Fringe Benefits of Being a Writer

Today I welcome mystery writer and good friend Marilyn Meredith (F.M. Meredith) back to my blog to talk about some of the benefits of being a writer. Hope you enjoy meeting her.

If I hadn’t been a writer, I’d probably never have learned all the things that I now know how to do on the computer and the Internet. (Believe me, I’m far from an expert, but because I am a writer, I know lots of experts to ask when I have a problem. Lorna is one of these.)

Being a writer has afforded me the chance to travel to many places in the U.S. that I would have never even thought to visit on my own. On March 13, I go into detail about this at http://travelswithkaye.com

Because I’ve had the opportunity to give talks about writing and my books in different venues, I’ve become confident doing this and enjoy it.

I’ve taken on jobs I’d never imagined I’d do, such as being the program chair for the Public Safety Writers Association’s Conference. Because of this association, I’ve become friends with law enforcement officers from every conceivable branch including the military. You can check out who we are having this year at http://policewriter.wordpress.com/

Best, though, is all the friends I’ve made along the way. I am a founding member of the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime and have made wonderful friends there and look forward to seeing them whenever I can attend a meeting. When my first books were published, I made trips to the Central Coast Sisters in Crime to give talks and grew close to many of their members—and I ended up joining that chapter too.

We attended the now-defunct Mayhem in the Midlands every year and made so many good friends among readers and writers, most of whom I’m still in touch with even though they live far away. Radine Trees Nehring and her husband John are stand-out friends we met at Mayhem.

 At a Left Coast Crime in Anchorage, I met two young Native sisters who are avid readers. We stayed in touch and when Bouchercon came to Anchorage, I was invited to stay at one sister’s home, Katina, and had some great times with the whole family. I keep up with them on Facebook—and it’s great to hear what they are doing. Mom, Ruth, is a fan of my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series.

Attending EPICon, which meets in many different places around the country has resulted in many great friends, way too many to list, but two of them are Lorna and Larry Collins. We were together at several more EPICons and the most fun of all, were invited to be guests at the Collins’ lovely home one weekend, where we participated in a book and art fair one day, and enjoyed the launch for one of Lorna’s books. [We also celebrated our mutual birthdays that weekend! Lorna]

And to tie this up, if I wasn’t a writer, I wouldn’t have met so many other writers and had the opportunity to enjoy so many wonderful books.

Thanks for hosting me once again, Lorna.

Now a bit about Dangerous Impulses:

An attractive new-hire captivates Officer Gordon Butler, Officer Felix Zachary’s wife Wendy is befuddled by her new baby, Ryan and Barbara Strickland receive unsettling news about her pregnancy, while the bloody murder of a mother and her son and an unidentified drug that sickens teenaged partiers jolts the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Buy the book here: http://tinyurl.com/byxomtk 

Contest:

The person who comments on the most blog posts on this tour may have a character named after him or her in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel or choose a book from the previous titles in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series in either paper or for Kindle.

Rocky Bluff P.D. Series:

Though each book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is written as a stand-alone, I know there are people who like to read a series in order. From the beginning to the end:

Final Respects

Bad Tidings

Fringe Benefits

Smell of Death

No Sanctuary

An Axe to Grind

Angel Lost

No Bells

Dangerous Impulses

F. M. Meredith’s Bio:

F.M. is also known as Marilyn Meredith, the author of the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. She first became interested in writing about law enforcement when she lived in a neighborhood filled with police officers and their families. The interest was fanned when her daughter married a police officer and the tradition has continued with a grandson and grandson-in-law who are deputies. She’s also serves on the board of the Public Safety Writers Association, and has many friends in different law enforcement fields. For twenty plus years, she and her husband lived in a small beach community located in Southern California much like the fictional Rocky Bluff. She is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Epic, and Mystery Writers of America.

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com/

Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/

And I’m on Facebook and Twitter as MarilynMeredith

Adding Reality to Fiction

Today my partner in life and in crime—novels, that is—Larry K. Collins is my guest. See how we create reality in our fiction.

During a conference presentation, I was asked this question: “I write fiction. What kind of research should I do? And how much?”

My answer was: “As much as you can. The more reality you put into your fiction, the more believable it becomes. As a rule of thumb, I put in a true fact, a fact, a fact, a fact, and make up a fact. If I do it well, my readers won’t be able to tell which one is made up.”

WRITING A REAL LOCATION

In our second mystery, Murder in Paradise, our protagonist, Agapé Jones, retired NYPD detective, was supposed to drive from Honolulu to Hale’iwa. While doing research on Oahu, I drove the same route, noticed the outrigger canoes parked along the Ala Wai Canal, and shopped at the Foodland in Hale’iwa. Then Agapé did the same things in the book. We know our readers will never forgive us if we mess up their town. And if our hero drives the wrong way on a one-way street, we’ll never hear the end of it.

While writing a story in a real place, I surround myself with photos, clippings, and maps of the area I intend to write about. Anything to keep me grounded in reality.

Sometimes a picture will inspire a scene. In Murder in Paradise, I had the grandmother character tell the story of growing up as a child on the North Shore and visiting the Hale’iwa Hotel, a beautiful Victorian-style inn featuring a two-story lanai and luxurious dining room. Opened in 1898, the building was torn down in 1952. As inspiration, I purchased several early photos of the old hotel from North Shore Photo Hawaii and hung them on the wall over my computer. The pictures themselves never appeared in the book, but my descriptions became more accurate because I could visualize being there. Hopefully I passed my vision on to the reader.

WRITING A FICTITIOUS LOCATION

Lorna and four friends created the fictitious town of Aspen Grove, Colorado, as the location for their anthologies, Snowflake Secrets, Seasons of Love, Directions of Love, and An Aspen Grove Christmas. This allows the authors to invent shops, restaurants, churches, B&Bs, etc. to fit the various novellas. They placed Aspen Grove in the mountains west of Denver on the road leading to the ski resorts. Even though it is fictitious, it needed to have the real look and character of the area. Aspen Grove became a composite of several real towns.

Walk down the main street of Idaho Springs and you expect to see Daisy’s Diner and the Book Nook. Wander along the lakefront in Georgetown to find Drew’s log cabin and on through town to the stone building housing the Presbyterian Church. Several readers have remarked they would love to visit Aspen Grove. So would we.

WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION

Not only do the locations need to be correct, but also the specific time period. The events, language, customs, clothing, and props must all fit the era.

In historical fiction, it is even more important to do accurate research. Our latest endeavor, The Memory Keeper, concerns life at the San Juan Capistrano Mission between 1820 and 1890 as seen through the eyes of a Juaneño Indian.

For inspiration, an original etching by Rob Shaw, published in 1890 by H L Everett, showing the mission grounds, currently hangs over my computer.

Our bibliography is running about five or six pages and growing. We have also enlisted the aid of the local San Juan historian and a Juaneño native storyteller as beta readers for historical information. We won’t be satisfied until they are satisfied with the accuracy of our details.

Now that I’ve said all that, I have to remind myself. Never let the facts get in the way of the story. Too many details can turn a good story into a boring history lesson. In the end, the research should support and enhance, but not overwhelm. We must choose carefully which facts to include, leave out, and make up. If we’ve done our job, our readers will become so involved with the plot and compelling characters, that the facts just blend in. They’ll never know how much research went into it. But we will.

Pieces of Christmas

All the decorations are packed away. The carpets have been vacuumed, and the furniture is dusted. The house should be back to 'normal’, whatever that is.

But, sure as shootin', during the next month or so, I'll run across something left over from the holidays.

It happened this morning. I looked out the back door, and there was a holiday doormat.

One year, an angel I used to hang from the entry hall light managed to stay there until the following year. I hadn't noticed it for several months, and when I finally did, I decided to just leave it. Unfortunately, a couple of years later, it broke when I took it down, and I questioned the wisdom of removing it at all.

When it comes to angels, however, you'll find them all over our house at all times. I've collected them since I was in fourth grade when my teacher gave me a small ceramic angel in the form of a bell. That one went through a fire in our attic, broke, and was glued back together. I still hang it on our tree every year, and it's the oldest ornament we have.

However, few of the rooms in my home are angel-free zones. We call one of my guest rooms the 'angel room.' Angel figurines not only occupy most of the flat spaces, but much of the wall space as well. And you'll find them in place all year long.

No matter now thoroughly I think I've checked for seasonal decorations in January, a few of them creep in during the following month. How and where they hide out, I have no idea. But they do.

I actually don't mind stumbling across these little reminders of the holidays. They make me smile as I remember happy times. Even though I then have to find a place to store them, I still enjoy coming across them.

I occasionally wonder if perhaps I subconsciously leave a few out just so I'll run across them later on in the year.

 

Am I the only one who consistently fails to pack away decorations after the holidays? Or do other people do this as well?

Celebrate Romance

Celebrate romance with me on  The Book Connection where I write about how our romance anthologies came about.

 

Cover designs by Melissa Summers