by

Mary Deal

A scene ends when the action ends or the conversation can add no more to that part of the story. Maybe one scene is in the grocery store; the next scene is outside on the docks. Usually when a huge shift in location happens, you begin a new chapter.

(Don’t try to write a sequel to “My Dinner with Andre” which happened totally in one scene at the dinner table. It’s been done and was successful because the actors were good.)

When you end a scene, leave the reader wondering what could happen next and wanting to read further. It’s called a cliff hanger. Leave something unfinished, like a threat of action yet to happen and we can see one character gearing up to do some dirty work. The reader wonders what could possible happen next? And so they keep turning pages.

Or maybe it’s a romance and you end the scene with two people simply staring into each others’ eyes wondering if they could work as a couple.

When you move to the next scene, jump into the middle of it. Use very little narration to set the scene. Best is to knit the action, narration and dialogue together.

Depending on how you present your story, you do not need to have each new scene be a result of another. In other words, that cute couple I just mentioned are staring into each other’s eyes. You wouldn’t and shouldn’t start you next chapter with them in a new location, still cuddling up to get to know each other. Once you introduce that they are mutually attracted, the next scene (the whole story middle) should have action that pulls them apart. Every couple has baggage to air before they become a couple. Regardless what background or location you place them in, the action must be lively.

Keep the idea of a cliff hanger in mind when you finish your chapters.

Cliff hanger = An exciting hint of things to come; something to make the reader want to know more.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

by

Mary Deal

Want to wake in the morning with more creativity? Then pay attention to what’s on your mind when you fall asleep.

Research has proven that the mind uses its most recent daytime images and thoughts to create dreams. So, too, the mind produces the mood with which you wake after sleeping.

No matter what story you work on, do not think about it as you fall asleep. Instead, before going to bed, do something to put you in a relaxed state. Play some soothing music, preferably without vocals, which can plant new thoughts. Yoga, maybe? Or walking? If you’re one of those people who fall into bed exhausted, then concentrate only on your breathing. Then trust your mind to work on what’s necessary since you’ve put it at ease.

The state you wish to create for your mind is one that you have not directed. The mind knows what’s necessary, better than you know what’s important. Get into the habit of allowing your mind to work for you.

You’ve heard the saying, “I’ll sleep on it.” Then the person goes about doing something else. In the morning, the answer comes. It’s the same principle. Trust your mind. Your writing and creativity will be better for it.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

Talk Uppity

by Mary Deal

Someone once asked, “I was told to write how I speak in order to make my stories conversational. So why can’t I get them published?”

I took a look at that woman’s writing style and it instantly triggered a memory of my own experience.

The language with which we’re most comfortable doesn’t always produce the best writing style.

I grew up among middle-class everyday folk. Language was one thing that separated groups of people as I had come to know them. When I was young, every once in a while I’d hear someone say, “Oh my! She talks so uppity!”

Hearing such remarks from people that I liked made me wonder what uppity might mean. What I heard when those others spoke was language that seemed too proper, maybe too perfect.

As children, my siblings and I used to imitate at play. We’d throw our hands on our hips and accuse one another, saying, “Oh my! You talk uppity!”

I decided that I didn’t want someone saying anything like that about me. I didn’t want my friends and family to think I put on airs. I continued using the language I grew up with, until I began to write.

Then, every time I looked, my thesaurus kicked out words and phrases that, when spoken, sounded like speech I had heard long ago. Uppity speech. Yet, it all sounded so good when I used those terms and phrases in my stories. I started getting published more. I graduated to using a Chicago Manual of Style. My former language nuances enhance my writing style, but now what I say is more grammatically correct.

What I realized was that the language errors in the ways of my common-folk upbringing kept me using simple language and colloquialisms in my writing. The proper language I had heard from others and shied away from was just that: Proper.

So in order for me to write stories to the best of my ability, I had to learn to write and speak uppity. And guess what. Doing so improved my stories beyond anything that I could beforehand have imagined. And all it really was, and had been all along, was correct grammar usage. So go ahead. Talk uppity.

Repetition Offends Your Reader

by Mary Deal

When descriptive words are used repetitively in writing, it makes the reader wonder why they have to be told something they’ve already learned earlier in the story. Repetition can kill your reader’s interest.

On Page 2 of my new novel, River Bones, the reader learns that Sara, the protagonist, is blonde when the real estate salesman describes her to someone else:

“Some middle-aged blonde woman—a real looker out of Puerto Rico—just bought that damnable eyesore down along the river.”

On Page 9 I say,

“The breeze whipped her hair across her face and wrapped it around her neck.”

I had originally written that sentence like this:

“The breeze whipped her long blonde hair across her face and wrapped it around her neck.”

Because I mentioned Sara’s hair color on Page 2, no need exists to mention the color again anywhere else in the book, with rare exceptions, of course.

Notice, too, her hair length was not mentioned on Page 2, but on Page 9 if her hair is long enough to whip across her face and around her neck, no need exists for the word “long” to describe it. Surely from reading that one corrected sentence, a reader knows Sara’s hair is not cropped off at the nape of her neck.

The word “long” was not needed due to the description of how the hair reacted in the wind.

To further prove the point, read the sentence from Page 2 with the correct sentence from Page 9. Then go back and read the sentence from Page 2 with the incorrect sentence from Page 9.

Analyze your sentences for superfluous words. Cut ruthlessly, or improve the action in your sentence to show what you mean. Your readers will love you for it.

Emotional Release

Through Character Conflicts

by Mary Deal

Writers must allow themselves to experience all the emotion they create as they write.

Sometimes the lyrics in certain songs get deeper into my psyche each time I hear them. The accompanying instrumentals can accentuate that too.

An example I like is Joy Enriquez’s vocal from the movie Anna and the King. Her squeaks and voice-breaks and near-crying tone at the right moment reach deep into my emotions and opens them up. When the song is over, I know I have heard words and music that have touched a deeper part of me and I feel immensely satisfied.

It is one thing to hear a pleasing melody, another to have the words of a song put you in touch with your emotions.

As an author of words, you should strive to go as deeply into your reader’s psyche, to dredge up emotions and perhaps rake them over fiction’s flame. If you can do this, ultimately you leave your reader with a sense of satisfaction at the story’s end.

In today’s world, it’s not enough to write a story for the sake of telling a plausible tale. As purveyors of emotional satisfaction through words, writers must appeal to the reader’s need for a sense of fulfillment. Like music, a good story is a good story. But music or a story that enables the reader to experience a gamut of emotions will be a better sell.

A simplified difference in story telling is that a good romance, perhaps, shows the reader the attraction between two people, their differences and how they overcome them. They end up together and, voila! The story ends upbeat in spite of it all.

In order to make that story linger in the memory of the reader—which will make them yearn for your next book—your characters must not only have differences but they might be irreconcilable. Certainly two people in love and having those kinds of problems ache inside. You as the writer must ache with them. You must write that story so that you feel all the pain. If you do not feel the pain, you have not presented a plausible enough reason to keep these two people apart. More importantly, you probably haven’t written convincingly enough for your reader if you cannot convince yourself.

If you can write so that you ache for your characters, then can come up with a solution that alleviates your own pain, your reader will feel that same duress and subsequent relief for your characters. You will have raked the reader’s emotions over fiction’s fire, presented a viable solution, and enticed your reader to remember your byline.

Notice that I said “viable solution.” Your ending doesn’t have to be the perfect solution, only an acceptable one. Perhaps, it is some situation that both people must learn to live with if they are to be together. They swallow their pride; they compromise something of great importance to themselves and they hurt because of it—all so that they might remain together. Or perhaps the story ends with them going separate ways and that might be the proper ending. But they still hurt inside. Didn’t your heart ache when you heard Rick (Humphrey Bogart) utter those famous words to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in Casablanca before he walked away: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

When creating conflicts, check in with yourself and see how your heart aches for your characters. If you recognize that as something you feel as you conjure your plots, you will convey it to your reader who will absorb it and yearn for it as they gobble up your books.

by

Mary Deal

Video trailers help sell books. Just as a preview of a film or TV special can spark interest and make you impatient for the day you can see the show so, too, can trailers incite a potential reader’s interest.

If you are computer savvy, you will probably enjoy making your own trailer. If you are not knowledgeable in the way of putting written word, moving or still pictures and music together to make an exciting presentation, you should have the following items ready when you approach a professional to make the trailer for you.

1) Book title

2) Sub-title, if applicable

3) Name or pen name of the author(s)

Under this, you can include such phrases as “Award-winning novelist,” or

Author of ____(previous book title)_____

4) One or two brief blurbs from popular writers or well-known persons in the industry, if you have them.

5) A tagline: One sentence as brief as possible.

6) The story synopsis

7) 5 – 10 sentences that distill your story and/or synopsis without giving away the ending

This can be difficult. In order to distill, you need to keep your focus on your main

character and the main plot thread.

In my thriller, River Bones, I have a strong sub-plot about Vietnam MIAs which totally feeds into the main plot and that the story couldn’t be without. However, I never mentioned this sub-plot in any of the information used for the making of the trailer. See the trailer here (All four of my video trailers are on this page):

http://www.writeanygenre.com/book-trailers.html

8 ) Places where the book can be purchased

9) A .jpeg image of your front cover. You will be told the size requirements.

10) You should plan to do a fairly thorough search for photos that fit your distilled description. If they do not match the description, they will make the trailer seems confusing to the viewer. For each line of description, try to find one or two good photos that represent that bit of information. You may not use all of the pictures but it will give your video maker a good selection from which to choose.

11) You can also do a search for music to accompany your video. Music, in my opinion, can make or break your project. Blazing Trailers, who made all my videos, found an exquisite bit of music by Kevin MacLeod for my novel, The Ka, that so fit the story that I can’t remember the music I originally suggested.

All of these items will be required in order to begin building your video. The maker will probably suggest other pictures that better suit the action. She or he may also suggest different music than you were able to find. Professionals have access to royalty free photos and music that writers may not. Your suggestions in all of this will guide them to find the best products that emphasize your vision of how your wish your story portrayed.

If the video maker makes suggestions, listen. Check out every detail they offer. Your suggestions of photos and music are just that. If they don’t fit, they give the video maker a good idea of what you hope to create. Having once read your synopsis and distillation into ten sentences, you will be told which sentences to use and which to omit. The maker may even reword your sentences to make them more exciting. That may also be required in order to overlay the words onto a picture.

As the process moves along….

The maker will send you a mock-up, like a first draft. You can change or correct anything. Make sure your verbiage is as exciting as possible. The pictures should be as close a representation to the story as possible, especially any characters. If your story is about a brunette, don’t use a picture of a blonde. The music should accentuate the action. Once you approve at this point, the video is made into its final format.

The finished presentation may start with your book cover, but not necessarily. With my novel The Tropics, the video starts with a sailboat way out in the middle of the blue ocean. This was to exemplify the feeling of aloneness.

From the order of information at the end of the trailer for my thriller, Down to the Needle:

~ The book cover, author name and Web site

~ A very brief one line blurb from a popular writer or other, if available.

~ A list of places where the book can be purchased

~ The logo of the person or company that created the video

~ A credit for the music composer

Having all of this information readily available before you seek someone to make your trailer will quickly speed things along and minimize time and expenses. You’ll have some changes along the way to tighten up the presentation but once finished, you should have an exciting clip.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

It sounds like law enforcement has been in your blood for a very long time, but was that what you always did professionally before turning to writing, or did you have yet another professional life, as well?

JH: Way back when, before I became a police officer, I worked for Western Electric, which was known as the manufacturing arm of AT&T.  I was much more into movies then, so I made up movies in my head and cast my various co-workers in the parts.   I had one story about pirate hijackers in New Orleans where a Pinkerton man went undercover to expose who was really behind the thefts.  Another was a war picture involving several of our soldiers being captured by the Viet Cong.  One of the soldiers was a sailor, who the others thought was a coward and who eventually saved the whole group.  I also had a western and a race riot.  All of these topics were current at the time except the pirates, who seem to be current now.

In the early seventies, as a vice detective, I started working prostitution cases and quickly realized that arresting prostitutes was nothing more than a numbers game the police department played.  The real criminals on the prostitution streets were the pimps.  Pimps are biggest child exploiters in the world and, at that time, got the least amount of attention from law enforcement.

I had the biggest case of my career in the mid 80’s with the help of an Assistant U.S. Attorney who defied his office policy and presented my case to a Federal Grand Jury just under the radar of his superiors.  Eventually he got consent and we presented eleven young women before the Grand Jury, all of whom had been turned out by the same pimp over a five year period.  Only two of them were 18 or older.   The rest ranged in age 14-17 years old.

I was sickened by the way Hollywood and television portrayed pimps and wanted to write what the prostitution streets were really like.  Three times I started writing without ever getting past the second chapter.  Then one night I started writing and it all came to me.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there.  Shame: The Story of a Pimp is the story I wanted told.  The book is fiction, but a lot of my experiences and the people I encountered are intertwined in the story.

MA: Why a novel?  With all your experiences with real pimps and prostitutes, why not tell real stories about the gritty world of the sex industry?

JH: With Shame, I wanted to tell the whole story.  I wanted to show his life from the beginning.  His mother was a prostitute.  As for his father, he really didn’t know.  His mother would always say it was her pimp, but she couldn’t say for sure.  As I say in the book, she would never admit Shame was a trick’s baby.  I wanted to show how he learned the pimping game and how he developed his distain for society.  How he became a pimp and how he learned from other pimps the best practices in maintaining your stable.  A story like this cannot be written as a short story.  It is far too complex, not just in understanding how a pimp works, but also in understanding how his victims fall under his spell.  I also wanted to show the whole street, not just the women involved with Shame, but the other women on the street, where they came from and how they interact in the whole picture of prostitution.

I’ve written several short stories, poems and a novella about victims of prostitution.  I’ve also written another novel, Pimpel, which is about two private investigators who specialize in finding runaways.  If a sexual predator victimized them, the child’s family was offered an additional service that guaranteed the child would not be bothered by the predator again.

MA: You’ve got to have guts to take on a subject most people would find revolting, and then turn it into a novel…something many people look to for entertainment.  Why prostitutes and their pimps?

JH:  I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, write about what you know. I interviewed well over 5,000 prostitutes that came through the District of Columbia over my 27 years on the street.  Although there were common denominators among many, each one of these young women had a different story. I had one woman who had done concerts as a cellist, who became involved with a pimp and was subsequently murdered, another who had been a criminal investigator with the IRS, worked for a pimp from Pittsburgh, another who had three children at the age of 13, another who had lost her virginity at the age of 13 by a trick.

I also interviewed many pimps, not just arising from arrests, but candid talks on the street.  It always amazed me the things they would tell me, even knowing I was a cop.  I had pimps report their women missing to me and, of course, some made pretty good informants.

My next book is going to be about a male prostitute (not a female impersonator).  I probably don’t need to tell you, but other males, not females, use male prostitutes.  There were many similarities between male and female prostitutes, but there is much more politics involved in arresting them.  This particular character has worked the street, escort services and clubs and actually performed in porno movies.  He has worked in establishments owned by organized crime figures and observed child porn being made.  He later became a professional informant and worked for several different police departments across the country helping to solve murders, robberies and in identifying child predators. The book will be fiction even though the character that inspired me to write this story is real and is no longer among the living.

MA: Tell me more about Shame’s character.

JH:  Shame is the protagonist and he is developed from many different pimps I encountered on the job.  In the beginning of the story the main character is his mother, Latisa.  She is my vehicle for showing the street before Shame becomes a pimp.  The other main character is the street or the ‘ho stro’ as it’s commonly referred.

I’m not sure that you would consider anyone a hero in Shame.   I consider the heroes in my story the women that fought back, the women who sought justice, the women that survived the sexual slavery that is prostitution.

Their strengths were how they survived.  Their weaknesses were their emotions, lack of maturity, their need to be special, to be loved.  Over 90% of these women started in the ‘life’ (prostitution) as juveniles.  The average age of the juvenile prostitute is 14.

MA: This may be tough to nail down, but if your main character is really a “bad guy,” then who are the antagonists in the story?

JH:  To Shame, his antagonist was the police.  Of course, he always had a need to correct/punish his women when they broke the pimp law.  The D.C. vice detective and the Detroit policewoman were really Shame’s folly, but in the end justice came from a much more deserving source.

MA: You mentioned that Shame and the other characters in the novel are based upon many different people with whom you interacted over a long law enforcement career, sort of composites of pimps and prostitutes.  How close to real life do the characters come to actual people and situations?

JH:  Latisa, Shame’s mother, worked for a gambling pimp who provided sex shows to lure in more customers.  We had a local pimp in D.C. who did the same thing.  The fate of Latisa and her pimp actually happened in New York to a prostitute and her man, not necessarily for the same reasons.  In the book there is a group of pimps from California, headed by Demon.  We had a similar group in Washington.  This group used a human sized cage to lockup their women for punishment and terrorized them with a dog.  I arrested some pimps who used a human size cage for the same purpose, but used a monkey to terrorize the women.  I thought a dog was more believable.   There are many other circumstances that actually occurred, but I changed the location and embellished the story a little.

MA: Beyond Shame, what’s next?

JH:  As I mentioned before, I will be writing that book about the male prostitute, but I have another novel I plan to write about a former prostitute, who like many of the women on the street, was sexually molested as a child.  She was a masochist and equated, in a strange way, pain with love or attention.  She frequently broke from her curse, but would fall back into it when she felt abandoned or craved attention.  Through some street ministries and the Catholic Church she was able to break away for good and went to college to become a nurse.  While in college she is raped and all of her demons return.

I’m also planning to expand some short stories into novels and I want to publish a book of poetry about the street and police.  I entered Pimpel, a short story called A Father’s Honor, an article about hurricane Katrina and two poems in the contests for the PSWA conference.

My plan is when I finally retire, which I hope will be next year, I want to write full time.  I probably will not just do novels; I love writing short stories and poetry too.

I’m really looking forward to going to the PSWA conference and meeting so many of the talented and successful writers I’ve learned about through the PSWA website.  I’m also hoping I can interest a publisher in my new novel.  I will be bringing copies of Shame: The Story of a Pimp to the conference to sell.

Lastly, I want to thank Mike Angley for interviewing me and allowing me to talk about what I love to do, write.

MA: It’s my pleasure to have you on my blog, Joe. I recommend folks take a gander at Joseph Haggerty’s blog where you can learn more about his fascinating career and writing projects: http://haggertyswritings.blogspot.com.

Besides being an accomplished author, Hayden is a popular speaker often in demand.  She has done presentations and workshops all over the United States and was recently hired by major cruise lines to speak about writing while cruising all over the world.  From October 2006 to October 2007, Hayden hosted Mystery Writers of America’s only talk show, Murder Must Air.

Hayden, a Texas resident, enjoys traveling, scuba diving, Kayaking, reading, and arts and crafts.

Welcome, L.C.  I’m honored to have a fellow Mystery Writers of America member guest-blog with me today.  You are definitely a prolific and successful writer.  I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all you’ve done, but I’m curious about any pre-writing career you may have had.

LCH: Prior to becoming a full time author, I used to be a teacher. I taught high school English and journalism for 28 years. While teaching, I had three novels published.  Then mostly the promotional end of writing started to interfere with my teaching career. I started turning down too many wonderful opportunities. I knew that it was time to retire. In 2001, I did and became a full time writer.

MA: What pulled you to writing fiction?

LCH: In my early writing career, I wrote for magazines and newspapers. One day an editor called me with an assignment. I heard myself saying, “No, thank you. I’m switching gears. I’m going to write a novel instead.” That came out of the blue and it shocked me. I had no idea I wanted to leave nonfiction and join the world of novelists. Since I opened my big mouth, I knew I had to make my statement come true. I wrote my first Harry Bronson book, Who’s Susan? and the rest is history.

MA: Talk about your series and about Harry Bronson.  I understand he became an almost accidental protagonist.

LCH:  Harry Bronson, my series detective, made his appearance in Who’s Susan? but he wasn’t the featured character. Susan was. He did his job and that was the end of him, as far as I was concerned. When my second book When Colette Died came out, I received tons of emails all basically the same. “Where’s Harry Bronson?” they asked. That’s when I realized that Harry Bronson needed to make a comeback. He did in my third book, Where Secrets Lie. He was also featured in my fourth mystery, What Others Know, but by then, mostly due to reader input, I knew he had to be the main character and not a side character as he was in my first four mysteries. My fifth mystery Why Casey Had to Die was Bronson’s first book where everything centers around him. I suppose I made the right decision as Casey went on to become an Agatha Finalist for Best Novel and a Pennsylvania Top 40 Pick. The next one in the series When Death Intervenes was released in April.

MA: Considering how Harry “fell into” his central role as your hero, how did you go about shaping his character, especially since you didn’t originally intend for him to be the star?

JCH: For Who’s Susan? I needed an elderly detective who could help Susan find her lost son. Since at that time, I wasn’t thinking series, I focused on what kind of character Susan needed. Fortunately for me, I fell in love with Bronson and love writing about him.  Bronson is clever, smart, and unorthodox. He does things his way which sometimes frustrates others. He loves his family and loves coffee. Carol, his wife, often gets the best of him. The love for his family is both his strength and his weakness. He also tends to be stubborn which can be a weakness but at times pulls him out of a tight spot.

MA: He sounds a little like my protagonist, Patrick O’Donnell…definitely a real family man.  Are your stories hard-boiled, or are the antagonists more like cozy mystery types?

LCH: My bad guys are bad guys—through and through. As of yet, I haven’t had a bad guy cross from one book to the other although I did leave Why Casey Had to Die open-ended.

MA: And do you reflect any of your real life experiences in your stories at all?

LCH: In Who’s Susan? there’s a scene where Susan goes to the daycare center to pick up her kid and he’s not there. That happened to me. I remember seeing the cowboys and cowgirls (it was Western Day) the kids had painted and I kept wondering which one was Don’s (my son.) I knew if I could find which one he did, he’d be returned to me. That scene is in the novel.

MA: I take it you are not going to give up a good thing anytime soon, and that you will keep writing Harry Bronson stories?

LCH: I will continue writing the Harry Bronson series as long as my publisher is willing to publish them. However, I’ve started a standalone set in my home town of El Paso, TX. I’m also starting another series about a reporter in South Lake Tahoe.  Mainly because of my grandson, I started writing children’s books. I’d like to do a couple more of those. I’m also working on updating my nonfiction book about miracles and angels, When Angels Touch You.

MA: Any final thoughts you’d like to pass on to my readers?

LCH:  As an author, I get asked a lot of questions, but the one I get asked the most is “What exactly does L. C. stand for?”  The answer goes back to way before I started writing my novels. Before writing mysteries, I freelanced for several magazines. I looked at the various ones and decided I’d like to write for the treasure magazines. I researched, wrote the article, and since this happened before the invention of computers, I typed the piece. I used my real name as my byline: by Elsie Hayden.  My husband, Rich, took the pictures, printed them (told you it was before computers), and I sent the package in. It came back. “Thanks, but we’ve just bought a similar piece.”

I was devastated but did not give up. I researched another buried treasure and eagerly sent it out. It, too, came back. “Thanks, but we’ve just assigned this to someone else.”

Hmm…I wasn’t liking this trend, but I must be from Missouri. I wouldn’t give up. I sent a third, a fourth, a fifth . . . They all came back.

By this time, I felt like a high school dropout. I picked up a copy of the magazine and slammed it down. Talking to myself, I said aloud, “This is exactly what they’re looking for. Why are they not publishing me?”

Rich picked up the magazine and pointed to the title page. “Look at the articles. They’re written by John, by Steve, by Mike. There’s no Marys, no Susies, no Elsies.”

Being a smart cookie, the light dawned on me. I took out the first rejected manuscript and retyped the first page. The only change I made was the byline. I changed it from by Elsie Hayden to by L. C. Hayden.  The article was immediately accepted. So were a second, and a third. . . I got used to using the initials and when it came time to write my mysteries and other novels, it felt natural to continue to use L. C. instead of Elsie.  And thus, L. C. Hayden, the author, was born (or was I created?).

MA: (smiling) My how times have changed!  I’m so happy you prevailed in the end, and continued to pursue a writing career.  Many others would have quit in frustration.  Thanks for coming over to my blog today.  You can read more about L.C. (aka Elsie) Hayden at her websites: http://lchayden.com and www.booksbyhayden.com

Ben, welcome.  It seems like you’ve done a little bit of just about everything.  Describe the highs and lows.

BM: I had a misspent youth, where I went to the Air Force Academy and took a history degree. Then I served for four years, in Korea, Las Vegas, and South America. Then I hit the gutter: I worked as an actor and a journalist, took an MBA, and finally reached rock bottom with a stint in the Beltway as a federal security contractor, providing services to a variety of alphabet-soup-named clients. I later took the most harrowing gig of my life when I became a teacher for 6-12-graders in a reform school, and an English professor at a community college. I’m now in the environmental remediation field, doing program management tasks, and going to school again.

MA: Thanks for your service, by the way.  I live across the highway from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO…a truly beautiful campus.  I’ve also served in Korea (twice, must have gotten someone angry with me)!  What brought you to write books?

BM: It kind of chose me. I’ve yet to sell any fiction, and publishers approach me about doing nonfiction gigs. My first publisher was one of my former editors from when I was in newspapers, and it just kind of went from there.

MA: Tell us about what you’ve written.

BM: I’m what’s called a “hack” by writers, and a “whore” by normal people. I’ll write anything for money. My first book is 1,001 Things To Do If You Dare, and it’s a simple amusement, the kind of thing you can pick up anywhere, flip open, and (hopefully) be entertained. My second, Criminal Investigations: Terrorism, was a brief, cursory overview of terrorism, for a high school audience. I’ve contributed to a number of other works, including everything from a book about weddings to one about a female politician from Alaska.

MA: I wonder who that Alaskan politician could be…?  Anyway, so has your real life influenced your writing, especially given the diversity of jobs you’ve had?

BM: Sure. Most of the things in the first book were activities I was familiar with from personal experience…about two-thirds of them, in fact. Mostly, this was because of my varied professions– I’d done most of those things for work, at one time or another. Looking back, many of them were painfully stupid endeavors only a young man would engage in (or an older man desperately trying to be young). The conceit of objectivity is one I find ridiculous: the writer also brings a personal vision to the party, and that enters the work, whether you want to pretend it does or not. If done well, it adds to the story; poorly, it can ruin it. But to claim that you can write without having insight or opinion is ludicrous and nonsensical.

MA: I’d have to agree with that!  So what’s next?

BM: Well, I’ve still got a novel and a few dozen stories in the can, and several I haven’t finished yet. I’ve pitched a few book ideas at several publishers, both fiction and nonfiction. Basically, I’ll keep doing as I’ve always done: throwing stuff out there, seeing if anyone will buy it, and taking whatever opportunities come along, as long as they don’t personally offend me.

Iam not averse to writing more on any topic I’ve already written about, in either books or articles or essays or columns. If someone wants me to do it, I’ll write about it, mostly. There have only been a couple things I’ve turned down, on principle or cowardice.

MA: You’re a very non-traditional type of writer; there’s no doubt.  I’m curious about your vision for the future of the writing industry?

BM: Professional writing, as it is now, will go away soon, and writers are not yet coming to terms with that. The concept of a “writer,” which has existed for only a couple hundred years, is going to evaporate as technology overtakes the written word, and everyone becomes a “recorder” or viewer– none of us professional, all of us capable. When a kid with a cell phone can break an important story by posting a video for worldwide consumption, the notion of some adult specifically paid to go and look at stuff, and write about it, is absolutely inane.

In the meantime, those of us who like to read and write, and can scrape together a few coins for doing either, should enjoy it as best we can.

MA: Thanks very much for coming to my blog today!  Visit Ben Malisow at his website for more information about him and his books: http://www.benmalisow.com/

Deborah Shlian, MD, MBA practiced medicine in California where she also taught at UCLA. She has published nonfiction articles and books as well as medical mystery/thrillers. Her first two novels, Double Illusion and Wednesday’s ChildRabbit in the Moon is an international thriller and has won the Gold Medal for Genre Fiction from the Florida Book Award, the Mystery Book of the Year Silver Medal from ForeWord Magazine, an Indie Excellence Award, a National Best Books Award Finalist from USA Book News and First Prize in the Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.

Yolanda “Linda” Reid Chassiakos, MD, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. After graduating from and completing her residency in Pediatrics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Reid Chassiakos served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, and as the Assistant Head of the Ambulatory Branch of Pediatrics at the Naval Hospital, Bethesda and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She then moved to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and served as a medical editor and feature reporter for the evening Eyewitness news at the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Dr. Chassiakos joined Lifetime Medical Television as a medical editor, writer, and host of educational programming for healthcare professionals and the public in Los Angeles, and developed and hosted programs and features for media such as the NBC Network Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll, Lorimar-Telepictures, and You TV.

During her thirteen-year tenure as an Associate Physician Diplomate at UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Health Center, Dr. Chassiakos also served as a staff writer for the television series, Family Medical Center. She is currently the Director of the Klotz Student Health Center at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Chassiakos’ features and essays have been published in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Woman’s Day, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, and Tribune International. She has recently co-edited a text on Collaboration Across the Disciplines in Health Care. Dr. Chassiakos has also written a fantasy novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, for imaginative young adult and adult readers. Dr. Chassiakos and her husband are the proud parents of three teenagers and live in Los Angeles.

I’m continually amazed at the high-caliber people who appear as guests on my blog.  You both have exceptional backgrounds, so much so, that I can’t believe you have time to write fiction!  Tell us more about your backgrounds and prior writing experiences before the collaboration on Dead Air.

Deborah: My previous earlier novels are co-written with my husband Joel, who is also a physician. We met and were married after a six-week courtship, while we were in medical school at the University of Maryland. Because we wanted to maintain the closeness of our relationship, Joel dropped out of ophthalmology so that we could practice family medicine together.

We did our residencies in Los Angeles, where we eventually joined a large group practice and worked in side-by-side offices. But you can’t live in L.A. for very long without getting bitten by the entertainment bug. Everyone you meet here does something else–your dentist is an agent, your lawyer is a producer, and, of course, every waiter is a would-be actor. Even though Joel and I wrote Double Illusion–originally published by Putnam under the title Nursery–as a novel, we always envisioned our story as a screenplay. The second novel we wrote was Wednesday’s Child, published by Simon and Schuster. Both these books, which are now out in reprints, were optioned for film, although, as is par for the course, the options lapsed. But the stories are written in a very fast-paced, rather cinematic style. Our third novel, just published, is titled Rabbit in the Moon.

In the 10 years between writing Wednesday’s Child and Rabbit in the Moon, Joel and I graduated from UCLA’s Executive MBA program, started a healthcare consulting and recruiting company, and wrote several books and articles on healthcare and medical management issues.

Linda:  I began my own neighborhood newspaper at age 10 and continued to write in high school and at the University of Maryland, where I also worked at the campus radio and TV stations. In medical school, I became “The Doc Around the Rock” on radio until I started my clinical training. Then, after my residency, I wrote for the Washington Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post. I later worked as a medical feature reporter for the CBS-affiliate in D.C., and as a medical editor and host for Lifetime Medical Television. I feel truly blessed to be part of the brotherhood of physician-writers.

Mike: Fascinating!  So why novels?  Your resumes are packed with superb credentials that would enable you to write non-fiction, especially medical articles for journals and the media, which you’ve had some experience with already.

Linda: Debbie and I met at the Student Health Service at UCLA and we discovered that we shared common interests in both creative writing and health education.  I had taken a sabbatical from practice to serve as a staff writer for the TV series Family Medical Center, and, after the series ended, I returned to UCLA and Debbie and I developed several project ideas together. Among the projects we discussed was a medical thriller, which has evolved into Dead Air.

Deborah: I had just finished writing Rabbit in the Moon and while waiting for it to be published, began to get a little itchy to write another novel.  I was Director of Primary Care for the Student Health Service, and Linda, one of our specialists, approached me about writing something together. We decided on a plot that involved a less-than-ethical experiment on a Vermont university campus. The protagonist is a 20-something college student named Sammy Greene, a journalism student with her own campus radio talk show. Sammy uses her show as a forum to solve the mystery of why students are suddenly dying and ultimately expose the experiment. Linda and I have just completed the second book in what will be a series featuring Sammy. Its title is Devil Wind and it takes place five years later when Sammy has moved to Los Angeles.

Talk is cheap, but when this radio host takes action, she may pay the ultimate price. An outspoken, brash, native New Yorker, Sammy Greene isn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers at Ellsford University, her traditional New England Ivy League college. Host of “The Hot Line”, a talk-radio show on campus station WELL, Sammy tackles the toughest, most controversial issues facing Ellsford’s students. When Sammy discovers the body of Dr. Barton Conrad, one of Ellsford’s most esteemed professors, her journalistic drive kicks in and she sets out to discover what happened to the beloved professor. But when several Ellsford students mysteriously disappear, Sammy realizes she’s uncovered the seamy, terrifying underbelly of this prestigious institute of higher education. With the entire campus in peril, and demons from her past close behind, Sammy Greene must race to find answers. Along the way, she’ll discover some unlikely allies-and even more unlikely enemies. If Sammy isn’t careful, someone is going to make sure that she signs off-for good.

Mike: That sounds like a seat-of-the pants thriller.  Given your medical backgrounds, did any of your real-life experiences make their way into the story at all?

Linda:  Very much so.  Deborah and I have both spent years in academic settings across the United States as students and then as physicians, staff, and faculty.  Our perspectives allowed us to bring a realism to our fictional Ivy League campus, and to describe the challenges of surviving in an environment where “Publish or Perish” has, in tragic cases, become literally true. Additionally, many of us had friends whose children were leaving for college. Saying good-bye to your son or daughter is difficult, but you hope that his or her college experience will be safe. What if it isn’t, and what if the people responsible are the very ones to whom you entrusted your child? Add a look at cutting edge medicine and modern university politics and you have the seeds of our collaboration.

Deborah: We felt that in the context of a novel we could expose some of the corners that academic researchers are willing to cut in order to gain fame and fortune.  I think there has been some slippage in morality and how people see “crossing over the line” in society in general. Unfortunately, since doctors are human like everyone else, they, too, may fall prey to the temptations of fame and fortune. The other issue is funding of research. As in our story, Dead Air, more and more research is funded by private interests. Consequently, at least the possibility of allowing bottom-line pressures to creep into the picture exists. Our character in the book, Dr. Palmer, is a well-known, respected scientist who has always had access to university and/or government research monies. When the university decides to co-venture with a Japanese biotech company, he is suddenly faced with some significant moral and ethical dilemmas.

Linda: Economic constraints on physicians lead them to make difficult choices, but, on the whole, most physicians practice a high standard of both medicine and ethics. The potential for larger scale abuse of ethics in medicine and society is there today, however, because of economic pressures and is facilitated by the improvements in science, technology, and communications in our global economy and world that allow a greater use and misuse of power.

Mike: Tell me more about your protagonist.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy Greene shares some traits with both her creators, but is her own young woman, who now tells us what she is going to do and say.  We started to develop her as a voice for the moral, political, and ethical concerns we wanted to address in the book, and she grew to be a fully fleshed out dynamo bursting with passions, energy, and joie de vivre.  Sammy has elements of each of our personalities, but is much more courageous and outspoken than either of us felt we were at her age.  In book two, and now book three, it’s Sammy who is writing her own life script and we, Deborah and Linda, are taking notes so we can share Sammy’s adventures with all her readers and friends.

Mike: That’s a nice perspective on your character…seems to be writing her own story for you as the authors!  Describe Sammy more.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy is a bright, dedicated young woman who grew up in Brooklyn under the strict tutelage of her loving grandmother, Rose, from whom she learned the Yiddish that she sprinkles into her exclamations.  She is five feet tall and slim, with curly red hair and green eyes. She has a crackling personality—never afraid to dive into adventures, experiences, new directions.  That strength can sometimes lead her into danger—her determination, feistiness, and curiosity can annoy or even alarm those running from her quest to pursue “Truth and Justice.”

Sammy’s father left her mother when she was a child—her mother’s subsequent suicide has scarred her deeply.  Sammy hides her vulnerabilities and fears behind a tough exterior; as love knocks on her door, will she have the courage to let emotional intimacy enter her psychological firewalls?  Readers will find out in Dead Air.

Mike: I imagine with your plot, about an Ivy League campus and all the intrigue you described, that you must have one or two particularly evil antagonists that Sammy must deal with?

Deborah/Linda: Everyone at Ellsford University is a suspect in the disappearances and murders of students and faculty.   Corrupt University administrators, ambitious professors, unethical researchers, jealous students, and politically manipulative outsiders could all be playing a role in the conspiracy that Sammy uncovers step by step.  Even the Chief of Campus Police isn’t beyond suspicion.  Sammy’d better find out who’s behind the campus murders before she herself becomes the next victim and her radio show is silenced—Dead Air.

Mike: You mentioned books two and three.  What are they about, and does Sammy come back for more adventures?

Deborah/Linda: We have finished the sequel to Dead Air and are currently plotting our third book in the Sammy Greene thriller series, an international thriller.  Meanwhile, Deborah and Joel Shlian are working on a sequel to Rabbit in the Moon, and Linda is working on a sequel to Where Angels Fear to Tread and writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

We expect Sammy has lots of exciting adventures in store ahead.  Police Chief Gus Pappajohn will join Sammy again in Devil Wind, and she is likely to re-kindle (no pun intended) her romance with Dr. Reed Wyndham.  With each book, we’ll learn more about Sammy and thrill to watch her grow.  In Devil Wind, for example, we witness her rocky reunion with her estranged father and his third wife.  Readers love Sammy and want to share her life, including her joys, challenges—and thrills.

Mike: Dead Air has already had some great success and wonderful book reviews.  I’d like to finish your guest-blog with a list of those and anything else you want my readers to know.. Before I turn it over, I want to encourage everyone to visit Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid at their website: http://www.sammygreene.com/Sammy_Greene_website/THE_BOOK.html

Deborah/Linda: Thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to Sammy Greene—we hope your readers will love her as much as we do.  Dead Air has had wonderful reviews, and was selected as the Best Adventure/Thriller in the 2009 USA Booknews Best Books Awards.  Some comments from Sammy’s fans below:

“A brash college talk-show host uncovers a terrifying conspiracy as she seeks the killer of an esteemed professor.”

San Diego Union Tribune

“A fascinating reveal about the dangers that arise when big business influences medical research.”

Mystery Scene

“Both authors have medical backgrounds, and the story reflects this. The characters are interesting, and their intrepid heroine, Sammy, looks as if she’s ready for a sequel.”

The Oklahoman

“A fascinating read, full of action. Dead Air is a breath of fresh air—well written, riveting plots and subplots, and enough action to keep the reader interested until the end.”

I Love a Mystery

“Dead Air is the perfect prescription for readers looking for a good medical mystery with a little Yiddish and Greek mixed in for good measure.”

Review the Book

“A series-worthy heroine. Fans of light mysteries with a hard edge will enjoy this one.”

Booklist

“Dead Air is a chilling tale guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.”

Midwest Book Review

“Shlian and Reid have created a plausible, plucky amateur detective in this fast-paced medical murder mystery.”

Monsters & Critics

“Excellently written, Dead Air ratchets up the suspense from scene-to-scene with twists and turns beyond the usual medical or campus mystery.”

Fresh Fiction

“(Shlian and Reid) have done for academia what Patricia Cornwell did for forensic science. A great book.. Dead Air is sure to be in high demand this season.”

Blogcritics

“A lively novel of secrets, lies, and betrayal, Dead Air captures the very essence of college life and mixes it with a plausible conspiracy.  This one is sure to make the dean’s list among avid thriller fans.”

Vicki Landes

“Excellent and will keep you turning pages all night long.”

Mainly Mysteries