Evacuating from a Wildfire

By Kathryn Lane

I love the mountains in northern New Mexico. Nature in this area constantly surprises me with beautiful vistas, wildflowers, and above all, the wild animals. We have elk, deer, coyotes, wild turkeys, several varieties of birds, Cooper hawks, and bears. Occasional wild cats and mountain lions also roam the area. I’m mesmerized by the herds of elk and their calves. 

For some writers, the beach inspires them. For me, the mountains clear my brain and let my creativity flow. This year our normally peaceful mountain hideaway proved that nature can also be terrifying. A horrific wildfire started when controlled burns in the Gallinas Canyon in the Santa Fe National Forest near Las Vegas, NM, got out of hand and turned into the most destructive wildfire in the state’s recorded history.

In May, evacuations began very close to where we live. We could see the flames beyond the mountains in front of our cabin and the smoke was so thick, we decided to pack up and leave. What to take with us became an issue. Essential articles that we need for any trip is a given. Emergency items came next. After that, it’s a conflict between sentimental items, such as paintings, and what we could fit into our vehicle.

Two years ago, I’d given my husband, Bob, a bathrobe for the cabin. He lost it after forgetting it on a trip last year. He’d spent at least two months searching online for a replacement. For two months he grumbled about the bad selection, grim colors, wrong fabric, incorrect length, and lack of styling.  He finally ordered one and it arrived two days before we evacuated. A thick, heavy terrycloth robe, I put it in the car.

He immediately asked why we needed to take it.

“We’ll survive the evacuation,” I said, “but I can’t get through two more months of you hunting for another bathrobe.”

Thankfully, we are back in our beloved mountains and our cabin survived just fine.

I’d decided, before the wildfire started, to place my next Nikki Garcia mystery in New Mexico.

Now I’m wondering if I should include a wildfire in the mix to complicate the plot. One thing is for sure, Bob’s bathrobe will not be a part of the story! Or maybe a bear will eat the robe!

***

Postscript: The fire is no longer a threat, but for many families who lost their homes, their struggle is far from over.

***

Kathryn's Nikki Garcia Mystery Series - on Amazon

Amazon Paperback - https://www.amazon.com/dp/173328270X/

Amazon eBook - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084GSGSRX/

ABOUT KATHRYN

Kathryn Lane started out as a painter in oils and quickly became a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

Sign up for my monthly newsletter on my website

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial and/or educational manner

Elk and their Calves by Kathryn Lane

Firefighter – Taos News

Brown Bear by Kathryn Lane

Covers for the Nikki Garcia Mystery Series – Heidi Dorey designs for Tortuga Publishing, LLC

Photo of Kathryn Lane by Bob Hurt

Writing and Selling Fiction in the Metaverse

 By Kathryn Lane

In the near future, when a reader purchases a book, that reader can also receive additional 3-D experiences depicting the author’s world, how the author researched, created, and wrote that particular book.

Interacting with the metaverse.

As readers, we will be able to interact through virtual reality (VR) with our favorite authors. Though I don’t write in his genre, I can imagine a VR encounter with JRR Tolkien where I’d walk beside him in the scenes while he described his imaginative process in writing Lord of the Rings. Music, as in the films, should run too. But then I’d turn it off to better understand Tolkien’s creativity before the scenes were set to music. Tolkien is no longer living, but artists, writers, historians, script writers, photographers, and cinematographers would create the immersive where I’d be in the middle of the narrative.

Distortion in the metaverse.

Writers will have a variety of options for selling their works in the Metaverse. Unique codes, think of ISBNs currently used, will identify the digital asset that is linked to blockchain to secure its authenticity and uniqueness. This process creates a non-fungible token (NFT). For example, limited editions of digital works can then be sold as NFTs. Book covers and draft manuscripts also offer the possibility of NFT sales.

Blockchain provides a secure means for storing intellectual property like copyrights and patents, and includes smart contracts where author royalties can be collected every time an NFT book cover, limited edition, or a first draft manuscript is re-sold.

Visual representation of blockchain.

Big name authors with staff to do research, design, and marketing will have the advantage over lesser-known authors. They might turn their books into complete immersive experiences where readers don’t read but merely step into the story.

VR and the Metaverse will be used extensively in other areas, especially education. By combining topics such as math and science; language, geography, and history, among other subjects, learning can become more integrated. 

Student using the metaverse.

However, it’s not all panacea here either. Richer countries will have the advantage over poorer ones.

If you feel concerned about the Metaverse, you are not alone. If we think of it as the next level of the Internet, it becomes less intimidating. Though I remember how reluctant people felt in the early to mid-nineteen-nineties about using the Internet.

Are you ready to enter the brave new world of NTF books?

***

Kathryn's latest Nikki Garcia Mystery Thriller: Missing in Miami (available on Amazon)

About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane started out painting in oils and quickly became a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial and/or educational manner

Augmented reality from Pinterest

Dreaming of distortion in the metaverse by Dean Terry is licensed under CC

Photo by Terry on Unsplash

AugustMan - Malaysia

Resolutions? by Debra H. Goldstein

Resolutions? by Debra H. Goldstein

January 14. Two weeks since 2022 began. If you are like me, two weeks is more than enough time to have broken every resolution you made or contemplated making. That’s why, this year I didn’t make any resolutions. Instead, I decided to roll with the flow.

 

How’s that going? I’m not sure. I seem to be weaving down a lot of different paths. Some of them are fun to explore, but many are dead ends. Of course, even when I know which way I’m going, there have been many unforeseen obstacles ranging from the soaring Omicron numbers to realizing my new sneakers look pretty but don’t fit my orthotics and feet well for extended walking.

 

My writing seems to be following the same pattern as my life. Instead of resolving to write a set number of words a day or so many stories a month, I’ve been letting the muse guide me. How’s that going? Not well. I’m playing a lot more solitaire than I should be. What’s worse, I’m repeatedly surfing the net to see if there are any unread news stories, touching human interest articles, or exciting things reported by friends.

 

The latter makes me happy for them; but, if they are writers, it also prompts a little jealousy. Why are they getting things accomplished and I’m not? I guess they made resolutions that they are carrying through. There are still fifty weeks in 2022. I think there’s still time for me to make and act on a few resolutions. What about you?

 

TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY STORIES ARE TOLD

By Kathryn Lane

Houston hosted Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. Not to miss an important event, Bob and I attended with friends from Angel Fire. So many exhibits are hyped up that we did not know what to expect. Then we left talking about what an amazing show we’d witnessed.

First, you glimpse blowups of Vincent’s paintings that come together though electronic enhancement as you watch. Another room provides photo ops were you can sit in Vincent’s bedroom in Arles and have your picture taken. 

Watch as Starry Night comes together electronically

Then comes the exceptional “Immersion” room where you witness, feel, and become part of Vincent’s paintings as 90,000,000 pixels are projected in a 360° space, while you relax in a beach chair.

Immersion Room with waiting beach chairs.

.

In the Immersion room, don't sit where the train will roar through.

The show's real clencher is the interactive historical journey that virtual reality takes you on as you travel through Vincent’s fields, towns, and cafés. This visually fabulous trip takes ten minutes. At times I had to remind myself I was not flying. I was merely sitting on a sturdy chair as we swooped past cafés and buildings, fields, country roads, and chapels. It’s a combination of cinematography, art, music, and history where you are the observer.

The author, her husband, and friends with virtual reality headsets.

Now that I’ve exuberantly told you about the Immersive experience, I must also tell you I’m not getting a commission for tickets sales. But you should definitely attend if it’s showing anywhere near you.

The real reason that I’m recounting the visit is that this show gives you an incredible ride, but where it might fail is to engage your brain actively, where your own imagination, intellect, and creativity work together to connect the dots.

Maybe by experiencing projections of virtual reality in the future, the human brain will be liberated to create even more sensational innovations. At least that is my hope.

At times, it’s easy for negative thoughts to surface. Thoughts that younger generations are not reading much and that the coming metaverse will create a world where people will not have to solve issues; instead they might only passively partake the virtual world placed before them.

Shows like Van Gogh’s Immersive, social media, and virtual meetings using avatars are the beginnings of the metaverse. These phenomena will change the world.

AVATAR

We are on the cusp of changing how people learn, communicate, and interact. These innovations had been on the horizon yet the isolation and social distancing caused by the pandemic sped up the introduction and use of these tools. Similar to the (almost instant) popularity of the world wide web and the massive adaptation of mobile phones a little more than two decades ago, we will soon grapple with metaverse technologies in everyday life.

Harry Potter Book

As a writer, I think the coming technologies are both exciting and scary. The creative opportunities promised by the metaverse seem exciting. On the other hand, the metaverse will deliver powerful tools that will change how stories are told. Will children in the future want to read Harry Potter when they can experience it through virtual reality? Will people know what their co-workers look like when all they see at virtual meetings are avatars? And what about nature lovers? Will they don a headset to enjoy virtual nature or will they commune with nature the old-fashioned way?

***

What do you think about the metaverse?

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944

Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial or educational manner

Starry Night by Van Gogh - public domain

Two Immersion Room photos - taken by the author

Four people with virtual reality headsets - taken with an iPhone

Avatar and Harry Potter book - public domain

 

An Open Letter to Stiletto Gang Readers from Debra H. Goldstein

Dear Stiletto Gang Readers,

I’m one of those people who still writes Holiday Letters and shoves them into my Seasons Greetings cards that are sent to friends I haven’t seen in years, but still feel close to. You are a different breed of folks, but I, as well as the other members of the Stiletto Gang, have a special affinity with you.

 

You fulfill our dreams by reading the words we write. At the very moment we feel down or lost, one of you posts a good review, sends a postcard or e-mail, or makes a social media comment that lifts our spirits up. Your support of our work keeps us actively involved in an unpredictable business world.

 

It is a world of editor and publisher subjectivity balanced by dollar signs. Very few of us become New York Times bestselling authors, but you give us the incentive to continue writing even if our expenses outweigh our profits. All writers want to make money, but the reality is that they don’t. In fact, many authors could make far more by ignoring the voices in their heads that demand to be expressed. Are we insane or, as some think, simply stupid?

 

I think the answer boils down to one word: passion. We have a passion to write that can’t be quelled. Luckily, when it does dim, you rekindle it. Thank you and happy holidays. Debra  

To Find a Monarch

 By Kathryn Lane

Mexico, my country of origin, is a cultural paradise. I always experience a nostalgic yearning for the traditions I grew up with, especially during the last quarter of the year, which is rich with festivities. Starting in September, we have holidays that spill over into multiple days, like the 15^th and 16^th of September, independence day. Posada time, from December 16^th through the 24^th, brings out families from entire neighborhoods where revelers of all ages gather in candle-lit processions singing Christmas carols along the streets until they arrive at the host house for that evening. At the designated home, the carolers sing “Para Pedir Posada” to reenact Mary and Joseph’s journey into Bethlehem asking for shelter before the birth of Jesus. The hosts, after several stanzas, invite the revelers in for food, drink, and games for the kiddos.

Wonderful as Christmas and Independence celebrations are, it’s Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1^st and 2^nd, that makes my soul yearn for a trip to the state of Michoacan.

When I was twelve, my mother took me to Lake Pátzcuaro to experience a vigil in a cemetery where townsfolk would commune with their departed loved ones by sharing music, dance, food, and drinks.

I’ve never forgotten the scene when we arrived. Lake Pátzcuaro’s famed butterfly net fishermen, their canoes filled with bright orange cempasúchil, or marigolds, floated on the lake like a colorful flower market. The marigolds, like rays of sun dropped along the way, to lead the ancestors’ spirits into town where ofrendas, or altars, awaited them in the private homes of their earthly relatives.

We climbed into a vividly decorated canoe to navigate to Janitzio, the largest island. On the way, Mother told me Día de los Muertos is a truly Mexican tradition, a legacy of indigenous Aztec practices. The Aztecs recognized that death was part of the continuity of life. Yet Pátzcuaro is P’urhépecha¹ territory, the other powerful Mesoamerican empire, the one the Aztecs never conquered. The two empires fought many battles. Yet, the Purépecha integrated the Day of the Dead as their own.

We were mid-lake when a butterfly brushed its brilliant orange-red wings with black veins on the golden marigolds. The fisherman smiled, saying, “Está perdido este ancestro. Debe tener familia en Rosario o Angangueo.”

Mother agreed the butterfly was lost and had overflown its winter home near mountain villages. She explained that monarchs migrate yearly from Canada and the US to the high elevations of Michoacán where they cluster on oyamel trees to spend the winter. They start arriving at the end of October, coinciding with the Day of the Dead celebrations. The local people believe the butterflies are the spirits of their ancestors returning home.

I remember asking if we would visit the monarchs.

“Another year,” she said.

Yet, we never trekked to the monarch’s overwintering sites. When I see a butterfly, it reminds me of that trip we never took.

My brother, Jorge Lane, is a nature photographer and monarchs are one of his favorite subjects. He’s visited several sanctuaries to photograph them.

Carlos Gottfried, a butterfly conservationist in Mexico, said: “When you stand in a Monarch butterfly sanctuary, your soul is shaken and your life is changed.”

Gottfried’s quote beckons me to find monarchs overwintering on Oyamel firs to fulfill that trip never taken.

¹ Also known as the Tarascan.

For fun articles on Mexican holidays, you can purchase: The Insider's Guide to the Best Mexican Holidays. It will be available in Kindle format on Amazon on December 17, 2021. Nineteen authors, including yours truly, contributed articles. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE AT STILETTO GANG!!!

Photo credits:

Monarca Encantadora© by Jorge J. Lane

Rosario Monarca© by Jorge J. Lane

 

 

A Fun Interview with Bethany Maines

Interview by Kathryn Lane

(Bethany Maines is such a dynamic interviewee that I’ve kept the interview pretty much as it happened. To edit would lose the spontaneity of her responses.)

Bethany, I’m amazed by your dexterity as an author. You write in various genres, from crime fiction to mystery, to action adventure to sci-fi. Do you move from one to the other to keep your stories flowing?

Growing up I read mostly sci-fi/fantasy and mystery. I always assumed that if I wrote it would be sci-fi/fantasy based, but as with most half-baked childhood notions, it hasn’t turned out that way. Mystery/Adventure/Romance seems to be where I sit most easily, and my occasional visits into sci-fi are usually with co-writers.

By the time this interview is published on November 2, you will have launched your mystery, Hardest Hit, the third book from your Deveraux Legacy series. Congratulations!

Share with us what worked for the launch and what you’d do differently next time.

I can tell you what doesn’t work. Accidentally scheduling the launch for nearly the same time as a work conference is… not the best thing I’ve done lately. I work with a marketing company; they give me lots of support, and I don’t think I could do it another way considering my scheduling conflict. But other than that, my number one tip, is plan ahead.

Moving to your mystery/action adventure books, you have taken an innovative approach to undercover work. Your protagonist, Nikki Lanier in the Carrie Mae series, is a no-nonsense investigator who takes on drug smugglers and arms dealers.

How did you get the idea for the Carrie Mae series?  

OK, true story, I once received a cease-and-desist letter from Mary Kay corporate to not mention Carrie Mae in the same breath as Mary Kay. Meanwhile, Mary Kay Ladies love every book in that series. And they should because they gave me the idea. I once had to pick up lipstick from my MK lady. She was at a meeting and invited me to stop by. When I stepped into the Red Lion Inn… it was a packed ballroom!  They were recruiting new Mary Kay Ladies. On stage, an imposing woman was laying down the MK rules like she was Patton in pumps. And I thought… these ladies could take over the world and they’re kind of scary. It’s probably a good thing there isn’t a militant wing of Mary Kay. (Lightbulb!) Later I went out for drinks and told my girlfriends I had a great idea for a book. They laughed, saying they loved the idea of Nikki and her team.

Nikki and her team set out to save the world from gangs, smugglers, and arms dealers, all the while looking fabulous. You do mention, though, they try to remember clean underwear! Is humor in your genes or do you work at it?

Surprise! It’s nature AND nurture. My Dad is an excellent and humorous storyteller. In childhood I watched him hone a story from one telling to the next. That method of refining the funny until it’s the funniest is something that takes years to perfect, but I feel that I got a leg up through proper parenting.

You write several novels and novellas every year. Do you program your writing for the year ahead and decide which series will get the bulk of your time? Or are you a complete pantser that gets up in the morning and decides what you’ll work on that day?

I used to pants it. I loved the discovery and joy of finding out what happened. But sadly, I don’t have the time anymore. Pantsing is joyful but inefficient, and if I want to tell ALL THE STORIES… well, I need to plot. However, I do employ a strategy of “cheat stories”. If one isn’t cooperating I go cheat on it with a different story. That will teach it! 

I’m intrigued by your sci-fi novellas, The Beast of Arsu being the latest. For the Galactic Dreams series, you write with two other authors, Karen Harris Tully and J.M. Phillippe. Do the three of you get together to discuss and plan the next collection of Galactic Dreams? 

Karen and J.M. and I came up with a simple proposition (such innocent, foolish, past selves): we would create a shared universe and spread the hard parts of world-building around. Then we would each write stories within that universe. And, just to keep it interesting, we would base our stories on fairy tales. Clearly none of us had read fairy tales recently – they’re insane. None of us counted on the fact that each of us would want to break the rules of the universe at some point, or that we would have to keep track of all the weird words and technology we invented. At this point, we have a massive spreadsheet and a five-page single-space word doc on our universe. Fortunately, our friendship has survived the great battle over whether or not to include the word OK in space. Surprisingly, we were all 100% fine with bringing in Octopus aliens. We touch base multiple times while writing our individual stories and use each other for research, as sounding boards, and as spare memories. Then, at the end, we all read everything for universe cohesion.

Bethany, let me tell you, I’d be lost in space if I could not use the word OK. One last question. If you were not writing, what would you be doing?

I actually love my day job of graphic design. If I weren’t writing I’d be getting to all of the art projects that are languishing in my office that I swear I’m TOTALLY getting to. Stop judging my art supply purchases!!

That was a fantastic interview, Bethany. Thank you!

Biography

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of mystery, crime and romantic suspense novels, as well as many short stories. When she's not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. bethanymaines.com

“Solitude in the Outback…”

 By Kathryn Lane

Years ago, when I lived in the Outback of Australia, I often found myself alone for weeks at a time at the homestead while the men were in the field catching feral cattle. That solitude gave me time to read the Russian novels by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, and Pasternak to name a few. Dr. Zhivago and The Brothers Karamazov remain favorites to this day.

In my Australian days, I’d visualize the great books I read as a lighthouse that would light up the path of my life. A silly image, perhaps, but when one is completely alone, the mind creates interesting imagery.

Even after the Outback became only a memory, I rarely read novels hitting the New York Times bestseller list until the original hoopla surrounding their launch had quieted down. The hectic schedule of my international corporate career left little time to indulge in big books. I’d discovered less lofty but more enjoyable reading – the mystery genre – my pleasure reading for long flights from New York to South America, Asia, or Europe.

Fast forward to 2021 when I’ve become a writer myself. My love of mystery intrigues me so much, that it’s what I write. Revisiting the idea of best sellers, I still wait until the hoopla quiets to a whisper. Recently, I must have heard crawdads heralding Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing as being a mystery wrapped in a coming of age story woven with romance.

So I purchased it.

What a delicious dip into the wondrous world of nature in the swamps of North Carolina as seen, felt, and described through Kya’s life.

Delia Owens said in an interview that Kya represents what we can be when we have to be. I concur with the author that all of us have the ability to do more than we can imagine when life requires it.

Delia Owens described how her life of studying lions and elephants in Africa brought extreme or partial isolation for twenty-three years of her life.

My own isolation in the Outback, for a mere three-and-a-half years, changed me in many ways. I became, like Kya, more self-reliant, more introspective, and a problem solver. When I re-emerged into life in Mexico after the Australian experience, I was socially insecure. I thought it’d take several years for me to feel like the extroverted girl who’d left the comfort and love of her family to form a family of her own on the other side of the world. Then I realized the young girl had been transformed into a woman capable of following her own lighthouse to accomplish her dreams.

Has solitude changed your life in any way?

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944

Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

 About Kathryn

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

Visit my website at https://www.Kathryn-Lane.com

I love hearing from readers. Ask a question, suggest an idea, or comment about the blog. kathrynlaneauthor@gmail.com

Photo credits:

All photographs are used in an editorial or educational manner.

“Follow the Road” by ASTRORDINARY is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“Where the Crawdads Sing” Public Domain

“Perthling” by ASTRORDINARY is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 

 

Deadlines

By Kathryn Lane

I love deadlines! They revitalize me. Twists and turns in my mystery novels become more exciting once I’m approaching the deadline with my editor.

Not all deadlines are equal. Some are important; others can be juggled. Then there are deadlines I gleefully ignore.

At times, I fantasize what would happen if I missed such and such important deadline. That activity takes the form of various possible outcomes, as if I lived in a quantum world where there’s an infinite number of possibilities.

Meeting a deadline!

And it reminds me of a wonderful European film from 1998 titled, Run, Lola, Run. An experimental film at the time, the lead character, Lola, needs to acquire $100,000 deutschmarks in TWENTY minutes or her boyfriend will die. The film gives three versions of what happens. Each version is predicated on the lapse of a few seconds where random, unexpected events happen that impact Lola’s ability to obtain the money. These random events change each one of the three endings.

In the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to think about random, unexpected things that happen. Some are good, some not so good.

On the return trip from the Killer Nashville International Mystery Writers’ Conference (which was wonderful) in late August, we experienced an unexpected event.

Driving through Georgia, a speeding motorist hit us a few miles south of Atlanta. Fortunately, everyone, including the motorist who hit us, walked away with only minor bruises. A different story for the vehicles – both were totaled.

Random events, good or bad, set off unexpected consequences, which ripple through already planned events, like getting a manuscript finished for your editor.

Meeting manuscript deadlines!

As in the three outcomes in Run, Lola, Run, my mind considered various scenarios: If only we had not stopped for gas when we did, if only we had started our journey a few minutes earlier (or later) that day, if only we had been in a different lane. But we don’t live in a quantum world. Nor do we live in a world where we can restart the day and get a different outcome.

Small, unplanned events can add spice to life. Large ones, like car accidents, can create havoc on deadlines. C’est la vie.

Deadlines are important to my characters too. It’s like they’re telling me “If you write it this way, it will be better”. Or they will kick my butt, saying “Go this other direction and get our story told”.

Maybe that’s a little like the different outcomes in Run, Lola, Run. In novels, only the author knows the various endings that could have taken place.

How do you handle deadlines?  

***

Kathryn’s mysteries – The Nikki Garcia Mystery series:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B08C7V2675/ref=dp_st_1942428944

 

Kathryn’s short story collection – Backyard Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Volcano-Other-Mysteries-Heart/dp/1943306044

 All available on Amazon

 Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

 

Make Setting Work for Your Story

 

by Donnell Ann Bell 

Have you ever been reading a novel, only to find yourself skimming over a passage of long, drawn out setting or description? My guess is you did that because you already had a clear visual and were ready to get on with the story. Setting and description belong in a writer’s tool kit and used right are part of an invaluable arsenal.

One of my favorite quotes is by Russian Writer Anton Chekhov who wrote, “I don’t need to know everything that’s in the room, I only need to know what I need to know is in the room.” That made so much sense to me, and why I’ve tried to remember it in my own writing.

What would you write to describe this room?

When I write, I choose locations familiar to me or spend long hours checking out a town’s Chamber of Commerce page, Google maps, and then I contact people who live in the area to beta read and verify I have it correct. I try to sprinkle in popular landmarks, although be careful here; you don’t want it to read like a travelogue.  The best way to mention a landmark is to make it imperative to a scene.

Additionally, because I write mystery, suspense and romantic suspense, if I’m ever going to say something negative about a place, e.g. place a dead body or a murder there, I change the name or make up a fictitious place that blends in seamlessly with an actual area.

Writing around the theme, Suspense too Close to Home, I’ve written about Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, El Paso, Texas and in my most recent novel, Black Pearl, which takes place between Denver and Montrose, Colorado. But the book that I think I did setting particularly well is in my adopted hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the best-selling The Past Came Hunting. Because I’d lived in that city for thirty-plus years, I had a good grasp of the community and its surroundings.

As I mentioned earlier, the best way to mention a landmark is to make it imperative to a scene. (In the following scenes my cop protagonist is on his way to a hearing and my female protagonist is at her job after a brutal end to their relationship.) I could have described the places first then written about their turbulent emotions. Instead, I combined both setting and the emotions they were going through into the narrative. Hopefully, by doing this I upped the pacing . . . .

Joe walked into the building, flashing his badge to the security guards and bypassing the metal detectors. He had the record, the credentials, votes of confidence from peers and subordinates and the support of the district attorney. Combined, these factors all but guaranteed him the promotion to commander.

            He was one lucky cop.

Images of Melanie flashed through his brain as he entered the Division Room Four of a proceeding already in progress. So, with so much going for him, why wasn’t he smiling?

Transition to Female Protagonist

On the West side of town, things weren’t going much better for Mel. With Aaron visiting family in New York, she cleared the glass shelves of Christmas, Hanukah and seasonal items and prepared to mark them down. The best way to overcome heartbreak, she reasoned, was to throw herself into the things going right, namely her son and her job at Pinnacle Creations.

According to Aaron, they had thirty days to reduce inventory, then gear up for Valentine’s Day, Thanks to holidays and special occasions, the floral industry never ended. Unlike relationships.

Ideally, I didn’t have to describe a courthouse or a floral shop because these things are so well known to us. Setting and description are vital to a book. But like dialogue, external and internal narrative, emotion, and above all, an author’s voice, they are tools. Too much of anything is overwriting.

How about you? Any tips on setting you'd like to share? 

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author, including finalist in the 2020 Colorado Book Award, she is the author of Black Pearl, book one of a series, and is currently editing book two. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, or Bookbub. Sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.com