More Happenings- Books, Features, New Groups

Hello Campers! Many more writerly events happening.

With print books not being easy to sell face-to-face these days, have not needed to order many. But some bookstores, like Letterpress Books up in Portland, Maine, are selling online, and so requested some of my latest. I've been busy since the shutdown in March, publishing one novel and two story collections (while working on two other novels and a big non-fiction book)!

Recently, I got my first sellable print copies for all three of the latest in one batch!
Neptune City
Deadly Encounters
The Return of Fear

They look great! Both story collections are in audiobook production, and should be available soon.

To top off the latest highs of a great interview with Linda McHenry and a terrific review of A Sharp Medicine from Big Al's Books and Pals site, I was also featured on the blog of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.

More coming up- the Tewksbury Library is sponsoring a new Writer's Group, which I'll be facilitating. Our first online event is Tuesday, Sept. 15th, at 7.

Registration is required. Register by calling 978-640-4490,
emailing rhayes@tewksburypl.org or visiting the online
calendar of events at www.tewksburypl.org.

Great Review- and Video Trailer for Interview- and a Mystery Making Panel- and a new audiobook

Lots of news---

Wahoo!
Great review for A Sharp Medicine (#5 in the Zack Taylor series) from one of the popular reviewing bloggers!
http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2020/08/review-sharp-medicine-by-dale-t-phillips.html



And here's a wicked cool video trailer for my upcoming interview with Linda McHenry's writer's podcast:
https://youtu.be/dfGpavuB82E

Air date for the full interview is Wednesday, August 26th.
https://lindamchenry.com/the-writers-voice-podcast



We had a great time at the Wilmington Library-and Sisters in Crime- sponsored Mystery Making Panel, with fellow authors Connie Johnson Hambley, Edith Maxwell, and Lorraine Nelson.
There's a recording of that available. Contact the library for more information.

And my audio book for Deadly Encounters- 3 Zack Taylor Stories should be available this coming week.
Narrated by Daniel Fagan.

Interview With Mystery Author Lois Winston

Hello Readers- today we're checking out mystery Author Lois Winston, who writes the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, which, according to Kirkus Reviews, is “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum."

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

And she has a new book out today: Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide

Let's find out more...

Q. So how did this novel come to be? Was it envisioned from the start as a bigger canvas, or did it expand organically out of an idea? Please tell us a bit about the origin.

A. Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide is the eighth full-length novel in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series. (There are also three novellas.) The premise of the series began with the first book, which opens with my protagonist learning that her recently deceased husband had hidden a serious gambling addiction from her. As a result, she’s suddenly thrust from a comfortable middle-class existence into visions of having to move her family into a cardboard box on a street corner, all the while fending off bill collectors, some of whom break kneecaps when they’re not paid on time.

Q. Did you start with the germ of an idea and start writing to see where it went, or did you map a good deal out in your head (or even outline) before crafting?

A. I begin each book with the germ of an idea—a character, a conversation, a situation, a title, even a great opening line. Then I begin writing and see where the story takes me. I usually figure out early on who my victim or victims will be and who my killer is, but that can change as the story progresses. Sometimes a different character presents as having a better motivation for murder. I never outline. I find that if I know too much about the story ahead of time, I become bored with the actual writing of it.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)?

A. Since I write a cozy mystery series, the main theme is how my amateur sleuth keeps finding herself in the middle of murder investigations and how she’s forced to figure out whodunit before the killer strikes again. It’s the same theme of all cozy mystery/amateur sleuth novels, which always feature a non-law enforcement protagonist involved in more murder cases than most local cops see in a lifetime on the force.

However, my books are about more than a character solving a murder. The underlying arc of the series centers round family and coping with the unexpected and unwanted. Anastasia is a member of the sandwich generation. Living under her small suburban roof are her two teenage sons, her semi-invalid communist mother-in-law, and in-between husbands, her much-married mother. Anastasia has two choices: she can give up, or she can persevere. She perseveres—with a sense of humor and a Jersey Girl attitude that helps her get through all that life has dumped on her.

Q. Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

A. My goal is twofold: I want to give my readers a mystery that will keep them guessing and a story that will keep them laughing. With everything that’s going on in the world, we all need to laugh more to see us through the tough times. Anastasia understands that as much as I do.

Q. What makes a good book or engaging story?

A. Characters who come alive on the page and a story that makes the reader want to keep turning the pages well beyond bedtime.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and other review sites have compared Anastasia to Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon. High praise, indeed! I love the Stephanie Plum books, and I enjoyed 30 Rock. But I think the one major difference between my series and the others is that I take a deeper emotional dive into my characters’ lives.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. I think it depends on the story you’re telling. Fiction can also be educational. I’ve read books centered round subjects I had little or no knowledge of prior to reading the books. However, even when books are mostly for entertainment, they can serve a deeper purpose. I’ve had readers write to tell me that my books offered them a much-needed escape from coping with illness, divorce, or the death of a loved one.

Q. Any other goals you've set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. I have lots of goals, but the older I get, the more I realize—unfortunately—that I’ll never achieve most of them. That old adage about being able to accomplish whatever you set your mind to if you just work hard enough is a pile of poppycock. You only have control over what you do, not the myriad of outside factors that impact your goals. Too much in life is entirely out of our control.

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. I tend to revise as I write. I start each writing day by reading what I wrote the day before and making changes before I start a new scene. I’m my harshest critic. When I finish a book, I walk away with a sense of accomplishment. I’m happy it’s finally finished, but I’m not tired of it. I can’t be. I’m writing a series. I have to return to those characters and pick up where we left off with the next book.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?
A. I work with two editors whose opinions I value immensely. One is primarily a content editor, the other a line/copy editor.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. It would depend on the person and the help requested. I’ve had total strangers tell me they have an idea that’s sure to be a bestseller, and if I write the book for them, they’ll split the royalties with me. Really? Not gonna happen! On the other end of the spectrum I’ve helped several friends polish their proposals, and they went on to sell their books.

Q. Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?

A. My books would definitely translate well into movies or TV series. I’ve had some interest over the years, but unfortunately, to date nothing has come from any of them. Since my novels rely heavily on dialogue and action, rather than long descriptive passages and pages of internalization, I don’t think they’d have to be tweaked much to move from the page to the screen.

Q. What's the next step in your writing world?

A. Anastasia’s next adventure.

Q. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

A. I hate peanut butter!

Q. Any other information you'd like to impart?

A. I’d love for your readers to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on Bookbub and my other social media sites (listed below.)

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

Two and a half weeks ago magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack arrived home to find Ira Pollack, her half-brother-in-law, had blinged out her home with enough Christmas lights to rival Rockefeller Center. Now he’s crammed her small yard with enormous cavorting inflatable characters. She and photojournalist boyfriend and possible spy Zack Barnes pack up the unwanted lawn decorations to return to Ira. They arrive to find his yard the scene of an over-the-top Christmas extravaganza. His neighbors are not happy with the animatronics, laser light show, and blaring music creating traffic jams on their normally quiet street. One of them expresses his displeasure with his fists before running off.

In the excitement, the deflated lawn ornaments are never returned to Ira. The next morning Anastasia once again heads to his house before work to drop them off. When she arrives, she discovers Ira’s attacker dead in Santa’s sleigh. Ira becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder and begs Anastasia to help clear his name. But Anastasia has promised her sons she’ll keep her nose out of police business. What’s a reluctant amateur sleuth to do?

Buy Links
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VG2QZXV/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=Handmade+Ho-Ho+Homicide&qid=1563673299&s=gateway&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=cbd92af3c45b1134cb5408cc8450e3b4&language=en_US

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/handmade-ho-ho-homicide

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/handmade-ho-ho-homicide-lois-winston/1132607263?ean=2940163093748

iTunes https://books.apple.com/us/book/handmade-ho-ho-homicide/id1473711082

Website: www.loiswinston.com
Newsletter sign-up: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z1z1u5
Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

John Radosta and Bob Dylan

Today we're talking with John Radosta, co-author of  Bob Dylan in Performance: Song, Stage and Screen, a lovely new book that describes what the title says.

(use the code LEX30AUTH19 for a 30% discount!)

Q. So how did this book come to be? Please tell us a bit about the origin. What attracted you to this coffee-table book project?

A. It was both thirty years in the making, and very sudden. When I was a student at Boston University, my obsession with Dylan was contagious, and my new roommate Keith, who had barely heard of him before, caught the bug. He went on to become an academic in California and published several articles on Dylan, one of which he presented at a conference here.

I met him for dinner that night, and he told me he’d been offered the chance to write a book, which he’d accepted. Except, he said, he’d never written anything that long, and so he asked me to join him. I told him my crime novels were entirely different from academic writing, but he said a book is a book, and we high-fived over it. Two years to the week later, the book was out.

Q. What's it like to collaborate on a project like this? How did the work flow?

A. So often I’ve read about collaborators having strict routines, and we often see the image of one person at a keyboard with the other hovering and pacing barking out words. For us, on opposite coasts, it was much more like swapping riffs on ideas we each wanted to pursue, suggesting songs or references the other was unfamiliar with. Keith approached the work from a performative point of view, which is his area of study. Meanwhile, as an English teacher, I was interested in the literary allusions and history, so we brought complementary skills to the project.

One thing we never seemed to have trouble with was voice. I think, because we both studied at BU, and with many of the same professors, especially Christopher Ricks, we already had very similar voices, so our final versions sounded the same. Many times I read I line and couldn’t remember who had said it.

Q. Any other books like this you'd recommend?
A. There are so many unbelievably good books about Dylan, but my two favorites are Dylan’s Visions of Sin, by Christopher Ricks (you can read as much bias into that choice as you want!), and Invisible Republic by Greil Marcus. The first one looks at Dylan’s lyrics through a very specific lens, and yet enlarges his impact to encompass a host of interpretations. Marcus’s book also starts with a narrow view—looking at the songs Dylan and the Band recorded in Woodstock, NY that later became The Basement Tapes—and uses it to explore “that weird old America” of rural traditions and ancient ballads that is being erased from our consciousness. Both are fascinating, and highly readable.


Q. Do you remember the first time you recognized a Dylan song?

A. This is a story I tell in the book. I was a teen listening to techno-pop like the Thompson Twins and Duran Duran. When the video for “We Are the World” played on MTV, I asked my dad who that scruffy old guy with the screechy voice was. He pulled out his mono copy of Highway 61, Revisited, and before the end of side one, I was hooked.


Q. What do you feel is his main contribution? Why do you feel his songs are important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

A. There’s a song on Tempest, his last (I hope it’s not his last) album of originals, called “Tin Angel.” It’s a murder ballad that shares a set-up with the folk tune “Blackjack Davey,” in which a man comes home to find his wife has run-off with another man, and he rides out to find her. But it turns violent, and all three are dead in the end. Along the way, Dylan mixes in imagery and allusions to the wild west, ancient Greece, and James M. Cain. The mixture highlights the absolute timelessness of the experience, and, through digital downloads, carries it across 3000 years in six minutes. Last time I saw him, his drummer did the solo from “Wipeout!” in the middle of a song from his his recent Modern Times album, and it was like getting the whole history of rock and roll in one tune.

I think Dylan’s extraordinary gift to us is that if we take the time to listen to him, he teaches us how to listen to ourselves, how to use art to filter out the bad and learn what is worth keeping. He renews himself each time he sets out to perform, and by taking part in it, we can, too.

What we would love to have readers take away from this book is that Dylan is not just some hoary old joke of a folkie, but the personification of the jester Don McLean named him, the sole commentator who has the king’s permission to tell us the truth no one else is willing to tell us, and entertain us at the same time. That’s no mean feat.


Q. What makes a good and/or lasting and/or meaningful song?

A. There are lots of great songs that come and go, songs that were perfect for that moment, but when the moment passed, so did the tune. And there are plenty of lousy songs that just worm through your ear. So much depends on who you are when you hear a song, and if you’re ready for its message, whether that message is a call for social justice, or just to get up and dance. But what I’ve noticed in studying Dylan is that the songs that stand the test of time, whether they’re his folk anthems or they’re covers of Sinatra tunes, are the ones that speak to a universal need like love, or and show craftsmanship. Sure, he could write “I and I in a quarter hour, but honestly, almost no one knows that song anymore. But “Blowin’ in the Wind” speaks to the hope we need today, and “The Night We Called it a Day” (check out the video - classic film noir!) became a standard because the wordplay isn’t just clever, it touches on the complicated emotions we’ve all experienced, and gives us not just hope but a map to find our way out.


Q. Have you checked any of Dylan's influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. Dylan led me directly to Woody Guthrie, both his songs and his mind-bending prose, and then to the huge, bizarre, Anthology of American Folk Music collected by Harry Smith. They opened a door to another place and time that otherwise I never would have been able to visit, and their “hard-lipped” songs, as Dylan calls them, present a kaleidoscope of imagery, wry humor, terror and mindfulness you’d never think existed right next to you. Dylan’s also a scholar of the most obscure blues musicians, and that’s a whole other journey I’m looking forward to taking.

Q. What does Dylan say about his songwriting process?

A. He doesn’t like to say much, beyond some cryptic references to a “mathematical” progression to his songs, and his explanation that he got into songwriting because the songs he needed to sing hadn’t been written already. If they had, he said, he’d never have become a writer.

There’s a great story about Dylan and Leonard Cohen talking about writing in the early 1980s. Cohen confessed that it had taken him years to write “Hallelujah.” He asked Dylan how long it had taken to write “I and I,” one of the few good songs of that period, and one of Cohen’s favorite Dylan tunes. The answer was “about 15 minutes.”

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Does he have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. My favorite chapter, the one that I knew at the outset I wanted to have in the book, is about Dylan’s connection to the rhapsode or bard, the ancient practitioners of the oral tradition who kept a society’s history, beliefs, and culture in poetic form. These storytellers transmitted the wisdom of the past to the new generations, and at the same time could weave a whole new tale from the formulaic verses of old songs in the service to new events. All those texts, from the Bible to epic poems like The Odyssey and Beowulf, to the massively long ballads of the fifteenth century present their teaching through story.

Dylan does the same thing, often echoing the very words and tunes of the ancients to refract to our ears those old nuggets in ways that allow us to hear, remember, and act upon them. He never accepted that he was “the voice of a generation,” but I firmly believe he is the voice of our culture, and that it was this super-historical quality to his words, music and delivery that earned him the Nobel Prize.

Q. We know he changes the lyrics radically in performance. Like to comment on this

A. One of the keenest pleasures of seeing Dylan in performance (48 times and counting!) is that you are always likely to hear at least one wholly re-imaged version of a song. People who want to
see what they imagine him to have been like 50 or 60 years ago don’t want anything different from what he originally recorded, but his artistic process means he has to always be changing, chasing his muse. Over the years, I’ve heard “Tangled Up in Blue” in about ten completely divergent ways. He’s changed the point of view, the music, even the story, and yet, it is still undeniably the same song. That intrigues me: how far can you stretch a song and have it remain true to itself?

Q. Some might say he did his best back in the sixties, and hasn't had much of note since. Comment? Was Rolling Thunder Revue the high point?
A. In the sixties, while I was busy being born, Dylan was busy redefining what rock music could do. Once he left his mark on folk by making it cool to write new songs, he moved on to the complicated imagery that defines Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde—great stuff. Then he took the Band on a raucous tour of the UK, basically inventing what would become the modern stadium rock show. But after a sharp turn and as slow trip through Americana, he produced what many think is his best album Blood on the Tracks.

And though it was controversial among his fans (what point in his career wasn’t?) some of his best music came during the late ’70s during his evangelical period. Ok, so the ’80s produced one, maybe
two great songs on some worse-than-mediocre albums, but then as the world was quaking with the arrival of Y2K, he put out a series of albums, from 1997’s Time Out of Mind to 2012’s Tempest that showcase his artistic, historical, musical range. And that’s not even counting the American Songbook albums. For those on this site who are more interested in crime fiction, go listen to Tempest.

It’s an aural noir, full of fire, brimstone, and murder ballads. As for the Rolling Thunder Revue, alas, I was too young for that, too. But the new boxed set does reveal an utterly astounding energy I’ve rarely heard at a Dylan show, though my first, in 1986 with Tom Petty, still ranks as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.


Q. Did things change in performance after the accident?

A. Ah, the accident. The reason why Dylan and the Band were in Woodstock in ’69. Most definitely things had changed. After two grueling years in which he produced the trio of albums that made his name as a rock icon in the 1960s—Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61, Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde—after he toured England twice, including the “gone electric” tour that led to the cries of “Judas!” after his secret marriage not to Joan Baez but Sara Lowndes, he had some sort of crash that has never been fully explained. He left the stage for 8 years, but produced these beautiful, introspective, mainly acoustic albums that ushered in the the 1970s “singer-songwriter mellow rock. Songs like “The Man in Me” that you know from The Big Lebowski, and “Lay, Lady, Lay.”

It was the musical style that would define AM radio at the time, and once again, it was Dylan pioneering the trail.


Q. Opinion- who's his best team-up person in performance?
What are his favorite covers of his songs from other performers?

A. I think there’s no contest about a team up person: Dylan and Joan Baez were most definitely the King and Queen. I’d give just about anything to see them together in person. Despite all the off-stage drama, as Baez says in Scorsese’s new film about Rolling Thunder, when they’re on stage together, everything is forgiven.

As for his favorite cover, I can say only this: one of the best songs he put out in his post-accident period was the haunting acoustic “All Along the Watchtower.” After Jimi Hendrix recorded it, Dylan never performed it acoustic again. It’s one of his most-performed tunes, and these days he’s basically covering the cover of his own song.


Q. Tell us a fun fact from the book.

A. I got my first photo credit for the cover. The lack of focus is a deliberate artistic choice. Really.


Q. Any other information you'd like to impart?

A. Just that we truly believe that Dylan’s worth listening to not in spite of his voice, but because of it. He once said, “I can sing as good as Caruso,” and of course it came off as a joke, but he really uses it deliberately, and if you listen, you’ll hear him bending words and phrases so they release meanings you would never get from just reading the lyrics or by hearing Adele or Peter, Paul and Mary crooning them.

I’d also like to say that it is extraordinarily generous of you to give other authors this space to talk about their work, and on behalf of Keith and myself, I want to say thank you for your support. Cheers!

---

Web page: Facebook page “Bob Dylan in Performance: Song, Stage, and Screen”


Where to buy:  (use the code LEX30AUTH19 for a

30% discount!)


Bio:

John Radosta, a novelist and author of many short stories, teaches English and creative writing at Milton High School. A long time Dylan observer and veteran of nearly 50 Bob Dylan concerts, he is the co-author of the recently released Bob Dylan in Performance: Song, Stage and Screen, an in depth look at Dylan the performer and the link of his performances to the historical bardic role, to American popular song tradition, and to rock music culture.

Interview with Mystery/Thriller Author Carmen Amato

Today we're checking out the work of Carmen Amato, who has quite the resume for writing her thrillers. I met her at last year's Killer Nashville conference. Check this out:
Following a 30 year career with the Central Intelligence Agency, Carmen Amato created the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, which pits the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico's cartels, corruption, and culture of machismo. KIRKUS REVIEWS called the books "Consistently exciting" (CLIFF DIVER) with "Danger and betrayal never more than a few pages away." (KING PESO) The series was recently awarded the Poison Cup for Outstanding Series by the CrimeMasters of America.

Q. So how did this novel (series) come to be? Was it envisioned from the start as a bigger canvas, or did it expand organically out of an idea? Please tell us a bit about the origin.

A. Drugs.

Not mine, but the violent impact of what the illicit drug trade is doing to Mexico.

We lived there for several years, giving me a ringside seat to cartel violence. It really got in my face—literally—when an armed drug addict came into our church during midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

My first book, the standalone political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY, took on both cartel violence and Mexico’s vast social disparities.

Next came the Detective Emilia Cruz police series, which is wholly based on what is happening today in Mexico. Rival drug cartels fight for territory, politicians are bribed to look the other way, and ordinary people are caught in the middle.

Emilia’s challenges are pulled from the headlines. There’s no need to make up bizarre serial killers when cartel violence and corrupt politicians provide more than enough inspiration. For example, Emilia’s perpetual hunt for women who have gone missing—referred to as Las Perdidas or the Lost Ones--was inspired by the hundreds of women missing from the Juarez area.

So in an odd way, I have that drug addict to thank for jumpstarting my writing career.

Q. Did you start with the germ of an idea and start writing to see where it went, or did you map a good deal out in your head (or even outline) before crafting?

A. When I wrote political thriller THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY, I knew that I wanted it to address the class system in Mexico. Rule #1 there: Stay in your place.

When we lived in Mexico, I had a great circle of friends who were women from all over the world—Russia, Germany, England, as well as the US. All of us were taken aback by the rigid social norms in Mexico. I wrote THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY from our collective point of view.

My inspiration for how to write the book was Ken Follett’s THE KEY TO REBECCA. My initial outline was mostly in my head, which was a mistake. I also started writing a scene that occurs about two thirds of the way through. Another mistake.

After 8 full-length novels, I’m much more focused. Outline, then write from start to finish. Lots of changes along the way, of course, but fewer revisions.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)? Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book? 

A. My Detective Emilia Cruz series takes on cartels, official corruption and Mexico’s culture of machismo. Acapulco is a great setting from a detective series point of view—in 2018 the city was the homicide capital of Mexico.

As a female and a cop in Mexico, Detective Emilia Cruz lives in a pressure cooker. It’s hard to know who she can trust and harder still to have a normal relationship when she’s immersed for so much of the time in a stew of paranoia and danger.

When I write the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series, I do it from Emilia’s deep point of view. Through Emilia’s experiences, I want the reader to feel the heat of Acapulco’s sun, smell the salt tang coming off the ocean, and know the gut-twisting fear of being a cop in one of the most beautiful and dangerous cities in the world.

My goal is to bring the reader shoulder-to-shoulder with Emilia, hearing her heart pound and helping her calculate the odds of survival.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. The Detective Emilia Cruz series is similar to other international detective series, such as Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, Peter May’s Hebrides trilogy, Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series, and Leighton Gage’s Mario Silva series.

We all make cultural elements of the setting integral to the plot. I love the unique aspect of a mystery that can’t be set anywhere else.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. I write about people who face hard things like discrimination, violence, and corruption. But my characters live to fight another day. Moreover, they find someone to stand and fight beside them.

When Felix Contreras, the host of NPR’s ALT.Latino show asked me about the Emilia Cruz character, I told him that she represented hope. Despite Mexico’s drug cartels and high murder rates, there are still good people fighting the good fight.

Emilia walks a fine line between the corruption around her and the personal relationships which sustain her. It helps that she’s a good liar.

Q. Any other goals you've set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. Two very different mystery series are slowly assembling themselves in the back of my mind, along with the plots for a dozen more Detective Emilia Cruz novels. I’m an historian by training so I’d like to get back to that at some point, too.

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. I write slowly and rewrite a fair amount. I’m always trying to create a certain pace and a vibrant visual impact. I won’t let anything hit an audience until I’m happy with it.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?

A. I rely on several fellow authors to critique a WIP at various stages. I also use a proofreader when the draft is done.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. Two pieces of advice:
1. Don’t fall in love with your writing. Fall in love with your setting, characters, and plot, but be ready to polish your prose over and over.

2. Check points of view. Keep each character’s point of view separate.

Other than that, enjoy the journey. No matter where you are on the publishing road, there are twists and turns ahead. Enjoy them all.

Q. Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?

A. I’d love to the see Detective Emilia Cruz series as a television series. Think Hawaii 5-0 meets Narcos. I’ve been lucky enough to have significant interest and several contracts but no actual show as of this writing.

Q. What's the next step in your writing world?

A. RUSSIAN MOJITO, the next book in the Detective Emilia Cruz series comes out in June. A murdered Russian pitches Emilia into the explosive world of Mexican fuel thieves, even as she scrambles to find her kidnapped stepfather and fugitive human trafficker El Acólito. Her cranky partner Franco Silvio is now her boss, making their relationship even more fractious. As always, disparate threads come together in the end, but in very, very unexpected ways.

Beyond fiction, I’ve partnered with crime fiction author Jeanine Kitchel to write a series of literary essays on the narco noir phenomenon. Criminal Element recently published our first entitled “The Ascent of Narco Noir: A Literary Gamechanger.”



Q. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

A. Retired CIA intel officer.

Yep. That’s all I’m gonna say.

******

Dale, thank you so much for the opportunity to chat!

Readers are invited to join me at any of the links below:

Carmenamato.net
Books on Amazon
Subscribe to Mystery Ahead
Facebook
Pinterest

Visit Carmen's website at carmenamato.net to get a free copy of the Detective Emilia Cruz Starter Library. The Starter Library features “The Beast,” the story about how Emilia became the first female detective in Acapulco, which was first published in The Huffington Post. You’ll also get “The Angler,” the story based on a real life murder mystery, plus the exclusive “Who’s Who” guide to the series, plus Carmen’s bi-monthly Mystery Ahead newsletter.

See why Amazon Hall of Fame reviewer Grady Harp wrote: "For pure entertainment and a gripping story likely resulting in nail biting, read Carmen Amato's addictive prose. She knows this territory like a jaguar!"isit Carmen's website at carmenamato.net to get a free copy of the Detective Emilia Cruz Starter Library. The Starter Library features “The Beast,” the story about how Emilia became the first female detective in Acapulco, which was first published in The Huffington Post. You’ll also get “The Angler,” the story based on a real life murder mystery, plus the exclusive “Who’s Who” guide to the series, plus Carmen’s bi-monthly Mystery Ahead newsletter.

See why Amazon Hall of Fame reviewer Grady Harp wrote: "For pure entertainment and a gripping story likely resulting in nail biting, read Carmen Amato's addictive prose. She knows this territory like a jaguar!"

Interview with Debut Author Jason Walcutt

Another great interview today- this one with debut author Jason Walcutt, whose new book Gaia Hunted, is now available.

Let's find out more about him and his work.

Q. So how did this novel come to be? Was it envisioned from the start as a bigger canvas, or did it expand organically out of an idea? Please tell us a bit about the origin.

A. I had just moved to Salem, MA, which is a pretty funky city. The place is surging with great energy. In a lot of ways, it's almost a mecca for alternative beliefs and spiritual practices, and I knew I wanted to harness some of those ideas in a book.

At the same time, I had finished writing an international thriller, and I wanted to write something that contained a similar plot structure. I love addictive, page-turning thrillers. Books like Marathon Man by William Goldman and Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett are some of my favorites.

I've always enjoyed genre bending stories and novels, so I thought it would be interesting to blend these two elements: International thriller with elements of fantasy.

From this point, the next stage of the idea was inspired partly by a movie and a television show. The move was Stargate, a Sci-Fi film that came out in the 90s. There are a lot of fascinating ideas presented in both the movie and subsequent television show, but the idea that most attracted me was that of the false god. In the universe of Stargate, the Egyptian pyramids were actually built by aliens who presented themselves as gods to humans. I was drawn to the concept of religions and deities actually being something completely different than that which originally presented.

The television show is Joss Whedon's Dollhouse—a Sci-Fi show about a woman's path to self-awareness as her memory and personality are constantly erased and reprogrammed. I loved the idea of a person being able to access previously unattainable knowledge and skills. This is summed up perfectly in the movie The Matrix when Neo famously claims, “I know Kung Fu.”

From these divergent points, I weaved my idea together. As is common for me, I brainstormed the idea over a two week period—although it had probably been simmering on the back burner of my mind for a far longer period.


Q. Did you start with the germ of an idea and start writing to see where it went, or did you map a good deal out in your head (or even outline) before crafting?

A. I do a lot of outlining prior to writing. Only once, on my first novel, did I write by the seat of my pants (ie no outlining). What I produced was a dystopian novel with a plot similar to Xenophon's Anabasis, but it combined Furries and mix martial arts fighting. Needless to say, it was a hot mess which will never see the light of day.

Nowadays, I outline the entire novel. I usually write out a few paragraphs for each chapter that include the characters involved, the primary conflict in the scene, and important details that need to be included. When I get stuck on a particularly challenging chapter, I'll often extensively outline it.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)?

A. There are quite few in the book, but I'll focus on two in particular.

The big theme is the idea how a weak person can become strong. The story is about Mattie, who is a young, depressed woman filled with self-doubt. It's about her discovering truths within her that eventually transform her into an enlightened, confident and powerful individual.

Another theme is the push and pull between male and female energy—so called, Ying and Yang in eastern philosophy. In GAIA HUNTED, I create a world which is divided between two groups of gods—Mother Goddesses and Father Gods. Mother Goddesses identify with love, compassion and empathy. While Father Gods represent intellect, logic and justice. The conflict between these two groups is at heart of the entire novel. 

Q. Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

A. The primary purpose of this book is entertainment and to enjoy a good story. I do think it is possible to change our mental, physical and emotional outlooks. We unfortunately live in a world where so much of our reality is tunnel vision. Although social media has some good qualities, it unfortunately exacerbates feelings of loneliness and isolation. If this book helps a person view their life and existence differently and in a more positive light, then I think that is more important than any number of book sales I could possibly achieve.

Q. What makes a good book or engaging story?

A. A lot of long hours and hard work! But in particular, a good book for me is a fine balance between an unpredictable plot and fascinating characters. Throw in great dialogue and a vivid setting, and I think you have a best seller.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. There are many but here are some of my favorite authors and why I love them.

JK Rowling: For her ability to create believable fantasy worlds and characters that are easy to love.
Neil Gaiman: The type of writer who always keeps you guessing.
Steven King: A true master of the art—who effortlessly combines amazing plots, characters and intriguing ideas.
Margaret Atwood: A great author I love for her ability to create timeless classics that still resonate today.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. We are all protagonists in our own stories, and I think that's one of the powerful things about storytelling. We place ourselves—whether we realize it or not—into a story, and we project the story of our own life onto characters. In some ways, we know and understand fictional characters better than our family and best friends. The heroes and myths that we create in our world are shaped just as much by real people as fictional ones. That's powerful. A story takes a mirror and microscope to our own lives; it illuminates parts of us that we've never thought about.

Q. Any other goals you've set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. My main goal right now is being the best possible father to my daughter. Needless to say, the time I've had for writing post-child is significantly less than what it used to be, but my goal for the next ten years is to put out at least one novel per year.

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. For me, re-writing is the true art of the craft. My first draft of a novel is always a pile of garbage burying gems. Re-writing for me is about digging out those gems and polishing them until they sparkle. To give you an example, on my computer, I have 17 drafts of Gaia Hunted. Now, not all of them were full-on re-writes, but each draft represents a significant amount of time and energy I committed to editing and improving the novel.

When the book is done, I just know it. It's a gut feeling. It's gotten to the point where if I add or remove anything else, it's just going to make it worse. Lastly, I'm typically very proud of it.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?

A. I have great editors. I use a mix of family, friends, professional writers and editors who read early drafts. From friends and family, I'm generally looking for their overall impressions—do they like the characters, story and ideas? From writers, I look for feedback about craft. For example, does this conflict make sense? Or is this character necessary? From professional editors, I'm looking for the nitty-gritty—spelling, grammar, punctuation and structural mistakes.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. Depends on what they are looking for, but I've always believed in creating community in the writing world, and it's one of my favorite things about being a writer. For a time, I was the community outreach director on the board of Mystery Writers of America, New England Chapter, and the thing I loved most was connecting different writing community and exchanging ideas. I would advise to go out and meet some other writers. Typically, they're pretty interesting people.

Q. Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?

A. Actually, the audio book is going to be available for sale soon. I was really lucky. The voice actor, Emily Frongillo, with whom I worked was incredible. She's so good that whenever I read over parts of my novel, I hear Emily's voice.

Seeing GAIA HUNTED as a movie would certainly be a dream come true! All the storytelling mediums are unique and special in their own way. I honestly don't know how it would it alter the novel seeing it as a movie, but I sure as heck want to see.

Q. What's the next step in your writing world?

A. My big goal is to finish editing the sequel of GAIA HUNTED and start writing the third book in the trilogy.

Q. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

A. Despite not being a native speaker, I have only spoken Spanish with my daughter since she was two months old. Conversations around the dinner table have been getting interesting lately.

Q. Any other information you'd like to impart?

A. I would like to express how thankful I am to friends, family, readers and other writers for being so supportive of GAIA HUNTED! Many thanks!

Interview with Author Gabriel Valjan

Hello, Campers- today we have an interview with author Gabriel Valjan, who you'll find interesting.
I read one of his books and really liked it, and I'm picky.  He's got a new one out, The Naming Game, and you can pick it up now.

He's also the author The Company Files and the Roma Series with Winter Goose Publishing. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including several Level Best anthologies. Gabriel is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and lives in Boston’s South End, where he enjoys the local restaurants.

Let's find out more...

Q. So how did this novel come to be? Was it envisioned from the start as a bigger canvas, or did it expand organically out of an idea? Please tell us a bit about the origin.

A. Years before I’d drafted the novel, I read journalist Griffin Fariello’s Red Scare, where I was horrified at the overwhelming pressure within American society to conform to a rigid, undeviating and bland set of rules and opinions. For a country founded on certain liberties, it was unsettling to read how careers and reputations were irretrievably broken and destroyed in the midst of McCarthy’s hunt for Communists. I became intrigued by how Hollywood studios found creative ways to get films written and produced. Money had to be made, and The Naming Game explores how the studios did just that.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)?

A. Friendship. History. Writing.

Friendship. I wasn’t aware of it at first, but the theme of friendship is threaded throughout all my books. Whether it is Bianca and her friends in the Roma Series, or Walker and Jack and Leslie in The Company Files, I place my characters in difficult situations, often where they have to rely on their wits and trust each other.

History. An undercurrent throughout The Company Files series is the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI. Company Files Book 1. The Good Man takes place in 1948 Vienna, and 2. The Naming Game begins in Los Angeles, in 1951. The National Security Act, signed by Truman, created the CIA in 1947. The CIA is an international intelligence-gathering organization that reports to the Director of National Intelligence, who reports to the President and the Cabinet. The Department of Justice governs the FBI, and its Director reports to the Attorney General, thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt’s design. I make it clear in The Naming Game that J. Edgar Hoover wanted to control both domestic and international spheres of law enforcement.

Writing. In The Naming Game, I seed the idea that Walker is slowly realizing his true vocation, which may or may not put him in conflict with his superior and employer, Jack Marshall and the CIA. At Jack’s behest, Walker has gone undercover as a screenwriter at a major Hollywood studio. Walker is not the most confident person, but I want to develop his character and a long arc that he’s a writer. There is a long history of writers who have been spies, or gathered intelligence for their countries.
Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

I’ve tried to create stories about difficult decisions without imposing any one interpretation. I’d like for my readers to reach their own conclusions. The Naming Game serves up issues that are relevant today; issues such as Censorship; Conformity; Blind allegiance to authority; Race and Gender roles. We may have technology, think ourselves as modern and advanced, but it’s important that we know our history. It may sound like clever marketing, but I’ve called The Company Files series ‘historical noir’ for a reason.

Q. What makes a good book or engaging story?

A. The answer varies from author to reader, and vice versa. People read for a variety of reasons: escapism, to discover ‘other,’ just to name a few. Some readers desire comfort, the familiar checklist of genre expectations, while others search for a character they love to hate: the antihero, or some dislikeable but yet admirable character. A reader may like Watson more than Holmes. I prefer Moriarty to both. To paraphrase John Gardner, good writing sustains a Lie for a long time.

Art is about artifice. We the reader know that what we are reading is fiction and, in the hands of a good writer, we suspend disbelief and subscribe to all aspects of the reality in an artificial creation. While I enjoy conflict and action, the occasional sex and violence in my literary diet, I’ve grown to appreciate subtle implications and nuances in a conversation or in an interaction between characters in a scene. There’s a certain elegance to suggestion and ambiguity. I think, for example, this is why the sense of unease works so well in Kafka and Stephen King. You can’t describe it, but it’s there and, more importantly, it works.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. Almost all writers of crime fiction cite Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as influences. I’m no different. I can’t deny Chandler’s influence, but not for a reason as obvious as his creation of Marlowe the cynical PI. Like Chandler, I started out writing poetry so the habit of describing the unseen relationships between people, situations, and things in a creative turn of phrase are a feature of my writing. Unlike Chandler, I don’t overdo the similes, and I’ve learned to curb the description without affecting the story. Like Hammett, I prefer a spare and minimalistic style.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. I think several of my answers so far have hinted that I try to encourage readers to think beyond the surface of the story and hash out their own conclusions.

Q. Any other goals you’ve set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. It’s important to me as a writer to grow and challenge myself. I want readers to know me for more than crime fiction, whether it’s contemporary (the Roma Series) or historical (The Company Files). I’ve received attention for my short stories, appearing in several Level Best anthologies, with the Fish Prize in Ireland (finalist in 2010 and shortlisted in 2017 and 2018), the Bridport Prize in England (shortlisted in 2017), and an Honorable Mention in the Nero Wolfe Black Orchid Novella Contest (2018).

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. I think I can answer this question by tracing the creation of The Company Files. I completed the initial draft of 1. The Good Man in April 2009, and 2. The Naming Game in 2011. The Good Man took longer to write because work at the time ate up my free time, and then I had several close calls with agents and one publisher who bailed at the last minute, which put The Good Man in purgatory. In the end, revisions to TGM involved line editing and adding two scenes: one to deepen the relationship between Walker and Leslie, and the other to provide depth to Tania’s character. The Naming Game is about as close as I’ve ever gotten to a minimum of revisions. I took a chisel to the novel every few months over the years, but I’ve never had the need to alter the plot. I added and subtracted sentences and fretted over others before I finally had to let it all go. My editor at Winter Goose, Joey McMahon, asked for an extra scene around Jack Warner. I wrote it and we were done. 

I’m considered prolific—however that is defined. I can draft a 200-300-page novel within four to six weeks, but I do spend a longer amount of time revisiting and revising it. Writer’s block has never been an issue for me. Insecurity about the idea and the quality of my expression are another matter. The longest I’ve spent on a novel is six years; it’s the first in a trilogy, set in the-Gilded Age, and I’m shopping that (the first book) with agents now.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?
A. I work with four editors, but allow me to explain. With all my books, I have my friend Dean Hunt doing the first round of copyedits and general edits, looking for his input on character development and plotting. Dean has also helped me with languages where they’ve cropped up in my writing: Italian (the Roma Series), German and Russian (The Good Man) and Spanish (a novella I wrote for a recent contest). With the Roma Series, I’ve been fortunate to have the input from what I call a ‘cultural editor.’ Claudio Ferrara, in addition to being a native speaker of Italian, is a linguist, a translator, and possesses an encyclopedic knowledgeable of Italian and European history. With his help, I’ve avoided the clichés and pitfalls of an American writing about Italian culture. Last but not least, Dave King, author of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers with Renni Browne, has helped me with line-editing, a type of editing that’s difficult for me to explain, but Dave has that special gift for ‘flow’ and sensing what works and what doesn’t.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. I may sound prosaic saying this, but don’t give up. Hone your craft and find your Voice, which is unique to you and your relationship to language. Read widely, read what you enjoy, read outside your experience (diverse writers, foreign literature in translation), and appreciate another writer’s influence but be yourself. Take chances and don’t subscribe to formula. There’s an audience out there for you. Write to learn something about yourself. If I had to say one thing that is critical, set aside your ego. Be humble and be grateful. Success—whatever that means to you— is subjective and often a crap shoot. There will always be someone better than you but there will be only one You.

Q. Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?

A. Funny that you asked this question, but The Naming Game advanced to the quarterfinalist round in the Screen Craft Most Cinematic Book Contest. I entered the contest on a lark, though I believe all good books offer something visual to the reader. What I mean is a reader can visualize the action or conversation on the page in their mental auditorium, inside their heads. It goes back to the lie made real, as John Gardner described it in The Art of Fiction. While I’ve read my dialogue aloud as part of the writing process, I have no idea how The Naming Game or any of my other books would sound as audiobooks. I think audiobooks are another artistic endeavor altogether.

Q. What’s the next step in your writing world?

A. I’m writing the third novel of a series set in Shanghai, in the Thirties. In my down-time, I’m doing research on an Alt-History novel.

Q. Tell us some fun facts about yourself.

A. Fun facts…I can throw, and write well with both hands (yes, cursive).

English was not my first language, so I’m self-conscious about my grammar and how I pronounce words. A gun to my head and I can’t spell ‘rhythm’ without confusing Spell-check.

Also, I’m hearing-impaired and wear hearing aids, though I’ve been told they are hardly noticeable. Being hard of hearing has made me reliant on observation and reading lips. For years, people assumed I was arrogant or stuck-up because I was a) quiet or b) didn’t answer them, only to realize that I was neither. If I didn’t answer them, it was because I didn’t hear them. I can’t, for instance, hear anything behind me.

Another quick fact about me is that I can’t talk for very long because only one of my vocal cords works, and my voice becomes gravelly when I talk for too long. Think of the actor Jason Beghe (Voight on Chicago PD). I sound like him.

I’ve worked as an applications engineer, as an RN, and I’ve competed in several triathlons.

Q. Any other information you’d like to impart?
A. I’m a regular attendee at conferences, such as Bouchercon, New England Crime Bake, and Malice Domestic, so please say hi if you see me.

Interview With Mystery Writer Maureen Milliken

Today we've got our first interview of the year, meeting mystery writer and long-time journalist from Maine, Maureen Milliken.

Her latest mystery, Bad News Travels Fast, came out last October.

Let's find out more about her and her work.

Q. So how did this novel come to be? Was it envisioned from the start as a bigger canvas, or did it expand organically out of an idea? Please tell us a bit about the origin.


A. Bad News Travels Fast is the third novel in my Bernie O'Dea mystery series, so some of it was a natural progression from the second novel, No News is Bad News. But it also has a bunch of other origins, as far as the plot and more goes.

I've worked for newspapers for many decades, and a few very interesting things happened in the Maine woods in the area the last newspaper I worked for covered, shortly before I started writing Bad News Travels Fast. I like to set challenges for myself as a writer, and also, when I'm intrigued by something, I can't let it go. So I asked myself, "I wonder if I can take these three really interesting things and somehow weave them together into a plot that'll make sense once it's all done?" I hope it worked!
I also always have bigger themes in my books about people and how they interact in the world, and while I try not to hit readers over the head with it, that's as big as the plot. There were certain things I wanted to say about friendship and loyalty. I also wanted to say something about how people who are different or don't easily fall into what's expected by the culture around them can get jerked around through no fault of their own.

Q. Did you start with the germ of an idea and start writing to see where it went, or did you map a good deal out in your head (or even outline) before crafting?

A. I usually have a bunch of germs -- a real petrie dish. Ugh, I don't like where this metaphor is going. But in any case, I usually have some scenes, some general plot stuff, some bigger-theme things, then I start writing. It helps to have a beginning point. The one I'm working on now I haven't totally figured out where it's going to start and that's got me a little bogged down. Once I get going and things start to happen, the book usually takes on a life of its own, though I always try to keep my bigger themes in mind.

The outline usually comes when I'm about two-thirds of the way through, so I can figure out where I am and where I'm going. I do it on a giant whiteboard, color-coded.

Q. What do you feel is the main theme(s)?

A. The bigger themes in Bad News Travels Fast are what friendship and loyalty mean. Really mean as opposed to people giving it lip service. It's easy to give up on people, or to use a slight, perceived or real, as a reason to screw over a friend. The people who don't do it are the heroes of the world. There's also a theme of marginalization -- many of the characters, in either really obvious ways or more subtle ones don't fit an expected mold and are punished in a variety of ways for it. My protagonist included. People who march to their own drummer often end up paying for it in one way or another, even though it's a cliche to urge people to be themselves and march to their own drummer. Often, people don't really mean it.

Q. Why do you feel this is important, and what would you want a reader to take away from reading this book?

A. First of all, I want to stress that I try not to hit people over the head with the heavy stuff. It's a mystery novel with a bigger-picture focus, but I don't want anyone to think they're going to get preached to if that's not their bag. But I do feel how people interact, how they feel about each and care or don't care, is a big part of life and also essential to any plot. I don't want to read a book without characters I'm interested in or care about, and I assume other people feel the same way. The themes in this book are ones that I think a lot of people come up against in life, but everyone wants to fit in and no one wants to stick their neck out too far, so they're kind of glossed over day to day. Then feelings get hurt, or worse. That said, I believe that readers takes away whatever they take away. If they don't get what I was going for, I hope they still enjoy the book. I'm not going to alter my writing, though, or what goes into it, no matter how people feel about it. If I'm not writing from the heart, I don't see the point in writing.

Q. What makes a good book or engaging story?

A. Lots of things -- compelling characters, a fresh approach and voice go a long way toward making a good book and story. I don't want to read something I've read before. A writer who avoids cliches, both in writing and with characters and plot is someone I want to read. Also, writers who respect the craft. I can't get through a book that is poorly written, including things like too many adjectives, overwriting and wordiness, but also poor editing, grammar and structure.

Also, lack of voice makes a book boring. A writer may be the most technically adept in the world, but if there's no voice, the book can be really boring.

Q. Are there writers with similar themes to yours? Who are your influences (can be writers, or even artists, musicians, or others) and what is it about their work that attracts you?

A. I'm sure there are! And just a note, the people I'm going to name are really good writers. I'm not saying I'm necessarily in their league. I've always, since I was a teenager, been impressed by Stephen King's empathy and focus on people who aren't in the popular crowd. He's really, really good at that. I love love love the way Eleanor Lipman (not a mystery writer, but a really good literary fiction writer) writes dialogue. She's a master at it. One of my peeves in a book is dialogue that sounds like someone studied buddy movies before they sat down to write. Lipman has an ear for how people really talk, and how big things can be said in little ways, or with non-sequiturs. She also never has totally bad or evil people in her books -- another sign of empathy and understanding. One of my favorites is Richard Russo -- he also gets people and how they act, and his writing is so good I forget I'm reading a book. I'll add that "Empire Falls" is my least favorite, and the movie I can't watch. Those fake Maine accents kill me. But that isn't his fault. Dorothy Sayers was the first mystery writer I read as a kid (adult books, though) who cares as much about character as plot, and it was a wonderful eye-opener. Carl Hiaasen isn't afraid to use his voice and he's great at it. Also Sarah Vowel, who writes nonfiction, is very confident in voice and writing, and her books are fantastic. Other fearless writers I love, those who aren't afraid to write the way they want to and are so good at it, are Kate Atkinson and Denise Mina. I know any time I pick up one of their books, I'm going to love it and not be able to put it down.

As far as more specific themes, Gerry Boyle, a longtime Maine mystery writer, is a former newspaper guy, and when I read his first book, "Deadline," in the 1990s, I could tell he worked for newspapers and he gets them right in his books. He was doing what I wanted to do. Paul Doiron, another Maine writer, is great with Maine settings. People here in Maine have compared me to both of them, and it's flattering. But all three of us are very different when you get down to it.

Q. Is storytelling mostly entertainment, or does it serve other functions? Do you have particular goals other than telling a good story?

A. Storytelling as entertainment is important in itself -- telling good stories is the lifeblood of human connection, history and communication. [Can you tell I have a Jesuit education?] But I always want people to take away some human understanding. I want to do more than just weave a mystery plot. I want people to feel something when they're reading, and also maybe take away something about the world around them they didn't think about before they started. I'm sure people don't take away life-changing things from my book, but maybe, in some little ways, their world is different. That said, few things make me happier as a writer than when someone tells me something in one of my books made them laugh or cry.

That all said, I hope at least a reader is entertained and didn't feel reading the book was a waste of time.

Q. Any other goals you've set for yourself, professionally or personally?

A. My biggest goal is to someday be able to write for living -- not to be hugely rich [though I wouldn't say no to it], but to be able to pay the bills without working two jobs. That's two jobs besides being a writer. If I didn't have to worry about paying the bills and could write, I'd be a better writer too. It blows my mind how much better I'd be if I could devote the time I'd like to writing. My jobs also take up a lot of space in my brain that I'd like to use for my writing. I always have to push the book out of my head so I can get my work done. So, despite the fact I'm so grateful for my publisher taking a chance on me and putting their resources behind me, I have a goal of getting an agent and finding a larger, more effective publisher, and taking my career up to another level.

As far as the writing itself goes, I want to become better and say what I want to say more effectively. I see a lot of possibilities and want to explore them.

Right now, I'm writing a standalone before I get back to the fourth book in my series, and I hope it'll help me get to those next steps.

Q. Some writers write fast and claim not to rewrite much. Do you do this, or painstakingly revise? When you send the book off to the publisher, are you happy with it, or just tired of it?

A. It is a long journey for me -- but I love it. As a newspaper reporter, I banged out stories as fast as I could, and it was a very linear process. It took me a book or two to learn my fiction writing process, which is two steps up and one step back as I figure out where I'm going. That said, I write fast because I've learned top put down whatever's going on in my head, then to go back and worry about what words I'm using and how the sentences are structured, and taking out exposition. I'm always rewriting. Always. I don't set a word goal for myself when I sit down to write, because I can bang out thousands of words at a sitting, no problem. But then I have to go back and refine it. I have files and files of scenes I've taken out of my books as I'm writing, because I don't throw anything away. Then, when I'm well into the book, I go back and review and see if I took out something I need to put back in somewhere.

The book I'm writing now, so far, I have a lot of scenes that've just come to me. The plot came quicker and easier than my first three books, but I don't know all the details yet, just a very basic outline. Every time a scene comes to me, even if I don't know how it's going to fit, I write it. If I got hit by a bus tomorrow (no chance, since there are no buses where I live in Maine), and some kind soul decided to honor my memory by finishing the book for me, they wouldn't be able to. It's a bunch of scattered pieces. I have an idea where they're going, but the big picture has yet to take shape anywhere but in my head.

There's really no such thing as a first draft for me, because I'm going foward, going back, revising, adding, taking away. Then I go through and refine many many times before I feel like it's good enough to send along. By the time I get it to the publisher, I'm a little sick of it and have no idea if it's any good or not, but I also know that at one point I thought it was good, and since then I've made it better, so it's probably okay.

I frequently text one of my sisters when I'm writing things like "This is f$%@ng awesome. Best book ever written." Then the next day, I'm texting, "God, I suck. What a piece of s#%t this is." She's learned to take it in stride.

Q. Do you have good editors, and if so, how do they help you? Do they look for particular things? Do you have different people for different editing levels?

A. I have good readers. I've learned since my first book to only have a few. They are very good at getting to the heart of what's working and what isn't, and aren't afraid to tell me. And I'm not afraid to listen.

I have the book edited at least once before I send it to the publisher, and also have a reader or two who read just for typos, but stuff always goes unnoticed. It's the nature of the beast.

Good editing is incredibly important, but the internet is over-saturated with them and it's very hard to find one who really knows what he or she is doing. I can say this because I've been an editor for decades. I was a judge for many years for the Writer's Digest Self-Published Contest and while most of the books credited an editor, I can count on two hands, with fingers left over, the books I read for that contest that I'd consider well-edited. And I read hundreds of books.

Q. If a writer came to you for advice, how would you help?

A. I've sat down for coffee with writers who are looking for advice, and it's great to talk to them and find out about their writing and where they want to go with it. I feel like that's the best way I can help them. Everyone's different, but talking and finding out where they're at is important. I also occasionally -- only occasionally because I have so little time [two jobs!] -- will read a manuscript and give some feedback.

The best advice I can give aspiring writers is simple and something some people don't want to hear: Know the craft; know what you want to say and how you want to say it; do as much homework as you can about how to write the kind of book you want to write; don't even think about agents and publishers until you've completed a book; make sure the book you've completed is not just a first draft. I tell them to go to conferences like Crime Bake, and find out what publishers and editors are looking for, and how the process works. Join Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime, and take advantage of the resources. Find resources online about how it all works. Find a good editor, not the retired English teacher next door, and expect to pay for editing. If your mom says your book is great, that's sweet, but listen to critiques from people who don't have any stake in making you feel good, and take their critiques to heart.
Also: Don't expect someone else to do your work for you, whether it's finding an agent or publisher, or learning about the craft and getting published. Be proactive and figure it out yourself.

Read books. Both good ones and bad ones, and learn from them. Don't get your dialogue from a buddy movie.

Don't give up or listen to people say it's "impossible" to get a book published.

My favorite quote is one from Thomas Edison: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and looks like hard work."

Q. Stories can be told by using a different medium. Can you see your book as a film, audio, etc.? How would that alter the telling?


A. I have the audio rights to my Bernie O'Dea series, and my audio producer, Trudi Knoedler, does a great job with them. [Thanks Dale Phillips for the advice on how that all works!] I wouldn't say no to a movie or TV series, since it'd be nice to be on time with the mortgage check, but I know it would alter the story. I'd want it filmed in Maine, but likely wouldn't have control. They'd try to do Maine accents, no matter where it was filmed, and it'd be a disaster, like it always is. The actors wouldn't look anything like how they look in my head. All of that could alter the story, depending on what happens to my story and who has control. Whoever it is, it won't be me. All I have control over is the story I've told and I'd have to hold on to that. Hopefully, a movie or TV series or something would introduce people to my books, and hopefully they wouldn't be too bummed out when they read them that the police chief doesn't look like George Clooney or Bernie (Bernadette) the protagonist isn't a stick-thin glamour-puss.

Q. What's the next step in your writing world?

A. I'm working on a standalone, because it's hard enough to get an agent/new publisher as it is, but pitching the fourth book in a series would be banging my head against a wall. Not that I don't enjoy doing that. Writing the standalone has also freed up my writing a little -- I can go different places with characters, be a little edgier, think differently. I'm surprised how smoothly that happened. While I'm pitching that book, I'll write the fourth in the series, because those characters are still doing things in my head, and believe it or not, people are now asking me when it'll come out!

Q. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

A. Not sure how fun this is, but since we all know each other so well now, I'll bring it up. The protagonist in my series has ADHD. I was diagnosed with it the same week I thought I'd finished my first book, Cold Hard News. It was kind of a relief, because it explained a lot about me and my life and also explained a lot of my protagonist's behavior. It still took me more than a year before I revised the book so that she had it, too. That was for a few reasons. I wasn't sure I wanted to "out" myself as having it. It's wildly misunderstood (just heard someone on a podcast say they don't think it exists). It's also not a "sexy" thing to have. When I say in my books that when it comes up, people get uncomfortable, or their eyes glaze over, or they change the subject, I'm not making that up. I'm also not making it up that it's sometimes easier to go through life letting people believe you're just really annoying and obnoxious than to tell them why. But then I realized that it's an opportunity to try to explain what it is and spread a little awareness. It also gives my book a "hook" that others don't have and makes my character easier to understand. And it's also honest and part of life. And, back to the awareness part, an honest depiction of what it is rather than someone who thinks they know what it is writing about it.

I tried to make it an organic part of the book instead of making it seem gratuitous, so I hope it worked. Funny, though, how rarely I get asked about it. And when someone does ask about it and I mention I have it myself, the person asking the question usually doesn't have much more to say.  Sometimes they look like they wish they hadn't asked.

And one more thing -- a lot of creative people have it. I love what goes on in my head and am never bored when I can be with myself. I can't imagine what it would be like to live a boring life, bereft of ideas and all the other cool stuff that can go on in your brain.

Q. Any other information you'd like to impart?
A. One of the best things about being a writer is that people read -- and seem to like -- my books. It may be an obvious thing, but it's not really something I ever thought about before it happened. It's the biggest thrill there is for me as a writer. Whether it's me or some other author you're reading, if you like the books, spread the word. Recommend them to friends who you think would like them. Go on Amazon and Goodreads and do a review. It really means a lot to a writer to know someone out there is reading their books and appreciating them. It makes it all worthwhile.

---

Web page:

https://www.maureenmilliken.com/

Where to buy:
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/News-Travels-Fast-Maureen-Milliken-
Audible  https://www.audible.com/search?keywords=maureen+milliken
S&H Publishing  http://sandhbooks.com/story/bernie-odea-mysteries/bad-news-travels-fast/
Sherman's book stores in Maine https://www.shermans.com/
Possibly other book stores
The trunk of my car.

Interview With Journalist Dan Szczesny

Another special treat today! We'll be talking with journalist Dan Szczesny, a guy with so much going on, it makes you want to go climb a mountain.

And he's got a brand-new book out: The White Mountain.

Over the course of one calendar year, Dan Szczesny explored the history and mystique of New England’s tallest mountain. But Mount Washington is more than just a 6,288-foot rock pile; the mountain is the cultural soul of climbers, hikers, and tourists from around the world looking to test their mettle against some of the most extreme conditions in return for a chance to be inspired by some of the most intense natural beauty.

From being on the team of a ninety-seven-year-old marathon runner, to dressing as Walt Whitman and reading poetry up the mountain, to spending a week in winter cooking for the scientists at the observatory, the mountain became Szczesny’s muse. In The White Mountain: Rediscovering Mount Washington’s Hidden Culture, Szczesny turns a veteran journalist’s eye toward exploring Mount Washington’s place in the collective consciousness of the country, and how this rugged landscape has reflected back a timeless history of our obsession and passion for exploration and discovery.

About the author: Dan Szczesny is a long-time author and journalist living in New Hampshire. His books include travelogues on Nepal, Alaska, and the White Mountains. He is a Hemingway Foundation finalist for short fiction and has also written a collection of short stories and of poetry. He’s traveled widely throughout the country speaking about adventure travel and the importance of getting kids into the outdoors. He currently calls Manchester, New Hampshire his Base Camp where he lives with his wife and daughter. Learn more about Dan’s work at www.danszczesny.com.

Q. You have quite a resume- journalist, author, editor, and speaker, with publications in travel books, fiction, and poetry. And you lead an adventurous life of climbing mountains. When did you realize this was going to be your path?

A. Well, the writing part has been part of my DNA since the fifth grade. I can't remember a time when I didn't want to write, and when I was a kid I'd write anything: fiction, poetry, essays, fan fiction, you name it. I still remember that my first short story was basically an episode of Star Blazers, that great Japanese animation from the 70s.
    So, looking back on that early start, it makes sense that most of my professional career has been in journalism. I've always just been curious, and that's critical if you want to be a good reporter. I like asking questions, and then answering them.
    The adventure and travel writing, though, was just an extension of what I loved doing as a hobby. Again, since one of my favorite things to do is to learn about new cultures, food, religion and society, then it just follows that I'd travel a lot and write about those experiences. And the mountain climbing came naturally out of my moving to New Hampshire and being exposed to the White Mountains.

Q. What's your proudest professional achievement? Personal?

A. Professional achievement: When I was working as a beat reporter in Princeton, New Jersey, I covered a story about a toddler who suffered a non-life threatening injury, but sadly passed away on the way to the hospital due to the complicated EMS and private ambulance structure of the county at that time. I dug into the law and history surrounding the system that would create such red tape and delays in getting help and wrote a series for the paper about it. Based on that work, several state senators changed the law to tighten private EMS services so such a mistake would not happen again. I won a state press association award for in-depth reporting, but more importantly I hope that the work saved some lives.
   
    Personal: Aside from my marriage and birth of my daughter, my wife and I spent a year training for and then three weeks solo trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Out of that experience, I wrote “The Nepal Chronicles.” It was life changing.

Q. How about your best day ever?

A. That's easy! My book, “The Nepal Chronicles,” won the 2016 New Hampshire State Library and Writers Project award for best work on non-fiction, and on award night at the ceremony I learned the book also won the Readers' Choice Award as well. AND, on that same day, in a raffle, I won a basket of coffee and cheese from my local bank! Talk about karma!

Q. What's the hardest thing about what you do?

A. Well, it's always easy for a writer with a family to complain about the challenge of finding time to do the actual writing, but I've been pretty lucky with the way our schedules have all worked out. For me, given the amount of research and archival work that goes into any given non-fiction project, the hardest thing for me sometimes is figuring out when to stop. Literally, I could sit down at my laptop, surrounded by books I'm using and research all day and never even look up from the screen if I let myself. But alas, at some point, I have to stop and actually write something!

Q. Since you do so much, what do you prefer to do on any day, given a choice?

A. Well, again, there's always the research which I love. But this is going to sound weird, but I love social media. I love connecting with readers and other authors on-line and working on fun and interesting ways to market my books and talks. Back before my reporter days, I worked in marketing and spent a lot of time writing press releases and designing fliers and I dig that work. Part of it, I think, is that I can just get so excited about a given project that I can't wait to tell the world.

Q. Someone comes to you with the dream job- what is it?

A. Working on assignment as a travel writer for a huge venue like Nat Geo or Outside Magazine and traveling the world and writing about it, with my family of course!

Q. Any plans for more anthologies? What did you like about doing those?
   
A. When Plaidswede Books approached me about editing the Murder Ink anthology series, the original plan was a three volume set, and to date, there's no plans for a fourth. I'm certainly not opposed to editing nearly any type of anthology were a publisher to approach me. I'm super proud of the fact that over the course of three volumes in three years, we were able to create quite a grand little community of murder and mystery writers working in that very specific genre of newsroom crime writing.
    What's amazing about wearing an editor's hat for a while is, first, how much fun that work can be. I mean, basically, I just spend a lot of time reading short stories! And second, how that level of intense editing work carries over into editing my own work. Every writer who is serious about his or her own craft ought to spend some time editing someone else. It makes you a better writer.

Q. What do you look for in reading material? Or favorite books/favorite authors/recent great reads.

A. When I'm engaged in a new project, I don't read anything other than the subject matter I'm working on, so that means for the past two years, I basically only read books having to do with the White Mountains. Among those, some amazing titles I discovered were the older historic records. For example, “The Journals of Francis Parkman” were enlightening. “Life at the Top” by Eric Pinder is a cool inside look at the lives of the Mount Washington Observatory crew.
    And when I do have spare time between projects, I try to catch up on the work of local and regional authors. North Country writer Olga Morrill just released a fascinating historical fiction book, the first in a series, called “Vagabond Quakers” which is intense and deeply researched and that appeals to me! And  Massachusetts writer Matt Landry's inspirational hiking book, “Forward, Upward, Onward” is a super read!

Q. What's the question you get asked the most/hate or love the most?

A. How do you find the time to write? (Answer: It's a job, get your butt in the chair and write.)
    How do you come up with story ideas? (Answer: Magic fairy dust and a lot of coffee!)
    How do you balance real life with writing life? (Answer: No need to balance anything since it's the same thing.)
    How do you overcome writer's block? (Answer: There's no such thing, see question one.)
    I'm cool with any and all questions though. I never really get sick of talking about the craft, or about my books. It's what I do, I love doing it and I'm thrilled when anyone has an interest!

Q. What's the one question you wish you'd get asked more? What would you love to talk about?
   
A. Food! I love eating new and interesting food when I travel, it gives you such insight into the culture and region you're exploring. Alas, folks often seem more interested in whether or not I got sick from the food rather than about the food. I wish I'd be asked more about what I loved to eat!

Q. Any wild stories from your career that you can tell?

A. The very first time I hiked in New Hampshire, a long time hiker took me up the caretaker route of the Old Man of The Mountain when the great rock profile was still there. I'd never hiked or climbed up anything before and this route was hand-pulling myself up on cables. I got super sick and tossed up my breakfast half way up the “trail” but I did make it, and was able to stand on the forehead of the Old Man. I couldn't walk for three days after that climb; a not terribly auspicious way to start my hiking career!

Q. What fun fact do we not know about you?

A. Let's see... I've never read a Harry Potter book or watched any of the films, when I'm writing fiction is primarily listen to Miles Davis from his early 70s acid jazz stage, and I once ate an entire bag of 30 dumplings in one sitting.

Q. What's the next step in your professional world?

A. The next big things will be embarking on the tour for “The White Mountain.” Over the course of the next six months I'll be giving presentations and meet and greets in six states at about 60 venues, so my focus will really be to bring that book and project to an audience. After that, I have two book projects whispering in my ear that will have to be dealt with. One is a kids picture book, the other is a narrative non-fiction true crime book. And in the middle of all that, I'll begin my search for an agent. Know of any?