Stories that keep you up all night
There’s no blog today, a fact for which I am very sorry, however between several unexpected events it could not be avoided. I apologize and promise to do better. Sometimes these things just happen, not the least of which is this week’s release of 50 BLOGS ON WRITING AND THE WRITING LIFE BOOK TWO. I apologize. I hope all of you are staying cool and hydrated in this summer heat. Please take care of yourselves. See you next month…
I was recently in New Mexico, where I spent several days in Lincoln and nearby Fort Stanton, in the mountains in the southeastern part of the state.
I call it location research. I look at places, landscapes, and buildings, poking around in old buildings and imagining what they looked like 150 years ago. Did this valley have that many trees way back when? Was that building there during the time of my novel? If not, what was in that spot, and what did it look like? I need to figure out what a character might see when exiting a store or residence.
That’s why I also went to Santa Fe, where I spent productive hours in the Fray Angelico Chavez Library at the New Mexico State Historical Museum. My time in the document and photo archives at the history library gave me access to maps and old photos of the places for my work in progress, a historical novel taking place in New Mexico in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It involves the Lincoln County War and yes, Billy the Kid puts in an appearance, along with a number of other historical figures.
While in Lincoln, I stayed at the Wortley Hotel, now a bed and breakfast. The original hotel was built in 1872 and in operation during the troubles in Lincoln County. I spent a lot of time sitting on the front porch of the hotel, rocking, watching the passing parade of people visiting Lincoln. I mean, the whole town is a New Mexico state historical monument. I also watched the birds, watched the flowers, watched the light change. When I sat on the back porch of the hotel, I heard water rushing by in the nearby Rio Bonito, in addition to the clucking chickens from the proprietors’ coop down the hill.
I walked the historic grounds of Fort Stanton, a well-preserved frontier fort, though it has been amended, remodeled and tinkered with since it was founded in the 1850s. Since my protagonist is the daughter of an Army officer stationed at the fort, I wanted to see what the officers’ quarters looked like, keeping in mind that they were rebuilt in the 1890s, with a second story and kitchens added. However, during the era I’m writing about, the kitchens were in separate buildings out back. That’s important information to have when my protagonist is cooking dinner. Fortunately, when I toured the unit that’s open to the public, I found an architectural drawing showing how the old quarters looked.
Talk about history. This particular unit had been occupied in the 1880s by Lieutenant and Mrs. John J. Pershing. Recognize that name? They called him “Black Jack” Pershing, perhaps because he commanded African American troops known as Buffalo Soldiers. He’s the one who led an expedition to Mexico in 1916, going after Pancho Villa, and when the United States entered World War I, he was named commander of the American Expeditionary Forces.
While at Fort Stanton, I learned that the landscape around me looked very different way back when. Now the pinon and junipers dot the rolling hills around the fort, but back then it would have been grassland. The photos I got from the history library underscore that.
I also learned about the murder in the dining room at the Wortley Hotel, back in the bad old 1870s. What? I’d never heard that one. It seems the victim was a Buffalo Soldier stationed at the fort, which was home to several units of the Ninth Cavalry. The soldiers would often come to town and have a meal at the Wortley. At that time, the hotel dining room had a big table and people sat down where there was a vacant seat. In this case, a white patron took offense at a black soldier, pulled a gun and killed him.
After Fort Stanton was decommissioned in the 1890s, it became a hospital for people with tuberculosis. That era lasted for decades. Then, in World War II, the fort housed German prisoners of war. The information gained about this is outside the focus of research for my current WIP, but full of potential for historical mysteries. My little gray cells are already thinking about plots and characters, even as I sit at my computer.
And I’m recalling how good it felt to be sitting on that hotel porch in Lincoln, NM, rocking, watching the world, and the birds.
The Monster Mash by PJ McIlvaine
A few summers ago, I was at a writing crossroads in my writing life and personally. I was a Jill of all trades: screenwriting, articles, interviews, essays, and kid-lit picture books. My first attempt at writing an adult book had failed miserably. It was a Stephen King rip-off that a big mucky muck agent had derided as “mediocre.” After I cried buckets of tears, I realized he was right. Call me many things, but not that. I vowed never again.
I’d long nursed two very different ideas: the first idea was a middle-grade coming-of-age about two brothers on summer vacation in Montauk who decide to create a monster in a failed attempt to save their parent’s floundering marriage. The other idea was a gritty, bad-to-the-bone adult thriller about a man who can’t remember exactly what happened the hot summer night his mother and brother were brutally murdered.
It was Labor Day. With the grandkids back to school, I began writing. It soon took over my life. Hunched for hours on the kitchen table, the words poured out of me. I wasn’t just in the zone, this was a white-hot blazing inferno on auto-pilot. I based my characters on people I knew and loved: my troubled brother and our dysfunctional family plus my imagination. I tossed in lots of pop and political culture, too, things I loved and hated. It was a heady brew of fact and fiction, and I loved every minute of it even though I had no idea what I was doing. Would it even work? Who knew? Not me. I was so scared that I refused to give it a title. For a long time, it was known only as THE THING.
Well, I finished THE THING–more likely, it had finished with me–after two intoxicating months. My brain was mush. I had no idea if my book–now titled A GOOD MAN–was publishable. Hell, I hadn’t even thought of anyone reading it. I write family stuff. Nice, family stuff. This was brutal, full of coarse language and behavior, and truly evil people. I knew it would probably–no, undoubtedly–turn some people off. But I hadn’t written it for some people. I had written it for me; in hindsight, it was therapeutic and I got a lot of ghosts out of my head. I like to say that some books need to be written. Well, this book chose me. I didn’t choose it. But since it had, I ran with it and pushed my boundaries far beyond what I thought myself capable of.
The road to publication wasn’t easy. Agents passed right and left. I heard every reason in the book and then some. They liked the voice, they hated the voice. They loved the characters, they hated the characters. There was too much sex. The main character was too unlikeable. I killed too many people. And the language. One agent who strung me along for weeks finally told me in no uncertain terms that A GOOD MAN was in their opinion–the words I’d dreaded–unpublishable and unmarketable as written. My sole consolation was that she didn’t say it was mediocre. That was probably my lowest point. I quietly mourned and consoled myself that it just wasn’t meant to be. I told myself the next book. For authors, hope is an eternal spring.
And then–just like in a Hollywood movie–a reputable British publisher appeared and offered a publishing contract. She told me in no uncertain terms that she thought my book–my poor little red-headed stepchild whom I loved fiercely and would defend with every breath of my being–was “brilliant.” I wasn’t about to disagree and quickly signed the contract. The book, published in August 2024, became an Amazon best-seller. Who knew? Not me.
So what are my takeaways? Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust your gut despite the nagging voices of doubt in your head. Challenging myself to write with abandon and permitting myself to fail were wonderful gifts that keep on giving. Also, you can’t please everyone. The only thing a writer can control is the writing. The rest is up to the universe and even then, you still need a good deal of luck and magic.
Monsters are real. At least, the ones in my head are, but I put them to good purpose.
A GOOD MAN
Decades after a brutal childhood trauma, a famous novelist finds his life shattered once again, in this unsettling psychological mystery thriller.
After years of turmoil, Brooks Anderson is sober and has a stable life with his wife and two kids. He should be enjoying life, but the persistent nightmares and sleepwalking tell a different story.
As hard as he’s tried, Brooks can’t run away from the defining event of his life: the senseless murders of his mother and brother during a vacation in Montauk. An eight-year-old Brooks was the sole survivor of the carnage, which left him in a catatonic state. He buried his pain and eventually overcame his demons. Or so he believed.
Now an unscrupulous journalist is threatening to write about the deaths. Fearful that the truth will be twisted to suit sordid ends, Brooks decides to write his own book, despite the grave misgivings of his agent, wife, and father.
However, when the journalist is brutally killed, Brooks finds himself in the authorities’ crosshairs. To prove his innocence and exorcise the past, he digs deeper into his psyche and that fateful summer. His relentless pursuit of the truth soon leads Brooks down a slippery slope that challenges everything—and brings him face-to-face with the real monster of Montauk . . .”
“‘A Good Man’ provides the kind of insolent first-person narration that is reminiscent of John Self’s in Martin Amis’ ‘Money’ or Mickey Sabbath’s in Philip Roth’s ‘Sabbath Theater’. . . . Perfectly entertaining and well-crafted . . . McIlvaine writes with a ferocious wit and great breadth of knowledge. ‘A Good Man’ offers all the surprises and shocks that a mystery should.” —Newsday
Buy link: https://geni.us/AGoodMan
PJ McIlvaine is a prolific best-selling author, screenwriter, and journalist.
PJ is the author of the twisty adult contemporary crime psych thriller A GOOD MAN (Bloodhound Books, August 2023), THE CONUNDRUM OF CHARLEMAGNE CROSSE a YA alternate history adventure set in Victorian London(Orange Blossom Books, September 2023), VIOLET YORKE, GILDED GIRL: GHOSTS IN THE CLOSET a MG historical supernatural mystery (Darkstroke Books, 2022), and the picture books NO SUCH THINGS AS DRAGONS (Roan & Weatherford, 2024) illustrations by K.M. Brown, and LITTLE LENA AND THE BIG TABLE (Big Belly Book Co., 2019), illustrations by Leila Nabih.
PJ’s Showtime original movie MY HORRIBLE YEARwas nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, Crime Reads/Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere.
PJ lives in Eastern Long Island with her family along with Luna, an extremely spoiled French Bulldog/couch potato. Also, she’s distantly related to the French philosopher/feminist/writer Simone de Beauvoir (PJ not Luna).
Website: https://pjmacwriter.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pj.mcilvaine
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PJMcIlvaine
Instagram: @pjmcilvaine
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19256202.P_J_McIlvaine
Amazon Author Profile: https://amazon.com/author/pjmcilvaine
Disclosure: the below is just my opinion and my particular experiences. I am not a seasoned IT person nor the grand poohbah of publishing. What I am is a writer. Let’s be clear, the problem is no doubt me but nonetheless, I share it. I’ve heard many positive things about IngramSpark. You can’t be as big and successful as they are without doing a lot of things right. It’s just that I can’t seem to get any of those things right for me.
I jot down this sad tale because IngramSpark and I have had, from the start, a tenuous relationship. I will elucidate. A few years back and hoping to sell more books, I uploaded the whole shebang into IngramSpark (which cost a pretty penny because it wasn’t free to upload books then as it is now). Instead of selling more books, I learned a valuable and expensive lesson. Here comes the elucidation. Shortly after the upload, 40 of my books were ordered by an assistant buyer at a bookstore where I was going to be doing an event. Even though there were 4 writers at the event, and the crowd was only going to be around 45 people, the buyer still ordered 40 of my books. 8 of them sold, which sounded pretty good to me until . . .
I found out the remaining 32 would be returned to IngramSpark and I was going to be charged full retail for the books. This was because stupid me had NOT said ‘no’ to any returns. This gets worse. Not only would I be charged full price, but once the books were returned to IngramSpark they would be destroyed. I threw myself on the mercy of this bookstore, even though I was really annoyed with them for ordering so many of my books to begin with. This bookstore, who will remain nameless, said I could buy the books for 30% off the retail price (everybody has to make a profit, right?) But let’s do the math. 32 X $17.50 less 30% is what I wound up paying. This little jaunt to the bookstore cost me around $600.
On the bright side, at least I had the books. If I had let them be sent back to IngramSpark, I would not only have been out 30% more money, but I would have had no books because they would have been destroyed. It was the lesser of two evils. In a snit, I withdrew my books from IS. IngramSpark should rethink the practice of charging full retail price instead of their cost and making a profit on a writer who is a double loser. The books are being returned because they didn’t sell, and then the writer gets charged up the ying-yang for the honor.
But years passed, times change, and once again I decided I needed to try having my books available to libraries and bookstores across the country. And I was lulled into a sense of security that IS has become more my style because they no longer charged for the initial process of uploading book covers and contents. Yes, they do charge for any changes after 60 days but that sounded reasonable.
So, I began reentering my books into their system. But I said a resounding NO to any returned books no matter the IS ‘words of wisdom’ about libraries and bookstores being less likely to order them if they can’t be returned. That lesson I learned. You are always going to find that knothead who will order 40 of your books when there’s 3 other writers at an event and only a crowd of 45 because what’s it to them if the books are returned or not? After all, writers are rich, right?
But back to IngramSpark being my own personal pain in the patootie. From the beginning I found them difficult to work with and, of course, I admit you could lay it at my feet. Still and all, I find their system isn’t user-friendly or intuitive. You need to know or have access to the minutest details of publishing a book, from A to Z. And I always seem to forget one letter of the alphabet. If you don’t do what they want exactly, you are going to learn the hard way that they ain’t puttin’ up with nothin’.
For example, it took me 6 exasperating hours to figure out how to embed fonts from Word into PDF. I searched all over the Internet and did everything I could to find the answer. I gave myself until 5:00 PM to resolve this or I was never speaking to IS again. At 10 minutes to the self-imposed deadline, I found the answer. Somewhere, someone on the Internet advised to check under options in Word for this issue. Vague, but that was my only clue. There are about a dozen places you can find options in Word, but I finally found the right one. And IS finally took the file.
But they went on to say they did not like the book cover, something about the colors. I looked at the sample of my book cover they were not happy about and it looked just fine to me. In fact, it looked exactly the same. I said, well, phooey, take it the way it is, guys. So, I uploaded my 6-hour book. The next one took me 15 minutes to upload once I’d found out where this stupid option for embedding was.
I became giddy with success and decided to upload a third one. Big mistake. Naturally, something went wrong. IngramSpark told me the ISBN number is already in use. Well, no it isn’t. Or is it? I had to go back to Bowker, spend a certain amount of time on hold, finally spoke to someone who did some research and found out that it was, indeed, my ISBN number. After an hour of dealing with this, I sent a text to IS telling them of the problem on their end. Below is what I received from IngramSpark. Be still my heart.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for contacting us.
This email is to let you know that the title xxxxxxxxxx was set up through Amazon Digital Services first and it cannot be set up from the beginning using the same ISBN number on our platform.
A title transfer request would have to be placed with us, but it is not guaranteed that Amazon Digital Services will transfer the title.
Please submit your title transfer request by using the link below:
https://www.ingramspark.com/lp/title-transfer
What happens next?
– We will review your request.
– We will reach out to the current publisher to inform them of the request to transfer the title to your account.
– You will be notified via email when the title is transferred and available in your account.
Please allow about 30 days for confirmation and transferal.
Please allow us time to obtain approval from the current publisher and process orders before we complete the transfer of the title to your account.
Since the title will be moving from one publisher to another, please consider purchasing a new ISBN or one of our free ISBNs. All past sales and returns information will follow the current ISBN, which means if the book is returnable, you could end up with returned books. Please see the following article for more information ISBN & SKU INFORMATION. You may need to be logged into your IngramSpark account to view this article.
Let us know if you have any questions, and we’ll be happy to help.
Thank you for choosing IngramSpark!
Well, their last sentence was like pouring salt on the wound. If I had a choice, I would stay as far away from them as I could. IngramSpark is my Goliath, and I am David minus a slingshot. But when it comes down to it, I’m a fighter not a victim, so I persevered. The emails have been flying back and forth between IngramSpark and me for weeks now. I sent them the URL number of the website and an image of it on Bookwire several times. Didn’t work.
I checked with Amazon, and they agreed with me but say they can’t do anything about IngramSpark’s protocol (who I could never reach by phone). Furthermore, the Amazon representative told me that even though the book is expanded, it should have nothing to do with the ISBN number. Amazon says everything’s fine the way it is. IngramSpark says it’s not. IS maintains I need to request Amazon transfer the ISBN number over to IngramSpark even though Amazon says it’s not necessary. IS is determined. I am depressed.
After a large martini and a strong backrub courtesy of my husband, I began the process of transferal, knowing it will take a month to learn the outcome. A month of waiting, martinis, and backrubs. Hmmm, not all bad. But somewhere in the recesses of my mind lurks the question of whether or not I will wind up having to buy another ISBN number to satisfy the gods. And this only is the 3rd book. There are 15 more to go. That’s a lot of martinis. And I may need to hire my own personal masseurs.
Yes, yes, I could pay somebody else to do all this but reality check. It would probably wind up costing me thousands of dollars because I’m dealing with 18 books. And there is often this type of glitch that eats into the clock and you never know when it’s going to turn up. The gods can be so finicky. So, nobody’s doing this process but me. Arrrrg!
I want to go on record as stating I hate this part of publishing. And it would be lovely if IngramSpark were a little more accessible and worked a bit on their people skills, even though I’m sure they have very good business reasoning for being the way they are. But I would be over the moon if they stopped all this futzing around with my ISBN number.
Ladies of Mystery 
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