If you’ve been keeping up with Cora Countryman’s doings, the newest Wanee Mystery is a bit of a departure for her and her buddies, and I’m stoked. It takes place on a luxury Mississippi riverboat, The Orleans Lady, over just a few days. How does Cora end up on board?

At the end of “Of Waterworks and Sin”, Sebastian Kanady presents Cora with three riverboat tickets to go in search of her thieving mother, rumored to operate the luxury riverboat, The Orleans Lady. One ticket is for Cora, one for Kanady (her protector?), and one for a chaperone, hand-picked by Kanady. For my readers, let me assure you, Dr. Shaw is not pleased.

I loved writing this book. My hometown in Illinois is just 35 miles east of the mighty river. I’ve crossed the bridge in Burlington, Iowa, when the Mississippi River in flood stage nipped at the edge of town, the port knee-deep in water, as on the Illinois bank, a quarter mile of floodwater drowned the fields. And, of course, I know the lyrics to the Maverick (TV show) theme: “Natchez to New Orleans, living on Jack and Queens”.

Like all the Wanee books, my hometown serves as a model for Wanee. It grew like mad post-Civil War; industry moved in, immigrants moved in, working men moved in, as new stores and bars opened. Like Cora’s “little town”, it grew like mad, a microcosm of many small towns in the prairie Midwest in the 1870s, that bloomed with promise, then didn’t.

For this book, I researched the period, the river, river towns, riverboats, the rich and the famous, and early Chicago gangsters. I built The Orleans Lady board by board in my mind. She’s a sternwheeler with electric arc lights and luxury staterooms that still transports goods downriver on a Main Deck cluttered with travelers who can’t afford a room. While she isn’t a massive showboat pushed by a tug from town to town, The Orleans Lady has a four-piece orchestra, dancing, a chanteuse, and gambling. Oh, my, yes, gambling.

Due to research and life, “The Orleans Lady” took me over a year to write. Long even for me with my “do the research, write the story beginning to end, do more research, fix the first draft, second, third, smooth, check the grammar” method. Then I send it out to my beta readers, attend to their comments, check my research against any changes, fix what my brain threw in that doesn’t work, and finalize the manuscript. None of this AI stuff for me.

Done, I load the manuscript into some story analysis software that tells me, pretty much nothing other than that I’ve written, according to it, another man-in-a-hole book. I really, really, apparently like to introduce my characters, their motivation, then throw stuff at them until they feel like there is no way out, dangling things here and there before giving them the means to grapple out hand over hand. Hmmm.

My beta readers assure me The Orleans Lady is a great, fun, and fulfilling read. So I urge you to embark with Cora, who seeks a life of mystery and adventure anywhere but Wanee, and finds all three on the Mississippi. Before The Orleans Lady docks again, Cora will outwit gamblers, expose a conspiracy, and survive a night that will change her and her “little town” forever.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved writing it. “The Orleans Lady” is available for pre-order April 1 with a publication date of April 15. The first three books are now available as a set: https://www.amazon.com/Wanee-Mysteries-D-Z-Church-ebook/dp/B0GJ7DCPF4.

For more about me and my books, go to https://dzchurch.com, where you can link to each book’s sales page and sign up for my newsletter.

Once upon a time, I was responsible for the hand-scoring of student writing on statewide exams. Which meant ensuring that each student’s writing sample was scored against a criteria set by the state. Here’s what I learned.

Lesson 1

“What is happiness, and how can it be achieved?” Sounds like the perfect writing prompt, doesn’t it? Imagine thousands of students waxing poetic. But what if one of those students is too smart for his own good?

I present to you his response in its entirety, having remembered it across the years: Happiness is a sunny day. Happiness is a shade tree. Happiness is a girl. Happiness can be achieved on a sunny day, under a shade tree with a girl.

The first reader gave it a 1, the lowest possible score, because she thought it was smart-alecky. The second reader gave it a 4, the highest score. The third reader, required when scores needed adjudication, broke into laughter. It was a 4. The student met the prompt’s requirements and did so cleverly. But was the response what was anticipated? No. I’ve always thought it was better, surprising and breezy.

Lesson: No matter the theme of a book, or how well it’s written, readers apply a scale based on their own expectations. That means, some like reader 1, expecting a cozy, for instance, will gasp if a book isn’t cozy enough, let’s say sex happens with the bedroom door open. And some, like reader 2, will be captivated if the same scene is done well and is delightful. Depending on their reaction, they’ll either read your next book or not. If I could train all readers (reviewers) on any scale where one is low, I would urge them to consider that very, very few published writers, due to the process itself, deserve a score of 1, which, in a holistic assessment, translates to disgustingly poorly written. Abysmal comes to mind.

Lesson 2

To accommodate a religious group, a state changed its writing prompt from “What would you do without TV for a year?” to “What would you do without friends for a year?” An available alternate prompt asked, “What was the most important invention of the last hundred years, and why?”

In response to the first prompt, “no TV or no friends,” many students wrote that if they had to spend a year without friends, they would go to the hayloft to watch TV. Sort of like the organ in the attic in “Friendly Persuasion,” though a different sect.

On the other hand, readers mocked responses to the second prompt when rural students chose electricity because the toilet wouldn’t flush without it. The choice made no sense to city readers, whose toilets flushed no matter.

Lesson: Readers do not share a common background. They may not know that those on well water need electricity to flush the toilet. Some may be aghast, rather than charmed, to discover the subterfuge of watching TV in the barn, when a religion forbids TV. Which means don’t assume what your readers know. Show, right?

Lesson 3

During training, readers often noted that many students struggled with their responses, knowing their writing would be scored by strangers.

Lesson: I suspect we have all stalled or stopped writing a book, not because it wasn’t working, but because of fear. Especially when we step outside our zone – writing a first standalone rather than the next book in a series, writing historical fiction rather than a detective or procedural, and … (fill in the blanks). If you believe in your story, finish it. Who knows? It might be a super 4 and blast you into a new market of adoring fans. You’ll never know if you don’t try, just as hundreds of thousands of students didn’t.

Lesson 4

Developing writing prompts? Good luck to authors who spend weeks crafting a prompt for an AI engine that will then write their book. They will soon discover the product requires weeks of editing (or rewriting) to ensure the book’s quality, preserve their voice and vision for their characters, and meet their readers’ expectations, etc., or so my experience with the vagaries of prompt writing tells me. No matter how well sculpted the prompt, there will always be surprises.

And, so, remember, happiness can be achieved on a sunny day, under a shade tree with a:

1. Girl
2. Boy
3. Dog
4. Cat
5. Other

Find me at https://dzchurch.com where you can discover my books and sign up for my newsletter.

• To not get wound around my own axles, via the love of research, enthusiasm for the plot, allowing the characters to do the writing, and fingers that won’t stop typing. In the end, all the above result in too much exposition (see #3) and side plots that appear out of nowhere, which need to be wrestled in or out depending on their value to the plot. As for those fingers that just keep typing, I need to keep them curbed, especially on dialogue. Too often, my dialogue requires pruning as though I were nibbling at centuries-old grapevines, hoping to produce an excellent vintage.

Or maybe I should get wound in my axles, maybe the ultimate quality of the story is a composite of all these attributes, and for me, guilty of all three, the editing process results in a more textured tale. Still, I would like to simplify my process. I am eternally jealous of all of you who can write multiple books per year across multiple series, while I untangle the string wound around my bike spokes.

• To add more of the natural world. I always feel like I have too many trees, bushes, clouds, etc., roaming around in my books. But maybe it is not the number but the proclivity I have to write chestnut tree when I should be describing the hand-like leaves through which the sun dapples the ground? What color is the ground? Is it dusty, gravelly, filled with worn footfalls? How does fire dance other than leap, explode, cavort, or crawl? I feel that I need to make the visual world more experiential, especially with those pesky chestnut trees that succumbed to disease after my books take place. But then there is #3 below.

• To watch for telling signs of telling. I worry that, since the Wanee books are told from Cora’s point of view, it is too easy to fall into telling. Should I add another point-of-view? Or is there another, more dynamic way to include action that happens off-stage, without having the observer relate it to the protagonist, and risk descending into telling? And what about setting the stage for a book when a few things need to be “told” to bring the reader up to date? What about that? It can be deucedly hard to avoid telling it. Though, in general, I think I do a pretty good job making it more observational than tell-y.

• To plot more, rewrite less. As if. My brain tumbles out the story in a riot of words, leaving me to fix it all later. Because of this, my current process requires me to edit, edit again, edit some more, then more, possibly even more, then smooth, smooth, smooth. Then recheck every word that looks inappropriate for the period (See #5), even though I know I checked them before. Not to mention, checking and rechecking the dates historical items came into use, like telephones, arc lights, batteries for telegraphing and clothing – OMG. I suspect that if I took laborious notes, indexed them to their locations in the book, and added comments for each, I could save myself considerable editing. Or I can just write with abandon and make myself crazy. Is it too late for me to change? Probably, but I do have more plot notes for my upcoming book than usual. Does that count?

• To figure out how best to use AI. From Grammarly to Autocrit, to well everywhere these days, AI is happy to judge and make suggestions about your plot, characters, and even evaluate your dialogue for appropriateness to the 1870s, as though you hadn’t done the research before using a word, phrase or cadence. Idioms can be weirdly tricky; Shakespeare’s can sound new and something like ‘it takes one to know one’ old, when the reverse is true. One AI critique noted that, on occasion, my characters’ phrasing is too modern. How does it know? Does it know every word and phrase used across the United States in the 1870s? I would say no since each word AI deemed anachronistic was used in the 1870s, but it missed a few that weren’t, which I caught on my gazillionth read. My favorite suggestion to date is an AI-generated list of overused words. So far, these oft-used words have been characters’ names and Mr. and Miss/Mrs. in a time when this was the proper form of address.

Can AI be helpful? Yes. It can, especially regarding grammar and finding pesky misspellings, though AI recently missed a homonym that had it not been caught by a human would have embarrassed me forever. Meaning, AI doesn’t replace edit, edit again, edit some more, then more, possibly even more, then smooth, smooth, smooth, but it does have a place.

Free resolution:

• To write a new standalone thriller, because I miss the thrills. I love writing thrillers with a little romance (Saving Calypso, Booth Island, Perfidia). I do. So why haven’t I written one in over four years? Now isn’t that just a fine and dandy question?

For more about D. Z. Church and her books, check out https://dzchurch.com.

I was reviewing all the emails I received touting how to advertise your Christmas romance, mystery, et cetera, while writing the Bodie Blue November newsletter about the dearth of Christmas Cards nowadays, when I tapped out the plot for a Christmas book in a flurry of inspiration. If you want to read the fragile ladder, you can find the newsletter at my website: https://dzchurch.com.

Now I can’t get the idea of it out of my head.

I have written plenty of books that tackle Christmas, well, okay, two. And tackle might be the wrong word. They are both thrillers in my Vietnam-era-based family saga of four books. The first book ends with Christmas mayhem as the Cooper family unravels. The second book starts with the heroine picking out a Christmas tree for her cousin’s family and ends with Nixon’s Christmas carpet bombing of Vietnam. The very bombings that produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Napalm Girl. So, not happy holiday Christmas stories, but good thrillers.

Along with the usual Christmas movies (White Christmas to Prancer), I have watched my share of Christmas rom-coms, even a few rom-com mysteries. I get the tropes. But I’m not that meet-cute kinda girl. Of course, my Christmas book wouldn’t have to have romance in it. But I’m leaning toward it being part of the Wanee series, where romance almost always sidles through the porch door into Countryman House.

Having read the police reports for the small town that inspired Wanee, I know there was a doozy of a murder one winter in the 1870s. I’d tell you who done it and why, but then, well, you’d know. Which is a problem for writers, I think. I know it is for me. You know how when you tell your plot to others, even your best friend or actual husband, they tip their head and purse their lips, deflating your rapture with your plot like an overblown balloon slipping from grandma’s lips. If the reveal is gone, then why bother?

Let’s presume I rely on the nasty little murder from the police report. I’d start the book in the hands of Cora’s slightly wafty domestic Ellie, bouncing with holiday spirit and see where it went. It makes me grin just thinking about it.

The problem is, I have another book I have been chomping at the bit to write since I started the Wanee series. And I want to write it first. Which means I need to sit down right now and start it so I have time to publish a Christmas book by next Christmas – I mean, like NOW!

Because I’m a messy writer, it takes months to clean up my drafts before they’re ready for anyone but me and the toilet paper dispenser. The fifth book in the Wanee series took this entire year; that’s a long time even for me. I wrote two Wanee books the year before. On the other hand, I’ve had a few distractions, like my mountain cabin being rebuilt for fire insurance, some health issues, and my cat passing away.

And the Wanee series was designed to have only three mysteries per year because I hate series where someone dies every other day. I already have three planned for 1877, one published, one readying for spring, and the book I promised myself I’d write. With a Christmas book added, I count four murders in 1877. Here’s a thought: Maybe early 1878 was a wild time for the Women’s Christian Temperance movement. I could check my research.

But I am truly eager to write the WTCU book. I’ve wanted to tackle the WTCU ever since I had to take the El in Chicago from Evanston, home of the WTCU, to the Howard Street Station to buy wine. I was a graduate student at Medill School of Journalism and needed inspiration for late-night assignments. Yes, that is my excuse.

And I am dying to delve into the writings of Anne Wittenmyer and Frances Willard. They were the very beginning of the beginning of the women’s rights movement. And they were something. Oh, my, yes, indeed!

You see my problem, right? A piffle of a Christmas book based on a rather foul murder, or women marching through the streets of Wanee in sashes and boaters while a body moulders undiscovered. Come on?

It’s a plight. Christmas or the WTCU? If you have an opinion, let me know. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday and much good food.

Find out about me and my books at https://dzchurch.com. Or just start reading about the Cooper family with “Dead Legend,” and Cora Countryman and friends with “Unbecoming a Lady.”

From the first Thanksgiving to this…there is magic in our past, and in families who share their stories across that long linen-covered table filled with the food of our nation. As Americans, we often mourn the loss of the nuclear family, but that loss is as old as this country. Those who came first left the safety of a more settled world for the new. And boom! (That’s my version of a nuclear explosion.) They didn’t all stay put; some moved, east to west century after century, connecting, shifting and moving on.

The magic that links us is in the details.

My husband’s family (both sides) came to America shortly after the Mayflower landed. You can call them early adopters, or people seeking religious freedom, either works. Though one group was from the Netherlands and the other from Great Britain, they both left the Netherlands for Massachusetts on the same boat. I have visions of them, one group in their wooden shoes and pointy white hats, the other in their black-and-white Puritan best, huddled in steerage, having a golly-really conversation about Puritanism. Neither group took to it. Those from England stayed in the Bay Colonies before heading south to Rhode Island, then to New Jersey, and finally to Pennsylvania.

The Nederlanders migrated to what became Johnson County, Indiana, where they farmed and became Presbyterians, producing many ministers. Then, almost three hundred years later, the offspring of these immigrants met in Syria, one as a missionary, the other teaching, and, well. Think of the time they could have saved if the two families had married into each other on the way to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

More magic

My father’s mother’s family were Cumberland gappers and verified DARers (yes, they’re in the book). The Alsace-Lorrainian farmers on the other side arrived in the 1830s. Reports handed down through the family drum, which has proven quite accurate, and, with a family bible as evidence, claim that one of those pesky people who keep marrying into families (you know the sort) also hung out in Johnson County, Indiana and married into my father’s line.

If the evidentiary bible is correct, that family sported a Low Countries surname, not dissimilar to that of my husband’s mother’s family.

So, did my husband’s relatives and mine coffee clatch back in Johnson County before each packed up and moved further west? My family to Illinois (is that really west?), my husband’s to Oregon, back when, though a state, it was pretty frontier-ish.

Ruminate on this: How do two people, one from Oregon and one from Pennsylvania, whose families shared passage on the same boat to the New World in the 1600s, end up in Syria about a day after Lawrence of Arabia left and marry each other? And how does their offspring end up marrying a woman in California whose family roosted in Johnson County, Indiana, in the 1800s, when one was born on the East Coast and the other in Illinois?

Gabble away over your turkey

You might discover connections to your past that lead to a future. I urge you to remember, as you write your next tale, nothing is too weird or coincidental when it comes to a family’s past (translation: the duck might be somebody’s uncle).

Happy Thanksgiving. Lots of Turkey. And hugs to all.

Update: For those of you who worried about my lost file. I found it!!!!!! And restored it!!!!! And the book, ‘The Orleans Lady’, is being beta-read right now!!!!

For more about me and my books, go to https://dzchurch.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter and find juicy facts about all my books, including The Wanee Mysteries and The Cooper Quartet. You might even find yourself clicking through to buy one or two, or, heck, all.