The Girl with the Widow Gone on the Train

This week was a bit of a vacation from writing. I set aside my latest manuscript to give myself a chance to get some distance from it and hopefully a clearer last look, which I started yesterday afternoon. No matter how many times or how carefully you review a manuscript, little mistakes or plot discrepancies arise on every read through. I suppose when you're dealing with 90,000 words, a few of them are not going to behave as they should.

I also had a few tasks to take care of for Dundurn. My publicist Michelle and I are collaborating on a few publicity ideas for the Shallow End release in March. This included updating an author grid that the publisher keeps for each author to pin down reviewers and media. The editing team also asked me for a working title and cover synopsis for the fifth Stonechild book, which is the manuscript that I'm now giving a last going over. I hope to submit this one next week, which would put me a few months ahead of deadline.

So, next on the horizon? I'll be writing the sixth Anna Sweet and have already begun rolling plot ideas around in my head. I plan to quickly reread the five novellas in the series, likely over Christmas holidays, before pinning down my ideas.

I read The Widow by Fiona Barton this past week, a novel compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. Very dark material written by women about everyday people caught in a mess of deception and betrayal, all focusing on marriage relationships that are breaking down. They are page-turners but in an unsettling way. Interesting to note that they are compared to each other for marketing purposes, each attempting to build on the other books' success with readers.

You may have noticed the word 'girl' recently used in a lot of book titles, two of the above mentioned books as examples or another crime series that begins with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Goodreads currently lists 749 books with girl in the title and some authors report having been asked to use girl in their titles. To me, girl connotes youth and innocence and less worldly than the word 'woman'. Girl also sounds better in titles than woman in most cases. What do you think about this trend? Would you be more likely to pick up a crime novel or any book for that matter with 'girl' in the title?

So, we're at the end of November. We've had a snowy week in the Ottawa Valley interspersed with rain and mist. Crime-writing weather if I ever saw it. I have a busy weekend ahead beginning with a trip to the spa with my daughter Lisa, a couple of wine and cheese parties and supper out tomorrow. I'll be editing in my downtime, but realistically can't see getting much done until Monday. I think I need my writing buddy to get me back on track.

Four weeks until Christmas.....

November Progress

Well, I've made it through the first round of editing for my latest manuscript (Stonechild and Rouleau book five) and the story appears to be hanging together nicely. I'm setting the manuscript aside for a bit and then will give it one more careful read before sending it to Dundurn. I'm still toying around with a title, which has to be two words to go along with the other books in the series. Tougher than one might think.

I've also been going through the Shallow End advance reading copy and sent two changes in to the editor and have about eighty pages to read. I'm at the point with this one that I've lost all perspective and begin to doubt if I can even write well - this happens with every book. I was at Bouchercon in Baltimore some years back and Harlan Coben talked about going from thinking whatever book he was writing was genius to complete crap by the time he was two-thirds of the way through. Other authors report this happening to them as well so I'm thinking self-doubt is part of the creative process.

Speaking of Bouchercon, it will be taking place in Toronto next fall and is well worth attending if you're a crime fiction fan. I've been to two of them in Baltimore and Cleveland respectively and I think this will be only the second time that the conference will be in Canada. They usually have about 1,500 people attending and attract some of the best-selling authors so you should check out the site if you're interested. The Sheraton Hotel has blocked off some rooms at a discounted price.

With Linda Wiken, R.J. Harlick and Mary Jane Maffini at Bouchercon in Cleveland 2012

I visited the Sunnyside Mystery Book Club yesterday afternoon at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. The room was full - about twenty of us sitting around a square grouping of tables - and over cups of tea, we chatted about the Stonechild series, my writing process and crime fiction. I had a lovely time and only realized I hadn't taken a photo to share as I was walking back to my car. Thank you to Mary Frances Taylor for inviting me and to everyone who came out and made the hour so enjoyable. Mystery readers are the best :-)

The mornings are fog-laden these days and our first big snow is on its way into the Ottawa Valley tomorrow. I'm off to buy food for the week before the weather turns, and will cook up a beef stew in red wine for tomorrow. Might even put on a fire and cozy up with a good book while the storm settles in.

Five weeks until Christmas.....

Before the Snow

This week's work can be summarized in one word: Editing. I'm slowly and carefully making my way through the text in the fifth Stonechild and Rouleau manuscript and still have about fifteen chapters left to go. So, for the upcoming week, I'll be back at it.

I spoke about writing a series at the Canadian Authors Association November meeting on Tuesday evening and enjoyed sharing what I'd learned with the other authors. They were welcoming and asked lots of questions about publishing and my experiences.

This week, I visit the Sunnyside Mystery Book Club at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library to discuss the Stonechild series. I have an advance reading copy of book four entitled Shallow End and will read a passage as well as discuss how the series came about. The hour is open to the public and I've given the link above for more information.

So for the foreseeable future, I'll be finishing this go-around on the fifth manuscript, taking a little break and then starting the sixth Anna Sweet novella. I have an idea for a crime to kick off the plotline and will have to wrap my head around fleshing that out and deciding what happens to my continuing characters.

November has been an interesting month so far with a new President entering the White House and many questions about the direction the U.S. will take both domestically and internationally. It is surreal to see the demonstrations going on, unprecedented after a U.S. election. We've also lost one of our greatest poets with Leonard Cohen's death this week. Cohen was a wordsmith and genius, truly. "Suzanne" was one of my favorite songs in university - such beautiful lyrics.  And news yesterday of Robett Vaughn's passing - I remember being in love with him in "The Man From Uncle" (although I wasn't old enough to date) and the life of a spy seemed rather inviting.

Ah, times they are a-changing...

Until next week, my friends.

My Toronto Adventure

I took the train to Toronto on Sunday and was met by my daughter Julia and Dawn, my good friend from university days. We visited a pub in St. Lawrence Market (Julia taking a photo of me taking a photo of her - she had just had her hair cut off that morning to donate to cancer patients so shout out to ma belle fille)...

...before continuing on to El Catrin, a Mexican restaurant in the Distillery District, which I highly recommend - I see it was also voted best 'first date' restaurant for those of you in the market - some terrific tapas dishes and sangria. All in all, a great way to celebrate my birthday!

Monday morning, Dawn and I made our way to the recording studio on Dufferin to listen in on a taping of Butterfly Kills. Michelle Melski, my Dundurn publicist, met us there, and took us for lunch after the taping at the Drake and then on to the Eaton Centre by street car where I signed copies of my books that they had on hand in Indigo Chapters. Michelle also gave me an advance reading copy of Shallow End, which will be out in March - gratifying to hold the book for the first time.

For the book taping, Michelle St John is the voice actress for the books and Dan Harden is the recording engineer. Michelle had been ill with a cold the week before and was still suffering some of its effects, but her voice was clear and rich. Dan kept her from getting overtired and we stopped early for the day so that she could rest her voice for the next day's session. She sat in the makeshift studio in the next room where she read the book from an iPad and we were in the sound room watching Dan work the controls. Much like an actual audio book, we couldn't see Michelle but heard her voice loud and clear through the sound system. She does a terrific job and half the time I couldn't believe I'd written the words she was reading. She brought the pages and characters to life. I could see that Dan is very experienced at his work and knows how to get the best out of a reader. We learned that he was recently in a rock band named Malibu Knights (give a listen)  out West that once opened for Bon Jovi and works with a lot of musicians in his studio. Dan was the lead singer - great voice!

Top photo is Michelle St John and the bottom photo is me with Dan and Michelle Meleski.

Pretending I know what's going on.

So back to reality. I finished draft one of this latest manuscript (book five in the Stonechild series) and have been going through it with that fine toothed comb, trying to catch all the errors and make the plot lines flow. I only got to chapter nine so have some ways to go. I've also been working on a presentation I'll be giving on writing a series for the Canadian Authors Association on Tuesday evening. November is starting out busy enough :-)

BTW - no snow in Toronto and still some flowers blooming. It was a wonderful few days for walking in the city!