Category Archives: Writing

Building Character

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By Elaine Viets

When I started writing Sex and Death on the Beach, the first mystery in my new Florida Beach series, I wrestled with a problem I hadn’t had for some time: Creating characters.

All my mysteries have new characters, but when I’m introducing a new series, I have to create characters I can use throughout the series. This took at least five rewrites.

My main character is Norah McCarthy, who inherited a 1920s apartment house in mythical Peerless Point, Florida. Norah was orphaned as a little girl and brought up by her grandmother, a Florodora Girl. She was a showgirl.

Version 1.0.0

The residents of Norah’s building belong to an exclusive group. They must be Florida Men and Women, but the benign variety. The exploits of Florida Man often include alligators and alcohol. You’ve seen the headlines: “Florida Man Busted with Meth, Guns and Baby Gator in Truck.” The residents are her adopted family, and they will appear in future mysteries.

Bare bones characters:

Some characters will probably only appear once, in Sex and Death on the Beach. Like Elwin Sanford.

Elwin is “a rotund man in a hardhat, neon safety vest and gray cover­alls. He had a wispy mouse-colored mustache and weedy patches of hair clinging to his sweaty scalp. In fact, with his round body, gray coveralls and twitchy nose, he looked like a cartoon mouse.”

Elwin’s appearance is a clue to his character. He, a city inspector, is a crook and looks like one.

Important supporting characters.

Norah McCarthy has two live-in staff members at the Florodora apartments. One is the handyman-gardener is Rafael, a native of Colombia. In the first rewrite, Rafael is “a dark, stocky man who knows inventive ways to repair ancient machinery, handles maintenance and takes care of the grounds. He keeps the building one step ahead of the city inspectors, who are determined to shut us down. Rafael has a bachelor apartment above the garage.”

Rafael ducks difficult questions by looking confused and saying, “No spik Engleesh.”

At that point, was Rafael a real character?

Not  yet. All I have are the bare bones. Rafael is simply someone who has a few quirky mannerisms.

For the third rewrite, I sat down and wrote a bio of every major supporting character. In that version, my main character Norah chided Rafael when he used his “No spik Engleesh” routine with a cop. Norah tells him:

“Eventually you’re going to get caught, Rafael. You speak excellent English. You were a judge in Colombia.”

Norah instantly regrets her thoughtless remark: “As soon as the words passed my lips I wished I could take them back.

“The sudden sadness in Rafael’s eyes was a terrible rebuke. Rafael fled Medellin in 1986, after Pablo Escobar killed his wife and baby son. Grandma hired him, and he’d worked at the Florodora ever since. His ambition died with his family.”

Late at night, Norah would often see Rafael sitting on the flat roof of his garage apartment staring at the ocean, as if he could see all the way to his troubled country.

“Rafael never discussed his family’s murders. He hid his heart­break with superficial jokes and his ‘no-spik-Engleesh’ routine.”

I also wrote this bio of Rafael’s red truck: “The old truck rattled and lurched. A loose spring in the seatback poked passengers every time Rafael hit the brakes.

“The air conditioning worked when it felt like it. Whenever the air-con quit, Rafael would give the dashboard a hearty whap and cool air would pour out again.”

The Florodora has five permanent residents. I’m partial to Billie the banana bandit. Billie held up a convenience store with a banana and stole three overdone dogs from its hot dog roller grill. Billie worries his crime will somehow come to light, even though there was no police report and he ate the evidence.

At first, that’s about all I said about Billie, except he was a movie buff who perpetually held his own personal filmfest.

Billie needed more depth, so I had him write retrospectives about movies and made his first book a New York Times bestseller.

Billie had “turned his obsession into a successful writing career.”

He was currently researching his new film “book, Seeing in the Dark. This week it was the Rocky movies, and Billie was looking for the thirty-five goofs and plot holes that were supposedly in the Sly Stallone boxing movies. That’s how he prepared for his work, by looking for the mistakes in the movies.”

Billie comes downstairs, “wearing baggy jeans and a red Bruce Willis T-shirt that read, “I survived the Nakatomi Plaza Christmas party 1988.”

Nakatomi Plaza. The setting for Die Hard.

Die HardNorah tell him, “Let me guess. You’re also doing a Die Hard retrospective for your new book.”

“Yep,” Billie said. “Did you see the first Die Hard movie?’

“It’s been a while, but I liked it.”

“Me, too,” Billie said. “But there are supposed to be more than a hundred mistakes in the first movie alone, and I’m trying to find them all.”

Billie will tell Norah about as many as possible.

Another favorite character in Sex and Death on the Beach is Mickey, the artist. At first, I described Mickey as single, “kind and gentle,” and wearing offbeat clothes, including “a funky orange-striped caftan.”

Boring. Mickey had to be more than a heap of clothes. Readers had to care about her.

So I added, she “works as a freelance artist, but she’s been known to vandalize for a good cause.

“When posters appeared on the local telephone poles insulting black people, Mickey was horrified. She went around Peerless Point, covering the offensive posters with her homemade one, which said, ‘I covered the ugly racist poster here with a cat photo.’

“My favorite prank was what Mickey did in the local gas station bathroom. In the restroom was a wall-mounted infant diaper changing station that pulled down into a changing bed. Mickey put a sign on the plastic baby bed that said, ‘Place sacrifice here.’”

Mickey drives a “powder blue VW Bug with a sign in the back window: ‘Adults on Board. We want to live, too.’”

For this series, I recorded how all my characters got around. Some took the bus or bummed rides, others drove.

The Florida Beach bios total 22 pages single-spaced, and describe buildings, apartments, cars and characters minor and major, first and last names. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Writers, do you use character bios for your books?

Buy Sex and Death at the Beach online. NOTE: Prices may vary. Please check before you buy:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/326up5ny

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/3tx8x4fb

Thriftbooks https://tinyurl.com/3vk9yhb5.

Or order it from your local bookstores, including Harvard Book Store https://www.harvard.com/book/9781448314799.

 

Character Building

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By Elaine Viets

When I started writing Sex and Death on the Beach, the first mystery in my new Florida Beach series, I wrestled with a problem I hadn’t had for some time: Creating characters.

All my mysteries have new characters, but when I’m introducing a new series, I have to create characters I can use throughout the series. This took at least five rewrites.

My main character is Norah McCarthy, who inherited a 1920s apartment house in mythical Peerless Point, Florida. Norah was orphaned at age four and brought up by her grandmother, a retired Florodora Girl.

The residents of Norah’s building belong to an exclusive group. They must be Florida Men and Women, but the benign variety. The exploits of Florida Man often include alligators and alcohol. You’ve seen the headlines: “Florida Man Busted with Meth, Guns and Baby Gator in Truck.” The residents are her adopted family, and they will appear in future mysteries.

Bare bones characters

Some characters will probably only appear once in Sex and Death on the Beach. Like Elwin Sanford.

Elwin is “a rotund man in a hardhat, neon safety vest and gray cover­alls. He had a wispy mouse-colored mustache and weedy patches of hair clinging to his sweaty scalp. In fact, with his round body, gray coveralls and twitchy nose, he looked like a cartoon mouse.”

Elwin’s appearance is a clue to his character. A city inspector, he is a crook and looks like one.

Important supporting characters

Norah McCarthy has two live-in staff members at the Florodora apartments. One is the handyman-gardener Rafael, a native of Colombia. In the first rewrite, Rafael is “a dark, stocky man who knows inventive ways to repair ancient machinery, handles maintenance and takes care of the grounds. He keeps the building one step ahead of the city inspectors, who are determined to shut us down. Rafael has a bachelor apartment above the garage.”

Rafael ducks difficult questions by looking confused and saying, “No spik Engleesh.”

At that point, was Rafael a real character?

Not  yet. All I have are the bare bones. Rafael is simply someone who has a few quirky mannerisms.

For the third rewrite, I sat down and wrote a bio of every major supporting character. In that version, my main character Norah chided Rafael when he used his “No spik Engleesh” routine with a cop. Norah tells him:

“Eventually you’re going to get caught, Rafael. You speak excellent English. You were a judge in Colombia.”

Norah instantly regrets her thoughtless remark: “As soon as the words passed my lips I wished I could take them back.

“The sudden sadness in Rafael’s eyes was a terrible rebuke. Rafael fled Medellin in 1986, after Pablo Escobar killed Rafael’s wife and baby son. Grandma hired him, and he’d worked at the Florodora ever since. His ambition died with his family.

“Late at night, I’d often see Rafael sitting on the flat roof of his garage apartment staring at the ocean, as if he could see all the way to his troubled country.

“Rafael never discussed his family’s murders. He hid his heart­break with superficial jokes and his ‘no-spik-Engleesh’ routine.”

I also wrote this bio of Rafael’s red truck: “The old truck rattled and lurched. A loose spring in the seatback poked passengers every time Rafael hit the brakes.

“The air conditioning worked when it felt like it. Whenever the air-con quit, Rafael would give the dashboard a hearty whap and cool air would pour out again.”

The Florodora has five permanent residents.

I’m partial to Billie the banana bandit. Billie held up a convenience store with a banana and stole three overdone dogs from its hot dog roller grill. Billie worries his crime will somehow come to light, even though there was no police report and he ate the evidence.

At first, that’s about all I said about Billie, except he was a movie buff who perpetually held his own personal filmfest.

Billie needed more depth, so I had him write retrospectives about movies. His first book was a New York Times bestseller.

Billie had “turned his obsession into a successful writing career.”

He was currently researching his new film book, Seeing in the Dark. This week it was the Rocky movies, and Billie was looking for the thirty-five goofs and plot holes that were supposedly in the Sly Stallone boxing movies. That’s how he prepared for his work, by looking for the mistakes in the movies.

Billie comes downstairs “wearing baggy jeans and a red Bruce Willis T-shirt that read, “I survived the Nakatomi Plaza Christmas party 1988.”

Nakatomi Plaza. The setting for Die Hard.

Norah tell him, “Let me guess. You’re also doing a Die Hard retrospective for your new book.”

“Yep,” Billie said. “Did you see the first Die Hard movie?’

“It’s been a while, but I liked it.”

“Me, too,” Billie said. “But there are supposed to be more than a hundred mistakes in the first movie alone, and I’m trying to find them all.”

Billie will tell Norah about as many as possible.

Another favorite character in Sex and Death on the Beach is Mickey, the artist. At first, I described Mickey as single, “kind and gentle,” and wearing offbeat clothes, including “a funky orange-striped caftan.”

Boring. Mickey had to be more than a heap of clothes. Readers had to care about her.

So I added, she “works as a freelance artist, but she’s been known to vandalize for a good cause.

“When posters appeared on the local telephone poles insulting black people, Mickey was horrified. She went around Peerless Point, covering the offensive posters with her homemade one, which said, ‘I covered the ugly racist poster here with a cat photo.’

“My favorite prank was what Mickey did in the local gas station bathroom. In the restroom was a wall-mounted infant diaper changing station that pulled down into a changing bed. Mickey put a sign on the plastic baby bed that said, ‘Place sacrifice here.’”

Mickey drives a “powder blue VW Bug with a sign in the back window: ‘Adults on Board. We want to live, too.’”

For this series, I recorded how all my characters got around. Some took the bus or bummed rides, others drove.

The Florida Beach bios total 22 pages single spaced, and describe buildings, apartments, cars and characters minor and major, first and last names. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Writers, do you use character bios for your books?

Buy Sex and Death at the Beach online. NOTE: Prices may vary. Please check before you buy:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/326up5ny

Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/3tx8x4fb

Thriftbooks https://tinyurl.com/3vk9yhb5.

Or order it from your local bookstores, including Harvard Book Store https://www.harvard.com/book/9781448314799.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Is It Their Turn?

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When Is It Their Turn?
Terry Odell

red curtain with a man's hand reaching throughSecondary characters, as PJ pointed out in her post, can be great fun to write. They don’t have the responsibilities of the protagonists. They can provide insight into the protagonist, add some humor, be sounding boards, love interests, or foils.

Sometimes, they branch out and become protagonists themselves. John Sandford gave Virgil Flowers his own stories. Robert Crais gave Joe Pike his own books. Will CJ Box’s Nate Romanowski move from strong secondary character into a protagonist in his own right?

In television, branching out into new shows happens all the time. Michael Connelly gave Renee Ballard her own books, and soon her own television series. Lee Child’s Reacher television series has a Neagley spinoff.

The rise of secondary characters is prevalent in romance, where “series” (I call them connected books) tend to have an ensemble cast in which a secondary character moves up to center stage in a subsequent book. I do that in my romantic suspense books, although when I wrote When Danger Calls, my first Blackthorne, Inc. book, I had no idea there would be another one. That series now contains twelve books, and a lot of secondary characters have had their turn at taking the lead. How do I decide whose turn it is? Often, I’m having fun with that character and want to do more. But sometimes, the character shows up and requests a bigger role. That’s what happened with Jinx, who became the lead in Dangerous Connections.

cover image of Dangerous Connections by Terry Odell

Here’s what happened.

Jess, my admin buzzes me.

“Terry, there’s someone here who insists on seeing you. Says his name is Josiah Nix.”

Jinx? What’s he doing here? “Tell him to have a seat, and I’ll see him shortly.”

Shortly—the most vague word in the English language. But it’ll buy me some time. I open my computer and pull up the files for my Blackthorne, Inc. series. After a quick review—somehow, once I finish writing a book, it’s gone from my head as soon as I start work on the next one—I feel ready to meet Jinx.

I buzz Jess. “Send him in.”

The door opens, and Josiah Ignatius Nix—which I’d shorted to Jinx for the books—enters. He’s not quite the same man I interviewed for his initial role in Where Danger Hides. Same not-quite-six-feet tall. His shoulder-length hair is pulled back into a tail at the nape of his neck. Same deep blue eyes and lashes to die for. But he’s hesitant, not curious the way he was at that first meet, which was quite some time and several books ago.

“Have a seat, Mr. Nix.”

“Jinx will do. I’m used to it now.”

He sits on the small sofa, as if he’s afraid taking a visitor chair would put him too close to me. One foot bounces, almost imperceptibly. Nervous?

“What brings you here today?” I ask.

He tugs at his ponytail. “Wasn’t completely my idea.”

This isn’t the behavior of a man in charge of Blackthorne’s command center.

“Who else?”

Another ponytail tug. The foot bouncing becomes more noticeable. “The guys, mostly. Harper. Dalton. Fozzie.”

“Can I get you something to drink? I’d offer a Red Bull, but from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t look like you need caffeine. I have coffee—decaf. And herbal teas.”

I open my drawer, check my snack stash. Down to a couple packets of cashews and almonds.

“I’m all right,” Jinx says.

I look at the clock. Just shy of three. “I generally have a break around this time, so it’s no trouble.” I flash my best reassuring smile, then buzz Jess and, voice lowered, ask her for the usual job interview refreshment tray.

“So,” I go on. “You’re still in touch with some of the Blackthorne team?”

“Sort of. Molly—that’s Harper’s kid. Actually, she’s Frankie’s kid, but Harper considers her his own. It was her birthday, and they invited me—us. Harper had a few things to say to me, and so I’m here.”

Jinx definitely wasn’t behaving the way I’d written him. Where was the always on top of things, always in control character I’d created?

Jess opens the door and comes in carrying a tray of assorted munchies. Cheese, crackers, cookies, nuts, and fruit, along with cocktail napkins. Do I detect a show of interest in Jinx?

“Help yourself.” To break the ice, I take a napkin, a piece of cheese and layer it on a cracker, along with a small bunch of grapes.

“Thanks.” He chooses an assortment of offerings. “Maybe a cup of decaf?”

“Coming right up.” I pop a pod into my brewer and start things going. Once we’ve had a few moments of more routine behavior, Jinx seems relaxed.

He sets his coffee cup on the end table and inhales a deep breath. “I like my job. I’m good at it. But I’m ready for … more.” He meets my gaze. “If that’s possible.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. “What do you mean by more?”

“I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong. I mean after Where Danger Hides, you really increased my parts in the next books, and my parts were important. But—”

I wait. He doesn’t seem willing to go on. “What’s the but?”

“I’m always behind the scenes. Nobody ever sees me. And—” he lowers his gaze to a point between his feet. “And I want what the others got. A woman.” The word is barely audible.

“Someone they’re happy with. I want that, too. I mean, except for Harper, because it was the first book, the others start out in the background. I don’t know what you call them.”

“Secondary characters,” I offer.

“Right. And then, they get their own story, and they get their woman. I don’t want to keep being a secondary character.”

“I understand.” And I do. Seeing his book friends living their happily ever afters would make him—anyone—want the same thing.

“Are you saying you want to be part of an op? On the ground, so to speak, not at the command center.”

He nods. “Zeke’s good at the command center. The teams could manage with him at the helm for an op.”

I’m remembering an article I saw on the internet a week or two ago. I saved it, thinking there might be a story there. I hadn’t considered Jinx for the lead, but I could make it work.

“Are you willing to travel?” I ask. “Solo? Undercover, at least at first. Of course, if it’s a Blackthorne book, your team will have your six.”

“I think so. Would I still be using my intel skills?”

“Of course.”

Ideals swirl.

I’m already planning. Jinx isn’t a covert operative. Will he be willing to accept a partner—female—who would be more than an equal?

“Can you come back, let’s say in two weeks, and we can go over a story premise?”

He smiles, the first sign of the Jinx I remember. “I’ll be here.” He grabs a cookie and heads for the door.

After he’s gone, I go back to that article that caught my eye. Communication. Drug cartels. Mexico. All I need are some more characters. I’ve got one in mind for Jinx. He’s going to love her.

cover image of Dangerous Connections by Terry Odell

Okay, so it doesn’t always happen like that, but every once in a while, you—or I, anyway—need some fun.

Feel free to share other secondary characters that have moved up to protagonists.

New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

Danger Abroad

When breaking family ties is the only option.

Madison Westfield has information that could short-circuit her politician father’s campaign for governor. But he’s family. Although he was a father more in word than deed, she changes her identity and leaves the country rather than blow the whistle.

Blackthorne, Inc. taps Security and Investigations staffer, Logan Bolt, to track down Madison Westfield. When he finds her in the Faroe Islands, her story doesn’t match the one her father told Blackthorne. The investigation assignment quickly switches to personal protection for Madison.

Soon, they’re involved with a drug ring and a kidnapping attempt. Will working together put them in more danger? Can a budding relationship survive the dangers they encounter?

Available now.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Story 360 Conference Made My Head Spin…in a Good Way!

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Lorin Oberweger, leader of Story 360 Writing Conference, and happy sttendee Debbie Burke

by Debbie Burke

The views from the top floor of the Centre Club in downtown Tampa, Florida were 360 degrees, vast and expansive. So was the content at the aptly named Story 360 Writing Conference I attended a couple of weekends ago. I came away almost dizzy from the talks by Christopher Vogler, Donald Maass, Janice Hardy, and other authors.

Don Maass is a respected agent, educator, and author of Writing the Breakout Novel, The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Writing 21st Century Fiction, plus numerous novels. His all-day master class on Friday, “Writing with Soul,” was packed with prompts and questions for writers to ask themselves. His style is not to present fiction writing techniques but rather to lead you up a ladder to the high diving board and push you off.

He reframed conflict, a typical requirement for stories, into provocation. Every line of dialogue is a provocation that requires a response. He said to a woman in the audience, “You look nice today,” to which she responded, “You want to get closer, take a better look?” That comeback brought down the house because it perfectly illustrated Don’s point.

He asked, “What event in your story provokes a response from your protagonist?” then offered possibilities: a compliment, an insult, a temptation, a dare, an embarrassment, a setback, a wound, a gift, etc.

Next, he asked, “What is your protagonist’s response to that provocation?” Beyond the primary responses of fight, flight, or freeze, he added diffuse, appease, dissent, ignore, judge, respond in kind, reach out in sympathy, walk away in disgust, or tell the world.

For the last choice, he described a guy in a NY Irish bar who is provoked and loudly announces to everyone there, “Did you hear what he said to me? Did you hear what that &%*$ said to me?”

The character’s response is what we as readers would like to do, not what we would actually do.

Don’s talk yielded 34 pages of hastily scribbled notes plus kept my mind spinning like a hamster in a wheel.

Thanks for a sleepless night, Don!

While talking with other attendees, I learned many of them are frequent flyers who’d taken Don’s classes previously and keep coming back. That says it all.

~~~

Side note: Several people had been to a conference years ago that featured the trifecta of Don, Chris Vogler, and TKZ’s own Jim Bell. I’d love to see those guys get the band back together again. Anyone else at TKZ in favor of a reunion concert?

~~~

Linda Hurtado Bond, Debbie Burke

On Saturday, I met Linda Hurtado Bond, an Emmy-winning 30-year veteran TV reporter in Tampa who’s also written six thrillers. Her latest book is All the Captive Girls set during Gasparilla, an annual Mardi Gras-style festival that celebrates pirates, drinking, pirate ships, drinking, pirate parades, drinking, pirate costumes…you get the idea.

She talked about how she had parlayed Gasparilla events into video promotions on her social media. Videos included her visit behind the scenes at the barn where parade floats are stored; a local bar/restaurant off the main drag that partnered with her to give visibility to both the business and her book; Linda’s Jeep decorated with lights driving in the parade while she, in a pirate costume, handed out beads to the crowd.

She acknowledges most introverted writers aren’t as extraverted as she is, nor do they have her recognizability from TV. Even so she advises authors to “Just be there” at community events because you never know what opportunities you might discover.

She recommends visiting bookstores, attending arts-related fairs, connecting with book clubs and book podcasters. To build your email list, do joint promotions with another author or a local business. Have something to offer—your expertise and willingness to answer questions; ARCs (advance reader copies); a book box with swag. As a breast cancer survivor, Linda participated in a fundraiser with her books as prizes.

Ask what you can do for the reader or audience. In other words, promotion is not about you, it’s about them and what they want, need, or enjoy.

I WANT to find out what high-octane vitamins Linda takes.

~~~

Sheree Greer and Debbie Burke

Sheree L. Greer is a Tampa-based author of fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as a business consultant, writing instructor, developmental editor, and new mom. She proudly showed phone photos of her bright-eyed, two-month-old little girl. She also admitted to new-baby exhaustion. However, not a trace of fatigue showed in Sheree’s vibrant presentation.

Sheree displayed a slide of two intersecting circles. One circle was want, the other was need. The oval where they overlapped was desire. Desire is the combination of wanting and needing something. She suggested a prompt to write about something you wanted or needed but didn’t get.

At age 35, Sheree’s need to stay sober intersected with her want to learn more about her past. That led to a desire to connect with her father. During their meeting he talked about his struggle with alcoholism. When she mentioned her age, he responded, “I was thirty-five when you were born.” At that moment, the common denominators of age and alcoholism linked them. She got to know herself through getting to know her father.

More prompts included creating a desire list for your character. Discover if the character shares her desires or hides them.

Three additional questions:

  1. At the start of your story, who knows about her desire?
  2. By the middle of your story, who knows about her desire?
  3. By the end, who knows about her desire?

Considering the character’s desire in that light was a fresh concept to me. It went beyond the usual questions about story stakes like what happens if a character fails, or what happens if they succeed?

Sheree also talked about interiority or the inner thoughts of a character. If a character is alone and thinking about themselves for too long, readers lose interest. Instead, she suggests focusing on the tension between the character’s inner wants/needs in contrast with the external happenings of the scene.

I DESIRE more insights like Sheree’s to lift my writing to the next level.

~~~

 

Janice Hardy, Sheree L. Greer, Debbie Burke, Eileen McIntyre

Janice Hardy runs Fiction University, an educational site she founded in 2009 that’s crammed with practical, actionable advice on writing. Her talk also focused on character’s wants and needs but from a different perspective. She says, “When want and need pull in opposite directions, the story gets interesting.”

She defines want as what the character thinks will make her happy; need is what will really make her happy. “Impossible desire” is the empty hole in a character’s soul.

When faced with a saggy middle, Janice suggests this is the place in the story to go deeper rather than wider. By wider, she means adding more activity. Deeper is where the author should force the character to make hard choices. Every choice must cause consequences in the plot.

The middle can feature false victories, where the character believes they’re making progress toward a goal but aren’t. Another possibility for the middle is false failure, where they believe they’ve failed but later discover the failure actually leads to success.

Janice recalled a conference when she experienced severe imposter syndrome. She was the unknown newbie on a panel with Lee Child and Maya Angelou. Janice understandably felt awkward and didn’t know what to say. Then those two luminaries admitted they also struggled with self-doubt at the start of each book. At that point, Janice realized self-doubt is normal for authors no matter how accomplished.

Janice is the author of a series of writing craft books. She’s also a meticulous, organized plotter, the polar opposite of my pantsing chaos.

I NEED to clean up my act, so I bought Janice’s book Planning Your Novel-Ideas and Structure.

~~~

Legends Christopher Vogler and Donald Maass

In the mid-1980s, Chris Vogler wrote a seven-page memo that famously blew through Hollywood like a Florida hurricane. The memo grew into the classic textbook for screenwriting and storytelling, The Writer’s Journey – Mythic Structure for Writers. The book has remained a perennial bestseller, including a 25th anniversary edition in 2020, and is still going strong.

Meeting Chris in person was the numero uno reason I attended the conference. My upcoming craft-of-writing book, The Villain’s Journey – How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate, is the flip side to the Hero’s Journey which Chris explores in depth in The Writer’s Journey.

True confession time: Although Chris and I had previously exchanged friendly emails, I was intimidated about meeting him in person. During the lunch break, I even had to call a friend for support. She told me to get my sorry cowardly ass into the room and introduce myself.

Well…I did.

Chris was warm, friendly, down to earth, and not at all intimidating. We chatted about my book, and he could not have been more gracious, encouraging, and supportive.

In his Sunday presentation, Chris explained archetypes are stereotypes but deeper. He talked about impressions on cave walls made by prehistoric people who had a deep need to leave their mark, to say I had a life, I was here.

He showed a slide with two sets of ancient footprints that had been preserved under ash for thousands of years. One set was large and one small, probably a mother and child running through mud while fleeing a volcanic eruption. They had left their mark for a roomful of writers who, centuries later, were still moved by their plight.

That illustrated the universality and timeless power of stories.

Chris introduced us to a collection of lesser-known Greek gods, along with their family lineage. Each was the personification of a particular quality or theme.

One example was Arete. Her mother was the goddess of justice and her father the god of safety and security. Those qualities blended in Arete who embodied grace, virtue, excellence, and perfection. Arete’s evil twin sister was Cacia (Kakia) who embodied vice and immorality.

Chris then displayed a slide of a related myth. In the historic line drawing, young Hercules is shown at a crossroads where he encounters two beautiful women. “Cacia” points at the easy road going downhill toward quick material riches. “Arete” points at the other road which goes uphill through difficulties but ultimately leads to immortality by leaving a lasting mark on the world.

The character at a crossroads who must make a choice remains a relatable theme that today’s characters still face.

The goddess Themis (notice the similarity to “theme”) established the laws of the universe. Her daughter Dike laid out the laws of the world and human life—the moral code. Dike’s evil twin sister was Adikia, goddess of injustice and wrongdoing.

Today’s characters still face dilemmas of right and wrong.

Agon is the god of struggle. His name is also the root of the words “agony,” “protagonist,” and “antagonist.” Still relevant and relatable in today’s stories.

Chris presented more gods and goddesses, too many to include in this already-long post. At the end of his talk, I asked him if he was going to write a book based on his presentation. He smiled and said, “I already have.” The manuscript is near completion.

When it’s published, I NEED and WANT to read it.

~~~

One last shoutout to Lorin Oberweger and her team who brought together a 360-degree world of vision, talent, and knowledge. A big thank you for a fabulous, memorable conference! My head is still spinning.

~~~

TKZers, have you been to a conference that made a lasting impact on your writing? Please share that experience.

~~~

 

Please check out my upcoming book The Villain’s Journey-How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate. Preorder now at this link and the ebook will be delivered to your device on July 13, 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Characterization

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Characterization – noun – a description of the distinctive nature or features of someone or something.

* * *

I’m reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I don’t read a lot of biographies, and although I’ve only finished a few chapters so far in this one, I so enjoyed the setup to Roosevelt’s character in the prologue that I thought it would be a good topic for TKZ.

The prologue is set on January 1, 1907 when thousands of people are waiting patiently in line to enter the White House to shake the president’s hand and wish him a Happy New Year.

Through the description of that New Year’s Day, Morris alternates between the story of the crowd inching its way toward the White House doors, and descriptions of Roosevelt’s behavior, personality, and impact on others.

Take this example:

“Roosevelt may be the fastest handshaker in history (he averages fifty grips a minute), but he is also the most conscientious, insisting that all citizens who are sober, washed, and free of bodily advertising be permitted to wish the President of the United States a Happy New Year.”

The author gives us a good look at the crowd, the weather, and the overall state of the nation’s wealth. He enjoys using quotes from Roosevelt’s friends and others to help us define the man, as in this quote from Joseph G. Cannon, the Speaker of the House.

“Roosevelt’s all right,” says Cannon, “but he’s got no more use for the Constitution than a tomcat has for a marriage license.”

Others were quoted as calling him a “faker and a humbug.” No less a personage than Woodrow Wilson said, “He is the most dangerous man of the age,” and Mark Twain declared Roosevelt to be “insane.”

On the other hand, one veteran politician noted that Roosevelt had “unquestionably the greatest gift of personal magnetism ever possessed by an American.”

Such diverse statements interwoven with evidence of Roosevelt’s popularity and his delight in the job of the presidency give us a three-dimensional person who is so much more than the textbook president who created national parks, succeeded in getting the Panama Canal built, and had the Teddy Bear named after him.

As the crowd snakes its way into the room where Roosevelt is greeting them, Morris describes the president’s physical impact on the visitors. He quotes English statesman John Morley as saying, “Do you know the two most wonderful things I have seen in your country? Niagara Falls and the President of the United States.”

Although Roosevelt is often remembered for his pugnacity, it was his diplomacy in brokering a peace between Russia and Japan that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first American to win a Nobel Prize.

And Theodore Roosevelt endeared himself to me by this statement: “Reading with me is a disease.” He managed to read at least one book a day. His interests varied widely, and he was himself an author.

After pages of defining the man by his behavior and the opinions of others, Morris finally gets down to specifics about Roosevelt’s appearance.

“Were it not for his high brow, and the distracting brilliance of his smile, Roosevelt would unquestionably be an ugly man.”

Morris then dedicates several long paragraphs to that dazzling grin that was so famous “that envelopes ornamented only with teeth and spectacles are routinely delivered to the White House.”

And he doesn’t stop there. Speaking of Roosevelt’s “white and even” teeth

“… they chop every word into neat syllables, sending them forth perfectly formed but separate, in a jerky staccatissimo that has no relation to the normal rhythms of speech… His very voice seems to rasp out of the tips of his teeth.”

A colleague of Roosevelt’s described its effect. “I always think of a man biting tenpenny nails when I think of Roosevelt making a speech.”

The nuance continues through the long prologue giving us a 360-degree view of the optimism, energy, love of power, and determination of our twenty-sixth president as he drives through life full speed ahead.

Only at the start of Chapter One does Morris back up and begin to tell the history of the man.

* * *

Theodore Roosevelt was a larger-than-life historical figure, so describing the many dimensions of his personality may not be surprising. But reading Morris’s work has made me put some thought into descriptions of characters in my own writing. Direct and indirect characterization can be powerful tools to round out characters and give the reader an entertaining story.

* * *

So TKZers: How do you describe your main characters? Physical description, speech, behavior, opinions of others? How much time and nuance to you put into your characters?

* * *

Note: Once again, I’ll be traveling between old and new homes as we try to finalize this (very long) move. I’ll respond to comments as soon as I can.

 

Another Side of Sunshine

“The story excels at honoring the emotional realities of childhood without veering into sentimentality. It’s a smart, well-constructed mystery that values relationships over rivalry, process over prizes, and growth over glory. Fans of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Westing Game will find familiar pleasures here, wrapped in fresh clues and grounded by a heroine who learns to trust her instincts—and the people around her.” —Prairie Book Reviews

Click the image to go to the Amazon book page.

Lessons From Literary Dads

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Don’t forget to tell a #DadJoke today.

What happened when two slices of bread went on a date? It was loaf at first sight.

Thank you! Tip your server on the way out.

Which brings me to four literary dads and what we can learn from them.

Atticus Finch

At the top of the list is, of course, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. A widower, Atticus is faced with the prospect of raising two young children without a mother. His daughter, Scout, presents a particular problem. She has budding prejudices as the result of her social environment, the deep South of the 1930s. She also likes to solve her disputes with boys by beating them up.

His greatest challenge is the heart of the book. It’s when he is asked by a local judge to undertake the defense of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl. Atticus takes the case, knowing he is going to lose. So why does he do it? He tries to explain it to Scout:

“Scout,” said Atticus, “when summer comes you’ll have to keep your head about far worse things…it’s not fair for you and Jem, I know that, but sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down – well, all I can say is, when you and Jem are grown, maybe you’ll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn’t let you down. This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience – Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.”

Lesson: Live by the higher ideals, even if they fail in some circumstances, or any hope for civilization crumbles.

Daniel Peggotty

In David Copperfield, Daniel Peggotty offers a crucial counterpoint to David’s cold-hearted stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, as well as the odious and oily Uriah Heep (one of the best character names ever). Daniel’s love and loyalty to his family is the epitome of paternal virtue. He is the brother of David’s beloved nurse, Clara Peggotty, and happily welcomes young David into his home, treating him as he would a family member.

In particular, his devotion to his niece, Little Em’ly, results in a sacrificial quest to save her after she runs away with James Steerforth. He declares, “I’m a going to seek her, fur and wide. If any hurt should come to me, remember that the last words I left for her was, ‘My unchanged love is with my darling child, and I forgive her!’”

Lesson: A father protects his family, no matter the cost.

Vito Corleone

Wait, what? Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather? He’s the opposite of Atticus Finch, operating on the wrong side of the law. He has murdered and ordered murders. Now as he ages, he knows the future of his family is in the hands of his youngest son, Michael. Here he is, warning Michael of an impending attempt on his life…and sharing his sadness at Michael’s fate.

So why do we care at all about Vito Corleone? He’s the head of a crime family, for crying out loud. I think there’s a literary secret here. You can pull for a character who is not entirely good if, within the story context, he is “better” than the other bad people around him. In the case of The Godfather, Vito has refused to partner with another Mafia family in the drug trade. This leads to his attempted assassination. Thus, Michael’s revenge is understandable within that story world.

Lesson: You can love your children, but crime still doesn’t pay.

King Lear

Boy, what a bad dad. Which shows us we can learn from the negative (the raison d’etre of tragedy).

Lear is the opposite of Daniel Peggotty. Instead of familial loyalty to all three of his daughters, he rewards vain flattery and punishes the one daughter who expresses love, Cordelia. It isn’t long before the other daughters, Goneril and Regan, conspire to strip him of his power. He’s left a wandering lunatic, and runs for Congress. (I may be misinterpreting that last point.)

Lesson: Pride goeth before a fall. So, despite what TikTok says, life is not all about you.

In the immortal words of Graham Nash, we must “have a code that you can live by/And so, become yourself.” Nash wrote movingly about the inspiration for this song:

The origin of the song came from my recent infatuation with art. I had begun collecting photographs around that time, powerful images that had an emotional effect on me. One, in particular, was a Diane Arbus image of a boy in Central Park. It spoke volumes to me. The kid was only about nine or ten years old, but his expression bristled with intense anger. He had a plastic grenade clenched in a fist, but it seemed to me that if it were real the kid would have thrown it. The consequences it implied startled me. I thought, “If we don’t start teaching our kids a better way of dealing with each other, humanity will never succeed.”

Enjoy your day, dads. You matter.

Reader Friday-On the Thirteenth

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There’s some weird stuff out there about Friday the Thirteenth. Consider this from our fine friend, Wikipedia:

One source mentioned for the unlucky reputation of the number 13 is a Norse myth about twelve gods having a dinner party in Valhalla. The trickster god Loki, who was not invited, arrived as the thirteenth guest, and arranged for Höðr, the god of darkness, to shoot Balder, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died, triggering much suffering in the world, which caused the number 13 to be considered unlucky.

Kinda sounds like a plot for a thriller novel, yes?

Writers can be quite superstitious. I wrote a Killzone post back in February touching on how quirky some (or all?) writers are. You can read that post here.

Since today is Friday the 13th, I thought we’d share some of the weird superstitions that are out there. Cue Twilight Zone music. Or maybe X Files—

Here’s a few more I ran across:

Never stick your chopsticks straight up. In Japan, poking chopsticks down into your food is a big no-no. The utensils look like the unlucky number four, which means death, and also the incense sticks used at funerals. Another tip: Don’t point your chopsticks at anyone. That’s just plain rude.

***

Don’t go home right after a funeral. In Filipino tradition, if you go straight home after a funeral, a bad spirit could tag along and wreak havoc on your life. Stop at a restaurant first to stay safe.

***

Keep your new shoes off the table. (Say what?) In Britain, it’s considered bad luck because it symbolizes the death of a loved one. Back in the day, placing someone’s shoes on a table was a way to let the family know that they passed away. Nowadays, it’s also just bad etiquette.

And if you’re dying (heh, heh) to learn more about superstitions around the world, go here.

TKZers, what are some strange superstitions you’ve heard of; or maybe share some from your own family archives. And in your writing life, do any of your characters have weird superstitions?

(I’ll be in and out today, and will monitor as I can…)

 

 

The Top Ten Tactics for Writers Using ChatGPT – Without Losing Your Voice

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As writers, we’ve all seen, heard, tasted, felt, and smelt the buzz around AI tools—particularly ChatGPT—being able to crank out content at lightning speed. But that’s not what serious writers care about. We don’t want robotic fluff, and we sure as hell don’t want our voice flattened into some generic echo of internet-speak.

What we do want is to write better, write smarter, and keep our voice intact.

I’ve been working closely with ChatGPT for around two years now—really working with it and producing content for the film industry—and what I’ve found is that it’s not a threat to creativity. Used right, Chat is a force multiplier. A powerful thinking partner. A digital editor that never sleeps. And if you do the dance right, it’ll help you waltz out some pretty awesome moves—without anyone guessing a machine was in the lead.

What Exactly Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) computer and algorythm machine developed by the OpenAI company based in Silicon Valley. It’s a general pre-trained transformer (GPT) programmed on massive amounts of digital text—books, websites, conversations—to predict what words logically come next in a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire volume of works. That’s the stupid version.

The smart version? Chat is a tool that can:

  • Outline your stories
  • Research topics instantly
  • Draft articles or posts
  • Suggest creative titles
  • Assist with your novels
  • Build your characters
  • Punch up dialogue
  • Analyze your plot
  • Summarize chapters
  • Rephrase clunky paragraphs
  • Ask tough questions you hadn’t thought of
  • And most importantly, learn your unique voice over time

But here’s the kicker. ChatGPT doesn’t know truth. It doesn’t “think” like we do. It’s not sentient. It reflects probabilities and recognizes patterns from information or prompts fed into it. Which means you have to be the discerning human in the loop.

That’s your job. To guide it. Train it. Push back. Sharpen it into something useful.

With that, let’s get real about how to effectively exploit this big, bad, and beautiful bot.

Ten Real-World Tactics to Use ChatGPT Like a Pro Writer

These aren’t tips you’ll get from a “101 Ways to Prompt ChatGPT” article. These are hard-learned, field-tested tactics I use every day.

1. Feed It Your Work. Literally.

Want ChatGPT to sound like you? Give it samples of your writing. Paste in 2–3 blog posts or several book chapters and say: “This is my writing voice. Learn it. From now on, respond in this style.” It will. And it gets better over time. In fact, it can be downright spooky.

2. Talk To It Like a Writing Partner.

Don’t treat it like Google. Have a back-and-forth. Ask it what’s missing from your argument. What’s weak. Where the tension drops. “What’s the most compelling way to open this post?” “Challenge this idea. Where could I be wrong?” It becomes a live writing room, not a vending machine.

3. Use It for Reverse Outlining.

Paste in a rough draft and ask: “Summarize the structure. What’s the logical flow?”
This reveals hidden structure—or lack thereof—and shows where to tighten or reorder.

4. Rapid Rewriting at Scale.

Stuck on a paragraph? Ask: “Rewrite this in plainer English.” “Make this sound like Hemingway. Or like Garry Rodgers.” Use what works, ditch what doesn’t. It’s a revision shotgun.

5. Create Better Metaphors.

ChatGPT is surprisingly sharp with metaphor. Ask: “Give me three metaphors to describe the writing process.” You’ll be amazed what turns up—and one might be gold.

6. Simulate Your Audience.

Ask it to act like a reader of The Kill Zone or your novel’s target demographic. “What would a thriller reader think of this twist?” “What questions might a new writer have after reading this post?” It helps you pre-empt confusion.

7. Build a Persistent Memory.

If you’re using ChatGPT-4o with memory turned on, it can remember your preferences, style, and ongoing projects. This makes it less like a tool—and more like a silent writing partner who gets you.

8. Run “What’s Missing?” Checks.

Paste your article in and ask: “What ideas did I leave out that would make this stronger?” It’ll surface blind spots you didn’t know you had.

9. Draft Titles and Hooks on Command.

Don’t burn out trying to come up with snappy titles or email subject lines. Ask: “Give me 10 strong, punchy titles based on this content.” Keep the good ones, toss the rest. No ego involved.

10. Never Let It Publish Without You.

This one’s crucial. ChatGPT can help you draft. It can help you edit. It can even ghostwrite if you really want. But never hit “publish” until you—the writer—the human element—have done the final pass. Use your judgment. Your voice. Your standards. The machine assists, but the mortal decides.

Final Word

Writers who embrace this technology—without surrendering to it—are bound to outpace those who ignore it or fear it. AI won’t replace us. (At least not yet.) But writers who know how to use AI well will inevitably rise above, and possibly replace, writers who don’t.

Treat ChatGPT like a sharp, tireless apprentice. Not a ghostwriter. Not a gimmick. But a collaborative tool to help you write with more clarity, more insight, and yes—more you.

Kill Zoners—What do you think about ChatGPT and AI in general? Do you use an AI bot such as Chat in your research and writing? And who do you think wrote this post—ChatGPT or Garry Rodgers?

Can A Dream Be More Than A Dream?

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By John Gilstrap

Just to set the stage, I consider these Killzone posts to be a corner of the social media universe. It’s different than Facebook and X in that the topics are more focused, but it’s still an opportunity to address people with whom I would otherwise not normally interact. In the social media universe I am the John Gilstrap I choose to project, which is often a shade different than the John Gilstrap that actually is.
For example, I am always healthy and happy on social media. By any reasonable assessment, I live a blessed life, both professionally and personally. As a player in the entertainment business (which is what this writing gig really is), my job is to entertain–to be interesting, insightful, maybe even amusing from time to time. The last thing people want to hear from me are everyday life problems. Folks have plenty of those in their own lives.
Sometimes, though, a personal problem is worth sharing. So, here we go . . .
My back has been a mess for decades–some of it due to overzealous firefighting in my youth, some due to heredity, and some due (dammit) to the fact of getting older. Back in 2019, I had three levels of my cervical spine fused to take care of lightning bolts shooting down my arms. That procedure was very successful, but my lumbar spine continued to trouble me.
If you’ve had sciatica, then you know the torment of the nerve pain in your legs, and of that invisible ice pick in your buttocks. For years, the pain would arrive for a week or two and then go on hiatus for months. For the last six months or so, the pain took up residence and partied daily. It got to the point where I couldn’t walk more than 20 steps without having to stop and try to recover.
My MRI showed nothing but bad and worse news. Worst of all was severe stenosis at L4 and L5. In essence, this meant that bits of bad discs, bone spurs and fluid were directly impinging on the nerves of my lower back.
Time to see the neurosurgeon.
On June 4 (last week), the neurosurgical team at the Berkeley Medical Center successfully performed a two-level laminectomy and microdiscectomy on my lumbar spine. The minimally invasive procedure took about two hours. The medical miracle workers removed a part of my backbone to gain access to the nerve roots, and from there Roto-Rootered all that crap away and removed the pressure that was causing all the pain. The instant I awoke, I knew that the procedure had done its job. All the nerve pain was gone.
There remained, however, the fact that they’d stuck a knife in my back and pulled all those muscles aside to gain access to what they needed to do. The muscles respond with a tantrum of spasms because that’s just what they do. Plus, there’s the discomfort caused by cut-away bone and the steel surgical staples they used to close the wound. A lesser man would call that pain. I just dropped a lot of F-bombs.
(As an aside, note that the autonomic nervous system–your fight-or-flight instincts–don’t recognize the difference between a friendly surgical wound and a tiger attack. It reacts with a pulse of adrenaline and healing chemistry and energy. Now you know why you’re so tired after even a minor medical procedure.)
They sent me home with pills–Oxycodone every 6 hours for the pain and Tizanidine three times a day for the muscle spasms. I was to be a junky for three days. Cool beans.
Except . . . Among the side effects of Tizanidine, listed right there on the bottle, “Might cause hallucinations.”
Which brings us to the real meat of this post. Boy howdy, did I hallucinate! Only at night, and maybe when I was asleep, but if they were dreams, they were some wild, vivid dreams. Three dimensional dreams, if that even makes sense. On the morning after my surgery, when I woke up in bed, I asked my wife if she was real, because the first time I’d done that she’d not been. Whoa.
At Surgery Plus Two, the hallucinations took a turn that give me a chill even as I write this today. I was lying on my back and the bed had become some kind of floating vessel, moving down a river as I looked up to a starry sky through the silhouettes of leafy trees. It was very peaceful, very comforting. Extremely vivid. Then came the faces of relatives who have passed. They floated by one or two at a time, all of them smiling. These were not family photograph images. Uncles, aunts, cousins. I didn’t even recognize some of the faces, but they projected an embracing warmth that I don’t know how to describe. My dad’s was the only face in full color, dressed in his Navy uniform.
I panicked enough to awaken and say a prayer for me and for my family–concerned that this was somehow my version of the “bright light” that people report from near-death experiences. I wasn’t ready to go.
Immediately, sleep returned (or did it?) and instead of seeing the sky and my relatives, I was looking down on myself in a boat as I was cut free from a mooring and allowed to float away.
I awoke again with a feeling of great peace, then sleep returned.
In the morning, I sobbed as I relayed the story to my wife. To be honest, I’m not doing all that great as I write it now.
I don’t know what to make of this. A vivid imagination is an occupational hazard, so I have to acknowledge that the whole river sequence was merely the creativity factory working in overdrive. But I think I choose otherwise. I think there are many aspects of life and living that we just don’t understand, and I choose to believe that love transcends everything we think we know.
I don’t think my family had gathered to tell me it was my time, but rather to tell me that they were at rest and that when my time comes–may it be many, many years from now–I’m going to be embraced when I arrive.

Destination Reading:
Books To Bask In

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By PJ Parrish

I am home. But my heart is still elsewhere. Call it jetlag or maybe just Post-Paris Depression. All I know is that is always takes me a while to come back down to Earth after vacation.

We’ve been to Paris many times, but this time was a little special. Maybe it was because we didn’t do much. We’ve been to all the museums and seen all the sights, so this time we did things differently. The Italians have a great expression for it: Il dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing.  The closest French phrase is l’art de ne rien faire. The art of doing nothing. Which really is an art in a city where the Louvre is two blocks away and everyone else is running around trying to keep to their Chatgpt schedules. (Oh geez, gotta hurry, Mildred. The Eiffel Tower sparkles at 10 p.m.!)

We ate. We drank. We walked our dog Archie in the Palais Royal gardens. We did a Seine dinner cruise for my husband Daniel’s 80th birthday. We went inside the refurbished Notre Dame. While I dog-sat, Daniel and my bestie Linda went to the French Open (outside court access only for 30 euros…we’re not rolling in dough. But we did watch Coco’s great win on TV). That was about it.

Except we read. A lot. This is where I always catch up on my to-read list. But I always take books that are set in the country or city where I am visiting. This time, I started out with The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle. It won the Edgar this year in Best Paperback Original. It’s a solid thriller, redolent of the city. I took it to lunch with me at Bistrot Valois.

The Abbey Bookshop: A Treasure in the Latin Quarter | Bonjour Paris

Finishing that, I headed over to The Abbey Bookshop to pick up some used books. I don’t use an E-reader so this bookstore, run by Canadian Brian Spence, is always on my itinerary. I picked up and devoured The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, a beat-up copy of Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal (because I love the movie) and Georges Simenon’s The Yellow Dog (because I have one).

Reading a book while you’re actually in the book’s world doubles the pleasure, I think. It deepens your appreciation for the culture and history. It connects you emotionally. And it enhances your memories once you leave.

That said, I did not read Under the Tuscan Sun when visiting there. Seemed a bit too spot-on, you know? In Rome, I brought a copy of Ross King’s Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling because we intended to visit the Sistine Chapel. Didn’t make it due to a mild illness, but I am STILL plugging away at this one. Dense but very interesting book. Maybe, like the pope implores Michelangelo, I will finally make an end of it one day.

So, crime dogs. Good to be home and among you again. Ready to get back to planting my tomatoes, walking around my lake, and trying not to miss duck confit and fresh-squoshed orange juice. Tell us, if you will, what books made your vacations more memorable. In the meantime, indulge me while I share a snap I took of Archie. It was 6:30 a.m. and raining. We were on our way to the boulangerie to pick up our daily croissants. We had the Louvre to ourselves.