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News

Workshop: Writing Your Past Into Fiction

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Our lives are part of the long continuum of human history, but how do you use your tiny fragment in a novel?

At 10:30 a.m., Saturday, December 7, I’ll answer that question during a workshop in the Columbia (MO) Public Library. I’ll talk about how I drew on memory, others’ memories, library research, and imagination in writing The Feedsack Dress, an MG/YA novel set in northeast Missouri in 1949. Using short readings, I’ll illustrate such points as incorporating real life into your plot and c haracterizations.

We draw on our experience no matter what we write. I’ll touch on how I’ve done that in writing my Show Me mystery series.

To register, call 573-443-3161.

—Carolyn Mulford

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

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

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

 

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

 

Reviewer Calls Characters Appealing, Story Compelling

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

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.