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A Crime Wave, In A Writer’s Head, Of Course

Nov17

Today my guest is Nike Chillemi. Nike N. Chillemi writes contemporary detective and/or suspense novels with a touch of wry humor, and there’s often a national security twist to them. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better. Her newest endeavor is COURTING DANGER. She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chair, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. For five years she has judged the Carol Awards in four categories. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series (out of print), set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. The first novel in the Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels/Dawson Hughes series HARMRUL INTENT won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network.

Check out Nike Chillemi on Facebook or Twitter.

A lot of things have to be considered when writing a detective or suspense novel, and it’s often hard to keep everything together.

Here’s what Nike thinks when she’s working on a book.

I have a picture in my head, now that I’m living in the Sunshine State, that I want to be a Florida mystery/suspense writer. I want to bring a crime wave to the state I love…in fiction, of courses.

COURTING DANGER is a detective novel set in northeast coastal Florida. I put a lot of effort into setting a semi-tropical locale for the novel. I paid attention to heat conditions in the story, making sure that characters were dressed for a beach town. And, of course, I threw in a hurricane.

My novels are a detective series, which is a cousin to a police procedural series. The tone tends to be a little more gritty than a murder mystery or a cozy. I’ve done quite a bit of research and pay attention to my police procedure so that it comes off as accurate. I like to give my readers somebody to root for. My main characters do have flaws, but they are definitely the good guys, on the side of right.

I do have plans for writing a few cozies in the near future that I hope will be as hilarious on paper as they are in my head. I think Florida is the perfect setting for cozies what with sun, the beach, water sports, and much more. I’d like to have a lot of fun with that. Of course, in a cozy, you have the sense that everything ends well, I go all out to make that happen in my detective novels as well. I like a happy ending.

COURTING DANGER in a nut shell…

Newly installed Pelican Beach, Florida detective Katerina “Kat” Andruko fears the prime suspect will get off in the murder of a teen with the help of the department’s forensics psychologist, a man she’s just started to trust.

This case has national security implications that gives former US Army Ranger, Dr. Dimitri Garmonin a chance to work with the FBI. The case could give him the chance to obtain the funds needed to expand his small Behavior Analysis Unit. He’s unmoved by the chic FBI agent sent to assist but is intrigued by Kat with whom he shares a Slavic heritage.

Kat and her partner detain two wrong suspects, giving the department negative press. The predator turns his anger on Kat, targeting her. Can Dimitri use his profiler skills to catch this killer before he hurts the woman he’s growing to love?

Now that’s a lot of details to make sure everything works out in the end! But yet, she makes them work.

This Book Is Based On A True Story

Nov14

I’ve always wondered, when I read the phrase “based on a true story” how much exactly in there is true.  The answer is, maybe a little, maybe a lot, but probably somewhere in the middle.

While a writer needs to write based on reality, unless you’re writing a fantasy where you’ve completely made up the world and/or universe in which your story resides, we need to make the story sound like it could be real. Most of the time that means using real places and real people. But at the same time, if a character does something bad or stupid, we can’t be too true that someone would recognize themself and sue the author and/or publisher. Yet we can’t completely make something up and claim it’s true to get more sales, and then be nothing more than a well-paid liar.

Sometimes authors make up towns, making weather and geography similar to a real place, but everything else is made up. This can be fun, and I’ve been part of a series by a number of authors where we did this.

My latest release – The Other Neighbor – is based on a true story, as far as the underlying plot. In real life, this situation rocked my husband’s company as once the bad guy was arrested, his company went into bankrupcy and all the money he owed for services rendered had to be written off as a loss, even though wages were paid to the staff, as well as other normal business expenses such as rent, taxes, furniture, etc etc. So the plot to make a bomb and an FBI investigation is real. Aside from that, everything else is pretty much made up.

There are other stories I’ve written where I heard about something real that happened, and used the concept and made up the rest.

The best fiction is making stuff up, and making it sound real. Especially when it is real.

Really.

Rabbit Trails

Nov10

My guest today is Lynne Tagawa, who is a very busy lady.  She shares a lot of things with me as a writer, except down a different path as I do contemporary and she does historical fiction.

Lynne Tagawa is married with four grown sons and three marvelous grandbabies. A biology teacher by trade, she teaches part-time, writes, and edits. She’s written a Texas history curriculum in narrative form, Sam Houston’s Republic, and two novels, A Twisted Strand and The Shenandoah Road. Lynne lives with her husband in South Texas.

Here’s what Lynne has to say about something that is the same with a lot of writers.

Have you ever hunted for something and become distracted? Pulling open drawers, searching shelves, or opening the closet?

Oh look! A box of old photos. I really need a new album for those. And here, why, I’d forgotten I ever started that cross-stitch pattern. Soon I’ve forgotten what I needed in the first place.

Writing historical fiction is like that. When I do research for my novels, I often lose myself. For example, in my current project, one of my characters is a Shawnee Indian. I need to know what the Shawnee wore, what they ate, what their houses were made of, but most of all, I need to know how they thought.

It isn’t good enough to say, “Well, they were people just like us.” No, even the white folks back in the 1750s didn’t think quite like we do today. I have to study the Shawnee religion (which may have changed slightly between 1750 and today). I need to study their culture. Their history.

And that’s where I fall down rabbit holes. Who knew that nobody really knows the history of the Natives Americans of the southeastern woodlands? Where did they originally come from? Modern-day Creek Indians often share DNA with other groups with Mayan roots. But no one knows about the Cherokee or Shawnee. And then there’s the mystery about blood types.

But wait a minute, nobody even knew what DNA or blood types were in the 1750s, so why do I care? It was a pesky rabbit trail, that’s what.

For the first book in the series, The Shenandoah Road: A Novel of the Great Awakening, which takes place in the 1740s, I did research on what folks sang in church, what books were available on herbal medicine, and I watched a YouTube of a guy firing a Kentucky long rifle.

Crack!

Distraction. Yup. I know it well. I think many of us do.

Another thing that goes on in a Writer’s Mind – panic and procrastination

Nov7

Panic and procrastination. Do those two words go together in the same sentence? In the live of a writer, they often do.

How exactly do writers come up with amazing stories and characters so real you think they could live next door? I can tell you, sometimes it just comes easy (after all, as writers, isn’t that what we do?), but a lot of the time, it doesn’t.

But writing or not, writers tend to spend a lot of time at the computer. Checking email. Facebook. Surfing for research, then getting very distracted. Did someone see that post about those cute puppies? We can’t forget computer Solitaire. There are lots of versions, you know.

Every once in a while a great scene comes to our minds and we write like crazy. But then, the scene is over, and the same thing happens with the next one. And… the deadline approaches. It’s when that deadline gets really close, and we see that we aren’t as far as we should be that panic starts to happen.

After the book is completed, do we learn, and not procrastinate so much with the next one?

Well, I’ll leave you to guess. But in the meantime, I wonder if that gadget I want is still on eBay?

A Writer’s Mind – My Fear of eBay

Nov3

Today my guest is Karin Beery, who has a unique perspective on something many of us use all the time, with no thought. But as a writer thinks…. what if….

Owner of Write Now Editing, Karin Beery is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the Christian Editor Network, where she teaches several editing classes through the PEN Institute. Her debut novel, Summer Plans and OtherDisasters, released earlier this year. As managing editor of Guiding Light Women’s Fiction, she is looking for stories that entertain, encourage, inspire, and enlighten. Find out more at her website.

The writer’s struggle – how can you add more conflict to your story?

I’m always looking for new, fun ways to mess up my character’s lives, and sometimes that involves observing ordinary situations and asking “what if”?

What if that guy hadn’t stopped his bike in time and he’d ridden in front of that minivan? Maybe all five of those kids belong to the lady driving. What if she’s single? What if he likes her? What if the kids don’t like him?

That’s a pretty typical list of what-ifs for most writers, but the other day I had a revelation. While wondering how suspense writers create their plots, I realized the truth: my husband and I are easy prey for the next psychopath looking to pin a murder on someone.

You see, I’m not only a writer, I’m also a fan of cop shows and suspense novels, so I know how this works. One finger print, some DNA, and I’m going away for life. But how could someone frame me for murder?

eBay

That’s right. It seems so innocent – I have something you want so I sell it to you for a bargain – but what if it’s really just a way for murderers to frame innocent people?

Think about it. Every time my husband and I box up something to ship to a customer, we use high-quality packaging tape. Do you know how hard it is to use that tape without leaving a finger print on it? And that adhesive! How many skin cells does it rip off every time I tear a new strip? As if that’s not enough, I’ve noticed more than one of my hairs accidentally taped to the outside of a box. So. Much. DNA.

I’m not selling shoes. I’m shipping off frame-me kits!

For the record, I didn’t do it. I’ll never do it. If you ever hear about me being arrested for a violent crime, take this post to the police and tell them I was framed!

Am I overreacting? Possibly, but that’s how I’d frame an innocent man if I wrote a crime novel. It’s just how this writer’s mind works … and probably why my husband doesn’t ask for my help.

Happy Halloween

Oct31

What goes on in the mind of a writer on Halloween?

Of course the most important – research!  This is a time to meet and see people when they’re not their normal selves.

Even at the office, where we see the same hard-working people every day, many people have a lot of fun with costumes, even sitting behind a desk.  I usually wonder about the costumes they’ve chosen – is the characterization because that person wants to be more adventurous (cowboys, Indiana Jones etc)? Cute and lovable (animals and pets)? Hint of danger (pirates, Captain Jack Sparrow etc)? Someone famous (stars and celebrities, Lady Gaga)? Wish they could do something bad to someone they don’t like (witch/warlock)? Hiding (a mask you can’t see their face)?

As a writer, Halloween is a great time to do character research. What is someone thinking, deep down? Do they have a deep emotional need? Introvert or Extrovert? Are they making a statement with their costume? Or was it just the cheapest they could get? Your Halloween costume can say  a lot about you.

Feeling a little self conscious now? Heh heh heh…

The Workings of a Writer’s Mind

Oct27

Today my guest is Michelle De Bruin, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a lot of chapters online. Michelle De Bruin is a worship leader and spiritual services provider in Iowa where she lives with her husband and two teenage sons. A romantic at heart, Michelle is always looking for glimpses of God’s love through the window of a good story.

Check out Michelle’s website at – https://michelledebruin.com/

Links to her book – Hope For Tomorrow, by Michelle De Bruin – Amazon or Barnes and Noble

Here’s what Michelle says about the workings of a writer’s mind

In developing a character or writing description, my mind functions much like the attic of an old farmhouse. If you’ve ever visited one, you find that after taking the stairs to the second story, and then using a ladder or a narrower, steeper set of stairs than the first, the third story of a farmhouse opens up into a spacious wilderness begging to be explored. No walls break it up into tight, small corners. Windows from at least two sides of the house let in the light shedding revelation on all sorts of interesting heirlooms to put to good use.

Against one wall are an old full-length mirror and other antique articles of furniture. Under a window is a trunk filled with dresses and accessories from another era. Crammed in drawers of the antique furniture are black and white photos, love letters, newspaper clippings, and church bulletins that tell the story of generations of family that have lived and loved, grieved and rejoiced in that home.

When I write my mind, and thus my imagination, travels from the trunk of clothing to the drawers of memorabilia, borrowing inspiration and generating ideas. It goes over to the window for a look outside at the clear sunny day, the blue sky, and the crops in the surrounding fields. Then it ends up in front of the mirror to take a look at all I have created.

And when my mind comes back to the present moment where I take all I have learned from the past and everything I want to remember about those I love most, I write it down.

(Gail Sattler’s comment) I have never been in a old farmhouse, in fact, I’ve only been on a farm once in my life, and it was soggy and rained out and we were kind of trapped, so I didn’t even actually see the farm. But going up into an attic like that sounds like a super adventure. My first thought is, if the access is that narrow and up multiple flights of ever-narrowing stairs, how did they get all that stuff up there?

Just sayin’.

 

 

 

 

Time to start Christmas shopping?

Oct27

As a writer, what do I think about at Christmas time to buy everyone?

Well, the natural thing would of course be… books. But then that’s what everyone expects me to give, so I can’t. Besides, according to all contracts from publishers, the few free copies the authors get are supposed to be given away as promo to potential buyers, not freebies to friends and relatives.

My next thought is, a reading device, like a Kindle or a Kobo. But truthfully, almost everyone on my Christmas list already has one. So I can’t. Besides, if I did, I’d be tempted to load it up with my own books, which hopefully all my friends and family have already read. Besides, you can download the Kindle reader app onto your phone, if you really want to read a book on your phone. Which I don’t.

Or, how about a remote keyboard that syncs with a cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, right? But then again, no one I know, except a few other writers, need to type long things into their phones that would make a separate keyboard worthwhile, so I can’t. Although it sure is cool to have a keyboard that works with a phone. Except, one more thing to carry in our purses that we don’t use every day. Plus the time it takes to connect, especially when you haven’t used it for a while. (But it’s still cool!)

Then the next thought, buying a pass/ticket to a really cool event – like the next writers’ conference. Learn lots of stuff, meet cool people, schmooze with authors. Get autographs. Oh wait. My friends schmooze with me, and it’s probably not that exciting. And not everyone things attending classes and workshops is fun. Never mind that idea.

Oh well. I guess there’s always Starbucks gift cards…

 

Writing and Pumpkin Spice

Oct24

Tis the season for everything Pumpkin Spice. Starbucks costs more, but I like their Pumpkin Spice lattee way better than Tim Hortons’. I only say this because I do require coffee in order to write.

This reminds me of walking the dogs along the Alouette River dike path, down to the end where the path is beside Laityview Farms, where in the fall they must make an absolute fortune with children’s field trips, taking classes of children on fun field trips ending with every child getting to pick and take home a pumpkin. Of course, the little kids can’t carry a big pumpkin, so from a business perspective, this is a great way to use their small pumpkins.

Every year I take photos of the pumpkin patch. This year was very sunny, and the field is so orange it almost glows.

I’ve got some great ideas on that path over the years. I’ve also thought out some good plot lines on ideas I’ve already thought of, and need to put together.

What is going on in the mind of this writer on this day, is that I need to get a Pumpkin Spice Lattee and sit in a quit room with my computer and get working on my next series.  It’s a five book series and the first book has to set up all the characters for the current story, as well as the next four books. I need to think and plan this before I keep going. Coffee will help.

Sometimes, that’s all that goes on, is we need more coffee, and it had better be good.

Have I planted any ideas? Don’t you feel like going to Starbucks? 

Plot Bunnies, Rabbit Trails, Distractions, and Doubt: The writer’s life

Oct20

My guest today is Christa MacDonald, who really tells it like it is. Real, and honest. This truly is the writer’s life.

Christa MacDonald is a 2017 Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction. When not working or writing Christa can be found ferrying her kids around, reading, gardening, or attempting something crafty. She and her family live along the coast of New England. Connect with Christa at www.christamacdonald.com

Christa MacDonald’s book is The Broken Trail
Smart, successful education consultant Katherine Grant travels to a rural Maine town to help turn around the local Christian private school and ends up locking horns with the town’s police captain.

Here’s what Christa has to say about the life of a writer:

Writing is a funny occupation. It requires both wild imagination and sober diligence to complete a book. A novel often starts with the spark of an idea. Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Anne of Green Gables books, got her idea from a news article about an elderly couple who were to adopt a boy from an orphanage, but were sent a girl by mistake. That was all it took to get her mind churning. Any author might have a flash of interest when they read something or are hit by an idea like a bolt out of the blue, but the difference between a creative person with a lot of good ideas and an author is…wait for it…hard work.

Disappointing, isn’t it? I didn’t say the best writing software or plotting outline system, free time, or even tasty snacks because, while those things can help, they can’t replace the discipline of putting one’s backside on the chair and one’s fingers on the keyboard/pen. There are a million ways to write a book, but they all boil down to one word after the other until the end is written. That being said, I’ve found several things that really work when taking that spark of an idea and turning it into a bonfire of a novel.

A good outline can save a work in progress from the the terror of rabbit trails. A rabbit trail starts off as a the idea for a secondary plot, but it’s so unwieldy that it ends up hopping around uselessly until entire thousands of words need to be ruthlessly cut or the whole novel is shelved. If you start with an outline, you’ll spot these a mile off. No secondary plot that does not serve the primary plot deserves to be in the book.

A member of the rabbit trail family is the plot bunny. This is a bright little idea that hops up and down for attention. They have nothing to do with the work in progress, but are novel, and so enticing. The best method to deal with them is to write them down in another doc or on an index card and file for a later date.

Distractions of every sort will pop up while writing. Sometimes they’re cute, small humans that demand dinner or tall, loud ones that wonder if the laundry’s been turned over because they need a white shirt for tomorrow’s…whatever. Life intrudes. It’s okay. Feed the kids, turn over the laundry, and then get back to it.

Distraction’s evil cousin is doubt. Every single author… Ahem, let me say that a little louder…EVERY. SINGLE. AUTHOR deals with doubt. Critique partners, especially ones that are willing to be candid, are the best antidote to doubt. A writer’s group is great for this as well. Feedback is the key here, but be prepared to be both uplifted and devastated because positive feedback is necessary for killing doubt, but constructive feedback is needed to improve.

Writing is an odd occupation. It has such a duality to it. Books are written in solitude, but they communicate to the wide world. Authors write to reach as many readers as possible, but spend hours alone to do it. We most often read to ourselves, immersed in a world with a crowd of characters while sitting alone. When someone reads a book I’ve written they’re essentially listening to me tell a story and chances are we’ll never meet. I hope I get to meet as many readers as possible. Fair warning in case we meet, I will probably smile too much and talk too fast. The very first reading I did, I forgot to take the gum out of my mouth and read so fast one attendee swore that she could only catch every third word.

One last piece of advice to combat bunnies and dark thoughts alike: the world needs stories, especially ones that shine light into the shadowy places. We need authors brave enough to write the truth with a capital T. It might be a hard slog, but the write life is worth the effort.

This entry was posted on October 20, 2018, in Gail's BLOG.