Month: September 2018

Book Club Discussion Questions

~ Amber Foxx ~ 5 Comments

 

I recently created a set of reading group discussion questions for the first book in my series, The Calling. An unconventional mystery with a coming of age element, set in rural Northeastern North Carolina, I’ve always thought it had “book club” qualities.

As I wrote the questions, I visualized the revision grid I used while I worked on the book, with the themes and plot elements mapped out, and it struck me that imagining a book club discussion could serve as a revision tool or even a plotting tool (for those who actually plot) for a work in progress.

I was in a book club for many years in Virginia. We read fiction of varied genres as well as a good selection of nonfiction, and we had some great discussions about style, structure, themes, and characters, often disagreeing and enjoying our varied points of view. These are the questions I came up with for The Calling and added to its page on my web site.

How did you respond to the book’s mixed genre? It’s been reviewed as mystery, women’s fiction, paranormal, coming of age, and literary fiction. Did you want it to fit a genre more neatly?

 Mystery can mean an enigma, a puzzle, a secret, or something impossible to explain, as well as a novel about solving a crime. Without a crime to solve, what were the mysteries?

 Were there any characters you had especially strong feelings about? What was it about them that affected you?

 Is there a villain in The Calling? If you think there is, who is it and why do you see this person in that role? If you think there isn’t, explain why not.

 Themes in the story include power, professional ethics, personal fulfillment, and privacy. The questions that follow explore those themes.

  • If you had the gift of the Sight, with the same limits and abilities that Mae has, how would you use it? Would you be tempted to use it in ways that might cause you some ethical misgivings?
  • The nature of Mae’s gift provokes concern about privacy in the course of the plot. Are there ever considerations that take priority over privacy?
  • How does each of these characters—Charlie, Randi, Malba, Deborah, and Mae—approach his or her professional ethics?
  • How did you see the issue of power play out in the story, in both personal and professional relationships?
  • The story takes place before the #MeToo movement. What might be different if it was set in 2018?
  • Mae’s desire for personal fulfillment is a driving force in the storyline. Did you identify with any of the obstacles and conflicts she faces?
  • Religion and spirituality—Christianity, Buddhism, indigenous shamanic religions, New Age beliefs, and more—are important to many of the characters and to the development of the plot. Where did you see religion misused, and where did you see it supporting a character spiritually?

 Now I need to write discussion questions for the other five books that follow. Even if book clubs don’t use them—though I hope they will—I can use them to analyze my protagonist’s character arc and the themes I’ve explored throughout the series. This will lay a foundation for a thoughtful revision of the work in progress, focused on the layers of depth and meaning behind the plot as well as the events that structure it.

*****

The Calling is free on all e-book retail sites through September 30th.

 

 

Oh, My, This Way and That

~ marilynm ~ 4 Comments

Because I have two books that will be appearing shortly, plus other publishing work—I’ve been going this way and that. It’s been important to try and prioritize, not always easy.

My next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery is due out this month, I’ve seen the cover and approved it. I’ve a blog tour coming up starting in October—so I’ve spent lots of time gathering hosts and thinking up topics to write about.

The first of the blogs are:

October 26   http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com/  Character Development

October 27  https://lornacollins-author.blogspot.com A Sane Person Would Have Given Up

October 28   https://www.susantuttlewriters.com  Why I Love Speaking Engagements

October 29   https:amymbennetbooks.blogspot.com Where Some of the Ideas Came From

October 30  https.www.jtzortman.wordpress.com/  Rocky Bluff the Setting for Tangled Webs

The short blurb for Tangled Webs is: Too many people are telling lies: The husband of the murder victim and his secretary, the victim’s boss and co-workers in the day care center, her stalker, and Detective Milligan’s daughter.

October is a month of public appearances too. October 1, I’ll be speaking with other authors in front of librarians. On the 13th, I’ll be at the Great Valley Bookfest in Manteca, and I’ll be on a panel at 3 about Getting Published. On the 14th, at 6 p.m. I’ll be over on the coast with other crime writers speaking to group of retirees.

That’s not all, there is a lot going on with my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series too. The next mystery will be coming out soon too—Spirit Wind. The publisher is redoing the first five books in the series, and they’ve been reedited too, so I’ve had to go over the galley proofs for them.

Here’s a sneak peak of the cover:

Spirit Wind cover

At the moment, I haven’t made any special plans for the debut of that book, though I certainly will when it comes closer to time.

And in the meantime, as if I didn’t have enough to do, I’ve been working on a plot for the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.

One thing about being so busy, I am never bored.

Marilyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Inspired You?

~ kshughart47 ~ 1 Comment

me at Marti's class.

Many of us can look back and remember that defining moment when a person, event or experience inspired us to do what we do best. For me, it was a high school English teacher and a college professor.

I wrote my first poem at the age of five, and for months my parents hung it on our refrigerator. That was great encouragement, but as much as they appreciated my creativity and were pleased when I brought home “A”s in English, they  looked at writing as something I could never turn into a career. You can’t earn a living that way was the message I got, but when my mother died last year at the age of 92, I found poems and short stories she had kept that I had given her for birthday presents along with books and articles I had written or edited.

When I was growing up, girls in my neighborhood were expected to go to college and major in something that, after we found ourselves husbands who would support us throughout our childbearing years, we could use as a fallback when our children were grown, or if our spouses died unexpectedly. That never made sense to me, and I chose to major in English. My parents were dismayed. I did it anyway, confident I would be able to support myself when the time came.

And yes, I’ve spent my entire adult years working in jobs that required me to write, and now I’m writing fiction. Recently I’ve been reflecting on the circumstances that inspired me. And what I realized is that, in some small measure, I do what I do today because of those two teachers who had faith in me.

The first was Mr. Oshry, my ninth grade English teacher. Relatively young, he was brilliant, creative, encouraging and fun. He demanded excellence and pushed his students, including me, to do our very best. Many years later our paths crossed, and I was able to tell him how much he had influenced me.

The second was Professor Taube. He criticized fairly, praised lavishly, and championed those of us who had a passion for the written word. He also was a hugely supportive. I was in my senior year, getting ready to graduate. I already had a job lined up when my advisor informed me that through a clerical error I was one credit short for graduation. I panicked.  He suggested I contact a professor who might be willing to work with me to get that credit. I contacted Dr. Taube, wrote a thesis on the themes in the collected works of D.H. Lawrence and passed with flying colors. And I graduated with my class!

So, think of what gives you pleasure, what you excel in, and try to remember what or who inspired you. Hopefully we can show our gratitude to those who cared by inspiring others.

The ‘M’ Word – Motivation

~ janispattersonmysteries ~ 4 Comments

by Janis Patterson

Last month on the Make Mine Mystery blog I wrote about the plethora of book ideas that always seem to overcome and sometimes swamp me. ( https://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/2018/08/an-embarrassment-of-riches.html )

This resonated with a lot of my writer friends who seem to have the same dilemma, but a comment from my good friend, mystery writer Nancy J. Cohen, author of the fabulous Bad Hair Day mysteries, especially touched me. In part, she said “I agree that ideas are out there… My problem currently is lack of motivation to pursue these ideas.”

I could not have said it better. I sold my first novel in 1979 and have been writing ever since. Not constantly, as life has interfered much too often, but I always seemed to be writing something, if nothing but jotting down ideas. That’s a loooong time to be tangled up with words, with creating worlds and populations out of nothing but imagination and caffeine.

Lately I too have been suffering that same lack of motivation. As I have talked about here and there recently, I have been ‘slothing’ since a couple of surgeries at the end of last year – and enjoying it thoroughly. (I even changed my Spirit Animal to the sloth.) Eight months, however, is long enough to recuperate from surgery! But I haven’t. Oh, I’ve healed just fine. And I’ve fulfilled all my contracts, but it lacked the joyousness that writing always held for me.

My friends and readers have wished me well, assured me that this was temporary, and that the joy of writing would return. And it has – sort of. Instead of being a business, writing has become a self-indulgence, a pixilated form of daydreaming, and nothing connected with professionalism. It’s also very handy for avoiding housework! (Did I mention that I totally lack the housekeeping gene?)

All of which results in a cache of six manuscripts, all originally intended for self-publishing, most of which have been edited, and all sitting on my hard drive gathering metaphoric dust. I cannot seem to get the slightest bit interested in getting them out. Of course, if my sales were better I might be more enthusiastic, but unless things pick up soon I’ll have to start paying people not to read my books, and that is not an incentive to putting more out there!

Maybe this is just another step in my ‘healing’ process… I hope so, but I must tell you, right now I really don’t care. And that’s terrible. I’m working on it, I really am… and I’ll get right on getting those dormant manuscripts out… soon. Yeah, I promise. Soon.

Bringing Fact & Fiction Together by Paty Jager

~ patyjag

2017 headshot newThe current Shandra Higheagle book I’m getting ready to publish has needed many different people to make it a realistic story, not only for plot and story line, but also setting and characters.

Book eleven revisits the Colville Reservation where Shandra’s paternal family live.  Because of the setting, I had to send the story off to my friend who lives on the reservation to make sure I gave a factual representation of the culture and the setting. Thankfully, she only found a couple of things I had to fix.

I also brought in the Seven Drums religion that is having a comeback with the Nez Perce. While I used information from a book written in 1997, the elder who was quoted in the book had spent time in sweat lodges with the elders who had been in the war of 1878. He told how the Indians were made to lose their heritage and become “white”. The clergymen back then and even the Indians who became Christians banned the Seven Drums religion because they didn’t believe you should pay homage to the animals and the world around you, only to the one God.

The elder had become a Christian and later in life, returned to his roots and became a shaman who presided over traditional funerals and ceremonies.

I enjoyed learning the bits and pieces I could find about the religion and adding elements I’d discovered and put my own spin on things. Thankfully, my friend okayed my spins. 😉

Logistics, modus operandi, and discerning the victim and why they should die were other factors that made this story a lot of fun to write. I love the discovery of things as I write as well as having laid a path that can take abrupt twists.

But my favorite part of writing any story is the interesting things I learn as I research and add to my story to not only make it believable but hopefully a learning experience.

Keep your eyes peeled for Dangerous Dance book 11 in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series.

Dangerous Dance 5x8Jealousy… Drugs… Murder…

At the reservation to make final arrangements for her upcoming wedding, potter Shandra Higheagle gets caught up in the murder of a young woman about to turn her life around.

Having no jurisdiction on the reservation, Detective Ryan Greer pulls in favors from friends in the FBI to make sure there is no delay in their wedding.

However, the death occurs in a sacred place and could place the nuptials on hold. And following the clues may not only stop the wedding…

But separate Shandra and Ryan for life.