Advice to Aspiring Authors: From Five Malice Award Nominees

 

 

I’m delighted to host my fellow Agatha nominees for Best First Novel today on Killer Hobbies.  Click on the link in their name to go to their author web page and on the book title to purchase their work.  Be sure to read these phenomenal books and support this new crop of amazing talent.  And wish us all luck on May 2 when the winner will be announced!

Until then, here is our advice to aspiring writers:

Annette Dashofy:  Circle of Influence

Join a writing organization such as Sisters in Crime or Pennwriters and participate. They're a great source of support and education. It takes a village to write a book and survive in this business. Learn the craft of writing and write the best story you can. Finish the book! So many aspiring authors get tired with the story they're writing, get another idea, and start a new book. It's easy to end up with a half dozen books of only three or four chapters! And finally, never give up. The only surefire way of never getting published is to quit trying. 

Sherry Harris:  Tagged for Death

Before you send your manuscript out make sure it is ready -- really, really ready. I burned a few bridges with the books "in the drawer" by sending them out too early. Knowing when your book is ready is difficult. Have you studied the craft and especially books similar to the one you are writing? Has someone other than your family and friends read it and given you feedback? Constructive criticism is a good thing. Are you out there meeting other writers? You never know when a chance meeting will change the course of your life -- it happened to me at the Malice Domestic banquet in 2005. Most of all don't give up. It took me fifteen years to get published. And have fun! 

Terrie Farley Moran:  Well Read then Dead

Hi Tracy, thanks for inviting us here to visit the Killer Hobbies blog.

I follow a credo based on a quote I heard or read somewhere. Until recently I wasn’t sure who said it, but I now know it was William Faulkner. I live by his prudent words. “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.”

Whether you write daily, or three hours a day twice a week, or two hours every Saturday, I think that consistency, however you can work it into your life schedule, is crucial to successful writing.

And once the story is written and you think it is done, if perchance, as a writer you have fallen in love with any of your written passages, you might want to consider a cooling off period until you are less enamored. Then take another pass at your work as a reader.

I wish great luck and success to every writer who sits at a computer or puts pen to paper. Don’t give up. Persistence is the key.

Susan O’Brien:  Finding Sky

If you believe in your work, don’t give up! Stay positive and open minded. For example, I enjoyed querying agents and the connections that resulted from it. But in the end, an attorney helped me sign with a small publisher. The road to publication can be long. Yet the result (and sometimes the process) makes it all worthwhile!

 

 

 

 

Tracy Weber: Murder Strikes a Pose

Don’t give up! Writing is a TOUGH business. No one gets published without facing rejection. When I was trying to land an agent, I allowed myself twenty-four hours to feel bad about every rejection. Then I forced myself to do something proactive. Send out another letter, connect with another author, write another page.

You can’t please everyone, and yet when you write, you so desperately want to. (At least I do.) Just keep writing what you love and know that your work isn’t defined by what any one person thinks of it. If you write what you love, then you’ll have a great time even if your work never comes close to hitting the New York Times bestseller’s list.

Thanks, everyone!  I hope we see many of you in two weeks at Malice!

Tracy Weber

 

Agatha Nominees--OMG--I'm one of them!

Who ever would have believed that Kate and Bella's
first story would be up for an Agatha?

I'm still in a state of disbelief.  The Agatha nominations were announced on Saturday, and my first book, Murder Strikes a Pose, is up for best first novel!  I'd had a very rough week, for a number of reasons, and this was the news that pulled me out of my funk. 

There are four other fabulous writers on the list with me, and I have no expectations about winning.  But being on the list with such talent makes me finally believe I'm a writer.  Please take a moment to look at the other Agatha-nominated authors and check out their work!  And if you plan to come to Malice Domestic this May, please come see me and give me a hug!

Best Contemporary Novel
°	The Good, the Bad, and the Emus by Donna Andrews
°	A Demon Summer by G.M. Malliet
°	Designated Daughters by Margaret Maron
°	The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
°	Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best Historical Novel
°	Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen
°	Wouldn’t it Be Deadly by D.E. Ireland
°	Murder in Murray Hill by Victoria Thompson
°	Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
°	An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd

Best First Novel
°	Circle of Influence by Annette Dashofy
°	Tagged for Death by Sherry Harris
°	Well Read, Then Dead by Terrie Farley Moran
°	Finding Sky by Susan Obrien
°	Murder Strikes a Pose by Tracy Weber

Best Short Story
°	“The Blessing Witch” by Kathy Lynn Emerson   Rogue Wave
°	“The Shadow Knows” by Barb Goffman   Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays
°	“Just Desserts for Johnny” by Edith Maxwell
°	“The Odds Are Against Us” by Art Taylor     Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
°	“Premonition” by by Art Taylor   Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays

Best Non-fiction
°	The Poisoner: the Life and Crimes of Victorian England’s Most Notorious Doctor by Stephen Bates
°	Death Dealer: How Cops and Cadaver Dogs Brought a Killer to Justice by Kate Flora
°	400 Things Cops Know: Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga
°	Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer’s Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan
°	The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock by Lucy Worsley

Best Children’s/Young Adult
°	Found by Harlan Coben
°	Andi Under Pressure by Amanda Flower
°	Greenglass House by Kate Milford
°	Uncertain Glory by Lea Wait
°	The Code Busters Club, Case #4: The Mummy’s Curse by Penny Warner I don't know about you, but I've got some reading to do.  Good luck to all of the nominees!   Namaste   Tracy Weber Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT and MURDER STRIKES A POSE are available at book sellers everywhere!

Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet

The first of our Agatha-nominees for Best First Novel is G.M. Malliet. Here G.M. tells us about her debut mystery, Death of a Cozy Writer:


A reclusive old mystery writer, a dubious wedding invitation, and an inheritance up for grabs—at this family reunion in the English countryside, murder is all relative.

Death of a Cozy Writer is the story of a British crime writer who is anything but cozy. Sir Adrian is, in fact, a cantankerous, capricious, and spiteful man. To keep his family of four dysfunctional children in line, he frequently changes his will, disinheriting one after another in turn. It’s a dangerous game, not unlike Russian roulette. Then one day he announces his plans to remarry, and the panic really sets in. Not surprisingly, someone ends up dead, and DCI St. Just and Sergeant Fear of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary are dispatched to investigate.

**

Nancy Pearl of National Public Radio has called Death of a Cozy Writer “a delightful homage to the great novels of Britain's Golden Age of Mysteries.” It was completed with the aid of the Malice Domestic Grant (now the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers) and chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of 2008.

**

Thank you, Killer Hobbiests and Joanna, for inviting me to tell you a little about my book. And by the way, St. Just’s hobbies are skiing and drawing. (There’s more about the latter hobby in the second book in the series, Death and the Lit Chick.)

Please visit me at http://GMMalliet.com for more information.

**

Next week, our guest will be Sheila Connolly, aka Sarah Atwell, author of Through a Glass Deadly.

** Clue word: Skiing
Remember--Submit all five "clue words" and I'll draw a name from the group on Monday, May 11. The winner will receive an autographed set of all five of the Agatha-nominated Best First Novels. That would be G.M. Malliet's Death of a Cozy Writer, "Sarah Atwell's" Through a Glass, Deadly, Rosemary Harris' Pushing Up Daisies, Krista Davis' The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, and Joanna Campbell Slan's Paper, Scissors, Death.

The Wonder of It All--My Agatha Nomination

Weekend before last, I came home from walking the dogs to discover a message on our answering machine. "This is Verena Rose," said the caller. "I'm from the Agatha committee of Malice Domestic. I have some happy news. Please call."

Boy, were my fingers ever trembling as I dialed that number. Malice Domestic may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are the standard-bearers for the traditional mystery community.

"Joanna, I want to congratulate you and tell you that Paper, Scissors, Death has been nominated by the committee as a Best First Novel," she said.

And then I cried.

You see, I've been attending Malice for three years straight. I started before I sold my first mystery. I kept going even though I didn't have a book in hand. I went because I liked Malice. I liked meeting authors. I liked hearing about their books. And I wondered. I wondered if some day, I'd join their ranks.

Being an author means living on faith. You sit alone with your keyboard and work and create and wonder. You make up stories, so you wonder how much of your own life is real. You wonder if you've picked the right idea. You wonder if you'll ever finish your book. You wonder if your work will be accepted by a publisher. You wonder if you are wasting your time. You wonder if you should be doing laundry. You wonder if your kid will forgive you for running late to pick him up because you were writing and lost track of time. You wonder how understanding your husband will be about you changing careers and going from a nice income to...speculation.

Then you sell your book. And you wait. And you wonder some more. You wonder if anyone besides the publisher will like it. You wonder what your cover will look like. You wonder what they'll name your book. You wonder when it will come out. You wonder when you'll actually be able to hold it in your hands. You wonder if anyone will buy it. You wonder what the reviewers will think.

After all you're just a mom who spends a LOT of time in her basement doing...what? Pecking away at a keyboard? Surely this is NOT what a REAL author does. There's not a jot of glamour. You don't need to put on makeup. You don't even have to change out of your pajamas. Your office companions are your dogs. They can't read. And they like the basement. This is as close to socialization as you get.

You have officially joined the ranks of whackos.

Your friends (who aren't writers) ask, "How is, uh, it coming?" You try to tell them, but you quickly notice how their eyes stop focusing. They nod politely but aren't really listening. One of them asks if you intend to run off copies of this, uh, BOOK? in your basement. You are too stunned to respond.

You grit your teeth a lot. Your dentist suggests a nightguard. Now you are a whacko who wears a mouthpiece like boxers do. When you answer the phone, you must remember to remove it because you slur your words. People are positive you are home drinking.

You wonder if that might be a good idea, actually.

But if you are me, you shrug it off. I shrugged it off because this was/is all I ever wanted to do. This was my fantasy. I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was in grade school!

And oh, how I love these characters. I cry when things happen to Kiki Lowenstein, even though I made them happen to her. I laugh thinking up funny things that can happen to her. One night, when I couldn't sleep, I plotted a scene in my head. I got to laughing while I was lying there in bed. I woke up my husband. He thought I was having a seizure and tried to call 9-1-1.

So, yeah, I've been having fun. But still... a little voice inside me has wondered. I wondered, will anyone else ever care about Kiki? I mean, I thought I wrote a good book. I knew I gave it my best. I rewrote and rewrote and polished it. But...I wondered if I was wrong. I wondered...a lot.

Then I got a call from Verena Rose.

And I cried.

I'll probably still wonder. I'm made that way. But I'll always have that moment, that moment when Verena Rose said, "You know, it's not just me, Joanna. This was a committee of your peers. Other writers. Readers. Mystery fans. They're the ones who chose you."

Maybe now I won't wonder quite so much.