Update: What's your work in progress?

Morgan asked for updates on our works in progress, so here's mine. I'm working on a detective novel in which my detective is hired by an elderly man to find out how his best friend died. His best friend, it turns out, was a second generation Japanese American who died under mysterious circumstances in the Tule Lake Japanese concentration camp in 1944.

The story is contemporary. It involves an old diary and interviews with people whose memories are fading. During the investigation, the detective uncovers evidence of a serial rapist who might still be alive. She also unearths a 70 year old secret that is still worth killing for.

This is a difficult story to write. The circumstances and conditions of Japanese American internment are fascinating and disturbing. There is a lot of material to research and the more I research it, the angrier I become. The first draft is filled with a lot of my research and feelings. I know I need to get that under control because it gets in the way of the story telling. I also feel an urgency to get the story done quickly because we are losing so many of the people from that era.

If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend the Densho Archives. Sometimes I find myself spending so much time there, I run out of time to write.

Today, I'm putting that research aside and doing some other research. I'm heading to Los Angeles to see my nephew play volleyball on the USC team. He's a senior so this is the last chance we'll have to see him for awhile. He expects to play in Europe after graduation, but doesn't expect to make the Olympics until 2016. Between matches my wife and I plan to do some sight-seeing, maybe even a Harry Bosch tour. At the least we will taste the martinis at Musso and Franks. That's the research.

Mark Troy
Hawaiian-Eye Blog

One of the Big Pluses of My Life as a Writer

I took these as we were driving to Ridgecrest for my talk with the Ridgewriters group, which went well by the way. Despite the fact that only about 12 people were there, and at least two were residents of the senior facility where the meeting was held, I sold 6 books. We had a great trip to a fro, a lovely dinner with several of the members of Ridgewriters, and stayed in a comfortable older hotel that served a free breakfast.

The real highlight of the trip was after the meeting when I was signing books, the young man probably in his very early twenties, purchased a book and told me that the last time I'd come to speak I'd given him the incentive and courage to write a book which he's published. Believe me, that's what really made the trip totally worthwhile.

The downside of making a trip is all the things I didn't get done. Though I did a bit of promoting of the blog tour, I couldn't do all that I wanted so I played catch up when I got home. And as always, many emails arrived with jobs I needed to do. I'll manage, I always do.

Here are the next stops on my blog tour:

Monday, March 7

Book trailer featured at If Books Could Talk

Tuesday, March 8

Guest blogging at Thoughts in Progress

Wednesday, March 9

Interviewed at Blogcritics

Thursday, March 10

Book spotlighted at The Plot

Book spotlighted at Books, Products and More!

Friday, March 11

Character interviewed at The Plot

Monday, March 14

Book reviewed at Thoughts in Progress

Tuesday, March 15

Book reviewed at Lynn’s Reading Corner

Wednesday, March 16

Book reviewed at By the Book

Thursday, March 17

Guest blogging at Nevets.QST

Friday, March 18

Interviewed at Murderous Musings

If you get a chance, it'd be great if you visited one or two and left a comment.

Marilyn

Time for An Update - What's Your Work In Progress?

I've been enmeshed with writing Forever Young, my paranormal thriller about a widow who takes an age reversing pill to turn 24 forever. You'd think that would be a good thing, but she gets into all kinds of difficulties because of it.

What about you? It's been a while since I've made a call out. What's your work in progress?

Morgan Mandel

http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
Killer Career is now 99 cents on
Kindle and Smashwords.

Dissecting Stories

By Mark W. Danielson

Forget high school biology, this dissecting pertains to storytelling. I emphasize the word storytelling because whether a story is told over a campfire, written in prose, or sung, it remains a story, and for each story, there must be a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sure, every writer knows that, but sometimes the creative process sidetracks us. To retain audiences, our stories must be compelling, logical, and unique.

To prove my point, consider this line, “Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed.” For some, grins emerge as images flash of an old TV series, but younger people are probably saying, “And?” This first line from The Beverly Hillbillies theme song is an excellent example of storytelling because of how it draws you in. Certainly, it helps that the male singer is likeable and sounds like he’s sitting across from you at a campfire, but the lyrics are what invites us to listen to his story. Since novels don’t normally have audible narration, its first words must immediately captivate the reader’s interest with the same intensity as The Beverly Hillbillies’ tune.

The middle of your story contains the key points you want your readers to know. If I was to quote the entire Hillbillies theme song, you would know that Jed was hunting, shoots his gun, his bullet goes into the ground, and up comes crude oil. This song packs a lot of information into a few words, and when combined with the visual images on screen, leaves an indelible mark. If a writer’s intent is to convey a message, then the story’s middle must express clear elements that are interesting enough to carry the story to its conclusion. In this regard, every word must count. If it doesn’t sound right when you read it aloud, then re-write until it does.

Stories end with summaries from the beginning and explanations of the middle. The Beverly Hillbillies theme song ends with the Clampets moving to Beverly Hills where neither the Clampets nor Beverly Hills is ready for their lifestyle clashes. Did this thirty second song captivate its audience and tell this story? Considering the show’s longevity and the fact that we still remember it, I’d say yes. In fact, the black and white Beverly Hillbillies sitcom is sustainable enough to be back on Retro TV. Imagine that.

I chose this theme song as an example because it still sticks with me after all these years. How many books can you name that have this same effect? For me, it’s Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum because of the images it summons. Few books have piqued my interest that way, but that’s the difference between a classic tale and just another read.

Understanding story composition is easier than ridding a catchy theme song from your head. If you don’t believe, see how long it takes before The Beverly Hillbillies goes away. That’s the power of well-scripted words.

Writing My First Children's Mystery

by Jean Henry Mead

I considered writing an autobiographical children’s book for years before I finally sat down and wrote it. Solstice Publishing released it last week as Mystery of Spider Mountain and I’m well into the second book of the Hamilton Kids' mystery series.

Fiction is rooted in fact and my three protagonists spent their formative years at the foot of a large hill in southern California, as I did with four younger brothers. Because the hill was inhabited by trap door spiders and an occasional tarantula that arrived on a banana boat from Central America, I called it Spider Mountain.

My brothers and I were close in age and and explored our "mountain" together. The apron was filled with tall, blue lupines which bloomed nearly year round, and halfway up the hill was Dead Man’s Tree. We called it that because a thick knotted rope hung from a limb that we swung on. At the end was a large loop. That prompted stories about horsethieves which we imagined had been hanged there.

A dirt road encircled the hill at three levels but was so chocked with rocks and clumps of weeds that even a bicycle would have had difficult passage. So we wondered how the people who lived at the summit were able to reach their home, and imagined everything from rock climbers to space ships and helicopters, although we’d never heard one in the area.

When I was twelve and old enough to babysit brothers who were nearly my own size, we climbed our mountain to spy on the mysterious house. What we found was a chain link fence restraining four large vicious-appearing dogs with mouths large enough to swallow a child. Or so we thought. It didn’t take us long to scramble back down the hill to our own house. And, of course, we never told our parents.

When I began to write, I wondered again who those people were and how they arrived at their hilltop home. The house itself was a mystery but I had to decide which crime(s) the residents of the house had committed. And how the Hamilton kids would be able to bring them to justice. I then thought of the Ouija board we used to play with. That’s when the spirit Bagnomi materialized and talked to the kids via the board.

My four brothers had to be reduced to two to make the story manageable. Even so, they were as unmanageable as my own brothers had been, so their widowed grandmother came to live with them—as ours had done. However, our grandmother didn’t have bright red curly hair like Ronald McDonald, and wasn’t interested in finding a husband. Even children’s books need humor and the Hamilton Kids’ grandmother provides that and more, along with an adopted Australian Sheppard with a penchant for chewing furniture.

Writing for children has opened a new vista which I hope my young readers will enjoy as much as I enjoyed the writing. I'm well into the second novel in the series, The Ghost of Crimson Dawn, which takes place here in Wyoming, where the Hamilton Kids visit their Uncle Harry at his mountaintop ranch. There's a bit of autobiographical plotting in that book as well.

The book is currently available on Kindle and will be released in print later this month.

Scandal

by Ben Small

There's a burgeoning scandal from the last few days that has nothing to do with Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan. Rather, it's about corruption within the Department of Justice, ATF Division. You know, those responsible for enforcing our gun laws.

You remember the ATF, the Ruby Ridge and Waco bunglers. Partly because of those fiascoes,  the ATF got transferred from the Treasury Department -- they issue $200 tax stamps to approve machine guns and silencers -- to the Justice Department, the hope being that one of the lowest prestige law enforcement agencies would take a step up in class and effectiveness.

Sadly, it hasn't worked out. It appears the ATF has bungled again.

Remember those reports from the Border Patrol, another Homeland Security unit sharing Justice Department parenthood with the ATF, that drugs were moving north of the border and guns were moving south of the border? Surely you remember the headlines, when a few Phoenix gun dealers were accused of selling bundles of AK-47s to multiple people, which weapons were then used by Mexican cartel members in their bloody attacks south of the border.

We were appalled. There was noise in Washington for additional gun sale curbs.

Turns out, the ATF helped create the problems its masters then complained about. The dealers had called the ATF and reported the attempted sales and their suspicions that the buyers were gunrunning smugglers. ATF agents say, publicly now, that higher management ordered them to approve these sales, despite dealer fears. Higher management wanted the sales.

And all this without even notifying the Mexican government. No "Lookout below!"

And the guns, hundreds of them, spread all over Mexico. People died.

The Mexican government complained. Obama and Calderon met. Then Obama and Eric Holder, Attorney General -- responsible for the Justice Department -- went public, promising to shut down the gun runners sending automatic and semi-automatic weapons from the U.S. to Mexico.

But Mexican government complaints continued, as smuggled weapons shed more blood in cartel wars.

The ATF is on record saying they've never approved an illegal sale. Their agents say otherwise. Now, the ATF is announcing an investigation. So is Congress.

Oh, the mystery, the intrigue.

Stay tuned, folks. This may be a good one.

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Articles reporting this recent news development are linked here. ATF Scandal; CBS News; Agency Investigation; USA Today; CNN; Arizona Daily Star

Snow in Central California and the Whirlwind Begins

Okay, I know snow is no big deal to the rest of you, but here in the foothills of the Central Valley to wake up to snow on the ground was pretty exciting. It's gone from the surround hills now, but plenty in the higher country.

The whirlwind I'm referring to is the promotion for Angel Lost the next in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, which I wrote as F. M. Meredith.

The trade paperback form is up on Amazon, not sure when the Kindle version will appear. On Friday, the 100 copies I ordered arrived and I must say they look terrific. I offered 3 copies to the first persons on DorothyL who contacted me and heard from more than three right away.

Beginning this week I'll be on a blog tour. These are the first stops:

Tuesday, March 1

Book reviewed and giveaway at The Book Connection

Wednesday, March 2

Guest blogging at The Hot Author Report

Thursday, March 3

Guest blogging at Lori’s Reading Corner

Friday, March 4

Guest blogging at Ginger Simpson’s “Dishin’ It Out”

On Wednesday, hubby and I are heading to Ridgecrest, which means driving through the Tehachapi mountains and taking a turn right before Mojave and heading across the high desert to the town of Ridgecrest that's big claim to fame is the China Lake Naval Air Station. Most of the people who live there are support for the NAS or engineers or Navy personnel and their families and retirees--and of course some folks who just love the desert.

My reason for going is to speak to the Ridgewriters, a branch of California Writers Club. I've been making a pilgrimage to this group for several years--but this time I'm going to take the place of a good friend of mine who was scheduled to speak that same night--Wednesday, March 2 and 7 p.m.--but there was a mix-up of dates, so I'm filling in. My topic is going to be Blogging and Blog Tours. I gave this same talk to Writers of Kern, another branch of the California Writers Club, last weekend.

Except for visiting all the blogs on my tour, the next in-person event isn't until the last Saturday of the month from 1 to 4 which I"m having my official book launch for Angel Lost at Books Off Main, on Oak St. in Porterville. This is a great little used bookstore where I've held my last three book launches.

So--perhaps I might have a bit of time to write, do you think?

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com