Author Archives: Murderati

It Ain’t the Meat

To use an old cliche: ideas are a dime a dozen.

Truth is, there aren’t all that many ideas to spare. How many times
have we seen the same story over and over again, dressed up in new
clothing?

A man is accused of murdering his wife, escapes custody and hunts
down the real killer.

A daughter commits suicide but her mother thinks
it was murder.

Two young teenagers go on a killing spree.

A house/car/insane asylum/ship/airplane/cave is haunted by ghosts. A man/woman/boy/girl/dog/cat is possessed by evil spirits.

A husband/wife/daughter/son is kidnapped and the spouse/mother/father risks his or
her life to save them.

A man and a woman meet, hate each other, fall in love, break apart
after a huge misunderstanding and finally get back together again.

That last is the plot of many romance books and countless romantic comedy movies.

And you know what? It doesn’t matter that these ideas are constantly recycled. Because, as numerous writers have pointed out in my lifetime, it’s not the idea that counts, but the execution.

Or as The Swallows once sang:

It ain’t the meat it’s the motion
That makes your daddy wanna rock
It ain’t the meat it’s the motion
It’s the movement, it isn’t the stock

For example, let’s take a look at movies. I choose movies over books
for the simple reason that a) I love them as much as books (but in a
different way); and b) it’s much easier to find people who have all
seen the same movie.

If we go back to the romantic comedy example — the meet, fall in
love, break up, get back together plot line — we could, as I said,
point to just about every romantic comedy ever made.

But which ones do we remember?

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY comes to mind. Not because it’s my daughter’s
favorite movie of all time (she can quote entire passages of dialog),
but because it was a huge, huge hit for everyone involved and most of
us have seen it.

But it also comes to mind for another, all important reason: it is a beautifully written, beautifully executed movie.

Harry and Sally meet while they’re on the road to New York. Harry’s
very opinionated about women and relationships, Sally’s a picky,
high-maintenance girl who thinks he’s a jerk and they part ways not
liking each other much.

A few years and a couple of relationships later, they meet again in
an airport, wind up sitting together on a plane and Harry once again
demonstrates what an opinionated jerk he is — only he’s a little more
endearing than he was before.

They part ways, only to meet again a couple years later in a
bookstore. Next thing you know they’re hanging out together, become
great friends and — unknown to both of them, of course, but obvious as
all hell to the audience — they begin falling in love.

In the middle of a personal crisis, they finally succumb to their
attraction and sleep together. Only Harry, being afraid of commitment,
freaks out a little and Sally, sensing his hesitation gets pissed and
they stop seeing each other.

The story continues along the usual romantic comedy path, and the
two eventually wind up together after Harry races to a New Year’s Eve
party to find Sally. And here is an example of where the execution is
so important:

Sally at first rejects him. She’s not his consolation prize. But as
people are counting down to the new year around them, Harry,
desperately in love and wanting to win her over, goes into a speech
naming every quirk that Sally has and how much he loves those quirks
and wants to be with her for the rest of his life.

Sally, pissed off, tears in her eyes, just looks at him and says,
“Now, you see? It’s just like you, Harry, to make it impossible for me
to hate you. And I hate you, Harry. I really hate you.”

And then they kiss.

That, my friends, is genius execution. And with a movie filled with this kind of execution it’s no wonder that people love it.

It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion that makes your daddy wanna rock.

So what are your favorite examples of same old plot but GREAT execution?

The Detective Within

By Louise Ure

I don’t call them amateur sleuth novels. That seems to diminish them somehow. As if a story about a person caught up in a web of evil has to be feather light unless that person is a policeman or a private eye.

I like to think of them as ordinary hero novels.

When I launched People Magazine in Australia (called Who Weekly down there, as there was already a magazine called People that prominently featured stories about three-breasted women and unexplained lights in the sky), we focused on two kinds of stories.

Extraordinary (read celebrity) people doing ordinary things

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things

That pretty much sums up crime fiction, too. The extraordinary people, in our case, are the detectives and forensic scientists. The lawyers and the cops. And if the series are well done, we get to know the ordinary side of these heroes. What they drink. What music they listen to. Who they care about. What they lost that they most grieve for. In other words, the things that make them human … the things that make them real.

The amateur sleuth is Everyman and in our books he’s taxed beyond his experience and endurance and asked to accomplish extraordinary things. The housewife who solves her brother-in-law’s murder. The journalist who stumbles into violence and saves himself and the kidnapping victim. The innocent bystander who is pulled into the middle of a nightmare.

I enjoy reading both kinds of crime novels, but I can especially understand the appeal of the amateur sleuth.

You see, I think there’s a little detective in all of us.

Have you ever checked the birth and death records at an old church to track down an ancestor? Followed a car away from the scene of an accident and jotted down the license number for the cops? Memorized the face of the guy in front of you at Home Depot who bought the shovel, the rope, and the bag of quick mix concrete?

Have you ever wondered how you’d fare if put in the same “out of the blue” situation many of our fictional ordinary heroes find themselves in?

I found myself playing detective just last week. My husband had asked me to contact the guy who’d given us his golden retriever, Angus, five years ago when he had to move to Hawaii. We wanted to tell him that we’d given his dog a good life, but that he’d finally died at the age of fourteen.

This former owner had a common name, Steve Foster, so a Google search wasn’t of much help and I wasn’t about to pay any of those websites that offer to track someone down for only $49.95. I wanted the information fast, and I wanted it free.

First, I found a site that lists someone’s previous addresses. Hmmm … a half dozen Fosters used to live in Oakland and now live in Hawaii. But none of them Steve.

Wait a minute, he said he was going to move in with his daughter. Nope, no female Fosters on that list used to live in Oakland.

But what if she’d married since she moved out? You can also do the same lookup by maiden name. And here’s a site that lists the age and the names of the relatives of that person you’ve found by their maiden name.

Nope, nobody by that name at that address anymore. What are you gonna’ do? I guess you have to ask the neighbors. So I used Google maps to find the house on either side.

“Oh, Sharon moved out a couple of months ago,” the nice lady said, not even complaining that I was calling at seven in the morning. “Here’s her new number.”

After an hour’s work, I had a phone number for someone who used to be named Sharon Foster, who used to live in Oakland, who was the daughter of Steve Foster, and who’d moved away from Welo Street in Kapolei only three months ago. And when I called and asked for Steve Foster, she put down the phone and yelled, “Dad, it’s for you!”

I’d cracked the case. And it felt as good as reading any fine story about an ordinary hero facing insurmountable odds. I didn’t even have to fight any bad guys along the way.

So tell me, ‘Rati, have you ever played detective? Figured out who busted the window/cashed that blank check/stole the Christmas ornaments off the lawn? Have you tracked down any missing persons or found a birth mother?

Have you ever wanted to?

PS: OK, I’m calling in all favors here. St. Martin’s has asked me to blog on their new website Moments in Crime next week, everyday from Sunday the 16th to Friday the 21st. I don’t want them to think I don’t have any friends. Please, please drop by Moments in Crime next week and leave a message. It’ll be awfully cold over there without my ‘Rati friends.

And just to sweeten the pot, I’ll make you two promises: 1) I’m launching something there that has never been seen before anywhere (not even here at Murderati), and, 2) I’ll give an ARC of The Fault Tree or a copy of Forcing Amaryllis to anybody who leaves comments on the St. Martin’s blog for me for at least four days out of the six. How does that sound? New news and a freebie. Can’t beat it with a stick.

A book for a tree: An interview with Eco-Libris co-founder Raz Godelnik

by Pari Noskin Taichert

I don’t know about you, but I happen to like oxygen. Breathing has been pretty good to me.

I also adore books — reading and writing ’em. But there’s a problem. For each book printed, somewhere a tree was felled.

Raz Godelnik and his crew of inspired ecopreneurs have come up with a plan that, in a way, addresses this fundamental dilemma.

Can you give us a brief history of Eco-Libris?
It all started when I was thinking about paper and the environmental impacts of its production. I realized that it might take a while to get to the point where eco-friendly alternatives (from the use of recycled paper to e-books) will replace virgin paper. Then, I talked with some friends about the idea of giving people the opportunity to balance out their paper consumption by planting trees and received good feedback about it.
It took me a couple of months to gather a team of talented people with a great devotion to the idea. Later on, we put a lot of work into a screening process of our planting partners and eventually we started operating last July.

Why books and trees? Are you a reader?
Let’s start with the fact that about 20 million trees are being cut down every year to produce the books sold in the U.S. alone. Now, our decision to focus on books was made after learning that only 5 percent of the paper used for printing books is made of recycled paper and because most books don’t yet have an online eco-friendly alternative (e-book), like magazines and newspapers. So, if you want a book, you usually can’t avoid purchasing the paper-made version, unless you go to the library or get it from websites like BookCrossing or BookMooch, which are all excellent choices. [Readers & authors: What do you think of these kinds of sites? — Pari wants to know] You also can’t tell people to stop reading books, so it seemed to me only natural to give book lovers a new alternative to make their reading habit greener — planting trees for the books they read. I’m an avid reader. My mother is a librarian and since I was a little kid, I was always surrounded by books. I read almost everything, from thrillers to biographies. Right now, I’m reading THE SHOCK DOCTRINE by Naomi Klein.

What do you think of the Kindle and other e-book readers?
I think that the Kindle is good news for eco-conscious readers as it will save a lot of trees. If it is, as a device, so advanced technologically, it will also become advanced environmentally. That would be good news. It still has an environmental impact and it’s definitely far from being accessible to many people, but all in all it is a first step in the right direction. My wish is that the Kindle won’t only become cheaper, but also that it will be manufactured in an eco-friendly manner (right now I only know that it’s been manufactured by an undisclosed Chinese original equipment manufacturer), hopefully adopting cradle-to-cradle concepts.
I believe that the Kindle, and other e-books options that will be available, are one part of a greener future we’ll face in the book industry. We will also see books that are made of recycled paper and other non-tree materials, from hemp to plastic (like the book CRADLE TO CRADLE itself).

You call yourself an eco-entrepreneur. What does that mean?
I see myself as an entrepreneur dedicated to developing green business. My first venture was Hemper Jeans, as an eco-fashion company focusing on producing fashionable jeans made out of hemp. Eco-Libris is my second venture and I love every minute of it.

Have you tried to partner with paper producing companies, with publishers?
We are aiming to work not only with book readers, but also with publishers, writers, bookstores, book clubs and others involved in the book publishing industry. We’re now negotiating with a few publishers from the U.S., Canada and Europe on partnerships with regards to new titles they want to balance out. I hope that in the next month or so, we’ll be able to publish details on some of these collaborations. All in all, I can say that the general response to Eco-Libris is very enthusiastic. Publishers understand the need to go green and see us as a great option to take a step in that direction.
At this stage, we don’t work with printers. We might consider it in the future.

Will you branch out to magazines or catalog producers?
Right now, we’re focused on books for the reasons I detailed above. Nevertheless, we’re aware of the environmental impact of other publishing areas and might consider involvement there in the future.

What’s next for Eco-Libris?
We are having a busy holiday season with new offers for those who are looking for unique green gifts. Other than that, we intend to keep putting a lot of effort into establishing collaborations with publishers, bookstores and anyone in the book publishing industry who wants to go green. We also look forward to continuing to be a strong voice for all the eco-conscious readers out there and we are working now on plans on how to bring their environmental concerns to the knowledge of publishers and writers. Finally, we intend to keep spreading the word on sustainable reading, by working with libraries, participating in literary events and collaborating with other green organizations and companies.

What’s the one recent idea in environmental activism/entrepreneurism that you wish you’d thought of?
Two innovative green companies that I’m a big admirer of are:
1. RecycleBank — An innovative incentives system that managed to crack the one million dollar question: How to make people recycle more? Their answer: A combination of technology, partnerships and coupons.
2. TerraCycle — The ideal green product: Better and cheaper than its competitors, sold in recycled bottles and it’s made of worm’s poop!

Let’s give a big Murderati thanks to Raz and other eco-entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to make this a better world. For more information on Eco-Libris, check out the website.

I’m curious:
What do you think of this idea of a tree for a book?
What do you think of trying to make the publishing industry more green?
Have you heard of other eco-friendly businesses that we need to know of?

I’m looking forward to this conversation.

Pari

A note about the photos: The second one is courtesy of Eco-Libris planting partner RIPPLE Africa and the third is courtesy of partner Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). Contributors to Eco-Libris receive stickers for each tree planted. The organization hopes that they’ll put these stickers on their books to spread the word.

Beyond Four Walls

I wanted to follow up JT’s powerful post with something concrete to do.

A lot of you know that I taught for a time in the Los Angeles juvenile court system. But here’s something you probably don’t know.

In all the juvenile detention centers across the United States – the prisons for people under the age of 18 – there are only six staffed libraries. Six in the entire US. (And I can tell you – the books on those shelves are rarely what contemporary teenagers would choose to read).

Here are some statistics from a panel of five librarians who have worked in three of California’s juvenile detention centers, speaking at the annual California Library Association Conference in Long Beach, CA:

The State of California has more prisons than universities:

17 youth authority sites
33 adult prisons
29 state universities

At any time, in Los Angeles County alone, between 1,650 and 2,000 youth are serving time in the county’s three juvenile detention centers. Another 15,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 are serving time in L.A. County jails.

Now project that across the country and you begin to get an inkling of the problem.

I know I don’t have to tell anyone here about the power of reading and books. Books aren’t just an escape – they can be a WAY OUT. Statistics have shown time and time again that literacy reduces recidivism.

So this holiday season please join me in supporting one of my favorite efforts:

The Beyond 4 Walls Book Drive for Incarcerated Youth

Buy books from the AMAZON.COM WISH LIST for kids at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Detention Facility in Sylmar, California

Nidorf houses 600+ children and teens ages 10-17 who are awaiting adjudication. Some cycle in and out in a matter of weeks, while others are detained for years. There is no access to a library. The Nidorf Collective, a group of librarians and masters students at UCLA’s Library Information Studies school, initiated a program of book giveaways and book-talking groups at the facility; this book drive is to supply the books the kids have requested and would like to read. Free voluntary reading has proven to have a salutary effect on school performance, personal attitudes and behavior; we hope you will support this important outreach program by donating books.

Click here for the Nidorf Wish List

or just search “Nidorf” on Amazon (Click “Gift and Wish Lists,” then “find someone’s wish list”, then search “Nidorf” or “Beyond 4 Walls”)

To donate new or gently used paperback books directly, please send to:

Beyond 4 Walls
c/o Lisa Lepore
3254 Kelton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90034

Sponsored by THE NIDORF COLLECTIVE – founded by students in the UCLA Masters, Library Information Studies Program, and including students, librarians, and interested others.

For more information, email Melissa Elliott, melielliott@earthlink.net, or Monti Lawrence, mlawrence@ucla.edu

You can also donate books to a detention center near you. Call the front desk and tell them you have books to donate and ask where to bring or send them. You can use the wish list above to get an idea of the most coveted books. Also please note that it’s best to send paperback books. Some facilities do not allow hardcovers, which, yes, can be used as weapons.

Thanks for helping.

When Reality Intrudes

by J.T. Ellison

An advance warning — this may be a bit explicit. No nudity or bad words, just a frank discussion about forensic research and the unsolved murder of a Nashville child. If you have young children, you may wish to steer clear.

As a mystery writer, I spend a lot of time living in an imaginary world, populated with imaginary crimes, imaginary people, imaginary life or death situations, grief, justice and evil. One of the most frequent questions I get revolves around my impetus. "Do you base your stories on real life headlines or cases?"

The answer is yes and no. There’s nothing I can do about the inevitable subconscious co-opting of stories I hear on the news that blossom into plot lines. Every once in a while, I purposefully follow a case to its sad conclusion, or lack thereof, and think about using it as a basis for a story of my own. Great example, the horrific murder of a young mother who was recently killed in North Carolina. I was inexplicably drawn to this story, exploring every detail until I realized I was mentally solving the case. Rewriting the facts. It had become more than a news story; it was the meaning behind the plot of my third book. Okay. I was able to get some perspective after that, analyze the information, pick and choose what I wanted to be influenced by, and write the story my way.

That is actually a rarity for me. I hate to admit that 90% of my stories are purely figments of my imagination. I’ve never fictionalized a live case as a main plot, and as such made some massive adjustments to make it my own. The bones are based in reality for this one, but the reality isn’t real in the novel.

Research, I call this, though in many cases I believe immersion in these evils leave a tiny smudge on my soul. I have days that I don’t ever feel clean, or at peace. I have bad dreams. I get jumpy for no reason. This research is necessary for me to write with empathy and compassion, but inevitably brings it’s own private horrors.

Neither here nor there. There’s plenty of cases that catch my eye, for various and sundry reasons, most of which aren’t even definable. But there’s one case here in Nashville that I’m wary of.

Marcia Trimble.

Anyone in Nashville can tell you about this sunny little girl who disappeared one afternoon out delivering Girl Scout cookies. It is our biggest, baddest, most speculated upon unsolved murder. A cold case to end all cold cases. Now that we’ve got Perry March in jail for the murder of his wife Janet, Marcia Trimble is again Nashville’s outrage.

A quick precis of the case. Marcia was 9 years old. She went to deliver Girl Scout cookies to a neighbor. She was found 33 days later, less than 200 yards from her home. She’d been strangled and sexually assaulted. There were allegedly multiple DNA donations. Celebrated forensic scientist Dr. Bill Bass postulated that she had been dead since the day she went missing.

You can imagine the horror that filled Nashville in 1975. Metro Nashville Police Captain Mickey Miller commented on the case:

In that moment, Nashville lost its innocence. Our city has never
been, and never will be, the same again. Every man, woman and child
knew that if something that horrific could happen to that little girl,
it could happen to anyone.

As you’d expect from an unsolved case, the theories about who murdered Marcia range from rational to otherworldly. And this week, a crazy thing happened. The police announced that there was a possible DNA match to Marcia’s potential killer. And it’s all I’ve been able to think about.

It’s one of those cases that begs to be written about. It’s a wrong that I could right, fictionally. But would that ever be enough? And would my psyche hold up under the pressure?

You know the murdered young mother case I mentioned earlier? When I said I went and learned everything I could about the case, I glossed over a few things. Like the thirteen page autopsy report. And the fact that I ended up talking with two different medical examiners about the findings before adapting them into my own story, and made sure that I had all the details accurately depicted when I wrote the fictional autopsy. Made sure the crime scene would support the medical findings. All very clinical and detached, professional discussions among colleagues. Three weeks of nasty work, for three pages of original material. Somehow, I was able to separate myself from the fact that this girl had been bludgeoned to death. That’s not always possible.

When I was doing research a few years back, I went through a cold case file of a co-ed who’d been raped and strangled, and the images from her crime scene seared themselves into my brain. Happily, her case has since been solved, and her killer is being brought to justice. But strangely enough, when I wrote the initial scene of the murdered mother-to-be for this book, those three-year-old images rose to the surface, built like a crashing wave and spilled onto the page so vividly that I might as well have been staring at the photos all over again. I had to go back and tone it down, way down, because there’s just no reason to force people to see what I’ve seen.

And as much as those crime scene photos were stark and unflinching, one of many images that will stick with me forever, they drove home the reason I chose to do this work. Not so I can stare into the abyss, but so I can draw back from it, and hopefully pull people back with me. In my books, I catch the bad guys. Justice is served.

I certainly hope that Marcia’s killer is finally being brought to justice. The whispers are building here in town. Maybe, one day, I’ll find a way to write a story about Marcia that gives her some justice. If you’ve read All The Pretty Girls, you’ll recognize that the opening scene shows Taylor waiting for a death sentence to be carried out for one of her first cases, a little girl named Martha who was raped and murdered and left her DNA in the tears she shed in her killer’s car. That was my first nod to Marcia. I doubt it will be my last.

My prayers go out to her family right now.

I don’t want to bring anyone down with this post. I debated whether or not to even go here today. But this is what happens in the background noise of crime writing.There’s some pretty horrible stuff out there in the real world, stuff that we find ways to deal with with grace and humor and even despair on the page. Our shells have to be thick to assimilate the evil we see and research to make our books real. For some reason, on this particular journey, I didn’t want to be alone. Thank you for indulging me.

Maybe the discussion today could focus on cold cases you’ve been touched by, or a research topic that’s gotten under your skin. Some sort of assurance that I’m not alone in sometimes feeling overwhelmed by the reality in our fiction.

————————————
Apologies in advance, I’m traveling this morning and won’t be able to comment until later. If you’re in New Orleans, come visit with me tonight at 7 at the Borders in Metairie. I’ll be in Jackson, Mississippi tomorrow at 2 (the Borders in Flowood) and on Sunday in Memphis, again at 2, at the Borders in Germantown. And then I’ll fall over.

Also, in much happier and exciting news, www.JTEllison.com has been nominated for a Black Quill Award for Best Author Website by the incredibly cool Dark Scribe Magazine, an honor that I’m pleased as hell to hand over to my wonderful husband, who designed and maintains my site. Click here for the list of all the Black Quill nominees, you’ll see I’m in some seriously good company. Take careful note of the book trailer category. Congratulations, Alex!!!!!!

Wine of the Week: Honestly? I’m thinking scotch. But let’s do a 2005 La Tonnellerie Du Chateau de Segonzac , on special at Geerlings & Wade. Ask for Mark, and tell him I sent you.

Out Of The Blue

I was reading back over some old posts and I came across a remark made by Murderati’s own Alex S. She asked me why I felt it necessary to put my characters through hell. I put it down to my talent for disaster. I am usually the catalyst for some small calamity to come my way. Sometimes, it’s my own damn fault, but sometimes, I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. This trait reminded me of something that happened a fair few years ago. A small incident led to something that had the potential for something much larger.

I used to race cars in England in the early 90’s. I ran a pretty shoestring outfit and was forever wheeling and dealing to stay to stay in business. Not all my sponsors paid me. Some provided valuable resources I couldn’t afford. One such resource was a truck to transport my car. A company provided me with free use of a shiny new Ford Transit van. Someone else lent me a trailer. I used to drive to Staines to pick up the trailer in the Transit before each race. Truck and trailer made me a pretty sizable obstacle and naturally people would be eager to get around me. One lady pushed her luck a little hard at a roundabout. She tried to sneak across me as I attempted to get off the roundabout. We ground to a halt on the roundabout just shy of hitting each other. The problem was we’d blocked all traffic on the roundabout. The lady and I traded insults as it took us several minutes of maneuvering to get off the roundabout. I went on my merry way. The lady didn’t. She drove up on my tail flashing her lights and honking her horn. I was pissed off too, but I had the race on my mind and I like to be a little Zen in the run up to the race, so I ignored her. The lady buzzing around my bumper lost interest and went on her not so merry way.

I thought that was that until after the race a couple of days later when my sponsor told them the police had contacted them about a road accident. Being my supportive sponsor, they immediately handed over my details to the police.

The police officer assigned the case came for me a few times, but I was always away at a track when he called. This wouldn’t have looked so bad if the officer made an appointment but he chose to arrive unannounced. Eventually he caught up with me as I was unloading my racecar into my storage unit. He asked for a word. The word I gave him was yes.

He was a nice guy and I liked him. He seemed to be a down to earth guy and very un-cop like with his attitudes. He helped me lock up and we chatted about racing on the way back to my house. In the living room, he asked if I knew about an incident. I said I did and told him what happened. He told me a different account. I’d hit the woman on the roundabout, totaling her car and driving off.

“I beg your pardon,” I said and went to object, but he cut me off. He cautioned me and read through a little of charges that included but weren’t limited to fleeing the scene of an accident, reckless driving, and reckless endangerment. I was looking at a driving ban at the minimum. This was a major problem. A ban on the streets is a ban on the track.

I tried to protest. If I’d hit the car, there’d be damage on the Transit and the trailer. There wasn’t any. If I had any doubts to the damages to the woman’s car, I caught sight of a Polaroid pinned to his file. The car was caved in on one side. The cop cut my protests short. He needed my statement and I gave one. It was obvious what was going on here. This chick crashed her car on the way home, looked to someone to blame and chose me.

I talked and the policemen wrote. He handed me the statement to sign. Unfortunately, I wasn’t looking at a statement, but a confession. Where I said I hadn’t done something, he wrote that I knowingly did, not just once, but all the way through the account. I said we had a problem and policeman smiled and said, “Do we?”

“Yes, this says I did it.”

“Must have been a slip of the pen,” he said.

Somewhere in the region of 25 slips in fact.

I don’t know if he knew I have difficulty reading or not. He had met my mum a couple of times when he came looking for me and she might have said something about it. If not, I’m not sure how he thought he was going to sail this one by me. My mum was present and I had her read the statement aloud. I had to cross out and initial “errors” throughout the document. The policeman made no apology and left.

I didn’t agitate the situation by reporting the cop. It was pretty obvious what he’d tried to do. But I saw no point in raising the ire of a police department. I already had this woman in the other car trying to screw me over. I was pissed off, but I let it go. If they got even trickier, I’d speak up.

Luckily, they didn’t. The charges were dropped two months later. It was hard not to. For all the collateral damage done to the woman’s car, there wasn’t a scratch on the van and trailer.

Nevertheless, the situation bugged me. It could have all ended differently—and badly for me. I think I was most pissed off by the cop. I’d totally misread him. The upshot is that it’s a nice demonstration of why I put my characters through hell. It might be fiction, but it has its origins planted in reality.

Safely yours,
Simon Wood

I Don’t Want to Bring Anybody Down or Anything

by J.D. Rhoades

Hi, my name’s Dusty, and I have a confession to make.

I actually like Christmas.

Oh, I know, as soon as the first candy canes hit the supermarket shelf, and the first radio station goes over to all Christmas all the time, the complaints begin. It”s too commercial, it starts too early, there’s too much pressure to have fun, it’s just too hectic and crazy…it used to be that people who didn’t like the holidays were saying they felt isolated and alone, but now it seems they’re in the majority. and don’t even get me started on the people who’re trying to pick a fight over ‘Happy Holidays".

But I can’t help it. I’m a freak. I love the whole season. I like parties. I like giving presents. I like receiving presents. I like going with the family to get the tree and then putting it up. I like wearing the tie with the Grinch on it to court and seeing that the judge has one too. I enjoy seeing the family members that I only see at Christmas. I like the Christmas TV specials, the older and cheesier the better. I even like the music (although my Christmas tapes and CD’s run more towards Al Green, "Cajun Christmas" and "Celtic Christmas" than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir).

I’ve been enjoying recent Christmases even more because for the past few years, my kids have been old enough for toys that *I* want to play with, too. Wii anyone? And does anyone know where we can find one?

And to bring this entry back on topic, I love getting books for Christmas. I quit buying new books around November 1st, and everyone pretty much knows what to get me. God bless the Amazon wish list (as well as the people who look at it to get ideas, then go buy the books from their local independent bookseller)

Most of all, I try to keep in mind the guy whose birthday it is. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not particularly religious. But whatever you think of Jesus or his more demented followers, his core message of peace and hope and caring for each other is not such a bad thing to at least aspire to.

Joyeux Noel, y’all!

And now the discussion questions:

1. What do you REALLY want for Christmas (or if not Christmas, your chosen winter holiday)?
2. Do gift cards or certificates disappoint you or do you go "Yippeeee!"
3. What’s the best gift you’ve ever given?
4. Favorite holiday movie?

Writers & Money: What the h*ll are we doing?

by Pari Noskin Taichert

A long time ago, when I moved in to live with a boyfriend, my father said to me, "Why pay the cow, when you can get the milk for free?"

Okay, there was too much wrong with his offensive question, but . . .

I’ve been wondering about writers, money and the whole PR thing lately.

For years, I’ve been the poster girl for the "Everything-You-Do-Is-PR — Everything-You-Do-Is-Worth-It" school. I’ve gone to any event to which I was invited, simply because it was "good publicity." I’ve prepared talks, bought nice clothes and makeup, ordered promotional materials — just to put on a good show.

Yet, I’ve gotten the sense during the last few months that a lot of this effort has merely been a distraction (kind of like what J.T. wrote about internet social networking on Friday). It’s taking me away from writing and returning little of value professionally, socially or emotionally.

Worse, it may be damaging. If I’m willing to do all of this for free, how much are my time, words and work really worth?

These questions really hit me last Wednesday when I was a panelist at a professional women’s luncheon. The organizers were delighted with a much larger than normal turnout. We authors were a draw. We were given a paltry lunch (not even chocolate in the dessert) and had to sit through at least 30 minutes of oral ads and testimonials about the organization. And then, poof, we were the entertainment.

No pay.
Few books sold.
Three hours down the drain.

What good came of it, other than making some nice women laugh?

Compound this with the compelling arguments I’ve heard from people I respect — people who are making money writing fiction — about how we writers should spend our time writing, producing product. Their view is that the business end of pr/marketing should still be the purview of publishers.

I’m flummoxed, bamboozled, confused.

When did we novelists begin to buy into the idea that we needed to spend our own cash to market our works? Has this model always been so? It’s incredibly counterintuitive when you consider how much most of us actually make. Go here to see romance author Brenda Hiatt’s impressive brass tacks info about advances and royalties at many publishings houses.

Then, I ran across this YouTube video with screenwriter Harlan Ellison. There’s strong language in it, but his point is well taken. Why do we writers give our words away for free?

Ah, the old refrain: "It’s good publicity."

These questions come at a lousy time in my career. Right now, the University of New Mexico Press and I are lining up out-of-state booksignings for THE SOCORRO BLAST. I’ve signed up for three conventions in ’08 and may go to more. I’ve ordered 5,000 postcards and have come up with at least as many new PR ideas.

Am I being stupid?

Should authors hop on planes, pay for hotel rooms, rent cars and sell the heck out of their books when these actitivies keep them from doing their real work — writing?

Have we backed ourselves into this corner? Is it a corner? Do we even want to get out?

Again, I don’t know.

The ego and social parts of me love doing public events and going to conventions. I adore making people laugh and think.

And then there are the friendships cultivated and nurtured through these on-site trips. They’re worth so much to the quality of my life.

But . . .

The business side of me — and my husband, the accountant — wonder what the hell I’m doing.

Should we authors spend so much time giving our milk away for free?

turning off and tuning in

One of the great things about being a writer is that my office is wherever I happen to be. There’s no dress code, no specific work hours, no boss breathing over my desk, no time clock to punch and plenty of snacks when I want ’em. I get to interview lots of interesting people for research, and it’s amazing how many doors will open for the statement, "Hi, I’m an author, and I’d love to ask you a few questions."

There’s also no one to tell me to stop working, take a break, go have fun, be with my family.

It’s hard, sometimes, to turn off the writer-within. The person who listens to the trivia around, listens for the little factoids that are a boon, meets new people and sees potential characters. But it’s critical to do so, especially with family.

Turning off the hyper-focused writer, and just… being. Not carrying around all of the stories, the characters lives, their joys, loves, consequences, heart-breaks, laughter.

So I’m… well, vacationing. I’m in beautiful Colorado (in the snow) and having a wonderful time watching major events in my family’s life.

I still have a hard time turning off the writer within. How about you? How do you set aside work (no matter how much joy it brings, no matter what your employment)? Give me some tips, because I just saw about six people I want to immediately go sit down and describe for future characters.

Update on the Writers’ Strike

by Alex

On November 29, the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) disseminated this press release:

The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels. The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year. In response, the WGA has asked for time to study the proposals. While we strongly preferred to continue discussions, we respect and understand the WGA’s desire to review the proposals. We look forward to resuming talks on Tuesday, December 4.

We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it.

Golly, sounds great, right?

Wrong.

When the WGA Negotiating Committee reported back to us, what we learned was this:

“In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.

For streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year’s reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.”

— Let me repeat that. The current residual rate on a TV show is $20,000 for a year, and they’re offering $250. That’s if it’s not deemed “promotional.” If it’s promotional there’s no payment at all. And the residual on movies is still $0.—-

“For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15 minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300. They continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet.

In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse “promotional,” and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).”

How did the writers respond? We’re furious. And galvanized. We had 90% membership support for the strike to begin with, and after that “proposal” I’d say it’s more like 99%. I haven’t heard a single voice saying that this was an acceptable offer in any way.

Let’s just compare some numbers from the writers’ side. The WGA has prepared a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals.

“Our entire package would cost this industry $151 million over three years. That’s a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%. We are falling behind.”

This is the part I want you to read closely:

“For Sony, this entire deal would cost $1.68 million per year. For Disney $6.25 million. Paramount and CBS would each pay about $4.66 million, Warner about $11.2 million, Fox $6.04 million, and NBC/Universal $7.44 million. MGM would pay $320,000 and the entire universe of remaining companies would assume the remainder of about $8.3 million per year.”

We all know those numbers are a drop in the bucket compared to what those corporations make on our work every year. We will never back down from our goal of getting a fair share of the internet.

And if the AMPTP thinks we’re tired, they’re asleep. At the latest membership meeting members yelled at the board for cutting back the picketing hours. One writer shouted, “This is a strike, not a vacation!”, and got thunderous applause.

It’s our future, and we’ll keep fighting for it until we win a reasonable share.

Now, here’s some good news:

Out of 180 TV shows being tracked, only 12 are still in production.

Advertisers are starting to realize that they’re not going to be getting much bang for their buck with the whole regular TV season shut down.

And if you’d like to help put pressure on the companies to start negotiating seriously and fairly, this site, Consumers Support the WGA, has links to feedback forms for major advertisers and is conducting an organized effort to push major companies to help end the 2007 writers’ strike.

The User Information link on the page tells you everything you need to know about the project. (Direct link to instructions here

Thanks, as always, for listening.

(More background on the Writers’ Strike and actions you can take here:)