2011. You've heard of NaNo. We call our write-a-novel-in-a-month JANO (because it begins in January!) The goal is to write like mad (no editing) beginning Jan. 1 and end up with a 50,000-word novel that you can edit the rest of the year.

What a great way to kick off 2011. Start a new novel or add to a work in progress (any genre). While you're wrapping those gifts, start thinking of a great premise. Start plotting now. Get your character bios ready. But, remember, NO ACTUAL WRITING until Jan. 1, 2011.

With help from many donors and SI members, we award GREAT prizes at a celebratory party in February. Categories include best title, best first sentence, most unique plot, the first three writers to reach 50,000 words and more. Note: You do not have to be a Sleuths' Ink member to win these prizes. Last year we had participants from four different states!

In addition, one lucky SI member will win a Kindle at Saturday's holiday party! In order to qualify for the Kindle next year, you must be a member of Sleuths' Ink (just $15/year).

To sign up for JANO 2011, contact Stephanie Jarkins at skoyless@gmail.com Hope you join us for JANO 2011. It's fun. Try it. You'll be glad you got your JANO on.

How Did You Get Your Agent? Allison Leotta

2010-11-18T09:24:00.004-06:00

When I got engaged to the man who’s now my husband, the first question friends asked was: “How did he propose?” Now that I have a book in bookstores, the first question folks ask is: “How did you get your agent?”

My story of getting an agent is one of incredible good luck and unexpected tragedy.

The most important thing I did was refine my manuscript until it was in the best possible shape I could manage. That took a while. I’m a federal sex-crimes prosecutor in Washington, D.C., so my day job is pretty intense. I wrote in the mornings before work. After two years of pre-dawn writing (and re-writing), I was satisfied that my novel, Law of Attraction, was a compelling story of love and violence in the nation’s capital.

At that point, I knew I needed an agent. One how-to book suggested contacting everyone in the publishing industry with whom you have the slightest connection. I understood that I’d probably send out 1000 letters and get 999 rejections. I was prepared. I bought reams of paper for query letters. I created a spreadsheet for rejections. I had several bottles of booze ready.

Before I sent out query letters, I thought about any personal connections and networks I had. I knew some folks in theater and children’s books; I sought their advice. I made a mental list of people I didn’t actually know, but with whom I had something in common.

Along those lines, I’d recently read a charming novel called The Opposite of Love, by Julie Buxbaum. Julie had graduated from Harvard Law School a few years after I did, although we’d never met. I shot her an email, and – to my surprised delight – she emailed back, then called me. Julie was kind and generous with her time. She said her agent might be interested in my manuscript.

Julie’s agent, Elaine Koster, was something of a legend in the publishing industry, credited with “discovering” Stephen King and pulling The Kite Runner out of a slush pile. I sent Elaine my manuscript, glad that it was truly ready to be judged. A week later, Elaine called. She said she loved Law of Attraction and wanted to represent me. I couldn’t believe my luck! It was one of the happiest moments in my life.

Elaine and her colleague, Stephanie Lehmann, suggested some changes to Law of Attraction. It was amazing to have professional hands help craft the story. Then Elaine sold my book to Touchstone Books an imprint of Simon & Schuster. I was over the moon.

That was one of the last deals Elaine ever made. She died this summer, after a decades-long, secret battle with breast cancer.

I was devastated. Elaine had been an advocate, a teacher and a friend. After her memorial service, I went home and cracked open one of the bottles of booze I hadn’t needed to use for rejection letters. I used it, instead, to give a solitary toast to the agent who launched my career but didn’t get to see my novel hit the bookshelves.

After Elaine died, I felt very much at sea. I called an author whose novels I’d loved since I was in college. Earlier that year, Barbara Delinsky had given me some heartfelt advice about balancing writing with mommying and working. Now I asked her what to do in this situation. Barbara is a wise and generous advisor. She offered to put me in touch with her agent, Amy Berkower, the renowned president of Writers House. When Amy eventually offered to represent me, I felt like a guy who’d been paddling in a life raft, who was pulled aboard the Queen Elizabeth and handed a winning lottery ticket.

Law of Attraction was published this October. So far, so good! I hope that in some cozy, book-lined office in the sky, Elaine Koster is smiling approvingly at the numbers on BookScan.

Allison Leotta to Guest Blog on Nov. 18

2010-11-14T15:28:00.004-06:00

ALLISON LEOTTA, a native of Michigan, has been a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. for ten years. Like her heroine, Leotta started out prosecuting misdemeanor domestic violence cases. She now handles the most serious sex crimes in D.C. She lives with her husband (who is also a federal prosecutor) and their two young sons in Takoma Park, MD. Please visit Allison at www.allisonleotta.com.

Stop by on Thursday and comment for a chance to win a free copy of her book, Law of Attraction.

Editor From The Missouri Review to Speak to Sleuths

2010-11-12T12:11:00.000-06:00

Evelyn Somers Rogers, associate editor for The Missouri Review for 20 years, will speak at the November 13 Sleuths' Ink meeting. As you probably know, The Missouri Review (TMR) is a prestigious, nationally acclaimed literary magazine that publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and literary features.

Evelyn holds an M.A. in fiction writing and a Ph.D. in literature. She will discuss her role as associate editor and will provide helpful editing tips. Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions of a seasoned editor!

Additionally, Evelyn is a writer. Her fiction has appeared in several journals, including TMR. She has edited approximately 24 books, some of which have won the John Simmons Award for short fiction, the Drue Heinz Award and the Peter Taylor prize and have gone on to be published by small and large presses.

Don't miss our speaker on Saturday, November 13. She'll bring a wealth of information (and she just happens to be the daughter of Sleuths' Ink member, Toni Somers.) See you at the Library Station on North Kansas. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. and the speaker's presentation is from 11 a.m. until noon.

Writing The Cozy Mystery - Elizabeth Lynn Casey

2010-10-14T07:05:00.002-05:00

On my bookshelf sits a rather yellowed and dog-eared copy of Mary Higgins Clark’s A Cry in the Night. It was, and still is, my all-time favorite mystery…as a reader and a writer.

As a reader, it kept me up all night, turning the pages, trying to figure out who was behind all of the awful things happening too the main character. It was as if I was Jenny McPartland on that wintry Minnesota farm and my life, my well being, was at stake. How on earth could I even think about sleeping until I knew how things turned out in the end?

As a writer, it’s the book that made me decide to be a mystery writer rather than the children’s writer I’d always imagined. I liked the pace, I liked the notion of creating a character that my readers could root for from start to finish, and, quite frankly, I liked the image of taking those folks down one path after the other…until they finally find the right one.

I’ve had that yellowed and dog-eared paperback for nearly thirty years and, every once in a while, I take it out and reread it, finding myself to be every bit as enchanted with the characters and the story as I was when I was a teenager. Only now, right beside that book, are some of my own titles—books I’ve dreamed up and put on paper.

Five years ago, my first traditional mystery was released with a small, independent publishing house out of Maryland. I didn’t make a ton of money, but my dream was finally coming true.

That first book led to an Agatha nomination, a direct-to-consumer book club deal with a bigger publisher, and, eventually, an agent.

Two years ago, I signed a three-book deal for a new cozy mystery series with Berkley Prime Crime (an imprint of Penguin Publishing). A year later, that deal was extended to include three more books in the series—books I love to write for all the same reasons A Cry in the Night kept me up all night as a kid.

Because, you see, I learned something from that dog-eared book. I learned that while the story is critical, so, too, are the characters and the setting. Sure, a good story will keep your interest, but it’s when you create characters that leap off the page that you find yourself thinking about them long after the last page.

Why, you ask?

Because they became real.

Well-developed characters become a reader’s eyes and ears during the figuring out whodunit process, but, if you’re lucky, they also become the reader’s friends…

Friends they want to keep up with from book to book.

That’s what I love about writing the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series for Berkley. The characters have taken on a life of their very own. They have strengths. They have flaws. They have dreams and aspirations. Yes, they solve a mystery in each book, but they also grow and change right before your eyes, sucking you in as if you, too, are part of the circle.

When you create characters that suck your readers in, you’re creating the kind of book that may, if you’re lucky, find a spot of honor on a shelf in someone’s home. And, aside from fan mail begging for the release date of your next book, I can’t imagine a bigger compliment.

So no matter where you are in the writing process, no matter what fiction genre you’re writing, keep character creation in the forefront of your in mind. They truly are the life of your book. They are, in my opinion, what makes the different between a good book and a great book—the thing that makes readers seek out your books (series or otherwise) again and again…building that lifelong fan Mary Higgins Clark built in me.

***Elizabeth Lynn Casey is the national bestselling author of the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery series with Berkley Prime Crime. PINNED FOR MURDER, the latest book in the series, released last week. In addition to her work as a cozy mystery writer, she also pens romances for Harlequin American under the name, Laura Bradford. For more information, visit her website: www.elizabethlynncasey.com

October Speaker - Are We Alone?

2010-10-05T09:38:00.003-05:00

The Southwest Ghost Finders will speak to Sleuths’ Ink on Saturday, October 9th.

SWGF offers professional services to anyone in the community who is in need of help. They NEVER charge for their services.

If your work-in-progress contains elements of the paranormal, you won’t want to miss this presentation.

We meet in Springfield, Missouri at The Library Station on N. Kansas. We'll have a brief business meeting at 10 AM. Our speakers begin at 11. Then we'll break for lunch at Panera around noon. Our ghost hunters have promised to stay for lunch, so we're sure to hear more stories at that time.

September Speaker: About Sheriffs & C.O.P.

2010-09-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

Join us Saturday, September 11, to hear speaker, Joan Bodey. She works for the Greene County Sheriff’s Department as a C.O.P. (Citizens on Patrol).

Joan will discuss her duties at the sheriff’s office, the C.O.P. Academy, crimes in Greene County, stats, and more. Formerly, she worked in this capacity in Minnesota, so regardless of the setting of your book, you'll hear valuable information and be able to compare crime in both northern and midwestern states.

Come armed (pun intended) with questions. Maybe you have a character who is a sheriff, dispatcher, or even a criminal? Possibly your character is dating the sheriff or you just want some realistic lingo for your story. Whatever the reason, don't miss this meeting. See you Saturday!

There’s a PI Aboard Ship! August Speaker: C. Patrick Neagle

2010-08-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

Ever wanted to learn about life at sea (for months on end) aboard a U.S. Naval Ship? Maybe you prefer being on land and hearing about private investigators? Either way, you’re in luck. Our August 14 Sleuths’ Ink speaker, C. Patrick Neagle, will address both topics, so you’ll get a two-for-one at this meeting.

Patrick teaches college-level English classes aboard a U.S. Naval ship—a job he has held since 2001. He’s at sea for six months at a time and recently visited such interesting locales as Israel, Crete and Jordan. Patrick will give us insight into ship life, the size of the ship, the food, communing with other passengers, storms, seasickness and more.

In his other life, Patrick’s a private investigator and hopes to open his own PI office someday. Hear how he became a PI, what training/education/ licensing is involved, and the types of people or companies who hire private investigators. We hope to hear about some of his most interesting cases—and what a fun character this would be! Whether you’re creating a character who is a PI, hiring a PI, dating a PI, or have a vendetta against one, you’ll learn some handy tricks of the trade for your novel.

You won’t want to miss this jam-packed meeting. And Patrick’s funny to boot! He’s a Sleuths’ Ink member (although he rarely attends meetings since he’s at sea). Follow his blog, Goblinbrook, at http://goblinbrook.net/.

Who is your favorite sleuth?

2010-07-31T18:35:00.002-05:00

Do you have a favorite sleuth, either from television or books? A few come to mind for me. Columbo is my absolute favorite sleuth. He's so unassuming, and yet he always manages to get his man or woman.

Next on my list would be Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote. And if you're as old as I am, you might even remember the old medical examiner show, Quincy. I loved that one!

Who's your favorite?

Conferences

2010-07-27T18:15:00.003-05:00

If you're in Missouri, as most of our members are, there are at least three conferences you won't want to miss in 2011. First of all, BOUCHERCON is coming to St. Louis next year! As most mystery writers are aware, BOUCHERCON is one of the biggest fan-based writers conferences around. This one moves around a lot, so having it held in St. Louis is a real plus!

Secondly, Missouri Writers Guild's conference always has a great assortment of editors and publishers. This year, an editor from Avalon will be on hand. Get your pitches ready!

While OWFI meets in Oklahoma City, it's close enough that I've included it in this list of potential Missouri conferences for 2011. Editors and agents swarm to this one as well.

For more info on any of these conferences, check the side link on this blog. I've linked to each of these three.

Boyd Morrison, The Back Road to Publication

2010-07-15T06:44:00.003-05:00

My thriller novel, The Ark, got what I call “rave rejections.” Editors loved the premise, plot, and characters, but they just couldn’t see how it would fit into a crowded thriller market. We went to every major imprint that published thrillers, and all 25 publishers turned The Ark down. Any publishing hopes for it were effectively gone.

In early 2009, I was just completing my web site (www.boydmorrison.com), and I decided, why not try to build up a readership by giving my three unpublished books away? I mean, they weren’t doing any good just sitting on my hard drive. At about that time, the Kindle 2 was about to come out, and Amazon was starting to let unpublished authors put their manuscripts up for sale on the Kindle store.

I figured if people could find my books for free on my web site, I had to set a low price on Amazon. I set the price on my books between $0.99 and $1.99. My only expense was the small fee I paid to a graphic designer to create professional-looking covers for my books.

I was armed with glowing blurbs from generous authors like James Rollins, Douglas Preston, Jon Land, and Chris Kuzneski, all of whom I had gotten to know through Thrillerfest. Amazon let me choose up to five categories under which I could list my books, so I maxed those out (technothriller, suspense, men’s adventure, action & adventure, and thriller).

In the second week of March 2009, I put my books on the Kindle store and on my web site. I had no plans for marketing or advertising. My plan was just to see what happened.

Within several days, readers on web discussion forums noticed the low price on my books (there were very few self-published authors on the Kindle at the time, and the Nook and iPad didn't yet exist). Through the magic of Google, I was notified about these posts, and I went ahead and introduced myself to members of Kindleboards.com, Mobileread.com, and the Amazon discussion boards.

I radically underestimated the power of the Amazon bestseller lists and word of mouth. In three months, I sold 7,500 copies of all three books together. The Ark was the number 1 technothriller for over a month, outselling books by Tom Clancy and Brad Thor, and my books occupied the top three slots in multiple genre lists. By June, my books were selling at the rate of 4,000 copies per month.

Because of the velocity of my sales, my agent, Irene Goodman, was immediately able to take that data to publishers. Touchstone, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, was just making a transition into the thriller market and was impressed by the reception for my books. Sulay Hernandez, now my editor, loved The Ark and offered me a publishing contract. That phone call from Irene will always be one of the most amazing moments of my life.

As far as we can tell, I was the first author to get a Big Six publishing contract for a self-published Kindle book. Touchstone acquired The Ark and its sequel in a two-book deal. On the strength of that deal, my foreign rights agent, Danny Baror, was able to secure deals in eighteen foreign markets.

Since then, Pocket Books acquired the rights for my first two books, The Adamas Blueprint and The Palmyra Impact, so essentially I have a four-book deal with Simon and Schuster. The Palmyra Impact will be released as a mass market paperback and ebook under the title Rogue Wave in December 2010, and The Adamas Blueprint will be released under a new title in December 2011.

Today, I’m lucky enough—and persistent enough—to hold a book in my hands and call myself an author.

Boyd Morrison to Guest Blog on Thursday

2010-07-11T08:44:00.003-05:00

Boyd Morrison guest blogs on Thursday, July 15th. Stop by for a chance to win a copy of "The Ark".

After being turned down by several book agents, Boyd decided to sell his debut novel through Amazon’s Kindle program and on his website and in three months sold 7500 copies. THE ARK (May 2010) became an Internet sensation and he got a publishing deal with Touchstone Books/S&S!

Radine Trees Nehring - Writing For The Small Press

2010-06-16T19:51:00.004-05:00

I'm a small press author and, after seventeen years of working with small publishers, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think we are all aware that the ground under book publishing is shaking, and the six large New York publishing conglomerates, along with their authors, are the ones most affected by this earthquake. That explains why the majority of book authors today are (often by necessity), leaving behind the cachet of a New York name, and working for small presses. To feed this growing market, new mini publishers are being added weekly to the list as possibles for both print and e-publishing.
So...how do we find OUR small press?

First, an agent is rarely needed, though more and more agents are willing to work with smaller houses as New York options close down. Still, most likely you will be on your own during the search period. Ask around, join lists in your genre, attend conventions, read writers' magazines, study WRITER'S MARKET. One draw-back here is that many small press books are not automatically stocked in bookstores or libraries unless there is special interest in their area, so it's sometimes hard to look at samples of a smaller publisher's work.

Be aware of the difference between self-publishing or working with a vanity press who charges for services, and working for a publisher who does not charge for any services and pays royalties. Both take care of getting your book produced, but vanity presses do little else, and if you self-publish, all the work is on your shoulders. Editing, distribution, significant reviews and promotion are minimum or nil with both of these, and use of a hired outside editor is highly recommended. Many vanity publishers will publish almost anything that looks like a book.
On the other hand, legitimate small presses are selective, and each author must go through the regular application process--query letter, and any follow-up requested if the query reply is positive. If you are offered a contract by a small press it's a good idea to look it over very carefully and--if you are a member of a writers' organization that offers this service--have it looked at by a professional, assuming you aren't using an agent. I was a member of National Writers' Association when Brett offered me a contract. They vetted it for me and deemed it the most author-friendly contract they'd ever seen. When I was ready to sign with St Kitts, the editor at Brett offered to look at that contract. She made some suggestions, and most of them were accepted by St. Kitts. By the time I signed with Wolfmont I was a member of Authors Guild and they also evaluate member's contracts without charge.

There are hundreds of legitimate small presses exhibiting varying degrees of plusses and minuses for authors. I guess I could say "buyer beware," but in my own experiences and those of authors I have talked with, affiliation with a small publisher has been largely positive and most would recommend theirs to those who ask. (All these authors, I might add, are self-starters when it comes to book promotion, a BIG plus.)

I have worked for three small presses--Brett Books, St Kitts Press, and Wolfmont Press. In every case it's been a happy experience. I've received good editing, promotion, and distribution support, and what's more, made good friends in each business. They obviously cared about me and my books. (After all, selling books is their bread and butter too.)

How did I find these gems? They were recommended by editors, by friends in the writing profession, and by organizations like Mystery Writers of America. The fact my publishers provided so many author services in the first two cases was partly luck because I found out all the best things about them after I had signed contracts. (You can be smarter. Learn as much as you can up front. With the advent of the Internet, that's became easier.)

In the case of my recent affiliation with Wolfmont Press, I did ask a lot of questions before I signed with them, but am still learning goodies almost a year later. It isn't that anything was concealed, it's just that I keep getting little surprises, like a box of 800 lovely bookmarks for my new novel that arrived shortly before the book came out. (I hadn't thought to ask about bookmarks.)

Note: Brett, a non-fiction publisher in New York, is now out of business. SK Publications closed St Kitts, its mystery imprint, to new submissions two years ago. That's one of the minuses about small presses. Their financial footing is sometimes shaky, which can lead to closing. Also, there may be only one or two people running the business and burn-out, increased family obligations, or other happenings can mean a close-down unless the business is appealing enough to sell to another party.

No matter what route you follow, today there is no reason why any persistent (and talented) writer can't be published.

Radine Trees Nehring
The TO DIE FOR mystery series.
http://www.RadinesBooks.com
Now boarding: Take a JOURNEY TO DIE FOR.

Radine Trees Nehring to Guest Blog on June 17th

2010-06-13T17:05:00.005-05:00

For more than twenty years, Radine Trees Nehring's magazine features, essays, newspaper articles, and radio broadcasts have shared colorful stories about the people, places, events, and natural world near her Arkansas home. In 2002, her first Ozarks mystery novel, A VALLEY TO DIE FOR, was published, and in 2003 it became a Macavity Award nominee. Her four follow-up novels in the To Die For series (MUSIC TO DIE FOR, A TREASURE TO DIE FOR, A WEDDING TO DIE FOR, and A RIVER TO DIE FOR) have continued to earn awards and have established her place in the pantheon of cozy mystery authors. With her sixth novel, JOURNEY TO DIE FOR, Radine takes her characters to another Ozarks tourist attraction as they ride the historic Arkansas and Missouri Passenger Excursion Train into the middle of trouble and intrigue.

(Radine has been a member of Sleuths' Ink "almost from the club's beginning." She heard the club was forming at an Ozarks Creative Writers' Conference in Eureka Springs a number of years ago and joined soon after.)

REACHING OUT...VIRTUALLY

2010-06-08T12:53:00.000-05:00

Joni us Saturday, June 12, to hear Sleuths' Ink member Toni Somers discuss REACHING OUT...VIRTUALLY. Exercise Your Writing Muscles In Online Writing Groups.

Toni's expertise in the virtual world will benefit members who are looking for online markets and online critique groups. She began writing as a "whim" in 1995, joined an online writing group and was hooked. Toni has been involved in four different online writing groups and served as owner-moderator for two of them.

Her publishing credits include Today's Woman, Chicken Soup for the Soul: True Love, The Secret Place (a devotional booklet), and several local Art Center anthologies in Texas. Her future writing plans include publishing a volume of Gulf coast poetry, creative non-fiction (or fictionalized memoirs) about growing up as a child of immigrants in Detroit, and a collection of small cookbooks.

Take advantage of the virtual world of writing and critiquing. Learn how on Saturday!

President Shirley McCann Speaking Saturday

2010-05-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

Sleuths' Ink President Shirley McCann will speak to the Ozarks Writers' League (OWL) at College of the Ozarks on Saturday. Shirley will speak about writing and submitting short stories, as well as her success in the short story market. Learn how to submit, what to submit, and to whom from this prolific, successful short story writer.

Don't worry, Sleuths. Shirley is slated to speak to us during 2010!

May Meeting - Write-in!!!

2010-05-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

Our Sleuths' Ink meeting on Saturday, May 8, will be a coveted write-in! Let's take advantage of the time to do some great writing. This will be perfect for our JANO members who haven't touched their JANO projects since, oh, say, Jan. 31 (if you're like me).

This will also be a great time to try poetry or writing a short story. Maybe you want to write a nice note to Mom or your kids for Mother's Day.
Also, there are many spring contests so you use this time to spruce up your entries. We can all get a lot done in one hour of concentrated writing.

Just bring your laptop, legal pad (or whatever you write with) and join us. The coffee is always great and the writerhood (my new, coined phrase) is even better. Since writing is so solitary, it will be nice to be in a room with like-minded folks doing what they love best. See you Saturday!

Sleuths' Ink Members Signing Books Friday

2010-04-21T12:34:00.003-05:00

Jan Gallagher, Sleuths' Ink member and president of the Quill and Ink Club, has coordinated several local authors to sign books at this Friday's Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield. It's an annual three-day event on April 22-24.

Sleuths' Ink president Shirley McCann will be signing THE NECKLACE, her YA novel. Sleuths' Ink vice president Beth Carter will be signing IT ALL CHANGED IN AN INSTANT, Six-Word Memoirs. Previous SI speakers, Terry McDermid and Wayne Holmes, will sign their books (Terry's romance novels and Wayne's memoir ROCKY COMFORT.)

Many other local authors will be at the event including Sally Tippett Rains, Wayne Glenn, Willie Washam, Ellen Massey, and Reta Stewart Allen. Come support local authors Friday, April 23, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Locust St.

Enjoy booths, food, a World War II luncheon, English tea, cherry pie contest, and other activities. Check the web site for details. http://www.cherryblossomfest.com/

Drury Professor to Speak About Memoir Writing

2010-04-07T12:55:00.007-05:00

Wayne Holmes will discuss his memoir, ROCKY COMFORT, at our Sleuths' Ink meeting on Saturday, April 10, from 11-noon.

ROCKY COMFORT is set in the Ozarks and highlights Wayne's youth where he was one of six siblings. His family was very poor and traveled by horse and buggy through KS, OK and settled in MO. He'll share plenty of stories about his hardscrabble life--hunting game to put food on the table, pranks, farming, religion, girlfriends and more.

Wayne will read an excerpt from his book, discuss the process of memoir writing, and the publisher he used in Missouri. As background, Wayne taught English at Drury for nearly 25 years. Besides teaching, he enjoys farming, football, playing Rook, building unique homes, Shakespeare, and of course, writing.

Hope to see you at the Library Station this Saturday!

How To Juggle A Writing Life with Famnily LIfe

2010-03-18T07:55:00.005-05:00

People who have spent some time writing for a living, have usually found a routine that works for them, and knowing that what they write will most likely be published is all the incentive they need to sit down and do the job at hand. For you, the aspiring novelist, the long, lonesome road from the first sentence to seeing your novel in a bookstore is fraught with challenges.

Okay, so you have a good idea for a novel. Sit down and fashion your story into a 3-4 page synopsis. Once you have tangible a plan, ask yourself: Am I willing to spend upward of a year, perhaps far longer, writing a 100,000 word manuscript which I don’t know if any publisher will ever look at, even less buy?

You’re willing to take the risk? Great! Now find the time. You have a partner/husband/wife, kids, dogs and a full-time job, so it’s going to be hard. The question I ask aspiring writers who complain of lack of time: Do you ever watch television? You do? Okay, you definitely have time to write, possibly lots of it. Making time to write will involve the sacrifice of something else you do daily. In my case, I cut out some of my social life (less drinking = more alertness, more time), started getting up very early in the mornings and took my laptop on holidays. In this way, my family life was almost unaffected.

Make no mistake about it, a routine of daily writing still requires steel-reinforced discipline. Remind yourself constantly of your determination to finish your novel. You need a quiet space, preferably with just your laptop, and absolutely no telephone or internet access. For some this might away from home, a café, the local library or on the train to work.

Hopefully you have a tolerant and encouraging family. If they are not, you have to harden yourself to criticism and recriminations, and demand that they be more self-sufficient. Altogether you need a tough skin and a certain amount of selfishness. Friends too might be jealous and resentful.

Thinking back on the innocence with which I started writing ICE TRAP, my debut novel, I had only a vague idea of what was ahead of me. Working part-time as a psychotherapist, part-time as a sculptor, I had a home, a husband and two dogs (my kids had flown the nest but were always at the end of the phone). I also had other hobbies and interests which I wasn’t willing to give up.
I gritted my teeth and stuck at my daily three-hours of writing, because I loved the story I had in my head and was confident others would too. I sought out other writers, read many looks, got tuition and went on courses, always keen to learn from readers – really hearing their critique (including some scalding ones). I was a bit flattened by the stack of rejections I got from publishers, but I decided early on not to give up until I’d exhausted every last avenue. Eventually ICE TRAP became an international bestseller, and a full-time writer was born.

Kitty Sewell’s book, BLOODPRINT (Touchstone, 2010) is available in paperback wherever books are sold.

Pitching and Querying in the Digital Age

2010-02-11T07:35:00.004-06:00

Since the advent of digital querying, the game has changed drastically. However, some things never change. Particularly what the editor or agent is looking for hasn’t changed at all – simply how you go about pitching the material has changed.
It used to be that the majority of agents and editors only wanted snail mailed queries. Over the past few years this has shifted and the majority of agents want emailed queries. It makes it very easy for the author to fire off a query – but the same amount of time spent on the traditional query letter should still be spend on the query email. Not all editors want to hear from authors through email and it’s important to adhere to published guidelines as to what they want and how they want to receive it. Some publishing houses have even set up online forms for querying. Look at the guidelines for Avon Books by clicking here.
Below you will find my article on writing the query letter.
My expertise in is the fiction realm, but there are many excellent articles on non-fiction. Below I’ve included links to some you will want to consult.
http://www.writing-world.com/publish/bookprop2.shtml
http://literary-agents.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_pitch_nonfiction_book_ideas_to_agents
http://www.writecontent.com/Publishing_Tools/Author_Book_Proposal/author_book_proposal.html
For fiction queries, the first thing you will need to create is the pitch or blurb. Generally this is a one to two sentence encapsulation of what your book is about. There are many methods for creating excellent pitch statements, but the main things I think you need to get across are very simple.
Who is the book about?
What does this character want?
Why does he want it?
Why can’t he have it?
No matter the version of pitch creation you use, these main questions are always answered. The reason is the editor or agent wants to see if your story is unique or captivating in some way. They want to see the conflict because emotion stems from the conflict (and that’s why reader’s read).
Below is a link to my workshop on writing the pitch as well as my online pitch generator. It’s important to read the article before trying the pitch generator, because the sentence you create through the generator needs to be tweaked with the information in the article. Click here for the pitch workshop. Click here for my pitch generator.
Here is an excellent article on pitching at Writers Digest.
Once you create this pitch, you will likely use it both before you sell the book, for elevator pitches, query letters, and in your synopsis, but likely also after you have sold the book (for your marketing materials). You’ll be glad you took the time to write the best blurb possible!
I’m more than happy to answer any questions you have! – KC
~~~~~ *** ~~~~~
Query Letter Basics
by Kathy Carmichael

A rite of passage as a novelist is trying to interest an editor or literary agent in your book. The first step in approaching an editor or agent is usually the query letter. Editors and agents receive hundreds of manuscripts each week. They ask authors to query in an attempt to manage the material that arrives on their desks. They want to receive the kinds of books they publish and that will interest their readership.
By using the following tips, you will increase your chances of an editor or agent asking to read your partial or complete manuscript.
1. You need to include the blurb or pitch on your book. What are the hooks? What will make a reader want to read your book?
2. Include your publication experience. If you haven't yet sold a book, have you had articles published? Short stories? Have you won writing contests? If you have published, have you been honored in any way (awards, contests, bestseller lists)?
3. If you belong to any writing organizations, include them.
4. Optional: What makes you the authority for writing this book or type of book? For instance, if you're an attorney and writing about a fictional attorney detective, that would have meaning to the publisher. If your work experience does not add credibility to your writing, then it's probably best to omit it. For instance, if you're an accountant and writing science fiction that doesn't have an accountant protagonist, then there's no need to mention your day job.
5. Offer to revise if the story is close. Editors prefer to work with authors who are easy to work with.
6. Be sure to include your name, address, phone, and, if this is snail mail, send an SASE.
7. If this is snail mail, you might wish to include a 1-2 page synopsis, but no longer than that unless the editor has requested it. For electronic submissions, include only what the editor or agent has requested. It’s very important to adhere to their guidelines because some publishing professionals will reject your submission based on that.
8. Try to keep your query letter to only one page in length. If you are sending this by snail mail, your query letter would be one page plus the 1-2 page synopsis.
9. Include any built-in audience (like a newspaper column or web blog or website with a big readership), marketing hooks, tips, information about your target audience if non-fiction. Editors and agents like to see that you have the potential to sell a number of books to an audience you already have.

10. Do not include cutesy stuff! No negativity. Don't tell the editor that your book received rejections from 50 other publishers. Don't tell her your book doesn't fit her guidelines (if it doesn't fit their guidelines as to what they publish, then do not send it there!). Don't offer a bribe or threaten him. Don't send your query on cutesy letterhead or weird paper. This is a business, so treat your query like a business letter. Your query can be written in your personal voice and style, and it doesn't have to be dry. Shoot for professional.

Possible format for a query letter:

Paragraph One:
Your pitch
Paragraph Two:
About you. (Depending on how your background ties to your book, this might take 2 paragraphs)
Paragraph Three (Optional):
Your closing (where you can mention offering to revise or possible target audiences etc)
Paragraph Four (Optional):
If you included a synopsis, this is where you mention it.
Thank the agent for her/his time.
Also mention that you look forward to hearing from her/him.

Example:

Dear (Mr. or Ms.) (Editor/Agent's Last Name):

A CATCHER IN THE CORN is a story about a female CIA agent who infiltrates an organized crime ring in Omaha, Nebraska, and must learn who the leader is before he destroys all the cornfields in the Midwest. Is it possible that the leader is none other than the teen baseball whiz who escorted her to the high school prom?
I've published several short stories and my web blog has a larger readership. I belong to a local writers group, Name of Group, as well as regularly attending a regional writing conference, Name of Conference. I was drawn to write this book because my five-year career as a CIA agent gives me an insider's view into how an undercover agent operates.
Enclosed you will find a two-page synopsis of the book as well as a self-addressed postage-paid enveloped. Thank you for your time and consideration. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and learning what you think!

Sincerely,

Your Name

In addition to the above tips, your obvious enthusiasm for your story can evoke a similar response. Always remember, you can't sell books you don't submit. Querying is the first step in the journey to publication!
~~~~~ *** ~~~~~
Award-winning author, Kathy Carmichael, writes mysteries, women's fiction and romance. Her 2009 release, HOT FLASH, was named by the American Library Association's BOOKLIST as one of the Top 10 Romance Fiction titles for 2009. Her latest release (and her first mystery novel), DIARY OF A CONFESSIONS QUEEN, received a starred review from BOOKLIST. In addition her novels, she's sold short stories and wrote a bi-monthly column on the business of writing for a national writing trade magazine. Additionally, Kathy is a contest judge for Writers Digest. For more information about Kathy or to read her other articles on writing, please visit her website at www.KathyCarmichael.com.

JANO Party A Success

2010-02-07T12:27:00.005-06:00

Our first annual JANO 2010 celebration sponsored by Sleuths' Ink was a rousing success. Twenty writers in four different states participated. At our party, we dined on pizza at San Francisco Oven, recognized the four busy writers who made the 50,000-word goal, voted for five other categories (which was very difficult with all the incredible entries), and had a literary reading of every writer's blurb and first page prior to voting for those two categories.

Afterward, we enjoyed an adorable mystery writers' cake, recevied JANO 2010 stones, JANO bookmarks and JANO certificates. We even had a couple of door prizes won by Shirley McCann and Vera Jane Goodin Schultz--a $10 Panera gift card each.

JANO WINNERS & PRIZES:

Stephanie Jarkins - first to 50k (a beaded red and black pen)
Shirley McCann - second to 50k ($25 Renaissance Book Store gift card)
Cindy Dagnan - third to reach 50k ($10 Panera Bread gift card)
Rose Lombardo - honorable mention for 50k (($10 Panera Bread gift card)
Jerry-Mac Johnston - Best title: "Ice Picks, Bombs and Bodies" (a journal)
Wanda Parrott - Best first sentence: "Killing Flippo was easy." (I Survived JANO mouse pad)
Jerry-Mac Johnston - Most Unique Setting: The Bare B, an upscale strip joint (Writers' Survival Tote and goodies)
Pat Eliott - tied for Most Intriguing Plot (It All Changed In An Instant, autographed six-word memoir book)
Shirley McCann - tied for Most Intriguing Plot (The Marshall Plan For Novel Writing)
Beth Carter - tied for Best First Page (chose no gift)
Glendon Thomlison - tied for Best First Page (Two books donated by Borders)
Nancy Dailey - tied for Best First Page (Two books donated by Borders)
Cindy Dagnan - Most Motivational Participant (hand-made journal)
Beth Carter - Best Effort by a JANO member (I Survived JANO tee)

Several members volunteered to serve on our JANO 2011 committee: Stephanie Jarkins, Rose Lombardo, Shirley McCann, Beth Carter, DeLane Parrott, Nancy Crandall and Vera Jane Goodin Schultz.

Finally, a huge thanks to our gracious donors: Borders, Renaissance Book & Gift Store, Panera Bread, Rick McCann, Shirley McCann, Jerry-Mac Johnston, Rose Lombardo, photographer John Schultz and Beth Carter.

Thank you for participating in JANO 2010 and making this event a success. Remember to keep adding to your novels, edit, polish, and get them in the hands of agents and editors by late fall so you can start all over again in January!

Pizza Party This Saturday!

2010-02-02T14:40:00.003-06:00

All JANO and Sleuths' Ink members are invited to attend our pizza party this Sat., February 6, from 5-8 p.m. We'll be at San Francisco Oven (upstairs area) on Republic Road, just west of National.

Come and find out who the four JANO members are who made it to 50,000 words in one month! See who wins the prize for best title, best first sentence and most unique setting. Many more prizes will be given. Come and cheer on these hard-working, tired-to-the-bone writers.

Sleuths' Ink is sponsoring this event. Be there or be square.

JANOisms

2010-01-18T13:45:00.005-06:00

The month is more than half over, so let's continue our excitement for JANO. I've thought of a few JANOisms to keep you inspired. Feel free to add your own and post your favorite JANOism in our comment section.

It's JANO time.
Have you had your JANO today?
Take one JANO every day.
Zero calories. JANO.
Just add JANO.
Get your JANO on.
Just JANO it.
Sugar-free JANO.
I have JANO-itis.
Pass the JANO.
Take a JANO pill.
JANOstrong
JANO: The Write Thing.

TOP THREE JANO CONTENDERS

2010-01-18T13:36:00.004-06:00

We had a rousing mid-month update at our Sleuths' Ink meeting on Saturday. Everyone read the first page of their JANO project. Twelve beginnings were read and enjoyed by all. The genres ranged from cozy mysteries to paranormal to romantic suspense to YA historical fiction. We have a talented group of writers and these novels-to-be are promising.

Congrats to our top three JANO contenders as of last Saturday:

Shirley McCann - just under 24,000
Stephanie Jarkins - 22,750
Rose Lombardo - 20,061

By now, their word count is even higher. Hopefully, yours is as well. Let's get our second wind and bring it home for JANO.

Join Us For JANO!

2009-12-27T12:54:00.006-06:00

Join us for our First Annual JANO sponsored by Sleuths’ Ink. Kick off the new year with a built-in resolution and end the month with a novel in hand.

Here are the rules:

*Write a 50,000-word novel during January (31 days)
* This equals 1,613 words per day
* Don't take time for edits
* You may plot or outline your novel in December
* You may start a biographical character sketch in December
* Write in your favorite genre
* Add 50,000 words to your current WIP if you wish (just post your current word count)
* No actual novel writing UNTIL Jan. 1, 2010
* Start your coffee machines (or tea kettles)

To register and report weekly progress, sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janowriters/

Writers who are not members of Sleuths' Ink are invited and encouraged to join us. We'll report our progress and ask participants to read their beginning pages at the January 9 Sleuths' Ink meeting. We're also planning a celebration at the end of the month. Write on!

And The Winner Is...

2009-12-16T11:37:00.003-06:00

Nicola Ford! Her name was selected from yesterday's blogging conversation with Richard Jay Parker. He had a great post and we had a record 58 comments! Thanks to everyone who participated.

Nic Ford has won a copy of Richard's debut thriller, STOP ME. His publisher, Allison & Busby, graciously agreed to grant one free copy and we thank them for their generosity.

You can find Nicola Ford's website by clicking on her name in the comment section. It appears she has written her first crime novel and is also an archaeologist. Congrats.

GUEST BLOGGER: Richard Jay Parker, Author of STOP ME

2009-12-14T22:41:00.008-06:00

SOUP TO NUTS
As a writer I've always been interested in articles about the process of getting work out there. This isn’t intended as a How-To piece, however, I hope this will encourage writers who are languishing in any of the 'writing a book/rewriting a book/looking for an agent/seeking a publisher' categories and any sub-purgatory categories in between.

There's no doubt about it--getting a book published is one of the hardest tasks anyone can attempt. I began my writing career by submitting comedy sketch scripts on spec to TV companies. I began getting more involved in the production before becoming a head writer, script editor and eventually producer. It was steady progress across years but a book is something different. You're either published or you're not. For a publisher, it's a large investment of faith and money and nowadays they have to be positive of getting a return on that investment before taking the plunge.

It's taken me a drawer full of manuscripts and ten years to get to this point. I don't ever consider that as wasted time though. If I hadn't written all of those manuscripts I wouldn’t have written STOP ME. I also didn't begin by writing thrillers but discovered how much I enjoyed plotting them along the way. I decided that if I were to become pigeonholed as a writer then thrillers were what I’d be comfortable writing until the cows came home. My then agent’s response: 'Great! But I don't represent thriller writers so you'll have to find another agent.'

I won't bore you with the grim details of trying to find alternative representation. Luckily–and lets not forget what a huge factor that is in the journey–an agent who had previously shown interest in my work was poached to another agency and asked me to submit to him there. I was working on STOP ME at the time. I sent him what I'd written so far--about a third--and waited. By the time he’d read it I'd finished writing the whole manuscript. He read the other two thirds, got a positive in-house reader’s report and submitted to publishers.

We got positive feedback but no offers. There was a common criticism of the manuscript which concerned its plot flashing back to the past too often. I quickly rewrote it and made the story more linear. We then got an offer as well as interest from two other publishers. Eventually we settled on my current publisher.

As an editor I'd been pretty brutal re extraneous writing and had fiercely polished the manuscript so there was little story editing to do before it went to print. There were inconsistencies though and I was very glad of the input I had from my editor, Lara. The publisher politely welcomed my suggestions re the cover but I bowed to their superior knowledge and they came up with something much better than anything I could have envisaged–simple but striking.

And there you might think that the work is over but then that depends on how successful you want your book to be. Most publishers encourage their authors to be proactive re publicity for the book so my next question was--how do I get a book by a new author noticed?

Firstly I pursued some established writers of the genre for blurbs. One of them read my book and was kind enough to give me a great blurb for my cover. It arrived a day before the book went to print. It's difficult to know just how much a blurb can help but, as a newcomer, associating your work with someone that people recognise has got to be a step in the right direction.

I also followed the usual route of setting up a website. I think this is absolutely vital whether you're published or not. You can post all your details there as well as samples of your work, short stories etc. I did try and make my website as quirky and memorable as possible. You can have a look here: http://www.richardjayparker.com I also got a good friend to compose a simple piece of menacing music to unsettle people as they read about my story. Copyright is obviously always an issue but you can get pictures and music that are copyright free.

I'm lucky enough to have great support at Allison & Busby in the form of Chiara Priorelli who organises blogs, signed books and publicity. She’s proved invaluable in terms of promoting me on the publisher's site and is always happy to get involved in a publicity concept.

Twitter is also a great tool for getting the word out about your book and is how I came to be associated with the friendly people who run this group and site. There are lots of avid readers as well as publishing people who use Twitter and I've found that if you tweet your thoughts about writing you can soon connect with many people who share a similar passion. You can follow me on Twitter @Bookwalter.

Obviously blogging (like I'm doing now) is a great way to share important information. As well as joining a band of UK thriller writers called The Curzon Group and blogging for them every Friday, http://www.thecurzongroup.blogspot.com/ I also write for other groups. It's a great way of sharing your experiences, helping other writers as well as promoting your work along the way.

I also cooked up the idea of doing airport book signings with fellow Curzon writer Matt Lynn. We found British Airways very receptive to the idea and did a number of signings. People were intrigued to find us loitering in departures and a great number of them were happy to make their snap purchases from us. It really was odd having to pass through passport control to sign books but it just goes to show how people are willing to get on board if you apply a little lateral thinking.

The process is ongoing and although it's difficult to measure just how much impact a lot of your promotional effort has, you can at least be positive that you’re doing everything you can to make people aware of your work.

Soup to nuts – the whole process. And likely to drive you nuts as well. But there’s no doubt that actually getting published is indeed the hardest part. It’s not impossible though even if it does feel that way sometimes. To get there, being positive is the most important part of your armoury. It's a lonely business being a writer and the disappointments don't get any easier.

Constructive rejection letters only have a use a couple of days after you’ve received them because initially they just mean REJECTION! Once you’ve ridden out the disappointment, however, examine them and take the comments on board. Also remember that opinion is subjective. What won't work for one publisher may be perfect for another. If you have genuine faith in your work then chances are somebody else will. Be your own harshest critic. After you’ve finished your book go back and read it a few months later.

Always start thinking about your next project as soon as you've finished your first. If your current project doesn't get the reception you wanted, by the time you've learned that you'll have something else exciting underway.

I'll finish with a story from 1999. I'd become disillusioned with TV and wanted to concentrate on novel writing. I’d left my TV agent and got a literary agent on the back of my first novel. I was invited to a literary party at the agency and was described in Publishing News as 'soon-to-be-published.’ I thought I'd effortlessly jumped ship. It's now 2009 and I have my first book published. It may even be my last but seeing STOP ME on the shelf definitely made it all worth it.

OUR GUEST: AUTHOR OF STOP ME

2009-12-09T11:50:00.004-06:00

Get a sneak preview of our guest blogger's thriller novel, STOP ME, before next week! View his web site at http://www.richardjayparker.com

Read the unique premise of his novel regarding an email/vacation killer and hear the suspenseful music! This book is a real page turner. Remember, one lucky writer/reader who comments on the 15th will receive a free copy of STOP ME.

Reminder--the date he guest blogs is Tuesday, Dec. 15.

THRILLER AUTHOR TO GUEST BLOG NEXT WEEK

2009-12-08T16:28:00.005-06:00

Sleuths, keep watching this page for more information about next week's guest blogger, Richard Jay Parker. Richard is the author of STOP ME, his exciting debut thriller in the U.K. He'll guest blog on Tuesday, December 15. Please mark your calendars!

Richard will discuss his thriller publishing experience from writing to submission to promotion, including Twitter. Ask him any questions regarding these topics, being a debut author or the thriller genre next week.

Currently STOP ME may be shipped to the US absolutely free with 30% off via http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780749007072/Stop-Me. Also, his publisher, Allison & Busby, www.allisonandbusby.com has graciously agreed to offer ONE FREE COPY of STOP ME. We'll draw names from those of you who ask questions on the 15th. More later.

Stacy Juba - Writing For Small Independent Publishers: The Yin and Yang

2009-11-11T16:31:00.001-06:00

Writing For Small Independent Publishers: The Yin and Yang

Many writers have asked what it’s like working with a small independent publisher, and I’m pleased to report that it’s been a wonderful experience. My first mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, about a newspaper obit writer who stumbles across an unsolved murder on the microfilm, was released in October from Mainly Murder Press. Like most independent publishers, MMP has a niche – in this case, New England-based mystery novels, serving authors and readers who especially enjoy mysteries set in the Northeast (New England plus New York and Pennsylvania).

Industry reports indicate that as larger publishing conglomerates narrow the choice of books that they publish, small specialized presses have stepped in to fill that gap with literary offerings often equal in quality, if not superior to, mainstream publications. These niche publishers know who is reading their product and how to reach them, which is good news for talented authors seeking a home for their work.

Although independent publishers maintain high standards of excellence and the submission process is competitive, writers don’t necessarily need an agent to submit. Should their work be accepted, small press authors will likely receive more individualized attention than authors published by a large conglomerate – for example, they might have an opportunity to give cover input and they may be kept more informed about the marketing of their books. As with any publishing contract, however, writers need to do their research before signing.

I first heard about my publisher when Mainly Murder Press announced over the Sisters in Crime listserv that they were accepting submissions. Sisters in Crime is an organization that promotes the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry. I liked that MMP belonged to both Sisters in Crime and the Independent Book Publishers Association, as this reflects a high level of professionalism. I studied sample book contracts on-line, asked questions of published Sisters in Crime members, and read one of the publisher’s previous books. Satisfied that it was a terrific opportunity, I signed my name and celebrated.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when conducting research: What is the publisher’s distribution network? Does it include distributors such as Ingram’s, Amazon.com, Baker and Taylor, and Barnes & Noble.com so that bookstores and libraries can easily order your book? Does the publisher offer strong discounts and other attractive terms to distributors, retailers and libraries to encourage stocking and special ordering? How often are royalty payments issued and are they based on industry commission standards? Are there any fees to contracted authors? Are authors required to purchase a minimum quantity of their own title? Several small publishers (vanity presses cloaked as legitimate publishers) demand that the author purchase a minimum quantity of books, which can be as many as 500 copies or more. Because it's not a "fee," some writers fool themselves into thinking this is an industry requirement, but it most assuredly is not.

Writer Beware, the public face of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Committee on Writing Scams, offers a great deal of information through its web site, http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/. This is a good place to begin your research. Once the contract has been signed, small press authors should prepare to take an active role in book promotion and marketing. In fact, many independent publishers require a marketing plan as part of the submission process. As a start, I established a web site, http://www.stacyjuba.com; created a Facebook page; visited mystery author web sites and jotted down the publications and book web sites that had reviewed their novels; compiled a database of local media, reviewers, and book clubs; created and distributed bookmarks; and researched email addresses for bookstores and libraries.

Working with an independent press lets you experience the Yin and Yang of the publishing industry – the creative side of writing balanced by the business side of marketing. I’ve had a lot to learn, but hopefully by the time Mainly Murder Press publishes my second mystery suspense novel, Sink or Swim, in Fall 2010, I’ll be an old pro. More information on Mainly Murder Press titles can be found at http://www.mainlymurderpress.com.

Decoding The Lost Symbol - Simon Cox

2009-10-21T19:09:00.001-05:00

Solving mysteries is what I do. In my case, its usually historical mysteries and enigmas, I’m the perfect person to write a guide to the latest Dan Brown novel, The Lost Symbol. This is my fourth such guide book after, Cracking The Da Vinci Code, Illuminating Angels & Demons, and The Dan Brown Companion. I think I have Mr. Brown figured out by now.

So, what were the major mysteries of The Lost Symbol? Well, they certainly weren’t in the same controversial league as the previous novel, The Da Vinci Code – but mysteries there are nevertheless. As a British based author, I suddenly found myself faced with a mountain of research to undertake on the foundations of the United States, its founding fathers, the seemingly Masonic origins of many of the symbols and iconography associated with the formation of this new state and of whether secret societies had a hand in this creation. It was one of the most interesting research endeavors I have ever undertaken.

One of the major eye opening mysteries that I looked into, was the seemingly sacred and secret layout of Washington, DC. This beautiful city on the banks of the Potomac river is at first glance an elegant and well designed array of streets and boulevards that show a high degree of architectural skill and forward thinking design. However, when you look deeper you find that other hands may well have been at play when this city that was to rise from the swampland was designed and planned. There are obvious symbolic elements and Masonic meanings encoded within the very fabric of the city. The way streets are aligned and laid out, the placement of buildings and monuments, and the number symbolism inherent within the measurements of many of the original buildings, all points to a unified and symbolic meaning encoded within DC. It was wonderful to see and understand, like a fog had been lifted, and I could see a glimpse of the original idea.

What makes the Dan Brown books so absorbing is the way he weaves such factual elements into the fabric of his thrillers. In The Da Vinci Code, he had us all wondering whether a great religious and sacred secret was to be found in the south of France, in Angels & Demons he introduced many people to the brilliant artist and sculptor, Bernini, for the first time. In The Lost Symbol, he once again introduces the reader to some deep and interesting themes. Science is represented by noetics, religion by the ideas of such men as Jefferson, Franklin and Washington, art by the amazing Albrecht Durer. It all adds up to a compelling and addictive mix that involves you as a reader and engages you as a researcher.

The Lost Symbol is a pretty good book in the end. Not as immediate as The Da Vinci Code and not as dynamic as Angels & Demons, but its much more of a slow burner. A book that challenges you to look deeper and think more about belief, tolerance and the fundamental meaning of things.

My guide book, Decoding The Lost Symbol, is published in the United States on November 3rd, by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. I hope it inspires some people to look at the bibliography and some of the entries, with an eye to looking further into some of the mysteries of the past. Your past.

For those of you interested in knowing more, or who want to contact me directly, I am on Facebook under my name, on Twitter (@FindSimonCox) and have a website at www.decodingthelostsymbol.com, where you will also find details of a fabulous conference I have put together for November 8th in Los Angeles.

Simon Cox

National Novel Writing Month

2009-10-17T13:16:00.000-05:00

Have any of you ever participated in National Novel Writing Month? It's an annual writing event every November. The goal is to bang out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (no editing allowed--just writing as fast as you can). You have the option of posting your daily word count, wearing Nanowrite t-shirts for inspiration, sending your completed novel at the end of the month and more. Sign up and/or find out more at http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I've never tried it but am tempted, even though I'm still in editing mode. It would be fun to work on an entirely different novel for one month. If you're interested, read the guidelines and Q&A on their site. You can't begin before November 1 but you may outline and decide on your cast of characters. That's about it.

I wish it were held a different month--like January or February. November is very busy with Thanksgiving, guests, traveling, and that old thing called Christmas shopping. If no member of Sleuths is going to try this, maybe we should hold our own writing month this winter.

What do you think? Are you going for it?

ANYBODY SEEN MY SHORTS? - Michael Bracken

2009-09-24T07:46:00.000-05:00

Professional short story markets are disappearing at an alarming rate. Soon there won’t be any professional publications left that publish short stories.
Sound familiar? I’ve been hearing variations of this refrain for several decades. Every generation of short story writers complains that the previous generation of writers had it easy.
Guess what? It’s never been easy. Yet short story writers with only a moderate amount of talent have been able to overcome the odds against them by applying a great deal of hard work and dogged determination to their efforts.
How do I know? I have only a moderate amount of talent, yet I’ve sold more than 800 short stories, and I’ve had one or more short stories published every month for the past 74 consecutive months.
Here’s how you can duplicate my success:

1. Develop an intimate relationship with the English language. You don’t need to become a grammarian, but you do need to know how to spell the words you use and how to punctuate the sentences you write.

2. Develop an understanding of what constitutes a story. Read widely and voraciously and study every story you read.

3. Don’t allow another writer’s blinders to become your blinders. If another writer convinces you that there are only a few markets for short stories in your genre, you won’t make an effort to find the hidden markets.

4. Don’t allow your love for a particular genre to limit you. Write in multiple genres and you may find, as I did, that you are more successful writing outside your favorite genre.

5. Volunteer to read submissions for a small press, literary publication, or Webzine so that you can see the manuscripts other writers are submitting, and learn why some of the best submissions are not accepted.

6. Develop a familiarity with the publishing process. Understand why submitting a Christmas story in December is a waste of everyone’s time.

7. Study the magazines to which you are submitting. Pay particular attention to the advertising because it will tell you a great deal about the magazine’s readers.

8. Always, always, always, look for new markets. If you see a magazine, pick it up and study it. Some of the best short story sales I’ve made were to publications that weren’t listed in Writer’s Market and didn’t post their submission requirements on their Web site.

9. Write. Write until your fingers bleed, then continue writing.

10. Submit. Keep submitting. If your short story manuscript is rejected, send it out again. And again. And again. One of my stories sold for $150 to the twenty-third editor to see it, 17 years after the first editor rejected it.

11. Stop fretting. Writers with a single manuscript under submission tend to obsess about that submission. Writers like me who have dozens of manuscripts under submissions often forget what’s where and are pleasantly surprised every time an editor responds.

12. Set a goal. Some writers advocate writing a set number of words or pages per day. I prefer a goal that advocates finished manuscripts. For example, some short story writers I know advocate the “Rule of 12.” That means having 12 short story manuscripts under submission at all times. During the first year, write one short story each month. That’s half-a-page a day or less. At the end of a year you’ll have 12 manuscripts making the rounds. If you sell a story or if you retire one to your filing cabinet, you must write and submit a new story. My goal is to write and sell a short story every week. That’s 52 short stories every year.

13. Keep good records. Know where your manuscripts are, when they were submitted, and what the editors’ responses were. Keep copies of all contracts you sign. Keep a copy of every publication containing one of your stories. If your career lasts as long as mine, you’ll have multiple opportunities to sell reprint rights and may even find a publisher to release one or more of your short story collections.

Follow my advice and you probably won’t become rich and famous. You will, however, have a long career as a short story writer.
-----
Learn more about Michael Bracken at http://www.CrimeFictionWriter.com. Follow his progress and see if he meets his goal of writing and selling a story a week at http://crimefictionwriter.blogspot.com.

Michael Bracken Guest Blogs on Thursday, Sept. 24th

2009-09-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

Michael Bracken is the author of 11 books, including All White Girls, Bad Girls, Deadly Campaign, Tequila Sunrise, and Yesterday in Blood and Bone, and nearly 1,200 shorter works published in more than 150 anthologies and periodicals.

More than 800 of Bracken’s short stories have appeared in literary, small press, and commercial publications worldwide. Bracken’s “Dreams Unborn” was named one of the best mystery short stories of the year by the editors of The Best American Mystery Stories 2005, “All My Yesterdays” received a Derringer Award, “Cuts Like a Knife” was short-listed for the Derringer Award, and “Of Dreams Unborn” appeared on the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Award. “Snowbirds,” co-authored with Tom Sweeney, was named fourth best story of the year in the Ellery Queen reader’s poll. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Espionage Magazine, Fantastic, Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, Hot Blood: Strange Bedfellows, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 4, Midnight, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Northern Horror, Sun, True Story, Young World, and in many other anthologies and periodicals.

Bracken is the editor of five crime fiction anthologies, Fedora, Fedora II, Fedora III, Hardbroiled, and Small Crimes. Stories from Bracken’s anthologies have been short-listed for the Anthony, Derringer, Edgar, and Shamus awards.

In addition to writing and editing fiction, Bracken is editor of Senior News, a monthly newspaper distributed throughout Texas; managing editor of Texas Gardener, a bi-monthly consumer magazine; editor of Seeds, a weekly newsletter; and editor of Symphony Notes, a monthly newsletter. His non-fiction has appeared in Atlanta Parent, Inside Higher Ed, MAMM, Mothering, Mystery Scene, SFWA Bulletin, Teaching Miracles, The Writer, and other anthologies and periodicals. He has edited corporate and organization newsletters, and has received local, regional, and national awards for advertising copywriting, including a Silver ADDY Award presented by the American Advertising Federation.

Bracken served as vice president of the Private Eye Writers of America, served three terms as vice president of the Mystery Writers of America’s Southwest Chapter, and has served as chair of the Best First Novel committee for the Private Eye Writers of America’s Shamus Awards. He has held many elected positions in the Waco Advertising Federation, a chapter of the American Advertising Federation, including president. He is also an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

He regularly speaks about writing, editing, and publishing to audiences across the U.S. The many writing conferences he’s spoken at include Hardboiled Heroes & Cozy Cats, Harriet Austin Writers’ Conference, The Journey Conference (sponsored by The Writer), The Langdon Weekend, McKendree Writers’ Conference, Pennwriters, Seton Hill University’s In Your Write Mind conference, and Woodlands Writers’ Guild’s annual conference. He’s taught non-credit writing classes at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and guest lectured in writing classes at Baylor University, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and others.

Bracken received his Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing from Baylor University and currently serves clients from his office in Waco, Texas.

Additional information about Bracken, including a selected bibliography and his speaking schedule, is available at: www.CrimeFictionWriter.com.

Writers Make Life Interesting/Mystery is the Spice

2009-09-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

Hi, Glad to receive the invite.
The story I just finished, STORM SURPRISE!
Got sent in an open e-mail. I want to thank all of
you for the instruction on how to get it from the word
processor to the e-mail. Special Thanks to Shirley McCann
for the several e-mails on what to do after that.
3500 words was 13 printed pages. It took awhile to get it
lined out after getting it to the correct location. Now the
wait for the winner to be chosen in December 09.
I hope Good Housekeeping likes my First Online Submission!
Elsie, Betty Jo, Claudette and I had a wonderful time at the
Sleuth's Ink meeting last Saturday. We appriciate everyone
being so outgoing, welcoming and your willingness to help us.
We are learning new things each time we meet with you.
Congratulation to Pat on winning the Blog Contest. Loved that
Story. Betty Jo and I are preparing our stories to submit to
Ellery Queen, Department of First Stories. The encouragement
you give,spurs us to the action needed to follow our dreams.
THANK YOU !!!!!

Contest Photo

2009-09-13T08:53:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to Pat Woodward for winning the Mystery Photo Contest. And also, a big congratulations to the other entries. It was a tough choice since all stories were awesome.

Now submit, submit, submit!!!

Guns, Gams and Gumshoes (Site by PI's)

2009-09-09T09:38:00.000-05:00

Sleuths, if you're writing a mystery, suspense or crime novel, check out this website: www.writingpis.wordpress.com

Guns, Gams and Gumshoes is a site written by two PI's who enjoy writing. And that's not all--they address writers' questions. Below is a sampling of the categories. Go to their site, click on the category and they'll give you an official PI answer! How cool is this? It'll be a great resource for all of us. Enjoy.

Admissible Evidence
Be Your Own Investigator
Cell Phone Hacking
Disguises, Guns, Bounty Hunters
Pet Detectives
PI Topics
Private Eyes and Crime Scenes
Public vs Private Investigators
Sleuthing Gadgets
Surveillance v Stalking
Writing About PIs

The Worst and The Best - Rejection

2009-08-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

I've received many rejections over the years. Some left me feeling positive about my writing even though it was still a rejection. And some, I'm afraid, have left me with doubts about my ability to concoct a story on paper.

So what's the BEST rejection you've ever received?

And what's the WORST rejection you've ever received?

I'll start the ball rolling. The best rejection I've ever received was for a young adult novel I sent out years ago. I'd found the publisher in The Writers Market and sent them the manuscript. The letter I received in response said, "You write well. Why don't you try a young adult market?"
Well, according to The Writer's Market, I DID try a young adult market.

The worst rejection was also for a young adult submission, although not the same story. I had queried an agent about the book, and he requested the first three chapters and a synopsis. He wrote back and said, "Sorry, I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped I'd be."

Anyone else care to share?

Contest For Members

2009-08-04T10:49:00.001-05:00

Hello Sleuths,

It's time for another impromptu contest for our membership.

Look at the picture. Using all the elements in the picture, create a story of 500 words or less. Be sure to include a crime. Entries will be read at the September meeting. Members in attendance will vote for the best story.

Just in case you can't tell from the photo, the elements are: a cell phone, one earring, an ashtray, lit cigarette, lighter, and a gun.

Let's write!

Top Three Unsolved Crimes In Springfield

2009-07-24T12:30:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, Springfield is no stranger to murder! I'm listing what I consider to be the top three murders in our local area. Of course, this is just in my lifetime. I'm sure there are many I've forgotten or just don't know about.

3. The Revelle Murders. A local banker was accused of murdering his wife to cover up the fact that he'd stolen large sums of money from his bank. He was tried and convicted, but the sentence was later overturned.

2. The Feeney Murders. A nurse from a local hospital failed to show up for shift. When police were called to investigate, they discovered the bodies of the nurse and her two children. Her husband was tried and acquitted.

1. The Three Missing Women. This one because it's never been solved. Obviously, with no bodies ever found, we can only assume this is a murder case. But after all these years.....?

These have always been fresh on my mind. Can you think of more? Do you think these three murders will ever be solved?

Convince Me!

2009-06-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

I just read a large article on Funds for Writers about Twitter stories of 140 words. I must confess I didn't understand much of it. It seems the writer gets paid a small amount for these Twitter stories. (A very small amount I might add.)

It seems everyone and every business, news channel etc is on Twitter. Tell me, what is the point? Is Twitter beneficial to the writer or a time waster? Inquiring minds need to know.

Has Twitter helped you in any way with markets or writing tips?

Changing the Rules - Is it Grounds For Murder?

2009-06-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

I read a blog posting at Writing and Publishing News telling about the new rules for spaces after sentences. When I was in school, in ancient days, the rule was to use two spaces after a sentence. Now I'm reading that I should only use one.

I'm trying it now. It's not easy to do! It's like learning to walk and talk all over again! I keep having to backspace to see if I actually put just one space between the sentences.

I'm curious. Has anyone started using this practice in their writing? If so, are you having as much difficulty as I am? Can't editors just wait for all of us old folks to die off before making the new rules permanent?

Feedback please! And please try to type using only one space between the sentences.

Was Actor Murdered, Suicidal or Asphyxiated?

2009-06-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've heard the stunning, awful news about actor David Carradine. What do you think? Was it something devious since his hands were reportedly bound behind his back or did he accidentally strangle himself while doing a strange sex act called AEA (autoerotic asphyxiation).

How embarrassing to be found like that. I feel for his family. We have healthcare worker friends who say AEA is fairly common but it's always kept quiet and especially out of the news because it's so embarrassing, weird and deviant.

Another question: Would you ever have a character die from AEA?

Chicago crime??

2009-06-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

On a quick trip to Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend––
I looked out of the window and saw yellow tape stretched across a doorway and steps. Couldn't read what was printed on the tape, but my immediate thought was "Who was killed and why?" Imagine that! ;P

Mysteries & Suspense -- What's the Difference?

2009-05-29T11:39:00.001-05:00

Can someone explain the difference between mysteries, suspense and thrillers? I love fast-paced page turners and two of my favorite authors fall into that category--James Patterson and Harlan Coben. Their writing styles are similar in that you can't put the book down, they're contemporary in nature, always have many plot twists, with tons of suspense and surprises along the way.

However, Harlan Coben's books are placed in the "mystery" section of book stores while James Patterson's are found in the "suspense/thriller" section. Why is that?

While we're at it, does anyone know the difference between chick lit, women's fiction and contemporary romance?

Hampering Criminal Investigations

2009-05-23T06:59:00.000-05:00

This week, news of a possible pedophile involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann surfaced. Madeleine's parents are now suing officials over claims that their daughter's investigation was hampered by police by saying that not only is Madeleine already dead, but that the parents were somehow involved.

What do you think? Did the police miss the mark by focusing their investigation on the parents and not looking further for other possibilities? In a husband/wife crime scenario, the spouse is always the first suspect, but should they always be the MAIN suspect?

Do you think the police handled the investigation appropriately?

About Editing

2009-05-13T09:54:00.000-05:00

I have something about editing on my blog but thought I would also post it here. How do you edit? Do you edit as you go or after you've finished your novel? And do you edit on the computer or print out a hard copy?

I'm in the editing phase of my novel and would love to hear any tips from some of you great writers! Also if anyone knows of a professional editor, please pass along his or her name.

Try This With Your Right Foot!

2009-04-24T11:48:00.000-05:00

Okay, so this isn't exactly writing related, but it is something you can do while waiting for your muse.

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. While doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. Seriously, it will!

If you're like me, you'll keep trying this over and over to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't; it's preprogrammed in your brain. This info is supposedly from an orthopedic surgeon. Now, get back to writing.

April Sleuth's Meeting

2009-04-13T14:47:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed the program last Saturday. It is intesting and informative to learn things out of your comfort zone and experience. It is always nice to have lunch with you guys and listen to the chatter.

Have the current pirates on the high seas given any one story ideas?

Shirley is doing a good job keeping the interest up and we are having great meetings. Thanks Shirley.

Favorite Book From Your Writing Library

2009-04-05T19:09:00.000-05:00

I'm sure all writers have an extensive library of writing and forensic books. Pick one favorite from your collection and tell us the name of the book, the author, and why you think it's a valuable tool for a writer to have. I'm sure we'll all discover a new book or two for our own libraries.

Since I've said that we can only pick one, I'll start with one of my favorites.

Forensic For Dummies, by D.P. Lyle is filled with easy-to-understand information from checking for fingerprints and DNA, to investigating crime scenes and understanding the various stages the body goes through at death.

Six-Word Memoir Challenge

2009-03-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, I am a huge fan of six-word memoirs. If you haven't read the emails, here's an example of Hemingway's shortest short. "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Says a lot, doesn't it? Maybe his wife miscarried. Maybe they couldn't conceive or maybe the baby was stillborn. Does anyone know?

Here's a challenge to sleuths everywhere. Write six-word memoirs about mystery, murder and mayhem. It's fun! Here are a few of mine to get you started:

Bloody scene. Cops checking fingerprints, DNA.
Severe knife wounds. No one's talking.
Body hanging in closet by necklace.
Police found body in trunk. Whose?
Gasping for air, she shot boyfriend.
Dead body, missing gun. Where's wife?
Woman's body found. Husband looks suspicious.

It's easy and I can't wait to read yours. BTW, Smith has recently published two New York Times bestselling books featuring six-word memoirs. Enter and you might be published in their next book. Go to www.smithnet.com and check it out. (They should add me to their staff. I'm such a fan.)

Jury Duty

2009-03-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of serving on a jury. Although the case itself was not all that interesting - the defendant was an accused drug user found with drugs in his car -, the process of a real-life courtroom drama intrigued me.

It wasn't at all like those on television. Everything moves quickly on television, but in real life, it is sometimes boring and tedious.

I'd love to be called upon again to serve. I'm curious if any others have had interesting experiences on jury duty. Care to share?

Where Do You Work?

2009-02-15T08:31:00.000-06:00

I truly enjoyed Beverly's presentation yesterday at Sleuth's. I think I will use the scene card a lot. That is one of those things that we think "Gee, wish I had thought of that."

I talked with Beverly over lunch about her office downtown. She has done what many of us wish we could do. Have our writing space outside the house, away from distractions. I love to read about the places celebrities write. So - tell me where you write.

I remember the days of writing on the kitchen table, then moving everything for every meal (or homework assist). I remember taking my trusty yellow tablet everywhere I went and scribbling as I waited for kids or husband. My son once told someone, "My mom takes a tablet and a camera everywhere she goes."

Then one day, husband and I bought a business. I had my own office, my own typewriter, my own copy machine. Nevermind that 99% of my time in the office was taken doing business things. I had a place to leave my 'stuff' where no one else would bother it.

Well, that was some time ago and my writing space has evolved. From a corner in the bedroom to the dining room table Now after all these years, I have an office. True, it is still a corner of a room. My desk is in the end of the den. I have a table and bookshelfs and no one bothers all the mess I leave on the desk because no one is here to care if I leave a mess. Now I pack my laptop AND my yellow tablet (camera too) when I travel, but the files and the ideas are safe in my 'office.'

Now, tell me - where do you work?

Be Careful With Your Notes

2009-02-12T14:07:00.000-06:00

I watched Dateline a few weeks ago. The story was about a husband who poisoned his wife using anti-freeze. That seemed like good novel material so I made several notes. I included the symptoms from such a poisoning and also jotted down other ways to poison someone. All this was for my fiction writing, of course, but I left my notes on a table near the couch. While drinking coffee one morning, my husband leaned forward and picked up my yellow pad. He read it intently and looked at me with concern in his eyes. "Are you going to poison me?" he asked. I laughed, hugged him and assurred him I had no plans for that. I explained the show and my notes and he seemed satisfied. So...be careful with your notes!

Tip-Toe Burglar at mmy hhhouse!

2009-02-06T17:25:00.000-06:00

Yes, indeed the infamous Tip-Toe Burglar waltzed his way successfully into my house in the wee hours one morning. He was an Expert at tip-toeing 'cause our dog apparently never even heard him. Later, when I got up, I found the back door, the porch door, and the gate all hangin' open.
How's that for a creepy feeling once your mind starts comin' up with possible answers?

The window incident was somewhere else in the neighborhood. I certainly don't understand how anyone could take out an entire window and neatly prop the pieces up against a tree just to gain entry, but this guy did.

The police found out, apparently, as was reported in the paper, but couldn't arrest him because there was no proof. So they told him to "Get Outta Dodge." He either did just that, or he quit his lucrative cash only hobby; we've never heard from or about him again.

PS The dog did a Wonderful job barking at the police when they came!

Tiptoe Bandit

2009-01-28T21:08:00.000-06:00

Since Nancy hasn't signed onto this blog yet, I'll try to remember what she told me about the Tiptoe Bandit. Apparently, this happened to her several years ago.

The thief was called the Tiptoe Bandit because he entered homes while people were home, stole their wallets, left, took the money, left the wallet and credit cards along the street somewhere, and NO ONE ever knew he was in the house until they couldn't find their wallets!!!!

This actually happened to some of the exchange students who were staying with her at the time. I believe she said that the bandit actually removed the window to get inside. Might want to ask her about that, cause I don't see how he could do that. But it is scary to think someone could get inside your house while you're sleeping and no one ever noticed!!

Possible Weapon???

2009-01-21T15:59:00.000-06:00

I just read in a book (fiction) about a woman who used a rolled up magazine as a weapon. She claimed that a tightly rolled magazine was as hard as a piece of wood. What do you think???

Tip Toe Bandit

2009-01-20T14:53:00.000-06:00

Do I want to know about the tip toe bandit??? Or will I be hearing him/her every night when I wake? The only crime that has happened to me recently was someone stole the gnomes off my porch. I'm told this is a cool thing to do. Also someone stole my solar lights but I knew who was at the house and confronted him.

I have a neighbor - not too far away - who is a bit unbalanced and Police presence is visible occasionally. Also have been told of meth houses in my neighborhood. The day we signed the papers on this house 7 years ago we heard on the news of a murder about 3 blocks over. If I had known that I probably wouldn't have bought the house. But all in all, I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood. Doesn't sound like it does it. I take that back. It isn't quiet at all. One of the neighbors has teen age boys - they have a friend who blasts out our windows with his car radio regularly - usually late at night.

2009-01-19T21:20:00.000-06:00

Hi Sleuths
I can't think of any crime committed on myself.
There was a B & E where some minor junk was taken.
And I can remember times when other minor things have
been taken off our porch and out of our garage. I guess we
have been lucky?
I am interested in hearing about this tip toe crime you are talking about.

Springfield Crimes

2009-01-19T18:23:00.000-06:00

Hello Sleuths,

Anyone ever heard of the Tiptoe Bandit? Apparently this was a famous Springfield crime several years ago. I'll let Nancy tell more about it since she was a victim of this crime.

If anyone else was the victim of a crime and would like to share their experience, this is a good place to start. It also might give our members some story ideas!! If I did this right, this blog should only be for Sleuths' Ink members.