JENN McKINLAY: I'm currently working on my next contemporary romance, entitled IF SUMMER NEVER ENDS, and I'm in the "dead marsh" which for me is and always will be...the middle. If this was a mystery, there would 100% be a dead body to move the plot along, alas, it is not, so we are saddled with a donkey named Maybellene who can tell when people are lying. *Jenn shrugs*
All that to say, as I was toiling away on this saggy middle, I couldn't figure out why the book wasn't coming together for me and then I realized I hadn't crafted my squad. Doh! *Jenn smacks forehead*
I am a pack animal. I always travel in a squad or a posse or a crew, whatever you want to call it. I’m not sure how it started but I think it goes back to when I was nine years old and my family moved across the state of Connecticut from Kent to Niantic, ripping me away from my best friend and the social status I had carved out for myself as one of the cool kids. Oh, the drama! The move was not easy. I went from a school where we called the bathroom a “bathroom” to a place where it was referred to as a “lav” as in lavatory. What? It melted my nine-year-old brain.
Then, of course, came the big trauma. I'd been at the new school for just a few weeks. I'd approached a few kids but I was freakishly tall in the fourth grade so I was regarded with suspicion at best and contempt at worst. The cool kids were already well established and there was no way I could break in, being a tomboy in a town where Barbie reigned supreme.
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Naturally, I tried to fit in, clocking the other kids' slang, fashion, and social cues, as all newbies do, and I started wearing (kill me) dresses. But the thing is, you can stick a tomboy in a dress but you can't make her girly. For example, I was one of those kids who liked to tip her chair back in class, titling it on the back two legs and riding it like the horses I rode after school. Now in jeans a spill was no big deal, I'd simply pop back up to my feet and shake it off. But in a dress, yeah, not as easy to pop anywhere, especially when you're blinded by the skirt that is wrapped around your head and the entire class is dead quiet and then roaring with laughter while they check out your Underoos, mine were Wonder Woman, natch.
The humiliation dogged me for weeks. The mean kids mocked, derided and picked on me mercilessly. Good times! Sadly, my mother staunchly refused to let me drop out of the fourth grade. Darn it! I had it all planned. I was going to show them! I'd run off and be a jockey and win the Kentucky Derby, never mind that I was already too tall. With that dream squashed and with no other viable options in sight, I knew if I was going to survive this situation, I was going to have to form my own squad.
Did you ever see that episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy joins a rag tag group called the “Friends of the Friendless”? Yeah, that was me. Every classroom I entered I found the kid who looked as out of place as I felt and befriended them. Being a friend to others is not as difficult as people think. You smile and you ask them their origin story and then you listen and decide whether you click or not (i.e. does their crazy match your crazy?) and BOOM you have a squad or at the very least people to share Jell-O with at lunch. This skill set has served me well over the years and is one of the reasons I became a Red. Squad up with awesome writers? Yes, please!
It has also influenced my writing. While I mostly write my stories in the third person from the perspective of the main protagonist, they are never on a solitary journey. My characters all operate on the buddy system whether it's a bakery squad, library peeps, the Maine crew, a hat shop posse, or a clutch of neighbors on the OBX (Outer Banks).
Needless to say, with my crew formed in the new book the writing has taken off! Woo hoo!
Tell me, Reds and Readers, do you prefer a solo protagonist or one with a squad? Or does it not matter so long as the story is a page turner?
Either way works for me, whatever the story needs . . . but it is always nice to see the protagonist with a special friend or two . . . .
ReplyDeleteYou do have to be true to the story.
DeleteI’ve tended to be a solo person, but looking back, the times when I’ve had a squad were the happiest. Give me Trixie with the Bob-Whites of the Glen!
ReplyDeleteNiiiice. I loved those books.
DeleteMy heart breaks for your former self in a new school and a dress! Glad you found a way to make it work.
ReplyDeleteI love the cast of supporting characters in the books I read - and the ones I write. The squad always includes somebody who is way older than the protag, which makes me realize that in my new series where the squad is old ladies, I'm going to need a young person!
Interesting, Edith. Why not!?
DeleteEdith, I've been catching up on your Maine Bicycle Shop series, and am up to Murder at a Cape Bookstore. Mac has more than one squad, which works really well, with members who are a range of different ages. I like that a lot.
DeleteOops, make that Cape Costumers!
DeleteThank you, Karen! (I think you mean the Cozy Capers Book Group mysteries, set on Cape Cod - but hey, coastal Maine has a lot in common with the Cape.)
DeleteI did, thanks for fixing it!
DeleteVery smart, Edith!
DeleteI guess our crazy matches yours Jenn LOL! Squad for me in real life and in books.
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteJenn, you rocked that dress!
ReplyDeleteI do love how you build up the communities of friends and lovers in your stories. It isn't always that easy in real life. Some people have a knack for doing that and I am observing it right now close up!
There is a group of men from my synagogue who have been walking around one of our beautiful reservoirs together twice a week for years, then going out for coffee together and solving the world's problems...or just recommending good plumbers. One of the guys invited Irwin to join the group and he has been walking with them since the pandemic.
A few months into it he invited me to join them. A woman, Cindy had started walking with them and so another guy invited his wife to join the walk. Now the walk is co-ed. But more than that, Cindy has begun to have a monthly lunch at different restaurants for the women. None of the women go for coffee with the guys, who are still recommending good tradesmen, but the women's group is getting a nice following. Cindy. She's the driving force behind a whole new group of friends.
Your husband's group of men from your synagogue reminds me of a group of guys my husband is friends with from our Catholic church. They call themselves the Altar Boys with tongue firmly in cheek since not a one of them is under 60, with most well above that! For decades they have had a standing Friday happy hour commitment, where whoever is available shows up for just one round of beers - two on a big day -- to catch up and unwind before they start the weekend. When they were younger it was much more of an all male domain, but now on any given Friday there is likely to be a wife or two in the mix -- often when that couple has dinner plans right after.
DeleteSusan, I love it! Irwin and I just had a nice chuckle.
DeleteThank you. I love this for you and your hubs.
DeleteYou and your brother were so darn cute! I love the Crafternoon group in your Library Lovers mysteries!
ReplyDeleteI was born with a partner in crime (twin, Margaret), so I have never been a loner. I feel pretty uncomfortable being the only one leading stuff or standing in front, so I try to round up others. I'm thinking about this right now as we prepare for our bilingual Lenten book group. This is the 4th year of meeting in person and our planning/facilitating team has always been 4 or 5 people. Now, due to a last minute drop out, we are down to two--the brand new assistant priest and me. So I'm scheming about who I can gently encourage to join in and help with the not-so-difficult tasks of welcoming people, planning ice breakers each week, helping set up the small groups, keeping time, etc. It'll be fun, really!
Thank you! My friend is a twin and she says the same. I love that you're building community in your Lenten book group.
DeleteI really do think that humans require human interaction to stay alive and to thrive -- even the most introverted humans. I think for some people that need can be met by just one close friend or partner, but many require a full-blown squad. I am able to form surface-level friendships easily, but I really have only a few next-level friends. I attribute that in large part to my peripatetic childhood.
ReplyDeleteIn my fiction reading, I think supporting characters are essential. I can think of just a few really good books or series I have read where the lead character is a loner. It can work, but even then there are moments when we are forced to hear the character ruuminate over the clues in her own head -- because who else is she going to discuss them with? In most of the best works (and definitely yours, Jenn) supporting characters make status review flow naturally, are a natural source of important clues or insights, and they provide some comic relief/human interesest diversion along the way, too.
Agreed. It's the comic relief that I think is crucial - because of course I do :)
DeleteThankfully, I have always had my sister who is only 16 months younger than me. I moved to a new state at age 9 and again at age 17. Senior year in a new school with a southern accent I never knew I had or was being made fun of for until later. Yea me.
ReplyDeleteNow I am back in the south ya’ll with people who have moved here from all over with all kinds of accents and we are all friends.
The supporting cast of characters is important. Oftentimes the bad guys do seem to be loners in real life and probably should be that way in a novel too.
DeleteI love that. Y'all is such an inclusive word, too :)
DeleteJenn, love how proactive and thoughtful you were about building your childhood squads. Wouldn't it be great if every kid had such a wonderful skill?
ReplyDeleteWhen fictional characters have no friends of family it just isn't believable, or appealing. Loners make me itchy.
I used to be the one with a reliable group of friends in many directions, while my husband preferred working or hunting a couple times a year with select friends. Now, with two of my best friends (and others) sinking into dementia, and too many with worsening physical limitations, my squads are dwindling, while he has a couple different groups of guy friends, about half of them younger than he. I have been spending time with three different groups of younger friends--some are the children of my contemporaries, which helps a lot. Just yesterday 42-year old Becca asked me if I really did know who the Wu-Tang Clan was! LOL
So glad your'e getting young blood in your squad. I, too, have started looking younger for the same reason. Most of my friends are 8-18 years older than me. Told Hub I have to make some young friends. LOL.
DeleteHuh! To answer your question, I never really thought about whether the main character had a posse or squad or any kind of group. However, I do think that you were a very clever nine year old, wise beyond your years! I'm also thinking you really don't have to write books of fiction; I would happily read all of your life stories. (yeah, I get it it - if you did that you wouldn't be able to travel to wonderful places for 'research')
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with the weird names for bathrooms in schools? When I was a kid growing up, the bathrooms were called basements. Huh! I never did figure that one out. Maybe someone can explain. And in many books I've read, they talk about the cloak room. Not sure but I think they meant bathroom but need to use a euphemism. Like the lady next to me in a department store, who using an accent asked where the toilets were. The clerk gave her a blank look and told her she needed a different kind of store. I suggested she might want the restroom and told where to find them.
A cloakroom was where we hung our coats and kept our lunches during school hours. They were attached to classrooms in all my schools, while the restroom, washroom, or lavatory were down the hall, and sometimes on a different floor of the building.
DeleteThe cloak room I remember was a sort of hallway area at school where everyone hung coats and left boots, etc. Annette
DeleteThat's what I thought too, but maybe in other countries it was different.
DeleteThank you, Judi. One of my closest friends has been lobbying for me to pull together my essays for years. Maybe someday. I'd have to find them all. LOL.
DeleteWhen I think of my favourite books, they are all protagonists as a group. How that group is formed and how it interacts between and amongst all the characters often is more important than the plot. Good writers to me, write good secondary characters – and I don’t just mean love stories. Look at the writers in this group and add in Louise Penny, Marion Todd, Peter Mays and Grainger and the list goes on. This is true in tv series as well as books – look at Shakespeare and Hathaway with the younger than them office manager – new ideas, new ways of looking at things. Vera always had an interesting relationship with all of her compatriots, which evolved as the series did. Then there was Hetty Rainthropp Investigates – and older (husband) and younger assistant – great chemistry and placing two age groups together. So yes, good books need more than one good character.
ReplyDeleteI loved mixed age groups. I feel like it's so important.
DeleteI think it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. For example, I dearly love Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X series. Orphan X is cultivated from a very young age to act, work and live alone in order to be an effective assassin. Slowly, through each new book, Hurwitz is showing that X does have a squad, it just isn't conventional as we know it. When he sheds his assassin role and begins to use his skills for good, he is thrown into a world where there are feelings, socialization and other very uncomfortable experiences for his solitary self. I guess for me, this is an excellent example of going from no squad to building his own squad in very unfamiliar surroundings. Not unlike building a lunch squad and going from there, just with deadly skills. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteLOL, Victoria. Lunch to murder. I love it.
DeleteA second thought – some authors write recuring ‘villains’ who become a real part of the story. May I suggest Joy Ellis – there is a nasty piece of work that lives on those fens, and Jeffrey Archer’s William Warwick’s always present art thief Miles Faulkner.
ReplyDeleteTrue! I do get attached to some villains!
DeleteThat's so funny, Margo. I get sick of villains pretty quickly! Vanquish them and move along. Nothing to me is more annoying on a TV show than a villain who keeps popping back up, or a series that has the same bad guy year after year. Splurge and hire a new actor!
DeleteWhat a smart move on your part Jenn to seek out friends in the way you did. I love your dress and kids today are shocked when I tell them girls had to wear dresses (no pants ever!) to school.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to think of any mysteries where the protagonist didn't have a group/squad/clan. I guess the one book that comes the closest is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The young protagonist is never referred to by a name - has no friends but her older husband. Then there is the haunting Ms. Danvers and the memory of Rebecca. And then Agatha Christie's Miss Marple who primarily watches (and knits), but no sidekick.
I prefer a group like in your library mysteries Jenn. Each of the people have such a great connection to each other. I feel like I'm part of the group myself!
I will admit that it ahs been a few years since I read the Sue Grafton books, but wasn't Kinsey Milhone pretty much of a loner? There were recurring characters, but nothing I would think of as actually a squad...
DeleteYes, I agree Kinsey was very much a loner. She seemed focused on her current mystery she had to solve. She was in the style of Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.
DeleteThe classic detective so seem to be more loner-type or they build temporary squads in the individual mysteries.
DeleteJenn, any chance you will have an essay about the fastelavnboller, a traditional Norwegian sweet buns enjoyed during Fastlavn festivities before Lent? I remember your love for cake and sweets so I wondered ....
ReplyDeleteDid you say sweet bun? I'm off to go look that up right now!
DeleteAlthough I like both premises, Jenn, I love it when the protagonist has a squad in good friends. For me, it works as long as it is a page turner. I like the friends in your novels.
ReplyDeleteIn other authors, there are times when I have no patience for friends who are "TSTL" - too stupid to live or "fake friends".
You rocked that dress. I notice that despite being a tomboy, you always wear beautiful clothes. Great photo of you and your brother. I love how proactive you were in building childhood friendships.
Thank you, Diana. I did become a bit of fashion lover in my twenties and still am - much to my mother's relief!
DeleteJenn, isn't your new library series newest book, Booking for Trouble, coming out in a few days!!!! I HOPE SO. I'll have to call my local bookseller and find out.
ReplyDeleteYaaaasssss! I'll be at the Poisoned Pen on Tuesday evening with Tracy Sierra and Paige Shelton.
DeleteWell since I can't be in Phoenix (sad) for the Poisoned Pen, I know I can order it through my bookstore! Yeah!
DeleteSo weird, isn’t it? My mother was always telling me she wished I was taller.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am in awe of your skill at networking and friend making, Jenn! It’s such a win win. And a lesson for everyone, then and now.
And my editor is always saying to me: doesn’t your main character have any friends? I have to be really careful about it. It means something, I’m sure, and I guess I have always been a little bit of a loner. Not because I necessarily wanted to be, I have to say.
Xxxx
I think it was very much a survival of the fittest situation. LOL.
DeleteAlso, you're never alone as you're a Red! :)
DeleteHank, we are your squad!
DeleteMy MCs always have sidekicks and in my books, a supportive love interest. My latest project is a novella as a trial run for a stand alone historical mystery, set in long ago 1972 (what a year it was!) The MC starts as abandoned by her family, but quickly finds a new family of mentors, friends, and a love interest.
ReplyDeleteI'm in, Margaret! Sounds fabulous!
DeleteJenn, I agree with our other readers here, you did rock that dress! I always wanted to be taller, still do even at 72.
ReplyDeleteIt’s tough being a new kid. I went to a bunch of different schools due to moves; 2 kindergartens, 3 grade schools (Harlan, KY, and 2 in Massillon, OH) 2 different junior highs, and one high school -which combined the 2 junior highs in town and I’d been in one for only one year. I was shy, shy, shy, but did manage to have friends-never the cool group but they were good friends.
I hadn’t thought about protagonists as part of a group or loners…Sue Graftons’s Kinsey seemed just to have her landlord, and Sarah Paretsky’s V.I. mostly had Lotte and Mr. Contreras. I do like protagonists with friends, and posses, and people to bounce ideas with, and to help when they’re in trouble. Also, Jenn, I’m not much for reading Roman’s but a donkey named Maybellene who can tell when people are lying-well sign me up!
LOL, Suzette. No idea where Maybellene came from but she's a hoot.
DeleteI like stories (I’m including TV series) where the protagonist has a supportive group of friends. I appreciate when the writer fleshes out the friends, making them full and complete people. And if the author has the supporting character become more than, say a co-worker and become family, à la Jean Guy to Armand in Louise Penny’s ongoing series, even better! (Think back to the TV series MASH - look at how the supporting cast developed over time. Hot Lips became Margaret, a respected nurse and not just someone to be laughed at.) I know in my own life I am much happier when I have a group of friends. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteThat's such a good example of a fabulous character arc! Loved her so much!
DeleteJenn, your story reminds me of my angst in 4th grade when I was too skinny to look good in the my new straight skirt. I was so darn proud of that outfit. I'd finally fit in with the other girls. Of course, they laughed at me and I never fit in with them. Sometimes I wonder what happened to those clicky girls who validated themselves at the expense of others. And then I think of something my granddaughter said when she was in first grade. She was new to the school and a lot younger than her fellow classmates whose parents had given them an extra year before they started. She went up to a group of girls at recess and asked if she could play with them. They said "no." I asked her how that made her feel and she shrugged it off. She liked being with herself. And that was enough for her. I swear I've met some of those mean girls recently. I just try to remember my little Hunter's words. I'm guessing you Jenn, got the last laugh. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteOh, absolutely! You have to play the long game in life.
DeleteJenn, like you in the dress. I am part of the NO Pants for girls in school generation. Loved, loved, loved escaping to my all women’s college and jeans to class and “the dinner skirt” being one garment required for eating (seated) dinners Sunday night through Friday night (memory fuzzy). A dinner skirt was worn only for dinner, usually the same skirt from September through May with whatever has topped the jeans. Although freshman year and the arrival of the smocked top dress led to wearing “picnic dresses” for dinner. These were more frequently changed than skirts. Elisabeth who tends to go it alone rather than in a squad (result of being an only child?) and prefers loners in her fiction.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends is a loner. She will only do lunch once a month - more than enough - which makes me laugh. Also, she was an only child which makes sense. As one of my friends says, "Me, myself, and I are my three best friends."
DeleteAbsolute squad/crew person here. The fact that I just met up with twelve of my college friends from fifty years ago attests to that. And being a Jungle Red is a great joy. I notice that I also assemble a squad around my main characters when I write. They need support too.
ReplyDeleteAnd you write humor as well, so as you know the jokes have to land somewhere!
DeleteHaving been the new kid several times, I feel your pain. I think it depends on the story whether a friend squad is good or not. Generally it adds to the story, but sometimes it is too much and smothers the story development.
ReplyDeleteHaving to wear a dress to school? Ha! I didn't escape that until I was in college.
I will admit that when side characters have too much going on, the balance gets off in the story -- too much to juggle!
DeleteThis squad thing is so interesting, probably because I grew up mostly a loner with one other loner (outcast) friend. I'm finally getting better at being part of larger group, but it definitely doesn't come naturally. This may also explain why, unlike you, Jenn, I was NEVER the cool kid in school.
ReplyDeleteBut a squad in a book? I haven't tried writing that , but I enjoy reading books with a good cast of supporting and supportive characters.
I think cozy mysteries have evolved to more of a story about characters than what I think of as hard core detective mysteries like Chandler, Hammet, Ngaio Marsh, J. Tey, etc. I love both genres but lately have found myself enjoying the cozy mysteries because I like the adventures of each of the characters. But I also like the hard core detective sleuthing too. One cozy series character is Stephanie Plum which has some of the whackiest characters. Especially the former hooker who is a hoot, and Ranger (the hunk)....
ReplyDeleteI love the squad, Jenn! Especially the squad with a project--Whether it's let's put on a play in the barn or let's solve a mystery! This was so timely because I'm working on a scene where I finally manage to get all of my fictional squad together to hash out the mystery, and I was so looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteI prefer a squad. I have had less problem with this as a writer than in my non-writing life. Even the non-cool kids didn't want to be friends with me when I was in grade/middle/high school (with a few exceptions) and I was never able to crack the ring of mom-friends when my kids were in school. Some thought I didn't have enough money, some thought I had too much money...sigh.
ReplyDeleteI love side characters, but there is such a thing as too many.
ReplyDelete