So You Want to be a Writer...

People often ask me when I knew I wanted to be a writer. It was in 1968 when I won a poetry contest at school and I had to walk across the stage and accept my award – a book.

In 1968, I lived in a 3-bedroom home with two brothers, two sisters, my parents and a dog. We had one telephone that was permanently affixed to the kitchen wall, though in the 70’s we managed to get a long cord so we could actually talk in the hallway. We had one television set in the den and we got five channels if my brother held the rabbit ears just right. I still remember the thrill of watching The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, because it was in color.

We chased lightning bugs on summer evenings. It was a thrill when the ice cream truck turned down our street, ringing its bell. And an equal thrill when the mosquito truck came through, spewing its fog all over us. We were oblivious to the dangers of pesticides and SPF was a scientific term that we wouldn’t hear about for years to come.

So when I decided to become an author, I used my dad’s Remington typewriter that he’d had since college days. The ribbon could be used only once and when it reached the end of the spool, it had to be replaced. There was no correction. I used a special eraser to correct mistakes, which was time consuming and left smudges on the manuscript.

I bought one ream of paper at a time and painstakingly drew a thin pencil line one inch from the bottom of each sheet so I’d know when to stop typing. I learned if I typed too fast, the keys would jam in the typewriter and I’d have to stop and pull each one back down.

By 1970, my parents knew I was serious about my writing career and they bought me a portable Smith Corona. This was a huge step up. It came with a carrying case so I could type anywhere. It also used a ribbon with a correction band at the bottom, so I could simply backspace over typos.

I completed my first full-length manuscript with that typewriter in 1972. And for the next 39+ years, I would continue the process of writing, querying publishers and then agents when the publisher’s slush piles disappeared. The agents became the gatekeepers for the big New York publishers. Books were purchased in book stores and a few at the local drug store.

Research was done at the library; the Internet wouldn’t be available to the general public for more than twenty years, and amazon.com wouldn’t go online until 1995.

In the 70’s, I wrote when my son was in his playpen, asleep beside me. He now has children of his own. In the early 80’s, I worked the midnight shift at AT&T and wrote during the day. By then, I’d purchased my first home computer—an Apple III—followed a few years later by a Compaq Portable (which weighed about 40 pounds).

In 1984, my first book was published. Far from being the suspense/thrillers I’d written for years, it was a computer how-to book. It was followed by three more computer books and for the next decade, I churned out teaching materials for a variety of software.

I lamented to my husband once about the struggle to get my suspense/thrillers published.

“You need to be patient,” he chided me. “You want everything to happen overnight.”

“Do you realize I’ve been writing suspense/thrillers for almost 30 years?” I asked. “How long is ‘overnight’ to you?”

It was 2002 before my first work of fiction was published. Since then five contemporary suspense and two historical adventure/suspense have been published. Next year, when my next suspense/thriller is released, it will be 40 years since that initial manuscript was finished.

I’d like to think I hung in there.

Juggling Plots, Characters, Publishers and Editors…Keeping it All Straight—by Elizabeth S. Craig

Today's guest blog is by Elizabeth Spann Craig. I first met Elizabeth through the Carolina Conspiracy several years ago. I have been very impressed with her meteoric rise in the publishing industry. Her latest book, Finger Lickin’ Dead, released just last week on June 7th, will be another winner. Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and 2011. I know you'll enjoy her post today. Please leave comments and visit Elizabeth's blog, also! You can follow her on Twitter at @elizabethscraig

Juggling Plots, Characters, Publishers and Editors…Keeping it All Straight

—by Elizabeth S. Craig

Currently, I’m working on two different series for two different editors for two different imprints of Penguin—Berkley Prime Crime and NAL.


I’ve also worked in the past for two entirely different publishers (Midnight Ink and Penguin’s Berkley Prime Crime) simultaneously.

Is it hard to keep everything straight and work with different publishers? I’d like to say no, but actually, it’s not easy sometimes.

If you’re about to find yourself in this situation, here are some tips you might want to keep in mind:

Although it’s tempting to compare and contrast your publishers, resist the urge. Comparing publishers is really an apples and oranges thing, unless you’re comparing two of the largest publishers. Publishers are working with different budgets, which means distribution and publicity efforts will be different. If you do compare and contrast your publishers, try not to say anything damaging about them. Publishing is really a very small community and I’ve seen industry gossip backfire on writers…better just to keep any negative thoughts private.

Different editors have different expectations for their writers. Knowing this going in can help prevent any writer insecurity. I’ve heard from some writers who were worried that their lack of personal contact with their editor meant that the editor didn’t enjoy working with them. I can honestly say that, of the three editors I’ve worked with, some really enjoy a more personal relationship with their writers and some would rather communicate with you through your agent. Some editors will ask for outlines for future books, others are happy to have you create without you sharing your plans for the next story. Everyone works differently.

Keeping it all straight:

Series bible—This is the best way to keep your stories straight. My series bible helps me keep track of character ages, traits, habits, hobbies; setting details; and any details of recurring subplots. I know a couple of writers who keep track of these things on an Excel sheet, but I use Word. I type out each character’s name, how old they are, where they live in the town, what they look like, where they’re originally from, etc. Although it doesn’t seem like it would be confusing to write one book, then another, I’ve accidentally had cross-series appearances by supporting characters before I found and deleted them. :)

Be creative on one series while revising the other. I’ve had deadlines at nearly the same time for the different series, but I have to recommend that you try not to be creative for more than one book at a time. So far I’ve been able to finish writing a draft for one series while doing the edits for the other series. Once I did try to do creative work for two series at once…then I quickly stopped. But then, I can’t really read two books at once, as a reader, either. My editors have also been very much aware that I’m working on more than one series and have checked with me in advance when setting deadlines. But if you’re at two different publishers, this is less likely to be the case.

Make sure you review your books before you speak to a book club. Those folks are really sharp, have just finished reading your book, and are prone to asking detailed questions. It’s not fun to suddenly start talking about a character in another series or a plot twist that happened in a different book! I have a detailed cheat sheet for each book. This is, basically, a long synopsis. Sometimes I can’t remember the ins and outs of all the plots (and mysteries can get convoluted with clues, red herrings, and alibis.) These cheat sheets are lifesavers.

Have you got any tips for keeping characters and series straight? Are you writing more than one book at a time? And…thanks for hosting me today, Trish!

Remember to pick up a copy of Elizabeth's latest book, Finger Lickin’ Dead, released on June 7th!She also blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and 2011. Follow her on Twitter at @elizabethscraig

The Cat in the Hat

What does your choice of pet say about you? And what can the choice of pets say about the characters in books?

We're all familiar with pets as main characters. Lassie, Come Home is a classic example, as is Black Beauty. Both plots were centered around the animal. But animals can also play a major role in books as secondary characters, propelling a plot forward without focusing on the pet itself.

Robert B. Parker's series about Jesse Stone is a prime example of the richness an animal can bring to a main character. Jesse's contemplative moments would be more one-dimensional if he didn't have the beautiful but soulful golden retriever with him.

In Lonesome Dove, Gus has pet pigs, which conjures up an entirely different image. Yet both show their tender sides by the way they treat their animals. They also show a glimpse into the type of lover or husband each might be.

When I first began my writing career, I edited manuscripts part-time. The only manuscript I could not finish was one in which the main character, someone we should be identifying with and relating to, began abusing his dogs. The scenes were graphic and heart-wrenching. And in those moments, a door slammed shut inside me and I knew that no matter what this character might do in an attempt to redeem himself, he never would in my eyes. I returned the manuscript and advised the author to rethink how he wants the main character portrayed. Years later, I learned that publishers and agents had the same response, passing on the book because they knew readers would stop reading and never pick up the book again once the animal abuse began.

After I wrote Songbirds are Free, the manuscript went to advance readers for their input. Several readers commented that they could not connect with a soldier in the story. The soldier did everything he was supposed to do, but he simply didn't come alive for them. In the rewrite, I had a dog appear in the soldier's first scene. They had just attacked an Indian village and the dog, skinny, malnourished and confused, was wandering the smoldering village alone. The soldier gave her food and took her in, and the dog became his constant companion. That one act made the character come alive, providing the compassionate impression I'd sought to portray.

I auctioned off the role of a dog in The Banker's Greed, with the proceeds going to the Robeson County (North Carolina) Humane Society. The winner was a golden retriever. The type of dog fit in perfectly with the main character. He was outdoorsy, active, intelligent and fiercely protective. Had the winner been a Pomeranian, a Rottweiler or a Black and Tan Coonhound, it would have changed the image of the main character.

Pets go beyond dogs, of course. Many an evil character owned cats, which humanized the character and made them more three-dimensional, even if their role in the book was an antagonist. What type of cat tells even more: a hairless, a Persian, or an "alley cat" all conjure up different images. And the way the cat interacts with the owner is even more telling; whether they are accustomed to long grooming sessions or they are independent and resentful of human interaction.

What does it say about a character who keeps a python? Snapping turtles, pet alligators, or piranha?

Would that character have a different image if they owned something they could cuddle? Something you could imagine loving?

Yesterday I saw a woman kiss a parrot. It would never have occurred to me to do that. And yet she did without hesitation and the parrot bobbed its head and begged for another kiss.

The way pets react toward certain characters can be telling as well. A perfectly well-behaved cat who hisses and attempts to claw the main character's new boyfriend could be providing a glimpse into a dark side that we are yet to discover. A horse that shies away from him says the same thing.

But when we meet a down-and-out bum living on the streets, filthy, perhaps alcoholic or on drugs, it can also provide a glimmer of hope by showing his tender, special relationship with a dog or cat who simply adores him.

Which books have you read that were made more memorable because of a pet? How did it add to the storyline, and what image did it help to convey about a character?

Make a Wish - or Set a Goal?

Most of us do it consciously once a year: we set a New Year's resolution. It's generally something we want to happen to us during the year - lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more. But what we might not realize is we are constantly making mini-resolutions to ourselves in the form of wishes or goals. And as a writer, recognizing the signs of each can help us create truly multi-dimensional characters.

A wish is something the character wants to happen. It might be a dream of becoming a famous musician, a renowned painter, a globe-trotting actress. Perhaps Life didn't go exactly as that character would have wanted, and she's now stuck in a role for which she never planned or wanted: taking care of a houseful of children, putting her own hopes on hold to help her spouse achieve his, or health issues or money issues that derailed her.

A goal is also something the character wants to happen, but unlike a wish, a goal involves action from the character. The person wants to become a renowned painter, so she takes art classes, dedicates time to her craft, learns how, when and where to participate in art shows and gain public awareness of her talents. To be achievable, one major goal - of becoming a renowned painter - must be divided into smaller goals; achievements that continue her progress forward.

Characters are almost always ones of action. Let's face it, having a character sit and wish for something to happen doesn't make for great reading. She has to get out of her thoughts and do something.

Wishes are passive (waiting for something to happen) but goals are active (making something happen.)

But we can also use the passive wishes as underlying reasons for a character's actions. For example, suppose we have a beautiful and talented woman who dreamed of becoming a famous actress. She's been participating in community theatre, taking acting classes, and learning her craft. Now she meets a man who has money and power. She becomes part of his life - and flash forward twenty years. Now you might have a character who is frustrated. A trophy wife who feels her best years are behind her, Mrs. CEO or Mrs. General who lives totally through her husband's achievements but has none of her own.

Now you have a passive character who has a motive. A motive to strike out at the person who she believes derailed her career, perhaps even her entire life. A motive for murder. A motive for infidelity. A motive for a crime.

In writing, it isn't necessary for the author to paint the entire picture all at once. But the past can surface in small increments, unfolding as the plot unfolds, like a mosiac that forms shape as the reader continues turning those pages. In the end, we don't just have a character who plotted her husband's demise. We have a multi-dimensional character whose motives have unfolded in such a way that the reader feels some emotion for her: sadness, perhaps, maybe anger at her circumstances, perhaps even feel her frustration and urge to take control of a life that has been on auto-pilot.

It's that richness, that depth of character, that helps to propel a character forward. And the clever use of wishes versus goals makes all the difference.

Read p.m.terrell's latest suspense/thriller, The Banker's Greed, to see how characters who allowed Life to simply happen to them take control and change the course of events in their lives--and many others.

American Idol: What We Can All Learn From It

I have to admit, I am hooked on American Idol. But not for the obvious reasons. Although I love music, I watch the show for the study in human behavior. And I believe no matter what career path you’ve chosen, you can learn a lot to prepare you for success by watching these contestants.

The season starts off with a whole lot of people who think they have talent but clearly do not. It’s interesting to watch people who aspire to be famous singers but who haven’t done the ground work—like learning notes. Others have an incredible presence and the moment they open their mouths, you sit up and listen, in awe of their talents.

By the time the American Idol contestants get to Hollywood, you’re looking at the best that auditioned. Those first two weeks are filled with assembling teams, learning songs, and establishing a music routine that will be performed in front of millions of viewers. For most, it’s the largest auditorium they’ve performed in; for all, it’s clearly the largest television audience.

Some of them fall apart. They are obviously not ready for the pressure, the intense work, the teamwork, the details… You can see it in their eyes when they step onto that stage, falter with their lines, freeze in front of the cameras, the blood draining from their faces.

Others are ruthless, climbing over other contestants—like the ones who booted out one of their team members and refused entry to another because they thought they weren’t good enough. That’s the way those performers would be in real life, too. You can argue the merits of their actions or decry the cut-throat manner in which they operate, but in the end it simply revealed their personalities.

Still others revel in the whole experience. The tougher it gets, the more critiques they stand up to, the stronger they get. They are confident in who they are and what they want to be. They know whatever happens, they will walk away with this experience under their belts and they’ll be stronger, more competitive, and a better performer than the day they walked in.

Those are the ones who win.

As you watch this season of American Idol, you will see some contestants bloom under the schedule, the intensity, the criticism, even the insanity of it all. And though there will be only one declared winner, there will be more than one in reality, just as others who reached the finals have gone on to lucrative careers.

It’s a door that’s opened.

If you’re climbing the ladder of any profession, are you really ready for it? Are you really prepared? Do you have the right attitude? Have you been honest about your personal strengths and weaknesses? Can you blossom under the intensity of fame or fortune?

Because maybe, in the final analysis, being a winner is like riding a roller coaster: we’re all on the same ride. What matters is how we handle it.

When Things are Not as They Seem...

A few years ago, one of my neighbors announced that she knew exactly what time I got up every day.

It seems that a group of ladies walk around the neighborhood at the crack of dawn and they noticed a light came on in my house each morning at precisely 5:30. Realizing that I was still sound asleep at that time of day, I was rather intrigued.

It turns out that I have the Sun-Rise Lamp, a nifty device that wakes you up with light instead of or in addition to, sound. And one of my house guests had set the clock while they were visiting, and unbeknownst to me, it was still coming on each morning at 5:30 and turning off automatically at 7:00 am while I was in another part of the house entirely.

But my neighbor was so convinced that she knew what time "the famous author" woke up each day that she spread the word rather quickly.

There was a time when no one knew who I was and what time I woke up interested absolutely nobody. I wonder if I might look back on that time as "the good ole days" ...

Once my books became successful, it appears that people will grasp at anything they think they know about me as an opportunity to tell others how intimate we are. When my vehicles are in the driveway, they "know" I am home, even if a friend has taken me to the airport and I'm out of the state. When my vehicles are gone, they "know" I am out of town. When I might, in fact, be curled up on the sofa watching TV.

This whole concept of people thinking they know what's going on inside my house or my life so intrigued me that I wrote this into my suspense/thriller, Exit 22. One of the main characters, Brenda Carnegie (who was up to a whole lot of things the neighborhood would have been buzzing about, had they known) had a series of timers in her home that made it look as if it was lived in even when it wasn't. Lights came on and off at all times of the day or night. And a neighbor who walked her dog each night was absolutely convinced she knew exactly which rooms Brenda was in or moving through, based on those lights...

Back in the 1970's I had a professor who always had a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. It was never lit but always dangling. He talked with it popping up and down with the movement of his lips. Several months into the course, he asked the students if he smoked. We all laughed. Of course he smoked. He was never seen without a cigarette in his mouth.

But the fact was, he didn't smoke. Never had. Never even lit one. He didn't own a lighter. Didn't carry matches. Each morning, he put a new cigarette in his mouth because he liked the way it felt there. And he walked around with it all day and discarded it when it got ragged or rained upon.

Look around you. Are things really what you think they are?

Or are things not as they seem to be, after all?

Planning a Crime

Before I became a full-time writer, my favorite job involved planning crimes. And the best part about it was the federal government paid me to do it.




As the use of computers and the Internet grew, so did white collar computer crime. And the federal government was losing billions of dollars - your tax dollars, by the way - to fraud, waste and abuse. So for years, various government agencies have been paying people like me to stay one step ahead of the criminals. This involved thinking like a criminal, planning the crime, and then writing a computer program to detect the type of crime we'd just invented. The result led to identifying people and organizations who were committing fraud through the use of computers - saving the taxpayers millions, if not billions, of dollars.



I was sitting in a restaurant one day having lunch with two of my coworkers as the televisions began to report the 2000 election results, leading to the famous Florida Chads. Pregnant chads, dimpled chads, half-punched chads, hanging chads. I learned more about chads than I ever wanted to know. And during the course of the recount, I made the comment to one of my coworkers that in this day and age, it was ridiculous to depend upon people making a little hole in a card and putting it through a machine. It should be computerized.



But as we continued to watch this Chad Fiasco unfold, it occurred to me that if voting technology was computerized, I could easily write a program to rig the election. I could even write the program so it erased itself after it provided the results, so no one would ever know it had been rigged.



Simply by infiltrating one voting machine - just one - I could communicate to other voting machines through the use of satellite technology. The same satellite technology you rely on for cell phones. I could send out my rigged voting program like a virus.



That thought became the basis for my second suspense/thriller, The China Conspiracy. I have long believed that China poses as big a threat as the Soviet Union once did. It has quietly grown to surpass the United States in many areas. Why not have a plan to take over the United States without firing a single shot?



It could be done by rigging the elections. Like a modern day Manchurian Candidate, they could recruit people who are sympathetic to Chinese causes. For example, instead of having say, a shoe factory, textile mill, manufacturing plant, or even weapons manufacturing right here in the United States, the elected officials could vote for tax breaks or incentives, enabling and encouraging business owners and conglomerates to move their operations overseas - to China. It would reach throughout the government to officials who help set policy regarding trade agreements, tax regulations, and even turning the other way if China became a threat to its neighbors - or to us.



In The China Conspiracy, Kit Olsen is a programmer for the CIA. Then two of her coworkers are murdered and her 16-year-old son, Tim, is kidnapped. The ransom: Mandarin computer code the CIA had convertly intercepted from the Chinese - a program Kit had been assigned to decipher. Kit is trying to get her son back and also feverishly trying to decode the program - which leads her into an inner circle of Chinese-backed CIA operatives and a political bonfire she never could have imagined.



When The China Conspiracy was released, Johns Hopkins University had just completed a study regarding the new voting technology and its security weaknesses. Their findings raised red flags, which opponents sought to discredit.



At one point, Congress considered mandating a paper trail: although the voter would record their initial vote via touch-screen, a paper ballot would be generated so the voter could verify their vote was recorded accurately. And if a recount was necessary, it would be possible to do with the paper ballots. Because, as any programmer knows, if a program is set to count entries, it will always count them the same way - meaning a technological recount should always produce the exact same results.



However, the measure was voted down. Congress argued that paper trails would cost too much money.



The news continued to get worse. Just days before the 2006 elections, World Net Daily reported that one of the touch-screen voting machine technologies might be owned by anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who would have a lot to gain by having our elections rigged, putting into place people sympathetic to his views.



Then Princeton University published an independent study of another brand of voting technologies, raising serious red flags about the security flaws. Watch them demonstrate how easily they can rig an election, live on TV (posted now on YouTube.)


So as you head to the election booth this fall and cast your vote... How do you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your vote was recorded exactly as you intended it?



You don't.



Check out The China Conspiracy and reviews on amazon, including the newest release for amazon Kindle.