Thursday, August 5, 2021

A writer for all seasons - Liz Milliron

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Today we are happy to welcome back Liz Milliron, here to celebrate the launch of her new Laurel Highlands mystery, HARM NOT THE EARTH.

Like me, Liz spent years working in high tech churning out user manuals before she unleashed her imagination and turned to crime fiction. It's been a journey and, looking back, she sees a pattern.

LIZ MILLIRON: Thanks Reds for having me back. I check in here every weekday, but there’s something extra special about getting a chance to come to “the front of the class” for the day.

Earlier this year, I read a blog on the Wickeds (another great blog readers should check out if they haven’t) about seasonal changes and whether the authors’ writing moved in seasons. I think it might have been around the time of the summer equinox.

Anyway, at around the same time, publicist Dana Kaye asked about “seasons” in writing.

At first, I wasn’t sure my work went that way. I write two books a year and most of the time I’m focused on my daily word count and monthly goals. I don’t notice seasons. But when I looked more carefully, I could see patterns.

First, there’s a “big” season. I start a new book right around each equinox (January and July, close to each solstice). There seems something almost cosmic that I start a new writing venture as the earth is beginning its journey to points of the longest and shortest days of the year. (I almost said furthest and nearest points to the sun, but then the whole hemisphere thing tripped me up.)


But it breaks into smaller parts. I write at a clip of approximately 50 pages per month. Each finished novel is approximately 300 pages long. That means three months after I start, somewhere around the time of the spring and autumn equinoxes, I’m more or less half done with a book.

(There’s something cosmic about that that kind of gives me the shivers.)

If I want to extend this seasonal analogy so more, the process of writing a book is a series of mini-seasons. Spring would be the beginning, when everything is fresh and new, and I’m full of excitement for where the story might go.


Summer is the second act: hot, steamy, muggy. Even if I have rough daily outlines, I feel weighed down by the humidity, stuck in the “soggy middle,” and unsure if I can survive another day. All I really want to do is escape and take a nap. The third act is autumn: the ending bursts forth in a riot of color. I’m re-energized by the cooler temperatures and excited to see the variety of orange, red, and gold as the story reaches conclusion.

Where’s winter you say? Revision is winter. It’s colder, more clinical. But there’s a beauty there, too, as the story becomes what it’s supposed to be, all the rough edges are polished off, and the rough draft turns into a “real book.” Plus when it’s done, I get to sit in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot chocolate and savor what I’ve accomplished.



After laying it all out, I guess my writing is more seasonal than I thought. So the next time someone asks if I have seasons in my writing life, I can say, “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

Readers, what in your life follows the patterns of the seasons?


LIZ MILLIRON is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Home Front Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. Now an empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound.

HARM NOT THE EARTH: When Southwest Pennsylvania’s summer rains flood the Casselman River, State Police Trooper Jim Duncan finds a John Doe body in what is initially believed to be a tragic accident. But when a second victim, John Doe’s partner in an environmental group at odds with a nearby quarry operation, is rescued, all thoughts of accidental drowning are abandoned. After Jim is invited to join the official investigation, he begins to think a career shift might be in his future.

Meanwhile, Assistant Public Defender Sally Castle is approached by an abused woman who is accused of murdering her abuser. Although the rules prevent Sally from taking the case, she steps outside her office to help the woman and discover the truth.

As their separate cases become intertwined, Jim and Sally struggle to determine if their new paths can be traveled together or if they will divide their newly repaired relationship. And equally important, will they be able to bring a killer to justice before another innocent life is lost?

40 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new book, Liz . . . “Harm Not the Earth” sounds like an intriguing mystery and I’m looking forward to reading it.
    It’s interesting that there’s a seasonal analogy to book-writing . . . kind of like gardening with everything new in the spring and tending the plants as they grow and reach their peak before the winter brings a time of dormancy before the cycle begins all over again . . . .

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    1. Thanks, Joan! There is so much to compare in gardening and writing. I could go on about how sometimes, even with the most careful attention, the flowers/book fail (like the petunias outside my window). But I don't want to torture the analogy too much. LOL

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    2. I'm not a knowledgeable Bible quoter, but I do love the bit from Ecclesiastes: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted..." And on it goes.

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  2. I love this, Liz! (And thanks for giving a shoutout to WickedAuthors.com. This might have been this post: https://wickedauthors.com/2021/06/21/when-the-sun-stood-still/) Starting a new book is so exciting and full of potential. Right now I'm in the summer of one - in the summer, ugh. But fall is coming, for the book and for the world.

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    1. Edith, yep, that's it. I'm in the spring of a book now. But it's turning out to be one of those springs that doesn't really want to...spring. LOL

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  3. Liz, I suppose my clothing choices follow seasons. Except I only have two seasons there. Winter is long pants season but usually April is the season of shorts until November.

    Beyond that, since my life is a seemingly endless repetition of routine I'm not sure I follow any particular seasonal change to said routines.

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    1. Jay, I'd say you're just keeping things simple. Warm or not warm. LOL

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    2. IMHOP repetition is vastly underrated.

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  4. Welcome Liz and congrats! I've not thought of writing this way--will have to think this over...Congratulations on the new book--it sounds so intriguing!

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    1. Thanks, Lucy! I can't wait to dive into your standalone.

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  5. Congratulations on your new release!
    I do my best writing in January, February, and March, when it's cold, snowy, and cloudy.

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    1. Thanks, Margaret. Yeah, that heavy heat of summer can be tough to work through, that's for sure.

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    2. Me, too - I'm a more productive writer in winter, or have been in years past. Fewer distractions.

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  6. Hi Liz, great to see you here! Congratulations on the latest Laurel Highlands mystery. I'm looking forward to a great read.

    Seasons - hum, I hadn't thought of seasons of writing, but I can see you are on to something.

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  7. Congratulations on the new Laurel Highlands book, Liz!

    So interesting about the seasons for your writing life. Do you think we start out attuned to, say, the school year, and that affects our creativity somehow? I know that having kids in school in my life usually influenced how I worked. It's a hard habit to break, to work around that artificial calendar.

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    1. I agree, Karen. Once I had left teaching, it seemed so wrong to work during the summer.

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    2. Thanks, Karen.

      Hmm, I'm not sure. I know for a lot of my life, things did revolve around the school calendar - first as a student myself then as a parent. But I've always worked year-round, so the change was usually in my evening schedule.

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  8. Hi, Liz. I hope to begin both of your series soon. With the kind help of the JRW blog and FCF, too, my TBR list is out of control;-)

    Congratulations on your new book, great title and stunning cover! Both story lines are immediate and relevant. If I ever am tempted to read a series out of order, this may be the one.

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  9. Liz, you're turning into a poet! What a lovely post.

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    1. Thanks, Annette. Poetic. There's a word I'd never use to describe myself. LOL

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  10. Happy Book Day, Liz.

    Up here on the tundra, we have four distinct seasons. Spring, which may last as long as three weeks, when the tulips and wisteria and lilacs bloom, Summer, which we are mostly skipping this year, once the roses were done. However the hydrangeas are splendid and the tomatoes are taller than I am, full of green fruit that may never ripen at the rate we are going. And then there's autumn, when I finally pick those green tomatoes and put them in a bowl on the island. Eventually they will be edible, just in time for winter. Which will last for five months. Its important to like snow when you live in Western New York.

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    1. Thanks, Ann. I grew up in Buffalo, NY. Yes, it's very important to like snow and know how to take advantage of a short growing season!

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  11. Hi Liz! Congratulations on your newest Laurel Highlands release and on having two series going! I've been around JRW long enough to remember when you were working towards getting that first Laurel Highlands book out into the world--those seasons keep turning and now here you are! Congratulations!!

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    1. Thanks, Flora. And to think I wondered if I'd ever "get here." :)

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  12. Oh, that is BEAUTIFUL! I never thought about it that way, it is is so gorgeously inspirationally right. Thank you for this! And it's so optimistic, isn't it, because the seasons inevitably change, and the process is natural and right. OH, you are brilliant!

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  13. Liz, congrats on the new book! And I love this post--a very inspiring way to look at at writing rhythms. (Although I fear I am stuck in endless summer...)

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    1. Thanks, Debs. Trust me, I've had the same feeling several times.

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  14. Interesting analogies.

    I feel like my life is driven more by the monthly cycles of accounting than seasons. But there is definitely a pattern to it, thanks to my day job.

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    1. Mark, I can definitely see where there'd be cycles in accounting.

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  15. How interesting, Liz, to look at your writing in seasons. I think my productivity is certainly seasonal, with fall being my best time to do anything. Some people may get rejuvenated in spring, but it's fall that does it for me.

    I love the cover of your new book, Liz! It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm sure the story is as captivating as the cover. Wishing you much success with it.

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    1. Thanks, Kathy! I think if people paid more attention, they'd find more seasonal trends in their lives than they expect.

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  16. Liz, welcome to Jungle Reds. I always enjoy your comments. Is your novel a suspense or a thriller?

    Diana

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    1. Thanks, Diana. This series is more police-procedural (since the one protagonist is a cop) tending toward traditional mystery as there is strong element of "who-dun-it." I don't get heavy into the forensics, which is why I think of them more toward the traditional mystery end of procedural.

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  17. I'd never thought about writing in season. Congratulations on your new book. Can't wait for my copy to arrive in the mail.

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