Truth is Stranger than Fiction

I was having dinner with my nephew the other night and he asked what my new book was about. 

You all know by now that I was inspired by a local cold case while I was writing THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER. The story still fascinates me, even after it was solved. All the evidence the police found, all the clues they followed, the way they looked at the angles in the case. You can read my previous blog post about the case here.

At any rate, I was telling him the story, which prompted him to tell ME a story about a trainwreck in Southern Illinois from 1971 that has recently come back into focus. Eleven people died, but one victim went unidentified, and they buried the remains under a memorial stone as such. With the advances in technology and DNA identification, a reporter made the case for exhuming the body all these years later to finally put a name to the victim, but when they opened the body bag, they had spare body parts, i.e., more than one victim buried in the grave. Who else was buried there? That remains (no pun intended) to be seen. DNA has been sent for identification, which takes time.

Naturally, the story sparked my interest. I've been contemplating my next novel and planning a field trip over the weekend to walk around a spooky locale that was once owned by a macabre, eccentric locally famous person. I didn't really have a story plot in mind yet, expecting inspiration to hit while I was touring the estate, but now I'm envisioning conflating (yes, that's my new favorite word) the two stories together--the estate along with the exhumation of an unidentified body that becomes bodies. My imagination is already seeing pictures and having conversations with the characters about what happened and how this comes to light. 

This might be a good time to tell you the first ARC reader for THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER came back asking about the cold case featured in that book. It seems she lives not far from me and is familiar with that case (it made the news as far away as South Carolina, based on my dinner conversation the other night). She found the local aspect was fun, and while she knew the "real" story, she liked the way I'd adapted it to fit my story. (This is called artistic license.) Too many times, when I've tried to include nuggets of truth in my novels, people come back with "that could never happen" when, in fact, it did. This is where artistic license comes into play. I can modify things to make them more believable, OR I can make sure the characters are right beside you with the "no way" attitude. It highlights the improbability while also pointing out the fact of the matter.

So while I'm plotting and preparing to write, this is a good time to remind you that THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER is now available in paperback, with the ebook version releasing on July 23. You can preorder the ebook for a discounted price, but that price will go up once it's live, so order now! 

Prime Days

For Amazon lovers, this is the week they're offering all their discounts. For those of you who are NOT Amazon lovers, the good news is my new book, THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER, is discounted everywhere as long as you preorder it. (Click the title to find your favorite bookseller.)

Me? I'm not buying anything right now. I'm doing my last passes (i.e., having Word read the book back to me) to catch all those last-minute mistakes in the book that need to be corrected), and yes, I'm finding silly little things that sneak through even after I've read it multiple times, even after my editor has reviewed it. Even when I worked the day job, there was always a sense of ... shock? disappointment? surprise? ... when errors crept through no matter how many eyes had been on a project. I have a lot of confidence in the auditory editing pass. You can fool the eyes after multiple reads, but your ears will hear what you eyes miss. 

So apologies that this post doesn't have more "meat," but I'm focusing my creative juices on making the book as perfect as I can. Go buy it before the price goes up! (please? 😁)

In the old days... Finding my next read

When I was a kid, if you wanted a new book to read, you went to the bookstore or to the library. Both were down the street from where I lived, and I was a frequent visitor to both. The bookstore eventually moved to the mall, so the library became my sole source of entertainment.

If I wanted a mystery to read, I headed to the mystery stacks. I went through a biography phase. A Gothic phase. There was something fascinating in touching the spines, pulling one down and randomly checking it out. When I was in high school, I spent my free periods in the school library.

Nowadays, we do online book searches that have become SOOOOO complicated. Yes, you can narrow those down. I can still search for a mystery, or a biography, or a Gothic romance, but it just isn't the same. No more walking among the stacks. Discovering a hidden treasure. In the electronic age, authors are scrambling for attention. Online bookstores let you search everything from genre to trope to category. You can narrow your choices down to the exact thing you want -- and find a thousand unrelated titles.

I've been looking at my TBR pile, books I've gotten here and there that are waiting to be read. I haven't made a lot of additions in recent months, aside from books I KNEW I wanted to read. I've come to the decision I should read through what I have, then revert to old habits. Go to the library. Be among "my people" and search out my next book there. The problem is the changing landscape of books. The library doesn't give shelf space to dozens upon dozens of authors waiting to be discovered. Yes, the library stocks indie authors, but on a very limited basis. On the other hand, I have been reading many indie and "new to me" authors for the past 20 years. It might be time to catch up with some of my old favorites. But here's the thing. I've found recently that some of my favorite "big name" authors are going the indie route. Jill Shalvis, for example. She recently released a new book, and she's been telling people loudly that if you go to a bookstore, you'll probably have to order it because ... bookstores don't stock indie authors. Jennifer Crusie is another one. I don't know if she's still writing books alone or only the joint projects with Bob Mayer, but I do know Bob Mayer has taken their collabs indie. Which brings me back to...

Where am I going to go for future reads?

Another option is e-books through the library. While they don't have the same physical inventory they used to, you can easily find electronic copies, and if I want it badly enough, I could ask them to order the hard copy. I do miss reading hard cover books. Then again, hard cover seems to have gone the way of vinyl records. Available on a limited basis. 

As you can tell, I'm a tad overwhelmed. This from trying to categorize my own new release so people can find it. When I look for related titles... they're not. So I'll just tell you it's a romance. It has a ghost. It has a cold case. It has a tour guide and a photographer. If it sounds interesting, you can preorder it. Release day is July 23!

Click here for more information

Getting down to the nitty gritty

You'd think after reading a manuscript multiple times, the mistakes would be minimal, but each pass has its purpose. 

The new book goes to the editor this week, and for the first time probably ever, I’m scrambling. Usually I have it to her early. I’ve had things interfering. Trips and surgeries and projects, oh my. On top of that, the program I rely on to help me with edits is no longer “a thing.” Instead of having something visibly show me usages, I’m back to searching for the overused and filler words, among other grammatical snafus. Here’s hoping I haven’t misspelled my heroine’s name (yes, I’ll check for that). I’ve removed dozens of instances of “just” and “up” and other adverbs that don’t belong. I’ve fixed instances where I misused “that” and made vague references clear.

After a high level review to make sure things flowed, I’m doing an overall read for the mistakes I’ve created while editing, but because of all the distractions, I’m finding so much more that snuck through. In Chapter 1, my hero is using a notepad and pen. Then a notebook and pencil. He puts his pen/pencil down, and a paragraph later, he does it again - without ever picking it up. All of this in Chapter 1. The story as a whole flows, but now I’m in the nitty gritty. Does everything make sense? Clearly, I still have work to do. Too many silly mistakes. Don’t ask my critique partners about the number of incorrect homonyms I’ve used. My mind has been elsewhere too often this time around, but that’s what editing passes are for, and I’m in the home stretch.

Assuming everything holds together, next week’s blog post should have preorder links for anyone who likes to do that. Baby steps, but I’m getting there!

Torn From the Headlines

Recently, the cold case unit where I live publicized one of the cases they were working on, looking for help. They have a podcast called SOMEBODY KNOWS SOMETHING, and somebody knew something. As the buzz intensified, I got sucked in. It's right where I live, after all. The podcast was easy to find, and while the case was progressing - they had new evidence - I was following along in real time. 

The police department "opened up" the investigation - it was forty years old - after exhausting dozens of leads and dead ends. They shared information never before shared. Details previously unknown. Listening to them investigate the case, step by step, was fascinating. A woman disappeared. Poof. Vanished into the ether. She disappeared with her car, so the original conclusion was that she chose to disappear. Got in her car and left. But where did she go? There was no trace of her. No trace of her car. Once she'd been reported missing, the police searched her apartment and found the title to her car. - a paper trail they could follow. Someone would have to buy the care eventually. Or sell it. Or wreck it. For any of those options, they'd need the title, and police were in possession. Nothing ever pinged. 

The inclination is to blame a spouse or lover. She had a boyfriend, the man who reported her missing (three days after she disappeared). Didn't anyone miss her prior to three days? They looked at him, suspecting him of foul play, but there was no evidence to support that theory. The case went cold, unsolved, but never closed. 

When the cold case unit took another look, they checked all the options again. Interestingly, a serial killer had rented the missing person's apartment before she did. Was it possible he'd returned? Then there was the possibility that the woman, who'd been at a bar immediately prior to her disappearance, might have been harassed/abducted/disappeared by a biker gang who had been hanging around in the parking lot that night. They had lots of suspects, and had to consider whether her disappearance had been orchestrated. Unfortunately, they were short on witnesses who could pinpoint the woman's last moves.

Forty years later, a witness came forward who said they'd seen this woman leave in her car. So what happened to her if she left of her own volition? 

The cold case team started looking into details. Forty year old topography maps. Weather reports. Climate reports. Since she'd been seen driving home, the police looked at what routes she might have taken and a new theory began to form. One of those routes runs beside a river. During their historical investigations, they found the river had been at record flood stage when she disappeared. The weather had also been colder than normal, which might have led to slick conditions and possible patchy ice. If she'd been drinking at the bar, she might have been impaired. The road ran through a wooded area where deer (or other animals) might have darted in front of her. No street lights back then. Could she have lost control and ended up in the river?

For the first time in forty years, the police called in a dive team, Chaos Divers, to check the river. They used sonar to check the river for targets - submerged vehicles and the like. They found three targets on a chilly March day and went in to check. After two strikes, the diver came aboard to warm up. They were already making plans to check other nearby bodies of water the next day when the diver made the decision to go back down to eliminate the third target. Checking off boxes. He came up with a license plate from a vehicle submerged upside down in the water. It was the license plate from the missing woman's car. 

The podcast highlighted the entire investigation from following leads to recovering the car, which all happened in a surprisingly short period of time. I decided to adapt the case (read "artistic license") for my upcoming book, and as I'm now in the editing phase, I stopped to watch the video Chaos Divers did of the investigation. Now I had visuals to accompany the story. While my book isn't primarily about the cold case, the story does feature prominently.

The recovery was fascinating to follow, as evidenced by the multiple media outlets visible in the video the divers produced. Even after the recovery, the police investigation continued. Was it an accident? Suicide? Foul play? The podcast followed the case beyond the recovery of the missing woman into the remainder of the investigation. They were able to determine the emergency brake had been engaged. The woman had tried to stop the car in a hurry. There was no other visible damage to the car to indicate a collision of any sort. Whether the river carried her in (it was a smaller vehicle, low to the ground) or she encountered something on the road that sent her into the river is a question they might never be able to answer. The parking brake was enough to rule out foul play, but we'll probably never know exactly what happened that night. The end result is they brought the missing woman home and gave her family closure after forty-plus years. 

Torn from the headlines? Absolutely. Inspiration is where you find it.

Shout out to Chaos Divers, who do this sort of work on a regular basis, relying chiefly on donations. Noble work. They've solved dozens of cold cases related to water disappearances. Check them out. If you are so inclined, donate to their GoFundMe efforts, or other fundraising efforts. 

The book? I'm looking at a July release date. 

Where do you interact with your favorite author?

Remember MySpace? "Tom" pioneered social media as we know it today. Then along came Facebook. Then Instagram. Now there are multiple places to catch up with your favorite authors. TikTok. YouTube.

I’ve long relied on Facebook, but I’m becoming disenfranchised. It pops up reels in my feed that are clearly AI generated, easily dismissed garbage. Even the recipes that show up are generated by bots. Are the recipes tried and true? Can I trust anything in my feed? I saw an "article" today that featured Ron Howard and Henry Winkler with "then and now" photos. Except the "then" photo wasn't Henry Winkler. Seriously? Do they think people won't notice? That wasn't the first time I'd seen "not the celebrity advertised" in a photo, a clear sign this article is click bait or spam or something equally horrifying. THIS is why AI/bots aren't the future. 

Still, old habits are hard to break. Where should I hang out more often? I don't do TikTok, sorry. I do have book trailers on YouTube. Instagram is pictures, right? How much interaction is there? I have one author friend who posts multiple reels a day as she goes through cancer treatments, updating people on her journey. She's very brave, but I wonder how much traction she actually gets. Still, I post my out and about pictures. BlueSky seems like a friendly place. Substack? I'm still trying to get a feel for that place, but it looks promising. Kristan Higgins convinced me it was a good place to meet readers. But is it?

So I'm asking you. Social media is rapidly changing - there's no question about that. Has it outlived its usefulness? I find I'm spending less time "engaging," largely because I find myself doom scrolling, or not finding any real people. Yes, I still keep tabs on friends and family, but they get buried in all the other miscellanea brought to you by Boris and Natasha (hypothetically speaking, of course).

Inquiring minds want to know. As I finish up this next book (cover reveal coming in my next newsletter!), I'm weighing the value of "live" posts on each of the platforms to see whose out there and what the value is. Where will I find you?

Research, and the things we take with us

There is an adage that you should write what you know. I agree with that, but sometimes you don't know what you don't know. The idea is that if you write about something you have zero experience with, that lack of experience will come through and the writing won't be as genuine. 

Sometimes you have to write to learn something new. 

My first book, TOUCHED BY THE SUN (The Treasure of St. Paul) had me crawling down all sorts of holes doing research. In an effort to "get it right," I learned Italian. I read every guidebook I could lay my hands on for Pompeii and Herculaneum and Southern Italy. I interviewed people who had been to those places, and one told me unless I actually went, I couldn't possibly get it right. When she read the book, she told me I got it right. When I visited, I found more things I might have incorporated, but overall, yeah, I got it right. I ordered little jeweled goblets for swag for my first book signing, and I still have one today.

For every book I write, I inevitably have to conduct some sort of research in order to make sure I have the facts right. Sometimes, the research is to provide a deeper look into something I don't know much about. I learn something from every book I write. I have souvenirs I've collected from some of that research, or as reminders of what inspired a book.

The bulk of my research comes from interviewing people. I've interviewed firefighters and police officers and monument shop owners. When I wrote INTIMATE DISTANCE, I bought myself a gryphon statuette to hang over my computer.  When I wrote COOKIE THERAPY, I learned how to fight off a panic attack. My favorite piece of research was while writing THE TWINS. I needed something my hero could use for "good juju" (essentially). He's a finish carpenter, so I was particularly focused on something wooden. I stumbled upon Palo Santo, and in an effort to know more about it, I bought myself a little cat, carved from palo santo wood. The instructions suggested hanging my cat in the shower to release the fragrant smell, but it sits on my desk. Once I'd discovered there was such a thing, I noticed natural soap makers who sold bath products scented with palo santo. Go figure! How could I resist? Do I buy it for good juju? Eh. Not really. Mostly because I like the way it smells, but it is a luxury item, and the superstition behind it makes it more appealing to someone like me. 

New book is almost done! Final edits from the editor at the end of the month. Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter for release information.