Type M for Murder is five authors who blog regularly, including Donis Casey (see last post) and Vicki Delaney (a fellow Canadian, whom I got to know and like at Left Coast Crime. I also really like her new series, premiering with UNDER THE SHADOW OF A GLACIER). The Type M for Mystery blogsite will now include regular guest blog - and I'm the first! For any writers out there, this is a great site with all kinds of tips. I learned some things that came in very handy at y'day's signing....
... I'm guest blogging on Donis Casey's blog about the Perils of Publicity (well, kinda...)
Donis and I met at Bouchercon in Alaska last fall, when I did my very first mystery conference panel on "The History Mystery." We really hit it off, and have kept in touch. Donis writes about rural Oklahoma starting in 1912. I loved THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING, which is the first in the Alafair Tucker series, and very witty.
She asked me to do a guest blog a while ago - it took me some time to work up my nerve. (Don't ask me why it seemed harder than blogging here... it wasn't.) The Writers Rant is a welcoming kind of place, and I feel right at home here.
and rhododendrons!
I'm doing a signing at the Chapters in Langley this Saturday at 1 and a reading at the UBC Bookstore at noon next Wednesday.
I'm also hard at work on the edit for THE LOST MINE MURDERS, which is consuming every spare moment. I actually like editing/rewriting. Good thing, too - this one is far more work than I'd expected. Which may partly be a consequence of having the first book published - - I'd hate to dissapoint those of you who've told me you can't wait to read the next one, not to mention the reviewers. (No pressure, though....) It's also partly that the writing got interrupted a few times - for the editor's rewrite on SILK TRAIN MURDER, for one, and while I was learning about web sites and publicity and book tours and...
So I'm finding that this rewrite is unfolding in parts. I'm reading and re-writing for plot and pacing at the moment - with some trimming and sentence tightening. The next go-through will be for historical accuracy - when I'm writing, and not sure of a particular fact (which model gun, how much was a silk waist in 1900) I put in a string of asterisks, then at some point in the rewrite, I search on asterisks, and spend a couple of days checking all the facts. I'll read through for character the next time- did I get on the page the people I was writing about? Then another for language - tightening, sentence structure, word choice. Then I usually print the whole thing out and try to read it like a reader. Then make all the changes, mark it done, and it's time to celebrate!
Next weekend I'm going on our third annual four day writing retreat with two other writers. We'll head off to Gabriola Island, which is beautiful (here's a photo from last year)
for a some uninterrupted writing time. It couldn't come at a better time!
I was tagged by fellow mystery writer Vicki Delaney -
http://typem4murder.blogspot.com
author of IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER, among others,
(who'd been tagged by Charles Benoit) and charged
with the following:
Open the book you are now reading to page 123
Find the fifth sentence
Write down the next three sentences and if possible post an
entry somewhere on the internet
Tag five more people and mention the name of the person who tagged you.
I hadn't done one of these before, but it sounded like fun to me!
I turned to page 123 of THE CRUELEST MONTH by Louise Penny, (nominated
for a 2008 Arthur Ellis award for Best Novel), and found the following:
"They stood on the wide veranda for a moment, beside the rocking chairs
and wicker tables, then descended the sweeping stairs and fell into
step. They walked in silence for a minute or two. It was a golden day
with every shade of green imaginiable just appearing."
When you retype another author's words, you realize exactly how good
they are. "Every shade of green imaginable..." is perfect for early
spring. I'm thoroughly enjoying THE CRUELEST MONTH - beautifully,
sensitively written.
I'm tagging fellow authors Clare Langley-Hawthorne, Chris Grabenstein,
Daniel Edward Craig, James Hawkins and Lou Allin.
Wow! I'm thrilled - and so grateful. I didn't see this one coming - OK, I was hoping, but really didn't expect to be shortlisted. I'm still feeling a little stunned.
Here's the full list of nominees (from the CrimeWriters of Canada website):
Best Short Story
Vicki Cameron, “Eight Lords A’Leaping” in Locked Up (Deadlock Press)
Maureen Jennings, “Wreckwood” in Blood on the Holly (Baskerville Books)
D.J. McIntosh, “The Hounds of Winter” in Blood on the Holly (Baskerville Books)
Rick Mofina, “As Long as We Both Shall Live” in Blood on the Holly (Baskerville Books)
Leslie Watts, “Turners” in Kingston Whig-Standard (July 7, 2007)
Best Non-Fiction
Rodrigo Bascunan & Christian Pearce, Enter the Babylon System (Random House Canada)
Robert J. Hoshowsky, The Last to Die: Ronald Turpin, Arthur Lucas, and the End of Capital Punishment in Canada (Hounslow/Dundurn)
Julian Sher, One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators (Random House Canada)
Brian Vallée, The War on Women: Elly Armour, Jane Hurshman, and Criminal Violence in Canadian Homes (Key Porter)
Paul Watson, Where War Lives (McClelland & Stewart)
Best Juvenile
Anita Daher, Racing for Diamonds (Orca)
Anita Daher, Spider’s Song (Puffin Canada)
Vicki Grant, I.D. (Orca)
Shane Peacock, Eye of the Crow (Tundra)
Drew Hayden Taylor, The Night Wanderer (Annick Press)
Best Crime Writing in French
Mario Bolduc, Tsiganes (Libre Expression)
Johanne Seymour, Le Cercle des Pénitents (Libre Expression)
Pierre H. Richard, GHB: Grossier, Horrible et Bête (Editions Pratiko)
Diane Vincent, Epidermes (Triptyque)
Norbert Spehner, Scènes de Crimes: Enquêtes sur le Roman Policier Contemporain (Alire)
Best First Novel
Claire Cameron, The Line Painter (HarperCollins)
Sean Chercover, Big City, Bad Blood (William Morrow/HarperCollins)
Liam Durcan, García’s Heart (McClelland & Stewart)
Susan Parisi, Blood of Dreams (Penguin Australia)
Sharon Rowse, The Silk Train Murder (Carroll & Graf)
Marc Strange, Sucker Punch (Castle Street Mysteries/Dundurn)
Best Novel
Linwood Barclay, No Time for Goodbye (Bantam)
Terry Carroll, Snow Candy (Mercury Press)
Maureen Jennings, A Journeyman to Grief (McClelland & Stewart)
Louise Penny, The Cruellest Month (McArthur & Company)
Jon Redfern, Trumpets Sound No More (RendezVous Crime/Napoleon & Company)
Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (the Unhanged Arthur)
Patricia Flewwelling, Mummer’s the Word
D.J. McIntosh, The Witch of Babylon
Amy Tector, The Paris Letters
Kevin Thornton, Condemned
Congratulations to all the nominees!
The announcement of the shortlist was held simultaneously in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver - so I was at the Vancouver event, held at the VPL downtown. It was a lovely evening (there was cake!), and it was great to meet up with some of my fellow BC writers and not a few readers.
The panel, composed of previous Ellis award winners and nominees from BC: Lou Allin, William Deverell, James Hawkins, David Russell, Phyllis Smallman (whose first book is just out) and Mark Zuelkhe discussed Canadian crime writing in general and their works in particular. I especially enjoyed hearing how each author had come up with the ideas for their series - there were some great stories. Author Kay Stewart did a lovely job of organizing, and it was great to see authors Stan Evans and Daniel Edward Craig,whom I'd met at Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria.
I need to get better at bringing a camera to these things, but Barton Hewett from Crimescene was there, with camera, and he tells me he'll be posting pictures this weekend. Apparently he'd been briefed on the shortlist - I wondered why he'd taken my photo...
I'm also just back from the traditional mystery conference Malice Domestic in Arlington, VA - well, it was last weekend, but a I got in late on Sunday and was back to work on Monday. And those of you who've emailed saying you're looking forward to the next book (THANKS! truly words an author loves to hear!) will be glad to know I'm spending every spare minute editing THE LOST MINE MURDERS and hope to have the edit done by the end of May. Add in Wednesday's event - and the resulting wandering around feeling stunned yesterday - and the week's got away from me ! But I will blog about Malice - it was great fun!
I was inspired by a number of things - cultural changes at the turn of the last century, the westward movement of the frontier, the clash of cultures on the west coast at the time, the English remitance men who tried to find meaningful lives in the "colonies", with varying degrees of success, wondering what happened to those who didn't 'strike it rich' in the Klondike. The bit that sparked the story, though, was hearing a talk on the silk trains on the CBC radio one day - I'd never heard of silk trains, and was intrigued. I tracked down the book that was being discussed, and started learning about "The Silks." When I finally sat down to write, John Lansdowne Granville showed up on the page, and the story evolved from there.
I love doing the historical research, and finding the bits that make me stop and wonder "why?" and "what if?" Granville and Emily's next adventure, THE LOST MINE MURDERS is evolving from the long standing rumour of a lost mine less than 50 miles from Vancouver, an article I'd read about turn of the century orphanages, the establishment of Vancouver's first typewriting school... and a couple of ads in the papers of the day.
While I was out, I picked up a copy of the "Georgia Straight" - the article on the restructuring of the Vancouver Police Department caught my eye (here). Flipping through, I came across the health column written by Dave Watson, who is battling cancer (here). He talks about the uncertainty of never knowing from one day to the next how much energy he'll have, or what he'll be able to do. It made me grateful to be able to be crazy busy.
A few years ago I had some health issues, and ended up with only half my normal energy for awhile. I had to set my priorities and make my choices count. And I walked every morning. How come we value things more when we have to work harder for them?
I'm grateful I now have my energy back. And tomorrow? I'm going walking...
I'd love to know if other writers have as little control over their writing process as I seem to have. A common thread in the books and interviews by writers on writing is the way characters take over and head off in unexpected directions (too true), but not so much on the writing process itself. I can always tell when I'm off track, because whatever it is I'm trying to do simply grinds to a halt. I usually end up trying to force it forward, and beating myself up for my lack of progress (no willpower, procrastinating, etc.) for awhile, then I finally notice the pattern, and give in. I'm getting faster at seeing this (thank God) - it only took two weeks this time. (And I just realized that I was even having to force myself to post here - I guess that's another sign I can watch for that I'm heading in a wrong writing direction.)
Ironically enough, while I was trying to ignore the need to rewrite, the last three reviews for THE SILK TRAIN MURDER have all talked about the series. The latest review, Don Grave's column in Saturday's Hamilton Spectator, here (scroll down) said:
(Wow!) And both the Globe & Mail review and the Quill & Quire review talked about elements that set up the series. Oh. Right. I'm on it. I have some time off next week, and I know what I'll be doing....The dialogue and pacing are brisk with historical facts skilfully employed. The Silk Train Murder has the ingredients for a rich series. The setting holds secrets galore and Rowse's debut encourages one to want more of these secrets told. History and mystery make for a satisfying conspiracy.
With my book launch and all, life got a little crazy, and I didn't post anything about the Pacific Festival of the Book, in Victoria the weekend before last. It was a good event, but unfortunate timing with Easter and spring break resulted in a very low turnout. I got to spend time with a number of the BC chapter of CrimeWriters of Canada, though, including Vicki Delaney, whom I'd enjoyed spending time with at Left Coast Crime, Dan Craig, Lou Allin, David Russell, Stan Evans, James Hawkins, Roy Innes and Kay Stewart, who organized everything for us. Plus Victoria's a beautiful city, and I got to spend time with various friends I hadn't seen it a while. Definitely worthwhile.
There was cake... (mmm, chocolate ganache - Calhoun's did us proud!)
book signing...
a Silk Train themed gift basket draw (and our winner!)...
and general merriment!
Now I really have to finish the next book in the series - so I can throw another party... I mean book launch.
Huge thanks to Linda, our official photographer for the event (49 photos over 3 hours), who also made sure everyone, including the great folks from Dead Write Books, got cake!
... but yesterday was gorgeous (if colder than it looks!)
and
It always amazes me that magnolia and certain palm trees thrive here.
I've just had four days off around the Easter weekend - and got done about a third of my "to do" list. Either I really needed downtime, or my to do list was too long. (Probably both.)
I didn't do much writing, just some editing on the Barbara books, enough to decide that I want to do a more extensive rewrite on them at some future date. That's the mixed blessing of a writer's life - keep writing and you get better, but then you look at anything you wrote awhile ago, and all you see are ways to make it better i.e. completely rewrite it... I also took the lid off THE LOST MINE MURDERS, which seems to be simmering nicely, and should be ready for its rewrite soon.
Tomorrow is my official book launch - if you're anywhere near Vancouver, drop in. Calhoun's, 3035 W. Broadway at 7. Should be a party... (I'll report back, with photos, as I have very talented "official event photographers"!)
Needless to say, I'm thrilled, not least because Sarah's assessment of the characters reflects the way I see them - it's such a wonderful feeling to know that your characters came alive for a reader. I still remember the panel where one of the authors said "it doesn't matter what you intended to write, what matters is what's on the page. You aren't going to be able to stand behind each reader and explain what you really meant." Unfortunately I can't remember who said it, but their words stuck with me.
The review was the highlight of a crazy busy week, so I didn't get to post more historic Denver photos as soon as I'd hoped. So here are a few:
The lobby of the Oxford Hotel, built in 1891
And 1890's photo of the same lobby
A basement hallway at the Oxford, all small hexagonal tiles and marble
Union Station - rebuilt following a fire in 1894 - though in 1900 there was also a stone clock tower, which was torn down in 1914.
and inside Union Station
and the station as it would have looked when Granville and Scott were there.
Arrived on Wednesday, to cold, crisp weather - but not the threatened snow. Here's part of the view from the room on the 19th floor:
Thursday I alternated between attending panels - with so many terrific authors (here) - and my search for a map of Denver circa 1900, as the sequel to THE SILK TRAIN MURDER is partially set here. I found one, too - my quest took me from the tourist info center past the Capital Building (topped with 24 carat gold)
to the Denver Historical Museum then on to the Molly Brown House Museum, where I found my map, and a great book on Victorian and Edwardian fashion.
Friday was the 7:30 New Author's Breakfast - 20 or so debut authors with one minute each to talk about our books. I was up second. As it was 6:30 my time, I wasn't even sure I was coherent - and as I listened to the others give their brief, effective pitches, I was hugely impressed. Apparently my pitch was OK - another new author blogged this... (scroll down to Landing the Fish) I just wish I'd had room in my suitcase to bring home copies of everyone's books (though I did enough damage in the bookroom, my credit card will be whimpering for awhile.)
That afternoon was the The Good Old Days panel: Lauren Haney did an excellent job of moderating, and my fellow panelists Stephanie Barron, Brian Thornton (scroll down to the interview) and Jeri Westerson were thoughtful, informative, fascinating about their respective historical eras and great fun.
I'll post more Denver over the coming week, but now I think I need a nap...
Book Launch for THE SILK TRAIN MURDER!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 * 7 p.m.
Calhoun’s Cafe
3305 West Broadway, Vancouver
This morning I'm off to Denver for Left Coast Crime - if you're attending, I'll be on the Historical Mystery panel on Friday at 2:30 and at the New Author's breakfast at 7:30 Friday morning. If you're not there, I'll blog updates... (And yse, this is being written at 4:30 am. I have an early flight...)
And you know, I've wondered for years why I couldn't pour a cup of tea without it dripping, no matter how careful I was. I figured I was just missing the tea pouring gene. Then this morning, I had the plate of toast in my lefthand, so poured the tea with my right (I'm left handed). No drips! It appears tea pots are designed for right handers. Who knew?
A grey and chilly day, but it's definitely spring. A little more research on Granville 2 today, and making notes to myself for the eventual rewrite. Why is it that no matter how much I tweak the plot on the first draft, the rewrite goes in a very different direction?
Well, as of today, I'm writing again, which feels great! When I finish a draft or a book, I always resist starting the next one, then wonder why I'm crabby and out of sorts. As soon as I start writing again, it's as if some tension inside releases. You'd think I'd remember this from book to book, but no,,, The idea of writing something new is lovely, but actually starting to work on it, well, it's amazing how many excuses it's possible to come up with.
So - the votes for which book I'm working on (mostly recieved off-line) were about evenly split. Probably just as well, as it turns out. Anna was the one insisting on being heard, so it looks like I'll be working on the island/spa mystery while Granville 2 is on hiatus...
I went to one of my favourite coffee shops this morning, got an Americano and a table in the sun, and started working on where the next scene would fall. It was early, and there were only a handful of us there, the coffee was strong and the music good. It was one of those days when everything worked and I love writing - wouldn't it be nice if it was always like that...
Good news on The Silk Train Murder; it was an Editor's Choice Recommended Title -complete with cover photo - in this weekend's Vancouver Sun (Review section.) This is the first Canadian review (and my hometown) so I'm thrilled!
and I think spring is on the way...
It’s the weekend, and weekends are when I write. So what am I going to write while I wait for the first draft of Granville 2 to cook?
I could start something new, or I could work on a couple of books I put aside for THE SILK TRAIN MURDER and its sequel. Both partially written books are contemporary mysteries. I just had a look, and I've actually written just over a quarter of each of them.
One is the fourth book in the Barbara O’Grady series (as yet unpublished). Barbara is a thirty-something PI, living in Vancouver. She’s an artist who gave up painting for investigating (it paid better, believe it or not) and is slowly losing the battle against making her art a priority. She's feisty, wry and has a dry, rather dark sense of humour. Here’s the opening:
She burst into my office late one afternoon, eyes wild. “You have to help me. I’m afraid he’ll kill her.”The other is the first book in a new series, set on an island off the West Coast, and featuring Anna Davidson, who has left an impossible ex-husband and an urban life that threatened her eleven-year old son to open a day spa in the locale, if not the town, she grew up in. It opens:
From the other side of my battered desk, I recognized an impossible case, complete with spiky hair and pierced lip. I seem to have been specializing in impossible cases lately, and I’d promised myself no more. But turning down this client was going to take careful handling. “Sit down and tell me about it.”
“It’s my sister. She didn’t come home.”
For a moment it was my own sister’s patrician features and pinched mouth I saw across the desk, and I felt that familiar twinge of responsibility. I knew all about sisterly histrionics, thanks to some of the stunts Susanna’s pulled over the years. Stunts I ended up rescuing her from. “How long has your sister been gone?” I asked, the neutral tone an effort.
“Since this morning.” The young woman chewed on a fingernail, her breathing rapid and shallow. She wore trainers and bike shorts, carried a helmet. The flat light of late afternoon painted dappled shadows on her pale face. My eyes kept straying to the dark metal hoop through the corner of her lip, my stomach muscles clenching at the thought of what that must have felt like. I'm not good with pain.
My new life began with a phone call from the old, the shrill sound waking me from an exhausted sleep. I grabbed it before it could wake my son, Andy. At eleven, he needs his rest. So do I, of course, but this move’s been hard on him. I want, need, him to like it here.
“Hello?”
“Davina?”
“Hi Mom. And it’s Anna.”
“Yes, of course,” she said vaguely. She’d just forget again. “I’m glad you’re there. I didn’t know if you were on the Island yet.”
“We got in late last night. Very late.”
It went right over her head. “When did you last have your cards read?”
“My what?”
“Cards, dear. Tarot cards.”
“Oh, fortune telling.”
“It’s hardly fortune telling, Anna. Tarot is a mystic art that goes back hundreds, even thousands of years.”
“Oh.” My mother is a dear, but she’s … enthusiastic. And when she takes up a new enthusiasm, it generally lasts about six months, during which time she drives all of her family, friends and acquaintances nuts with whatever it happens to be. I had a feeling that fortune telling was her latest. Why had no-one warned me? “Mother, you do know what time it is, right?”
“Yes, of course, dear. Just past sunrise. The ideal time for reading the cards. And with your new home and your new business, it’s critical that all of the elements line up. I’ll be right over.”
“But Mother,” I began, then realized I was talking to a dead line. I’d been going to point out that she had a half-hour drive ahead of her and that I wasn’t even up yet. With a stifled groan, I went to put the coffee on. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, I prefer teas and herb teas, but for today I’d make an exception.
The two books and their characters are pretty different, except that unlike the historical mysteries, these are both first person. Both Barbara and Anna demanded to tell their own story, their way. But I like both of them. So will it be Barbara or Anna? Any votes? - which one would you like to read? (And you can leave a comment as 'anonymous' without signing in if you’re not an LJ member.)
For THE LOST MINE MURDERS, I needed to know how Granville would get from Vancouver to Denver by train, and how long it would take (I thought 2 days or so.) Checking the net, I managed to figure out that from Denver, you headed north to Cheyenne, Wyoming and then west. No sign of any timetables as to how often trains ran, or when. But I did find the website of the National Railroad Historical Society which noted that their Library (in Philadelphia, no less) had a variety of old railroad timetables available for research. And they had an email address for questions.
So I emailed them, explaining what I needed to know and why, and asking for any guidance they might have as to how to find the answer. I got a response from one of their volunteer researchers this morning:
"The following information is from the Official Guide of the Railways
of February 1901, the closest issue we have to 1900 (most of the
schedules in it date from late 1900). The trickiest part is getting
out of Vancouver, since the present line via New Westminster, Blaine,
Mount Vernon, Bellingham, and Everett was not completed through to
Vancouver until 1904. The route in 1900 started from the Canadian
Pacific station in Vancouver and continued (over the present route of
the West Coast Express) to Mission Junction, just west of Mission
City, then south to Huntingdon, BC/Sumas, WA, thence southward over
the Seattle & International (controlled by the Northern Pacific)
through Snohomish to Seattle. Much of this route south of the border
is no longer in existence.
There was one train a day from Vancouver to Portland via Seattle; a
passenger would most likely have used this train through to Portland,
transferring there to the Chicago-Portland Special, operated jointly
by the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. to Huntington, OR, the Oregon
Short Line to Granger, WY (both these railroads were part of the Union
Pacific system), and the Union Pacific from Granger to Denver. At
Granger the train was combined with the Overland Limited (San
Francisco to Chicago), with a connection at Cheyenne for Denver.
The schedule was as follows:
Lv Vancouver 8.50 am day 1
Ar Portland 7.00 am 2
Lv Portland 9.00 am 2
Ar Granger 6.45 pm 3
Lv Granger 7.00 pm 3
Ar Cheyenne 6.30 am 4 connection for Denver
Lv Cheyenne 6.45 am 4
Ar Denver 10.05 am 4"
Wow - they just made my day!!!! What an amazing service they provide - and I hadn't even known they existed..
And can you imagine taking four days from Vancouver to Denver? When I fly there for Left Coast Crime in early March, I leave at 7:35 and arrive at 11:28. Travel was really not undertaken lightly in 1900.
I'll have to revise the timeline in LOST MINE MURDERS a little - I'd only allowed two days - and make a couple of minor plot adjustments, as well. But accuracy regarding the pace of life and the difficulties of living in the still recently settled West in 1900 is worth a little work...
After a week or so of rain and drizzly cold, we had sunshine today. I was looking up, and saw what I'd been missing, despite having walked by these trees half a hundred times:
and:
You find the most amazing tree species growing in backyard gardents. In the 1890's, monkey puzzle trees were popular in the ritzy areas of town, and you still see them here. I'll post a photo next time I see one.
I was talking to Jill at Dead Write Books yesterday - they'rve re-ordered SILK TRAIN MURDER twice already and they're almost out of stock again. Nice to hear!
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