Why Do You Choose Certain Authors?

I attended the Malice Domestic Convention this past weekend.  Malice Domestic celebrates traditional mystery literature, the kind Agatha Christie wrote, with bodies in the library and such.  Nowadays, the definition is a bit broader, with bodies everywhere from Cabot Cove, Maine to the mean streets of LA, and around the world, but at Malice, you'll still find more whodunits than dark, gritty thrillers.

I could write pages about all the terrific fans and writers I met.  I found some new authors, like J.J. Murphy who writes about Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, and John Cullen, who deciphered Dame Agatha's handwriting and transcribed her writing notebooks.

Instead, I'll mention one discussion that got me thinking about  why readers choose certain authors.  We were talking about law mysteries.  One lawyer friend of mine said she doesn't read them.  She reads to escape and doesn't want to spend time in the same setting where she works.  Then she admitted that she does read Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series, saying "but she's a judge."

I thought about why I read the Deborah Knott series.  Not for the law aspect.  Maron's Carolina settings bring back to me the happy times I've spent vacationing and eating my way through that region.  I like the character of Deborah.  She's intelligent and down to earth, a person with whom I love to spend time.  I like  her big family and all their antics, all the brothers that I can't keep straight.  The mystery plots are always good.  Maron's prose is beautiful.  If you took the courtroom scenes away, I'd still read the series.

Lisa Scottoline's novels have lots of "law" in them, but I read those books more because I feel at home in them.  Mary DiNunzio's family isn't so different from mine.  I understand their notion of food equaling love.  And, having grown up in the Philadelphia area, the settings are familiar to me.  I can even vividly picture the Federal  Courthouse, because I did jury duty there.  Lisa makes the "law" parts of her books interesting, but frankly, I don't choose her novels because of them.

Still, lots of readers probably do read law mysteries for the law in them, just like some readers pick up cat mysteries specifically because of the cats, or cooking mysteries because of the food.  Yet, it's still important for authors to make their characters, plots and settings strong, to win over those readers not otherwise interested in their subject matter.

I had one fan this weekend say, "I don't normally like history, but I like your series," and another say the same thing about not usually liking ghosts in books.

That to me proves that what a lot of readers want is simply a good story.  I'd be interested in hearing your opinion.

Peace,
Elena

It's Here!

Yesterday copies of FEAR ITSELF showed up at my door.  One of the high points in a writer's life is holding one of your books in your hands for the first time.  This was an even than I expected because the books arrived a week early.  Of course, for all writers, reality settles in the next day and you have to get back to work selling the things.

To that end:  FEAR ITSELF is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through the bookseller of your choice.  Eventually, it will also be out as an ebook.

In the Never Fear Fear Itself Contest, I handled the final drawing this way.  I wrote all the previous winners names on slips of paper and dropped the papers down the stairwell from my upstairs hall.  The one that fluttered the farthest won.

The winner is Karen Mayers of San Bruno, CA.

Peace,
Elena

Too Many Hats

I think I've posted before about a writer's need to be 2 persons when working on a project.  One has to be creative, uninhibited and a bit zany. That's where the ideas come from, and the solutions, when you've painted your characters into a corner.  The other must be a persnickety, no-nonsense editor, who finds the misspellings, typos and plot loopholes, and who reigns in the creative other half enough that the story stays believable.

When the project's done, even more personalities have to kick in.  You need to be an outgoing salesperson to get that manuscript under the eyes of an agent or publisher.  You need a back-pocket lawyer to assess each contract.  You need a meticulous accountant who logs receipts and knows what goes onto a Schedule C (even if you don't do your own taxes, you have to know which receipts to keep, and be able to decipher a royalty statement).

The personality I've been the last few weeks has been the publicist.  These days, even in the big publishing  houses, no one's going to put many bucks or manpower behind promotion of your works.  That is, of course, unless you're fairly famous already.  THEN they'll publicize you.  Yes, ironic that authors get too little publicity until it isn't needed anymore, but that's reality.

So writers need to do their own promotion.  In recent years, it's become easier to do this online.  First of all, you need a website, which is your homebase.  Besides author, book and short story info, you can post photos, videos, excerpts, poems, recipes, games--anything that might be fun for the readers and can be tied back to one or more books or to you personally.

Sites like Amazon, BookTour, and GoodReads now all have author pages, letting you post your bio, photos, videos, events, and a link for your blog entries.  These are like mini-billboards for your products, and can all be linked back to your website.  I like the fact that I can list my events on BookTour and have them automatically appear on my home page.

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with fans.  You can post your events there and invite people, giving mere book signings more of a party atmosphere.  You can post photos of your covers and videos of book trailers.  You can have characters come out to play with fans.

Of course, you'll still have all the old-fashioned publicity chores--book signings/tours to organize, conventions to attend, business cards/bookmarks/postcards to have printed.  I like to bring some kind of promotional item to conventions and signings, too.  With my last novel, I passed out little pill bottles filled with M&Ms.  For DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS, I taped English toffees and butterscotch to business cards.  This year, I have mini Champagne bottles filled with bubble liquid.  Within 24 hours, the Malice Domestic Convention ought to look like the set for the Lawrence Welk Show.

So I've been working on all of these things.  When my FEAR ITSELF cover (above) showed up last week, promotion kicked into high gear.  The great thing about doing publicity--updating your online sites, seeing your cover for the first time, hearing from fans that they're looking forward to the book--is that it keeps you excited, and that means you'll carry more energy into signings and to conventions.

The bad thing is that being your own publicist takes so much time away from writing.

Peace,
Elena

Answers to 3rd Quiz

Here are the correct answers to Miss Maggie's 18th century quiz:

1. Elixir of vitriol was made from alcohol, "aromatics" (usually ginger or cinnamon), and sulfuric acid.  Yum. Makes castor oil sound like dessert.

2. The general who led Continental troops down the Williamsburg peninsula, tailing British general Cornwallis was Lafayette.  Washington was up north, keeping New York and Philadelphia safe while he coordinated the addition of French troops to the Continental ranks.  He joined Lafayette 2 months later at Yorktown.

3.  The 18th century anthology Pills to Purge Melancholy contained bawdy songs.

We have three winners:  Lelia Taylor, Karen Mayers, and J. Haupin.  They will each receive a free copy of the book of their choice by me and be entered in the grand drawing in late April for a free hot-off-the-press copy of FEAR ITSELF.

Peace,

Elena

Never Fear Fear Itself Contest #3 - Win a Free Book!

Here you go:  Quiz 3 of the Never Fear Fear Itself Contest.  The 3rd novel in the Possessed Mystery Series is POISON TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, a trip back in time to 1783 Williamsburg.  In it, you'll find early American Yuletide customs such as mummers' plays, rum punch, and sumptuous dinners, plus a frightening look at medicine, then and now.

Send your answers to the quiz below, along with your full name, to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com.  All entries who ace the quiz will be entered in a drawing to win the free signed book of their choice from the Possessed Mystery Series or DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS.  If you have all 4 books already and can't think of anyone who'd like one as a gift, tell me that on your entry.  Another prize will be selected for you.  If no one aces the quiz, the person with the best score will win.  Entries not selected in this drawing will be eligible for the next drawing.  In April, I'll do a grand prize drawing for a signed copy of FEAR ITSELF, due out at the end of that month.

Only entries sent to MissMaggieTests@gmail.com will be eligible.  Deadline for entries for the quiz below will be March 31, 2011.  Winners will be announced April 1st.

1.  A wealthy man walks into an apothecary and pays a shilling to see the doctor, who prescribes an elixir of vitriol, which the apothecary prepares for the patient.  This elixir is made from alcohol, "aromatics" (usually ginger or cinnamon), and

a)  camphor.

b)  mercury.

c)  sulfuric acid.

d)  aloe.

2.  When the British Army under General Cornwallis marched into Williamsburg on June 25, 1781, many of the residents, fed up with the long war, welcomed them.  Meanwhile, they were followed at a distance by Continental troops under the command of General

a)  Washington.

b)  Lafayette.

c)  Rochambeau.

d)  Wayne.

3.  The mystery novel Poison to Purge Melancholy takes its title from an 18th century publication called Pills to Purge Melancholy, which contained

a)  a list of medications for depression.

b)  herbal remedies for constipation.

c)  chocolate recipes.

d)  bawdy songs.

Peace,

Elena

Miss Maggie on First

This week's weirdness is that I've been playing Wii baseball.

I've loved baseball since age 6 when I started watching Phillies games on TV with my dad. Every nice day after school, I'd go out to the back yard and throw a tennis ball against the porch step, trying to get it to hit just right, so it would bounce back to me and I could practice catching. I improved my skills enough that the boys in the back alley always chose me for their teams before choosing their brothers. Came as a hard blow to discover I couldn't aspire to be a baseball player because they didn't take girls. Since our town had no local women's softball team, my baseball career ended.

A couple weeks ago, I began reliving my childhood by playing Wii baseball (part of a scheme to get my derriere off my desk chair and get some exercise).  When you play alone on Wii, the system gives you a team of different avatars (animated people).  You bat for all of them.  Each time I play, the system gives me a different set of people, so it's hard to think of them as a team.  I did notice, however, that it always put my brother's avatar on my team as catcher.  So I decided to create another avatar.  And why create a character from scratch when I've got a bunch of series characters to choose from?  So Miss Maggie, my 91 year-old sidekick character, became my first baseman.

The process of making an avatar is interesting.  You can choose body types, face shape, hair and eye color, you name it.  Of course, it gives you limited choices, so Miss Maggie had to settle for gray hair instead of her usual white.  But I was able to give her a shirt that's greenish-yellow, her favorite color.  The avatar doesn't really look at all as I picture Miss Maggie.  Still, when I play baseball, there's now always a familiar face on first base, her reading glasses hanging from her nose, her wrinkled face frowning in concentration as she makes a catch.

You'd think, since I'm holding the controller, that the Miss Maggie avatar would act and play exactly like my own, but she doesn't.  Don't ask me why.  Maybe Wii adjusts for height (Miss Maggie's shorter than me), and probably my own subconscious adjusts for attitude.  I do know that Miss Maggie is an amazing Wii jet skier.  I can't even stay on the course.

The whole experience has begun to show me what I know and don't know about characters who have been living in my brain for 10 years.  I'm in the process of creating a Beth Ann Lee avatar (to cover second base).  Yet I'm not ready to do one of her father.  I realized I don't even know what Hugh's favorite color is.  Which means Pat doesn't know what his favorite color is.  That gives me fodder for an argument in book five (insert evil laugh).  As for Pat, I think I know her well enough to figure it'll take some coaxing to get her to play Wii Sports at all.  She'd rather be in the kitchen.

I've named my Wii baseball team the Fightin' Compression Sox.

Go C-Sox!
Elena

Remember Thou Art Dust

Mystery writers have to deal with death in their books.  Ash Wednesday seems an appropriate day to talk about it.

I set the historical portion of my 4th novel during the week before Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933.  He stepped into office on Saturday, but had already begun changes by declaring a bank holiday the day before.  Banks didn't open again until their books had been examined and approved--the first step to pulling America out of the Great Depression.   By coincidence, two days before that was Ash Wednesday, the day Christians are supposed to remember their mortal nature.  To me, this seemed a perfect tie-in for a murder mystery.

I'm guessing most mystery writers don't have much first-hand experience viewing violent death.  I don't (and hope I never do).  Quite possibly most writers haven't seen someone die at all.  In these modern times, society has become quite efficient at hiding the act of dying behind the closed doors of hospitals and nursing homes, so people who don't want to see or deal with death, don't have to.

Until 2007, my only brushes with death had been attendance at viewings.  Then, over the course of 18 months, I became a caregiver for my mom, then my dad.  Both became hospice patients.  Through some odd twist of fate, my aunt and 2 friends also became hospice patients at the same time, and an uncle a year later.  So in the last 4 years, I've sat with 6 people who were actively dying.  My dad and my aunt both died as I held their hands.  My mom waited until we'd all gone out of the room.  My mom was like that.

Hospice, I found, is more than just waiting for a sad event.  Physically, of course, it's messy, but not as much as I expected.  Philosophically, it can be rather beautiful, like walking a loved one out to the garden gate before sending them the rest of the way on their own.  And surprisingly, you can find humor in the situation.  In fact, caregivers who don't find humor in it will make themselves ill and everyone else miserable.

One thing, though, in all cases--keeping that final vigil with hospice patients made me think about my own mortality, but not in a scary or depressing way.  In fact, the most unsettling part is wondering if I'd have someone to sit with me when I'm on my way out.

Hospice is in many ways a return to a traditional way of treating a dying person, all the more so when it's done at home.  The first century of mystery writers--Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie--all of them experienced hospice with a loved one.  I think all of their characters had a more grounded attitude toward death.  In their books, death itself wasn't the enemy, evil was--the kind of evil that produces an untimely, unnatural, and uncomforting death.

In too many modern novels (and on TV and in the movies), death has become very two-dimensional.  Dying has more facets, both for the victim and the survivors.  I don't think it would hurt a few mystery writers to remember they are dust and to dust they shall return.  After all, death is our ultimate mystery.

Enough of that.  Time to go get soot smeared on my forehead.

Peace,
Elena