Guest author Lesley Diehl: Research in Writing

Lesley Diehl

Lesley Diehl retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport. She is author of several short stories and several mystery series: the microbrewing mystery series set in the Butternut Valley (A Deadly Draught and Poisoned Pairings) and a rural Florida series, Dumpster Dying and Grilled, Killed and Chilled (to be released late in 2012).  She recently signed a three-book deal with Camel Press for The Consignment Shop Murders including A Secondhand Murder. For something more heavenly, try her mystery Angel Sleuth. Several of her short stories have been published by Untreedreads including one (Murder with All the Trimmings) in the original Thanksgiving anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry and another (Mashed in the Potatoes) in the second anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: A Second Helping.  She invites readers to visit her on her blog and website.

How a Boring, Retired Professor Spices up Her Mysteries

(Hint—I hang out in cowboy bars)

Seasoned writers and authors often tell novices to “write what you know.” That’s not bad advice as it assumes what you know will give your writing depth and authenticity. When I began writing mysteries, I took this advice seriously and constructed a mystery about a professor of psychology. I had no luck in finding an agent to represent me on this work. I suspect they found it deadly boring. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised at their reaction. I had been a college professor and administrator for years and never found much of that experience worthy of reading in a mystery, but it was what I knew. I thought I could spice it up by writing humor into the plot. It didn’t work.

When I look back on that manuscript (still on my computer but not published) it’s clear there were many problems with it. Even though I was writing what I knew, I wasn’t writing it very well. And, to be honest, I was just too close to the subject to get out of my own way and let the story unroll. The writing was catharsis for me, but it wasn’t very creative. The failure of writing what I knew to lead to publication was probably one of the best things to happen to me. It forced me to do research, something I loved, and led to expanding my knowledge on subjects I formerly knew nothing about.

What did I like to read? I loved the fast pacing and plot intricacies of a mystery, but I was also drawn to one that taught me something I didn’t know before I began the book. I found it exciting to learn about law, politics or the unusual occupation or hobby of an amateur sleuth. Sometimes a period in history caught my attention. Cooking, catering, or work on a small town newspaper or running a bed and breakfast or an herb shop taught me about aspects of life of which I was previously ignorant. Settings, too, called to me—the Texas Hill country, a city I’d visited only once like Seattle or New Orleans. There were things to learn out there, and it was possible to learn them through the vehicle of a murder mystery.

I decided to create an amateur sleuth with an unique occupation. My first book (A Deadly Draught) featured a woman microbrewer. What did I know about craft beers? Absolutely nothing, but I found the research not only fascinating but also fun. I took hubby with me to do the research, which often involved not only a tour of a facility but tasting the finished product. I met microbrewers in the craft eager to help me understand what they did. I toured numerous microbreweries and grew to respect the art and craft of brewing and the people who did it. I even liked the beer. The second one in that series appeared this year (Poisoned Pairings). I added to my story by taking on another piece of research, that of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to drill for gas. I used this controversial technique as a political and economic backdrop for the murder in the brewery.

My other books are similarly infused with research. The second book (Grilled, Chilled and Killed) in my Big Lake mystery series set in rural Florida features my bar-tending protagonist (yes, I had to research bar-tending also) encountering feral pigs and sinkholes. I am fortunate to live in rural Florida part of the year, so I can bring some genuine atmosphere to the bars, cowboys, land and animals such as horses, cattle and alligators found in the story. Hubby and I frequent the cowboy bars to do a little swing and two-step, as do my characters.

My next project strikes closer to what I know well, yard sales and consignment shops. Camel Press will release the first in this three book series in 2013. The protagonist is a woman who owns a consignment shop in rural Florida, and she finds one of her wealthy consignors dead on the dressing room floor. There’s still research to be done here. I’m scheduling a ride on an airboat this week, something I never thought I’d be interested in doing, but I am going to kill one of my characters on an airboat ride, so what choice do I have but to see, feel, hear and smell that experience.

The important aspect of injecting research into a mystery is doing it without lecturing or preaching, but in such a way that readers may not even realize what a wealth of information they are gaining. I think much of the writer’s ability to do that has to do with how fascinated the writer is by the research. The writer’s curiosity should allow her to weave the research throughout the story so that it becomes one with the plot and character development.

Is research for a mystery boring? Not for me. I love learning something new that can be used to develop or challenge my characters or create plot twists that surprise. What do you like to read in a mystery? Do you read close to home, a story about someone who shares your occupation or hobby? Or do you seek out stories with protagonists with unusual occupations, settings unfamiliar to you? And if you are a writer, can you share some of the techniques you use to insert research into your work?

Win a free copy of the second book in my microbrewing series, Poisoned Pairings, if you are the first to correctly identify the flowers on the cover of the book. Go to my blog, website or Amazon link to see the cover.

—Lesley Diehl

Are You Holding Your Novel Hostage?

I received an interesting email the other day from one of the authors in the publishing house I work for. Sales for this author's book were down and the publisher asked me to go over the author's marketing plan submitted prior to publication. I went down the list and asked the author if any of these promotions had been done.

His reply stunned me. “I'm not going to do anymore marketing until I see some sales.”

Maybe it's me, but the logic of his answer escapes me: “I'm not getting any sales, ergo, I will not attempt to sell books until my book sells.” A new concept in marketing.

This isn't the first time I've witnessed a novel in a hostage situation. I have a friend who kept her novel bound and gagged for over twenty years while she repeatedly second-guessed her beginning. I finally sent the SWAT Team in and demanded she hand it over. Look for it on the shelves in spring.

Another way authors keep their manuscripts from ever seeing the light of day is to work toward perfection. There is no such thing as the perfect book and nobody in the business is looking for that Holy Grail. We want well-written books with good plots and a sense that the author knows craft as well as basic punctuation and grammar. The only one who expects perfection is a hard-to-please author.

Opposite of perfectionism is lack of confidence. How many times do writers compare themselves to other authors and come up short? How often do they talk themselves out of sending that query letter? Chances are the book you've written is good and will be better once the editor and myself make a few suggestions. Trust us if you can't trust yourself. Please, turn the book loose.

And speaking of trust, I don't like it when I meet all your demands and then you take the hostage with you to another house. Recently, I gave a very green author a break. All she had to do was give me a few edits. Months went by. Then she wanted to see the standard contract. Again, more time elapsed. Finally, she let me know she was signing with another house. That's fine, just don't keep me dangling while you shop around.

There have been ransom attempts as well. When a first-time author wants to know if they can retain movie, TV and product rights, I know I'm dealing with an amateur. If you see your characters as action figures and Hollywood stars are in your eyes, you're either too enamored with your talent or delusional. Either way, we're not going to finance those dreams.

Tough negotiators can also kill a book. Agents are there to get an author the best deal possible, but in the world of small publishing, there's no room to play hardball. Rather than dealing with their demands, it's easier for me to save my publisher the headache and give the book a pass. A good book can be held back until the agent sees enough profit for themselves. The author is abetting his captor—sort of like the Stockholm Syndrome or Patty Hearst.

So, while I always hear writers complaining how difficult this industry is to break into, I think many unpublished authors undermine their own best efforts. At some point, you have to take the leap and let go. Give your novel the freedom it deserves.

Ten Things I Learned at Men of Mystery

On Saturday, November 17, I had the great pleasure of participating in the thirteenth annual Men of Mystery conference in southern California.  As one of the invited “gentlemen of this genre” I, along with fifty other men of mystery (each more talented, more accomplished, wealthier, and better looking than me) spent the day talking with mystery lovers from all walks of life.  I had a blast.  Here is what I learned:

1) I felt honored to be surrounded by best-selling authors, and I felt honored to be surrounded by readers who cared enough to shell out some money and dedicate the better part of their day to their favorite genre.  Without them, we couldn’t do what we do.

2) For reasons I cannot truly fathom, standing in front of a crowd talking about myself is vaguely terrifying.  I am a college professor.  I stand in front of rooms of people all day long, and it doesn’t bother me at all.  But talking about my books made me self-conscious.

3) That being said, I came to celebrate my archaeological mystery American Caliphate, and I was going to do right by my book, my publisher, myself, so I had to work up some nerve.  If you want to know how I did that, see number 4.

4) As I was writing my speech that morning, I had the TV on and I saw a news item about the singer Taylor Swift.  I am not aware of having ever listened to a Taylor Swift song, but she looks to be quite young, somewhere between eleven and nineteen years old.  And there she was on TV as comfortable as could be.  And I thought to myself, if an eleven-to-nineteen year-old girl can stand up and talk without fear, then so can I.  And so I did.

5) Hotel breakfast buffets are overpriced, but you wind up with way more bacon than would otherwise have been likely.

6) Sitting at a table autographing copies of your book feels pretty great.  I am grateful to everyone who stopped by to say hi or to let me sign their copy of my book.  I wanted to hug every one of them, but I think I would have gotten in trouble.

7) Nobody thinks its funny when you offer to autograph a book that someone else has written.  I offered to do just that on several occasions, and I chuckled each time.  But I chuckled alone.

8) Taylor Swift is actually pretty cute.

9) No matter how famous or well-known, or no matter how obscure and unread you are, you have to work it.  Publicity is vital if you want to make it in this line of work.  To that end, if you’d like to learn more about American Caliphate, or my other mysteries, or if you just want to earn frequent flier miles, please visit my website - www.williamdoonan.com

10) I am a man of mystery.  On November 17, I felt like a real writer.  I still do.

Farewell to a Publishing Pioneer

The months of November and December are the height of the holidays.  They fill people with hope and joy sprinkled with a smattering of nostalgia for a time gone by.  They make us think of loved ones near and far.  It’s a warm fuzzy time.

It’s also a time when you think of those who did not make it to see the holidays: the people who touched your lives whether they are friends, family, acquaintances, or colleagues.  Today I’d like to remember one such person: Monica Harris Mindolovich.

I, like many people whose lives she touched have never met her face to face.  We’ve had phone conversations and exchanged emails, but though I never met her, she opened the door of authorship to me.  If you write in the romance genre, especially if you are an African American author, you have certainly felt the effect of her life’s work.  If you’re an Indie author, chances are you have felt the impact of her work.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, African American romance books was few and far between.  There were few romances where the hero and heroine were people of color.  Now, you can find them in every bookstore.  In 1994 Monica Harris recruited and aggressively marketed authors for Kensington’s imprint, Arabesque, one of the first, (if not the first) imprint dedicated to African American romance.  That was just the beginning of putting AA romance on the radar, making it a legitimate genre and in the process giving AA authors an avenue for publication.  Since then she has opened up the doors to many authors with many of her ventures including Double Day’s Black Expressions book club and her own editorial company, MHM Editorial Services, used by many Indie authors.  She has won many awards and accolades for her work, but it is her patience, perseverance pioneering spirit and willingness to take a chance on the untried that sticks with me.

I first came in contact with Monica in 2008 when I received a simple one line letter expressing interest in a book I didn’t even recall submitting to Dorchester Publishing, six months before.  When I spoke to her, I didn’t even remember what version of the book I had submitted because it had been through so much editing since.  She gave me the file date and I submitted the manuscript.  A few weeks later we went through the editing phase.  It was slash and burn.  My first ten chapters (of which only three had been submitted originally) had to be slashed.

She worked with me, sometimes going over the manuscript line-by-line on the phone, often times having to pause to quiet her kids, or me to quiet mine… until we got a publishable book.  I can’t say the manuscript that I gave her was a diamond in the rough.  It was more like a lump of coal or graphite that needed not just a little polishing, but a whole metamorphosis.  Monica somehow saw the gem beneath the wasted words and gave me my first opportunity.  In 2009 A Marriage of Convenience was published by Leisure books and she recruited me once again to work on an anthology, Holiday Brides.

When almost year went by and Dorchester still hadn’t paid my advance, I turned to the only contact I knew: Monica.  She immediately gave me contact information and went the extra and contacted Dorchester herself.  Within a few weeks, I received the advance.

I know I’m not the only Novelnaut past or present whose life and work Monica had touched or molded.  As I stare at my copy of Holiday Brides, I remember the conversation we had about the novella after she told me about writing it.  I wanted to set it in St. Kitts during Christmas, but was uncertain that it would be in keeping with the theme.  I asked her if setting it in a tropical Island was okay.  Her response was “Let your imagination take you wherever you want to go.” (or something like that).

Monica was a true pioneer, opening doors in walls for so many authors. Her family, her friends, and the writing community lost a gem when she passed on November 10th, 2012, just twelve days before Thanksgiving.  My heart goes out to her family.  She will definitely be missed.

Written by Jewel Amethyst

Looking for Pre-made eBook Covers?

If a book has a great cover, it screams 'PICK ME UP!"  When it doesn't, then I'm less likely to notice it unless I've heard of the author or the book has some great reviews.  When my books were traditionally published I didn't have much say about what the cover should look like but, now that I'm on my own, that's all changed, of course.  In fact, ordering a cover has become one of my favorite things!  The covers for my first two indie books were custom made but what with the economic downturn and wanting to reduce costs as much as possible I'm taking a longer look at pre-made covers and have discovered some great sites you might want to check out with many affordable options.  Pre-made covers generally range from $35 to about $65.  One drawback for me is that most of these sites don't have a big selection of covers with multi-cultural models but there are lots with no people at all which might work.  (Note to self - learn everything about making great covers and put up my own selection of covers with rainbow people as models.)  So without further ado, here are some of the best sites I've found.  (Update: I've changed the cover for Jessamine from one that was custom-made to a premade which has gotten lots of favourable comments.  My point here is, why spend a lot on a cover and you might end up changing it anyway?)

1. ROMANCE NOVEL CENTER which was created by the romance cover model, Jimmy Thomas, has some awesome pre-made covers for a range of romance genres but you have to register to see the full gallery.  Prices range from about $45 to $65.  My only caveat here is that your purchase is apparently non-exclusive which means that you might see your great cover gracing someone else's book.  I'm not sure what the chances of this happening are and it's a very wide, wide world out there so this may not be a problem.  There are also a few multi-cultural and inter-racial covers so that's good.

2.) EBOOK INDIE COVERS has covers in several genres including mystery/suspense, fantasy and romance and these are priced at $40.  There's also a clearance sale going on and those covers are priced at $12 which is amazingly cheap. 

3.) AN AUTHOR'S ART, the site of Regency author, Jaimey Grant, doesn't have a very wide selection but there are some beautiful covers on there, all priced at $40. Well worth a look.

4.  BOOK COVER ART by author Joelene Naylor has a good selection of great covers that were rejected by other authors but which are quite beautiful.   

5.)  BOOK COVERS GALORE offers ebook covers in different genres for between $50 and $75.

6.)  MELCHELLE DESIGNS has several premade designs in various genres including horror and science fiction with prices that range from $35 to $60.

7.)  IFD DESIGNS FOR AUTHORS offers some stunning covers for prices ranging from $20 to $50.

8.)  ESTRELLA COVER ART.  There are lots of premade covers on this site to choose from, ranging from $40 to $60 and in a variety of genres but mostly romance and women's fiction.

9.)  FANTASIA FROG DESIGNS offers a great range of covers in a variety of genres for $40 and also has a few on sale for $25. Quite a few African-American covers available here in a good variety.

10.)  SEXY BOOK COVERS offers a good selection of pre-made covers in several genres for the very reasonable price of $25.

11.)  BOOK GRAPHICS has an excellent range of covers ranging from $20 and up.

12.) AMDESIGN STUDIOS will take your breath away with the gorgeous covers.

13.)  RAZZLE DAZZLE STOCK has a great range of pre-made covers which range from $30 to $60

14.)  GO ON WRITE has a huge collection of covers in all genres including science fiction, romance, horror, women's fiction, etc.. Three covers for $75!

15.)  LITTERA DESIGNS  has some gorgeous covers at great prices. In fact, the designer can also give you a print cover with your ecover for a very affordable price.

16.)  PHYCEL DESIGNS offers a range of covers and looks good particularly for fantasy and flirty stories. Their premades are a bit on the pricey side at $60 but well worth looking over.

17.)  COVER WHIMSY has some great romance and women's fiction-type covers, though not a huge number.

18.)  COVER SHOT CREATIONS. There are quite a few sci-fi and fantasy premades offered here, also on the higher end of the market at $60.

19.)  E-FINITE COVERS offers a great package of ecovers, Facebook page banner and a 3-D cover reflection.  If you don't know what that is, go check it out.  Very cool!

20.) BOOK COVER ART has a good range of covers, everything from the fun and flirty to horror and fantasy.  Prices here range from $15 - 35.

Have you used premade covers from any of these sites?  If so, please share your experience or let us know about other great sites.

Report from the Home Office

Spent all of Saturday in my chair in my home office.

Until a few months ago I had a smallish desk against the window and could see the pine and scrub oak behind our house as I worked. The window faces west, though, and by mid-afternoon I had to move downstairs to the kitchen table to keep from falling asleep in the sunlight. Now my wife Valerie works from home on Mondays and Fridays and my little desk has been replaced by our six-foot library table, perpendicular to the window. Valerie's is the window half and on her two days at home she sits with her back to the bookcases peering into her twin monitors and talking into her headphone as she does whatever it is pharmacovigilance-ers do. The half away from the window is mine, and whether Valerie is there or not, I sit facing the bookcases, peering into my laptop and talking to myself as I do whatever it is freelance writers and editors do.

Valerie wasn't here on Saturday, which is how I came to spend neigh on to nine uninterrupted hours at work. Some of those hours were spent on a project I'm still roughing in: With books (yes, I still use books) and websites to research the clothes, technology, and communities of northern California in the late 1870s; and with my pad of graph paper drawing boxes and circles and arrows as I storyboarded the subplots. A bit over one hour went to a "4 AM Breakthrough" exercise for my MFA class. (Going to redraft it, probably later today [Monday] before sending it in.) I spent at least two hours finding a solution to the structural problem in my regency romance/horror story. Of course said solution involves killing a darling. Rather than the patch I'd hoped would work, I'm going to do a ground-up redraft before sending it to market; gave myself a personal deadline of Wednesday. Woven through all of this was time spent online IM-ing editors about ongoing and upcoming projects, checking for cattle calls, schmoozing with folks who've had work for me in the past and may in the future, and dipping in and out of social media (perhaps too much) just to keep the rumors of my continued existence going. Somewhere along the way I made a public commitment to write my first story for BattleCorps in – what? 3? 4? – years. And I checked my in-box twenty-eleven times for an editing gig I'm pretty amped about scheduled to be in my hands 'soon'.

The thing about sitting alone in a really nifty home office freelancing as a writer and editor is you are always busy, always switching out irons in the fire, keeping tabs on a dozen things knowing only one will pay off, always feeling like you're doing too much and not enough at the same time. You start each day plugged into and plugging away at the keyboard, hoping you're not spinning your wheels until you realize the world around you has gone from morning to dark. If you're like me that's the moment you try to remember if you'd promised to run any errands or do any chores during the day - and if so, what?

Because with no external, universally applicable measure of how productive you're being, an average day looks a whole lot like getting nothing done at all. Family and friends like to hear about how many stories or chapters you finished; the absence of anything 'done' implies idleness and free time. Fixing a narrative's flow; hammering out the details of a protagonist's failed marriage; learning the ballistics of the black-powder .44 Russian; filling plot holes; mapping a trail along the pre-Melones Dam Stanislaus River; IM-ing and chatting and tweeting and updating with editors and book packagers and fellow writers, – none of these sound like work. Neither does writing a column you don't get paid for. And when you do complete projects, there's no guarantee of payment because a lot of time you work on spec. Even when you have a contract going in to the job, there's no direct - or at least no timely - link between writing or editing and getting paid. Last week I received cheques for work done in April and May; I'll be paid for anything I do in December by the end of June at the earliest.
Which means sometimes friends and family aren't the only ones who perceive you as accomplishing too little, if not nothing.

There are days when I think maybe full-time freelance was a mistake, that I should go back to a day job for security, go back to writing before work and on weekends. I sometimes miss knowing what day it is without peering at the calendar and mentally counting on my fingers. I liked having places to physically be every day and wish I could again have conversations that involved speaking instead of typing – maybe even with people in the same room. Most of all I miss the regular paycheques; budgeting as a faith-based activity is way outside my comfort zone.

But do I miss those things enough to give up the opportunity to go for a degree I've wanted but never had time for? Or to give up editing, which I love? Or writing, which I can't not do? Do I miss a salary enough to give up my freedom to spend more time with my wife than I've had in the last quarter century? Not even close.

How Times Have Changed

Only a few short years ago I bought children’s books as Christmas gifts. Last  last year I gave my niece a Nook, and those same nephews V-tech Readers. This is an indication of how things have changed.  I no longer look for books to buy. Instead I look for ways they can load content on the devices they use to read.

The same is true for me as a reader. I was an early cheerleader of that new tech toy called the Kindle back before it was on sale. I saw the first version at a writers conference. It was love at first sight (they had me at “wireless download with no contract”). Yet I’ve never owned a Kindle. It was only last year that I even had a smartphone, much less the Kindle app. I scoffed that I would read books on my phone anyway. Then I gave in to the siren call of Apple at last. Within a week of downloading the Kindle app I was loading up on books and reading like a crazed book junkie.

So it’s Christmas again. I would welcome any suggestions for books that I might gift (Nook please) for a  thirteen year old girl (who is addicted to all things Twilight, sigh), and for content for the V-tech Readers. Please and thank you.  Parents of youngsters, help out us aunts, uncles, godparents, grandparents!  Think of it as your holiday good deed.

Which brings me to us writers. We’re the content creators. Content is king. Great time to be a writer.

What are some great gift ideas for writer and readers? I’d love a service to organize and clean my home office as a gift J

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