My Awesome WPA Weekend

By: Maegan Beaumont

This week, registration for Lee Lofland's Writer's Police Academy is underway. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this fantastic event last year....

I’ve had a lot of highlights in my life. Getting married. Having babies. Adopting my sons. Landing a literary agent. Getting my first publishing contract…

Attending WPA definitely made the list.

Thursday night was my ride along with Greensboro PD and I had the good fortune to be assigned to Officer Henley. It was a quiet night. Not one traffic stop. Not one call. I won’t lie, I was a bit disappointed, but he was such a great guy—very patient and easy to talk to. He answered my questions and even apologized a few times that there wasn’t more to show me. I told him that a quiet night was a good thing for him and I was just happy to be there.

And I was.

Friday brought FATs training. It looks like a video game, but the gun they give you is real (just fit with a compressed air cartridge so if feels and sounds close to the real thing). They put us through two training scenarios… scenario #1 had me chasing an armed prison escapee. I shot him in the throat. #2 had me trying to deescalate an armed man who took his co-worker hostage. He got it in the head. Good times!

The rest of my day was filled with great, informative talks on such light-hearted topics as human trafficking, analyzing blood evidence and learning how to lift fingerprints.

Every single one of my instructors was an expert in their field, and they really seemed to want to help make my writing better. The day ended in the auditorium of GTCC, with two hundred other writers, listening to a very fascinating talk given by Dr. Beth Murray, a forensic anthropologist.

Back at the hotel, we had the privilege of listening to Dr. Kathrine Ramsland give a night-owl talk on observation and how to sharpen your skills and apply them to your writing… and Lee Child was there, sitting at the table next to mine. We chatted briefly before the talk—he is probably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. No joke.

Saturday started with a bang! Literally. As soon as we got off the bus, we were herded over to the side parking lot where a trained sniper started giving us a demonstration… but before he could get the good part—like shooting—a SUV ripped past us, followed by three squad cars, light flashing and sirens blaring! We watched as the SUV spun through the parking lot, police cruisers close behind, before it came to a sudden stop. Police piled out and began shouting commands at the driver and his passenger… it was an felony stop re-enactment.

And it was awesome.

The rest of the day brought me lectures on suicides, hanging and auto-erotic deaths (already got ideas for this one… go figure), police gun fights, handcuffing and arrest procedures and the highlight of my weekend (along with my ride along) … the shallow grave exercise.

About thirty of us were turned loose in the woods to find a body—like some sort of gruesome Easter egg hunt, and who’s the lucky girl that found him?? That’s right—me!

The day ended with another fabulous talk about the judicial system, led by Marcia Clark—yes, that Marcia Clark. She was funny and engaging—and she’s a writer herself. Sometimes other writers are a bit selfish with sharing ideas and techniques. Not Marcia Clark—she gave ‘til it hurt!

Saturday night was the big night. A silent auction, followed by a banquet and then the keynote speech given by Lee Child himself. He’s a wonderful speaker, very relatable—you can tell that he has a passion, not only for writing, but for other writers as well. It was a wonderful thing to see in someone so well-known.

Afterward, he signed books. When it was my turn, I had one signed for my mom and when asked if I wanted my picture taken with him, I declined (because I’m an idiot, that’s why.) and then shook his hand like I’d just interviewed him for a job (I’m not only an idiot, I’m a socially awkward idiot, to boot). He looked a bit confused but played along… my plans to ask him for a book blurb flew out the window.

Sunday brought me home. Close to 20 hours spent between airports and planes before I was able to crawl into my own bed in over four days…. And the last thing I remember thinking before drifting off to sleep was—

I wonder what Lee Lofland will have cooked up for next year…

This year WPA's keynote speaker is Lisa Gardner with appearances by Kathy Reichs and Dr.Katherine Ramsland, among others. This one of the greatest experiences a mystery writer can have and each year, it gets better and better!

Maegan Beaumont is the author of  Carved in Darkness, book #1 in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series available through Midnight Ink, May 8th, 2013.

Belly Up to the Bar and Have a Drink With Me.

Hello there everyone!

My name is Robert K. Lewis, and I'm one of the new kids on the Inkspot block. I got the call about my Midnight Ink sale back in January, and since then have been up to my elbows in rewrites until just about five days ago. So now I have a little room to breathe, which is nice, and which also means I can start contributing to this great blog on a regular rotation. I'm very excited to be able to do so, too. :-)

Before I do anything else, I want to first give a huge thank you to all the other Inkers who have welcomed me so warmly and graciously. What an amazing group of writers I find myself involved with! Truly awesome!

For my first blog post, I thought I would just tell you a little bit about myself, so without further ado...

I started writing novels about seven years ago, those first couple years overlapping with the decade I spent writing screenplays. As a screenwriter, I sold one script to an indie producer, and though it got made into a film, the film never could land a distribution deal. I had a few screenplay managers over that decade, and a few options. The novel that landed me my wonderful agent, Barbara Poelle, was the fourth novel I'd written, and was an earlier incarnation of the book that eventually sold to Midnight Ink. The tentative title is Unknown Damage, and features the debut of my series detective, the ex-narco cop Mark Mallen. If Mallen and I are lucky, I'll be writing him for a long time.

My influences would not only be the noirish and gritty detectives of authors like Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane, but also Frank and Henry Kane, Donald Westlake and his alter ego, Richard Stark.

Beyond that, however is the influence of movies shot in New York between 1968 through about 1981. New York in those days wasn't just a location, it was practically another character. Movies such as Midnight Cowboy, Panic in Needle Park, Serpico, Death Wish, Fort Apache the Bronx, The French Connection, and The Seven Ups went far in influencing my writing style and the characters that inhabit my book worlds.

I also play blues guitar, with some rock tossed into the mix. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert, B.B., and Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Hendrix, Jimmy Page... these are the guys that have heavily influenced my playing. I'm a total guitar junkie, if truth be told.

Oh, and there's the red wine. Old vine Zin, please, thank you!

Anyway, I would just like to say again how happy I am to be a part of this group of writers, and this publisher. I'm very many times blessed, and that's a fact.

Best, and see you again soon!

RkL

An Alternative to Blowing Up Your Local Library

When I checked the online catalog of the Palo Alto Library soon after publication of Dot Dead, I saw that 80 or so people had reserved it. Here's what I said to myself about that: "Go without a few lattes, you pennypinchers, and buy the damn thing – it’s only $13.95."

I lost the argument with my wife, so, I did abandon any notion of blowing up the local branch. Still, as supportive as I am of reading, it does strike me as unfair to authors that libraries buy one copy of their book and let dozens read it. In addition to the unfairness, it’s no way to support writers.

Legislators in 40 other countries have figured out the answer – something called Public Lending Rights. In the UK each time a book is checked out of the library, the author receives a little more than a dime (no, doesn’t apply to Americans). You’d think that might bankrupt Her Majesty’s Treasury? No, the PLR are not designed to make sure that J.K. Rowling gets even richer. Authors are limited to payments of 6,600 pounds per year. Not a lot, but that $13,000 (at current exchange rates) could really make a difference to authors just starting out. And on top of that it’s fair to authors.

Now the U.S. runs a huge deficit and adding billions to it would make little sense. No fear. Guess how much our cousins across the Atlantic spend on their program? In 2006 the entire shebang cost 7.6M pounds. What would we spend here? $50M? $75M?

So let’s get this straight. Libraries buy. The national government pays writers a small sum each time a book is checked out. Writers make a little extra money from people reading their books. (Writers making money? Call the police!) A literary terrorist is discouraged from throwing a Molotov cocktail through an open window of their local lending library. A great idea? I think so. And not that expensive either, especially considering the benefits.

Why not write your senators and representatives about it? I’m going to. And crazy as it seems, I think I’ll bring it up with the boards of the author organizations I belong to: MWA, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers.

Two Graves

Keith Raffel here.

A couple of weeks ago in this blog, Nina Wright, the charming and witty author of the Whiskey Mattimoe mysteries, wrote: “[C]hoosing a title is generally one of the last details of the book-writing process.” Yes, that’s how it usually works. My Dot Dead had a working title of Maid Dead until just before submission. The contract I signed with the publisher gave them the right to rename the book. (Someone once told me that first-time authors are all sluts – they just say yes to whatever asked.) I’d resigned myself to another title change, but Midnight Ink stuck with Dot Dead.

My work-in-progress has evolved a little differently. Now some people write from an outline. Not me. I start with a blank sheet and an idea and see where my brain takes me. That’s the fun of writing for me. I was surprised by who the killer in Dot Dead turned out to be. Recently, I picked up a tape of Stephen King being interviewed by Charles Ardai at this year’s Edgars. MWA’s newest Grand Master said something like, “You can’t expect the reader to be held in suspense if you, the writer, weren’t.” He said if a full outline is where your spend your creativity, then you might as well publish the outline. (You can order the tape here.)

Anyway my agent asked to see the first draft on my current project as soon as the ink jet could spit one out. I was a little hesitant, figuring it would be a little like tasting a half-baked cake. To my surprise, she said it was “compulsively readable.” I was suspicious but delighted. Of course there was a catch: she told me she would never send the manuscript out to a publisher with its then title, Coup. I started poking my head here and there around the Web and found this quote that dates back a few millennia: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Perfect. New title = Two Graves. Thank you, Confucius.

Then I reread the manuscript with the new title on the top of each page. While it had seemed fine when called Coup – it was after all a political thriller – the new title didn’t fit quite right. It wasn’t the title’s fault, it was the manuscript’s. It had to be reworked to live up to the new title. Two Graves crystallized what the book was about. The protagonist was no longer motivated by a desire to do the right thing; his soul was corroded by a desire for revenge. Once a nice guy, he was now sacrificing all, everything he’d stood for, to get back at the people who’d destroyed his life. Along with the character, the manuscript has become leaner and meaner. One more draft and I think he and it will be lean and mean enough and my agent can send it out. Just like a son with a famous father, my manuscript had to live up to its name.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience with a title, where the title influences the story rather than the other way around?

Writers Hanging Out

March 20, 2007
Welcome to Inkspot! I'm not even sure who came up with this idea. I know somebody suggested that a bunch of authors who have the same publisher, Midnight Ink, a subsidiary/imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide, should start a listserv so we could communicate with each other, primarily with the notion of helping each other to promote our work.

Then someone suggested we set up a blog and presto, here we are. At the moment we're going to talk primarily about writing and publishing, although if my experience with blogs, my own and others, is any indication, it will evolve. I'm sure some people will drop out, either due to lack of interest, time, or because they move to other publishers or stop publishing; new people will come on, topics will range and evolve.

That's a good thing, I think.

I have not read all of the authors who blog here, but I've read some and it's a talented bunch. We range from taut international thrillers and biotech apocalyptic thrillers to humorous cozies and seemingly everything in between. Hopefully you'll find plenty of unique voices to fill every taste, both here on the blog and in the novels.

And me? My name is Mark Terry. I'm a fulltime freelance writer, editor and novelist. That means I spend most of my work life alone staring at a computer screen, sometimes in the company of imaginary people. It ain't glamorous, but I love it. I'm the author of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. Derek is a troubleshooter for the Department of Homeland Security, ex-Army Special Forces and an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and warfare. The first of those books, THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK, came out October 2006. The second, THE SERPENT'S KISS, will be out July 1, 2007. I've also published two other books. The first was CATFISH GURU, a collection of mystery novellas featuring forensic toxicologist Dr. Theo MacGreggor, and DIRTY DEEDS, featuring freelance computer troubleshooter Meg Malloy. If you want to know more, please visit my website at http://www.markterrybooks.com/ or visit my own blog at www.markterrybooks.com/blog.html

And above all, drop us a line, ask us questions, tell us what you think. One of the joys of blogging is the conversations, the feedback and the community. We're inviting you to come and hang out with a bunch of writers. What could be cooler than that?

Best,
Mark Terry