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I’ve always been forgetful, but this month has taken my little problem to a new low.

I forgot my parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s school.

I took my daughter to a Christmas play practice…and then realized (after her part had been assigned and she’d practiced for an hour) that we’ll be out of town the day that the play runs.

I bought a decongestant for my husband at the drugstore, then couldn’t find it. He and I searched my car, the den, our bedroom, and much of the rest of the house before we found his decongestant—in the freezer.

And…I published a post on the Midnight Ink blog yesterday when I knew my posting day was the 17th. It was on my calendar and everything as the 17th. But I posted on the 16th.

Wow. What’s going on?

I think one big component to my problem is email and the way I’m processing it.And then how I’m reminding myself of the tasks I need to complete that my emails are laying out.

I’m juggling lots of different types of messages: emails from readers (which I love getting), emailed requests for interviews, review copies, signed books for charity auctions, blurb requests for upcoming books from other authors, and emails from the publisher’s publicity person—this is for the book I’m promoting.

Emails regarding revision requests, emails to obtain blurbs on my upcoming book, submitting lists to publishers regarding review opportunities for ARCs, lining up appearances—this is for the upcoming book.

And then, of course, there’s the writing for the next book, which should always be in the hopper. And some emailing to editors and agent regarding that project.

My email inbox was a disaster area. Chit-chatting stuff alongside mail from my agent. The three list-servs I’m on had emails all over the place in my inbox.

Enough!

The last couple of days, I’ve been working on making sense of the madness.

Folders for my inbox…set up with mail rules upon delivery: listservs in one folder, agent/editor mail in another, interview stuff in another. I use Gmail for work, which technically doesn’t have folders—it has labels. But you can label one email several different ways, which is nice.

Using my phone for big reminders: My daughter’s parent-teacher conference? It totally needed a phone reminder. I can set up my phone to send me a text or to make an alarm to remind me of something important.

A “Big Picture” calendar: I think one problem I’m facing is that I’m not grasping the relationship between my days. That sounds nutty, but basically I think that just because something is on my day planner, I’m not really realizing that day’s relationship to the current day. There’s nothing wrong with using a page-a-day calendar—unless you don’t know what day it is. Which I, apparently, don’t. Now I’m using both—the daily one and the big picture calendar. I need a sticker with the words “You Are Here” on it to put on today’s date.

Starring or flagging important emails: This is something I’ve always done, but it’s worth a mention to those of y’all who don’t and end up with nutty inboxes. In Gmail, you can put a star next to an important email so you can find it later. In Outlook, you flag it. You can even choose different colored flags. Later, you can sort your emails so you only see the ones that require action.

As far as putting drugstore items in the freezer? I haven’t figured out a fix for that one, yet. I guess I’ll just have to include it in my places to look when I’ve lost something.

My husband and I started dating when I was a freshman in college. This will be exactly 20 years ago December 7th and means that I’ve known him longer than I haven’t known him.

You’d think there wouldn’t be too many surprises left, but there actually are. Oh, we have our set-in-stone-patterns most days, but sometimes we shake it up a little. And I think we’re hitting our midlife crises, so we’ve become somewhat more unpredictable lately (my husband has rediscovered his enjoyment of scuba diving.)

But even with some surprises along the way, I can frequently guess what my husband will think, do, or say about a given situation. He does the same for me. It’s very comfortable in many ways. I like the ability to read someone’s mind.

With series, you get to know the protagonist similarly well over a series of books and years. If I met Adam Dalgliesh in the street, I’m pretty sure I’d recognize him. PD James has made sure of that.

Reasons to write series:

For one thing, I enjoy reading series. I’m going into a book with some knowledge. I know the sleuth, I know the sleuth’s personality. I know the sleuth’s sidekick. I know some of the internal conflict. Just bring on the new victim, suspects, and murderer.

It’s easier for me to write. My setting usually stays the same. The constants I mentioned above (regarding sleuth and sidekick) are the same. I even have recurring characters in my books. I’m starting with a bunch of ‘knowns’ to build on. When you’re starting with Book One, you’re making everything up as you go along.

From a purely commercial standpoint, I make more money writing series. And I’m building up a name for myself (on the bookshelves) in the industry.

Challenges in series writing:

Making sure you don’t bore your returning readers by providing too much back story. Making sure you don’t confuse your new readers by not providing enough back story.

Some people don’t enjoy reading series, preferring stand-alones and a fresh story each time.

Not getting bored with your protagonist. And not boring others with him or her. Like a marriage, you really get to know your main character. This can be a good thing….or not. Try to keep it fresh—either by providing your protagonist with new challenges or new characters to interact with.

Things to check:

Is your protagonist likeable? If not, is he or she at least interesting to hang out with? Otherwise your reader might not want to stick around.

Is your protagonist growing as a character? I think marriages get boring when there’s no growth or change. Same goes for books.

Are you a series reader or writer? If you don’t like reading series, do you enjoy writing them?

The other night I was sleeping and I pulled a muscle in my back.

“*&$#@!!!”
“What’s wrong?” asks my husband, alarmed at the 3:00 a.m. cursing.

“I pulled something!”
“How?”
“I think I rolled over funny.” Then I was awake. I pulled something. While I was sleeping. How completely ridiculous. I’d never done such a thing in my 20s or early 30s. Bleh.

I have two protagonists for two different series for two different publishers. They’re both elderly.

Myrtle Clover for Midnight Ink is an octogenarian. Lulu Taylor for Penguin is in her sixties.

The challenge is to accept the limitations that age can provide, make the story realistic, and still have them both actively engaged in crime fighting.

I’ll admit I have some pretty amazing older ladies in my family. My great aunt was water skiing in her 60s and my grandmother was very active in her 90s. Both of my children’s grandmothers go to the gym for workouts every day. My life has been populated by strong women who say what’s on their mind and are clear matriarchs that everyone respected and listened to.

Myrtle is unhappy when she’s talked down to as if she were a child. In fact, Myrtle might actually take revenge if you did such a foolish thing. It wouldn’t be pretty.

Myrtle isn’t above using her age to her advantage. You might think she was a completely innocuous old lady and lower your guard around her.

That would be a mistake.

What would be a problem for my protagonists? If they took a spill. They really don’t need to fall down. I try to take good care of them and for their part, they’re sharp as tacks and in great shape. They’re not afraid of much. They’re feisty and spirited and ready to take on any villain you send their way.

But still I have people asking me questions. One elderly man demanded in a workshop, “I want to know what ‘old’ is to you.”

I was quick to answer, “Old is a state of mind.” And I truly believe that. He felt that my protagonists would be more limited, physically, in real life. I disagreed.

Although the entire day when I walked around with the pulled Latissimus dorsi, I was reminded that 40 is just around the corner. I wasn’t exactly doing jumping jacks that day. In fact, I was downright cranky.

There’s a new term for the burgeoning genre marked by older protagonists—geezer lit. I think Myrtle and Lulu would find that term belittling.

What if your characters are really young? Are they taken as seriously? Are there limitations based on reasoning skills? What if they aren’t old enough to drive? What kind of independence do they have? There’s a reason why there are so many orphaned child protagonists out there: grownups are lousy at letting children do what they want to do. If you do have parents in a juvenile lit or YA book, are the parents really lenient? How do you handle the problem?

What age are your characters? Do they have age-related challenges?

It’s my Sunday to host a guest at the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. Hope you’ll pop over and visit with Midnight Ink author Sue Ann Jaffarian. She writes the Odelia Grey mystery series and the Granny Apples Mysteries.

I’ll admit that I’m not one of those people who does a great job with social cues. In fact, I frequently don’t know what to make of exchanges I have with other people. Are they trying to tell me something? Are they hinting at anything? I’m one of those people that you just have to come out with a sledgehammer and hit me over the head with it. I am not going to pick up on your hints. Do you want your child to be worked into the drama carpool? Do you wish I’d stop talking about writing during lunch? Did I make you mad because I forgot to ask how your weekend trip went? You should tell me.

I was with two other moms at my daughter’s book club meeting a few days ago. Their daughters are also in the Brownie troop that I co-lead (yes, I’m overextended. Bleh.)

We were supposed to have an investiture ceremony for the girls and the facility wasn’t available that day of the week. The other leader suggested an alternate date—the one night I wasn’t available because of a meeting. Unfortunately, it meant we had to restructure the event to make it less fun for the girls….the potluck part of the evening wasn’t going to happen, but we could have cake.

So we’re talking during the book club and one mom says to the other, “We could have had the investiture on the 12th, but Elizabeth couldn’t do it. She has this busy schedule now that she’s got two book series, you know. Always making these author appearances.”

Hmm.

Since I’m clueless about social cues, but I like to do a Good Job (at Brownie leading, too), I tried to dissect this later. Was she being mean? Was there a roll of the eyes? A slight smirk? Was there anything in her tone to suggest she thought I was being difficult? Or a diva? Am I not doing a Good Job?

Was she simply explaining the situation to the other mom? Why the date wouldn’t work?

Was she poking fun at me?

Was she trying to laugh with me? In which case it didn’t work since I was frowned in confusion at her before I changed the subject.

Then I just gave up analyzing it from a personal standpoint since I was never going to figure it out anyway. And thought about it from a writing standpoint. As I write more and more, I’m becoming even more of a fan of subtlety. I think it’s tough to do with 75,000 words, but I’m trying.

The scene above….it could be played out so many different ways. What is the person’s motivation? Their background? Are they normally snide? What about the person they’re addressing? Are they sensitive? Or clueless like me?

Leaving the reader wondering might be good, too. Or you could have different people have different reactions and assessments of the conversation. That’s only natural since different people bring different experiences to the table when they’re reading a situation.

You can change the syntax to bring a different slant to an important scene. Just by choosing slightly different wording, you can change the entire tone of an exchange. It can go from innocent to menacing.

You can show reactions of other characters through speech or demeanor.

You can show the facial expressions or physical actions of the person talking—are they agitated? Are they too calm? Does their voice have an edge to it? Are they blissfully unaware of the reaction they’re producing?

I love the idea of creating little mysteries about people and their motivations in a scene. Because….do we ever really figure people out? And—for the writers out there—do we really want to? Viva la uncertainty!

It seems that, through the course of the years, my sense of humor has gotten dryer. Or something.

I was at the coffee shop for my caffeine fix and saw that the drip of the day was Mexican.

“Will it give me heartburn?” I asked the barista with what I thought was a hint of a smile.

He looked pityingly at me. “No ma’am.” (Yes, he was much younger than me.) “It’s just a type of coffee bean. There’s nothing spicy in there.”

How deflating.

As I writer, I don’t want a reader not to ‘get it.’ I don’t want them wondering, like the barista, if I’m trying to be funny or not.

But I love using humor in my writing:

My books have a lot of situational humor. It’s fun to put a character in an uncomfortable situation and see what happens. My character, Myrtle, gave a disastrous dinner party and she was so serious about trying to make everything perfect. When it all backfired on her, it made the scene funny.

Running jokes—I use small gags that pop up at various points during the story. Humorous subplots are fun to write.

Dialogue—Funny exchanges between characters are a great way to make the characters’ conversations zip by and add comic relief to the story.

What hasn’t worked for me:

I’ve used puns before. One editor wasn’t a fan and took them out.

Winks to other English lit lovers. I thought it would be funny to name the minister in my Myrtle Clover series ‘Nathaniel Dimsdale.’ You know—Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter with the minster, Dimsdale? My editor didn’t think it was funny or interesting. I changed the name.

Humor is such a personal thing. I don’t put straightforward jokes in there. I gravitate to funny or unusual or uncomfortable situations and a small amount of physical humor.

How do you incorporate humor in your books? Do you ever worry your readers won’t get it?