WPN: The Publishing Game July 2024 by Jay Hartman

 WPN: The Publishing Game July 2024 by Jay Hartman

Mystery & Suspense: The Crime Fiction Novella: Six Experts Discuss The Form's Creativity, Craft, And Market

Mystery & Suspense: The Crime Fiction Novella: Six Experts Discuss The Form's Creativity, Craft, And Market

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Cat Lover’s Craft Book: Cute and Easy Accessor...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Cat Lover’s Craft Book: Cute and Easy Accessor...: Reviewed by Kristin Are you crafty?   Are you catty?   Are you cattily crafty?   Do you just love cats so much that you want t...

Guest Post: Romantic Suspense Author Kris Bock In Defense of “Too Stupid to Live”

What is a pet peeve to some readers regarding characters that do really stupid things can be seen from another perspective as Kris Bock points out today. Make sure you check out her earlier guest posts here on the blog after you read her thoughts below….

  

Romantic Suspense Author Kris Bock In Defense of “Too Stupid to Live”

Readers complain about characters – almost always female – who are TSTL: “too stupid to live.” Writers dread the accusation but also want to tell an exciting story, and excitement doesn’t come from a character who stays inside with the doors locked and calls the police at the slightest hint of danger. But how do you define stupidity in character behavior? When is a bit of carelessness, inattention, or reckless courage all right, and when is it going to cause people to roll their eyes or throw the book across the room?

I think this is actually a much more complex question than many people realize. A lot depends on personal history, personality, and even region. In my small New Mexico town, I don’t hesitate to go walking or jogging alone after dark. I have never once been harassed in this community. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I’d worry more about drunk drivers and aggressive dogs on the loose than muggers or rapists. Yet I have lived in other communities where it would be considered “stupid” for a woman to go out alone after dark. (I’m not claiming I’ve never done it though.)

The issue has real-life relevance as well, in victim blaming – the tendency to assume that a crime victim has some responsibility for being foolish enough to get into a situation that led to the crime. That is usually untrue and always unfair, but it can make others feel safer because they wouldn’t be that foolish.

Heroic Stupidity

I also think it’s unfair that behavior standards are so different for men and women. A man who hears a noise outside his house and goes out alone to investigate would often be called brave for protecting his family. A woman who does the same thing is called stupid.

Granted a man might be stronger or a better fighter than a woman, but it’s not a given. For either one, the behavior could be rational or stupid depending on whether they have a legitimate reason to suppose that the noise is coming from a stray cat or from a killer. In real life, many of us would assume the former, and we’d be embarrassed to call the cops to chase away a stray cat. But in books readers know to suspect the worst, which means characters look stupider when they don’t expect horrible things. (Personally, I’m more likely to roll my eyes at a CIA agent who misses an obvious plot twist than an average person who doesn’t expect danger.)

In my romantic suspense Whispers in the Dark, my heroine recently suffered from an attack. She is not by nature fearful, but this has left her struggling to recognize when panic is legitimate and when it’s something to control. A couple of readers accused her of the dreaded TSTL behavior, though I’m not sure if they’re referring to the times when she controls her panic and keeps going, or when it overcomes her and she flees. In some cases, running away is more dangerous, if you’re in a blind panic.

Ironically, other readers have said that character rings true, because, in essence “she thinks just like I do.” She’s not a kick-ass action heroine. She’s an ordinary woman who finds herself in an unexpected adventure. She has a hard time believing she’s really in danger, or figuring out which direction it’s coming from.

How People Really Behave

In my romantic mystery What We Found, the heroine is walking in the woods with a man – someone she knew slightly in high school but doesn’t know well now – when they stumble upon a dead body. She assumes they’ll call the police, but he insists they don’t. He takes her phone away and threatens to get her boss (his father) to fire her if she reports this. His behavior throws her so much after the shock of finding a body that she doesn’t know what to do. She delays doing anything, and then a few hours later fakes finding the body for the first time on her own.

Many readers sympathized and even identified with this character. But one reader (a man, perhaps not coincidentally) left a review railing against her choices, because in his mind, if something like this happened, you call the police. You just do, no question. (Curiously, he blamed her, not the man who insisted she didn’t call.)

However, this book was actually inspired by a real experience where friends and I found the body of a murder victim. Of course we reported it, but someone high up in law enforcement mentioned that often people do not report crimes like this. That got me wondering why … all the reasons people might think it’s safer to ignore a crime than report it … and What We Found came out of that. So whether the character’s behavior was “stupid,” it was not unrealistic – it was more real than that one reader wanted to believe.

In real life, are we always smart? How many times have you regretted a choice? How many times do you see your friends making the same stupid choices over and over, even though you, as an outsider, are convinced they should do something different? Is it fair to have higher standards for fictional characters? Perhaps it is, if we expect books to be better than real life. Besides, experienced readers can see things coming in books in a way they can’t in real life, so authors have to work harder to surprise readers. But it seems that not everyone agrees on what behavior is TSTL.

Chances are most of us do “stupid” things frequently and get away with it. Fortunately, we don’t always get what we deserve!

Kris Bock ©2016

Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark features archaeology and intrigue among ancient Southwest ruins. What We Found is a mystery with strong romantic elements about a young woman who finds a murder victim in the woods. The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows the hunt for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. In The Dead Man’s Treasure, estranged relatives compete to reach a buried treasure by following a series of complex clues. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page. Sign up for Kris Bock newsletter for announcements of new books, sales, and more.

Guest Post: "Pet Peeves in Mysteries" by Denise Weeks (alias Shalanna Collins)

Things that annoy readers is a topic that comes up here from time to time. Back in late January Jeanne of the Bristol Public Library offered a guest post on the subject. Of course, there are comments in regards to reviews here and other places. Please welcome today author Denise Weeks (who also goes by Shalanna Collins) as she offers a few thoughts of her own on the subject….

Pet Peeves in Mysteries

Do you have pet peeves?  What are some of yours?  I wince when game show contestants can't add two one-digit numbers, I hate to see street signs that have misplaced apostrophes, and I go crazy when I see some of these tricks in mysteries.

First off, that ever-popular TSTL (too stupid to live) heroine.  PLEASE stop meeting strangers in dark alleys at midnight, alone, with no backup.  PLEASE don't go down into the basement at 2 AM during a power outage armed with nothing but a flashlight because you "heard something."  Especially when the neighbors have been knocked off one by one over the past week!  I like heroines who think like I do, and most readers are too clever to do these things.

OH WHOA IT'S A CLUE--BUT LOOK, SOMETHING SHINY!  Our Heroine finds a Real Live Clue, but we can't let her immediately grasp what it means and how important it is, because then the book would be over. So for a hundred pages or more, the reader is carefully distracted from whatever it was, even though someone else might mention it just to keep that "fair play" ball in the court. About three-quarters of the way in, someone says something innocent that reminds the sleuth about this clue.  AHA! Now we know what that meant!

But even worse is when the sleuth realizes the importance of that dull paper clip--and doesn't announce what it is. The sleuth jumps up from breakfast yelling, "I know! I know how Bogdorp offed Manimal!" And then proceeds to make phone calls that we don't overhear and go running around to set up police officers to be lurking in the background when the perp is confronted. The perp is cornered and either pulls a gun or does a full confession. Sigh.

If you are going to do this, TELL US what it is that she/he realizes. Don't be COY. I hate coy.

Ahem.

And you constantly see people (including the detective) getting conked over the head hard enough to knock them out (to unconsciousness, for up to several hours) and then leaping up to pursue the perp.  NO.  This requires a trip to the emergency room.  Heard of a concussion?  And if your heroine has a large goose egg and stitches, she can't shinny up the telephone pole right after she's wheeled out of the clinic.  Closed head injuries leave lasting effects.

And what about the ending of every "Murder, She Wrote" episode?  Presented with some flimsy guess or inconsequential bit of evidence, the hard-boiled perp hangs his head and proceeds to confess in detail.  A clever murderer who knows that physical evidence and wild conjectures may or may not convince a jury would never blab all.  And they shouldn't even say, "I was in Luxembourg at the AccordionFest when this happened. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it." Especially when the only evidence Mrs. Fletcher has is that he plugged the wrong electric guitar into the amp. Even ONE fingerprint can be explained away if someone often visited that victim's house (why couldn't I have stumbled two weeks ago over the victim's cat and caught myself on that framed needlework on the wall, and that's why my blurred print is on the glass, not because I touched it by accident while beating Aireheadina over the head with a tire iron that you still have not found?)  What SHOULD these perps say?  "I assert my right to remain silent.  I want to call my lawyer."  And then clam up!

I do love "Murder, She Wrote," because it's always entertaining and it features bit players and character actors you never see anywhere else.  But there's a formula they follow, and perhaps it's not the best.

Then there's the stunt that is endemic to category romance. "If You Don't Know, I'm Certainly Not Gonna Tell You." So many plots hinge on something that a character doesn't tell another character, even when it would be perfectly natural and usually obvious to say. If they'd just TALK to each other or ask for clarification, there'd be no plot, so we get to suffer as we flip pages and moan, "Why doesn't somebody just ASK why the sweatshirt was inside-out?" And don't talk to me about when a person sees someone with an attractive companion and jumps to the conclusion that s/he is cheating, and then it turns out to be a long-lost sister or cousin or mom, or a talent scout from MGM. JUST ASK, WHY DONCHA.

If your detective doesn't ask questions that a five-year-old would think of, readers assume you intend us to think the detective is stupid. We hate that. If he can't bring himself to ask, get a five-year-old. There is very little that a five-year-old will restrain herself from asking. "Mommy, is Tayllorr a lady or a man?"

And then there's the ubiquitous sleuth or cop who has "demons," whether it's alcoholism or a murdered loved one.  Zzzzzzz...*pop*  That is a real snooze.  The depressingly "heartbroken" dark hero or heroine is obsessed with recurring thoughts of the wife/husband or fiance or spouse-and-children who were violently or suddenly taken from them. This tragedy may have happened a while ago, but the sleuth has been scarred. Not scarred enough, I might note, to avoid immediately taking up with whoever is the detective assigned to the current case. Pages are filled with how wonderful the ex was and how stunning the new one is. This romance is typically begun in the first book in the series and thus has to be featured in the next book. Sometimes that hampers the plot.

I avoid this last situation in my books because I find it so ubiquitous in all the other series. In the NICE WORK series, Jacquidon broke up with college beau Colin almost a year ago. They'd been cohabiting when she discovered him cheating casually. With a man. He had been dismissive of her and was ruining her self-esteem anyway ("You're not really good enough for me," "I wish I could find someone better.") So she bought her own house, knowing her job was secure over at CSD where she had a very encouraging boss. Ha! Anyhow . . . we don't dwell at all on this, and there's exactly one reference to the past romance.

In the MARFA LIGHTS series, Ariadne had pretty much gotten over Aaron's desertion, although she kept thinking she'd surely hear from him soon, when she hears he has crossed the Veil and has left her all his worldly goods (probably because he took so much from her and used her credit cards to buy the stuff he used to travel and relocate with, promising he'd bring her to be with him once he was set up in "the wilderness.") We don't dwell on that romance. She has enough trouble discouraging Gil, the creepy preacher who was Aaron's best friend, and a few others out in Marfa.  And it's amusing.

I think these authors feel they have to compete with all the other dark, pathetic, twisted, bereaved/deserted protagonists who can NEVER be HAPPY.

There's something to be said for a cheerful protagonist. Jacquidon Carroll is basically happy and cheerful, despite her situation (being a suspect in the murder of her boss--whom she does mourn!! That's another of my pet peeves, when NO ONE cries or mourns or feels sad or even tries CPR when the victim is offed), and her sister Chantal is the "happy moral compass" of the stories. True, Jacquidon does get kind of messed up emotionally while she is targeted as a suspect, and the visits to the BDSM clubs really unnerve her (they're checking out leads, not just having adventures). But she's not always thinking about some awful thing in her past.  Ari French (my other sleuth) is introspective and low-key, and she *does* think about her

losses, which can get heavily philosophical.  But she never falls into the abyss and then leaps into a cop's arms.  In my techie ghost story romantic suspense, LOVE IS THE BRIDGE, everyone is generally upbeat.  I get enough downbeat super-serious sadness from real life.  I read for escape and adventure, not crying catharsis. Thus I do not read "torture porn," kidnap fantasies, or books in which any animal is harmed. Your mileage may, of course, differ.

Let's spare an eyeroll for those hot-and-heavy romances with the cop on the case.  So unlikely in real life.  I also think that the "keep out of the investigation" dicta coming from those cops would make more of an impression on me, were I the sleuth. And I disbelieve the leaking of info they always do when on the phone with the sleuth.  "Yeah, he had a Swiss bank account.  Me, too.  I have a dotted Swiss account!"

AND . . . your heroine must save herself. You cannot have someone else accidentally open the door and rescue her. She must summon help or do the butt-kicking herself.  Let's say she manages to send smoke signals to the cops, or flashes the miniblinds in an SOS pattern, or gets a cell phone to connect while the bad guys are discussing how to dispose of her body. She must do whatever it is that spurs the rescuers on. Or she has to kick the guy in the groin herself and run to the street or to the nearest police station. Make her be the HEROINE! Make her be the one who figures it all out, if you can.

So what? Who cares about my pet peeves? Do you have pet peeves? Let's hear 'em so I don't do 'em in the next book!



Denise Weeks (alias Shalanna Collins) ©2016

Denise Weeks is the author of the Jacquidon Carroll "Snoop Sisters" series as well as the Ariadne French traditional mysteries, along with several standalones like LOVE IS THE BRIDGE.  She writes YA fantasy as Shalanna Collins.  Like many homegrown Texas humorists, she isn't funny.  Her favorite foods are curried yak, chocolate, and French fries. She knows (but is not telling) a plethora of alchemical and occult secrets. Homeland Security has identified her as a person of interest.  (Okay, just kidding.  She doesn't really eat curried yak.)  She is currently at work on yet another novel.  Visit her at
http://shalanna.wix.com/aprilmaybejune
http://deniseweeks.blogspot.com
http://shalannacollins.blogspot.com

The South Jersey Writers' Group Blog: Loner in the Garret: A Writer's Companion

The South Jersey Writers' Group Blog: Loner in the Garret: A Writer's Companion: Guest blog post by Jennifer R. Hubbard  Last year, I gave a talk for the South Jersey Writers’ Group called, “It Was Sunny Just a Mi...

Event: Writers' Guild Of Texas Monthly Meeting---Monday, December 19, 2011

WRITERS' GUILD OF TEXAS MONTHLY MEETING

Monday, 19 December 2011

7-8:30 p.m.

Topic: WGT HOLIDAY NETWORKING EXTRAVAGANZA

Speaker: WGT All-Stars

Richardson Public Library

900 Civic Center Dr.

Richardson TX 75080

Basement Room

Next is the WGT HOLIDAY NETWORKING EXTRAVAGANZA, Mon. Dec. 19, 7 pm!!!

*Games! *Door-prizes! *Refreshments! 

Bring your business cards, any books you have published, promotional materials for your business, and a holiday treat to share. Bring all your writing/editing/publishing/marketing/creative friends!!!

Election of New Board Members

===========================================================================

The Writers' Guild of Texas PCS (Planned Critique Sessions) has been cancelled for the rest of 2011. Check the WGT website, http:/writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/, for January start-up information. Participants present their own work, receive feedback from fellow members.

Participants of the current group, please contact Earl Stubbs, earlstubbs34@gmail.com, 214.683.2489, for meeting information.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Please welcome John Vance as WGT’s new Membership Chair.

Annual 2012 WGT dues of $20.00 may be paid at meetings, by mail to Writers' Guild of Texas, 6009 W. Parker Road, Suite 149-175, Plano TX 75093, or online at http:/writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/.

All WGT events located at the Richardson Public Library are free and open to the public. For information on the sponsoring organization, visit http://writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/. 

Monday, 16 January 2012: Diane Kelly, Tax/Business Tips for Writers

Monday, 20 February 2012: Christine Perez, Writing for Magazines and Newspapers

Monday, 19 March 2012: Carmen Goldthwaite, Narrative Non-fiction

Monday, 16 April 2012: Mike Farris, Literary Agents

Monday, 21 May 16, 2012: Rachel Simeone, High Impact Book Marketing

All Writers' Guild of Texas events held at the Richardson Public Library are free and open to the public. Visit WGT's website: http://writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/

Writers' Events Calendar (contact carol.woods@verizon.net to have your conferences, meetings, or other writing-related event listed here—no individual book signings, please): 

Tuesday, 17 January 2012: The Muse Literary Mingle. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Geisha Steak and Sushi, 3801 George Bush/I90 @ Coit. Happy hour and conversation with Minette Riordan of North Texas Kids Magazine. Share an informative, casual conversation with our featured author and meet other writers and publishing professionals. Learn about DFW’s thriving literary community. Sponsored by Preface Entertainment and Writers' Guild of Texas.

First Saturday each month: Dallas MWASW (Mystery Writers of America, Southwest). Texas Land & Cattle, 812 South Central Expressway, Richardson, TX 75080, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. $5.00 door fee, cash only. All who attend are invited to remain for lunch. Contact info: rebecca@rebeccarussell.com. Permission to forward.

The Dallas Area Writers Group (DAWG) put together a summer reading list—including a reading list for writers. Check it out! The more readers in the world—the more opportunities for writers! www.alanelliott.com

Second Saturday each month: North Texas Speculative Fiction Workshop. Meets every 2nd Saturday at the Hurst Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 6pm.http://www.ntsfw.com

 

Frisco Writers Meet-Up Groups: Day group meets every 3rd Thursday and night group every 2nd Tuesday. See website for more details. http://www.meetup.com/writers-749/

Visit http://www.writersleague.org/programs/classes.html for up-to-date information on Writer's League of Texas workshops held in Austin TX. 

Visit http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ for guidelines to participate in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

The Writers' Guild of Texas is a nonprofit professional organization whose primary purpose is to provide a forum for information, support, and sharing among writers; to help members improve and market their writing skills; and to promote the interests of writers and the writing community.

If you don't wish to receive these announcements, please let me know.

Permission to forward this email is not only granted, but encouraged. Let's get the word out to as many in the writing community as possible.

Carol Woods, Communications

Writers' Guild of Texas

carol.woods@verizon.net