Busy, Busy, Busy

I am so busy right now I am not making posting here a priority. I apologize, dear readers.


The bright side is that you're going to have a much better book to read next spring, when A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die comes out. I have a bookstore pub date of May 28, in fact! It will be out in hardcover and eformats at the same time. I'm working hard to polish up the prose, tie up the loose ends, ramp up the tension, ante up the stakes. It's due September 1 to the publisher.


Soon I'll get the edits back for Speaking of Murder, too, and will have a few weeks to incorporate those. You'll be able to buy that book in trade paperback on September 15 (remember, it's under the name Tace Baker) and in eformats a month later. I've hired on a publicist and we're busy scheduling readings, thinking about getting the word out, brainstorming ideas to make these books a success.

On top of all that, I have a full-time demanding job, and oh, did I mention we've sold our lovely antique house in Ipswich and have to move by August 1? Whee! Which also includes finding the next place, whether it's our landing destination in Amesbury or a temporary apartment while we find the perfect downsizer with a sunny yard on a quiet street. 


Life is good, life is full. In the meantime, I do post every couple of weeks over at the Sisters in Crime New England blog, Pen, Ink, and Crimes. I also post regularly on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/EdithMaxwellAuthor and www.facebook.com/TaceBaker.

Four-Author Retreat Report

Barb Ross put up such a great report about our writing retreat that I'm just going to link to her post over at Maine Crime Writers. Stop by and leave a comment for her!


http://mainecrimewriters.com/barbs-posts/a-writing-retreat-in-old-orchard-beach

Gathering to Write

Three fellow authors and I are converging on Old Orchard Beach tomorrow to do some writing. We all share the same agent and three of us share the same publisher. We all have looming deadlines. It's safe to say that none of us is quite finished.


Jessie Crockett volunteered her family's beach house for a weekend of authorial immersion. Liz Mugavero is heading away from Connecticut at lunchtime. I'm working until three PM, a full day for me, and puttering north from Burlington.  Barb Ross drives up from Somerville.



We plan to sit heads down at our laptops or notebooks at four different stations and write independently in the company of others. But we'll also gather for meals - cooked by Jessie at her suggestion - and for mutual critiques and fun, with wine a highly possible companion.

We envisioned walks on the beach, too. The weather is forecast for cool and rainy, so maybe staying inside and tapping out scenes will be just the ticket, instead.

Thanks, Jessie! See you tomorrow.

Have you had small-group writing retreats? What worked best? A few hours, a few days, or a few weeks?

Did You Know?

I finished the first draft of A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die! That's a big milestone. The deadline for turning the manuscript in is September 1. Sounds like I'm way ahead, right?

Wrong. Those little words "first draft" are significant. That means, in the words of writer Anne Lamott, from her book Bird by Bird, that I was able to finish the "shitty" first draft. Now the real work begins.


When I write the first draft, I occasionally type [CHECK THIS] or [CAN A GUN SHOOT OFF A LOCK?]. It's so I don't pause in the creative flow to go exploring the internets or books in search of an answer. I might not be back for an hour if I start that kind of process.


Now's the time to catch up with all those. I spent Saturday morning making a note of all those comments in square brackets on a piece of paper. No, on two pieces of paper. I have more than 40 items to check out. Groan. I started by ticking off the easy ones: Make the chief of police more suspicious at the farmers' market. Does Lucinda know about the sabotage? Make Kryzanski have a slight accent. Give Cam a chipped left incisor. What do you call a wooden plank lock on a barn door?

The hard ones remain. I made some progress on one of them, and now need to rewrite one of the most important scenes in the book. Did you know that gasoline is no good as an accelerent for arson? Did you know you can't shoot a lock off with a handgun? Yep, nope. Things are not as they appear in the movies. Mix that gas with motor oil or diesel and, sure, you can drizzle it around an old barn and light it on fire. Get a hunting rifle and a deer slug and, sure, you can break a padlock or shoot out a bolt lock. 


And then there's the advice we got from Donald Maass at the workshop in mid-April. One of the big takeaways I got was, "What's the one thing your protagonist has always feared would happen? Make it happen. Then make it worse. Then make it worse again." So I'm working on that. Once you keep that mantra in the back of your mind, you start to write differently. Even that scene I need to rewrite based on the advice I got from a long-time firefighter and arson specialist -- I wrote that after the workshop and had already worked in some of that "make it worse" approach.


After all those changes are in, I'll let the book sit fallow for a few weeks. Then it's time to jump in and look at pacing, at the timing of suspense scenes, at the logic (for example, "No! She can't suspect the chef BEFORE he drops that clue..."). Solicit a read from a few sharp-eyed fellow writer-editors. Revise some more. Print it out and read it aloud. Do my own edit. Hone the first sentence and the last sentence.


Because I want to deliver the very best book I can to the actual editor at the publishing company. I want to give this book, the first in the series, my best effort. 


If you hear me running around screaming toward the end of August, not to worry!


Writers, what's your post-first-draft process? Readers, can you tell when a book hasn't gone through the whole process?

Professional Photos

I had a professional Author photo taken a couple of years ago. I found a local studio, liked what I saw of the photographer's portfolio, and scheduled an appointment. I had my hair and makeup done directly beforehand. But the guy never set me at ease and I was not completely pleased with the photo.  

With my books finally hitting the market this year and next, as Tace Baker and as Edith Maxwell, I wanted to try again. A bunch of my Sisters in Crime had visited a studio in Portland, Maine, last year and came away with fantastic attractive head shots, but I had been out with my back surgery, and that was a little far to travel.


So I asked my friend Jeanne, who is in PR and marketing, if she knew anyone good, and she said, "Yes! My friend Meg Manion Silliker!" So last week Meg came over at five PM. She only uses natural light and said it was best then. Jeanne came along for the fun, and to help me relax. Boy, did that ever work (that's me with Jeanne). We wandered around the back yard, ventured out into the street, and finally ended up down the block at the Ipwsich River, which had fabulous light.

I am so delighted with the photos! I was thinking I'd use different ones for my two identities, but now I think I'm just going for the same look. She gave me my choice of several dozen and I selected a handful I liked the best. It was well worth the money, and the three of us had a glass of wine afterwards. I think I just made a new friend, and hope I can steer some business her way.


I am normally one of the most unphotogenic people I know - when I smile it comes out looking like I felt sick that day - so this is an extra treat.


What do you think? Have you had a professional photo taken lately?

Dangers of a Brain Too Full

I'm pointing you to a post I wrote over at the Sisters in Crime New England blog. Stop by and read about a big mistake I made because of overload.

http://sincne.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/perils-of-multitasking/

Burning Bridges Anthology

My story, "The Importance of Blood," appears in the new Burning Bridges anthology, edited and compiled by Heath Lowrance.You can buy it on Amazon for 99 cents at http://amzn.to/JulkGb, with all proceeds going to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. It's also available for free in all eformats from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/155449.



Some of my regular readers here might remember that it appeared I had a publisher for Speaking of Murder at the end of 2011. It became clear to me that the publisher was not being honest with me on several accounts and I cancelled my contract (for example, two days before the reputed publication date I still had not seen edits of any kind, which had been promised for weeks). It soon turned out that he had not been honest with most of his authors and the majority quickly also withdrew from the press. 


In the "every cloud has a silver lining" department, many of the authors drew together to share information. We then agreed to publish a short story collection as a symbol of our having moved on. Burning Bridges is that collection.


I really like Heath's introduction to the collection and quote part of it here: 


"All the contributors DO have something in common, however—they’ve all been burned by a publishing experience that was unfortunate, but could have happened to anyone. Instead of compromising their integrity, though, each one of them lit a match, threw it over the shoulder, and shot away as the flames caught on the bridge behind them.


I had the honor of putting this thing together, more as a compiler than an editor, and I’m proud of the diversity and power of these stories. You’ll find that there’s no real theme to it; rather, it’s an object lesson about how writers who are truly committed to what they do can put the past behind them and  ontinue to put out solid, uncompromising work.


And not be afraid to burn bridges behind them."

My alter ego, Tace Baker, also has a story in the collection: "An Idea for Murder." 

So stop by Smashwords or Amazon and take a look. All the stories are a great read.