My Team

 RHYS BOWEN: I’ve been watching a lot of tennis lately. And one thing I notice is that the players all have their TEAM with them. Their coach, their trainer plus other unidentified hangers-on.  So I’m wondering whether we need a team?

Writing is such a solitary profession. We sit, staring at a screen, trying to pull words out of our heads and onto paper.  

What if we didn’t have to go it alone? So if you had a team, who would it be?

A coach–to remind you to keep up the pace of the plot, to remind you of the looming deadline and whether you have enough white space on the page (thanks Hallie. I can’t forget this now)

A trainer to remind you to get up and stretch, to shake out your shoulders, to walk enough steps every day?

A massage therapist to massage those tight shoulders and make you feel good after you have been sitting for hours?

A mental health therapist to tell you that you don’t have to be stressed. You are doing great!  All you have to do is breathe.

Or should that be a MINDFULNESS COACH:  reminding you to breathe, to meditate, to observe the beauty of nature around you.

Or should it be a CHEERLEADER telling you : You’ve been in this position before and you’ve always managed to write fifty pages in five days when necessary. All the fans love you. The book will be a huge success.

Plus

A personal chef so that the right meal is waiting when you emerge from your office, grumpy and hungry.

We are lucky. We have our fellow Reds to be our cheerleaders and mother hens. And the closest I’ve come to a team was at the Edgars when Amazon flew in six people to be with me!  I called John and said “Do

 you know I have people?”  That was rather heady.

But would I like it all the time?

Would I want an office full of people ready to wait on my every need or telling me I needed to get back to work every time I looked out of the window?

Probably not. 

So how about you, Reds? Would you want a team? And who would be on it?

I think I’d settle for the personal chef.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: This is the most brilliant thing, Rhys!  I’ll add a posture coach, who pokes you from time to time and says: SIT UP STRAIGHT!  I’d adore a cheerleader, and oh, a plotting consultant.  And ditto on the chef. SOLD.

 (Oh, and an accountant. Walk in, hand over the receipts, done and done. See earlier post about taxes.) 

JENN McKINLAY: I’m that weird extrovert who likes to be alone most of the time, so I don’t know if I could handle a team. If I could have a team to take over the social media aspects of the gig  - that would be fabulous. I do it but I don’t love it. And I’m with Hank on the taxes. Could I just have someone do my daily accounting? That would be awesome! 

LUCY BURDETTE: I lOVE this idea Rhys! Yes on the personal chef, masseuse, and someone to do all the errands. Yes on help with social media! But I agree, I work better without anyone around so I’ll have to pass the person who’s hovering over to one of you!

Ps every once in a while, as I’m leaving the apartment I say to John “Please write a few pages.” That would be kind of fun if it was real!

HALLIE EPHRON: What I’d love Love LOVE is a chauffeur. Take me where I need to go. Manage figuring out where to park the car. Pick me up at the airport even if it’s 1 in the morning. Heaven. 

But really I do think we all HAVE teams. For me, a supportive husband who never questioned it when I quit my day job. Neighbors who (as we are speaking) are moving my empty garbage bins (that I forgot about) from the sidewalk to my backyard. Grandchildren who provide a laugh track to my life. Love my “team.” I know, I sound like a Goody Two-shoes, but that’s what I’m feeling like these days.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes to all of those Rhys, especially the personal chef! But like everyone else, I don't really want any of that support team AROUND. We must all be extrovert/introverts. I like the house to be quiet and I won't get any work done if I'm interrupted. But a virtual cheerleader and plotting consultant, and posture coach, would be great!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m laughing at all of us who would love to have people taking care of us… as long as they stay out of sight! Who could I use? Someone to sweep and vacuum daily so I’m not annoyed by the sight of dog hair, cat hair, and bits of ash and bark - remember, I’m heating with a woodstove! (Of course, I’m not annoyed enough to actually DO the vacuuming myself until things get really dire.) A groundskeeper, who could tackle the three acres Ross left me so I can go outside and take inspiration from nature instead of wrestling with it (although the latter does leave me feeling murderous…)

Who would I’d like most on my team? A clever secretary/social media manager, so I don’t have to open my email inbox and groan - and who would ensure I never have to look at Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram etc. again!

RHYS: Ah, Julia... that is a team member I already have. Brilliant Lisa does handle my social media for me, except that I like to check my own Facebook page, only leaving it to Lisa to handle crazy spammers and strange African men for me (she's ruthless.)

 I agree with what the others have said. We are so lucky that we all have/have had supportive husbands. It makes a huge difference to have that cheerleader on your side.  And mine does cook sometimes. This would be even better if he didn't use 25 different pans and bowls and the kitchen didn't end up with flour on the floor.

And here is my best team! Advisers, cheerleaders, therapists and cooking experts all rolled into one.

So let's hear from you, dear friends. Who would you have on your team, or would you rather go it alone?

(And the winner of Edith's book is Meg. Please contact her at Edith@edithmaxwell.com)

What Makes a Psychological Thriller Psychological? A guest post from Holly Brown

RHYS BOWEN: One of the fun aspects of being a Jungle Red is meeting new-to-me writers. And when I was introduced to Holly Brown I found out that she lives in San Francisco, so we're almost neighbors! So I'm welcoming her today to share her insights into psychological thrillers. And it turns out that her pet peeve is mine too! Is it yours as well?

HOLLY BROWN: I’m a therapist who writes psychological thrillers (or domestic suspense, if you prefer.) And I have to confess to one of my pet peeves in the genre: When after a novel full of fascinating twists and turns, the final answer turns out to be, “The sociopath did it” (or “the psychopath,” if you prefer.)

It’s just such a cop-out. I mean, humans are inherently fascinating, full of complicated and contradictory motivations. Good people do bad things all the time. Why? The simple answer is: the unique psychology of the characters, plus enormous stress. That intersection is where a truly great writer of the genre can work magic.

I’m lucky in that I hear all sorts of stories all the time in my therapy office. So I’m constantly reminded of people’s vulnerabilities, struggles, and resilience. The struggles might start with the external circumstance, but then become internal, with the stereotypical angel versus devil on their shoulder. They might know what they should do, but they have all sorts of rationalizations that lead them to do something else. Or sometimes, people are just presented with exceedingly hard choices, and what’s right is not nearly as clear. In times of extreme emotional or physical pain, or intense fear, or rage, people can become capable of what they never thought possible.

That’s where some phenomenal fiction is born—with real people in crazy-making circumstances. My favorite suspense books make me believe that this particular person, when under these particular stresses, with that particular history would have taken a particular action that makes all hell break loose, credibly.

That’s the kind of novel I tried to write with THIS IS NOT OVER, my next release in January. And below are three of my favorite examples of psychological thrillers made psychological (or psychology made thrilling, if you prefer):

1) Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante –

Dr. Jennifer White, once an accomplished surgeon, is now afflicted with Alzheimer’s. When her neighbor and friend is found dead with four fingers severed at the joints, Dr. White is the logical suspect. But did she commit the crime, or is she being framed? And how can she piece it together with a crumbling memory?

It’s as good as it sounds. Alice LaPlante works in enough medical data and information about how memory operates (and how it begins to fail) to ground the story without diluting the suspense. I was totally caught up, and I believed it all.

2) Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry

Nora goes to visit her sister Rachel in the countryside outside London, and discovers that Rachel has been murdered. It’s a mystery because we want to know who did it; it’s also a thriller as Nora is in danger herself and harboring various secrets, her own and her sister’s. It’s a short book and a fast read, but a powerful one. The sisters’ relationship and Nora’s grief packs an emotional and psychological punch.

3) A Line of Blood, by Ben McPherson

Alex Mercer loves his 11-year-old son Max and his wife Millicent. They’re his whole world. But after a neighbor is found dead, Alex faces a reckoning in the most important relationships in his life. How far would you go to protect those you love?

Max is precocious, as children often are in thrillers, but not beyond the pale. The marital and the parental relationships are expertly drawn, and the tensions ratchet beautifully. These are flawed and difficult personalities, and no, they’re not always likable, but they’re intriguing.

So that’s my short list! What’s on yours?

Holly Brown lives with her husband and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she’s a practicing marriage and family therapist.  Her blog, “Bonding Time”, is featured on Psychcentral.com, a mental health website with 1.5 million visitors per month. Her novels from HarperCollins/Morrow are: DON’T TRY TO FIND ME, A NECESSARY END, and the forthcoming (in January) THIS IS NOT OVER. She also has an e-book only novella called STAY GONE available now from Harper Impulse.

RHYS: If you are dying to find out about Holly's upcoming novel, here is the scoop on it: THIS IS NOT OVER:

A chance encounter through a vacation home rental site leads to an escalating game of cat-and-mouse between two very different women. Two very different women, that is, with one thing in common: Each knows they're right, and they're determined to win this battle of words and wills and (eventually) worse. No one can yield, not before they’ve dredged up hidden secrets, old hurts, and painful truths that threaten to shatter the foundation of their lives.

Follow Holly on Facebook at 

https://www.facebook.com/hollybrownauthor/

or her website

http://hollybrownbooks.com/

Holly will be giving away an advance copy to one lucky commenter today. So do share your favorite psychological suspense novels with us.