Book Signings: The Weird, The Wacky, and The Wonderful

I love book signings and panel presentations. I enjoy meeting and talking to readers and other writers. Though my writer friends warmed me when I started that I'd be asked numerous times where the bathroom was. Their other sage advice was for me to bring candy - lots of chocolate candy. 

I am part of an anthology series, and we did over fifty-four events in a year and a half to promote Virginia is for Mysteries. I learned early in my writing career that book signings are always more fun with other authors. It's a party with the anthology authors get together. But we did have some wonderful and unusual experiences...

At my very first book signing, I pocketed my pen and phone and left my purse in my car. I signed one book, and the pen died. Thankfully, mom was there to rescue me with a spare. I now pack a bag with all kinds of supplies and giveaways.

I had the great pleasure to sign a book for Dr. Hal Poe (descendant of the Father of the Mystery) at the Poe Museum in Richmond, VA. I also had the opportunity to meet Dashiell Hammett's granddaughter at an event in Raleigh, NC. Two fan girl moments for me!

At one of our signings in North Carolina, a man asked the authors at my end of the table if the book had any stories about aliens in it. When we told him no, he proceeded to tell us about how he had been abducted from a farmhouse and the time he spent on a spaceship. He went into great detail about bright lights and probes.

We did a mystery panel in Charlottesville one year, and we were seated on a small stage in a large lecture hall. Afterwards during the signing, a woman told me that I needed more lipstick. I wasn't quite sure how to respond. I thought she was selling cosmetics or drumming up clients for a makeup business. After a long pause, she said, "Your lips disappear in the back of the room." I guess, she just wanted me to wear darker lipstick.

And on more than one occasion, people have asked me to read and critique their manuscript (which they happened to have in their car). My answer is always to talk about my critique group and my writing group. And how they are wonderful resources for constructive feedback.

We are in the process of scheduling events for our second anthology, and my debut novel, Secret Lives and Private Eyes comes out on June 20.  I look forward to all the fun and the great stories.  Do you have any wacky or wonderful signing experiences?

Yvonne Saxon and Me in Virginia Beach, VA

Meredith Cole, Me, and Jayne Ormerod at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, VA

Rosie Shomaker, Teresa Inge, Vivian Lawry, Me, Maggie King, and Yvonne Saxon at the Poe Museum in Richmond, VA

Cover Designs - Which do you like better?

My publisher has posted two cover designs for Secret Lives and Private Eyes. Please stop in and vote for your favorite. The book is slated to be released on June 20. Many thanks!

Click here to vote.

A Writer's Checklist for Editing

I completed the first round of edits for Secret Lives and Private Eyes this week. Whoo hooo! I made myself a checklist for ensuring that I verified some key areas. Sometimes, when editors or proofreaders use the track changes feature, the formatting and spacing isn't quite right after the changes are accepted.

Here are the items on my checklist...

1. Make sure that all quoted text has an opening and closing quotation mark. Sometimes with editing, the end quotation mark disappears.

2. Check to see that there is one space after all marks of punctuation. I also check to make sure that all sentences have the correct end punctuation.

3. Run the spellchecker to make sure words weren't run together by accident.

4. Make sure all paragraphs are in the correct place and are indented. Sometimes, during editing they merge or lose their indent.

5. Check to make sure that all usages of a word or phrase are consistent (e.g. T-shirt or t-shirt; a.m. or AM). I make a style sheet while I am self-editing to keep me on track.

6. For mysteries and plot twists, make sure that if key clues or plot points are removed that all other references to them are also removed.

7. If dialog or chapters are removed, make sure that clues and foreshadowing are still correct.

8. Check all of your em dashes (to ensure that they are not two hyphens). Also, check your ellipses to make sure that the spacing is correct between the periods.

9. Check all of your chapter numbers to make sure that they are still in the correct order.

Writing, editing, revising, and proofreading are hard work. I probably spend more time revising than I do writing.  Best wishes with your writing project!

Plotter or Pantser?

How do I write? Writers usually fall into one of two camps, plotters (those who plan, plot, and outline before writing), and pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants). Plotters know the path and the plan to get to the end. Pantsers go where the characters and story take them.

I am probably a hybrid of the two, though I lean heavily on the plotter side. I plot everywhere. I jot ideas on sticky notes and on scraps of paper. I carry a notebook in my purse for plotting emergencies.  I have outlines, character biographies, and color-coded storylines.  I keep a chart of all the places and characters. I describe them to the nth degree. This is also helpful if you decide to write a series. That way, my character's eye color or the color of her kitchen doesn't change in a later work. I also use this to take care of my urge to write backstory. I put all the details in this document. Some of the information will never see the light of day, but it keeps me from overloading the story with too much history. Backstory or historical details are better sprinkled in throughout the work.

After my major plotting which usually takes about a month, I'm ready to start writing. And that's when the pantser raises its head. I always decide I like a minor character better than another, and sometimes the story takes a tangent. In my first novel, Secret Lives and Private Eyes (May 2016), I planned to keep one character around for the series to create some tension. But as it turned out, I liked another character much better, and his role took on a life of its own. So, without spoiling the surprise, character two is around for book two.

After the plotting and the first draft, which my friend Mary Burton calls the "sloppy copy," I am ready to revise. This phase takes me the longest. I can write pretty quickly, but it takes me forever to reorder and change. My critique group is very helpful during this phase. They help with storylines that don't make sense. They also point out where things are missing or weird. I had my character eat lunch twice in the same chapter once. Whoops!

After more revisions, then it's ready for professional copy editing and hopefully, publication.

Decide which process works for you or combine them for your style. Best wishes with your writing. It's not an easy process.

How Much of Your Mysteries are Based on Truth?

Recently, I was asked, "How much of your mysteries are based on real events or places?"

I do a mix of real and fiction in my short stories and novels. All of my city settings are real places. I tend to set my works in Virginia cities and counties because I write what I know.  If a crime occurs, I make up that location's name. I wouldn't put a horrific or violent event at a real restaurant or store. But if you've been to the real cities, you'll recognize landmarks and street names.

I get ideas for crimes and capers from real cases, but I usually take liberties with the details. In my short story, "Washed up," a beat up suitcase washes up on Chick's Beach, and it's filled with some mysterious contents. Back in the 80s, there was a real case where suitcases filled with body parts did wash up on beaches on the East Coast. In my story, I thought it would be interesting for beachgoers to find something old and sinister in an unexpected place.

I carry a notebook with me wherever I go, and I am always jotting down names and interesting tidbits that might one day make their way to a story.

I base some of my characters on combinations of real people. I blend characteristics of several real people to make an interesting fictional person. And phrases that family and friends say frequently appear in my stories. I have two co-workers who keep asking me to make them villains. I haven't done that yet, but I do hint from time to time that unruly team members will end up in a dumpster in a future story.

I use friends and family member's names for minor characters. In Secret Lives and Private Eyes (out May 2016), my sleuth, Delanie Fitzgerald, gives herself all kinds of aliases in her investigations. These are usually names of friends and family. And every once in a while, you'll find police, EMTs, or FBI agents named after my favorite authors, rock stars, or actors.  

One of my oddest writing moments happened when a woman with the same name as one of my main characters followed me on Twitter. What a fun surprise!

One of my favorite mugs...