Editing, Updating, and Completing a Manuscript

 

By Kathryn Lane

Technology innovations are accelerating at warp speed. At least that’s what it seems like in my writing world.

A year-and-a-half ago, I started research about a child math prodigy interested in rockets and space travel. The story takes place in the present day. The plot revolves around a family-secret type mystery and a subplot involving the girl’s dream of space exploration.

Then my commitment to write another novel in my Nikki Garcia mystery series shelved the girl-genius project.

Recently I took up the prodigy manuscript again and realized that maybe I should re-do my research since space travel has changed – several ordinary citizens have flown to or near the Kármán line – an imaginary but practical boundary separating mere air travel from space travel. Blue Origin flew 62 miles above the earth’s surface and kissed the Kármán line while Virgin Galactic flew a bit over 50 miles, the altitude where the Federal Aviation Administration awards astronaut wings to crew members.

The real clencher is SpaceX’s flight to the International Space Station. The crew were civilians. These three events impact important details in my young girl’s story.

All of those events were anticipated in the manuscript. Yet now they’ve actually occurred and it’s possibly a game changer for me. I'm wondering if I should make several substantial edits. Not that those space companies will be mentioned specifically, but the accomplishments do impact the story.

I can leave the novel as it was originally conceived and not re-do my research or I can spend time rethinking and rewriting it. You, as writers, might tell me it’s irrelevant to update it since I’d never complete it if I keep revising for the latest space and scientific discoveries. That’s true, but these events have been groundbreaking. To ignore them would be the easy way out. Plus the developments of the past year should make a positive difference in the young girl’s story.

Regardless of whether I update or not, the novel is about three-fourths done. If I’m going to make changes, now is the time.

Has anyone else faced this issue? If you have any advice, please share it!

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

Earth Math by NASA 

Rocket Launch - Twitter

SpaceX's Dragon Capsule Docking with the International Space Station by NASA 

Serendipitous Discovery!

By Kathryn Lane

A week's’ worth of newspapers, yes, old-fashioned printed versions, beckoned me on the coffee table. I confess that in the midst of downsizing and moving, I’d been too busy to read them.

Working my way through the papers, I hit serendipity! An article about the changing car culture.

Ford's 1896 Quadricycle

What was serendipitous about that? It covered a topic I’d mentioned in my May newsletter.

First, I should explain that I ask my newsletter readers to submit their favorite quote to me, promising that I will use it in a future newsletter.

This month’s quote was: “My friends are my estate”, submitted by Ann McKennis, a fabulously supportive fan of my work. Instead of analyzing why an introvert like Emily Dickinson would write these words to a friend in a letter, I explored the idea of friends.

So I wrote about the lifelong friendship of inventors Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In 1896, Ford introduced his quadricycle. It ran on gasoline. Edison congratulated his friend, but told him to “keep at it”, predicting electric cars were the wave of the future. It also inspired Edison to work on an electric version.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford 

As a writer, why are cars important to me? Authors use them in novels all the time. Think getaway cars in a robbery, luxury vehicles villains use to impress women, and forensic investigators recovering evidence from cars involved in homicides. Vehicles often break down on dark, isolated roads in crime stories. The list goes on.

Cars are important in real life crime as well. John Dillinger, the infamous criminal, made the Model A Ford synonymous with a gangster’s choice in driving during the 1930s. Then Bonnie and Clyde used a 1934 Ford 730 Deluxe Sedan, a car later riddled with bullets when they were killed.

The Bonnie and Clyde Car

I marveled at the coincidences of stumbling upon a great article about electric and gasoline cars, especially since Edison and Ford were mentioned. Plus, I learned something new: in the early 1900s in New York City, there were more electric cars than those that ran on gasoline.

So what happened? According to Daniel Yergin, Edison put money, effort, and his personal prestige into developing an electric vehicle, but Ford’s gasoline Model T won the hearts of car buyers. Almost a century later, General Motors introduced a mass-market electric vehicle. In 2008, Tesla introduced the stylish Roadster.

Fiction writers will follow the trend. Electric cars are here to stay. The infrastructure to support self-driving vehicles is under construction. I’m anxious to see authors using self-driving cars for getaways. Of course, institutions that villains can rob may be all online, making the getaway car obsolete.

***

Are you using electric cars in your novels?

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

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series: eBook Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

 Photo credits:

Quadricycle: "1896 Ford Quadricycle Runabout, First Car Built by Henry Ford" by The Henry Ford is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford by Tom Raftery is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND-SA 2.0

The Bonnie and Clyde Car "DSC_0081" by Jay Bonvouloir is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Newspaper Article: Wall Street Journal, Weekend Edition ─ April 24-25, 2021; “The New World of AutoTech” by Daniel Yergin.

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye Marrs

Origin and Evolution of the Mystery Genre

 By Kathryn Lane

When I’m about to start writing a new Nikki Garcia mystery, I take time to look back, like traveling through a time capsule, to the origin of the genre.

Most literary historians place the origin of mysteries in 1841 when Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Murders in the Rue Morgue. He invented devices of suspense fiction still in use, such as the subconscious motivation of his characters.

Poe also used kernels of truth in his fiction. Murders in the Rue Morgue is set in Paris. Since I like to place my novels in foreign countries, I wondered why Poe used Paris as his setting. It turns out that the first known private investigative firm was founded in that city by François Vidocq, a former criminal who became a criminologist and was also instrumental in organizing the Sûreté that became part of the national police force with Vidocq as its first director.

Apparently, Poe created the first fictional private investigator, Dupin, based on what Poe knew about Vidocq. I doubt Poe ever anticipated the reading public’s enduring fascination with suspense and mysteries, which have also evolved into thrillers.

The next big innovator, Arthur Conan Doyle, borrowed from other genres, including humor and romance, to spice up his Sherlock Holmes series, a trend some current authors tend to follow.

Agatha Christie invented the husband-and-wife team and moved her stories to the country, thus inventing the cozy mystery. She dropped clues in her stories so the reader could figure out whodunit.

A lot of experimentation followed in the genre, creating hard-boiled crime, spy thrillers, psychopathic and serial killers, and the psychological thriller.

Readers who enjoy mysteries often prefer stories full of twists and turns with memorable characters and plots that keep them turning the pages.

After I go down memory lane in my time capsule, I enjoy reflecting on specific ideas that might help me in my next project, such as creating more tension between characters, perhaps experimenting with an unstable character, or seeing how some of my favorite authors have used foreign locations to make the story more satisfying.

As a reader, what do you anticipate in a new mystery? 

Or, as a writer, do you look at the work of other authors, either current or past, to inspire you?

***

Kathryn’s books – The Nikki Garcia Thriller series and her short story collection – Backyard Volcano. All available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11

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 and plunged 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

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

Photos:

Crow, Investigator with Pipe, and Fingerprint – Public Domain

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye Marrs

Gay Yellen: Block that Gift!

A wonderful friend threw a fabulous launch party for me in 2014 when my first book, The Body Business, was published. And several months later, she bought me a gift I'll never forget. She said that the moment she saw it, she knew I had to have it.

I knew she meant well, so instead of recoiling in horror at the otherwise harmless paperweight, I thanked her for her thoughtfulness. But just to be safe, I hid it in a closet, far away from the room where I write.

The Gift

By the time I finished the second book in The Samantha Newman Mystery Series, the gift was out of my thoughts. That book was such fun to write!

I'd planned to launch Book #3 in 2020. But in early January, an unidentified virus brought me to my knees. It was March before I could sit at my desk to do mundane tasks like open mail and pay bills.

Then my husband's brother died. And my mother died a month later. By May, I found it impossible to concentrate on any project that called for clear thinking. Add to that the general distress we all suffered last year, and. . .

. . . Book #3—all 70,000 words of it from 2019—lay dormant. More than once in my struggles, that elegantly wrapped gift haunted me from the closet. I considered slinging it off the balcony. 

By last summer's end, I managed to return to writing with a short piece for the Jungle Reds and my monthly Stiletto Gang post. Which made me wonder why, if I could  put 500 words together for a blog, I still couldn't manage a few more to complete my book?

Words are words, right? So, what's the difference?

I think I've figured it out.

Writing Fast vs. Writing Deep

In my magazine days, part of my job as managing editor was to oversee the monthly deadlines of our staff writers and contributors. When it was time to lay out an issue, if a scheduled piece was M.I.A., or a writer went rogue, delaying the print run was never an option. I had to find or write a filler. Fast. 

I got good at writing fast. Laser focus and a hard deadline was all it took. Similar to writing a monthly blog post. But it takes much, much more than that to write a book.

Novel writing is deep. It's immersive. It requires sustained concentration, plus the mental energy to wrangle multiple loose threads into a complete, coherent whole. Which was impossible for me to accomplish in 2020.

Really, I'm fine. . .

The Bright Side

These days, with comfort tea to bolster me, I'm back at work on Book #3. I'm glad to be going deep again, and so very grateful to have made it through. Fingers crossed for getting it done by spring.

I hope you survived last year intact, and with enough resilience to weather the ill winds that still batter us. May our beloved country be restored to health. And may you have a sweet 2021.

 

Gay Yellen is a former magazine and book editor. She writes the award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business and The Body Next Door. Book #3 in the series is slated for release in 2021. Gay would love to hear from you, here, on Facebook, or at her website, GayYellen.com.

Gay Yellen: The Fortuneteller's Prophesy

Ever had and unexplainable, eerily paranormal experience? In honor of Halloween and El Dia de Los Muertos, I offer my spooky, true story.

It began in the other-worldly parlor of a New Orleans psychic, the summer after college. I was making a movie there. As we finished the day's shoot, the cinematographer invited me and another friend to join him and his wife, Donna, for an unusual get-together.

His mother-in-law had recently died. Deeply grieved, Donna had found a spiritual psychic who promised to put her in contact with her Mom beyond the grave. My friend and I were to provide emotional support during the session.

That evening, we parked in front of an old brick two-story in a poorly lit neighborhood near the French Quarter. We rang the bell. Madame, the psychic, opened the door. Round and elderly, with unnaturally black curls framing her pudgy, wrinkled face and a huge antique cameo at her bosom, she wobbled ahead, leading us into a stuffy parlor.

Blood red walls flickered with candlelight from dozens of votives scattered around the room. An altar-sized crucifix of Jesus, eyes rolled back in ecstasy, hung above the mantel. Statuettes of saints populated almost every flat surface.

The cinematographer and his wife sat on a fraying black satin sofa, holding hands. Heavy burgundy curtains blocked the windows behind them. Madame pointed us to two side chairs and settled herself into a gold brocade wing-back.

She asked Donna if she'd made contact with her mother since their last session. Donna shook her head, teary-eyed. Madame said not to worry, because she had indeed reached Mom, and all was well. Donna simply needed more practice.

Madame instructed us to shut our eyes and concentrate on Donna's goal. I tried my best to conjure her mother, sitting beside her, whispering in her ear. But after a minute or so, Madame stopped the exercise. Mom hadn't shown. We all had failed.

Then Madame turned to me. "I am seeing a very strong image over you. Might we pursue it?" Since the woman knew nothing about me, it felt safe to play along. I nodded.

"Are you a writer?" she asked. Was this about Donna, or me? I hesitated. Barely twenty-one, I was focused on an acting career. 

The actress, that summer.

The only things I'd written back then were class assignments, my honors thesis, and a little poetry. I shook my head.

"Hmm," she muttered. "The image is remarkably clear. Someone is writing, always writing—a story perhaps, or a book. Are you sure you don't relate to that?"

I shrugged.

Madame shut her eyes. "The image is too strong. Perhaps someone close to you is a writer?"

"No one."

Madame seemed baffled. She went quiet for a moment. "I also see a dog, a little white dog, running up to you. A beloved pet. The image is very clear."

The white pup.

Totally wrong. I'd never had a white dog. Besides, if I ever got one, white would be my last choice. I shook my head again.

Madame was a fake, for sure. I never gave the incident a second thought. Until...

A decade later, I was playing with the puppy that had unexpectedly entered my life. Out of the blue—as my very white, very beloved pooch ran toward me to return the ball I'd tossed in our regular game of fetch—Madame's vision popped into my brain, like a crazy mind-meld across the years. Goosebumps. Was this the little dog she'd "seen" years before?

Spookier yet, we fast-forward to today. I don't know if Donna ever made contact with her mother, but as I write this post, and I work to complete my third book, I can't escape the memory of that strange night at Madame's. Because now, I am writing, always writing.

Madame was right. I am a writer.

Have you experienced a spooky event like this?

Gay Yellen is a former magazine editor and the award-winning author of the Samantha Newman Mystery Series, including The Body Business and The Body Next Door (Amazon.) Book #3 in the series is slated for 2021. She'd love to hear from you, here, on Facebook or her website.

Tripping Over Research

 By Kathryn Lane

Planning a research trip!

Research is a must for scientists and academic writers who either “publish or perish”. And it’s also a necessary activity for people who pen non-fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction.

But what about genre writers?

To me, authenticity is important in novels. Without it, readers lose interest. Plot, characters, setting, and time period are important elements that often should be augmented with research. For example, a character with a particular illness must be presented authentically, so research of symptoms and treatments could be important.

Sagrada Familia Basilica 

As a suspense and mystery author, I delve into police procedures, murder weapons, guns and how to use them, and even the interior of ambulances. Settings form an important element in my novels ─ I often place my stories in foreign countries. To make the reader feel they are experiencing that locale, I do online research. Before completing a manuscript, I take a trip, camera in tow, to check out my locations. I want to verify I’ve described the environment as accurately as possible, including geography, culture, architecture, historical facts, or even practical items such as how the police are organized in another country.

Before completing my last novel, Revenge in Barcelona, my husband and I traveled to Spain. We spent time imbibing the culture, sampling the food, verifying historical tidbits, and touring architectural sites I’d built into the story. Plus a friend in Barcelona set up a meeting with an antiterrorism agent (who remained anonymous) to discuss the various police and counterterrorism forces working in Catalonia, the part of Spain where the tale happens.

Cave Art from Aurignac

Early in the manuscript, I had protagonist Nikki Garcia and her fiancé visit Franco-Cantabrian caves containing paleolithic art. I’d built scenes where the antagonist followed them, just out of sight, through these isolated parks. I’d personally visited the caves to get them right. While editing the manuscript, I realized the cave section did not fit the story or add real intrigue. It was an information dump. So I cut that adventure, retaining only a couple of passing mentions to the antiquity of cave art since it’s in keeping with Nikki’s character and her love of ancient archaeological history.

How did I realize I had an info dump? Following my rule that research incorporated into fiction should be balanced, I’d highlighted my research in yellow as I wrote to keep track of it. Upon editing the work, the unnecessary research popped out ─ I was literally tripping over my research.

***

Have you ever researched so intensely that you’ve incorporated an information dump into your writing?

                                                                                ***

Photo credits: Map - courtesy of glenn-carstens-peters-ZWD3Dx6aUJg-unsplash.

Façade of Sagrada Familia Basilica, Cave Art from Aurignac, and Nikki Garcia Trilogy by Kathryn Lane. 

                                                                        

Kathryn’s books – The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series and her short story collection – Backyard Volcano. All available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11

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

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/