A.R. Baumann's Blog

The list of guides, infographics, posts, blogs, books, tweets and, who-knows-what-else that claim to be the be-all and end-all of social media marketing for new books seems to grow exponentially by the day. But I just can’t bring myself to jump on the self-broadcasting bandwagon. 

I don’t thrive on the constant pressure to write, write, write and also market, market, market. It’s a balancing act. There are never enough hours in the day. Add to that the increasing pressure on authors to keep up a presence on social media in the hopes that it’s going to sell more books, and it’s overwhelming.

I have author profiles on Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. And I try to engage with my very few followers, but I have to ask myself, “Will posting this funny cat photo sell my book that I spent months writing?” The answer is no. But I have to be available to interact with my “fans,” and I understand that it’s important to have an online presence in order to sell books. We all have to be on social media. I just don’t feel that I’m well versed in the different style of writing necessary for social media and blogging, so it’s been a struggle for me.

Sometimes I need to force myself to focus on writing, so I separate myself from friends and socializing. I’m not lonely when I write, but writing can be very isolating—the antithesis of social media and blogging. I go deep when I write, and I’m very passionate about it. When I was creating Under a Cloud of Rain, I wrote the whole book without an outline of the sequence of events rather than writing scene by scene like I’m doing with Thicker Than Blood. I started conceptualizing Thicker Than Blood when I was thirty-five, and I’m sixty-one now—it’s frustrating how long it takes to write a novel! Writing can also be very emotionally and mentally exhausting. So it’s even more difficult to pull myself away from my novel-writing mind-set and switch gears to write more content just to meet some ambiguous social media posting quota.

I’m so content when I write, especially when I write well and fluidly. When I don’t, I get slightly depressed and frustrated. I write every day, so I’m always creating, but not the creative penning necessary for social media. I give it my best shot, like many new authors, but it’s not easy. I think the saying holds true here that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Writing is what I love. Social networking is work.

My passion, and my job, is to write books. And I don’t think any new author would argue with the fact that the best way to sell books is to write more books. Readers want more books, not more Facebook posts or blog entries. Write on!

Although I’ve been focusing recent blog posts on my work for my next murder mystery novel, Thicker Than Blood, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the setting of my first book, Under a Cloud of Rain, and some of the great stories that came out of Texas. I was born and bred in Houston, so I knew that my first book would take place there. As a side note, my husband and I have lived all over the place: we met in New York City, then moved to Los Angeles after we had our first child. We lived in Mexico for a year, then came back to Malibu, and finally ended up in San Francisco, where we live now that our kids are long moved out and grown up. We even got married in the exotically beautiful Hawaii and spent our honeymoon in Japan!

Getting back on topic, I think there are many well-written murder mystery novels set in Texas. Here are just a few that could make the must-read list:

Hello, Darkness by bestselling author Sandra Brown makes the list because she writes with an authority that is so captivating. I enjoy how the story focuses on a talk-show celebrity who is being stalked. It makes me think of my high-society elites in Under a Cloud of Rain, and how they would balk at such a crime being committed against them just like they do when people start being murdered in their neighborhoods. Hello, Darkness is truly a thriller. The main character, Paris, has to work with the crime psychologist assigned to the case, and the kicker is that the killer isn’t a stranger. 

David Lindsey does a wonderful job creating a crime thriller in Mercy. I love that the main character is a strong female detective. She actually reminds me of (spoiler alert!) my female serial killer, who is a femme fatale in a world comprised almost exclusively of powerful men. Two women are found murdered in the streets of Houston, and detective Carmen Palma is tested personally and professionally as she digs into the mind of a sexually motivated serial killer. The narrative plays with some very provocative ideas, but this psychological thriller is a must-read if you want a peek into the gruesome world of sadism and murder.

Nancy Bell’s Judge Jackson Crain series definitely makes the list. The three books—Restored to Death, Death Splits a Hair, and Paint the Town Dead—echo the gruesome murders in my first novel. As in Under a Cloud of Rain and the other two books on this list, women are the prey in this bloody trilogy. There’s also some small-town gossip from a group of female busybodies, which I think mirrors my high-society pot stirrers in Under a Cloud of Rain.

I can only hope that Under a Could of Rain will be on the list of must-read mystery novels set in Texas someday (and Thicker Than Blood will be on the list of must-reads for books set in New Orleans)!

Although I’ve been focusing recent blog posts on my work for my next murder mystery novel, Thicker Than Blood, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the setting of my first book, Under a Cloud of Rain, and some of the great stories that came out of Texas. I was born and bred in Houston, so I knew that my first book would take place there. As a side note, my husband and I have lived all over the place: we met in New York City, then moved to Los Angeles after we had our first child. We lived in Mexico for a year, then came back to Malibu, and finally ended up in San Francisco, where we live now that our kids are long moved out and grown up. We even got married in the exotically beautiful Hawaii and spent our honeymoon in Japan!

Getting back on topic, I think there are many well-written murder mystery novels set in Texas. Here are just a few that could make the must-read list:

Hello, Darkness by bestselling author Sandra Brown makes the list because she writes with an authority that is so captivating. I enjoy how the story focuses on a talk-show celebrity who is being stalked. It makes me think of my high-society elites in Under a Cloud of Rain, and how they would balk at such a crime being committed against them just like they do when people start being murdered in their neighborhoods. Hello, Darkness is truly a thriller. The main character, Paris, has to work with the crime psychologist assigned to the case, and the kicker is that the killer isn’t a stranger. 

David Lindsey does a wonderful job creating a crime thriller in Mercy. I love that the main character is a strong female detective. She actually reminds me of (spoiler alert!) my female serial killer, who is a femme fatale in a world comprised almost exclusively of powerful men. Two women are found murdered in the streets of Houston, and detective Carmen Palma is tested personally and professionally as she digs into the mind of a sexually motivated serial killer. The narrative plays with some very provocative ideas, but this psychological thriller is a must-read if you want a peek into the gruesome world of sadism and murder.

Nancy Bell’s Judge Jackson Crain series definitely makes the list. The three books—Restored to Death, Death Splits a Hair, and Paint the Town Dead—echo the gruesome murders in my first novel. As in Under a Cloud of Rain and the other two books on this list, women are the prey in this bloody trilogy. There’s also some small-town gossip from a group of female busybodies, which I think mirrors my high-society pot stirrers in Under a Cloud of Rain.

I can only hope that Under a Could of Rain will be on the list of must-read mystery novels set in Texas someday (and Thicker Than Blood will be on the list of must-reads for books set in New Orleans)!

During my recent research trip to New Orleans, I started reading a book called Mr. New Orleans: The Life of a Big Easy Underworld Legend to help understand how crooked the city really is. The book is about Frenchy Brouillette, who was a Cajun man from a small town north of New Orleans who worked his way from poverty to the New Orleans mafia. The book is filled with gambling, sex, drugs, and politics, so it’s helping me get a feel for the atmosphere of New Orleans and learn what was going on during the time period my next book, Thicker Than Blood, is set in. There’s a quote from Frenchy that captures what I felt when I visited the city a few months ago: “The honor of acting as New Orleans’s mascot comes with a profound responsibility to forsake stress, stability, sobriety, monogamy, respectability, and all manner of legitimate employment and lawful behavior.” It’s just great.

The book really got me thinking about the New Orleans mafia. And on top of that, during my carriage ride through the French Quarter, I saw a bunch of signs for Marcello Real Estate, which I asked Mitch, our driver, about. He has been in New Orleans forever, so he had a lot of insights into the New Orleans mafia and the Marcello family. He told us the city had almost cleared out most of the mafia and its organized crime around 1970, but a lot of the real estate in the French Quarter is still owned by descendants of the Marcello family.

In 1970 New Orleans—when my book is set—the head of the mafia was Carlos Marcello. He was called “The Godfather” and “The Little Man.” He was an Italian-American mafia guy who became the boss in the 1940s when his predecessor, Sylvestro “Silver Dollar Sam” Carolla was deported. I love these different mafia names they give each other—they’re so colorful. I also couldn’t believe Marcello was only about thirty when he stepped into this role as mafia boss. He was so green.

The Marcello family controlled Louisiana’s illegal gambling network, but they were into everything from racketeering to bribery. Mitch told us Carlos allegedly used a bar in the French Quarter as a front for selling marijuana. Carlos had judges and lawyers and others in his pocket and was in and out of jail at least three times. The federal government was even looking into Carlos and the Marcello family during their reign in the French Quarter.

Marcello died in 1993, and he was first buried in his family’s mausoleum, but his body was moved in 2003 to Metairie Cemetery, which I visited during my trip. It’s a very eerie feeling being in cemeteries with those massive tombs.

Learning about the corruption in New Orleans in the 1970s has given me so much history to build upon to create the setting for Thicker Than Blood. I’m excited to get back to my writing and work some of these details into the narrative. 

There was so much I learned while I was on my six-day research trip in New Orleans that I had to split it into two blogs.

I did a lot of research on churches while I was there, and ohmygosh some of the names of these churches were just crazy, like Jesus Never Fails. It was interesting. Another one was named Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I grew up a Catholic, so I understand these loud proclamations of religious organizations, but these were old Baptist churches in the Ninth Ward, which is now a well-known neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and catastrophic flooding it caused. This is where Brad Pitt built the houses for Hurricane Katrina victims, so it was all over the news.

I’m getting off topic, but the whole Katrina thing is a joke. I saw the wall they built that’s supposed to keep out the hurricane floodwater; there’s no way that wall is going to keep it out. And Brad Pitt, God bless him for his generosity in building those houses. They’re built on stilts so they’re a little bit higher than the homes that were destroyed by Katrina, but they all have wooden siding. In a hurricane those things will blow right down like the big bad wolf blew the pigs’ houses down.

In addition to researching churches, I also began thinking about religions while I was in New Orleans, because I want to tie that in to my serial killer’s narrative. For Thicker Than Blood, I looked into the rich culture of New Orleans voodoo (also called Louisiana voodoo), which is a a set of religious practices created from different African traditions and rituals. There are two different practices: Louisiana voodoo and Haitian voodoo, so it’s a very complicated tradition. The term voodoo doll came from Louisiana voodoo.

Hoodoo, on the other hand, is not a religion but rather a folklore spirituality. Hoodoo is a set of magical practices aimed at bringing good luck to people’s daily lives or warding off evil, while voodoo is a form of established religion. Hoodoo traditions include magical spells, harnessing supernatural powers, and some very sinister stuff. However, both traditions have roots in African culture.

I thought voodoo was something people in New Orleans still practiced, but according to NewOrleansOnline.com, “the word voodoo is no longer feared as it once was; restaurants, sports teams, and concerts use the word as a marketing concept.” But ritualistic hoodoo is still quietly practiced in the southern United States, primarily by Protestant Christians.

I’m still figuring out how I’ll tie religion, church history, and maybe even hoodoo or voodoo concepts into Thicker Than Blood. Stay tuned!

My daughter emailed me an article recently that takes an empowering look into female crime writers and how many more are coming out of the woodwork these days. Fittingly titled “Women Are Writing the Best Crime Novels,” it’s an interesting and witty commentary on on how the tropes of the once male-dominated genre are being transformed by the different concerns and sensibilities that contemporary female crime writers bring to the table. And those writers—myself included—are going head-to-head with the boys.

I felt so inspired by the article. As I’m sure many of my female counterparts can understand, it’s not always easy being a female crime novelist. But it’s also so rewarding. I love being able to call myself a woman and a writer. And I’ve also added doting grandma to that list in the past few years!

The article’s tagline is: “[Women] don’t seem to believe in heroes as much as their male counterparts, which in some ways makes their storytelling a better fit for the times.” I love that. All readers are not created equal, so how could all writers possibly fit into the same box?

Female crime writers play a unique role in today’s reading realm. I think it’s important that we can add that other level to our writing. We can create a feminine executioner who might (initially at least), disguise or belie the murderous, gruesome storyline. We are blessed with that womanly insight into mothering, multitasking, caregiving and emotional stability.

I’ve mentioned it before that I had some struggle with self-publishing—although they aren’t necessarily related to being a female writer. The marketing and networking via social media and blogging that’s necessary to be successful at self-publishing is challenging for me. It’s such a different writing style. But I’m learning, just like I had to learn to ask people for money to crowd share, which might have been easier for my male writer counterparts. Perhaps it’s easier for male writers to self-promote, but it was really uncomfortable for me because I’ve been taught not to owe anybody anything. A lot of my friends and family put up a lot of money. And there’s a side of me that doesn’t want them to have to do anything, but I’m so thankful for what they did.

As author Terrence Rafferty says in the article: “Traditional mysteries are still with us, but tortuous, doomy domestic thrillers are what readers seem to want now, and dozens of women are ready, willing, and able to oblige.”

I raise my hand as one of those fearless females who is ready to take on the challenge and fill that urge today’s readers have for those types of novels!

Here’s the full article from The Atlantic. 

I just returned from an incredible research trip to New Orleans for Thicker Than Blood and want to share some of the interesting things I learned through talking to locals, visiting churches, and getting to know the infamous city.

One of the first thing I did was take a carriage ride through the French Quarter. I didn’t go with just anybody, though. I talked to different carriage drivers, because they’re all lined up in Jackson Square waiting for passengers. One was named Mitch, and I liked his attitude, and he seemed more knowledgeable than the others, so I picked him. I just had an inkling that he would be a great guide, and he turned out to be full of information and such a character. He’s been in New Orleans forever.

Louisiana has some great historical culture. It’s the only state that is divided into parishes rather than counties, which dates back to the state’s Roman Catholic roots under the rule of both France and Spain. In the 1800s, church parishes were generally the same as the territorial boundaries. So the city of New Orleans is in Orleans Parish – one of the original nineteen parishes. Today, there are sixty-four parishes.

I quickly found out how corrupt and sleazy New Orleans is and was. My first interview was with a bail bondsman who was a totally cagey type of guy. I was stupid and knew better than to do this, but he gave me tons of information the first sitting with him, and I gave him a couple thousand dollars. After that, he went AWOL on me. He always had an odd excuse, like being in the emergency room. A very bizarre experience, but definitely a learning experience. It was all part of New Orleans. It’s also stupid to walk around at night in the French Quarter. Today, New Orleans is ranked only the fourth most dangerous city in the US, but in 2011, it had the highest per capita murder rate of any US city. It’s been called the murder capital of the world.

I also had such an enlightening interview with Jeanette Maier. She was the “Canal Street Madam,” who had this infamous family-run brothel in New Orleans. She had three different prostitution rings in the 1980s and 90s. Her clientele was married senators and mayors and other high rollers. An FBI raid on her brothel more than a decade ago basically destroyed her livelihood. She’s a wonderful lady in her late fifties now, and you never would have known she was in this type of industry back then. We had brunch, too!

Brunch with Jeanette Maier.

I’m so thankful to all the people I spoke with in New Orleans. It’s a daunting task to put all the research together to create the atmosphere necessary for my characters, so I better get started!

I just returned from a meeting with my editor, Dolores, in Los Angeles about Thicker Than Blood, and it went really well. We walked on the boardwalk in Venice and talked about the book. We had lunch and talked about the book. We had dinner with friends and talked about the book. It got me thinking about how important my relationship is with her, and why I think it’s so vital to writers to have an editor they trust.   

Dolores and I met through a very close mutual friend. She had already had two books published (they’re really campy!). I sent her part of my book, and she edited it so well that I knew we would make a great team. I had an editor before who just let me write anything, so it wasn’t a good fit. Whereas Dolores came in and helped me build a story by moving scenes and getting things in order instead of me being all over the map. 

I can write, and I can write, and I can write. I’ve got the metaphors down, the description down, the characters down, the dialogue down, but I’m not very good with an outline. It’s really a pain point with me. Dolores makes me think about scenes differently and suggests moving them around to better tell the story. For example, I just wrote the prologue for Thicker Than Blood, which is a murder scene, and sent it to her. She sent it back with some great comments to help me focus on the beginning and the ending to make sure I was structuring it properly. She is currently working on an outline for me for Thicker Than Blood so I can guide my scenes into a structure for the first full draft. And then we’ll get together and change it (or not!), depending on how I see the book. 

Sometimes it’s other writing issues that I seek her guidance on. I try to keep my characters really well drawn, for instance, but right now, at 150 pages, I still have people coming and going, and I’m trying to figure out how to get it all together. Dolores can help me with that—she’s good with all aspects of editing. 

I don’t speak with her on a daily basis, but I know she’s just a call or email away if I need advice or help overcoming a short bout of writer’s block. I mentioned in a previous blog that when I struggled with my writer’s block a few months ago, I had written a few lackluster scenes. And when I handed them off to her I said, “These scenes don’t need to be edited. They need to be redone.” There was major work to be done. Because she worked on Under a Cloud of Rain with me, she knows my writing so well that she can almost think of scenes for me to write.  

Every writer should have an editor. I can’t image how someone could write a book without an editor they trust. It’s a very intimate relationship because you’re exposing parts of yourself, even if, as in my case, it’s a not-so-warm-and-cozy murder mystery. With an editor I trust I can be more creative, because I have someone who is with me on the same page and can see when my work is dragging. 

At our last meeting, I turned over 150 pages to Dolores. Some of them were good and some of them were not good. But the meeting helped me transition into the process of editing and structuring the new novel so I can meet my October deadline and have a final 350-pager ready!

Next up, a trip to New Orleans!

Although my path to publishing my first mystery novel was pretty straightforward (I chose to go the route of crowdfunding), the most important piece of information I would offer to anyone attempting to get a book published is to educate yourself on all the options in the world of publishing. It’s not a one-size-fits-all universe.

I want to share some advice I’ve learned for those risk-takers who venture into the unknown of self-publishing.  

1.     The self in self-publishing might sound like you’re on your own, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I can’t say enough about how important my editor, Delores DeLuca, has been in my journey to becoming a published author. She has helped me tremendously. Your editor should become your best friend and confidant. It’s a very intimate relationship between you, your editor, and your book. It’s almost like a lurid love triangle!

2.     Not only do you need a reliable editor, but you also need to make friends with the reading and writing community as you launch your book. As a self-publisher, you have to talk to people. Socializing isn’t a problem for me. However, asking friends and family to pledge funds to my book before it was even finished—the basis of crowdfunding—was difficult. My husband and I have many friends we socialize with regularly, so I had a sold base of loyal family and friends who I asked to take an interest in my first book, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. 

3.     Sell your book, not yourself. As you work with any publishing team and the accompanying editors (and their opinions and sometimes brutal markups), it can be a struggle to maintain your voice. During my first foray into self-publishing, I had to ensure I spoke up about the vision I had for my novel so I didn’t lose myself. It was important for me to vocalize the characters I was trying to create and the scenes I was setting for my future readers. I didn’t want to become the voice of my editor.   

4.     Learn to accept criticism. My experience has had its challenges, but I’ve been very lucky with the kind words I received when I publish my first book. However, it’s not always smooth sailing. It’s important to remember (especially after you receive a hard-to-swallow critique or editorial markup) that the words of encouragement will come. It might just take a few more—dozen—edits. Don't fear the red pen! As long as you focus on the reason you wanted to published, it will be worth it. Which brings me to my last piece of advice . . .

5.     Identify your self-publishing goal. How will you define success once you’re published? Authors define success in many ways, so you won’t know if you’re truly successful until you explore what that means for you. Ask yourself these questions as you begin the self-publishing journey:

Do I want to be a full-time writer?Do I want to be self-published to make your family proud?Do I just want to hold your book in your hands and admire it?

Again, I think taking the time to explore all your options is the key to success as a publishing author. This is especially true in today’s divided opinions on traditional versus self-publishing among literati. 

It happens to every writer at some point or another. After I had worked through a complete rough draft of my first novel, writer’s block was the last thing on my mind. But as I started thinking about and working on my second novel, that’s when it hit: a blank page staring back at me. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t even think of where to begin, and it scared me to consider traveling down the dark paths of a serial killer’s mind again. Writer’s block was very real for me just a few short months ago. And sometimes it felt like a literal block wedged between myself and any form of narrative I had once naturally penned. It was very scary, and very eye-opening.

I recently traveled to Germany with my husband, Peter, which gave me the time away from writing that I needed. Before I went to Germany, I was so scattered. We enjoy socializing with friends and business associates and doing volunteer work, but I really have to write to be happy and focused. After I got back from Germany, I had to isolate myself and tell myself that I would put everything on hold in my life and just focus on the book. And as a result my writing is much better, I feel much freer, and I am not turning in halfhearted pieces to my editor. I’m handing in pages that are deserving of her edits.

I’ve learned that the best way for me to overcome writer’s block is to read material that’s close to mine in the same genre so I get the tone and style in my mind and to immerse myself in the research. I’m going to New Orleans soon for a week with my good friend Kelly to dig into the scenes for Thicker Than Blood. I’ll be interviewing lots of Kelly’s friends and some of my family’s friends who have been there a long time and know the city. I’m looking forward to feeling the inspiration again.

People might not want to hear it, but I literally just pray and then I write. I find that the more passion I put into it, the better my writing becomes. And when I rush myself—as I was doing to get this next book done by October—I don’t enjoy the process. It becomes more about getting it done.

Another battle I fight is the desire to give up. I’ve sent my editor pages before that I knew weren’t very good, and she rewrote them, but it just wasn’t my voice. It was her voice. I love this woman—she’s such a character and she’s really good at what she does—but I had to tell her not to write for me. When I wrote Under a Cloud of Rain, I drafted the whole book, and then I sent it to her. For Thicker Than Blood we began with a step-by-step methodology, so I was sending her scenes as I wrote them, but it wasn’t working for me, so I told her to let me write the book first, and then we could edit. There was a piece of me that wanted someone else to fool with those scenes because I didn’t want to have to go that deep back into the mind of the serial killer. But now that I’ve started focusing solely on my writing, and digging into the scenes, I feel very good about the next few months of writing, and I’ll have plenty to show her for my first round of edits!