Thursday, May 20, 2021
Do Some Damage: Beau loves Dove Season
Do Some Damage: Dana King on Leaving the Scene
The Reading Room: Summer Reading 2021: My Picks for June, July, and ... August
Blood-Red Pencil: 10 Self-Editing Tips by Maryann Miller
Mystery Fanfare: LIBRARY/LIBRARIAN MYSTERIES
Guest Post: Inspiration on Demand: Where do you go when there’s nowhere to go? by Eleanor Cawood Jones
Please welcome author Eleanor Cawood Jones
today to the blog as she discusses her participation in the new book, Murder
on the Beach: A Destination Murders Short Story Collection.
Inspiration
on Demand: Where do you go when there’s nowhere to go?
I admit it. When it comes to firm commitments, this
short story writer has gotten a bit spoiled by entering anthology calls for
submissions. Look! An open call for a neat looking subject! And, hey! The
deadline is coming, but it’s not technically my deadline. It’s only my
deadline if I want it to be. No one is sitting around waiting for me to enter
(except the voices in my head, which want to enter everything).
Inspiration doesn’t strike by deadline? No problem.
Don’t try out for that one; there’s another one coming up with a different cool
theme, and for that I’m grateful.
It's a distinct lack of pressure.
But when that magic moment comes and you’re actually
invited to contribute to a book, the editors smile at you and hand you a
deadline and it’s alarmingly real. Deadline? What’s that? An entire new set of
emotions arrives and sets up camp in your frontal lobe. You must perform! You
must come up with an idea, and not just any idea, but the best idea ever!
Everyone’s waiting for you to send in a story which will be a good fit with
your colleagues’ work, which you already know will be excellent because you’ve
read every one of them.
The deadline is six months off! Then Five. Four. Do I
hear three?
Two and a half?
Recently, I was invited to join a group of writers to
create Murder on the Beach, Book 1 in the Destination Murders series.
And even though I was wild about the cozy, humorous concept, my co-writers, and
even the book cover—plus, I’m a beach lover—when I sat down to write, something
terrible happened: nothing. Even though I’d recently visited Cabo San Lucas,
which is a place screaming for a mystery if there ever was one, no characters
showed up to talk in my head, no potential crime reared its ugly head, no
clever plot twist showed up, and panic was starting to set in.
I talked it over with co-author Barb Goffman and
narrowed down with her that the deadline pressure was what was getting to me
and that I wasn’t the only one, I took long walks, I made Alexa play ocean
noises, I interviewed friends for weird beach stories, I flipped through twenty
billion beach photos on my phone. I even asked customers at work, “Hey! What’s
a great way to kill someone in Mexico on the beach? (After a few weird looks, I
added the word “imaginary” between “great” and “way.”) I even tried the old
standby, just sit back down and write and see what happens. Or blow something
up.
Nothing.
Then something completely unrelated happened. I got
called to jury duty. It was for a truly horrific crime—a gang-related
kidnapping and murder—and, even though I ultimately didn’t get selected to sit
on the jury, I understood how traumatic it would be to do so and live through what
the victim and families had experienced. I wasn’t about to write about the
trial itself, but as I stood in line waiting for yet another round of panel
selection, I looked out the window and thought about how the jury members would
bond as they sat through the trial, and how possibly some of them would become
friends, share meals together, and ultimately even go to the beach together and
put some of the trauma behind them. Because, seriously, what could go wrong in
paradise?
They wouldn’t have much in common except the shared
jury experience. They would be all ages and ethnicities. They would be…a really
fun, caring, personable, did I mention fun, group of women to take to the
beach.
And finally, the characters started to arrive in my
head, and 12,000 words later, they’d been to the beach and taken the trip of
their lives. I had a ball hanging out with these women and writing their story.
It’s called Cabo San Loco.
Whew! I made deadline.
In hindsight, I realize that so often inspiration has
struck with small happenings that have nothing to do with the story theme. I
once overheard someone say, “It seemed like the most convenient place at the
time,” and ended up writing a whole story based inside a convenience store. When
struggling to fit a plot into a pets theme and walking through the little park
behind my condo, I saw a fallen tree with a hollowed end and suddenly
envisioned a pet rabbit escaping into the park and its owner following and
going right to the…well, you know. I wrote a four-story Christmas book once
based around the first stanza of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” which, as I
interpret it, is a song that has very little to do with murder. (Just thought
of two reasons why that’s wrong, so look for more feel-good Christmas stories.)
So, next time I need inspiration, I’m going to do
something completely unrelated. I’ll find it by taking a walk in a strange
neighborhood, listening to conversations at the grocery store, watching a
sitcom, or reading some random song
lyrics. I’ll add notes to my little notebook where I write down funny things
people say. But I’m keeping up with those ocean noises on Alexa. Turns out it’s
great writing background noise.
Surely lots of writers struggle with inspiration on
demand. I’d love to hear from some folks who’ve experienced this and how you
conquered it.
Murder on the Beach
comes out May 28 and is set for a pre-order price of 99 cents. My beachy
co-authors are Ritter Ames, Karen Cantwell, Lucy Carol, Barb Goffman, Shari
Randall, Shawn Reilly Simmons, and Cathy Wiley. (Turns out you can bond over a
shared writing experience, too.) The stories are all novelette length and set
at eight different beach locales.
Eleanor Cawood Jones ©2021
Eleanor Cawood Jones’ work appears in several mystery anthologies as well as two solo books, and she won a 2021 Derringer Award for "The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom" in Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder. She's an avid reader, people watcher, world traveler, and remodeling show addict who spends her spare time telling people how to pronounce Cawood (Kay'-wood) and making up long and elaborate story titles.
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Nature of Fragile Things, Little, Thir...
MAKE MINE MYSTERY: Coincidence - Friend or Foe? by Janis Patterson
News About The Private Eye Writers Bulletin Board
I saw Kevin Burton Smith post the below to
one of the lists I am on. With his permission, I am posting his call here as
well to help get the word out.
Speaking of getting the word out, I’m trying out something on the THRILLING DETECTIVE WEB SITE that might be of interest to some of you.
I call it THE PRIVATE EYE WRITERS BULLETIN
BOARD, and I want it to be a regular posting of upcoming news
from P.I. writers; a sort-of one-stop shop for P.I. news.
Got a new book? A new short story? Landed a
movie deal? Let me know.
The rules are simple. Make it pithy, first person,
mention the name of the P.I. and the appearance, possibly the date.
I’ll post it on the page, and tweet it and
Facebook it out.
This may flop, or it may catch on. It may also
be too much work, so I’d ask that you DM me on Twitter, or email me. I know a lot of you post here as well,
but often I have no idea if it’s a private eye story or not.
Several of you are already listed, in fact, but why let Libby and O’Neil have all the glory?
Kevin Burton Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
https://thrillingdetective.com
Private Eyes & Other Tough Guys and Gals
Little Big Crimes Review: The Witches of Endor by Janice Law
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: The Old, Old Story Of How Five Men Went Fishing" by Stephen Leacock
Short Story Wednesday Review: Rabid: A Story by Paul Doiron
From the archive....
As Rabid: A Story by Paul Doiron
begins; retired Game Warden Charles Stevens is riding with Game Warden Mike
Bowditch as he has done most of this June day. It is now early evening and
finally the old game warden is going to explain why he put a large brown
package in the bed of the patrol truck that morning. Mike Bowditch never asked
him about the package as he knew that when his longtime friend would talk about
it when he was ready.
While this particular story takes place several
years ago when Mike Bowditch was stationed “Down East” the actual events that
Charlie tells and later is explained in further depth by Charlie’s wife, Ora,
happened decades ago. It is a situation that has long haunted both Charlie and
his wife and one that is very hard for them to talk about even today.
Author Paul Doiron has incredible story telling
skills as first showcased in The Poacher’s Son which begun the Mike Bowditch
Mysteries series. He is at his peak
performance in this intense and captivating short story. A tale that is
incredibly intense and weighty despite is length as it has the impact of a
novel. There is quite a lot packed into the sixty-two page read. Rabid: A
Story is one of those reads that can be savored by those of us who have
been onboard since the beginning as well as by readers who know nothing about
this great series. Paul Doiron is one of those talented authors who, for
whatever reason, do not get the national recognition he so richly deserves. Rabid:
A Story is a very good read and one that is worthy of your time and
your attention.
Rabid: A Story
Paul Doiron
Minotaur Books
June 2018
ASIN: B07CWRHJ3W
eBook (also
available in audio format)
62 Pages
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ii9v8Z
While awaiting the next novel by way of the Dallas
Library, I saw this come up on an ad and picked it up using funds in my Amazon
Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2018, 2021
Posts
