Terry Shames--Guilt Strikes at Granger's Store

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Every writer of a long-running series at some point is faced with a very ticklish question, and our Jungle Red friend and author of one of my favorite series (told you I'd be repeating that this week!), Terry Shames, whose new Samuel Craddock novel debuted this month, is here to address it.

TERRY SHAMES: With the tenth book in the Samuel Craddock series, Guilt Strikes at Granger’s Store,  coming out last week, I’ve been mulling over how long the series will run.

There’s a passage in “Guilt” in which Samuel Craddock is worried that his old friend Loretta Singletary is working too hard at the annual bake sale. He persuades two young women to help her. When she protests, Samuel says, “Loretta, let them do it. They want to.”

Her reply: “I know, but I’m afraid if they think I’m not capable anymore they’ll ease me out.”

Samuel thinks, “I know she’s right. We are getting to an age where we are afraid we’ll be redundant.”

In the eleventh book, which I’m working on now, Samuel has some self-doubt about whether he still has what it takes to investigate a crime, and his girlfriend, Wendy Gleason, is impatient because she wants to travel with him and wishes he would pack it in.

And yet, every time I consider Samuel’s retirement, another idea for a book pops up. And then I think about other long-running series, like Deborah Crombie’s Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid series, which has been running much longer than mine, and has only gotten better with time. One of my long-time fans just wrote that she thinks Guilt Strikes at Granger’s Store is the best yet! And here’s how Library Journal sums up the book in a starred review: “The Samuel Craddock series may be the best regional crime series around today. This installment is no exception”

With a review like that, I’m just not ready to pack it in with Samuel.

When I started the series, I deliberately chose an older protagonist because I was tired of reading crime novels in which a jaded detective knocks on a door and “a little old lady” or “little old man” comes to the door…and the detective thinks, “she must be at least sixty.” Really! I wanted an older protagonist to model how an older person can be vital mentally and physically. Slyly, as the series has gone on, I have aged other characters, but miraculously Samuel stays approximately the same age.

And then I think about not just Samuel, but my own age creeping up on me. Yikes! How long can I keep this up? I have a new series coming out next spring, the Jessie Madison series, featuring a young woman who is a dive instructor who gets in trouble in the Bahamas. In subsequent books she will be a part of the FBI dive team. My mind is buzzing with ideas for this new series. Am I up to the rigors of writing two series? Not to mention a standalone that’s now out on submission? I picture myself on my death bed, with a doctor ready to “unplug me” and me yelling, “Wait! Let me get just one more paragraph written.”

Okay, I challenge all you writers of  a “certain age” to tell me you haven’t had similar thoughts. I certainly have as I see authors in their twenties and thirties being touted in reviews, seeing their photos and thinking, “Oh dear, they’re SO young.” And they’re writing great books! Should I step aside?

But then I remember an interview with “the Boss,” the incomparable Bruce Springsteen. The interviewer asked him how long he thought he could continue to perform. His reply was, “There may come a time when I can’t do it any longer. But not tonight.”  That’s become my mantra. There may be a time when I will quietly close my computer…but not today.

DEBS: My response when Terry told me what she was writing about was a horrified, "Oh no! You can't retire Samuel!!" And I feel the same way about my series.

REDs and writer friends, do you wrestle with this? And readers, is there a favorite series you feel has ended too soon?

Terry Shames writes the popular, award-winning Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. Kirkus reviews said, "A favorite of fans who like their police procedurals with a strong ethical center." Mystery People has twice named Shames one of the top five mystery authors. She is on the board of Mystery Writers of America and a member of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Monty the dog, and Max the cat.

DEBS: Here's more about GUILT STRIKES AT GRANGER'S STORE: 

Mark Granger, son of he elderly owner, is warned not to renovate Granger’s Feed Store, but he ignores the warning and is attacked. When a stranger, Michael Sullivan, is shot in the store’s back room and a fire is set to conceal his body, Jarrett Creek Chief of police Samuel Craddock starts looking for motives. Who is determined to stop the renovation, and why? Then the construction crew ripping up the floor finds a long-dead body, taking Craddock deep into the past where he unearths explosive secrets stretching back thirty years.

 

 

 

Terry Shames--Number 9 That Should Have Been Number 10

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am a huge fan of Terry Shames's books featuring Jarrett Creek Chief of Police Samuel Craddock. Jarrett Creek may be fictional, but I love Central Texas and I have my very firm idea of exactly what Jarrett Creek is like. And I have been missing it, so I was thrilled when I learned there was a new book on the way. 

Isn't the cover gorgeous? But I'd have been holding my breath if I'd known the journey this book had taken! Here's Terry to explain: 

Number 9 that should have been number 10

On October 4, the ninth book in my Samuel Craddock series, Murder at the Jubilee Rally, launches into the world. It was great fun to write and it’s getting terrific reviews. Set at the Jubilee Motorcycle Rally, held out at the lake at Jarrett Creek, the book is based on a real motorcycle rally that happens every other year in the town that Jarrett Creek is based on. Because of Covid they didn’t have the rally, so I had to rely on videos from past events, and some first-hand accounts from people who have attended them. The videos! Let me tell you, I’m no prude, but some of the videos of real-time attendees stunned me. When you read descriptions in Murder at the Jubilee Rally, understand that I toned down some of those scenes.

“Jubilee Rally” should have been book 10. What happened? Covid happened. Or at least that’s what I’m blaming. In 2020 I wrote a Samuel Craddock book that turned out to be horrible. I mean truly. It was not only dark, but sleazy and distasteful. But there was more. I had intended to make this a book about a motorcycle rally. At some point in writing it, the rally disappeared and nasty people took over.

When I finished it, I disliked it, but turned it over to my writer’s group just in case I was wrong. They also disliked it. Then I sent it to my agent and she said the equivalent of, “What the hell is this?”

Now this is not the first time I’ve written a bad novel. There are all those “practice” novels that never saw the light of day. But I really liked them and thought were publishing-worthy if I just did some good editing. BUT. Recently I went back to purge my files and read the old books. In almost every one, my response was, “What was I thinking?” But every, single one of them had more to recommend it than my car crash of a book. It was with the greatest pleasure that I dumped it and started over.

Thinking back, I wondered why Covid caused this? Like most people I was feeling dark and unsettled the entire year of 2020. I didn’t mind staying inside. I had a great house with lots of room to spread out. We had a student living with us who was ultra-careful not to bring Covid into the house and was fun to be around. We had our two spirited dogs. And I had friends who were also careful, so we formed a “pod” of people who could come into my backyard and have a meal—at a distance. I cooked wonderful things, I indulged myself with jigsaw puzzles, my husband and I laughed. I Zoomed and hopped around on social media. Not so bad really. It’s not as if I haven’t had other dark times in my life that I was able to write through.

But this was different. The idea of being forced to stay inside ate at me. No travel. No hugs. Worse, there was always that itchy feeling in the air that you didn’t know whether the virus was lurking outside to nail you. Pouring that angst into the book I was working on, the characters became bitter and angry and ugly.

How is this different from writing noir or violent thrillers? After all, these characters can be ugly and angry and bitter. But there’s always some kind of “romance” at the heart of these novels. Sometimes it’s love interests, but it can also be the romance of interesting settings, passionate characters, people on a mission. The characters in my bad book were just behaving badly. Period.

When I jettisoned the book, I felt nothing but relief. I started over and this time the book flowed. I don’t mind saying I was biting my nails, worried that I’d lost it for good. But I got back on the hawg and this time the ride was smooth.

One character climbed out of the original mess and sneaked into the new book. In fact, she charmed me. Her name is Hailey. She’s the daughter of Samuel’s nephew, Tom. At the age of sixteen, she is suddenly sure that she knows exactly what her life should be—and it includes a bad boyfriend, no college, and defying every adult in her life. Her parents send her off to Samuel to take a break from her, hoping that Samuel can manage her. He almost can’t!

I loved creating Hailey and I hope you enjoy reading her as much as I enjoyed writing her.

All of which makes me wonder. Was I the only writer who found herself producing awful work during Covid? Work that not only didn’t satisfy, but that made you feel like you’d dredged up some mean part of your subconscious you didn’t know existed? Did others find themselves lost in the weeds? I’d love to hear about it!

Not everyone is thrilled that the yearly Jubilee Motorcycle Rally is coming to Jarrett Creek, Texas. Some locals want to ban it. But the merchants who’ve parlayed a good deal of money from the event are happy to put up with a little aggravation. A nasty war of words breaks out between Lily Deverell, who's spearheading the campaign to shut down the rally, and Amber Johnson, a store owner whose husband was badly injured while riding with his motorcycle club, leaving her to support their family by herself. Chief of Police Samuel Craddock brokers a deal leaving no truly satisfied.

When one of the warring women is found dead on the rally grounds, Craddock and his deputy, Maria Trevino, investigate even though the case is theoretically the job of the overburdened Department of Public Safety.

Complicating matters, Craddock offers to have his nephew’s teenage daughter, Hailey, visit to see if he can straighten out her recent bad behavior. Sam has his hands full with Hailey, who alternates between acting like the sweet girl he remembers. Eventually, she takes an interest in the murder investigation and a keen observation she makes helps Craddock solve the crime.

"A neat character-intensive combo of clever police work and family angst." Kirkus

And Library Journal gave Jubilee Rally a starred review and made it one of their October picks of the month!

DEBS: Can I just say, YIKES. I know all the writers out there are cringing along with me. Throwing out a book!! Nightmare of nightmares! But obviously it was the right thing to do, and very brave, I think.

Who else has had to start a book--or a big project-- over from scratch?

Terry Shames writes the award-winning, critically acclaimed Samuel Craddock series, set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. The books have been finalists for numerous awards, including The Strand Critics Award, The Lefty Award, and the Macavity Award. A Killing at Cotton Hill won the Macavity for Best First Mystery, 2013. The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake won the RT Reviews Critics Award for Best Contemporary Mystery of 2016.

Regarding the latest in the series, MURDER AT THE JUBILEE RALLY, Publishers Weekly called it an entertaining read, with "vivid secondary characters and well drawn small-town setting."

Raised in Texas and a University of Texas alum, Terry has lived in California for many years, now in Los Angeles. She is a member of t Sisters in Crime, and on the board of Mystery Writers of America.

Visit her at www.terryshames.com to see photos and to find out about upcoming events.

 

Terry Shames on Minor Character Magic

RHYS BOWEN: It's amazing how attached we get to minor characters in our series, isn't it? I've had characters who were only intended to have a cameo role but would not go away--Sid and Gus in the Molly Murphy books and the Princess ZouZou in the Royal Spyness books who inserted herself into the story in a major way!

well, today on Jungle Reds we are hosting my good friend Terry Shames who has had interesting encounters with her background characters and is going to tell us about them today.

TERRY SHAMES:

Thank you so much to the “Reds” for hosting me on the occasion of the publication of my eighth book in the Samuel Craddock series.

Today I would like to have a conversation about background characters in our books.

I base my mystery plots on real life events or tales that I craft into stories complete with clues and red herrings. But to me what feels like magic is how background characters participate. When I start a new book, I feel like I walk into town and say, “What has everybody been up to?” And they tell me.  This has not always been the case. I’ve had to grow into it.

I like to read series, because I like to watch characters change over time, sometimes in surprising ways. But I had no idea when I started my first Craddock book whether it would become a series.  I barged into the first book without a thought of how an older protagonist would stretch and grow, much less how minor characters would change over time.

The first three books had a natural arc and they were centered around the protagonist, Samuel Craddock. I wanted  Samuel, an ex-chief of police, to become the chief again. In the third book, Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek, when the town went broke, it gave him the opportunity to step into the role of chief. Craddock didn’t need a salary, so when the town couldn’t afford to pay a police chief, it was natural for him to step in.

By the fourth book, when Samuel’s neighbor, Jenny,  became the focus,  I was beginning to see that the stories of supporting characters were important in their own way. I could keep the series fresh by having minor characters’ lives change—the way real people’s lives change. But I couldn’t depend on “magic.” I had to have a sense of direction.

.

But what direction? Sometimes, characters seemed to take off on their own. One character had an affair—and his wife did not take it well. Another left town. One got a new hobby. In one case, I took direction from my readers. Fans asked if Samuel, a widower, was ever going to have a relationship with a new woman. So in book three, I introduced a new character, Ellen Forester, who moved to town to start an art gallery and workshop. She became Samuel’s love interest. They didn’t have much in common, and after the next few  books, I began to grow a little weary of her. Meanwhile, Dru Ann Love asked me to do a “Day in the Life” portrait of Ellen, and to my surprise, at the end of the “interview” Ellen revealed that she had a secret. I didn’t know what the secret was, or how it was going to play out, but I knew it would come out at some point. And did it ever!

By book five I felt the series needed a jolt. I was still okay with Ellen and Samuel’s relationship with his friend Jenny had been thoroughly explored, so what next? More tweaking of minor characters .I decided to give  Samuel a new sidekick, Maria Trevino. It turned to be the perfect foil: Samuel’s wisdom and experience played off against Maria’s idealism and fresh perspective.

Several people were interested to know how Samuel “became” the man we know as an older man. The prequel, An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock, was written to explore Samuel’s past—including his relationships with his destructive family and his wife.

My last book, A Reckoning in the Back Country, was a particularly hard book to write because it was about dog fighting. I had to make the back story really enjoyable and compelling to balance the horrendous main story.  I was tired of Ellen and I wanted Samuel to have a frisky new “main squeeze.” Wendy Gleason showed up at a Thanksgiving feast when Ellen was out of town, and they were off. But what to do about Ellen? Aha! I remembered that she had a secret. The way it played out was so perfect, that it seemed as if I must have known long before what was going to happen. That’s magic at work.

In the book that just came out, I wanted to feature long-time character Loretta Singletary, whom  I think of as a Greek chorus. She provides a lot of knowledge about Jarrett Creek’s citizens that Samuel uses in his investigations. I was also interested in doing a story about on-line dating. Again, here’s where magic seemed to be at work. In the end of the previous book, Loretta had showed up at Samuel’s house with a new hairdo and wearing stylish clothing. At the time, I had no idea why she was doing that. So when I started A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary, I realized that the reason she had been gussied up was to find a new beau. On a dating website!

 Mystery plots unfold against a background of “real life” for ongoing characters. The characters grow, and learn, and try new things, sometimes at their peril. If that didn’t happen, the stories themselves would be stale. For me, it seems to have an element of magic to it. Their growth is not something I plan. It’s something I take advantage of.

How do  other series writers come up with movement for their minor characters? Do you meander along letting characters act much the way real life seems to—without particular intent, letting magic happen? Or are you keenly aware of exactly the direction you want your characters to go?

RHYS:  Terry is on her way to Malice today. Do say hi to her! I wish I could join all of you.

Terry Shames--Buzz, Hype, or Spin?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: What a treat it is for me to host a fellow Texan! My friend Terry Shames writes about small town Texas the way I strive to write about England, with intensity, affection, and a deep intimacy. And her protagonist, former police chief of Jarrett Creek, Samuel Craddock, is one of my favorite fictional detectives--experienced, humanly flawed, but with a bone-deep decency. Terry's new Samuel Craddock novel, AN UNSETTLING CRIME FOR SAMUEL CRADDOCK, takes us back to the beginning of Samuel's career and his first major case as a detective. This book, like the previous five in the series, is getting a LOT of buzz, and here's what Terry wants to know about that.

TERRY SHAMES: Someone recently said to me, “Your new book is getting a lot of buzz.” That’s a great feeling, but then I was reading about an author who was doing a lot of “hype,” and I thought, “Hmmm, that doesn’t sound so good.” Which got me thinking about the difference between the two. I went on line and found several blog posts and articles about the difference, all of which had good points. They all seemed to think that buzz was organic, and hype was artificially produced.

All of the articles were from a few years ago and sounded a bit dated. For example, no one used the term “organic.” That’s my modern take on it. In our technology-driven world, we are increasingly able to drum up what looks organic, as in “Hey, look what this reviewer said about my book,” or “I’m so excited to read this comment….”

Is it manufactured excitement or real? Is it a review that really is wonderful, or does the author spin it that way? Ooo, there’s another word that creeps into the buzz-hype lexicon: Spin. It’s a way of taking an ordinary comment and boosting it just the right way to make it sound “wow.” This isn’t new. We’ve all seen the ads that say a book is “….Terrific….” according to some prestigious media outlet or review, only to find that the actual quote was “a terrific waste of time…” Kidding, but you know what I mean. Taking a word or a few out of context to spin it into what an author hopes will become buzz.

I’m not judging anyone for doing hype or spin, because in a time when publishers are doing little or nothing to promote authors, and the burden increasingly falls on writers, all of us are trying to figure out ways to wave a magic wand to convert our hype and spin to “buzz.”

I know how to help create buzz for other people, by sharing their good news, by telling other people about their books through social media or reviews, or word of mouth. But when I try to do the same thing for myself, it always makes me feel like I’m venturing into hype. If I say I’m “excited to share” something, I feel like a phony—even when I really am excited.

With my first book I stumbled into buzz because I didn’t know enough to be shy of asking a famous author to blurb my book. Carolyn Hart not only read it, but she mentioned it in an interview at a conference when she was asked what new great book she had read, and she gave mine a plug. Instant buzz. I try to “pass it on” every chance I get.

So my question is, how do you get past the buzz vs hype conundrum? What kind of hype do you do to create buzz? Have you seen examples of really good marketing that gave you the sense that it was “organic?”

DEBS: Readers, do you make a distinction between buzz, hype, and spin? As Terry says, we authors get so excited when someone says something nice about our books, but sometimes we hesitate to share. Opinions much appreciated!

And on a really fun note, Terry will be in Dallas on this Thursday, speaking and signing at The Wild Detectives at 7:30 p.m.  I'll be there, and I'm bringing friends to meet Terry and Samuel and help spread the buzz!

Terry Shames writes the best-selling Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. A Killing at Cotton Hill won the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Mystery People named Shames one of the top five Texas mystery writers of 2015. Her sixth novel, An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock is came out in January 2017. For more, see www.terryshames.com    

Here's more about AN UNSETTLING CRIME FOR SAMUEL CRADDOCK:

When the Jarrett Creek Fire Department is called to douse a blaze on the outskirts of town, they discover a grisly scene: five black young people have been murdered. It’s 1982, and newly appointed Chief of Police Samuel Craddock finds himself an outsider in the investigation headed by a racist highway patrolman John Sutherland.

On dubious evidence Sutherland arrests Truly Bennett, a young black man whom Craddock knows and respects. Craddock finds facts leading in another direction. When Sutherland refuses to relent, Craddock is faced with a choice that will define him as a lawman—either let the highway patrol have its way, or take on a separate investigation himself.

Although his choice to investigate puts both Craddock and his family in danger, he prevails in getting Bennett freed. In the process he learns that his job ends at the city limits. 

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, "“Shames’s superior sixth Samuel Craddock mystery...explores a significant case at the start of the retired police chief’s career. Skilled depictions of the lawman’s formative choices and emotions enhance a timely story with resonance in the era of Black Lives Matter.”

Terry Shames talks about the weather, Texan style, that is.

RHYS: When I first met Terry Shames at an MWA meeting she was a new writer, hoping to get published. Now I'm celebrating with her the publication of her fifth book in the best-selling Samuel Craddock series, set in a small Texan town. Terry is a Texan girl herself, although you wouldn't know it because she doesn't say y'all or howdy or anything of the things one expects Texans to say.

I spent three years in Texas when my kids were growing up and what I remember more than anything was the weather: actually an excess of dramatic weather--tornadoes and hurricanes and ice storms and sizzling heat. Texas does nothing by halves. So it made sense that Terry should choose weather for her topic.

Welcome Terry.

TERRY SHAMES:  I’m thrilled to be visiting Jungle Red Writers today talking about (wait for it) the weather! This year people on the east coast were baffled by a balmy Christmas while those on the west coast were shivering. The fact that both of them were having 50-60 degree weather shows that people are used to their own brand of weather—or it may mean that people in California are wimps. 

But if you want to talk crazy weather, try Texas. I was in Austin visiting my family for the holidays. The day before I arrived, it was 80 degrees. The day after I arrived, it was 30, with overcast skies and icy, bone-chilling wind. By the time I left two days later it was warm again. Texas epitomes the old saw, “Don’t like the weather? Stick around for a few minutes and it will change.”

My Samuel Craddock series is set in Texas, and I make liberal use of the variables as metaphors or portents. When things are heating up in the plot, things start to get hot weather-wise as well. When I describe storm clouds, look out, things are about to get turbulent. In The Last Death of Jack Harbin, Samuel Craddock says:

“Off to the west a few puffy clouds are piling up on the horizon, as if deciding whether to collect into something more serious.” In the next scene, the book takes a serious turn.

In the novel I’m working on now someone gives Samuel Craddock an unexplained cold shoulder. Samuel observes, ”To the north the sky has darkened. We’re going to get our first ‘norther’ of the season.” A half hour later, “in the past ten minutes the temperature has dropped thirty degrees. The ’norther’ is like a wall of cold air that moves forward, sweeping away the heat.”

I love to read novels in which the weather is presented as a character. Craig Johnson (The Cold Dish) and Martha Cooley (Ice Shear) both use bitter cold to great effect in their novels. They portray a world in which the cold is a metaphor for being frozen out of life. How much more determined a detective has to be if every step involves lots of clothing and the possibility of frostbite.

Heat is just as debilitating, rendering people unable to move without great effort. Combine it with rain, and as Tim Hallinan notes in The Hot countries, “After the air-conditioning in the Expat Bar…the rain feels like a hot shower.” And, hey! Texas has that, too.

For me, a book is enhanced by references to weather. I’ve been to Scotland and I know it’s cold all year round. I want to know how that affects people who live there. In the Caribbean, I want to feel the sun beating down, feel the cool ocean breeze and the hurricane winds. In Africa, I want to experience the drought or the refreshing rain that follows.

I’m curious to know if other writers use weather intentionally, or if it creeps in without your thinking about it. How does it affect your characters and your plots? In our everyday lives weather can be motivational. Is that true in novels as well?

RHYS: So what about you, Reds and readers? Is weather important in your books? When you are reading do you like to experience heat, cold, rain?

 Terry Shames writes the best-selling Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. A Killing at Cotton Hill won the Macavity for Best First Mystery, 2013. The Last Death of Jack Harbin was a Macavity finalist for Best Mystery, 2014. Mystery People named Shames one of the top five Texas mystery writers of 2015. Her fifth Craddock mystery, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake launches January 12, 2016. It is a Top Pick for January in RT Bookreviews.   www.terryshames.com. 

Terry will be giving away a copy of her brand new book to her favorite comment of the day.

Terry Shames--How Much is Too Much?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I was fortunate enough to get my mitts on an advance reader's copy of Terry The Last Death of Jack Harbin.  I was intrigued by the title, picked the book up, and didn't put it down again until I'd finished it.

Terry's books are set in small-town Texas and feature ex-chief of police Samuel Craddock.  She lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband and two rowdy terriers. 

In  The Last Death of Jack Harbin, with the chief of police out of commission, it’s up to trusted ex-chief Samuel Craddock to investigate the brutal murder of a Gulf War veteran who was a former high school football star. Craddock uncovers a dark tale of greed and jealousy that extends into the past, and well beyond the borders of the small town of Jarrett Creek.

Terry's first Samuel Craddock novel, The Killing at Cotton Hill, debuted to rave reviews.  And then--well, I'll let her tell it...

TERRY SHAMES:  All right! Awesome! Yippeee! Squeeee!

I’m thrilled to announce….

I can’t believe the wonderful thing that just happened…

I’m over the moon….

Yes, you’ve just received good news and you want to share it. You signed your first book contract, you moved to a fabulous new publisher, you signed with the best agent, ever, you snagged one more great review and you can’t wait to tell everyone.  And then something else spectacular happens and you want to tell that, too. You post it on Facebook and Twitter and your list serves. You email all your friends, you put it in blogs and newsletters. And then something even better happens….

When my debut novel came out last summer, there was nothing too insignificant for me to get excited about. I was almost tempted to post when a friend from down the street said she liked my book. Looking back on it, I am grateful at the patient indulgence of friends, acquaintances, and fellow mystery writers.

Now, it’s six months later and my second book has just launched. I’m just as excited, but this time after I posted news of a couple of good reviews, the next time I started to post one a little voice said, “Is this sharing good news, or is it gloating? Is this really wanting to share it, or is it advertising…”  

And I pulled back. I thought about all the writers I know and how they handle their goods news. I love it when I read good news from other writers, but when I really thought about it, I realized that they probably get a lot more good news than they actually share.

I especially thought about some of the Jungle Red Writers, writers I admire. Rhys Bowen always sends out notices of her newest books and about bookstore events. She posted when one of her books reached the top tier in Amazon. But what I’ve never seen her do (and which I did with my first book) is shout out every single movement of her book—every review and every friendly look somebody gave her. Same With Hank, same with Deb, and Hallie…and so on.

So I’m asking the JR’s and other writers, where does that little voice come from that tells you when enough is enough?

Do you trust it? Is it keeping you from doing good promotion…or is it giving you good advice? Are you wasting a good chance to let everybody know that your book is getting raves reviews….or are you realizing that not every little piece of good news warms everyone’s heart? I think newly published writers who haven’t made a name for themselves yet, might get a bit of a pass. But how much of a pass?

And what about readers or aspiring writers? Do you want to see every little tidbit that makes a writer glow with delight? How much is too much? Where is the line crossed between inviting people to share your good news and bragging? 

DEBS: Terry's dilemma is especially interesting considering that just last week we REDS were talking about how readers can help their favorite writers. We all wonder how much promotion is too much, even those who have multiple books under our belts.

So, REDS and READERS, what's your take on where to draw the promotional line?

Terry will be checking in to chat, and one lucky commenter will win a copy of The Last Death of Jack Harbin.

As you can see, I highly recommend it:-)