Murder She Writes

Over the last week or so, I’ve been trying to recollect and journal some of the old superstitions I’ve heard over the years. Ones from this area, sayings my grandparents, parents, and their friends mentioned often. Especially the ones that managed to lodge in my brain and take root as if they were actual truths. Ones I shared with my own children.

I’m planning to lace some of these superstitions into a future book. For whatever reason, I’m getting the notion that these nuggets may help flesh out ‘place’ in my writing. That they will give the reader a more three-dimensional view of the community that surrounds the main character, then, with any luck, turn the community into a character of sorts. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

Anyway, here are a few I remembered . . .

1. A long nose is a sign of intelligence.

2. If your nose itches you will kiss a fool.

3. If a person’s eyebrows meet, he is of a mean disposition.

4. If your left palm itches, it’s a sign of money. To be sure to receive that money, rub the itchy palm over a pocket.

5. To cure a child of asthma, stand him up by a post and lay a knife on his head, then run the knife into the post. When the child grows above this knife, he will no longer have asthma.

6. To cure hiccoughs rub the palm of your left hand with the thumb of your right.

7. To cure night sweats put a pan of water under your bed.

8. Put a chew of tobacco on a bee-sting to relieve the pain.

9. When a crawfish hole is open it will rain soon. If it is closed, there will be no rain.

10. If the sun is shining while it’s raining, the devil is beating his wife.

11. Before you go swimming, dip your hand into the water and make the sign of the cross. It will keep you from drowning.

12. If you touch a bird’s nest, the bird will not return to it.

13. If you handle frogs, you’ll get warts.

14. Don’t hand over a saltshaker during a meal. Slide it across the table.

15. If the picture of a living person falls from a wall, it’s a sign that someone will soon visit you.

Are superstitious diddies like the ones above common where you live? If so, what are the most common?

I’m telling you, straight from the world of the WACKY and WEIRD, the news stories recently have been El Bizarro. And everyone KNOWS that a LOT of writers get their inspiration from real life, so this past few weeks have been a bonus for those of us inspired by news stories.

For example, there is the story of the Austrian woman who was held prisoner in a cellar BY HER FATHER for more than 24 years. And worse, she gave birth to at least SEVEN children by him.

Police said the 42-year-old woman, identified only as Elisabeth F, told them her father, Josef, had lured her into the basement of the block where the family lived in Amstetten, north-west Austria, on August 24 1984, and allegedly drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up in the dungeon. A police spokesman said she was “psychologically extremely disturbed”, but her version of events was “completely believable”.

UhhhhhOkkkaaayyyy. Can you say YUCK?

Then there is the continuing story coming out of the FLDS Compound in Texas, where authorities from CPS now claim that at least 31 of the 53 girls removed from the compound, in the age range of 15 to 17, have either had children are or currently pregnant.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said he does not believe the CPS count is accurate. He said that from talking to ranch residents, he believes at least 17 of the girls may actually be adults but have been labeled by CPS as minors.

Agency officials have called into question claims of adulthood among the girls since the raid and have in some cases disputed documentation provided, saying the girls look younger than 18. Because many FLDS members share similar names and have complicated family relationships, identifying all of the children taken into custody has been a challenge.

Teen Disney star, 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, who has recently been under fire for provocative pics of her that made their way onto the Internet is now getting SLAMMED for a controversial Vanity Fair shoot in which she was topless, albeit covered with a sheet. Now, she is claiming foul and saying that Vanity Fair took advantage of her. Except her parents were BOTH at the shoot, and neither parent nor Miley herself was apparently bothered by the pictures until a public uproar started.

In Florida, if some lawmakers have their way, it is going to be illegal to have BULL TESTICLES on your vehicle. No, I am not making this up.

Metal replicas of bull testicles have become trendy bumper ornaments in some parts of the Sunshine State, but state Sen. Carey Baker is campaigning to ban the orbs.

In Detroit, they discovered an 80-year-old woman living with her mummified sister.

Investigators believe the surviving sister had been living with the body for up to three years. They say the body was partially covered with newspapers and that a cat and dog apparently ate part of it.

A Florida woman heard a noise in her kitchen, and when she went to investigate, she discovered an eight-foot alligator.

Alligators are ubiquitous in Florida, and Frosti sees them all the time in the ponds behind her housing development and on the lawns. But they seem to know their place; although one will occasionally wander into an open garage, house invasions are virtually unheard of.

And in one that really gives me the creeps–and probably a few nightmares–in Oregon, a policeman saved a pet shop owner from being eaten by a Burmese python!

I may never recover from reading that story, especially after reading that the pet store owner asked police NOT to kill the snake. And they didn’t. You just KNOW what that snake is planning for his next meal….. Stephen King story anyone?

So, which of these weird stories inspires you? If you were going to use a news article to inspire a book, what would you choose? And if none of these does it for you, have you ever had one that did? And if so, what was it?

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Right now I’m reading a book and I want to kill the heroine. She’s a whiner because life has dealt her a bad hand. I’m about 50 pages into this book and I have now thought of three ways to kill this chick.

1) Run her over with hero’s motorcycle. But I am afraid she won’t die then she’ll have something else to whine about. SHUDDER!

2) Have the bird in the story peck her to death. But I’m pretty sure it’d take too long for her to die that way and OMG the whining!

3) Crush her beneath all her law books. With the right planning, I think this one could work—quick death and she’d have the breath instantly knocked out of her, so –BONUS- no whining!

Okay, anyone want to take a guess why this heroine is getting under my skin? Aside from the fact that she’s boring, she’s one of my worst fears.

I know I’ve written a heroine like her. Hopefully not in any of my published books, but in my first couple books, I was the queen of the Whiny Heroine.

Generally, writing those kinds of heroines (or hero) comes from either inexperience or lazy writing. The inexperienced writers haven’t yet learned how to show inner conflict, so instead they make the heroine a whiner with inner dialogue of, “I never fit in, my mother married all these rich guys and sent me to boarding schools, then my dad turned out not to be my dad at all. I can’t even have a relationship with a great guy because…” Just kill me now if I have to read one more word. But you get the idea.

One of the things I still work on is trusting the reader to figure this stuff out from scenes. Give the reader’s scenes with some inner thoughts and dialogue, but most importantly, ACTION. The readers will figure it out!

Readers trust action to define a character. Show a heroine or hero’s inner conflict. In my paranormal, my heroine is afraid of locked spaces.

What do you think I did to her?

Locked her up. And she went ballistic.

I don’t want to tell you more, but you get the idea. I never had to tell the readers she had this fear. I showed it.

In another book, I had a heroine deeply afraid of rejection. She made sure no one could reject her. She used snark and humor to keep people who could hurt her at a distance. I never had to tell the reader she was afraid of rejection. The readers and the hero figured it out together. But another important element of this story is that readers had to believe the heroine COULD have a relationship. So I gave her a close relationship with her brothers. That SHOWED the readers (and the hero) her loving (but still snarky) side. I never had to say she loved her brothers.

Boy this turned into a rant! And I suspect I’m lecturing myself since I am just getting started on revisions for BLOOD MAGIC. My editor pointed out some places where I didn’t show my heroine learning how to be a witch and her joy in doing so. That’s lazy writing and my editor is dead on about this. I have totally cheating the readers so I’ll be working my butt off over the next few weeks practicing what I have preached here!

So tell me what gets under your skin as a reader? And can you think of more ways to kill this whiny heroine?

Last week I talked about log lines. This week I want to talk about branding and signature.

So Merriam Webster says, a brand by definition is: 3 a (1): a mark made to attest manufacture or quality or to designate ownership (2): a printed mark made for similar purposes : TRADEMARK b (1): a mark put on criminals with a hot iron (2): a mark of disgrace : STIGMA the brand of poverty 4 a: a class of goods identified by name as the product of a single firm or manufacturer : MAKE

Signature by definition is: 6: something (as a tune, style, or logo) that serves to set apart or identify; also : a characteristic mark

So while they are very similar they are two distinctive entities. A brand is like Kleenex, we all know it’s tissue. Clorox same thing, it’s bleach. So when you tell the hubby to pick up a box of Kleenex so long as he comes home with tissue regardless of manufacturer you’re happy. Same with telling him to pick up a bottle of Clorox, you want bleach, generic is fine. You have no delusions ever of what product you are getting.

Now take Morton’s restaurant for instance, they have a signature Maytag blue cheese dressing that is to die for. No one makes it better. To me that’s the mark, the signature, and while they do have great steaks it’s the dressing they do best.

For me my brand is simple. Hot cops. Since breaking into historicals, I’m looking to incorporate hot knights as well, but haven’t quite come up with the exact concoction. Feel free to suggest away. The last thing I came up with was Hot cops, Hot knights, Arresting passion. For now it will do, but it isn’t right. But do you see the pattern? My brand is hot guys, regardless of genre.

As far as my signature goes? What do I think I do best? Passion. My characters are passionate about who they love, who they hate, and what they stand for. You will never have to scratch your head and ask yourself where they stand. So my signature is passion.

I know I haven’t articulated this very well. It’s after 2:30 a.m. and I’m really tired, but please share your views/opinions on branding and signatures. And while you’re at it, as an author tell us your brand, and your signature, and as a reader what author brands do you look for?

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Okay, so it’s not an original title

Let’s reverse the sentiment, however.

THE UGLY

* The vitriol against Tess Gerritsen by some commenters on the Dear Author blog site. I used to enjoy visiting DA to read news and first sale stories and support some of my friends who have been highlighted. I have commented occasionally. I do NOT like the tone of the comments regarding Tess’s tongue-in-cheek blog post on her site. Okay, they didn’t get her humor. State it and move on. Don’t jump all over a respected, classy woman who has done more to help authors, published and unpublished, understand the business as well as showing that we’re not heartless robots without emotion. I was going to blog about this today, but since JD Rhodes at Murderati did such an exemplary job explaining the situation that incited the attacks on Tess, as well as what happened after, I’ll send you over there to catch up.

THE BAD

* I haven’t moved yet or closed escrow, but it’s closer. We were originally suppose to close 3/19; then 4/11; now? I’m thinking 4/30. And even then, we probably won’t actually MOVE until after May 10 because we have to order some furniture, get the hardwood floors sealed, and a variety of other little things that are much easier to do before moving in. Fortunately, we don’t have to sell our current house. We wanted to move out first, paint, put in new carpets, etc before putting it on the market. But I had planned to be in and settled and WRITING in my new office by now; instead I’ll be spending a few more weeks at Starbucks . . .

THE GOOD

* I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve sold the first three books of my supernatural thriller series based on the Seven Deadly Sins to Ballantine.

My novella in WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE is a prequel to part of the series. It sets up Rafe’s backstory and conflict. Wait until you see what’s in store for him when he gets out of his coma.

I’ve been thinking about this series for nearly five years now. I came up with the concept in August of 2003, but after writing about 50-60 pages, I discovered that THE PREY finaled in a contest (under a different title) and I wanted to finish it. When I did, I realized it was better than anything else I’d done, so I queried it out, got an agent, and sold pretty quick. At that point, writing romantic thrillers–which I love–was my priority.

But, I’ve been thinking about this story ever since. I suppose you could say that it’s haunted me. We almost pitched it last time I was up for contract, but my agent (rightfully) felt I needed to firmly establish myself in romantic suspense before venturing into something a little different. I agreed, so we kept it. When the first Seven Deadly Sins book comes out, I’ll have 12 romantic thrillers on the shelf, and that seems a good place to add a second series.

I call it “supernatural” rather than “paranormal” because everything takes place in the known, contemporary world. The supernatural elements? The Seven Deadly Sins are demons on earth. I suppose I might say that by supernatural, I believe that these things *may* happen or have some historical truth behind them. I’m relying heavily on Judeo-Christian beliefs and history because that’s something people have some knowledge about. I’ll take some liberties, of course–this IS fiction–but I probably won’t venture too dramatically outside of the “norm”–if you can call demons “normal.” LOL. I do have a fictional representation of Hell in my mind, and plan to set some scenes there. It should be . . . interesting.

Haven’t you wondered about the Seven Deadly Sins? What makes them deadly? What if they were truly deadly? What if Envy was a demon who fed and multiplied our internal envious feelings, resulting in murder, thefts, rape, mutilations, torture and other atrocities?

When we look at violent criminals, we often think that no human being could be so cruel. What if a demon really did “make him do it?”

One of my inspirations came from Stephen King’s NEEDFUL THINGS, which is my favorite book of his after THE STAND. In it, a new curio shop opens with “needful things”–things (junk) people want desperately. They see something that no one else sees. The objects are cursed. People start doing things they wouldn’t normally do. A friendly competition between churches turns deadly. It’s a scary book (of course, it’s King!) But the idea that people start behaving as they otherwise wouldn’t . . . what if I turned that around? What if the “deadly sins” within each of us is brought out, nurtured by a demon, developed to it’s natural conclusion? Which is, of course, death . . . because they are DEADLY sins, after all. So people who truly are without Envy, or Lust, or Gluttony wouldn’t be affected . . . but how many of us can honestly say we’ve never been envious or another? That we’ve never eaten or drank more than we should?

I’m also really excited about my characters. There are seven main characters, three of which are, I guess, the “primary” main characters. There will be several romantic subplots, as well as strong police procedural elements. There will always be a crime–in fact, each story is set up with a very human and very real crime. The difference? In order to catch the killer(s) my team of characters must first stop a corporeal demon who feeds and grows stronger on a “deadly sin.”

Book one is about envy. A coven of teen-age witches unwittingly release the Seven Deadly Sins from their underworld prison. A high school girl is found dead in the woods with no apparent cause of death, and her best friend is missing. Three people are drawn to the small California town: a reclusive woman from Ireland with more experience with demons than she wants; a former seminarian haunted by the massacre–and the memories–of twelve dead priests; and a true crime writer who thinks the whole thing is a hoax. It is tentatively scheduled for publication in November 2009.

I will continue to write the same dark romantic thrillers I’ve been writing to date. In fact, after TEMPTING EVIL and PLAYING DEAD come out this year to conclude the Prison Break Trilogy, I have the first three books of my FBI series in 2009–starting with SUDDEN DEATH in April. My FBI series will follow a core group of characters through major and violent crimes (with a different hero and heroine in each book, but a recurring team of characters.) Serial killers, mass murders, kidnappings, domestic terrorism, and the like. I’m very excited about the FBI series and plan to continue it beyond 2009.

And, in fact, I have another idea for a romantic thriller series based on the company my heroine works for in PLAYING DEAD.

My goal is to have a supernatural thriller that is very similar in tone and feeling as my romantic thrillers, just with supernatural elements . . . I’m a little scared about the new venture. To be honest, what if my readers don’t like it? But I’m also extremely excited. It’s a series that has been begging me to write it, and I know I would regret it forever if I didn’t do it.

WINNER!

Jessica, who posted on my blog last week and played my little brainstorming game, has won a copy of my entire backlist. Yeah! Jessica, you can have the books signed to you, to a friend, or mix and match. Just let me know! Email me at allison @ allisonbrennan . com (no spaces.) with your snail mail address and how you want the books signed.

You get:
THE PREY
THE HUNT
THE KILL
SPEAK NO EVIL
SEE NO EVIL
FEAR NO EVIL
KILLING FEAR
WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE (anthology)

Congratulations!

A couple of weeks ago I went on an adventure to a voodoo temple in New Orleans with a few friends. The reason for the jaunt was to shoot promo footage for a possible TV pilot, so all of us were pretty amped up by the time we got there. Even better, this wasn’t to be just a visit to a voodoo temple—plans had already been set for us to participate in an actual voodoo ceremony! Although the priestess scheduled to perform the ritual offered to run the full gambit, —meaning she’d use a sacrificial chicken in the ceremony, which I thought would be WAY cool to witness–, we opted for the beginner’s version, sans chicken. The last thing we needed was animal rights activists hunting us down.

That said, I thought you might enjoy a little pictorial tour of the event. . . .

Meet Princess Miriam—yes, it is princess, according to Miriam, not priestess. The difference being a ‘princess’ is a woman born into the voodoo culture, a direct descendent of a voodoo queen, while a priestess is a woman who learned the rituals from a queen or princess but wasn’t born into a direct bloodline.

Here’s a look inside the temple – -

This is one of the altars….kinda looks like the inside of my closet.

Once we were given a short tour of the two rooms, which lasted all of two minutes, Miriam and the drummers began preparing for the ritual. Food and/or liquor or most often used as offerings during a voodoo ritual. The spirit Miriam intended to contact must have had digestive problems because her offering consisted of bananas, tortilla chips, and ice.

Let the ceremony begin!

As weird as the pictures may portray the ritual to have been, in truth, I found it to be little like an over-zealous, over-drummed Baptist prayer meeting, just with weird words thrown in. The ‘trance’ that was supposed to occur when the spirit overtook Miriam looked far too much like a sixty-plus-year-old woman dancing to a great rock-n-roll song. In fact, although fabulously talented in their own right, there were times I thought the drummers were going to break out with a Little Richard beat.

All in all, I had a great time and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. And I learned a bit more about a culture that’s always existed in my own backyard. Voodoo – - – Miriam explained voodoo to be a state of mind, a way of life, just as being Catholic or Baptist or Mormon is. Judging from the money I saw exchanged between her and a couple of clients, she may be right. If nothing else, voodoo sure seems to have the whole religious ‘gimme’ thing down pat.

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In two weeks our competition season will be over, and my Dancing Daughter is making a huge move. She will be moving to a new dance studio, and basically starting over. This is a brave–and rather scary–move for a child who has been at the same studio since she was six years old. There are many reasons for our decision to move to a new studio, not the least of which is her desire to advance and improve her technique. And the new studio has an EXCELLENT reputation for technique.

They also have many, many incredible dancers. I suppose there are those who would think it better to stand out on a mediocre team, than to be one of many on a great team. But there is a lot you can learn from dancing with other great dancers. And they push you to be better. You have to work hard to make dances at the new studio, and that means you are pushed.

There are other reasons for us to move, which I won’t really relate here, because this is a blog about writing, not dance studios. What? What you say? It does not APPEAR to be a blog about writing!

If you just give me a minute, I’ll figure out a way to tie it into writing…. Hmm. This was harder than I thought.

Oh, oh, oh! I know. If you hang out with great authors, like the great dancers, you are pushed yourself, and you learn a lot from them. It inspires you to do better than say, if you are the very best author in your publishing stable. That has not happened to me yet, and if it ever does, I’ll let you know. But it could happen, and then what would I do? I’d not be pushed and I would not have to try so damned hard with each book to make it better.

Competition is good, as long as it is friendly and doesn’t involve people with sharp weapons. Now, I don’t always get to hang out with as many incredible authors as I would like (except for the lovely, talented, and murderous ladies here at MSW), so I thought for fun I would post a few that I would love to have an hour or two getting to know.

Jeffrey Deaver–I met Jeffrey, briefly, at the first Thrillerfest, and I would have loved to have spent more time getting to know him, asking him questions about his writing, his method, his madness….er, well, maybe not madness.

Laura Lippman–I adore her writing, and her books, and I want to be her when I grow up. Too bad I’m already so old.

Jonathan Kellerman–I like his Alex Delaware series, but I think the reason I want to have lunch or drinks with him is he just looks so aloof. I want to break through that exterior and make him laugh. I would try hard not to snort milk through nose. I promise.

Dennis Lehane–I love his work, even the work that others don’t love so much, and so would love to have tea with him. I am not a stalker, though. I promise.

John Irving–John Irving is the reason I AM a writer. I have read everything he’s ever written, even the really weird stuff, which I still managed to love. I want to eat sushi with John Irving and stroke his knee and ask him about his childhood. That sounds a little stalkerish. The hour is late. I do not stalk people.

Dorothy Parker–I would like to ask Dorothy Parker if she liked cats. I suspect she did not.

Nora Roberts–I would like to know if Nora is a robot or an alien from another planet. Because I just do not get how she can be so prolific and yet stay so good.

So, there’s a few of the authors I would like to hang with. How about you? Any authors you would like to hang out and rub off on you, and please, tell us WHY…. (Ooooh, I copied Karin and made this another color. I am so cool. Or she is so cool. Or we are both cool. Something.)

For a few days, I didn’t have a name. I had a list of names, but none to call my own.

I gotta tell you, it’s a little weird to be nameless. I wasn’t at all sure who was going to write the second book in my witch hunter series…I only knew that Jennifer Apodaca wasn’t going to write it.

This is probably a good thing, because frankly, Apodaca was turning into a slacker. Okay, sure, she got the first book in a month early, but what has she done since then? Not a whole lot, the lazy slacker. She SAYS she’s plotting. Apparently, plotting involves a lot of writing emails and talking to friends.

But back to the point—the author with no name. It all started when my agent called me and told me that my publisher was concerned about my name. In other words, they want me to consider using a pseudonym.

There are many reasons to use a pseudonym. My publisher had one reason—they wanted something easy and memorable. Jennifer Apodaca is a mouthful. Not everyone can pronounce it, spell it, etc.

I understood that. But I had another reason for agreeing so easily. My readers expect a blend of mystery and romance, not a blast of paranormal. Because this is a big genre shift for me, I am choosing a different name. This way, readers won’t pick up the new book, see the name Jennifer Apodaca and buy it with certain expectations, and then be disappointed. Or feel like I somehow tricked them.

Plus, when the sales and marketing team has suggestions, I pay close attention. They are the ones talking to the buyers, and they are the ones who will be selling my books to the buyers. So I listen.

For a few days we kicked around names. I wanted to stick with Jennifer for simplicity. I made a list of last names while my husband made really helpful comments like, “I’m not going to know who I’m sleeping with.”

Haha. Funny.

Anyway, this is when I found out how OPINIONATED people are about names! When I asked friends, they had STRONG opinions about my list of names. I was kind of shocked. And I was starting to get confused, so I stopped asking everyone in the entire universe.

It came down to what I could live with, and what my agent, editor and publisher thought would work.

My favorite name from the list was Jennifer Legend. I had jokes all lined up for that name. Unfortunately, that name was cut. Bummer. I still think it was a cool name.

But alas, the decision was made. I had a name!

Jennifer Lyon.

I like it. It’s easy and it fits my Leo personality.

And the best part is that once I knew my name, a plot for book two started coming together. Turns out that Lyon isn’t as much a slacker as Apodaca!

So what do you all think of pseudonyms? Does it bother you when one under writes under more than one name?

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