If you had to choose to live in 3075 or 1875, which would you pick, and why?
What do you think you’d find there?
The Great Canadian Bank Bombery
Kenora is a small town of about 15,000 on the Lake of the Woods at the west edge of Ontario, a prominent province in Canada. Normally, Canadian towns are pretty quiet and orderly but on May 10, 1973, a masked gunman robbed a Kenora bank and then blew himself to smithereens with a bomb strapped to his chest. I call it a bombery.
You’d think this was something on a movie set, but it’s a true crime story with no ending. The bombed robber has never been identified. That’s beside having a full set of fingerprints, some twisted teeth, and a beautiful DNA profile available. Briefly, here’s what happened.
At opening time, the robber entered the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Kenora’s main drag. He wore a black balaclava and was armed with a pistol, a rifle, and packing a homemade bomb built with six dynamite sticks. The detonator was a clothespin device which he could operate through his mouth.
Instead of just “grab the money and run”, the robber made a huge spectacle He took the bank employees hostage and began negotiation with the police. This resulted in a plainclothes officer exchanging himself for the hostages. The robber demanded a get-away truck be supplied and for the vault to be opened. About $100,000 in bills were stuffed into three duffle bags the robber brought with him.
This ordeal lasted two hours. During that time, word quickly spread, and a large crowd assembled outside the bank with the police holding them back. The media arrived, and the outside scene was reported live on radio and filmed for TV.
When the robber and the officer came out of the bank, a police sharpshooter shot him— the bad guy, not the cop. He went down and the bomb went off, with blood and body bits and bills flying everywhere. It was chaos. The officer was injured—no doubt saved from death by being shielded with the money-filled bags strung on his back. Remarkably, most of the $100,000 was recovered and not scooped by frenzied folks.
To this day, no one knows the robber’s identity. His description was a while male about 45-years-old, 5’6” to 5’8”, and around 160 lbs. Despite his fingerprints being circulated through Interpol, dental records checked, and when DNA came along in the 1990s – there was no lead. Today, his body lies in a Kenora graveyard, and the case of the Great Canadian Bombery is closed.
Now, this case hits home for me. I grew up near Kenora and was in a Grade 12 class when it happened. My girl-friend-at-the-time (now known as she-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned)—her mother’s car was parked outside that bank. Rosie’s Impala got splattered with the blood and the bits and the bills.
Watch the explosion on film as it happened.
Listen to the live radio broadcast.
Kill Zoners — Have you ever experienced a close-to-home crazy crime? Do you know anyone who has? Or can you think of a crime that can top this? Tell us about it in the comments.
Using Books2Read as a Marketing Tool
Using Books2Read as a Marketing Tool
Terry Odell
Marketing. I think most of us dread it. Unless you’re in the high echelons of traditional publishing, you’re going to have to do at least some of it yourself. It’s way way way down on my “things I like to do” list, but I’ve found a few things that make the chore less daunting.
Note: this is what I’ve found effective for me. YMMV.
Our goal, if we’re trying to sell books, is to get people to buy them, and for that, they have to go where the books are sold. I prefer to have my eggs in more than one basket, so I sell wide to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook, Kobo, Apple, and Smashwords. To be frank, I’m stubborn and I’m irked to no end when the only link available sends me to Amazon. I buy my books from Barnes & Noble.
For those of us who put our work out there in several formats: digital, paperback, and hardcover, sending prospective readers to the right place can be a challenge. And then there’s audio, which adds even more sales channels to the mix. If you’re posting on social media and you want to direct readers to your books, how many links to you have to include? It can be a lot.
That’s a lot of places to have to point people to, so I’ve been using Books2Read to help make things a little easier. It’s not only for indies. Reavis Wortham’s publisher used it to promote one of his books just last week. (Effectively, as I bought it.)
Books2Read, which is connected to Draft2Digital, offers a simplified approach. Their Universal Book Links (UBLs) allow you to use a single link for each of your books. Clicking the link sends readers to a book page with the option to choose the format they prefer and the sales channel from one page. It requires a second click, but readers can choose a default store and go right there, eliminating that step.
You can even create a custom name for your UBL, which makes it easier to remember if you’re adding your links to marketing materials. They all start with the expected https://books2read.com, but you can extend that. Example: my newest release, Deadly Relations, can be found at https://books2read.com/DeadlyRelations. If you follow that link, you can see what these book pages offer (and it saves me from having to create a screenshot to post here).
This second click also has the added bonus of letting you use these links in your “More by the Author” pages. Amazon kicks out links to stores other than its own, but Books2Read isn’t a store link, so you don’t have to create different pages for different channels. (And if you use Draft2Digital for formatting, they’ll do all that for you. You don’t have to sell via D2D if you don’t want to. They’re fine with letting you upload your files, and they’ll covert it to epub which you can then upload anywhere else you want—including Amazon.)
You can have an author page at Books2Read which organizes your books by series (here’s mine), but sometimes you want to call attention to one series, which is where this few minutes of extra effort comes into play. This can be particularly helpful if you write more than one series or books in more than one genre.
Recently, I stumbled across another tool Books2Read offers. Let’s say you’ve written 25 books. That’s a lot of links, even for “one stop shopping.” Now, you can create a separate link for each of your series. B2R calls these “Reading Lists” and when I first saw it, I didn’t pay much attention, because I wasn’t interested in creating lists of books I’d recommend to others, which is how my brain interpreted Reading Lists. However, it’s a tool to create a carousel of your own series’ books. It takes a couple of minutes to set one up, even for a non-techie like me. B2R has already done the heavy lifting.
If you go to your B2R dashboard, there’s a dropdown for “Link Tools” in the upper right that includes “Reading List”. (Click the images to enlarge)
Click on it, and you’ll get to the series page Books2Read’s bots have already created.
From there, it’s a matter of filling in some blanks and adding any books they haven’t put into the series yet. You’ll note you can give a custom name to these URLs, too.
(Note: In this screen, click on Advanced Options and check the box at the bottom to make your link public, assuming you want to be able to send people there.)
If I’m promoting my Mapleton series, for example it’s so much easier to send readers here rather than separate links for each book, each format, each sales channel.
You’re free to create your own list carousels. Heck, if you wanted to, you could create one based on cover color. Or books with animals. Or books set in the same place. That might be going a bit far, but you’re in charge.
And, yes, if you’re doing things right, first and foremost, all this information should be available on your website. But sometimes, these shortcuts are helpful to readers, and that’s who we’re here for, right?
Any marketing tips to share, TKZers?
Readers, do you like being able to see books, series, etc., in one place? Have you ever visited Books2Read?
Available Now
Deadly Relations.
Nothing Ever Happens in Mapleton … Until it Does
Gordon Hepler, Mapleton, Colorado’s Police Chief, is called away from a quiet Sunday with his wife to an emergency situation at the home he’s planning to sell. A man has chained himself to the front porch, threatening to set off an explosive.
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”
Spoiler Alert!
openclickartvectors pixabay
By Debbie Burke
Today I’m seeking advice from authors who write series fiction as well as people who enjoy reading series books.
Here’s the situation: I have an idea for the ninth book in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series, but this new plot would reveal several surprise twists from prior books. These are major league spoilers.
Ideally, readers begin a series with #1 and read the books in order. They watch continuing characters grow and change with each succeeding book.
But as authors we can’t count on the series being read in order and must keep that in mind as we write.
Here’s some conventional wisdom about series writing:
- Treat each book as a standalone.
- If there are references to events that happen in earlier books, skirt around them to avoid giving away surprises.
- Include only enough backstory from earlier books so the reader isn’t confused.
- No spoilers.
Series contain one unavoidable spoiler: in each book, the lead character grapples with danger that is sure to kill them. But there are more books in the series so the lead must survive. As long as you keep readers up past their bedtime, they don’t mind that spoiler.
With a series, relationship arcs develop over multiple books.
In book #1, let’s say two characters dislike each other but must work together to overcome obstacles.
In book #2, their relationship has changed after being in the trenches together. Changes might be:
- They’re now allies and friends.
- One emerges as the lead while the other becomes the subordinate.
- Characters alternate positions. A secondary character in one book becomes the lead in another.
- They continue to clash with each other in a running conflict.
- They become lovers.
In book #3, the plot pushes them closer together with more shared adventures and lessons learned. The relationship grows deeper. More variations are possible:
- One is killed off, leading to new problems for the survivor.
- They are no longer personally connected but must still interact (e.g. on the job, as family members, sharing a child, etc.).
- One finds a new interest, which leads to conflict with the other.
And so on, and so on.
Like real life, interpersonal relationships in fiction are complicated by death, distance, illness, injury, divorce, children, new romances, blended families, and more.
A while back, I received an email from a someone who had read the first book in my series, Instrument of the Devil. In that story, Tawny Lindholm is the lead character who’s targeted by a terrorist. Soon she’s in insurmountable legal trouble and facing prison. In the last quarter of the book, a brilliant, arrogant attorney named Tillman Rosenbaum shows up to represent her. She desperately needs his help but can’t stand him.
Initially, Tillman was supposed to be a walk-on character, a one-off. However, he was so much fun to write that I couldn’t get rid of him. He demanded the role of male lead and I had no choice but to give it to him.
At the end of IOTD, Tillman gets Tawny out of legal trouble but she’s broke and desperate. He offers her a job which, despite her dislike for him, she reluctantly accepts.
In book #2, Stalking Midas, Tawny constantly worries Tillman is going to fire her because the job is over her head. She gradually learns reasons behind her boss’s harsh facade and recognizes why he’s so cynical. Tillman, who doesn’t trust anyone, discovers Tawny can be trusted and she becomes indispensable.
Spoiler alert: by the end, they break their own two cardinal rules:
- Don’t dip your pen in the company inkwell.
- Don’t sleep with the guy who signs your paycheck.
“What??? Really???”
Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash
Despite ups and downs, their relationship grows. Responding to the email from the new reader, I mentioned in passing that their wedding occurs in book #5. The incredulous reader wrote back, “Tawny marries Tillman????”
Oops. Let that cat out of the bag. Fortunately, the reader continued with the series.
Here’s my dilemma today: the potential plot for book #9 would require revealing crimes and the killer’s identity from book #3, Eyes in the Sky.
At this point, I haven’t written one word of #9. The new plot vaguely swirls in my imagination but it’s far from pinned down.
That’s why I figured now was a good time to ask for help from the intelligent, thoughtful community at TKZ.
If you write series fiction, have you ever given away spoilers from earlier books?
Do you think that helps or hinders the series?
Did you receive feedback from readers about spilling secrets? What did they think?
Did it affect their reaction to subsequent books in the series?
Were they disappointed?
If you’re a reader of series fiction, how important is it to you to be surprised?
Do you read series out of order?
Did spoilers from earlier books diminish your reading experience of a new one?
I’m interested in your thoughts, pro and con. Thanks for being my focus group!
~~~
Spoiler alert: the two main characters in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series survive at the end of each book…so far!
That Deserted Island
“It is never too late to be wise.”– Daniel Defoe
* * *
I recently read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe for the first time. I don’t know how I missed it during my educational training, but I did.
Robinson Crusoe is one of those books that has left indelible fingerprints (or footprints) on our collective language. When we think of a deserted island, Crusoe comes to mind, and the term “Man Friday” or “Girl Friday” is commonly used to refer to an efficient assistant. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that one of our books would have that kind of impact several hundred years after its publication?)
Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719 and is considered by some to be the first modern novel in English. You wouldn’t think a book about a lone individual stranded on a deserted island for decades could be interesting, but I understand it was enormously popular during Defoe’s lifetime and has become one of the most widely published books in history.
Although the book’s sociological aspects might concern some in the 21st century, I found it to be a lens onto another time that I don’t know much about, and that made it particularly interesting. It was also a deeper and richer story than I had anticipated, with themes of self-reliance and redemption.
One scene, in particular, captures the imagination: the footprint scene. An article about Daniel Defoe on americanliterature.com claims Robert Louis Stevenson felt the footprint scene was one of the four greatest in English literature. I don’t know if Defoe intended it, but it seemed to me to be a metaphor for life. Just when you think you understand the lay of the land, some small thing appears that shakes the foundation of your security, and everything changes.
* * *
I had always imagined Daniel Defoe to be a kind of rough and ready type. How else could he write a novel about a man stranded on a deserted island who invents all kinds of novel (pun intended) ways to stay alive? But reading about Defoe’s life and looking at images on the web, I see Defoe as a proper English gentleman, complete with cravat and full powdered wig.
But what a time he lived in! Born in 1660, he was a child during the great plague in Europe that claimed over 70,000 lives. He lived during the lifetime of Sir Isaac Newton and some of the great explorers. It must have seemed like an era of unlimited possibilities.
Defoe wrote more than 500 books, articles, and stories. Interestingly, he was 59 years old when Robinson Crusoe was published, and his other famous work Moll Flanders followed that one.
* * *
All of this thinking about being stranded on a deserted island put me in mind of a question we hear occasionally. Here’s a variation of the setup:
Suppose you were stranded on a deserted island for a week with no phone, internet, or other means of access to the outside world. You can pick one person to be on the island with you. Let’s say the other person has to be an author who is no longer alive.
Here are a few questions I’d ask Mr. Defoe:
Why did you decide to write Robinson Crusoe?
Why did you leave Crusoe on the island for 28 years? Wouldn’t a few years have been enough?
Were you surprised at the popularity of your novel?
How much were you paid for your book?
How did you know so much about surviving on a deserted island?
How did you come up with the idea of the single footprint?
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
* * *
So TKZers: If you were stranded on a deserted island for a week with no internet, no phone, or other means of communication with the outside world, what author from the past would you want to spend that week with? Why would you choose that person? What questions would you ask?
Hide Exposition Inside Confrontation
by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
I left a comment on the first-page Kris critiqued last Tuesday. I suggested the author eschew backstory and exposition, except what was put into confrontational (as opposed to expositional) dialogue. Kris asked if I might expand on that.
Patricia Medina and Bruce Bennett in “The Case of the Lucky Loser.”
First, let’s define terms. Exposition is information, stuff a reader needs to know in order to fully understand what’s going on in a scene and, indeed, the whole book. The key word here is needs. A common mistake, especially in opening pages, is too much exposition in the narrative. That was the problem with the manuscript Kris critiqued. It had a couple of long paragraphs of pure information (an “info dump”). The author thought them necessary for readers to understand what was going on. Not so. Readers will wait a long time for full exposition if they’re caught up in a tense scene. My standard advice is Act first, explain later.
Yet sometimes a bit of backstory or exposition is called for, and the best way to deliver that info is through dialogue. But it has to be confrontational and sound like it’s really two characters saying what they would say in that situation.
Let me demonstrate with an example. In many TV dramas of the 50s and 60s, the set-up was sometimes larded with dialogue that sounded forced, that was there just to give the audience information. Here’s a bit from the old Perry Mason series starring Raymond Burr. In “The Case of the Lucky Loser” we open with a man and woman in a train compartment:
HARRIET: I still wish I were going to Mexico with you instead of staying here in Los Angeles.
LAWRENCE: This trip’s going to be too dangerous, Harriet. It’s some of the most rugged terrain in the Sierra Madre mountains. It’s no place for a woman, especially my wife. It’s almost no place for an amateur archaeologist, either. Thanks for coming with me as far as Cole Grove Station.
Yeesh! What’s wrong with that is called “the false triangle.” The dialogue should sound like two characters talking to each other, like this:
But when the author tries to “cleverly” send the reader information, the transaction looks like this:
The solution is simple: Make the dialogue confrontational. That doesn’t mean it has to be a big argument, though that always works. Just insert enough opposition so there’s some tension. The Perry Mason example could go like this:
“Let me come with you,” Harriet said.
“That part of Mexico’s too dangerous,” Lawrence said.
“It’s dangerous in L.A., too, unless you haven’t noticed.”
Lawrence laughed and stroked her hair. “The Sierra Madres are no place for—”
“If you say a woman again I swear I’ll file for divorce.”
“Honey—”
“You’re an insurance salesman, not an archaeologist! The only rocks you should be looking at are in your head.”
“Now, now.” Lawrence looked out the window. “We’re coming into Cole Grove Station.”
“Don’t make me get off,” Harriet said.
“See you in two weeks,” Lawrence said.
Find any dialogue in your manuscript where you’ve slipped into the “false triangle.” Transform that conversation into confrontation. Then look for places where you’ve dropped a paragraph or more of raw exposition. Cut out any information that can wait until later, and see if you can put what’s left into a conversation between two characters.
Say, why don’t we try it now? Here’s a bit of expositional dialogue. Show us in the comments what you can do to make it confrontational:
There was a knock at the door. Molly opened it.
“Well hello, Frank,” Molly said. “What brings my favorite accountant all the way out here to Mockingbird Lane?”
“Hi, Molly,” Frank said. “I wonder if we might have a chat about your tax return for last year, when you got that $35,000 advance on your first novel, When the Wind Whips, from Simon & Schuster. Who says an author has to be in her twenties or thirties to start a career, eh? May I come in?”
“Sure,” Molly said, opening the door for him.
“You could have called,” Molly said. “I would have been happy to drive my Tesla to your office where my friend, Linda, is your receptionist.”
“That’s all right,” Frank said. “I need to take off a few pounds as you can see, so the walk did me good.”
Have fun!
Upping Your Word Count
Increasing our word counts is something many writers desire to do. Certainly that’s my aim, along with being a bit more consistent on a weekly basis when I’m drafting and when I’m revising. This week I just bought a Mac Mini, my first desk top computer in seven years, to be my offline writing playground, since the Internet is a big source of distraction for me. Writing programs and a music app are all that is installed on that computer. It will normally be unplugged from the Internet. Of course, avoiding distractions is just one factor in upping your word count.
Today’s Words of Wisdom is here to help. First, Robert Gregory Browne discusses how outlining helped him, followed by PJ Parris with some excellent tips (including staying off the Internet), and finally, James Scott Bell lays out how to set and track word count goals.
The full posts are date linked from their respective excerpts and are worth reading in full.
Ever since I started writing, I’ve been a pantser. I come up with an idea, kinda sorta figure out who the main character is, then sit down and start writing. I had tried outlining many, many times (just like all the writing books say we should) and I just couldn’t stand to do them. My eyes would glaze over after three paragraphs.
Isn’t writing supposed to be fun?
But for the Harlequin Intrigue audition I had no choice but to write that outline and three sample chapters. It was full proposal or don’t bother auditioning. They weren’t going to hire me simply because they liked my Facebook page. (Or maybe in was MySpace in those days.)
When it came time to actually write the book, however, I discovered something quite wonderful. Because I had worked everything out in that outline, all I really had to do was, as they say, “word it in,” and I managed to bang that thing out in record time.
From there on out, I was a convert. At least when it came to Harlequin romances. I still wrote (and continue to write) my Robert Gregory Browne books by the seat of my pants (except for one exception I won’t get into here), but the Intrigues were all outlined first. Even after my editor said all she needed was a paragraph from me. I would write a ten to twenty page outline for myself, because I had to write those suckers fast.
I think the fastest I ever went from outline to finished book was about two and a half weeks. I’m no John Creasey, but I think 50K words in that amount of time is pretty damn fast.
So if you’re concerned about your snail’s pace as a writer, just know that as much as you might hate them, outlines can certainly be your friend.
Robert Gregory Browne—April 20, 2016
Are there truly any “secrets” to productivity? I don’t think so. If you ask successful people how they do what they do, their answers tend to repeat and are duh-fully common-sense.
- Turn off the internet. It’s a time-sucking Circe. If you, like me, turn to it to get a fix when the writing is going badly, well, Bunky, it’s time to cut the cord. Don’t check your email. Don’t answer that text alert. And don’t call up Google in the name of research when you’re really afraid to face chapter 6. The trick that works for me is to take my laptop to a place with no internet. Amazing how interesting your novel gets when all you have to look at is the wall. Maybe you don’t have the luxury of two computers like Lee, but you can disable your browser during work time. There are even programs that do it for you: StayFocused, Anti-Social, SelfControl and my favorite — Write or Die.
- Figure out your peak writing hours.In my salad days, I was a night owl. I wrote my first novel between 9 p.m. and midnight while I was working full-time. Somewhere around age 55, I started getting up at dawn, so now I am an annoying morning person. I read the paper, have my coffee, walk the dogs, then get to work around 11 a.m. My batteries conk out about 3 p.m. so I usually quit. Now if you have a job, you have to carve out time — one to two hours a day with maybe Sunday off is enough to finish a book if you’re consistent. You have to make your family understand this.
- Show up.Yeah, sounds pretty basic, but this one is the hardest for me. I am not a daily writer. There, I said it. I am trying very very hard to change this. Woody Allen says that 80 percent of success is showing up. He’s right. If you hit 80 percent, you’re doing good. And you have to show up on the bad days, even if you don’t feel like writing, especially when you don’t feel like writing. Another one of Fastcompany.com’s contributors is P.K. Subban, who plays for the Nashville Predator’s hockey team. “Sometimes you get out there and your body is feeling great, and you don’t have to push it,” he says. “Sometimes you get out there and your legs feel like they’re 80 pounds apiece, and you gotta do a little extra.”
- Quit trying to be so damn perfect. This is my other downfall, the quest for the pretty page. Maybe Hemingway really did sit down every day and sweat out one true sentence. The rest of us don’t have that luxury. Just turn on the faucet and let it flow. You can weed out the roughage later. Jodi Piccoult sticks a pin in the need for perfection: “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
PJ Parrish—December 4, 2018
A word count quota produces pages. A page a day is a book a year. (A page is approximately 250 words. A Ficus tree can write 250 words a day. Don’t be shown up by a Ficus tree.)
Over the years I’ve been asked about my quota and system for keeping track, so here it is.
My quota, as it has been for most of my career, is 6,000 words a week—312,000 words a year. I try to write six days a week and take Sundays off to rest the noggin. Having a weekly quota helps because if I miss a day for some reason, I can make up the words on another day.
This works for me, though it’s nothing compared to what some of the great old pulp writers used to do. A few of them pounded out one million words or more per year, and on manual typewriters, too!
Sheesh. They must have driven their neighbors crazy.
Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, was one of the million-plus boys. Sometimes his fingers would bleed. He’d tape them up and keep typing.
Then he discovered the Ditcaphone. At the peak of his productive years Gardner was dictating his books and had a team of secretaries transcribing them. These days there are several options for speaking your words. Google Docs has a pretty fair dictation mode. So does Mac OS. I’ve done some dictating via my phone (into Google Docs) and on the computer, but it never feels quite right to me. With the editing that’s involved after I dictate, I wonder if the actual word count + time equation isn’t just about the same.
Anyway … I wrote 313,508 words in 2018.
I keep track of my words in two ways. When I compose in Scrivener, which I do most of the time, it has a handy-dandy word count tracker for both the overall project and the current session. If I’m writing in Word, I first jot down the word count of the document. I type, and when I finish I simply subtract the old word count from the new.
I tally these words on a spreadsheet, and have been doing so for twenty years. On my spreadsheet I have four categories: novels, non-fiction, short fiction, and writing. That last category is specific to my craft teaching. So I can look at my sheet and see how many words I’ve written in each category per day. I have a daily tally, and a weekly tally. I have a cell next to the weekly tally that keeps track of my cumulative output.
Next to that latter cell I put in a number. The number is a sequential sum of 6000. So at the seven-day mark, I put 6000. At the fourteen-day mark, 12,000. And so on, right up to 312,000. That way I can see if I’m falling too far behind.
James Scott Bell—January 6, 2019
***
Now it’s your turn to share your tips on upping word count.
- Do you find outlining helps? If you are panster, what helps you increase you word count?
- What is your own “common sense” tip or tips for getting down more words?
- Do you set and track your word counts? Any advice?
Reader Friday: Your Song
Sir Elton John, Wikimedia Commons
Sir Elton John has retired from the road. I’m a fan of his Bernie Taupin era, saw him in concert twice. I was in high school when his first hit, “Your Song,” came out. Which prompts today’s question: If you had an intro song that played every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
Neglecting to Make My Deadline
By Elaine Viets
When the first day of June rolled around, I realized my next Angela Richman, death investigator mystery was due at my London publisher on August 1.
AUGUST 1! A day I was sure would never arrive when I signed that contract two years ago. But here it was, rushing toward me like a runaway freight train.
I had eight weeks to finish my novel. Eight weeks. And I was on Chapter 10 – a long way from the end. If I wanted to finish on time, I’d have to write 4,500 words a week.
I could do that. If I switched to extreme writing mode. In other words, “neglect everything else.”
Good-bye to my social life. No parties, no leisurely lunches, no long phone chats or Zoom visits. My friends know they’ll see me in August.
No conferences and drinks at the bar with other writers.
So long doom scrolling. The nation will have to take care of itself for the next eight weeks.
Adios, cute cat videos.
I can no longer afford these luxuries.
No binge-watching TV. No shopping, no matter how good the sales.
My husband Don has promised to run errands for me. Any other essentials can be ordered online. For the next two months, my emails will pile up. All doctor and hair appointments are cancelled. I have to finish this book on time.
The decks were cleared, and I’ve been pounding the keys. I’ve just finished Chapter 25 and need to get a good start on Chapter 26. Another five hundred words today and I’ll be up to speed.
Ben Franklin’s warning is glaring at me. “You may delay, but time will not.”
I’m lucky. Unlike many writers, I have a helpful husband, and the luxury of an office in my home. I don’t have children or relatives to care for. I’m a full-time author and don’t have to go to a job.
So what do writers with serious responsibilities do?
Parents certainly can’t neglect their children or quit their day job. Some have to write at the kitchen table. They don’t have a room of their own.
These writers are a tough breed. One of the toughest is author Joan Johnston. A number of years ago, she was a mom with two young kids. She wanted to write romances – and succeed.
There was nothing romantic about how she achieved her success.
Joan told me she got up at four o’clock in the morning and wrote until she had to get the kids ready for school and go to her job.
Joan’s hard work at that ungodly hour paid off. Today, she is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than sixty historical and contemporary romance novels, and she’s won a slew of awards.
I’m not sure I could have done what she did.
So, writers, how do you carve out writing time for yourself when you’re down to the wire?
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The Dead of Night, my new Angela Richman, death investigator mystery, is available in book stores and online:
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Back in the Saddle Again
I have a problem with authority–a quirk of my personality that stretches back to my earliest memories of face-slaps and groundings. I can’t think of a single occasion when I was punished with out reason, or punished unreasonably, but I can remember dozens of times when I was given an order by my parents and I dug in my heels, knowing full well what I was getting myself into.
As I got older, my petulance moderated, but it has never gone away. I thrived in work environments where I was given goals to achieve, but foundered in jobs where I was told specifically how to achieve those goals. I don’t get along with micromanagers, and I push back with proportional force against anyone who tells me to do something that I think is wrong.
Enter the era of the pandemic. We don’t do politics here at TKZ, so I won’t delve into the specifics, but when people in power told me to do things that I thought were unreasonable, I became an angry man. I stayed an angry man for the better part of three years, and I’m not sure that I am yet 100% over it.
But I’m getting better. Events last weekend and in the coming week are bringing me much, much closer to normality. I’m teaching seminars again.
Last Saturday, at Shepherdstown Public Library, I taught a truncated version of my course called Adrenaline Rush: How to Write Suspense Fiction. The room was full of adult students, all of whom were free to breathe freely. It was a lively group, and the course went well. Next week, I will be on the faculty of the Midwest Writers Workshop at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where I will teach that same course, plus one other on research techniques. I will also have one-on-one meetings with about a dozen writers to critique the first five pages of their manuscripts.
There will be group dinners and cocktail receptions. You know, like the old days.
While MMW is not an event reserved for college students, if past is precedent, young adults will make up a large percentage of the attendees. This will be my first encounter with that age group since the lifting of the moratorium on fun, so it will be interesting to see how the years of isolation have affected them. If the quality of manuscripts to be evaluated is any indication, the alone time has been harmful. I’ve done this conference a number of times in the past, and this year’s crop is in general of a lesser standard.
It takes a while for a train as big as the whole world to get moving smoothly again, but at least it’s once again being allowed to try. It’s good to be back in the saddle again.