I never wanted to be a “romance novelist”

When I first started writing "for real," I wanted to write something with depth. While I grew up reading romance novels, they weren't the category romances. They were mysteries, or gothic romance. Stories with romance, yes, but more depth. Back then, Harlequin category romances were pretty silly. No substance. So I set to writing a story, and discovered my romantic soul wouldn't be happy if I didn't also include a romance.

I popped into a writing forum and found some Harlequin authors. Instead of being supportive and encouraging, they wanted me to write -- how do I put this nicely? -- "down" to their level. Heaps of adverbs. Over the top responses. Sighs and gasps and beautiful people. And they were mean about it. Clearly, I was in the wrong place. 

Fast forward. Romance novels have come a long way. Harlequin is no longer the imprint with all the typos and the "bodice ripping" and the silliness. They've developed several subgenres and are more "serious" (I don't know how else to describe the step up into better editing and better writing) books. They are still different from the other houses, but this highlights another trend I've noticed in the past several years. The other publishing houses have tried to distance themselves from romance novels once again by calling them "women's fiction." 

Women's fiction used to be stories about a woman's journey of self-discovery. Becoming who she was meant to be. In this denigration of romance novels, two of my favorite romance novelists have been forced to write women's fiction, which became "romances with more depth." (Isn't that what I wanted to write from the get-go?) One of those authors has gone from writing fun, quirky stories to "stories that make you cry." WHY?? If I wanted to cry, I'd read Nicholas Sparks (no offense to Mr. Sparks, but I DON'T like to cry when I read a book). As a result, I'm afraid to read one of her books anymore because the woman's journey is too tear-inducing. "This book made me ugly cry all through it. I loved it." NO. I don't want to cry. I want books to entertain me. To make me feel better. 

I found my groove writing romantic suspense, or “romances with depth.” I also read them to "feel good." When I finished writing my Epitaph series, I was inspired to write a different kind of novel based on a place I'd visited, and the Hillendale novels were born. I still missed my romances (the Hillendales are about a reluctant witch), so I took a break during the course of writing those to return to my romance series (Hoffman Grove). 

And then, it hit (shades of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for dramatic effect). During the pandemic, I didn't get as much exposure to the outside world as I had before, and while I was reading (and in some cases re-reading) gothic romance, I got the idea to write about haunted houses. Many mansions in the area were still open for tours (a chance to get out and about!), so off I went, and the Elspeth Barclay Novels were born. I always love a good ghost story, after all.

Coming back full circle, while I was "out and about" this past weekend, I was working on a plot point for the fourth Elspeth Barclay novel. My mind kept wandering to something my husband said last night. My husband, who never talks about what's in his head (he's a very logical, Sheldon Cooper, kind of thinker) opened up and said, "this election cycle is really getting to me." Me, too, pal. Instead of head-writing, the way I'd planned, I started spinning out of control over the nasty news reports, from the "murder reports" every night that I refuse to watch, to the election coverage, which is so out of control. I stopped. Told myself, "This is why I like to read. To escape all this nastiness." And this is why I like romance novels. You're guaranteed a happy ending, even after all the conflict that gets in the way.

I'm about halfway through Elspeth Barclay #4 (tentatively titled DARK SHADOWS). There are days my neurotic heroine activates my own neuroses and the two get intertwined (thank heaven for the delete key). In this book, however, she is less neurotic after incidents that occurred in the third book, THE JANE DOE GHOST. That helps, but these are not romance novels first and foremost. The romances in these books are VERY understated. Subplots that are more "by the way." 

I do get tired of reading romances sometimes, and I still look for more depth when reading a romance novel. If they want to call that women's fiction, all right, but let's not forget why I'm here. I want that happily ever after, and I want all the feels (without the trail of tears). Is my next book going to be a romance again? If my recent walk out and about is any indication, I'd say it's a good bet. I REALLY enjoyed revisiting my EPITAPH series while my narrator was doing the audiobooks, and if I could recreate that magic, I wouldn't hesitate. Can I?

Worldbuilding - inside an author's head

Have you ever lost yourself inside a book? Found you wanted to live "there?"

At my first writers' conference I sat in on a seminar with a woman who's pen name is Ann Macela. The seminar was on world building, something I had (up to that point) not even thought about. Sure, while I was writing my first novel, I had to construct my world, but I hadn't thought of it that way until I took her class. Ann wrote about magic, and with magic there are rules, so her class was making sure the rules of magic are consistent. There are consequences for using the magic and there are conditions where it doesn't work. I wasn't writing magic, so I wasn't sure it applied. Until I realized it did.

With every book we write, there are settings and people and rules to follow. You have to build the world your characters live in, whether its magical or not. Jill Shalvis created Lucky Harbor (the first series of hers that I read), where you know every shop in the small town. There are recurring characters in every book to provide "color." The quirky little old lady with the blue hair who puts everything she sees on social media, much to the chagrin of those people who don't want everyone to know their business. Then you have vampire books, where the monster can't come out during the day. When I wrote my first book, my father (my biggest fan and my first beta reader) pointed out that he needed to "see" my settings. While I pictured everything in great detail inside my head, I hadn't described any of it on the page. I didn't know it then, but that was my first experience worldbuilding. 

After my class with Ann, I was conscious of building a world when I dipped into the mystical side of my books. I needed to have rules when I wrote the Mist series. I did pretty well for a first attempt with my trilogy. While I thought I stuck to the world I'd built, attentive readers pointed out places to me where I'd wandered ever so slightly out of the realm. (I'm much more structured with my worlds now.)

Whatever genre you write, you need a setting for your characters, the beginning of their world. If it's a small town, you need to know where "Main Street" is and what stores/businesses you'll find there, and who runs those businesses. If you're delving into magic, or mysticism, or ghosts, you need to have rules for that, as well. As Ann said, if your characters practice magic, there needs to be boundaries. What are their limits? Are there consequences for practicing black magic? Does practicing "good" magic come with side effects? What about the community they live in? Is it a magical community, or do the main "magical" characters need to hide their skills? What are the consequences of being caught practicing magic? These are all part of worldbuilding. Once you have the parameters, you need to keep "the laws" in front of you as you write in case your characters go rogue. If you're writing a business district in town, you can't suddenly insert a shoe store because your character needs new gym shoes. It's either already there or it's not. 

For fantasy authors, they have to start from the ground up. Not only do they have to invent the world their characters live in, sometimes they reinvent conventions of time, currency, and communication. 

While writing my ghost stories, I had to implement rules for ghosts. Trust me, I've struggled with these rules more often than I care to admit. In the Epitaph series, my ghosts had a little more leeway. The question was always if she (Amy) can hear the ghosts, can't she talk to them? Nope. It was a one-way conversation, like listening to a radio for Amy. As I continued the series, the ghosts became more interactive. Different people respond to the ghosts differently. One of the ghosts was actually mistaken for a living person. Still, they followed some basic rules. Ghosts need the living to provide them with help for things they can no longer do.

When I wrote the Hillendale Novels, I created a world based on a small town I'd visited (it always makes things easier when you have a real-life model to draw from). Then, I had to build rules around how my characters used their magic. When you read the books, you'll find the rules clearly stated for Brynn.

Now, as I work through my Elspeth Barclay Novels, I have different ghosts with different rules. The dead aren't permitted to speak to the living. Elspeth has a special channel open to communication, but even when she can "hear" them, there are things they can't tell her, and yet they expect her to help them with their unfinished business.

The bottom line: every story has its own world. Whether it's the setting or the unique abilities your characters possess, it has to be consistent. As an author, we need to show our readers every facet of these worlds to draw them in, like welcoming them into the home of our imagination--and showing is the key here. You can tell people about the diner on Main Street, but you need to walk them inside. Look at the menu. Gossip with the waitress. Create a world readers can participate in. If your characters are "special," you need to put parameters around "special" along with what happens when special isn't special anymore, or special is abused. 

At any rate, back to my little world. Elspeth has ghosts to tangle with!

The trouble with research

As Scully and Muldaur used to say, "The truth is out there," and that's one of the downsides of research: You learn the truth.

I'm going to skip right over the political implications of this - and yet those are the BIGGEST reasons to do the research. But moving right along...

I've learned a lot of things during my writing career. I've interviewed firemen. I've interviewed policemen. I've interviewed my doctor. All in the interest of "getting it right." But how do you do the research when the subject matter is gray to start with (this question from my buddy, Sarah). The answer? I interview people who have had "close encounters," and I watch television programs and YouTube videos claiming to show ghostly encounters. I traveled to Savannah in search of ghost stories/encounters. Maybe its something to do with being paid to tell you ghost stories (or the tour guide just lacked the ability to spin a good yarn) versus someone relating their experiences, but I only heard one "interesting" ghost story in Savannah, and that was on my historical tour rather than my ghost tour. 

While writing Horned Owl Hollow, I reached out to a local Paranormal Investigator (PI), but we kept missing connections. So I did research into his business to get his credentials while I was waiting to speak with him. I was a little leery when I found a YouTube video of him in his car OUTSIDE the mansion I toured that inspired Horned Owl Hollow. His comment? "I'd love to get inside this house. I bet its haunted." Welp, I DID get inside that house, and if I can, so can he. So much for his credentials. So when we couldn't make connections, I "noped" pursuing that interview. Instead, I interviewed someone with "Elspeth's" job and got a bunch of good, first-hand ghost stories. 

When I got to The Jane Doe Ghost, I interviewed a more "reputable" ghost hunter, Noah at Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee. The reputable label indicates he applies science. Does the research. We had a very interesting conversation during which I asked him to explain away the ghost stories I'd heard/seen. Unfortunately (the trouble with research, after all), he did pop my bubble on several spooky things I'd personally witnessed, and explained away many of the things I'd found in videos or on tv shows. Nevertheless, he remains optimistic, even after twenty years in the business, that he will encounter the real thing. He said he's been close enough to hold onto his belief that we are not alone. 

As I continue with my ghostly series, I searched out more ghost stories, and found a new video uploaded from the guy I noped on. He did a ghost stake-out that he (and his team) did. It was mildly interesting. I didn't think too much of it - it reminded me of the guy he told me he hoped to emulate, Zak Bagans. For the record, I've watched several of Zak Bagans' shows, and he has grown increasingly over the top. The movie he made was creepy - props to him for that, but his shows? Overacting. Leading his interviewees. Emphasizing what he wants his audience to take note of rather than subtly leading them to draw their conclusions. 

Maybe I'm oversaturated.

Getting back to my point here. Noah at PI of Milwaukee posted a video the other day from a ghost debunker. I love these guys, even if they burst my bubble. 😉 The funny part was he directly addressed one of the techniques the Nope Guy used in his stake-out - a flashlight that turns on and off (which was the mildly interesting part of that investigation). The debunker is Mythos Paranormal, and if you want to watch (or just listen to his delicious Scots accent for twenty minutes), you can check him out here. 

Has all the research spoiled me for ghost stories? No. Like my buddy, Noah, I've had some experiences that defy explanation and can't be debunked (at least so far). I've talked to people with first-hand encounters that send shivers up your spine. I enjoy a good ghost story, even if it's for entertainment purposes only. For those reasons, I'll likely keep writing ghost stories because, true or not, I like a good chill up my spine!

Socializing an author

I know I'm not the only introvert author. However, putting oneself out there is the best way to "find that story."

Many times, people ask "where do you come up with your ideas?" As The Sculptor enters the audiobook world, I've enjoyed revisiting another of my favorite "children." I sat in a training session at the day job with a man who stuttered. I was so impressed with him and his confidence that I gave my main character a stutter. It helps that I had other resources to draw from (thank you Dr. Ruth). These are the things that inspire novels, and things you can only find if you are out in the world among people.

I've since retired from the day job. I don't interact with as many people on a daily basis. During the pandemic when people weren't going out, my pool of inspiration grew shallow. I started visiting places for inspiration, making haunted houses the main characters in my stories. In addition to visiting the houses and researching their history, I interviewed people to flesh out the stories that presented themselves. 

With the pandemic retreating, I made a point to start traveling again. To see people. To talk to strangers. To find stories that inspire me and refill my inspiration pool. I recently read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and I was impressed at how easily the author integrated into a society of interesting characters. He hit the jackpot in Savannah. The book is much more about the people and the society, with the crime as more of a subplot - go figure when it's a nonfiction book about the trials, but hey.

Listening to The Sculptor was a reminder to me that I need to get out more. To meet people. To be inspired by them. Yes, settings will continue to inspire me, but the real story lies with the characters you put into those settings. 

As we celebrate this Independence Day, let's never forget how hard our ancestors fought for our freedoms, something we shouldn't take for granted.

The effectiveness of routine

My routine has been upended this year. Lots of interruptions between travel and other commitments. As with anything, being good at something requires practice. LOTS of practice. Want to play the piano well? Practice. Want to play a sport well? Practice. Want to write well? You got it. Practice.

Writing is hard enough without juggling several different things at one time. Producing the backlist in audiobook for EPITAPH was one of my goals for this year, and my narrator is doing a bang-up job. In addition, keeping up with the audio for the Elspeth Barclay series. Audiobooks require a "listening proof" to make sure the narrator hasn't missed something or missed my intentions in their interpretation. This is time away from writing.

I'm trying to write the next Elspeth Barclay novel (tentatively titled DARK SHADOWS), and I won't lie. I'm not very good at "multi-booking." I write a chapter. Listen to a chapter. The good news is I'm getting caught up in those Epitaph books all over again (which means I did something right while I was writing those!). The bad news is it distracts my train of thought on the current work in progress. I'm out of routine. 

Recently, my niece (shout out to Ashley!) went on a solo writing retreat. She's juggling the day job, multiple pet family, and friends and family on a regular basis, so I suspect she doesn't always get the writing time she craves. The good news is she wrote thousands of words while she was gone (congratulations, Ashley!). When routine lets you down, drastic measures must be taken. 

The good news for me - the penultimate audiobook for Epitaph is completed. I celebrated by writing thousands of words in the new book, and I told my narrator I need a couple of weeks to get back into routine before she does the final installment. Happily, I've been able to slip back into that routine, despite it being disrupted with distractions. 

The Most Haunted City...?

Let me start by saying I love Savannah. What a charming city. Spanish moss hangs from the trees like tinsel. The brick sidewalks are often uneven and treacherous, but they're beautiful. Gaslights welcome visitors to doorways, and the "haint blue" ceilings on the porches are meant to keep the spirits away. They have town squares every couple of blocks, for a total of 22 remaining out of the original 24, squares where the townspeople could muster if invaders threatened their peaceful lifestyle. Savannah is rich in history.

We did several tours, and I have to say we heard much of the same information on almost every tour. This isn't a bad thing for those of us who might not have been paying full attention, and it's interesting to hear the varying takes on certain aspects, like the Forrest Gump bench at Chippewa Square. It isn't there. Why not? Well, one tour guide told us because it was being defaced, so they moved it to the historical society. Two other tour guides told us it was a Hollywood prop and went back to California when production ended. They did note that because of the interest, the historical society had one to commemorate the movie. 

We walked through Colonial Park Cemetery, colonial because it dates back to civil war days when soldiers encamped there - soldiers who defaced some of the tombstones when they were bored. One of my favorite stories, a stone was altered to honor the mother of ... 117 children. Many of the stones were displaced and are now along an "orphan" wall because they don't know where the graves are. Oh, the graves are there, but with the stones moved, they aren't sure which one is which. That, and the tombstones are so weathered as to be almost illegible. The thing about the cemeteries in Savannah, though, is that they are parks. Families would go to the cemetery and have picnics with their dear departed. The green space is beautiful. Then, there's the dark side of the cemeteries. Some of the land was reclaimed to be built over - without moving the bodies buried underneath. This is where the haunted histories come from. Bodies buried under streets, under houses that were built when the boundaries of the cemetery parks were pushed back. 

One of my favorite ghost stories was about a young Irish immigrant named Mary Reilly. The Irish were sent to America to work off their debts as indentured servants. Mary had a very nasty master, and one day she and her boyfriend schemed to kill the old guy off. As she was giving him his morning bath, she held his head under water and killed him. She was the first person in Savannah tried for murder, along with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was sentenced to hanging, but Mary got a reprieve due to the fact she was pregnant. When the child was born, they took the child from her and strung her up, too. Now they say Mary wanders the square looking for the child they took from her. 

Then we visited Bonaventure Cemetery, famous from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Our guide was very knowledgeable about its history, and relayed many stories, including the ghost stories, but he was also very fact based, i.e., he'd tell us "people say" and give us the alternate facts, but he had "true facts" to back up what really happened, and sources to check. The statuary and symbolism in the cemetery are things that always interest me (making me a taphophile of sorts, if you've read EPITAPH), and while they had a lot of interesting things to see, one of the statues most people come looking for (which was used on the cover of the aforementioned book) has also been relocated to the history museum on account of strangers traipsing over the graves the statue marked. The family wasn't happy about people trespassing on their family plot. Regardless, there are plenty of other interesting things to see, and a reminder that the plots - which are all clearly sectioned off - should be respected as private property. 

I have to say, for all the things we saw, I never had a sense of anything otherworldly lingering about. The Savannahians, however, are happy to exploit the tourism the two famous movies (and others) have brought to the fair city. Of all the tours we took, I was most disappointed by the "Ghost" tour, almost as if our guide was bored with it all. Her storytelling skills were lackluster, and she rushed through the tales she passed along. That particular tour also employs some theatrics, which were over the top for me and annoyed me more than they added to the experience. We stopped at one of the "haunted" locations, where they took us to a room, turned the lights off, and an actress came on a small stage to "frighten" us with more tales and special effects. Nope. Not what I was looking for, but probably fun for some people. Maybe I should incorporate something like that in one of my stories and have the actors "visited" during their performances. What do you think?

I enjoyed my trip immensely (did I mention the delicious food?), and while I learned many interesting things (Keeping Up With The Joneses, for instance, refers to the "fancy" houses on Jones Street and not a neighbor named Jones), the haunted history didn't do much to inspire me - which isn't to say some of what I learned won't end up in one of my books. 😉 

Low Country Boil

Tripping on air, and other talents

When I went on my writer’s retreat, one of the questions I continued to struggle with was what purpose do the MMs have in the current book? Do they have a purpose? Or am I forcing them where they don’t fit?

Without giving too much away, my editor asked about something in THE JANE DOE GHOST that wasn't neatly tied up. She suggested maybe it would be addressed in the next book in the series. This is one of those moments where I thought (at least in my mind - would have been nice if I shared that with readers) it was self-explanatory. So I've gone into this next in series with an eye toward explaining what was left dangling (what I'm coyly referring to as the MMs). I could easily have explained them away in Chapter 1, saying "well, that mystery is over, and the MMs went with it." But what fun is that? However, without a reason for them to appear in THIS book, I wasn't inclined to give them a storyline. 

Until I was.

I am NOT A FAN of books that don't finish a story line in one book. Where dangling threads remain, this reader's attention is lost. Don't play with me that way! Is that what I'm doing? No. Jane Doe's story is well and truly finished, but there are other things afoot in the universe that remain. Sort of like when a character is injured (no spoilers!) and the end of the book is the beginning of their recovery journey. You have to assume that will be continued in the next book, but it isn't a dangling thread, per se. Likewise, the MMs are more of something that wasn't front and center in the last book but are jumping into the spotlight in THIS book. Well, maybe not the spotlight, but definitely interwoven into the plot, whereas in the last book they were mysterious "what is that?" background characters. 

Now. Allow me to take a detour for a moment. Has anyone ever read a Jennifer Cruisie book? This woman is funny. I first read one of her books when my buddy Jennifer (no relation) sent me a box of books for market research. I rolled my eyes and said, "this isn't what I want to write, though." Until I read it. That market still isn't one I'd write for, or CAN write for, but some authors transcend genre. Fast forward about 20+ years. Jennifer Crusie is still writing books, and now she's collaborating with Bob Mayer. Has been for several years. In fact (completely irrelevant to this post, but I'm detouring, after all), I met them both at my first writers conference when they'd first started collab-ing. She's been posting regular updates on the progress of the series they're currently working on, and I'm in awe of the way she is so meticulous about plotting and planning the series. She leaves room for surprises, as one must, but I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and am always amazed when I find threads to pull through my series books. Almost as if I'd planned it that way! So why are we on this detour? Because I'm having one of those moments now with my MMs. An afterthought becomes a thread that moves this series forward. Flashes of unexpected brilliance.

But you're wondering about the subject line of this post, aren't you? I'm going to avoid another detour, but I'll ask a simple question. Do you ever have moments where you "trip on air?" Stumble for no apparent reason? What if there was a reason all this time and you just never realized it? Me? I'd like to blame my lack of grace on something other than myself from time to time, and my MMs have provided me that opportunity. "It isn't my fault, the MM tripped me!" But even mischief makers have a helpful side. And that's where I'm taking the question of "but what about..." from my editor. 

Stay tuned.