Author: Tracee de Hahn

 Earlier today I met with a young writer. Some time ago, I was contacted by her elementary school to serve as a mentor and we meet every few months at her school. She’s in fifth grade, a time when most kids are probably trying to get out of homework assignments, much less coming up with their own. I hope I’ve helped her, I know she has helped me.  The biggest take away is look both ways. Find adult mentors for young writers, and if you are a writer and have a chance to mentor a developing writer, do it!  “O” and I don’t have lessons in grammar, and there are no assignments. Instead we talk about writing. “O” brings her stories and poems and we discuss. I mark them up with no regard to her age, there’s no grade so she can sort out the ‘tasks’ she wants to address. Then, once matters of punctuations and clarity are out of the way we discuss the creative process.  At one of our very first meetings, I mentioned that her story lines are a bit dark. “O” replied, if bad things don’t happen then the story isn’t interesting. Clearly she understands the basic concept of storyline and plot. (One story had an amazing deathbed scene. Brief, yet a tear jerker. I did a little checking with her teachers and found that “O” has a happy, no-dark-stories, life. Since then I’ve not worried when her Thanksgiving tales are stories of disaster. As she tells me, it’s fiction.)  “O’s” journey is pure joy. She writes because she can’t not write. She has multiple projects going at the same time. She takes everyday ideas like the painful wait through the last five minutes of class and creates an entire fantasy world. Similarly, she takes the idea of snow in August and builds a storyline from there.  She is the epitome of ‘write what you know’ in a bold, unrestrictive way. She takes the emotions of loss, vulnerability, friendship and wonder, and makes that the core of the story, not caring if the story is set in Japan, a place she’s never visited. I hope to be invited when she receives a national book award on her 21st birthday. But even if that doesn’t happen, being part of the early journey has been inspirational.     

Well, I’m writing…. ALL month. However, I’m not officially participating in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). I’m not participating, since I’m in the midst of heavy editing/re-writing for a work in progress and word count doesn’t matter. Now if NaNoWriMo had a plotting and editing calculator I might have signed up. Plot point fixed (check), tone evened out (check, check). Wouldn’t that be fun! I do keep a weather eye on NaNoWriMo progress. Over the weekend I was reminded that Paolo Coelho wrote The Alchemist in two weeks. There’s proof that doing a made dash to write a novel in a month isn’t all that crazy. Now, he did have the idea, actually the entire story firmly in his mind, before seeing pen to paper. An important caveat to speedy creation.  I hope that anyone who has been ‘thinking’ about writing ANYTHING creative (novel, poetry, play, movie or television script) considers NaNoWriMo to get started. Collective energy and the notion that Yes, you can! is a great motivator. You don’t have to write the great American novel, a finished rough draft will do. After all, then you can join me and use the next month to revise and rewrite.  For more information on NaNoWriMo look to their website: https://nanowrimo.orgOr follow them across most social media platforms: #NaNoWriMo  

The Miss Demeanors are thrilled to have Roger Johns back! He’s busy with the launch of his latest book and we are honored he took the time to join us today. Roger is one of the people I look forward to seeing at conferences and we’ve had fun sharing the stage at several venues. I know everyone wants to hear about his latest book, River of Secrets, but I have to mention that Roger was voted a Georgia Author of the Year a few months ago. What a well-deserved honor!  Now, Roger, let’s hear from you. I read an advance copy of River of Secrets and loved it. Wallace Hartman is back and…. well, I’ll let you explain.    Tracee, thanks for having me back on Miss Demeanors, to talk about River of Secrets. In this second in the series, Baton Rouge homicide detective Wallace Hartman investigates the murder of a controversial state legislator. Because the victim is white and the accused killer is black, race is a dominant theme in the book, and politics, personal danger, street violence, and sabotage from within her own department complicate Wallace’s search for the truth. But, as with Dark River Rising, the first book in the series, overcoming these complications is more than just a way to find out the identity of the killer. In my little corner of the crime fiction world, characters contend with forces that affect ordinary lives. But ordinary is not the same as unimportant, so my goal is to use these stories to examine and understand the characters, not the other way around. Intense situations are certainly important, but the people are my primary concern. My initial approach was focused mainly on the idea driving the story but, eventually, I realized that was not going to work for me. Having to make dramatic changes to the main character to get that first book across the finish line taught me the overarching importance of characters and the effects the story has on them. Once this approach became clear, I focused on finding stories that would reveal my principal characters in ways that I hoped would capture the ongoing interest of readers. Stories that hold a strong appeal for me unfold against the backdrop of the chaos that comes in the wake of disruption. In Dark River Rising, it was a disruption of the illicit cocaine trade, and in River of Secrets it’s a disruption of people’s preconceived notions about others. Few things in life are as jarring as discovering that someone is not the person you thought they were, and there’s a lot of that going on in River of Secrets. Ambiguity creeps into the picture for most of the main characters, and situations that initially appeared to be one way slowly emerge as something altogether different. Wallace is challenged both personally and professionally, by what she discovers as she pursues her investigation. But, even as she sees dangerous changes coming, even when she realizes they are going to profoundly change her and her life, she stays the course and remains true to her principles. This was a difficult story to write, but I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot about my main character and about myself. If you get a chance to read the book, I hope you enjoy it. Roger, thanks for sharing a bit about your path for River of Secrets. In both books I’ve enjoyed Wallace as a character, just as I’ve enjoyed your descriptions of Baton Rouge and the surrounding area. You paint a picture of Louisiana that isn’t the ‘usual’ of New Orleans and it’s made me want to travel there soon (although I’ll make sure to stay clear of the criminals in Wallace’s world).  Now, everyone should rush out to their preferred bookseller, purchase River of Secrets, and settle down for an amazing night!  ROGER JOHNS is a former corporate lawyer and retired college professor, and the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books: Dark River Rising (2017) and River of Secrets (2018). He is the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year (Detective ▪ Mystery Category), a 2018 Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award nominee, and a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award for best police procedural. His articles and interviews on writing and the writing life have appeared in Career Author, Criminal Element, and Killer Nashville Articles. Roger belongs to the Atlanta Writers Club, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers, where he is one of The Fearless Bloggers. Along with four other crime fiction writers, he co-authors the MurderBooks blog at www.murder-books.com. Visit him at www.rogerjohnsbooks.com.

Every writer has a notebook in hand, ready to jot down plot and character ideas. There are snippets of overheard conversation that spark an idea, bizarre bits of information that might sneak into a manuscript. Certainly there are carefully noted descriptions of places that will reappear somewhat fictionalized at a later date. It is a well known fact that even the very best idea ever conceived will not be remembered if left to the vagaries of the mind. After all, we’re all busy and the very best idea is often the one that is so unique it won’t pop into the forefront of your mind unaided.    But what of the dream notebook? The one that stays on the bedside table and records the fleeting bits of epic adventures created by a resting mind.  I don’t have a dream notebook, although I usually remember parts of a dream upon waking and often find them fascinating (although I think everyone thinks their own dreams are ready for prime time). For me, the time before going to sleep, and the time upon waking are not interesting for the half remembered dreams but ARE valuable for the more conscious, but free ranging, thoughts about my work in progress. This is when I find the path forward, freed from what I’d ‘decided.’ Without a notebook I wouldn’t remember these ideas! So…. I keep a notebook on my nightstand ready to catch them… and if a dream finds its way onto the pages, well, maybe it was a fascinating idea!

I spent with weekend with extended family and we have been cooking! In addition to the ‘real food’ we worked our way through the fun food. The Texas sheet cake my father remembers his mother making. My youngest sister’s childhood memory of our great aunt’s cheese straws. We added a few new recipes including chocolate turtles.  New recipes are easy. The stakes are low. Follow the directions and enjoy your success however imperfect. Next time you can overcome any deficiencies. If the recipe involves a new skill – like making caramel – then it’s a success regardless of outcome. For the record, our Turtles look pretty good and taste amazing! (How can you go wrong with caramel, chocolate and pecans.) My father has made the Texas sheet cake enough times that he no longer says that it’s good but not as good as when his mother made it. We’ve all agreed that this is the nostalgia talking, and that’s okay.  My sister is a harder customer to satisfy. We made several batches of cheese straws, each time making slight variations while texting our cousins to get their opinion (my great aunt is their mother/grandmother and this recipe is more highly protected than a government secret). To sift or not sift the flour, precisely what brand of cheese and butter works best? Do you use a heavy spice hand, use a cookie sheet, cookie sheet with parchment paper, or …? (Turns out ‘or’ is the right answer. I’ve been sworn to absolute secrecy on this recipe so I can’t be more specific.) My sister feels that she has finally mastered the technique, after a final batch to study the exact pressure of the piping tube – the dough released as a column or pressed slightly to flatten the bottom….. you get the idea. I spent the weekend assisting and thinking about how different this is from writing. Baking and candy making are essentially chemistry. The ingredients, the order they are combined, the application of heat, all these details are carefully worked out chemically. Deviate and you may create something new and unexpected, but more likely you will have a disaster unfit for human consumption. This is very different from cooking, where the same ingredients may be combined in unending variety each leading to success. THAT is like writing. There may be a formula or rules, but the combinations are endless and, in fact, successful writing depends on this.  Baking and candy making are rigid. Experimentation must be carried out within the rules. Trust me, caramel comes together at a certain temperature. This is a law of nature. As I sit down this morning to work on a manuscript I’m thankful to leave baking behind for a few hours, I’m looking forward to the freedom of rules without boundaries. 

Tracee: Do you ever have ‘readers’ block? If you do…. what do you do about it? Susan: I have found there are times in my life that have been incredibly stressful when I’ve been unable to process the word on the page. Watching Law & Order has pulled me through some harrowing moments. But there are some authors, such as Dickens and Agatha Christie, who offer such comfort that they pull me into the story. Paula: The times in my life where books did not comfort me are few and decades between. That said, I read for a living. And what I read is mostly unpublished, projects which typically need revising and editing and polishing. So reading becomes work, as I articulate what issues each story has and how the writer might address those issues. Therefore I occasionally suffer from reader’s fatigue. The only cure for that is to read something fabulous that’s already published, preferably by one of my favorite authors. This way I not only banish my reader’s fatigue, I also remind myself how high the bar is for publication. Writers who hit that bar are the ones I want to represent! Tracee: Watching Law and Order must be a universal stress reliever. My father would fall asleep to Law and Order after particularly stressful days in the ER. We thought it was bizarre until realizing that the soothing voices, lack of any real need to ‘watch’, and knowledge that justice would prevail was soothing. No wonder it’s been on TV for decades! Susan: Paula makes a really good point (as always)!  I also read for a living and I always read my students’ manuscripts twice. Once to get a sense of what it’s about and once to make a critique. Sometimes that second read is really tough to do. Susan Robin: I think I’m one of the last people on Earth who’s never seen a full episode of CSI, Law & Order, or NCIS. I’m not sure why, really. I love me some police procedurals but I guess I’ve been busy watching Rizzoli & Isles (which I was very sad to see end) and Elementary instead. Anyway, “reader’s block” is a new term to me. Although I’m obviously a fan of suspense and thrillers, I do get to a point after reading 3 or 4 in a row when I’ll seek out a palate cleanser so I’ll turn to another genre. Once I’m halfway through an out-of-my-own-genre book I’ll discover the titles I’m drawn to end up containing a mystery of some sort –   Little Fires Everywhere, The Hate U Give, and Where’d You Go, Bernadette all jump to mind.  Tracee: Sometimes I can’t read for pleasure because every word makes me think I should get back to writing. Does that happen to anyone else? Robin: Tracee, when I’ve felt that I remind myself that reading for pleasure is part of the writing process. Basically, I give myself permission. Alexia: Tracee,I sometimes compare myself to authors I read for pleasure (and I don’t always come out on the short end of the writing stick 😉)–then I remind myself that I’m reading for pleasure and I force myself to stop analyzing every word and to just enjoy it. And, yes, I sometimes hesitate to pick up a book (or to finish one) because I feel I should be writing one instead. I read policy memos, regulations, and directives for work. Rules and Regs-overload does sometimes make it hard for me to pick up reading material when I get home, even though what I read at home has nothing to do with what I read at work. Mostly, the stress and aggravation of reading official documents that make less sense than the worst penny dreadful make me too agitated to sit down to read a good book. When that happens, I watch crime shows (yes, Law and Order is a favorite, although I prefer the Criminal Intent spin-off. Midsomer Murders is another fave. I watch a few of the episodes over and over and over for the same reason Tracee’s dad watched Law and Order–soothing voices, no need to pay real attention because I know the lines by heart, and the knowledge justice will prevail) and science fiction movies. I also listen to paranormal and true crime podcasts. Then I try to find a book in a genre I don’t read often (i.e., not crime fiction) to ease me back into the reading groove. Alison: I second what all of you have said. I try to keep up with what’s going on in mystery/suspense, so I have at least two books on that front that I’m reading at any one time. I have a soft spot in my heart for self-help books. I’ve read books on hygge when the Danish art of keeping cozy was all the rage and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. My love of BBC mystery shows knows no bounds…I feel about them the way Lily Bollinger does champagne: I watch them when I’m happy and when I’m sad. I watch them when I have reader’s block and when I don’t! Cate: I tend to read most psychological and domestic thrillers in the top 25 so I understand the market. Since I consider it a form of work, I don’t really get readers block. After I binge on my market books, I’ll read something literary or, at least, not a murder mystery, to exorcise the voices of other characters. I don’t read when I am writing, which I guess is a form or reader’s block. I am too afraid of subconsciously adopting another author’s tone or style.  Tracee: Thanks all…. I would replied sooner but I was too busy reading (for pleasure!) Right now I’m enjoying The Alice Network…..soon to finish…. 

 I’m starting a new project and this means setting goals. There is always a balance between outlining, researching, and writing. In the end, there must be words on the page.  For this project I have an idea, but it is malleable. I’m choosing to do background research while writing certain parts I have in my head. Usually I have an idea, get a good start on an outline, and then write….. so I’m in slightly uncharted territory.  Using an outline as a guiding principle, I pinpoint the major plot points and go into detail for at least the first 20% before writing anything. At that point, I know the beginning and pretend to know the end (that always changes but it’s a starting target).   Recently a writer friend shared that she can calculate progress on a manuscript by hours worked. She doesn’t have a firm daily word count goal, and instead tracks the hours she’s spent, knowing that it will take 600 hours to finish. Much like a daily word count chart, she draws a chart with dates on the left while on the top she lists what she’s working on (outline, first draft, social media, etc.) and marks in how much time she spent that day on each part of the process.   She uses Scrivener for the first draft, which also keeps an eye on word count, then imports the first draft into Word and uses that for the rest. As a side note, she doesn’t count researching as part of the 600 hours.  I’m tempted to start tracking my own work this way, and wonder how others feels about tracking the hours and not the words.