Janice MacDonald's Blog: Notes on writing - Posts Tagged "mystery"
This Magic Moment
Why do writers write? It's certainly not for a chance at immediate response, though when it does come — like it did today, in the form of a colleague popping over to my cubicle to say, "I just finished your latest and loved it. I'm starting on the one about computers now" — it's lovely. It's not for the money, either, though I am pretty sure most writers make more money than I do. And it's certainly not for glory or respect; after all, one of my own children has never read any of my books.
But I'll let you in on a moment that explains why writing is the whole reason, in and of itself.
Looking for a setting that made sense for the mystery novel storyline I'm presently working on, I recalled a place my mother once taught back in the days of teacherages and one-room schoolhouses. I knew the original site was no longer there, but needed to know what was along that road, so that I could fabricate with impunity (loose translation: make shit up) and then pop in one of those nice little poetic licence commentaries at the end about how I'd made everything up. My husband and I made plans to take a drive out that way to look around.
While waiting for my husband to wake up on the holiday Monday, I decided to write the passage the way I wanted it to be, figuring it would be easier to edit later than waste time. I decided that as well as inventing a standing schoolhouse that would now be a museum/meeting hall, I needed a historic marker on the highway, one of those pullover sites that contain a garbage pail and a sign detailing the important event that took place in the vicinity — perhaps even a map. My mom used to make a point of stopping to read these markers, all over the country, and it's become a habit with me, too. I decided I would have Randy Craig and her friend Denise pull into the layby to get away from a tractor pulling a huge load of hay bales and find something important. Randy would read the map on the sign, and things would come clearer by the minute. I got eight pages written in the silence of the early morning.
Around 9:30, after a quick breakfast, we headed out and drove into the blue Alberta day. It took us just over an hour to get to the highway we were aiming for. I grinned when we passed MacDonald Road, thinking that if I was someone who believed in omens, this would be a good one. A little later on, near where the school would have stood, had it still been there, we noticed a small historic marker arrow. We pulled off the road, and there it was: the historic marker sign — with a map. It wasn't quite as I had described earlier in my imagination. And there was no garbage can. But as I stood there, taking photos and trying to quell the shivers I get when my worlds mesh, a tractor hauling a truckload of hay bales drove slowly by.
That's the magic of writing.
But I'll let you in on a moment that explains why writing is the whole reason, in and of itself.
Looking for a setting that made sense for the mystery novel storyline I'm presently working on, I recalled a place my mother once taught back in the days of teacherages and one-room schoolhouses. I knew the original site was no longer there, but needed to know what was along that road, so that I could fabricate with impunity (loose translation: make shit up) and then pop in one of those nice little poetic licence commentaries at the end about how I'd made everything up. My husband and I made plans to take a drive out that way to look around.
While waiting for my husband to wake up on the holiday Monday, I decided to write the passage the way I wanted it to be, figuring it would be easier to edit later than waste time. I decided that as well as inventing a standing schoolhouse that would now be a museum/meeting hall, I needed a historic marker on the highway, one of those pullover sites that contain a garbage pail and a sign detailing the important event that took place in the vicinity — perhaps even a map. My mom used to make a point of stopping to read these markers, all over the country, and it's become a habit with me, too. I decided I would have Randy Craig and her friend Denise pull into the layby to get away from a tractor pulling a huge load of hay bales and find something important. Randy would read the map on the sign, and things would come clearer by the minute. I got eight pages written in the silence of the early morning.
Around 9:30, after a quick breakfast, we headed out and drove into the blue Alberta day. It took us just over an hour to get to the highway we were aiming for. I grinned when we passed MacDonald Road, thinking that if I was someone who believed in omens, this would be a good one. A little later on, near where the school would have stood, had it still been there, we noticed a small historic marker arrow. We pulled off the road, and there it was: the historic marker sign — with a map. It wasn't quite as I had described earlier in my imagination. And there was no garbage can. But as I stood there, taking photos and trying to quell the shivers I get when my worlds mesh, a tractor hauling a truckload of hay bales drove slowly by.
That's the magic of writing.
I have been to a marvelous party...
There is very little glamour in writing a book, if you happen to be me. I drag myself out of bed on weekend mornings at 5:30 a.m. Dressed in comfy pants, a cozy sweater and fuzzy socks, I brew a pot of French Market Chicory Coffee (thank you Ron and Jeff!) and curl up in one of the chairs in our living room to knock out five pages minimum. When I eventually have a decent draft to send off to my editor, she and I volley it back and forth (she's in Winnipeg, so I end up face-to-face with her maybe once every couple of years) and at long last I'll see cover art and page proofs, while rising to knock out five pages on the next manuscript.
In between, my husband updates the website, my friends meet for lunch to commiserate about our compulsion to pursue writing careers, and I buy other people's books, read about other people's books in glossy magazines and listen to national broadcasters gush about other people's books. Oh yes, and I clock in at my day job, which is challenging, stimulating, and filled with wonderful colleagues. Which is a good thing, eh?
But every once in a while, the magic happens.
And last night on June 15th, at the Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site, I felt like a princess. The new book, Condemned to Repeat: A Randy Craig Mystery, was piled up in a glorious display on the Rutherfords' shiny dining table, people I love and respect kept piling in through the door, and party food and drink was laid out in the tea room. The new book begins at Rutherford House, with a mystery dinner theatre event based on a magicians' reunion, so our friend Stephen Dafoe (who in an earlier incarnation had been a touring professional magician) whipped up a short magic act to entertain after my reading. After the entertainment, I signed books at Premier Alexander Rutherford's desk... it was all very heady.
Kelly Hewson, my best friend from grad school, drove up from Calgary to help us celebrate. All my friends from work were there. People I admire, who have shaped me into who I am, were there in droves: Tom Peacocke, Jim de Felice, Margaret Van de Pitte, Nancy Gibson and John Whittaker, and many more. Family like Randy Williams, Larry Reese, Ruth Kindree and Jossie Mant were on hand. And friends! Stalwart pals through thick and thin showed up to share in the celebration.
Sharon and Steve Budnarchuk, who own Audreys Books and have been so supportive over the years, managed the sales and food. Sharon Caseburg, my darling editor, spent time and energy conspiring with Olga Fowler of Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site to put the whole event together. Masani St. Rose-Toth and her husband Justin provided glorious fruity iced tea.
Also, excitingly, several fans of the series I didn't know till last night were there and introduced themselves to me. There were more than sixty people there, and various people who couldn’t make it sent lovely notes and promises of lunch dates ahead. I wore splendid red shoes and shiny red nail polish and my new Simon Chang dress and was toasted and feted and awash in good cheer. I could hardly sleep last night, reliving and reverberating.
And this morning, I rolled out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to work on the next manuscript. It's okay, it's what I do. Another few thousand words, another few drafts, another few revisions, some more solitary Saturday and Sunday mornings, and there'll be another marvelous party.
In between, my husband updates the website, my friends meet for lunch to commiserate about our compulsion to pursue writing careers, and I buy other people's books, read about other people's books in glossy magazines and listen to national broadcasters gush about other people's books. Oh yes, and I clock in at my day job, which is challenging, stimulating, and filled with wonderful colleagues. Which is a good thing, eh?
But every once in a while, the magic happens.
And last night on June 15th, at the Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site, I felt like a princess. The new book, Condemned to Repeat: A Randy Craig Mystery, was piled up in a glorious display on the Rutherfords' shiny dining table, people I love and respect kept piling in through the door, and party food and drink was laid out in the tea room. The new book begins at Rutherford House, with a mystery dinner theatre event based on a magicians' reunion, so our friend Stephen Dafoe (who in an earlier incarnation had been a touring professional magician) whipped up a short magic act to entertain after my reading. After the entertainment, I signed books at Premier Alexander Rutherford's desk... it was all very heady.
Kelly Hewson, my best friend from grad school, drove up from Calgary to help us celebrate. All my friends from work were there. People I admire, who have shaped me into who I am, were there in droves: Tom Peacocke, Jim de Felice, Margaret Van de Pitte, Nancy Gibson and John Whittaker, and many more. Family like Randy Williams, Larry Reese, Ruth Kindree and Jossie Mant were on hand. And friends! Stalwart pals through thick and thin showed up to share in the celebration.
Sharon and Steve Budnarchuk, who own Audreys Books and have been so supportive over the years, managed the sales and food. Sharon Caseburg, my darling editor, spent time and energy conspiring with Olga Fowler of Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site to put the whole event together. Masani St. Rose-Toth and her husband Justin provided glorious fruity iced tea.
Also, excitingly, several fans of the series I didn't know till last night were there and introduced themselves to me. There were more than sixty people there, and various people who couldn’t make it sent lovely notes and promises of lunch dates ahead. I wore splendid red shoes and shiny red nail polish and my new Simon Chang dress and was toasted and feted and awash in good cheer. I could hardly sleep last night, reliving and reverberating.
And this morning, I rolled out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to work on the next manuscript. It's okay, it's what I do. Another few thousand words, another few drafts, another few revisions, some more solitary Saturday and Sunday mornings, and there'll be another marvelous party.
Enjoyed Week One of Goodreads Giveaways -- with more to come!
We just mailed an autographed copy of Sticks and Stones: A Randy Craig Mystery off to new reader named Holly in Etowah, Tennessee -- the wrap-up of our first Goodreads book giveaway! It's such fun to connect with mystery lovers in far-off places who are eager to discover the adventures of Edmonton, Alberta's reluctant sleuth Miranda "Randy" Craig.
We're only just getting started with the book giveaways through Goodreads. This week (till Sunday, February 23) we have an autographed copy of The Monitor up for grabs. Hang Down Your Head is next (week of February 24 through March 2) and finally Condemned to Repeat (week of March 3-9), all signed by the author!
We’re incredibly excited about the launch of the next Randy Craig adventure, The Roar of the Crowd, which is coming in June of this year. Stay tuned for details about the publication -- who knows, maybe there will even be some more autographed books to give away!
In the meantime, get all the details on the current Goodreads giveaway at the link below:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
We're only just getting started with the book giveaways through Goodreads. This week (till Sunday, February 23) we have an autographed copy of The Monitor up for grabs. Hang Down Your Head is next (week of February 24 through March 2) and finally Condemned to Repeat (week of March 3-9), all signed by the author!
We’re incredibly excited about the launch of the next Randy Craig adventure, The Roar of the Crowd, which is coming in June of this year. Stay tuned for details about the publication -- who knows, maybe there will even be some more autographed books to give away!
In the meantime, get all the details on the current Goodreads giveaway at the link below:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
On Randy Craig and the quest for an "authentic" sleuth
My husband and I been binge-watching some television series recently, and we've noticed that it somehow feels much easier to live in the world of a British series than it does an American one. Much of this I think has to do with the level of authenticity offered. British actors, on the whole, seem less airbrushed, don't you think?
Authenticity may be an odd thing to wish for in fiction, and yet even though we know it's make believe, there needs to be a knell of truth to the experience. That is why Randy Craig ages over the span of her stories, from a young-ish grad student in her first adventure to a middle-aged woman in her latest. It's also why she worries about her choices and decisions, and why she doubles back on herself on occasion. Many of those elements of characterization are incremental layers to the formula, as well. It is important to take the audience along on the quest, but a quest that goes in a straight line is satisfying to no one, neither detective reader or football fan. Real people second guess themselves five or six times a day, if not an hour. (I almost erased this whole page three times already.)
Vulnerability in our heroes is something we embrace warily. We think we want Superman. More often, though, we veer to the tortured Batman. Contemporary detective fiction is a world without the astonishing August Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Philo Vance — who seem impossibly outrageous if placed in a modern context — and without their stalwart if duller sidekicks. It is a world in which ordinary people pit themselves against extraordinary circumstances. If you are lucky, a writer will enhance that formula with explorations of that detective's psyche, circumstances or political position in the world. That is when it becomes really fun to immerse yourself in their world.
I'm not saying we need to read a shelf full of anti-heroes, that characters have to be representative of some great political ideal, or that we can’t make our detectives into attractive figures. If you're asking a reader to live with them for a while, though, it helps to make your characters into someone they'd like to have a cup of coffee and some bread pudding with. I’m looking for someone who isn't airbrushed and who, like me, will have to walk off that last dessert.
Authenticity may be an odd thing to wish for in fiction, and yet even though we know it's make believe, there needs to be a knell of truth to the experience. That is why Randy Craig ages over the span of her stories, from a young-ish grad student in her first adventure to a middle-aged woman in her latest. It's also why she worries about her choices and decisions, and why she doubles back on herself on occasion. Many of those elements of characterization are incremental layers to the formula, as well. It is important to take the audience along on the quest, but a quest that goes in a straight line is satisfying to no one, neither detective reader or football fan. Real people second guess themselves five or six times a day, if not an hour. (I almost erased this whole page three times already.)
Vulnerability in our heroes is something we embrace warily. We think we want Superman. More often, though, we veer to the tortured Batman. Contemporary detective fiction is a world without the astonishing August Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Philo Vance — who seem impossibly outrageous if placed in a modern context — and without their stalwart if duller sidekicks. It is a world in which ordinary people pit themselves against extraordinary circumstances. If you are lucky, a writer will enhance that formula with explorations of that detective's psyche, circumstances or political position in the world. That is when it becomes really fun to immerse yourself in their world.
I'm not saying we need to read a shelf full of anti-heroes, that characters have to be representative of some great political ideal, or that we can’t make our detectives into attractive figures. If you're asking a reader to live with them for a while, though, it helps to make your characters into someone they'd like to have a cup of coffee and some bread pudding with. I’m looking for someone who isn't airbrushed and who, like me, will have to walk off that last dessert.
BOOK GIVEAWAY - Win a copy of Another Margaret on Goodreads
Great news, mystery lovers! Ravenstone Books/Turnstone Press, publisher of the Randy Craig Mystery series, is sponsoring a giveaway right here on Goodreads!
Get all the details and enter for your chance to win a copy of the new novel at this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Get all the details and enter for your chance to win a copy of the new novel at this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Notes on writing
Watch this space for notes from author Janice MacDonald — on the road, dashing off to another appearance, or working her way through the writing of the next Randy Craig Mystery.
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