Before I begin today’s post, I’d like to thank my colleagues at TKZ for their good wishes, and especially James Scott Bell and Dale Ivan Smith, for covering for me during my absence.
TKZ is the greatest. It’s nice to back.
Now on to some interesting fictional characters…
“Characters are not created by writers. They pre-exist and have to be found.” — Elizabeth Bowen
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I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately in a few unfamiliar settings – at least they’re new territory to me – hospitals, rehab orgs, and skilled nursing facilities – as we deal with my husband’s recent medical problems.
Now you might think such places would be depressing. After all, they’re home to the wrinkled and veiny aged population with their wheelchairs and walkers, prescription drugs and hospital beds. However…
I found these places not to be depressing at all, but fascinating. Most of the folks I’ve met aren’t persistent bellyachers despite their disabilities. Instead, they are people who have lived full lives and are up to facing adversity in their last years.
Take Jeb (not his real name). We met the 92-year-old at dinner one night in a skilled nursing home. Jeb is down to earth and fun to talk to, although he needs his hearing aids to stay in the conversation.
When Jeb noticed my husband was wearing a navy hat, our talk turned toward the military and veterans. We discovered Jeb had retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army after thirty years of service and had served three tours of duty in Vietnam as a green beret.
Jeb is a relatively small man, not the muscle-bound giant I would have expected of a green beret, but he was a well-respected leader. He’s even the subject of a chapter in the book The Wars of the Green Berets by Robin Moore.
But in addition to his stories about the war, it was Jeb’s demeanor that captivated me. Although he lived through some horrific events, he is genial and warm, and his conversation is peppered with exclamations like “Oh heavens, yes!” and “Now, whaddya know!”
I realized after we’d spent a few hours with Jeb that he was the perfect model for Jake, a character in my WIP. I had been developing the character of Jake, a Korean War veteran who had lost his hearing in the war, and I had a good sense of who Jake was, but I couldn’t quite picture the physical character in my mind. Then I met Jeb and realized he was the model I had been looking for.
Jeb wasn’t the only character I met. Madeline (also not her real name) was another one whose determination to get out of the nursing home was funny and inspiring. As a matter of fact, it was during a conversation with Madeline that I suggested we form a team of residents to create a short story – a murder mystery set in a nursing facility. We’re getting suggestions for plot elements and characters from all sides to our tentatively named story, “The MerriLax Conspiracy” where the murder victim is, of course, one of the nurses. Madeline will play a leading role.
* * *
So TKZers: Where do you find characters for your stories? Are they based on people you know or always products of your imagination? Care to let the rest of us in on some of your experiences?
* * *
“DiBianca’s plot is tightly woven, but her cast of quirky and lovable characters steal the spotlight” —BookLife Reviews, Editor’s Pick
As readers and writers, memories are important. When we read, we are often bombarded with memories from our own earthly timeline. A character being lost might dredge up that frightening memory when your child got away from you in a crowded store. Or a nasty break-up reminds you of one you went through.
The question today is this: What is your earliest memory? Pleasant or harsh or in-between, what is a memory that stands out from your youngest years?
My earliest memory is when I was five and my sister was two. She slipped on the ice outside our house and banged her head on the walkway, knocking her unconscious. My dad hurried over and picked her up. I remember her head flailing around on his shoulder as he rushed her into the house. My six-year-old brother and I both thought she was dead, and were afraid to go in. But then we heard voices, Mom, Dad, and baby sister. We inched in and were relieved to see her sitting up in Mom’s lap.
This memory is especially poignant for me because thirty years later she really did pass away—and along with the reality of her death—was infused into both of my novels in different ways. And, tomorrow is her birthday, which makes this post/memory even more precious.
Your turn! What is your earliest memory? And how have you worked it into your story?
Most readers think that writers only write. (I wish) But these days, most authors have to either help promote their books or, with indie publishing, do all the promotion. Marketing that works involves connecting with readers, so I’m always looking for ways to engage readers (after writing a gripping story). I found a few to share with you.
#wordoftheday
Our own Terry Odell shared in an interview that she had been posting #wordoftheday on her social media sites, and I asked if she’d mind if I copied her idea. She agreed after threatening to make me the villain in one of her books and killing me off <G>…What she actually said was, “Sure. I stole the idea from someone else, anyway.”
Every day Terry posts a new word on Facebook (I’m sure you could post it on Instagram and Threads, too) that she chooses from Dictionary.com and asks her readers to make up a definition for the word. You can schedule posts to drop in, allowing you to schedule as many as you’d like or do one each day. It doesn’t take long. You can see that Terry has 19 comments on this post, which is a good response.
#PunDay
Amy Lilliard, another writer friend, creates Pun Day posts. She and a friend each make up a pun, and Amy puts it on her Facebook page and lets her readers pick the best pun. Like Terry’s Word of the Day, these competitions have generated a lot of engagement from readers.
Pinterest Boards
Another way to engage readers is to create a Character Board for your latest WIP on Pinterest. You can ask your readers what they would like to see on the board, or here are a few AI suggestions:
Photos or drawings showing what the character looks like.
Specific outfits, shoes, and accessories they wear.
Places they live, rooms, or nature backgrounds that match their mood.
Small items like weapons, books, animals, or food tied to their story.
An X offering:
A couple of years ago, there was a Twitter post going around where you posted either the title of a book or the first line, and then added “And then the murders began.” So I thought I’d try it using one of my books. It’s a way to get your book out there without saying, Buy me! This is something you can do on any social media site. I love seeing what readers come up with.
Polls
Polls are a great way to engage readers. I’ve created polls to see if my readers preferred the beach or mountains as a setting. You can put the poll in your newsletter, a social media post, or on your blog, if you have one. My next book is set in the mountains, and I made that decision after polling my readers.
Blogs
Blogs are a great way to connect with readers. TKZ is a great example of that. I have a blog with over 600 subscribers, over 1,000 visitors each week, and usually 25-30 comments that I always answer.
While those numbers aren’t astronomical, I started out about seven years ago with only 10 visitors each week (my family) and zero subscribers. I’m gaining more each week with my Mystery Question blog, where I have four statements (usually crimes). Three are true, and I make up one. Readers guess which one. Then on Friday, I review a book by another author.
If you decide to start a blog, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
Provide something that ties into what you write. I write suspense, so the Mystery Question ties into my books. And my Friday post readers appreciate that I promote other authors.
Be consistent. I’ve occasionally had to suspend my posts, and when I began again, it took a few weeks to get engagement going again.
Always respond to the comments — connecting with readers is the whole point of the blog.
Readers like to connect with the authors they read. We should give them the opportunity to learn more about us and our books. Take the time to share a little about yourself with your readers. It’s a win-win situation.
And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray…when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea. — Proust, In Search of Lost Time
By PJ Parrish
Morning crime dogs. Today, our submission writer is taking us to a far off place with a strange sounding name. Actually, they don’t tell us exactly where we are, but that’s okay because I can sense we’re not in Kansas, Dotty. The genre, our writer says, is international political thriller. Take a look and then let’s talk.
Light In the Kingdom Of Sand
Ari Edri woke to the heat and stink of his apartment, mouth sour with the taste of alcohol and cigarettes. His bed, little more than a cot, was drenched with sweat. The clamor of morning traffic outside the open window was all horns and chaos. His clock said it was nearly noon – another Monday and no reason to care or stir from bed.
He lay there for a moment, trying to find a comfortable position, but age, abuse, and arthritis made that impossible. Disgusted, he swung his legs off the bed and rose painfully to his feet.
In years past, he might have found a more accommodating home, but this was really all he could afford. He limped across the room to relieve himself. He winced at the pain and his reflection in the faded mirror. It was older, sadder, and more worn than he remembered.
Splashing water on his face, he looked around the room. The chair was still wedged firmly under the door handle. His old Luger lay on the bedside table. Unnecessary precautions, but habits die hard.
Long retired, he had done so without a single citation in his personnel file. Dozens of missions to support his country, and yet he was a cipher to them.
The lady downstairs must be cooking from Yael’s cookbook again. The smell from below and the thought of his ex-wife cooking a recipe she thought he loved brought a smile to his face unbidden. He looked at the picture of his daughter and granddaughter on the dresser. The smell and the picture were momentarily overpowering. Ari found his vision blurring, and he wiped a tear from his cheek too late to stop the next one. Tough guy, yeah.
He remembered his ex-wife and daughter confronting him about his drinking, telling him he couldn’t be around his granddaughter if he was going to be drinking. Not believing them led to not being able to see any of them. I should have believed them. How do you come back from that?
He moved the Luger to the small kitchen table and stared at it. Will today be the day? Will I finally have nerve enough? Not strong enough to stop the booze, why would I be strong enough to pull the trigger?
______________
I’m back. I enjoyed reading this submission. It has a good flow and I immediately felt sympathetic toward Ari Edri. (I like his name, btw, easy to remember as it trips off the tongue). But because this is pretty darn good, I am going to be a little hard on you, dear writer.
About Ari: We don’t know if he is the protagonist, the would-be hero whose journey we will follow for three hundred pages or so. The writer could be setting him up as a victim. Which is a fine entryway into a plot. Your story doesn’t always have to open with your protag; sometimes creating a scenario around a victim can be a really effective set-up. Done it many times myself. (Note to writer: If Ari is a victim, make sure you intro your hero very soon.)
But let’s assume Ari is the main man here. There is much I already like about the guy, thanks to judicious backstory insertion. Notice that the writer does NOT lard in paragraphs of backstory. They give us just enough to entice us about his circumstances — once an effective “warrior” of some kind, but now broken (tortured?) and forgotten. I sense bitterness, which will work well in Ari’s character arc, leaving me to wonder if this is, themactically, a story about redemption.
An aside: Redemption is a powerful theme. And never forget, writers, that THEME is what your story is really about. Yes, it’s about action, plot, car chases, a fight to save a person or a country. BUT your story is, at its deepest depths, about what is happening inside your character’s heart. Never forget that.
Now, about plot. Not much is happening in these first pages. It’s a slow build opening. I don’t mind that. I am willing to go along for a slow ride, BUT only to a point. Dear writer: I suggest you get Ari out and doing something fairly quickly. Too much remembering, musing, thinking, pondering and moping isn’t sustainable for long.
I will ask this to you all out there: Do you think the writer got into the scene too early? I often see mysteries and thrillers begin this way — the protag (usually a PI or cop) gets a phone call to come to a crime scene. We then get him swinging his tired legs over the bed, “padding” across the ratty apartment, hungover, staring at his gun, moping and thinking…
When…
It might be more effective to get the protag OUT into the world actively doing something. I really dislike cop stories that begin with the cop getting a phone call to come to a murder scene. Rather: Put him (and us) there and then go back and fill in the backstory of booze and broken homes. As James said in his great Sunday post on backstory: ACT FIRST, EXPLAIN LATER. Click here to read. Dear Writer: I suggest you go back and read James’s post.
Some other things about the submission. Given Ari’s name and the book’s title, I am assuming this takes place in the mideast. I don’t need you to slap a place tag on your chapter ie:
CHAPTER ONE
KABUL, JANUARY, 2023
That’s lame. But do find a way soon to tell us where we are organically. You’ve already hinted at it.
One last thing. And this is important….
I don’t get much sense of place. I don’t see you, the writer, using your sense, to bring Ari’s world to life. I think you can make this even better. Place is a character. You have to give it as much care as you do your characters. You are working with a good basic grasp of scene-building, but you’ve missed many chances to TAKE US TO YOUR PLACE.
This is a fault I see in many submissions, an underdeveloped sense of place, and no use of the senses in description. You’ve told us it is hot, sweaty and chaotic outside. You’ve toldus his apartment “stinks.” You’ve told us he looks worn and old. You’ve told us there is photo of his daughter and granddaugher. You’ve toldus he can smell something cooking downstairs.
Now SHOWus. What does “chaos” sound like? What does “hot” feel like? What does his apartment “stink” of? What does “old and worn” look like exactly? What does that family photo look like? And most powerfully, you set up this evocative memory of his wife’s cooking! What does it “smell” like? You must use your senses when you write. THAT is what takes us to your fictional world.
A sudden, brassy blast tore through the heavy air, a sharp and angry shriek of metal and electricity. Another horn joined in close behind—a long, heavy drone of pure frustration.
Note: The cacaphony of cars in say Chennai sounds completely different than it does in Chicago. And note that the noise can reflect the emotional noise in Ari’s head. Connect and reflect.
The world seemed to die each afternoon and nothing moved any longer. At last the summer was like a green sick dream, or like a silent crazy jungle under glass. — Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding.
Note: Trying to nail down weather description can make fools of us all. Tread lightly.
There is an invalid fug in the room – the faint animal scent of the furs, a vegetal stench of undrained cooking water, and the sour reek from a bowl with which a girl hurries away: containing, he suspects, the evacuated contents of the dowager’s stomach. — Hilary Mantel, Bring Up The Bodies
Note: Of course, your room isn’t historic and this isn’t your style. I offer it only as an example of how you must use your senses, especially smell. Which brings me to what you wrote:
The lady downstairs must be cooking from Yael’s cookbook again. The smell from below and the thought of his ex-wife cooking a recipe she thought he loved brought a smile to his face unbidden. He looked at the picture of his daughter and granddaughter on the dresser. The smell and the picture were momentarily overpowering. Ari found his vision blurring, and he wiped a tear from his cheek too late to stop the next one. Tough guy, yeah.
What what did you miss? The utterly golden opportunity to SHOWus what it smells like and more important, to link it to Ari’s emotional state. Some examples:
She smells of her cooking and the perfume Eau d’Hadrien. My mother wore it, too. She used to cook, like Lili. Our house smelled of garlic and thyme instead of sadness.― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution
And of course:
As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans. — Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast.
I am bringing these passages about food in for a main and final reason. Ari is a deeply troubled man, with a strangled present and a tortured past. He is estranged from his family and deeply lonely. You instinctively chose to put in that smell coming from an apartment below. Not just any smell — the divine scent of his wife’s cooking. How wonderfully Proustian! Yet you didn’t SHOW us what it smelled like. And worse, you missed the opportunity to link it to Ari’s memories and emotional state. Yes, you had him tear up, but it feels distanced and unspecific. Details! Details! Details! This should be a coda, bringing us out of his backstory past and back to the present as he looks at that Luger.
Here’s a clip from one of my favorite movies, The Hundred Foot Journey. It is about a young Indian man who leaves his family to become a famous chef in Paris. In the most touching scene, he shares an after-hours meal sitting on the floor of his famous bistro, with a waiter, who is eating the Indian dinner his wife has made for him. It brings the chef to tears and to the realization he must go home to find himself again. I can’t find that clip, alas. But, dear writer, please find a way to connect Ari to his past through taste and smell.
Good start, writer. I enjoyed this. Now, back to work….
Live events put you and your stories in the same room as actual humans—humans who can see your covers, hear talk about your book, and feel that spark that made you write it in the first place. That proximity changes everything. You’re not battling algorithms or waiting for an email open; you’re creating a moment of connection. And connection sells.
Financially, it’s also where your margins flex. When you sell direct, you skip retailer cuts and keep the delightfully fat slice.
Here are a couple ways to make more money with your sales:
Use round, tax-included pricing (hello, $20) to make checkout brainless.
Use bundles. — Book 1 + Book 2, the whole series or a book + workbook.
Remember, you’re not a discount bin; you’re an artisan shop. People will be excited to meet and support the author.
Let Your Table Do the Talking
A good table is a quiet salesperson: it invites, explains, and excites before you even open your mouth. Have a pretty tablecloth in a branded color with your author tagline on it. Consider having banner with a scene from your books. Scene art not only makes your booth stand out, it draws target readers. If you are into dragons, and you see a dragon, you are already interested. Another way to target readers is to have signs with your genre and tropes. If you’ve got room, a simple black backdrop pushes visual focus to your covers (and hides whatever chaos lurks behind you).
Make it easy to catch readers’ eyes by elevating your books to eye level with risers or bookshelves. Stand your books up with the covers facing out. Your cover is your best advertisement! Bring more books than you plan to sell. You want to look prosperous, not sad. Place a big, friendly price signs where eyes naturally land and keep your bundles front and center. Sprinkle in a little on-brand swag (a bookmark with a review QR, a recipe or world-building card) that feels like a keepsake, not landfill.
Where the Buyers Are
Start big, then get clever.
Book fairs, signing events, expos, and genre conventions put you in front of motivated readers who came to buy books (bless them). These shows offer concentrated foot traffic, panel opportunities, and the chance to meet librarians, booksellers, and influencers—the kind of contacts that turn one weekend into a year of momentum. Genre-specific cons (romance, SFF, mystery) are especially powerful because the audience is pre-sorted to love what you write.
Non-book events like farmers markets, craft fairs, and art walks are great for authors. Being the only book seller in a sea of candles and sourdough attracts readers. The vibe is “support a maker,” which maps beautifully to “support an author.”
Homeschool gatherings and education-focused events can be gold mines for bulk sales and long-tail relationships. Parents and co-op leaders are actively hunting for quality reading, curriculum tie-ins, and author visits. Bring classroom sets pricing, unit-study guides, and a simple order form—make it easy to say yes for a whole group.
Think outside the box and follow your themes: a cat expo for cozy mysteries with feline sidekicks, a Renaissance fair for fantasy and historical adventures, or a culturally specific celebration like Jewish Joy Con if your stories and community align. When your setting, characters, and values match the event’s heart, conversion jumps because readers feel connected to your stories.
Finally, network like a pro. Trade cards with nearby authors and vendors, learn what they sell, and be ready to recommend them when your books aren’t the right fit (and ask them to do the same for you). A generous table neighbor is remembered, referred, and often invited back.
Let’s regale each other with our favorite word origins on this last day of July 2026, shall we?
Here’s mine: Boudoir
You might think, “Well, Deb, what’s so special about that word?” I’d tell you that it’s not the word that’s special, it’s where it came from and what the hidden meaning is.
Boudoir usually means a lady’s private dressing room, right?
Straight from the above website:
“The French verb bouder means ‘to pout,’ and it led to the French word boudoir, a noun that literally means ‘a place to pout in…’”
I don’t know about you, but I want one.
Your turn, TKZers. Astound us with your favorite word origin.
I hit “The End” on the current WIP, which is really “The Beginning.” Because I’m on deadline now, I’m revisiting a post that appeared several years ago.
I think in surgical terms when I tackle my draft. First, the major medical. The current manuscript came in longer than I wanted. Although I firmly believe that a story should be as long as it needs to be, the operative word is needs, and I check to make sure that every scene pulls its weight and advances the story. I confess that as a non-plotter, I often find things that never got followed up on, or were just fun scenes to write. If they don’t connect to the overall story, they get cut.
Purely practical note. At Amazon, there’s a “delivery fee” for ebooks based on file size. Longer books, bigger cut for them. Example: for my three-book box sets, they slice from 25 to 27 cents per book. They take about a dime from my “normal” length books. For those who go wide, B&N, Kobo, and Smashwords don’t have these fees. D2D keeps about 10% regardless of book length.
In print, the cost to produce the book via KDP is based on page count. More pages, bigger cut. I don’t sell enough print books to check out the other distributors, so I can’t speak for them.
For the indie author: Editors often charge by the hour or by the word. Cutting excess can save you money.
If you’re going to produce the book in audio and pay a narrator, the longer the book, the greater the cost.
These, to me, justify excising ugly fat. If you want more advice from the real experts, check this out.
Back to cutting plot threads. Should be easy, right? Patient has appendicitis, you cut out the appendix. In the manuscript, you find the threads that don’t need to be there and remove them. My characters often meet at a neighborhood dog park. I’d originally included two scenes where they met new people and their dogs there, thinking it might be strange to have them be the only two there. One of those new people might have been involved in shady dealings that affected my characters. The other did nothing more than show the dogs playing. The shady dealings never transpired, so I cut both of scenes. Easier to pop in a line about how the dog park was usually empty at the time my characters were there.
Threads don’t exist in nice, tidy packages. There will be places where you’ve foreshadowed, places where you’ve followed up, and places where you’ve made a reference, almost in passing, to something that happened or a character who appeared in that now defunct thread. Like the time my character apologized for being late because of a flat tire and explained how he had to get it repaired due to a nail. At the time, it foreshadowed a bad guy tampering with his car, but that never happened. I cut that paragraph. But a page later, he was thinking that the flat had put him behind schedule. Had to get rid of that, too.
A tip: Watch your transitions. It’s more than likely the scene before the one you cut led into it. That will have to be adjusted. Likewise the one after it. If you ended the scene with a page-turning cliff hanger, that cliffhanger now sends readers into an abyss with no bottom.
If you want the patient to recover, you have to make sure nothing’s left behind when you close him up.
Deleting a paragraph can create a dominoes effect. Watch what happens right before and after, and smooth out the edges. Critique partners, beta readers, and editors are helpful here, because they haven’t read the manuscript seventy-eleven times.
Moving on to the microsurgery.
Words that don’t add anything to the story need to go. They might even add distance, keeping a layer you don’t want between your readers and the characters. Or, there might be awkward bits.
I’ve talked about using SmartEdit before. It’s great for finding those pesky adverbs, repeated words and phrases, and another source of extra words: redundancies.
As with any automated program, you have to review every “suggestion” it makes. These programs don’t write genre fiction. SmartEdit suggests possible redundancies. I’ve run chapters and scenes through Grammarly as well, and find the same problem. Many of their suggestions don’t apply in context. However, they deserve a second look. Fortunately both programs show you where each “offense” occurs, so you can move through the manuscript quickly. Some examples of my overused phrases:
Outside of
Whether or not
Ask a question
Advance warning
Off of
Open up
Shut down
Temper tantrum
Major breakthrough
Basic essentials
Stand up
Fall down
Advance notice
Burning embers
Shrug a shoulder
I remember my high school Latin teacher complaining about advertising wording. “From its earliest beginnings to its final completion.” Or “Free gift.” He also said “up” is an overused word. I’ll never forget class clown Leon saying, “So what’s the bank robber supposed to say? This is a stick?”
Then there are the clunkers. Sometimes the eye catches them, but having Word (or your program of choice) read the book aloud to you will help you find them.
Listening calls attention to repeated words. Plus, you can hear words that aren’t really repeats, but echoes, such as this passage I discovered:
His mouth dropped. “You’re saying you’re going to wash my clothes?” She sighed. “Apparently.” It took several heartbeats for his mouth to close….
Did you spot the ‘clunker’? If not, read it out loud.
OK, TKZers: What are your tips for performing surgery on your manuscript?
Deadly Ambitions Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most. Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”
Whitefish park and historic train station before Farmers Market
Every Tuesday afternoon in summer, the park across the street from the historic Whitefish (Montana) train station becomes a hive of activity as the weekly Farmers Market sets up. The tree-shaded grass park occupies an entire city block in the resort town. The perimeter fills quickly with food trucks and vendors setting up stalls to sell produce, artwork, handcrafted goods, and…books by local authors.
Shayla Paradeis, the energetic new president of the Authors of the Flathead, came up with the terrific fresh idea of connecting with the community via a stand at the Farmers Market. We introduce people interested in writing to our weekly meetings and invite them to the annual conference. Plus, we members can showcase our books for sale.
The past few Tuesdays, Shayla, Sue Purvis, and I display our books for hundreds of tourists and locals who stroll by, munching on corn dogs, huckleberry pastries, and Flathead cherries. Kids run around playing games and petting friendly dogs while a local musician sings classic rock hits. The atmosphere is carefree and cheerful despite a light haze of wildfire smoke that turns the sun orange.
We chat with visitors from around the US along with other countries. Thanks to Zoom, our meetings are open to interested writers from anywhere in the world.
You quickly learn to spot avid readers. They stop on the grassy walkway to stare at our book displays. Sometimes they hang back for a moment, scanning. Their gaze may home in on Shayla’s eco-spiritual journey of walking across the country five times; or Sue’s memoirof training a search dog to find the lost and herself; or my mystery-thriller series set in Montana. Then they beeline to a certain book, pick it up, and start asking questions.
Their reactions show how important a good eye-catching cover is.
This past Tuesday, we hit the trifecta with one delightful family of enthusiastic readers who bought books from all three of us.
Tourists often want souvenirs of their Montana vacation and books are a good memento to read on the plane. Travelers without extra room in their suitcases picked up bookmarks, saying they’d buy the ebook instead.
A pleasant surprise: we enjoyed conversations with several pre-teen boys and their parents. That demographic isn’t known for being big readers, but these young guys talked with animation about stories, videos, and games they found exciting and interesting. One seemed especially interested in my thriller, Instrument of the Devil, about a terrorist who targets the electric grid. About a half hour later, his dad returned alone and bought the book as a surprise for his son. Sweet!
The highlight of the evening came from two girls, about 10 or 11, who are best friends and share a love of books. Accompanied by one girl’s parents, they stopped and talked with me for quite a while. I asked them what they liked to read. The dark-haired one said, “True crime!” She’d just finished a bio of Lizzie Borden and didn’t believe Lizzie was the killer. Wow!
When I was that age, I found children’s stories boring and always hung out in the adult section of the library. These young readers were kindred souls.
We talked about crime stories in general. The blond one asked what my books were about and showed interest in Deep Fake Double Down, where the villain uses deep fake video to create false evidence against an innocent woman. They thanked me for talking with them, wandered down the aisles, but returned several times to ask more questions.
Finally, the blond came back by herself and wanted to buy Deep Fake Double Down. I asked her if she’d like me to sign it. She practically wiggled with excitement and told me her name is “Paige.”
I’m always surprised but humbled and honored when people react as though my signature is a big deal.
Then Paige paid and additionally handed me a one-dollar bill. She said, “This is a tip.”
I about busted out crying.
Through the lump in my throat, I told her that wasn’t necessary, but she insisted.
If I never sell another book, that experience is payment enough. Thank you, Paige.
Reading and writing are all about connections between people. Nothing can match a face-to-face, heart-to-heart relationship between an author and a reader.
Will I be back to meet more readers at the Whitefish Farmers Market next Tuesday?
Best seller status, glowing reviews, a legion of fans, a movie deal, even “just” getting published, none of these are within our control. We might be able to influence such external outcomes, but we can’t guarantee any of them will happen, as much as we might wish otherwise.
However, we can win at the actual writing, and today’s Words of Wisdom provides three different ways with excerpts from posts by James Scott Bell, PJ Parrish and Joe Hartlaub. As always, the original posts are very much worth reading in full, and are date-linked at the end of their respective excerpts.
What makes a winner?
Is it going on a web cam and shouting Winning?
Is it having a lot of money?
Is it owning a lot of things?
Let me contrast a couple of writers for you. (These writers are composites, BTW, so don’t ask me to name names).
The first writer has had a couple dozen New York Times bestsellers in her career. She is not shy in saying she found a formula that sells a lot of books. And she keeps cranking them out, two or three a year now. Her publisher is very happy about this.
But her readers are beginning to feel like she’s just “mailing it in.” And in secret she’ll tell you she can virtually sneeze out a book, and does. She spends a few hours a week writing and never edits her stuff. She just turns it in and lets the publisher do the rest. Which gives her plenty of time to travel to her chateau in Gstaad. Or to go to conference appearances, where she plays the diva in a way that even Joan Crawford would have applauded.
She has money. She owns things.
But is she a winner?
The other writer is someone you probably haven’t heard of yet, but those who have read her books have not been able to forget them. While she writes in a certain genre, and is prolific, her novels never have a cranked out feel. That’s because she cares about the writing too much. She cares about her readers too much. She could mail it in, but there’s something inside her that makes her constitutionally incapable of putting out junk.
She doesn’t have as much money as the first writer. Nor does she own as many things.
Is she a winner?
I’ll tell you what, you can’t get away from ancient wisdom. Buddha, Confucius, The Bible, the great philosophers . . . they have all been telling us that just having money and owning things does not make you a winner. In fact, if you’re not careful, they can shrivel you up into a thing that blows away like dried grass in a windstorm.
But this second writer, she can feel things the first writer no longer does (or perhaps never did). She feels the intense pleasure of working and caring and crying and laughing over her writing, of seeing things happen on the page that she knows are worth more than a million cranked out passages that exist just to earn more money so the author can own more things.
Is she a winner? Oh yes. And so is any writer in any genre who does more than just mail it in.
I’m talking about a writer who is courageous enough to have some skin in the game, and who isn’t in this business just to make money and own things. If the money comes, that’s great, that’s awesome. We’re not turning that down. But this kind of writer will never let it go to her head or her keyboard. She will refuse to do that to her readers.
So how does Team Parrish feel coming out of this half-time locker room break and strategy session? Full of cautious confidence. We started out this book full of hope and ambition. But as the game wore on, we just sort of flailed and fumbled around out on the field, hoping we could make progress by blind luck and maybe a last-minute field goal. This is how the Jets play every single year. Or the Browns, whose fans show up at games carrying banners saying “We Still Have LeBron.” You want to be Seattle. Or the Pats, who find a way to win even with Brady on the bench for four games.
What am I trying to say here? Well, it’s a variation on what all the good folks here at TKZ preach. Have a good work ethic. (you don’t want to be giving up in mid-season just because you’re a little gassed). Have a good strategy going in. (a great idea or at least a fresh take on an old one). Devise a game plan and keep to it. (that means for some of you out there outlining). Stop at each quarter or at least half-time and see what has gone right and what had failed. Be flexible enough to make adjustments. Don’t quit, because as the great sports sage Yogi Berra said, it ain’t over til it’s over.
And with that, I leave you with a few classic football cliches that are actually good advice for us writers:
You gotta work with what’s working. This is a variation on the more erudite “You go with what brought you to the dance.” If you’re a hard-boiled type at heart, maybe you shouldn’t try YA romantic zombie fiction just because it’s hot. Yes, stretch yourself, but don’t be crass. Readers smell insincerity a mile away.
It’s important to give the ball right back to the guy who lost it. Yes, you can make mistakes. In fact, they help you grow. If you’ve had a setback, be it a rejection letter, a bad review or just loss of confidence, don’t let it defeat you. Favre is the leading career fumbler of all time. You think that when he put the rock on the ground, he thought about quitting? Heck no. The guy took risks. (Though the Killer Chihuahuas never forgave him for that last season…)
He heard footsteps. This is the wide receiver who feels a defender gaining on him so he takes his eye off the ball. For you, this means, don’t let distractions cripple you. This can mean anything from the little — social media, chores, research — to major distractions — envy over other’s success, people who tell you that you’ll never get published.
He ran east and west instead of north and south. Or as Dan Dierdorf put it: “You gotta keep the axis of your body perpendicular to the goal line.” For writers, this means always moving forward and maintaining momentum. This is my biggest problem because I become stalled in an insane quest for perfection when I should be grinding out that first draft. I spent too much time running east and west instead of heading toward the goal line. Don’t be like me. Be a downhill runner.
It’s a game of inches. Success in publishing almost always comes hard and gradually. You pound away at that keyboard, bang your head up against big forces that feel like they are bent on keeping you back. You spend months, years, on your WIP and only manage to move a few yards forward. But this is how it’s done. Slow and steady. And you never, ever, come prepared to play only one game because you must…
Take it one game at a time. Finish that book, get it out there somehow and then start the next one. And as you do this you will…
Leave it all on the field. You gave it everything you had because, of course…
My suggestion is to write every day. That is not new or original advice. I am offering it particularly, however, to those of you who have no intention of or inclination toward starting or completing a story or having it revealed in the harsh light of day. Writing something every day because you want to, instead of when you have to, is good for you. I truly believe that writing regardless of length or motive makes one smarter — whatever that is — and yes, happier. Writing even one sentence of a few words per day enables you, the unintentional writer, to say, “I wrote this.” It may not give you an adrenaline rush but I submit to you that it will produce, at the least, a drop of it in your cup. It’s the difference between doing an action because you are required to (for reasons from within or without) and doing it because you want to. It can crack the ice that freezes your thinking, whether you write on a post-it, a computer, or your hand. It is an activity that you can do without prompting, or the desire of future reward, other than that occasioned by performing the act itself. I have mentioned this before, but the television series Miami Vice was born as the result of two words handwritten on a piece of paper. The words were “MTV cops.” Your results may differ. That’s the point. There are those who may keep a diary or journal for a similar reason. What I propose is not as involved.
This post is but one example of “wanting to” as opposed to “being compelled to.” I started this post with one sentence, though it is not the introductory sentence that you see above. I wrote a few words to get rolling and then took off, as John Coltrane said, in both directions at once. It was because I wanted to. “The Kill Zone” name notwithstanding, no one here writes with a gun to their head. We are all here because we want to be, whether to write or to read what is written.
Getting arrested in a foreign country can ruin a summer vacation. Here are five obscure laws you don’t want to violate, courtesy of Sydney Criminal Lawyers.com.au
1. Milan, Italy – Put a Big Smile on Your Face
Credit: Picryl
A city regulation dating from the Austro-Hungarian era requires residents and visitors to smile at all times. A grim expression could get you fined, unless you’re attending a funeral, working in a hospital, or visiting sick family members.
2. Sarpourenx, France – Die in the city limits and face severe punishment
Not the site of the actual crime. Photo credit: Eli Duke, CC by SA-2.0
The mayor of the city issued an edict “prohibiting people from dying within the city limits unless they had previously purchased a plot in a local parish cemetery.” So, what are they gonna do??? Kill ya???
3. Singapore – No Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, or Dubble Bubble
In 1995, Singapore enacted the “Anti-chewing Gum Regulation” to “promote cleanliness and avoid the costly problem of gum getting stuck on sidewalks.” And they’re serious. Penalties can be fines up to 200,000 Singapore dollars (approximately $155,000 US dollars) and/or three years in prison.
4. Oshawa, Canada – Hey, you! Get outta that tree!
Public domain, credit glenncarstenspeters
In 2008, the city passed legislation to protect trees on municipal property, prohibiting damage to a tree or any part of it. That includes “any interference with trees on municipal property, including climbing or attaching objects to them.”
Honeymooners, beware. Don’t carve your initials in trees owned by the city of Oshawa.
5. Thailand – No topless driving
Credit: Chris Beckett
In Thailand, neither males nor females are permitted “drive a motorbike, car, or tuk-tuk without a shirt on.” Fines are apparently minimal, but do you want to take a chance of ruining your vacation?
Now relax and enjoy your visit to these countries, secure in the knowledge you won’t run afoul of obscure violations.
Bon voyage!
~~~
Cover by Brian Hoffman
In Dead Man’s Bluff, a romantic Florida vacation goes sour for Tawny Lindholm and Tillman Rosenbaum when an old friend disappears during a hurricane. Their search for him takes them deep into treacherous floodwaters where human predators prove more dangerous than reptiles. Buy at online retailers or ask your favorite indie bookstore to order for you.
