Bell Bridge Books

DESK DEFINITION

By Lisa Turner

It’s been said that our friends define us. What about our desks?

Five things I found scattered on my desktop:

1. A prediction from a fortune cookie that reads: “There’s a big change ahead of you.” Depending on my mood, I can either be elated about that or wildly depressed.
2. A set of DVDs entitled “Building Great Sentences” that instruct you on the correct way to write sentences that go on for a page and a half without taking a breath. I renamed the course: “Addicted to Parenthetical Phrases.”
3. A coffee mug bought at Square Books in Oxford, MS., home of William Faulkner. (Please note the parenthetical phrase at the end of that sentence.)On the mug is this quote from Flannery O’Connor. “Whenever I ask why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”  The mug is my totem. I can’t write unless it’s in my line of sight.
4. Sticky notes of useful words and people’s names. There’s Preston Teagarden. Nancy Pynch-Worthylake. Zook Rebus. Ding Paulie. The word “idjit” is a favorite of mine. “Don’t hold me responsible; I’m an idjit.” I also like “rabid.” You never hear it anymore. I once used “rabid” to describe a friend who does needlepoint. She took it to heart. We’re no longer speaking.
5. A grocery receipt for $110 worth of groceries that fit into two small bags. Here’s a question: In the grocery store check out line, do you watch what the person in front of you buys so you can figure out what their life is like? If I checked groceries, I’d be totally entertained. I enjoy Pinterest for the same reason. Pretty pictures, deep psychological profiles.

I spend more time with my desk than with my friends. This exercise has been a revelation.

Today only get Lisa Turner’s A LITTLE DEATH IN DIXIE for only $1.99 at Amazon Kindle!

RESEARCH OBSESSION? ANYONE?

By Patricia McLinn

I’m a research junkie.  Love it. Especially when the research takes me back to Wyoming, as it did last week.

It was a delight to revisit the landscape and people that Elizabeth “E.M.” Danniher discovers in SIGN OFF, Book 1 in the “Caught Dead in Wyoming” series, when she’s dropped from her top-notch TV news job in New York into rustic Sherman, Wyoming. Newly divorced, newly arrived in Wyoming, she’s not sure where she’s going – or wants to go – in her career or her life. But she’s determined to find out. … As well as figuring out whodunit when dead bodies cross her path.

Like Elizabeth, I arrived in Wyoming for the first time with no idea where I was going. A decade and a half ago, I had a free airline ticket that I had paid for dearly in inconvenience. I decided to go somewhere I’d never been before and that was expensive to fly to <eg>. I ended up in Sheridan, Wyo., rented a car and took off around the state.

It was fascinating. New and varied worlds at almost every turn.  I heard a western meadowlark for the first time, saw big horn sheep, buffalo, the Big Horn Mountains, the Rockies, vistas that brought tears to my eyes, Yellowstone Park … and met some people that brought tears to my eyes from laughing at their dry humor.  It was a terrific trip, and the first of many. I was hooked.

Now, you might think this obsession with Wyoming is strange for an Illinois native, but I swear I have mountains somewhere back in my blood, because I have this strong affinity with the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, as well as the Big Horns and Rockies of Wyoming. It feels like I can breathe deeper there.

(But Wyoming’s mountains have another advantage: They’re dry.  Plus, it’s windy, so it’s like living in one of those shampoo commercials where your hair is never frizzing and forever streaming behind you … except, of course, for when it blows in your face. If I’d known Wyoming could do that for my hair, I would have run away to the Big Horns as a teenager for sure!)

On this latest trip, I spent lots of time on a friend’s ranch, seeing newly born calves and their mommas. On my second trip (to see older calves and heifers moved to grazing land using pickup, horse and dogs to track them as they moved along) I was grateful for improved cell coverage … receiving a phone call from my friend, who said, “Just saw your car drive past the turnoff.”  Oops.

I’ve done that a few times in Wyoming, including one memorable occasion when I was tracking wagon ruts of a trail from the 1860s and ended up in a rancher’s pasture. Fortunately, he was unperturbed. Did I mention it was nearly dark and I was low on gas? Hmm, I wonder if Elizabeth could have a similar adventure … This trip included a few times when I wasn’t sure where I was, but with the mountains to my west I could figure I was heading in the right general direction and I didn’t even make any accidental pasture visits.

For sure, Elizabeth will be visiting King’s Saddlery/King Ropes [[http://www.kingropes.com/index.htm]]  in Sheridan, as I did this trip. And she’s going to receive an education on ropes as I did from Dan Morales, who generously shared just a bit of his vast knowledge of ropes and ropemaking with me. But I can’t tell you any more about that until you read LEFT HANGING, the second book in the “Caught Dead in Wyoming” series, which will be out at the end of June.

I also visited the wonderful Bradford Brinton Museum [[http://www.bbmandm.org]]  having a wonderful times wandering the grounds – I want this house! – as well as talking with an intern who gave me some great ideas and contacts I need for the third book in the series (no title yet) that I’m working on now.

So, now it’s time to unpack the rope I bought at King’s, the bowl I got at Piney Creek Pottery, the wildflower seeds from Brinton Museum and all the memories, while I get busy revisiting Wyoming through Elizabeth’s eyes in “Caught Dead in Wyoming” – hope you’ll come along with Elizabeth and me to see this fascinating place.

 Through tomorrow, SIGN OFF, Book 1 in the Caught Dead in Wyoming Series is ONLY $1.99 at Amazon Kindle!

Marrying James Bond

By Hope Clark

Lowcountry Bribe, the first in The Carolina Slade Mystery Series, opens with the protagonist being offered a bribe from a client she least suspects—a hog farmer. She calls the Inspector General’s office, and within 48 hours, they have a federal agent on the ground checking the situation. The investigation goes awry, trust is lost on so many levels, and lives are threatened.

At conferences and readings, I love talking about the opening chapter to that book . . . because it comes so close to reality. I was once a federal employee who was offered a bribe. And my husband was the agent who showed up on the case. We rigged hidden recorders and pin-hole cameras, rehearsed a script to pull off the “sting,” and dealt with threats against me. We didn’t catch the culprit, but we married 18 months later.

At that point in the presentation, the room goes abuzz. Many people then ask me how much of the book is fact and which part fiction. It’s fun, because that means the story reads that realistically. And while I have to tell them the rest of the story is fiction, I can’t help but put myself in those fictional scenes.

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself where reality stopped and fantasy started. And when I do take that pause, I smile. Because I can get lost in my head with my characters and have a grand time, especially knowing that I get to actually sleep with the good guy. In this case, fantasizing in bed about a character is a very good thing, because I’m married to him.

I’ve actually pondered what would happen if, God forbid, I developed dementia in my older years, and fact gradually muddied into my fiction, blending Slade and Wayne into my own history until I could not remember the difference. After all, writers get very close to their stories and the players that make those tales come to life. I did minor investigations in my prior career with the federal government, and my husband was indeed an agent with many war stories under his belt. As I juggle the possibility of make-believe and my past entangling in my gray-headed mind downstream, I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad predicament.

To make matters worse, my husband is my sounding board for subsequent stories. He keeps my technical details accurate, my gun references true, and laughs at the predicaments Slade gets into, chuckling that he’d never let that happen on his watch. At my speaking engagements, he’s often asked if he was my model for Wayne, and he answers, “Nah, Wayne’s a wuss.” Everybody laughs, and I crack a smile. I know he’s serious.

What better life can I ask for than to secretly write about my husband, pretending I’m the girl in the story, carousing through escapades, playing dare-devil, and solving crime.

We may not look like Daniel Craig and his charming Bond-girl with our middle-aged appearances, but we love to think like we are . . . because one time we did some of that, and now we live happily ever after.

BIO

C. Hope Clark lives on the banks of Lake Murray, South Carolina, writing her mysteries, and often reading aloud to her federal agent with his lit cigar, neat bourbon, and deep opinions about how Wayne still isn’t close to the “real deal.” Tidewater Murder, the second in the Carolina Slade Mystery Series, arrives on book shelves in April 2013. www.chopeclark.com

Book People

by Sparkle Abbey

“My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Before we were writers, we were readers. Voracious readers. Book people. In fact, one of the things we realized we had in common when we first met was our love of books. We both loved Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and graduated from those series to classics, gothic novels, and big rich stories. Though we grew up miles apart – one in California and one in Iowa, our childhoods are not dissimilar. Tripping though warm summer days with a book in hand. The cool halls of the town library, its musty smell signaling a treasure trove. Our families could not have possibly bought all the books we wanted to read. The library was the mother lode.

“A library is more than a brick and mortar building filled with delicious books. It is also a community of people who live to invest in our youth, who read for knowledge and fun, and who are ready to include anyone who walks through the door.” ~ from Authors for Libraries, a program of United for Libraries

We were recently asked to give an author talk at the Slater, Iowa public library. Slater is a small town but the turnout was great. And not only did the event have good attendance but these were book people. Great questions, expert discussion, a fun and informed crowd. Attendees ranged from seventeen to seventy, but to a person these were all avid readers and though we were strangers when we arrived, we were friends when we left.who live to invest in our youth, who read for knowledge and fun, and who are ready to include anyone who walks through the door.” ~ from Authors for Libraries, a program of United for Libraries

How about you? Did you spend time at your local library as a kid? Do you still visit the library?

We think libraries are so important to communities and today’s libraries offer audio books, e-books, movies, computers, wi-fi and community rooms – in addition to books.  Support your local library in every way you can. Donate, volunteer, champion! Check out: www.ilovelibraries.org

Sparkle Abbey

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter who co-write the Pampered Pets Mystery Series.

Book One: Desperate Housedogs

Book Two: Get Fluffy

Book Three: Kitty Kitty Bang Bang

www.SparkleAbbey.com

Jill Marie Landis

Author of Mai Tai One On

Writing is never an easy occupation no matter how far up the ladder you climb. It’s still true that as a working writer you can take time to stare out the window and call it brainstorming, wear pajamas to work, spend hours and hours in solitude in front of a computer screen and use that long dreamed of vacation to Scotland as a tax write off. But in the past few years the writing life has certainly gotten far more complicated than one might imagine or desire.

The Good Old Days

Back when I started (we were using quills and ink then) it was much simpler. We were expected to write, meet a deadline, turn in a book, start another one, await the editorial process, make some changes, turn it in again and sit back and wait for the book to come out. In the meantime we started another book and the whole cycle began again.

If we were lucky we occasionally met with other writers, did a few book signings around our home towns, got some press in the local paper, and considered ourselves famous among our relatives, friends and neighbors.

But now, with the advent of gorilla marketing, the internet, and social networking, times have changed. Oh, my. How they have changed.

Too Many Hats

Now we are our own promoters, our own editors, our own cheerleaders. We have to know how to write press releases, act as our own secretaries, spend our non-writing hours (of which there are far fewer) surfing the internet, keep up postings on Facebook, visiting bookselling sites’ (like Amazon’s Author pages), blogging on our own website (websites many of us have had to learn to create), guest visiting each other’s blogs, overseeing cover designs, passing out trading cards, managing contests and putting up hard earned cash for our give-aways. Even choosing the right hat becomes a problem; we are our own image consultants for all of those dreaded photos we have to post. (Oh, did I forget to mention tweeting? I guess that’s because so far I’ve drawn the line at tweeting.)

Too Few Heads

Once an author hits the big time she can afford to hire a staff to wear a lot of those hats for her. I’ve been there. Once upon a time I was lucky enough to unload a couple of tasks like housekeeping, cooking, errand running, and promotion on others. But times change and now I, as well as other men and women writers (some who even hold down day jobs), are trying to accomplish the Herculean tasks required to make a dent in this new world order of the internet marketplace.

It takes not only a real gift but hours and hours of work to make your book stand out from the crowd, to make it sound like the best of the best, the book worthy of becoming the latest “cocktail party” focus of conversation or the next big book club choice. It takes stamina to come up with the charm and wit and effervescence that gets “friends” and readers to “like” you or your page week after week. It takes…well, it takes a good fiction writer to make ourselves look so wonderfully glamorous.

Be True to You

Despite the bombardment of everything that it takes to “make it” in the writing world today, my biggest struggle is to remain true to myself.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the game a long time, or maybe wisdom does come with age, or maybe it’s just that I’m getting to be like the cartoon character Maxine the curmudgeon—I’ve decided there aren’t enough hours in the day to try to jump higher or run faster or sound oh-so-clever on facebook or anywhere else.  I do what I can and devote the rest of my time to reading, staring off into space, and writing. I’ve gone back to sitting on the beach with lined paper to make notes if I’m inspired, and I’ve been walking away from the computer when inspiration is just not there instead of surfing the net trying to find out if my book has sold two more copies than an hour ago.  I’ve decided to devote time to writing the kind of books I’d like to read, the kind of books that make me laugh or make me cry. I’m focusing on what led me to become a writer in the first place; the writing itself.  I’m writing stories that strike a chord within me and hopefully there are a few people out there who will enjoy them and resonate to that chord too.  I have to believe that the books will somehow find those readers even if I don’t constantly facebook, tweet, or twitter. I choose to believe that stories that are meant to be read will be read. The hat I’m wearing the most these days is my writing hat. It’s the hat that fits the best.

 Any Thoughts?

I guess since I have on my “promotional blogging hat” right now I’d love to hear what you think. Am I the only one who feels as if we writers are juggling too many hats? Or are you comfortable wearing all of yours?

I had a conversation with my wife some time ago. It went something like this:

“What time are we supposed to meet the Jones’s for dinner?”

Mary replied, “I still have to feed the horses.”

“O-k-a-y,” I drawled. “So what time are we supposed to meet them?”

“I have to buy grain first.”

“So what time?” I persisted.

“Feeding won’t take me long. Shirley’s going to help me?”

I was glad to hear that. “So what time?”

Now Mary was getting exasperated. “As soon as I’m finished I’ll shower, change clothes and we can go.”

“And what time will that be?”

She gazed at me with raised eyebrows. “I should be ready by a quarter to six.”

“Is that when they’re going to pick us up?”

“They’re not picking us up,” she explained patiently. “We’re going to meet them there.”

I knew I was getting closer to an answer, if I could just be patient. “Um, what time?”

“Hilda and I decided around six.”

“Thank you.”

She looked at me, realized what she’d just done, and we both got a good laugh out of it.

Chances are you and your spouse, significant other, or friend of the opposite sex, have had similar conversations. The point I’m trying to make is that men and women are different.

“Well, duh,” you say.

Some people have one-track minds. “In the way they speak,” I hasten to clarify.

“Okay, smarty pants. Explain that. What do you mean?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Keep in mind that I’m speaking in general about men and women in our Western culture, and not specifically about any one person. Nor am I suggesting each of us is always consistent. But there are some general rules:

Women tend to give an explanation first, and sometimes don’t even bother to actually answering the question because by then it should be obvious what the answer is. The result can be a major source of misunderstanding and conflict in real life, in a fictitious scene or even an entire book. This is a frequent devise for short stories—and humor.

Men, on the other hand, tend to answer the question in as few words as possible and stop. As a result they can often come across as curt, even unfriendly—another source of real and imagined conflict.

Portraying this in a story can be difficult, but if it’s done right, it can also be very effective. Just as you may not have been aware of this paradigm before I told you (you’ll notice it more now, I promise), the reader probably isn’t either. Therefore he or she isn’t likely to realize why a particular exchange of dialogue feels right, only that it does.

Here are some other tips for differentiating between men and woman in dialogue:

– Men rarely ask directions or advice—especially from women (I suspect women are far more aware of this than men are!)

– Men rarely end sentences with a question, e.g. “Nice day, isn’t it?”

– Men avoid hedging or showing signs of indecision with phrases like: “I don’t know, but…”, “I’m not sure if…”

– Men don’t like to ask permission: “Would it be all right if we…”, “Do you mind if I…”

– Men tend to be blunt in their speech and forceful in their opinions, rather than conciliatory. Consensus building only seems to count in politics where we often think of men in those positions as manipulative or dishonest! (Oops! Did I say that?)

– And of course this biggie, that men answer a question first, then give an explanation only if it’s requested. The consequence of all this is that men can come across as abrupt or dictatorial, and women as evasive or deceitful.

Okay, I’ve solved one of the great mysteries of life: what is the difference between men and women. Now I ask you: will you ever listen to or participate in a conversation with a person of the opposite sex the same way again?

See? I’ve changed your life!

Visit Ken at:  www.KenCasper.com

Read an excerpt of AS THE CROW DIES at:  As The Crow Dies
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