Paging Mr. Rochester

I’m been thinking a lot about Mr. Rochester lately. Specifically, Mr. Rochester on his horse, slipping on the ice, and falling into the tender care of Jane Eyre. That has got to be one of the most romantic first meetings in literature and I’ve been thinking about it because I have two people in my new novel who are going to fall in love. (The nice thing about being an author is you can tell people what to do and most of the time they’ll listen.) How should they meet? How quickly should they know they are in love?  That’s led me to think about other great romantic meetings in literature. Mr. Darcy in full sneering mode comes to mind. Romeo and Juliet at the party. The poor anxious heroine of Rebecca running into Max DeWinter. My favorite romantic characters that I’ve written is Chuck Jones, who was the love interest in my first novel, The Fiction Class. He was actually the love interest in a novel I’d written before that, titled Courting Disaster, which was about a woman who gets engaged 17 times and then falls in love. It was a little dark, but my favorite part of that book was Chuck Jones, who was a smooth-talking and optimistic sort of person who I felt was perfect for the anxious and pessimistic heroine of that book. When Courting Disaster didn’t sell (though it did win awards!), I began work on The Fiction Class and had to populate the class with characters and I looked around and thought, why shouldn’t Chuck Jones sign up for a fiction class. Of course, he was impossible. Didn’t do his homework and whispered in class, and yet he was quite a bit of fun and Arabella fell in love with him, as did I. Unfortunately, it will not do for my new romantic hero to stumble across my protagonist on a horse, but I do think I have a fun way for them to meet. I’m thinking about it! 

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Could you pass this test?

Have you heard of the Bechdel test? Recently I read an interesting article in Writer’s Digest by agent Laura Zats about how she applies the Bechdel test to potential future clients. Or future potential clients, as the case may be. The test measures how prominently women are represented in a manuscript, and specifically if women are represented in relationship to each other, as opposed to a relationship with a man.    You can only pass this test if your manuscript, or movie (which was where it first came into use):1. has two women in it2. who speak to each other3. about something other than a man. Zats explains, in the article, how she uses this test as a baseline for her requests. “Are your female characters drawn well enough to have their own motivations? If you’re sending five people to space in your sci-fi story, examine why none of them are women. Is it because there couldn’t be any? Are you inadvertently pitting women against each other instead of allowing them to have deep, supportive relationships.” I have to say, I find the whole topic intriguing and feel like I may be slightly ahead of curve on this one, as almost every novel I’ve written has featured strong friendships among women. In my Anne Boleyn novel, which is doing the rounds now, I actually made up a 21st century friend for Anne Boleyn. I’m convinced her life would have taken a different path had she had a woman in her corner.  What about you? Do you think this test has merit?

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Something new

Recently I’ve begun work on a brand new novel. It’s been years since I started something completely new, and the whole thing is quite exciting. (Hopefully the novel is too!) There are shiny new characters and an intriguing setting,  and compelling conflicts and a thrilling mystery and an exciting climax.  And even romance.  I’m full of hopes and dreams.  Sooner or later, I will come barreling into the hard cold wall of revision, but for now, my mind is roaming around, trying to come up with all sorts of fun things to happen. The first draft is  always the most fun part of writing for me, and because I’ve spent the last few months teaching a class on writing first drafts, I feel more competent. Or at least I’ve thought about it more. One of the questions I love to ask my students is, What novel would you write if you could write anything in the world? Invariably they come up with answers that are different than the novel they’re writing. Then I ask, why don’t you write the novel you want to write? It’s a simple question, but it always provokes a lot of interesting responses:            Because my family will never talk to me again.          Because I’m worried I can’t do it right.          Because people will think I’m strange.          Because I’m scared. All those things are always true every time we (I) sit down to write, but nothing compares to feeling like you have a great story that only you can tell. So now, back to work!                        

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Memorial Day

Memorial Day always makes me turn to poetry. Somehow it seems to take a poet to express the grief and pride and other emotions tied up with this holiday. One of my favorite poems is “In Flanders Fields,” which was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3, 1915  In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead.Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.  Thank you to all who have served and tried to protect us and may we protect our future generations. Happy Memorial Day!

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What's Your Favorite Season… for mystery?

The coming start of summer got me thinking about what my favorite season was to set a mystery. I said summer and winter, but the answers from my fellow MissDemeanors have me rethinking.  Here’s what they said:  SUSAN BREEN: That’s such an interesting question, Cate. I’ve never thought about it, but as I look back on what I’ve written, I see that almost everything is set in spring. I’m probably paying more attention in spring because there’s so much happening with trees and woods and so on, and I am definitely in a more cheerful frame of mind. There also tend to be a lot of evocative or transitional moments in the spring: weddings, Mother’s Day, graduations and so if something disastrous happens, it’s that much more powerful. TRACEE De HAHN: I agree that this is an interesting question. I’ve taken advantage of weather- certainly a crippling winter storm was central to Swiss Vendetta- however I’m not sold on that season. I do think that the seasons are important to a book. People behave differently in extreme heat, or cold or rain or… Crime in the real world is impacted- so certainly it is in fiction. Think about what air conditioning did in the South, particularly in neighborhoods where people lived in close quarters. On the one hand, it moved people inside- perhaps hiding abuse and negligence that neighbors sharing porches to catch any drift of breeze would have seen. On the other hand, tempers that flared in the heat were cooled off. ROBIN STUART: There’s something about summer nights I love. The relief from the heat of the day, the stillness and solitude of later hours, that crisp snap of approaching dawn, any of which can add to tension or a moment of respite. Of course, since most of my stories are set in and around San Francisco, “summer” is actually September/October so judicious mention of the month is a hat tip to authenticity. D.A. BARTLEY: I love this question! I don’t have a favorite season, but I do think that the right season can help flavor a story. I had been struggling a bit with the beginning of the third Abish Taylor. I knew the outline of the story, who would live, who would die, and why. Still every morning, it was like pulling teeth until I wrote about the snow outside the first victim’s house. The moment I knew the season, all sorts of other unrelated details fell into place. PAULA MUNIER: One of the reasons I love living in New England–and setting my mystery series here–so much is the fullness of the four seasons. A Borrowing of Bones is set in July, at the height of summer. The next, which I’m writing now, is set in the autumn, to be followed by a story set in the winter. Vermont, where my series is set, is so very different–but always beautiful!–in every season, and that gives me a lot to play with in terms of weather, townies vs. hikers/peepers/skiers/tourists, etc. C. MICHELE DORSEY: Without hesitation, I can say autumn brings a sense of commitment and renewal for me. I loved being a student, and later, a law professor. I think of “back to school” as the real new year. So when the leaves begin to turn and the air gets a little crispy, I’m ready to go inside, literally and figuratively, and tap into what the seasons before have been brewing. That’s when I start writing up a storm. What season do you enjoy reading or writing about most? 

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Seasonal Inspiration

 I tend to set my stories with the backdrop of the season that I am in. Part of the reason is laziness. It’s easier for me to think of ways to describe the way a place looks in a particular season when I am surrounded by that season.  Fortunately, I tend to write most of my drafts in the summer and winter (editing in spring and fall). The two seasons are the best for thrillers, IMHO.  Why? Winter enables me to write characters under the inherent pressure of being stuck indoors. I can use that sense of being trapped to create tension. It also enables me to write about being cold, the symptoms of which evoke fear.  Summer let’s me write about characters struggling with heat. When you’re too hot you can feel angry, upset, frustrated. The need for hydration and relief can become overwhelming. Maybe I prefer these two seasons simply because my favorites are fall and spring. I guess I can see how the metaphors of death and renewal could come out in autumnal books. Spring is too full of life for me, but could make a cool contrast if the character is stuck inside despite the beauty outdoors. Missing out.  What is your favorite season to write about?  

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What's Your Writing Schedule

I got eight hours of sleep yesterday!!!!! It’s exciting because, for the past month, my writing schedule has had me on two.   I needed to finish a book this month so that I could return to working on an edit for my fourth book, which I hadn’t been anticipating would be as extensive as it turned out.  As a result, my writing schedule was 8:30 to 3:00 (6.5 hours) and then again from 8p.m. to 5 p.m. (9 hours) during the week. On the weekends, I was trying to squeeze five hours per day in. It was crazy and unsustainable past a month, but it did enable me to get this book that had been burning in my brain into a word document. Now, I am back to working on an edit that I anticipate I’ll have six weeks to finish. I am hoping that I’ll be able to work 8:30 to 6:00, a more normal schedule for me.  It’s important for me that I write every weekday. As a former journalist, I grew accustomed to writing a couple thousand words each day and I like keeping that up. I also find that forcing myself to write each day keeps writer’s block at bay. It’s not an option to not write, so I can’t be blocked. I might not write anything good. I might throw it out by the end of the week. But, at least I put something down on paper and got my mind working.  Every now and then, like this past month, I write like a fever. And now I have another book (or at least the first draft of one)  What’s your writing schedule?    

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Have Laptop Will Travel

I have lived in the same two states my entire life: New Jersey and New York. More specifically, I have lived in Manhattan or within ten miles of it for my entire childhood and adult life (save for four years of college in Princeton, NJ, which wasn’t really that much farther).  I set many of my books in these two states because I’m most familiar with them. After a decade in the city, I feel like I have a handle on the culture of Manhattan and, even more so, its suburban environs where I live and grew up. As a writer and a person, I’m comfortable in my area.  But that very comfort is the reason why I must travel. I need to see other places to gain perspective on the location that most often serves as the backdrop to my stories. When I don’t visit other places for awhile, I can become so immersed in my home that I can’t recognize anymore what’s unique or strange or beautiful or nutty about it. Writers need the ability to see a place as both an outsider and an insider. We need to have the accuracy that comes from immersion but also the distance to point out what makes a place special.  Recently, I went to Chattanooga TN to see my mother-in-law compete in a half Iron Man.  (Side note: if the world ever devolves into a Walking Dead situation, I’m on her team). The place has all these incredible rock formations and a mountain cave system complete with an beautiful underground waterfall that really should be the setting for a dark thriller–albeit not one that I would write since it would probably devolve into a Raft of The Medusa situation and I don’t do that kind of gore. Still… The city is also incredibly active. Everywhere, people are biking, rock climbing, running, kayaking, and just, generally, hanging outside.  I don’t know if I’ll ever set a story in Chattanooga, but going there did help me see how sedentary life in my home state of New Jersey is, particularly when the weather gets colder. We drive to indoor places or stay in our houses. When we need to work out, we drive to the gym. Seeing it, reminded me of how any story that I set in New Jersey really needs to note the driving culture. If there’s a book set in NJ and someone is not running around in an SUV, then it’s not really set in NJ.  It also reminded me of how active I was living in the New York City. I walked everywhere. Ten blocks. Twenty Blocks. Fifty blocks, in nice weather. I would walk from Battery Park to the Upper East Side on a beautiful day. Why take a cab? I’d walk five blocks in rainy weather to duck into the subway (impossible to catch a cab).  If a story is in Manhattan and it involves someone driving anywhere save for outside of Manhattan, it’s not a story in Manhattan. *Unless that story is Taxi Driver.  What is something that you learned about your favorite setting about being away for awhile? What place have you travelled to that had helped enrich your perspective.      

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Inspiration Sideways

Most writers have more ideas than they know what to do with. (Yes, I did end that sentence with a preposition.) Finding inspiration is not a problem . . . except when it is. For me, this usually happens around the 30,000-word mark. I’m happily typing along, letting my characters do what they want to do when the words start to slow down until I click on the keyboard one last time. I describe the feeling as standing on a wobbly rock in the middle of a river. There’s no clear way to the other side and the rocks behind me are under water.  I am, for the most part, a big believer in AIC (credit to Nora Roberts). Writing output is directly correlated to time spent sitting at the computer. When I start in the morning, I set a timer and do nothing but write until it goes off. Just doing it works great when it comes to getting writing done. From time to time, however, we face something in our story that doesn’t quite work, and we’re not sure how to make it right. That’s when it might be time to step away. A few weeks ago, I found myself in a hole at the very end of the second Abish Taylor mystery. I spent a few days trying to type my way through it, but got no where. So, I took a break at the Met. Art museums are my refuge.  If I can find space away from the crowds, I don’t much care what the exhibit is about. (There, another preposition.)  A stroll through Central Park works, too, if the weather is to my liking. I’ve come to believe our subconscious mind sometimes can solve problems our conscious mind cannot. We need to give our subconscious space and time. For me, walking and looking at something pretty allows for just this kind of problem solving to happen. Museums and parks may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I suspect that everyone has his or her own way of “stepping away.” Find yours. . . . and, if you like museums, are interested in the Catholic Church or fashion, I can recommend the “Heavenly Bodies” exhibit at the Met.      

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Note to self

When I asked my fellow Miss Demeanors what advice they’d give their younger writing selves, the answers came quickly. I don’t know that I have anything to add, but I’ll share my thoughts any way. If you want to write, write. Don’t let fear of rejection or failure get in the way. The more you write, the better a writer you’ll be. Whatever happens, pay attention. You can always write about it. Cate: Quit your day job sooner. Better to starve (when you’re single) and do what you’re passionate about. Tracee: I agree with Cate. Get a good education, then try to live your dream…. maybe get some life experience. No better time to volunteer with a NGO and see the world. I used to see the UNHCR cases with their handlers on the train outside Geneva and wonder where they are going….. looking back I should have gone along. Susan: That’s a great question, Alison, and I think about stuff like that all the time, except that I’ve come to realize that most of the really stupid things I’ve done have led me to a better understanding of why I, and others, do stupid things, which is a useful thing to think about, especially when writing mysteries. So I guess my advice to my young self would be to try and be forgiving and take lots of notes. Michele: Don’t let fear hold you back. Dare to break the rules. Learn to know when. Live life fully so you have lots of material to write about. Don’t make time to write. Write, and if there’s time leftover, well then do the other stuff. Alexia: Don’t fall victim to imposter syndrome. You’re a good writer. Your stories are as valid as anyone’s. Don’t let anyone else tell you how you should tell your story, don’t let anyone else tell your story for you. And if they don’t like your story, told your way, tant pis for them. Their loss. Paula: Breathe. (Not that I would have listened.)

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