The Sundance Kids

from Jacqueline

I love Park City, Utah.  I first went to the town about eight years ago. I was moaning to my husband that I really missed skiing, a sport I love.  I complained (I may even have whined), that every time I planned to go skiing with a friend, they dipped out (you would not believe the number of people who are afraid of a bit of cold), and I was left high and dry.  I should add, my husband does not ski – he has a knee issue, and truth be told probably would not ski if he had perfect knees.  Finally he said, “Well, why don't you just pick and place, go there, and ski!!!”  So, I said, “You know what? I WILL.”    

I decided upon Park City. I did not want to stay in a swanky hotel ($$$ eeek!)  and I did not want to rent an apartment. I wanted something friendly.  That’s when I discovered The Old Town Guest House in Park City, and its amazing owner/innkeeper, Deb Lovci.

 I wrote to Deb - that's her, above - and told her I was traveling alone to ski (for the first time in about 10 years), and she said, “No problem – leave it to me.”  I had a great time, skiing with an instructor picked out by Deb. And the inn is the perfect home from home.  I have come to absolutely love Deb – a great outdoorswoman and all-around good person.  I came back again, year after year.

 You’re getting the picture. I have fallen in love with Park City – and I haven't even told you about the bookstore yet. Sue, the manager of Dolly’s Bookstore in Park City, had become so used to me charging through the door (dressed up like the Michelin man in my winter togs), that a few years ago she said it might be an idea to do an event when I came to town to ski. Yes, I have done a bookstore event in my skiwear!  Did I mention that I love Park City?  I have made some lovely friends along the way, and - not naming names, because I probably shouldn’t - one of my best skiing pals is a leading lawyer with the US Justice Department, and spends most of her time jetting around the world interviewing dissidents, defecting spies and the like, while liaising with international law enforcement. I’ve come across some interesting people among the thriller-writing community, but ladies and gentlemen, what my friend has to do every single day of the week would give you enough material for a lifetime of blockbusters. 

 Which brings me to the Sundance Film Festival.

I decided that it was time my husband – who had encouraged me to take that first trip to Park City – had a glimpse of the wonderful experiences I’d had over the years.  I booked The Old Town Guest House for the second week of the Sundance Film Festival (by which time most of the real movie stars have departed the city), which coincided with my husband’s birthday.  I organized everything except getting into the actual films.  To give you a bit of background, my husband LOVES movies – indies, foreign, mainstream – and is a real film buff, which you would expect from a graduate of the film program at Boston University. 

But then the angst began.  Advisory #1 for anyone going to the Sundance Film Festival who is not an actual movie star or other VIP – the website is a bloody mess.  John finally procured our Sundance passes after much cursing, and then had to linger over the computer on a given day and at a specific time to reserve seats for the certain number of movies we were allowed with the pass we’d selected.  Here's how bad the website was - we overheard a kid talking about it, saying, “Dude, they need a new

algorithm."

And here’s how we got to grips with the really poor system of getting into films at Sundance. Breakfast at Deb’s Old Town Guesthouse is “family style.”  Eight people sitting around the table, chatting over good coffee and a bang-up breakfast.  Judy and Art from Boston, by way of New York, told us about the Sundance e-list, so we got onto that straightaway.  John did battle with the website again, and we started to make real progress.

We decided that some movies getting a lot of attention would probably come to our local “indie” theater (I ached to see Dark Horse, and White God, but will have to wait), so instead we concentrated on productions that we might never have the opportunity to see again.  The short programs were particularly interesting. A documentary about the artworks salvaged from a former asylum in England was fascinating – an innovative doctor there in the 1920’s-50’s had set up an arts studio for patients, and their creations were amazing.  Over 5000 works are now housed at the Wellcome Museum in London. I lived not far from that hospital when I was in my twenties, so it was almost surreal watching the movie.  Another short film, this one from Greece, told the story of a single mother giving up her daughter – a girl of about five years of age – and followed them on their last morning together before the woman walked away from her child. I'm still aching after that one.  A documentary about D. H. Lawrence in Sardinia was just gorgeous.

You’ll be hearing about a movie called James White.  OK, so it needs a bit of editing - yes, we get it, the twenty-something young man is in a downward spiral, in and out of bars, getting into a fights, and into bed with anyone. His estranged father has just died.  His mother is battling stage 4 cancer.  Then she is admitted into the hospital, and the movie just takes off.  Cynthia Nixon – formerly of Sex In The City – turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as the dying woman.  Christopher Abbot carries the movie as James White, and you can almost smell the grief and confusion in the man as it vaporized off the screen.  

Next morning at the breakfast table, as Deb topped up everyone’s coffee, we continued to exchange our retelling of the films we’d seen, then planning our day’s viewing.  John said, “You know, it really gets the creative juices going – being here.”  

 I could go on and on, but I won’t because you could read the reviews anywhere by Googling “Sundance 2015” I would imagine.  But here’s a funny observation:

I’m used to skiing in Park City. When you ski, you work up an appetite, so when you go out to dinner people are really eating.  But Sundance brings a different crowd to Park City. For his celebratory birthday meal, I took John to Zoom, Robert Redford’s restaurant. 

 I noticed the inappropriately dressed out-of-towners at the table next to us. Sorry, but they might as well have had visas with “Hollywood” stamped on their bare shoulders.  They ordered lunch, proceeded to take a bite out of each dish, and then left the lot. I almost leaned across and said, “Can I have your fries?”  When the waiter asked if they had enjoyed their meal, they were effusive in their compliments.  Then they walked out, and the food was left to be thrown away.  I wanted to yell after them, “You cannot leave the table until you've finished everything on your plate!”

I sort of wish I had.

Until next time ...

Is Your Novel Dated?

James O. Born

I was going to title this "Dating your story," but I was worried Paul Levine would take it in a different context.  I've had several incidences of this in my own writing career and recently was reminded of how you view something when you're younger and then change your opinion when you're older.

While writing my very first novel, which is still unpublished, I made reference to a TV filming site and pointed out that they were filming the TV show BJ Striker, with Burt Reynolds.  The only person I really showed it to, my friend, Greg Sutter, pointed out that I didn't want to date the story by pointing out a TV show that probably wouldn't last very long.  He was right on the point with the advice, including how long the series lasted.

( I never thought I'd ever use a BJ Stryker image in a post.  Twenty five years ago I liked the show set in my home town.  Now I'm one of only eight people who remember it.)

I tend to learn from my mistakes and generally avoid them a second time.  Now anytime I mention something like that, it is always a vague, "TV show."  I would like my novels to be like a Donald Westlake novel that is funny decades later and not that easy to place in time.  I never use timestamps with the dates on any of my chapters, like some thriller writers.  I avoid specific dates in the narrative, although sometimes it's unavoidable.  And in the case of my first series featuring state cop Bill Tasker, I was always careful to have one case flow into the next case without a specific period of time being mentioned.

 

The king of this sort of vague, rift in time is Ed McBain and his eighty-seventh precinct novels.  They start just after the Korean War and somehow the detectives are still reasonably young well into the Reagan administration.  But he makes it all work.

You can also see this in TV shows and movies.  Not just in the costumes or the cars being driven, but in the details mentioned by the characters.  If you wrote a book in 1989 and mentioned President Bush and instead of just "the president," it would not only date novel, it might confuse some of the younger readers who didn't realize there was a period of time when George W. Bush's father ran the country.

Just keep it in mind when your character is driving a "brand-new 2003 Cadillac," instead of a, "brand-new Cadillac."  You have to be optimistic and look ahead and truly believe someone might be reading your novel ten or fifteen years in the future.  I recently experienced this when I got the rights back to my early novels and they have found a new audience on Kindle as e-books.  I had to take a run through some of the earlier ones, which were written more than a dozen years ago.  References to Miami needed to be updated.

One way I'm trying to avoid this on the project I'm currently working on is to set a quick prologue in which I mention the date is 1988.  This would explain why the federal agents in my story don't have easy access to cell phones and have almost no idea what GPS is.

In TV shows some times it's the writing and sometimes it's the producer or director which keep a show from being dated.  I've noticed a common thread among shows like Justified, Elementary and the cancelled show, A Gifted Man.  The producer in all of them was Carl Beverly.  Maybe his thing is keeping material fresh.  Just a thought.

I experienced the reverse of this issue when I wrote my two science fiction novels under the pen name of James O'Neal.  In both of those I simply said, "About twenty years from now," on the very first page.  That way it won't matter when you pick up the book, you can always picture a bleak future which you will probably take part in a mere two decades away.

There is a second aspect to dating your novel which I will bring up in our next blog.  Until then, think about the details that could bog your story down and link it to a year that will seem ridiculous in a decade.

Far out, man.

How to Communicate With Your Editor

James O. Born

Communication is the key to virtually any occupation.  Advertisers must communicate why their product is so important to consumers.  Police officers must communicate with each other to stop serial criminals from committing crimes over and over.  Doctors must communicate to patients all sorts of information from the most complex scientific theories to simple practices they must employ to stay healthy.  And a writer must not only communicate with the reader effectively, but also communicate with an editor.

The writer-editor relationship is unique.  Everyone has a different view of it.  It can be a partnership, it can be a chore, it can be a joy, but ultimately it needs to be a relationship which makes a novel better.  There are a number of other elements the relationship can affect.  The writer has to clearly express his or her expectations for promotion and other elements not related to actually writing a novel.  For the purposes of this blog, let's focus on the relationship that affects the novel itself.

I have dealt with a number of editors in my career.  All of them have their own unique view of how things should be done and how novels should sound.  I always thought of it as writing a novel specifically for that editor.  It's sort of like doing a public speech but focusing on one person in the audience.  But in this case there is a chance to do something special.  Don't waste this opportunity to hear someone else's opinion of your writing.  Listen to what your editor has to say.  Don't be ready with a quick excuse or response.  If the editor thinks the book is missing a character to tie it all together, I would recommend that you consider creating a character to tie it all together.  It's a lesson I learned in other areas that I can apply to writing.

I can use two examples from two different editors.  And please forgive me if I've mentioned any of these stories before.  I find that they are the best examples I can present and I use them in the classes that I teach.

The first relates to my third novel, Escape Clause.  I had finished it and felt pretty good that the story of a Florida cop sent to a prison to investigate a mysterious death had all the elements I wanted and the tone I was trying to set.  I was not overly confident, as any writer who is overly confident about their writing is probably a shitty writer.  But I felt pretty good about the book.  That is, until my editor at Putnam, Neil Nyren, talked to me about what was missing.  There is no way I would've ever seen it on my own.  He suggested that I identified the bad guy at the very beginning of the book, instead of about eighty pages in.  Even though I thought it was a great surprise to realize exactly who the bad guy was, Neil pointed out that the reader needed someone to root against right from the start.  I still recall when I was done, the letter he wrote me that said I had really, “juiced up" the novel.

I can state unequivocally that Neil's way was far superior to my original idea.  Dammit!  The book went on to earn very good reviews and the inaugural Florida book award for best novel.  Thank you very much, Neil.

A more recent example is in my upcoming novel, Scent of Murder.  Once again I handed in a book I was happy with.  This time to my editor at Forge books, Bob Gleason.  Bob liked the overall story, but felt it needed one additional viewpoint.  He thought that several scenes set in the viewpoint of one of the canine heroes of the book would make it more interesting.  I resisted at first.  Then set aside my ego and considered Bob's tremendous experience in publishing.  He didn't just leave me out in the cold, he suggested I read Call of the Wild by Jack London as well as several articles.  Bob is big on sending me articles on different subjects.  To make a relatively long story not much shorter, he was right.  The final version of Scent of Murder, is better than the version I wrote.  Again, dammit!

This was all possible by communication.  And by communication, I mean it is probably more important for the author to listen to the editor than the other way around.  In effect, the editor is your boss.  If you keep that in mind, generally things work out all right.

On a different subject, but relevant for today and tomorrow only, the e-book version of my second novel, Shock Wave, is available for free on Amazon if you click here.  I'm not selling anything, just giving it away.  That sounds worse when I say it out loud.

Have a great Thursday.

Ramblings on Winston Churchill - and Time Travel

from Jacqueline

I’ve always been fascinated by time.  Not in the way of watches or clocks, but in the way “six degrees of separation” links us to the past and, indeed, to the future.  The idea of stepping back in time is compelling – and for my work as a writer of historical fiction, that’s exactly what I have to do. I’m helped by memory, of course, and by the fact that, when I was a child, I loved to listen to elderly people telling me their stories.

Let me tell you what has brought on this reflection.  Fifty years ago this week, Sir Winston Churchill died at his home in London.  At the time, I was nine years old, in Mr. Croft’s class at school, and having terrible trouble with fractions. I was never going to be a mathematician, but I had been near top of my class until we got to the dreaded fractions.  I would come home and weep because anything less than whole numbers seemed beyond my ken.

 We weren’t big TV watchers in my house – indeed, during the day there was nothing on the box to watch between about 2-5pm, and I was in school until 4pm anyway, so it didn't matter much to me. After “Watch With Mother” in the afternoon, there was just a blank screen with the “Test Card” until the news programs began in the early evening.  And there were only two channels when I was a kid – the BBC and ITV.  To this day, I refer to switching to the “other side” instead of “changing channels.”  In Britain, that’s what everyone said, then, and I think it was easier than the endless chain of channels offering the same round of boring game shows, talk shows and reality TV that make up our viewing menu today. 

 Going back to this week some fifty years ago, and Sir Winston’s funeral – my mother, brother and I watched the entire televised event, as did almost everyone who owned a TV in Britain.  If you didn’t have a TV – and millions didn’t – then you crowded into the house of the neighbor who had one. The funeral marked a solemn occasion of deep national mourning; and the whole country was in a state of grief.  There are those today who saw Churchill’s passing as the true end of the Empire. Even as a child I felt the sands shifting under my feet that day, and one had a sense that the tide was on the turn - and let's face it, we had The Beatles and The Stones. Certainly there has never been a funeral quite like it – even that of Diana, The Princess of Wales, was not on a par with Sir Winston’s.

In America, more people tuned in to watch Churchill’s funeral than that of President Kennedy.  It is probably true that Churchill – whose mother, Jennie, was an American – is probably held in higher esteem in certain circles in the USA than in the UK.  In one of my novels, set in the early 1930’s, Churchill is described as being on the hinterland of power, a man pushed aside due to his less than stellar performance in the Great War – his errors had mounted up, and his political track record in the 1920’s left something to be desired.  I received a few letters from Americans asking how I could possibly say such a thing about this giant of the 20^th century.  But as I explained – I cannot get away from the facts of the matter. Every dog has its day, and Winston Churchill’s was not in the early 1930’s.  Nancy Astor said at the time, “Churchill is finished.”  His true day came much later, in the Second World War.

 My mother had tears in her eyes as we watched the gun carriage bearing Churchill’s coffin making its way through the streets of London.  Every now and then the TV would lose the signal, and the screen would fill with squiggly lines.  My mother would leap up and thump the top of the TV set, complaining about “the tube” and miraculously the picture would right itself. I sort of wish TV’s still did that.  When you could no longer correct a screen with a good solid whack, it seemed an era had passed.  But here’s what I remember from that day, as I sat at my mother’s feet watching this hero of British history on the journey to his final resting place. It was Mum telling us her story of seeing Winston Churchill during the war.  The family had just been bombed out of their home. Every house on the street had been reduced to rubble.  Neighbors had been killed – blown to shreds during a Luftwaffe bombing raid.  Winston Churchill came to survey the scene, accompanied by his daughter, Sarah.  My mother described watching as Churchill walked across the field of still-hot debris, the people standing back to let him through.  He bent down, picked up a piece of masonry, and threw it back to the ground with disdain, his face a picture of venomous hatred for those who had inflicted such terror on the people.  My mother said he did not say a word, but continued on his way, and the people cheered. The great orator had no need for a speech on that occasion – his action said everything to the people who had lost all but hope.

So, we become travelers in time and place with every passing day.  The global becomes personal when we hear, read, or watch the news.  We remember where we were when this happened or when we watched events unfold that became history, and we remember the talk around us, the way people took the news.  With our memories and the recollections of others we can finger the fibers of the past.  We can tease out and recall the images that resonate, and they become part of our personal and collective mythology.  It’s the same with the future – everything we do today has bearing upon tomorrow. Some of us play with fate in a small way (OK, so I confess, I just had a hot bath, and yet I am still using collected rain from the last storm to water my garden, in this very drought stricken California), and some of us involve ourselves more deeply – scientific research, political activism, environmental advocacy, for example.  Or we write fiction – which can predict the future in a scarily accurate way, in the same manner that universal truths can be revealed in a well-told story.

As writers we play with time, with character and place. The memories big and small have a bearing on what and how we write.  But you don’t have to be a writer to be a time traveler – you just have to remember, to be curious (like Patty with her research into her family history), and to listen to people, old and young.  If you do that, you can look both ways at once – rather like being on a road, and seeing what has gone before, and what is still to come.  And there’s something very meaningful about that – a way of connecting oneself to the big picture, while smiling at the small snapshot that puts you in a certain place and a certain time.  I look at photos of Churchill’s funeral, and though I was not one of those lining the route, and I was born long after his finest hour – I was there, in my way.

Ooops, the tube's gone again ...

Scent of Murder

James O. Born

I do occasionally write something other than this blog.  Since I didn't have a particular topic for "How to Write a Novel," I thought I'd give you a glimpse of my upcoming novel, Scent of Murder, which will be released by Forge Books on April 7.

First, I would like to extend my thanks to the great people at Tor/Forge for their tremendous input.  Starting with my editor, Bob Gleason, who made me take a look at the narrative and consider things I had never thought of.  Add to this input from Associate Publisher Linda Quinton, who has a deep understanding and love of dogs and a broad knowledge of marketing and I truly feel like this  a much better novel.  That is what being part of a team really means.  The fantastic cover speaks for itself, conveying an excellent image of the opening scenes and overall tone of the book.

In a way, this is another lesson in how to write a novel.  A book from a publisher is in no way a solitary effort.  I may have started working on the novel by myself in my office, but ultimately it was in my best interest to open my mind to other opinions.  It's easy to say I work in real life as a law enforcement officer and have seen first hand what K-9s can do.  The real issue is how to convey that in a compelling and interesting way.  Both Bob and Linda helped me in ways I never would have imagined.

Finding a way to integrate the K-9 heroes of the book into the actual investigation in the novel was a challenge from the beginning.  Bob convinced me to create a point of view for one of the dogs.  He told me to read White Fang by Jack London.  That is the kind of instruction that helps you as a writer.  I read the book and studied the technique.  I didn't copy it or try to imitate Jack London.  And in the end it made the novel more interesting.

My new business/book cards

Linda read the manuscript and had suggestions about making some of the police work more subtle so that it might appeal to an audience in addition to the police procedural fans.  She had me bring out elements of the dogs and gave me suggestions that never would have occurred to me.  The fact that an associate publisher was interested in my manuscript was fantastic in itself.

Now I'm working with my publicist, Emily Mullen, who did a great job on Border War, to work out dates and appearances for bookstores and create a marketing plan which will give the book the best possible chance to succeed.  That is no small task in this era of shrinking sales and a crowded market.

Elayne Becker has been right on top of everything since the moment she took on the new job.  Not bad for a girl from Georgia stuck in New York.

Normally this could be a stressful time for a writer, but the fact that everyone on this team knows what they are doing and the book is something new for me, makes me not only confident, but excited about the novel's release.

The lesson here is, "no one can be a success in publishing on their own."

Obviously I will have more to share about the novel as the release draws near.  I have some new friends in the dog community as well as the law enforcement arena who have shown a lot of interest in the novel.  It is a realistic view of what police K-9s are involved in every day, as well as the relationship they have with their handlers.  It's hard to tell who's actually in charge sometimes.  Take a look at the Amazon description and feel free to e-mail me any questions at contactjimborn@comcast.net or in the comments.  If you haven't already, join my Facebook author page.


Here are a few dog photos to give you an idea of the world of police dogs.

Me and K-9 Hutch

My choice for a cover

Why you should attend a writers' conference

Patty here...

Sometimes I think I’ve heard everything there is to know about writing and the publishing business but, of course, I’m always wrong because things change. Mystery fan conventions like Bouchercon or Left Coast Crime are fun, because you get to attend panels, listen to your favorite authors wax poetic, get books signed and mingle in the bar. However, if you’re serious about writing and you want to learn nitty-gritty tips to inspire your process, or learn about the latest trends in the publishing business from editors and agents, you should consider attending a writers’ conference.

The California Crime Writers Conference is a biennial, two-day event that began in 1995 as a one-day conference organized by Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. In 2007 after years of success, the conference partnered with the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America to become the even bigger and more comprehensive CCWC.

As 2012-2013 president of SinC/LA, I co-chaired CCWC in 2013, which featured keynote speakers Elizabeth George and Sue Grafton. The inspirational keynote speeches given by these two writers were worth the price of admission.

Sue Grafton, Hank Phillippi Ryan, moi, Elizabeth George (photo by Robin Templeton)

But, of course, there was more to discover. Attendees in 2013 chose from a host of workshops in four tracks (Craft, Business, Law Enforcement/Forensics and Nuts and Bolts issues) lead by bestselling authors, law enforcement and forensic experts, plus top agents and editors. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. One award-winning author told me the conference featured the best law enforcement/forensic track she had ever seen in all her years of attending conferences.

The 2015 CCWC is shaping up to be another winner. This year, I’m co-chairing the Law Enforcement and Forensics track, which will include homicide detectives, an FBI agent and firearms trainer, a forensic entomologist, an expert on serial killers in the medical field, a forensic psychiatrist, among others.

Too often writers collect information about forensics and law enforcement from watching TV and film. Many of those “facts” are fiction. CCWC allows a writer to learn firsthand from experts who will share their knowledge and answer questions about how homicide detectives handle a crime scene, what firearm a character might use and why, how insect activity reveals clues about a death, how a serial killer thinks and how to avoid common mistakes when writing about forensic evidence.

However, the most compelling reason to attend a writers’ conference is for the opportunity to network with fellow attendees. Writing is a solitary pursuit. Writers need to charge those batteries by basking in shared experiences. Whether you’re looking for an agent, a critique group, an independent copy editor or just some conversation with fellow scribblers, think about attending a writers' conference, especially CCWC, since I'll be there to hold your hand. Invest in yourself. Register. Learn. Share. Succeed. You deserve it.

HAPPY MONDAY!