Details, Details

Welcome to Day 2 of our local’s peek at San Francisco. Did you know the City has not one, but two subway systems? The Municipal Railway, known more commonly as Muni, runs beneath and around city limits. The other, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, aka BART, connects surrounding suburbs to a main artery through downtown San Francisco and beyond. Anyone using contemporary San Francisco as a setting has to acknowledge the fact that it’s not an easy place to drive. We’re not quite Manhattan, in terms of congestion, but we’re pretty darned close. Muni is a way of life for locals thus it’s referenced in my novel on submission and plays a role in my current work-in-progress. No one would claim Muni rivals the subway systems of Europe or New York but it’s continuously improving. New lines are added all the time. New cars, too. And some special older cars. There are two 100% above-ground metro lines that celebrated their opening by interspersing historic street cars brought over from Italy. The cars were built in 1928 and they shudder and rumble in a way the modern cars don’t. They have quieter engines than the modern metro, though. Whether you’re a passenger or a passer-by, the dominant sound is metal-against-metal of wheels on the tracks, similar to a cable car. By the way, no local uses the word “trolley” in reference to city transportation. We have our iconic cable cars, we have street cars (the metro on above-ground routes), we have trains (the metro), and we have buses. “Trolley” is a verbal miscue that can either denote a tourist, or disrupt the authenticity of San Francisco as a setting. On the subject of words, another phrase to avoid, unless your character is a tourist, is “San Fran.” And if you say or write “Frisco,” well, you can show yourself out. I don’t often hear the word “subway” when folks talk about the San Francisco metro system. The word “Muni” is all you need to sound like a local. 

Read more

Scene of the Crime

Setting is a conscious choice each author makes. I’m a “write what you know” type so I set my stories in and around San Francisco. It’s risky. I imagine New York-based authors and my Bostonian writer friends face the same risk. That risk is preconceived notions about the location. When I say “San Francisco,” what comes to mind? The Golden Gate Bridge? Fog? Fisherman’s Wharf? As someone who’s lived in or within spitting distance of the City By The Bay for most of my life, those images are rarely what I see. Okay, I do see the GGB, as we call it (because, really, who has time for all those syllables). My day job office has some pretty spectacular views and that’s one of them. But fog isn’t nearly as prevalent as it once was, thanks to climate change. And I, like most locals, need a reason to go anywhere near the Wharf. My San Francisco is different. The neighborhoods I frequent. The types of people I’m around. The City (yes, with a capital “C”) is almost like a character itself. Like other iconic cities, there are landmarks that never change. There are still pockets of the City of Dashiell Hammett. But it’s also constantly evolving. That’s one of the reasons it makes such a great location, that co-mingling of old and new, sometimes literally side by side. For the next couple of days I’ll show you real locations that inspire my settings. Along with my heart, San Francisco is a great place to leave a trail of clues. 

Read more

Where Do Ideas Come From?

I saw a few minutes of an interview with writer/director Nancy Meyers and she said she struggles with ideas. I have the opposite problem, too little time for all my ideas. My inspirations are my career as a cyber criminal profiler and snippets of overhead conversations while commuting, wandering around San Francisco, etc. My question, dear Miss Demeanors, is a 2-parter: do you have trouble with ideas, and where do your ideas come from? Tracee: I don’t have trouble with ideas, they come from things I’ve overheard, experienced or seen. Often I’m inspired by a place – recently, sitting riverside in Porto a character jumped into my mind. I could see her as clearly as if she’d sat in a nearby chair. What she was doing, what happened to her (and it was a WOW! happening), everything about a story came to me. My problem is deciding which to use. For the Agnes Luthi mysteries, place is very often the inspiration: in A Well-Timed Murder it was the famous watch and jewelry show in Basel, but I have ideas for ski lodges, hiking trails, villages that produce cheese, thermal bath resorts. Place place place. My twist on location location location.  Cate: Hey, I wrote a book about where I, and I think all writers, get ideas: Lies She Told. I think they form from some crazy mix of overheard conversations, people who make impressions, friends, family members, news articles, BOOKs, forgotten memories, malignant traumas, etc. Alexia: I also have the too many ideas problem. Ideas for the “best story ever” are constantly popping into my head. I overhear a conversation, I turn it into a plot. I read an article in the paper or see something on the news, I turn it into a plot. Some random factoid lands in my Facebook feed or turns up in a Google search for something unrelated–I turn it into a plot. I see a movie or TV show or read a book that I like, I start writing fanfic in my head. My trouble is choosing one plot to develop into a novel-length story (or realizing there’s not enough to work with and setting the idea aside) without getting distracted by all of the other stories begging to be written. I’ve no problem writing for entertainment. I choose fiction, whether TV, movie, or book, for entertainment and escape. I know the real world is (too) often a hard, cruel place where people (too) often don’t care what happens to other people and the bad guy (too) often gets away with it. I don’t enjoy reading or watching things that reinforce my (admittedly cynical) view. I look for fiction that shows me what’s possible, what could be, what we can hope for, what should be. I don’t necessarily need rainbows and roses but I had enough of the angsty hero slogging through a dark and dreary world back in the 1990s. I write books that, I hope, let readers forget their woes for a little while. I don’t consciously attempt to write about something BIG or an issue-with-a-capital-I. I hope I provide readers with a mental break from misery and pain and anxiety so they can recharge and refresh and gear up to go on fighting the good fight IRL. If my books were a phase in the Hero’s Journey, they’d be the Road Back. Alison: Hmmm. I don’t think I have trouble coming up with ideas, but I honestly don’t know where they come from. Blessed be the Wicked will be the first in a series of Mormon murder mysteries. The ideas for these books have been bouncing around my head ever since I was the least favorite kid in Sunday school. (I’m convinced that the Sunday school teacher who drew the shortest straw had to teach my class.) When I was about eight or nine, there was a woman running around Utah public libraries putting band-aids across the “naughty bits” in books depicting ancient Roman and Greek statues. I was the little girl who raised her hand in church and asked why, if Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, the statues were bad?  I’d say, for this series, my ideas come from the religion I was born into: baptism for the dead, blood atonement, eternal family bonds, penalty oaths, polygamy, belief in ongoing revelation…the list is pretty long for interesting twists and characters who might take things a little too far.  Beyond that, I second what all of you have said. I think writers, by nature, are observers. 
 Paula: Ideas are everywhere. The trick is to recognize the germ of one when you see it. I rely on process to help me do that: reading, research, brainstorming, walking, yoga, meditation. All of which amounts to paying attention.  When I am paying attention, ideas happen. Serendipity happens. Synchronicity happens. Story happens.
 Michele: I get my ideas from all sorts of places. They come in a steady stream, not that all are worthy of a book or even a paragraph. For me, the key is to stay tuned in. That means listening and watching all of the time, or as we yogis say, being present. I see stories everywhere. For example, on my plane trip to Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday, I watched a young mother with her little boy, who seemed to be about 8, waiting for their plane. She was so nervous, her legs were shaking. He was so in tune with her, he stretched over in a hug of sorts to stop them. We happened to sit behind them on the plane. There was a simpatico between them, a silent understanding of what each needed and expected from the other. They were Mexican, he with a head of hair so full and black, I wanted to touch it. She was tired looking, with hair that needed a shampoo. Where were they going, I wanted to know. Who was waiting for them? Were they returning or starting anew? Next my imagination kicks in, inventing all sorts of answers to these questions. And I’m off to creating a story, which becomes my story, not theirs. 

Read more

Best Advice Ever

Writers get a lot of unsolicited, conflicting advice on the road to publication: Write what you know. Research, research, research. Talk about your work in progress. Don’t say a word to anyone. You need an agent. You don’t need an agent. Self-publish. Don’t self-publish. Write like your heroes. Find your voice. Write 1500 words a day. Write one sentence a day. Take days off. Never take days off.Small wonder the most oft-repeated bon mot is “write drunk, edit sober.” All the advice is enough to drive anyone to drink. The best advice I’ve gotten? You do you. Whatever it is that drives you to that chair, that notebook, that laptop, that’s what you should do. Do you need to learn craft? Yes, if you want to write for the commercial market. Every genre has its rules and you need to adhere to them as a debut author. The rest is up to you. What works for me may not be right for you. What works for you may not be right for me. And that’s okay. Find what fits your lifestyle, your experience, and the stories you want to tell the way you want to tell them. Experiment. Play. You do you. 

Read more

Conference Planning Season

It’s that time of year again. Time to start syncing our calendars with this year’s conference schedule. Every year I attend at least 3 writing conferences, often more. I’m lucky to live in a region ripe with opportunities to meet, mingle, learn, and teach among peers and pros. This year I’ve decided to attend writerly shindigs I’ve missed in the past. High on my list for 2018 are Left Coast Crime, Thrillerfest, and Bouchercon. I’m also planning to attend my local Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America events, of course. Any can’t-miss conferences on your list? Join the conversation on our Facebook page! 

Read more

The End is Just The Beginning

I love revising. For me, the first draft is hard. It’s the chicken wire and popsicle stick framework for the final sculpture. Its only job is to make the clay stick. Revising is when I get to do the buildup and shaping. I get so impatient to get to the revisions I sometimes start tinkering with the first chapters while I’m still finishing the first draft. On my current work-in-progress, around the halfway point of completion I decided the beginning was actually the third chapter which meant I had a bit of backstory to work in later in the book. After noting that, I caught myself starting to revise which, ultimately, slowed down the process. In order to stop myself from doing this, I maintained a “notes” file to keep all the great ideas (and some not so great) on character quirks, plot foils, twists, etc. Keeping a running notes file is something I do during research. It’s where I stash the interesting bits that may or may not work their way onto the final pages. This go-around on a new book, I’ve found it’s also a helpful strategy to get myself to put off revising the first chapters and focus on the task at hand: Finish. The. Book. Happy to report I completed the draft last week. Now I’m on the fun part. Watch out for flying clay.
 

Read more

Pages for Writers

A lot of writers I know work on MacBooks. A lot of industry pros work on Microsoft systems. I know this because agents and editors typically ask for manuscripts in the .doc/.docx Word format. Does this mean Mac users need to buy a subscription to Word? Good news – the answer is no. Under the “File” menu there’s an “Export” option. This opens a sub-menu that allows you to save Pages documents in other formats, including Word, PDF and even .epub.
  This means Pages can also open files saved in these formats, making it easy to work on edits and revisions sent back and forth between you and your agent or editor. How about you? Do you write on Mac or Windows? Hop on over to our Facebook page to join the conversation. 

Read more

With Songs in Our Hearts

Over the river and through the wood? Or leaving on a jet plane? What song describes how you’re spending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? I’m thinking mine is “You’ve Got A Friend.” My parents opened our home to friends and neighbors every Thanksgiving and now my friends are doing the same. The blessings I’m counting this year are the human kind, including my fabulous Miss Demeanors posse! Cate: I’m doing Friendsgiving! Tracee: My song this holiday is anything by Edith Piaf or Charles Aznavour! I am in NYC with my husband and his French speaking Swiss friends so there is a strong French theme. The theme was nearly ruined when we were in a French Brasserie eating to the music of Simon and Garfunkle followed by The Beach Boys. Alexia: My song is “Alice’s Restaurant”. Not really Alice’s. Probably the Deerpath Inn’s Restaurant. Theonly thing I’m making for Thanksgiving is reservations. I’ll spend the rest of the day being thankful for the chance to sleep in and for time to work on my manuscript. I’m going home to visit my parents for Christmas so Thanksgiving is just me and the cat. And I’m cool with that. Susan: I’m thinking John Denver’s Country Roads, Take me home/To the place, I belong. I’ve been going to my uncle’s house for Thanksgiving almost every year of my life, and you have to drive on a lot of country roads to get there, and he has a huge window, and when we walk up to the house and I look in the window and see all my family there, I know I’m home. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I feel especially blessed to have the Miss Demeanors in my life. Tracee: These are each and every one a perfect plan. Paula: This Thanksgiving it will probably be just me and Michael, for the first time in a long time no kids will be here. But that’s OK. I love Thanksgiving and even if all of my children have abandoned me (no guilt there), I am content to light the fire and roast a turkey and drink all the Old New England Egg Nog I can. Old New England Egg Nog is made with, and I quote here right from the label, “Kentucky Straight BourbonWhiskey, Rum, Brandy and Blended Whiskey.”Happy Thanksgiving, all! Alison: Ooooh. There’s something so wonderfully wrong about that eggnog. Paula: Well let’s put it this way: Most people object to eggnog because it’s too thick. But this eggnog is not, thanks to all the booze. Also: My 82-year-old mother loves this eggnog, and the first Christmas we served it she got drunk. It was really awesome, because none of us had ever seen her drunk before. (Except of course my dad, when she was very young.) Getting my mother drunk has now become an annual tradition now LOL Cate: My song would be a mashup of Britney Spears’ Work, B**** and I Can Cook, Too, all sung by Pink, and remixed by Marshmello.I gave this a lot of thought. I think it encapsulates needing to finish a rewrite by the end of the month (I’ve had four weeks to do it in total) and preparing food for my family and friends. Michele: I’m traveling back to Boston after a week in hurricane ravaged St. John which got another dose of heavy rain while we were there. I’ll go with Bridge Over Troubled Water this Thanksgiving. Besides I still ❤️ Simon and Garfunkel. Paula: I realize I totally forgot about the song. Part of my ritual every year is to listen to Christmas songs while I prepare the meal. My favorite is I’ll be Home for Christmas, which I listen to while stuffing the turkey and drinking, you guessed it, Old New England Egg Nog. Alison: Okay, so I get to be the bittersweet one. My song is “Good Old Days” by Macklemore featuring Kesha. My brother, sister-in-law and adorable niece and brand-new nephew moved from Brooklyn to LA this summer. For years, Thanksgiving has been an amazing feast with both our families–and whoever else was around–at our place upstate in the middle of the woods. This year, we’re lucky my father-in-law is joining us, but it will be a small affair (and the last Thanksgiving before my daughter graduates from high school). I can’t deny I’m not missing my wonderful brother just a little bit…and thinking about the good old days. Robin: Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

Read more

Reflections

This week marks my last turn at the Miss Demeanors wheel for 2017. I decided it would be a good time to pause and reflect. There were a lot of “firsts” for me this year: – My first panel as an author, at the Mystery Writers Conference at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA, where I participated in the “Cybercrime 101” discussion alongside current and former FBI agents. I had so much fun, I spoke at 2 more conferences after that. – My first high-5 by a NYT & USA Today best-selling author. J.T. Ellison was a fellow panelist at the above-mentioned conference who attended the cybercrime talk. She congratulated me on scaring the hell out of her. – My first profile piece. The Northern California chapter of Sisters In Crime featured a Q&A with me in the November issue of the Stiletta newsletter. – My first mention in Writer’s Digest with the Miss Demeanors making the list of 101 Best Websites for Writers. – My first recognition at a writers’ conference. The Miss Demeanors were included in the celebration at the New England Crime Bake banquet for making the Writer’s Digest list. I also got to spend time with a couple of my fellow Miss Demeanors in real life during that weekend. – And, of course, joining the Miss Demeanors. It’s been a banner year for this newbie. I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store.   

Read more