Morning Shift? Mid-Shift? Late-shift?

JENN McKINLAY: When I first started writing, I worked around the Hooligans’ schedule. I woke up at 5 AM and wrote until the boys got up at 7 AM. I started again when they napped, which was usually from 12 PM to 2 PM. And then I crammed in two more hours from 8 PM to 10 PM. It’s amazing what you can get done when you have very limited time. 

Once the boys started school, I wrote from 8 AM to 2 PM and then again in my car while I chauffeured them to their various activities and waited in the car or the nearest coffee shop.

Those days are long gone and I thought I’d be more disciplined once they left home. I am not. I seem to squander my time in the morning and now work a mid-shift from 2 PM to 10 PM. I would make it earlier if I could but I can’t seem to shift. So long as the work gets done, I don’t suppose it matters, but I still wish I could get my butt in the seat earlier in the day.

How about you, Reds? What are your optimum writing hours? Has it changed over the years?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Jenn, so interesting!  That’s exactly my schedule.

When I was full time on TV, I was all about nights and weekends and vacations. Thats all the time I had. Now, my life is different, hurray,but my schedule still reflects that long time job.

 My theory, for me at least, is that my  schedule definitely comes from all those years of working for  TV news–my writing metabolism gears up to be ready for  the 6 o'clock news, and then the 11 o'clock news.  Mornings, I do admin, and socials, and coffee, and thinking and procrastinating. Then, after lunch, I think: GO SISTER. And work for about five hours. If I am lucky. I just have to get my 1000 words done. 

But then, sometimes I’ll stop in my office on the way up to bed, and tell Jonathan–I’m just going to say good night to the book.. ANd  I open my manuscript, abd whoosh, I’m back into it, and go upstairs sometime  after  midnight.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Wow, this is so interesting, Jenn and Hank. You’ve described me and my schedule, too. I have never been a morning writer, although I’ve castigated myself for years for not being someone who gets up at the crack of dawn to sit down at the computer and actually write sensible things. But sorry, not happening here. I always have morning chores (at least six months of the year including watering) and then I’m hungry. Then there’s email and catching up on stuff. It’s usually about noon by the time I clear the decks and focus on the WIP. I’ll take a mid-afternoon break, then go back to work until 7ish when I have to quit and deal with dinner. It also often means we end up eating really late, but sometimes, like Hank, I just have to “check something” and will go back to the computer for a last few minutes. I also take a notebook and pen upstairs to jot down any bath/before sleep ideas.

RHYS BOWEN: I have always been a morning person-forced on my by four children who had to get to morning swim practice at six am!  When I was juggling with getting four kids off to school I’d write as soon as I’d dropped off the youngest at pre-school and keep going until I had to pick him up again at mid day. When they all left home I adopted the routine I have now: wake early, usually before seven, check my emails etc, make a cup of tea, then start writing. I break off later for breakfast then continue until I’ve done the right number of words for the day.

The afternoon is for all the secretarial stuff: checking with assistant and publicist, answering fan mail, exing out all those stupid scams I get on a daily basis.  I too have a notebook in the bedroom because it’s quite normal to wake at three and think “she’d never have said that” and have to jot down how the scene should have gone. 

LUCY BURDETTE: I am in Rhys‘s camp, better at writing in the morning. This has been disrupted lately because I’ve been doing multiple yoga classes as well as Pickleball and all that takes place in the morning. So I’ve had to shift, which is not great for my poor brain. Right at this moment, for example, it’s almost 1 PM. I’ve been to killer Yoga, and a Pickleball clinic, and had lunch. Now I’m making a cup of iced tea and going up to my computer to see what I can do! Fingers crossed!

HALLIE EPHRON: This is reminding me of when I had two little kids at home and was working writing training for high tech. I had a computer (big hulking thing) at home and I’d bring my drafts in to work on a floppy disk (remember those?) trying to get there early so I could send my attest draft to the printer and grab it before anyone else arrived. The day didn’t have enough hours in it and I was perennially sleep deprived. And still I got more done than I do today in copious spare time.

How about you, Readers? What is your most productive time of day? Morning? Afternoon? Evening?

Character Names

JENN McKINLAY: I recently handed in my latest WIP. It was a marathon of writing to get it done. My final day was almost 5K words! But here’s the problem: I don’t love my character’s names. I changed them several times while writing and I’m still “meh” about them. 

Yes, we have talked about this before but we’re living in the modern age so it should be easier, right? I mean I used to name my characters by scrolling through the white pages of the phone book - paper version!

It being 2025, I tried a name generator but that was awful, too: REEDSY CHARACTER GENERATOR Another blow for AI, I just don’t think it can craft something as cool as this:

Thankfully the lack of love for my character’s names didn’t impede my writing process — sometimes it does. I’m hoping my editor has some input about them. But if she likes the names so be it.

Of course, when thinking about this I started thinking about some of the great names of characters in fiction —Atticus Finch, Katniss Everdeen, Ebenezer Scrooge, Holly Golightly, Scarlett O’Hara, and James Bond to name a few. Like naming a child, I started to ponder if the story is what makes the character’s names iconic or if it’s the name itself.

Here me out: If Ian Fleming had named 007 Harvey Bean would the “spy who loved me” still be as memorable? If Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara had been named Doris Winkle, would we think of her as the vain selfish force of nature she was portrayed to be? Would Jay Gatsby really be as interesting if he’d been named Timothy Dickson? 

Of course, none of this pondering has made me feel any better about the names of my characters. So, I’ll turn it over to you, Reds and Readers. How much do names matter to you as readers? How hard is it to come up character names as writers?

Sympathetic Characters or Not So Much by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: I recently read a book that was a debut novel last year. It sold thousands of copies and hit the bestseller lists, primarily because of the buzz it received on BookTok. I was excited to find a new author and bought it...only to discover that it was the WORST book I have ever read. To clarify it wasn't bad because of the writing but rather the characters or more accurately because of the lack of character in the characters.

This is a subjective opinion (clearly) and no I won't say the title or the author because that's not what this post is about. What hit me square in the face was the reality that "sympathetic" or "likable" characters as we once used to know them are gone, baby, gone. Now the unsympathetic character is not the same as the unreliable narrator. The reader knows going into it with an unreliable narrator that they're, well, unreliable. 

The unsympathetic or unlikable character is just that. A person who does things or makes decisions that are so thoughtless or mean or just bleck that you can't like them or forgive their transgressions. And it used to be that your editor would encourage you to find ways to make the protagonist likable because readers want to root for the hero or heroine and see that they had a character arc worth being invested in.

But here's the thing, judging by the immense popularity of recent books with awful protagonists, I'm thinking the unlikable character might not be as forbidden as it used to be. Naturally, I started to ponder why and when this changed.

Terrifying!

I looked at the different shows/media that have shaped the current readership  for the past twenty years and realized that "reality TV', which has gifted us with such gems as Dance Moms, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Bachelor, Survivor, and Love Island--to name just a few--have fine tuned diva moments, bad behavior, lying, cheating, fighting, and flouncing into high entertainment. 

Dance Moms - Eek!

It occurred to me that we're now writing for readers who think people behaving badly is normal -- and, yes, I know it's not just reality TV modeling the bad behavior. We've definitely become a country of self over community but that's another blog post entirely.

According to thestreet.com, reality TV boomed in 2007 ironically during a 99 day WGA writer's strike that allowed studios to create fresh content without relying on writers, establishing a foothold with Gen Z viewers that is going strong to this day. Is it any wonder then that the fiction which features incredibly unlikable or unsympathetic characters is suddenly hitting the top of the bestseller's lists? Nope, it isn't.

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, without naming titles or authors please, have you noticed that some of the most popular fiction features protagonists that are not sympathetic or likable? What other formats do you think have changed reader's expectations in fiction?

What's Your Sign? The good and the bad.

 

JENN McKINLAY: After Deb's post about birthdays last week, we realized we didn't know when all of ours are. Weirdly, in the five and half years I've been with the group, it hadn't come up. Lucy has since added them to the calendar. 

I jokingly warned everyone that I'm an Aries and it got me to wondering what everyone else's sign in and do you think it accurately reflects your personality. I found this chart from UC Davis and I like it because it does the good and the bad. I have to admit that, yes, I do resemble that profile, particularly the "enthusiastic and confident" and "Impulsive and impatient" parts.

How about it, Reds? Do you match your sign?

RHYS BOWEN:  I’m a Libra and while I like being diplomatic and urbane, romantic and charming I do not fit the negatives. I have never been indecisive, in fact I could be said to make up my mind too rapidly. I am certainly not gullible or easily influenced and I’m not self indulgent ( I’m not saying I’ve never been a bit flirty). 

I’m on the cusp of Virgo but that’s not me either!  Actually I think I fit more with the Aries profile which was my mother’s sign, also both grandmothers!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So funny, I’m a LIbra, too, which would mean that Rhys and I are just alike.. And well, we’re not. Are we?  I might be  diplomatic, but not urbane. Romantic? Depends what you mean. Charming? Meh. Easygoing and sociable? No and no. Idealistic and peaceable? Well, that’s closer. I know my moon is in Leo, creative and enthusiastic, that seems right. I’m pushing being a Scorpio: and the “determined intuitive emotional” that’s right, too. And now, you can see, with me weighing all the possibilities here, and not being able to decide, that I am a perfect Libra.

DEBS: Hank, we all think you are enormously charming!!

LUCY BURDETTE: Poor Capricorns, we always draw the short stick. I mean really, we are “practical and prudent, ambitious and disciplined, etc.” and that’s supposed to be the good stuff?? I wonder if maybe I was supposed to be Aquarious, but I pushed out early? My friend Yvonne is also a Capricorn–we joke that we are earth-bound and loyal and we like to wear brown.

I once had an astrological reading done by Jessica Crispin, which was complex and astonishingly accurate, and gave good insight into why I went into psychology. She ended with giving me some things to read, which I need to track down now.

Meanwhile, here’s an interesting article about writing style according to your astrological sign: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-style-astrological-sign/

It’s simply not true that all I need is a friendly pat on the back LOL!

HALLIE EPHRON: Looking at the definition of my sign, Pisces, the term WISHYWASHY comes to mind. Like those fish, swimming in two directions at once. I am not wishywashy. But I remember discovering once upon a time that Elizabeth Taylor is a Pisces, and she doesn’t seem particularly wishywashy either. Someone once told me that my “rising sign”(whatever that is) was Scorpio. Maybe that explains it.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m a Cancer, and boy, am I a real Cancer. Homeloving? Yep. Nurturing? Yep. Ruled by the stomach? Oh, yeah. Moody, emotional and prone to clinginess? When I was younger. (I think we all even out with age.) Do I literally feel better and happier in and around water? Uh huh. Everyone’s therapist? Oh, if I could only charge by the hour.

Cancers are people who, when they invite you for “Netflix and chill,” mean, “Bring your cuddliest blanket and get ready for a four hour Lord of the Rings marathon.” Also? Look at this list and be stunned and amazed at the awesome writing power of people who just want to stay at home and have feelings: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/155639.Popsugar_2021_4_A_Book_by_an_Author_who_Shares_Your_Zodiac_Sign_Cancer

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've always thought I fit the Gemini profile pretty well.  I'm outgoing and chatty and interested in so many things. I hope I'm witty and eloquent and youthful! I am also, however, very easily distracted and that can tip towards scatterbrained. 

My Moon is in Cancer, however, and that influence seems to be pretty strong. I'm very home and place oriented and I really, really like time on my own. 

And Julia, if we're going to brag about famous authors who share our astrological signs, I can claim Arthur Conan Doyle AND Dorothy Sayers!

How about you, Readers? Do you match your sign?

Accidental Word Discovery by Jenn McKinlay

JENN McKINLAY: Recently while sitting at my laptop, slinging words, I accidentally typed “cark” in a sort of car/park mashup. When the little red squiggle line didn’t appear, I thought, 
cark is a word? For real? Yes, for real. 

According to Merriam-Webster, it is both a verb and a noun but in both cases it's not good - it is either carking (vexing) about something or to be beset by cark (trouble). All this time I could have been yelling at the Hub and Hooligans to stop carking my mellow, alas better late than never.

A visual representation of cark!

So, Reds, I ask you, what words have you discovered by accident through writing or reading that surprised you?

HALLIE EPHRON: So, to cark is to kvetch. I like it. 

Traveling has always been a source of word discovery. In the UK I discovered that there's such a thing as a chucker-out. It's the bouncer at your local pub. And from being a grammar geek, INTERROBANG. It's a punctuation mark used at especially at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question, written as ?! Also PHOSPHENE. It's that luminous explosion you see when you squeeze (and keep) your eyes shut. Mine come in checkerboards.

LUCY BURDETTE: My favorite new word came courtesy of Julia while we were doing a panel for JRW at the Albany Bouchercon. Runneling. A runnel is a brook or a rivulet, so runneling means streaming like a rivulet. I think Julia used this in context of blood runneling down a wall...though my dictionary is not so sure it's a real word, I love it!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Thank you, Lucy! These days, I'm happy to remember old words. While I was writing recently,  I was searching my memory, looking for a word that meant 'a tent-like shade over a window.' It wasn't until I was driving through Portland and saw one it came flashing back to me - awning! Not an extraordinary word; I don't know why I couldn't pull it out of my hat. Some of my favorite new words have come from looking for non-boring ways to describe the scenery of the farm country around my fictional Millers Kill. Vetch. Silage. Biscuit wood. Byre. It's a challenge for someone as botanically challenged as I am - I tend to look at all things low and green and say "grass," while everything stalky with a blob of color on top is a flower.

Oh, I remember a very new word! Eyot, meaning an island in the middle of a river. Don't you love odd words for geographical features?

RHYS BOWEN: Because my books are set in the past I have great fun using words that have been lost from our current vocabulary. Flummoxed and curmudgeon and many more that will come to me the moment I finish this post. A favorite word to impress others is RIPARIAN... meaning of the river bank. So a riparian stroll is along the edge of the river!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Ha, Lucy, my favorite new word in my new book is "rill", which is another word for runnel. Although I've used rill in the sense of a deep trench, which might or might not have water at the bottom. 

I love Rhys's flummoxed and curmudgeon, but another of my favorites, too seldom used, is "obstreperous ," resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.  So useful!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I was thinking about this, and reading the wonderful new book by Denise Mina called CONVICTION— it is absolutely amazing, by the way – – and came across the word meroculous.  Meroculous?

Have you ever heard that word? I never had. 

The book also had the word “diffident,” which I never use, but should. 

And Rhys, I always say flummoxed! And curmudgeon. Am I living in the wrong time?

Finally, I just got back my second round of copy edits, and the copy editor wanted to know if I really meant “I squinted my ears to hear.” I stetted it.

All right, Readers, what new and dazzling words have you found of late?

The Worst Writing Advice I've Ever Gotten

JENN McKINLAY: I was scrolling through Twitter this week when a thread popped up asking authors what the worst writing advice they'd ever gotten was. Author Victoria/V.E. Schwab was the twitterer who lobbed the question out there and it garnered almost 1,000 comments. Clearly, there is a lot of very bad writing advice out there!

The Tweet that started it all.

It certainly got me thinking about the worst advice I've ever received. My path to authordom was a long and winding one, in fact, you could say I took the long way around - the really long way around. I decided to be a writer at sixteen, didn't start writing until I was twenty-five, and sold my first book when I was thirty-two. As you can imagine, I was given much unsolicited advice over the years from the moment I decided to be a writer to the first book sale. And I've gotten plenty of advice since then, as well.

I think the piece of advice I dislike the most always starts with "You know what you should write..." which is then followed by some half baked potato of a plot in the speaker's head that they would write, you know, if they had the time. Uh huh.

Other gems include:

1. You should just be your own agent. How hard can it be? Am I right?

No. I don't want to be an agent. I want to be a writer. Duh.

2. Don't overuse "said" as a dialogue tag. Spice it up!

"No," she remarked/refused/retorted. Said is fine, thanks.

3. Write what you know.

Nope, and I'll tell you why...BORING! And if I'm bored writing it, you'll be bored reading it. Write what you care about would be much better advice.

4. Don't use the word "was". Ever.

Welp, I wasn't going to listen to you and now I'm really not. Yes, be aware of using the passive voice but that doesn't mean every use of the word was is bad. Sheesh!

5. Follow the market.

Oh, lord no! See number three, but also, once the Fifty Shades of Twilight with a Dragon Tattoo craze becomes obvious, it's usually over before you can pen your version of it. You do you is a much better way to go.

All right, Reds, you're up. What's the worst writing advice you've ever gotten? Readers, what horrible suggestions have you heard?

Authors Behaving Badly

Jenn McKinlay: True confession time. I love, love, love reading stories about authors behaving badly. Why? I don't know. Probably, because I am ever fascinated by people who do horrible things (hello, mystery writer) and who are unapologetic about doing said horrible things. 

Having been chastised into being polite, thoughtful, and considerate --  you know, civilized -- by my mother, I am always astonished at people who are not like that and when it's someone in the industry in which I work, I am all in on spectating the bad behavior. This is not to say I am perfectly behaved, not even close, but at least I try. Mostly.

Recently, there was a nasty kerfuffle when an author trademarked a word and then served other authors who used the word in their titles with cease and desist letters, claiming she would sue them for using the word that was pivotal to the success of her brand. Yes, you read that right - she trademarked a word!!!  Needless to say, I had to fire up the popcorn machine and settle in to watch the drama unfold. It is still underway, I believe, as it has gotten even bloodier since Amazon started to take down the books of the authors served with cease and desist letters. How the Patent and Trademark Office approved this author's request to trademark a word I do not know, but (hoo boy) it made for some crazy Twitter reading! (If you want to read about it, this website does a nice summary from a legal perspective: The Passive Voice).

That's the latest mayhem in publishing that I've seen, but as far as I can tell it's been going on since authors took pen to paper. Here are some of my favorite tidbits old and new:

Charles Dickens was awful to his first wife Catherine, mother of his ten children, who he then dumped for Ellen Ternan. He was aware it would impact his public persona of being a kindly man, so he kept his new relationship very hush hush.

Norman Mailer stabbed the second of his six wives, Adele Morales,  twice with a pen knife! And then when someone went to help her, he told them to let her die. She didn't.

Ayn Rand told her husband that she planned to have an affair with one of their mutual friends and then she went ahead with it. Why does this not surprise me?

Jonathan Franzen speculated that Edith Wharton "hated women" and only wrote tragic beautiful female characters because she was herself unattractive. Ugh! Back away from the first female to win a Pulitzer, dude. 

Nicholas Sparks is a study in how not to do an interview unless you enjoy a fiery backlash. For example, when being interviewed do not compare yourself to Hemingway and Shakespeare and then declare that no one else is doing what you do. It doesn't go over well. Humility matters. 

I have to admit that even while I am fascinated by reading about the  misbehavior of some authors, I do have a hard time separating the artist from the art, knowing that an author is a jerk will taint their writing for me. When I do my book signings, I always ask the booksellers if they have any authors behaving badly stories for me -- they usually do!

What about you, Reds and Readers? Can you read an author after you discover they are not what you supposed? Can you separate the artist from the art?

Motives for Murder

RHYS BOWEN:  Some of us Reds find ourselves teaching classes and workshops on mystery writing and one thing I always stress is motive. I find that some mystery books that are otherwise good stories fall down when it comes to motive.  If someone dropped dead into the punch-bowl at a wedding would you instantly perk up and say “Oh goody! A murder for me to solve!”
That would not be me. My first thought would be, “I need to get out of here fast. There is a killer on the loose.”

So coming up with a plausible motive for the amateur sleuth is always a challenge. What would make me get involved? If it was one of my near and dear ones and the police had arrested him and wouldn’t listen, then I’d want to do all I could to save him. But if a friend was accused? A neighbor? Would I poke my nose in then?

And then we come to the more important motive for murder. Unless you are a psychopath, what would make YOU kill?  Would you kill because your daughter didn’t make the cheerleading team? Implausible, you say, and this happened. Would you kill because someone else went to the prom with your dream date thirty years ago? I’ve read that in a book too.

I have to say that the mysteries that work best for me both as a reader and a writer are ones in which I have empathy for the killer. Someone pushed into a corner so hard that the only way out was murder. I am pretty sure I could kill to protect my children.  If a Nazi soldier burst in I could shoot him before he killed my babies. But could I calmly plot to kill someone with whom my daughter was in an abusive relationship? That’s where it gets murky. And I like to play with murkiness. I enjoy working with gray areas of right and wrong. In one of the Evan books three women meet in a shelter for battered women and plot to be each other’s alibi in killing their husbands. Evan solves the case and says to his boss, “But she won’t go to jail, will she? She was being battered by him.”
And his superior looks him in the eye and says coldly, “Not at the moment she pulled the trigger.” And Evan realizes that he’s condemned this woman to an undeserved life in prison.

But the more I think about it, I realize that sometimes I only takes a tiny trigger point. As happened to me on a flight a couple of weeks ago. I sat next to a woman. We got chatting. She asked what I did. When I told her I write two books a year she smiled at me and said, “That’s nice. It keeps you busy, doesn’t it?”
Keeps me busy? Would you say to a brain surgeon: You did five brain surgeries last week? That’s nice. It keeps you busy, doesn’t it?”
I felt like saying it, but instead I thought “I’m taking a good look at you and you’ll wind up dead in one of my upcoming books!”

That’s one of the advantages of being a mystery writer. We can kill off those who piss us off. Kill them in horrible ways and never get caught. We have the perfect career! 
So now I’m thinking of other people who might wind up dead. Those nameless banks and credit card companies who keep me on hold for half an hour and then go through endless “If you want to speak to someone who has red hair and whose last name begins with M press 2!” And call centers in India whose employees speak no known language. And those telemarketers in India who tell me the IRS is after me.....
Those who use the phrase “Twentyfour/seven.” Or the phrase, “Each and every.” Or the word “Irregardless.”  Or use lay instead of lie. I’m sure there are plenty more.

So Reds, confess. Have you ever killed off someone in a book who was a thinly disguised real life person who annoyed you?
And what would be your motive for murder?

HALLIE EPHRON: In "Night Night, Sleep Tight" I killed off a character who's a thinly-disguised version of my dad. I made him a screenwriter (my dad was) who's found floating in his own pool (a la Sunset Blvd). I like to think my dad would have loved it. He's been a character in at least two other books -- my sister Delia's "Hanging Up" and my sister Nora's "Heartburn." But I'm the only one who killed him. The moral: don't raise your children to be writers.

My other murder victims are strangers. Complete strangers. Really,

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think about this ALL the time. I mean--what would honestly cause someone to actually kill someone? And being a psychopath doesn't count, that's boring. Unless you are Hannibal Lecter.  Then there's self-defense, or defense of another. Those are reasonable reasons. But it would STILL be difficult, right?
Anyway, I analyzed it, so much, before I wrote PRIME TIME for that very reason, Rhys, I wanted the book to make sense.
I got it down to: Power. Control. Love. Money.  And really--all four of those are only Power and Control. And I think there has to be an extra behavioral psychology of--feeling like the world is unfair to you, and you are only doing something to get what's rightfully yours.
Have I killed any real people? No, but--and I will say no more--I have made them into buffoons. Deciding that humiliation and incompetence is more painful than death.

LUCY BURDETTE: figuring out motive is very hard, and I completely agree that a weak motive equals disappointing book. Over the years, I have ended up with a lot of old grudges in my mysteries, nursed by fires of disappointment until they can't be ignored. Also, I think hiding an important secret can end up being a powerful motive. But it has to be a secret that the person feels could ruin his or her life, whether or not that's true. Pure rage and sociopathy are less interesting to me.

DEBORAH CROMBIE : It's so hard to come up with credible motives. I think plain greed is the least interesting. But loss of status and reputation are powerful, and if that includes money that works, too. Protection of secrets and protection of loved ones, or the prevention of another crime are good, too. And then there's always sweet revenge!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, I like your formulation of Power and Control. I usually think of it as Money or Love (gone wrong.) In some ways, I think it would be great to write historical mysteries like Rhys and Susan, because not so long ago, Reputation and Scandal were also valid motives for murder, in fiction if not in real life. Nowadays, of course, if you have a terrible scandal, you go on a talk show or release the sex tape. Illegitimacy, secret adoption, being gay, having an affair - I mean, I'm glad they're not life-destroying events anymore! But you have to admit, they did make for some juicy reading in the Golden Age mysteries of the 30s and 40s.

As to killing off anyone real - no. But I have made a real person a wicked villain, and it pleases me every time I think about it!

RHYS:  Julia, this is exactly why I write historical mysteries. So many lovely motives: I love another but I am not free. I am the true heir. I am hiding an illegitimate child etc etc. One motive no one has mentioned so far is FEAR. I think fear is one of the biggest motivators to action, including murder.

So time to confess, dear readers: what would make you kill?

On Internet Resources for Writers with Sal Towse

Internet-Resources.com/writers contains a treasure trove of lists within lists of links especially selected for writers. Writer Sal Towse is the brains and sweat behind it.

Sal started collecting links back in 2001. The site gets more than 1400 visitors from all over the world each week. It was named a top web site for writers by Writers Digest Press, and a couple of months back someone offered to buy her beautiful ad-free site. She turned them down.

Sal also blogs on http://www.internet-resources.com/writers/blog/

JRW: Welcome to Jungle Red Writers, Sal! Thanks for letting us pick your brain. Can you give us a quick overview of the range of links a writer finds on Writers’ Resources?

SAL: Internet-Resources.com grew from writing-related links I used to post to the Usenet newsgroup misc.writing. Folks there encouraged me to setup a separate site. As the collection grew, I realized for it to be navigable, I needed to sort it and breaking it into subject specific areas: networking, business, reference, fiction, non-fiction, word stuff, markets, publishers, agents.

JRW: Where would you recommend for writers looking to network with each other?

SAL: For mysteries: rec.arts.mystery and DorothyL are the grand old parties. Mystery Writers Forum, Short Mystery Fiction Society and others are also busy. SistersinCrime has a mailing list. There are Yahoo! mailing groups like CrimeSceneWriters and 4_Mystery_Addicts.

Facebook is also a good place for networking. There's a lot of chatter and connecting going on there. "Friend" the writers you know. Meet others in the comments threads and connect with them. Make plans to meet up at conferences or chat in e-mail. Most of the mystery writers I know, I first met at conferences or SinC or MWA meetings.

JRW: Where would you recommend for writers looking to connect with readers?

SAL: rec.arts.mystery and DorothyL, again. Other mailing lists. I first heard of Keith Snyder and Karin Slaughter on RAM (and then met them and heard them talk about their work at Bouchercon). Get out there. Behave yourself. Be interesting.

I've been intrigued by what writers like Barry Eisler and JAKonrath have done with their Facebook pages and blogs, encouraging readers to get involved, to show up for their signings and to look forward to their next book.

Laura Lippman has her fascinating Memory Project. Sometimes she's just talking about being on the road flogging her latest book. Other times she talking about memories and asking her readers to chip in their own memories. The discussions are far-ranging.

I meet and discover writers at Left Coast Crime, Bouchercon, and other conferences. If you can afford to go, do. You'll meet readers like me, and other writers too. My ace #1 hint for conferences? If you're new to all this, go by yourself. If you go with a buddy, it's far too easy to hang out with the buddy and not connect with people around you.

JRW: What about some prime places for folks researching and writing novels to know about?

SAL: I have a collection of links to media resources and experts -- for writers who need background or want to know whether their facts are accurate. I have a subsection specifically for Mystery/Crime Fiction which has links to forensic entomology sites and crime scene investigation, forensics, true crime.

Zeno Geradts' Forensic Site has an amazing collection of links. Gillian Roberts has her online tutorial HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERY. The Police List of Resources has information on ballistics and forensics. If you're writing historical fiction, the Web is awash with information for almost any period. You can also read contemporary works and, if the period is right, see contemporary photographs. The Library of Congress has amazing photographic resources.

Use Google Maps. Streetview is amazing. If you're in the right city, MapJack is even more useful than Google Streetview. I was reading a recent book that had the protagonist slipping into a hard-to-find parking space on Grant in front of Moose's. Moose's is no longer there (no fault of the writer), but Moose's was on Stockton at the edge of Washington Square Park. Grant is one block further east. Little errors like that are like nails on a chalkboard. Search for the restaurant's address, if you want to name a real restaurant, and make sure you place it on the correct street.

JRW: How about for the business of writing?

SAL: Business information comes in three flavors. You need information about contracts and copyright. (I toss e-publishing and POD publishing in this category too.) You also need to know about submissions -- the nuts and bolts, queries and synopses, markets. I have links to agents that are accepting manuscripts and another section with links to publishers that accept unagented manuscripts. And, after you have your book accepted, you need to worry about book signings, publicity, Web sites, blogs -- what can you do to market, publicize and promote your book when it's published.

JRW: I love that you have, on the same page, links to “Games and Distractions” alongside “Time Management and Procrastination.” What’s your favorite oddball category and web sites?

SAL: Ah, yes. My "Writer's Life" subsection. Chocolate. Pens. I'm a fiend for Sudoku and crosswords. I have a link to the Degree Confluence Project. Ever heard of it? The site encourages photographers to visit latitude/longitude intersections and take photographs, which they then post at the site along with a description of what the site was like, whether they were able to get EXACTLY to the confluence, what dangers they encountered. Angola has 106 confluences, of which six have been visited. I think there might be um. problems getting around in Angola. The USA has 3/4ths of its confluences covered. The site is a marvelous distraction, if you're looking for a distraction.

I also highly recommend sites like http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/ and http://www.moderna.org/lookatme/, sites with "lost" photographs to trigger your what-if bone, if you're looking for a creativity nudge.

JRW: Will you be adding to your lists?

SAL: I'm planning on adding a collection of links to blogs (writers, agents, publishers) at some point but that can get dicey. Hard to tell someone that their blog won't be included because it's not meaty enough and I'm trying to keep the number of links manageable.

I'm for sure adding (maybe this week!) a link to Janet Reid's QueryShark blog. Have you seen that? It's marvelous.

JRW: Sal will be hanging around Jungle Red today so this your chance to get your questions asked about Internet resources for writers. Ask away!