How I Start a Mystery Novel

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase, please visit her Books We Love Author Page http://bookswelove.net/authors/calder-susan/

People often ask, how do you write a mystery novel? The problem is that when I’ve finished a book, I’ve usually forgotten how it all began. Right now I’m at the stage of forming my concept for my next mystery, which makes it a good time to reflect on how this beginning process works in my case.    

Of course, every writer is different. Especially different from me will be those writers who start with an outline. I tried this with my first mystery novel attempt, believing that for a murder mystery you had to know exactly how the plot will evolve to whodunit at the end before your first keyboard tap.  My problem was, that as soon as I’d write anything, the story would want to go in another direction. I felt hemmed in by the outline and dropped the whole idea of writing murder mystery.

Over the next years, writing other types of stories taught me that intricate plots could grow naturally from characters, a premise, setting and problems, and resolve in a satisfying way. I thought, why couldn’t this work for murder mystery? I also discovered that many published mystery authors write by the seats of their pants. One told me she didn’t know who was her killer until after her novel was accepted by a publisher. She learned whodunit by sitting down in a coffee shop with her fictional sleuth and discussing the case. 

I wouldn’t go that far and I doubt publishers today would be as welcoming of unfinished books, but as I set out now to write this next mystery I don’t know who my killer will be. Among the cast of suspects I have in mind, there’s one I would like to be the killer, although I’m missing a motive and am also keeping my options open for one of the others to have done the deed.     

This novel will be the third of my mystery series set in Calgary and featuring insurance adjuster sleuth Paula Savard. This means I have some character, setting and other details in place before starting and I know that Paula needs to stumble upon this mystery through her insurance adjusting job. In book two, she investigated a building fire. For her next outing, I decided on a hit and run collision, mainly because my ten-year insurance career specialized in automobile claims. I’m also making things easier for myself by having the collision occur in my own neighbourhood, unlike the murders in my previous books, which took place in parts of Calgary I had to go out and research. One character might even live in my house.  

       

Books one and two were set, respectively, in fall and summer. I had decided the next two in the series would be winter and spring, although the order didn’t matter. But hit and run struck me as suited to winter’s icy roads and dark evenings. I also wanted this next book to be the darkest of the series. So winter became the season for novel number three. Since the first books, Deadly Fall and Ten Days in Summer, contain the season name in the title, I’d like the word ‘winter’ in the title of book three, which is limiting. I came up with a title Dead of Winter, which I thought was great until my Amazon search turned up seventeen books with this rather obvious mystery title. For now, I’ll go with a working title.

  

Another key aspect of a murder mystery premise is the victim. This time, it will be a woman killed by the hit and run driver. Paula’s investigations fuel a suspicion the driver acted deliberately. But why? It will take Paula the first quarter of the book to figure this out, as she interviews suspects, a witness, the insured who insists his car was stolen and the victim’s husband who was seriously injured in the crash.

Meanwhile, things are happening in Paula’s personal life. Her mother is getting married, her brother visits from Montreal, her daughter launches a restaurant business, her office has hired new staff and Paula’s boyfriend stuns her with news that threatens to destroy their relationship.

The novel’s second quarter will deal with the fallout from these developments and, hopefully, lead to surprises and twists that will keep things hopping through the last half of the story and propel it to a thrilling climax and conclusion. That’s the goal.

Now I’m ready to go. All that’s left is the hard part—writing.    

War Watch by Karla Stover




 bwlauthors.blogspot.com karla stover

April 1917--on the 6th, to be exact, the United States entered World War I. As wars are want to do, this one gave us a number of new inventions: hydrophones, pilot- less drones, air traffic control, tanks, flame throwers, poison gas, tracer bullets, interpreter gear, depth charges, aircraft carriers, mobile x-ray machines, wrist watches, camouflage, tube socks, and sanitary napkins.

In 1914, the Kinberly-Clark Company used processed wood to create "an absorbent wadding. "It was five times as absorbent as cotton and cost only half was much to produce; the product was dubbed Cellucotton. Kimberly-Clark gave up its profits and made Cellucotton available to the War Department at cost. After the war (1919), and faced the question of what to do with Cellucotton, the company hit upon the notion of marketing disposable sanitary napkins.

However, this blog is about wrist watches.

A 1916 New York Times article went as follows: “Until recently, the bracelet watch has been looked upon by Americans as more or less of a joke. Vaudeville artists and moving-picture actors have utilized it as a fun maker, as a ‘silly ass’ fad.”

Americans may have been looking at wrist watches as a joke, but not so men who fought in the Boer War. Soldiers jerry-rigged pocket watches to their wrists, making it possible to synchronize military moves. Then the war ended and a watch on a wrist became a female accoutrement. In 1912, that observer of all-things-feminine, the Times wrote that “The wrist watch is the fashion of the hour in Paris. It is worn over here by women who have to work as well as those who play. Not only that, but “it is the most useful piece of jewelry that has been invented for many decades. …"

Less than two years after the above comments on ladies' fashions, World War I began and a new type of watch evolved — trench watches, also called tank watches or campaign watches. They had enamel dials, wide white numerals on a black background, and a luminescent hour hand. Like its ancestor, the pocket watch, the trench watch had hinged front and back covers. They eventually became the look of the day for men’s fashions.

The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, and telephone and signal services, which played important parts in modern warfare, made wearing a watch obligatory. By the time the Great Depression came on, wristwatch production had eclipsed pocket-watch production; by World War II, the pocket watch was obsolete.  As one newspaper pointed out, “The Great War in 1919 made the world safe for men who wear wrist-watches.” For historical fiction writers like me, knowing little details such as these is imperative. My book, Murder, When One Isn't Enough should have included a bibliography. My bad. However, in my defense, my family has deep roots on Hood Canal where the book takes place. Many now-deceased family members who lived there had friends older than they, and who told stories of their days fishing and  logging. We hiked all over the hills and fished in many of the lakes. My descriptions, observations, and dialogues are as accurate as possible. To me, historical accuracy is important.  A recent article in the Guardian, a British daily newspaper, tackled the question. It quotes author Sarah Churchwell, who claimed that some historical novelists use "poetic license" as an excuse for sloppy or minimal research, and novelist Sarah Dunant, "who argued forcefully that authors have a responsibility to not present readers with deliberately false information about a historical character or period, and to make clear how much they have invented." However, S. J. Parris felt differently. "Although I do agree with Churchwell on the paramount importance of meticulous research," he told the Guardian, ."novelists are not history teachers. It's not our job to educate people, and if we start using words like "duty" and "responsibility" about historical fiction – or any fiction – we're in danger of leaching all the vigour (sic) out of it with a sense of worthiness." Apparently, historical accuracy is whether the writer wants to do the research and whether the book buyers care about accuracy. As an historian, that laissez faire  attitude makes me crazy.

  

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   Last month on the blog I discussed the average attention span. Picking up on that theme, I heard another interesting statistic. 

   This one has me equally baffled. According to a survey, people are willing to watch a kissing scene for twelve seconds. Now granted, twelve seconds doesn't sound very long, but think about it. 

  This survey wasn't using a couple having short sweet kisses while talking or giggling. We are referring about a full blown, wet, get the heart pumping kiss. 

I challenge you. Set a timer for twelve seconds.

Ready?

Now, imagine watching a couple go at it. Not a couple on the big screen, but an average couple. 

One thousand…two thousand. 

Keep watching that couple.

You're not even half way there yet. 

When you've had enough, how many seconds area left on the timer?

  There is a reason the camera angle changes during a 'Hollywood' kissing scene. You've watched the characters in that relationship grow and develop, but still, enough is enough. I think that is why the director uses sheer curtains, a fence, something, anything to add dimension to the scene. Even the character's hands get in the way of the lip lock. 

  As you can guess, twelve seconds, in my mind, is way too long to watch. 

So, back to the 8.5 second attention span. I think during the kiss the viewers mind is wandering for at least 3.5 seconds. 

Empowerment shatters traditions and lives. Greed and pride have devastating consequences. Sacrifices must be made. Written on multiple levels, the saga deals with hope, relationships, and giving, set against a background of conflicting values.
Through a series of dreams, modern day couple Keeghan and William follow the triumphs and tragedies of multiple generations of the Donovan family. A chance encounter changes Natasha’s life, forever. In her diary, Natasha writes of her dream, and her hope to escape a horrid dictated future.
Will Natasha's legacy survive an uncertain future?

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New Releases from Books We Love Authors for Spring 2017

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New releases from Books We Love

Say What, Now? By Gail Roughton

Visit Gail Roughton at Books We Love, Ltd.

Has it ever crossed your mind that a lot of problems are caused by folks unnecessarily complicating things? We've all got folks in our lives who're masters of that.  You know, like the people who, when hanging a picture, first pull out their handy-dandy stud-finder and locate a stud (regardless of whether the picture weighs a few ounces or whether it's in an ornate frame and weighs a ton), and then pull out the tape measure and measure top to bottom and side to side before picking a spot.  This was my husband's preferred method when he was younger; nowadays, he's more apt to follow my method of eyeballing the wall, hammering in the nail and hanging the picture. I've always been a "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" type of gal.

But the prize-winners among the folks who unnecessarily complicate things are English teachers, especially senior high English teachers and college professors.  Please let me state here that I have the utmost respect for teachers, truly I do. However, I'm afraid teachers, especially those who teach in the aforementioned upper levels of the educational system, might have a bit too much respect for just how complex and complicated a writer's mind is.  We're really not that complicated.  What am I talking about?  

This.  This little diagram is what I'm talking about.  We're writers. We're not rocket scientists.We're telling a story. We're not making comments on the inequities of society.  Well, we are, but that's because any story we write is, of necessity, reflective of the society in which it's set. In other words, we write what we know because guess what? It's what we know.  Unless of course it's science fiction or fantasy. But it's not like we're sending out hidden messages visible only to those who sit and analyze our wondrous words. 

For instance, when my youngest son was in college, one particular assignment required him to discuss the significance of Bram Stoker's use of the Three Sisters in Dracula as an allegory for the social inequities in the treatment of women in Victorian society. Or something similarly esoteric to that phraseology, it's been a while.  And really. Say what, now? 

We're talking about Dracula here.  Truly one of the masterpieces of literature. I read it when I was in the eighth grade and I didn't sleep for three nights thereafter. I didn't sleep without a cross and a St. Christopher's medal around my neck for the next ten to fifteen years, either. Was that the effect Bram Stoker was going for? Oh, you betcha it was. Was he disappointed it never crossed my mind that the Three Sisters weren't being treated fairly as equals to the Count, just as women in 19th Century England weren't treated as equals to men? Well, I can't exactly ask him but I really doubt he'd have lost any sleep over it. I think if anybody asked him what was going through his mind when he created the the Three Sisters, he'd say "I was trying to scare the bloody hell out of anybody reading the story." And if anybody asked him for his thought processes in creating such an allegory for the social inequities of his society, his response would be "Say what, now?"  In an English accent of course.

Because evil never dies. It just--waits.

I write to entertain. To be honest, I write to entertain myself. That's honestly my primary motive for writing. I've written books widely disparate in style and genre and usually the bottom-line motive is I'm bored and I need some entertainment. That being said, of all my books, The Color of Seven is the one an English teacher would be most apt to find full of hidden allegories and parables and comments on society (not that I think any English teacher would ever be using it in an English class). That's because it spans over a century in time, beginning in the 1880's and extending to the present as it tells the story of a family living in Macon, Georgia in the post-Civil War South. Racism, mixed marriages, and prejudice are all elements of the plot. And then there's the eternal battle of good versus evil, light versus dark thing, I've always been a sucker for that, it gives me the excuse to throw black magic and voodoo and vampires in. I call it my Southern Gothic family saga horror, and my unabashed and unashamed motive in writing same was to scare the hell out of my readers while making them fall in love with some of the characters and totally loathe a few others, which is the pinnacle of success for any writer. (And at the risk of sounding as though I'm tooting my own horn, feedback from readers indicate I was successful in that endeavor, at least with a few folks.) 

As to the more serious social issues I admit are an integral part of the background and plot of this book--trust me, I didn't set out to write a novel highlighting those issues. They're in the book because I'm southern, born in 1954. I cut my teeth on Civil War history, I grew up in the 1960's. I never did a lick of research on anything in that book (unless you count copying the street names and business names off an old 1888 map of my hometown of Macon, Georgia which is why the story starts in the 1880's in Macon, Georgia--I wasn't about to waste that treasure) except for the voodoo black magic elements involved. I didn't do any research  because I didn't need to. And why not?  Because we write what we know, what's already there, burned into our brains and woven into the very fibers of our being. There's not always a hidden agenda.

Therefore, if any English teacher ever did ask a student to discuss the use of vampirism in The Color of Seven as a statement on the post-Civil War dichotomy between the races, trust me--the only appropriate response would be "Say what, now?" Everything doesn't have to be complicated, folks. You know what they say.  "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck--it's probably a duck." Enjoy the simple pleasures! (Including a good scare.)

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Writin' With Southern Stylin'!

The reign of Queen Anne Stuart, 1702-1714.by Rosemary Morris

 Purchase these books written during the riegn of Queen Anne Stuart, and more books by Rosemary Morris by visiting her Books We Love author page:  http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary/ 

I have written three historical romances, with strong themes, set in the reign of Queen Anne Stuart, 1702-1714. Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies and The Captain and The Countess.

When Queen Anne Stuart, niece of Charles II, ruled from 1702 to 1714 attitudes towards children and their education were very different to those in the 21^st century.

Childhood and Education. Gentlewomen

     in early 18^th century England.

Little is known about the nursery, in which babies were fed pap instead of either their mother’s or a wet nurse’s milk. To entertain infants, those whose parents could afford them, babies had coral rattles with bells.

Little girls played with dolls, which were called ‘Babies’. An advertisement read: On Saturday, last, being the 12^th instant, there arrived at my House in King Street, Covent Garden, a French Baby for the year 1712.  Some dolls were made of wax, but these were the most expensive and so were those in Widow Smith’s raffle, large jointed, dressed Babies. It is possible that, dolls were girls’ only toys.

Although most girls were educated at home some of them attended boarding schools. . In Tangled Love, the heroine’s young sister attends one owned by *Mrs Elizabeth Tutchin in Highgate, where young gentlewomen could be soberly educated and taught all sorts of learning fit for young gentlewomen.

It was considered very important to instil sobriety into pert girls, who probably ogled men, were always on the lookout for a potential husband and flirted with fans. For example: *A fan placed near the heart sent the message “You have won my love.” Hiding the eyes behind the fan. I love you. Twirling the fan in the left hand. We are being watched.

In addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, plain sewing and embroidery, town bred pupils were taught to dance, sing and play the virginals, spinet and guitar. Other instruction might include painting on glass, wax work and drawing. They also learned culinary arts - pastry, sweetmeats, sauces and liqueurs.

A clue to country-bred girls’ education is in the dialogue between characters in The Sowrers by Shadwell, from which I quote some snippets.

Priscilla. Did she not bestow good breeding upon you there?

Clara. To see cow’s milk’d, learn to Churn, and make Cheese? (Presumably neither Clara nor the other young ladies were expected to milk a cow.)

Eugene And to learn the top of your skill in Syrrup, Sweetmeats Aqua mirablisi and Snayl Water.

Priscilla. Ay, ay, and ‘twere better for all the Gentlemen in England that wives had no other breeding, but you had Musick and Dancing.

A good housewife was valued. An aunt tells her niece.…she spent her time in better learning than you did. Not in reading flights of battels of Dwarfs and Giants; but in writing out receipts for Broths, Possets, Caudles, and Surfeit Waters; as became a good Country Gentlewoman.

If girls could not learn the art of making pastry at home, particularly for raised pastry, there were the forerunners of Cookery Schools.

Whatever else a gentlewoman’s education lacked it was not dancing. She was taught how to hold her head, heave her breast, and move with her entire body. If she didn’t learn to do so correctly, she was threatened with never finding a husband. A young lady was also expected to learn how to behave at the Tea Table, to present her snuff box and how to place patches on her face to the best advantage.

Poor children could attend Sunday School, where they were taught to read, not for entertainment, but to study the Bible.

At charity schools orphans were trained to wash, iron, clean, sew and knit as well as write and cast accounts. The older girls assisted the housekeeper, and made and mended the children’s clothes. By the time they left they had been trained to become domestic servants and, if they were fortunate, to become good housewives.

 

*Elizabeth Tuchin’s brother, worked for the Observater.

*The Language of The Fan by Micki Gaffney.

Mediaeval Novel

 Yvonne, Lady of Cassio, 

set in the turbulent reign of Edward II. Publication date to be announced.

Available as e-publications and paper backs.

 Early 18^th century novels by Rosemary Morris

Tangled Love,

Far Beyond Rubies

The Captain and The Countess

Regency novels

False Pretences

Sunday’s Child   Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 1.

Monday’s Child Heroines born on different days of the week. Book 2

Tuesday’s Child Heroines born on different days of the week Book 3

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary/