Writer's Guilt

By: Maegan Beaumont

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to start another novel.

I start getting the itch around November. Ideas start to niggle. Characters start to whisper. By December they are no longer niggling and whispering. They are pulling and yelling. I have to shove them aside while I'm basting the Thanksgiving turkey. I have to mentally shout back, I can't play with you right now--my kids are opening Christmas presents.

January, I promise them. I'll start in January.

January is the right month to start, right? In with the new and all that... right? The people in my life will get it. That this is not only my passion but also my job. That it's important to me. That I have to do this on about a hundred different levels.

They love me and want me to be happy. They get that if I don't write I'll end up like Jack Nicholson in The Shining and that's never a good look on anyone.  

They'll be understanding and supportive... right? 

I've come to realize that it just doesn't matter. No matter when I decide to start my novel, I still run into trouble. Kids still want dinner (EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!). Husbands still want clean socks (my kingdom for a maid... honestly, I'd settle for a chimpanzee I can train to fold towels and match socks). Friends still get weird when you don't pay attention to them. 

I try to juggle it all but I'll never make it in the circus. I suck at juggling. Something's gotta give--historically, it's my novel... which explains why I haven't made a deadline since I started this whole crazy business. It's not that the people in my life don't want to understand. It's that they can't understand. 

They just can't. Not unless they understand what it's like to have an entire universe full of people shoved into their brain, talking all at once. They don't what dinner. They don't want clean socks or attention. They want to exist. They are literally fighting for their imaginary lives. A space, out here in the world, where people can see and hear them.

And sometimes, that's pretty hard to ignore. So, yeah. Something's gotta give.

I guess what I'm saying is that I still-- 4. books. later.--haven't figured out how to balance it all. I struggle. I forget to start dinner. I stumble. Socks get recycled and my husband pretends not to notice the dead fish smell emanating from his shoes. I drop balls. Friends feel ignored and I feel like crap... and my novel still suffers. I give in to guilt and start to put writing off. 

I'll write tomorrow becomes my mantra.

But every January, without fail, I make myself a promise: This year, I will put writing first. Well... maybe not first but definitely in the top 3. Top 5? Ahead of the laundry, for sure.

As I'm writing this, I realize that this isn't about putting my novel first--it's about putting myself first. Something I've never been able to do. Something I'm not even sure I know how to do and yet something I've encouraged others to do time and time again.

Put yourself first. It's okay. You deserve it. If they love you, they'll understand.

This year is different. This year, I'm bound and determined to take my own advice. Kids, husbands, friends--I hope you understand, but there's something I've got to do...

Maegan Beaumont is the author of  the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series. A native Phoenician, Maegan’s stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn’t busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

Look for her latest, Promise to Keep, available through Midnight Ink, summer 2015

A Fool Like Me

Keith Raffel here.

There’s an old Japanese saying that I’m very fond of. It goes something like this: “Every person should walk to the top of Mount Fuji, but only a fool would do it a second time.”

Color me foolish.

I spent three years working as a full-time novelist. I had just finished my fourth book, A Fine and Dangerous Season, when I went to a New Year’s Party. The host asked me what I was going to do next. I told her I didn’t have an idea for a new book. She asked if I would consider going back into the Silicon Valley fray and taking on a day job. I told her maybe, it depended on the job, and poof! – a few months later I was working at a DNA sequencing company. Fascinating work but that company was just purchased and so now I’m ready to give full-time writing another whirl no matter how ga-ga a Japanese sage might consider me.

I’ve tried publishing the traditional way and I’ve tried publishing e-books myself. Both ways worked fine, but I want to expand my readership. To quote another sage, Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

So I am moving to full-time novel-writing for a second time, but am trying something different.

When Rob Thomas wanted to make a Veronica Mars movie, he raised $5 million from fans to get the project kick-started. Now I am not looking for that kind of money, but I do want to kick-start publication of my fifth novel, a thriller set in Jerusalem titled Temple Mount. I am terrifically excited at the prospect of building a groundswell of support for Temple Mount among readers of my novels, both past and future. I’m even ready to rely on supporters to crowd-source the editing of the manuscript.

I just hope others will join this possibly foolish, but probably sane author in getting Temple Mount published using a new crowd-publishing model. You can check out what I have in mind here. Don’t know if it’s going to work, but I’m going to give it a try. Please don’t be shy in offering advice and wish me luck!

The Devil in the Details

By: Maegan Beaumont

He rolled up the make-shift tarp he’d laid out on the kitchen floor and placed it in a trash bag along with the dress. Undiluted, he poured the ammonia onto the kitchen floor and chair. While ammonia didn’t destroy DNA, any evidence gathered there would be corrupted by the chemical and rendered useless. The ammonia was strong-smelling, so he opened a few windows for ventilation. The early afternoon breeze made the chore of cleaning up his mess almost pleasant.

—Carved in Darkness

It took me nearly three weeks to write this paragraph. It wasn't writers’ block or a computer crash that bogged me down—it was my almost obsessive need for accuracy.

And it wasn't just this passage I nitpicked. It was the entire novel. I scoured the internet. I read books. I logged onto forensic forums. I emailed cops and asked them what I’m sure they thought were inane and possibly dangerous questions. I spent what felt like an entire summer in handcuffs because I was trying to teach myself how to pick my way out of them. After cutting myself in a kitchen mishap, I soaked the wound in salt water (If you've read CARVED, then you understand the significance). I've even gone so far as to have a very distraught friend of mine drive me around in the trunk of her car... all so I could be sure that what I was writing was as close to the truth as I could get it. Don’t get me wrong, I ask my readers to suspend disbelief on a regular basis but I can do so because I know one simple rule: 
The most effective lies are found buried in the truth.  

So, yes... I do lie. I do make stuff up, I write fiction, after all... but readers are smart.  They know things, because they read, and they don’t like it when a writer is too lazy to do their research. I know this because as a reader, I feel exactly the same way. I don’t mind being lied to as long as I know the writer took the time and made the effort to make me believethe lie.

The key to great fiction isn't writing what you know--it's writing what you can make others believe that you know, and that takes work. Hours of research. Reading and reaching out to people who can lend authenticity to my writing, but when a reader asks me if I've ever tortured someone (yes, someone really asked me that... and the answer is no) or a reviewer mentions how impressive my attention to detail is, I know it's worth it.

So, my question is: How important is accuracy in writing to you? How do you feel about shoddy research? How do you feel about writers who don't take their research seriously?

"Prepare to be overwhelmed by the tension and moodiness that permeates this edgy thriller. Beaumont’s ability to keep the twists coming even when the answer seems obvious is quite potent."
 ~ Library Journal

Maegan Beaumont is the author of Carved in Darkness, book one in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series, on sale now.

The Darker Side of Midnight

Hello, most of you… well, pretty much all of you, have no idea who I am. I’m new to Midnight Ink (the ink on my two book contract is still damp), so I thought I’d use my first Inkspot blog to introduce myself.

My name is Maegan Beaumont and I write thrillers…

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the good stuff. Like, why I write thrillers.

A bit of background—I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. I’ve also been moderately obsessed with human behavior since I was a child… or more specifically, deviant human behavior. It makes perfect sense that at some point, these interests would intersect, but while I’ve always loved writing, I didn’t always want to be a writer. When I was ten, I vividly remember being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. It went something like this:

Poor, unsuspecting soul: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Me: A criminal psychologist.

Poor, unsuspecting soul: Why would a sweet little girl like you want to be a criminal psychologist?

Me: Because when a man chops his entire family up with an axe, I want to be able to understand why he did it.

Poor, unsuspecting soul:

 Yea... I wasn’t as sweet as I looked.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been obsessed with understanding ‘why’. Why do people behave the way that they do? Make the choices they make. Why does one person react to a set of circumstances differently than another… objectively, I can look at my moderate childhood obsession and realize that it had everything to do with my desire to make sense of chaos and my deep-seated need to control my environment. Yes, you’re saying, that’s all well and good—years of therapy have just paid off…

But what does that have to do with why you write thrillers?

Well…

It’s a two part explanation—my moderate obsession with deviant behavior and the fact that I am a control freak. As a thriller writer, I get to indulge both. I get to explore the dark side of human nature and manipulate people that I’ve created into doing and saying what I want them to.

Wow… that made me sound like a sociopath. Let’s try again.

As a thriller writer, I get to explore the dark side of human nature—those things inside us all that none of us want to admit to—and I get to tell stories about how we, as people, overcome that darkness. How we survive. How we ultimately win.

I believe that there is darkness inside every one of us. We’re all dangling over the abyss—it’s just that some of us have a firmer grip on humanity than others. Most of us would never do the things I write about—would never even entertain such thoughts. Most of us live in the light.

But there are others who’ve let go. Who’ve fallen. Who’ve allowed themselves to become monsters. These are the people that fascinate me. They walk and talk like regular people, but they’ve been corrupted. These people don’t just live in the dark. They embrace it… and when a poor, unsuspecting soul wanders too close, they get snatched up and dragged into the darkness. If they’re very, very lucky, they manage to break free. To find the light again… but spending time in the dark with a monster will change you.

And what do you do if the monster wants you back? How do you fight something you can’t see? How do you win against the darkness after it’s become a part of who you are? Is it even possible?

These are the questions I’ve been asking myself since I was a little girl—and as a thriller writer, I’m finally getting the opportunity to find the answers.

So, here’s my question(s) for you:

What is it that you look for in a book? What are the fundamental questions about humanity that you’re seeking answers to? What book or books have you read that revealed these truths to you?

Maegan Beaumont is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS, the first book in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series (Available through Midnight Ink, spring 2013). A native Phoenician, Maegan’s stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn’t busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

                                                                                 

                                                                                                    

Reviews Rollercoaster

Keith here.

The rubescent glow that Lynn Farris's review of Drop By Drop on Examiner.com left on my cheeks has scarcely begun to fade:

"I found Drop by Drop... to be an exciting political thriller as well as a fascinating philosophical political treatise. While the political thriller part offered the reader an excellent whodunit, the philosophical discussion is what makes it a powerful book to read....

"I love the title Drop by Drop because it serves as a metaphor for so much occurring in the book and perhaps society today. Drop by drop we are giving up our civil liberties. Drop by drop we are losing our principles. Drop by drop, our government officials break the law and others ignore it....

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe that readers of all political persuasions will like it as well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as an upcoming movie. Five stars out of five."

Now I understand that Examiner.com is not the New York Times, but I don't care. (Well, maybe a tad, but why the Times doesn't hire Ms. Farris is beyond me.) Any author will tell you the real joy of writing is connecting with that one reader, the one who sends you the laudatory email, the one who leaves you a Facebook message that she is gifting a dozen copies for Xmas. (BTW, I am not a friend of Ms. Farris, except now on Facebook and that doesn't really count, does it?)

Of course, it works the other way, too. Well-known mystery writer and critic Hallie Ephron gave my second book, Smasher, a real put-down in her Boston Globe review a couple of years ago:

"We follow the narrator as he caroms among the story lines.... Too bad, because with so much going on, this novel desperately needs a main character with an emotional core that can hold it all together".

I suspect a few more people read the Globe's reviews than read Examiner.com's. While this less than stellar review might have hurt just a little less than committing hari kari with a butter knife, research shows that Ms. Ephron did me a favor. A study in Marketing Science found that "For books by established authors, a negative review led to a 15% decrease in sales." Well that makes sense. But "for books by relatively unknown (new) authors, however, negative publicity has the opposite effect, increasing sales by 45%." This 45% is roughly the same, if not a little higher, than for positive reviews.

Those of us who are not quite selling as many books as James Patterson, Stephen King, or Dan Brown can take heart. A great review warms our hearts. A bad review increases sales. A win-win!

Unanswerable Questions?

Keith here.

Is there one universe or many? What is the meaning of life? What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?

There are some questions that just cannot be answered.

As readers of this blog know, I am undertaking an experiment in e-publishing. My first two novels, both published in trade paper, did fine (and continue to sell). But I couldn't resist climbing aboard the ebook express and so I uploaded my latest effort, Drop By Drop: A Thriller, onto Amazon.com, BN.com, Smashwords, and Apple's iBookstore. Generally, all seems to be going well. While I miss bookstore signings, the fact I have already made more in royalties on Drop than on my last traditionally published book provides some solace.

But in the world of e-publishing, mysteries abound. There are questions for which I have no answers. Here are four:

1. How do people find out about an ebook original? I tried a little experimental advertising of Drop By Drop -- sales were not affected. Drop was greeted by a bunch of online reviews which definitely helped. Lately, there have been fewer. Still, sales have not gone down and are even trending upward. My experience is not unique. I have spoken to a couple of friends whose books were made available on the Kindle with little uptake. Only months later did their sales zoom. Why? They don't know. There's an invisible hand at work, I guess.

2. Living as I do in Silicon Valley, a few miles away from 1 Infinite Loop (Apple HQ), many readers tell me they have purchased their copy of Drop from the iBookstore. I also read about authors selling scads of books on BN.com. So here's the question: Why do I sell 20 times more books on Amazon than Barnes and Noble's BN.com and 9 times more than on Apple's iBookstore?

3. The United States has about 312 million people. The United Kingdom has about 64 million or about 20% as many. According to estimates, 750M paper-and-ink books were sold in the US in 2010 and 229M in the UK or about 30% as many. I did some Googling. According to these links, US ebook sales were $441M in 2010 and in the UK were £180M or about 60% of the US total. So why am I selling 80 times more books on Amazon.com this month than on Amazon.co.uk?

4. My second book, Smasher, made it onto a national bestseller list and was optioned for film. Reviews in paper-and-ink newspapers and mystery and publishing magazines were great. Drop By Drop was reviewed only in online publications. Smasher sells for $2.99 and Drop for $3.99. Nevertheless, Drop is selling 14 times more copies than Smasher on Amazon.com so far this month. How come?

Attention: there may be a Nobel Prize in store for whoever can answer the first question of this post, but all you get for answering any of the four ebook questions is my thanks and appreciation.

It's Harder to Edit Real Life

By the time I turn in a manuscript for publication, I’ve done at least ten drafts. A few of them have been read by siblings, close friends, and my agent. I just polish and polish until I can’t take it anymore. My goal – to make the book as good as I can.

Last Sunday I appeared on Press:Here, a Silicon Valley Meet-the-Press that runs on the NBC affiliate here in the Bay Area and on cable in a bunch of other markets. Scott McGrew, the quick-witted and business-savvy host, reminded me just before the cameras started rolling that the show is taped in one run-through. And of course that was the problem. I couldn’t rephrase my answers or sit up straighter on the second take. Watching the video, I’m struck by a sense of esprit d’escalier – a French phrase for coming up with inspiration when it's too late to use it. The interview was real life where’s there’s no editing – where you’re stuck with what you’ve said, what you’ve done, and what you look like. Yuck. Not like writing fiction at all. When novel-writing I have control. Everything works just like I want it to. Not necessarily smoothly – where would the conflict be if it did? – but after ten drafts, the action, what the characters say, even the weather are all just what I want.

Anyway, here’s the eight minutes on Press:Here I spent talking about the ebook revolution, my novel Drop By Drop, and my checkered past – unedited.

3 Books, 3 Formats, 6 Covers

Keith here.

The reading world is in the midst of a war over formats. We've all been following the back-and-forth between Kindle/Nook partisans and those who defiantly hold on to their paper-and-ink books. Here's which side I come down on: both.

Don't you think we authors should strive to ensure our novels can be read however our readers want to read them -- whether as words on a paper page or on an LCD screen? And what about those who might want to use their ears rather than their eyes to "read" a book? Fine with me. Let's add one more option to the mix then -- audio books.

My first two books have just hit the format trifecta. Dot Dead and Smasher are now available as audio downloads for iPods, MP3 players, and such on both Audible.com and Amazon.com. (You can listen to samples here and here.) Both are still available as ebooks and trade paperbacks. (Readers, pick your poison.) My third novel, Drop By Drop, is currently available only as an ebook, but if it continues to sell well (fingers crossed), I'm hoping it will be offered in print and as an audio book as well.

One side benefit to all these different formats is a flowering of covers. Dot Dead has one cover doing double duty for the ebook and trade paper and another for the audio version. Smasher -- lucky fellow -- has a different cover for all three formats. Drop By Drop is available in just the one format and hence has only one cover at present. If my arithmetic is correct, that makes a total of six covers. I'm pretty fond of all of them, but I do wonder which ones you prefer. Please let me know in your comments!

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Does Midnight Ink = Cozy?

I need feedback people - the more the better!

While at the writers conference in Portland, I was often asked what Midnight Ink publishes.  When taking pitches, it goes something like this, "I don't know if this is the right book for you, but I have a 120,000 word thriller..."

At this point, you could insert historical mystery, suspense, hard-boiled, etc for thriller...  So just what is it do we publish?  Midnight Ink has had a great history with cozy and soft-boiled mysteries.  But we've also done well with a few thrillers. I've acquired quite a few that fall in the middle of the road -what we call medium boiled.

Here is my question to you, dear readers - what is your perception of Midnight Ink?  Do you see us as a cozy publisher?  A plain old mystery publisher?  What comes to mind when you think Midnight Ink?  What would like us to publish that we aren't currently?

To foster conversation, I will send a couple random commenters a new book from our 2012 list.  Comments need to be of substance.  Thanks!!

Reporting in from E-book Land

Keith here

John Wanamaker, the founder of the eponymous Philadelphia department store, was reputed to have said: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."

I'm trying lots of stuff to publicize my ebook original and just hoping half will work. I said I’d keep you up-to-date on my adventures in the terra incognita that is ebook land and so here goes.

As soon as Drop By Drop became available on Amazon and Smashwords, I emailed just about everyone on my contact list to let them know the news. That seemed to drive a spike in sales. I later put the ebook up on Barnesandnoble.com, but there hasn’t been much uptake there (yet?).

Through PRWeb, I circulated a press release. It was a reasonable $40 after using a coupon. Even at that bargain price, I didn’t detect any signs it did much. It sure as heck didn’t generate any press inquiries.

I’ve blogged here and at my own blog. Over at The Rap Sheet, I recounted “The Story Behind The Story" of Drop by Drop. Here's a sample.

"The Intelligence Committee had just been made permanent based on the recommendation of the Church Committee, which had deemed the CIA a 'rogue elephant.' I started as the junior of three lawyers on the committee staff. Before the end of my first year, the other two had left. I was 27 years old and suddenly the senior attorney on the committee overseeing the government’s secret intelligence activities. Holy shit!"

The Rap Sheet is a pretty popular ezine (with good reason), and my column was picked up by dozens of other sites. A blog called Indie Bee Covers managed to make me confess that if I could be any fictional character, I'd be Frank Hardy, Fenton's son and Joe's big brother.

Garnering reviews from the regular suspects is tough. Daily newspapers have been shedding book reviewers for years. I’m a subscriber to the mags Mystery Scene and Crimespree. I emailed the editors, but they’re not reviewing ebook originals – yet. I sent out a tweet asking if any online reviewers wanted a copy of the ebook. My tweet was re-tweeted and a couple of terrific reviews resulted. Therese Poletti, the high tech columnist for Dow Jones’s Marketwatch, interviewed me for her piece called "E-books causing seismic shift in publishing." About publishing Drop By Drop as an ebook original, she quotes me saying, "It’s both exciting and scary. I am a tech guy. I like trying new stuff and figuring this out." (No news if you've been reading my pieces here.) A local newspaper and TV show will have me discussing how the ebook revolution is affecting a working writer. We should see what they come up with soon.

Brick-and-mortar bookstores like Kepler’s, M Is for Mystery, and Books Inc, were huge supporters of my first two books, but what can they do with an ebook? A signing? There’s nothing to inscribe. And they don’t have ebooks sitting on the shelves. (I am going to be on a panel at Books Inc in Berkeley next Monday, but they’ll be stocking Dot Dead and Smasher for me to sign.) The Palo Alto Library sent me an email asking if I would come by for a talk on Drop By Drop, but they need to have copies to loan out. Ebook format is okay with them, but the only way they get ebooks to loan is through a service such as Overdrive. I did fill out an online form for Overdrive, but since they seem focused on dealing with publishers than authors, I am not optimistic.

I’m doing advertising on Facebook and Goodreads, but not getting too many clicks on them. (That's one of the three ads on Goodreads above.) Since I pay only for the click-throughs, this is an experiment that isn’t costing much. I have high hopes for the advertising I have planned on an email newsletter that goes out to Kindle readers, but that won’t happen till October. No space until then.

I should have a book trailer soon and will look forward to pasting that on my website and everywhere else I can think of.

Andy Gross, the thriller writer (and terrific guy) whose books show up on The New York Times bestseller list every year, sent me a blurb: “No one puts the crosshairs on Washington, terrorism, and intrigue better than Keith Raffel. Do yourself a favor and read Drop By Drop!” I immediately put it up on my website and in the book descriptions on Amazon and Goodreads. (Andy's Kirkus-starred Eyes Wide Open is out July 12.) Hank Phillippi Ryan, who has won 26 Emmys as one of the country's top investigative reporters on Boston's WHDH-TV, has also managed to pick up a triple crown of crime fiction awards -- Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity. Hank is a class act and whip smart, but must have had a rare lapse of judgment last night when she emailed me that Drop By Drop is "intriguing, intense, and with such an insider's knowledge of the war on terror that I'm surprised it's not classified. Sinister, scary, and heart-stoppingly realistic--this is a gem of a thriller!" Can't wait to use that, too!

It’s terrific that Jess, Gin, Karen, and Joanna's ebooks published by Midnight Ink are doing so well at prices under $3. I just wonder what MI is doing to publicize them. With a couple of the books in the top 100, they are doing something right!

When you get a paper-and-ink book out, you have a pretty limited time to make a splash. After a few months, bookstores send their stock back to the publisher. With an ebook, things can take time to ripen. It’s against my nature to be patient, but I do believe more reviews from readers will come and word-of-mouth will build. Or at least I hope so!

As always, I’m open to comments and words of advice. Please send them along!

The Real Deal on My Ebook

Keith Raffel here.

As I wrote in my last posting here, I’m doing some diversification of my literary portfolio. My agent in New York has a manuscript he’s circulating to publishers. He even has another in his back pocket. So I held back a third manuscript and have decided to publish it as an ebook original. Drop By Drop draws heavily on the four years I spent in Washington working as the counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Once I decided to go down the ebook route, all those housekeeping chores the publisher had done on my first two books became my responsibility. So I figured out how to copyright the manuscript, obtain an ISBN number, and more.

Then there’s coming up with a cover. I didn’t have much to do with the cover on my first two books. The publisher asked for ideas for a cover for Dot Dead. I said any cover was okay with me except for a woman dead in a bed. Guess what showed up on the cover? (See left. Over time, it did grow on me.) When the publisher came up with a preliminary cover for Smasher, I was delighted to be asked for comments. I took the request seriously and showed it to a few trusted booksellers and relayed their suggestions back to the publisher. No changes were made.

With Drop By Drop I was on my own for the cover. I found a designer and told him what I had in mind. I took the first draft of the cover and posted it up on Facebook for comments. It turns out my friends, especially Shelly, know what they’re talking about. This time suggestions were taken into account, and we discarded a tricolor cover and ended up with the one on the left.

Over the weekend I uploaded the text of Drop by Drop onto Amazon (click here) and Smashwords (click here). Smashwords in turn makes certain the ebook goes into the catalogs of Apple’s iBookstore and Barnesandnoble.com. I'll let you know how things go.

IT’S MAGIC!

Darrell James

Storytelling is an art. It’s also maybe a science. Stephen King has related the relationship between writer and reader as a kind of mental telepathy, where thoughts and ideas are exchanged through words and word pictures. A means of lifting imaginings from one psyche to imprint them emotionally on another.

It’s magic really. And awesomely wonderful to boot. It inspires questions from readers and aspiring writers alike about how the process of creating a story takes place. And what makes a story work? The most often asked question is “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer is always “anywhere” and “everywhere”. (A truthful but not very helpful response.) My answer is that I usually start with an idea that simply intrigues me. Something that I find personally fascinating, a tickle of curiosity. My goal, in starting, is to tell myself a “really great story”. And do so in a way that fills my imagination. My assumption is that if I can thrill myself beyond belief, then others will thrill as well.

From there, the work begins. Characters must be imagined and brought to life. Relationships are defined. Conflict must arise. (Good is almost always pit against evil.) And a hero or heroine, with much to lose, must emerge to right the wrong, and do so against all odds. (Or at least that’s my approach.)

My forthcoming novel, NAZARETH CHILD, was conceived in just this manner. An idea that has always fascinated me (the idea on which this book is founded) is the idea of charismatic power. That found in the likes of Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite (You remember, Do, the Haven’s Gate guy?), self-proclaimed prophets and messiahs. Who are these dominant types? From where does their power to influence come? What motivates them? What secret of life do they possess (or believe they possess)? And, why… seemingly against all reason… do thousands, sometimes millions, follow?

The story introduces Del Shannon, a young female investigator who works for Desert Sands Covert in Tucson, a firm that specializes in finding and recovering missing persons. She’s smart and tough, but mostly she’s determined. A woman in a man’s world. Del enters this debut novel already well acknowledged as being good at what she does. Ironically, despite a lifelong search, the one person Del has never been able to find is the mother she’s never known. Secrets surround her mother’s existence. And her father, Roy Shannon, has guarded those secrets with vengeful determination. Even the family Bible’s genealogy pages have been torn away to conceal the past.

Whatever became of Ella Shannon?

When a seemingly unrelated federal investigation, into the infamous, faith healer, Silas Rule, brings authorities to her door, Del learns of an abandoned property in the clannish hill community of Nazareth Church, Kentucky— surprisingly still owned by her father. There, Del’s quest takes her into confrontation with this charismatic leader, who seems to hold the key. Is her mother alive or dead? And what secrets does the healer work to conceal? Only through Silas will Del find the answers. But can she survive the truth?

It’s an emotionally charged tale of love and retribution. I thrilled to writing it. I hope you’ll thrill to reading it.

NAZARETH CHILD is scheduled for release, from Midnight Ink/Llewellyn Worldwide Publishing, in September. It is currently available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon.

"James cranks up the tension while spinning a classic tale of good versus evil.” —Paul Levine, author of Lassiter.

www.darrelljames.com

A Little Help from My Friends

Keith here.

We authors try to believe it's the quality of our prose, the unforgettable nature of our characters, the verve of our plotting, and the freshness of our voice that really count in winning over readers. Maybe. But to win them over in the first place, we have to get them to pick up -- or look online at -- what we've written. That makes the title and the cover of our books critical to their success.

It's a little early to worry about the cover of my work-in-progress. As Jessie noted in her post yesterday, some writers need a title to start writing. Not me. But since I have a draft done, I think it is time to start working on a title.

I came up with the title of my last book in online discussions with blog-friends (here and here) and I'm hoping for a little help from my friends this time, too.



How much do you have to know about the book to come up with the right title? Not much, I think, because the whole point is to attract readers even before they know anything about the book. Okay then. I'm looking for something compelling. So far I've been calling it Two Octobers which doesn't exactly cry out, "Read me." Here are some alternatives I've been mulling over.

1. Brinksmanship
2. Two Times on the Brink
3. War and Love, Won and Lost
4. Twice at the Edge
5. Two Octobers on the Edge of War
6. Two Octobers on the Brink

Now that you've seen some potential titles, should I tell you a little more about the book? Maybe one of you will have an inspiration that trumps any of mine. The book opens at Stanford U in 1940 and then skips ahead to Washington, DC in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK, of course, plays a role. The idea, of course, is to prevent the world from being blown up.

Please leave a comment, opinion, suggestion, or preference.

I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

THANK YOU!

Thrills (Really!) and Chills (Anything But!) in NYC

Keith here.

The last three years I stayed with friends on the Upper West Side when I went to ThrillerFest. This year they were out of town, but told me their apartment was mine for the week. So I brought #3, my 14 year-old, for a few days of pre-conference sightseeing beginning on July 5. (Did my friends know something I didn't? They were away on an Arctic cruise. The temp in the City hit 103 degrees while we were there.)

I shipped #3 back to California on Thursday afternoon, July 8, when ThrillerFest began. The feet above belong to pal Andy Gross who's managed to combine his previous career in sportswear with his current one penning bestsellers. After the opening reception, Andy led a bunch of us to a Greek seafood place where the food was almost as good as the conversation. Sat next to Otto Penzler, who it turns out, reveres Ross Thomas's thrillers as much as I do. Also slung words back and forth over the table with Michael Palmer, who told me how he got a blurb from Bill Clinton, aspiring novelist Dr. Julia Kinder, Haligonian Pam Callow ("Halifax's answer to both John Grisham and Tess Gerritsen"), and thriller writers Julie Compton, Carla Buckley, and Alan Orloff.

Friday night we cabbed it over to a terrific party at Otto Penzler's terrific Mysterious Bookshop where I met the latest Swedish thriller sensation, Camilla Lackberg. Afterwards, the gang in the photo above had a great time at dinner. (Or at least I did.) From left: me, Dana Kaye, Robin Burcell, Craig Reid, Rick Mofina, and Julie Kramer. Then it was to the bar and schmoozing with, among others, two of the best of Boston, Hank Phillippi Ryan, who was just down for the day , and Joe Finder, who'd just been interviewed by Russian TV about the sleeper agents that had been arrested and then exchanged.

Found time Saturday to grab a bite with old pal and International Thriller Writers co-president Joe Moore. Steve Martini joined us mid-chew. Now it wasn't all play (just mostly). Saturday afternoon I sat on a panel led by Edgar Winner David Ellis (at far right) that also included (from right) Karna Small Bodman, Don Helin, Casey Moreton, me, and Rick Robinson. Considering we were up against other panels led by the fabulous ITW co-president Steve Berry and Andy Gross of distinctive footwear fame, we drew pretty well.

I didn't go the awards banquet on Saturday night. For shame. But wouldn't you know it -- I showed up for the after-party anyway. Here I am with the glamorous ITW Vice President of National Events, Kath Antrim. What a fabulous job she, Shane Gericke, Liz Berry, and their army of volunteers did!

It looks like a fight is about to break between me and singing debut author Brad Parks on the far right, doesn't it? Fortunately, Dr. Kinder, next to me, and Alan Orloff, next to Brad, kept us apart.

The after-party in the ballroom ended around midnight and then the after-after-party in the hotel bar ended around one-thirty. I was headed back to the Upper West Side and a few hours sleep when bro Marcus Sakey shanghaied me to an Irish bar down Lexington Avenue. (That's the talented LA novelist Steve Schwartz on the right and Dutton publicity manager Amanda Walker squeezed in between Steve and Marcus. All three look pretty good for three in the morning, don't they?)

Before leaving Sunday, I had to get a photo of Nellybelle, Pat Brady's jeep on The Roy Rogers Show. I grew up watching reruns of that program. Anyway, Nellybelle along with Roy's horse Trigger are being auctioned off by Christie's this week. (I got a look at Trigger. He might be stuffed, but still looks great for his age.)

Now reading this column over, I realize I didn't spend any time recapping what I learned at the conference's panels and interviews. Tough. Read about that stuff elsewhere.

See you at ThrillerFest next year?

A Dozen Quotes for Writers

Keith here.

Although I have nothing philosophically against them, I'm not one of those guys whose office is festooned with inspirational posters. You know the kind I mean -- some quote written over a picture of a soaring eagle, crashing wave, or fluttering flag. Still along the way, I have collected some quotations that have applicability to the writer's life (or at least to this writer's life). Here's a list of a dozen favorites. They do not come with any guarantee as to veracity. Some are listed because they amuse me, some because they seem wise, and some because, I must admit, they inspire me.

1. "Writing is easy; I just open a vein and bleed." Red Smith, journalist

2. "This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." Winston Churchill, politician/writer

3. "Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look?" Lennon & McCartney

4. "Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." E.L. Doctorow, novelist

5. "Whenever I am asked what kind of writing is the most lucrative, I have to say ransom notes." H.N. Swanson, literary agent

6. "I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way. In some instances the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it is something I never expected.... If I'm not able to guess with any accuracy how the damned thing is going to turn out..., I can be pretty sure of keeping the reader in a state of page-turning anxiety." Stephen King, novelist

7. "Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep." Buffalo Springfield

8. "The instant my first book was accepted for publication, I switched from being delusional to being tenacious." L.M. Vincent, author

9. "In our field there are only two kinds of stories -- the salable and the unsalable. Our highest acclaim is a two word sentence -- 'It sold.'" William Campbell Gault, novelist

10. "On all great subjects, much remains to be said." John Stuart Mill, philosopher

11. "Happy and bouyant don't force you into action on the page; you go shopping when you're up." Margaret Drabble, novelist

12. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Samuel Johnson, man of letters

Please add your own favorites in the comment section!