Elizabeth George does a neat thing

She only plots about eight scenes ahead. She outlines the scene in a kind of shorthand: the POV character of the scene, what they're feeling, what they want, where they are, who they're dealing with, what the action is. So when she writes the actual scene she has a lot of this in place. Next blog, I'll show you how I did this with a scene from THE SHOP.

The Shop

My work in progress, The Shop, just hit the 80K mark. It looks like it's going to get all the way up to 100K, although I'd like it to be shorter.

The Shop is a thriller that explores the proposition of an administration that kills celebrities to distract attention away from its own malfeasance. All the news that's fit to print.

Another take on Authorland

In this tough economy, where most books aren't doing well (romance books, though, are flying off the shelves!) here's a view of Authorland I came across the other day, and it isn't exactly comforting.

There's Pink Slip Mountain, where you climb a hill of rejections to emerge at the summit, only to be whisked to the bottom on the Sales Figures Slide. And the PR Tour, where you spend thirty minutes alone in a room with a stack of books no one wants signed. The Hall of Editors, where distorting mirrors reflect your original ideas into warped and twisted caricatures. The Blurbitorium, where the softest whisper is echoed back in an series of increasingly amplified shouts until you can't hear yourself think over the din. The Title Exchange, where good titles like Gone With the Wind are swapped for stupid "commercial" titles like Plantation Lust. The Discount Bin, where you can dive into a bottomless well of unsold paperbacks. Let's not forget the Envy Express, which transports you past scenes of wealthy authors entertaining celebrity friends in posh restaurants, visible through sheets of cloudy glass.

Something tells me Authorland isn't The Happiest Place on Earth.

Rachel Alexandra vs. Mine that Bird

How to write a great plot, using real life.

Having written a suspense novel about horse racing in New Mexico (Dark Horse), and having spent time following a racehorse trainer around Rillito Park, the one-time home of Mine That Bird's exercise rider, groom, and assistant trainer, Charlie Figueroa, I was enthralled by the little gelding's Derby run. What a story! You have a $9500 dollar yearling purchase (who became Canada's two-year-old champion and sold later for $400,000) towed by horse trailer from Sunland Park in New Mexico to Kentucky, dismissed as a 50-1 shot, and who makes such a scintillating run that the last quarter was the second-fastest since Secretariat's record-smashing win. Wow.

Then you have this big, strapping filly who beats every filly in sight. She wins the Kentucky Oaks the day before Mine that Bird wins the Derby. She wins the Oaks by over 20 lengths! Everyone wants her to run in the Preakness, but her owner doesn't want to run her against the boys. "Fillies race fillies, and colts race colts."

What do these two horses have in common? The same jockey, Calvin Borel. Calvin Borel, who grew up on the bush tracks in Louisiana, who never got past ninth grade. Calvin Borel who won two years ago with Street Sense, and got to meet the Queen of England.

Calvin Borel rode Mine that Bird brilliantly. He took the rail, squeezed through tiny tiny holes on a tiny horse. There were times when Calvin's feet actually skimmed that rail. Calvin Borel is kind of crazy. He loves the rail, was taught early on it was the fastest way home. In fact, his nickname is "Bo-Rail."

So, the Preakness is coming up. Calvin is set to ride Mine that Bird, and bid for the Triple Crown. But then, in steps Jess Jackson, owner of Kendall-Jackson wines (damn good, too), and he buys the filly. He's going to run her in the Preakness and he wants to ride Calvin on her.

Calvin's got to make a choice. And he chooses the horse he believes is the best horse he ever rode---the filly. The owners of Mine that Bird will have to find another rider for the gelding.

Enter the bad guy. You know there's going to be a bad guy, right? One of the owners (tied to shady dealings in the Alaskan bribery scandal with Ted Stevens) decides that he and another owner can exclude Rachel from the gate. Long story, but she wasn't nominated, and they give precedence to the horses who were. They can only run fourteen horses. So the boys want to squeeze the girl out.

The cavalry comes to the rescue. The people at my favorite racing forum, thoroughbredchampions, and others, write letters and pressure pressure pressure those two owners into quitting their scheme. Within the hour, they back down. This is the power of "The Internets."

So Rachel runs, and she wins. But Mine that Bird is a fantastic little horse, and he almost gets to her. He's still a strong rival. And the next race is the Belmont.

Rachel is the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years. Only four fillies (now) have won the Preakness. Mine that Bird turned out to be a diamond in the rough, despite his humble beginnings.

Remember what the previous owner of Rachel Alexandra said. "Fillies should run against fillies, and colts against colts. The Triple Crown races are to showcase our stallions."

Rachel's a filly, not a stallion, and she won the Preakness.
Mine that Bird is a gelding, not a stallion, and he won the Derby.

stallions - 0
others - 2

The Desert Waits by Margaret Falk

The Desert Waits
Kensington Books
1996

A woman answers a terrified cry for help...
A husband betrays his wife one last time....
The owner of an isolated hotel harbors a dangerous obsession...
A man succumbs to a fatal attraction...

They are four strangers whose lives converge on a lonely stretch of Arizona desert...four strangers brought together by the brutal murder of a beautiful woman. Each of them has a secret. And all of them have a reason to be afraid.

Now, someone else is going to die. For in the desert, beneath the cold, merciless moon, there is no place to hide.

The Desert Waits by Margaret Falk

Dark Horse by Margaret Falk

Dark Horse
Zebra Books, Kensington Publishing Corp.
1995

Despite the accidents that were plaguing his business, horse breeder Coke McAllister was sure that Shameless, his prized filly, was going to put him back on top. But now Coke is dead, and his daughter Dakota returns to Arizona determined to sell the ranch. Yet as she re-enters the gates of Black Oak Ranch, a flood of bittersweet memories draws Dakota back into a past she thought she'd outrun... and into the arms of a man she'd prayed to forget.

Ten years can't dim the desire Dakota still feels for Clay Pearce, the man she'd loved and married--only to end up betrayed and heartbroken. But who else can she trust with the secrts of her father's diary? Who else can she turn to when her life is threatended by an unseen stalker?

And who else will hold her through long nights as cold as the grave?

Now, as Dakota enters Shameless in a celebrated race, a desperate killer lays a trap. For tonight, Death is galloping side by side with the dawn.

Dark Horse by Margaret Falk

Writing the Opposite Sex

A friend of mine asked me how I write in the point of view of the opposite sex. My first response: I honestly haven’t thought about it much.

I think it’s because I’ve read books all my life, and a lot of those books were written by men. All those plots, all that internal monologue, all those ways of seeing into a character – it’s encoded in my memory. Having started with Stephen King and worked my way to Robert Crais, I spend so much time with the brainchildren of these writers that I think like them to some degree. If my appetite were women’s fiction, I’d probably think more and write more along those lines.

I honestly can’t tell the difference between the basic characters of people, male or female. That’s because every character is different. We’re unique. Everyone is, to some extent, the exception to the rule.

I’m not saying there aren’t general differences between men and women. Physical, cultural, sociological – you name it. But people are basically people, and I’ve never had a problem getting into some guy’s head—especially because I’m inventing him. It’s my party and I’ll write what I want to.

Also, I think a writer must have a really good ear. They can hear a man talking and thinking, or a woman talking and thinking. A lot of the time, they’re thinking the same things. Dr. Phil has a list of universal needs in human beings. He says (and I believe him) that the number one need for any human being is the need for acceptance. Followed by the fear of rejection. Go with those – I don’t care if you’re male or female – you’re going to do all right. If you think of characters as people. Individual, specific, particular people.

There are writers—even successful ones–who are tone deaf. There are male writers whose own insecurities and poor instincts lead them to objectify women, as they would in real life—it’s the author coming out. On the distaff side, women objectify men, too. There are romances I’ve read where a woman tries to be in a man’s head, but it is truly a fantasy. It’s what she’d like to think the guy is thinking—usually about her, the author—and it rings false.

Plus, there is sexism, which is often perpetrated more by women than by men; probably because as a group, men don’t think about it as an issue all that much. I remember being really angry as a kid reading Marguerite Henry’s books about Misty, the pony from Chincoteague. It was always “Paul and Maureen”, never the other way around. Paul always got the good stuff (most of the riding, although when he was through, Maureen got her shot), and worse, Paul would say, “You can’t do this because you’re a girl”.

Well, screw Paul.

When I became a young adult and started having relationships, I noticed this: not only were men great company, but they were people just like me. We had the same hopes, dreams, and fears.

It’s possible that the college years are looser, freer – and people are more homogenous then than at any other point in their lives. It’s possible that over the years, the soft cement of our upbringing hardens into concrete and we become more of what we were raised to be. I often think I’ve returned to the person I was before puberty hit – about eleven. That was me, somehow, and more of that person is coming out.

As we grow older, we remember the things we picked up as children: Men don’t ask for directions. Women always say, “What are you thinking”? Men don’t remember to buy gifts. Women are self-sacrificing. What a bunch of crap.

I think of men and women as those bottles of salad dressing – the ones they used to have back in the seventies where you fill it up with oil to one level, vinegar to another level, then the herbs, then the water—and you shake it up. I think with males and females, as individuals, our levels are all over the place. They don’t necessarily fit with the conventional wisdom.

I don’t have any real answers why one writer feels that writing the opposite sex is incredibly easy and another is filled with apprehension to even try. Perhaps it’s wired into our DNA. Or perhaps it is how we were raised. Who knows?

There are things that scare me. Public speaking, for one. Other people don’t even think about it. They wonder why I’m so freaked out. Maybe writing the opposite sex is like that.

My suggestion to anyone who wants to write in an opposite’s point of view is to just write it. Don’t worry about it, just write it down. I’m guessing if you write enough of it, you’ll start to realize that it’s not such a big hurdle after all. It’s like the Toastmaster’s theory. Keep doing it and it becomes easier.

Maybe read Dr. Phil’s precepts – what fears and actions are universal to men and women. There’s actually a lot of good stuff in Dr. Phil’s books that could help a writer. Like the five main things that formed you to be the person you are now. I’ve used that method to develop my leading characters.

Another thing you could do is write something from the point of view of your own sex, then change the name. See if it rings true.

Chances are, people being people, it will.

-- Margaret Falk

Barbara Seranella

This came as a real shock to me, although everyone knew she was ill.

Barbara Seranella, 50, bestselling mystery author and resident of Laguna Beach and PGA West in La Quinta, died peacefully on January 21, 2007, at 4:15 p.m. EST (1:15 p.m. PST) at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband Ron Seranella and her brother Dr. Larry Shore at her side. Barbara, who died of end-stage liver disease while awaiting a liver transplant, leaves behind her husband Ron, brothers Larry Shore of San Francisco and David Shore of Woodacre, parents Nate and Margie Shore of La Quinta, and stepdaughters Carrie Seranella and Shannon Howard.

Barbara’s character, Munch Mancini, is one of the best series characters out there.

Barbara, you will be missed.

How do you buy a book?

If you’re a reader, you’ve probably bought a book recently. (Sure, there are libraries, but sometimes the wait for your favorite author’s latest book is fifteen months long.)

There are lots of reasons to buy books. Nonfiction books can be useful for research. Bestsellers are usually a guaranteed good read, and people want guarantees. People choose books by genres. People choose books by their covers - especially in grocery stores. I just saw a segment on the news about how people choose wine. Men actually ask directions if they don’t know the difference between a riesling and a pinot noir. Women, on the other hand, largely go by impulse. Yellowtail has become huge because of the cute kangaroo on the label. Animals, in general, sell a lot of wine. Also, titles work well with women—like the label Little Black Dress.

I am strategic in my buying. I buy from my local mystery book store, even though I have to pay more, because I want to keep her in business and she’s done a lot for me. (Her husband is a fabulous cook, too.)

But I also buy at Borders, because I have a 20% off card. Depends on the book. Lately, though, I have been buying the best authors in my genre, hardcover, at Costco. I need to own these books because I write in them. If Michael Connelly does something really cool, I want to jot down in the margin that I caught what he did. Sometimes, I diagram these books, marking in the plot points, etc. I buy the newest books because they most closely reflect changes in the market, although it’s probably a year-and-the-half at the very least between the time the book was bought and when it was published.

Authors often buy the books of other authors, to be nice. And then they get pissed off when the other author doesn’t return the favor. Then the first author doesn’t buy the author’s second book, and thus begins a quiet little war of attrition—which has absolutely nothing to do with either author’s bottom line.

Sometimes, I just want a book I see in the grocery store because the cover is so damn gorgeous. I bought a book called IMPULSE for that very reason. On impulse. It was vaguely my type of book but not really, but at the time it was $5.99 and had a shiny foil cover and I wanted it.

What is the main reason you buy a book?

What makes you buy a hardcover book? (I’m assuming that’s a higher bar).

Do you only buy bestselling authors or authors you’ve come to count on?

Have you ever bought a book on impulse?

How much time do you take in choosing to buy a book by an unknown author? What do you do?

I have tons more questions, but this should do it for now.

Do Over

Cece asked me the other day what kind of book I would write if I didn’t write crime fiction. Which is an excellent question at a time when writers have to be flexible enough to move from one subgenre to another, especially in this female-driven market. Writers of Chick Lit are suddenly thinking in terms of vampires, witches, and serial killers (sometimes all in one character). Usually, it’s not a big jump, just a course correction in keeping with the market demands. But have you ever thought of writing something drastically different? Like going from inspirational novels to erotica?

I have toyed with the idea of writing the book on Barbaro, the racehorse. Toyed with it, but I’m too lazy for nonfiction; I don’t want to type in all those footnotes and hunt down every factoid imaginable to man. Plus, as much as I love horseracing, in many ways I do not have a handle on the culture. Especially the back east stuff.

True crime is attractive, too, but there again—too much work for me!

Frankly, I really love crime fiction, and, since I’ve dabbled in horror, historical romance, historical saga, and romantic suspense before I finally decided to write what I love most, this is where I hope to stay.

Of course there’s such a thing as making a living. So never say never.

If you can’t write what you’re writing now (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, limericks, packing labels, haiku), what would you write?

And for everybody: if you didn’t have the career (or job) you have now, what would you most like to do? If you could have a do over?

Staying inside the lines

I usually write an outline of sorts, but it’s always like a pick-up dinner. I throw it together, a main course and a few side dishes, and sometimes I don’t even bother with the side dishes, I just leave them there to attract flies. Here’s my usual general outline:

“Somebody’s dead. The main character (what’s her story?) needs to find out who got killed and why. Stuff happens. Complications (have to figure this out later, okay? I’m just too stressed right now.) Somebody else gets killed (?) Stakes rise (easy for me to say right now. But exactly what are the goddamn stakes? Okay, later.) Climax. The killer is… Dave. Who’s Dave? Where did that come from? Main character survives, Dave dies. Or, maybe not.”

End of outline.

I also outline the next few scenes as I go along. This I got from Elizabeth George’s WRITE AWAY. Seems like a good idea and it keeps a lid on the anxiety. I know at least some of what will happen.

If I’m writing the book under contract, then about halfway through I have to write a whole outline anyway, and it comes to about twenty single-spaced pages.

But at the beginning, I always try to leave a little doubt out there, something amorphous. I don’t want to see too far into the future, except for knowing who the killer is.

This has worked fine up until now, but now I am writing a book that really needs an outline early on. Why? It’s a thriller, and while there is some police procedure, I can’t dilly-dally this time around. I can’t comment on the drapes in somebody’s house or why Uncle Cracken lost all his teeth at the age of thirty-five. Instinctively, I know I can’t do the slow build. I have a lot of book ahead of me and for the first time I really have to know where I’m going and what time I should get there.

Benchmarks aren’t just for Iraq anymore.

So, after days of procrastinating, I am going to wrestle this outline to the ground. I got a good start by getting up at four AM, and the very thought of tackling it turned the switch on in my brain and it’s going really well. I’ve allowed myself one week.

I have already started writing, so I want to get back to it. But there’s a time for every season, and this is my season to outline.

Does anyone else feel that knowing too much early on can put a damper on the idea? Do any of you like to write your way into the fog? And have you ever made the decision to outline, when you realize the demands of your story/book have changed?

First Lines Don’t Sell a Book; First Pages Do

Along with my fellow writers at Southwest Crime Ink, I spoke at the premiere Tucson Festival of Books back in March. We talked about “hooks,” and how to snare a reader first thing out of the box. Being a wonk about writing, I had to weigh in with this hand-out:

SIX THINGS THAT SHOULD BE ON THE FIRST PAGE

1. The hook—a one-line teaser that foreshadows trouble. Then set the scene, give us character, and let the hook work on the reader for a while before addressing it again.

2. Give us a character we can relate to. Show us the character by showing something he loves, hates, or some strength he/she possesses. It’s good if the character knows himself. (See example: “Sometimes I’m an idiot.”)

3. Start in the middle of the action

4. Give us a time and a place

5. Give us specifics that make the world seem real to the reader

6. Trouble. Trouble that continues, trouble that morphs into other troubles, trouble that gets worse. It can be a minor irritation, like a bad feeling or a conversation gone wrong, or worse, a worry like a nagging tooth. Or it can be something really bad.

For an example, I used the beginning of Joseph Finder’s KILLER INSTINCT, which starts out:

“Okay, sometimes I’m an idiot.

“The Acura went into a ditch because I was trying to do too many things at once. Radiohead’s “The Bends” was playing, loud, while I was driving home, too fast, since I was late as usual. ”

So he’s in a ditch and has other problems, which he discusses with is wife on the cell phone, and then the tow truck driver comes. The tow truck driver immediately establishes himself as the “alpha dog,” when he says:

“’Let me guess. You were talking on your cell phone.’

“I blinked, hesitated for a microsecond before I said sheepishly, ‘Yeah.’”

I use excerpts from the first few pages of Finder’s book to illustrate my points:

The hook: “Okay, sometimes I’m an idiot.”

The character we follow: we don’t know his name yet, but he’s young, he’s “cool,” he’s white collar but isn’t high up on the food chain yet, and he drives fast. He seems thoughtless and self-absorbed, but you like him because he knows he can be an idiot.

The particulars: listening to Radiohead “The Bends,” thumbing his Blackberry, multi-tasking, Driving an Acura (tells where he is on the food chain). Contrast him with the tow-truck driver in the Harley-Davidson jacket, the mullet, the bandana.

The time and place: night, a lonely road somewhere

The middle of something: literally in the middle of driving, listening to music, texting when he ran into the ditch.

Continuing trouble and foreshadowing: You can see that the Harley tow truck guy has his number, is already getting the upper hand. Despite the main character’s business suit and Acura and up-and-comer status, it doesn’t take Finder long to establish who’s the alpha dog here.

Trouble, in the form of this Harley-jacket-wearing tow truck driver, is coming to a book store near you.