INK SPOT NEWS ~ JULY RELEASES

By Maegan Beaumont



Check out Midnight  Ink's Fabulous July Releases!!

The White Magic Five & Dime
By: Steve Hockensmith, Lisa Falco 
A Tarot Mystery #1

 "Cozy readers with a taste for humor will welcome this hilarious series debut . . . [and] will eagerly await the next installment." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

Sacrificial Muse
By: Maegan Beaumont 
A Sabrina Vaughn Novel #2

"...A fast paced exciting read that I couldn’t put down. Sacrificial Muse is heart pounding intrigue at its very best." -- My Book Chatter 

Adieu, Y'all!

By Deborah Sharp 

After blogging here at Inkspot for six years, it's time for me to say goodbye. Lots of water under the bridge since one of my first posts, way back in the summer of 2008. I was eagerly -- nervously! -- awaiting publication of my first book, Mama Does Time.

I was a newly minted Midnight Ink author, and thrilled to be asked to blog with some of my fellow M'Inkers. Here's what I had to say back then: 

I've found another thing to worry about as my book's debut draws near.

It's a testament to my fretting powers that I could come up with something new, given my many present concerns. There's hurricane season, a fear of horrible reviews, and the possibility that my fellow Florida voters will fail to select a president -- again -- and the ensuing media firestorm will ensure that no one pays any attention to my funny little set-in-Florida mystery.

Since I wrote those words, I worried through the debuts of four additional books in my Mace Bauer Mystery series. Number 2 was Mama Rides Shotgun. Three was Mama Gets Hitched. Four was Mama Sees Stars. The fifth one was Mama Gets Trashed. Each time got a bit easier, but the nerves always gnawed at my stomach. I think that's the case for most authors sending their books -- their babies! -- into the world. We fret. Will people love my baby like I do? 

I've decided to take a break from writing. (Possible title: Mama's on Hiatus?) Though I never say never, I have no immediate plans to do a sixth book in the series. So, I thought I'd step aside and let some of the fabulous, fresher authors in the Midnight Ink stable take up the reins. 

In honor of my first career as a reporter for USA Today, I wanted to end with a feature the paper made famous, or maybe infamous: Bullet items. Much used and often maligned, bullets are a short, punchy way of getting info across. They're named for the punctuation that sets off each info nugget, often in the form of a list. I did tons of such lists when I worked for USA Today: Tips for keeping cool in a heat wave. Madonna's favorite tummy-trimmers. Top states for shark attacks (Florida, surprise, was No. 1).

So, here are my Top 5 Favorite Things about Inkspot: 
* It's the office water cooler for co-workers who don't share an office.
* It's given me -- and so many of my Midnight Ink pals -- a group identity.
* It's a place for us to have our say, any way we want to say it.
* It's a way for readers to see what we think about when we're not writing mysteries. 
* It's provided me with entertainment, friendship, and a sense of being part of something bigger than solitary little me. 

I just wanted to say thanks. Adieu, y'all.  

One Crazy Summer...

By: Maegan Beaumont

Six months ago, I made a prediction. I boldly proclaimed as fantastically awesome as 2013 had been (and for me, it really had), 2014 was going to be even better.

As it turns out, I'm psychic.

Six months in and 2014 has managed to blow 2013 out of the water!

Book 2 in my Sabrina Vaughn series, SACRIFICIAL MUSE, will be out in a few weeks. Here she is, side-by-side, with her big sister (who's wearing her shiny gold seal from Independent Publishers).

In 5 days (5!!!) I will be attending ALA, my first "real" writer's conference in Las Vegas. I'll be signing books for both Sisters in Crime and Midnight Ink. If you're attending, stop by and say "hi"!

After I get home, I'll be hosting a signing at the world-famous bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, for SACRIFICIAL MUSE, along with my fellow MInker, C.J. Carpenter, who will be signing copies of her debut release, NEVER ALONE.

http://www.poisonedpenevents.com/?ai1ec_event=beaumont&instance_id=198

I'll be handing out some pretty cool prizes, so if you like free stuff, show up and you just might get some!

At the end of July, I'll put on my traveling shoes (they're Birkenstocks, just in case you're wondering...) again. This time I'll be heading to Kennewick, WA for the weekend to sign books at Tri-cities Books with Patricia Briggs, author of the Mercy Thompson series.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bookworm-Tri-Cities/124742419618


AND THEN...

At the end of August, I'll be taking my long awaited research trip to NYC/Boston! I'll spend a week soaking in as much local color as possible so that I can start my new stand-alone crime novel, set in South Boston, about a bartender who gets mixed up with the local crime boss. (not to worry... Sabrina will be back!)

Just thinking about all the traveling and excitement in the coming months has got me feeling like a kid at Christmas! It's gonna be crazy... and it's gonna be FUN!

Maegan Beaumont is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS, the first book in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series (Available through Midnight Ink, spring 2013). A native Phoenician, Maegan's stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn't busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

A Kinder Gentler Attitude

by Shannon Baker

Author of the Nora Abbott Mystery Series

“You’re an idiot!”

Those terrible words slam over my six foot backyard fence. The irate holler is followed by a tone so filled with disgust it singes my skin. “Get your ass over here. Put that down.”

I am paralyzed. The scene I was working on vanishes from my mind’s eye and my breath catches.

“You stupid moron!”

A young voice, that of Aiden, my eight year-old neighbor, whines back in argument and what follows is five minutes of the grandfather and grandson sniping at each other with the “adult” flinging out more name-calling.

This scene plays out roughly once a week. I’ve only lived here for eight months and I’m sure this has been going on for a long time. The conflict isn’t confined to this one relationship. Three generations living next door wage frequent battle where I may not be able to overhear words but the tone is evident.

It stops me dead every time. I have a visceral reaction. My breath stutters, my heart races, my skin grows clammy. I’ve always hated conflict. Even as a kid, while my brother and sister clashed over any number of childhood problems, I’d be in the corner crying.

Why can’t my neighbors be nice to each other? Speak with kindness, encourage each other, especially Aiden?

I won’t guarantee Aiden isn’t an idiot. He might or might not be—he’s climbed our fence and done malicious mischief in our backyard, he dug a hole under a tree in the front, he threw rocks through our neighbor’s garage windows, and flung a case of empty jars against the fence in the alley shattering glass outside our yard. Obviously, he’s a troubled kid with needs I can only guess at. But I can’t imagine telling him that’s he’s a moron or an idiot will improve his IQ or his behavioral problems. I might even go so far as to say that kind of verbal battering might actually be at the root of the problem.

As disturbing as that situation is, and believe me, I am not making light of it, it brought home a powerful personal message to me.

While I was clenching my fists and teeth during one such episode, and thinking that some kindness and gentleness might bring about more cooperation and greater potential, a realization struck me. How often do I treat myself with that same impatience and contempt?

I know, we’re writers and a certain amount of that self-deprecating attitude with a dollop of insecurity goes with the job description. But I’ve been particularly abusive of my fragile ego lately. Whatever the details of my shortcomings, it all amounts to me calling myself a stupid moron and telling me to get my ass to my desk and write decent stuff.

Maybe it’s time I treat myself with the same encouragement and pride I wish for Aiden. Instead of tossing aside the colorful crayon picture and focusing on the failing report card, I ought to pin the picture to the refrigerator and shrug over the F, promising that failure isn’t permanent and I will succeed if I keep trying.

Nothing good comes of negative talk, even if it’s only going on between my ears. 

So I’m making a pledge to start speaking nicer to myself. I’m going to treat me with the same courtesy and respect I try to give to others. It couldn’t hurt. It might help.

What kind of encouraging things do you do for yourself?

If you’ve got a moment, send a special thought into the universe for Aiden. And even if it’s only for today, be kind to yourself.   

INK SPOT NEWS - JUNE RELEASES~

Take a look at these fantastic titles--Just in time for summer reading!

Never Alone

C.J. Carpenter

A Megan McGinn Novel #1
"NYPD detective Megan McGinn plays fast and loose with the rules in this fascinating debut" —RT BOOK REVIEWS

Resurrection Bay
By: Wayne McDaniel, Steven Womack

From Edgar Award-winning author Steven Womack and Wayne McDaniel comes a force of evil on par with Hannibal Lector in a heart-pounding page-turner you can't put down.

Writer Group Groupie

By Deborah Sharp 
Author of the Mace Bauer Mysteries

On my long and winding road to becoming a novelist, I test-drove a lot of writing groups. Some were too fast; some were too slow. Some chug-chugged along until they -- or I -- ran out of gas. I spent less time choosing a husband than I did trying to find the perfect group of fellow writers.

Was it just me, or do all writers have a hard time finding a critique group that fits? The formula should be fairly straight-forward. Get together a handful of folks with similar sensibilities and comparable writing skills. Mix well; share what you write; and hope for mutual improvement.

I did finally find a great group. But I landed in plenty of ditches before I arrived there. I remember one night early on, trying to concentrate as a fellow aspiring writer read aloud the chapter she'd labored over. In a heavy Russian accent, she droned on and on about life in the former Soviet Union. There wasn't much food. There was a lot of snow. A LOT of snow. The more she mentioned the white stuff, the more I focused on frigid air blowing on my neck from the AC ceiling vent.

 I huddled lower in my seat. My God, it's freezing in here! It's gotta be 65 degrees.

I stared at my hands. My fingers are turning blue! No, wait. I think that's an ink stain. 

I looked across the room. There's an empty chair by the window. I wonder if that side is any warmer? 

My obsession with the thermostat didn't bode well for the reader, or for my participation in the group. I tried several others. Like Goldilocks, I found one group too hard; another too soft. Some were too big; others too small. One was stalled at the talking-about-writing stage. It was less a critique group and more a support group for wannabes.

Me: Hi, my name is Deborah. I'm addicted to the notion I'm going to be a great writer, even though I haven't written anything to read today. 

Group: Hi, Deborah!

The group I finally clicked with was led by a talented and insightful author,who guided the rest of us toward helpful critiquing and better writing. (Thanks, Joyce Sweeney!) We wrote in many genres -- mystery to young adult, poetry to humor -- but we had several things in common. Most of us already grasped the basics, so we didn't get bogged down on sentence structure, grammar, and the like. We all were eager to write, happy to read, and thoughtful when it came time to critique. Nobody pulled punches, but nobody played gotcha either.

Have you ever belonged to a critique group? What do you think makes a good one?

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

By: Maegan Beaumont

We all have them: brilliant story ideas.

Sometimes, they come to us fully formed. You see every facet clearly—who your protagonist is, the trouble he or she faces. What they will do to dig themselves out of it… the trouble they meet along the way. Sometimes, it’s just a flash. Something you see or hear triggers a thought. That thought leads to another… and another… until the idea takes shape and you're left with no choice but to write it out. 

And other times that something you see or hear burrows into your brain. It niggles and nags. It refused to be pushed aside—demands to be written.

So, if these ideas take all the time and trouble to bring themselves to our attention, to demand that we listen, why is it that sometimes they have the audacity to be unable to support the story we so desperately want to write? Why is it that they fall apart half way through the novel? 

I hate to say it, but… it’s not the idea you should be blaming. It’s you. You’re probably the reason things aren't working out the way you’d planned them to. The idea didn’t fall apart. You probably broke it.

Writers generally fall into two categories when it comes to starting a novel:

You have the Nervous Nelly. The writer who circles the pool a few dozen times. Dips their toe in to check the temperature of the water. Makes sure their hair is tucked securely into their swim cap… you know, they think about it for weeks and months before they even write a word. They over think every aspect of the idea until they convince themselves that it’s not a good one.

Then you have the Kamikaze. The writer that sees the pool from a distance, climbs up onto the roof and takes a flying leap, legs tucked into a cannonball, eyes screwed shut… without checking to see if there’s even water in the pool. They have this idea and that it’s—they’re at their computer, frantically typing away without knowing where they’re going or how they’re going to get there.

To the Nervous Nelly, I say:

 Loosen up for God’s sake. It a novel, not the Magna Carta. Yes, writing is hard work. It’s grueling and often lonely business… but if you’re truly a writer, then at the heart of it all, is love. It’s what you love to do. The one thing in your life that you can’t imagine not doing… so do it. Stop beating the poor thing to death and get on with it. Write a synopsis. Write a character sketch for your protagonist. Research your setting… it doesn’t matter what you do, really, as long as you do it. 

To the Kamikaze, I say:

Novel writing is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes stamina. It takes focus. Neither of which you have when your banging away on your keyboard like a cracked-out monkey. Take a deep breath… now take another one. Let the story take form, it’s really not something you can force. And that’s what you’re doing. You’re forcing it. Stop doing that. It’s like handing your keys to a seven year-old and telling them to move your car and then getting mad when they put your Toyota through the neighbor’s living room. I suggest you do the same thing as Nervous Nelly up there—write your synopsis. Flesh out your characters. Research your setting… because that’s what it all comes down to. That’s the secret… 

There is no such thing as a poor story idea—just poor execution.

Ideas, after all, are just that—ideas. A fully-formed novel is something else entirely. You’re the architect that plans it out and the the carpenter that builds it—it’s your responsibility to make sure it has all its parts and that those parts are in working order. Plot. Characters. Setting. These are the components that make a novel work. One can be, and is usually stronger than the other (Plot driven vs. Character driven novels… another topic for another time) but if all three are weak—forget about it.

If the plot leaks like a spaghetti strainer, your reader will grow very angry, very quickly. Readers are an intelligent lot. If your plot isn’t tightly laced, they’ll know it and they’ll hate you for it. Not because you wrote a bad book, but because they’ll feel like you tried to get one over on them—and no one like to be made a fool of.

If your characters are flimsy, your reader will feel cheated. Most people read, because they’re looking for a new experience and they want to live that experience through someone they feel emotionally connected to. Someone as flawed as they are. Someone they wish they could be. Someone that has the guts to do the things they don’t. Say the things they never could. If your characters are one dimensional creatures, no one will find them interesting, and if no one finds them interesting, then no one will care what happens to them. 

Setting lends a bit of realism to the whole thing, which allows your reader to connect even deeper to your story. Remember, it’s all about experience. That’s what the reader needs—it’s what they’re looking for. A woman who’s never left her small town can read a book set a Paris, and if the writer is good, and pays attention to detail, can feel as if she’s walked along the Seine or seen the Eiffel tower. She feels worldly. Connected. The experience she has is rich and fully formed. Without setting, it’s flat and dull. The reader is left feeling like something is missing.

All of these components must work in concert with each other: 

Story idea. Plot. Character. Setting.

They build upon each other. Lend support. One leans against the other. If a story isn’t working, they’re a reason. One or more of these pieces is either lacking in structure or missing all together. Before you give up and move on to the next story idea, give this one the time and attention it deserves. Find it’s weak spots and shore them up… maybe you’ll have to tear it down and start from scratch, but don’t give up on it. There’s a very good chance it’s worth your time and attention. After all, there’s a reason the idea grabbed you in the first place. 

Maegan Beaumont is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS and SACRIFICIAL MUSE, books one and two in the Sabrina Vaughn thriller series.

 

Trusting the Process

by Shannon Baker

There are as many ways to write as there are writers. More, in fact, because what works for one writer for one book might not work for the next book. For now, I’ve discovered a method that seems to work for me.

I charge through the first draft without pausing to look back. I set a challenging daily word count and begin at page one and write through until the last chapter. I start off with a fairly clear idea of the plot. I try to use the four part method and have reversals and twists at the appropriate spots. But even with all the planning, the whole boat inevitably sails off the edge of the world. It takes longer to set up scenes than I anticipated or I get a better idea along the way. Sometimes, my initial plot only has a place marker that says something like, she must be betrayed by him and end up at the ranch.

I used to get bent when I didn’t know all the details at the outset. Or if I had a better idea, I’d feel as if I needed to fix the previous pages before I moved on. But I’m teaching myself to trust the process and to forge ahead without any more editing than making notes about what needs to be included or changed. I know that those changes might change again and again before the end of the book so working on them now only slows the process.

What this means is that I can gallop very quickly through a first draft. But when it’s done, I’ve got a terrible mess. It’s the kind of disaster that pops me wide awake at 2 A.M. wondering how it will ever come together. But I soothe myself with the knowledge that it usually does gel at some point and nothing is done that can’t be undone.

Yesterday I finished my draft and today I’m staring at a pile of pages that I know are mostly crap. To be honest, I can’t remember some of the scenes or the clues I placed. I’m terrified to read the drivel I slapped down. Many of those words were grudgingly written with one eye to the word count, bargaining with myself that as soon as I finished the daily goal I could ride my bike or have a cookie. I am not above bribery. Also, I’m not entirely adult.

Hopefully I’ll find something salvageable in the dross. I know the pacing is off because I didn’t hit my stride until about half way through. So I will need to move chunks of exposition from the beginning, punching up the pace, adding clues.

But this first draft is the frame. What I’ll begin with on this second go is adding the rooms and giving it the structure. From there, I’ll put up the drywall by making sure it flows in a cohesive whole. Finally, there will be painting and bringing in the furniture and artwork that will finish it off.

I’ve got a long way to go before this puppy is housebroken. (How many metaphors can I come up with for one manuscript?) But I’ve got one stage down and am feeling hopeful.

What is your process and have you learned to trust it?