I have a very long To Do List. I look at it every day, and rejoice when I can cross something off, but I always end up adding more items than I cross off.

Today, I need to write my newsletter. I’ve been neglecting it for a long time, hoping that some magical being will come along and write it for me. I typically only send out a newsletter when I have a new book out, but every marketing person I talk to, or listen to, lists a newsletter as your best marketing tool.

I’ve signed up for other author’s newsletters and I’m ashamed to say, I’m not good about reading them. Sometimes I skim them, sometimes I ignore them, and sometimes I read part of them. This doesn’t bode well for me sending out my own newsletters, does it? If everyone who signs up is like me, I’m not going to get much out of it.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips writes a very entertaining newsletter. She’s a funny lady and her newsletters are funny. I do read hers even though I’m not a huge romance fan. My friend, and fellow mystery author, Mary Birk, puts out an interesting newsletter that is always entertaining. I read hers.

Unfortunately, I’m not funny like Susan or knowledgeable like Mary. What can I put in my newsletter that will make readers want to read it? I’m a writer. Why is writing a newsletter so difficult?

I decided to google how to write a newsletter, hoping I’d get insight or inspiration, or both. According to google I need to:

1. Pick a focused topic
2. Write a catchy subject line
3. Personalize the greeting,
4. Adopt a conversational tone
5. Keep it skimmable
6. Include a single call to action.

Okay, I’ve got this.

Only I don’t. I’m stuck at the first bullet point: pick a focused topic. If I could think of a focused topic I wouldn’t be googling how to write a newsletter!

I have a new book coming out. I didn’t want to write about it until it was out, but I could send a teaser out in my newsletter.

This is the 4^th book in my Hood River Valley Series. The books follow Detective Liz Ellisen through the ups and downs of life and solving crimes. In the fourth book, Liz and her partner, Detective Enrique Rodriguez, are called to the scene of a wrecked van full of girls who are being trafficked. One of the abductors is dead and the girls insist there was another man and a young girl who are now missing. Then a local judge and his wife go missing.

As Liz and Enrique work both cases, they begin to wonder if they are related. With their team stretched thin, and the sheriff nowhere to be found, they keep searching and asking questions. But the deeper they search, the more the lines blur. Is the sheriff involved? Or is something even darker going on in their small town?

Because someone is watching

Someone knows the truth.

And that someone has no intention of walking away.

Some writers write about their life, their travels, their pets, etc. I’m sure if I try hard enough, I can figure out something to write about. Little snippets of my life that someone might find interesting. I’m always interested in other people’s lives.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few weeks working at my son’s fruit stand because he is having trouble finding help. All of the college kids who worked there this summer have gone back to school. I love meeting people and talking to them. We’ve had people stop in from all over the world. It’s so interesting to ask where they’re from and talk about the fruit and the beautiful valley where I live.

Okay, I’m feeling better about the newsletter. Thanks for reading. If you want to see what I come up with, go to my website: www.lanamfox.com and sign up for my emails. Meanwhile, I’ll be busy writing the newsletter and working on the next book.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m not sure if I love to write, or if I love to have written. There are aspects to both that I love. I really love to brainstorm a story. (It’s like a new romance.) I’m very attracted to my idea and can’t wait to learn more about it. (Sort of like the first attraction to someone new.) Then I start to write and it’s so fun to see it start to come together. (Just like beginning to date and you can’t wait to spend time with the new person.) Then I’m in the middle of it and don’t think it will ever come together. (You’ve been dating for a while and wonder if this will last or if you should move on.) Then I get to the end, and I’m always surprised that it’s an actual story instead of the mess that has been living in my head for the last few months. (If you’re lucky the relationship is a good one and will last.)

It has been a long time since I’ve experienced a new love, but I do love a good romance and writing a book is sort of the same, don’t you think?

It takes me several months to write a book. I just finished my 6^th book, the 4^th in my Hood River Valley Series. This book was difficult. I had two stories and had to find a way to bring them together by the end of the book. I hope I did it justice. The title is Her Silent Tears and I’m hoping it will be out mid-October.

This book is about a woman detective who is trying to work under an acting sheriff who makes her life miserable. When a van full of young women who are being trafficked are in a wreck, and the man who abducted them is killed, his driver and one of the girls goes missing. Detective Liz Ellisen must find the driver and the young woman before she is sold into another country. And she has to figure out who in the small town of Hood River is buying and trafficking women. Several prominent people in the town could be part of the trafficking ring. While Liz tries to find out who is involved, a judge’s wife is murdered, an Oregon Senator is shot, her partner is shot, and someone is coming after her.

I spent the last two days by myself at the beach going through every chapter and writing down the POV character and a couple of sentences noting the most important things going on. It was a lot of work, but I’m proud of myself for doing it. It showed me that the story does work, it needs lots of editing, but there is something there to work with.

Tomorrow, while I wait for the laundry to get clean so I can head home, I hope to begin the arduous job of editing this book. I’m really looking forward to it. Editing is my favorite part of writing. (Is that like trying to work out the kinks in a relationship?) When I feel it is as good as I can get it, my first readers will get a copy.

While I wait for them to read the book, I should be writing the next one. Instead, I wring my hands and worry that they won’t like it. When they finish, I make the changes I need to, then go through it a zillion more times before it finally goes to my editors.

It’s a long, tough process. Some days I feel like my brain will explode. Other days I feel like there is nothing up there but sand. But as soon as it’s published, I’m doing it again. I can’t imagine not writing. Even if I never published anything, I’d still write. It’s such an integral part of me.

But I do finally leave the book and move on. Now I’m excited about a Christmas Mystery I’ve already started. It came to me almost fully realized. I just have to figure out how to write it down. I think it will be a fun book to write. I hope it will work out well and we will not have a bad break up. (ie. A book that I never finish.)

And after that is the next Hood River Valley Mystery/Thriller. I thought I knew what the premise was of the next book. But as it turns out, the muse had it’s own idea, and now I’m thinking about something totally different. Or will I try both story lines and have to find a way to tie them together like I did in Book 4? We’ll see what happens. The thing I do know is that my love story of writing will go on as long as I do. Maybe longer.

Have you heard the old saying, “I love him/her, flaws and all”? We all have flawed people in our lives that we love, right? Because we all have flaws. In order to write good stories, we need to make sure that our characters have flaws too.

Do my characters have flaws?

I had to stop and really think about that. When I made my character sketches, I don’t remember thinking about what their flaws were. Now I have to go back and do that because none of us want to read about perfect people.

In my Hood River Valley Mystery/Thriller series, Detective Liz Ellisen is the main character.  She is strong, courageous, smart, kind, friendly, did I mention smart? When I try and come up with flaws for her, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that she jumps into dangerous situations without thinking about the consequences. That makes her a good cop, but is it enough of a flaw to keep the reader reading? She’s also stubborn and won’t give up on an investigation until she solves the crime.

Spoiler alert here. If you don’t want to know, don’t read this paragraph! Liz has been through a lot. In the first book in the series, My Sister’s Keeper, her father and sister were both murdered, and she found out her husband was cheating on her with her best friend. Liz is strong. She mourned her family members, grieved for her marriage and friendship and moved on. There is a character in the series that Liz really, really doesn’t like. She often judges this character’s actions before she knows what’s going on. Liz is a great friend and she defends her friendships. She doesn’t, however, defend fools and there are a couple people in her life that fall into that category.

I recently read Mad Mabel. What a great bunch of characters. They were all flawed, even the 7-year-old girl. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great induction into flawed characters. But we can’t all write Mad Mabel. Someone has already written it, but we can learn from it and other stories with great characters.

I love writing about flawed characters. In my first book, The Truth Will Set You Free, a young woman is looking for her birth family. She traces her birth mother to a small town and a community that will do anything to protect their secrets and lies. This story has a dual timeline. It’s told through the daughter’s point of view, present day, and the mother’s point of view, thirty years earlier.

As much as I loved the main character, I loved writing about her mother even more. She was flawed, but she was a product of her upbringing and the way the town had treated her when she was a teenager.

In My Sister’s Keeper, I loved writing about cult leader, Jeremiah Swanson because he was bigger than life and extremely flawed.

And so it goes. Flawed characters are fun to write about and fun to read.

Did you watch the movie, The Blind Side? I loved Sandra Bullock’s character. She took in a young African American boy who didn’t have a home and gave him one. She did everything she could for that boy. And he came to love her, even calling her Mama. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it if for nothing else, watch it for the character development.

One of my favorite books on building characters is Fiction is Folks by Robert Newton Peck. This book has been around for a while, but it’s great for understanding how to write compelling characters.

We’ve all read books where the characters are so well drawn that we feel we know them. We’ve also all read books, at least I have, where I get to the end of the story and realize it has a great story line, but the characters are interchangeable. This is especially true for crime fiction. Sometimes the author concentrates so hard on the plot that they forget to build strong characters. And you’re left feeling flat because the story didn’t touch your emotions.

The only way to write great stories is to write great characters. It doesn’t matter what genre you write, breath life into your characters. Your readers will thank you for it. They will read your book and come back for more.

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

                                                                                                         Sylvia Plath

               If I had a thousand good reviews and one bad one, I’d concentrate on the bad.

               Recently, I’ve heard from three writing friends who’ve had negative comments on their work. One was from agents, another from a family member, and the other a critique partner. All three felt like the comments were unwarranted, but they were still upset.

Why do we dwell on bad comments? It seems that we all do. Is it that self-doubt cretin that sits on our shoulder telling us that we’re not good enough, not smart enough, not creative enough to be a writer? Are we so convinced that it’s right that we have our feelings confirmed when someone says something is wrong?

I’ve heard many times that a bad review is just one person’s perspective. I’ve even said it myself. And it’s true, but it still lingers in our mind for days, a month, a year until we get enough distance and move on. A great review never stays in our mind that long!

               One of my writing friends never looks at her reviews. I think that’s smart, but I’m too nosey. I have to know what people say. Most of my written reviews on Amazon have been good, but I’ve gotten some one or two stars. Those never come with a written review and usually come when a book is first out. The last time this happened my book had only been out for a day. I don’t think they had time to read it before they went in and gave it a one and two star. Other authors I’ve talked to have had the same experience. Are there trolls out there who just love to mess up an author’s reviews?

               My books are on Goodreads, but I’ve never really paid a lot of attention to the reviews. The other day I went on their website and looked and there were a couple reviews that were hard to read. Did they have merit? Maybe if I look closely at what was written but I’m still dealing with the condescending way the writers gave their opinions. 

               I know we need to try and take the good out of a bad review and move on. But, oh my goodness is that hard to do. It’s the same with being rejected. They both sting.

               When I decided to write this article, I went online and typed “famous authors whose books were rejected” into google. There was quite a list. What if they all quit before they received a yes? We’d be missing some great literary works. J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dr. Seuss, John Grisham, Madeline L’Engle, and Frank Herbert to name a few. Some famous writers gave up on traditional publishing and went on to self-publish and were discovered and have gone on to have great success. What if they’d given up instead?

               My dad loved Louis L’Amour’s books. He read them all many, many times. So many that we’d tease him and tell him there were other authors out there who were just as good. He agreed, there was also Zane Grey, and he read his books over and over too. I don’t know about Zane Grey, but Louis L’Amour was rejected 200 times and went on to sell 330 million copies. My dad was glad he persevered.

               I guess the takeaway of this post is don’t let one bad review or a hundred rejections determine whether your book or short story is good or not. It’s your story. You know in your heart whether it’s good or not. And I’m certain that if you love it, there will be readers out there who will also love it. Everyone has opinions and likes and dislikes about stories. Just like a painting. You may look at a painting and think it looks very amateurish, while I look at it and think it’s amazing.

               I’m sure that we all feel the sting of a rejection or a bad review but try to put it in perspective. Don’t let one bad comment define your work. Do the best you can and keep sending your work out into the world. It will find its way to someone who will love it.            

What makes a reader fall in love with a character? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I write my sixth book, hoping that this will be my breakout novel. You know, the one that people can’t quit talking about.

I thought about Louise Penny’s early books. I read the first one and wasn’t that impressed. Yes, the characters were quirky, but the story was simple and didn’t hold my interest. Later, someone suggested I listen to her books on audible and I fell in love with Inspector Gamache and the rest of the cast. The narrator’s voice brought the story to life for me. But other readers loved the early books and continued to read and beg for more, making Louise Penny a household name for those of us who love mysteries. Do we all need a duck who spits profanity, a quarrelsome old lady who is a renowned poet? What is it about these books that readers love so much? Is it that the characters are larger than life?

I also love JA Jance’s Sheriff Joanna Brady books. I love the interaction between Joanna and her husband, Butch, and their children. I love that she can be a tough cop at work and a warm wife and mother at home.

Lisa Regan writes the Detective Josie Quinn series. Josie is such a great character. Even though she’s had to overcome so much—being abducted as an infant and raised by a cruel, vindictive woman— she never gives up.

There are so many books with so many great characters. I’m sure we could go for days naming our favorites and why they are our favorites.

In my first book, a standalone titled, The Truth Will Set You Free, a young woman is looking for her birthmother and travels to the small town of Cascade Locks, Oregon, where her mother grew up. It’s a dual timeline, told from the young woman’s perspective, and thirty years earlier from her mother’s perspective. Even though, Natalie, the young woman searching for her birthmother is broken because she had been lied to by the woman who raised her, the real star of the book is her mother, Colleen. Colleen makes all the wrong decisions, but you fall in love with her because her heart is so big. Even though she’s made so many mistakes in her life, when she loves someone, her boyfriend, her mother, she loves with all her heart.

I recently binge-watched Roseli and Isles. I know, I’m way behind in my TV viewing. But I fell in love with the characters on the show. I enjoyed each episode, but mostly what I loved was the relationships between the characters, and I really loved the friendship between Roseli and Isles.

I’ve watched a lot of cop shows over the years. Blue Bloods was probably my all-time favorite. I loved the family and how they interacted. I’ve been thinking a lot about acting and how actors take a character and bring them to life. Maybe an acting class would be a good way to learn how to write outstanding characters.

What makes a great character? Maybe it’s just people doing people-y things. Being scared and courageous and mean and kind and smart and doing stupid stuff, all the things that really make someone human. Or maybe it’s making each character bigger than life. Creating something inside them that makes readers sit up and take notice.

Now I’m going back to work on my characters and see if I can make them even more real. What character traits can I give them to make them stand out? I’ve heard that mysteries are more about plot than characters, but I believe characters are what bring the plot to life.