Hi everybody. Today Pretty is as Pretty Dies is being featured on Lesa’s Book Critique blog. I was really excited by Lesa’s review. She’s a library manager and professional reviewer and reads a ton of books. It means a lot to me that she liked mine.
On Wednesday, Lesa’s interview with me will run, so I hope you’ll return for that.
I thought I’d share with y’all a little about my Memphis, TN research trip. I needed to make the trip to put the finishing setting touches on my Memphis barbecue mystery (book one’s deadline is September 1.)
First of all, some handy tips if you’re writing a book set in a place you’re not living in:
It’s very helpful to have a friend in the town to drive you around and explain what you’re looking at. I was lucky enough to have friends of my husband’s family in Memphis. They were able to give me some interesting background on the city and even provided some newspaper clippings they’d kept for me on the street flipper phenomenon (something I knew nothing about.)
Remember to research small things as well as big. I had to do quite a bit of fact-checking. Some of my research even bored me: if residential neighborhoods were within walking distance of Beale Street, if a particular park had playground equipment or if it were simply an entertainment venue-type, etc. This is detail-oriented stuff, but if someone from Memphis reads my book and throws it across the room in disgust….well, that wouldn’t be a good thing.
Call the local Chamber of Commerce. Explain you’re a writer, basing a series in their town. See if they can arrange discounts for you.
Bring your business cards. When I walked into the very elegant Peabody hotel and talked to the manager there, handing them my business card made me look a little more legitimate. Especially since I was rambling on about murders.
Keep those receipts. This is just smart business sense. Keep track of your mileage, your food costs, ticket costs for attractions, etc.
Bring a camera. I looked like a major tourist and took about 400 pictures in Memphis. No, I’m not kidding. But digital cameras make that easy and I’ve got 2 more books (at least) based in Memphis after this one. I took pictures of even the most random things. Who knows what I might need for material later on?
The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Personal Notes from Memphis
The Good: My inlaws’ friends were wonderful guides. They asked me what information I needed for my book. I had a backstage pass for the ducks at the Peabody, I had free food at the Rendezvous restaurant…they were awesome! In addition, my husband’s dad and his wife watched the kids for me and the kids had a wonderful time in Memphis—fishing, shopping, etc. Oh…and Graceland? Oddly peaceful.
The Bad: It was a long drive to Memphis from Charlotte—10.5 hours of driving. That’s at the upper limit of what we’ll drive as a family. But at least the drive was pretty. In addition, although we stayed at a very fancy hotel, we all stayed in the same room. I now realize that my 12 year old son snores and my daughter talks in her sleep all night. Did I mention I’m an insomniac even in good conditions?
The Ugly: When you ask a 7 year old if she thinks she might throw up and she says no……just head for the toilet right then. Do not believe her. Because she’ll just upchuck all over you…..and I know. It’s like they’re in denial or something: “If I say I’m not going to throw up, then I won’t throw up….”
One more note: I know readers will ask why I’ve set a book in a location that I’m not as familiar with. The answer: Berkley Prime Crime asked me to set it in Memphis. I’m nothing if not amiable! :) And it’s a lovely city….I had a great time discovering it.
Happy Sunday morning, everyone!
Today I’m being interviewed at the Author Exchange blog: a great place to find out more about your favorite authors. And now, it’s also a great place to post news on upcoming releases, announce contests, and post blogs. Author Linda M. Faulkner is the blog owner.
Hope you’ll pop over there and say hi.
My writing workshop yesterday went well. The audience was attentive and asked some great questions, and I learned a lot from the other authors there, too.
One of the questions I got was about how I balanced my online time (blogging, Twitter, Facebook) with my writing time and family time. I was also asked whether I found social media useful.
To me, the time I spend online on blogging and social media is promotional and networking time for me. Not only is promoting part of my job as a published writer, it’s also become a lot more enjoyable to me through online media.
Facebook: I started out using Facebook as a conduit to connect with family members and old friends who used it. I quickly discovered that I needed a separate page for my professional profile. My husband and I agreed that I would keep the kids’ and my husband’s image/names off the net as much as possible and let them enjoy their anonymity. (They didn’t sign up to be as public as me.)
This method has worked really well for me. I have a professional FB page as Elizabeth Spann Craig Author and have made a lot of connections there. Also, I’m figuring out Networked Blogs and have enjoyed discovering new blogs to read and new people to follow.
Twitter: I was a big pooh-pooher of Twitter, but have been surprised to find a niche there. If you want, you can use Twitter only to connect to readers, writers, and industry professionals. It’s a painless way to keep up with industry news via links, connect with other writers, etc. I was thrilled yesterday when someone tweeted that they’d just bought my book. That kind of connection with a reader was just unheard of before. Plus, I’ve gotten several book reviews written about my book because of my Twitter identity.
Blogging—Admittedly, blogging can take up a lot of time. There again, though, the rewards have been tremendous. I’ve connected with other writers and readers from around the world and have really enjoyed the experience.
Anyone else become a social media convert?
I was asked (or….maybe I should say my dog was asked to be interviewed for the fun site, Coffee with a Canine. It’s a fun place to promote a book because your appearance there revolves around a date with your dog.
Chloe, the corgi, was wildly excited to participate. She got lots of attention in downtown Matthews from passersby, and even drank some of my chai tea latte (which I did not plan.)
The point here is that sometimes it’s fun to take a detour from your usual blog haunts to try something different and reach out to another audience.
This morning I’m off to give a writers’ workshop in Concord, NC at the library there. I’m in a promotional group of other Carolina mystery writers (the Carolina Conspiracy) and find it’s much easier for me to participate in a promotional group. I’m far from being a natural public speaker and being with several other writers really seems to help me out.
Basically, our promotional group works this way: everyone helps find opportunities for appearances. These might be signings, workshops, craft fairs, or other events. We promote the event on our website and encourage the event organizers to promote it on their end. We bring our own bookmarks, books, and promo materials.
Some appearances are better attended than others. Even the ones that are poorly attended are still useful to me—I share ideas and information with the other authors there.
I love mysteries. I always have. I started out with those Encyclopedia Brown books in first grade. I thought it was so clever the way Encyclopedia solved one case by realizing the reflection in a spoon is upside down. 
Then I moved on to Nancy Drew. Nancy was it for a long time. She was determined, smart, had great titian hair (a word I had to look up in the dictionary in second grade), and even had a neat boyfriend, Ned (who wisely didn’t discourage Nancy from crime-fighting.) The books had just the right level of spookiness and danger. Sometimes I had trouble going to sleep, but that was mostly because I wanted to go on reading and find out what happened next. I read all of the books in the series–many more than once.
After Nancy came Trixie Belden. Trixie was different. She sometimes got in trouble with her parents, and even with her much-older brother, Brian. They were more of the “meddlesome kid” variety of detective (sort of like the Scooby Doo kids.) These books had strong characterizations, cool plots, but maybe weren’t quite as spooky as Nancy. Well, there was one in particular that gave me chills, but I’m talking generalities here.
Once I found Agatha Christie, I was hooked. I had to read all of her books immediately. Hercule Poirot and his odd idiosyncrasies was my favorite, but Miss Marple came in as a close second. Some of her books scared me to death. I really couldn’t sleep after several of them, and it wasn’t just because I wanted to go on reading. It was because Mrs. Christie had totally freaked me out. I remember one, not even one of her well-known books, where we discovered at the end that the narrator was the killer…he was psychotic. Arghhhhh!! I was up for hours. And loved it.
Since then, I’ve had many favorite mystery series. Mysteries remain my favorite genre for one major reason: escapism. By identifying with the sleuth/detective/police, I can be plunged into danger in the pages of a book and escape by the skin of my teeth. It’s terrific stress relief. All of your tension can be tied up in this one place….and you know that somehow everything will work out in the end.
By the time I wrote my first mystery, I felt I’d read enough through the years to know what makes a good mystery. I didn’t feel like I had as much of a handle on other genres, which is why I didn’t take a stab at them.
I felt most at home writing mysteries. I think familiarity with a genre gives us confidence when writing it.