New TV Show-- Writers' Reality!

It seems everybody in the world has a reality show, so here's my idea: writers should get one!
We could put a bunch of writers in a house somewhere...
No, wait. They'd just sit around and complain about the state of publishing, their editors' foibles, and their current WIP. No action, and not a lot of drama.
Okay, so we could put a group of writers on an island, and...
No, they'd each build a hut out of coconut leaves, crawl inside, and start writing a novel set in that spot. Peaceful, but not compelling.
Maybe we could send them all over the world in a race to...
No. Each team would help the others, giving advice and tweeting about their successes. At night they'd all sit around a fire and figure out ways everyone in the group can sell more books.

All right. We could set up cameras and capture the activity in one author's life--the folksy, all-American stuff that seems so popular.
 No. The world probably isn't ready to watch hours of someone sitting in a chair, staring at a screen, and mumbling things like, "No, she can't do that now, because she doesn't know he's in the room."
So writers don't get a reality show. We aren't hokey enough, tearful enough, angry enough, or dramatic enough--at least until we get it down on paper.
But if America could see me, an aged, out-of-shape pacifist, acting out both sides of a fight scene alone in my office to try to get each participant's actions right, they'd see something real--kinda.

Eureka! The Perfect Way to Promote a Book

Here are five easy steps to selling more books than anyone, ever:

1. Surf and study the Internet until you understand every single aspect of it.
2. Gain practical knowledge of the buying habits of every reader and prospective future readers.
3. Establish a personal relationship with #2 using #1.
4. Maintain #3 long-term with daily contact, offering enticements, encouragement, and unique gifts/prizes
5. Provide a steady stream of fascinating books whenever you aren't working on Steps 1-4

Wasn't that easy? Now sit back and enjoy!

Today I'm stopping here on my blog tour, which is winding down, but there are still chances to win prizes and see what's going on with Seamus.

Schedule: Peg Herring’s Blog Tour for May (and one post in June) consists of a mix of interviews with Seamus, the Dead Detective, and posts on writing. The previous stop was on May 16 at http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.comThe next stop on the tour will be on May 25^th at http://www.preciousmonsters.com/ A complete schedule is posted at Peg’s blog, http://itsamysterytomepegherring.blogspot.com/ When the tour is over (June 11^th) the complete Seamus interview will be posted there.

Prizes: People who comment on any blog post on the tour will be entered in drawings for several prizes: Dead Detective T-shirts, copies of THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY and DEAD FOR THE MONEY (paperback or e-books available), and the chance to be a character in the third of the series DEAD FOR THE SHOW. Multiple winners will be drawn.

Links: DEAD FOR THE MONEY (e-book) http://tinyurl.com/c6pzz5z

THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY (paperback) http://tinyurl.com/7f6yc2r

Peg’s website: http://pegherring.com

Taking Stock

There’s a line of commercials lately that traces minor events in life that snowball and lead to disaster. In one, a guy frustrated by his cable service ends up beaten bloody in a ditch. I’m not sure that’s true for mystery writing, but the life of a mystery writer goes a little like this.

When you start writing a mystery novel, you want to know more about crime. When you want to know more about crime, you begin paying too much attention to television. When you pay too much attention to television, you begin to think that every action has a secret motive. When you think every action has a secret motive, you suspect everyone. When you suspect everyone, scenarios form in your brain. When scenarios form in your brain, you write them down. When you write them down, you have a mystery novel!

When I take stock of who I am today and who I was before I started writing, I see major growth in the area of in-brain storytelling. Passing a person on the street who’s fumbling through his clothes brings up the idea that he’s the victim of pickpockets, when it’s likely he just forgot where he stashed his keys. A sighting of an armored car brings up visions of armed gunmen pulling the driver to the ground and driving it away before anyone can stop them. A story in a newspaper of an unidentified body found in the woods of northern Michigan creates a whole list of possibilities, none of them as mundane as the truth, that it’s some pitiful Alzheimer’s victim who wandered away from home and couldn’t get back.

It isn’t life that’s changed; it’s me. Mystery writing is an addiction, and like all addictions, we can recognize it, admit to it, and struggle against it, but it’s always there. It’s partly the fault of others, those who say, “Oh, that was such a clever twist in your last book!”

“Oh,” I say to myself, “they think THAT was clever—wait till they see what I do next time!”

Friends in the mystery-writing community confess to the same thoughts. We start viewing the world in terms of plot-lines, people in terms of character possibilities, and even aspects of nature in terms of a great line for the next book. We don’t look at the world the way others do, or maybe even the way we used to: it isn’t just life anymore: it’s all fodder for the next book or the one after that.

I sometimes feel that I should warn my friends. Like a karate expert who must register his hands as lethal weapons, maybe all mystery writers should be made to wear that T-shirt you see at conventions that says: Be careful or you’ll end up in my next novel.

If Publishing a Mystery Were Only as Easy as They Think!

People other than published authors tend to see writing as a life of ease rewarded by huge paychecks, the adulation of millions, and one’s name on the NYT best-seller list every other year. Let’s talk about the life of ease part.
All my life I was told I had writing talent. I went to a good college and studied writing with excellent instructors. Then I spent three decades teaching others about writing. Despite all that apparent talent and actual experience, writing a book--at least a good book--is hard, very hard. It takes a long time, a lot of effort, a sense of organization, and a dedications to one’s readers that is hard to describe. They say everyone has a book in his/her head. Yeah, well, come and see me when you’ve got something on paper, and not just the first three chapters!
My April 1 release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, took months to write and self-edit. (I have a system that is fairly complex, but it works for me: reading for a single facet, like characterization, and then reading again for a different facet, like sensory detail). When I had done what I could for the time being, I had a couple of friends read the story. They loved the premise, the fun I had mixing life with afterlife. That was good, but they had suggestions, too, so I read it again, taking my friends’ comments into serious consideration. Then I asked my son to read the manuscript, because the setting is an investments firm and he is in that business. I wanted to make sure I didn’t say something dumb about a business I don’t have much experience with. That meant more changes, reading through the whole thing again, and fixing areas he commented on.
Once the book was accepted by a publisher, it went through several more editions. The first editor and I haggled over terms (are they “slacks” or “pants” nowadays?) At her suggestion I expanded some characters and minimized others. She wanted more information on the setting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, so I had to do more research to make sure the details I added were correct. She helped me clarify my portrayal of the afterlife at the beginning of the book so the reader would not be confused later about what can and can’t happen there. All in all, that was three more edits, three more times through the story with a pen and a microscope.
Then the “big” editor took a turn through the book. She made suggestions to further clarify details. She asked questions about what my intentions were in certain spots. In short, she fine-tuned the book so that the humor comes through better and the reader doesn't feel left behind.
Finally, the copy editor had me take a last look through to find the itsy-bitsy things that drive readers crazy: punctuation/spelling errors, extra spaces, etc.
Now the book is ready for release. My publisher, who has been very supportive, arranged a Cyber-Launch on Author Island (authorisland.com: stop by and ask a question or make a comment!) for April 1. She also found a respected reviewer willing to read a book by a fairly unknown author, and the review is positive (YAY!). My part is to tell the world I have contact with about the book, hence a Blog Tour, a Facebook ad, and lots of trips/mailings to bookstores, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So where is this life of ease? Writing is work, real work, and promoting is work piled on top of the original work. Authors do not have it easy, although I don’t know a single one who doesn’t feel that it’s all worth it when just one person says, “I loved your book.”
People often ask me what it takes to get published. Unless you already have a platform (some sort of fame attached to your name), it takes persistence: persistence to write the best book you are capable of, persistence to get it published professionally, and persistence in spreading the word that, among the million others out there, there’s this great little mystery called THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY.

THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY is available in print or e-book form at
http://www.ll-publications.com/deaddetectiveagency.html and will soon be at most e-book retailers.

Teaser: Tori Van Camp awakens one morning on a cruise ship. She seems to be a welcome guest, and the ships offers anything she might require or request. But why does she have a clear memory of being murdered, and how can she find out why someone wanted her dead?

“The Dead Detective Agency combines belief in the afterlife with the paradoxical uncertainty of survival in the present, and is full of wickedly dark humor combined with regular laugh-out-loud moments.” —Sam Millar, New York Journal of Books