By Gale Albright

I will say unreservedly that Rhys Bowen is a brick and an old bean.

I believe these were compliments among the aristocracy in old time England. Bowen married into an upper-crust British family and became familiar with their Downton Abbey-esque manner of speech that flourished in the early part of the twentieth century. Her Royal Spyness series is set during the Great Depression on the UK side of the Atlantic. Her protagonist, Lady Georgie, is a royal who is far removed from the throne. She’s just royal enough that she can’t work because “the queen wouldn’t like it.” Lady Georgie must find ways to earn money and solve murders that crop up. She has a deplorable sister in law called “Fig.” Enough said.

Bowen’s Molly Murphy series is about an Irish lass on the run from a date with the hangman’s noose in Ireland around the turn of the century. The series takes Molly through Ellis Island, into New York City, marriage to a policeman, and the occasional murder.

Bowen’s talk at the Sisters in Crime: Heart of Texas meeting on Sunday, March 13 at the Yarborough Public Library, was about “getting it right.” Since the stories about Lady Georgie and Molly are historical mysteries, Bowen is meticulous about doing her research. She feels that there’s nothing worse for a writer than to make a mistake about a historical detail. “I won’t blurb a book that has an historical error,” she said. Readers won’t tend to trust a writer if they run across mistakes in her novels. She talked to us at length about the importance of research and creating the correct time and feel for place in a novel.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Sisters in Crime national organization, Bowen was our guest for the weekend of March 12 – 13.  She appeared at a book signing on Saturday, March 12, at BookPeople for her new Molly Murphy book, Time of Fog and Fire at 3 p.m. Afterward, some of us went to dinner with her and had a royal good time.

On Sunday, March 13, our vice president, George Wier, and I had brunch with Bowen at Fonda San Miguel, drove around to look at bluebonnets and rolling hills, and came back to a packed house at the Yarborough Library. Afterwards, we repaired to La Mancha for libations and more food.

I hope she enjoyed it. We certainly enjoyed her. She is a most elegant– yet down to earth–lady with considerable wit, charm, and professionalism. We thought she was swell.

Bowen has won many writing awards, including the Macavity Award for Oh Danny Boy and Agatha Award for Murphy’s Law. Last year’s book, Malice at the Palace, won the Lefty Award for the best historical novel at the Left Coast Crime convention.

To find out more about Rhys Bowen, New York Times best-selling author of the Royal Spyness and Molly Murphy mystery series, go to http://rhysbowen.com

By Gale Albright

Abbott and Costello invented the classic comedy routine “Who’s on First?”

Abbott and Costello invented a hilarious comedy routine called “Who’s on First?” about baseball. But my questions are not about baseball, but points of view (POV), such as first, second, and third person.

I prefer to write in first person. I don’t want to know too much, like that know-it-all omniscient narrator. It must be exhausting to know everything about what’s going on in a novel. It sounds way too stressful to juggle all that information.

I prefer to write in first person because there are limitations. The narrator only knows how she feels and what she sees. She finds out about the world through her five senses—what she can feel, smell, taste, see, or hear. The reader only knows what the narrator knows.

The first-person protagonist finds out information by personal observation. If she hears gossip, she can only take it on face value. She doesn’t know if it’s true. The reader doesn’t know if it’s true either.

I’ll give you an example from one of my works in progress. In a small Depression-era East Texas town, young Eva knows that Demon Rum is bad. Not from personal experience, but from what her mama and the church ladies in the Temperance Union tell her. She takes it on faith without really thinking about it. When, through a series of bizarre circumstances, she takes a swig of Demon Rum (for investigative purposes only), she feels she is on the road to perdition. She doesn’t know what perdition is, but it sounds pretty bad. Mama and the church ladies are against it.

When Eva asks her father why some old man is always getting drunk and making a fool of himself on Main Street, he tells her not to be too hard on the poor fellow. “Some men just have a sickness in their belly. They crave it and can’t stop.”

After Eva’s clandestine sip of illegal homebrew whiskey, she wonders why anybody would crave something that tastes worse than turpentine. So the reader knows that Eva has a lot to learn. The reader is part of that learning process. Readers will be privy to Eva’s innermost thoughts and feelings and opinions because they have a privileged position inside Eva’s brain.

Writing a story in first person allows intimacy between narrator and reader. The reader has a front-row seat right smack in the middle of the narrator’s psyche. The reader forms a bond with the narrator and makes an emotional investment in the character.

One of the drawbacks of relying on first-person narrative is the reader doesn’t know if the narrator is telling the truth. The narrator may think she is telling the truth, but she might be lying to herself. Where does that leave the reader? You now have the first-person unreliable narrator, which can add a lot of suspense to a novel. The reader doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. Is the first-person narrator (whom the reader has come to love and worry about and care about) really a deranged psycho, split-personality nutcase? Mercy.

What’s even more interesting in the point-of-view question is the “head hopping” phenomenon.

Have you ever had a piece of writing critiqued for head hopping? This phenomenon occurs when one is writing a first person novel and the narrator knows what other people are thinking. “Aha!” shrieks a critique partner, shaking a red pencil in the hapless author’s direction. “Head hopping! You did head hopping! This is a first person POV and you have the narrator acting like an omniscient third-person narrator who knows what other people are thinking!” Then everyone laughs gleefully and pelts the author with paper clips.

I made that up. That sort of behavior may occur in ill-bred critique groups, but certainly not mine. In my critique group there is no humiliation. Just a gentle reminder that you totally messed up.

But why not have a narrative with creative head hopping? It’s not always so wrong, is it? What about novels with more than one first-person narrator? What if the book has several first-person narrators and they each have several chapters of their own where they all seem to experience the same events in a completely different way?

A good example of a single novel with different first-person points of view is The Other Queen, by Philippa Gregory. The story of Mary of Scotland’s imprisonment in England before her execution is told from the POV of the captive queen and her two jailers. Somehow, in the midst of all three unreliable narrators, the reader begins to see what really happened.

There’s a scary film called The Fallen, with Denzel Washington and John Goodman. The devilish essence of an executed killer escapes when the felon dies and his evil spirit jumps from one person to another—to fellow police buddies Washington and Goodman–and even a cat. Talk about head hopping on steroids, The Fallen has a nasty entity hopping around and possessing the minds of nice folks who turn murderous. If a nasty killer spirit possesses your brain, you will become an unreliable narrator.

Any thoughts about who’s on second?

While attending a writers conference a few years ago, I found myself drawn to a panel titled, “Writing While Working Full Time.” This session appealed to me on a number of levels. A writer’s life is often envisioned as one where a good part of every day in spent in solitude, unencumbered by the demands of small children, a traditional office gig, caring for aging parents or other responsibilities that threaten to slice up a day into shards of time. This popular author had two small children and a regular job and had successfully published several thrillers. He was going to share his inside tricks and help me better understand what I was doing wrong, allowing me to finally get consistent about a daily word count and progress on my novel.

I was going to GET. STUFF. DONE.

I had pen in hand, ready to transcribe every bit of knowledge onto paper, committing it forever to a reference sheet that I could staple to my wall (or possibly my forehead). After an explanation of his schedule, which included a teaching position and attending his kids’ various events, he said, “It’s important for me to rise early, usually by six o’clock on the weekends, so that I can get a good six hours or so of work done on my book. “

What does your day look like?

“How do you get six hours of uninterrupted work at your house with two small kids?” one person asks.

“Oh,” he says rather offhandedly. “My wife is in charge of the kids on the weekends until the early afternoon, so she takes them out to the park or to do other things so I can write.”

I closed my notebook.

I would not discover the ultimate time saving hack to help me write my novel amidst the swirling chaos of three small kids, my own work and my husband’s demanding travel schedule.

One thing I’ve come to discover is that whenever I compare myself to other writers, hoping to suss out their secret superpower for prolific storytelling while managing the real world, I realize that I’m making a mistake. I need to make my own way, tweak my schedule the best I can, taking advice but bending its usefulness in my own way.

Jane Friedman’s blog (which is filled with practical advice and counsel) includes a post titled The Secret to My Productivity, where she candidly discusses what advantages she has had in crafting a writing life. Her honesty is such a gift, and it helped me better understand that I needed to work with what I have in terms of time and resources. Yes, some people have more time, more freedom than others. Yes, sometimes that advantage matters. And sometimes it’s a reminder to just get on with it, make better use of what you have, not comparing yourself to others with different life demands.

However, there are cases when more time isn’t better, and I can’t count the number of authors I know who produce quality mystery novels in short periods of time. They have honed their skills, remained consistent and, instead of lamenting the lack of an uninterrupted eight hour day, have embraced time on the subway or early mornings before the kids wake up. They make it happen.

I now understand that comparisons can kill in so many ways. There has never been one path to success, one way to write a book, one way to tell your stories.  It’s just important that you tell them, and whatever that looks like..well, that’s the right way…because you’re doing it in the first place.

–Laura Oles

 By Gale Albright

On November 1, 2015, the NaNo will begin.

Sharpen your pencils (really?), sharpen your quills, get out your parchment paper, turn on your computers, laptops, notebooks (both electronic and paper)—and do the NaNo.

No, it is not like the TanGo.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was started in 1999 by Chris Baty, who thought of a novel (get it?) idea that people could write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The NaNo took off and is now a world-wide phenomenon. Chris also wrote No Plot? No Problem in 2004, which is a well-thumbed holy book for NaNoers across the globe. Every November, people who live in Kansas and Saskatoon and New Zealand and Austin listen for the imaginary pistol shot that signals the start of the race to complete 50,000 words of writing in 30 days.

It doesn’t matter what the words are. They don’t have to be good, bad, or indifferent. They don’t have to make any sense. Your ego is not on the line. It’s just words.

The most important thing is—don’t give up. Persevere. Every single day for 30 days you must produce 1667 words. If you produce 1667 words every day for 30 days, you will have 50,010 words.

You will be a winner. You will have done the NaNo. You are a champion.

What have you won?

You have won the sure and certain knowledge that you can write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The excuses such as, “I don’t have time to write,” “I just can’t write a novel,” “I can’t think of a plot,” “I don’t think I have any talent,” don’t matter. If you produce 1667 words times 30 and enter it before midnight on Nov. 30, you can call yourself a novelist.

Chris Baty didn’t pretend that everyone would write a masterpiece or a best seller or even something coherent. That’s not the point. The point of NaNoWriMo is to show self-doubting writers and wannabe writers that they can complete a novel. It can be done. After weeping and gnashing your teeth and tearing your hair out for 30 days and a thousand nights, you can stand proud and tall and say “I wrote a %%$#^% novel in 30 days. I finished a project.”

Many writers start novels, but have trouble finishing them. They start thinking maybe the writing isn’t very good, the plot is stupid, the characters are boring, or the dialog is stilted. Then they quit the sad, unfinished baby novel and tell themselves maybe they really aren’t writers anyway.

Congratulations. You have discovered your Internal Editor.

It criticizes everything you do. It says you aren’t good enough. You’ll never be good enough. Why even try? Just go eat a quart of ice cream in the corner and shut up.

But, if you glom onto NaNo with a death grip for 30 days, you can thumb your nose at Internal Editor and say “Nya, Nya, Nya. I wrote a %$#$%^^ novel in 30 days, you miserable *%^%^&.”

Fun Fact: Did you know that over 250 published novels started out as NaNoWriMo projects? Among them are Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder.

Now that we’ve explored what NaNoWriMo is and what it can do for you, let’s talk about actually doing it this November.

My friend Kayla Marnach, whom I met in 2009 at a Writers’ League class at Sul Ross University in Alpine, is a five-time winner of NaNoWriMo. She will teach “Tips and Tricks are NaNo Bricks: Building Your Novel in 30 Days” at the San Gabriel Writers’ League meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the Georgetown Public Library. Kayla has also published a children’s book called My Body’s Mine. I will be in Georgetown to cheer her on and learn more about those tips and tricks.

I am hosting two write-ins at the Hutto Public Library on Saturdays, Nov. 7 and Nov. 14 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Write-ins occur when lonely NaNoers congregate with their laptops and snacks and coffee cups at a book store, library, coffee shop, restaurant, or any place that is having a write-in. People go there to work, to pound out words, to absorb caffeine and to ingest calories. They are seeking group warmth and solace, as, like herd animals, they stick together to ward off the terrors of novel writing.

So if you want to be a Penguin (in the Austin region, we are the Penguins, as opposed to the Maryland Crabs, for instance) and write to glorify yourself and your NaNo regional group, look up http://nanowrimo.org/ After you sign up, find your region. You’ll find friends and forums. The folks on the website are very welcoming. It’s all free. You get pep talks and your own NaNo e-mail box and writing buddies and tips and encouragement. They are great cheerleaders. They are the antithesis of the Internal Editor.

If you’re looking for tips on doing the NaNo, go hear Kayla at the San Gabriel Writers’ League on Nov. 5 at the Georgetown Library. If you happen to be passing by Hutto Public Library on Nov. 7 and 14, bring your laptop and come on in. We will give you big smiles and snacks. And it’s all free.

To learn more about the local NaNo scene in Central Texas, go to AuNoWriMos on Facebook. To reiterate, get a free account at NaNoWriMo at http://nanowrimo.org/ and find your local region, find out who your Municipal Liaisons (ML) are, and look at the write-in calendar for November.

Let the NaNo begin!

Many writers suffer from this affliction–myself included–surrounding the idea that we could make monumental progress on our short story/novel/non-fiction project if only we could have some long uninterrupted days. My perfect day involves a cabin in the woods with an incredible mountain view, something I am unlikely to experience since I live in Texas. It includes meals magically appearing without cooking, coffee all day long, and, and at the end of the day, a review of several thousand words, all perfectly placed and paced.

My reality is, like many others, one that is full and fragmented. Yes, I work from home, which allows me to handle client projects with some flexibility. I also have three children who play year-round sports, a husband with a demanding career (read: no schedule flexibility), and it seems most evenings are spent at the soccer field or volleyball games. A night at home after 6:30pm feels luxurious. And I know I’m not alone. Most people who strive to make fiction a priority have lives bursting with responsibilities and commitments. So, how do we finish our fiction in the midst of this realization?

I still struggle with this issue, and at times, catch myself lamenting the idea that I would get more done if only I had more uninterrupted time. While that’s true, it’s also completely unhelpful. Some days I have several hours in a row and other days I’m running from morning until night. I’ve decided that I need to make the most of what I’ve got, which means letting go of the idea of the ‘perfect writing day.’

This one decision has proved to be quite freeing because there is no one perfect writing day. Each one of us has to figure out how to fit our fiction into the demands of daily life. I am by no means an expert here but here are a few tips that have helped me make the most of the time available:

Track Your Schedule: Let the eye-rolling commence, but I promise this works. If you can track your day (or a few days) in 30-minute increments, small pockets of time will reveal themselves. Granted, these times may not be ideal but they are available, so if you can seize even one or two blocks per week, you now have momentum on your book. It’s also important to make peace with whether you are an early bird or a night owl. Don’t force yourself to write early if you prefer to start your day late. Find your flow and grab a small slot of time when you feel you’re most likely to take advantage of it. Early morning, after midnight, whatever works best for you.

Touch Your Project Every Day: I’m not suggesting you need to write 1,000 words per day. I do believe, however, that spending even 15 minutes at a time reviewing your outline, reading a scene or pondering a plot problem helps you remain connected to your work in progress. And this connection stays with you, rolls around in your brain, helps keep your head in the story. I don’t follow this advice as often as I should, but when I do, I notice a huge leap in weekly word count and productivity.

Stay Connected to the Creative Life: Writing is often a solitary endeavor, so it’s important to find ways to stay connected to other writers and the writing life. For me, listening to writing podcasts and, when I am surfing online, I’m directing my attention to sites related to reading and writing. An evening at the soccer fields allows me to walk a few miles while listening to a writing podcast, an activity that has helped me transform unproductive time into something that helps me both physically and mentally. TedTalks remain my favorite source for writing-related podcasts: https://www.ted.com/topics/writing

Take Note (cards): A confession first–I have an office supply addiction. Apparently, it runs in my family and there is no cure. I’m fine with that. In fact, I’ve found that notecards and a pen are my best friends when it comes to working on a project when I only have a small snippet of time to spare. I use them to write down issues with my book such as understanding a character’s motivation. Sometimes I use cards to outline scenes and sometimes I write down research topics. The most important thing is that notecards help me capture issues related to my novel, and the fact that the notecard is only 4×6 in size helps keep the intimidation factor down.

Fill Your Feed: This is a strategy for those who run to social media as the perfect temporary distraction. My twitter and Facebook feeds are filled largely with posts from writers and people in the storytelling space. This is intentional because, if I’m compelled to kill a few minutes while standing in line, I’m still staying connected to the creative life I wish to live.

Being Prepared Helps You Be Flexible: Consistency is key when it comes to writing, but let’s face it, kids get sick, you end up driving a last minute field trip, or your work day ends up longer than you expected. Even in these circumstances, you may find yourself with small fragments of time you can use. Having notecards or a journal with ideas to explore can help you make the most of whatever minutes present themselves. These stray moments can add up, like pennies in your pocket. You collect enough words, and soon enough, you’ve got a finished novel.

Start Saying No: This is a tough one for me. I’ve been accused of having lousy boundaries when it comes to volunteering or taking on local projects. I would have to confess that to be true, but this year, I decided to severely limit how much time I would spend on other people’s priorities. I still help with school dances and other volunteer activities but I am far more selective because, by saying ‘yes’ to others’ requests, I’m saying ‘no’ to my own projects. There are times when we can’t simply steal time or find time. We only have so much, which means we sometimes have to put our own priorities first. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s even better than okay.

Take (or Leave) Any or All Writing Advice: How many times have you tried to follow some specific writing advice from a best-selling author only to have it become more hindrance than help? If that’s the case, let it go. Take what you want and leave the rest. You get to stock your own writing toolbox with the tips that help you move forward. I’m including all the tips I just listed in this post. Helpful? Awesome. Not Helpful? No problem. Skip them and find something else. You know what works best for you, so let that be your guide.

My contention is that there is no perfect day to write, no perfect hour, no perfect moment. We only have today, which may or may not look anything like tomorrow. Letting go of the belief that we need four hours per day to write means that, instead of being imprisoned by an unrealistic idea, we are now free to pursue our projects, even if it’s only a half hour at a time.

–Laura Oles