Author Archives: Carolyn

Interview Posted on Writers Who Kill

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

The upcoming release of Show Me the Deadly Deer prompted E. B. Davis to interview me for a mystery writers’ group blog, Writers Who Kill.

 

Among the questions E. B. posed were the following.

The law enforcement underestimates and undervalues two of your three main characters, which they use to their advantage. If this typical behavior?

When it comes to the political arena, your characters show their acumen. Is politics different than law enforcement?

Your use of internal dialogue reveals the duplicity and complexity of Phoenix’s life. How do you reveal without over justifying her actions?

Do you think women must team together to overcome the odds of prejudice?

E. B. posted my answers today, November 20, at www.writerswhokill.blogspot.com.

 

How JFK’s Assassination Affected Dessie, Ethiopia

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Friday night, November 22, 1963, Dessie, Ethiopia

A group of us were chatting at the guys’ house after a tough week of teaching when my housemate, Peace Corps Volunteer Arwilda Bryant, ran in.

Everyone shut up as she gasped for breath. Arwilda wouldn’t have come out alone late at night and risked attacks by hyenas or feral dogs without good reason.

“Kennedy’s been shot,” she choked out. “I just heard it on the radio.” She told us all she knew: The President had been shot while riding in an open car in Dallas and taken to a hospital.

We called the other half dozen Peace Corps Volunteers in Dessie, Ethiopia, a mountainous provincial capital, and huddled around the guys’ short-wave radio, straining to hear through the static. Well after midnight, on November 23, we heard the shocking news that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had died.

We felt a special connection to the man. He spoke to our 300-plus Ethiopia I Peace Corps group on the soggy White House lawn during our training. The press called us Kennedy’s kids.

The next morning Arwilda, my other housemate (Pat Summers), and I slept late. A little after eight someone knocked on our door. A student who lived in the shed behind our house let the person in. I dressed quickly and went to the living room.

An Indian colleague at the Woizero Siheen High School had heard the radio report that morning and come to our house immediately to express his sympathy. He gave us the latest news and addressed us as though we were members of JFK’s family.

Over cups of tea, Mr. Singh recounted with great emotion his memories of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, drawing parallels between the two leaders and the grief and uncertainty their violent deaths evoked in their home countries and around the world.

He asked what the President’s death would mean to the United States. Was the vice president involved? After all, the assassination took place in his home state. We assured him that Lyndon Johnson had no connection to the killer and the American people would accept the new president. Would we Volunteers be recalled? Kennedy had sent us. We assured him that JFK’s death would not end our service.

All that day faculty members—Ethiopian, Indian, and South African—and students came to the Peace Corps houses with the same expressions of sympathy and the same questions. That afternoon we received word that the governor had arranged a special mass the next morning for us, local dignitaries, and faculty members.

The assassination of the dynamic young President had stunned, saddened, and alarmed even our isolated mountain-top town. More surprising to us, Ethiopians and the few foreigners in Dessie regarded the Peace Corps Volunteers not just as Kennedy’s representatives but as his family. Years later in the Capitol Rotunda, I took part in a returned PCVs’ marathon reading of accounts of those days. All had similar experiences.

In Dessie, the PCVs met to discuss what we could do as representatives of our country. The only thing we could come with was to wear black for a few days. We assured the students, and the headmaster, that we would be in our classrooms Monday.

With no television or movie newsreels, no international newspapers, limited radio, and little possibility of international telephone contact, we had little idea what was happening in the United States and the rest of the world. Our main news source, Newsweek, wouldn’t come for days. One of the first photos we saw showed the diminutive Haile Selassie marching behind the cortege with towering Charles de Gaulle.

On Monday, the students in my first eleventh grade English class sat somber and silent. I told them, and each succeeding class, what had happened in Dallas and explained the Constitutional provision for the vice president to succeed the president. Then I invited them to ask questions. They were expecting civil war in the United States. No matter what I said, they remained convinced that Lyndon Johnson engineered the assassination and that Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald to cover up the conspiracy. They expected the PCVs, half the school’s faculty, to be recalled or abandoned by the U.S. government.

The students remained tense all week. Eventually they recognized that in the United States a leader’s violent death didn’t signal war.

The assassination disillusioned people everywhere. Through the Peace Corps and other programs, John Fitzgerald Kennedy projected hope that democratic government and economic betterment, the American dream, could flourish in the Third World. The world looked to the United States as a beacon of hope and generosity.

Over the last 50 years that image has faded. Yet in the United States and elsewhere, people remember President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and these words: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

—Carolyn Mulford

Ten Common Mistakes New Mystery Writers Make

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

All writers differ, but those writing their first (and maybe second or third) mystery usually make at least two or three of ten common mistakes. I base this list on what I’ve observed in reading other writers’ works in progress and what they’ve said about my manuscripts.

The mistakes vary in the manuscript’s different sections: two to three opening chapters, twenty to thirty middle chapters, and three to five final chapters.

The opening chapters

The hardest and most important section to perfect is the opening. Most agents and editors tell us they won’t read beyond the third page (some not beyond the first paragraph) if the story doesn’t grab them. From what I’ve heard, a majority of readers will give the writer until the end of the first chapter. If you can’t move the professional or the casual reader past the opening chapters, your exciting middle chapters and dynamic ending won’t matter. Watch out for these problems in your opening chapters.

1.   A lengthy backstory

Start your story with a crucial event or action, not your biographical notes on the protagonist. Find the corpse or foreshadow the murder in the first chapter.

Give the necessary backstory in phrases or sentences, not paragraphs or pages. Let actions reveal character and aptitudes. Show your protagonist through others’ eyes.

Set the tone and voice of the entire book in your first chapter.

2.   Long descriptions of the setting or the characters

Find the telling details that put the reader in the time and place.

Give thumbnails of the main characters or settings and add information as needed.

3.   A prologue revealing a dramatic point late in the book

If an event is critical, make it part of chapter one.

If your beginning lacks action or suspense, write a new one.

4.   Multiple characters

Introduce your protagonist immediately so readers identify with that person.

Limit characters to those whom you would remember at a networking event.

The middle chapters

We tend to spend so much time rewriting the opening that we neglect the much longer middle, the heart of the investigation and of character development. By this stage, readers tend to put the book down at the end of a chapter. Each chapter must motivate them to pick up the book again. Writers’ most common mistakes involve pacing.

5.   A lack of action

Something must happen in every chapter. Check that by writing a headline for each chapter.

Continue conflict—in solving the crime, in reaching the protagonist’s goals, in personal and professional interactions.

6.   Clues or characterizations that reveal too much

Present three or four viable suspects and speculate on at least two motives.

Use gray rather than black and white in portraying suspects.

7.   Indistinguishable characters

Give each named character a memorable characteristic—appearance, mannerism, speech pattern, etc.

Make each person’s speech distinctive—vocabulary, grammar, syntax, rhythm.

The final chapters

Those last chapters must evoke emotion and stimulate the intellect. If readers feel cheated because previous chapters haven’t prepared them for the conclusion, confused because the solution lacks clarity, or dissatisfied because characters act out of character, they won’t recommend your book to others or read your next book. Readers’ frustration often comes from the following mistakes.

8.   The first indication of the villain and the motive

Give the reader the facts to solve the crime, but don’t make those obvious.

Plant clues and red herrings throughout the book. Don’t bunch them at the end.

9.   Illogical, coincidental, or incredible solutions

Surprise but satisfy with your solution. You want readers to say, “Oh, yes. Now I get it.”

In fiction, readers expect to receive all the answers. They also expect justice.

10. Villain reveals all

If the bad guy has to explain why and how, rework your plot.

Wrap up all the loose ends, starting with the subplots. (If you’re writing a series, a loose end or two may help propel the reader into your next book).

Avoiding all ten of these mistakes doesn’t mean the author has produced a good manuscript. Making several of them guarantees the manuscript requires a lot of rewriting.

 

 

 

Kindle Edition of Show Me the Murder Released

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In February, Five Star released Show Me the Murder in hardback ($25.95). In September, the publisher released the Kindle edition ($3.19).

Buyers save $22.76 on the electronic version! Plus part of a tree. The difference in price amazes me.  I’m tempted to buy the e-book myself.

I prefer to read newspapers, magazines, and (especially) books on paper. When I went to China, I took a Kindle with a small library on it. The Kindle provided entertainment (and language training) on the endless airplane flights. At home I reach for paper first. I hope I’m never desperate enough for reading material to read a novel on my iPhone.

Publishers used to put out the high-priced, sturdy hardback first. A year later they would release a low-priced paperback. Now many skip the paperback in favor of the e-book.

I don’t care which edition people read. I just want them to read my story.

—Carolyn Mulford

Working with Beta Readers

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While writing a book and rewriting trouble spots, I rely on critique partners. When I finish the penultimate draft, I recruit people who read but don’t write mysteries. I give them the manuscript with ten questions and suggest they look at the questions before and after they read. Some answer all questions; some write comments on the manuscript; some write a book report. If possible, I take my beta readers to dinner to discuss the book.

 

The questions serve two purposes:

They cover the general and a few specific things I need to know;

They guide insecure readers and assure them they can give helpful comments.

 

The questions below, written for Show Me the Murder, follow my typical pattern, touching on such key questions as when the reader identified the killer and such specific ones as whether romantic encounters ring true. The questions never give away the plot. 

  1. Was what happened clear? Did you need more explanation of who did it or what Boom had done? Did the plot seem credible as you read it? 
  1. Were any of the characters unbelievable or inconsistent?
  1. When did you know who did it? Whom did you suspect as you were reading?
  1. Did any part of the book seem slow?  Would you have put it down if you’d taken it from the library? Did the book seem long?
  1. Did Phoenix’s scenes with Neil and Stuart ring true?
  1. Could you visualize the settings of the major scenes?
  1. Did you expect to find out who shot Phoenix in Istanbul?
  1. Were the three main characters appealing and believable throughout? How did you like their relationship?
  1. Were there any characters you couldn’t keep straight?
  1. What did you like the most? The least?
—Carolyn Mulford

Tips for Assessing Your Own Manuscript

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Every writer turns into an editor at some point, but finding the weaknesses in your own manuscript challenges any writer. Years ago I developed a visual assessment system to help freelance writers evaluate short nonfiction work quickly and objectively.

This week I’m serving on a panel at Killer Nashville called Be Your Own Editor. I’ve expanded my assessment system into the handout below to help novelists spot problems and begin solving them.

1. Riffle or scroll through your entire manuscript.

     If pages look gray, expect poor paragraphing, long descriptions, info dumps.

Watch for long sections with lots of dialogue or long sections with no dialogue.

2. Turn through each chapter.

      Do the same visual check as above.

      Summarize the chapter’s action in one sentence.

Read the end of each chapter to see if it propels the reader to the next chapter.

Read the opening to see if the reader who put down the book will be lost.

3. Look at each page.

      If you see only two or three paragraphs, expect to rewrite.

Check the first word or phrase of each paragraph. Openings should vary.

Look for periods. If most sentences are long or the same length, rewrite.

      Read the verbs. If they don’t tell you what happens on that page, rewrite.

4. Look at each paragraph.

      If a paragraph is more than ten lines long, it may contain an info dump, etc.

If you have many short paragraphs of dialogue, you may need more tags.

      Read the end of one paragraph and the opening of the next to check the flow.

5. Check the sentences.

      Be sure the strongest structure (subject-verb-object) dominates.

Rewrite most sentences beginning with  it’s or there’s.

If a sentence contains more than three prepositional phrases, rewrite it.

6. Study the words.

Look for excessive to be verbs and modified verbs (watch for ly).

     Ferret out verbs hidden in nouns, such as make a decision, give a recommendation, reach a conclusion, do an analysis.

Look again at nouns modified with more than one adjective.

Trace all pronouns back to the intended antecedent.

Check all it’s/its, there’s (are), there/their, your/you’re.

Use your computer to find overused words, such as shrug, nod, just, smile.

7. Read aloud to check sound, rhythm, and pace.

—Carolyn Mulford

Schedule of Events: August-September 2013

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Putting Our Past into Fiction: Memory Is Not Enough
10 a.m., Friday, August 2
Columbia Senior Activity Center, 1121 Business Loop 70, Columbia
Open to all

Be Your Own Editor: Make Your Book the Best It Can Be
panel; 2:10 p.m., Friday, August 23
Killer Nashville, Hutton House Hotel, Nashville Open to conference registrants

Using Sidekicks and a Supporting Cast to Drive Plot and Reveal Character
panel; 11:20 a.m., Sunday, August 25
Killer Nashville, Hutton House Hotel, Nashville Open to conference registrants

Discussion of Show Me the Murder
3 p.m., Saturday, September 7
AAUW Book Group, West Broadway Hy-Vee, Columbia Open to all

Reading for Life
9 a.m., Sunday, September 15
Forum, Unitarian Universalist Church, 2615 Shepherd Boulevard, Columbia Open to all

 

Moving Book 4 to Phase 2

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The writing of Show Me the Ashes, the fourth book in my mystery series, has been going slowly.

Opening chapters always take me roughly a third longer than the middle ones and twice as long as the last ones. In the beginning, I’m creating new characters and settings, struggling to drop in essential backstory for new readers without boring old ones or slowing the narrative, and revealing just enough about the crime that will be solved in the next-to-last chapter.

Rewriting Chapter 6 a week ago, I realized I had to shift gears. I had been working from a one-page plot outline that covered mostly the beginning and the end, a list of characters, and general research on the plausibility of my plot. With Phoenix leaving the familiar streets of Laycock to study the key crime scene, I had to get down to the nitty-gritty.

To do that, I spent

  • two days researching arson and applying that to the crime scene,
  • half a day writing a timeline tracing suspects’ movements that night,
  • half a day visualizing and sketching the crime scene and the small town where Phoenix investigates.

Then I rewrote Chapter 6 and started thinking ahead. Time to go to the next phase, to figure out the pacing of the book—not just what happens but when. I do that by outlining scene by scene, chapter by chapter. Yesterday I outlined the first six chapters, all well beyond first draft but not polished, and then the next 18 unwritten chapters. That outline will change regularly, guiding yet allowing surprises.

My books run 32 to 36 chapters. By the time I write Chapter 24, l expect to know what happens in the final chapters.

Tomorrow I begin writing Chapter 7.

—Carolyn Mulford

Starting My New Mystery

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When I turned in Show Me the Gold, the third book in my series, last January, I planned to send Phoenix, Annalynn, and Connie out of town in the next book rather than plague Vandiver County with a new murder. Busy preparing for the February release of Show Me the Murder and going over the editor’s queries for Show Me the Deadly Deer, I stewed about the time and expense of researching that new setting and its subculture.

I woke up one morning with the seed of a new idea: Let Phoenix work on a cold case, one that would put her in conflict with Annalynn. Over two or three weeks I built on this until I was ready to start the prewriting work on my next manuscript, Show Me the Ashes.

Before I write Chapter 1, I do a lot of conceptualizing and research. That doesn’t stop when I put the first scene on the screen. Here’s my basic process.

Step 1: Develop a nebulous idea enough to figure out the major things I’ll need to know and, the big question, what I’ll need to learn to make sure my idea is feasible. I usually end up with about 10 pages of notes on plot, themes, victims, villains, kill methods, and settings.

Step 2: Find key sources, human or written, to give me an overview and, if necessary, direct me to other sources. Often a manuscript requires repeating this step several times.

Usually I begin by searching for information on the Web or in reference books, including those in my own library. As in doing research for articles or other nonfiction material, I prefer to grasp the basics before I question experts. Doing my homework allows me to ask better questions and elicits better answers. That saves time for everyone.

If I know people with vital expertise, I contact them and ask to chat. Maybe I invite them for lunch or a coffee. (Friends tend to tense up if I use the word interview.) I end a chat/interview by asking if I can come back if I have other questions.

Step 3: Determine priorities and set up a rough research schedule. Decide what has to be learned before I start writing (facts affecting the plot) and what can wait (observations of a setting or activity that comes late in the book).

Step 4: Research small, unanticipated questions as I write. Something pops up in almost every chapter. If I can find the information quickly, I may interrupt the writing to do it. If finding the information requires times, I’ll boldface some x’s or a best-guess draft and come back to it later. (After the second draft of the full manuscript, I ask knowledgeable people to check anything questionable.)

 

From the middle of April until the middle of May, attending conferences and preparing workshops and speeches took all my attention. In late May I wrote rough drafts of the first two chapters.

I usually rewrite the early chapters several times before I’m confident I have the right tone and pace. At this stage I’m figuring out any changes in my four regulars’ lives, meeting new characters who are hiding their personalities and motives, and puzzling over how Phoenix will find evidence and evade the inevitable attacks.

Love it.

—Carolyn Mulford

Part 3: Three Writers’ Conferences: Marshall Writers’ Guild

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The Marshall (M0) Writers’ Guild holds an unusual form of annual meeting, one that features a guest writer. Other small local groups may want to consider MWG’s model.

I learned this by serving as the guest writer at the 2013 meeting. I presented a two-hour morning workshop on turning an idea into a book, fiction or nonfiction. Before beginning, I surveyed the twenty or so writers to find out what they’re working on. A surprising number are writing memoirs or history, so I drew most of my examples from my nonfiction work. Participants commented and asked questions as we went along.

Such informal workshops work well at meetings where offering sessions on multiple topics simply isn’t feasible.

After a booksigning and a potluck lunch, this guest writer met individually with several writers to discuss their works in progress. That’s an unusual item on the schedule, but a major reason to meet is to have the opportunity to talk about your lonely occupation with objective peers.

Meanwhile the other writers listened as the brave ones read aloud portions of their manuscripts.

We vacated the hall by 2 p.m., but we’d had a full day. I enjoyed it.

—Carolyn Mulford

 

Part 2: Three Writers’ Conferences: Malice Domestic

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The one conference I go to every year is Malice Domestic, a national celebration of the traditional mystery that meets in the DC area in late April or early May. A spinoff of Sisters in Crime, Malice is heavily skewed toward women crime writers and their predominantly female audience (http://malicedomestic.org).

Although a fan conference, I estimate a third of the attendees are published writers and another third want to be. The readers, many of whom return each year, include librarians, reviewers, teachers, and a mix of other people devoted to mysteries. Malice introduces numerous debut and established writers’ mysteries to this influential readership.

I attended my first Malice some 20 years ago as a mystery reader. I loved listening to authors talk about their books on panels and rubbing shoulders with them between panels. They were much wittier than the nonfiction writers on how-to panels that were my usual conference fare. I didn’t learn a lot about writing mysteries, but I had a great time going to sessions and chatting with people. That enjoyment kept me coming back and encouraged me to begin writing mysteries.

This year I went to Malice as the author of a debut mystery, Show Me the Murder. That meant business trumped pleasure. I went armed with bookmarks and a resolve to promote my new series in sessions and informally.

I’d won one of 42 slots in the lottery to give a two-minute pitch in Friday’s opening event, the Malice-Go-Round. The catch was that I had to give the pitch 20 times at 20 different eight- to ten-person tables in a noisy room. I teamed up with Susan Froetschel, author of Fear of Beauty, a mystery about an illiterate Afghani woman who secretly learns to read in hopes of discovering who killed her son. Our pairing worked out well because our books and pitches were so different that no one confused our books.

The Round tested our voices and challenged us to beat the clock without giving a boring rote pitch. I was surprised how attentive readers were and how many took notes. In that hour and a half, I introduced my book to more people than in all the rest of the conference.

Later I realized that by pitching rather than listening, I had missed Malice’s best opportunity to learn who’s writing and who’s publishing what. Oh, well. You have to sacrifice something.

The rest of the day featured interviews and panels with big-name authors, including Peter Robinson, Laurie King, Laura Lippman, Aaron Elkins, Carolyn Hart, and the Agatha nominees for best novel. Entertaining and thought-provoking.

That afternoon my panel—Kate Carlisle, Peril in Paperback; Judy Hogan, Killer Frost; Maddy Hunter, Bonnie of Evidence—met with super-prepared moderator Patti Ruocco to get acquained before our Sunday session and discuss any uncertainly about our topic, Loveable Sidekicks. Our books and sidekicks vary greatly, so we offered different perspectives. Judy and I are seniors in life experience and juniors in mystery credits, but we functioned as equals on the panel. No one tried to dominate or hog time.

Malice applauds cooperation rather than competition. Most authors don’t need reminders of that, but program czar Barb Goffman reminds moderators to enforce it.

Five panels run concurrently most of Saturday and Sunday morning, often forcing participants to agonize over what to attend. Whatever the topics, the most popular writers draw the biggest crowds.

Malice’s major common events are the new authors’ breakfast (a must), interviews with the stars (always good), the Saturday-night banquet (most exciting for Agatha nominees), and the Sunday afternoon tea (a treat).

Good as the panels and special events are, people come back to Malice year after year to catch up with old friends, meet online friends (notably the Guppies) face to face, and chat with strangers/friends who love mysteries.

No matter how much business you do, attending Malice is a pleasure.

—Carolyn Mulford

 

 

Part 1: Three Writers’ Conferences Serve Different Audiences

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At local meetings and on national listservs, writers often ask for advice about which conferences to attend. Having attended many, I can only say that the best conference depends as much on what the writer seeks as what the conference offers.

This spring, with promoting Show Me the Murder my top priority, I chose three annual conferences serving different audiences:

  • Missouri Writers’ Guild conference for writers with varied interests,
  • Malice Domestic 25 national convention for mystery fans,
  • Marshall (MO) Writers’ Guild workshop for their members.

 

Here, in Part 1, is what the state conference offered.

This estimable annual three-day conference (http://www.missouriwritersguild.org) features solid how-to presentations on topics appealing to beginners and professionals but focusing on writers hovering between those levels. Attendees are serious writers eager to establish careers.

From my conversations and observations, more than half have finished at least one unpublished manuscript (usually a novel) but don’t know much about the route to publication. The self-publishing and social media sessions here (like everywhere else apparently) drew a big crowd.

Many come to the conference hoping to hook an agent or a publisher. Quite a few skipped the how-to seminars to concentrate on pitching to the half dozen East and West Coach agents and regional publishers in scheduled five-minute sessions and in informal conversations. One of the advantages of a relatively small (around 200) conference is that you can sit next to an agent at a meal or corner her (usually not him) in the bar or hall. The toilets are off limits.

Agents who fly from either coast to the heartland usually agree to look at anything that might possibly interest them. And almost every year at least one writer signs with an agent or sells a manuscript to a publisher. Even those who don’t sell get valuable feedback.

This friendly conference also gives writers a chance to socialize, exchange information, and feel part of a community. Writing may be a solitary activity, but networking never hurts.

As for carrying out my special agenda, I handed out bookmarks and a fast pitch for my new mystery series to dozens of writers/readers from around the state.

—Carolyn Mulford