Guest Blogger Rosemary McCracken

Keep backstory way back!

Joan, it’s great to visit you on Day Four of my Raven Lake blog tour. I thought I’d share my views on backstory with your followers today. It’s a topic I feel strongly about, and I go over it thoroughly in the very first class of my course, How to Develop Your Novel, at Toronto’s George Brown College.

Creating a protagonist’s backstory—his or her “life story” before the novel opens—is essential for a writer in developing a novel. But determining how much of it to reveal to readers and how far along in the story to do so, is equally as important. As the word implies, backstory should be kept in the background.

My protagonist Pat Tierney had a life before readers met her in Safe Harbor, the first novel in my mystery series. She grew up in Montreal as Patty Kelleher, and her handsome older brother, Jon, was her idol. Her world was shattered when Jon was killed in a car crash in his final year of high school.

The Kelleher home was not a happy one after Jon’s death. Patty’s parents couldn’t recover from their loss or help Patty cope with her grief. When she left home to attend university in another city, she was determined to make a new start. She called herself Pat and found new circle of friends. One of them was Michael Tierney—confident, laid-back, easy on the eyes. Pat and Michael married the year after Pat finished university.

But readers need to know very little of this backstory. Backstory takes a story backward. Whether it is revealed through flashbacks, a character’s memories or exposition, backstory stops the story’s forward movement. It’s important to the writer because it deepens her understanding of her protagonist, and creates a fuller, more engaging character. But it’s far less important to readers.

As New York literary agent Donald Maass notes in The Breakout Novelist, the prime reason why novel manuscripts are rejected is failure to put the main conflict in place quickly enough, “usually due to setting up the story with backstory.”

In Safe Harbor, my first Pat Tierney mystery, readers learn at the outset when a stranger visits Pat in her office that Michael has been dead for four years and that he fathered a child with another woman a few years before his death. His infidelity is a big surprise to Pat, and that’s all readers need to know about him. Pat clearly has a problem on her hands—the first of many that she will face throughout the mystery.
Backstory that isn’t essential to the story you are telling shouldn’t be in it. Jon’s death has nothing to do with Safe Harbor’s storyline so I left it out. Michael’s infidelity is what concerns Pat.

In Black Water, the second mystery in the series, Pat goes off to cottage country north of Toronto to oversee the opening of a new branch of the investment firm she works for. A man has just been murdered, and Jamie Collins, Pat’s daughter’s sweetheart, is the prime suspect. Readers met Jamie in the previous book, but I don’t go into much of that. What’s important is that Jamie is in trouble and Pat’s daughter is counting on her mother to help.

Raven Lake opens a few months after the end of Black Water. Pat is still in cottage country, planning to spend a relaxing summer at a lake. Again, I kept backstory to an absolute minimum. I put Pat to work by handing her two problems. She learns that her teenage daughter is pregnant. And if that’s not enough for the woman to deal with, later that day a friend comes to her with his problem—because Pat’s the kind of person people come to for help. Bruce Stohl tells her that his mother has disappeared. And the next day, the elderly woman is found murdered.

Very little backstory, but huge problems that keep Pat constantly on the go.

Rosemary McCracken has worked on newspapers across Canada as a reporter, arts reviewer, editorial writer and editor. She is now a Toronto-based fiction writer and freelance journalist. Her first Pat Tierney mystery, Safe Harbor, was shortlisted for Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger in 2010 and published by Imajin Books in 2012. It was followed by Black Water in 2013. “The Sweetheart Scamster,” a Pat Tierney mystery in the anthology Thirteen, was a finalist for a Derringer Award in 2014. Rosemary’s third Pat Tierney mystery, Raven Lake, has just been released! Jack Batten, the Toronto Star’s crime fiction reviewer, calls Pat “a hugely attractive sleuth figure.”

Follow Rosemary on:

• Moving Target (her blog) http://rosemarymccracken.wordpress.com
• Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RosemaryMcCracken.Author
• Twitter @RCMcCracken.

Visit Rosemary’s website at http://www.rosemarymccracken.com.

Deadly Dames - An Evening With Women Who Kill

The following article has been re-blogged, with permission, from

 Constantly Moving the Bookmark

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending “It’s a Crime”, a panel discussion hosted by my local library featuring five women who kill for a living.  Fictionally, that is ... five female authors all of whom write in the mystery/thriller/crime genre.

These “Deadly Dames” led an informative and very lively discussion about what it means to be a female author in the world of crime fiction.  Their collective works range from cozy and historical mysteries through to a more humorous take on murder and include novels, short stories and “rapid reads” (novellas).  Needless to say, an impressive body of work spanning a wide range of reader interest and preferences.


One brave gentleman joined the otherwise completely female audience, which was a little smaller than anticipated, although I found this made the setting and the discussion seem more intimate – a chat rather than a presentation.

Obviously, the first question addressed was WHY? – Why do these women choose to write about murder and mayhem?  The unanimous answer … because its fun!  A few other good points were made as well; women are predominantly caretakers and often find themselves ruled by other people’s schedules – work, children, spouses and running a home. 

Writing crime fiction is a satisfying way of taking back some control and guiding an untenable situation to a satisfying end.  Ms. Bolin, being the cozy mystery representative on the panel stated that she enjoys writing her books because the settings were “somewhere you would want to live – well – except for the murder”.  I get that!  Sadly for fans of her “cozies” the recent acquisition of her publisher by another major publishing house is going to result in slowly phasing out that sub-genre. 

That revelation led to further discussion about the publishing industry in general and for women authors in particular. These ladies, while successful, made it sound like a labor of love, especially in light of the fact that female crime authors fight an uphill battle as far as getting mainstream recognition. 

One statistic discovered by “Sisters in Crime”, a support organization for female crime authors, revealed that while publication of the genre consists of an equal ratio of male to female authors the mainstream media (newspapers, magazines) tends to review the books with an 80:20 ratio in favor of male authors.  In the 1980’s there were virtually no mainstream reviews of female crime writers and it became one of the mandates of “Sisters in Crime” to increase exposure for female writers in the genre.  Despite those statistics it is interesting to note that research also shows that mystery/crime books appeal mostly to women and those female readers tend to be in the 40+ age range. 

That makes perfect sense to me.  I fall into that demographic and think by that time in their lives most women either have a mental “hit list” where the fantasy appeals (kidding – sort of) or as Ms. Astolfo pointed out, we enjoy the challenge of “solving the puzzle”.  Trying to beat the detective to the solution always makes for a fun past time.  It was also mentioned that mysteries can be a safety zone; when there is enough uncertainty, upheaval and “scares” in real life it is nice to escape into a world where you know the “frightening things” will be resolved.

No discussion of writing and publishing would be complete without bringing e-books and Amazon into the mix.  While the ladies did admit to the fact that those two entities combined have “destroyed” book pricing and decreased their income by close to 50% they were not completely negative about either recent phenom.  Both Amazon and e-books allow them to obtain an international audience and fan base that might be unachievable with solely print books.  It sounded a bit like a love/hate relationship.  With reference to self-publishing Ms. Bruce made the best comparison … when the printing press was invented it changed publishing too.  The monks wouldn’t painstakingly write out any old book but as long as the printer was paid he would typeset anything.  While self-publishing produces a glut in the market eventually the wheat separates from the chaff.

But on to a few of the lighter moments.

Have you ever included someone you know in one of your books?

I won’t reveal details (to protect the innocent) but it was a resounding “YES” by 4 of the ladies on the panel and the lone hold out seemed very quiet on the subject.  Hmmm?

What are the favorite and least favorite aspects of being a writer?

Again, all the ladies were in total agreement that the favorite aspect of writing was the creative process; coming up with an idea, building the world for the story and that moment when something in your brain clicks and it all comes together.  Ms. Campbell referred to it as her “turret time” … like sitting in the top of a tower until the idea comes together.  The least favorite?  Unanimous also – Marketing, promotion and social media.  Ms. O’Callaghan also added “writer’s block, distractions and procrastination”.

Where do ideas come from and how do you keep track of your ideas?

Notes … notebooks … notes … notebooks everywhere … bedside notebooks!  Obviously keeping notes and jotting things down while they’re top of mind is important.  Also mentioned were laptops, voice recorders, napkins in restaurants and bars but the most original goes to Ms. Campbell who “was driving down the Gardiner Expressway during rush hour and jotted down an sudden idea using eye liner on a paper napkin”.

I had my own little notebook and was taking notes but, as happens, I would get caught up in the conversation so any paraphrasing or credit errors are my own fault.  Humblest of apologies if I messed something up.

 And the ideas?  They can come from anywhere; a newspaper or magazine article, an overheard conversation or observing something at the grocery store.  Sometimes an idea or character can be gleamed from an offhand remark made by a family member.  At some time or another we all utter those words “I could kill you” and the writer just starts to wonder how that might be accomplished.

If you have read this far in this blog post then you must realize that I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  The ladies were gracious with their time, willing to share their knowledge and experience in a relaxed and very often humorous manner.

They followed the panel discussion with a reading from one of their books/stories.  There is something wonderful about hearing an author read their own words, especially when they are also good readers (sorry Mr. King, I love you, but …)

While I have to admit that I have not read any of the books by these lady crime writers I do plan to rectify that as I left with a mini book haul and a little swag in the form of bookmarks.  The ladies very kindly signed all the books.

All those attending were given a “wanted poster” featuring a little blurb on each lady.  I don’t know who to credit with the design (Alison Bruce I think).  It was cute and I tried scanning it to include here but it didn’t scan very well on my ancient machine, so here is my pared-down version if you want to know more about each of these “Deadly Dames”.

CATHERINE ASTOLFO
www.catherineastolfo.com

Wanted for delving into the dark side of the human soul.  Do not be fooled by her pleasant demeanor and flowing prose.  Astolfo knows evil and writes about it.

Award-winning author of short stories, novels, novellas, and screenplays.

JANET BOLIN
www.threadvillemysteries.com

Specialty killer favoring weapons of mass crafting.  Bolin’s crimes involve needlework of all kinds, quirky characters and deadly puns.

Janet Bolin writes the Threadville Mystery Series – machine embroidery, murder, and mayhem in a village of sewing, quilting, yarn, and other crafty shops.  Threadville Mysteries have been nominated for Agatha and Bony Blithe Awards.

ALISON BRUCE
www.alisonbruce.ca

Known for consorting with law officers.  While working undercover as a crossing guard, Bruce plans murder, mayhem and the occasional horse chase.

Author of mystery, romantic suspense and historical western romance novels.  Three of Alison’s novels have been finalists for genre awards. (Deadly Season was nominated for a 2016 Arthur Ellis Award - AB)


MELODIE CAMPBELL
www.melodiecampbell.com

Mistress of the comic caper and able to leap small curbs in stiletto heels, Campbell is known for stealing art, shoes and numerous awards.

The Toronto Sun called her Canada’s “Queen of Comedy”.  Melodie Campbell has won The Derringer, The Arthur Ellis, and eight other awards for crime fiction.


JOAN O’CALLAGHAN
www.joanocallaghan.blogspot.ca

O’Callaghan has managed to maintain a low profile by authoring perfectly innocent nonfiction books as a cover for her nefarious crime sprees in short fiction.

Joan has had an active career in freelance writing, with over 30 educational publications to her credit.  Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online magazines.  In 2014, her flash fiction story, “Torch Song for Two Voices” won the Polar Expressions Publishing contest.

Rick Mofina - From Crime Reporter to Crime Writer

Rick Mofina is a former reporter who has interviewed murderers on death row; flown with the LAPD over L.A. and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic Circle. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa, and Kuwait's border with Iraq. He’s written 20 thrillers that have been published in 30 countries, including an illegal translation in Iran. He’s a four-time Thriller Award nominee; a two Shamus Award nominee, and the winner of Canada’s top prize for crime fiction, the Arthur Ellis Award.


Rick Mofina is well-qualified to write about crime on just about every level. As a former reporter working the so-called cop desk, he garnered a wealth of experience and background to feed and inform his fiction. From a summer student at the Toronto Star through weekends at the Ottawa Citizen, Mofina rose through the ranks gaining experience at Southam’s Ottawa bureau, and then at the Brooks Bureau in Brooks, Alberta and the Calgary Herald.

Studying both journalism and literature in university gave him the perfect combination to segue from writing about real-life events to writing fiction and perfect his craft. In addition to these subjects, Mofina credits a course called Religious Responses to Death with shaping his approach to the events he writes about. As a crime reporter, Mofina saw the worst of life. He describes the crime reporter as a filter for the community, talking both to detectives and the victims and/or their families, something he says is “tough:” dealing with facts and emotions; being aware of the competitive nature of the job; being sensitive to the victims and their families’ right to privacy, and at the same time respecting the public’s right to know. It was in many respects a balancing act. At the same time, it was essential that he network. The many contacts he made among detectives, the RCMP and first responders were helpful, and even now he continues to hear from some of them.

It was while he was working nights on the cop desk, that Mofina’s first novel, If Angels Fall (2000), gelled. His experiences as a reporter, his insights into how newsrooms do and do not work, combined with all the drama and politics found there, helped to shape Tom Reed, the hero of that series, and Kate Page, a female reporter who is the protagonist of another series. All characters, including Reed and Page, that populate Mofina’s books, are composites of real people he’s encountered.

His plots draw their inspiration from real life stories and events. He recalls that while in Calgary, on Sunday morning drives, his wife always liked to look in the window of a bridal shop on Electric Avenue. There were always four brides in the window. "What if," mused Mofina, "one morning there were five brides there?"

Another source for his writing is found in his travels, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Mofina recalls being walked through the stages of an execution of a Canadian murderer in Texas; seeing kids playing in the sand dunes in Iraq, and attracted as children will be, to brightly coloured objects buried there – objects that were brightly coloured land mines! He travelled to Africa with Prime Minister Jean Chretien, whom he describes as “the hardest working person on the plane.” Mofina had the misfortune to be bitten by a dog while there and having to undergo treatment for rabies, an incident he was able to work into his writing.

His writing style has evolved from his work as a journalist – a combination of CP (Canadian Press) and AP (Associated Press) style. He also feels he has been influenced by the work of authors such as Thomas Harris and Elmore Leonard. He admires Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson for the hooks they create at the end of each chapter. A true student of literature, Mofina readily admits to loving the work of Dickens and Dostoevsky.

Asked about the most memorable case he reported on, Mofina recalls a heart-wrenching story of a little girl whose mother allowed her to walk to school by herself for the first time. The little girl was killed that day and was found lying at the foot of her driveway.

Although transitioning into a full-time writer of fiction was not difficult – Mofina had been writing all his life – he comments on some of the differences, especially the freedom to make stuff up and honing a style other than journalistic. All in all, Mofina has found it to be more of an evolution than a transition.

When writing his current Kate Page series, I asked if he found it difficult to write from the point of view of a woman? He admits that he is still unsure of himself, but gets helpful feedback from his wife, his agent, and the women in his writing critique group.

Does Mofina see his books as entertainment or social commentary? Both he says. The common denominator is story-telling. It wraps itself around both aspects of his writing.

Watch for Mofina’s twentieth novel and fourth in the Kate Page series, Freefall, which will be out this summer! Me – I can hardly wait!

Reporter Kate Page believes something beyond mechanical—or human—error is behind the incidents that have air investigators baffled. But the mystery deepens as teams scramble to pinpoint a link between the tragedies, and Kate receives an untraceable message from someone boasting responsibility and threatening another event.

Hey Shortie!

A great many people I speak to tell me there are few pleasures they enjoy more than losing themselves in a novel. I can relate to that. I love hunkering down in my chair, feet up, mug of tea at my elbow, cat curled up in my lap.

And – if it is cold outside – a fire burning merrily in the fireplace.

Short fiction however is enjoying a new surge in popularity. Regardless of whether you are a reader or a writer, there are lots of reasons to pay attention. Fortunately, there is a virtual smorgasbord of types of short fiction, ranging from flash fiction to the novella, to choose from.

Generally speaking, younger people have shorter attention spans. The popularity of computer gaming, movies and television has bred a generation of readers and viewers accustomed to quick scene changes and lots of action. One article I read likened current attention spans to about eight seconds, less than that of a goldfish. Short fiction appeals to these people, especially flash fiction which is generally under 2000 words. My flash fiction story, Torch song for Two Voices (That Golden Summer, Polar Expressions Publishing, 2014) came out to just under 600 words.

The increasing popularity of using electronic devices, especially tablets and even cell phones for reading, invites shorter pieces. It is hard to imagine someone reading War and Peace on a cell phone. One friend of mine tells me she reads on her cell phone while standing in line at the checkout counter in the supermarket.

Travel is a third reason for the popularity of short fiction. The frequent distractions associated with sitting in airports and on planes lend themselves to shorter reads.

For the same reason, I think short story anthologies are ideal gifts for people recuperating from illness or surgery. Illness, medication, discomfort all contribute to short attention spans. The collective of which I am a member, the Mesdames of Mayhem, have been able to make copies of our 2013 anthology Thirteen available for sale in the Toronto Hospital gift shop.

I’ve also given a copy of Thirteen to my hairdresser to keep in the salon. He tells me that many of his clients pick up the book and read a story or more while having their hair attended to. A client can easily read two or three stories in that time and not feel frustrated at not being able to finish the book while there.

Studying the craft of the short story is excellent training for aspiring writers. Like the novel, the short story by and large depends on Freytag’s Pyramid for structure.

And while the short story has characteristics of its own, it is an excellent way to focus on the elements of plotting, character revelation, setting and perhaps most important, learning to write tight.

Writing short fiction, as the name suggests, also allows the aspiring author to complete a work and to critique it. And with the many short story anthologies and competitions available, it gives him/her an opportunity to get published and gain recognition, all of which are important when trying to market the manuscript of a novel.

And for the experienced author, he or she can write short fiction alongside longer pieces and thus keep their name in front of publishers, agents, and especially readers, while working on their next bestseller!!

Selling the Book

When my first books, Amazing Days and Places to See, People to See, Things to Do, All Across Canada, were published in the 90s, marketing them was easy -I didn’t have to do a thing! My publisher, Scholastic Canada, did it all – sent out review copies, saved reviews for me etc. My job consisted of filing my reviews, cashing the royalty cheques, being interviewed by my local weekly, and answering “fan mail” from two youthful readers in Labrador who felt I had given that part of the country short shrift.

Ah! The changes wrought by the passage of time! Authors no longer have to search for agents and publishers willing to take them on. The computer has put paid to all that, creating a book bonanza on the internet for readers. This has resulted in a seismic shift in traditional publishing, as these companies struggle to cope with fundamental changes to their industry. Among the changes is the way promotion and marketing is now handled.

Regardless of whether an author has signed on with a big press, a small press, or has decided to go it alone, there is a new onus on him/her to promote as well as write. Traditional publishers are now embedding marketing requirements into their contracts and watching closely to ensure that their authors are adhering to their agreements.

One needs to have a purpose for marketing. In the case of the Mesdames of Mayhem, it is exposure. And so by forming a collective, we hoped to pool our resources, skills and audiences to increase our reach. So what do we do?

Social media is the first and most obvious place to start. A Facebook page, Mesdames of Mayhem, Twitter account @MesdamesMayhem, and a website and blog are de rigeuer, along with tweet teams and blog tours to help spread the word.

Being alert to opportunities can also result in some exciting and non-traditional venues. This has been the case with the Mesdames’ anthology, Thirteen. With help from Friend of the Mesdames, Jane Coryell, we entered into two promotional opportunities with theatre groups who were staging mystery productions. In return for using our website, Facebook page and Twitter account to promote their production, we were given permission to have a table at the theatres in question, sell our books, and be given a boost in the printed programs.

While at the theatre one evening, Madame Madeleine Harris-Callway and I noticed a bookstore at the corner. We walked in, introduced ourselves, and handed the owner a bookmark and a book. He immediately told us he would take some on consignment and invited us to do a signing at the store. The local newspaper was on hand to photograph and interview us at the signing.

We contacted several Ontario wineries and invited them to contribute wine to our launch. Most didn’t express an interest, but one sent us a lovely letter wishing us well and enclosing a gift certificate for 10 people to tour the vineyard and enjoy a tasting.

The Mesdames have bookings with several libraries in Ontario, to read and discuss the process behind creating and selling Thirteen. We have been invited to participate in some book clubs as well.
There are other irons for the Mesdames in the proverbial fire, but these will keep for another day. In the meantime, we continue to look for opportunities to showcase our wonderful book and our very talented collective of writers.

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See You Later, Alligator

(Originally posted on January 14, 2014 by mesdamesofmayhem)

 

If there is anything an ice storm teaches us, it is how helpless we can be when confronted with the forces of nature. And while there is much to be said for the traditional weaponry when plotting a murder, I find myself drawn to the natural world to do my dirty work.

In my novel manuscript, Tooth and Claw, Laura Jensen, an attractive wealthy woman with a past and some strange predilections, travels to New Orleans for a business conference. There her past catches up with her. What should have been a peaceful and enjoyable cruise on the Mississippi turns into her worst nightmare; and her body is dumped in a bayou and into the jaws of a very hungry alligator.

Although I have vacationed in New Orleans, one of my favourite cities, and have in fact, enjoyed a bayou cruise, I was not that familiar with alligators, so some research was necessary. While visiting my friends Janice and Larry Hatt at their West Palm Beach condo, I prevailed upon them to take me to see alligators. We went to a place in the Everglades called Shark Valley. Why it is named Shark Valley is a mystery to me since it is not a valley and there was a noticeable absence of anything resembling sharks. But there were alligators galore, and after, wandering off on a trail during a break in the tour and nearly stepping upon one – fortunately for me fast asleep – I wisely stayed in the tram for the duration of the outing.

Alligators continue to fascinate me, albeit from a safe distance. Genetically, they are linked to dinosaurs and have been around for some 230 million years, without evolving much. And while human beings are not part of their usual diet, they are considered opportunistic feeders, which means they will eat anything that comes their way. In 1995, a nuisance alligator was killed. The ‘gator, estimated to be about 50 years old, had seven dog collars in its stomach, one from a dog that had been missing for 14 years.

The jaws of the American alligator can exert 3000 pounds of pressure per square inch- enough to crunch bones. They generally kill their prey by rolling until the prey drowns. They then stash the kill in a muddy bank or underwater cave until it is putrid enough for the alligator to tear off pieces.
Alligators were hunted almost to extinction for their skin which is made into fashionable leather goods – shoes, handbags and belts, until they were declared an endangered species. However in recent years, their numbers have increased dramatically, and there is now an annual hunt in the bayous. Hunting licences are required for this. The recent series, Swamp People, on the History Channel, documents the hunt.

The supremacy of ‘gators in the Florida Everglades is now threatened by pythons. While not native to this part of the world, the giant snakes have found the Everglades to be an ideal home with no natural predators. The pythons are thought to number in the hundreds of thousands. An urban myth is that people adopted the snakes when babies as pets, but as they got bigger and threatened small children and family dogs and cats, the owners irresponsibly released them into the Everglades. A more plausible theory is that the snakes originally escaped from a breeding facility that was damaged in a hurricane. Winters in Louisiana tend to be about ten degrees colder than Florida which is too cold for the pythons and probably explains why the Louisiana alligators have not been threatened by the snakes.

If history stays the course, the alligators will prevail and continue on for many more millennia.

The Idea Shop

If I were to take a poll of writers to find out what question they are asked most frequently, I’m betting it would be, “Where do you get your ideas?” Author Stephen King once joked that there’s a company in Cleveland or some such place, called The Idea Shop and every month it sends him a box of ideas.

Appealing as the notion of an idea shop is, it really isn’t necessary. Ideas are all around us all the time. Really!!

Some writers find inspiration in careers they’ve had; education; family experiences and family histories. Other sources for ideas are in newspapers, magazines, the Internet. We’ve all seen medical thrillers written by doctors, legal thrillers written by lawyers, mysteries based on cooking, on knitting and on quilting.

Most of my own ideas have come from simply looking and listening. Inspiration is never very far away. The idea for my story George came to

me one day in late October when I was driving along a country road and saw a gallows (a Hallowe’en decoration) with a dummy hanging from it. My mind immediately began to play with the possibilities – what if that’s not a dummy? What if a real person is hanging there, but because it’s Hallowe’en, people just assume it’s a dummy?

Driving along another country road with a friend, she pointed to a pretty frame cottage and remarked, rather casually, that the cottage was supposed to be haunted. From that casual remark came the ghost in For Elise. My story, Sugar and Spice to be published in Thirteen, had its origins in an incident described by a former student of mine, and Stooping to Conquer (EFD1: Starship Goodwords, Carrick Publishing) was inspired by the commentary of a tour guide in one of the great country houses in Ireland, which I visited many years ago.

Future plans include a fictionalized account of a bit of family lore involving a young boy who died under mysterious circumstances, and a story based on some intriguing material I happened upon while researching my novel which is currently undergoing revisions.

A favourite technique is one I came across from author Anne Bernays in her book What If (HarperCollins). Consider a perfectly ordinary situation, then add a “what if” question. For example, you are driving home from the supermarket and stop for a red light. What if a man opens the door on the passenger side, jumps in and points a gun at you and tells you to keep driving? There you have a complication and the beginning of what might be an exciting plot.

Award-winning author and teacher (and the most recent of the Mesdames) Rosemary Aubert, gave each of the students in her class at Loyalist in June a little notebook to keep track of ideas. In fact, I’ve been keeping an “Ideas” notebook for years. It’s crammed full of my jottings, musings, and clippings from newspapers and magazines that could morph into a short story or novel one day.

Carry a little notebook around and jot down ideas as they occur. Who knows? If you don’t use them in a story, perhaps you could open a Stephen King-type Idea Shop of your own and send a box of ideas to authors every month.