Sheldon's a Nerd, but Now with 50% More Nuance

By Evelyn David

I'm invariably late to the party when it comes to discovering television shows. Generally I watch the news and cooking shows. But in the last couple of weeks, I've been catching reruns of The Big Bang Theory. The basic premise revolves around four geeky, brilliant science nerds, who love Star Trek, video games, and physics. A beautiful blonde moves in across the hall, a wannabe actress who's paying the rent by being a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory. Hilarity ensues as the two worlds collide, intersect, and eventually mesh.

I started with reruns of the fourth season and it wasn't until the last few days that I caught the pilot episode. I was astonished at the differences in each of the main characters. In the first episode, they were drawn so broadly, with each one representing a different stereotype, that I almost wondered if I were watching a different show.

What has happened is that over the last five years the caricatures have morphed into characters. As a writer, I understand that sometimes an author uses shorthand to describe in broad strokes the essentials of a character. Sex and the City, another show I caught after it had ended, also had four characters. In this case, the writers used costumes from the very first scene to telegraph who each character was: Miranda, the lawyer, in grey tailored suits, white blouses, and faux ties; Samantha, the sexpot, in outfits designed to tell you all about her without saying a word; Charlotte, the preppy pretty girl, in traditional designer wear; Carrie, the offbeat writer, in tutu and mile-high Manolo Blahniks.

Julia Spencer-Fleming, the award-winning mystery author of the Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne series, said, "Ultimately what's important about the books I write and the books I read are that they create a recognizable, believable world with characters I want to spend time with."

Rhonda and I have had fun creating the characters and worlds of our two series. In Washington, DC, you've met private detective Mac Sullivan, his furry sidekick, Whiskey, his maybe-sort of girlfriend Rachel Brenner, makeup artist in a funeral home, and the supporting cast of Jeff, Edgar, and others. They've each got their quirks, but hopefully they're all grounded in enough reality that you can recognize them as the folks that you know in your real life. In a world, far, far away, but also grounded in reality, is the small town of Lottawatah, Oklahoma, where psychic Brianna Sullivan, flatulent bulldog Leon, and hunky Deputy Cooper Jackson, live and solve murders and resolve ghostly disturbances. Despite the woo-woo stuff, Brianna still has the same boyfriend problems that beset all women, still needs to do laundry, pick up after her dog – no matter how strange the circumstances, our hope is that you can identify with and enjoy the cast of characters we've created.

Next month we're introducing a brand new group of memorable characters in Zoned for Murder, the first book of the Sound Shore Times mysteries. We'll be talking about this nonstop in the weeks ahead, but our hope is to make the town of Milford, NY, and the character of reporter Maggie Brooks, welcome guests in your home.
Enjoy!

Marian, the Northern half of Evelyn David

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Brianna Sullivan Mysteries - e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries- Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Sullivan Investigations Mystery - e-book series
Murder Off the Books Kindle (Exclusive at Amazon this month)
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Romances
Love Lessons - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

Things that Make Me Go Argh: Underwear with Bows

by Susan McBride

I'm still on deadline for my latest book (currently being called The Truth About Love and Lightning), and I'm frantically trying to get it done by next week. So when I reached in my Idea Bag for a blog topic, I realized I hadn't refilled the darned thing in a while. Which made me go, "A-ha! Why don't I write about something that makes me crazy? I could even explore another real-life irritant during the next frantic deadline, too!" Perfect. So today's rant involves, yes, underwear with bows.

As a pregnant lady with an ever-growing middle, I've had to go shopping for bigger sizes in just about everything lately. So the other day, I found a nice pack of maternity underwear that I was hoping wouldn't cut off the circulation in my thighs. They were good colors, too: standard white, gray stripes, and even a saucy leopard print. But when I opened the package, I realized the danged things had bows on the front. Those silly little bows that have appeared on my bras and panties since--oh, gosh--my whole life.

Yes, I probably appreciated them when I was eight or nine, maybe even eleven. But as I got older, I began to wonder what the point was of putting bows on the front of grown-up women's underthings. Does anyone really like them? Are they supposed to make us think back on our youth and feel like girls again? If so, it isn't working. It just irritates me, having to find my nail scissors to carefully cut them off.

And I mean "carefully." It's like a surgical operation getting those effing bows off bras and underwear without making a hole in the front and unraveling things. I think they sew them on with their super-industrial machines, certain that women everywhere would be destroyed if they ever fell off.

Back to my maternity panties with the bows. Seriously? I am in my sixth month of pregnancy. I have already gained 25 pounds and weigh more than my skinny husband. My a** now qualifies as booty and/or junk in the trunk. The increased size of said a** is not a gift to me (although I won't vouch for Ed). So I would prefer not to put a bow on it.

Okay, I feel better now. Whew! Thanks for letting me vent. But if you'll excuse me, I have surgery to perform on three pairs of new maternity underpants.

A Few Dead Men by Nancy Lauzon

A Few Dead Men - a Chick Dick Mystery

Life has dealt part-time mystery novelist Darcy MacDonald a lousy hand. The men she knows are either missing, dead, drunk or demented.

Lying next to the corpse of her boyfriend, the head of Bloodhound Investigations, definitely qualifies as lousy since he’s the man who also issues her paychecks.

The doctor says her boss had a massive heart attack during an orgasm, and it wasn’t Darcy’s fault. But she can’t help feeling guilty, since his orgasms were her responsibility. Or so she believed, until his grieving widow shows up, along with a mysterious, punk rocker chick who weeps inconsolably at the funeral and claims he was murdered.

Nancy Lauzon's Blog Tour Stop #8: Character Interview - Giovanna Pescateli

My latest mystery novel, A Few Dead Men, was inspired by my youngest daughter's disastrous dating history. The 'dead men' in the novel are composites of every boyfriend and/or bad date my daughter ever had. Believe me, I had lots of material to choose from. In fact, I didn't have room for all the 'dead men', since I didn't want to go over my word count.

This book raises several questions: Who exactly are dead men, metaphorically speaking? How did they become dead? Are there more dead men than live men? If not, where do you find live men?

But the book is also about a young woman compelled to solve the mysteries around her, like her favourite amateur sleuth, Nancy Drew. She doesn't go about it in exactly the same way.

Previous stops on the Blog Tour: Character Interview: Darcy MacDonald at

http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com and Nancy Drew with a Twist of Lemon at http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com

N: Last week we met the heroine of A Few Dead Men, Darcy MacDonald. So today I'd like to welcome the heroine's best friend, Giovanna Pescateli, to the guest blog. Thanks for being here, Gio.

G: My pleasure, thanks for having me.

N: I think Darcy is mad at me. She got kind of snippy during our Character Interview.

G: Go easy on her, she's been through a lot. But I don't think she blames you. She knows her job as the heroine is to suffer.

N: She's not suffering anymore. The book had a satisfying ending.

G: Yes, and she was very happy about that. 

N: Tell the readers about yourself.

G: I've known Darcy since college. We were roommates for a while until I moved in with my boyfriend Jack, who's a cop. I work as a paralegal at a local law firm, and I help Darcy out whenever she has questions about the cases she's working on.

N: What do you like about your character the most, and why?

G: I love that I confront and eventually overcome the problems in my personal life.

N: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?

G: I wish I could eat as much as I wanted to without gaining weight. I'm Italian, and my family spends a lot of time cooking and eating fabulous dishes.

N: Describe your perfect day.

G: Spending the day with you-know-who, since I don't want to spoil the story for your readers. Then dinner and drinks with Darcy.

N: That's funny, she said the same thing about you. Plus a Colin Firth movie.

G: Darcy and I were separated at birth.

N: Last question, Gio. What was your favourite part in the book?

G: Getting stuck in that elevator. No contest.

N: Thanks, Giovanna!

Next stops on my Blog Tour:

Wednesday, March 21st - Whimsy and Writing

I'll be guest blogging on Angela Scott's site. Angela writes contemporary YA fiction. She has a brand new Zombie Western coming out this month called Wanted: Dead or Undead. (I'll be hosting her Book Shower next week.) I'll be conducting my 3rd Character Interview, featuring Eunice MacDonald, the heroine's mother. 

Friday, March 23rd - KB Owen, mystery writer

I'll be visiting KB Owen, who loves mysteries and recently finished her first novel in a planned series, set at a 19th C. women's college in Hartford, Connecticut. I'll be blogging about what it takes to become an amateur sleuth.

A Few Dead Men - a Chick Dick Mystery is available at the following online retailers:

Smashwords

BN.com

Chapters/Indigo/Kobo

Amazon

Author Bio

Nancy Lauzon worked nine years on a hospital ward as a cardiac nurse before the night shifts turned her into a zombie. She got a day job in health promotion and began to write health-related articles for magazines and newsletters.

Life threw out a few curve balls, and to relieve the stress, she began to write fiction part-time. Five years later she sold two different manuscripts to two separate small-press publishers, using a pseudonym. She left nursing in 2003 and began to write full-time.

Nancy lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Visit her website http://chickdickmysteries.com

Join the Chick Dick Mystery Group on Facebook

Follow her on Twitter

Friend her on Goodreads

Editorial Comment Has Been Withheld

by Bethany Maines

Earlier this week Laura Spinella (Legend In Her Own Mind and author of Beautiful Disaster) posted a link on Facebook to a great 2010 blog on How To Write a Novel. The blog ended with the sage advice that we should always “revise like crazy.” But as I was working on the first act of a friend’s novel (and by working I mean “merrily hacking out entire pages, paragraphs, and characters that didn’t advance the story”), it occurred to me that an equally important piece of advice might be to “get thee to an editor.”

I remember, with that fond feeling of nostalgic rage, my own editors who told me repeatedly that a character who only shows up in the first act probably doesn’t need four pages devoted entirely to him. Oh, the foaming fits I had! How that vein in my forehead throbbed! The drinking problem I developed! OK, maybe not that one, but you get the idea. The worst part was that they so frequently turned out to be right.  Being edited turned me into a better writer.

So in the hopes ferreting out some helpful chunks of information for us writers without the pain of character deletion, I chatted up two of my editor friends, Christy Karras & and Jim Thomsen. Christy is a travel writer, while Jim prefers noir and true crime (see his short story in West Coast Crime Wave), and both have been editing for well over a decade in one form or another. 

Do you differentiate between line editing & story editing?

Jim: Big time. One of the first things I ask a prospective client in the feeling-each-other-out stage is whether they want a straight line-edit or if they want help with their story. It's amazing how often they haven't thought through that question. 

Christy: Yes. I think there's a huge difference. A person can do both at the same time, but you're looking for very different things in line editing and story editing. Also, line editing typically comes at a later stage in the project.

How do you approach editing a novel?

Christy: With delight. 

Seriously, I see the editing process as a collaboration between editor and author, and I think it's important that both parties feel comfortable and that communication is open. I send the author a written agreement, so we're both clear about the work and the terms. It's exceedingly important to me that I preserve an author's voice. Although I'm very thorough, I try not to fix anything that ain't broke, as they say. Sometimes, something is correct for that book, even if it's not correct according to the Chicago Manual of Style.

Jim: One, I make myself clear on what the client wants. 

Two, I read the whole thing without making any edits so I become familiar with the client's writing voice and thus don't take too heavy a hand in my editing. For instance, if the writer likes to use lots of sentence fragments, and has a deliberate effect in mind when using them, then I see from my read-through that I shouldn't interfere with that. It's not my job to stomp on a writer's voice, and it's only through a distanced familiarity with that voice that I can make the distinction between errors and artistic license.

Three, I dive right in and do what I call a "Hard Chicago," with the Chicago Manual of Style handy.

Favorite type of work to edit?

Christy: I love editing mysteries, probably because I love reading them. They involve another level of story crafting that I find fascinating.

Jim: Romance, by far. I'm not interested in romances as a reader, but I am interested in romance authors as clients because they almost always have their stuff together. Most are affiliated with Romance Writers of America, and as such they have studied their market and know their craft. Their characters and plots and narrative arcs are almost always well-constructed, and I find myself admiring their discipline as I do my work. The work itself is easier than it is for other kinds of clients, and almost every single romance-author client has been a dream to work with — friendly and professional and appreciative.

What is the best thing a writer can do to prepare their novel for editing?

Jim: Two things:

1. Know the scope of the job going in.

2. If you're adamant that you don't want story editing, make sure your novel has been story-edited and that full revisions have been made. Otherwise, story issues will trip me up in my line-editing, and thus make the job take longer, thus costing the client more money.

Is there anything you wish people knew/understood about editing?
Christy: People think a lot of writing is arbitrary, in a way. They say things like "a comma goes where you would pause in reading a sentence." But that's not how it works. In general, there are reasons for why doing something a certain way is correct. You, as the author, are fortunately spared knowing all of those rules and reasons, but your editor darn well should know them. If your editor can't explain the reason for a change, run away!

Jim: What Christy said. We’re here to make your work better, not to impose our wills and egos upon you. That said, appreciate that what are professionals and will charge a professional’s fee for our services. But, as a counterbalance against what may seem like a high estimate, I offer absurdly flexible payment terms. One client paid me half the fee for a job, and gave me a beautiful refinished bedroom dresser for the rest. Another has paid me $50 a month for over a year. I get what I get … but that doesn’t mean that I’m trying to vacuum out your checking account. I want to work with you as often as possible, for as long as possible.

Quote of the day

by: Joelle Charbonneau

No, I’m not going to give you wise words by Confucius or a thought from Eleanor Roosevelt. Both are fabulous people you see quoted every day on the bottom of people’s e-mails, and gracing Twitter and Facebook. Personally, I am fan all of uplifting quotes, but those aren’t the kinds of quotes I’m thinking about right now. This week I embarked upon my least favorite authorial task-soliciting cover quotes from other authors.

As a stage performer, I had no problem getting up on stage in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people. I sang. I danced. I cried. I laughed. Did I get nervous before a show? Sometimes. (Singing the National Anthem standing 10 feet away from President Bill Clinton scared me silly!) But the nerves never lasted for very long and the show always went on—mostly without a hitch.

No matter how nervous I might have gotten before a performance, never was I as terrified or intimidated as I am sending out e-mails to my favorite authors asking them to read my work. I agonize over every word when I send out my request worried that I have gushed too much or haven’t been glowing enough about their work. More often than not I assumed the writer I am querying won’t have the time to read my stuff. I mean, we all have deadlines. Big name writers have BIG deadlines. They don’t have lots of time to spend on reading other people’s manuscripts.

But some authors do say yes. That’s when the real panic sets in. Sure, my agent likes the book. Yes, my editor bought the book and told me she loves it. But that doesn’t mean this author that I greatly admire will enjoy reading my writing.

So, I chew my fingernails, which is better than chowing down on the bag of Cheetos sitting on my counter, and try to pretend I don’t want to check my e-mail every five minutes to see if one of the authors reading my book sent their verdict. (Ok – I confess that I often do eat the Cheetos and cave to the e-mail temptation. I can’t help it! I’m only human.)

Thus far, I’m lucky that some truly awesome authors, including our own fabulous Susan McBride, have blurbed my two mystery series. I am always humbled and amazed when an author I look up to tells me my stories are enjoyable. I’m also amazed that I haven’t gained twenty pounds or turned gray by the time the blurb process is over! So, dear Stiletto friends, please keep your fingers crossed for me as I once again embark on this cover quote quest—this time for my first young adult novel, THE TESTING. And if you see me edging for the Cheetos bag, you have my permission to take it away.