Murder She Writes

BY LAURA GRIFFIN

I know a lot of busy moms.

Come to think of it, I also know a lot of busy people who don’t have kids. It’s safe to say most of the people I know (or want to know) have their hands full with a zillion different pursuits, some mundane and some interesting.

I think about these people often because they are my readers–the woman in the doctor’s office with the paperback stuffed in her purse, the guy on the subway, the mom at soccer practice stealing a few moments to read between homework and dinner time.

And, I’ll say this now without shame, I see it as my job as an author to entertain these people. I want to give them a reason to stuff that book in the purse / briefcase /gym bag before leaving the house. People’s time is precious. My time is. Yours is, too. I believe the best thing I can do as a writer is to value that time and give you a reason, right away, to keep turning the pages.

Most writers strive to do this, with varying degrees of success. The conventional wisdom is, the sooner you can interest people, the better. Otherwise, they’ll put down your book and do something else.

Is this because we live in the Age of Twitter? People’s attention span is only 140 characters long? Maybe so. I am a Gen Xer (note the shout out to Nirvana up there in the title). I know my attention span is limited by the general business of life, so I figure other people’s is, too.

I was at the park the other day with a friend of mine, and she was telling me about the last book she put down, out of sheer boredom. “I got a few chapters in and started to worry it was going to be, you know, a dud.”

That sucks. Who wants to read (or write) a dud?

I told my friend one of the reasons I like to read and write commercial fiction is because those stories usually (although NOT always, I know) tend to hook you in faster. It takes less time to get “into” the book.

She gave me a puzzled look, and so I tried to describe the difference between literary fiction and other genres… which quickly led to a discussion about mass market fiction versus trade paperback… and more puzzled looks. I started to explain it all. (Like I know what the hell I’m talking about or something. Actually, I didn’t know any of this until I entered the publishing industry and started hearing jargon all over the place.) For those of you who want the Cliff Notes, there are three major print formats in fiction:

Hardback, trade paperback, and mass market paperback.

Hardback you know. Trade paper is the next-most expensive (usually). It tends to be similar in size to hardback, with higher quality paper and larger font than you see in mass market paperback. Mass market paperbacks (usually around the $8 price point) are the smaller books, thinner paper, often seen in grocery stores, etc… Except they’re in book stores, too. So really, it’s very confusing. Mass market paperbacks often include romance novels, mysteries, sci-fi and other types of stories some people call “genre fiction”. (Notice all my qualifiers here? I’m covering my butt, because it’s tough to have this discussion without ticking somebody off).

Literary fiction tends to be seen as more “serious” or high brow. My book club reads a lot of these books. Think The Kite Runner, The Joy Luck Club, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Corrections. Sometimes these books deal with weightier issues. Sometimes they feature beautifully written prose. Sometimes they are dreck. It all depends. The same could be said about some romance / mystery / sci-fi novels, so I’m not throwing tomatoes at anyone.

Anyhoo, the point is, we can toss these labels around, but basically I’m a book lover and all I really want is to fall in love with a good book. I don’t care what it’s called in publishing circles. I just want to open the pages and be pulled in.

What’s your limit? I know editors and busy literary agents who will put a book or manuscript down after one chapter if they’re not hooked. Maybe I’m biased toward writers, but I try to give at least 50 pages. If I get 50 pages in, and I’m still not feeling it, I move on to something else in my TBR pile. I mean, the darn thing is toppling over. A girlfriend of my was telling me about putting down a certain book about a certain girl with a certain scaled-beast tattoo after she read for 150 pages and still wasn’t into it. Not me, babe. Not gonna do it. That’s too long to be bored.

The newest work of literary fiction awaiting my attention (I can’t wait to dive in!) is Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen. His last book, which came out in 2001 (!!!) was called The Corrections, and Franzen made headlines when he supposedly snubbed Oprah and was uninvited to be featured by her book club. Oops. Bet the sales department liked that. Personally, I loved the book because it features this quirky and dysfunctional Midwestern family that reminded me of my own quirky and dysfunctional family so much, I laughed out loud at many points. Some people thought it was depressing. But, you know, books are subjective that way.

Freedom is absolutely a work of literary fiction. I know this because Newsweek just ran a cover (yes, cover) story about Jonathan Franzen, and the article talks about how it took him 9 years to complete the book. This has literary fiction written all over it. (It took way less time than that to write it, but he spent a few years coming up with the premise and so forth). That’s a long time to write a novel. But I still have high hopes that this book will be a good read because it features a discontented suburban mom (she sounds interesting) and because Franzen told the Newsweek reporter it was important for authors to write “compelling” books for today’s readers because “there is so much more distraction they have to resist.”

In other words, hook them in fast cuz they’re busy.

That’s what I think, too. Readers are, after all, here to be entertained.

What are you looking for when you sit down with a book? And when do you stop reading if the author isn’t hooking you in?

Anyone who comments will be eligible to win a SIGNED ADVANCED COPY of my upcoming anthology, written with Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, and Cindy Gerard. For those of you who want to play the labels game, this is a collection of three novellas in the “genre” of romantic suspense. I’m so excited to share a book with these fabulous ladies, and I hope this week’s lucky winner will be excited to read it well before the Sept. 28 release date. Leave a comment for a chance to win!

DEADLY PROMISES containing three new romantic suspense novellas by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, Cindy Gerard, and Laura Griffin.

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We’re all busy. I know. Sometimes I feel like I’m juggling sixteen balls in the air and dropping way too many of them. So I fully understand the appeal of online shopping. It’s great for sweaters, tote bags, that obscure lecture series your father wants for his birthday.

But not so much for shoes, or dresses, or (eek!) bathing suits. Sometimes you really need to put your foot in the shoe. Feel the fabric in your fingers. Try something on.

I’m that way with books. Which is the primary reason I absolutely love to go to a real sticks-and-bricks bookstore when I want something to read. I’m talking about a place with that book smell, where you can pluck a paperback off the shelves and skim a few pages. Or wander past a table and browse some titles you’ve never heard of, much less decided to read yet. There’s a certain spontaneity that gets lost in the online buying experience. Sure, it’s convenient–when you know precisely what you want. But what if you don’t?

Okay, granted I’m a bit of a geek about books. (My nickname in grade school was “book nook” after the corner of the classroom where I spent much of my time). But truly, there is something special about an actual bookstore as opposed to the virtual kind.

I want to share five truly awesome destination bookstores, some in cities where I’ve lived, others where I’ve just been a tourist. Check them out if you get a chance!

BookPeople (Austin, Texas) — Comfy arm chairs, great coffee, and (my personal favorite) those little hand-written shelf-talkers featuring staff recommendations. I have trusted them repeatedly and never been disappointed. These staffers know their books!

BookPeople, a hangout for book lovers & an Austin landmark.

Powell’s Books (Portland, Oregon) — One word: ginormous. I’m talking about 68,000 square feet of books. Think about that! How big is your home?? I first stumbled into this place at the age of 17 and I’m still blown away by it. If you’re in Portland, you can’t miss it.

Borders (Michigan Avenue, Chicago) – If you’ve ever braved the Windy City in January, you know about nose-numbing cold and you can imagine how heavenly it feels to step through the doors and be surrounded by books and warmth and the smell of coffee. My favorite stop on the Magnificent Mile.

A view of Seattle from the Bainbridge Island ferry. The island is home to the Eagle Harbor Book Co.

Eagle Harbor Book Co. (Bainbridge Island, Washington) — It probably has something to do with the ferry ride and the amazing view of the Seattle skyline, but this is truly a destination bookstore. Good selection, inviting atmosphere, and just a skip away from the ferry terminal.

Murder By The Book (Houston, Texas) – If you’re a mystery lover, this is your store. They get a great lineup of suspense authors doing events, too.

Where do you like to find your next book? Leave a comment and be eligible to win a $15 Starbucks gift card and a signed copy of  WHISPER OF WARNING, which recently won the 2010 RITA for romantic suspense (yay!!).

Let’s talk tube.

Someone sent me a blog yesterday that was sprinkled with TV references, and I came to the realization that I don’t watch nearly enough television.

I know, I know. Americans watch too much TV. We’re melting our brains. Our children are turning into couch potatoes before our eyes, etc. But the thing is, there are households out there where TV just isn’t a big deal. My house happens to be one of them. And while there are definitely some good things about that, I can’t help feeling (occasionally) that I’m missing out.

So I set out to do something simple (or so I thought). Find a list of the top TV shows out there and pick one to start watching. I discovered this is tough to do. TV has become so varied and fragmented, and there is simply so much out there. It isn’t like 25 years ago when Thursday nights rolled around and half the people in America were glued to THE COSBY SHOW.

After scouring the Internet (okay, I only spent thirty minutes, but still), I realized a definitive list of “top” TV shows is hard to come by, probably because there are so many definitions of “top” and everyone wants a list that suits their own agenda. But here are some shows that I came across again and again:

TRUE BLOOD

NCIS

BIG BANG THEORY

CRIMINAL MINDS

30 ROCK

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

BONES

HELL’S KITCHEN

AMERICA’S GOT TALENT

Is your favorite show on this list? Currently, the only show I watch on a regular basis is TOP CHEF, which always makes me hungry. I’m looking for a new show to fall in love with. Tell me about your favorite and why you like it so much.

Just for fun, I also poked around and found a list of top TV shows of all time. I’m a little skeptical because the list I found included CHEERS, MOONLIGHTING, and THE WEST WING (yep, agree with those) but also FELICITY (!?!). So who knows where these lists come from.

Anyway, tell me your favorite TV show, past and present, and be eligible to win a $15 GIFT CARD TO STARBUCKS, along with a signed copy of my new release UNSPEAKABLE.

Did you notice the double exclamation marks? Can you tell how excited I am?

There is nothing like a book release. I get that flutter in my stomach the night before. I toss and turn all night. Then on the morning of pub date I jump out of bed and immediately want to go to the book store.

The release of this new book, UNSPEAKABLE, is particularly special to me because I’ve had this story in my head for such a long time. Well, not the story exactly, but the people. Every time I’ve met a female cop or interviewed an FBI agent or read a book about the FBI Academy, I’ve been thinking about this heroine. And now here she is, alive on the page.

Her name is Elaina McCord, and she’s the rookie agent who gets in way over her head when she goes to a popular Texas beach resort to help local police solve a string of brutal murders. Elaina is sharp, stubborn, resilient, and also a fish out of water in the Texas border region. Lucky for her (and because this is a romantic suspense story) true crime writer Troy Stockton shows up to help her navigate the local politics… but of course his help comes with some strings attached.

It was so much funresearching this book! I got to interview FBI agents all over the country and hear some amazing war stories. I had a chance to tour the Academy at Quantico. I got to fire a Glock for the first time. I got to walk around Hogan’s Alley, where agents-in-training practice takedowns. I got to fire a Glock. 

Did I mention the Glock? That was my favorite part.                                                                             

And then I got to sit down at my computer and let the story flow and weave in all the details I’d gathered and … I can’t explain it. I just felt like it came together. So when the cardboard box arrived on my doorstep filled with books, you can imagine how excited I was. I hope readers enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Let me share a review, and then get to the fun part. THE GIVEAWAY!!

“A tight suspense with the sexiest of heroes and a protagonist seriously worth rooting for!” 4 1/2 STARS! –RT Book Reviews

Oh, and Fresh Fiction put a smile on my face, too:

“Laura Griffin’s Tracers series is spellbinding and full of twists and turns. A page-turner until the last page, it’s a fabulous read.”

I hope you will like the book, too! To celebrate the release this week I’m giving away a signed copy of UNTRACEABLE, along with a $25 GIFTCARD TO BORDERS. Just leave a comment for a chance to win! And drop by my Web site at www.lauragriffin.com if you’d like to read an excerpt.

If you are a mother, this has probably happened to you.

You’re standing in your closet holding a spatula and a pair of pink Speedo goggles and you’re looking for something, but for the life of you, you have no idea what it is.

No? You haven’t had this experience?

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I have an attention deficit disorder. Or maybe I’m simply juggling about sixteen too many balls in the air. Or maybe I’m having a string of senior moments a few decades early. For whatever reason, about once a week I find myself in the middle of something and I’m reminded of the book I used to read to my kids, If You Give a Moose a Muffin.Or a pig a pancake. Or a (fill in cute animal and high-carb bakery item) as I go about my life. For those of you not familiar with this story (which really is wonderful, by the way, even if I don’t enjoy the obvious parallels between myself and the pig, moose, et al.) it involves some animal that starts out doing something simple and gets distracted with a dozen other tasks along the way.

This is my life lately.  I have a book on my desk awaiting line edits, a novella on my desk awaiting copy edits, and a manuscript-in-progress on my computer that is woefully lacking in heft.

And what am I doing this afternoon? I am labeling socks. Forty-eight socks, to be exact. Each with the first and last name of a child who is leaving home for the first time this weekend (sniff) to go to summer camp.

Perhaps this is the real source of my anxiety. Probably, this is why I’ve been a bit muddled lately as I turn my house upside-down looking for fitted twin sheets, flashlight batteries, and drawstring laundry bags. It’s their first non-family journey away from home, and I’m a bit mixed about it. I know it will be a character-building experience. (I did six years of camp, so I can definitely attest to this). I also KNOW that I sorely need the work time without distractions so that I can make some progress on my writing. But still, I’m finding it harder than usual to get myself and my family organized.

Can anyone relate to this? Please tell me I’m not the only one out there with the attention span of a moose.

Because I’m feeling snacky after writing this, one lucky commenter will win a $10 gift card to Starbucks (buy yourself a muffin!) and a signed copy of my latest release UNSPEAKABLE, which hits bookstores on Tuesday. Woo-hoo! I’ll be blogging about the book next week! In the meantime, leave a comment and be eligible to win.                   

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As we head off for Memorial Day holidays, it’s a good time to say thank you to our men and women in uniform, past and present, for the sacrifices they have made for our country. I know that I for one take my freedom for granted every single day, and we all owe our armed forces a huge debt of gratitude. Too bad most of us only think about this a few times a year.

I have never been in a war. I’ve never even been in a war zone. The closest I have been was touring Ground Zero about a year after 9/11, and if anyone doubts whether those attacks constituted an act of war against our country, I would say talk to someone who was there that day and I bet you will change your mind.

I experience war the way many Americans do–through the filter of the media. I read about it in newspapers, online, see it on TV, and occasionally pick up a book about it. It is through the words of writers–some professional and some not–that I feel a sense of loss, sacrifice, awe, horror, and gratitude over the experiences of people who represent my country overseas.

Today I want to share with you a few books, all about different wars, that really struck a chord with me. In short, they made me cry. They also made me laugh and wonder and feel grateful for those who have served our country.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – This poignant collection of stories about Vietnam gives a very personal and humanizing glimpse into the lives of a handful of soldiers by examining the things they carried with them through the jungle: “They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other.” (from the back cover copy)

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier — This is a love story, first and foremost, but it really drove home for me how bloody the Civil War was and made me realize how close we came to not being a United States.

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson — A terrifying and extremely moving account, set in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, of one of the bloodiest days ever for America’s Navy SEALs. What got me about this book was the gray areas. It made me think about how difficult it is to draw a hard line between right and wrong, especially on the modern battlefield. I read the whole book as told through the eyes of this Navy SEAL who watched his friends die, and even in hindsight, I have no idea how I would have responded if faced with the same impossible choices. This book made me think, and I believe that’s the hallmark of an effective war story.

Can you recommend any books about war or soldiers? Or maybe you saw a movie that really hit home? Please share your thoughts!

And a safe and happy Memorial Weekend to everyone!

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Books are an addiction for me. They accumulate on my nightstand. On my coffee table. In my car. At almost any given moment there’s one tucked in my purse. And it’s a rare grocery run when I don’t at least pause beside that alluring section right next to the magazines.

Everyone in my family knows I’m an addict, which is why for years they’ve been trying to buy me a Kindle.

“Thanks,” I say (very sincerely… this is no cheap gift we’re talking about!) “But I’m really attached to my paperbacks.”

I am, too. For me, it’s about relaxation. I read books to relax, to unwind, to escape into a great story. Gazing at a computer screen and holding something digital in my hands feels like work to me. I’m in front of a computer all day. The last thing I want to do at night is curl up in an armchair with one.

Does anyone relate to this? Sometimes I feel like I’m the only book lover left who isn’t dying to make the leap to the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad, the Kobo. Which of course isn’t true. I mean, these gizmos are pricey. They range from around $200 for the Sony Reader Pocket Edition to the (gasp!) $829 iPad Wi-Fi 3G with all the bells and whistles. Now there’s something you don’t want to misplace. And it’s not possible yet to do what I do when I shop for sunglasses, which is go the cheapo route so that if you lose them (which I always do) nobody cares.

So, today I’m taking a poll. Show of hands, please, who here uses a digital reading device of some sort? And more importantly, do you like it? I’m genuinely curious. Maybe I’ve been too quick to judge.

Does it work for you at the beach? By the pool? What about in the bath tub? I read an article in the (paper version) New York Timesnot too long ago in which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bragged about zipping his Kindle into a one-gallon Ziploc bag so he could use it in the bath tub.

He must be joking, I thought. Founder of one of the most progressive companies in the world and that’s the best he’s got? A plastic baggie?

There may come a day when I take these words back (I’m pretty sure of it, actually, but I’m dreading it all the same), but no digital book for me, thanks. I much prefer the paper kind.

So what about you? Like I said, takin’ a poll here. It’s only three questions, and anyone who responds will be eligible to win a free (paper) version of any of my books.

1) Do you own any sort of electronic reader?

2) If not, how come?

3) If you have one (or have ever used one) what do you think?

That’s it! Good luck with the giveaway and happy reading to you, however you like to do it.

1  1

I have my 75,000+ Baby Names  book out again.

If you ever want to make a man’s heart skip, just leave that thing on the edge of your desk. I get the book out several times a year, always eliciting a look of panic from my husband no matter how many times I explain that I’m only using it for work.

Typically when Baby Names  comes out I’m starting a story, but right now I’m finishing one. This is the handy-dandy reference that helps me name characters, which isn’t nearly as easy as you might think. This time around, for instance, I’m not naming a character but renaming one after starting out with a name that sounds way too similar to a character in another author’s story. (It wouldn’t matter, really, but we’re in an anthology together and don’t want to confuse readers!)

What’s in a name, anyway?

If you’re a reader or writer of fiction, you probably know the answer. A lot.

So many memorable characters have cool sounding names: Roarke, Scarpetta, Holden. Frequently, names in fiction are chosen to conjure up images. (Han Solo, Clarice Starling, Bella Swan, to mention a few). But there’s more to choosing a character name than imagery, unfortunately. Oftentimes it takes me longer to come up with the right name than the opening scene.

Many of my characters aren’t born at the beginning of a book, but in the middle of one. I’ll be in the midst of a scene and boom, new character walks in and I have to figure out what to call him. Call him Sam and get on with it, you might think. Problem is, the secondary characters could end up having their own books down the road. And whatever name I pulled out of the sky on that fateful day, I’m stuck with it for months and months. So it had better be good, heroic-sounding, worthy of a 100,000-word story.

Here are just a few criteria I think about: How does the name sound? Is it too similar to other names in my story? (Anyone who has ever read a book populated with guys named Jake, Jared, and Jacob knows how annoying this can be. Why not just toss in a woman named Jaymee and drive the reader completely nuts?)

So I make an effort not to have all my characters names start with the same letter.  Also, I try to avoid names that end with “s” because that just gives me grief later when I’m making possessives. And that’s when the detective spotted it! On the rain-drenched sidewalk was Amy Meyers’s bloody scarf….

Usually I come up with a first name simply by thinking about my character and consulting my baby names book. Pairing it with a last name is where the trouble starts.

Here’s how hero-naming often goes for me: I think of something fabulous. It’s simple, macho-sounding without being over the top. The name works well with my heroine. Her  name doesn’t sound kooky with it, should they get married someday (I don’t want to end up with a Sunny Skye or something). At last, I have the perfect name for my leading man. I turn to my computer, hop onto Google, and . . .

Find out he’s a porn star. Or an NFL quarterback. Or a seventy-year-old radio personality whom I’ve never heard of but millions of people listen to daily.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board. And so it goes until finally I get it right.

How do you think of names? Besides my baby names book, I use the phone book, the social security web site, the newspaper. If you’re not a writer, how did you come up with names for your kids? Your pets?

I’m looking for fresh ideas here! Share your stories and one commenter will win a free book. In honor of this weekend’s Romantic Times convention, I’m giving away a signed copy of UNTRACEABLE, which was nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award.

Good luck and have a great weekend!