Author Archives: Carolyn

What’s Right About Second Graders’ Writing

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In the 1950s, television threatened to divert children from reading. In the 1990s, the Web tempted tender minds to abandon linear reading and writing. In the last decade, portable multimedia, omnipresent (and often mindless) communication, and misspelled texting further endangered literacy.

Thinking of this descent into darkness, I dreaded opening my assigned selection of second graders’ stories, essays, and poems. I had agreed to comment on their award-winning work during Young Authors’ Day at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg. What if their writing was, well, dreadful?

I needn’t have worried. These kids show a surprising grasp of the art of storytelling and the craft of writing. They already perceive these five key factors.

1. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

2. You have to grab readers’ attention fast. Otherwise you lose them.

3. The sound and rhythm of the words matter.

4. Readers like to see themselves in the writer’s story, even if the story is about a fox, a wizard, or a mermaid.

5. The right words support the story or theme.

You can bet these second graders like to read. Writers begin, and end, as readers.

—Carolyn Mulford

 

Back to My Roots in Kirksville

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Can you go home again?

I’m going back to my hometown Saturday, April 13, to talk about the origins of my new mystery, Show Me the Murder, and visit from 2-4 p.m. with old and new friends at the Hastings, 1800 North Baltimore, 2-4 p.m.

More to the point: Can a writer ever really leave home?

Wherever I go, I carry my past with me. An unreliable memory may alter and even delete parts of it, but the essence of life experiences remains. No period affects us as much as our early years when we see things for the first time. That’s one reason the protagonist in my mystery series comes back to her hometown after living most of her adult life in Vienna.

Laycock and Vandiver County don’t appear on any Missouri map, but many people who live in Kirksville will find the setting, and the people, familiar.

—Carolyn Mulford

Book Launch at Columbia Books 2 p.m., March 17

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“Made it.”

Those words open Show Me the Murder. The protagonist, a former CIA covert operative, expresses her relief at reaching the sanctuary of her hometown in northern Missouri after surviving a shooting in the Istanbul spice bazaar.

Those words also express my relief that the book, my first published mystery novel, finally is coming to library and store shelves. People will read it for entertainment rather than evaluation.

I invite anyone interested to come celebrate with me at my book launch party at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 17, Columbia Books, 1907 Gordon Street, Columbia, Missouri (off Old 63 North just behind the Westlake’s).

Here’s a little reminder of what some reviewers have said.

Kirkus: “amusing and touching”

Library Journal: “a tightly woven tale”

Gumshoe Review: “appealing characters” and “compelling story”

Myshelf.com: “One of the best books I have read in a long time.”

—Carolyn Mulford

Schedule of Events: March-June 2013

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Book Launch Party: 2 p.m., Sunday, March 17
Columbia Books, 1907 Gordon Street, Columbia, Missouri
Reading and discussion
Open to all

Young Authors’ Day: 9:30 a.m., Saturday, April 20
University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
Comments on second graders’ prize-winning work and a writing exercise
The writers and their families

Missouri Writers’ Guild Conference: Friday-Saturday, April 26-27
Sheraton Westport Hotel Lakeside Chalet, St. Louis
Book signing, 4 p.m. Friday, 11:45 a.m., Saturday
Annual regional writers’ conference

Malice Domestic: Friday-Sunday, May 3-5
Bethesda, Maryland
Malice-Go-Round, 10 a.m., Friday
Panel discussion on loveable sidekicks, 9:45 a.m., Sunday
Signing, 10:45 a.m., Sunday
National conference of mystery fans and writers

Marshall Writers’ Guild Annual Meeting: 9:30 a.m., Saturday, May 11
Marshall, Missouri
Guest Writer’s Workshop: Turning Your Idea into a Book

Summer Reading Kickoff, 2:30 p.m., Saturday, May 11
Marshall (MO) Public Library
Talk and signing: Reading for Life
Open to all

Talk and signing: Developing Your Novel Idea, Thursday, June 27
Missouri River Regional Library, Jefferson City, Missouri

 

Reviewer Calls Characters Appealing, Story Compelling

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Dozens of editors and publishers have rejected my nonfiction and (especially) fiction manuscripts over the years, so forgive me if I report some reassuring praise.

In the February issue of Gumshoe Review Magazine of Mystery Literature, reviewer Verna Suit ended her review of Show Me the Murder with, “Phoenix is a can-do heroine and all three of the women are appealing characters. The reader cheers when Annalynn steps up to take control of her life. Plot and setting are convincing and the compelling story keeps one reading. I look forward to finding out what the future has in store for all three of them.”

The 15 other books reviewed in the issue included Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King, Calculated by Death by J.D. Robb, and Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly.

To read the full review of Show Me the Murder, go to http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=3558.

—Carolyn Mulford

My Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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Week 32 is my stop on a blog hop set up to help readers discover authors new to them. On each stop, you’ll find an author’s answers to 10 questions about a book or a work in progress and links to three to five other authors. We include behind-the-screen tidbits about why we write and how we choose titles, characters, plots, themes, etc.

My thanks to fellow author Thomas Kaufman for inviting me to participate in this event. To learn more about him and his work, click on this link:  http://thomaskaufman.com.

Here are my answers to the questions of the Next Big Thing.

1: What is the title of your latest book? 

Show Me the Murder, the first in a series, comes out February 15, 2013. The title fits the plot and indicates the Missouri setting, but I arrived at that title only after numerous drafts. I started with a working title of Second Adolescence, an indication of my main characters’ age (mid fifties) and their crises and opportunities. Upheavals in their lives compel the three women to begin again much as they had as teenagers. My critique group hated that title. Several drafts carried the title Phoenix Rises, both an illusion to the protagonist’s first name and to the mythological story of the phoenix rising from the ashes. A lot of other writers liked a similar title. I kept looking.

Show Me is part of the title of each book in the series. The next one is Show Me the Deadly Deer (December 2013).

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

I got the idea from newspaper stories about outed CIA covert operative Valerie Plame during the Bush Administration. Having worked in Vienna during the Cold War, I could imagine the suspicion anyone she knew even casually would face and her anguished desire to protect both CIA contacts and friends. My protagonist, wounded on a post-retirement mission in Istanbul, loses both her day and night careers—and her home in Vienna. I lived in the Washington, D.C., area, but I was preparing to move back to Missouri. That led me to send Phoenix there and to research local problems when I visited there. I was surprised to learn that Missouri ranks at the top in meth use. This easily made, terribly addictive drug ruins many lives and strains the resources of rural law enforcement.

3: What genre does your book come under?

It’s a mystery with a lot of suspense. It cuts across subgenres, with an armed amateur sleuth, a bit of police procedure, and a rural setting often associated with cozies.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Ex-spy Phoenix is brilliant, athletic, and immodest with a well-developed sense of irony and a passion for fairness. She’s a little above average height and wears her black hair short for easy care and quick covering when putting on disguises. One possibility would be Jamie Lee Curtis. Civic leader Annalynn is reserved, aristocratic, and both intimidating and charismatic. She’s tall, wears her long brown hair in a French roll, and remains impeccable at all times. She has the kind of presence that Marcia Cross had on Desperate Housewives but with more warmth. Never-been singer Connie is short, blond, and trim with great warmth and considerable insight. Phoenix complains that Connie is irredeemably perky. Kristin Chenoweth could capture Connie.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? A former covert operative returns to her hometown to relax but instead must use her skills to solve a murder—and to survive.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

The publisher, Five Star, is a fiction imprint of Gale, Cengage Learning, a giant in library and education publishing. Five Star distributes through bookstores (including online ones) but emphasizes library sales.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first draft, roughly 123,000 words, took me about a year. The next dozen or so drafts took several years, including breaks for other projects. I cut the manuscript down to 89,000 words and, after several drafts, changed the point of view from third to first person.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Like every book and every writer, Show Me the Murder is unique. In the decade or so since I became serious about writing mysteries, I have enjoyed reading many mystery writers, among them Barbara D’Amato, Nevada Barr, Robert Crais, Earlene Fowler, Tess Gerritsen, Carolyn Hart, Joan Hess, Tony Hillerman, P. D. James, J. A. Jance, Laura Lippman, Margaret Maron, Grace Miriam Monfredo, Sara Peretsky, Anne Perry, Elizabeth Peters, Nancy Pickard, S. J. Rozen, and Julia Spencer-Fleming.

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve wanted to write stories since I learned to read. After decades of earning a living writing and editing articles, a wide variety of documents, and a few nonfiction books, I longed to write a novel, to create and populate a world.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope readers will enjoy watching the interactions of three old friends who’ve led very different lives for decades but come together as each faces a crisis. I suspect readers will love the dog, a Belgian Malinois who flunked out of K-9 training. Conceived as a walk-on character, he forced his way into the characters’ lives and my pages. In fiction as in real life, once you name an animal, you belong to it.

On Week 33 of the Next Big Thing, the following four writers will answers these questions on their websites/blogs.

Elaine Douts (writing as E. B. Davis): http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com

Maria Hudgins: http://mariahudgins.com

Karen McCullough: www.kmccullough.com/kblog

Erica Obey: http://ericaobey.net

Please feel free to share your thoughts and questions.

—Carolyn Mulford

Kirkus Reviews Show Me the Murder

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The first review of Show Me the Murder came from Kirkus Reviews, the venerable magazine that carries pre-publication reviews.

The reviewer sums up by writing, “The first in Mulford’s planned series explores the unsettling rise of crime in rural areas and provides an amusing and touching look at the reunited gal pals.”

The magazine reviewed 17 mysteries and 258 other books in the issue. You can read the entire review of Show Me the Murder on the website ((http://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/?q=Show+Me+the+Murder) or on page 33 of the January 1, 2013, issue (Vol. LXXXI, No.1).

The book will be released February 15, 2013.

Book review: Writing Teachers Will Relate to Mystery’s Setting

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Anyone who has taught a basic English or creative writing course will recognize some of the characters and situations in Killer Frost, a debut mystery by Judy Hogan.

Most of the book takes place at a financially and academically distressed historically black college in North Carolina. An idealistic untenured professor wars against the  administration to bring ill-prepared but determined students up to standard and to give gifted ones a chance to soar. He brings in Penny Weaver, a dedicated white writer/teacher, to take over both the remedial and the creative writing classes.

Hogan obviously knows both groups of students well, and some of her best scenes involve teaching rather than detecting. Finding the killer takes second place to rescuing the students from poor teaching, bad conditions, and the burnt-out and corrupt staff.  The victims’ behavior had given faculty and students reasons to want to murder them.

The major subplot revolves around Penny’s disconcerting attraction to the professor who hired her (both are happily married). A more effective subplot involves her difficult relationship with her single-mother daughter.

Some of the numerous characters in Killer Frost live on the page. Unfortunately some students get lost in the classroom, and neighbors overpopulate Penny’s diverse community. Most talk too much and act too little—until the fast-paced climactic scene, which ends with a satisfying twist.

Killer Frost, by Judy Hogan, Mainly Murder Press, 2012, 244 pp., $15.95 in paperback and $2.99 in e-book; ISBN: 978-0-9836823-8-7. For more information about the writer, her work, and where to buy the book, go to http://judyhogan.home.mindspring.com.

“Leftovers” Published in Humor Anthology

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I couldn’t resist the challenge: a call for humorous short stories featuring a resourceful woman dealing with a bad day.

For me, short stories pop into the brain almost whole. Nothing popped, but I’d toyed with a vague idea for a new mystery series. I decided to test it in a short story.

A lot of writers turn a chapter into a short story. I hadn’t written a chapter. Instead I developed a protagonist and a setting in backstory—what happens before the mystery begins. I submitted that short story, “Leftovers,” to Mozark Press for consideration for A Bad Hair Day, the third in the A Shaker of Margaritas series.  

Mozark accepted my story and 23 others from the Heartland and around the country. The paperback and e-book editions are now available.

With the cooperation of Mozark Press publisher Linda Fisher, I’ve arranged for the Columbia Branch of the American Association of University Women to sell the book as a fundraiser tied to the international Half the Sky Movement. Until the end of 2012, our Raising Our Half the Sky Committee and other members will sell the anthology. Our profits will go to Women for Women International.

I’ll be signing A Shaker of Margaritas: A Bad Hair Day and The Feedsack Dress from 1 to 5 p.m. November 23 and 24 in the historic Community Hall, Rocheport, Missouri.

The story convinced me that I would enjoy writing the series. In spare moments, I’ll come up with character bios, fiddle with plot ideas, and gather background information. Putting chapters on paper will have to wait until after I complete another book in my Show Me series.

Problems on That Crucial First Page

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Many agents and editors receive so many manuscripts that they reject most without reading all of the first page. We have to grab them fast.

Three small publishers—Linda Fisher of Mozark Press, Lou Turner of High Hill Press, and Yolanda Ciolli of AKA-Publishing—offered off-the-cuff evaluations of eleven anonymous first pages at the 2012 conference of the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild. Although they expressed personal preferences, they agreed on the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscripts.

Here’s how we conducted our one-hour First Page session. Interested conference participants emailed their submissions to me, each double-spaced page labeled fiction or nonfiction and adult or YA. I gave copies to the publishers shortly before the session. I read a first page aloud until all three indicated they would read no farther. (I seldom finished the page.) Then the publishers explained why they would stop reading. The writers could not ask questions or comment.

The publishers’ and my own observations indicated four common problems.

  1. A lack of context in the opening paragraphs. Writers failed to establish the time, place, setting, tone, or point of view. Readers didn’t know where the action was and where the story was going.
  2. A slow beginning. Writers lost the readers’ interest by giving too many details, too much description, too much backstory, or too many characters. The opening paragraphs lacked action or a hook.
  3. Unclear or mixed point of view. Writers headhopped or mixed omniscient and first or third person.
  4. Mechanical errors. The publishers quickly rejected manuscripts with typos, punctuation errors (most involving dialogue), and jarring or unclear syntax.

On the plus side, all of the first pages showed potential. The most pronounced strengths were distinct voices, vivid images, and arresting dialogue.

Milking When the Power Went Off

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Hurricane Sandy brought death and destruction to the East Coast last week. Millions who came through the storm unscathed still face an ongoing problem, the loss of electrical power. After a day or two, the lack of power went from an inconvenience to a hardship.

Thinking back to the loss of power on our farm, I remembered that we got along pretty well. We had fresh vegetables in the garden and canned ones in the storm cave, chickens to provide eggs and fresh meat, a kerosene stove for summer cooking, and a good supply of lanterns. After all, we didn’t even get electricity until the late 1940s.

When storms knocked out the power, our biggest problem was milking the cows by hand. Like the father in The Feedsack Dress, my father cared little that electricity enabled us to have bright electric lights rather than dim kerosene lamps, an electric radio rather than a battery-powered one, and an electric range rather than the hot wood-burning stove. To him, electricity meant the opportunity to milk with a machine and triple the size of our dairy herd, then about 10 cows.

He and my mother could milk those cows by hand in about an hour and a half, the same time it took to milk the expanded herd with the milking machine. And milking with the machine took far less energy and produced much less stress on the hands and wrists. Replacing the lanterns with electric lights also raised human (not bovine) productivity, especially on dark winter mornings and evenings.

I’m not sure what the cows felt about the changes, but they adjusted.

Less work and more money. It was great—until the power went off. Milking all those extra cows by hand took hours and cramped the muscles.

Nothing like losing your electricity to make you value it.

Starting and Maintaining a Critique Group

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Loved ones usually can’t give us objective feedback. For that we need a good critique group, one made up of four to six writers who share our interests and goals. How do you find them? The best bet is to recruit them from a writers’ organization or a writing class. If neither is available, post a notice at the library or bookstore. If that fails, look for an online group.

Turning several writers into a useful (possibly inspiring) critique group takes time and patience. Once established, many groups continue for years. In my experience, you improve your chances of having a great group if you remain flexible but follow these basic steps.

 

1. Before committing to a group, discuss:

*** the compatibility of writers’ current and anticipated projects:

*** the time each writer can devote to writing and critiquing:

*** the preferred frequency and location of meetings.

2. Writers should agree on the following:

*** the amount of material a writer can submit to the group at one time;

*** the deadline for submitting material before each meeting (critique before, not during, the meeting);

*** members’ responsibilities (e.g., critiquing—not just marking typos—of all work submitted and submitting occasionally);

*** a coordinator who will deal with scheduling, etc.

3. During each meeting, follow an established procedure, preferably silent author-single speaker. Under this plan, no one interrupts as each critiquer takes a turn at commenting on a manuscript. Often a group modifies this to allow the author to ask for a clarification and other critiquers’ opinion of a specific point. A group may suspend the rule to discuss an issue, but it’s critical that the author listen rather than “explain” at length.

4. Be honest but constructive. Be professional, not personal.

*** Start by summarizing the piece’s strengths but noting any major weaknesses.

*** If you are the first critiquer, be thorough; cover minor and major points.

*** If you’re not first, focus on points no one else has mentioned and on major points where the writer needs to hear different opinions.

*** When everyone has finished, the author may ask for suggestions.

*** Suggest—not dictate—changes, always remembering this is another writer’s work, not your own.

*** Give the writer the manuscript with your comments written by hand or on the computer.

If you get into a critique group where writers offer destructive rather than constructive criticism or seek nothing but praise of their own work, leave the group and find another.