Om

Ok, so I know this isn’t a yoga conference, it’s not even a yoga blog, however, I have something a bit “om-ish” to say. 

It came to my attention the other day that I spend a significant amount of my time running.  Not the healthy running that Christine does.  Oh no, not that type of running at all.  More like the rushing and ’spreading myself too thin’ kind of running.  I always seem to be striving, juggling and pushing.  For what?  Well I don’t really know.  Whatever it is, it’s ellusive, in fact, I doubt it even exists. 

I’ve noticed that the net result of all this strivng and juggling is that I rarely do one thing at a time or give anything my undivided attention and most concerning of all, I’m not really present in my own life a lot of he time. 

Since I noticed all this, I’ve tried my best to stay real and remain present.  So this week when I received two ’declines’ from agents, I sat with those feelings and experienced them (not feelings I’d recommend to a friend…).   I’ve also turned off the radio in the car and listened to my thoughts and rather than saying “seriously darl, I’m turning the computer off right now, I promise…” or “I can’t talk about that now, I’m working”, I’m trying to give my family my undivided attention when I’m with them.  

To be honest, it’s quite a challenge because I’m a bit used to leading a bit of a splintered existence.  However, I hope that by paying more attention to my life I’ll experience more peace and focus and utimately have more to give. 

I challenge you to look in your own life and assess how present you really are.

Promo Manners

We all know them: the authors who join yahoogroups (or DorothyL or FictionL or…) so they can send you spam about their latest project. The authors who snail mail their newsletters, postcards, or bookmarks to strangers they meet on the street—or so it seems, because you have no idea how you go on their mailing list. Oh the waste of promo money–I still don’t buy their books.

Neither will I buy the books of the author who takes over the whole panel at conference–you know the one who won’t let the other panel authors get a word in edgewise.

Promo manners–or lack of them, tend to get on other writer’s nerves–and we do remember.

I have a story–one that doesn’t show me in a great light.  I did a signing with a bunch of other mystery authors at a nearby store. The CRM was wonderful. We were right by the door so customers couldn’t miss us. We were each given our own little table and plied with chocolate and cold water bottles. Announcements were made to remind customers we were there. And my table was right next to one of THOSE authors.

Everything was fine while we were busy and the problem author (let’s call her PA) had readers at her table. Then traffic started to slack off. A few people lingered at my table but PA had no one. The next thing I knew she came over to my table and literally took my book from one woman’s hand and guided her over to PA’s own table. The first time, I did nothing but sit there and imagine PA as the victim in my next book.

The second time it happened, (yes, I am a wimp) the woman who was browsing the books let herself be led to PA’s table, but after a moment, she put the PA’s book down, saying, “I’m sure it’s very nice, but I was really interested in that other book.” And she came back to my table and bought my book! (No, I didn’t stick out my tongue at PA although I did think about it.) After that, I packed up my stuff and moved to the (distant) table of an author who had to leave early. (Hey, I know my limits.)

Is there some protocol for this? I have to admit to a big hole in my education here. When my mama was teaching me manners, it usually included a lecture about being modest. (“Nobody likes a girl who can only talk about herself.”) None of that is useful for promoting a book or anything else for that matter.

Do you use your signature line even when you’re emailing your fatally ill Grandmom? Do you actively look for some topic on your favorite listserv that will allow you to drag in a mention about your latest article or book? How do you feel about authors who do that?

That very first line…

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. That’s the opening line of my favourite Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. From that very first line, and the few that follow it, I just knew that what I was about to read was going to be full of passion and poetry, heroism and sacrifice, and I was going to love every second of it.

First lines are all important. They are the very words that tell you what tone this book will set, how this story will make you react, the words that will catch you, and make you turn the page to the very end. They are, with the very last line, the most important words in the book.

You could go with the simple beginning, like Dickens does in David Copperfield ‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night’

Or you can follow Jane Austen’s example, and give a clue as to the whole theme of the story to follow in the first line, like she does in Pride and Prejudice ‘ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ – obviously a novel about marriage, or Emma ‘ Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. ‘ Emma is obviously about to be distressed and vexed.

Charlotte Bronte starts with hints of her heroine’s longing to escape, and being held back. ‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day’

Susan Jackson, in the Haunting of Hill House, disturbs us from the beginning ‘ No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against it’s hills, holding darkness within;’

I find that if I can find a good first line, the rest of the story springs into life – and if a book has a good first line, I am caught for the rest of the book.

As for those all-important last lines – it’s back to Dickens and Tale of Two Cities again. That book that starts so poetically and powerfully ends:

`It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’

I defy you not to cry when you read that very last line.

Cracking yourself up

When I was writing the first draft of Plan B (an ‘as yet unpublished’ women’s fiction novel), I had moments where I burst out laughing and cracked myself up.  In fact, there were moments when I sat back and reveled in belief that I was simply hilarious.  Then my mother’s voice would seep in to keep my ego in check…’self praise is no recommendation Narelle’.  

 Those moments of laughter were a nice surprise.  I was less excited when I spent almost an entire weekend with a heavy heart after my protagonist and her love interest got together.  Don’t get me wrong, everything worked out well and the interlude in question marked the beginning of a hot affair.  The problem, as I explained it to my friend Kate on the phone… ”it’s just that their first weekend together was really special and now its over…you can’t go back.” (I could hear Kate’s eyebrows rising but i pushed on).  ”Really Kate, they’ll never have that first time again and it’ll never be the same,…you know…?”  Kate hesitated before responding, “um, no, I don’t know.  They’re still together aren’t they?”.   ”Yes” I said, exhaling deeply.  “Ok, well I don’t see the problem and here’s a newsflash Narelle, Emily and Eduardo AREN’T REAL!”  I should’ve known no-one else would understand.

How does your writing affect you?  Do you make yourself laugh, cry, or in Michelle’s case, sleep with the lights on?  Be brave – fess up.

How do You Get Ready to Write?

I have a couple of links I want to give you before I begin.

First off, I wanted to tell everyone about the Muse Online Writer’s Conference.  I am not affiiated with it, not teaching anything on it, but dang–this looks good, folks! These are free workshops designed for just about any writer out there. There are workshops on description, on query letters, on websites and well, you get the picture and I don’t want to violate the Rule of Three here. It all occurs the week of October 13th and did I mention Free? It’s free.

Another link I just want to mention is Mystery Reader’s Journal. Editor, Janet Rudolf is looking for articles and essays around her upcoming themes: Crime for the Holidays, African mysteries and the one with a deadline of Aug. 25th– mysteries set in San Francisco. Check the website for more details.

All of which leads me to what I’ve been thinking about–writing, specifically how to be more productive at it. As a matter of fact, I’ve been doing more thinking than writing. What got me started on this is a blog I read where the author was going to plan his day’s writing during his morning run. If you are this blogger, let me know, I’d love to post a trackback to you but I can’t find the blog anymore.

Anyway, as some of you know, I run and I do try to think about my writing while I run, but for some reason none of it is ever memorable AFTER the run. I don’t know if this is a comment on my planning abilities or my workout. Shoot, maybe I’m just “in the zone”–or zoned out. Anyway, so now I’m thinking, my MP3 has a recording feature, maybe I could just record any great writing ideas while I’m running. I’ll let you know how that works.

I’ve heard of writers who keep a notepad in their pockets and by their beds in case inspiration strikes. One woman I know plans everything in the shower. My husband tells me –forget that–I take long enough in there! Where and when do you plan your writing? Or do you just sit down and write? Tell All!

There really aren’t enough books.

. I have a photograph on my bookshelves. In it, I am around 18 months old, and I am sitting on my handsome father’s lap, and together, we are staring intently at a book – not a baby’s book, but something far more complicated.

I suppose that is when I learned to read, because I don’t remember ever not reading. I read Alice In Wonderland when I was 5 – in 4 hours flat (I have always read fast. I don’t speed read, I read every word, I’m just fast) I followed that up with Wind in the Willows. Which made it all the more annoying when I got to school, and was expected to read Janet and John books.

I got through the nursery class supply of Janet and John in a week. I was allowed to go up to the Junior class to borrow their books. By the time I was old enough to join that class, I’d read all their books – and there was no library in the village. And then, joy of joys, my parents opened the cupboard above the wardrobe, and revealed a huge pile of children’s classics they’d got from somewhere. From Little Women, to The Black Prince, from Kidnapped to Ivanhoe, I read them all, and by the time I’d finished them, we’d moved to a town with a library.

Why this trip down memory lane? Because, although I don’t read all books, I read a lot. And when I discover an author, or a genre, or a series I like, I devour them, and then am left lost when there are no more left. And yet, when I send my work to publishers, they always say ‘the fantasy market is over-subscribed at the moment – there is no space for new authors’ or ‘the horror market does not have enough demand for new authors’ and yet – there are not enough books to keep my intellectual appetite fed.

So, dear publisher, please don’t tell me the market is too full. Because for me, and thousands like me, there can never be enough books – and maybe, just maybe, my book can satisfy them for a little while.

Fatality Review Teams

Before I step down from my soapbox, I need to say that it is my firm belief that Australia needs to implement Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams (DVFRTs).

DVFRTs have been in place in most US states since the 90’s. The teams undertake a full review of domestic fatalities in terms of services requested and provided to the victims. Services such as Department of Community Services, AVO’s and Police intervention. They analyse gaps in policies and procedures which may have limited a service provider’s ability to assist or protect a victim. DVFRTs identify obstacles victims encounter when attempting to access support such as geographic, financial and/or cultural restrictions.

The fact that we don’t have DFVRTs is both a social and a political issue. These teams need to be on each state’s political and social agenda. I believe that community awareness is a great place to start. In the same way that public outcry at the Government’s initial refusal to fund the vaccine for cervical cancer caused them a back flip, we need to put the squeeze on about DVFRT’s. Given that Australia’s domestic homicide rate has remained at more than 1 fatality per week for the last decade and DVFRTs would be relatively inexpensive to fund, we all need to start asking our government officials why they aren’t being fast tracked.

For more information on DVFRTs, read Nadia David’s paper on the Domestic Violence Clearing House website.

What YOU can do about Domestic Violence

Since Narelle wrote such a great post on domestic violence, I couldn’t help but want to jump on the bandwagon and ask for your help. Times are hard. We all know it. Gas is expensive so food is expensive and let’s not even think about going on vacation. As an author, I guess I should tell you to remember to buy books. After all, that is my bread and butter (or would be if I made anything at this). But books you can get at the library. If they don’t have the book you want, many libraries respond to a patron’s requests to buy a book. Look for the suggestion button on your library’s website. Hey, request Safe Beginnings while you’re there. Also check out Dreams and Desires: A Collection of Romance and Erotic Tales published by Freya’s Bower. All net proceeds from this book go to a battered women’s shelter.

Okay, so now that I’ve done that—I have to ask you—please don’t forget to give to your local battered women’s shelter. You might not have much, but I can guarantee that whatever you’ve got, they need it. Battered women’s shelters need money to help them keep going but don’t put off helping them just because you’re feeling broke.

Many will take your old clothes for the women who came away with just the stuff on their backs. Some take donations of household items (gently used) sometimes to resell in a shop that gives the profit to the shelter, sometimes to give directly to the women who are starting over. Food donations are also appreciated. Did your daughter cancel the wedding two days before hand and now you have all this stuff? Call your local shelter. Is your garden overflowing with squash and tomatoes? You lucky banana! Call your local shelter.

We’re all facing the same economy. Some of us just have a couple more assets that we never even think about. Please, click on the link to find the shelter closest to you and be resourceful with your assets.

USA http://www.letswrap.com/usadv/

Australia http://www.hotpeachpages.net/auspac/aus1.html#ACT

United Kingdom http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_services_directory

Europe http://www.hotpeachpages.net/europe/europe1.html

How to really, really scare someone

. My skill is writing horror stories. I like to scare people. I enjoy scaring people. My friends refuse to read my stories because I give them nightmares. I like that (cue evil smile). I’ve read a lot of horror stories in my time, and to be frank, not all of them are actually scary. So if you’ve ever wanted to give your friends screaming horrors in the night, here are a few tips.

1) Don’t aim for the scream. It’s almost impossible to make people scream when reading a book. (I’ve only screamed twice at a book – once at the suicide of the children in Jude the Obscure, once when Wormtail cuts off his hand in Goblet of Fire). Aim for the creeping fear. Ideally, you want your reader to read your story, stand up, go on with their day, when night falls they put on more lights then usual, and keep the TV on even when they don’t watch it – they’re not sure why. And at around 3 am, they wake up panting and sweating, scrambling for the light switch.

2) Avoid exclaimation marks where ever possible. They tend to lessen the fear, rather then heighten it. For example ‘Just then, a hairy hand came round the door!’ is less scary then ‘He watched, barely able to breathe, as a hand covered in coarse hair silently crept around the door frame’

3) Atmosphere. Create an atmosphere of unease long before the horrors start happening. The step behind on the walk home, the momentary glimpse of something else in the mirror – all these help build up your reader’s tension before the big event.

4) Setting. Try to avoid big old castles, and creepy homes, and graveyards. Everyone expects those to be haunted. M.R. James (The Master of the ghost story) said he was interested in the terror in everyday places. It’s far more frightening to have a haunted semi-detached house – as almost everyone lives in a semi-detached house. Dicken’s most famous ghost story (The Signalman) takes place on the railway – a relatively modern invention at the time. The monster next door is far more scary than the monster hundreds of miles away in a clearly haunted castle.

5) Characters. They should be strong, and flawed, and very human. Avoid the stereotypes. Your readers need to identify with the characters so they’ll be scared by them. Stephen King writes very good, complex, fascinating characters, and when they are scared, we are scared.

6) Plot. Don’t be afraid to base your story on real events. The BBC film Ghostwatch, which scared the living daylights out of thousands of people (and that I still can’t watch alone) was based on the events of the Enfield Poltergeist (as chronicled in This House Is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair) – it lent the whole programme a chilling reality.

7) Ending. Don’t feel you have to give an explaination. There’s no need to tell the whole story of the ghost. There’s not even a real need to prove the ghost actually exists. Two of the scariest ghost stories of all time, Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, and Shirley Jackson’s Haunting Of Hill House, never actually manage to prove the existence of the ghost one way or another – the protaganists could simply be insane.

And finally – read the authors you find scary. I suggest The Mezzotint and Whistle And I’ll Come To You by M. R. James, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Stephen King’s short stories (scarier than his long ones), The Signalman and Diary of a Madman by Charles Dickens. Enjoy – and sleep tight!

What’s in a name?

If you’ve read my introduction, you’ll know that my article about domestic homicide is due to be published in an Australian magazine in October.  That being the case, it won’t surprise you that this post is about the same topic.

In recent months, I’ve found it impossible to ignore the fact that three very high profile US domestic homicide cases (two prosecuted, one ’suspected’) have involved the family name of Peterson. 

First, on 9 December 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham county home.  Her husband, Michael Peterson, was the only person home at the time of Kathleen’s death and hence became the prime suspect.  Michael Peterson was charged.  During the investigation, police discovered that Elizabeth Rathliff, Peterson’s neighbor and friend, had been found dead in 1985 under similar circumtances.   Her body was exhumed and used as evidence for the prosecution.  In October 2003, Peterson was found guilty of murdering Kathleen and sentenced to life in the Nash Correctional Institution.  Michael maintains his innocence and is appealing the decision.

Then almost a year later, on Christmas Eve 2002, Lacey Peterson and her unborn child died at the hands of her husband, Scott.  Scott Peterson is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison.  He continues to protest his innocence and is also appealing his conviction.

 

23 year old Stacy Peterson was last heard from at around 10am Sunday 28 October 2007.    Many suspect Stacy’s police sargeant husband, Drew Peterson, of being involved in her disappearance.  Drew’s second wife, Kathleen, was found dead in her bathtub after her marriage to Drew ended.  At the time, the death was not considered suspicious.  Stacy’s disappearance has inspired prosecutors to take a second look at Kathleen’s death.  Not surprisingly, Drew Peterson denies any involvement in either incident.  I’m looking forward to the truth emerging about this latest Peterson case.  The only thing more tragic than two women suffering the same fate is the partner getting away with it. 

What separates these three cases is that the two earlier murders fall into the category of “no history of domestic violence”.    This typically means that the motive was to get rid of the women.  However there was a definite history of domestic violence in his marriage to Stacy and Kathleen.   When a history of domestic violence is present, the motive if usually possession and control.  Some abusers will do anything to stop their wives from leaving – even kill them.

Lets all keep these women in our hearts tonight as we snuggle into bed with our partners.