Starting a New Book (Reading or Writing!)

LUCY BURDETTE: Recently a line from a blog post by editor/author/former agent Nathan Bransford caught my attention. (And yes, he’s the namesake for my Detective Bransford.) He talked about the idea that it takes a lot of energy to begin reading a new book—with new characters, new setting, new stakes, new style, new everything. It’s a leap of faith for the reader to trust her/his investment will be worthwhile. This is why a book’s opening is so important—something about it must draw the reader in quickly. 

I’ve noticed that choosing what to start reading next can also depend on my mood. If I’m tired or discouraged, I would rather pick something familiar.  Last week I chose The Glass Room, an Ann Cleeves Vera book and Many a Twist by Sheila Connolly instead of Barbara O’Neal’s When We Were Mermaids or Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Queen of Minnesota. I know I’ll love both of the latter, but I wanted the bar for entry into the world of the book to be set low. Hence, picking up series books where I’d already met the characters, rather than everything feeling new, like a foreign country. 

Readers, does this ring true in your book choices? Writers, do you think about this when beginning a new book?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Reading one? Or writing one? I'm very fond of standalones, so everything is new most of the time. I have very few series that I'm devoted to--so my book choices are more like to be whole new worlds.  (Ask me about J Ryan Stradal, Lucy, I just shared a signing table with him and he is adorable) When it come to writing ,I'm doing standalones, too, so my goal indefinitely to get the reader instantly intrigued and situated. You could also look at it, I suppose, that the bar for entry to a standalone is LOWER, because you're not required to remember anything. Hmm. VE-ry interesting. 

HALLIE EPHRON: I've written both standalones and series, and they each have their bonuses. For me a book sets its own 'bar for entry' in its opening pages... not in the previous book. Having said that, I've been having so much fun the last few weeks rereading ALL of the Harry Potter books. Now I'm dawdling along near the end of the final one, reluctant to be on the exit ramp. 

RHYS BOWEN: I love writing standalones, knowing I'm going to create a whole new world, and when I'm done to walk away from it (however many letters I get demanding a sequel, which happens each time). But starting a new book in my series is like a reunion with old friends. So comforting to be back where I know everybody, I know my way around. The challenge is always to assume there will be new readers, and how to fill them in on back story without becoming boring to established readers. As a reader I go through the same emotions, excited to start a new book in a beloved series yet sometimes wanting to try something quite different.

JENN McKINLAY: I've just written my first stand alone. It has been quite an experience. All that world building for one book just seems so exhausting. Then again, I am currently working on the next book in my library lover's series and while revisiting my old characters and setting is comforting, I also get impatient trying to think of new and different ways to describe the familiar. As a reader, series are my jam. I love the comfort of revisiting characters that are near and dear to me. When I am feeling more adventurous, I'll reach for a stand alone.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have always loved series novels. So much so that when I got the idea for a novel, it never occurred to me that it should be anything other than a book in a series. I also read standalones (just finished Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which I adored) but I have to admit it takes more mental and emotional energy to dive into a completely new world with new characters. When I'm feeling a little overwhelmed I will turn to the comfort of familiar characters and settings.

So far, at least, I haven't felt driven to write a standalone, because I get to explore so many new places and characters in my series books.

Red readers, do you find that it takes a lot of energy and commitment to begin a new book? Does this change depending on whether it's a series book or a stand alone?

The Fish, the Plane Crash, and the Coyote

BREAKING NEWS!  

You can now download a HUGE excerpt of 
THE MURDER LIST free! 

 Here's the link: 

https://www.torforgeblog.com/2019/06/18/download-a-free-digital-preview-of-the-murder-list-by-hank-phillippi-ryan/

ANd now: back to our regular programming! 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: How many times! How many times have people asked: Is Charlie McNally YOU? Is Jane Ryland YOU?  Even—Is Mercer Hennessey you? (And I can’t wait to hear what they say about the characters in the Murder List.)

 But no no no. She’s not. (Except Charlie. Maybe a little.)

A dear pal and talented colleague who is fighting the same battle is our fab friend of the Reds: Lynn Chandler Willis. (Her newest mystery, TELL ME NO SECRETS, is out right now!)

 But is Ava Logan really Lynn herself? See what you think.  

The Fish, the Plane Crash, and the Coyote

By Lynn Chandler Willis

In my former life, I owned and published a bi-weekly newspaper. Circulation 15,000, thank you. Not bad for a totally ad-supported paper that covered one incorporated rural town and a couple unincorporated surrounding communities. The paper lasted thirteen years and probably could have gone on a few more but I was tired. I was tired of small-town politics, the neighbor against neighbor, the curses of angry mothers because you misspelled their kid’s name in the Honor Roll report. Or worse, spelled the Mayor’s son’s name correctly in the police report.

The paper did have its bright side and they far outweighed the down sides. I met people I never would have met and was introduced to some of the most amazing experiences – like watching the Hinshaw brothers make homemade maple syrup, meet the Budweiser Clydesdales up close and personal (and they are MASSIVE), and get courted by a guy who brought me a fish. Dead.

The guy kinda had a crush on me and dropped by the office – we’re talking rural community so the office isn’t a skyscraper – and asked me to come outside with him for a minute. He said he had something to give me. I walk outside with him and he reaches into his Coleman cooler in the bed of his truck and pulls out this massive fish. It might have been a bass, I don’t know. It was big, and it was dead. He’d caught it earlier and knew I’d be impressed because I was such a down-home type girl. I told him I couldn’t accept it because my husband might not appreciate it so he took his fish and went home. And no, I wasn’t married.

Then there was the plane crash. A small charter plane went down in a field near our neck of the woods. I head out there dressed for field trials and get right up to the crash site to take pictures. One of the large daily papers showed up but the reporter, in her high heels, couldn’t get anywhere near the site. They ended up using my pictures. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, unless you count the reporter’s ego and sprained ankle.

Often, people would drop by the office for a cup of coffee and some chit-chat, or to offer me a fish, or a photo op.

 This particular time, an avid outdoorsman wheels up to the office in his heavy-duty truck and rushes in to get me. Bring your camera, I’m instructed. We get outside and he drops the tailgate of his truck and there’s the largest coyote I’ve ever seen. Like the fish, dead. The thing stretched nose to base of tail across the tailgate. Coyotes in our area are considered a nuisance so it’s always open season. And we have had problems with coyotes in the past so people are a bit scared of them ‘round here. So this guy wants me to take a picture for the front page – above the fold – to warn people coyotes are in the area. The problem was, the coyote was dead. With very visible bullet wounds. And blood. I could not run that kind of picture on the front page of a family friendly newspaper. The guy accused me of doing a disservice to the people and their pets and every cat and Yorkie that got attacked by a coyote was on me. I’d have the blood of many small pets on my hands. 

At least a picture of blood wasn’t going on the front page. 

I gave up the newspaper business in real life but write about it in my fiction. Ava Logan of the Ava Logan Mystery Series is – surprise—a small town newspaper publisher struggling with work-life balance, and the brutality of small-town politics. And the occasional murder.

Set deep in the Appalachia Mountains, the second book in the series, Tell Me No Secrets, involves serpent-handling churches, granny women folk healing, and muddy river baptisms. I never covered any of these in my newspaper but I did interview Prince WadaWada DuDu of the Great Zanbini’s Traveling circus one time. That interview may make it into a book someday.  

HANK: But  Ava Logan is NOT YOU, right, Lynn?

So Reds and readers, when you read a book with a strong character , even especially a first-person character, do you imagine them as the author?  Do you assume it’s autobiographical?
>>and added later--this has me thinking-do you have a small town newspaper? Do you read it?

 Lynn Chandler Willis is a former newspaper publisher and award-winning author living in the heart of North Carolina. In 2013, she was the first woman in a decade to win the SMP/PWA Best 1^st PI Novel competition with Shamus-Award finalist, Wink of an Eye. Her Ava Logan Mystery Series features a small-town newspaper publisher trying to balance being a single mom and owning a newspaper. Any resemblance is strictly coincidental. Besides, Ava is a brunette.

TELL ME NO SECRETS

In the heart of Appalachia, newspaper publisher Ava Logan should feel joy and pride as she watches her thirteen-year-old daughter being baptized in the cold water of Jackson Creek—but she can’t rejoice when thoughts of an employee who failed to show for work keep pulling her attention away. Ava’s convinced something horrible has happened to Scott. Then his backpack is found floating in the same river her daughter is being baptized in. While clue after clue leads her deeper into the hollers of Appalachia—ripe with tradition and folktales, store front religion, and the darkest of secrets, Ava discovers truths about those close to her and about her own beliefs. With her own life in jeopardy, how deep will she go to find the truth? What secrets will she expose? What secrets will she keep?

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPPTWSC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tell-me-no-secrets-lynn-chandler-willis/1130926781?ean=9781635115192

http://lynnchandlerwillis.com/

WEDDING CAKE CRUMBLE release day!

RHYS BOWEN: Toot the horns! Wave the flags! Everyone cheer because it's the publication day of Jenn's latest book in the cupcake series and we're all doing a happy dance. But I'm going to let you tell her about it!

JENN McKINLAY: Thank you, Rhys! There are moments in an author's life where she has to stop and look over her shoulder at her backlist and say, "Whoa!" This is one such moment for me as WEDDING CAKE CRUMBLE is the tenth book in a series that I was quite certain wouldn't last past book three. 

Why did I feel this way? Well, I'd already had one series fade. It was a crafter's series about decoupage (yes, really) written under the name Lucy Lawrence. I figured cupcakes were as on point as decoupage and was braced for the series to be kicked to the curb. But my publisher offered for three more books before the first book even came out and the series has continued to be enthusiastically renewed ever since. What do I know? Clearly, cupcakes have staying power - must be all of that sticky frosting. I'm happy to report there will be at least two more, which will bring the series to a dozen, which was my hope all along. 

I think two more books will give me just enough page space to wrap up all of the relationships and put the series to bed. Am I committed to that course of action? I don't know. I definitely don't want the series to go on so long that it begins to lose its charm, but when is that moment and will I recognize it when it comes? I sincerely hope so. 

In the meantime, what's the premise of this book? Well, two of the main characters, Tate and Angie, are getting married...or are they? Sorry, you'll get no spoilers here! And in and around their big day several murders happen, which unfortunately are many of the vendors they've hired for their big day. Naturally, the assumption is that someone is out to stop the wedding but who and why? Is it about their wedding or is there another motive in play? You'll have to read the book to find out! 

Now, what about you Reds and Readers, what do you think is the natural ending of a series? Have you read series that went on too long? How about series that ended too soon? And what makes you keep coming back to a beloved series? 

In case you've missed a title or two here is the series in toto:

Killing your protagonist, is it ever okay? by Jenn McKinlay

Scene: Me, banging my head on desk, and Hub stepping into the thick of it.

Hub: How’s the writing going?

Me: It’s not. I think I’m going to kill off (insert main character who is annoying me here) and call it a day.

Hub: I may wrong but I think your readers might be upset, like, really upset.

Me: But I just don’t see any other way out of this story.

Full disclosure: I haven’t killed off any of my characters but I can see where an author can be driven to murder.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in the short story “The Final Problem”. Why? Because he was tired of writing about Holmes and wanted to focus on his other writing. He said Holmes “kept his mind from better things”, which he considered his historical fiction to be. Readers were unhappy -- understatement, one woman wrote him a letter calling him a “brute” -- and so pressured Doyle brought Holmes back in “The Adventure of the Empty House”.

I share this story with you only because it’s common knowledge, so hopefully no spoiler but also because Doyle brought him back so even if it is a spoiler, it all comes out okay in the end.

True confession: I’ve read series where an author kills off a beloved main character (a certain YA series leaps to mind, as well as a San Diego amateur sleuth series about a psychic and a detective that I adored) and as a reader I was, well, I’m not going to cotton ball it – I was furious and hurt and vowed never to read these authors again! What can I say? I get emotionally invested in characters and I can be overly dramatic sometimes.

So, while I understand the decision to kill off a character as an author, I am also aware of the betrayal felt by the reader – yes, this awareness has stayed my hand a couple of times. You’re welcome.

How about you, Reds, have you ever thought it was time to kill off a protagonist? How do you feel about it as a reader? Readers, how do you feel when an author kills off a beloved character?