Assignment: Murder

As any one knows when you begin a book, any book, you have to consider everything that happens in the book--even if it is fantasy--if the things that happen are plausible.

In a murder mystery you've gotta go the extra mile. It's pretty much why I avoided writing mysteries, even though those are my favorite books (along with John Grisham, I enjoy Sue Grrafton, Tami Hoag, and a few others--including the "Murder She Wrote" books by Donald Bain), to read. And it's why I put a mystery in every book I've ever written.

Here are my notes from 9-4-16 on my thoughts on how to have a person appear to have hung himself (suicide). But it's really murder.

Oh, and if you intend on reading the second novel this is a spoiler alert.

...I was having trouble with how the man would be hung in his office. I mean where could the rope (or whatever used) would be hung from? It has to be solid [enough to hold a man's weight]

Side note: {Changed to a bathroom]

Then I thought about a woman who hung herself in the women's john from the frame over the door. 
So, I may have to rewrite this. {which I did]

inside women's john, see upright cross section
sorry this is a poor picture

Above is picture of the very stall in which a  woman hung herself (true story, happened over a year ago) at NIU student center. I learned about it through a friend who is a janitor there. I was actually in the bathroom when this woman was setting up to do herself in. I saw she had a chair in there, and unfortunately I was in a hurry to get back down to my bus to keep it on time, so I didn't think too much about it, just thought it weird she had a chair in there.

Back to Notes:

So, okay, I've named this character Blake [I've named him Ellwood Blake], who walks into the men's lavatory & finds this teacher hung himself ... {here I've had him take a picture, but later on I decide he is recording himself on his cell phone working on a novel he's writing for a class, and he takes a whole video of the body bottom to top, which Lainey later views and comes to the conclusion he didn't commit suicide}

My notes continue from here, but I've changed everything, so I won't include them here. 

However, I've taken pictures of various parts of the Student Center, if only to help me create--in my head--how this small college would look like inside, and certain Modus operandi as well.

Above is a hallway with a number of doors, it's a moderately long hallway and turns right at the end and continues.

Here is a small classroom.

Obviously, this bathroom had to be off in a remote part of the college. I put it down in a subbasement where no one ever goes, except maybe the janitor on occasion. Beyond the hallway are the locker rooms for sports teams.

By the way, the murders all happen off the page. My murder mysteries are "cozy" type where the more grisly or ghastly scenes are kept off screen, as it were. It's a YA type of book, and I wanted that any age could read it.

To continue with the murder:

Background: The teacher's wife,Carol Taylor, was in charge of the bursar's office (of small college), and finds that funds are way low from what she knew them to be when a large check has bounced. She is fired by the president, Mr. Smith, claiming she was the one embezzling. Her husband is Chad Taylor, English teacher, teaches creative writing class in which Lainey Quilholt is student.

The next day, after Carol's dismissal, Smith goes to the Taylor's home, hoping to get them together, but unfortunately only the wife is there. He gains entry, smoothly saying he's thought things over and wants to apologize. But when she's let him in under these pretenses, he shoots her--but not after learning that Mr. Taylor has gone to the school early. Thus he has to figure out how to kill him. But he can't use a gun. It would make too much noise, and to make it look like suicide, he'd have to shoot him in the head. No. he figures out a different way.

Luring Mr.Taylor away from his office to come and talk to him in his office gets him into the elevator. Cleverly, he's got the cart (below) inside the elevator, ready. He'd make some excuse like "Janitor must have left it here." He somehow gets behind Mr. Taylor and strangles him with a bit of cord. (I have not figured out where this has come from as yet.)

Once Taylor has been snuffed out, he angles his body onto this cart, presses G for Ground Floor, and rolls the man's body to the men's john, and hangs him up in the stall to make it look like suicide.

Mr. Smith is a very obese man, but is able to carry this murder out easily enough, I think. 

I've gotten past page 50, and the two murders--at this point it's considered a murder/suicide by police--have been discovered, using the whole embezzling thing is motive behind Mr Taylor killing his wife, and hanging himself. But Lainey will find clues, pester Sheriff John Weeks (who has since first book has married her aunt), to look further into this, especially since a number of anomalies and discrepancies have surfaced. Lainey will already know who has murdered them, but has to figure out why, and how he got away with it, and then trap him into confessing.

How far do you go to figure out the legitimacy of the things you write? Or how, physically, they could be done? Do you find places, things, objects and take pictures to help you create your story?

Try. Fail. Try AGAIN. Learn. Repeat

J.B. Fletcher, My Mentor

The show, "Murder, She Wrote" aired in 1984, and I was excited to watch this lady mystery writer as she solved crimes. I especially loved the beginning, as the light, and bouncy tune came on, and we see Jessica at her typewriter tapping away, and in between the scenes of the show. And then she shoves her pages of type manuscript into a leather binder, and closes it with the title of the show...

I'd get a little shiver down my spine, thinking about my own writing, that it might be possible I could be successful, like this fictitious writer in a show was.

There was something about her spirit, and her ability to not bow down to those who would try and poo-poo her thoughts on a case, or when they might be trying to scare her. She didn't flinch. Well, that's not hard to believe, since she was an English teacher. Teaching anything to young students has to have its ups and downs and scary moments.

But what I liked mostly was that she was a writer. It's what I hoped to be. Well, I was already writing, but she was a successful writer. That's what I had wanted to be my entire adult life. Well, being dyslexic didn't help much. If I'd have been a retired English teacher, I don't think it would have taken me a whole lifetime to get there.

Well, now we are in the modern era. But back in the 80's and 90's, I tried to solicit my manuscripts to the correct people, agents, and even publishers. Back in the day, you could actually go straight to the publisher. My mother-in-law had a face-to-face meeting with a publisher in New York. But she didn't pursue it. I never found out the real reason why she didn't, but I could guess.

Anyway, back to me and my dilemma.  I was turned down by everyone. Only a few places here and there, if my writing had just been a little better, maybe...

My only successes came in minor things, like short stories, poems, and a few other things. Nothing earth shattering. And those few writing achievements came with a lot of sweat and tears... and not giving up.

Well, I did quit a few times, and threatened to quit permanently. My husband has been behind me keeping at it all this while. He's the only one who has believed in me all this time.

Back to the story at hand...
When I was turning 50, I knew I just didn't have it in me to try to knock on a few more doors. I won't lie to you that every rejection killed a little bit of me to the point of--well, beyond tears. My husband, God love him, was the only person who kept me at it. He would pick me up with whatever words he told me and I just didn't give up. His mother was a writer too, he knew--sort of--how much it meant to me, and how hard I worked at it.

So, at that age I did what I thought I would never do. I self-published.

Please understand, at this time, it wasn't possible to self-publish the way it's done now. I had to find a "publisher" who would take my money and work the magic and put my manuscript into print. Well, to be honest, I did all the work on getting the formatting correct for them. I was helped through the process. I also submitted a picture for the front cover. It wasn't as expensive as, say, some of the other places. $400. was what I paid to get my book published and out there. I had a couple of very successful book signings--very thrilling, since I never thought I'd see the day to not only be holding a copy of my first ever published book, but to have a book signing.

I made my $400 back and then some with the sales of my book. Yay Me!

Something like this can boost your morale, and of course I had more books in me. I went on and wrote the sequel to "Spell of the Black Unicorn", but I knew that vampires sold. I had something else burning in me and I had to write it. I went on to write (and spent a couple of years working on it, just like the last book), developing what is now the Sabrina Strong series. At first it was going to only be 3 novels. The second book was hard to write. Sequels are a dickens to write. Ask anyone. You have to keep the same momentum, make notes on what happened in the first one so you don't get tripped up in the second one, etc.

Meanwhile, I knew I wasn't going to pay to have this one published. I needed someone who didn't take my money. I found plenty of those, believe me. I had my first chapter on some site, and eventually a small publisher "discovered" me and offered to publish my book "Vampire Ascending". I read the contract, they took no money from me, and suddenly, I had a publisher. This was great! I had a great cover, and they did all the edits. I was ecstatic!

I had another even more successful book signing at the same Borders in DeKalb. 

Borders Book signing

People were walking out with two or three of my books in their arms!

I went on to publish my second book, Vampire's Trill.

I rode this train until the unfortunate demise of Borders. I already knew Barns & Dribble were not going to order my books in for people to come and buy. They were stupid. I could not get it through their thick skulls that my books would sell.
NO. I'm not going to be able to get anyone to go to your stupid store, order and pay for the book prior to the book signing. Who does that???

So, that shortened my little ride on the author train. Then, after my third novel came out--and it was like pulling teeth to get him to get it out (and the edits were horrible!), (he was in the process of putting his own second novel out, so everyone was working on that).
Then, about three months later, he decides he wants out of the publishing business. This was a blessing in disguise, I realize, of course, as I was mortified by the terrible mistakes in the third book--the damned spine had the wrong title on it!

But this forced me to become Indie. Quickly. I didn't like this. I was trying to reintroduce "Spell of the Black Unicorn", working on those edits of that book. Instead, I had to drop everything and get all three of my books out that summer--as ebooks only.

Being Indie was never in the plans. 
I'm not tech savvy. I don't have the money to pay people to do covers, formatting etc, etc. I don't even like putting the book up on Amazon. I hyperventilate waiting to see if the thing takes on my slow modem. I find all that stuff just, like--well, like dusting a shelf. Annoying. I want to do something else.

Like write.

In the four or five years since I began the Sabrina Strong series, I've written nearly 8 novels. Four are published and the fifth one is ready. But there's a pause in the action. Maybe, once again, it's meant to be...

You see, months ago I tried to get someone to do the cover for me. Take pictures of a lone gargoyle... I waited and waited. People are busy, I get that.

Finally, I get two people wanting to help me and get two sets of photos and there's even an offer to do the cover... but that didn't pan out.

Disappointment looms.

So, I'm on the last portion of edits for number five book. I'm trying to get the book cover done, and it's not happening. I was just sick of doing this by myself! What can I do?

I complain a little to my long time friend, and author, Carole Gill. After a few emails back and forth, she told me to look into her publisher. Creativa.

I did.
They sounded good. Great, actually.
I took the plunge and sent them an email. Then with their permission, sent them the file of my first book, as they requested.

It hasn't been quite a week yet, as I write this Friday evening.
I'm not nervous. I don't have any doubts. I'm more confident about the outcome than I've been in years.

I'll let you know. If this happens, there will be new covers.

The Suffrage of your Characters

This morning my husband and I sat and watched an old Bonanza show. This one starred Ricardo Montalbon. He played an outcast Indian--a son of a chief. He is outcast because he married an Indian maiden from another tribe played by Madlyn Rhue. This woman spent 3 years with a white family and learned to read the Bible.

Madlyn Rhye as Hatoya

In the opening, Ben Cartwright is ambushed by an Indian, and stabbed. Just before the Indian can finish him off, Matsou (Montalban), stops him. He talks his blood-lusting white man hating brother to leave him. After which he takes Ben to his tee-pee and his wife cares for him. Matsou is convoluted over his being so soft about a white man, but he is, after all on Cartwright land.

His brother comes along and asks what happened to the white man. Matsou lies, tells him he hid the body and took his horse. His brother wants to check his tee-pee but Matsou won't allow it. His brother, Lagos, says they are about to have a war party against the people of the land. Not great news, but Matsou isn't half as worried about that as he is about the white man he saved. Eventually Ben becomes well enough, he is grateful and offers Matsou some land to farm. His wife is happy, and wants him to try to farm. Matsou is still in two minds about it, but he and she both pray about it--in their separate ways and he softens and accepts. They build a home, he cuts his hair (which in reality he would not do--a lot of things wrong with what the Indians believed in and did, but I'm not going to harp on this). His wife is pregnant and they are happy about this, but he hates that he has become a farmer eating bread and using forks and knifes and sits at a table--yadayada.

In the meantime, an Indian hater, Ike Daggert, is really up in arms about these two Indians adjacent to his land. He claims if he ever sees either of them he'll kill them. Well, Matsou's brother comes to tell him that the tribe is about to attack. If he isn't going to attend this like a good son of a chief, then he should get the hell out of the way. Matsou, of course, goes to warn the Cartwrights, and then, like a good neighbor--but a foolish one--goes to warn Daggert. At the same time he comes to the house, Daggert hears him, comes out to shoot him. But also, Matsou's brother has come, entered through an open window, kills Daggert's wife, and starts the place on fire. Seeing this, too late, Daggert shoots and kills Lagos.

Daggert's wife is buried, everyone is gathered at the funeral, including Matsou and his wife, Hatoya. Daggert is out-raged about this, and seeing Hatoya praying further incites him. He shoots Hatoya, after breaking away from a scuffle. Matsou is devastated, and goes a little crazy.

Next scene: Daggert barely makes it to the Cartwright home, falls and it is revealed he's been cut up in a way to make him suffer before he dies. This is Matsou's doing, of course. After the man dies, Ben tries to go to Matsou to talk to him. Matsou hits him, ties him up spread-eagle with rawhide. Another slow torture. As Ben is suffering Matsou is trying to enjoy it, but seems he can't do so--can't even look at Ben. And Ben refuses to cry out throughout this ordeal. Matsou knows he is a failure as an Indian as well as a white man.

Just when it seems Ben is at his last moments, he begins to pray--something his wife has done in the past. He tells Ben to stop, but he won't. At this breaking point, Matsou cuts Ben loose. (I wanted to see him offer him water, but he didn't--another problem with the show). They make peace. Matsou becomes chief of his people. A somewhat happy ending.

I wrote out the basic plot here--aside from some of the basic mistakes of the piece, the suffering of each character was there--it was a good lesson in writing the basic plot crises: Matsou losing his wife who he loved so dearly he didn't care that he was banished from his tribe, and then became a farmer to keep her happy--this was his ultimate devastation. It wasn't lost on me that Daggert lost his wife, but you didn't care about him because he was so hateful. The volatile act happened--Daggert shooting Matsou's wife saying, "An Eye for and eye!"--was the the crisis point in the story.

I knew while watching all the drama on this show that something bad was going to happen, and it made me edgy--especially with the Indian hater making it clear he would kill any Indian that came on his property. I couldn't have guessed that his beautiful wife, who was with child, would be shot in cold blood. The writer had found the worst thing that he could do to his character, Matsou, and did it. Showed him going through a bit of madness over his wife's senseless murder. Matsou suffered until he could suffer no more injustice and slight to his character. His wife's death drove him over the edge. Good job by the writer, I say!

My dilemma in my own writing:

While working on a WIP, I consider what would be the worse thing that could happen to my main character(s). This is your job as a writer. You need to have people care about these characters, and then you do something that jars them emotionally. I've mentioned that I am currently working on Dhampire Legacy, something already written a million years ago by me, dug out and I'm breathing new life into it. I was following the main plot--as written--where I have my detective's daughter abducted by vampires. Whether or not I would follow what happened next as written, I was in two minds about. I wanted Detective Vladislav to save his daughter from being bitten and then turned. In the original I'd had him come too late, and she does become a vampire, however he, being a dhampire has sway over her similar to the vampire who bit her. Looking over the chapters on this, I wasn't sure that's what I wanted at all. But now, after watching this episode of Bonanza I'm hitting my head saying, Wull, duh!

I see that the easy way out is not the way to go. The scene that is written will stand, but be rewritten as needed. I'm finding that there wasn't too much wrong with it plot-wise, it just became too long-winded, and needs help in certain areas, but the basic plot was good.

Although my beginning didn't start until the third chapter, this was one of the bigger problems. A few other minor things I changed too. Bringing in a character who sheds light on things so that my detective will begin to question his own dismissal of who/what he is (he is of Gypsy birth--which I will probably hit on in more detail in a future post). So, of course, I've been cutting here and re-positioning a chapter there. My other main characters Phil and Herb play off each other like a ping-pong match, and I love the interplay of their personalities in this. Where as Jan is so serious, as a contrast, and I hope to give him a boot in the pants at some point. And his world is falling down around his ears as we speak with the hint of vampires in the disappearances and murders that now are beginning to pile up. His wife is dead (prior to the book's opening), and Lucy, his daughter is all he's got. And I don't need to add he is overly protective of her--but that would only make sense. Being a teenager, even as innocent of the world as she is, she won't be able to obey her detective father, and will get herself into trouble, big-time. This is what I wanted to happen to bring Jan to his knees, drop-kicking him like a ball, then build him back up, making him accept his birthright.

Have any of you had trouble figuring out what to do to make your MC suffer? I watch a lot of older shows that were written really well for TV. This one had problems, but like I said, the main idea was not lost on me. It helped me come to a decision, opened my eyes a bit, and I'm going ahead with the WIP as written, for the most part. Well, I'd better get to it!

Hope you've had a great weekend. See you next week some time!