Viva Las Vegas! by Jenn McKinlay

I recently went to Las Vegas. It had been about ten years since I'd last visited while doing research for a book VANILLA BEANED (you can see by the cover it's a Vegas story).

I had a blast researching that mystery -- there are Elvis(es) lots of Elvis(es) in the plot. And while I was there this time, I was doing more research for yet another book, but I can't share any details about that just yet.

Instead, I'll share some of the high points:

I attended a concert by the Gin Blossoms: This is crazy to me because some of the GBs have become personal friends and they were HUGE when I first moved to AZ. In fact, my boyfriend at the time worked for a guy named Forrest who nicknamed me "Gin Blossom" - no idea why. Tangentially, his daughter, a baby back then (obvi) grew up to be Haley Lu Richardson (White Lotus, season 2). Life just keeps on keeping on, doesn't it? Anyway, the concert was fabulous and I had a blast.

Because that wasn't enough fun, the next day I decided it would be a hoot to go ziplining over Freemont Street. Because...why not? I do not have any pictures because we were going 35 mph and Hub couldn't snap a pic from below (five stories down) fast enough. Probably just as well. Having my lips and eyelids peeled back from my face is not my best look. But my partner in crime and I did pose for some ridiculous pre-ride pics, because of course we did.

Hub and I went thrifting on Main Street, even popping into the famous Gold and Silver pawn shop from Pawn Stars. I can not confirm nor deny whether this was research but we didn't buy anything despite being dazzled by the riches within.

We also managed a pool day with our friends who flew in from CT -- they wore swimsuits while Hub and I were in hoodies -- and the resort had Dole Whip, which makes everything better. LOL. 

Love it or hate it, there really isn't any place quite like Vegas. It's not where I would choose to spend vacation time as I'm more of a beach gal, and I don't think I can be there for longer than a weekend (too many people) but whenever I'm there, I have to say I'm never bored and the people watching is always spectacular. 

How about you, Reds and Readers, are you a Vegas person? If not, where's a place you discovered to be surprisingly entertaining?

Eric Rickstad's prescription: Grab pencil & paper & GO!

HALLIE EPHRON: Today I'm happy to welcome Eric Rickstad to Jungle Red. He writes gripping literary thrillers, the kind that hook you on page one and don't let up until they gobsmack you with an ending you should have seen coming. Along the way, his prose dazzles.

His debut novel, a New York Times Notable Book, REAP, came out to critical acclaim in 2010; his fourth book, THE NAMES OF DEAD GIRLS, is just out. 

Eric sets his books in his home state of Vermont, this new one on a remote college campus. You can feel the poetry in his writing in this one-sentence introduction to Detective Frank Rath's niece, now his adopted daughter (her parents were killed):

Rachel Rath's flesh knew before her mind did that she was being watched.

I won't spoil what happens, but let's just say it's a page turner. Reading Eric's books is more like inhaling than reading... and I asked him what writing them is like for him.

ERIC RICKSTAD:  I write my novel’s first drafts in notebooks, with #2 pencils. I like the physicality, the feel and sound as graphite scratches paper. I like to cross out a paragraph with a dark, violent X, to circle a passage and draw arrows up to show where the passage really belongs, then draw more arrows. I like to doodle and to scribble notes, important notes like: This sucks, get a job. I like to write anywhere I want when I want, on a stream bank or on my porch steps, or perhaps your porch steps.

What I love about writing with a pencil is that the writing comes so much easier, in a surge I cannot replicate when click-clacking keys. The physical act of writing sparks a white-hot livewire from my mind to pencil to page.

There was a period when I “transitioned” to writing first drafts on my laptop. It was wasted time, I reasoned, to write a novel in a notebook only to then have to type into a Word doc what looked like a 100,000-word drug prescription.

During this period, the words still came. Yet, I found myself “stuck” far more often, staring at the blinking cursor, and, while stuck, I became tempted to “check” email, social media, and “breaking news.” When I succumbed to this temptation, it proved a shameful waste of time. We all do it, but I loathed it.

So, I made a pact: when I got  stuck staring at a cursor, I’d shut down the laptop, grab my pencil, pocketknife, and notebook, and venture to a comfy chair or under a tree. 

And. Voila. No longer stuck. Often on a day when I got no writing done in the first few hours on my laptop, I ended up writing 20 notebook pages in an hour. Not all of it was good, but all of it was useful. Every word we write is useful.

Long ago, I reverted back to writing first drafts longhand. I have boxes and boxes of notebooks of my novels. Even when working on a tenth draft in Word, I’ll go to the notebook to work out a plot point or to resurrect a dead passage by writing it anew on a real page with a real pencil.

I still get stuck writing this way. I still have atrocious days of dreck; yet, instead of staring at that blinking cursor, I get to see how fine a point I can whittle on my pencil tip. I get to study the wood shavings, which are far more fascinating than a cursor. Even when no words come, I’ve not wasted time, my mind, my subconscious, remains fully engaged as I tap my pencil on the page. And, much as one tries, one can’t surf the Internet on a notebook page. Not yet.

So, if you find your writing is stuck or uninspired, for any reason at all, change it up, unplug, go to a location that does inspire, get outside, grab a pencil and a notebook and see what comes when it is once again truly just you and the page. 

HALLIE: Great advice! What I want to know from Eric is: Pencil shavings? Don't you have a pencil sharpener (my electric pencil sharpener is my favorite time waster)? And how much of what you write longhand actually ends up going in the book?

And for the rest of us, does the writing implement make a big difference? Pencil? Sharpie? Fountain pen? Or keyboard?? What's your weapon of choice?

My evolution as a Mystery Writer by Charlene D’Avanzo

  
LUCY BURDETTE: We love stories on this blog about finding your way, and struggles that turn into something great and unexpected, because lord knows, we've all been there. And I'm super-excited to host Charlene today, because she was one of our Seascape Escape to Write students a few years ago. And now she has a book birthday to celebrate--Hooray! Welcome Charlene! 
CHARLENE D'AVANZO: Five years ago, I’d only written science papers with lots of equations and formulas—never one word of fiction. Then I experienced a eureka moment. The upshot was that I had to transform myself and become a mystery writer.

This is the God’s truth. I walked into an auditorium to listen to a famous climate researcher and came out knowing I’d write a mystery featuring a female scientist. She’d be menaced by climate deniers, like the researcher I heard. She’d also be a marine scientist and avid sea kayaker who lived on the Maine coast. You can guess why.

Oh, and this oceanographer would suffer from terrible seasickness. Like I do.

Investigate personal transformation and you find lots of “re” words—“reinvention”, “reboot”, “renewal”.  Maybe it’s because I’m an ecologist, but I prefer “evolution”, the idea that you build on what you’ve got. Whales, for instance, didn’t just appear in the ocean fifty-plus million years ago. They evolved from land animals that messed around in shallow water with paddle-like hands and feet.

Likewise, I wasn’t a mystery author five years ago, but I understood a thing or two about writing for publication. What I knew to my core will be familiar to any author.  Writing—is extraordinarily hard work, means rewriting and rewriting, and requires persistence and discipline. Also, I knew that I absolutely needed a community of others to work with and learn from. (Sisters in Crime has been my savior).

Of course, there’s more. Alan Alda said it best, I think.

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing …Despite my scientist colleagues’ “you’re nuts” response, I did trust my eureka-moment intuition. Clearly, the endeavor was risky; I might never find a publisher or agent. (Of course, at first I didn’t know writers had agents). I had to step back from my successful career and accept that I was floundering and it was okay.

Being all right with “not quite knowing what you’re doing” requires humility and ability to welcome critique. Early on, I was extremely fortunate to find the best mystery writing workshop leaders on this good earth: Roberta and Hallie. At the SeaScape Writers Retreat both delivered right-on critique with humor and tact. I ate it up. 
Here’s an example. One of my goals is to unveil the mysterious world of scientists for my readers.  I’d overdone accessibility in an early draft and Mara, my protagonist, came off like a love-sick teenager. Roberta used those very words. Ouch, but great input!  In her reasoned and astute way, Roberta explained how I might help readers relate to and care about Mara. She jumped me to the next level of my evolution. I haven’t looked back.

Lucy/Roberta: Ouch indeed! So glad you hung in there Charlene! Questions for our new mystery writer?

Charlene D'Avanzo is a marine ecologist, emeritus professor at Hampshire College, and award winning environmental educator. In 2015 she was awarded Mystery Writers of America's McCloy award for new writers. Her short stories are published in several anthologies including the eco-fiction collection "Winds of Change". Charlene lives on Little John Island in Yarmouth, Maine. You can pre-order Cold Blood, Hot Sea right here.