Let Us Prey

Posted on by

By Elaine Viets

For nearly a year I’ve been fighting a series of computer scams. Let me tell you what I learned. The hard way.

The problem started last spring when I found an extra $120 from Instacart in my bank account. I contacted Insta and was told I needed to call a special number for seniors.

I did. The person on the phone assured me the extra money would be taken back. I left for a trip to St. Louis.

A day later, about four in the afternoon, I got a frantic call from a young man with a cornpone accent who said he was in California. The poor country boy said he’d made a terrible mistake and “accidentally” put $1,200 in my account. Now he was going to be fired. Could I please go to the nearest Western Union and wire him the money? Please, please, please?

No. I had to give a speech.

I hung up. Cornpone called back. He begged. He pleaded. He did everything but break down in tears. “Please ma’am, I’ll lose my job. This money will come out of my paycheck. I’ll go broke. Please wire me the money.”

No. I hung up again.

This time Cornpone called back and said, “OK, if you can’t wire the money, could you write a check and mail it?” He gave me the name of a woman in South Carolina, all the way across the country from California.

Wait a minute? I said. Why do you want this mailed to a woman in South Carolina? Why not send it to Instacart?

“She’s my supervisor,” he said.

Nope. Something didn’t smell right. I closed my bank card and the account.

When I got home, the money in my compromised account was transferred to my new account. Including the $1,200. I also filed a police report. I didn’t expect the police to haul Cornpone and his pals off in handcuffs.

I’ve had at least three suspicious incidents since then, for purchases I couldn’t possibly have made. Each time I’ve closed my bank card. The most recent attack this Saturday was more serious. I got this text in all caps: DID YOU ATTEMPT PURCHASE TARGET $789.88 ORLANDO. Y(YES) N (NO). CASE #818992 TO OPT OUT REPLY.

Orlando? I live 220 miles away in south Florida.

Before I could reply, I got a phone call from a young man with an instantly forgettable name. I think his last name was Johnson. He asked if I’d made the Target purchase.

“On my BigBucks bank card? No,” I said.

He said he would instantly close the card. Fine. He then asked me to call up my account and confirm my recent purchases, which I did. The latest was from a gas station. I also told him the amount in my checking and savings accounts.

He said this was “a very serious case of fraud” and he needed the physical card. He gave me an address that was the headquarters of BigBucks Bank and asked me to take the card to FedEx. I said no.

He said he’d send a Lyft driver in a red Prius to pick up the card and take it to FedEx. The helpful Mr. Johnson stayed on the line while I waited outside my condo building and handed the card to the Lyft driver.

I thanked Mr. Johnson for alerting me to the fraud. He warned me not to buy gas from a pump. “That’s probably how they got your bank card number.” He hung up.

In the elevator on the way upstairs, I wondered why BigBucks needed the physical card. Didn’t it have all that information in the computer?

At about the 12th floor, I realized I’d been had. I ran to my condo, locked my bank card and all my accounts. I ignored the latest text from Mr. Johnson, which said, “Alert. Your new Temporary User name is BigBucks41946. Reply with old Username to deactivate.”

 

No, thanks. I called my bank’s fraud division. They confirmed what I suspected. Fraud.

What were the clues?

Check out that text again: DID YOU ATTEMPT PURCHASE TARGET $789.88 ORLANDO. Y(YES) N (NO). CASE #818992 TO OPT OUT REPLY.

Notice what’s missing? The bank’s name. Which I helpfully provided.

It took two days to get a new bank card and bank account. I also made a police report and alerted condo security.  That so-called “Lyft” driver was in on it, too. He didn’t have a sign on his car. Thanks to security, we now have video of that red Prius.

Again, I don’t expect the scammers to get caught.

But all they got was my time. No money.

And scammers don’t always win. After all, I got to keep that $1,200.

Where did the scammers get that kind of cash? The bank said they have a sort of revolving scam fund – when they get the money from one scam, they use part of it for the next scam.

I’m not the only one who nicked them. One banker said a Latino woman went through the same thing. She found an unexpected windfall in her account from a company. The scammers wanted their money back. Something didn’t seem right to her. The woman got scared and went to her bank.

The bank closed her account ASAP. The scammers cruelly threatened the woman, telling her they’d report her to immigration.

The bank said, “Sorry, the account’s closed.”

She kept the money.

Preorder “Sex and Death on the Beach,” my new Florida beach mystery. Get the low price at Thrift Books. https://www.thriftbooks.com/browse/?b.search=sex%20and%20death%20on%20the%20beach%20by%20viets#b.s=mostPopular-desc&b.p=1&b.pp=50&b.oos&b.tile

Police Work and Conferences

Posted on by

Police Work and Conferences
Terry Odell

I’m off to Left Coast Crime today, so my responses to comments might be late. It’s a reader-based conference, so I’m hoping to meet new people and introduce them to my work. I’ll be on a panel called “Behind the Badge: Writing Authentic Police Procedurals.” I guess they got tired of putting me on the “sex” panel. If you’re attending, it’s Thursday at 2:30. If you’re not attending, it’s still Thursday at 2:30.

When it comes to police procedures, I’m so far behind the badge that I’ve crossed state lines. But, I do my homework before writing anything—let’s make that before publishing anything—because I often write what seems like it ought to be the case, but since I’m not a trained law enforcement officer, I have a wonderful retired homicide detective who will answer my questions and put me on the right track. And I’m smart enough to ask.

I was dealing with a scene in Deadly Adversaries, where I wanted my cops to deal with a suspect. Trouble was, he lived in a different jurisdiction. After some back and forthing with my contact, I made the adjustments he said would be necessary to comply with the law. I loved his response:

I’m laughing. You try to do it right. See how boring Hollywood would have been it they had to keep within that pesky Constitution. It stood in my way many times.

Based on his advice, I adjusted a confrontation between the cops and a “little old lady holding a shotgun” scene as well. Since my contact worked in Orlando, my tiny town of Mapleton wasn’t what he’s used to. He said:

Funny, I think of working in a big city verses a small town. If I were there they would both likely be dead. You do make a great story though.

I won’t know much about the panel until I’m in the midst—our moderator said we could feed him one opening question (which I’ve already forgotten), but then he wasn’t going to divulge anything else about how he’d run the panel. I’ll probably recap the conference in another post.

Another research source I’ve found very useful is an io group (used to be a yahoo group, hence the “2” in the name) is crimescenewriters2. It’s full of people who know what they’re talking about in many first responder fields. They’ve been there, done it. You pose a question and get an answer that’s most likely more accurate than asking the AI bots.

Other than my panel, what else am I doing at the conference?

Bringing Swag. Always popular. I’ll bring lip balm, post-it notes, and copies of “Seeing Red” as giveaways.

Business cards. I’ll leave some on the giveaway table, but most will be handed out in person. I used to do bookmarks, but after seeing how many were left behind, I opted to stop spending money on them. E-books don’t need physical bookmarks.

Books for the bookstore. I don’t usually sell many, but it puts them in front of readers, many of whom will look for them at their favorite e-book stores. I’ll have copies of three books in my Mapleton Mystery series.

I’ll be volunteering at two events: Speed Dating, and the New Author Breakfast. Lots of swag from the former, food at the latter. And, of course meeting and chatting with people.

I did a post about my experience at the Speed Dating event from a former Left Coast Crime. You can find it here.

I will have a 30 minute slot in the Hospitality Room (Saturday 11:30 – 12:00 if you’re around) where I’ll have more giveaways. At some point, those cartons of remaindered hardcovers need to find better homes. Again, it’s a good time to meet people, especially those who haven’t heard of you.

And now, I’m rerunning some of my conference survival tips, no matter what sort of a conference it is.

  1. Have copies of your receipts. Nothing like finding out they’ve lost your registration or meal choices or room reservation to start things off on a stressful note. Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.
  2. Bring your own tote if you have one. Although most conferences hand out tote bags, they all look alike. If you bring one from a different conference, you’re less likely to have it picked up by mistake. (I also bring my own badge holder—the kind with compartments from another conference, just in case they give you a simple plastic one. This way, I’ve got a secure place for my badge, meal tickets, a little cash and other vitals—like business cards or bookmarks.)
  3. Don’t be afraid to meet people. It’s not required that you travel with a glued-to-the-hip companion. Take an empty seat, smile, hand over your business card, business card, or simple swag, and introduce yourself. This is one place where there’s an immediate conversation starter: “What do you write?” Or, in the case of a readers’ conference ‘read’?
  4. Bring comfortable clothes, especially shoes. You’ll be doing a lot of sitting, and a lot of walking, depending on how far apart the meeting rooms are. Also, bring layers. Regardless of the outside temperatures, meeting rooms can be meat-locker cold or steamy hot.
  5. Pace yourself. You’re not obligated to participate in every single event. Take breaks. Hide in your room for an hour if you need to. I long ago stopped feeling guilty about crawling into bed with a book at a decent hour.
  6. Speaking of books…bring either a bigger suitcase than you need, or some other method of transporting books. Most conferences are heavy on giveaways—and then there’s the inevitable bookstore and/or book signing. Another good reason to bring your own tote. Use the one they give you for books.
  7. Budget. Long ago, when I traveled with the Hubster on his per-diem, I learned how to save a few bucks. Think college dorm room. Almost all hotel rooms have coffee makers. They make hot water as well as coffee. There are all sorts of “just add boiling water” meal options out there. I’ll have instant oatmeal in my room for breakfast. This saves getting dressed early and going downstairs to a crowded hotel restaurant and blowing way too much money on a simple meal. And avoid the possibility of the staff not being able to handle several hundred people arriving at the same time. I’ll carry snacks as well. I’m not one for huge lunches at home, so for conferences that serve a banquet meal at lunch—well, that’s usually my dinner as well. A drink at the bar, maybe an appetizer or salad. No need for another huge and expensive meal. I can buy books with what I’ve saved.
  8. Scope out the facilities. Find out-of-the-way restrooms. Given short breaks between sessions and everyone on the same schedule, lines can get long.
  9. Giveaways. Odds are there are giveaway tables. Having swag is a great way to get your name in front of people. I’ve given away post-it notes, pens, lip balm, business cards, and bookmarks.
  10. Have fun.

If any TKZers are going to be at Left Coast Crime, be sure to look me up. And yes, meeting at the bar is always a good thing. I’ll have a Manhattan.

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 for pre-order.

Like bang for your buck? I have a new Mapleton Bundle. Books 4, 5, and 6 for one low price.

Playing with Time

Posted on by

Savings Time Clip Art drawing (Vector cliparts) anousment media,2 pm,time goes by

 

by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

Is your internal clock still confused by Sunday’s changeover to Daylight Savings Time? Me too. Now is a good opportunity to talk about playing with time in fiction.

In real life, time unfolds in chronological order. We’re born on Day 1, followed by 2, 3, 4, etc. until the last day when life ends.

That chronology can’t be changed.

We’re often Monday-morning-quarterbacks, kicking ourselves for what we did or didn’t do, what we said or didn’t say and should have. We’d love to go back in time to fix wrong choices or bad decisions but the best we can do is learn from them and not repeat mistakes.

In fiction, however, we have a chance for a do-over. It’s called rewriting.

In real life, a perfect comeback usually eludes us at the time but later occurs to us. When that happens in a story, we can simply plug it in when it’s needed. How cool is that!

Manipulating time chronology in mystery fiction can be an effective technique to build tension and suspense, disguise the villain, and misdirect the reader.

Let’s look at two movies that use the time jumping technique. I chose films as examples rather than books because visual models are easy to learn from.

The 2019 film Knives Outi is an unabashed tribute to the immortal Agatha Christie. Rian Johnson wrote and directed the film, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Hercule Poirot is updated as 21st century detective Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig). Wealthy novelist Harlan Thrombey (played by the late Christopher Plummer) is found dead, his throat slashed. A star-studded ensemble cast provides multiple suspects in the suspicious death. Driven by greed and jealousy, they fight among themselves over Thrombey’s fortune.

The complex plot jumps around in flashbacks from the points of view of different characters. Each new revelation of what supposedly happened sends the audience down a fresh trail of misdirection.

Time is critical in determining whose alibi is genuine and whose is false. Suspects claim to be in a certain location at a certain time. Blanc deduces who is lying by pinpointing the exact time where each actually was.

As a writer, I’m curious how Johnson wrote the original draft. Did he write it in chronological order then rearrange scenes during rewrites? Or did he bounce back and forth in time while initially drafting?

Same question about the filming. I’m guessing, for budgetary reasons, it was shot in chronological order because that’s the most efficient use of time and resources. Later, Johnson probably cut and pasted the scenes for the maximum dramatic suspense.

That system works for books also. Once the story is drafted in chronological order, the writer can cut and paste at will, rearranging the time sequence to keep the reader guessing.

A 2023 Czech film, Unspoken, directed by Tomas Masin, is another good example of how to play with chronology. The story concerns a veterinarian whose life changes in an instant when he’s kicked in the head by a horse he’s treating. The accident leaves him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Three women care for him: his wife, his mother, and the woman who owns the horse, later revealed to be the vet’s lover.

Jealousy and resentmen lead to power struggles among the women. For different reasons, they disagree about how the man should be cared for. He cannot voice what he wants and can only watch helplessly as they argue over his fate.

Two detectives are shown investigating the case. Initially they appear to be focused on who’s liable for the accident. Gradually it comes out they are actually investigating the veterinarian’s death. While the audience watches his struggle at rehabilitation, they also know that ultimately he will not survive.

Time jumps from present to past to future as detectives question the three women and others, including nurses and doctors.

More layers unfold as it’s revealed the man managed to attempt suicide but was saved. Fingers of blame are pointed at professional caregivers as well as the three women. Who allowed the attempt to happen?

Then in yet another jump forward in time, it’s revealed that, shortly after trying to kill himself, the man was murdered.

The detectives’ questions dig farther back in time into the murky relationships he had with his wife, mother, and lover. The lover is now discovered to be the mother of his young child.

Each jump in time adds to the mystery.

The cause of death is a fatal dose of insulin injected into his IV. The time of death is determined to be a brief window when the man’s squabbling wife, mother, and lover all had access to the IV. Which one did it? Or did a doctor or nurse make an error? Or did someone decide to end his suffering with a mercy killing?

I won’t spoil the surprise ending. The film is available on a free streaming channel. It’s worth watching to study how effectively time jumps can be used.

If you decide to experiment with time, keep a detailed chronology.

  • Account for each day, hour, or minute.
  • Use a physical calendar or writing software.
  • Note each character’s location at the time of each important plot event or action.

A side note on chronology: this post focused on the big picture handling of chronology at the plot level. However, on the micro level, sentence chronology is also important.

With my editing clients, I frequently see sentences and paragraphs that are awkward and clunky due to chronological confusion.

Here’s an example:

“Why the sour face?” Frank asked when he came in the door after Maureen and the kids had finished dinner just before she would tuck them in for their 9 p.m. bedtime. Frustration had made her break a plate while washing dishes. Beer fumes wafted from him.

What’s wrong? The words are clear enough, but they are not arranged in the order that the actions happened. The focus of the paragraph—the reason for Maureen’s anger—gets lost as the reader has to figure out who’s done what and when they did it.

Sentences and paragraphs read much smoother when they’re written in chronological order.

Rewrite:

Maureen and the kids had given up waiting for Frank to come home and ate dinner without him. While washing dishes, Maureen cracked a plate, stifled a curse, and chided herself. Not in front of the children. She was herding them toward bed at 9 p.m. when the kitchen door opened. Frank stumbled in, beer fumes wafting from him. He shot one look at Maureen and asked, “Why the sour face?”

Writers often like to use dialogue to make a dramatic statement, so they start a new scene with a character speaking. Then they have to backtrack to explain when, where, and why the character made that statement. The context eventually becomes clear but, meanwhile, the reader struggles to mentally rearrange the sentence in chronological order.

That’s a speed bump.

If speed bumps happen too often, the reader gets tired of them and doesn’t finish the book. They may not even be aware of what bothered them. They only know the writing irritated them.

The cleanest, clearest way to construct sentences and paragraphs is chronologically. A happens then B happens, then C, D, E, etc. The reader instantly understands what’s going on and can focus on the story.

Back to the big picture view of time manipulation: Personally, I write in chronological order. Occasionally, I use a flashback to explain what’s occurring in the present story. If I played around with time too much, I’m afraid I’d get totally confused.

However, I admire books and films like Knives Out and Unspoken. The authors who played with timelines have a deep understanding of the plot’s forward momentum. They use time rearrangement to build suspense and tension. When done well, out-of-order chronology can be a fresh way to present a story.

~~~

TKZers: have you ever played with time in your stories? Were you satisfied with the results? Or did it wind up an incomprehensible jumble? Any suggestions?

~~~

 

 

Time to try a new series? Please check out Tawny Lindholm Thrillers, available at Amazon and other online booksellers.

Timely Facts About Daylight Savings

Posted on by

Time is the wisest counselor of all. —Pericles

* * *

It’s baaaaack!

Early Sunday morning Daylight Savings Time reentered our lives, and we all lost an hour of sleep. Interestingly, the U.S. is one of only about 34% of the world’s countries that observe DST. So why did we decide to use this strange time shift phenomenon?

BEGINNINGS

Benjamin Franklin probably had something to do with it. As the U.S. Ambassador to France in 1784, he wrote a satirical letter to the Journal de Paris saying Parisians could save money on candles and oil just by getting up earlier in the summer. Barely a hundred years later, time zones were invented.

According to the National Museum of American History

Before 1883, towns across the nation set their own times by observing the position of the sun, so there were hundreds of local times. Instead of Eastern Standard Time, for example, there was Philadelphia Standard Time or Charleston Standard Time. In the 1850s, railroads began to operate under about fifty regional times, each set to an agreed-upon, arbitrary standard time. Rail companies often induced a region to abandon local time in favor of the railroad’s operating time.

On November 18, 1883, local times across the nation—determined by the position of the sun overhead—were consolidated into standardized time zones. Each zone had a uniform time within its boundaries. The railroads implemented the change for their own benefit. But gradually, despite scattered resistance, standard time became the way everyone kept time.

A DAYLIGHT SAVINGS IDEA

In 1895, a New Zealand entomologist and astronomer George Hudson made the first realistic proposal to change clocks by two hours every spring. Although his proposal wasn’t implemented, it may have set the stage for DST.

The U.S. Congress, of course, got into the act. Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of our Constitution gives Congress the power to fix the standard of weights and measures, and that includes determining time. This resulted in several time zone-related bills.

Again, from the National Museum of American History

The federal government first officially recognized standard time during World War I, in an act to establish Daylight Saving Time. At war’s end, Congress repealed Daylight Saving Time in response to farmers more in sync with the sun than the clock. During World War II, Congress authorized a temporary year-round daylight saving time, dubbed “War Time.” No national legislation provided for Daylight Saving Time until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized the start and end dates for daylight saving time in the United States, and the authority for overseeing it was given to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Some interesting facts about options for DST are on the U.S. DOT website:

DOT also oversees the Nation’s uniform observance of Daylight Saving Time; however, DOT does not have the power to repeal or change Daylight Saving Time.  Nor does DOT have any role to play in a State’s determination whether to observe Daylight Saving Time.  If a State chooses to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must begin and end on federally mandated dates.  Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law.  States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time.

DO WE REALLY NEED THIS?

Recent polls indicate most people in the U.S. are of the “pick one and stick to it” opinion. Unfortunately, about half want Standard Time and the other half want Savings Time to be the norm.

So here, I humbly propose my own solution to the time problem: Common (as in “common sense”) Time. I propose we make each time zone uniform with the time set to halfway between Standard Time and DST. For example, I am in the Central Time Zone. We would use Central Common Time. Instead of one p.m. Standard Time or two p.m. DST, Central Common Time would be one-thirty p.m. Simple, right?

Since I suspect my proposal has considerably less than a one percent chance of being enacted, I am willing to be Standard or Savings just as long as they don’t disturb my sleep anymore.

WRITING

But what does all this have to do with writing?

It’s well known that disruption in sleep habits has a negative effect on productivity. But according to an article on the Johns Hopkins University website about the effect of switching to Daylight Saving Time, it’s much more intrusive than that.

“The scientific evidence points to acute increases in adverse health consequences from changing the clocks, including in heart attack and stroke,” says sleep expert Adam Spira, PhD, MA, a professor in Mental Health.

The change is also associated with a heightened risk of mood disturbances and hospital admissions, as well as elevated production of inflammatory markers in response to stress. The potential for car crashes also spikes just after the spring forward, Spira says; a 2020 study found that the switch raises the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%.

Yikes. Better to fall asleep at your desk than go for an afternoon car ride.

HOPE

The Sunshine Protection Act (don’t you love the name?) that would make Daylight Savings Time permanent passed the Senate in 2022 by unanimous consent, but died in the House of Representatives. However, the SPA was reintroduced this year in both houses of congress. Will it pass? Only time will tell.

* * *

What about you, TKZers: Do you think we should go onto one time system and forget this switching back and forth? Does the time change have a negative impact on your work? Do you like the Common (i.e., average) Time idea?

 

Time is of the essence for Cassie Deakin and Frank White as they hunt a murderer.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Romancing the Reader

Posted on by

by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

I’m no expert in the romance genre. I do know it’s the best selling slice of the fiction pie and is dominated by female authors (along with some guy named Sparks).

And I’m pretty darn sure of this: there’s a romantic relationship in these novels. (Check me on that.)

Reasons given for the popularity of romance novels include deep emotional connection, vicarious pleasure, escapism, and the satisfaction of a “happily ever after” ending.

Which is why the romantic subplot is so often utilized in other genres. Everyone (or almost everyone) loves a love story. Whether that’s the subject of the book, or merely an aspect of it, love and its machinations draw readers in and connect them to the characters in a singular fashion.

Someone who I’d say has a handle on this is Nora Roberts. She’s published a few books (I think the number is 225 right now, but may have just ticked up). Most of them landed at or near the top of the NYT list.

I was going through one of my many binders full of clipped Writer’s Digest articles (dating from 1988) and came across a profile of Roberts from 2001, back when she’d published “only” 130 novels.

The reason I saved it was three-fold. First, because of her work ethic. For most of her career she’s held to an 8-hour writing day, five days a week. She says she had an advantage in being educated by nuns. “I was raised with discipline and guilt—they’re wonderful writer’s tools.”

Also of interest to me is her method. Her practice is to “pants” a “short” first draft. It gives her the basic story. Then she goes back to the beginning and adds elements to fill things out. Then there’s another pass (a “polish”) and she’s done. (I do think that’s a fine way to write a novel. I would call that short first draft actually a very long outline! That’s one way to “discover” your story.)

And third, she gave her thoughts on what makes a successful commercial novel:

Your characters have to jump off the page. They have to appeal to the reader in some way. If you don’t care about the people, then it’s all action, and who cares about that if you don’t care about who drives the action or who the action happens to? It’s all about who these people are.

(Horn toot: there’s a book out there on how to write “jump off the page” characters.)

Roberts says, “Character is plot. Character is everything and the story wraps around them.” I’d add that plot is also character, in that the story wrapping around them has to challenge them to the max, and force their true character to be revealed and, in most cases, transformed.

A romantic subplot, as I mentioned, is a powerful way to add flavor to a novel, in any genre. All my series—Kit Shannon, Mallory Caine, Ty Buchanan, and Mike Romeo—have a romance element. I’m a sucker for love, too.

There’s another, equally potent plot device which I call the “Care Package.” It refers to a relationship the Lead has before the book begins, one where the Lead cares deeply about someone else. Katniss Everdeen has her mother and Prim. Luke Skywalker has his aunt and uncle. Dorothy has Toto.

The bottom line is that we always root for a) people who fall in love; and b) people who care about other people, with no thought of personal gain. We want decent people to succeed.

That’s how an author can romance the reader. And readers who fall in love with your book will be anxious to buy another one.

Comments welcome.

The Major Characters of The Woman in White

Posted on by

In her previous post, Kay DiBianca provided us with the history and plot of the first mystery novel, Wilkie Collins Victorian masterpiece The Woman in White.

Count Fosco, accompanying himself on the concertina while singing “The Barber of Seville.”

Today’s second part will look at the major characters of the novel, and show some of the connections between them, which is a vital aspect of this story.

Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is a big novel, with a large cast. In this second part, I will discuss the most. Collins’ narrative style is epistolatory, with each POV providing  a written account that bears on the events of the novel and the unraveling of several intertwined mysteries at the heart of the story.

Several of these characters provide points of view, and I’ll note the ones who do. As much as I can, I’m discussing the characters in the order in which Collins’ introduces them into the storyline.

***

Walter Hartright: Our first point of view is also one of our main characters. Hartright is a young drawing-master unemployed at the start of the story. His late father had been a highly successful drawing-master who had been able to earn enough income that Walter’s mother and sister would be financially secure, while Walter had “succeeded to his connection,” meaning inheriting his father’s reputation as a drawing-master.

Walter is kind and curious, but also a bit naïve in the ways of the world and love at the start. He proves willing to help a stranger, the mysterious woman in white. He falls in love with his pupil Laura Fairlie, and has a significant character arc which demonstrates his considerable courage.

Professor Pesca: A teacher of Italian saved from drowning by Hartright when both were vacationing at the sea shore. Highly intelligent, passionate, and gregarious, as well as very loyal, Pesca has embraced the customs and dress of his adopted homeland, England, and vowed to repay his new, dear friend for saving his life. He finds Walter the drawing-instructor position at Limmeridge House.

Anne Catherick: The night before Hartright is to leave London for Cumberland to take up his new position as drawing-instructor at Limmeridge House, he takes an evening walk out of the great city, and encounters mysterious and distressed young woman in white, who, he later learns, had escaped from an asylum.

She questions Hartright, and is relieved when he says he does not a certain baronet. She asks his help in reaching London, which he gives, and assists her into a taxi. She refuses to tell him her name, but is very grateful for his aid. Anne is suffers ongoing distress and anxiety, typically dressing all in white, and believes she knows a great secret about Laura’s betrothed, Sir Percival Glyde.

Marian Halcombe: One of Hartright’s new students is the half-sister of Laurie Fairlie, his other pupil at Limmeridge. She the first person (aside from servants) Walter meets after arriving at Limmeridge House. Tall with a lovely form Hartright finds at odds with her mannish face, Marian has piercing eyes and a keen intelligence, Marian is fiercely protective of her beloved half-sister, and becomes friends with Hartright, to the point of considering him to be like a brother to her. Marian tell Hartright the name of the woman in white.

She is our third point of view, and the most significant one after Hartright’s. When she realizes Hartright and Laura have fallen in love, she convinces Hartright to leave his position and Limmeridge for Laura’s matrimonial benefit, asking the family attorney to help him find employment, which leads to Hartright joining an expedition to Honduras. On more than one occasion, she laments being unable to act in the fashion of a man in order to protect her sister. She’s daring, and at a crucial moment, puts herself at great risk to discover what the villains are up to.

Frederick Fairlie: Laura Fairlie’s uncle, and the man who hired Hartright to tutor his niece and her half-sister in the art of drawing. Fairlie is a supreme hypochondriac who is also extremely noise adverse, and wants nothing more than to be left alone with his precious collections of coins and Rembrandt etchings. He uses his valet as a human etching stand without concern for the fellow’s wellbeing.

Fairlie refuses to become involved when Sir Percival demands Fairlie’s niece Laura (now Lady Glyde) give him control her fortune, rather than just receiving the income from that fortune as stipulated in the marriage agreement. His refusal is a master class in deflection and passive-aggression, and he falls back on his proclaimed invalid status repeatedly, claiming the stress of all of this is too much for him. The man who should be the guardian of Laura is anything but. He will be another point of view character.

Laura Fairlie: the beautiful half-sister of Marian Halcombe, heiress of Limmeridge and the Fairlie family fortune. Hartright realizes Laura looks remarkedly like Anne Catherick.

Sensitive and intelligent, Laura is very honor and duty bound, no matter her love for Hartright. Despite misgivings about her impending marriage, she persists in upholding the arrangement. She cares deeply for her beloved half-sister Marian, and wants to see provisions for Marian made, which Sir Percival will not allow.

Vincent Gilmore: the knowledgeable and dedicated family attorney, representing Laura’s interests in her marriage with Sir Percival. Summoned by Marian to aid her sister, he does his utmost to uphold the marriage agreement concerned Lady Glyde’s fortune.

Sir Percival Glyde, Baronet: Laura Fairlie’s fiancée and then husband. Described as handsome, thanks in part to his distinguished baldness on the front half of the top of his head. He initially is charming and attentive, but as the narrative progresses, his short temper, utter lack of empathy, and abrasiveness come increasingly to the fore.

At a crucial moment, Percival insists on his wife signing a document, the nature of which he refuses to disclose. There is a mysterious connection between Glyde and Anne Catherick. He illustrates the old maxim, “appearances can be deceiving.”

Count Fosco: An Italian nobleman and close friend of Sir Percival, and married to Laura Fairlie’s aunt. Physically large and corpulent, Fosco is highly educated, fluent in English, urbane yet quirky in his tastes. He has a knowledge of science and a love for music. He dotes on his pet mice and canaries, letting the mice roam over his vast person.

At one point when Laura refuses to sign the mysterious document, Fosco intervenes, calling for a pause, and then proceeds to play “The Barber of Seville” on his concertina. He is instantly attracted to the unconventional Marian Halcombe. He can be gentle, yet also possesses a powerful personality not to be thwarted.

A telling conversation occurs between Fosco and Laura and Marian, when Percival observes that a sandy, melancholy lakeside would make a perfect location for a murder. Laura says “the crime will cause its own solution.” Fosco replies:

“The fool’s crime is the crime that is found out; and the wise man’s crime is the crime that is not found out. If I could give you an instance, it would not be the instance of a wise man.”

Fosco is another point of view character.

Countess Fosco: The wife of Count Fosco, and Laura Fairley’s aunt. Before her marriage the Countess was unconventional, loud, ‘unlady-like’ in brashly offering observations, but since her marriage, has become an exemplary wife, loyal, seen more often than heard, and Fosco himself refers to her in very loving terms. She is a ready helper when needed in her husband’s endevors

Mrs. Catherick: The mother of Anne Catherlick, we learn no love is lost between her and her unfortunate, distressed daughter. She is connected in someway to Sir Percival Glyde and a secret he possesses. She is also a point of view character at one point in the novel.

There many other, more minor characters, but these are the ones I see as major.

This first mystery is well worth reading, or listening to in audio. Accomplished actors Ian Holm and Tim McInnery have both narrated the book.

***

Have you read The Woman in White? If you have, do you have a favorite character? If not, are you interested now in doing so?

Note: I greatly enjoyed putting this together, which was good because I managed to catch COVID for the first time at the start of this week, after returning from a writer’s retreat. I did my best to proof this post–fingers crossed no typos slipped past my slightly fogged brain.

Image of Count Fosco from The Victorian Web.

Reader Friday-Playing With The Storymatic

Posted on by

We’re going to have a bit of fun here at The Killzone today. At least, I’m pretty sure it’ll be fun…

Have you heard of The Storymatic? Check out this website. It’s also available for purchase on Amazon. There are several versions of the game also–even one especially for the kiddos in your life.

* * *

So, here’s what I’d like to do.

I have chosen four “story prompt cards” from the box. See below.

There are two “plot” cards and two “character” cards from which to build a story.

Then, (and this is the audience participation part) you will use the prompts to write the first line or first paragraph or so of the story and share it with us right here on TKZ. Sound fun?

Here’s our assignment:

CHARACTERS: House Cleaner, Investigative Reporter

PLOT: Something Inside The Wall, Safety Deposit Box

***

Now it’s your turn, TKZers. Give us the first line or paragraph of your story using the above prompts. Don’t hold back now!

Look for mine in the comments. Let’s go for it . . .

 

 

 

 

Timeless Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis

Posted on by

By all accounts, Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis was a writer’s writer. He was a British literary scholar who penned fiction and non-fiction along with many, many assorted pieces. Think Chronicles of Narnia (Lion, Witch, Wardrobe) and Miracles. When C.S. Lewis died in 1963, he was famous world-wide as a brilliant man and a decent one, too.

Recently, I was Facebook scrolling and an image popped up in my feed. It was a copy of short letter Lewis wrote on 14 December 1959 to a schoolgirl in America whose teacher contacted Lewis asking him to give writing advice to her student. Here’s the image:

I read this four times to let the simplicity, yet depth, of his words to sink in—the timeless writing advice from a true master. While several of his 1959 points are modified by sixty-six years of technological advances (replace radio with smartphone, but don’t dismiss the hushed computer keyboard as a clackity-clack mechanical typewriter).

The main points C.S. Lewis sets forth are eternal. Read decent stuff… filter crap. Avoid distraction. Use the ear. Evoke personal interest and imagination. Be clear. Bake the manuscript. Get in the zone; the flow. And know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.

Kill Zoners — What timeless writing advice can you give to today’s schoolgirl in America?

BTW, visit the S.S. Lewis official website for a complete catalog of his works.

Attention New Writers: Ignore Naysayers, Go Traditional

Posted on by

By John Gilstrap

Full disclosure: some of this post first appeared as a late-in-the-day comment on Brother Bell’s excellent post last Sunday.

Dear Rookie Writer,

No matter what you hear from your writer buddy who heard it from a friend who knows a guy in the publishing industry, agents and editors are hungry and actively hunting for new material. Are they picky about quality? Of course they are. Can it be hard to get an agent’s attention? You betcha, Red Rider. Is it the single most reliable model to make some scratch as a newbie without any readership? One hundred percent.

The vast majority of new writers (read: yet-to-be-published writers) I meet at conferences and such espouse no interest in making a living as a writer. Most just want to see their books in print, whether it be on paper or with electrons. When they hear that their pacing is off or that their characters are flat, they seem not to care. And why should they? They just sat through three sessions on self-publishing that pumped them up on a thrilling publishing world with no gate keepers.

These new writers commit themselves to the indie route because at its face it’s easier. In the end, 90+% of them will spend thousands of dollars in production costs and will complain that they’ve only been able to a hundred copies, mostly at their family reunion. Still, they print business cards pronouncing themselves to be published authors and dare anyone to claim otherwise.

The biggest obstacle to success in indie publishing is the inability for real talent to rise above the noise of the dreck. And when the rare exceptions like Andy Weir rise up and get notice, their careers only get supercharged after signing with a traditional publisher. (Work with me here. There are undoubtedly other one-off exceptions, but they are extremely rare.)

If a new writer wants a shot (nothing close to a guarantee, but at least a shot) at selling thousands or hundreds of thousands of copies of his book, then I believe the traditional route is the only one to consider.

First, there’s the issue of the money flow. It’s a one-way valve. Author pays nothing. Yes, the royalty scale is a minority percentage of overall revenue (a negotiated percentage–thus the importance of an agent), but the publisher has taken all the risk. X% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

The right traditional publisher opens up doors to marketing routes that are otherwise locked for indies (Goodreads, BookBub, etc.). They can get your book into libraries, and they have access to the otherwise locked-away network of sub agents who can sell your book to foreign publishers so your book can be published in multiple languages. Each copy sold is more cash in the author’s pocket.

Then there’s the access to studios for film options.

This is the entertainment business, folks, where the odds of true success are slim. But as a rookie, you want to stack as many of the slim odds in your favor as you can. If you go the indie route first and your book does not sell, you have all but closed the door to future entry into the traditional publishing world. Make your career choices accordingly.

Now, the case FOR indie publishing:

Back in the day, when I had a Big Boy Job, I was the director of safety for an international trade association. In the words of Ron Burgundy, I was a pretty big deal. My particular squint on safety management principles was both unique and effective. I traveled extensively to speak to large crowds. For a brief while, after I left the association, I considered writing a safety management book and joining the speaker’s circuit. (Working title: Safety is Not Number One)

Had I followed through, I would have had to self publish that book because the potential market is very small. I could have sold the hell out of the books I brought with me (or I could have made it part of the speaking fee), but there wouldn’t be enough money to attract a publisher.

If (God forbid) Kensington were to shift its focus and drop my Jonathan Grave series, I would consider continuing it independently, but I would be doing it with a substantial established readership base.

There is no one common path for everyone. But before choosing your path, or dismissing one, I urge you to evaluate your goals and objectives.

AI And The Novel: Can A
Million Monkeys Be Wrong?

Posted on by

 

undefined

By PJ Parrish

In the wee wee hours of the morning this week, I had an idea for a new story. Now, most things that happen around 3 a.m. usually don’t end well, and I should have remembered that, considering that the last time I was startled awake at that hour was when a coyote and neighborhood cat were squaring off in my driveway.

But no, I got up, grabbed a pen and wrote down an opening paragraph. Let me share it here now:

The deep waters, black as ink, began to swell and recede into an uncertain distance. A gray ominous mist obscured the horizon. The ocean expanse seemed to darken in disapproval. Crashing tides sounded groans of agonized discontent. The ocean pulsed with a frightening, vital force. Although hard to imagine, life existed beneath. Its infinite underbelly was teeming with life, a monstrous collection of finned, tentacled, toxic, and slimy parts. Below its surface lay the wreckage of countless souls. But we had dared to journey across it. Some had even been brave enough to explore its sable velveteen depths, and have yet to come up for precious air.

Whee, doggies! What’s that smell?

Okay, I didn’t really write that. But I had you going for a sec, didn’t I. But someone DID write it. Actually, it was 1,476 people who wrote that, give or take a few. This gawd awful paragraph was created years ago by Penguin Books for a project called “A Million Penguins.”

Maybe you heard about it. The idea was to write a novel with a million collaborators to be called a “wiki-novel”. It was launched by Penguin Books in collaboration with Kate Pullinger on behalf of the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University.

This is what the Penguin folks said on their website: “We’ve created a space where anyone can contribute to the writing of a novel and anyone can edit anyone else’s writing….we want to see whether a community can really get together, put creative differences aside (or sort them out through discussion) and produce a novel.”

Anyone could call up the site and contribute to the story. Because the site got more than 100 edits every hour, Penguin imposed “reading windows” that froze the novel so that editors could read over what had been changed to get their bearings on where the story was going. Chaos reigned. A month in, Penguin mercifully pulled the plug.

I was thinking about the Penguin project this week after reading an article at Literary Hub about how AI is transforming our business, and why writers should embrace it. To quote the author Debbie Urbanski in part:

So here’s what I really want us to imagine for the purpose of this essay: An AI writes a novel and the novel is good.

This is what a lot of people, and certainly a lot of writers, are angry and scared about right now. That AI, having been trained on a massive amount of data, including copyrighted books written by uncompensated authors, will begin writing as well or better than us, and then we’ll be out of a job. These concerns over intellectual property and remuneration are important but right now, it feels they’re dominating the discussion, especially when there are other worthwhile topics that I’d like to see added to the conversation around AI and writing.

Such as: how can humans and AI collaborate creatively?

Which brings me to a third possibility to consider: Can AI and a human write a novel together?

Sigh. I dunno. She posits that there is a “collaboration” possible between writer and AI. And that’s where I get queasy.

I collaborated with my sister Kelly on 15 books and a lot of short stories. It was at times a fitful process but always fruitful because we were equals and more important, we recognized that there was a third party in the collaboration that was always going to win any argument — the story.

I’ve had a couple other experiences with collaboration. Jeffery Deaver and Jim Fusilli asked me to join 14 other writers for a novel called The Chopin Manuscript, published by the International Thriller Writers. Deaver got the plot in motion and we each had a chapter after that. It was fun, frenetic and in hindsight, not a bad novel considering the inevitable clash of styles and egos. I remember I gleefully killed off one of the main characters in a great chase through the Paris catacombs but Jeff overruled me. We went on to write two more “serial thrillers” for ITW.

Letting another brain into your writing process isn’t easy. It should be approached with only the greatest care and clear-mindedness. When it goes bad — and I know some writers who’ve had it go very bad — it conjures up the Infinite Monkey Theorem:

The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, including the complete works of William Shakespeare. In fact, the monkey would almost surely type every possible finite text an infinite number of times. The theorem can be generalized to state that any sequence of events that has a non-zero probability of happening will almost certainly occur an infinite number of times, given an infinite amount of time or a universe that is infinite in size.

Which is how I view AI. I’m a retired Luddite who has no real stake in this brave new world. But I know that I should be paying closer attention. I have a friend who has been asked to write a script about the history of the mystery genre. He is struggling mightily because the subject is both broad and deep. He resorted to ChatGPT. And damned if the thing didn’t spit out a workable script. But it has an oddly lifeless quality, like someone afraid to color outside the lines.

So what happened to The Million Penguins project? The university behind it published A Million Penguins Research Report. It concluded:  “We have demonstrated that the wiki novel experiment was the wrong way to try to answer the question of whether a community could write a novel, but as an adventure in exploring new forms of publishing, authoring and collaboration it was ground-breaking and exciting.”

Groundbreaking. Exciting. Sounds just like what they’re saying about AI. Or is that sound just the thundering footsteps of a million monkeys?

Keep coloring outside those lines, friends.