Talk & Tell by yours truly...

Fun to participate in the Talk & Tell article about launching a book. Take a look HERE

A necessary break

As soon as I finish a book, I think to myself “Danielle, take a break, sleep in…rest.” But within two or three days, a fear creeps in. What if that was the last book I can ever write? What if no good idea ever strikes again? 14 books under my belt and it’s the same every time. 

I’ve come to realize that this doubt is just part of my process. And probably a useful part. It keeps me humble; it makes me want to do better, be better.

But, it must be tamed as well. A writer with too much doubt is a writer who can’t write. I will write again. Of course I will. For now though, I need this break.

So, i treated myself to a yummy turmeric latte this morning and am breathing through the discomfort.

A break from the dark...

 Sometimes I need a break from the dark, creepy stuff in my head and in other books. My family always gives me a hard time because I won’t watch scary movies. “It’s not going to be as scary as the stuff you write about,” they say.

And they’re probably correct. My stuff is pretty dark. But it’s MY dark. It grows inside ME. I can handle it. Perhaps writing it is my way of letting that darkness out. And I can read dark books, too. Although I don’t do super scary ones.

But, watching a movie feels totally different. It’s so many levels scarier for me. People compared my first book, Savage Art, to Silence of the Lambs… but I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t read it. And I only stayed in the theater about 20 minutes before I had to leave the movie…

What is that all about? Wish I could tell you. But, today I took a break from the dark and read Pumpkin Heads by Rainbow Rowell . It was perfect… and a graphic novel to boot.

Check out the trailer for the Rookie Club

I’m so excited to share the Rookie Club trailer, created by the very talented Melissa Dee of Universal by Design…

Check it out HERE

Inspiration from change of place

Writing in a new place adds an element to inspiration to whatever I’m working on. And sometimes feeling small in a space help me focus, too.

The largeness of a space adds to idea that the thing I’m doing that feels so big isn’t really that big after all….

Here is one of my favorite new spots:

Collecting my thoughts...

Cleaning out my drawers today and pulled out all the notebooks I’ve used in the past 3 or 4 years. Every few years, I realize I can’t keep them all, but when I stack them up like this, it’s also really hard to let them go!

These are filled with my ideas for books, for revisions, for characters, for stories… some are plain terrible and a few might be very good. I’ll probably never know because they’re heading to the recycling bin…

Yes, I could go back through them but, to be honest, ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the momentum of the story that makes me want to sit down and write a whole book about it. And that momentum comes from new ideas, not old ones.

Cold Silence Gets a Facelift. Which cover would you choose?

Subscribers to my readers list got to help choose the new cover for Cold Silence. These were the choices. Which one do you prefer? The winner will be chosen September 1st and announced on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Join my readers list here so you never miss a chance to cast your vote!

Inside the Minds of 4 Murder Writers

I had a great time talking murder, plot twists and devious minds with 3 other talented writers in a recent podcast with Writers of the World.

Click here to watch.

Hitting the list...

This summer, for the first time in my career, one of my books hit the USA Today Bestsellers List. So, naturally, we did what anyone would do—we invited over a dozen of our closest friends and broke out the champagne!

My husband drank beer, but that just meant more champagne for me!

Nothing is as much fun as signing stock in a bookstore...

Here I am in one of the world’s best mystery bookstores, The Mysterious Bookshop, in New York City. See that smile… it’s pretty magical.

I'm done. Woo hoo!! Uh... now what?!

I finished the book. I turned it in. Those first few days of being done are such a relief. I would walk through the kitchen, thinking, “I’m brilliant. I did it.”

Then, “This is going to be my best book yet. There is not going to be one single person in the WORLD who doesn’t love it…”

Then, “I wonder if I tied up all the loose ends.”

And, “Maybe the killer is too obvious.”

Or, “Maybe the killer is too obscure.”

Twenty minutes later, “I think it might be kind of terrible.”

“What if there isn’t a single person in the WORLD who likes it?!”

“You just need to hear from someone who’s read it. It’s going to be fine.” A few days.

I waited patiently. You know, I paced and cleaned the refrigerator (twice) and took long walks (never too far from the phone, of course) and checked my email every ten or fifteen minutes. Isn’t that what patient people do?

Then, bing! The first reader…

“I love it,” she says.

And all is right with the world again.

Then, “Hmmm. What should I work on next?”

“It’s really time to start a new book.”

Rinse and repeat.

Q&A with Yours Truly

In response to some of the questions I’ve received from readers over the years, here is a little Q&A to help you get to know me. Have other questions? Drop me an email and I’ll post answers in the next installment. Happy Reading.

How would you describe your writing process?

The first hundred pages are the hardest. Everything is set up in those chapters—the protagonist, the supporting cast, the mystery, the dynamics. These first pages take the majority of my time. I do a lot of staring out the window. And I'm always writing down little nuggets. I keep notebooks everywhere!! And I encourage other writers to do the same. In particular, keep a pen and paper by your bed, since the best ideas always seem to come as you’re falling asleep. Your mind relaxes and that in-between stage can be magical for brainstorming.

In the beginning, I compile those ideas, create some spreadsheets because I'm weird that way, AND, most importantly, I stumble through a thousand words of writing each day. Many of those might get cut, but even if I'm writing backstory or character information, it's still worthwhile. 

Sound painful? It can be. Like moving one inch forward then two feet backward. But, if you can get those first hundred pages right, it’s all there. After that, it comes to writing every day, since it can be hard to get back into the flow if I let the story sit, even for a day.

Do you ever base characters on real people?

I've never based a character on someone specific, but I think the characters are probably a collage of people I know or have met. It would be hard to create characters without stealing traits from real people as a guide—how else would I know where to start? Beyond that, many—if not all—of my characters also include a sliver of my own personality, or someone I would like to be.

What is your advice for aspiring writers?

Despite what people think, there’s nothing sexy or romantic about being a writer. Writing a book is like exercising—everyone wants to do it once and see the result but it's really about consistency and making it a habit. If you do put in the work, eventually you’ll get the reward, but it’s a long slog. No one starts off knowing how to write well. 

At the beginning of my career, when I was still working in finance, I wrote three suspense novels, which I sent to agents and editors. This was back when we mailed query letters at the post office. I got a lot of rejections. 

One rejection on the first book, “Murders and Acquisitions,” said something along the lines of, "The title is great. The rest is not." I probably don't need to tell you that none of those book sold. They're permanently "buried in the backyard," as I like to put it. That's okay. Whether it was stubbornness or sheer stupidity, I kept writing. Sent a book out, collected rejection letters while I was starting the next one. Rinse and repeat. 

The only way to get better is to write. Malcolm Gladwell's book Outlierssuggests that gaining expertise takes 10,000 hours. I think he's right. I've spent that much time writing now. So, you want to be a writer? Get your 10,000 hours. 

 The other thing about this business is that you’re going to have to deal with rejection. From the industry, from fans, and occasionally from a less-than-tactful friend. You can’t stop for any of that. Your job is to write. When you’re done with book one, write another book. Worst case scenario (or best case scenario, depending on how you look at it) you’ll have 3 or 4 books ready to sell when you land that perfect agent. But you can’t give up. The only way to guarantee you’ll never make it is to quit.

 It helps to have people in your life who help you keep going. I’ve had the good fortune of being with my husband for 25 years, and he’s been an incredible and encouraging foundation. Being a writer involves a lot of jumping and trusting you’ll land somewhere safe, so it is important to surround yourself with people who will support the process, even if they don’t understand it.

Do you read reviews of you books? Do they affect you?

 Yes, I read them and I hate them. The fact is that the most successful books in the marketplace, the ones that people are drawn to, receive the strongest reactions, and they’re not all positive. If you’re writing material that some people really love, the chances are that someone else is going to really hate it. The truth is you just can’t let those reviews affect how you write. Constructive reviews can be helpful on a purely mechanical level, but stylistic ones are so subjective that you can’t let them bother you. 

 That said, the bad ones still sting. They always will.

The painful process of moving backward...

Occasionally I get to the point in a book where all the action is coming together and the end is growing close. It’s always the fastest piece to write… and the most exciting. Months of staring at the blank screen of the drudgery of word by word becomes a rush of adrenaline as I near the finish line.

Unless I realize along that fast and furious run that I’m heading in the wrong direction.

Or worse, that I made a wrong turn at some point earlier in the book.

And then I have to go back and cut.

And that is possibly the most painful part of writing a novel—the times when you realize it’s wrong. And you’re alone, no editor (yet) telling you how it’s wrong and suggesting ways to fix it. It’s just wrong in your head and you know in your gut that you have to go back.

This was one of those weeks. It’s done. The pages (40+ of them) are gone, filed under “Out",” and I’m back to the forward motion again. I’m a week (or three) behind where I was but headed for a better book.

The worst is behind me now. The book will be better because of it.

Midnight Musings...

I’m a great sleeper. Really really good. Good like, if I made a resume of my great life achievements, the ability to sleep would be right up there at the top. I’m also really good at parallel parking, like freakishly good. But better at sleep. (Good to know your strengths, right?)

When Inspiration Strikes…

Recently, though I woke up in the middle of the night and was surprised not to find a child standing over me. That’s almost always the reason I wake up. I sat up. No strange noises, no barking or shouting or laughing or sneezing. No vomit. (Always a plus.. you parents know what I mean.)

I’d woken up with an idea. And it felt so alive that some half-asleep part of my brain thought I could get up and right the whole thing that night. Probably not exactly true, but the idea got me out of bed. And for an hour, I huddled on the closet floor in my bathrobe and took notes. I wrote down the snippets of what the characters said, what I saw when Liv Asher drove her old Ram truck with its Wyoming plates and its layers of dust into downtown Denver. I wrote how her dog, Ranger, paced uncomfortably along the truck’s bench seat, whining—perhaps at the unfamiliar sight of bright city lights against the dark sky. Then, I wrote down my ideas for the opening scene, a pregnant woman emerging from some sort of drugged sleep only to discover that she’s no longer pregnant. The baby is gone.

Oh God, she thought. I’ve lost the baby and it wasn’t even mine.

And with that, a new book is born….

The end's laser focus...

When the end of a book is in sight, I find it hard to focus on anything else. Which makes it hard to, say, make meals or grocery shop.

Even on a wonderful girls’ holiday, I still found myself coming back to the green notebook, making notes on final scenes, on the big reveal(s), and on those reflective moments that will close the novel.

Although truth be told, I believe that is a half-empty margarita at my feet, so I don’t look too bothered by the work, do I?

Plotter or Pantser

They say there are two types of writers, those who make a long outline and plan it all out and those who write by the seat of their pants.

I have to admit, I’ve tried both.

And failed at both.

I’m no “pantser.” I need some idea of what is going to happen before I start a book. An outline of at least the first few chapters… and maybe some key plot points further on.

I’m also not much of a "plotter.” Whatever perfect plans I’ve got for my characters, one of them inevitably does something she wasn’t supposed to and there go my plans… up in flames. Or bullets. Or off a cliff.

Well, you get the idea.

So I guess that makes me a plantser… ;)

Tips of the Slung... or Slips of the Tongue

Definition of spoonerism

: a transposition of usually initial sounds of two or more words (as in tons of soil for sons of toil)

What I’ve got isn’t exactly a spoonerism problem although I have yet to find the correct diagnostic term for my particular verbal ailment.

Or roaring with pain…

Whatever it is, it’s definitely from my mother’s side of the family. My mother has trouble remembering the odd names of things and comes up with something just slightly off (and off-putting) like calling someone “Butson” instead of “Watson.”

Or you might go to “Bernie’s” for a nice handbag when really you’d probably go to “Barneys.”

These are a source of endless humor for her four children… The best such story is from when she and my dad were up in Alaska, fly fishing. They were in a little bait shop, in the middle of nowhere and my mom had heard that blood-sucking leaches were doing well as bait. So, standing in front of the old fishermen and the grizzly storeowner, my mom announced. “I think I’l try those cock-sucking roaches today.”

The storeowner, who had surely met all types, said, “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that pattern.”

Insert hysterical gut laughter from us kids….

Until the day I was at lunch with a girlfriend and we were talking about dream vacations. I told her I’d love to go to Norway or Sweden to see the (what for it)…. areola borealis.

It took me a minute to realize my mistake.

Hiding my red face behind my glass, I corrected myself. “I mean the aurora borealis.”

They said it would happen… I’m becoming my mother!

Making the most of winter... but I'm over winter.

The Best Part

It would make sense that the best part of writing a book is typing “The End.”

But it’s not.

Or maybe you think it is the moment you hold that first copy in your hands. It may be for some people but not for me.

For me, the best (BEST!) part is seeing the cover. It’s that moment when some other person (one who is much more artistic than I) takes all the things I’ve had in my head for months and months and makes it into a visual piece of art.

I imagine if one of the books is made into a movie, I would have this experience times a million. But for now, the arrival of the cover in that magical moment.

And here is the magic for EXPIRE…

…Now we just have to wait for the release— July 9 can’t come fast enough!

Goals...

Coming through the fog of the holidays—the cards, the presents, the turkey and stuffing, the champagne and sparkling apple cider, the kids out of school and them (and their endless things and clothes and shoes) under foot—it’s time to look at the new year. A new year means a fresh slate.

Like starting a new book, starting a new year invigorates me. I think about all the things I’d like to try. Not do. I no longer make lists that include what I will do this year. Only what I will TRY to do.

So, this year, I’m going to TRY to write two books instead of one. I’m going to TRY to meditate more days than not. I’m going to TRY to read more books than I did last year (which was 80 so that’s going to be a tough one) and I’m going to TRY to put my work away at the end of the day (a reasonable end, not midnight) and be present with my family in the evenings.

What are you going to TRY?

And yes, this is what I look like when I’m making goals… ;)