A Dog’s Tale

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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 … Continue reading →

Deciding What to Write Next

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After working on a manuscript almost a year, I’m waiting for my two chapter-by-chapter readers’ to offer comments on a one-gulp read before doing the final polish. This gives me time to start catching up on repairs (e.g., hinges on cabinet doors), life-business tasks (e.g., comparing rates for car insurance), and cleaning (e.g., the whole house). More important to me, the short break gives me an opportunity to decide what to write next. For three years I’ve concentrated on the Show Me mystery series. The latest manuscript completes a five-book arc. In the six months covered in the books, my … Continue reading →

Talking About My Books

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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 … Continue reading →

The Lull Before the Final Draft

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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 … Continue reading →

Draft 1 Done; Now for Draft 2

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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 … Continue reading →

Show Me the Murder in Paperback

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Harlequin 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 … Continue reading →

Another Five-Book Day

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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 … Continue reading →

11th Book Contract Marks 50 Years of Writing

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Fifty years ago this week I began my writing career as an editorial assistant for the NEA Journal, then one of the country’s best education magazines. I just signed a contract for my eleventh book, Thunder Beneath My Feet, a middle grade/young adult novel set during the powerful New Madrid earthquakes in late 1811 and early 1812. Those eleven books represent a relatively small part of my output. For twenty years I worked mostly on magazines, including as the editor of Industrial Research & Development News. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna, Austria, published this international technical quarterly. … Continue reading →

My Personal Research Library

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Most writers build up a personal library for their major projects. Three other mystery writers—Laura Bradford/Elizabeth Lynn Casey, Laura Lebow, and Sujata Massey—and I will share what we keep at hand during a panel on research at Malice Domestic, a national annual conference for mystery readers and writers. Here are some titles on my shelves. Crime and Investigation Two books I’ve used for years are Forensics and Fiction: Clever, Intriguing, and Downright Odd Questions From Crime Writers and Murder and Mayhem by D. P. Lyle, M.D. The cardiologist and author answers mystery writers’ medical and post-death questions, providing essential details … Continue reading →

Show Me the Gold Wins Award

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The Missouri Writers’ Guild gave Show Me the Gold the “Show Me” Best Book Award April 11 during the Guild’s leadership conference in Columbia. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry collections, and scripts were eligible for the award. Published in December 2014, Gold is the third book in my mystery series, and my third book to receive the Guild’s recognition. Last year Show Me the Murder won the Walter Williams Major Work Award. The conference marked the hundredth anniversary of the Guild’s founding during Journalism Week at the University of Missouri.  An internationally known journalist and educator, Williams founded the world’s first school … Continue reading →

International Women’s Day Quiz

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I came back to my desk on March 8, 1969, and found a chocolate and a postcard wishing me a Happy International Women’s Day. A Russian colleague had left those for me and every other woman in my section of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Even though the first National Women’s Day originated in the United States in 1909, I’d never heard of International Women’s Day. It has received better publicity in the United States since the United Nations began celebrating it in 1975. In honor of the day, I offer a short quiz, part of one written originally … Continue reading →

Book Launch for Show Me the Gold

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Readers, writers, and others with nothing better to do are invited to come celebrate the publication of Show Me the Gold at 2 p.m., Saturday, January 24, Columbia Books, 1907 Gordon Street, Columbia, Missouri. We’ll have conversation and refreshments before and after a short presentation. I’ll talk for a few minutes about how the series has developed and why mystery writers and readers like series. I may even look ahead to book four (now beginning the production process) and book five, now in the early chapters of the first draft. And, of course, guests can ask questions about the books … Continue reading →