Politics to Pastry: What Writers Share When They Blog

 sujata massey

A novelist I greatly admire wrote her last blogpost in September. Catriona McPherson, formerly of the Femmes Fatales, declared that that with the election ahead, so much work needed to be done that she felt it useless to write about "cats and courgettes"--nor did she want to turn her blogposts into a political soapbox. 

Catriona (pronounced Catrina) comes from Scotland and is one of the funniest mystery authors on the planet. She was writing with a wink, but the truth is, writers are constantly self-censoring. It occurs when we write novels—editing out lots to make them better—and when we offer up essays to the internet or print publications. ,We become known for one thing—and people expect us to be amusing. Typically, we keep dark, pressing worries and political opinions to ourselves.

 

During the months after Catriona quit blogging, her activism was substantial. She penned 240 personal handwritten letters and mailed them to voters all over the country in the Vote Forward movement, something I also participated in (with just 40 letters written). Currently, Catriona’s working on letters to voters in Georgia. All the while she did this, she launched a new novel, The Turning Tide, featuring her clever and charming Mitfordesque heroine, Dandy Gilver, who lives in 1930s Scotland. 

 

 

I’m glad Catriona put her priorities the way she needed this fall. And we've got to credit today's readers for their choices. Since the pandemic, reader choices are trending toward social activist and apocalyptic books. Although there's nothing wrong with the historical novels we write, either!

You might be reading this particular blogpost because you follow Murder is Everywhere, a blog built by ten writers whose crime fiction set outside of the US. Or you've found my blogposts cross-posted to my website and Goodreads and my Amazon page. Some information you are learning about me—the protests I participate in for Black Lives Matter, women’s rights, post office service and voting inclusion—is probably not the reason you Googled me. Yet I am someone who writes about a female lawyer in 1920s India whose concerns are national emancipation and civil rights for women. What I care about is probably not a shock.

 

Writing about politics is most definitely allowed in Murder is Everywhere, and I learn a lot listening to the accounts of my fellow bloggers, especially when they draw cultural parallels with the past or in other countries. You must sample the words of my co-conspirators Annamaria Alfieri, Cara Black, Kwei Quartey, Caro Ramsey, Zoe Sharp, Jeff Siger, Michael Stanley, and Susan Spann to get a taste of politics and pastry around the world.

 

I’m pleased that there are enough of us writing that I only need contribute every other week. Fourteen days are a lot of time for events to break and then recede and for my mood to change from outraged to mellow. I can almost guarantee I'll be writing about holiday cooking within the next few weeks and post pictures of adorable dogs on the hunt for crumbs. 

 

The cozy and the distressing all part of the world we live in, and I thank you for being here. 

On the Virtual Road – Blog Touring

Zoë Sharp

For the past ten days since the new Charlie Fox novel, BAD TURN, came out, I’ve been on the road—virtually speaking. I’ve travelled halfway around the world without ever leaving my desk. I’ve been Blog Touring—or perhaps that should be Tour Blogging?—rather than the physical kind of touring. And it’s been fun.

Of course, in the past I’ve travelled all over the place to libraries and bookstores for the publication of various books in the series, quite often using a trip to the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention to kick things off. As Bouchercon is held in a different city/state every year (even making it over to the UK several times) it means that the starting point has also always been different.

with apologies to Q and 007

But, this time around I knew I wasn’t going over to Bouchercon and work-in-progress projects are beginning to pile up. So, doing another blog tour, ably organised by the fearsomely efficient Ayo Onatade, seemed like a good choice.

I’m told that sometimes authors rely on their blogger hosts doing a series of reviews but I hesitate over this way of doing things. What happens if one of the reviewers involved really doesn’t like the book? After all, I would have thought they have far too many books on their teetering TBR piles to read it first, just to make sure.

So, I prefer to do guest posts and articles on topics related to the book, mixed in with a few reviews where blogger/reviewers are happy to do them.

For the BAD TURN blog tour, I wrote six guest posts. Some of them were to the blog host’s suggested topic and others were of my own devising. I tried to make them relevant to the book without being outright BSP. (For anyone who may not know, BSP stands for Blatant Self-Promotion.)

For Shotsmag Confidential, Ayo asked me to write something about the European setting I used for much of the book, so I explained why I’d chosen to take Charlie to Italy and rural France, and how I researched those locations.

French chateau that caught my eye

For Anne Bonny Book Reviews, I wrote a piece for Abby Slater-Fairbrother about ‘borrowing’ characteristics or mannerisms from real people to create fictional characters. And also using names of people who have volunteered or bid to be included. There were more than usual in this book and integrating them was a challenge I really enjoyed.

Judith Baxter at Growing Younger Each Day wanted to know about the couple Charlie ends up working for—Eric and Helena Kincaid. So, I explored the nature of their somewhat dysfunctional crime family and looked at what made them tick.

Another location piece was on New Jersey for Tina Hartas at TripFiction as part of her ‘Talking Location With’ feature. I explained why I chose to set the start—and end—of the book in New Jersey, and even where the idea for the cover image came from.

  

Rural New Jersey (Jeff may well recognise this one...)

Sarah Hardy at By The Letter Book Reviews wanted to know about the changes that had taken place between Charlie’s first outing as a teacher of self-defence in a northern English city, to the later books where she’s working in close-protection for a top New York agency. Charlie’s certainly evolved through the thirteen books so far. And I hope she has a way to go yet!

Finally, I was asked to write a piece about HEroes vs SHEroes in crime thrillers for Sharon Bairden at Chapter In My Life. The way women were portrayed in the early thrillers I read frustrated me enough to want to write my own. Sharon also recalled the practical workshop I taught at Crime & Publishment earlier this year. I demonstrated how to defend yourself using a table fork and evidently it made quite a lasting impression…

The tour ends today but it seems a shame not to gather all these extras together and offer them to my readers as Bonus Features. Rather like the ‘Making-Of’ and ‘Behind the Scenes’ documentaries I used to love when I bought lots of movies on DVD. Hm, now that’s got me thinking…

I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks, firstly to Ayo, who organised the tour for me, and to all the bloggers mentioned above, who invited me to contribute to their blog sites. And I’m hugely grateful to the other bloggers who very kindly reviewed BAD TURN: Liz Barnsley at Liz Loves Books; Judith Baxter who, as well as the guest post, also did a review on her other blog, Books And More Books; Karen Cole at Hair Past A Freckle Book Reviews; Jen Lucas at Jen Med’s Book Reviews; and Noelle Holten at Crime Book Junkie. (You are all goddesses of the literary world.)

This week’s Word of the Week comes courtesy of EvKa, a regular in the Comments section. It is aibohphobia, meaning an irrational fear of palindromes. It was deliberately constructed to be one, but is a rather splendid word regardless.

Upcoming Events

I will be appearing with fellow crime author Martin Edwards at the Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival. We’re presenting ‘A Brief History Of Crime’ at The Royal Toby Hotel in Rochdale, at 6pm on Thursday, October 17.

The Most Helpful Websites For Writers

Zoë Sharp

I can’t take the credit for compiling this list of the Most Helpful Websites for Authors. It forms part of a post on the Global English Editing blog, which was sent to me this last week.

But having read through even a small number of the 120 recommended websites, it should be bookmarked on every writer’s computer. The resources listed here are fascinating, and useful, although they could be a gift to the procrastinators among us!

The sites are listed in categories, to make searching easier, and I’ve picked out just one honourable mention in each.

Helpful Tips on Writing

The first is on the Writers Unboxed site, in this case to a blog written by our own Susan Spann, about the nitty gritty of making sure your contract has a reversion clause that means you can actually get your rights back if and when the book goes out of print.

General Resources For Writers

This blog on Author Media is about the seven ways author websites can irritate readers, and what to do about it. Read and inwardly digest. The Author Media site concentrates on online publishing and marketing, and has a library of WordPress plug-ins to help boost your site’s performance.

Be A Successful Freelance Writer

Cathy’s Comps And Calls blog is about opportunities for freelance writers, including competitions, calls for submissions with deadlines, and calls for submissions with no known deadlines. She publishes a list at the start of every month.

Publishing Your Work

Helping Writers Become Authors is a blog that specialises in teaching writers how to structure their stories to make them more saleable. This is a link to a piece about 15 places to find your next beta reader.

Blogging

Jon Morrow’s Boost Blog Traffic blog is aimed to help bloggers get their voice heard in an over-saturated marketplace. This particular link goes to a blog about creative places for opt-in forms that will supercharge your sign-ups.

Grammar Tips

Daily Grammar has 488 lessons, as well as grammar tips and exercises.

Writing Groups

The 1^st 10 pages site offers writers the chance to anonymously post the first ten pages of their work to receive ‘honest critique from established literary voices. This link goes to a bonus blog analysing the first ten pages of the movie PAN and asking why it didn’t live up to its premise.

Authors To Follow

Doesn’t seem fair to single out any one of the great writers listed, including JK Rowling, Nicholas Sparks and Stephen King, but they are all worth inspecting.

Writers As Business Owners

Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn website is one I’m familiar with. Joanna is a wonderful resource for established or newbie authors hoping for advice on all things connected to the business of writing.

Literary Agents

There are no individual agents listed or recommended, although there are links to associations or sites where you can log your queries or find out how long you might be expected to wait for a response. I found this Pub Rants blog very interesting on The #1 Reason We Only Requested 216 Sample Materials in 2015.

Writing Associations

Of the associations listed, I’m in International Thriller Writers so can recommend them. And it’s free to join!

Protect Yourself

This sounds like the kind of heading Charlie Fox would be very interested in, but there is no advice about how to wrestle a potential publisher to the ground and put a lock on them here. Of those listed, I’d mention the Society of Authors, who provide invaluable contract advice for authors.

Jobs And Marketplaces

I can’t give any particular recommendations in this section, as I haven’t used any of the resources mentioned, but it’s a list of places to find freelance or writing work, so worth checking out if you are in the freelance game.

Fun For Writers

Of these, I have always loved The Bulwer-Lytton contest for the worst opening lines, named in honour of that wordsmith extraordinaire, Edward Bulwer-Lytton:

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Do you have any useful websites you’ve discovered on your literary travels? Ones you keep returning to? For myself, I’d add this Random Name Generator website. Always useful if you want to pick a name for a character who’s going to do something nasty.

This week’s Word of the Week is undine, or ondine, which means a category of elemental beings associated with water, which includes limnads, mermaids, naiades, nymphs, and nereides. They are usually portrayed as female and although they resemble humans they lack a soul, so to achieve immortality they must acquire one by marrying a human. Of course if the man is unfaithful to the undine, he’ll die.