Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

It was my my husband’s and my 16th wedding anniversary on August 7th. We decided to go out for a nice dinner to celebrate. We choose a fancy restaurant in South Park Charlotte called Zebra.

This meant I needed to look nice. Oh, I clean up well, but nine days out of ten I take no effort at all with my appearance. In fact, I’d packed my makeup for our trip to Highlands, NC (about a month ago now) and have not located it since then. I think I stuck it in a bag that was inside another bag and inside another bag….I’m wondering if I threw it away. So now, even if I’m reacquainted with my makeup, I’m not sure I’ll remember how to effectively apply it. I pulled on a brown dress, wore strappy sandals (I’m way-tall for heels), yanked a comb through the long brown hair and called myself good enough.

We walk into Zebra and I realize that I’m in the midst of the most glamorous and elegant women I’ve ever seen. AND—they were all at least 10-15 years older than my 38 years. I squinted at them through the dim lighting. Did they have work done? No, it didn’t look that way. But…oh. Make-up. Well applied. Fortunately, my husband seemed oblivious to the Glamazons in the restaurant, and delighted to be with his wife with the AWOL makeup.

I’m not a competitive person (good thing, since I don’t tend to win things) and I’m not a jealous person (a trait I find rather disgusting), but I’m a very Type-A person. I want to do a Good Job.

Since I’m writing the first book of a series for Berkley Prime Crime, I bought a bunch of epicurean mysteries published by Penguin. I wanted to make sure I’d done a Good Job. This was both helpful and disturbing. Helpful: I was able to gauge the approximate ratio of food to mystery. I was able to get a good feel for their line. Disturbing: I was reading a very polished finished product. My draft didn’t seem to measure up.

I’m not sure I can recommend purchasing books that are similar to your own and critiquing them. But, if you choose to do this, here is my big tip:

Treat it like English class: I brought out my red pen.I circled things, wrote notes in the margins, and completely deconstructed the books. This encouraged an objectivity that helped me remain calm.

Noticing the pretty ladies in the restaurant? Cost=$50 at the Clinique counter at Macy’s. Feeling inadequate while reading a well-edited version of what I was trying to accomplish? Cost =$10 lunch with a friend where I babbled the whole time about fabulously-talented writers. Keeping my objectivity while obtaining useful strategies to apply to my novel? Priceless.

Saturday, I was fussing at a garden hose before finally asking my husband to reconnect the hose to the spigot. He found a wrench. “With this,” he explained, you’re stronger than the strongest man in the world.” It wasn’t a task I needed to hand off, after all.

Also on Saturday (busy day), our son pointed out that the upstairs hall’s light fixture was full of dirty water. Oh, and that there was a big brown spot on the ceiling. This is never a good thing.

My husband braved the attic (and whew, is it HOT in the South in August), and discovered the drip pan thingy for the furnace/A/C had overflowed. He soaked up the tray’s water with old towels. He poured bleach into the pipes to clear them. Then he emptied the light fixture.

But then—the downstairs A/C suddenly wasn’t working. Did I mention the August heat in the South?

It was time to call in the big guns. Yesterday we had an air conditioning repairman come out. He stepped right into his heroic role of restoring cool air to our family.

Yesterday I also emailed a draft to my agent. My September 1 deadline is fast approaching for Memphis BBQ series book 1. I’ve fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with the draft. I’ve added scenes, removed scenes, rewritten characters, and changed the ending. I changed the murderer and then changed it back.

It was a task that I could handle myself at first. And I already had the tools. But then it became like the leaky drip pan. I needed to call in a pro. I’d done all I could on my end, but it needed to go one step farther.

I realized it had gotten to the point where I needed another set of eyes. I needed someone who was going to tell me straight-up and in short order what I should consider changing….before my Berkley editor gets it. My agent, who has a vested interest in my writing career, was the perfect recipient.

Signs it’s time to hand over our project to another reader:

• You’ve read the entire draft beginning to end ten times, but now discover typos that you’ve overlooked every other time.
• You’re at deadline at you suddenly consider a major overhaul on one big section of your book (that may actually be fine without it, but you’ve lost perspective.)
• You’re so familiar with your own characters (since they’re living in your head) that you can’t tell whether they’ve been introduced or described well to your reader (who doesn’t yet have them in his head.)
• You have several different beginning and ending scenarios and can’t decide between them.

I think handing off a project too early isn’t good—like the garden hose, it’s something we can handle ourselves. Too many different opinions can do serious damage to a work in progress. I don’t like people reading my unfinished drafts.

But there comes a point where the draft is completed and we’ve struggled through it enough. That’s the time when it’s a relief to discover what a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective can do for us.

Today is Awards Day on Mystery Writing is Murder. Look around you—see all the celebrities in evening clothes, the multimillion dollar bling the stars are wearing, the hilarious Master of Ceremonies, the orchestra? No? Sorry about that. But please use your imagination…we’re all writers here!

I’ve received some fantastic awards from my blogging friends and wanted to return the favor during an awards ceremony. I read a lot of blogs. I have many favorites. Today I’m recognizing some of my favorite places to hang out online, and some of the friends, new and old, I’ve made in my browsing trek.

Please accept the award with my thanks for your comments and your wonderful blogs. You’re welcome to post them or not, pass them on or not—with my thanks to you all!

I also want to thank everyone who takes the time to comment on Mystery Writing is Murder. I appreciate your thoughts and insights so much and only wish I could list everyone here who regularly visits me.

(****If you want to pass the Kreativ Blogger award or the Superior Scribbler award along to others, see the bottom of this post for details.)

Kreativ Blogger Award

Awarded to me by Dorte

My recipients are:

Marybeth Smith—Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins

Galen Kindley—Imagineering Fiction

Helen Ginger—Straight from Hel

Hart Johnson—Confessions of a Watery Tart

Nancy Sharpe—Realms of Thought

Patricia Stoltey—Patricia Stoltey

Cleo Coyle from Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen and her cool website at Coffeehouse Mystery.com

When passing the award to others, we list 7 favorites. Here are 7 of my Favorite Mystery Authors (of many authors and in no particular order)

M.C. Beaton
Elizabeth George
P.D. James
Deborah Crombie
Louise Penny
Agatha Christie
Ruth Rendell

Humane:

The Humane Award is to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn’t for them, my site would just be an ordinary blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a regular basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world.

Awarded me by Helen Ginger

My recipients are:

Elspeth Antonelli—It’s a Mystery

Alan Oroff—A Million Blogging Monkeys

Glynis Smy—Author Blog: Glynis Smy ; New Scribbles from Glynis Smy

Dorte H– DJ’s Krimblog

Karen Walker—Following the Whispers (Karen, I know this might be a repeat for you, but I wanted to show my appreciation for your comments!)

Labanan at Crazy Jane

Awarded me by Marybeth Smith.

My recipients are:

Julie Lomoe—Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterioso

Terry Odell—Terry’s Place

L. Diane Wolfe–Spunk on a Stick

Marvin Wilson—The Old Silly’s Free Spirit Blog

Jane Kennedy Sutton— Jane’s Ride

Thanks so much everyone! I only wish you could leave the award banquet with full tummies, and goodie bags.

*****Rules for Passing on the Superior Scribbler Award

The blog award rules are as follows (which according to rule #5 I am required to post here):

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

*****Rule for Passing on the Kreativ Blogger Award

It functions as a meme—list 7 of your favorite things, 7 of your favorite activities, 7 things no one knows about you, etc.

I noticed something the other day and wondered if other writers felt the same way. 

My favorite music is heavy on storytelling–by singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, etc.   Music genres like the blues also hold a strong appeal for me.

My favorite art tells a story.  I do like landscapes, but only if they seem like a story setting or draw me in to the picture.  I like portraits where the people’s eyes are speaking to me. I’m interested in Munch’s The Scream, where the focal point is in agony and the other people on the bridge seem unaware of his distress.   There’s  a story. 

  As a reader, I think I’m a fairly demanding one.  I want an escape, and quickly.  I want a good story.

Maybe that’s why I can’t leave my drafts alone.  Is it good enough? Does the reader want to be friends with my protagonist?  Have I told a good story? 

I’ll admit I’m a real fan of imperfect protagonists. If I’m reading a book and I can’t identify with the main character because they are just too sweet, then I’ll put the book down. Even Pollyanna had her moments when she wasn’t wonderful.

But then….where’s the line? How far can we push the reader before they dislike our protagonists for having too many faults? The last thing I want to do is alienate a reader by having them get frustrated with my protagonist.

This post goes along a little with my post yesterday. I feel like character qualities (good and bad) influence their behavior in a plot and the outcome of different events.

At the same time, I try to balance the good qualities and the bad ones. I tend to focus more on the bad, though—that’s the source of much of the humor in my books.

My protagonist in the Myrtle Clover series is a feisty woman. She’s smart, caring, active, and witty….but she also has a sharp tongue, a huge stubborn streak, and a proclivity to irritability.

I try to ensure that Myrtle’s warm-heartedness, even though she’s not a sentimental character, shines through her actions. I try to minimize her vices by having her machinations backfire on her in humorous ways.

Do you write protagonists with obvious vices? How do you successfully keep the reader engaged? How do you balance the good with the bad?