Characters Welcome! A guest blog by Lesa Holstine

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  Our guest today is Lesa Holstine, eponymous blogger of Lesa's Book Critiques, one of the smartest book review sites on the web. I'm going to quote her own blog profile to give you an idea of her range:

Lesa has been a library manager/administrator for over 30 years, in Ohio, Florida, Arizona, and, now, Indiana. Winner of the 2011 Arizona Library Association Outstanding Library Service Award. She is a contributing Book Reviewer for Library Journal, Mystery Readers Journal, ReadertoReader.com and VibrantNation.com. Winner of the 2009 and 2010 Spinetingler Awards for Best Reviewer. First Fan Guest of Honor for Desert Sleuths Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Write Now! Conference.

 In other words, Lesa loves books. A lot. Today, she shares with us  - aspiring authors, pay attention! - that one thing that makes a good story a great read.

“Characters welcome” is the slogan of the USA Network, but it could be the slogan for my mother’s side of the family as well. We’re all readers. I just happen to be the one in the family who writes a blog about books. I started Lesa’s Book Critiques eight and a half years ago as a place where I could talk about what I had read. And, I didn’t care if it was only my family who read the posts. My mother was one of seven children, and there are more than forty first cousins in my generation. So, I not only discuss books on my blog, but I write a book column in the family newsletter. And, it’s not uncommon for my Mom and my sisters to all read a book at the same time, something I featured on my blog.

Why am I mentioning my extended family of readers today? Because I was just home for a week, together with my Mom and both sisters. We do talk about books on the phone, but this was a chance to talk in person. And, we’re all passionate about mysteries. We take characters and mysteries very seriously. We want authors to bring characters to life. And, I know we’re not the only ones. Why else would Rhys Bowen have so many comments on Facebook when she asked how far Lady Georgie and her love interest, Darcy, should go? Readers care.

If you had overheard our conversations this week, you would have heard one of my sisters recommend Jacquelyn Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs books to the other. She referred to them as meaty books in which she learned a lot about British history. And, you would have heard me passionately discuss the development of Jane Cleland’s Josie Prescott series. My sister teased me, knowing my pet peeve. “What? Josie Prescott isn’t Too Stupid to Live?” I analyzed Josie’s growth from a lonely woman to a strong woman who has gathered around her a family made of co-workers, friends and a cat. And, she is smart enough to work with the police, not against them.

Can you tell we care about characters and how they change? My youngest sister’s email notes to me probably contain much better and more succinct reviews than any of mine. She’ll complain about a character who dumps a boyfriend, or she’ll tell me the sleuth’s behavior was inconsistent. I have a cousin who reads the mysteries, and drops me notes commenting on the development of the series.

I wrote the chapter on “Mystery Fiction” for the latest edition of Genreflecting. I discuss Julia’s books, Deborah’s, Rhys’, Jane’s, and Hank’s, among others. Why? Their characters fit my comment. “Most readers of mysteries will also say they read the books for the appeal of the characters.” And, I’ll honestly tell you that I drop a series if the sleuth is consistently “Too Stupid to Live”. I also disliked a recent bestseller that lasted forever on the lists. I hated the characters.

When authors ask what they should write about when they do a guest blog, I often suggest they do an interview with their sleuth, or allow a couple characters to do the guest blog. It’s fun to see the questions an author will ask of the character. And, I’ve seen some very revealing questions and comments come from those characters. Sometimes, the sleuth has interviewed the author, which can be funny.

I want to like your characters. And, my extended family reads my blog, and the newsletter. We talk about your books, but we really talk about your characters. We care, and we can be passionate about our likes and dislikes. We’re not telling you what to write, or how to develop your characters. As readers, we really just want you to know we appreciate what you do, and we sometimes discuss your books and characters as if they were acquaintances. Give us characters to love, and we’ll forgive a weak mystery now and then. I’m sure I’m not the only one who read every Spenser book by Robert B. Parker because I adored the character even when the mysteries grew weak. So, “Characters welcome”, please.

What do you look for in characters, dear readers? Who are the most memorable ones for you? Join in the discussion, and one lucky commenter will win an ARC of THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS!

Lesa Holstine blogs about books and reading at Lesa's Book Critiques. You can also like her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter as @LesaHolstine and keep up with all her posts on Tumblr.

Guest Blogger Jane Cleland

Jane Cleland has to be one of the smartest and hardest working women in the mystery community. I first met Jane at a Mystery Writers of America/NY Chapter meeting. Jane is the current president of MWA/NY as well as an Agatha-nominated writer (of the Josie Prescott series), business writer and speaker, and marketing exec. There doesn't seem to be anything Jane can't do, and that's why this story is such a good lesson for the rest of us mere mortals. Enjoy!

Lessons From A Trash Can

by Jane Cleland

The first time I spoke in public professionally, I fell upside down in a trash can. There were seventy-six people in the room. This is true.

I was walking backwards up the center aisle in a hotel’s meeting room holding an example of excellent graphic design high above my head when I ran into an oversized garbage can that one of the hotel workers had forgotten to remove after the noontime refresh. I was wearing a skirt and high heels, and I hit the trash can at just the right place to tiddlewink myself into the can head first.

I recall the moment well.

My first thought was for my hair. I have baby fine hair that's hard to style, and all I could think of was how awful and unprofessional I'd look once I got out of the trash can.

My second thought was for my suit. It was a soft gray wool suit, the first I'd ever bought and the only one I owned. I had another seminar scheduled in Dayton the next day. What would I do, I wondered, if I couldn't salvage my suit?

My third thought was for my carefully mounted example, which had frisbeed somewhere to my left as I’d flipped upside down. It was a really, really great example of an important principle relating to eye path design, and now, as far as I knew, it was gone. How could I make the points I needed to make without it? How could I possibly replace it by the time I got to Dayton?

Time seemed to stand still. Truly, I have no idea if this nightmare lasted seconds or minutes or even longer. At first, I thought I could handle the situation with aplomb. Then, as panic set in, I stopped thinking. I suddenly realized the true horror of my situation. I was upside down in a trash can with no hope of getting out.

People weren't laughing, but I didn't take this to be good news. I figured they were stunned, and thus silent; mortified, and therefore ignoring the situation; or so embarrassed on my behalf that there was no comment worth making. I decided to stay in the trash can until every single one of those seventy-six participants left the room. I figured that eventually someone from the hotel would arrive and haul me out and I could skulk away, never to return.

Two men seated nearby approached the can, peered down, and with a quiet “you take the thigh, I'll take the hip,” hoisted me out and set me upright. They stepped back. I smiled and thanked them politely. Then I thought of my hair and my suit. The trash can was filled with dry goods: discarded newspapers, crumpled napkins and unwanted advertising flyers, that sort of thing.

This was good news. My naturally buoyant optimism leapt forth as I realized that I wouldn’t have to worry about clumps of cherry Danish matting my hair or staining my skirt. It was my lucky day – I’d fallen into the dry goods trash can. Can you imagine how awful it would be to do a header into the discarded coffee bin?

During those first few seconds of recovery, I had the presence of mind to thank my rescuers, smile broadly as if everyone knew this was nothing more than a really clever goof on Jane and they should therefore relax and share the joke, and accept the offering of my beloved, nicely mounted example of excellent design from the woman six rows back who assured me that the bruise she'd received when it struck her shoulder would soon fade from memory. I went on with enormous (if I do say so myself) savoir faire. The seminar was a success.

Which goes to show you that sometimes things that start out bad can end up good. My protagonist Josie Prescott, for example, got chased out of her high-powered New York City job because she was the whistle-blower in a price-fixing scandal, and ends up owning her own company in beautiful, business-friendly New Hampshire. The trick is not to panic, and to show grace under pressure. Remember that the next time you fall into a trash can.

Jane's newest Josie Prescott mystery is Antiques to Die For. Visit Jane (and Josie) at http://www.janecleland.net/

This is a Work of Fiction

fic*tion (fik'shun) n. - an imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.
-American Heritage College Dictionary


RO: I am about to write an Author's note for my second mystery novel, The Big Dirt Nap. I didn't do it for the first because it didn't seem necessary. After all, I was writing fiction. Did I really need to explain that these characters didn't exist? This town didn't exist? Apparently so.


My editor thinks I need to explain that there is really no native American tribe called the Quepochas, a fictional group that is referenced in the book. While I think this is amusing, she's probably right. One online reviewer complained that my debut novel, Pushing Up Daisies, wasn't accurate because there was no UConn campus where I had one in the book. It didn't seem to bother her that there was no TOWN, no diner and no people there, only that there was no campus. Go figure.


Is it that readers nowadays assume everything is ripped from the headlines, and they are looking for what they believe to be mistakes? Have the lines between fiction and non-fiction become so blurred that people can't tell one from the other?What the hell..I should probably just call it a memoir. Then no one would expect it to be accurate.


Author's NoteThe Big Dirt Nap is a work of fiction. While there is a state of Connecticut and a University of Connecticut, pretty much everything else in the book just exists between my ears. Any other descriptions, laws, people, places or events that are accurate are purely accidental.



ROBERTA: Interesting Ro! There is an automatic disclaimer on the copyright page of all my books, mostly there to protect the publisher from lawsuits I imagine. Do you think some angry fan would assault you (legally) for making up an Indian tribe? I do kind of like the idea of an author's note providing info for READERS, not just for protection. I would put it at the back of the book if you had a choice. And by the way, do you prefer acknowledgments at the front or the back? And how many other obsessive people even look at those pages? (Aside from the aspiring writers who are instructed to look there for agent mentions as a matter of course...and that's not bad advice.)


HANK: I think it's kind of--funny, actually. Maybe it's because you made up such a believable and clever name for the tribe. But I agree--if it's fiction, it's um, made up.

And yes, Roberta, I always read those pages. It's a kind of--six degreees of separation game. I love to see if I know who they know. Or whether the info is illuminating or revealing in any way. Front of the book or back? Hmmm. Put them in the front and there's the problem of: I'd like to thank Dr. Joe Shmo for all his help in learing about how to recognize fake fingerprints.... So much for THAT plot!

In Prime Time and Face Time, I kind of tweaked the geography of Swampscott, Massachusetts and the highway to the Cape. And I just said so in the author's page. And I make up the names of streets in Boston if bad things happen. In DRIVE TIME, I have to make up names of cars! And so far, I've created a problem car called a Calera. Would you pronounce that Ka-LEHR-a?

HALLIE: Interesting, isn't it, how we write those disclaimers--and yet most characters and situations in a novel (or in MY novels, at any rate) are sparked by something real. In my new book, there's a character who vacuums her front walk...I had a neighbor who did that. And there's a Victorian ark of a house on which my husband and I were (fortunately) overbid; the people who bought it found a hidden room. That house, with its leather wallpaper and stained glass, is in "Never Tell a Lie."
I love reading acknowledgments, too. Aren't they kind of a Rorschach? I'm always curious to discover whether writing the book took "a village" as mine do. And what does it mean, I wonder, when there are NO acknowledgments?


RO: Ugh, there was a typo in my acks. After going over my manuscript so carefully, apparently no one looked at the acks, which by the way were PERFECT when I sent them in.

PS.....Don't forget to come back for Wednesday's post when our guest blogger will be Jane Cleland, president of MWA/NY Chapter and author of the Agatha-nominated Josie Prescott series.