John Lescroart offers advice like: Don't be afraid to hang out in Idiot Mode

HALLIE EPHRON: This past weekend I taught at the annual Mystery Writers Conference at Book Passage in beautiful Corte Madera California.

If you’re in the Marin area, put Book Passage on your itinerary. It’s a gorgeous, rambling store and their events and classes are world class. They host events just about every night I’ve been going to teach at the conference since 2007 and it never disappoints.

The bookstore is owned by Elaine and Bill Petrocelli, and the conferences are run by their amazing daughter, Kathryn Petrocelli (I'm her #1 fangrrrl).

What’s especially nice is when a writer who was working on a manuscript comes back later with a PUBLISHED book. That’s what happened with Cara Black and Tim Maleeny (the authors who chair the conference) – they both came to the conference as participants and now, many published books later, they run it.

This year, a featured speaker was John Lescroart (pronounced Le-squaw – and we all love to say it.) His new book, THE MISSING PIECE, is the 19th in the New York Times bestselling Dismas Hardy series… but he didn’t talk about his book. (Because this was a writing event, not a book event!)

Interviewed by Tim Maleeny, he talked about writing, and it was fascinating. I furiously took notes and I only hope I can do justice to some of what he shared about his writing process.

• In each chapter he sets the scene, “I put the characters on the page and get them interacting with each other. If you’re lucky, a little conflict arise. Something has to happen.” 

This sounds SO obvious, but let me tell you it is not and it’s absolutely fundamental. 

What about editing? Or is what comes out in rough draft close to the finished product?

• He talked about writing in two modes: “Genius mode” and “Idiot mode” – genius mode is where he lingers when writing in first draft.
  “When I’m getting the story out, I cannot make a mistake. I don’t question it."
  But when he gets in to edit what he wrote, “I look at it and say, this is awful. I’m an idiot.”
  He gets into a rhythm, swinging from Genius to Idiot. 

What advice does he have for writers? 

• Don’t be afraid to be terrible or good. - Try to make dialogue as real as possible (when you revise) 
• Create unique voices in dialogue that are so distinctive that you don’t need attribution (so-and-so said) 
• Get the FIRST SENTENCE written and that will lead you to the next. 

When does he let other people read his manuscript? 

• Not until he’s done with ALL the revisions ("Otherwise you have other people saying you’re an idiot, and you don’t want that.") 

And by the way, when he started writing, it took 14 years before he submitted his first book to a publisher. 

A final word: 

• "Sometimes you have to kill someone in a mystery. Most of the time I’m shocked when it happens, especially for a recurring character.” 

(And if you’ve somehow missed his wonderful series/writer, his advice on the first book to read is HARD EVIDENCE, the first in the Dismas Hardy series.) 

Have you ever found yourself trying something new and having to give yourself permission to be in Idiot Mode?

Who Do You Love?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Ever fallen in love with a character in a book? We all have, I bet. King Arthur always appealed to me (much more than Lancelot), and Henry V, and my affection for Morse is well-known around the Jungle Red salon. Charles (and Caroline) Todd’s Inspector Rutledge, love him, and Roderick Alleyn, and John Lescroart’s Dismas Hardy. What can I say? I do.

And I can certainly understand, as Liz Zelvin says, that Dorothy Sayers fell in love with Peter Wimsey. Who wouldn’t?

But what about our own characters’ ability to make us love them? Hmm. That’s interesting, because we created them. Didn’t we?

Long time dear friend of the Reds Elizabeth Zelvin is a psychotherapist in her other life, so I bet—she can explain it.

Falling in Love with A Secondary Character

Elizabeth Zelvin

It's widely understood that writers sometimes fall in love with their own characters. In the mystery genre, most famously, Dorothy L. Sayers is said to have fallen in love with Lord Peter Wimsey as he developed from a Bertie Wooster-like silly ass about town in the early books into a brilliant, perceptive, superbly competent, and highly attractive man--what today we might call a feminist's kind of man. I don't know if Harriet Vane would have called herself a feminist, but in my late 20th to 21st century eyes, she's one of us.

Being a feminist, I'm mildly embarrassed by the fact that I have now written two series with male protagonists: the Bruce Kohler mysteries and the Diego Mendoza and Admiral Columbus series, including the Agatha-nominated "The Green Cross" and my new novel, Voyage of Strangers.

When somebody asks a group of authors, "Who writes about a strong female character?" I instinctively raise my hand. Oops. The truth is, having been writing my whole life before getting my first novel published at age 64, I felt I was entitled to leapfrog over the young novelist's autobiographical opus and write about someone quite different from myself: in this case, recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler, a New Yorker with a smart mouth and an ill-concealed heart of gold ("ham on wry," as he says himself).

Diego, the young marrano sailor with Columbus who made his first appearance in "The Green Cross" and tells the story of Columbus's second voyage in Voyage of Strangers, is one of those characters who appear unexpectedly out of the unconscious or the ether or wherever the Muse hangs out, demanding that their voice be heard. The author is just the channel. I've always felt as if Diego is not only real, but had been waiting for five hundred years for me to tell his story. Voyage of Strangers is about what really happened when Columbus discovered America, told from the outsider perspective of a secret Jew at the moment when the Jews were driven out of Spain on pain of torture and death at the hands of the Inquisition.

Those who have read my mysteries know that I do have a significant woman character: Barbara, a world-class codependent who only wants to help and is addicted to minding everybody's business, especially Bruce's and her boyfriend Jimmy's (Bruce's best friend), whether the business at hand is sobriety or murder. I'm very fond of Barbara, but I can't say I'm in love with her. It would be too much like looking in the funhouse mirror. Barbara isn't me, but we have much in common, including being nice Jewish girls from Queens who never expected to know as much as we do about alcoholism. Unlike me, Barbara has no boundaries and no brakes. It's what makes her such fun to write. Readers have told me she is a strong female character. Some think she's "a hoot." And at least one person asked me if I'd ever felt (as she evidently did) as if I wanted to slap Barbara. I don't mind. If Barbara's that real to readers, I'm happy.

There were no women on the voyage of discovery in 1492, so of course there were no women in "The Green Cross," which took place on the Santa Maria. Nor did I develop any female characters in "Navidad," the second story in the series. (Both stories first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.) But I couldn't write a novel without women. Diego's sister Rachel was simmering in my head for more than a year before I set a word of Voyage of Strangers on virtual paper. And I'm in love with Rachel.

As it happens, the Jews were expelled from Spain on the same day Columbus and his three ships set sail into the unknown. So how come Rachel was still in Spain when Columbus and his men returned in triumph early in 1493? The Mendoza family had lived in Seville, where the Inquisition had been cheerfully burning Jews (and especially converso backsliders, whom they called heretics and swine--marranos) for years. Rachel, the youngest daughter, had been sent away to a convent school in Barcelona, where there was no tribunal and a genuine converso aunt with influence, for safety. But the aunt is being courted by a rather nasty supporter of the Inquisition, and Diego quickly realizes he has to get her out of Spain as soon as possible.

When we first meet Rachel, she's putting on a friend's brother's clothes, preparatory to sneaking out of the convent and into the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who will be greeting Columbus and his followers and getting their first look at the treasures and curiosities he's brought back, including gold, near-naked Taino captives, and some colorful but ill-behaved parrots. She's thinking, How hard can it be to be a boy?

I certainly didn't plan it, but Rachel is a darling. She's irrepressible, curious, impulsive, brave, and funny, and everyone who meets her loves her. Diego is determined to send her to Italy, where their parents and sisters have gone, before he embarks on the second expedition to Hispaniola. Rachel is equally determined to go with him, even when Admiral Columbus himself says no. (Of course she spoke up and asked him almost as soon as she met him. That's Rachel.) 

Whether she's getting the mayor's wife in a Spanish village to roast a kid (ie a baby goat) for their dinner on the road, concocting a plan to help a Moorish slave escape from slavery, outclimbing the ship's boys in the rigging of the Mariagalante on the Ocean Sea, or playing batey, pounding yuca, or making poisoned arrowheads with her Taino friends, Rachel has a gift for friendship and for adapting to any surroundings. Her favorite words to her brother are, "Diego, you worry too much."

It took a long time to get Voyage of Strangers published once I'd written it. But one of the reasons I persisted was that I wanted so much to introduce Rachel to all of you. I think you'll love her too.

HANK: Liz! The research! How did you get involved in this story?

And Reds, what character have you fallen in love with? 

******************************

Elizabeth Zelvin is a New York psychotherapist and author of the Bruce Kohler mystery series as well as the Diego Mendoza and Admiral Columbus series. Her new novel, Voyage of Strangers, is available for Kindle and Kindle app at

http://tinyurl.com/voyage-strangers. Three of Liz's stories have been nominated for the Agatha Award and one for the Derringer Award for Best Short Story. Her author website is at http://elizabethzelvin.com.

Food Confessions

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I used to love toasted sesame bagels with strawberry jam. I mean—I Loved them. I used to wake up in the early morning, and think—“is it time for my toasted sesame bagel with strawberry jam yet?” I could just taste those toasty nutty seeds, and the crunchy bread and the delicious yummy jam, and oh, it was fabulous. I had one every day for about a year.

Then suddenly, without warning!  It was—impossible. Yuck.  I couldn’t even think about eating one. I still can’t.

Same thing happened with baked potatoes with broccoli and sour cream. Oh, I yearned for it, couldn’t wait to get home from work to have that for that one-potato dinner...the fabulous steamy potato, all hot, and the skin crispy, the way the broccoli and the sour cream merged, and no matter what kind of a bite you got, it was the best.

Then, suddenly, yuck. AH, no, thank you.

I binged. I binged, and then somehow, like in Clockwork Orange, I could not face it again. Is there a binge thing in our brains?

Right now it’s cool and hip to “binge-watch” a TV show. We sure did it with House of Cards last season.  We watched until we were bleary.

And good think there were only 13 episodes, because maybe I would have gone all sesame bagel after 14.  Who knows. (We’re starting Season 2 now--and wow. But we won’t discuss it.)

Do you—binge? On anything? Did you binge yourself out of liking it? (Maybe it's more--a habit, than a binge.) (Roberta/Lucy, is this a psychological “thing”?)

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm not a binger. Though at the moment, I've watched episodes of Poirot that I missed for five nights running. Does that count? And yes, I am sick of them. It's amazing how often Agatha Christie recycled plot devices.

When it comes to food, I quickly tire of whatever I've recently eaten. And I firmly believe that at any moment, something I've always assumed was perfectly safe will be shown to cause some terrible disease. So I might eat a hot dog for lunch for a week, but then I won't touch one again for months.

HANK: Because then it's out of your system? Or what?

LUCY BURDETTE: Of course Hank there is a serious psychological disorder called Binge Eating Disorder, but that's not what you're talking about here! This is more like too much of a good thing, right?

HANK: Yeah. Exactly. I only had ONE bagel.  EVERY DAY. FOR A YEAR. Sheesh. Scary. Yeah, it's more of a Habit than a binge.

LUCY: I'm like Hallie, anything I eat too much of can turn on me. Even Christmas cookies. I still have two rolls of cookie dough in the freezer and can't bring myself to bake them. Or spanakopita, which I dearly love. If I make a whole 13 by 9 inch pan of it for only John and me, it definitely becomes a slog at the end...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm not a binge-er. Although I do seem to go in cycles on breakfast. For years I ate a soft-boiled egg and a slice of whole wheat toast. Mostly these days, it's granola and yogurt, but it's more time thing. I still love the soft-boiled eggs. Left-overs, now, that's a whole different thing.  I can eat something twice, maybe, and after that, yuck.

HANK: Yeah, it's hard to throw away leftovers. The key is to wait til the THIRD day. Then, no problem to toss because they are surely deadly.

I always say--let's put it in the fridge now, and we'll throw it away later.

RHYS BOWEN: I've always had a small appetite. I really enjoy good food and I do like to have good cheeses after dinner every night. But in my school days I do remember having tomatoes on toast every day for a few months, having Marmite and pickle on rye crisp until I tired of it.

HANK: Rhys, only you… Marmite and pickle on rye crisp?

RHYS: In fact I think I've been the opposite of a binger all my life--I get bored easily. I like to be surprised and try new things. When I lived in a country club the other wives wanted me to play tennis with them every morning. I couldn't do that. And these days I have friends who play bridge every day. I think I like my life as a smorgasbord, sampling a little treat here, a little treat there.

HANK: So how about some food confessions from you all--do you ever get a craving something,..and then have it every day until it loses its joy?

CHANGING THE SUBJECT HERE: One thing that will never lose its luster--is a new book  by wonderful favorite author...and right here in my little hot hand is JOHN LESCROART'S brand new THE KEEPER.  It's an ARC, and it's a Dismas Hardy, and  selfishly, I'm not giving mine up. :-)  But, because John is the coolest of all guys, he sent me two! And one is for a lucky commenter.  

THRILLER FEST

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our THRILLER FORTNIGHT here at Jungle Red is leading up to ThrillerFest, a four-day celebration of thriller books, the authors who write them, and the fans who read them. ThrillerFest takes place July 11, 12, 13 and 14, 2012, in New York City, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel located in Midtown Manhattan. 

So what goes on at ThrillerFest?  If you're an aspiring writer, there are master classes with best-selling authors, and opportunities to meet with dozens of literary agents. If you're a fan, there are panels and activities aplenty where you can hear and meet some of your favorite authors. (And buy their books!)


Among this years special guests are R.L. Stine, Ken Follet, Robert Crais, Diana Gabaldon, and John Lescroart. Just a small sampling of other attendees includes our recent JR guest Jon Land, Lee Child, Steve Berry, Jan Burke, Joseph Finder, Sophie Littlefield, DP Lyle, Andrew Gross, Wendy Corsi Staub, David Hewson, Hilary Davidson, and Yrsa Sigurdardottir--and that really is a small sampling!  Check out the ThrillerFest website for a full listing of authors and panels.


Okay, I'm hooked.  I wish I were going, but sadly, not this year.  ThrillerFest is definitely on my list for next summer.  What could be more fun than hanging out in NYC with a bunch of really cool writers and fans?


So, REDS and readers, who's going?  Who's been?  If you've attended, tell us about it. 


And do check out the website. I especially like Lee Child's anecdote about meeting Libby Hellman when wearing only a small towel....


(And now, the lucky winners of Jon Land's STRONG VENGEANCE: Joan Emerson, Diane Hale, and Allison Brennan! If you three will email me at "deb at deborahcrombie dot com" with your mailing addresses, I will pass them along to Jon.)

The Secret Diary

HANK: Ooooh. Hey. C'mere.

Alex Sokoloff is letting us look into her secret diary for THE UNSEEN. Of course it's scaaaaarrrry....and of course it's hilarious.

It starts in...

December 2008

Dear Diary: You will be thrilled to know I’ve made an actual decision. No, I mean it, stop laughing. Really.I’m just not going to kill myself promoting THE UNSEEN when it comes out. No more of this stress. I love this book. I know people want to read it. Who wouldn’t want to read it?

John Lescroart says the only viable thing you can do to sell your books is to write another book. So that’s what I’m going to do – I’m going to write another book. In fact, I’m going to write two books.

And the Screenwriting Tricks for Authors book, too – I can do an hour of that every other day. It all stops now. No more traveling, no more craziness, just workshops close to home. That people pay me for. I’m going to write. That’s it. Write. And have a personal life, remember that? And then maybe Michael won’t leave me for alienation of affection? That would be good.

PS. You won’t be hearing from me for a while. I have writing to do. And affection.

------------------------Five months later------------------------

May 1, 2009.

Well, Diary, I am thrilled to report I have finished Book of Shadows and Scott loves it and SO DO I. I got that paranormal proposal in to HQ Nocturne and I will easily be finished with Ghost Ship by the end of the month and get that in to St. Martin’s ON TIME. I have an entire first draft of Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, and am psyched to launch into revisions. I am so golden.

Lescroart is so right. We need to be writing.

May 2

Woke up to panic attack. OH MY GOD, THE UNSEEN is coming out in twenty-four days. How did that happen? Who scheduled this?

I haven’t done anything. Nothing. I haven’t even thought about doing anything. I forgot about promotion. Who do I think I am, a screenwriter? I’m an author now, I have to promote.

What’s promotion again? How did I do it before? OH MY GOD.

May 3

Woke up thinking about Konrath. OH MY GOD. Konrath is doing a 100-stop blog book tour for AFRAID. I should be doing a 100-stop blog book tour. Wait. I can barely write one blog a week. I’d have to have started 100 weeks ago to do a 100-stop blog book tour. 100 weeks ago is – um, years, I think.I can do ten. No, twelve. No, eight. In two months. No, one. No, six weeks.

Is it worth it to do that? Does that even count as a blog book tour?

Note to self: check Blog Book Tour site for… specifics. Wait. Wouldn’t I rather just write more Screenwriting Tricks blogs? Won’t everyone hate me if I stop those for a month to do blogs on… whatever I would be doing blogs on? On somebody else’s blog site? Didn’t I start Screenwriting Tricks because I had nothing left to say about myself? Do blog tours really work? Konrath says it’s working.

Well, of course it’s working for Konrath, I’m talking about for REAL people, do they work for REAL people?Note to self: You are NOT under any circumstances going to try to pull a Konrath here. Just get a grip.

May 4

OH MY GOD. “The Edge of Seventeen” got nominated for a Thriller Award for Best Short Story. I can’t believe it. I mean, I love that story, maybe more than anything I’ve ever written, but… it’s supernatural. It’s got a teenage GIRL protagonist. I’m so overwhelmed it got noticed.

Lescroart is right. I need to be writing. Nothing matters but writing. And affection.

May 5

OH MY GOD. Thrillerfest is the same weekend as ALA. HOW DO THESE THINGS HAPPEN?How can I not go to ALA? How can I not go to Thrillerfest? I’m going to be just out with THE UNSEEN in hardcover, I have to go to ALA.

But I’m nominated for a Thriller award, how can I not go to Thrillerfest? How can I be in New York and Chicago at the same time?

May 6

Woke up thinking about social networking.OH MY GOD. I haven’t posted on Facebook in weeks. I haven’t Twittered in longer. And I can’t remember the last time I even signed on to MySpace. I need to update my sites. If I can remember them. Amazon blog, Red Room blog, MySpace blog, Haunt blog, Backspace, MWA something or other - Margery said we all had pages somewhere and that I haven’t done anything on mine; Pretty Scary, Authors Round the South, Indie Bound something or other, Library Thing?

Am I on that? Or was I supposed to do it and forgot? And what about that Facebook page thing? Did anyone ever figure out how to find my page as opposed to whatever the regular Facebook thing is? Is that page thing just going to open up a whole new spate of old boyfriends?

May 7

Woke up thinking about…. I can’t… think…

May 8

OH MY GOD. Romantic Times is in two days. Did I book a flight? What state is it in? Do I have bookmarks? Oh my God, I never ordered bookmarks for THE UNSEEN. I have to e mail Kelley at Iconix and order more NOW TODAY so they’ll come in time. Will they get here or do I have them delivered to – whatever state RT is in? Kelley will handle it. IF YOU REMEMBER TO TELL HER.

Where are my business cards? OH MY GOD. I have to learn all the songs for the Vampire show. Shut up. Slow down. What you need to do at RT is WRITE. Go rehearse the Vampire show and then go back to the room and write, write, write. Five pages a day, minimum.

(Pages done at RT: 7 total, done on the plane en route. Hours spent rehearsing Vampire Show: 20. Hours on the dance floor: 3 per night. Hours in hot tub after dance=2. Parties… a lot.).

May 9

Woke up thinking about website. Hmm, worrisome. Most Awesome Webmistress is not returning e mail on website update. Starting to panic. Better call.

OH MY GOD. Most Awesome Webmistress has been sending e mails on website update that have disappeared into the ether. Website needs complete overhaul.

OH MY GOD.Must send in all updates by tomorrow and decide on design.

OH MY GOD.

May 10
Have to get announcements of THE UNSEEN in to all the organizations I belong to for their newsletters. What organizations do I belong to again? Who do I send this stuff to?

Have to send updated list of all reviewers I know to new publicist so she can send reading copies.

Have to send updated list of all media contacts I have to new publicist to she can send reading copies.

Have to send updated bookseller/librarian list to new publicist.

Have to do author questionnaire for Little, Brown for UK releases.

Have to do new author questionnaire for St. Martin’s.

Have to do AT LEAST FIVE PAGES on Ghost Ship today. I have to. I have to.

(Pages written: 0)

May 11
Woke up thinking about bookstore mailings. Elaine Viets does bookstore mailings. Elaine swears by bookstore mailings, and everyone loves her. Does that mean I should do bookstore mailings? What is a bookstore mailing?

Books? Still don’t have them. Bookmarks? Bookmarks are great if you march them into the store and set them on the counter yourself, but if I were a CRM and got bookmarks in the mail I would just toss them in the trash. I don’t even open my own mail, how can I expect anyone else to?

May 12

Woke up thinking about book club mailings. Jenna Black swears by book club mailings. Do I need to do a book club mailing? What is a book club mailing?

May 13
There’s a book club coordinator at St. Martin’s. Who knew? I give her my targeted list of rabid book clubs and she will send books with my letter that I send to her. I love St. Martin’s.

Lesson learned: Ask, Ask, Ask.

May 14
Going through old promotional files and discovered Sisters in Crime has a bookclub database with specific contact info for mystery book clubs nationwide. Most want e mail contact first. I can do that. I can do that in a night and pretend to be watching whatever movie Michael wants to watch.

I love Sisters in Crime.

May 15
OH MY GOD. I haven’t worked out in two weeks. Have you somehow for gotten that you have the personality of a rabid armadillo when you don’t work out for TWO DAYS?

Has it somehow slipped your mind that a BOOK TOUR means you will be dealing with THE PUBLIC for all your waking hours? Has it not occurred to you that if you don’t get an injection of endorphins, not to mention muscle tone, then too soon to contemplate you will not be fit for viewing?

May 16, 2009
OH MY GOD. I haven’t updated my mailing list in six months. And I need to do a newsletter. How does Vertical Response work again? What’s my password? Why can’t I log in? Oh, right, I have to use Firefox to get into that one. Um, I think. But do I have any news?

Did I for sure take that guy off the list who wrote me that horrible letter about how he didn’t know me and how did I get his e mail and why am I spamming him? Does he know how many nights of sleep I lost lying awake wondering the same thing?

May 17
OH MY GOD. I have to be at BEA next week. What state is BEA in this year? I need a pass. I need books. Did I book a flight?…. Frantic e mailing ensues ....HAH! St. Martin’s has sent books and is sending me a pass.

I will do my Quail Ridge launch then drive up to NY with Natasha and stop at bookstores along the way to sign stock.

A Garmin would be good, though. Konrath swears by his Garmin. Note to self: need to get a Garmin. More to the point, need to figure out how to use it before I hit the road. Can I realistically do that? I mean, really?

May 18
OH MY GOD. Right after BEA I’m due in L.A. for the HWA Stoker weekend and So Cal MWA conference and Dark Delicacies signing and Mysterious Galaxy signing. Did I book a flight? OH MY GOD - must do bookstore drop-ins. Must do TONS of bookstore drop-ins. I can do 200 easily in two weeks before I have to be back for my Southern tour stops. Even without a Garmin. No Garmin required here at all. Konrath may be Konrath, but I know California freeways.

HAH!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wish I could say that’s as bad as it gets but it’s not even close. Multiply the chaos above by twelve thousand and you have a rough idea of my mental state at the moment. There is no order to anything.

The funny thing is, I just did an interview in which the eminently sane interviewer posed the question: “You’re a great business networker. What’s your strategy?”Which I guess is encouraging because no matter what is happening inside me I have the APPEARANCE of control and organization. So that must count for something.

But you know what? I was so fine while I was just writing. I really did get – almost - two books, a proposal, and a rough draft of another (non-fiction) book done in five months. This last month I’ve managed to do some editing, but that’s about it. And I am miserable about it. I could so easily have had my new book done by now.

So I really, really want to know. Are we really doing ourselves any favors doing this kind of insane promotion?Or is John Lescroart right, and we should just always be writing the next book, period?

What do you think, Reds? The Unseen did come out Tuesday, May 26, with or without me.

(HANK: I think we're going to post this blog EVERY YEAR on this date. I think it's an instant classic.)

As a screenwriter, Alexandra Sokoloff has sold original mystery and thriller scripts and written novel adaptations for numerous Hollywood studios. Her debut ghost story, THE HARROWING, was nominated for both a Bram Stoker award and Anthony award for Best First Novel. Her second supernatural thriller, THE PRICE, was called “some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre” by the New York Times Book Review, and her short story, “The Edge of Seventeen” is currently nominated for a Thriller award for best short story. Her third spooky thriller, THE UNSEEN, is out now, and is based on real-life ESP experiments and poltergeist investigations conducted at the parapsychology lab on the Duke University campus. She is currently working on a fourth supernatural thriller for St. Martin’s Press and a paranormal thriller for Harlequin Nocturne, and is writing a book on SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS, based on her popular workshop and blog at: http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/

ON LIFELINES

"The theme, not the plot."

***John Lescroart

HANK: That's not John Lescroart with the stethoscope, its the wildly acclaimed CJ Lyons, whose new book Lifelines is flying off the shelves. But I just came from a John Lescroart signing and chat--and what he emphasized and what CJ and I were chatting about recently turned out to be the same thing. Theme. (He's so terrific, of course, and I'm sure you've read all his stuff. I certainly have. And he's one of the authors whose books I'll instantly buy without knowing a thing about it. His newest, Betrayal, is intimidatingly good. And his daughter was at the signing--and when he read a particularly lovely passage from his new book, she was in tears. Which brought tears to his eyes. And then the whole event was up for grabs. It was quite a moment.)

Anyway! Someone in the audience asked why he thought his books worked so well--was it plot or character? And he said his books were character-driven, that the plot evolved from the characters--but that in the final analysis, the books didn't work unless there was a bigger theme that brought it all together. (He said all this more beautifully than I did.) But I wrote down the above quote and will put it on my bulletin board.

Which makes today's Wednesday-special-guest blog from CJ Lyons all the more perfect.

CJ is a physician trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She's assisted police and prosecutors with cases involving child abuse, rape, homicide and Munchausen by Proxy and has worked in numerous trauma centers, as a crisis counselor, victim advocate, as well as a flight physician for Life Flight.

Publisher's Weekly proclaimed her novel, LIFELINES "a spot-on debut….a breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller" and Romantic Times made it a Top Pick.

Nice. We'll be together as part of the Mystery Chix and Private Dix at the Romantic Times convention next month. And here she is on Jungle Red!

Theme, It's Not a Four Letter Word

Thanks Hank and everyone here at Jungle Red for inviting me! Hank and I were talking about theme—now, don't run and hide, I promise, this will be fun!

You see, to me, theme is important no matter your genre. So important that I think every writer has a personal theme that defines their "brand" and voice.

It took me a loooooong time to figure all this out—and I'm still learning!

Here's my take on it all: a brand is a subliminal promise to your readers—that any book written under this author's name will promise this type of emotional experience.

For example, even though I love to cross genres from women's fiction to suspense to thrillers to romance, every book I write has a theme central to my life: they're all about making a difference, trying to change the world.
Once I realized this fact, my tagline came easily: No One is Immune to Danger

Note that tagline is an emotional concept, not a promise of specifics. I did this on purpose because I knew up front that I didn't want to get locked into writing only medical thrillers. It works with medical thrillers, woman's fiction, romantic suspense, mainstream thrillers, etc. And it reminds the reader that I’m a physician—which is part of my platform or unique selling proposition.

So, you can see how finding your unique personal theme can really help build your brand as an author.

I also love finding themes for each of my books. It's often connected to the main character's inner conflict/greatest need.

So, while the entire story they're focused on a goal, what they want, the audience is subliminally connecting to the character because they understand what this character really, really needs—even if the character doesn't know it.

For instance, in LIFELINES (out now from Berkley!), the main character just wants to figure out why her patient died. Did she fail? Was she responsible? What should she have done differently?

As she investigates, she places everything in jeopardy: her job, her reputation, her career, her life. And then, as an unintended consequence, the lives of her patients.

That's when she learns what she really needs. It's not answers. It's people, she needs to sacrifice her independence and accept others into her life.
She needs LIFELINES. How cool is that?

I can't take credit for it—my agent, editor and I went through 71 titles (count 'em!!!) before the chief copy editor at Berkley was glancing through an early draft in order to decide which copy editor to assign it to. She stopped glancing, started actually reading, and was hooked!!!

A huge compliment in its own right—do you have any ideas how many books cross her desk in a week? Anyway, she knew we were looking for a title and suggested LIFELINES.

Duh! Smack to the head—I'd been telling my editor all along that the theme of this series was: it's not medicine that saves lives, it's people. And that this book in particular was the lone stranger come to town who could either leave alone, still a stranger, or embrace her new "family" and find a home.

Her family—the people she comes in contact with through the book—become her lifeline.

Why was knowing my theme important? Because it helped me to focus each scene, each character arc, each subplot around that theme. Now that I knew the book was about the general theme of "family" I went back and looked.

Thank goodness my reptile brain is smarter than the rest of me! I'd already woven through the book images of families—intact families, families that worked, families that didn't, families who weren't related, families who were created through the traumas they survived. It was all there.
All I needed to do was a little fine-tuning. Imagery, word choice, highlighting some conflicts, dampening others. All those little decisions we make every time our fingers hit the keyboard.

Know yourself, know your theme. Know your characters, know your book's theme.
Use them both to power up your writing and to grab your audience!
And most of all, have fun with it!

Thanks for reading,
CJ

Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net