INKSPOT NEWS - September 29, 2012

Next weekend (Thursday, October 4th - Sunday, October 7th), many Midnight Ink authors will be at the Bouchercon 2012 conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Below are a list of our panel appearances. If you're attending, please attend our panels and stop by and say hi at the signings afterward!


Thursday, October 4:
12:15 - 1:05 PM, "It's Just a Job" Panel, Alice Loweecey
2:45 - 3:35 PM,  "50 Shades of Cozy" Panel, Catriona McPherson
2:45 - 3:35 PM, "Have Gun Will Murder" Panel, Darrell James

Friday, October 5:
7:30-8:45 AM, "New Author Coffee Hour," Sheila Boneham
9:00 - 9:50 AM, "Those Crafty Sleuths" Panel, Joanna Campbell Slan, Lois Winston
11:30 AM - 12:20 PM, "Murder in Small Town USA" Panel, Jess Lourey
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM, making fabric yo-yo greeting cards in the crafts room, Lois Winston

Saturday, October 6:
1:00 - 2:00 PM, making fabric yo-yo greeting cards in the crafts room, Lois Winston
1:30 - 2:20 PM, "He Said. He Replied. He Gasped." Panel, Alan Orloff, Jessie Chandler
1:30 - 2:20 PM, "Avoid the Unbelievable" Panel, Maggie Sefton
1:30 - 2:20 PM, "Historical WhoDunnits" Panel, Joanna Campbell Slan

Sunday, October 7:
9:00 - 9:50 AM, "True Grit" Panel, Colin Campbell
9:00 - 9:50 AM, "Red Herrings" Panel, Beth Groundwater, Keith Raffel

Also, there will be a Midnight Ink Autographing Hour in the Book Room from 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM on Saturday, featuring Sheila Boneham, Colin Campbell, Darrell James, and Maggie Sefton.

----------

Sheila Webster Boneham is launching her new Animals in Focus mystery, Drop Dead on Recall, with a "virtual book launch" online to benefit canine health research. A portion of sales made through the event, running now through October 11, go to support research into canine health issues, and the results of that research often benefit human medicine, too. For information, click here to Drop Dead for Healthy Dogs!

Don't Forget About the Cat!





My new mystery, Drop Dead on Recall, has been characterized by many people as a dog-centered book, not without reason. It opens at a dog show, where a top-ranked obedience competitor keels over during the drop on recall exercise. (Aha! That's what the title means!) Besides, much of the plot revolves around a group of dog fancers and their dogs. In fact, let me introduce the main dogs of book one - or at least dogs that could be them.


My Australian Shepherd, Jay, is now playing at the Rainbow Bridge, but he kept my feet warm while I wrote Drop Dead on Recall, and he inspired the series protagdog, also named Jay. Here Jay is performing  the "retrieve over the high jump" in the Open obedience class at a trial.



These handsome Border Collies could be Pip and Fly, who
figure prominantly in the plot.



This handsome Labrador Retriever cold easily be Drake,
Jay's new friend and main dog of Janet's new, well, friend,
because really, she doesn't want to complicate her life.Right?
(Drake also is a major player in the sequel to
Drop Dead on Recall.)

But hold on! The whole book hasn't gone to the dogs, has it? Indeed, no! Janet and Jay share their home with a very important orange tabby. Leo is a major player throughout the book, and something of a hero cat, even if he is a sucker for catnip and sardines.

Kitty, one of the inspirations for Leo's character, knew that dogs can be fun (as long as they know who's really in charge).

So if you're a fan of felines in mysteries, don't judge Drop Dead on Recall by its cover. Just have a seat, open the book, and Leo will be there for a nose bump in no time. For more about the book, including reviews, click here.

---

Leo would also like you to Drop Dead for Healthy Dogs! Check out my virtual book launch to benefit canine health research from now through October 11. For more information, click here. Meow!

Follow Sheila on Facebook or Twitter, or through her website at sheilaboneham.com.

On High School Reunions

I'm fresh off the plane from my 10th (cough, cough, cough) high school reunion. I'm completely beat from hanging out with all the old people, who I'm here to tell you, can still really party despite the extra pounds, gray hair, baldness and, lord help me, grandchildren. I'm going to make this brief due to the headache from staying up past my bedtime for too many nights and a yoga class with my 75 year old father in which I found myself doing a headstand.

In any case, high school reunions are kinda awesome for a variety of reasons, but here are my top ten from a writerly perspective:

1. You get to see the overall story arc of a group of people you've known in many cases since childhood.
2. Is there anything more fascinating than the evolution or non-evolution of people you've grown up with?
3. In so many cases, the careers, spouses and personalities were eerily close to what I'd imagined, but what of those few people who threw me for a loop?
4. Why was it those voted Most Likely To generally didn't and, more interesting, what did they do instead?
5. The physical changes, both positive and negative.
6. The cliques and how they still impact classmates who stayed in our hometown.
7. How much and how little people really change.
8. How and why time truly is the great equalizer.
9. Where else could you possibly find so many fleshed out potential characters in one place?
10. The stories!

No Need to Run, No Need to Hide

by Shannon Baker

Anyone else out there remember Chambawamba’s song Tubthumping? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc

Every now and then I need to pull that one out and listen to it, you know, when I get clubbed upside the head with life.

I’ve always been blessed with a certain shallowness that allows me to keep floating through life, even when unexpected setbacks arise. Or maybe it’s because, as the third and youngest child of an exhausted mother, I learned early to self-soothe. I have an overdeveloped denial muscle and experience has shown me that if I delay panic, often the crisis passes and I won’t have to deal with any bad feelings.

I think I took this coping mechanism to extremes standing in the hospital hallway eighteen years ago, when the doctor told us my father had a brain tumor and only days to live. I turned to my sobbing sister and said, “Don’t over-react; he’s not dead, yet.”

Sometimes people don’t understand me.  

And sometimes I’m just plain wrong.

In this political season, I prefer to avoid all the issues. It’s not a responsible reaction, of course. I call it Head-in-the-Sand syndrome and I’m pretty happy with it. I vote and this year, I’m swinging in the great state of Colorado so it’s super important. I’m not ignorant, thereby avoiding true bliss, but I refuse to join in the political fray.

Never-the-less, denial and avoidance can only go so far and occasionally I have to face the Truth. When that happens, I resort to a collection of music (old, because, well, I’m old). It’s my Disaster Playlist. It got really long during and after my divorce. These days, after several broken and lost computers and destroyed CD’s (yes, I collected them before iPods) and a relatively peaceful life, my play list is pretty small.

Today, though, I’ll be cranking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxLWFTIvRnMby Jem and remembering that It’s Just a Ride.

For anyone having a bad week, remember if you get knocked down, you’ll get up again, they’re never gonna keep you down.

What’s on your Disaster Playlist?

Naming Characters After Real People

By Beth Groundwater

Many people ask me if any of my characters are based on real people in my life. The answer is always no, with one exception. Sometimes when I attend a mystery fan conference, I will put a character name in an upcoming novel up for bid in the silent or live auction they often have for a literacy-related charity.

Usually, the novel has already been written, though, so what people are bidding on is the privilege of their name being used for an existing character. Also usually, that existing character is not one of the main characters, and not a character that will continue on in future books in the series. So, I already know something about the character, but I don't know them to the depth that I know my main characters, such as my sleuths, Mandy Tanner and Claire Hanover.

That gives me the leeway to add or modify a secondary character's personality and background to match key aspects of the winner of the name of that character. And that's the fun and the challenge for me, to incorporate as much of the winner as I can in the fictional character--even if the character is evil, the villain, or the victim. Of course, mystery fans just LOOOOVE being the victim or villain!

I recently turned in the revised manuscript for the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series, titled Fatal Descent. In the book, Mandy Tanner and her boyfriend Rob, who own an outfitting company together, take a group of clients on a whitewater rafting trip down Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River in Utah. At least one of those clients will not make it out alive, and Mandy, Rob and their two trusted guides, Gonzo and Kendra, must keep their clients safe while at the same time figure out whodunnit.

At this spring's Malice Domestic conference, two people "won" (bid the highest amount for) character names in the book. Their names will become public fodder when the book is published in May, 2013, so I might as well get them used to the notoriety now! One winner was a man, Tom O'Day, and the other was a woman, Maureen (Mo) Heedles. I collected email addresses from both and communicated after the conference with both about what character they'd like to "be."

In Mo's case, I have three married female friends who go on this fatal trip with Mandy and Rob to get away from their husbands and kids. One is an animal track spotter, one is a wildflower enthusiast, and one is a birder. Some of these areas of expertise turn out to be useful in the solving of the crime. I asked Mo if she'd like her name to be used for one of these three characters. She replied that she is an avid flower gardener, loves wildflowers, and takes photographs of flowers that she hangs in her kitchen gallery. So, I gave my wildflower enthusiast Mo's name, added a line of dialogue where she mentions her kitchen gallery of wildflower photos, and made sure she snaps some photos of flowers on the trip. I was able to use a few other characteristics that Mo gave me in an email about herself, but I'll leave those as a surprise for her to find when she reads the book. ;-)

In Tom's case, he is an avid bidder on character names in mystery novels and told me that he has enjoyed being characterized as a villain or evil-doer in past novels. He also told me that as a teenager, he wanted to be involved in the outdoor life as a park ranger. I couldn't name any of my four river guides (Mandy, Rob, Gonzo, Kendra) on the Fatal Descent trip into Cataract Canyon after him, because they are all recurring characters that have already appeared in other books of the series. However, one other guide comes along on the trip--a climbing guide, since the trip includes some rock climbing adventures. This guide, who goes by the nickname of Cool, is a womanizer who manages to piss off both Mandy and many of the female clients with his overtures. What a delicious ever-doer for Tom to become! ;-) Again, I was able to use some other characteristics that he gave me in an email about himself, but I won't ruin the fun he'll have in discovering them when he reads the book.

Making these changes to two of the characters in Fatal Descent meant more work for me, in addition to addressing the revision requests that my editor gave me, but they also made the revision process more fun. I hope Tom (Cool) and Mo are pleased with the result!

Have you ever had a character named after you in a mystery novel? If so, please tell all! What did you think of the experience?

KILLER FIRST LINES

by Lois Winston

I'm a firm believer in books needing killer first lines. No, I don't mean the killer should appear in the first line of a mystery, nor that the murder should occur at the very beginning of the book. I'm talking about first lines that grab hold of a reader and don't let go, the kind of first lines that pique a reader's curiosity and make him or her want to keep reading.

I learned the importance of killer first lines years ago when I attended a workshop given by a literary agent. He spoke about the importance of the first few pages of a book, how it's your one and only chance to impress editors and agents. Because if they're not impressed after a page or two, they're not going to keep reading.

From that day on, I decided that not only would my opening pages be free of back-story, unimportant details, filler, and boring descriptions, I'd make sure that I hooked the reader with my opening sentence. And I developed a philosophy about first chapters:

The first sentence of a novel should make the reader want to read the second sentence. And that second sentence should make the reader want to read the third. And so on, until you have a paragraph that becomes a hook that grabs the reader and won’t let go.  That first paragraph should do for the first page what the first sentence did for the first paragraph, and the first page should do for the subsequent pages in the chapter what the first paragraph did for the first page.

Of course, not all readers are going to be hooked by what I write. Taste is subjective, after all. However, once I went back and revised my first chapters, based on this agent's talk, I began receiving more requests for full manuscripts from editors and agents and less rejections. Eventually, those requests led to offers of publication.

I recently proofed the galleys for Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. The first line is:

"If that damn woman doesn't shut up, I'm going to strangle her!"

Have I hooked you?  

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, a January 2011 release, is the first book in the series and received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews dubbed it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum” Death By Killer Mop Dollwas released this past January. Revenge of the Crafty Corpse will be a January 2013 release.

Lois has also recently embarked on an indie publishing career, releasing some of her earlier romance, romantic suspense, and chick lit books under the pen name Emma Carlyle. Now through the end of October, Lois is donating $500 to breast cancer research for every 1,000 Emma Carlyle books sold. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com , visit Emma at http://www.emmacarlyle.com , and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers character blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.