The Why Behind the Sewing

Blog reader J.D. asked this question recently:

Why Sewing?

First of all, the craft niche books are popular. And since many of those who sew, knit, scrapbook, antique, (etc.) are also readers, it’s a natural crossover for the publishing  houses to explore.

The key, as a writer, is how to tickle that group’s interest without losing the interest of readers who don’t have any experience (or interest) in said craft. For me, this last part wasn’t too hard simply because I don’t sew. I can do buttons (well)…and patches (a little well)…but, beyond that, not so much.

Fortunately for me, my series focuses on the sewing circle rather than simply the sewing. Sure, the folks sew in the background, but it’s the socialization aspect of the craft that brings these particular people together. It also allows for a varied age range to come together (one of my favorite parts of this series) in a place that makes sense.

By focusing on the socialization aspect, people can identify with these stories whether they sew or not. Will they enjoy it if they sew? Of course. There’s a commonality with the people right off the bat. But those who don’t sew can identify with the friendships that come from getting together with people who have a common interest. When I get together with my writing buddies we talk about writing. But we also talk about other stuff…like life, kids, books, etc. Much like the women of the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle.

I hope that helps answer your question, J.D.

The mailbag is starting to run low on questions, so fire away everyone. I’ll answer them on future “Writing Thursdays.”

~Elizabeth

Spending Time With Old Friends…

That’s what it feels like every single time I sit down to write another Southern Sewing Circle Mystery (I’m working on # 4 now). And it is one of my favorite parts of writing a series.

When you spend upwards of five to six hours a day with people (even those that reside in your head), you get to know them. You know their strengths, you know their flaws, you know their vulnerabilities, you know what makes them tick and why…and you become attached. Like they’re old friends.

In my Southern Sewing Circle books, the main character–Tori Sinclair–is part of a sewing circle. The circle, itself, is comprised of nine women (including Tori). They range in age from early twenties to seventy-something and each and every one of them has a personality all their own.

Margaret Louise is loyal and true–a sixty-something woman who backs up those often misused words by offering them unconditionally (that, people, is the true test of “loyalty”).

Her twin sister, Leona–is a pistol. And I do mean a pistol. She’s very cultured. Never married. A little full of herself. A total flirt (think Blanche from the Golden Girls).

Rose is in her upper seventies. She’s a retired schoolteacher who speaks her mind. Always. She’s sharp-tongued most of the time, yet has a softness about her that can’t go unnoticed, either.

Georgina Hayes, the town’s mayor, is welcoming. She’s also strong and self sufficient.

Beatrice Tharrington is the youngest of the group, living in Sweet Briar as a nanny for a local family. She’s shy yet extremely observant. She’s growing as the series continues.

Melissa Davis is in her early thirties and is the mom of seven kids. She’s always on the go… Loves her family even if she’s harried 24/7.

Debbie Calhoun is mid thirties and a real go-getter. She manages to make motherhood (to two), marriage (to the semi-famous author, Colby Calhoun), and owning her own business (Debbie’s Bakery) look easy.

And then there’s Dixie Dunn. There’s not much to say about Dixie other than she’s old, and more than a little bitter (at least so far as my main character goes). She, too, adds her own dimension to the group. Especially when the claws retract just long enough to show a side that’s not completely bitter.

These people have become real to me. Sitting down with them, after having worked on other projects, is like coming home. I know what they’re going to say before they say it, I have a feel for who is going to do what in any given situation, and–when surprises happen–they make rolling with the punches a treat!

So tell us, do you enjoy series? Do you, as readers, feel as if series’ characters become like old friends, too? Any stand out from books you’ve read?

~Elizabeth

Hey, Who’s Telling This Story?

A few weeks ago, I was asked this writing question–one that struck me as the kind that would be fun to discuss here on the blog. So, to the mailbox we go! 

Q: How extensively do you outline and if you do, how far do you allow your story to veer off course?

A: I outlined a mystery once and broke it… again and again. That experience alone taught me that I work better with nothing more than a few basic bullet points (who did it and why, who the various suspects are, etc.). That’s it. The rest sort of writes itself.

To help keep myself on track, I often bullet point out a few chapters. Meaning something like this:  in chapter two–so and so need to cross paths, in chapter three–main characters stumble across red herring, and on and  on, usually working about three chapters out at all times.

And here’s why. When I was writing one of my earlier books, Forecast of Evil (the one I outlined), I had a particular person planned as the bad guy. About fifty pages into the book, I realized he was wrong. He was simply too easy. So I had to go back and rework things. Then, about fifty pages into the book the second time around, I was happily typing away my day when a teenager showed up in my head. He had dark hair, blue eyes, and he was standing in the snow with a letter in his hand. I had no idea who he was…he wasn’t part of the cast of characters I’d planned. So I kept typing. And he kept standing there. Eventually I looked up and realized he was there for a reason. Sure enough, he became part of a side story–one of my favorite parts of that book, as a matter of fact.

And that’s how it’s gone with my writing ever since. I can have the best intentions, but once I start writing, the story takes over. Literally. And I’ve learned that the story is always, always better when I listen to the way it wants to be told rather than the way I want to tell it.

This happened again with a story nugget I had about a year ago–one I was sure would make a great mystery. Only the story wanted to be a romance. I resisted it for a long time, finally giving up only after months of realizing I wasn’t going to win. And you know what? I sold it right out of the chute. As a romance.

Go figure.

Sometimes the story takes over at the keyboard. Sometimes it takes over in the shower of all places which is why, on the advice of a fellow writer, I’ve taken to calling my “voice” by the name of Moen. As in Moen shower fixtures.

Thoughts? Questions? Fire away!

~Elizabeth

The Other Me

I have a favor to ask you today. 

I was asked by the wonderful folks at FreshFiction.com to do a guest blog on their site (neat huh?). So, I did…and I had great fun writing this post!

It talks a little bit about the unexpected road my writing took this past year and how I’m now walking two paths at one time. Oh, and you’ll see a picture of me…with a different name. But don’t worry, the blog will explain why (and besides, it’s still me).

If you’d like to post a comment there…that would be great ( I imagine they’d like to see lots of traffic). If you’d prefer to come back here and comment, that’s great, too!

So, without any further chit-chat, go here:  http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=2307

~Elizabeth

Stalking 101

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
                                                                                                               ~Tao saying

I’ve been down the writing path for over ten years now. At the beginning, I took classes at a local MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) program. Not wanting to spend $50,000 on an advanced degree, I started searching for cheaper alternatives. I quickly learned that published authors don’t have a lot of time to answer questions when the conversation starts like this: “Hi, I’m Lynn. I’m a wannabe writer. Can I pick your brain?”

Moving sixteen hundred miles cross-country and living an hour away from the day job didn’t help me build new relationships. Add in a year of fighting breast cancer and, well, my world shrank even more. If I didn’t meet you at work, the hospital, or the weekly visit to the grocery store, I didn’t know you. That is until I started blogging.

My blog was read religiously by two people–my sister and my friend from back home in Idaho. And then, one day, I had a comment. A St. Louis author had found her books mentioned on my daily ramble. We shared war stories from the cancer treatment. I had made personal contact with a real writer. I was hooked.

Then fate reached out. I was a faithful reader of the now defunct Good Girls Kill For Money blog. I won a contest. Rather than mail me my prize, Elizabeth offered to meet me for lunch, knowing I lived in the St. Louis area. I bless the day she took a chance that I wasn’t a crazed stalker and made the invitation. There was a point in our first lunch that I swear she started to slide just a little closer to the door…

When we met, I had five manuscripts started, none finished past the fourth chapter. Each time the writing got hard, I would take off chasing another bright shiny idea. Over a year later, my friend/mentor has walked me through finishing my second book. Besides learning how to get to THE END, I’ve been able to watch her in the many stages of being a published author; writing, editing, publishing, marketing, and launching. Elizabeth has been generous with her time, knowledge, and encouragement.

Now that she’s moved away, our monthly lunch meetings have turned into goal setting phone calls.

So what’s a wannabe to do when their mentor moves? Join a writer’s organization! I went to my first meeting of MORWA (Missouri Romance Writers of America) last month as a full member. Now I have contact with a group of people committed to improving their writing–at all stages of success. I’m excited to be a part of such a dynamic group.

And I don’t look like a stalker when I ask–Can I pick your brain?

So now the question for the day is this: Have you had a time when you reached out to learn something new and your teacher has appeared?

~Lynn

Lynn Cahoon’s work has appeared in Grit, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and True Romance. She is currently polishing two romance novels, working on a cozy mystery, and waiting for a call on one of her submissions to the slush pile. She now  lives in the St. Louis area with her husband, three dogs, and acat whose secret name is Mary.

Striking a Balance

It’s Thursday and time for a look at the mail…

This question is from blog reader Chris C:

How do you know the right amount of ’story’ to create? i find many books way too long for the story being told, while others leave you begging for more either in backstory or depth of interactions.

This is a good question, Chris, and one I’m going to *try* to answer the best I can.

When you sit down with an idea for a novel, you have to know the story you’re going to tell. This doesn’t mean you know every nuance yet (some of us don’t…until we start writing), but you know the basic idea of what’s going to happen and why.

The key, then, is figuring out what needs to be said in order to convey that to the reader. Good writers don’t heap backstory in because it can take a reader out of the story they’re trying to tell. Good writers weave backstory (but only that which is important for the story being told–whether in plot or character development related to the plot) as they go along.

If you’ve ever watched the TV show, Lost, the way they do backstory (at least in the first two seasons) was awesome. You could see why the characters made the choices they made because of experiences in their life. The whole episode wasn’t non-stop backstory, rather it was woven in at parts that made sense.

The same should hold true for books.

When I’m writing–or reading my own work–I try to pay attention to how I feel. If I become bored with what I’m writing (or have written), it’s a pretty safe bet it’s not necessary.

It might be fun to give a character a funny quirk, but if it doesn’t play into the story or explain something about the character pivotal to the plot…it’s a waste of time. For the writer and the reader.

When I first started writing fiction, I wrote very lean. Too lean, in many ways. I suspect some of that was because of my journalism background–get to the facts, that’s all that matters. But as I continued to write, I found that I was able to strike a better balance and I hope that’s showing in my  newer work.

My rule of thumb is this. If it matters to the plot, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t.

Here’s an example from an earlier book of mine, Forecast of Evil (written under the name, Laura Bradford). I did a lot of research on what Mackinac Island is like in the winter. How’s it’s accessed, and when/ how they handle storms, etc. During the course of my research, I discovered that old Christmas trees are used on the lake to guide snow mobilers home during a white-out (blizzard). I thought that was a very cool piece of information. One I would have loved to have used…only it didn’t work with my plot. My characters needed to be stranded. Which meant the lake couldn’t have been frozen yet. Therefore the trees were a non-issue.

Does that answer your question, Chris? Anyone else have anything to add? Another question about this topic we can discuss today? Or a new question to add to the line-up for future Writing Thursdays?

Ask away.

~Elizabeth

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Well, it’s Thursday again and time to go back to the mailbox.

This question is from blog reader, Nikki:

Do you miss writing about the characters in your Jenkins & Burns series? Is it hard to let them be if the publisher wants something else?

In order to answer this question, I need to give a little backstory for those who don’t know about this series. The Jenkins & Burns mystery series was the first series I’d ever written and it was for a small, independent publishing house. I wrote it under the name, Laura Bradford. There were three books in the series–Jury of One (an Agatha nominee), Forecast of Evil (my personal favorite), and Marked by Fate.

The series ended after three books because I chose not to write them anymore. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the characters–because I did. Rather, it was because I’d only planned three from the start.

Could I have written more? Absolutely. But I decided it was time to take a stab at one of the bigger publishing houses in the interest of furthering my dream.  And so I did…hitting the mark with my new Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series for Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin) under the name, Elizabeth Lynn Casey.

Do I miss Elise and Mitch from the Jenkins & Burns series? Sure. Sometimes. But to be honest with you, the characters I miss most are ones from a chick-lit style mystery series I crafted around the field of advertising. It was that manuscript that helped me secure an agent (two, actually…which resulted in a very tough choice) and made its way around the publishing world (gathering very  nice and encouraging rejections along the way). The book I’d been so sure about…the one that attracted two agents…went nowhere. 

Yet, to this day, I still LOVE those characters. Absolutely LOVE them.  And it was hard when I realized I wasn’t going to get to keep writing them. Not for that book, anyway.

But here’s the deal. As a writer, there are always characters in my head. Characters demanding their time on a page or in a book. I just need to use the right ones at the right time. And if, for some reason, one of them doesn’t work…I can still thank him/her for the fun they gave me and move on. Maybe they’ll work their way into something else one day. And maybe they won’t. Yet I can honestly say that each and every one of them has helped me grow as a writer. And for that, I’m grateful.

Any comments/observations/further questions? Fire away…

~Elizabeth

Just Plotting Along

I put out a call for writing-related questions on last Thursday’s post and got some really good ones in response. So, today, I decided to answer Dru’s…

How do you come up with the plot for each story and/or character?

For those of you who have read, SEW DEADLY (the first in my new Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series), you know that my main character, Tori Sinclair,  is in a sewing circle. The circle is made up of women of all ages–personalities in their own right, that’s for sure!

Now, while the series features Tori as the protagonist, I utilize the members of the circle to drive the main plot in each subsequent book. In the second book–DEATH THREADS (which will release May 4th)–the action centers around Debbie Calhoun’s husband. He’s a semi-famous author. In the third book–PINNED FOR MURDER (release date TBA)–I use Rose Winter’s former career in education to be a springboard for the plot. 

What’s fun about writing a series like this is the fact that the side characters offer me so many wonderful opportunities for plots. Each character is a different age, has/had a different career, etc., which fuels ideas all on its own.

For the fourth book (which I’m working on now), I made a list of all my circle members. Before I was even done, two of the members jumped out at me as having a connection worthy of exploring. Once I noted that, the ideas started swirling until I had a plot that I’m quite excited about.

I hope that answered your question, Dru. If my answer fires off a different (related or otherwise) question for any of you, let me know.

Keep the questions coming!

~Elizabeth

Hazel or Blue?

I love getting letters from my readers. Love, love, love it.  I love the kind that simply say, “loved Sew Deadly” or “can’t wait for the next book!” And I love the ones that tell me which characters they liked most and which plot point kept them up all night. Seriously, what’s not to like about mail like that?

But I also like the letters that ask questions. Like this one from Jayne…

How do you keep track of all those characters?

I love this question because it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve found myself wondering many times while losing myself in the pages of a favorite series. But now that I’m a writer, too, I can actually answer that question.

If you’ve read Sew Deadly–the first in my Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series–you know I have an assortment of characters. Which means I have a lot of people to keep track of from book to book. 

The further I get into the series (I’ve already turned in book # 3 even though book # 2 isn’t even out yet) the more familiar I get with my characters–the quirks and habits that make each and every person unique. But it’s the physical stuff that can be tough to remember (especially when you’re writing romance novels between mystery installments). Is Milo’s eyes green or brown? Does Rose live in a ranch or a two-story? Does Nina drop her “g’s” or is that more Margaret Louise’s thing?

If you’re a series writer, you need to know these answers. Because your readers do. And there’s nothing more frustrating for a reader than a writer who keeps changing things mid-stream.  Which is where my character box comes in.

Like you see in the picture to the left, I’ve commandeered an index card box (mine is green) and filled it with an assortment of character cards. Each character has his or her own card filled with descriptive facts that keep me on track. They contain eye color, hair color, any facial scars or characteristics I’ve given them, etc. And it’s my go-to box once I start back on another Sewing Circle Mystery.

Did I solve that mystery?

So how about the rest of you? Any questions you’d like to see me address on future “Writing Thursdays?” Fire away!

~Elizabeth

Establishing A Routine

I’m a deadline-oriented writer which means as long as I have a deadline, I’m good. In fact, the closer the deadline, the better.

Although this way of operating has/does work for me, I’m smart enough to know it’s not the best way to do things. After all, slow and steady wins the race, right?

That’s why, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I’m trying very hard to change my writing method. To embrace the “slow and steady” over the thrill of a tight noose. Unfortunately, change isn’t always easy. And it’s certainly not something that happens overnight. It takes effort and discipline and determination. Especially when the act of writing is only one aspect of being published.

I know what needs to be done.  And, I must confess, I know what it’s going to take in order to get it done. Which means I need to establish a daily routine.

Knowing what needs to be done is half the battle. Slotting the time and then seeing it through is the rest. So here goes…

Exercise: 8-8:30 a.m.
Shower: 8:30-9:30 (old habits, what can I say?)
Writing: 9:45 a.m. - Noon
Lunch: @ 45 minutes
Marketing (setting up signings/talks/writing blogs/returning book related email): 1-2:30 p.m.

Even I can see that doing this daily makes so much more sense than a string of exhausting 14-hour write-a-thons at Panera for two weeks because I’m flirting much too closely with a deadline.

So that’s where the determination comes in. To make things easier.

How about you? Any routines in life that work for you? Any you’d like to establish? And if you’re a writer…what routine do you follow?

~Elizabeth