Red Herrings Stink!

 By Beth Groundwater

At the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in April, I spoke on a panel of mystery authors titled "Fooling the Reader Fairly." My topic on the panel was red herrings, or false clues that are deliberately planted in mystery novels by authors to mislead the sleuth--and the reader. In debates, the term applies to the situation when an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. I thought I'd share my panel comments on this stinky topic with Inkspot readers.

A "red herring" is a very strong kipper, meaning a small fish—usually a herring but not always—that has been cured in brine and smoked. This process makes the fish smell pungent and turns its flesh red. In 1807 William Cobbett wrote how he used them for training hunting dogs, dragging the stinky fish across the trail of a fox the dogs were supposed to pursue to lay a false trail, thus confusing them and throwing them off the original scent. When the dogs weren’t thrown off, they were deemed trained. Supposedly escaping convicts did this to throw bloodhounds off their track, but there’s no direct evidence it was ever actually done.

The use of herring to throw off a scent hound was tested in a 2010 episode of the Discovery Channel series MythBusters. Although the hound used in the test stopped to devour the fish and lost the fugitive's scent for a while, it eventually backtracked and found its target, resulting in the myth being classified as "Busted."

There are two main ways a clue can be false:

1. It can seem to prove means, motive or opportunity for the wrong suspect, an innocent, such as in my book, A Real Basket Case, when Claire’s husband Roger is found holding the gun that killed Enrique, the handsome young massage therapist (means), when both Roger and the police assume Claire was having an affair with Enrique (motive), and Roger is apprehended on the scene moments after the shooting (opportunity).

2. It can seem to disprove means, motive or opportunity for the true killer. I'm not going to give an example of this here, because I don't want to give away whodunnit in any mystery novel, spoiling the read. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader!

There are many kinds of red herrings, such as:

- Physical evidence, such as the workgloves and beer cans found on the scene of a fly fisherman’s murder in my recent release, Wicked Eddies
- A snippet of dialogue or gesture that divulges motive or seems to show motive, such as the discovery that the victim in my book, Deadly Currents, was having an affair (so did the wife kill him?) then the discovery later that he had cut off the affair (or did the mistress kill him?)
- An alibi that removes opportunity, and is later proven to be false OR that seems to be false at first and is later proven to be true
- When clothing, shoes, vehicles, or the descriptions of people themselves are very similar (for example, in my book, To Hell in a Handbasket, there are six black Range Rovers that figure into the plot, all owned by different people who were given the cars as gifts by one character)

One tricky thing for mystery readers to remember is that a single clue can be both a clue to the right solution and a red herring to the wrong solution. The confusions that result from red herrings can make for a very tasty read indeed!

Do you have a favorite red herring that you came across while reading a mystery or that you used in writing a mystery? Please share it here, but don't give away whodunnit in any book!

Heirlooms of Importance

By Kathleen Ernst

I didn’t set out to write an “issue” novel when I began The Heirloom Murders, second in my Chloe Ellefson series.

I did want to include a plotline about the importance of preserving heirloom varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.  Historic sites like the real outdoor museum Old World Wisconsin, where my fictional protagonist Chloe works as a curator, play a key role in perpetuating these heirlooms.

And as I’ve written here before, it is important.  When I worked at Old World Wisconsin back in the 1980s and ‘90s, I learned how much genetic diversity we’ve lost in the last century or so—over 90%, by most estimates.  

Small seed companies have been overrun by big ones.  Small family farms have been gobbled by huge factory farms which practice monoculture.  Consumers have come to expect produce that looks good after long traveling half-way around the planet, which encourages growers to focus on only those varieties that can make the trip.

Educators at historic sites help visitors consider that some endangered variety might be the only one that can stand up to the next pest, disease, or drought.   

And happily, more and more home growers are raising heirloom verities.  I try a few new ones each year in my own garden.  Initially, I hoped that The Heirloom Murders would help introduce the fun and of raising heirlooms to a few more gardeners, perhaps in turn keeping a few more varieties vibrant.

But when I started writing The Heirloom Murders, I discovered some pretty scary stuff.  A few mega-companies have been working hard to take control of the world’s food supply.  They promise farmers in rural areas that their company’s genetically-modified seeds will produce better yields and resist drought, parasites, and insects.  If the sales pitch works, people stop growing their time-honored varieties of grain or vegetables and buy the genetically-modified seeds—sometimes taking out loans to do so.

Tragically, things don’t always work out as promised.  In India, for example, many farmers who purchased genetically modified seed have experienced total crop failure.  Traditionally, farmers would save seed and replant the following year, but the new genetic modifications force farmers to buy more seed from the company each year.  According to a watchdog organization, an estimated 125,000 farmers in India have committed suicide after crop failure and financial ruin.

The situation so frightening that a number of countries around the world, from Poland to Peru, are banning the sale and use of genetically engineered seeds.

So as it turns out, the importance of preserving heirloom seeds is even greater than I knew.  I felt good about including that theme in my mystery.  And that made it especially rewarding to learn that The Heirloom Murders was being awarded the Anne Powers Fiction Book Prize by the Council for Wisconsin Writers.  (That's me at the awards ceremony, below.)

By the way, if you’d like to learn more about heirloom gardening, check out Putting Down Roots:  Gardening Insights From Wisconsin’s Early Settlers, by my friend Marcia Carmichael, Historic Gardener at Old World Wisconsin.  Marcia’s book earned Honorable Mention in the Outdoor Writing Category of the CWW’s awards.

And if you’ve got some space in your garden, why not try some heirloom seeds?

Visit http://www.seedsavers.org/ to get started.

You can learn more about the Chloe Ellefson mysteries at http://kathleenernst.com

PAPER OR PLASTIC?

Last week I attended Malice Domestic in Bethesda, MD, then the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA. Both events were fabulous. I met many readers, some of whom were very enthusiastic about my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries and couldn’t wait for the next one in the series to come out. Others hadn’t read either but decided after hearing me speak at Malice or meeting me at the Festival, to give my books a try.

One of the most frequently asked questions I received at both events was, “Are your books available as e-books?” (Yes, they are.)

I’ve noticed in the short space of a year between the release of Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, and Death By Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series, that ebook sales of my titles are far outpacing the trade paperbacks. More and more people are moving from physical books to e-readers.

There’s much to love about e-readers. You can carry around a lot of books with you at one time. If you finish a book while you’re traveling, you can easily read another, even if you’re in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from a bookstore. I like that I can increase the font size of the words on the page, especially when I’m tired. The larger the print, the longer I can read without eye strain.

However, for those of us who love books, there’s something about holding a new book in our hands that an e-reader can’t satisfy. I wonder, what our homes will be like five, ten, or twenty years from now. Will we no longer have bookcases filled with volumes of our favorite titles? Will the Kindle and the Nook put bookcase manufacturers out of business? I love my bookcases filled with books. They take up space in just about every room of my house.

I stopped writing this for a few minutes and walked around my house, imagining each room without its bookcases. I’d certainly gain a lot of space if all those books resided in an e-reader instead of on physical shelves. I guess I’d have plenty of room to expand my teapot collection or start collecting something else. I just can’t imagine living without being surrounded by books.

What about the rest of you? Paper or plastic?

Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series. The first book, Assault With A Deadly Glue Gun, was a January 2011 release and received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist and has been nominated for a Book of the Year Award by ForeWords Reviews. Death by Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the series, was released in January. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com and Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.

My First Reading (Or How I Learned Shouting SEX! VAMPIRES! ZOMBIES! SEXY VAMPIRE ZOMBIES! Always Draws a Crowd)

A few weeks ago I offered to help out at the Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America booths at the Kensington Day of the Book Festival. I thought I would just take an hour or two in a booth to tell people about what the organizations did. Meetings, community of writers, blah blah blah. Then I received an e-mail telling me I would be one of five authors featured in the festival and that I was supposed to do a reading. That hundreds, possibly thousands would be at the festival. Needless to say I was a little daunted by this prospect. I hadn't been in front of an audience since high school in my acting days. What if I burped? What if I forgot how to read? What if I was boring? So the day before I practiced three times, only stumbling a few times but quickly covering up like I was taught in acting class. I was as ready for the hundreds who might show up as much as I could be.

I didn't need to worry. I forgot that my life is ruled by Murphy's Law. 

It was pouring down rain, freezing, windy, and there were maybe three people in attendance while I was there. The day before, fine. Beautiful. The day I'm supposed to shell my baby, not so much. At least I was only there for about an hour, my poor fellow authors had been manning the booths for hours. Kudos to them. Us brave and freezing five walked over to our deserted reading area. We were the only people in the audience. It was a bummer. One author decided not to even go. I so didn't blame him, we were performing for each other. The whole purpose was to sell books, hard to do when you have no customers. The first two authors went, just giving a general overview of their books. I panicked. I hadn't prepared anything but my reading. They each spoke for about five minutes, my planned reading was ten as I was told to do. The entire thing was a cluster fuck from the get go. But since I had nothing to lose I decided to go big then go home.

My turn came third. I had my book marked to my reading, I looked great, and I wasn't nervous at all. Until I decided to implement my master plan I had come up with ten seconds before. I got behind the microphone, and smiled at my fellow authors. "I'm going to try something. I apologize in advance." Then, into the microphone, as loud as I could I bellowed, "SEX! VAMPIRES! SEXY VAMPIRES! ZOMBIES! MURDER!" The people working the booth beside the reading area, including three teenagers, all looked over at me with surprise. 

I heard one ask, "Did she say zombies?" 

"Yes, ma'am, I did! Zombies! Everyone loves zombies! And sex! Come on over!"

And damned if four other people, including the teens, came over and listened as I did my reading. I was kind of afraid to look at my fellow authors in case they disapproved of my antics, but I did almost double our audience. And the teens stayed after my reading to listen to my fellow Midnight Inker and semi-mentor Alan Orloff (Killer Routine, Killer Campaign) do his stand-up. They even giggled at his jokes. The cherry on the cupcake was that those same girls came over to me after and asked how they could buy my book. So, in the end, I had two potential sales by making an ass of myself. Got a good story out of it too.

So that was my first reading. The glamorous life of an author, huh?

Here, There, and Everywhere!

by Alan

I’m not adept at saying goodbye. If I can get away with it, I just throw a quick wave and a “see you later,” to anyone who happens to be looking in my direction. Outward emotions are not my strong suit.

But goodbyes are inevitable, aren’t they?

I’ve had a ton of fun blogging here at InkSpot during the past three years. During that time, there have been two things that have kept me blogging: my terrific blogmates and our fantastic blog readers. So thanks everyone! See you here, there, and everywhere!

For grins, here’s a rerun of my very first InkSpot blog, from April 1, 2009:

Hi. My name is Alan Orloff. I'm the new kid on the blog.

Throughout my life, I've written all types of things, including newsletter articles, technical reports, business plans, press releases, users manuals, Website content, direct mail packages, performance reviews, PowerPoint presentations, advocacy articles, editorial pieces, business correspondence, reference letters, grocery lists, technology abstracts--even Twitter tweets. But never a single blog post.

Not ever. Until now. This is my first, so please, be gentle.

Today's topic: How the post-WWII suburbanization of the country changed the way southern literature was viewed by the northeastern cognoscenti.

But first, I need to vent a little.

When I joined this group, I was thrilled to be associated with such a great bunch of writers. They seemed nice (in the blogosphere, at least) and they welcomed me with a host of friendly greetings. Everything was peachy. But…

I guess I'm just a little surprised at all the stuff a new blogger has to do. I mean, I understand I'll be toting around everyone's laptops and book bags at conferences. And I get that I'll be buying drinks for a while, at least until my new guy smell wears off. I'm cool with all that. Because it means I'm part of the gang, for better or worse.

It's just that some of the stuff I'm supposed to do seems a bit…extreme. (GM, I might be a little late coming over tomorrow to wash your windows. It all depends on how long it takes me to reseal JB's driveway. She says she wants it done right this time. And Tom, I've never been a sparring partner before. It won't hurt, will it? I'm allergic to pain.)

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have so many people pay attention to you. But I'm getting some weird vibes that maybe things aren't what they seem on the outside. For instance, one of my new blogging buddies compared me to a guy named Marx (and not in a good way, I don't think. Of course, I couldn't really tell what he was talking about--he used a lot of big words). Another wanted to flat out get rid of me--before I'd even written a single post! And I'm not sure what to make of the fact that the email messages welcoming me to the group all had the words "FRESH BLOOD" in the subject line.

Here's the last straw. Keith wants me to come over and cut his grass. But how high could it be? It's only APRIL FIRST. What kind of FOOL do they think I am?

I need your help, InkSpot readers. What advice do you have for me, the new guy, about how I can fit in with an established bunch of bloggers? (Please, in addition to your comments, let me know when I can come by to powerwash your deck. I do good work, just ask the gang.)

 

<waves goodbye>

My Fantasy Job: Hollywood Casting Director

a guest post by Keith Raffel

Out of the blue, a pair of award-winning screenwriters optioned my second book, Smasher, back in 2010. Reading the actual script last fall, I could just imagine the characters up on the silver screen in the local multiplex. Alas, not going to happen--at least not anytime soon. The option expired a few weeks ago. The screenwriters told me they have picked up assignments from producers who liked their treatment, but Smasher: The Movie was not going to be “greenlighted.” My agent went on suicide watch, but I had expected nothing so wasn’t disappointed (much).

What about my next book? In her review of Drop By Drop, Lynn Farris wrote she “wouldn't be surprised to see this as an upcoming movie. Five stars out of five." So why not Drop By Drop as feature-length film even if not Smasher? Why not go along with the fantasy? After all, I live in the world of fiction. Let’s cast the film!
Here’s a précis of Drop By Drop:

Stanford professor Sam Rockman suffers the crushing loss of his wife in a bombing at San Francisco Airport. Seeking meaning in the ruins of his life, he accepts an offer to work for the Senate Intelligence Committee. What Sam wants out of his stint in D.C. is revenge for the death of his wife. What he gets is danger and betrayal. Secret documents are showing up on his doorstep. Russians are trying to poison him. Sam finds allies among a savvy Kentucky senator, a billionaire investment banker, his wife's old rabbi, and the president's national security advisor. Too often, he finds himself thrown together with his counterpart on the other side of the aisle, the whip-smart, six-footer Cecilia Plant. Mourning still for his wife, Sam steels himself against Cecilia's appeal and remains suspicious of her motives.

So we have to cast Sam and Cecilia first. We know he’s six feet tall because he’s the same height as she is. Other than that we don’t know what he looks like. Kind of nerdy maybe. After all, he is a Stanford history professor in his mid-thirties. Lots of candidates then but I’m going to with Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s six feet tall and 32 years old. Earnest in Love and Other Drugs, driven in Source Code. He should be bankable, too.

Next is Cecilia. Getting this part right is the key to the movie. Readers love her. Joe Hartlaub wrote in his review in Bookreporter.com, “With regard to the characters, Plant almost steals the book from Rockman; if Raffel would see fit to bring her back in a future work, I certainly wouldn’t object.” Here she is in her first meeting with Sam: 

“We need to get the motherfuckers who did that.” She didn’t snarl as she cursed. She spoke in soft tones, as if to minimize the attention that would come unbidden to a foul-mouthed, red-headed woman with a seventy-five inch span between the tips of her heels and the crown of her head.

She’s six-feet tall (the extra three inches are from her heels) and an ex-athlete. Wait, I got it! Adrianne Palicki. She’s within an inch of six-feet. She can definitely handle the bad language--having played bad-girl Tyra Collette in Friday Night Lights. While in high school she played basketball and ran track. I’ve seen her on the screen as both a blonde and as a brunette; no reason to think she wouldn’t look just as great with auburn tresses. (Calling Clairol!) And even when she played a bad girl, she projected underlying intelligence.

Did I mention I myself worked for the Senate just as Sam Rockman did? One of my colleagues back in those days was Fred Thompson who (much later) showed his acting chops on TV’s Law and Order. And he actually served as a senator from Tennessee. Not too much of a stretch then to see him playing a member of the upper house representing the neighboring state of Kentucky. (Always glad to help out a former colleague.)

Billionaire investment banker George Fairchild has made the Forbes list of richest people under 40. Here’s where we first see him in the book:

George measured no taller than five-five, an inch shorter than Rachel and weighed in at about 130, only five pounds more than her. No banker’s suit for George. He wore khakis with a crease sharp enough to slice a loaf of bread and a blue-striped button-down crisp enough to crackle like cellophane.

Let’s go with Ryan Phillippe most recently seen on TV in Damages. A baby-faced 38 he makes the age cut.

My own rabbi says she likes the fact that rabbis in my novels are not figures of fun. Can comedic actor Paul Rudd play a serious clergyman? I say yes.

The president’s national security advisor is a tough, cigarette-smoking, New York dame. Let’s go with Dianne Wiest of In Treatment and Hannah and Her Sisters.

And finally, what about President Lucas? Here we see him on TV:

The guy looked so damned presidential. He reached the same six foot four Lincoln had. His hair was swept back in a Reaganesque pompadour. An aversion to ties part of his brand, he wore an open-neck French blue shirt and navy blazer. He conveyed to the voters that he was no empty suit, but the perfect fit of his clothing, the way his jacket hung from his shoulders, distinguished him from Joe Sixpack even more surely than gray pinstripes.

Here’s the casting coup of the 21st century. Mitt Romney was a neighbor of a friend of mine. I met him at her birthday party. Don’t know how good an actor he would be, but from the description of President Lucas above it wouldn’t be much of a stretch, would it? And it’s my hunch that he will be looking for work after the first Tuesday of November. 

 Thanks for humoring me in my reverie. (But if the agents of Mr. Gyllenhaal or Ms. Palicki see this post, please do not hesitate to get in touch.)

Keith

Keith’s Drop By Drop is available for a free download from Amazon.com through Saturday. (Click here.) Thanks to imdb.com, igossip.com, huffington post, Wikipedia, accesshollywood.com, and mediaite.com for the photos above.

A Slew of Reasons to Change Things Up

by Sheila Webster Boneham


For a slew of reasons,...

...I love dictionaries, although if I'm trying to get something done I should avoid them. Take this post, for instance. I set out to write about how changes in our lives can help (or hinder) creativity. "For a slew of reasons" popped into my head. Now, you should know that one of my favorite t-shirts says, "Bad spellers of the world, UNTIE," which is why I veered away from my laptop toward my Merriam-Webster. The last thing I need to do on a blog for writers and avid readers is mix my homonyms (although it turns out that slew and slue can be alternate spellings of the same word, but not always). Once I landed in the "sl’s," I wandered into etymology (slew may come from the Irish sluagh, or "multitude") and then into the linked and non-linked slews and slues, plus slough (as in a dismal swamp, not what snake skins do), and the next thing I knew I was looking up "emphysematous necrosis" (don’t ask – it’s icky!). That took me to dead bodies, which turned me back to the task at hand – my Inkspot entry. So what I set out to say is that....

For a slew of reasons, I’ve been juggling several changes this week. We moved on Monday, with considerable pre-moving over the weekend, so for one thing I’m just settling into a new house, new work space, new yard, new neighborhood. It’s all good, and although I could use a nice long nap, I also feel energized and ready to write. I love my new work space, so even though I can’t find everything, my creative juices are flowing. 

So the value of change was what I set out to write about for today. Many people fear change, and there’s no question that change is sometimes frightening and variably disruptive. Some kinds of change are devastating, and I certainly don’t wish cataclysmic events on anyone. We all know that things do change constantly, but even in our e-paced world it’s still possible to sink into comfy routines and stay there for weeks, months, years.

For some people, that may be fine. For creative people, lack of change can be deadly. Okay, not in a bullet-to-the-heart way, not literally, but in a numbing-of-the-creative nerves way. Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt, but changing things around occasionally does breed new ways of experiencing the world. I’m not suggesting that we have to move to a new house, or dye our hair green, or take up extreme sports. I am suggesting that, at least once a week, we should try something new.



Change can turn things upside down, but when we look from new angle, we see differently. (We might look goofy, too, but that's okay!)

My new digs have me covered for a couple of weeks. Then, over the rest of the summer, I plan to tote my laptop to a couple of new-to-me coffee houses, walk and bike some new-to-me trails, start some new paintings, try a new artistic medium, and read some new-to-me authors. Maybe I’ll even try writing in a genre I’ve never tried before.

Now where in that slew of boxes did I put my dictionary?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sheila Webster Boneham is the author of the forthcoming "Animals in Focus" mystery Drop Dead on Recall (now available for pre-order) as well as award-winning books about pets including Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals (Alpine, 2009), The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting and Owning a Cat (Alpha, 2005), and fifteen others. Her new digs are on the southern coast of North Carolina (Wilmington, to be precise). Sheila's books are available from your local bookseller and on line. Learn more at www.sheilaboneham.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sheilawrites, or at Sheila's new Writers and Other Animals blog.

Malice Domestic Recap

Malice Domestic is an awesome conference filled with enthusiastic fans. If you haven't been, I highly recommend going whether you are a reader, writer or both. Since I don't have a book out yet, I got to enjoy the conference from both perspectives. I also got a chance to get to know my fellow Midnight Inkers. For those of you who couldn't make the trip this year, I thought I'd share some photos and fun facts about some of the fascinating personalities behind the blog.

 Cricket McCrae and Alan Orloff  (Cheese is definitely not the way to his heart!)

Jess Lourey (who can and will give your book a new, improved but X-rated title) and Vicki Doudera (who should definitely write for Cosmo.)

Lois Winston (the mop dolls are truly adorable. If only we could talk her into making one in each of our likenesses) and Vicki D.

Mary Holmes, Beth Groundwater and Darrell James. (Three authors who make it look so easy!)

Mary, Darrell and Jessie Chandler (who, I must say, just generally rocks!)

Need to pitch our fearless leader Terri Bischoff on a new series?  The bar is definitely the place to do it!

 Jess and yours truly. Add Vicki D. and stir!!

Mary, Kathleen Ernst (as sweet as she looks) Vicki  and Terri B.

The lovely, spunky Deborah Sharp.

Maggie Sefton doing her thing.

Midnight Inkers are AWESOME!!