Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts

Friday, November 17, 2023

Writing - Choosing a Plot by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Plot #Mystery #Horror writer #Demise #romance

 

Back to my way of writing.  When I begin, I decide what kind of book I plan to write. This time, I wanted to start a new mystery series and several things were buzzing in my thoughts. I decided rather than a straight mystery, I wanted this series to have a developing romance along with the mystery. Then came the idea for the first one in this series. I needed a title before I began.

I'm funny this way, but I need to have a title before I can begin the book. I knew the dead man was a horror writer. A number of titles flashed in my thoughts. Finally I decided on the Horror Writer's Demise. Not sure why that stuck in my head. Then the planning for the book began. 

Setting became the Hudson Valley and one of the places there was a house that had been turned into a place where writers and other people involved with the arts couldrent a space where they could write. There once was such a place not far from where I live. Not sure if it still exists.

Te Characters came next - Not all of the but they will either increase of combined in versions of the story. The heroine is Valentina Heartley. With a name like that she thinks she should writea romance, especially since there have been no good ones in her life. She does research for professors, attorneys and authors. Her interest is Dane Grant, a local detective and widower. Theyboth have five year old sons. She has a mother who helps her and he has a sister.

What happens next will be my taking these two characters and writing a synopsis of the story. For good or not, I organize my stories completely. At present there are a few questions I need to answer before I can start writing.

That's how I work and the system has evolved over the years since 1968 when I soldmy first story.

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Friday, March 17, 2023

Happy Anniversary - Murder and Mint Tea by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #mystery #25 years #Robespierre

 

Though today is Saint Patrick's Day and i'm wishing all those who are Irish and who are Irish today, I have another these for the blog.  Twenty-five years ago Murder and Mint Tea was published. Katherine and Robespierre are still out there for people to read and this is happening.

I remember the day when I first saw the electronic version of Murder and mInt Tea. Wow, I thought. We made it. The search for an editor had taken a few years of sending the mss out and being rejected, mostly kindly but sometimes not. I had discovered electronic publishing and found a publisher. Then came the fun of promoting and also looking for reviews.

The first review was rewarding. I don't know the name of the magazine any longer but I do remember the first few words. Move over  Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher, Katherin Miller is in town. That really gave me chills since I enjoyed both of the above sleuths.

Murder and Mint Tea is either loved or hated by the readers. Though there are more favorable reviews than unfavorable, I enjoy reading both once. This book has earned me money every year for those twenty-five. I've not kept a running total but I've been pleased.

Katherine and Robespierre ahve gone on to enjoy other visits and there's one more she's toying with. Not sure when she'll give me the murderer so I can write the book. Here's a hint. The victim is the town's mayor. COVID has lessened but he decides the village won't have their Halloween Parade this year as well as the COVID years. Needless to say there are many people who don't like his decision.

So once again, happy anniversary to Murder and Mint Tea. Twenty-five years and still counting. One little bit of information, Katherine retired from the hospital at sixty-two. If she existed in reality, she would now be sixty-seven the age I'll be on my next birthday.

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Monday, August 8, 2022

Wounded Hearts by J. S. Marlo




Wounded Hearts
"Love & Sacrifice #2"
is now available  
click here 



 
 

  



I am delighted to present my newest novel: Wounded Hearts


Faced with the impossible choice of hurting the man she loves, or leaving him forever, Rowan Kendrick flees Iceland for Prince Edward Island, Canada. Heartbroken, and unable to forget him, she finds refuge at The Buccaneer, a bed & breakfast recently willed to her by an estranged aunt.


Haunted by a fatal shooting, Avery Stone seeks his escape in Buccaneer's attic room. Despite himself, he is drawn into the peculiar circumstances behind the previous owner's death and the strange bones exhumed by Rowan. His dislike for the doctor befriending her turns to mistrust as matters unravel.


Rowan struggles to cope with difficult guests, the puzzling Mr. Stone, and her increasingly complicated family secrets. When she unearths a murderer, is she doomed to death like her aunt? Or will the men in her life, including the love she left behind, set aside their own troubles and band together to help her?



Storylines don't usually just pop into my head. In most cases, something in real life sparks an idea, and that idea develops into a storyline.


This is the story behind Wounded Hearts:

Years ago, Hubby and I went on a two-week vacation on Magdalen Islands, a small archipelago in the gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic Coast. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast on one of the smaller islands. The hosts/owners were as charming as the old school building they had transformed in a Bed & Breakfast.




When they learned I was a writer, they suggested I set my next story in a Bed & Breakfast on the Atlantic Coast. I couldn't resist their wonderful idea. This is the reason Rowan inherits a Bed & Breakfast on Prince Edward Island.


Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

JS

 



 
 

Friday, July 2, 2021

Make Believe World by Roseanne Dowell






I live in a make-believe world. Okay, not literally, but vicariously through my characters.  I decide where they live, name their towns, or sometimes I let them live in a real city/town.  I prefer small towns, maybe because I’ve always wanted to live in one. I especially like towns with Victorian houses and apparently so do my characters, because I use them a lot.  I often say I must have lived during the Victorian area, probably as a mean old nanny. I’m sure I wasn’t the lady of the house, and by house, I mean mansion. Queen Anne Victorian homes are my favorite. I love the round turrets, all the gingerbread, and wrap-around porches. It was always my dream to buy one and restore it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and I’m past the point of wanting one now.  


Back to my make-believe world. I’d like to say I choose my characters, but truthfully, they choose me.  Sometimes I even get to name them, but if they don’t like the name, well, believe me, they misbehave until I change it. And, yes, that’s happened several times. Just because I like a name doesn’t mean they do. The last time it happened it wasn’t even a main character. She was only in the story for a short time, but boy was she stubborn. She refused to talk to me and anything I wrote was garbage, better known as dreck in the writing world.  


As I’ve said previously, I write many different genres, from Women’s Fiction to Romance to Mystery and even Paranormal. Most of my books are a combination of romance and another genre. As a reader, I’ve always favored mystery and romance, so it only made sense to combine them.  Mine would be classified as cozy mysteries; the gory stuff takes place off-scene. 

 I also love ghost stories – not evil mean ghosts though. One such story is Shadows in the Attic and another Time to Love Again. I’ve always been fascinated by ESP, hence my story Entangled Minds – previously published as Connection of the Minds.  


My character’s ages range from their mid-twenties to middle age and into their seventies. Yes, seniors need love, too. Geriatric Rebels is a favorite.  It’s fun working with different characters, and I especially like when they add a bit of humor. I really form an attachment to them. Once a character chooses me, I make a character worksheet so I know everything about them, not just what they look like.  

I love creating my characters, picking their careers, anything from housewives, authors, teachers, floral designers, and interior designers. Sometimes their careers play a part in the story, sometimes not. The character in my work in progress (WIP in the writer’s world) is a former teacher. It’s not a big part of the story, but it’s something I needed to know. She’s a real character in the true sense of the word. She came into being in a previous story, All in the Family. It started out with her having a small part, but Aunt Beatrice Lulu (ABLL) grew into a big part of the story. Once I finished that book, she popped up again and demanded her own book. Problem is, she takes fits and goes into hiding every so often, which is where she’s at right now and has been for some time. Sometimes she pops up for days of writing. Other times, I get a paragraph or two. I’ve never had a character do that before.  Oh, I’ve had writer’s block a time or two, but once I’m over it the writing flows. Not so with ABLL.

  

  It’s also fun describing my characters, their hair and eye color, height, even their weight. I’m often asked if I’m a plotter or punster. I tried plotting once and ended up blocked for almost two years. For me, plotting doesn’t work. I usually know the beginning and end of my stories. What happens in the middle is as much a surprise to me as it is to my readers. ABLL is full of surprises. What that woman doesn’t get into. So even though she goes into hiding, it’s generally worth it when she reappears. I’m not sure where she came from, but I’m sure enjoying working with her. Okay, I’ll be honest, a little bit of her is me, a little bit my sisters, and even my mother. She’s a combination of all the people I love and it’s so much fun living in her make-believe world.  I've enjoyed working with her in three books of the Family Affair Series. Now she's hiding in the fourth book, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished or Live And Learn - working titles. I won't know until the book is finished what the title will be. I hope she reappears soon so I can finish the book.  Here's the first paragraph: 


"You think you're so smart! I'm warning you Ethel Mae Capony, don't do it. If you do, I'll never speak to you again." Beatrice Lulu slammed the door, stomped down the steps, and slammed her car door so hard, I'm surprised the window didn't break.  The car screeched out of the driveway.  I'd never seen her so angry. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our differences, even arguments, but we’ve always gotten over them. This time was different.  


You can find my books on  BWL


Thursday, December 3, 2020

What Happened to David Lang? by Katherine Pym

 

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 September 23, 1880 on a farm near Gallatin, Tennessee, USA

 David Lang had just returned from Nashville that morning. He had brought his two children, George & Sarah a toy of a wooden wagon pulled by wooden horses. He and his wife talked to the children, then David set off across a pasture, scorched brown from a hot summer and no rain. No trees or bushes marked the place. His family watched him enter the field and hike across it. 

 

David's old homestead

 At that moment, Judge August Peck and David’s brother-in-law were riding in a rig to the farmhouse. The judge was about to hail David when the man vanished. He had stood in the open field, a plain of short grass with no rocks or fences.

 If, as they thought in the medieval days, he stood on the edge of the earth, he had somehow fallen off.

 “Mrs. Lang and the 2 men went to the spot where David had disappeared, thinking he might have fallen into a crack in the earth but they found no such crack. Mrs. Lang became hysterical and was led, screaming, into the house. The town’s alarm bell knelled, which brought the neighbors to the open field. Soon scores of people were searching the area and nearby land, but to no avail.

 A surveyor and geologist who later examined the field found limestone bedrock just a few feet underground. There was no fracture in the bedrock.

 For a month the search went on. Curiosity seekers came to gawk. All the Lang servants except the cook quit in fear.

 A year later, the grass where Lang had disappeared had grown high and thick in a circle 20’ in diameter. Not one of the farm animals would graze there, and it seemed free of insects. It was as though an ominous presence hovered over that piece of ground.” 

 

Empty field where David stood

 In August 1881, the two children approached the green circle of high grass. “The daughter called out, ‘Father, are you anywhere around?’ There was no answer but she repeated the question 4 times. They were about to walk away when they heard a faint cry for help, a cry that came out of nowhere. Quickly the children ran and got their mother who returned with them to the spot and called as they had done. Her husband answered. For several days, the family returned, and each day when they called, the answering voice became fainter, until finally there was no response at all.”

So, what had happened to David Lang?

Since the UFO sighting in the 1940’s, one would think he’d been snatched by alien beings, but that doesn’t answer the question of his voice drifting to them over a year later. He could have slipped into another dimension like an episode of Twilight Zone back in the 1950’s or early 60’s where a little girl fell out of bed. Her father had to get her through a strange dimensional entry in the wall. Or, as a time slip author/reader would say, he could have found a time portal and slipped into another time.

Whatever happened to him, David Lang never returned to his time, his dimension, or his farm.

 ~*~*~*~*~

Many thanks to:

The People’s Almanac by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1975.


 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Virtual Brainstorming by Eileen O'Finlan




COVID-19 has shut down a lot of things, but our imaginations needn't be one of them. In fact, recent personal events show that they may be more active than ever.

Before this virus hit, a group of writers met at my house every Wednesday evening to work on writing projects and offer feedback. For several in the group, those Wednesday nights provided a writing lifeline. I hated having to send out the group text announcing the cancellation of our group until further notice. Even though we're not a huge group (on the rare occasion that everyone is present on the same evening, we total seven), with my 93 year old mother in the house, I couldn't take any chances.

Of course, everyone understood. Several had made the painful decision to stay away even before receiving my text. Being a resilient, resourceful, and most of all, imaginative group it took less than an hour for one member to come up with the idea of a writing round robin. One person would write one page of a story, email it to the next person who would add another page then forward it to the next and so on. After two rounds the story would be complete. It might not add up to something publishable, but it promised to be fun and keep those writing muscles toned. I had to bow out as all my writing time is, of necessity, being devoted to the completion of Erin's Children, the sequel to Kelegeen, though I do look forward to reading the finished product.

My non-involvement in the round robin did not mean complete detachment for me, however. In less than a week, I jumped onto a Zoom meeting with fellow writing group member, Jane Willan. Jane is the author of two cozy mysteries, The Shadow of Death and The Hour of Death, the first two books in her Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery Series. She's currently working on the third in the series as well as a thriller.

Jane and I are searching for both "tried and true" and "unique and new" methods of marketing our writing, so we decided to focus our Zoom session on brainstorming ideas. (For anyone unfamiliar with Zoom, it is similar to Skype). We started by naming what we're already doing: Twitter and Facebook posts, website, newsletter, blogging, in-person talks and book signings, partaking in giveaways, interviews with bloggers and local papers. Currently, I'm working with an organizer on setting up a blog tour.

Then we started thinking about what we could do that we haven't done yet. Podcasts were the first thing to come to mind. It turns out that if you google podcasts along with your genre, you'll find a plethora from which to choose. We both committed to being interviewed on podcasts.

But why stop there? Jane's husband has a vast supply of audio/visual equipment. Why not start our own podcast? Fellow BWL author, Eileen Charbonneau, and I have been discussing creating a podcast. So the three of us connected on Zoom for our first podcast planning meeting. Fortunately, through the wonders of technology it doesn't matter that Jane and I live in Massachusetts and Eileen Charbonneau lives in Vermont. We don't have to be in the same state or even in the same house to make it happen.

YouTube was another marketing option open for discussion. I have a YouTube channel, though so far I've only put up one clip of me reading an excerpt from KelegeenJane and I decided we could make some more YouTube clips. They don't all have to be book excerpts. The writing life offers plenty of topics for discussion. With my sequel being set in Worcester, a video tour showing the sections of the city where much of the story takes place seems another likely possibility. Jane also has some trailers for her two mysteries. Eileen and I would like to follow her lead and make some for our book(s).

Our brainstorming session didn't end there. We talked about the 19th century coterie of writers that formed the literati in Concord, Massachusetts – Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne - to name a few. Then we widened the circle of our thoughts to include 19th century authors throughout New England. Such an abundance! Our region still boasts literary luminaries today. Some, like Steven King, are household names.

We got to thinking about the other authors in our area that we both know personally. Published, yes. Famous, no. This led to a discussion about what it is, besides the obvious (great writing), that makes some authors successful and others whose writing may be just as good or even better, virtually unknown beyond their small circle. 

The answer – marketing! We have to do it ourselves and for most of us it is not our field of expertise. Not even close. If it was we'd be marketers, not authors. Yet in today's world we have no choice. We have to climb that steep learning curve to figure out how to let the world know we're here and we've written awesome books that deserve to be widely read.

But how? This is a question I've been struggling with since the publication of Kelegeen. I sunk a lot of money into an advertising company that has been helping me climb that learning curve for almost two years. “Learn to think like a CEO.” “You are not only an author. You are the CEO of Eileen O'Finlan.” These are mantras they've driven into my brain. They are also concepts completely alien to the way I think. A huge learning curve, indeed.

But I am not alone and that gives me great hope. Eileen Charbonneau remains an amazing mentor for me. Our joint in-person appearances may be on hold for a while, but we are excited about embarking on a new virtual adventure through podcasting. 

Jane and I have committed to working together, mastering the art of branding, learing the ins and outs of marketing, pulling each other up and over that daunting curve so that we can come out on the other side, if not as household names, at least with successful authorial careers. We fully realize it will be a marathon, not a sprint, but we are willing to give it all we've got. If it doesn't happen (but it will – think positive!) it won't be for lack of trying.






Eileen O'Finlan

Jane Willan

Eileen Charbonneau



Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Soap Bubble Rhetoric


While going through some old writing files, I came across this meandering essay and thought I’d share.

Soap Bubble Rhetoric
Reading my latest copy of a writer’s magazine reminds me I haven’t written anything for quite a while. Anything does not include bill paying, completing rebate forms and make grocery lists.
            Oh, I have lots of ideas. That’s why I’m writing on top of the washer instead of folding clothes. Regardless of the fact I punched the hot button for a load of bright colors, when an idea bubbles forth, I grab a pen.
            As an educator, I have developed numerous ideas and activities that mu students love, so I have been sending queries to educational publishing companies and periodicals. But alas, I can decorate the laundry room with rejections slips. The most ingenious states, “due to a paper shortage, we must return your manuscript.”
            Why is there never a laundry shortage?
            While I may run out of stain remover, I always have another publishing company on my list. So I begin again. Some of my articles have been accepted, but I haven’t gotten paid in the traditional cash method. Many educational journals are forums for professional advancement and writers contribute articles in return for a byline and a few contributors’ copies. While that is fine up to a point, I’ve found it difficult, if not embarrassing, to pay my grocery bill with a copy of my latest published article:
            “Oh, you got published (finally). That will be $41.50 please.”
            Now I shouldn’t be wishy-washy. In addition to contributor’s copies, some educational publications do pay contributors in merchandise. But have you ever tried to use an apron that says, “Teachers are neat” to barter for bleach?
            I pour fabric softener in for the next load and a fantastic idea materializes. I realize I’m writing for the wrong market. Instead of submitting to educational publications, perhaps I can interest soap manufacturers in putting little activities on the sides of their soapboxes to keep kids busy at the Laundromat. Little Bobby can help mom pour soap into the washer and get fun games like “How many words can you make out of Proctor & Gamble?” or a word search for items of clothing washed only in cold water.
            I could create entertaining stories as inserts for detergent boxes with titles like “Soap Bubbles Whisk Grass Stains in Water Polo Finals,” or “Detergent Detectives Collar the Dirt Ring.”
            My hands negligently fold socks as I mentally assemble my next dirt fighting, biodegradable creative effort. The washer gyrates in the background, unaware of my neglect as my mind floats away on a soap bubble.

Barbara Baldwin


Don’t forget to visit the Books We Love website at http://www.bookswelove.com/ for their March contest. Find 4 leprechauns on the authors’ pages, submit their names and win some great prizes! Contest is open until March 17.

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