What is Your Favorite Prize in a Writer's Contest?

Some authors actually give away a Kindle as a prize to someone commenting on a blog post during a blog tour. I've seen a few that have given away an Amazon gift certificate. Most give away a copy of the book that they are promoting on the blog tour.

I have given away a copy of the book I'm promoting if a blog host has asked for that. However, since I'm on a blog tour to promote a particular book I'd rather that the readers following the tour would buy the book, I prefer to give away and earlier book in the series.

Lately though, the most popular prize on my blog tours has been to have the winner's name used for a character in the next book. How do I know it's the most popular? Because I have so many people who make comments on nearly every blog I'm visiting.

And yes, sometimes the winner turns out to be a fellow author, and I've had several reader end up being a character in the book.

I write down each and every name that is posted on each blog and keep track diligently of how many times a person commented.  The one who commented the most times is the winner.

I've had a lot of fun doing this and will probably continue for my next book.

At the moment I'm finishing up a book with a winner's name as a very important character.

What do you think? Would you take the time to follow a blog and commenting hoping to have a character in the next book named after you?

If not, what kind of prize would keep you commenting?

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Available from Amazon as an ebook and tradepaperback.

Blurting Out the Truth

A work of fiction has to be about something, doesn’t it? And really good books are about a lot of things, some of them heavy social issues. Raymond Chandler’s novels are about crime and corruption in the 1940s in a place he called Bay City, in truth, Santa Monica.

No Dice, my first novel published in 2010, is about crime and corruption in Santa Monica and the attempt by a casino consortium to build a high-rise casino downtown. Please know that it feels presumptuous to put my name on the same page as Raymond Chandler.

However, I write police procedural mysteries to entertain you. I want to provide a few hours of escape from humdrum reality and give you a picture of Santa Monica only a longtime resident and activist could. But let’s have some fun doing it. So I slide in a few snarky comments about social issues as well. I’m sure even Dan Brown and James Peterson think they engage seriously with heavy social issues.

I did the research, actual years of it, to write No Dice, ending about three years ago. I read the newspapers, kept track of certain stories as they developed in California, and set up a Google Alert for casino development issues.

I knew what I was talking about when I wrote the book. Then I was faced with a tough interviewer who notified me he wanted my opinion of new casinos and land use planning, and the ethical issues surrounding gambling. (The term the industry wants you to use by the way is gaming, not gambling.)

I am no expert on casinos. People seem to want to gamble. But I am an expert on Santa Monica.

Like most anxieties that never take shape in a real form neither he nor anyone else has ever asked me a thing about casinos. Not once! My nervousness comes from the unfortunate habit of blurting out the truth when someone asks me a disturbing question because I’m just not quick on my feet. Terrible things have been said in a fit of anxiety.

My dears, I want you to know: this is a trait that doesn’t always serve you well. I know I should never have said that snarky thing about Dan Brown. People will stone me.

Has blurting out the truth ever happened to you?


No Dice is available at Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/No-Dice-Mar-Preston/dp/0984495207/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1361294891&sr=8-3&keywords=mar+preston

Mar Preston is also the author of Rip-Off, the second in the series featuring Santa Monica Police Department Homicide Detective Dave Mason is available at http://www.amazon.com/Rip-Off-ebook/dp/B007WTYGI4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372447453&sr=8-2&keywords=mar+preston

Payback, a third mystery set in a tranquil mountain town in the Sierras is available at http://www.amazon.com/Payback-County-Sheriffs-Deputy-Stafford/dp/1481053051/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1372551368&sr=8-1&keywords=payback+preston

To Save Herself, She Bit the Cop on the Leg

Kathleen Kaska

            I’m not a newspaper reader, never have been. But my husband more than makes up for it in our household. Since he discovered the pleasures of reading newspapers online, he now keeps tabs on dozens of small towns we fell in love with while on our cross-country trip a couple of years ago. I know the latest happenings in Rockport, Alpine, and Palacios, Texas, Marblehead, Massachutes, Cedar Key and Apalachola, Florida, and Nags Head, North Caroline, just to name a few. We find out who’s doing what and where. But the most entertaining reads come from the police blotters. And I realized these brief bits of bizarre news offer a wellspring of ideas for mystery writers.

            I imagine what fun the police detectives must have crafting these reports. Recently, the police in a nearby town uncovered a murder-for-hire plot by an inmate in the county jail who was enlisting the help of a fellow inmate to murder the man responsible for the guy’s incarceration. These were the instructions he gave to the would-be killer, “Wet him with gasoline; dry him with a match.” A pretty good line; right out of a Mickey Spillane novel. If this guy ever went straight, he might make it as a pulp fiction writer.

            Or how about this one? A few weeks ago, the police in my quiet little town were called to a

photo credit to funnyjunk.com

motel where a woman insisted they arrest her. She was hiding out from her ex-husband and current boyfriend who, according to the woman, were plotting to kill her. The cops explained they could not fulfill her wish because she hadn’t committed a crime. With a that’s-what-you-think attitude, she began pounding on the squad car’s windshield. When one of the officers tried to restrain her, she bit him on the leg. For the next few hours, the woman had the protection she’d requested.

            Or, here’s one; “Just say you’re sorry.” Several peopled complained about a homeless man who was causing a ruckus in a downtown square. The police arrived and realized the man was shouting profanities at someone only he could see. The cops told him to apologize to his imaginary friends. He did. End of story.

            Check your local police blotter. What strange tidbits can you share?
Stop by for a visit at Birds and Books.

Mysteries Began with Vidocq

A Guset Blog by William Shepard

Mysteries have always appealed to me, from the Sherlock Holmes stories that I devoured as a teenager to the Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie books that expanded their audience through movie and television adaptations. As I began writing my own mysteries, the thought naturally arose to study the genre itself. Where did mystery stories begin? Who invented them, and what was the audience?

I was amazed to discover that a very odd Frenchman, Eugène François Vidocq, laid the basis for the modern detective story. He was a criminal, in fact a galley slave, who turned on his fellow criminals and became a police informant, then a police officer! He was so skilled that his work produced a descending crime rate in Paris, and he was responsible for many methods that criminologists today employ. Vidocq became the model for many authors, including Victor Hugo, whose “Les Miserables” used Vidocq as the model for BOTH Jean Valjean and his police nemesis, Inspector Javert!

The first detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” by Edgar Allan Poe, was modeled in part after Vidocq’s bestselling “Memoirs.” Meanwhile, Vidocq established the world’s first detective agency in Paris, and as an international celebrity had actually consulted on the formation of Scotland Yard.

It All Began with Vidocq!

 

From there, the detective story started to grow. Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle broadened the detective story with their immortal sleuths, and in the twentieth century the development of the “cozy” mystery by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers reached new audiences. In America the competing “hardboiled” genre featured Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Gradually the detective story took new forms, including short mysteries for readers to solve on their own.           

 And so my latest work, “The Master Detective Trio,” combines three Ebooks. First, “The Great Detectives: From Vidocq to Sam Spade,” traces the detective story from its origins. And there are some interesting byways – just where did the name Sherlock come from, anyway? And who did murder the Sternwood chauffeur in “The Big Sleep?”

Then, “Coffee Break Mysteries” is a collection of twenty short mysteries, for those days when the reader wants a short reading break. The settings are varied and interesting. We first have “The Plot to Poison George Washington.” The London of Dickens and Salem, Massachusetts during the witchcraft hysteria are both found here.

In “More Coffee Break Mysteries: The Sherlock Holmes Edition,” there are twenty new short mysteries to solve. If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan, like me, you’ll be pleased to find five brand new adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, all of which were approved by the literary estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

__________________

William Shepard felt that there was something missing in crime novels. And that was the world of diplomacy, a real world for all its glamour. He invites readers to "Come into that world and solve a crime or two, while you explore with me the Embassy life, its risks and rewards, and yes, its occasional murders! His novels include include Vintage Murder, Murder On The Danube, and Murder In Dordogne. Also, Diplomatic Tales, a memoir of life at American Embassies, is also available. For those who want to know more about enjoying fine wines, Shepard's Guide to Mastering French Wines is a reliable and entertaining guide to the regions and wines of France.

Adding a little spirit to your mystery...

And I don’t mean drinks.

So who writes mysteries with a touch of the other world?  I’m playing with a cozy that has a paranormal twist.

 

I have to say, I love a good dark gothic romance.  Give me an old house with creaks and groans, a flicker of light that may or may not be a ghost, and a tortured hero, and I’m in heaven.  I grew up watching Dark Shadows and always felt a little sad for the lonely, unloved vampire. 

Zombies, not so much. Zombies remind me of the slasher films, Halloween, Friday the 13^th, those types, where evil is going to win. Every time.  Even in Final Destination, death won.  Maybe not in movie number one but eventually.

I've got books of spells around the house for research purposes. Which brings up a side note, does it bother anyone that spell books so easy to obtain?  I didn't have to go to the Voodoo R Us store in the bad section of town, just down to my favorite paper bookstore.  I’m sure I could have found tons more books on line.  Is it because more people believe? 

Now, I’m researching rune stones and the ancient gods they represented.

I brought home a voodoo zombie doll from my last trip to Nashville.  She’s dressed in a ballerina outfit over her mummy wrap.  The doll is supposed to help me bring out my natural talents.  She does make me smile every time I see her pink tutu so out of place on the bandages.

Oh, and I live in one of the most haunted towns in America. The picture above is the remnants of the first prison in Illinois- after 1860 when prisoners were transferred to Joliet, then the site was used to incarcerate captured confederate soldiers.  Being on the Mississippi, the prison often flooded and the daily death rate was 6-8 men. The site is said to be haunted by the ghosts of these men.

So what books or movies do you love that brings in a touch of the woo woo? Or are you a realist in your reading and writing?  

Lynn

STUFFING AN ELEPHANT IN A SOCK

by Earl Staggs

I’m working on the opening chapter of a sequel to my novel MEMORY OF A MURDER.  When I began, I thought it would be easy.  After all, I knew the main character, Adam Kingston, quite well.  He first saw life in a short story and everyone who read that story liked him so much I decided to put him in a novel. When you consider the initial writing plus the rewriting, getting MEMORY OF A MURDER into publishable shape consumed about three years of my life. Yes, Adam and I spent a lot of time together and since I already had the plot of the sequel worked out in my mind, the opening chapter would be a breeze.

Then I began thinking about all I wanted to do in the first chapter.

I have to introduce Adam, of course, so readers can visualize him as soon as possible. How old he is, whether he’s tall, short, thin, fat, that sort of thing.

Then, I need to explain that Adam is a private investigator with a unique twist.  He has a psychic gift.  When he visits a crime scene or touches an object related to a crime, short, swift images flash in his mind. Sometimes these images contain clues which help him solve a case.  Sometimes they only leave him confused because he has no idea what they mean.  That’s how it is with real-life psychics. It’s not an exact science. 

And, no, he does not see or talk to dead people.  A medium does that, not a psychic.

Anyway, in the first chapter, I wanted to explain Adam’s gift and how it works without doing it as an info dump. 

Next, some characters from the first book will appear in the first chapter of the sequel.  I want to introduce them and describe them and tell readers about their relationship with Adam. Naturally, I don’t want to do that in one big boring narrative clump.  I also don’t  want to repeat it exactly as I did it in the first book.  People who read the first book might remember and think I’m cheating.

Brenda McCort is a recurring character, for example.  She’s a homicide detective Adam met in the first book.  They’ve been dating for about a year now.  There’s a subplot about their relationship I want to introduce in the first chapter.

There’s also setting.  Adam lives in Ocean City, a family resort town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  His place is on the sixth floor, overlooking the Boardwalk, the beach and the Atlantic Ocean.  That’s where Adam happens to be when the story begins, so I need to describe all that in the first chapter.

Naturally, I need to include something about the main plot of the story.  Not much, of course, but enough to let the reader know Adam is going to get involved in something  interesting very soon.  If I do it right, readers will want to continue reading.  Yes, we call that a “hook.”

I think that covers all the important points I want to put in the first chapter.  I want to write all that in such a way that readers will be intrigued and drawn into the story and not even realize I’ve pumped so much into it.  I don’t want readers to suspect I’ve stuffed an elephant in a sock.

Easy peazy piece of cake, right?  Maybe if I fold the trunk and pin the ears back. . .

 Someone is leaving a trail of bodies from Baltimore to Ocean City, and only Adan Kingston can stop him.

"A stunning book, beautifully plotted, and its characters jump off the page with life.  There’ no putting this book down."

"The story is smart, laden with suspenseful twists, and capably laid out. . .an extremely credible novel." 

MEMORY OF A MURDER available online at Amazon and B&N 

Read Chapter 1 at http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

 

Balance

by Kaye George

I had an attack of vertigo last week. These aren’t rare, for me, but it had been a few months since I’d had one and it took me by surprise.

It gave rise to some musings on balance. I do lose balance in other ways, too.

Sometimes I allow my computer time to take over my whole day. Notice, I didn’t say my writing. I can’t really write for a whole day, but I CAN spend all my waking hours on the dang ‘puter. Most of it is wasting time. Let’s not talk about my Solitaire addiction. Leaving that aside, there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, news posts, links to interesting articles, blogs--wish I read more of those--I’m sure I miss some good ones.

I have a solution, but don’t always use it. My solution is to set my timer to 50 minutes. I have a clever one that remembers what setting I used last time. The 10 minutes is for my hourly break, but I’m flexible on that. The important thing is not to sit for 2 or 3 hours at a time, like I did yesterday.