Collectibles & Inspiration by Diane Bator

I just had to share my new logo before I launch into my blog post today.
Like many other authors, my road to being published has not been an easy one, but I've always stayed true to what I love to write and to myself. I'm so grateful for everyone at BWL Publishing, especially Judith Pittman who has received so many of my crazy emails, and Michelle Lee who creates amazing covers!
I printed off two copies of this logo to hang on my wall. I figure it will take several days to actually sink in and a few pinches to my arms to make it real!
Now on with the blog....

I recently realized I collect news stories the way some people collect coins, dolls, or books. They help motivate me and get my creative juices flowing. How can you not be inspired as a mystery writer to read, "Man in ICU after pharmacy mistakenly gives him opioid"?

Or "She said her husband drowned during vacation. Police say she killed him."

Or "Twin acquitted of murder in Hawaii crash that killed sister."

Or "Woman thought her house was haunted until she found her ex-husband living in the attic."

In fact, a news story about a woman's disappearance helped fuel The Bookstore Lady where the main character is on the run from the mobsters she was working for. While Katie wasn't so good at hiding, she managed to eek out a whole new life.

Sometimes, I get caught up in the idea of an outline or a story line that I get stuck and not sure how to move on with a novel. So I surf the web and stumble across one of these headlines. There are usually some great nuggets to help me move forward. For example the one about the woman and her ex-husband is already entwined in a story line for an upcoming Glitter Bay mystery.

Aside from collecting news stories, I also collect lines. One of my favorite was one I used in my novella Murder on Manitou. "I was a drinker with a writing problem." I make it a habit to write down lines I hear whether on television, in a coffee shop, or at work. In fact, I have dozens of napkins, slips of paper, and post-it notes filled with one-liners. Eventually, most of them find their way into my novels and I forget where I heard them or even as prompts for writing meetings.

Here are a few examples of lines I've heard, or read, that caught my attention:

"I like to keep my mind active by plotting revenge." (Who? Me?)

"It's kind of like dating your ex-husband." (Sort of goes with the first one...)

"I can't go to Hell. Satan has a restraining order against me." (Again. No comment.)

"Creativity is one drug I can't live without." (Okay, this is just me on a daily basis.)

"When I found out I had cancer, I turned vegan." (Yup, this one is making it into a book!)

Even images on the Internet or television don't go unnoticed. Things like a dog pulling a little girl away from a lake or cats hiding items beneath the couch. In any good mystery, evidence is not always in plain sight. What if the cat or dog hid it? What if the cat knocked a fishbowl into a crime scene? Any number of scenarios can arise from a single sentence, a news story or even a silly cat video?

Writers, what sort of things trigger ideas for you? Are you flattered when people "borrow" your best lines or a bit put out?

Have a wonderful week!

Diane Bator

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. But I digress. 

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 of 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 stage. 
 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. I need to know everything about them, not just what they look like.

I love creating my characters, picking their careers, anything from housewife, 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.  It’s also fun describing them, their hair and eye color, height, even their weight.

Some of my characters are based a little on me or people I know/knew. I might take a little from this friend or family member and a little from another. Sometimes I get their descriptions from people I see someplace, like the mall, a restaurant or even a doctor’s office. Of course, I embellish from the characters I know. But I might use a habit someone has or a quirk. I even take story ideas from every day life and embellish on them.

I get my story ideas from various places. Sometimes a picture in a magazine sparks an idea, or an overheard conversation. The idea for Deadbeat Dads came from a conversation my husband overheard in a bank. It didn't take long to discover it happens frequently. Men leave their families and forget about them. No child support, no visitation. It's like the family never existed.

It’s fun living in a make-believe world. I think I’ll stay here. Now if Aunt Beatrice Lulu would start talking to me again. Apparently, I've made her mad about something. 

Here's an blurb from another favorite - okay, they're all my favorites. What can I say?

Shadows in the Attic 

Imagine finding a hidden room, complete with furniture, a trunk, diary and shadows. Author, Anna Hughes couldn't wait to finish her attic room. Did the shadows hold the secret to why the room was sealed?

J. Nordstrom Review
I loved the characters, the world, the mystery. I was just as drawn to the shadows as Anna was. I wondered what happened to them, and why they became shadows to begin with.

Available from https://books2read.com/u/mKJYPv

BWL Publishing Inc. has a new contest in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  Visit our website https://bookswelove.net  to enter.

Here's how:

 

Find the Leprechauns on four of our BWL Author pages.  Visit the author pages in the index to the left on our home page. Four of those pages have leprechauns on the page. Jot down the name of the author where you find each leprechaun, and when you've found all four, fill out the entry form at the top of the webpage with the names of the four authors.

Winner will receive the pictured Tower of Leprechaun treats as well as a print copy of Eileen O'Finlan's Irish historical novel, Kelegeen, Plus a BWL Leprechaun Golden Ticket that can be used to purchase any six Ebooks from our BWL Authors - so be sure to check out the books on the pages and make a list of any books you might want for your Golden Ticket.  

Entries Start March 1 and Prize Drawing will be March 17.  Winner will be notified by email and winner's name will be posted here.

This golden ticket entitles the winner to six 
BWL Publishing Ebooks in the format of their choice.

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BWL March New Releases

 

It never rains but it pours as the old saw goes. It looked like the truth of this saying was about to play out for Robie and his partner, Pete Duncan.

First on their plate was the discovery of a young teenage girl found by a night patrolman lying behind bushes on Chebucto Road who had been raped. Next, Robie is sent to investigate an accident on a ship in for repairs in which a man died. He soon uncovers a conspiracy by local businessmen to use inferior materials, and last, Pete goes after moonshiners who are peddling poison booze through local bootleggers.

War brings out the best in people at times: heroism; sacrifice, while in others only evil and opportunism. Robie and Pete relentlessly pursue the three cases with a sense of anger and determination

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Lighting The Lamp dramatizes the efforts of Terry Burke, a sympathetic, at times caustic and critical, but ordinary old guy, to come to grips with who he is and what his life has been.

His struggle to accept retirement and to interpret the iterations of the voice in his head spreads to concern over the mysterious death of a wanderer.

Terry’s obsession to solve the mystery fuses directly with his personal history and leads him in and out of fascinating, half-remembered mythological landscapes.

Terry is enjoined to revisit the haunts of his youth. Family dynamics of the present, mirrored in Irish heritage of the past, come into play as do contrarian opinions encountered among cronies, distant friends, and lost loves. Motivated by his muse to tell all, what he seeks in addition to understanding is truthful voice and the purest possible point of view.

Aware that remembrance of things past in not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were, this quixotic Everyman eventually reaches beyond self, beyond mystery, and beyond theodicy to a philosophical embrace of cosmic apotheosis.

Montreal provides more than a background for potential jihad-sponsored terrorism, or ghosts out of the past, or a romantic trip down memory lane; the many-layered city takes on the function of a defined and demanding character and declares in a voice Terry hears clearly: know me and know yourself!

March is Mystery, Suspense and Thriller month at our BWL Publishing Fan Club.  We're posting special treats, shorts, excerpts and surprises all month  long, so if you haven't joined our fan club yet, please head on over to  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BooksWeLovebookclub/ 

Join us for all the March fun at the BWL Fan Club