Category Archives: Mysteries

Mysteries

Looking Ahead to 2016

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

A year ago I worried that aging would decrease the speed and quality of my writing. I wondered if I had the stamina and sharpness to complete a solid 90,000-word mystery. Over 2015 I found that I wrote more slowly—partly because I don’t always work a full day anymore—and spent more time rewriting and editing. Even so, I finished my fifth mystery, Show Me the Sinister Snowman, and began rewriting an earlier mystery while new Phoenix the Spy ideas jell.

In short, going into 2016, my pleasure in writing fiction endures, and my output remains satisfactory. The truth is that I write better than I do anything else—except maybe talk about my writing. I resolve to do plenty of both in 2016. I make no promises about cleaning my house or taking care of my yard.

No one knows the future, but here are highlights of what I expect to happen in 2016.

In late January or early February, Rocking Horse Publishing will release Thunder Beneath My Feet, my novel set during the devastating New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. This is a historical adventure with mystery elements, and I expect it to appeal to everyone from fourth graders who like to read to adults who enjoy history. (My beta readers included all ages.)

I’ll be reviewing my mounds of unused research to write blogs that offer readers, including teachers, background on the period, place, and people.

Missouri winters interfere with such scheduled events as book signings, so I’ll concentrate on writing and make few appearances until the release in late March of Show Me the Ashes, the fourth in my mystery series. May as well promote two books at once.

April through June I’ll divide my time between writing and promoting, which includes giving talks and possibly workshops here and elsewhere, speaking at such conferences as Malice Domestic, and writing guest blogs.

During the summer I expect to finish rewriting Ancestral Plot. Late summer initiates conference season and the chance to introduce new readers to my books. On my tentative schedule are Killer Nashville, Magna cum Murder, the regional Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and our local Show Me Writers MasterClass.

Before winter comes again, I expect to celebrate the release of Show Me the Sinister Snowman, anticipate the publication of Ancestral Plot, and begin work on another book.

I resolve to enjoy 2016 and hope all who bother to read this far do the same.

Happy New Year!

—Carolyn Mulford

Reviewer: Achilles Steals the Show

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

“Phoenix’s dog Achilles plays a star role in the whole series, and with each book, he steals more of the show,” wrote blogger Judy Hogan in her pre-publication review of Show Me the Ashes. The review is posted at http://postmenopausalzest.blogspot.com/2015/12/review-carolyn-mulfords-show-me-ashes.html.

The reviewer liked the other characters, too, ending the review with this: “One fiction teacher I had years ago said that the sign of a good book was its memorability.  Did it stick in your mind?  Carolyn Mulford’s characters stick in my mind.”

A poet, novelist, and activist, Judy’s latest books are The Sands of Gower: The First Penny Weaver Mystery and This River: An Epic Love Poem.

 —Carolyn Mulford

Release of Show Me the Ashes Delayed

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Show Me the Ashes won’t be in anyone’s stocking this Christmas. The publisher, Five Star, notified me a few days ago that the release is being delayed three months, until March 16, 2016.

Ho, ho, ho became no, no, no. The late notification inconvenienced not only me but also others, and I’m sorry for that. I had sent out review copies to my own list weeks ago and scheduled guest blogs for early January. A few people have already posted reviews of the book.

As the publisher told me and several other authors, publishers change schedules all the time. Unfortunately, that’s true. And I had seen signs that production had fallen behind schedule. The review copies came to me late, and the cover image didn’t go out to booksellers, libraries, and review publications.

On the plus side, spring is a better season than winter for driving to book signings, talks, and workshops.

Maybe Peter Rabbit will put Show Me the Ashes into some mystery lovers’ Easter baskets.

—Carolyn Mulford

Giveaway of Show Me the Ashes

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Show Me the Ashes comes out in a month. If you’d like a chance to read the uncorrected copy reviewers receive, sign up for the giveway at GoodReads.com by December 2.

The direct link is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27009695. You can also get to the giveaway by typing in the title on the site’s homepage.

In this book, the fourth in the series, the three main characters’ lives are changing. Phoenix is running the new foundation that she set up to give Annalynn a good job when she finishes her term as sheriff. An applicant begs Phoenix to take on a cold case involving a young mother’s possible false confession, one Annalynn’s late husband encouraged when he was the sheriff.

Not wanting to hurt Annalynn unless new evidence gives grounds for freeing the imprisoned woman, Phoenix investigates secretly with Connie, now negotiating a contract to direct musical comedies. Meanwhile Annalynn enlists Phoenix’s help in solving a series of burglaries that appear headed for violence. To complicate matters, failing to catch the burglar could scuttle Annalynn’s plans to run for Congress.

Achilles has his nose to the ground in both investigations. Someone from one of the cases fears the Belgian Malinois enough to want him dead. Phoenix has to figure out who it is to protect them both.

—Carolyn Mulford

Giveaway on GoodReads.com

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

From November 14 to 22 you can sign up on GoodReads.com for a chance to win an autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Show Me the Murder. The hardback edition won the Missouri Writers’ Guild 2014 Walter Williams Major Work Award.

The direct link to the giveaway is https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/162241. Or go to the GoodReads site and type in the title in the search box. You may need to become a member (free) to be eligible for a giveaway.

Why give away copies of a book published in February 2013? I want to introduce new readers to the series before the fourth book, Show Me the Ashes, comes out in late December.

A fast reader could also read Show Me the Deadly Deer (a DearReader.com Mystery of the Week) and Show Me the Gold (winner of the Guild’s 2015 Show Me Best Book Award) before book four hits the shelves.

—Carolyn Mulford

First Review of Show Me the Ashes

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Kirkus Reviews has posted the first pre-publication review of Show Me the Ashes. That’s a good thing.

Five Star will release the book, the fourth in the series, December 16, 2015.

The Kirkus headline reads: “A former CIA agent must find a way to solve a cold case without hurting her best friend’s feelings.” The conclusion says: “Phoenix’s fourth provides both plenty of action and enough likely suspects to keep you guessing.” In between, the reviewer sketches the characters’ relationships and the two cases that former covert operative Phoenix Smith, singer Connie Diamante, and Sheriff Annalynn Carr Keyser investigate.

If you’d like to read the whole review, go to https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carolyn-mulford/show-me-the-ashes.

If you’d like to read my description and the first chapter, click on the book’s cover on my home page.

—Carolyn Mulford

 

A Dog’s Tale

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

No matter how well I plan my mysteries, characters behave in unexpected ways and take roles I didn’t intend to give them. For example, a Belgian Malinois named Achilles arrived on the page for a brief appearance in Show Me the Murder. He became a major character in the series. He’s been on every cover right along with his human, former CIA covert operative Phoenix Smith.

A character who can’t talk presents a writer with special challenges. Fortunately the K-9 dropout also offers special opportunities both in characterization and plotting. I wrote a guest blog about all of these for Wicked Cozy Authors at the invitation of Liz Mugavero, author of the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries.

To read “Going to the dog,” go to http://wickedcozyauthors.com/2015/08/21/carolyn-mulford-going-to-the-dog.

—Carolyn Mulford

Talking About My Books

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

The work on a book doesn’t end when it’s published. Saturday morning, July 11, I’m performing one of the most pleasant of the follow-up tasks: talking to people who have read Show Me the Gold or think they may.

I’ll hold the floor for an hour at the monthly Osher Saturday Morning Book Talk, Room D, 1907 Hillcrest Drive, Columbia, MO. Readers gather for coffee (included in the $3 admission) and pastry at 9:30 a.m. The show begins a little before 10. A group of mystery fans, the Ashland Mystery Book Club, is sponsoring my talk.

What do these readers want to know? Organizer Kit Salter tells me they’re curious about the writer as well as the book. I’ll touch on how and why I finally became a mystery writer.

Series dominate mysteries, so I anticipate interest in the origin and development of my Show Me series. Most of the rest of my prepared talk will cover my characters and themes, most particularly in Show Me the Gold. If I don’t talk too much, I’ll read short passages to illustrate points and give a flavor of the writing.

To make sure the readers hear what they want to know, we’ll end the talk with a Q&A and hang around for signing and chatting.

No part of the publication process gives me greater pleasure than the writing, but talking to readers comes close.

—Carolyn Mulford

The Lull Before the Final Draft

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Years of editing others’ work taught me that even good writers can’t see their own mistakes, particularly the big ones. Years of editing my own work proved I’m as fallible as other writers.

I also learned to guard against one particular problem in my own writing: failing to go far enough in fixing a problem. If I write a scene wrong the first time around, for example, my first or second revision may not get it right. So after I’ve completed a draft with advice from my chapter-by-chapter critiquers and revised accordingly, I ask two to four people to read the manuscript as though it were a book they checked out of the library.

I don’t ask these readers about specific things that may be wrong. That draws their attention to a single aspect rather than the whole. Instead I ask a few general questions, including the following.

Did you become bored anywhere?

Did anything confuse you?

When did you know who done it?

Could you keep the characters straight?

If you’d checked this out of the library, would you have finished it? If not, where would you have stopped reading.

Most people ignore these questions until after they’ve read the manuscript. And sometimes forever. That’s fine with me. Whatever feedback I receive is helpful.

While they’re reading, I take a mental vacation from the book. In the last stages of the first draft and in the immediate follow-up revision, I think about the manuscript day and night. I need to distance myself from it so that I can come back with a fresh, more objective view.

Doing something completely different helps. A change of environment, as in a short trip, works well. During this lull before the tackling the final draft, I’ve been updating my website, working on my neglected lawn, and preparing a book talk.

One reader’s report has come in. The manuscript reads fast, the complicated plot doesn’t confuse, the characters are distinctive. As usual, however, I still have one important problem to fix in the final draft.

—Carolyn Mulford

Draft 1 Done; Now for Draft 2

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Today I finished the first draft of the fifth book in my Show Me series. It runs 89,003 words.

My two invaluable critique partners have been commenting on each chapter as I wrote draft 1. They notice every questionable word and comma, illogical behavior or plot twist, information dump or lack of clarity.

I’ll probably cut about 2,000 words from draft 1 by weeding out paragraphs with unnecessary information, interactions with little point, jokes that don’t work, descriptions readers don’t need, and other distractions.

A big concern on draft 2 is checking for consistency, particularly in descriptions of setting and characters and in the way each character speaks. I also will make sure of consistency of spelling in such terms as dog walker/dogwalker.

The manuscript won’t get a lot shorter because I’ll look for places where I need to add or alter descriptions and dialogue to give depth to characters. Now that I’ve reached the end of the book, I know the new characters much better and can reveal them to readers in subtle ways I couldn’t when I first met them.

When I finish draft 2, I’ll give the manuscript to trusted readers who haven’t seen it before. They give me mostly big-picture feedback on plot and characters and comments on places they find hard to follow, slow, or even particularly entertaining.

Then I’m ready to do the final draft, the one in which I polish every chapter, page, paragraph, sentence, and word. I’ll read portions aloud as I go, and finally I’ll read the whole thing aloud. I always hear places where the cadence is off, a word has been overused, too many sentences have the same structure, a word has been left out or inserted or misspelled. I even find missing periods.

Draft 1 is done. On to draft 2.

—Carolyn Mulford

Show Me the Murder in Paperback

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

ShowMeTheMurder_pbHarlequin Worldwide Mysteries has released the paperback edition of Show Me the Murder. This June, it’s featured on the Harlequin website: http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=59157.

You won’t find the paperback edition on Amazon or in your brick-and-mortar bookstore. Harlequin sells this mystery line only on its website. Most of the buyers are subscribers.

I’ll have copies to sell when I do talks.

Published in hardback and e-book editions by Five Star/Gale, Cengage Learning in 2013, Murder is the first in my series featuring Phoenix Smith, a wounded ex-spy who returns to her rural hometown to relax and instead adapts her tradecraft to solving crime. Five Star markets primarily to libraries, so I retained the mass market paperback, audio, and film rights.

Worldwide Mysteries also will publish the paperback edition of Show Me the Deadly Deer. I haven’t received a release date yet, but it probably will come out in early 2016.

The WW cover design for Murder bears no resemblance in style, content, or color to the FS cover. I’m looking forward to seeing what the new Deadly Deer cover will look like.

—Carolyn Mulford

Another Five-Book Day

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

The most common questions readers (and many writers) ask me are:

When and where do you write?

How many words do you write a day?

How long does it take you to finish a book?

Those simple questions have complicated answers, and today is a good example of why.

As usual, my writing day began in early morning. I’m finishing the first draft of Show Me the Door, and I wake up thinking about what’s going to happen.

My priority for the day, however, was writing a disguised bibliography for Thunder Beneath My Feet. I need to deliver it, a bio, and a couple other little things to the publisher by Friday. I started on the bibliography about 8 a.m., sorting my long-neglected files in the living room so I wouldn’t have to spread them out in my office.

Nuggets I’d saved came to light, giving me a possible start on planning a sequel and ideas on promotion. The research done and content choices made, I spent most of the morning in writing the two-page piece.

After a lunch/news break, I edited that and the three other shorts and emailed them to my critiquers for comment.

Around 2:30 I made a quick trip to the pharmacy to renew a prescription. With the traffic light, I thought about when to write and post a blog about the June release of the paperback edition of Show Me the Murder. My copies arrived yesterday.

Back at home, I relaxed in my recliner with pad and pencil to make notes for a crucial interrogation in Chapter 26 of Show Me the Door.

 Back to the office to read comments on my Thunder notes, followed by a supper/news break in front of the TV, an errand, and back to the office to read critiquers’ comments and revise the bibliography.

About 9:30 p.m. I did a quick email check. The prize: the Five Star designer’s image of the cover of Show Me the Ashes. Huge relief. I like it. I really like it. I sent the editor an email saying so.

By golly, I thought. That makes five books I’ve worked on today, each one at a different stage in the writing-publishing-marketing continuum. I should blog about that.

I don’t know how many words I wrote or how many total hours I spent or what percentage of my work time I spent in bed, in the living room, in the office, or moving around. I do know I had a productive day.

It’s 10:30 p.m., and I’m tired.

—Carolyn Mulford