INKSPOT NEWS - December 1, 2012

On Thursday, December 6, 2012, Beth Groundwater will discuss and sign copies of her new Midnight Ink release, To Hell in a Handbasket, at the monthly 6 PM Dies Librorum dinner social at The Book Haven bookstore, 128 F Street, Salida, CO 81201. Beth will also provide handouts on Ten Tips for Making Gift Baskets. Reservations are required.

On Saturday, December 1,2012: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are right around the corner. Here’s your chance to complete your holiday book-buying needs all at once. Come to One More Page Books, 2200 N. Westmoreland Street, Arlington, VA, 703-300-9746 to hear from and mingle with 16 authors who’ve had something new published this year in the mystery field. Booksellers from One More Page will be there to sell books, helping you avoid shopping for holiday gifts at the mall or waiting for them to come in the mail. This is free and open to the public and begins at 1pm.
Which authors will there? Donna Andrews, David Autry, Karen Cantwell, Jacqueline Corcoran, Meriah Crawford, Maddi Davidson, E.B. Davis, Barb Goffman, Jennifer Harlow, Smita Harish Jain, C. Ellett Logan, G.M. Malliet, Alan Orloff, Sandra Parshall, Marcia Talley, and Art Taylor.

Creating Both Internal and External Conflict

by Beth Groundwater

Early in my writing career, I learned that in commercial fiction, there must always be conflict. Dwight Swain succinctly defines conflict as “two dogs, one bone.” The protagonist wants or needs something and has to fight to get it. And in most novels, we authors need to create both external conflict and internal conflict to engage and captivate readers.

External conflict happens in the physical world: space colonists fight alien invaders in a science fiction novel, the heroine struggles to escape after being kidnapped by the villain in a romance novel, the sleuth must find a killer covering his tracks in a murder mystery. Internal conflict happens in the emotional landscape of the novel and usually involves the protagonist needing to learn a life lesson, conquer an inner fear, solve a relationship problem, or surmount some emotional barrier.

The most interesting plots intertwine multiple external and internal conflicts of multiple characters. They feed on one another, successively raising the stakes until the final crisis or “black moment.” In a mystery, the primary external conflict is the need to solve the crime and find the murderer, while the internal conflict can be any emotional issue that must be faced by the sleuth while investigating the murder. This close relationship between the primary external and internal conflicts is one that I strove for in both of my published Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery books, A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket, the second of which was just re-released in trade paperback and ebook by Midnight Ink on November 8th.

In A Real Basket Case, the main external conflict is that a massage therapist is shot dead while giving Claire a massage and her husband is wrongly accused of the crime. Claire must convince the local police to reopen the case and look for the real killer. The internal conflict is that this event shatters Claire’s marriage, making her husband Roger believe she was having an affair and putting Claire on the defensive to prove her love to him and rescue their marriage.

Similarly, Claire’s initial external conflict in To Hell in a Handbasket is to convince local authorities that a young woman’s death on the ski slope of Breckenridge, Colorado was a murder, not an accident, as seen in this snippet of a scene:

Realizing the senior ski patroller didn’t believe her, Claire kept pushing. “The ski tracks came straight out of the woods above the collision point. No turns. If the skier was the one who hit her, either he never saw Stephanie or he deliberately hit her.”

Judy stared at her mother. “You think someone killed her on purpose?”

“Whoa.” Matthews put out his hands. “You’re getting carried away here.”

The internal conflict in To Hell in a Handbasket is Claire’s reluctance to let go of her college-aged daughter, Judy, who is eager to leave the nest. Claire worries about Judy’s safety as a result of Stephanie’s death on a ski slope, but Judy refuses her mother’s smothering protective measures. An early hint of this conflict is given in these lines:

A surge of jealousy engulfed Claire. Judy had shrugged off her mother’s attempts at comfort, and now she clung to her boyfriend like ivy sucking life from a tree.

By setting roadblocks in Claire’s way, increasing the danger to her daughter and Claire’s confusion about what’s happening, and precipitating arguments between the two, my job as an author was to continually “make things worse” in Claire’s life. That way, readers can worry about her and root for her to succeed. For those who read the book, I hope you enjoy the wild ride that Claire takes in To Hell in a Handbasket!

Do you have any favorite examples of external or internal conflicts in books you’ve read--or written?

Going To Hell in a Handbasket

By Beth Groundwater

(Keep reading to the end to find out about a contest!)

Very soon, on November 8th, my fourth mystery novel published by Midnight Ink will be released. It is the trade paperback and ebook editions of To Hell in a Handbasket, the second book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series. The new edition includes a bold, bright purple cover that I just love!

In the book, gift basket designer Claire Hanover is reluctantly enjoying a spring ski vacation with her family in Breckenridge, Colorado, when a bloodcurdling scream cuts the frigid air. Claire is appalled to find the sister of her daughter’s boyfriend dead on the slopes. Others assume the girl’s death was an accident, but Claire notices another pair of ski tracks veering dangerously into the victim’s path. To protect her daughter as incriminating clues surface, Claire unravels a chilling conspiracy.

To Hell in a Handbasket received some good reviews when it was first released in hardcover in 2009:

"Groundwater's second leaves the bunny slope behind, offering some genuine black-diamond thrills."
        -- Kirkus Review, April 1, 2009

"How it all plays out makes for an engrossing and entertaining mystery that keeps you reading until the final page. Tightly plotted and very current, the story manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. Even though the physical violence is off screen, the tension comes from the potential danger to the characters you've met and come to be concerned about."
        -- Gayle Surrette, Gumshoe Review, May 1, 2009

"Groundwater follows her Agatha-nominated debut with a solid mystery that should broaden her fan base."
        -- Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries, May 5, 2009

"Don't mess with Mama Bear. Mothers will be able to identify with Claire Hanover, who goes into protective mode when her daughter is threatened in Beth Groundwater's To Hell in a Handbasket…Groundwater's book is a fast-paced family mystery, for readers who enjoy Diane Mott Davidson's books. The book has the same family feeling that Davidson's fans will appreciate."
        -- Lesa Holstine, Lesa’s Book Critiques, May 24, 2009

I'm hoping that these new, less expensive formats will gain me many more readers--and many more reviews (on Amazon, Goodreads, etc.) from those readers!

I'm doing my best to find ways to promote the release, but it is often hard to promote a re-release. Bookstores who hosted a signing for the hardcover edition are reluctant to do so again for the trade paperback, even though three and a half years have passed. And, living in ski country in Colorado, I'm reluctant to commit to driving to events more than an hour away in November and December. We DO get a lot of snow in the winter around here! ;-)

So, with this release, I'm focusing on on-line promotion, such as: interviews, blog visits, newsletters, chats, announcements on mystery-writing organization websites, etc. I also decided to have a contest HERE for Inkspot readers. You can enter the contest to get a free autographed trade paperback copy of To Hell in a Handbasket sent to you by doing two things:

1. Leave a comment or question for me on this post.
2. Sign up to follow Inkspot, if you aren't already a follower. (If you're already a follower, you're in!)

That's it! Easy peasy. Check back here tomorrow to find out who the winner is. I'll draw a random number at random.org to pick someone. Good luck. Let's have some fun!

Being in the Inside Crowd

A couple of recent happenings have made me realize that, after seven months of living in the small resort town of Breckenridge, I now feel like a local, part of the "inside crowd." And, being an author who has traditionally published multiple books, I realized I'm feeling the same way about the publishing industry.

(View of Breckenridge, looking west toward the ski area, by Neil Groundwater.)

(View of Breckenridge, looking east, by Neil Groundwater.)

Back to Breckenridge. The first happening that made me feel I belonged was when my Midnight Ink editor asked me if I wanted to add a Dedication to the trade paperback/ebook edition of To Hell in a Handbasket. The book will be re-released in November and it is set in Breckenridge. I decided to dedicate it this way: "To Breckenridge, my new home town, for welcoming my husband and me with open arms." The second happening was a typical day of errands, where I ran into a local friend at the Recreation Center, then into another at the dentist's office, and finally a third at the Post Office. (The USPS doesn't deliver mail to individual homes and businesses here, so everyone has to get a Post Office box and pick up their mail.)

Then I drove the few blocks home, snaking my way between jaywalking tourists, and it hit me. Yup, unlike them, I'm a local! I'll still be here when their summer vacations are over, and I'll still be here when the skiers' winter vacations are over. I vote here, I get my hair cut and my teeth cleaned here, I pick up my CSA organic vegetables at a nearby house each week, and I belong to a local book club, hiking group, and the Friends of the Summit County Library (and the librarians know me as the "local mystery author").

Similarly, I feel comfortable now in the publishing world. Before I was published, I felt like a tourist, peeking into bookstore windows, saying to myself that someday my own title would be on display. And now, I often find my books on bookstores and library shelves. When I go to mystery fan conventions, I feel comfortable talking to other authors as an equal. I am recognized and respected as an author by readers. When I contact or am contacted by booksellers or librarians to schedule events, I know that they can easily research me on the Internet and find out that I am an established mystery author with four books out and two in the works for 2013. I'm a "local" in the publishing industry, part of the inside crowd.

It's taken me a LOT longer to get that feeling in the publishing world, though, than it took me in Breckenridge! For many, many years as an aspiring author, I longed to become part of that inside crowd. Once I started publishing books, though, I was so busy writing, editing, and promoting, that I didn't realize that I HAD gradually become an insider. It wasn't until I had the similar experience of getting assimilated into a new home town that I realized the parallel.

For other writers, published and unpublished, what are your experiences in feeling like you are a part of the inside crowd in the publishing industry--or not? For readers, have you had similar transitions where you gradually became part of the inside crowd? What kind of crowd? What did you do to become an insider?

Spoilerville

Today I'm announcing my participation in a new project called Spoilerville. It's a website created by mystery author Jan Burke to provide a place for authors and readers to discuss books without fear of causing riots on lists and blogs, and without spoiling the fun of those who haven’t read those books yet. In these discussions, we can talk about who died and why and reveal all the secrets, including "whodunnit," while asking and answering questions about the plot, characters, themes and other issues in books.

Spoilerville is just getting off the ground and new authors and their books are being added every day. If you're an author and would like to be added to the site, go HERE. If you're a reader who has just been dying to know why an author did X in book Y or what other readers think about it, go to Spoilerville and see if the author has signed up yet.

I've signed up, and I'll periodically check the topics put in place for my three published mystery books, including Deadly Currents, the first book in my Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventure series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner, and the first two books in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer series, A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket.

So, if you have a question you've been dying to ask me or other readers about one of these books that reveals something that happens in the book, ask away! That's what Spoilerville is for. I'm hoping this project succeeds and provides a safe place for some interesting discussions. I've started the ball rolling by posting one comment each on the topics for A Real Basket Case and To Hell in a Handbasket.