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Meet Flappy.
Flappy is a green-spotted mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus, aka “psychedelic” or “picturesque” mandarin). He is also touched in the head.
Flappy spends his days fluttering over the reef, looking for food. He looks around corals.
He looks behind rocks.
He even looks on the bodies of other fish.
(Not all of whom appreciate his diligence.)
Food consumes about 90% of Flappy’s existence.
Every once in a while, however, Flappy catches sight of his reflection in the glass. When this happens, he forgets the food entirely and spends many minutes admiring himself from every angle.
(You can almost hear him thinking… Good side…BEST side…good side…BEST side…)
If this happens at feeding time, he will miss the meal completely because he’s too busy basking in his own awesomeness to eat.
Wherein lies a lesson for all of us.
Don’t be so dazzled by your own brilliance that you forget to eat.
When success comes your way – and it will, if you work diligently toward your goals – don’t ever forget the things that are really important. More than 90% of your success boils down to hard work, but others are working hard too. You are a special … just like everyone else. And if you spend too much valuable time admiring the glow of your awesome, another fish will eat your wheaties while you’re not looking.
So get back to work, little Flappy. Hunt for your food – or your newest novel, or whatever else makes your heart glow. Enjoy the process. You can and should spend a little time remembering that you’re awesome – after all, the journey is the best part of the process.
Just don’t get so distracted by your own beauty that you forget your calling – or that you ignore the equal beauty of those around you. Working hard and lifting up others before yourself will make you more beautiful than mirrors could ever show.
Today we’re continuing our series on writing scams and how to avoid them. Last week we talked about unscrupulous agents and publishers. Today we’ll discuss a scam that hides among legitimate opportunities, making itself more difficult to spot.
Scam #2: Overreaching in Writing and Poetry Contests.
Legitimate writing contests represent opportunities for authors to obtain review and critique of their work. These contests are a real asset to the writing community, and in particular to pre-published authors. New authors often have difficulty obtaining feedback from industry professionals, and contests offer a rare chance for interaction, since many contests are judged by agents, editors, and other industry professionals. Many contests offer opportunities for authors to obtain a personal critique, regardless of whether the manuscript wins a prize (usually for an additional fee).
Unfortunately, legitimate opportunities for authors also provide a chance for scammers to offer unscrupulous imitations. Wary authors can tell the difference, however, by evaluating the contest characteristics:
1. Entry Fees. Legitimate contests charge entry fees (and usually separate fees for individual critiques) but the fees themselves are reasonable in nature. “Reasonable” entry and critique fees vary, but they tend to be in the $25-$50 range. If critique is offered, it should be either included in the entry fee or completely optional. No entrant should be forced to pay a second fee for a critique. All fees should be stated up front – legitimate contests never have hidden fees.
2. “Prizes” should never cost the author money. Beware any contest that requires you to purchase ANYTHING (aside from the entry fee). A popular contest scam includes “finalists” or “winners” in a published anthology, and then requires entrants to agree to purchase a certain number of copies of the work. The scammer thereby ensures a dual profit: once from your entry fees and once from the sales of the “published” work – though almost all of those sales will be to contest “winners.”
3. Copyright seizures. Contests should never require an author to surrender copyright on the submitted work. The contest sponsor has no right to claim copyright as a result of your submission, but many do – and the contest terms are a form of contract, so unwary authors may give away rights just by entering. Don’t surrender your rights accidentally!
4. Unreasonable Grants of Copyright. A variation on copyright seizures is contest terms which grant the sponsor unlimited (or unreasonable) rights to publish submitted work. Some legitimate contests offer publishing contracts as prizes. Many scam contests do too. Read the fine print. If you have any doubts, ask a lawyer to review any contest terms that reference publication before you enter.
5. Exclusivity. Beware any contest that bars you from submitting your work to agents, publishers or other contests during the contest period. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a scam, but it does place restrictions on your work and career.
Never enter a contest if you don’t thoroughly understand the entry terms. Read all the rules, and read them carefully. Use common sense. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
For more excellent advice on avoiding scams and evaluating contests, I recommend Writer Beware!
And if you’re looking for a contest list, check out C Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers website.
Have you got another good resource? A way to avoid writing scams? Please click into the comments and let me know!
I recently signed a publishing contract with St. Martin’s Press. While I won’t share the terms, I can tell you my agent Sandra negotiated an excellent deal. Even a lesser contract would have fulfilled a long-standing dream, and the one I signed goes far beyond mere fulfillment. The decision to pursue “traditional” publication, as opposed to self-publishing, was a personal one and made after thorough consideration. This was my choice, as well as my dream.
Ironically, and like so many dreams, the moment itself passed largely without fanfare. I woke up on a weekend morning, went to the kitchen table and signed the documents while the rest of the household slept. I drove to the post office, stuffed a priority envelope, and mailed the agreements back to New York – fulfilling a dream I have nurtured for thirty years.
Then I went home and mopped cat puke off the floor.
Since that morning several people have asked what it feels like to live a dream. The truth is, it feels a lot like the day before – and also completely different. Life doesn’t change overnight (if at all). You are still the person who burns the toast and cleans up after the cat. In most authors, the drive to write is equally strong before and after the contract – whether signed or unsigned, we still prefer to spend hours with our imaginary friends.
That’s not to say that nothing has changed. It has. But change is slow, and relative, and the biggest lesson I’ve learned from the process so far is this:
Enjoy the ride.
My agent gave me that advice in January, when the first Shinobi mystery (then titled SHINOBI, now CLAWS OF THE CAT) went out on submission. She was absolutely correct, and the result of taking that advice has been almost five months of celebrating milestones – and not just the ones related to this manuscript.
Here are a few of the reasons I’ve found to celebrate aside from the obvious contract-related bits:
Starting the second manuscript in the series. Finishing each chapter in first draft form. Finishing that draft – and each of the three that followed (with chapter celebrations at each step along the way). Finding a new title for Book 1. Finding a better new title. Choosing titles for the next novels in the series.
Figuring out that the cat sat on my F-11 button and de-windowed my programs. (This is cause for celebration because it stopped my computer from acting badly.)
Deciding on plots for book 3 and book 4 … and the list goes on.
With all those celebrations (and yes, I did something enjoyable to celebrate each) it’s started to feel as if every day holds a special reason for joy. The day I mailed the contracts to New York, my husband asked “Do you want to do something special?”
Before I knew it, I’d answered, “Yes, I want to go write.”
As I did the day before I signed with Sandra. As I did the day before the manuscript sold. As I’ve done almost every day since, and will do every day in the months and years to come.
A writer writes. Before, during, and after a sale. Through celebrations and sorrows. It’s who we are. It’s what we do. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re slouching toward publication (extra points if you catch the reference), but the lesson from the other side of the looking glass is this: the center will hold if you cling to the realization that it’s the writing – not the outcome – that drives you. Pre-contract or post-contract, the words reign supreme.
Don’t mistake my meaning – I’m thrilled beyond thrilled and excited beyond measure about publication. But when I look inward, to the place where that thirty-year dream was sheltered and nurtured, the ultimate celebration is the writing. The return to the keys, to imagination, to the fictitious friends who populate my writing and my brain.
And that bears an important lesson for me and for every other writer at every phase of a writing career: THIS DAY is cause for celebration. THIS day is as good as it gets – and that phrase has no negative connotations here.
So get back to your keys. Write your words, and take any and every reason to celebrate. Every day.
Enjoy the process. Because if you’re a writer, the writing itself is truly as good as it gets.
If you’re human (and most of you probably are) there’s a nasty little voice in your head that you should not listen to. You know the one I mean. The one that tells you to give up your dreams and accept that failure is your only option.
If you’re a creative human (and more than a few of my readers are) that little voice works overtime. There’s nothing it loves more than the tasty flavor of artists’ dreams.
A few years ago I realized that ignoring that voice wasn’t working. Only open resistance would beat it into submission enough for me to pursue my dreams. Even now, when the dream has become reality and my first novel is well on its way to publication, the Nasty Voice engages from time to time. The message changes, but the song remains the same.
The following is a public service announcement/open letter to The Nasty Little Voice We Should Not Listen To. I read it to mine on a regular basis. Feel free to read it to yours if the impulse strikes:
Dear Nasty Voice In My Head:
I am the dreamer you haunt when the impulse strikes, the one you refer to as “Talentless Hack With the Hopeless Dream.”
You may think I’ve learned to ignore you, but I hear every rotten word.
When you tell me I’ll never make it. When you say I should just give up. When you suggest that my plot is weak, my characters cardboard, my prose over-adverbed and adjectived out the wazzoo.
When you say my writing’s not worthy of scribbling on toilet stalls.
According to you, the rejections I’ve received are the model for every communication. I’ll never have an agent.* No publisher will fall in love with my words.* I will die alone, surrounded by cats, dirty mugs and the soiled remnants of broken and worn-out dreams.
My novels will never be published. When I die, some unknown person will erase fifty-seven unpublished novels from my computer without even reading the titles. My dreams will die, un-mourned and unremembered.
I am a failure. I should give up now and try to salvage an ordinary life.
You tell me all this, and more, and some days it seems impossible to go on.
But I do. And I will. And I’m no longer taking your insults quietly. In fact, consider this letter a declaration of war.
You are not welcome in my brain. My dreams are no longer your playthings. Instead, your insults will fuel my drive to improve. When an agent rejects me, I’ll look for another, revise, and query again. If this manuscript fails to reach my goals I will write another one, better and stronger in every way.
I will succeed, because I refuse to fail.
My dreams are a mighty game of last-man-standing, and some days the hardest thing to do is stay upright with you trying to push me down. But I have a weapon you lack – my friends – and on the days when I cannot stand they will step in and hold me up. Together we are stronger than you will ever be.
You’re a liar. The only future you know is the one you invented on my behalf – and the only thing you know how to invent is failure. I’m calling your bluff. I reject your projections and substitute my own – in which I succeed, even if it takes a lifetime.
This letter won’t send you packing – you’re far too stubborn for that. But I’m stubborn too, and I was here first. Consider yourself on notice.
The one-sided war is over. I’m fighting back.
*(I left this in for all those still fighting this part of the Voice’s message – the Voice said these things to me for seven years. I’ve proven it wrong. You can too.)
Every once in a while I check the lint filters here at the blog and find something unusual caught in the traps.
This morning was no exception. Last week, several people arrived at this site via Google searches for “DIY fission” and “DIY fusion reactors.”
I’m not sure whether I should be more concerned that people are looking or that Google, in its infinite wisdom, thought I was the person to teach them how this is done. Particularly considering that the next most popular search that led people here was “I miss my anxiety.” (Good news. That DIY fission reactor will calm you right down.)
But a good author listens to the reader, and since you’re here and asking, let’s talk nuclear science.
HOW TO BUILD A DIY FISSION REACTOR.
Step 1: Dig a hole in the backyard. (Two feet deep ought to do it. Atoms are pretty small.)
Step 2: Line the hole with tin foil. (If you have any left over, make yourself some protective headgear. Safety first!)
Step 3: Find a hammer and some cooperative atoms. (I’ve heard hydrogen works well for this purpose, but I can’t say for sure. The ones I capture keep floating away.)
Step 4: Put the atoms in the hole. Stack them carefully, one on top of the other. (The stacking is critical. Otherwise they just bounce around when you hit them.)
Step 5: RELEASE THE KRAKEN! No, wait, that’s wrong. Let me check my notes….
OK, got it.
Step 5: Hit the atoms with the hammer. This may take a few tries. Also, don’t hit yourself with the hammer. Especially claw hammers. They hurt. In fact, hammers are dangerous. Forget the hammer. Go get a box of Q-Tips and hit the atoms with those instead. You’ll have to swing them harder to make this work, but there’s much less chance of injury. Nobody ever brained himself with a Q-Tip.
Step 6: Harvest your new source of INFINITE COSMIC POWER!
Step 7: Rule the Universe (As father and son – unless you don’t have a son, or unless you’re a woman, in which case you’re pretty much on your own.)
Tune in next week, when our topic will be DIY UNICORN HUNTING. (Step 1: Make a harness of rainbows….)
Regardless of the career path authors choose, every writer (published, aspiring, or otherwise) needs to be wary of scams. Often, authors are most susceptible to scammers before publication, but even represented authors should tread carefully and protect their work with a vigilant eye.
As in other areas, knowing what to watch for is key. Over the next few weeks of PubLaw will look at common scams and how to avoid them.
SCAM #1: Unscrupulous “Agents” and “Publishers.”
I put these terms in quotation marks to distinguish between the respectable businesspeople who sell and publish manuscripts for a living and those who make their living by exploiting author’s dreams. Legitimate agents and publishers do not charge reading fees. They do not require writers to pay unreasonable sums for vague promises or claim copyright ownership of authors’ works.
As a rule, legitimate agents and publishers do not make “first contact” with aspiring authors to offer their services. (Yes, on VERY RARE OCCASIONS this may happen, by referral, a contest, or other unusual circumstance, but this is NOT the norm.)
Investigate your agent and/or publisher before you send your manuscript. Investigate further before you sign a contract, or even a “letter of intent.” (In many states, letters of intent are considered legally binding – sometimes even if the text claims otherwise.) Ask questions. Do research – and don’t settle for the opinion of one source only. Good research methods include the following:
1. Internet Searches. Run a Google search for the agent or publisher’s name (in quotation marks if the name contains more than one word). Then run a second search with the name and scam (for example: “Made-up Publishing” scam). The first search should bring up information about the publishing company (or agent). The second will let you know if websites have accused the operation of running a scam. Investigate the veracity of the sites, and always use caution when clicking through search results (good pop-up and virus blocking software is advisable).
2. Industry Watchdog Sites. Websites like Preditors and Editors to Writer Beware! exist to help inform authors of writing scams and unscrupulous businesses. The Absolute Write forums contain pages of information about agents and publishing houses (both honorable and not-so-much) and the site’s regular members are often very helpful and responsive. Pay attention to personal opinions, but pay special attention to facts.
3. Facebook and Twitter. Does the agent or publisher have a Facebook page? A Twitter account? If so, does it look like the pages of other reputable industry professionals? Social media isn’t a mandatory exercise, so not having a Facebook or Twitter page doesn’t necessarily mean the publisher or agent isn’t legitimate. You can also investigate what other people are saying to or about the agent or publisher in those spaces. A verifiable positive (or negative) account from a living person can provide valuable information – but as always, take opinion with caution and wherever possible verify it with facts.
4. Client Referrals. Who does the agent represent? Whose works does the publisher publish? Find out. Contact those authors and ask their opinions. Trust me, they’ll give them to you. I’m outspoken about my appreciation for Sandra Bond and my confidence in her competence and professionalism. I feel the same about my editor at Thomas Dunne Books. If anyone asked me to back up my opinion with facts I’d be glad to do so, and every other author I know (represented and unrepresented, self-published and traditionally contracted) would be glad to share a candid opinion with anyone who asked.
Incidentally, that’s also true of the writers I know who have had experiences with scammers. Those writers will tell you to run as far and as fast as possible from the companies and individuals who took advantage of their innocence. (For the record, I won’t be naming anyone here because I can’t breach client confidentiality, but I’ll speak with people in private as ethics permit.)
5. Common Sense. If an offer or promise sounds too good to be true…it is. No agent and no publisher can promise you riches, fame, or a single sale. I’ll say that again, because it’s important. Agents and publishers cannot promise you fame and fortune, and no legitimate publishing professional will do so. Authors do not merely bang out a manuscript and land on top of the New York Times Bestseller list. Writers don’t do what they do because fortune is sure to follow. I have friends who earned out advances, friends who didn’t, and friends who never received an advance at all. One thing all these friends have in common – publishers made no promises about the success or failure of the author’s work.
If an agent or publisher’s website uses phrases like “guaranteed income,” “easy money,” “supplement your income with writing” or anything else that suggests publication is anything other than hard work without any promises of success – that’s not just a red flag, it’s a mushroom cloud. Investigate VERY thoroughly and proceed with extreme caution and prejudice.
The good news is that publisher and agent scams are very avoidable. Thorough research will almost always reveal the problem before it’s too late. The key is authors not letting the dream of publication blur common sense or distract them from research. Do that, and you can keep that dream from turning into a nightmare.
Have questions about this or other publishing issues? Have you got an agent or publisher story to share? Hop into the comments and let me know. I love to hear from you!
Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak passed away this morning. He was 83.
Maurice Sendak was a fixture of my childhood, and those of countless others who loved the bold images and brave children that populated Sendak’s works. I first met him through Where the Wild Things Are, and later through In The Night Kitchen and Higgledy Piggledy Pop!.
My favorite Sendak work, however, was not a single book at all. For Christmas one year, I received The Nutshell Library, a collection of four tiny hardback books in a little pasteboard box. I loved those books. I read them over and over again, equally drawn to the stories and to the idea of hardbacks in miniature.
As a child who was scared of the dark and prone to nightmares, I found comfort in Sendak’s treatment of childhood fears. His protagonists were children, like me but braver, and they helped me take a different view of the Things That Go Bump In the Night. Like the best of teachers, he taught without preaching and made me think without realizing I’d done so.
But first and foremost, Sendak told stories. Rich stories, populated with equal parts craziness and adventure. Bold stories, gorgeously illustrated in ways that promoted imagination. I wanted to dance with the Wild Things too, and then to go home – the same but changed, as Max did.
Generations of Wild Things mourn today.
I take comfort in the knowledge that although a master is gone, his legacy continues, in his own works and in those he illustrated for others. As long as children fear the dark, the Wild Things will be there to help them through it.
Farewell, Mr. Sendak. You are gone, but never forgotten.
Not the successful ones, anyway, and today we’re discussing why.
Last week I talked about distracting The (Anxiety) Blob with reading, work or writing. Much of the time that’s all it takes to convert anxiety into focus – at least for a little while.
Sometimes, however, a anxiety doesn’t recede with distraction. It dogs you like a pack of brain-eating zombies – slow moving, but not put off by your foolish flight and desk-chair barricades. The longer you run, the bigger and more determined that anxiety becomes, until you feel like the lone survivor of the Brain-Eating Zombie Apocalypse.
(Let’s pause to welcome the new arrivals, who got here by Googling “Zombie Apocalypse Brain Eaters.” Nice to see you. No brains here. Please don’t drool on the carpet.)
This is where friends come in.
Rejected queries hit like a punch to the gut. Editors’ passes (kind ones as well as blunt ones) can leave even the most talented author wondering whether the cracking sound she just heard was the final door between her desk and the drooling zombies clamoring for what little remains of her brain.
When those moments strike, authors need both non-writing friends to provide perspective and writer friends to jump into the gap and mow those anxiety-zombies down. When anxiety refuses to recede through distraction, pick up the phone, hop on twitter or email, and find someone to help you pull yourself out of the funk. Go for cupcakes. Watch a movie. Grab a latte and talk – the subject isn’t even important, as long as it’s not “I Am Failure, Son of Failure, and my Fail Moves Mountains With Its Failness” – or if it is, you’d better have an amazing squad of anxiety-zombie hatchet men doing their best to persuade you that isn’t true.
In my case, the Zombie Squad takes the form of my writing group – the infamous SFWG – and an awesome local author friend I meet for breakfast every week or two. When I start to worry, or feel the horde of anxiety zombies breathing down my neck, these amazing women always have my back. I depend on non-writing friends also – they’re equally important, and not to be underestimated – but one benefit of author friends and especially solid critique groups is that the best ones are also emotional SWAT teams on call. Anxiety calling? Good news to share? Curious about whether your character needs a pet tarantula or if ferrets are more his style? A good group of friends helps with all these things and more.
No one defeats the shambling hordes alone, and no author flourishes without companions either. Find some you can trust. You’ll see what I mean.
An ironic postscript that proves my point: author friend and fellow SFWG member Arabella (D’Bella) Stokes is riffing on exactly the same theme in her blog post today. Head over and check it out – but before you go, hop into the comments and let me know how YOU deal with the zombie anxiety horde!
Please help me welcome Laura DiSilverio, author of the Mall Cop Mysteries and the Swift Investigation Mysteries. Laura is joining us to celebrate today’s release of the newest Mall Cop Mystery, ALL SALES FATAL.
I met Laura at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Conference (have I mentioned I love that con?) where she signed my copy of the first Mall Cop Mystery, Die Buying. I read it in a single night and I’ve been a Laura DiSilverio – and E.J. Ferris – fan ever since. I’ve already got my copy of All Sales Fatal via pre-order – and I’m thrilled to have Laura join me today for an interview.
On with the questions!
Where did you grow up?
My father was an Air Force pilot, so I grew up all over. I was born in Georgia, then lived in Texas, Washington, the Philippines, Oklahoma and Mississippi before going to college in San Antonio, Texas.
What inspired you to start writing?
I have always written. I can remember writing short stories about Viking princesses when I was seven or eight. It’s just in my DNA, I guess. I wrote my first complete novel in college, a category romance, and submitted it to Silhouette. I was too naïve and uninformed about the publishing business to recognize that the rejection I got from a Senior Editor and VP was, in fact, very encouraging. I cried buckets and then moved on to writing a Regency romance or two and then a police procedural (unhampered by any knowledge of actual police procedures), before “giving up” writing temporarily to concentrate on my Air Force career and raising a family. I returned to novel writing in 2004 when I retired, specifically to write and parent full-time. I got my first contract in 2009, my first book (Tressed to Kill, writing as Lila Dare) came out in 2010, and now my eighth book is on the shelves.
If you could go back in time and share one writing lesson with “new writer you” before starting your first manuscript … what would that be?
Take your time and enjoy the process! I’m coming back to that lesson just now. You can’t get too tied up in the results over which you have virtually no control—sales figures, covers, how the book is marketed, what reviewers say—if you’re going to be a novelist, you have to get your joy from the process of writing and re-writing.
All Sales Fatal is the second book in your Mall Cop Mystery series featuring ex-military cop Emma Joy (“EJ”) Ferris. What inspired you to write about such an unusual heroine?
Well, I started with wanting to set a mystery series in a mall, because malls are full of fascinating people and potentially humorous situations. And when I started to think about who my protagonist would be, I realized I didn’t want someone who would be trapped behind a cash register all day, or confined to one store. That brought me to the idea of a mall security officer. And when I started to think about who that should be, I realized I wanted to make it someone who aspired to more, who had some real policing skills, so that there would be some conflict inherent in her situation. So, I created Emma-Joy Ferris, a former military cop whose leg was injured by an IED in Afghanistan. She can’t pass police physicals, so she’s signed on as a mall cop while she rehabilitates. She’s dealing with body image issues now that her leg prevents her from doing a lot of what she used to do, and disappointment over not being able to return to “real” policing, as well as investigating murders at the mall and starting a new romance.
You currently write several mystery series, including the Mall Cop Mysteries and the Swift Investigation Mysteries. What first drew you to writing mystery, and what is your favorite aspect of writing mystery novels?
I guess I write mysteries because that’s what I mostly read. I love the puzzle element, the challenge of beating the fictional detective to the solution, so plotting is probably my favorite aspect of writing mysteries.
Do you have a favorite author? If so, who and why?
I don’t have a favorite author. Different authors and types of books appeal to me at different times, maybe depending on what’s going on in my life, how I’m maturing, what my writing needs. Right now, I’m in awe of Nabokov. I recently read Lolita for the first time and I was amazed at his skill. He hooked me on page one with a completely unsympathetic protagonist (a pedophile), and reading that book is making me look a bit harder at the conventional wisdom re “likable” narrators, sparing use of adjectives and adverbs, and more. On the mystery front, I admire (in no particular order) Craig Johnson, Cornelia Read, Elizabeth George, Rick Riordan, Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, Elaine Viets, Hank Philippi Ryan, Reed Farrell Coleman, and many, many more. I’m currently reading Richard Russo’s That Old Cape Magic.
Other than your own protagonists, who is your favorite fictitious detective – and why?
Hm. Picking just one is tough! I like the characters that age and grow, have life crises, career ups and downs, personal relationships that bloom and fail, moral dilemmas to confront. Folks like Harry Bosch, Sharon McCone, Walt Longmire, Adam Dalgleish, Lydia Chin and Bill Smith.
What do you find most difficult about writing mysteries?
There’s always a point, about two-thirds into the book, where I can’t see how to get from where I am to the end. I usually know what the end is by then, but I can’t connect all the dots to get there logically and interestingly. I usually have to stop drafting for a couple of days and do some brainstorming. I get out of my office and let my subconscious sort things out. I always get there in the end, but I guess part of my process is that crisis which seems, each time, unresolvable.
What piece of advice would you most like to share with new authors just completing their first manuscripts?
If you think it’s done, it’s not. Revise it at least a couple more times than you think you need to, get critiques from your writing group, let it sit for a month and read it again before sending it to agents. Be prepared to continue to revise it during the submission process as you get feedback from agents. Then, get started on the second book (not a sequel)! Don’t wait to sell the first manuscript before starting on book two.
The Mall Cop Mysteries feature a cast of unusual, often quirky supporting characters (my personal favorite is Grandpa Atherton). Do you invent your supporting cast before writing your manuscripts, or do your characters develop spontaneously during the writing process?
Yes. Some of both. Grandpa Atherton was pretty well fleshed out before I started writing, but Joel has grown a lot as I write, and Jay initially started out as “handsome cookie guy with mysterious past,” but he became more real as I got into the story. I try to make my characters real and I think they get “realer” as the series goes on, as I learn more about them, as they acquire more history with each other.
Do you have any upcoming signings or readings?
I’m teaching a Write Brain seminar for Pikes Peak Writers on 15 May (check their website or mine for location which is TBD), appearing at the Wisconsin Festival of Books on 15 June, and teaching at Mystery University (sponsored by Mystery Writers of America) in Waukesha, WI on 16 June. Check my website for appearances later in the year (I’ve got events booked all the way out to November).
And now, the speed round:
- Plotter or pantser?
Pantser.
- Coffee, tea, or bourbon?
Tea.
- Socks or no socks?
Socks in winter, not so much in summer.
- Cats, dogs, or reptiles?
Dogs (although I like cats, too.)
- For dinner: Italian, Mexican, Burgers or Thai?
Any of the above! Probably Italian, Thai, Mexican, burgers.
ALL SALES FATAL is currently available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and a variety of independent booksellers. The Amazon summary:
For mall cop E.J. Ferris, catching customers who “forgot to pay” is quite a change of pace from her former life in the military. But when a real crisis heats up her climate-controlled domain, her old instincts come back quicker than last year’s skinny jeans.
On good days, Fernglen Galleria is a tranquil haven of capitalist splendor—but today is not one of those days. Arriving for her morning shift, E.J. spots a sleeping homeless person outside the east entrance. But the teenage boy turns out to be neither homeless nor asleep. He is, however, dead.
With half the security cameras sabotaged, no one can be sure what happened. E.J. is determined to help solve the case—whether Homicide Detective Helland likes it or not. Uncovering a deadly conspiracy right in her own mall, E.J is about to catch a killer, or get put on lay-away for good…
A little more about Laura DiSilverio:
Laura DiSilverio spent twenty years as an Air Force intelligence officer before retiring to write and parent full time. She writes the Mall Cop mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime) and the Swift Investigations series (Minotaur) under her own name, and the Ballroom Dancing mysteries (Obsidian) as Ella Barrick. Suspense magazine named the mall cop debut, DIE BUYING, one of the Top Four cozy mysteries of 2011. She lives in Colorado with her husband, tween and teen daughters, and Wire-haired Pointing Griffon.
Laura DiSilverio can be found on Twitter (@LauraDiSilverio) and blogs at http://lauradisilverio.com/category/blog/
Laura, thank you so much for joining me here on the blog and letting me share your release day! It’s been great fun to learn more about a fellow mystery author, particularly one whose works I love!
Authors often suffer from anxiety.
Some consider it an problem and try to banish it from their lives. More experienced writers name it, buy it a sparkly collar, and let it sleep on the end of the bed.
They know it’s going to perch there anyway.
As a novice writer, I worried about publication. Would I ever find an agent? A publisher? Would I ever fulfill my dreams?
Once I gained a little experience, I worried about more important things like character, plot and dialogue. Were my characters too flat? Did my protagonist have a clearly-definable goal?
Three years later, the worry was whether I’d ever manage to write a novel that someone thought was worth reading. Dear Author, my mental editors wrote, Not only are we not interested in your novel, but we humbly request that you never produce a printed version of this manuscript. The paper’s worth more in an unblemished state.
Seven years after my first writing conference, and five manuscripts to the wind, I have an amazing agent, a major publisher, a fantastic editor and a three-book deal. One would think I had finally conquered the Worrysome Hills and located the Valley of Infinite Writer Bliss.
One would be sadly mistaken.
Anxiety is a moving target, and no matter how fast you move or how well you aim the anti-anxiety napalm grenades (patent pending) you’ll only succeed in slowing it down a while. Anxiety is THE BLOB, THE THING, and the shambling hordes of zombies rolled into one. It doesn’t sleep, it doesn’t stop, and if you ever stop fighting back it hunts you down and feeds on your brains. (True story.)
The good news is, you can slow it down, and distract it, and send it off after something else for a while. How do you do this? You find the methods that work for you and you train your mind to use them. Three of the best techniques I know are distraction, company and logical confrontation.
Distraction means simply refusing to give the anxiety breathing room in your brain. Anxiety is happy to fill any gaps in your thinking space. Remember the way THE BLOB oozed in the diner windows and doors to get at the people within? Yeah, anxiety does that too. Good news: as cold stopped the blob, distractions have a chilling effect on anxiety. Worried about your completed manuscript? Start on another one. Panicked over a work in progress? Write the next chapter – and tell yourself you’ll fix the problems later.
Distraction usually puts my anxiety into a dormant state. I’d call it a 95% effective method. Sometimes, however, distraction makes the situation worse – like throwing a hamburger (or a pony) onto the Blob. When that happens, it’s time to call in the cavalry – and we’ll talk about that on Thursday.*
*In the meantime, tune in tomorrow for an interview with Laura DiSilverio about her new Mall Cop Mystery, ALL SALES FATAL, and Wednesday for our regular PubLaw post!
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