Guest Blogger ~ PJ McIlvaine

August 3, 2024July 30, 2024 ~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

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

Guest Blogger ~ Elizabeth Crowens

July 29, 2024July 14, 2024 ~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

A few years ago, I interviewed the most prolific writer I know, Heather Graham Pozzessere, for Black Gate magazine. https://www.blackgate.com/2018/10/10/the-poison-apple-talking-about-ghosts-an-interview-with-the-queen-of-many-genres-heather-graham/ Writing since 1982, she’s produced over 300 bestselling novels, often mixing romance with suspense and the paranormal, especially in her Krewe of Hunters series. Many people in the mystery/thriller community knew her, but apparently few in the speculative fiction arena were familiar with her work, which was why I wanted to introduce the Black Gate community to her fantastic writing.

Since it’s one thing to knock off a quickie and let your editor polish it and another to have to make it almost perfect before turning it in, I asked her if editing got any easier as more books went down the pipeline. Obviously, she’s built a long-term relationship with her editors, but I also suspected after that many books one got much better at the craft, which also sped the process along.

Although Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles is technically my first bona fide mystery novel in print, altogether I have written ten novels which include unfinished works-in-progress, unpublished manuscripts, and published books in other genres. For each of them, I hired freelance editors. For my first novel I hired three, an expensive ordeal, but I was learning the craft of writing as I went along. In a certain way, it was like having a private writing tutor.

By now, I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes. The editing process is a lot faster. For certain elements, I have it down to a science which I’ve nicknamed Search and Destroy. I should probably propose to teach this in a session at a writers’ convention, but this technique helps slash and burn word count and helps eliminate redundancies. The great thing about it is that anyone can do it using Microsoft Word and the Find and Replace function under the Edit dropdown menu.

In a nutshell when we are writing, all of us use certain words far too often. Try doing a word search for common conjunctions such as but and although, adverbs such as maybe (and not only the ones with ly endings) and prepositions such as up and down. See if you can make your sentences more concise. Many times you can also spice up your prose or dialogue with better synonyms. Once you go through your manuscript, it’s amazing how other errors will scream out at you. However, using my Search and Destroy technique still doesn’t eliminate the value of having a second or third set of eyes review your manuscript. – Elizabeth Crowens

Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles

Asta, the dog from the popular Thin Man series, has vanished, and production for his next film is pending. MGM Studios offers a huge reward, and that’s exactly what young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt need for their struggling business to survive. Celebrity dognapping now a growing trend, when the police and city pound ridicule Basil Rathbone and ask, “Sherlock Holmes has lost his dog?” Basil also hires the B. Norman Agency to find his missing Cocker Spaniel.

The three concoct a plan for Basil to assume his on-screen persona and round up possible suspects, including Myrna Loy and William Powell; Dashiell Hammett, creator of The Thin Man; Nigel Bruce, Basil’s on-screen Doctor Watson; Hollywood-newcomer, German philanthropist and film financier Countess Velma von Rache, and the top animal trainers in Tinseltown. Yet everyone will be in for a shock when the real reason behind the canine disappearances is even more sinister than imagined.

Buy links: Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/hounds-of-the-hollywood-baskervilles-a-babs-norman-hollywood-mystery-elizabeth-crowens/21021163

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hounds-Hollywood-Baskervilles-Norman-Mystery/dp/1685125425/ref=sr_1_1

ISBNS: 978-1-68512-542-4 (paperback) $16.95

978-1-68512-543-1 (ebook) $5.99

Elizabeth Crowens has worn many hats in the entertainment industry, contributed stories to Black Belt, Black Gate, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazines, Hell’s Heart, and the Bram Stoker-nominated A New York State of Fright, and has a popular Caption Contest on Facebook.

Awards include: Leo B. Burstein Scholarship from the MWA-NY Chapter, NYFA grant to publish New York: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst, Eric Hoffer Award, Glimmer Train Awards Honorable Mention, two Grand prize, and six First prize Chanticleer Awards. Crowens writes multi-genre alternate history and historical Hollywood mystery. Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, which won First Prize in both Chanticleer’s Mark Twain and Murder & Mayhem Awards and placed as a Finalist in Killer Nashville’s Claymore Awards for Best Humorous Mystery, was released in March 2024.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:

Facebook.com/thereel.elizabeth.crowens

X.com/ECrowens

Instagram.com/ElizabethCrowens

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-crowens-5227804/

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15173793.Elizabeth_Crowens

AUTHOR WEBSITE: www.elizbethcrowens.com

The Slogging Beginning

July 8, 2024July 6, 2024 ~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

I am doing something I haven’t done in some time. I am trying to write a 70k+ book in a month. I want this book off to my critique partners and beta readers by the first of August so I can have it polished and uploaded for release before I leave on a month long vacation the middle of September. Have I put a lot of pressure on myself? Yes! But it will be worth it to be between books while I’m enjoying my vacation.

Most writers know about the saggy middle. It’s where in the middle of the book, sometimes it feels like the pacing has slowed or the story doesn’t feel as fresh and vigorous as it started out. Many have had this happen in a book more than once. But with editing and rewriting it can be given a nice crisp revision.

I’m finding the beginning of this book, not the story, the story is moving along fine. It’s the having to stop and research something that takes time and then takes me off on, ‘What if I did this?’ that turns the story in a different direction. I have had that happen on this particular book four times since beginning the book. I’m a third of the way into the book and I’m finally getting into the rhythm of the story and not having to stop so much and look things up.

So my slogging beginning is the fact, 1) I was at an event and met a person that was so ingrained on my brain after our interaction that I had to put her into this book. Which then changed the direction I had started out on. 2) I decided to make a business I know nothing about as a primary setting to the story. 3) Due to the character I added, I needed to look up mental illnesses. 4) Trying to add information from a short story I put in an anthology required me to reread the short story and figure out how to make it all play into the main plot.

Slogging in this instance is not the writing or the story line, it is the fact I have to keep stopping to research information I hadn’t known would come up with I started the story. Slogging is the hours I’ve spent reading and researching when I wanted to be writing.

However, no matter what you write there is always a need for some research. When I wrote historical western romance I had to research history and how they dressed and lived. In mysteries it’s all about type of wounds, types of crimes, occupations, and yes mental illnesses. Not to mention locations and oh so many things that you would think I wouldn’t need to look up since these are contemporary mysteries. But because of the internet and everyone having access to information, you have to make sure you do even more research so no one can say you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I rarely have a saggy middle and this is the first time I’ve had a slogging beginning. But I can tell you, from here on out this book won’t be sloggy or saggy! I love when I hit the middle of the book and it is like wild downhill ride as I pull all the clues and red herrings together and carry the main character to the revelation of the killer.

Endings are always like a runaway truck!

If you are looking for a good deal on an audiobook bundle, the first three books of my Shandra Higheagle mystery series is available for $0.99 at many audiobook vendors until the 10th as part of the Indie Audiobook Deals. https://indieaudiobookdeals.com/

Guest Blogger -Jennifer Giacalone

July 6, 2024 ~ patyjag ~ 1 Comment

Working Backwards

When people find out that I write the occasional mystery novel, the most common question I get is “so do you write the ending first and then work backwards?”

So, for anyone who might be wondering if I did that with “Art of the Chase,” the answer is no. However, I didn’t quite write it from beginning to end either. You could say I did it sideways, from the middle out.

Where Is the Middle Anyway?

For me, a mystery turns less on the beginning or the ending and more on the little bit of information that’s so interesting and surprising that it allows you to see certain things about what comes before it and after it.

For example: I was watching a documentary on the works of Vermeer. They talked a bit about how it was unusual for the time period that he used so much blue in his paintings, because it made them very expensive. Blue paint could only be produced with lapis lazuli stone, which had to be hand-ground and then processed in a very unpleasant, potentially dangerous procedure. You didn’t find many painters of that period using it as wantonly as he did.

The advent of French ultramarine produced chemically, in the 1880s, made it much easier and cheaper to work in blue. And it was this seemingly random fact that ended up being what the story turned on.

Because I started to think: what if you had a detective who specialized in art thefts? Would they know about the rarity of blue in Renaissance and Baroque painting? How would that knowledge come into play if a particular piece was stolen? I was starting in the middle. The middle of a story, the middle of a question, the middle of a period of history in which blue paint was a precious commodity.

Research Is The Fun Part

The process of writing is, for me at least, an opportunity to learn. I learn about myself, always; my biases, my areas of weakness as a writer, my own fascinations. But I also just learn about… well, stuff.

Almost everything I choose to write about requires some amount of research. And it’s always about something of interest to me. There’s nothing I love more than learning a lot about a topic of interest, in this case, art. And in particular, the life and work of Artemisia Gentileschi, the various methods of producing paint colors used by the old masters, and the architectural landscape of Florence. What a delight!

I fell down a rabbit hole, and popped up somewhere late in the third act with bits of fascinating information in my little paws like some sort of literary groundhog. The threads that connect my little prizes are ultimately what hold the story together. Why does this painter matter to this detective? What sort of thief would want to steal a piece of hers? And what does the history of blue paint have to do with any of it?

There is a Connection Here, I Swear

I spread my treasures out and draw lines from one to the next. I figure out why these things matter to each other, and so the story reveals itself. My plotting efforts tend to look less like a traditional bulleted outline, and more like a murder board with photos tacked up alongside post-it notes, connected by a brightly colored thread that runs from the middle out.

And I’m the lunatic cop who can stand back and see how it might all connect; who do I need my thief to be, my heroine, my informant? How do I build them to make these treasures shine and tickle my readers as much as they tickled me?

Ah, there it is. I see it. There’s my story. There’s my heroine. This is how she gets from here, to here, to there. There’s my thief. That’s what he wants, and why. It’s not a matter of working backwards or forwards. It’s a matter of allowing the story to emerge from the bits and pieces that delight me the most, and letting them surprise the reader as much as they surprised me.

When a notorious art thief surfaces, warring detective exes reunite for the hunt.

Six years ago, the “Fabulous Gustave” slipped the grasp of Agent Fleur van Beekhof, making off with a priceless artwork…and Fleur’s beautifully ordered life. Suddenly the cool, pragmatic Europol detective lost her detective partner and wife, her rising career, and her control, thanks to the addictive lure of cards.

When a new Italian art theft bears all the markings of Gustave’s flamboyant, taunting style, Fleur is put back in the field, because no one knows him better. She jumps at the chance to correct the mistake that ruined her life. The hitch? She has to work with her fiery ex-wife.

Where Fleur is a detective who loves art, Renata is an art expert who loves being a detective. Where Fleur is by the book, Renata is reckless and leaps into danger. But they’ll need both of their skills to catch the slipperiest thief Europe has ever seen … even if it shatters what’s left of Fleur’s heart.

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/3963248351

Jen Giacalone is a neurodivergent queer nerd who has lived many lives and brings with her a wealth of experience to tell high-octane drama, thriller, and mystery stories across books, film, and TV.

After spending her twenties as a rock and roll frontwoman, and her thirties as a graphic designer in boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, she’s currently in what she likes to call her “final form” as a writer.

You can usually find her disappearing down rabbit holes of fascinating research on random subjects that will turn up in one of her books. And, of course, she sprinkles a little glitter on everything she touches.

https://www.instagram.com/jengiacalone/

Guest Blogger ~ Alice Fitzpatrick

June 29, 2024May 7, 2024 ~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

THE MYSTERY IN MY LIFE

I grew up reading my mother’s Agatha Christie novels, losing myself in idyllic English villages where everyone knows each other, sprawling manor houses with hidden passageways, and luxurious seaside hotels that reminded me of the England I’d left behind when we’d immigrated to Canada. With each book, I took on the challenge of matching wits with Miss Christie, ever hopeful that this time I would identify the murderer. However, the real mystery in my life was my own family.

My Polish relatives lived behind the Iron Curtain which might explain my father’s secretive nature. He spoke little about his past, but when he did, he told a different tale to each of us. Once he confessed to me that as White Russians, we’d been forced to flee to Poland during the revolution where we’d adopted a Polish variation of our name. But even so, he assured me, everyone would recognize our royal connection.

For several years, I revelled in the fantasy that I was descended from the House of Romanov. Once I saw the film Anastasia, it became obvious who my grandmother truly was. The grainy black and white photograph of the squat Slavic woman my father claimed was his mother was obviously part of the deception my aristocratic relations had been forced to perpetrate in order to remain safe. Sadly years later, DNA analysis proved this to be false.

Like my protagonist’s Aunt Emma in Secrets in the Water, people in my British family had a habit of disappearing from my life—my Uncle Terry, my cousin Terry, and my great-aunt Marie. I was a third of the way through the first draft of the book when I realized I’d unconsciously patterned the death of Emma on that of my uncle. Only one month after the birth of his son, Terry fell asleep at the wheel, rolled his car down an embankment, and bled to death. As you’d expect, his death devastated the family.

But even a seemingly straightforward car accident was problematic. The family had always suspected Terry was a hemophiliac since he suffered uncontrollable nose bleeds whenever he became excited. While it’s highly improbable he had this disease, the story was kept alive. The family couldn’t accept that their only son, with his whole life ahead of him, could die such a senseless death. As no one wanted to hold Terry responsible, the hemophilia myth allowed us to blame the disease for killing him, rather than his own carelessness.

In my book, with no evidence to the contrary and a suicide note, the coroner ruled that the responsibility for Emma’s death was hers alone, a judgement her family and friends have struggled to accept for fifty years. Like Terry, Emma was about to start an exciting new phase of her life, having just been accepted into Cambridge University. Part of what my protagonist Kate is up against as she searches for the truth of her aunt’s death is that over the years, the islanders have idealized Emma, choosing to ignore her weaknesses and failings. But if Kate is to get to the truth, she must be open to every aspect of her aunt’s character, no matter how unpleasant. When asked if she would like to know something about Emma, even if it wasn’t nice, she replies, “It’s not the nice things that get you killed, is it?”

So why do I write mysteries? It’s because mystery has dominated my life. Other authors write crime fiction because it allows them to set the world straight, to bring justice to victims, order to chaos. But for me it’s the need to understand what happened and why. It’s like finding the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Only then is the picture complete.

Emma Galway’s suicide has haunted the Meredith Island for fifty years.

Back on the island to lay her grandmother to rest, Kate can’t avoid reflecting on the death of her aunt. Learning that her late mother had believed Emma was murdered and had conducted her own investigation, she decides to track down her aunt’s killer.

With the help of her neighbour, impetuous and hedonistic sculptor Siobhan Fitzgerald, Kate picks up where her mother had left off. When the two women become the subject of threatening notes and violent incidents, it’s clear that one of their fellow islanders is warning them off.

As they begin to look into Emma’s connection to the Sutherlands, a prominent Meredith Island family, another islander dies under suspicious circumstances, forcing Kate and Siobhan to confront the likelihood that Emma’s killer is still on the island.

Buy Links- https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Water-Alice-Fitzpatrick/dp/1988754607/

https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/secrets-in-the-water/9781988754604.html

Alice Fitzpatrick has contributed short stories to literary magazines and anthologies and has recently retired from teaching in order to devote herself to writing full-time. She is a fearless champion of singing, cats, all things Welsh, and the Oxford comma. Her summers spent with her Welsh family in Pembrokeshire inspired the creation of the Meredith Island Mysteries series. Secrets in the Water is the first book in the series. Alice lives in Toronto but dreams of a cottage on the Welsh coast.

www.alicefitzpatrick.com/

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https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10602521-alice-fitzpatrick