What's Right to Write?

In one of my very nicely worded rejection letters, after reviewing my first three chapters of TOTALLY BUZZED, one agent asked why I interjected a "cute" scene right after a knock-down-drag-out bloody mess. She said,"You don't write cute. You don't write nice. Why is this in the book?

I was not sure how to answer her then, but I think I have it now. When I was working on the characters of my book, I wanted them to be like the families I grew up with. Close-knit, not perfect, lots of love and humor-what I knew as normal-which turned out to be not-so-normal at all. After over two decades of observing  the "not so nice" end of the spectrum, I wanted to write about people I knew-people who exist in my realm of reality.

Even if the crime is not-nice, and the scene is ravaged and riddled with bullet holes and dead bodies, my nice characters stumble into a world not of their own. That, however does not change who they are and how they would handle it.

I think that if my characters grew up in the gutter, fought their way on the mean streets to survive to adulthood, and were currently slogging through the clutter and stench of a garbage-strewn back alley in Chicago, interviewing crack whores and drug addicts to investigate the murder and dismemberment of a junkie with ties to the Russian Mafia, Buzz and Fred would not have been playing "Rock, Scissors, Paper" in the opening moments of TOTALLY BUZZED to see who had to go under Mom's house to find the old lamp.

We still do the old "RSP" among my family, friends and co-workers when no one wants to perform a certain task. Sometimes we waste more time than the task would have taken to perform, but eventually we get to it after much laughter and teasing-which in the end makes the task funny and challenging rather than a drudge. What's wrong with that?

I'm not saying that the woman was wrong, but I wanted my readers to get a 3-D picture of White Bass Lake, the Miller sisters, their friends and family, so when Mag gets hung up in the barbed wire fence and 80-year-old Mary Cromwell pole dances on a parking meter in a go-go dress and orthopedic shoes, no one is really surprised.

So whether a character is in a "cute" situation or an ugly predicament, just make sure the continuity flows throughout. Make sure your characters remain true to form-that they react as they would and not as someone else would. A retired detective takes in the corpse of their neighbor with dread and disgust, and her sister, who owns a pet store promptly panics and loses her lunch in Mom's petunias.

So what's right to write? Uh, beats the heck out of me!

Coffee, Tea and a Smoking Gun

What a day! I just returned from a great day at the Schaumburg (Illinois)Library, and the Coffee, Tea and a Smoking Gun workshop. Sponsored by the Chicagoland Sisters in Crime, it was wonderfully organized and beautifully executed (pardon the pun).

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was greeted right away by Annie Chernow and Sue Gibberman, and they made me feel right at home. Thanks guys-you have no idea how good that felt!

I met up with the wonderful J.D. Webb (Shepherd's Pie, Her Name Is Mommy, and Moon Over Chicago), and the equally wonderful Jenny Spallone (Deadly Choices, Fatal Reaction). It was good to catch up with them, and they both gave killer seminars today. Great job, my friends!

I also met the lovely Sherill Bodine(Talk of the Town and A Black Tie Affair-out n January, 2010), the truly fantastic Jamie Freveletti (I also won a copy of her book, Running From the Devil-which my husband is reading as I write), and the incredible Luisa Buehler (her sixth book, The Innkeeper: an Unregistered Death).

Lisa is also published by Echelon Press; boy am I in some great company! Jamie, Lisa and I spoke at length about the future of publishing and how Ebooks will definitely play a big role in how the public will read in the future. If it is possible, I am even more excited about Totally Buzzed than I was before!

I attended a great seminar on marketing, where Morgan Mandel (Killer Career, Girl of my Dreams, and Two Wrongs) shared a million and one ideas on how to get the word out and keep it there, and I could not write fast enough to keep up with her. Thank you Morgan, you have no idea how much you helped me out.

Thanks to everyone involved today-Sisters in Crime, the Schaumburg Township District Library, Annie, Amy, Sue and all who attended this event for making my debut author experience a memorable one!