A Community of Big-Hearted Scribes

No. This isn't heaven. Or Iowa. It's the Killer Fiction Writers' blog. And the picture to the right features five-sixths of our criminally creative cast of characters. From left to right are Deadly DeLeon, Bullet Hole Bacus, Trigger Happy Halliday, Leslie 'The Assassin' Langtry, Farrah Rochon (fellow Dorchester author), and Crime Scene Christie (pretty in pink). The picture was taken this past July in Dallas, Texas, during the Romance Writers of America annual National Conference. It was the first opportunity most of us had to meet in person--although we'd communicated on-line and our joint website/blog was born out of that auspicious--and hilarious--meeting.

The story relating to fellow author Dawn Thompson's medical emergency and the ensuing medical bills Gemma posted about yesterday--and the outpouring of assistance--got me thinking about how really unique the writing community is--and how amazingly big-hearted. Yet, it doesn't surprise me that authors, agents, booksellers, and agents are coming together to help an author out in her time of need. It's what I've come to expect from a guild of professional writers who in a very real sense educate and mentor their own competition. Think about it for a second. Can you imagine an athlete in a professional sport telling a walk-on, "Hey, rookie, I'll teach you everything I know so you can compete against me for that spot on the starting roster." Or a lawyer telling opposing counsel, "See, this is how I would try this case if I were you?" Or a famous chef giving away the secrets to his award-winning souffle? Or a Cover Girl model giving beauty and diet tips to America's next top model?

Yet writers do that every day. From giving workshops, writing how-to articles, providing recommendations to agents and editors, to critiquing and judging contests, writers and authors give of themselves until it hurts. Maybe literally.

It's an amazing dichotomy. And typical of the comraderie that exists in the writing realm which operates under the credo that there will always be room for great stories.

So today I'd like to salute my fellow authors and writers who so selflessly give of themselves to others--only to find their proteges grab a coveted slot from under their nose--and ask that you take advantage of the terrific opportunities Gemma mentioned. Pass the word along to fellow writers, as well, so they can take advantage of the splendid opportunities for critiques from publishing professionals. You'll be helping a terrific author at the same time.

So long for this time,

~Bullet Hole Bacus~

Help a Fantastic Author get Back on her Feet!

A friend and fellow Dorchester author, Dawn Thompson, has had a bad fall. With some work, she’ll okay, but she’s in the hospital right now and facing huge medical bills. One of the downsides of being an author is the lack of medical insurance, so when something like this happens, it's especially difficult. Some fantastic Dorchester authors have banded together to raise funds to help her get back on her feet.

The first fundraiser is a GREAT one. Bookisle is donating 5% of all their books sales made with the special TREATS FOR DAWN order form between Oct 30 and Nov 6th. Bookisle has fantastic prices on romances and mysteries, so if you’ve been looking for a good book, this is a great opportunity. Just don’t forget to use their special order form! (Located on their homepage)

SHARE THE NEWS and make your order count for even more!
IF TOTAL OF ALL BOOK ORDERS IS OVER $1,000 - eBOOKISLE will
give 6% Donation?
IF TOTAL OF ALL BOOK ORDERS IS OVER $2,000 - eBOOKISLE will
give 7% Donation?
IF TOTAL OF ALL BOOK ORDERS IS OVER $3,000 - eBOOKISLE will
give 8% Donation?
IF TOTAL OF ALL BOOK ORDERS IS OVER $4,000 - eBOOKISLE will
give 9% Donation
IF TOTAL OF ALL BOOK ORDERS IS OVER $5,000 - eBOOKISLE will
give 10% Donation?

BOOK ISLE PAPERBACKS
2212 Division Street [Bus Hwy 51]
Stevens Point, WI 54481
715-341-8817 Open: 10 to 6 M-F ~ Sat. 10-3
mailto:shop@ebookisle.net
eFAX: 425-952-1337
http://www.ebookisle.net

The second fundraiser is Deborah MacGillivray’s Editor Auction. If you’re a writer – this one is a must!

Tired of submitting to slush piles and getting rejected before
the editors even see it?

Want a chance to get your book before a print editor???
Want a guaranteed that the editor actually reads it?
You don't ever get that request for a FULL manuscript??

Well here is your chance!!

Win a chance to have your completed or nearly completed
manuscript read and receive a one page critique from

Hilary Sares
Kensington editor
(Debut, Brava, Approdisia lines)

FIFTEEN people will win this amazing opportunity.

Yes, 15 people will have their full or nearly completed
manuscripts read and will receive a one page
critique from editor Hilary Sares.

How do you win this amazing chance??

RAFFLE -- $100 per entry.
Enter as many times as you want.
(all money is going to a worthy cause)


~~~~~~~~~ Rules: ~~~~~~~~~

You may enter as many times as you want at $100 a "ticket".
The more times you enter, the better your chances are.

Winners will be randomly selected from a drawing of names.
on
December 21st, 2007

~~~~~~~~ What do you get? ~~~~~~~~

15 people with completed or nearly completed manuscripts (any genre!) will have their manuscript read by Hilary Sares
(Impress her and she could even want to buy you if you are what she's looking for!)
All 15 will get a one page critique of their manuscript.

But that is not all....

RUNNERS up will get....

2nd place Runners up.... (16 and 17 winners)

Chris Keeslar
Senior Editor, Dorchester Publishing
(Leisure Books and Love Spell)
~~ will read and critique 100 pages ~~
you get to put a proposal of 100 pages before
Dorchester's editor, and receive 1 page critique.
Again, he will consider buying if you impress him!
(Historical Romances, Magna, Contemporary, Paranormal)

Leah Hultenschmidt
Editor for Dorchester Publishing
(Leisure Books and Love Spell)

~~ will read and critique a 100 pages ~!
you get to put a proposal of 100 pages before Dorchester's editor,
and receive 1 page critique.
Again, she will consider buying if you impress her!
(Historical Romances, Contemporary, Paranormal)

3rd place Runners up (18, 19, 20 and 21 winners)

Leanne Burroughs
Publisher/Editor of Highland Press, will read and
critique 4 full manuscripts -the publisher/owner of
Highland Press
will read and giveeach a 1 page critique.
Again, she will consider buying.

(Historical Romance, Paranormal, Contemporary,
Mainstreams YA, Childrens)Trade size PRINT Books

Details....

The raffle runs through midnight EST December 15, 2007

The random drawing will be held on:
December 21, 2007

so 21 people will have a very Merry Christmas!!!
winners will be notified by phone and email on that day.

All drawings will be final. No Refunds

Any questions about the contest
email
Deborah Macgillivray
Kensington, Dorchester, & Highland Press author
writer@deborahmacgillivray.co.uk

To enter

Name:

email address (working email addy for you will be billed $100 through Paypal):
Penname, if any:

Your full address:

Your Phone number:

The Title of your manuscript:

The genre of your manuscript:

Is your manuscript completed? YES NO

If no - expected completion date

Once your email application is received
you will be sent a "ticket" bill through
Paypal at $100.00 for each entry.
You pay enter has many times as you want to increase your odds.

You will be helping a fellow writer get back on her feet
after trauma, and you finally get that GUARATEED
chance to be read by some top print editors.

Halloween Memories

Okay…it’s that time of year—ghost and goblins, Frankenstein, floozies and toilet paper. Oh, the Halloween memories.

My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so our costumes were mostly homemade. And by that I mean, fifteen minutes before we left with our pillowcases in hand to collect our candy, Mom would get creative. I remember once being a mummy. The toilet paper fell off after the first few houses, but no problem, my mom brought a couple of extra rolls and every few houses, she would roll me up again. That worked until it started raining.

One year, I was an angel, wings and halo made out of aluminum foil and a coat hanger. No surprise that I lost my halo pretty quickly.

Then there was the year mom was obviously low on creative juices, because she teased my hair, and slapped some makeup on my face and announced I was ready.

“What am I?” I asked her.

I remember her hesitating before answering. “A floozy.”

I didn’t even know what a floozy was, but I was proud of being one and to my six-year-old mind, I looked like an adult . . . just like mom. So that’s what I told everyone that night. “I’m a floozy just like my mom.”

Amazingly, the next year, I got one of those costumes from the store.

Mom and sometimes dad would follow us in their car as we knocked on the door of every house in the neighborhood. When we got home, we always had to empty our stash on the table for dad to inspect it for poison or razor blades. I was always impressed with his talent. He’d study it carefully and pick the suspicious pieces out. Funny thing, it was always his favorite type of candy that looked suspicious.

I quickly outgrew trick-or-treating, or I should say, I traded it in for rolling yards. I know some of you are going to argue that it’s called T-P’ing or toilet papering yards, but in Alabama, we “rolled” yards. We rolled cars. If someone stood still long enough we’d roll them too—making them instant mommies.

As I’m writing this, I suddenly got curious. Where did this tradition come from? (Probably the toilet paper industry, right?) So I did a far-reaching research on it. Yeah, I googled it.

Much to my dismay, no one really knows who was the first person to come up with the brilliant idea of tossing toilet paper up in trees. Tis’ a sad fact that some history has been lost to us. Then again, you’ve gotta admit, that had to be one weird dude.

Anyway, while I came up dry on the tradition of rolling yards, I did find some interesting trivia on toilet paper. Hey, you never know when you might need this info.

The first person ever to use toilet paper was the Emperor of China in 1391. Definitely a man born before his time. In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty produced America's first packaged toilet paper. I personally think he deserves to have his face on a coin. In 1890, Scott introduces toilet paper on a roll, which in my mind is just one step up from the invention of the wheel. And in 1942 . . . all hail two-ply! But it wasn’t until 1955 that toilet paper was PC enough to run an ad on television.

Can you believe that? Especially when now you can’t watch TV without hearing about yeast infections, penile dysfunction, and who doesn’t know what do if an erection lasts longer than four hours?

Ahh, things have changed. Even Halloween. Sure, I bought some candy, and I’ll have it waiting by the door, I might even dress up as a floozy, but chances are I’ll only get one or two lone trick or treaters.

Anyway, do you have any Halloween stories to share? Does anyone know where the tradition of rolling yards came from? Or what was your favorite costume? The contest is still up and running. Post a comment and maybe you’ll be the lucky winner.

Happy Halloween!
Crime Scene Christie

Need An Oil Change - I'm Your Girl

I promised another story this week about my somewhat masculine affinity for engines and working with power tools. The reality is, I have a pretty darned good set of power tools and can do some decent work with wood. I'm not a fan of sheetrock and wouldn't want to tape and bed an entire room, but in a pinch, I can do a patch that you probably wouldn't notice unless you're looking for it. But where I've really used my skills is with engines.

You see, my husband and I met at a motorcycle shop (he sold me my gear and told me he came with it - turns out he was right). We raced motocross for a lot of years, then shifted to competition watercraft, shifter karts and crotch rockets. All the while we did our own wrenching and I have to say, I'm not half bad. In fact, one evening I picked up my husband's new after market pipe for his crotch rocket and did the install myself because he had to work late and wanted to ride the motorcycle (with new pipe) to work the next day. My husband was thrilled and he got huge kudos from the other guys at his job (he works in the auto industry) for marrying such a handy woman.

But the story I want to tell is one from the beginning of our relationship and it points out how two people raised in the same household, who have the same parents, can be totally different. So here we go:

I had been dating my husband, Rene, for a month of so when I was getting ready to make a trip back home to Louisiana to visit my parents (we live in Dallas). So I was packing to leave the next day after work when I realized that I had meant to change the oil in my truck before I left. So the following conversation ensued:

Me: Darn it, I meant to change the oil in my truck before my trip home.

Rene: I'm off work tomorrow - I can do it. Who does your oil change?

Me: Me.

Rene: (looking at me suspiciously) Well, I'm not going to do it personally, but I can definitely have it done.

Me: Okay, but you HAVE to get the OEM filter from the dealership and you HAVE to use Mobil 1 synthetic.

Rene: (now looking impressed) Okay, no problem.

Now this might seem strange to some, but my dad is a petroleum engineer. I got my first motorcycle when I was five and have been lectured on the value of synthetic oils since I was a kid. I listened - I learned - I gave my vehicles (and other extreme sports equipment) no less than the absolute best. Not so my brother.

Flash forward four or five years later and Rene is at my brother's house and my brother is preparing to sell his truck. It's one of those small-sized ones and he's literally almost run it to death. Standing in front of the truck, the following conversation ensues:

My brother: It was a pretty good truck. I got 120,ooo miles out of it and only changed the oil three times.

Rene: Really? How many miles do you think you would have gotten out of it if you'd changed it four times?

So Rene comes home, walks straight in the house and says "you and your brother cannot possibly have the same father."

We still laugh about it today. So what about you? Any siblings? If so, are you different is some of the oddest ways?

In celebration of release week - yep, that's right, UNLUCKY officially releases tomorrow - I am giving away a signed copy of the book in addition to the gift basket drawing that will happen tomorrow! Just post on the blog any time today and you'll be entered to win. Happy Halloween!

- Deadly (with a wrench) DeLeon

I Have a Plot!

It would seem so obvious, wouldn’t it? That if you are going to write a novel, you should have a plot?

That’s how it is supposed to work. But for me? That is too much like right. So in the past each time I’ve sat down to write a novel, it started with a scene or a character or a quirky gimmick to which I attached myself. I start writing and 90K words later I’m no closer to a cohesive plot or the end than I was when I finished that first scene. And I don’t know how to finish them so I try to forget about them by moving on to my next disaster. I have three mostly completed manuscripts that are disasters like that.

So this time I decided that I should try to write a novel like a grown up. I’ve actually sat down and sketched out a plot. As is a good idea in this sub-genre, I know who get whacked and why and who does the whacking. As other writers have used I made a poster board to hang over my workspace. It’s a crafty thing that displays bits and pieces of my story as I envision it and I’ll hang it over my workspace this month for inspiration.

I’m not married to every tiny detail, there is plenty of room for me to breathe and breed but I feel much more confident about actually finishing this one.

Anyone feel like sharing their plotting strategy?

Playing Hooky

As you read this I’m in L.A. at the Screenwriting Expo pitching a screenplay to big shot Hollywood producers. (Cross your fingers for me!!) I wrote it based off one of my unsold novels that actually won the RWA Golden Heart award in 2005. Shortly afterward I sold Spying In High Heels, and this book kind of fell to the wayside. So, I thought it would be fun to resurrect it for the big screen. It’s about four best friends living in Las Vegas, dealing with love, loss and lust in their forties. Sound fun? Here’s hoping a fabulous producer thinks so!

Since I’m away playing hooky today, I figured I might as well go all the way and post something completely not written by me at all. (I know, I’m so bad.) It’s my favorite poem, written by my great-great grandfather, William Halliday. He was a turn of the century Scottish immigrant, an artist and a true romantic. Oh, and he loved his Scotch. ;) Let me know what you think. And, if you feel so inspired, post some snippets of your favorite poems or humorous rhymes, too.


Liquor Lengthens Life

The Horse and Mule live thirty years,
And know nothing of wines and beers.
The Goat and Sheep at twenty die
And never taste of Scotch or Rye.

The Cows drink water by the Ton,
And at eighteen are mostly done.
The Dog at fifteen cashes in,
Without the aid of Rum or Gin.

The Cat in Milk and Water soaks,
And then at twelve short years it croaks.
The modest, sober bone dry Hen
Lays eggs for Men then dies at ten.

All Animals are strictly dry.
They sinless live and swiftly die.
But sinful, Ginful, Rum Soaked Men
They live for three score years and Ten.



~Gemma "Trigger Happy" Halliday

Wanted: Handy Man/House Husband: Must Love Books

I’m not quite sure when it first appeared in my subconscious. Maybe it started to appear about the same time I was trying to teach the triplets how to drive. Bullet Hole’s Curb-Climbing School of Driving. As I found myself grabbing the steering wheel, jamming my foot against the floorboards searching in vain for a non-existent brake and extracting my fingernails from the dashboard in triplicate, the first glimmers of ‘I sure could use a man around the house’ sentiments began. I shrugged it off. Well, as best I could wearing a cervical collar. This, too, shall pass, I told myself. And I moved on.

Then it came time to buy cars for those licensed drivers and it happened again. I found my head beneath the hood of a 1984 Mercury Grand Marquis looking at the engine components with no clue what I should be looking for. Or at. If there isn’t a puddle of oil or some neon green liquid beneath the car that wasn’t there when I parked it, I’m pretty much good to go. “It’s only got 53,000 miles on it,” the salesperson told me. “It belonged to the great-aunt of the owner of the lot and she hasn’t driven it in years.” Later, after I bought the car, I was to discover why. As I wrote out a check for valve cover gaskets, new brakes, a water pump, and a new oil pan, I had to wonder if I’d have been ripped off if I’d had a male with me. Car dealers so like to screw with women. Well, you know what I mean.

Maybe it would be nice to have a man around the house.

Then, the floods of 2007 hit and I was up to my knees in cold water, going through my basement in hip waders and the thought occurred to me again--among a lot of other not-so-nice thoughts. I sure could use a man around this house. I sucked it up--both the water and my nerve--and reminded myself I was too set in my ways after all these years to consider bringing a man into the mix at this late date. With an independent streak so wide they can see it from the space shuttle, the idea of being accountable to someone other than the Big Guy upstairs didn’t sit well.

At the time of my divorce many years ago now, I promised myself I’d devote my time and energy to raising my four kids and focus on their needs. And frankly, after my first ride on the marriage mobile, the last thing I wanted was another go round. I was still reeling from the last one. Plus there was the ratio of parent to child thing to consider. There just wasn’t enough ‘me’ to go around as it was. And that fact that the only guy who would take on a divorced mother and four children would probably turn out to be a pedophile I’d have to hurt real bad also factored into my decision to go it solo.

Still a series of elements had me reconsidering. Like the leaves that are hanging out of the gutters taunting me day in, day out. And the dead tree in the back yard that I know someone who is competent with a chain saw (so not me) could make short order of. And the dining room that needs new laminate. Or the kitchen that needs new everything. Or the lawn mower that refuses to start.

Hmm. Maybe I could use a man around here.

I thought about it long and hard. (Uh, that’s not meant to be a lewd reference, folks.) I thought about being able to come home from work and wash my face and get into grubbies and not have to deal with issues like, “Does this make me look fat?” Or, alternatively, “horribly unattractive?” And the fact that I can get by with just general maintenance when it comes to ‘body work’ rather than keeping the old chassis spit-shined and polished all the time. And the reality of all that ‘me’ time I’ll have when the kids leave the nest next fall.

Then I consulted a friend. “If something happened to your dear husband, you’d get married again, wouldn’t you?” I asked. She reached out and felt my forehead.

“Wouldn’t you?” I pressed.

She slapped me upside the head to make her point.

Message received.

Yesterday as I left to walk to work and I noticed a long, green trail of radiator coolant running down the driveway from my daughter’s car and into the road.

Hmm. Know any handy man types? Just in case I change my mind...

And remember. He must love books!

~Bullet Hole~