Left Coast Crime: Pigeonholes

What I'm reading: Daphne contest entries and The Next Best Thing, by Kristan

First – Welcome to April. New for this month: Another contest (click the Contest tab for details). Also, in the spirit of Tax Relief, I'm offering discounts on two of my books (click the "Deals & Steals" tab to see those.)

Next, I filed an overview report on Left Coast Crime which is at Barbara Vey's Publishers Weekly "Beyond Her Book" blog today. Author Rosemary Harris also gave her take.

And on to the 'meat': another Left Coast Crime panel recap.

David Morrell moderated a panel about rule breaking. (Actually, the panel was entitled "Breaking Barricades and Opening Doors" so I went in expecting something more like SWAT techniques, but more on that in another post.)

Takeaways from the panel.
Mysteries and Thrillers are starting to sound the same. Don't be afraid to write your own book. One author on the panel, Johnny Boggs, has twenty-three 1st person narrators in one of his books. Didn't keep it from being published.

Pigeonholes for books isn't necessarily a good thing. Michael McGarrity said, "Don't write a "type" of story, write the story.

Panelist Zoe Sharp spoke about two kinds of books: good books and bad books. Everything else is just a "flavor." Voice is what matters.

Order, Order

What I'm reading: Worth Dying For, by Lee Child

Anyone notice the new tab above? "Deals and Steals" - check for bargains and special offerings.

In conjunction with Read an eBook week, which runs from March 6-12, I'm offering WHEN DANGER CALLS for FREE at Smashwords. Use coupon code RE100. And don't forget to check out my March contest--an ARC of WHERE DANGER HIDES, the sequel to WHEN DANGER CALLS, could be yours.

Why I will never write out of order again.

If you've been following my posts, you'll know I've been working on edits for my WIP. This one is kind of a departure, because for the first time, I've given my villain a POV. Although this slides it across the mystery boundary into "suspense" territory, it seemed a given. The heroine is running from an abusive husband. She's got something he wants. Stands to reason he's going to be looking for her. There's nothing "secret" about who he is, and allowing him a few POV scenes can ratchet the tension.

Now, when I started writing (non-plotter, remember?) I didn't know I was going to bring Victor into the book at all, much less as a POV character. But about 5 chapters in, I hit a wall and letting him have his say seemed a way through it.

Side note: A lot of times, it helps to write something, even though it won't end up in the book. You need to get in touch with your characters, and this can help. The late Barbara Parker suggested this to me when we were talking about my early draft of Finding Sarah. I told her I'd been playing around with a short story based on Sarah's history with her husband before he died. She encouraged me—quite enthusiastically—to pursue it, saying that once I "knew" how Sarah felt, it would come through in the rest of the book. So don't shy away from writing—it falls under that "you can't fix a blank page" dictum.