Debra Webb

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The Year of Deb Webb

For better than six years now I have looked forward to every other Tuesday and chatting with all my dear friends and my sisters here at Murder She Writes. We’ve been through some rough times and all of you were patient through my recovery and the resurrection of my writing career. We’ve also shared some wonderful times. You’ve gone through every step of the reno on this old house with me and my husband as well as my baby girl’s wedding. I will cherish the memories until the end of my days.

This is Deb, Allison and former MSW blogger Deb LeBlanc, along with a guy (LOL!) when we did a panel at RT back in … 2007?

It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye today. Of course I’ll be on Facebook and Twitter and at www.thefacesofevil.com and I hope you’ll say hello from time to time. I’m streamlining and organizing my time so that I can have more of it for me. Sounds a little selfish, I know. But I have avoided me for a very long time. Let’s face it, as wives and mothers it’s simply easier to focus on and to take care of everyone else. I’ve done this for most of my life. Taking care of others and ignoring me became a habit early on. What’s wrong with that, right? The world needs all the martyrs it can get.

There’s just one problem with that way of thinking—I realized recently that I’m not a martyr at all. What I am is a chicken. Yes, that’s right, a straight up chicken. It takes real courage to focus on and fix yourself. And you don’t have to worry about feeling guilty when you’re busy taking care of everyone else. It’s much harder to say, “Sorry, I can’t do that because I’m going to get a pedicure or taking a nice, leisurely walk.” Or, “I’m going to the gym.” I’ve always hated telling anyone no, but I’m exercising that muscle starting now. A wonderful lady and dear friend of mine from childhood said it best, “Fifty-five and coming alive!” So maybe I’m having a delayed midlife crisis. Whatever. As long as it helps me get where I’m going, game on!

Where am I headed? Well, I didn’t need a GPS to figure that out. All I needed was a few months of reflection and a long, hard look at myself in the mirror. I’m shedding all those extra pounds and getting strong. I’m spending time with my husband and taking leisurely Sunday drives. I’m considering what I want before I factor in what everyone else wants. I’m going to enjoy some time just being me.

I love all you guys and look forward to showing off pics of my courageous journey into Me-Town. While you’re here today, why not share what you’ve done for you lately?

I can not tell you how sad I am to see Deb leave. I met her for the first time at the 2006 Atlanta RWA conference and we had dinner with her friends — she is kind, gracious, sweet, and Southern in all the best ways. The accident that befell her should never have happened, she should never have had to suffer through the pain and frustration of the past two-and-a-half years. She is truly an inspiration to me, and to everyone lucky enough to call her friend. I understand your decision, Deb — I support you totally — but we’re all going to miss you. XOXO. ~Allison

Tagged with: blogging, Debra Webb, sliderpost
Posted in Debra Webb, Writing Life

Thrillerfest VII

I’ve been a member of International Thriller Writers since almost the beginning of their organization. (In fact, I missed being a charter member by three days! Grr.) Since the first, small conference in Arizona in 2006, I’ve only missed one “Thrillerfest” when it conflicted with RWA. If there’s ever another conflict, I won’t be skipping out on Thrillerfest.

The view of the Empire State Building from the Rooftop of 230 Fifth Street where St. Martin’s had their party on Thursday night.

There are many reasons why I love this conference, not least of which is the thriller/suspense focus. The conference is in New York City and gives me the opportunity to sit down with my editor and agent every year. While meeting in person is not a requirement in publishing, it’s always nice to have that sit down and talk about both business and pleasure. Since I’m 3,000 miles away in California, Thrillerfest provides a rare opportunity for an annual meeting.

I haven’t been to many mystery conferences, Thrillerfest being my only one until I went to Left Coast Crime earlier this year. I am definitely planning on attending Left Coast Crime again (either 2013 or 2014 or both!) and my dream is to go to Bouchercon. Unfortunately, it’s in the Fall and all my kids are in Fall sports, making juggling this conference harder. I think I can swing 2013 because my #2 daughter will have her driver’s license. But Thrillerfest is in the summer, a great travel time for me.

Pamela Callow, Sandra Brown, and me. I need to lose at least 35 pounds.

Another very important reason I love Thrillerfest is the atmosphere. Everyone is truly generous and helpful. The mega-stars hang out with the rising stars, and there isn’t a lot of professional jealousy or secrets or clusters of people in corners giving you the evil eye when you approach. Maybe because the conference is smaller than most national conferences — I think we had 800 attendees this year — we get that sense of intimacy that many conferences lack.

And then the panels! Definitely more in line with my interests than most other conferences. Examples? How about: “How do you knock off your characters? Unique ways to kill,” “Is truth too strange for fiction?” “Is the Apocalypse Imminent?” “Does Evil Exist?” and “What Makes them Scream?” See why I love coming every year? LOL. There are also master classes at “Craftfest” taught by the likes of Lee Child, Lisa Gardner, Catherine Coulter, R.L. Stine, Ann Rule, and more. Q&A interviews of the biggest authors are always good. I’m getting the tape for Lee Child’s presentation because I was late and it was standing room only! For a full list of the presenters and schedule, check the website.

Then there’s me, personally. At other events, I feel like I have to be “on” at all times. Meaning, I need to be attentive, pay attention to everyone around me, be cheerful, talkative, helpful, and friendly. I had a very bad experience at one RWA conference that cut deeply and every time I walk into another, I have a sense of panic. It’s not overwhelming, but it makes me want to stay in my room when I have no place to be. I know, as Karin would say I need to grow-up and get over it, but it’s one of those things I haven’t been able to completely forget. Hey, I still go to big conferences!

Pershing Square, right outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Remember the climax of THE AVENGERS??? Yes, it was here! Love that movie. 🙂

Now, Thrillerfest isn’t perfect. My single biggest complaint is the lack of a public signing. The current signing schedule is ridiculous and modeled, I believe, after other mystery conferences. There was going to be a public signing this year, but they didn’t have enough time for the logistics. I have some ideas on this and am writing a memo to the Board on how I think it can (and should!) be implemented. Also, sometimes the panels are so people heavy that there’s not a lot of depth in 50 minutes. I think four panelists and a moderator works; six panelists, not so much.

I wish I could better articulate why this conference fills me in ways that other conferences have not. As a career-builder, I think no conference truly has an impact, but this one comes close in terms of refilling the writing well and making connections with people who truly seem to want to support the writing careers of authors both new, midlist, and established. Another plus is that published authors don’t pay dues (because of the anthologies we publish that keep us solvent.) Thrillerfest is also as much a READERS conference as a WRITERS conference, and has a track of panels just for the thriller reader, plus cocktail parties, morning coffees, and more that allow everyone to mingle. I have so much more to tell, but this blog is already getting too long! 🙂

Here’s one other benefit: Entertainment at the Thriller Awards Banquet. In the past, Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer have entertained us with an original song; this year Brad Parks stepped in to fill Michael’s big, talented shoes. (As an aside, both father and son Palmer are fun, funny, and generous with their time and talent.) This year, we have Ghost Writers in the Sky — absolutely fabulous! Enjoy 🙂

ITW supports itself through the publications that are donated by members. Sandra Brown (talented, gorgeous, gracious and kind) edited LOVE IS MURDER, our romantic suspense anthology, which got two starred reviews and contains 29 fabulous short stories, including some for current and former MSW bloggers (myself, Laura, Rocki, Toni, Lori and Deb!) I’m giving away one copy, digital or hardcover, of this anthology to a lucky commenter.

Writers, let me know what you love most about your favorite conference (or your “never miss” conference); readers, tell me if you’ve ever been to a readers conference and what you love most about it — or if you would want to go to one!

Tagged with: Allison Brennan, book giveaway, Brad Parks, Daniel Palmer, Debra Webb, International Thriller Writers, Laura Griffin, Lori Armstrong, Love is Murder, Michael Palmer, New York City, Pamela Callow, publishing, romantic suspense, Roxanne St. Claire, Sandra Brown, St. Martin's Press, The Business, Thrillerfest, thrillers, Toni McGee Causey, writing
Posted in Allison Brennan

Sifting through the Garbage

First, I want to apologize to our loyal MSW readers for our Summer Slump. While we’ve been redesigning and reorganizing the blog, we have been neglecting it … that will change, just please have patience while we’re under construction!

STALKED is done. I turned it into my editor on Tuesday and spent yesterday a complete vegetable, playing games with the kids and goofing off. Then I went to bed early — 10:30. That’s early for me, because I’m usually up until 2 in the morning. Today, it’s back to work! I’m editing a novella I wrote 6 years ago. Needless to say, it needs a lot of work.

I’m often asked about my first four manuscripts. Why don’t I bring them out from under the proverbial bed and dust off those bunnies? Clean up the books and either sell them or self-publish them?

Why indeed?

Because they are total crap.

The novella I’m editing I had sold to a quarterly romance magazine back in 2006 … then the magazine went under. I never contracted for the story, a serial that would have been published over three issues. When I looked at it again, I saw a lot of potential — it was a tight, clean story. However, I have become a stronger writer in six years, and the original story was more a romance than a suspense. To me, all the “good stuff” happened off the page … the investigation, the discovery of the body, the footwork … so I’m layering all that in and my original 20K word story will be closer to 40K when I’m done.

But what about my first four books? Couldn’t I do the same to those?

HOT LATTE was my first book. I still love the idea, but the book is a total mess. Not just the sophomoric writing, but the story. I had EVERY romantic suspense plotline imaginable. Psycho ex-girlfriend to the hero, sociopathic ex-fiance for the heroine, psychopathic stalker — yes, three different people! I had a serial rapist, the psycho stalker killed his mother (hello Norman Bates!) and left her body rotting in her bed. Kidnapping, mistaken identity, corporate espionage … you name it. I had three completely books in one! LOL. That said, I did use the hero in another book — just his basic character and backstory. He became Zach Travis in THE KILL.

PROTECTING HART was a bit better — a female former cop turned bodyguard who saved the life of the lieutenant governor who was running for governor of California. I thought, right what you know? I was working in the capitol at the time! I had a lot of inside knowledge. And the book wasn’t bad, it was just … not good.

I can’t even remember the title of my third book, but I think it was BENEATH THE SURFACE. I knew when I was half way done that this book was total garbage, but I finished it anyway. Why? Because before I finished writing HOT LATTE, I had never finished anything I started. I didn’t want to get into that bad habit. And, it finaled in the Daphne contest. Ironically, the set-up and heroine became the set-up and heroine of the novella I’m currently editing.

My fourth book was actually pretty good. It was called FATAL SECRETS (I used the title for something else) and I pitched it as “JD Robb’s Eve Dallas meets Alias’s Sydney Bristow.” A futuristic spy story. The only book I entered in the Golden Heart (I got a 9, 8, 7, 6 and 4.) The only book that was requested in full by an editor through a contest (no, she didn’t buy it.) The heroine is fantastic, I absolutely love her, and I really want to use her. But she’s not a contemporary heroine. The sub-plot, about a clandestine diamond mine on the Mars moon Phobos, is plausible — there has been a lot of research into the moons of Mars. My agent at the time, after I sold THE PREY, read the book and she said she loved the characters but the story was too science fiction and confusing at the end.

I realized it would be far more work to save these stories, then to just write something completely new. The one exception is my futuristic … the core story is there and it’s pretty good. But it’s completely out of my genre, so if I do anything with it I have to really think it through.

I have four more days to fool around with the novella (I hope it’ll be done!) because on Monday I’m started to write STOLEN, the sixth book in the Lucy Kincaid series. I have one more idea for Lucy after STOLEN, but I haven’t pitched the idea yet. I love it, but we’ll see! After that, I don’t know what I’ll be doing … more Lucy books, or another series I want to write. Or both! Ironically, I wrote faster six years ago than I write now, yet I spend more time at the computer writing now then I did then. Odd.

My novella (MURDER IN THE RIVER CITY) and a compilation of all my short stories (KILLING JUSTICE) will be released by me digitally only this summer. I’m aiming for the week of July 15th. I had some frustrated readers when Ballantine published my digital only LOVE IS MURDER last year, a Lucy Kincaid novella. Ballantine printed it in the back of IF I SHOULD DIE, but I don’t want to make my readers upset. How do you feel when an author publishes a digital only story? What if it’s a stand-alone? Does that make a difference?

And for short story and romantic suspense fans, THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER edited by Sandra Brown, came out last week from MIRA in hardcover and e-book. It includes stories by several MSW gals, including Roxanne St. Claire, Laura Griffin, Toni McGee Causey, Lori Armstrong, Debra Webb, and yours truly. My mom read it and loved it, even though she’s not usually a big fan of short stories. (She did say that she agreed with Sandra Brown’s comment on Toni’s story!)

Tagged with: Allison Brennan, Debra Webb, Laura Griffin, Lori Armstrong, Love is Murder, Lucy Kincaid, Roxanne St. Claire, Sandra Brown, Stalked, Toni McGee Causey, writing
Posted in Allison Brennan

Beginnings

Today I’m at Left Coast Crime in Sacramento — the best thing about this conference is that it’s local! No airfare, no hotel. I’m “commuting” each day (Ok, that’s kind of bad, I really hate commuting!) But I’m definitely all about penny pinching now, especially since my oldest is going off to college in the fall … so commuting it is.

Checking in with you all may be a bit haphazard, so in light of Deb’s great blog about endings last week, I thought I’d talk about beginnings.

For me, beginnings are the hardest part of writing. Where to start? In what POV? How much do I need to say about my series character? How can I entice new readers but not make current readers bored?

Sometimes, my first first line stays for the entire draft, editing, and revision process … like in IF I SHOULD DIE:

Guilt led him down the dark, cold passage many times that winter.

Other times, I write and rewrite the first line and almost always it comes to me much later and I go back and fix it. In fact, with SILENCED, the original first chapter was moved to later in the book, and I wrote a completely new opening during revisions. Here’s the opening line:

The whore traitor lived in a secure building with live cameras and nosy neighbors.

The opening line in the prologue of THE INFORMATIONIST by Taylor Stevens completely hooked me:

This is where he would die.

I greatly enjoyed this book–definitely “unputdownable” and introducing a terrific and original heroine.

Most readers give the author a couple pages, so perhaps relying so much on the first line or first paragraph isn’t important. But the opening passage sets the tone and expectations. In STEIN ON WRITING by editor Sol Stein, he wrote that he did a reader experiment by walking into a bookstore. He was certain that readers read the first 3-5 pages before making a purchase decision. He watched during a lunch hour and was stunned by the results: Almost without exception, if the reader pulled a book out, read the opening page, then turned the page, they bought the book. Readers who read the opening page but didn’t turn the page, put the book back on the shelf.

Even if you’re not so quick to judge, it’s clear that the first few lines are pivotal.

One of my favorite books of 2011 was Darynda Jones‘ debut FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT. From the cover and title, you know what you’re getting, and the opening paragraph clinches the deal:

I’d been having the same dream for the past month–the one where a dark stranger materialized out of smoke and shadows to play doctor with me. I was starting to wonder if repetitive exposure to nightly hallucinations resulting in earth-shattering climaxes could have any long-term side effects. Death via extreme pleasure was a serious concern. The prospect led to the following dilemma: Do I seek help or buy drinks all around?

Darynda has a strong and compelling voice–fun, sarcastic, witty, fresh. Is it any wonder that she’s a DOUBLE Rita finalist with this book?

J.D. Robb opens every book with a wowza of a one-liner, which immediately conveys tone and character.

While a late-summer storm bashed against her single skinny window, Lieutenant Eve Dallas wished for murder. — NEW YORK TO DALLAS

A late-night urge for an orange fizzy saved Nixie’s life. — SURVIVOR IN DEATH

For him, death was a vocation. Killing was not merely an act, or a means to an end. It certainly was not an impulse of the moment or a path to gain and glory.

Death was, in and of itself, the all. — CREATION IN DEATH

So pull out the book you’re reading or one you just finished and share the opening line. Does it do the book justice? Have you read the author before or is this a brand-new reading experience? Everyone who plays today will be put in the “hat” for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the on-line bookseller of your choice … AND (drum roll) an early copy of SILENCED.

SILENCED received a Top Pick from RT Book Reviews (yeah!) which said, in part, “Edge-of-your-seat suspense … from first to last, this story grabs hold and never lets go.”

Tagged with: Allison Brennan, contest, Craft, Darynda Jones, Debra Webb, First Grave on the Right, left coast crime, opening lines, Silenced, Sol Stein, Taylor Stevens, The Informationist
Posted in Allison Brennan

Ask Us Anything!!

Karin is traveling today, so the remaining gals here at Murder She Writes thought it would be fun to have another “Ask Us Anything!” Q&A. The rest of us will pop in all day to answer questions — about our books, reading, writing, television, movies … just ask.

Tagged with: Allison Brennan, Author Q&A, authors, books, craft of writing, Debra Webb, fiction, Josie Brown, Karin Tabke, Laura Griffin, Lorelei James, Lori Armstrong, mystery, novels, red hot reads, Roxanne St. Claire, Sophie Littlefield, suspense, Sylvia Day, thrillers, Toni McGee Causey, women's fiction, writers
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