Volume 3

By Carlotta G. Holton

Anne Perry has a way of transporting the reader back to Victorian times deftly handling the issues of social class, history and political intrigue while occupying the reader with a murder mystery. A long-time fan of her Thomas Pitt series, I found Buckingham Palace Gardens, her 25th novel to feature the recurring sleuth, to be on par with her previous works.

It is 1893 and Queen Victoria is away from the palace. In her absence, her son, Albert, Prince of Wales, is entertaining three businessmen/friends with whom he is planning a railway project in Africa. After an evening of wine, women and song, a murdered prostitute is found the next morning in the linen closet of the palace. Fearing political disaster for the monarchy, the prince calls in the services of Special Branch to quietly clean up the mess. Enter Detective Thomas Pitt.

When Pitt’s investigations reveal that the murderer must be one of the Prince’s friends, he asks his wife’s maid, Gracie Phipps, to go undercover as a servant to ferret out whatever information she can from the household staff. Perry offers this opportunity for this character to shine. While in previous novels, she helps in minor ways with investigations, Gracie plays a key role in this novel. Her character is the vehicle for showing the differences amongst the servants who for the most part can’t read and do not have great expectations to rise in their station. Perry depicts the invisibility of the servants who stand in the background serving meals or tea while the guests treat them as if they weren’t there. The irony is that their very presence “belowstairs” makes their situations rife for juicy gossip.

As readers expect, Perry delivers on the period details and ambiance. Her writing mirrors the Victorian times with all its charm and social inequalities. Pitt is appropriately awkward in dealing with the royalty, though he is married to Charlotte, a woman of the gentry. He observes, to his dismay, the upper classes’ general disregard for rules and their predilection toward “making their own laws and providing their own justice.”

Pitt focuses on the prince’s friends and learns of a similar murder in Africa years ago. Two of the men at the palace were in Africa at the same time. Are the murders related? Is there a connection? Is the same person responsible or is someone copying the other murder to lead authorities astray? Perry’s plot twists and turns as broken pieces of a Limoge dish, wine bottles with traces of blood, and the queen’s own bloody sheets point to one suspect above all others. But were these clues planted by a murderer so conniving as to turn suspicions away from himself and onto another? Just when the reader thinks he knows the culprit, the plot takes an unexpected turn. And so this seemingly simple mystery transforms into a perplexing one. Get a cup of tea, find a comfy chair, and settle in for an entertaining and good read.

Carlotta Holton is a regular contributor to Writers’ News Weekly, and an award-winning author, most recently of Vampire Resurrection. She can be reached at Carlotta@holtonhorrorandmore.com. Check out her earlier literary spotlight of Anne Perry HERE

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact, Touching The Dead and Vampire Resurrection, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

By Sarah Benjamin

At some point in every writer's career comes the moment when the spotlight is ready and waiting. No longer can you sit in your house in your pajamas and be the starving artist. You need to clean up – maybe get a haircut? – and put on a nice outfit and step in front of an interviewer. Maybe you don't want to, maybe you do. Either way its a necessity that helps you reenter the world at large and promotes the book that you poured your heart into. SterlingHouse author, Kevin Cooke (Pact of Stone: Quest of Cheyenne), has already had a few such experiences. He appeared in an interview at his local news channel in Colorodo and then made another appearance on Fox News. In a recent interview with WNW, he was gave some great insight and advice on the experience.

WNW: In regards to TV interviewing, how do you prepare yourself for the questions?

Cooke: The interviewer generally gives you a heads -- up on what they will ask. Since most newscast interviews are only about three minutes long, you need to prioritize and get your points across quickly and concisely.

WNW: It's great that you have the opportunity to talk about your passion of writing and your books. I wonder what other satisfaction you draw from sharing your work with an audience?

Cooke: The imagery of Maletoc, the Dark Castle in my series, The Pact of the Stone, is a very powerful reminder of the power of negative or positive thinking. With each bad thought and every wicked deed, bricks of pure evil are created and used in the castle’s construction. I am hopeful that when this becomes mainstream, it will be another important tool for people to use toward their personal growth. This would be very satisfying for me, and every interview brings us a little closer to realizing this possibility.

WNW: Does this experience help you with your work?

Cooke: It is a very big part of our work as authors. To write a book and sit on your hands doesn’t cut it. We believe in what we are doing, so we must promote it. That means getting involved with the media, and embracing it as an endorsement of our efforts.

WNW: How does this experience reflect on how you interact with fans at book signings, etc.?

Cooke: Tomorrow I’m interviewing with Fox, and the next day I’m signing at Borders. So, the interviews are a wonderful venue for getting the word out. When people see you on the news they tend to take you more seriously. It gives writers a professional approval that gives the viewers a sense that we are to be taken at least somewhat seriously.

WNW: What was your most memorable moment during this process?

Cooke: I think the most exciting moment was getting word about the first interview. I felt that I was on track, and I also felt vindicated. Writing is putting yourself out there, with no promises, just hopes and dreams. To get the first interview was extremely empowering for me.

WNW: What advice would you give to a new author facing his/her first interview – either on TV on on radio?

Cooke: Have your ducks in a row. Know where you want to go, and what you want to convey. For TV, the bright lights can pin you back in your chair, if you let them. The professional talking heads make efforts to lean into the lights, as if the lights weren’t there. Watch your newscasters and see how they perform. Try and emulate their body language, and positioning. I would also have practice interviews, with friend or spouse before going on.

By Kimberly Hamilton, International Book Management Corporation

Nooks, Readers and Kindles are everywhere! Technology is out-of-this-world to the point where traditional books may have serious competition!

Amazon reported that this past Christmas, e-books outsold real books on the site. This isn’t a surprise considering Kindle was announced as “the most gifted item ever.” Digital Reader consumers of course wanted to stock their readers with their favorite books immediately; since then e-book sales have only continued to increase. While Kindle took over half of the market share, Sony’s E-Reader came in second and Barnes & Noble’s Nook sold out before December.

Although this appears to be a digital revolution, most avid readers would be expected to not only buy their favorite e-books to fill their hard drives but also to buy the real book to fill their shelves.

By Maxwell Dudeck

Last time, in Vigilant:

“… Leaning against the rotting wallpaper I wondered if the girl had hit me somehow, it had been dark and I’d only seen her face. Maybe she was double jointed. I wanted to blame her; she was the only face that I had to blame. That fucking cunt had hit me with a golf club and then she took my lady from me, my Hecate. I almost had myself believing it by the time the Marlboro had burned down to my knuckles. I tossed it into the blood and listened to it hiss. I imagined that it was the blood hissing, and not the cigarette, but I couldn’t tell for sure.
Right now, I’ve got to get out of here. That’s the first move. Then, we’ll see. I can tell you it won’t be pretty. Blood will have blood – Willie Shakespeare wrote that, and he never even met me.”

Click here to read Part I

Part II

My name is Lazlow, and there are a lot of names for what I do. My business card says Private Investigator, and I do a little of that, too. My office is a cubicle in the headquarters of the Vigilant Industries Security Team, or V.I.S.T. for short. Seriously, it’s on my business card; it’s on all of our business cards. After all, we are professionals, industry leaders in parking garage and liquor store security. V-I-S-T spells professional. Never mind that I got my License from the digital equivalent of a box of crackerjacks. Never mind that V.I.S.T. “HQ” is 2000 square feet of third-rate office space in a lousy part of the strip, never mind that we share a smoking room with the Kentucky Bell; the godforsaken offspring of some fast food comedian’s tragicomedy. O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!1

I hate my fucking job, and I hate my fucking life. But right now I don’t have that many other options, so I’m a V.I.S.T. Private Eye. I work on commission, but underneath the V.I.S.T. umbrella, and I give them a percentage. A steep percentage. Mainly, I take twenty-five dollars an hour from late-stage alcoholic pensioners to follow their cows of wives from Pizza Hut to Wal-Mart and keep an eye out for any fornication in their rented Geo Trackers. It’s the opposite of glamorous but my cut is twenty-five goddamned dollars an hour for little to no actual work, in the biblical sense.

Three days before tee-off at the Lazlow Cup (that’s what I’m calling the incident with the golf club now) I’d been sitting at my tiny desk washing down my balanced breakfast of a custom-made fried chicken burrito and Canadian Club whiskey with a second serving from the “whiskey” section of the food pyramid.

“You’re Lazlow?” A girls voice, behind me. It sounded genuinely surprised. I finished my swig and set the bottle down with a hard swallow.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” I said, without turning around, “but you’re looking at him.” There wasn’t a response so I asked her who she was and what she wanted.
“I brought you a burrito, with chicken in it.” She said, and I heard the plastic bag she brought it in rustle.

Let me explain something to you. I like to have a good time, and I have a gun. Hell, my gun has a NAME. I’m not a dangerous man, unless you cross me, but as I said earlier, I have a gun, and you can get quite the rise out of people if you surprise them with it. Also, there are a lot of people who would like to kill me. So, when I swiveled the chair around I had my darling Lady Hecate level and cocked.

She jumped a little but didn’t scream. It was funny, but I couldn’t help feeling a little bad. She was young, and clearly scared.

The girl was what my twelve-year-old daughter would have told me they called gothic, if I still talked to my daughter. Unfortunately for me, my ex wife had decided Jimmy the Coke Dealer wasn’t a better paternal figure and left for Tijuana.

Anyhow she was the sort of pale that’s either vampire or make-up induced, and she was trying hard for the vampire side of it. Her hair was straight black and she has smeared, dark eyeliner that looked a little too much like a pair fresh shiners. The best part was the blazing yellow and spanking clean Kentucky Bell jumpsuit. She had two nametags, one with the colonel smiling like an idiot in his Sunday best, the other with the crooked mission bell. They both said Liza. I’d seen her often at Kentucky Bell, I spent a lot of time there, but I’d never looked at her before.

“Why are you pointing a gun at me?” I put her at 17. She sounded scared, as might be reasonably expected.

“It’s just a toy, kid. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I lied. Twice, actually. I pointed at the center of her chest and squeezed the trigger. She flinched hard and yelped a little bit, but kept it pretty quiet, which I appreciated. Hecate’s hammer came down with an evil click, but that was all. You weren’t allowed to have loaded guns on V.I.S.T. property.

“You’re a real asshole.” And she threw the burrito bag in the trash can. No harm done, I’d fish it out later. I gave her my best deadman’s stare. Liza had to try hard not to blink.

“I was hungry. I’ll take a raincheck on that.”

“Whatever.”

There was an awkward pause before I reminded her that she had come to see me. She kept looking out over the low walls like she was watching for something. I realized that she had been scared before I pulled that stunt with Hecate.2

“Aren’t you a private eye? Isn’t there somewhere more private we could talk?” And clever, too.

“I am a Private Eye, and this is my office.” I pointed towards the little stool where I received my clients. “If you sit down, the walls get taller.” I thought maybe she’d smile at that one but she just looked at me blankly and sat down without thanking me. Fucking peasant. I watched her poke through my cubicle with her eyes.

“You know, for a private eye you’re pretty damn corporate.” She smiled at her own jibe, a smile that would have been pretty if it hadn’t have been so haunted. I liked her a little bit so far but I wasn’t gonna put up with a punk ass teenager in my own cubicle. Not this cubicle, sister.

“Show me the money, now.” I said. It confused her a little.

“What?”

“I said, show me the money.” She cocked her head to the side and knitted her brows in a very grownup expression of I-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-you’re-talking-about. “Listen. I’m a business man, and my time is my money. So before I listen to a goddamn other word I want to see that you’re here to do business too. Hail Caesar.”

Liza thought that one over and decided it made sense. She reached into her purse and picked up a fat little stack of bills wrapped neatly in brown sandwich bags. She practically stoned me with it, but I managed to catch it. I did my best to weigh it in my hands. It was heavy.

“$2000 in twenties.” Yeah, the weight was right for it. “You want to open it and check?” I should have, just to put her in her place, but a man forgets that sort of thing when he’s confronted with large stacks of paper money. I just sat there and turned the weight in my hand.

“I won’t kill anyone. No exceptions.” Not for only $2000, not anymore.

She laughed a little bit at that. “I don’t want you to kill anyone, but I’d bet there are exceptions. I want you to follow someone for a couple days.”

Cake. Easy money. The usual gig for a lot more than the usual bill. I’d keep this under the table, too. V.I.S.T. can suck it.

“I think I can do that.” I said solemnly. “Who?”

“Me.”

“What do you mean? You want protection?” That would be a little more work; it’s harder to fake.

“No. I mean I want you to follow me. If I wanted protection I would have asked for it, I’ve seen the movies. I want you to follow me, and only if you can promise me I won’t be able to see you. I have to know that you’re there but not be able to see you, even if I look.”

“Uh huh, and why’s that?” It came out sourer than I’d meant, like I thought she was pulling my leg. She looked straight at me with cold, settled eyes that seemed much older. But I didn’t let her answer: “It’s not easy to tail someone when they know they’re being tailed. It may cost a little more.” But the $2000 would cover that and a lot more, if that’s what she wanted. She shot me with a .38 caliber hollowpoint of a stare, and I let up.

“But a couple grand should cover it, for a few days.” I said. She nodded tensely; if she was relieved you wouldn’t say she was visibly. “I still have to know why, or I’m not doing it.” And if you lie to me, I’ll find out, and I’ll quit. And you’ll be out a cool two G’s.” I said.

She hesitated, but only for an instant: “Because if I can see you, he’ll see you. And if he sees you he’ll kill us both.”

Just the sentence and the deadly-serious way she said it pushed thick syringes of adrenaline into my veins. I felt like my dick might get hard. It didn’t, thank God, but she must have seen right through me. Such as we are made up, such we be.3

1. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2, Line 132.
2. Probably after H., the queen of witches in Macbeth; also a Titan in Classical Greek myth. –Ed.
3. Twelfth Night, misquoted as “up” instead of “of” –Ed.

By Carlotta G. Holton

Evan Marshall is an independent literary agent specializing in fiction. Previously, he was a book editor at Houghton Mifflin, New American Library, Everest House and Dodd, Mead. He is the author of The Marshall Plan® writing guides, recently released in software form, as well as a nonfiction book about nonverbal communication.

Q: When considering a manuscript for representation what specific qualities do you look for? In your experience what is that extra “wow” factor that makes a book more marketable?

A: The most important thing for me is a fresh idea. So much of what we receive is derivative of what’s already out there. The wow factor would be a concept that is new and intriguing and also fits a specific genre.

Q: You may have heard the “Catch 22” dilemma: "you can't get published without an agent, and you can't get an agent unless you've been published." Is this the rule and if so are there exceptions? Explain.

A: I hear this a lot, but it’s not really true. Agents take on unpublished writers all the time and make that first sale. The key is simply to write the best possible book and find the right agent for it. In the meantime, placing stories with magazines can increase a writer’s chances of being taken on by an agent.

Q: What is the best way for a writer to find a literary agent? What specific credentials should a literary agent have? E.g., Association of Authors’ Representatives, etc.

A: A good agent doesn’t necessarily have to belong to the Association of Authors’ Representatives, though membership does indicate that an agent is legitimate and follows a strict code of ethics. The organization’s website is a great place to start looking because it lists agents’ areas of interest. Writers can also meet agents at writers conferences and conventions.

A good place to find out which agents not to approach is a website called Preditors and Editors™, at http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm.

Credentials are simply a track record of selling books in a writer’s given genre. A writer should never pay an agent a fee of any kind (reading fee, handling fee and so on) other than a commission and sometimes expenses such as international postage or photocopying agreed upon in advance.

Q: How important is it to check on an agent’s track record of sales? It’s been said that a respectable figure is 10 sales within 18 months. Would you agree or disagree and why or why not?

A: It’s important to check an agent’s track record because you want to know that agent has the contacts and expertise necessary to place your book. However, I don’t think it makes sense to set a certain number of books within a certain amount of time. All agents work differently, and a “boutique” agency that places only a few books a year can be just as effective as one that places hundreds.

Q: What questions should the writer ask of the agent before signing on for representation?

A: Who are some of your other clients? What are some of your recently placed projects? Will I be working with you, or with one of your associates, or both? Will you send me copies of editors’ letters regarding my projects? How quickly do you turn money around? Do you object to having the publisher split payments? How do you like to work with an author in terms of communication? Talking when necessary? Periodic check-ins? What’s your preferred method(s) of communication? Are you interested in handling just this project, or in my career on an ongoing basis?

Q: Talk about literary agents that charge a “reading fee” of hundreds or even thousands of dollars to edit a manuscript before they agree to represent the writer.

A: As I mentioned above, no legitimate agent charges fees other than commissions and sometimes expenses over and above the normal course of doing business; but these fees are never paid up front. If an “agent” asks for any kind of fee in advance, a writer should run in the opposite direction.

Q: What are the hottest genres being bought by publishers? Are trends cyclical? Any predictions for future trends?

A: Publishers are still hungry for paranormal fiction—every variation on vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, demons and other creatures. Paranormal is very big in romance right now. Some other hot genres are urban fantasy, erotic historical romance, erotica, domestic thrillers, international thrillers, historical fiction, and women’s fiction.

Q: What is the average time it takes an agent to place a book with a publisher? What happens if after a year, the agent cannot sell the book? What options are open to the author? To the agent?

A: There’s really no average time. I have placed books in a week and others in a year. To me, it’s not about how much time I’ve spent trying to sell a book, but whether I still have publishers in mind to try. If an agent gives up on a project, the author can either give the agent something else to submit (if the agent’s willing) or find representation elsewhere. When I take on a writer, I’m interested in his or her career, not just a single book; so if I don’t place a project, I’m likely to ask what other projects the writer has for me to try.

Q: What, if any, is the relationship of a literary agent and a publicist? Do they ever work together?

A: I often cooperate with an author’s publicist, whether that person works for the publisher or is independent, to help promote my authors. Some new authors expect an agent to also play the role of publicist, but that isn’t what agents do. The author, agent, editor, and publicist should work together as a team.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact, Touching The Dead and Vampire Resurrection, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Submit Your Questions to: dearlee@writersnewsweekly.com.

By Sarah Benjamin

After reading the back cover of Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, I excitedly began what I believed to be a novel. It wasn’t until the first three “chapters” had finished, that I discovered it was a collection short stories about the residents of a little town called Crosby, Maine. From the very first story, I was hooked on Strout’s prose, and remained captivated by each and every individual character’s voice. It was easy to understand why there was a Pulitzer Prize sticker on the cover of this book.

Crosby is a small town brimming with all the necessary down-home dramatic material - gossip, secrets, unrequited love and devastating loss. At the center of a quiet chaos is the strong, stubborn, Olive Kitteridge. She is not your typical heroine—she’s old, grumpy and hard to please. The townspeople think Olive is as solid-as-rock. Yet, her husband and only child see her as moody and critical. She’s both, and a lot more – Strout’s Olive is a beautifully sophisticated character. She does indeed have a gift for grating on the nerves of both the townsfolk and the reader, but the more I read, the more I identified with Olive. I saw through her tricks and understood her reasons for her seemingly critical and remote feelings.

Two stories in particular struck a chord with me: in one Henry, Olive’s lovable, cheery, ever-naïve husband, strikes a friendship with recently widowed woman. In many ways, Henry and Olive couldn’t be more different. But they complete each other, and their forty-year marriage is a testimony to the strength of their relationship. The other story is about Nina, a confused, young woman who is starving herself to death. Her situation is so dire that we see the hardened Olive moved to tears as she begs Nina to eat a donut. It is these small encapsulated moments in time when meaning is in the simplest gesture. Strout incorporates them with clarity and honesty.

There are no great mysteries or sweeping social changes in Crosby; only little stories of ordinary people who pass through Strout’s pages quietly and with dignity. It is through this portrayal of the mundane that Strout drives home her point: Life and love are never what they seem.

To quote Olive: “What young people didn’t know…they did not know that lumpy, aged, and wrinkled bodies were as needy as their own young, firm ones, that love was not to be tossed away carelessly…”

Life happens, albeit sometimes messily. Love can come at 15 or even at 70, and sometimes both. Olive takes us through these moments in life with a firm hand in our own. Strout has created a character that seems stronger than most of us, but identifiable and charming in her weaknesses. The Pulitzer Prize for this book is well understood, not only for the prose and structure, but for the incredible message it sends.

Eloisa James writes historical romances which have placed in the top ten of the New York Times Bestseller List and received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal. A graduate of Harvard University, she holds an M.Phil from Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University, in NYC.

Q: You have said that “Just as I use Shakespeare in my romances, I almost always employ my experiences as a mother.” Please explain. How can other writers similarly incorporate different facets of their roles into their fiction?

A: People often think of the romance genre as being about achieving total perfection in life. In fact, the genre ends with the promise of happiness -- but in order for it to be a decent romance, the characters need to live. My plots come out of my own fears -- of losing a child, for example, or of not being beautiful enough, of making mistakes, of telling fibs. You can add all the imagination you want, but unless the bedrock of your character and plot come out of a strong emotion of your own, the novel won't work, imo.

Q: How does a writer weave poetry, Shakespeare and ballads into a book as you so successfully have, without it coming off as affected or contrived?

A: Just do it in snippets. Think how people use popular songs in their speech these days -- with a laugh, in a sentimental moment, maybe, when they're alone. Nobody sits in the bath and declames a sonnet to herself, but a line or two of a White Stripes song might play over in her head. Use it naturally -- or not at all. There's nothing worse for lovers of historical fiction than the "information dump."

Q: How important is it for writers to attend workshops, take classes and study with established writers?

A: I think it can be useful. You can learn things, certainly. I think it's far more important to just keep writing on your own. The best workshop to attend with an established writer is a slow read, and then a reread, and then a third read, of a novel that you really admire.

Q: Why do you think that novice writers have such difficulty writing from a consistent point of view? Any tips / writing aerobics exercises they can practice to hone this skill?

A: It's a skill that has to be learned by experience. In my first book, I switch POV several times within one paragraph. It still went into a bidding war and came out in hardcover -- please remember that POV is not the be all and end all of fiction. It's a tool, that's all.

Q: You have an incredibly active webpage with contests, books you recommend, and dinners and events in which readers can win copies of your books. What suggestions do you have for writers who are just implementing their first webpage to promote their books? What are the first things they should focus on?

A: Making the navigation very clear. There are specific things a reader does when arriving at your website: first is to try to figure out what you're writing -- the type of book. Second is generally to try to figure out what you're writing next. Finally, get your backlist. A bit about you is good. So you need the basic categories: home page, new & next, bookshelf (with Amazon ability) and bio. And crucially, you need the ability to allow people to sign up for your mailing list -- velocity of sales (i.e., mobilizing your loyal readers) is what drives the New York Times list. You can add fun stuff over time, but you must -- simply must -- have that up on the web before any book publishes.

Q: With a limited budget (due to signing with a small publishing house), what promotional events can you suggest to newly published authors? What marketing venue will give them the most bang for their bucks?

A: The website. I don't really find that anything else makes much difference. At this point, I've been publishing for years. In the beginning I tried things with booksellers, etc (bookmarks, etc). I never found they helped. The website is key. If you want to spend some money, send everyone on your mailing list a postcard with the cover of your book when a new book comes out. That tells them it's out and gives them the cover as a memory point.

Q: Now that technology is such an integral part of the publishing industry, what do you foresee as the future of the novel? Of the romance novel?

A: A good friend of mine who has been in the top ten of the New York Times just told me that 10% of her last royalty statement came from e-books. These aren't e-books with a small press, but e-book versions of a huge NYT publisher, in Kindle, etc. So there's the future, if you ask me.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

I hope whoever is reading this column is getting some good from it. I find writing this particular one helped me to remember or recall some of the important things I have left slip away. Intangibles in writing effectively are what slip away if we are not careful. A while back I listed a number of things writers need—necessities such as a computer, a quiet room, a ream of paper, a cup of strong coffee, etc. These and others are tangible items, easily attainable and easily maintained. However, it is the intangible things that really need personal attention and as a writer, one must strive vigorously to master them. And that takes work. Intangibles worth striving for were compiled by members of our Pen to Paper Writer's Club in Tecumseh, Michigan.

1. Self-confidence or Ego. As a writer, you have to fully believe that you've got something worth writing about, something that others will find worth their time (and perhaps their money). You can't harbor self-doubt or excesses of humility.

2. Inner Discipline. As a writer, even if you are a pro with a paycheck and deadlines, you need to motivate yourself to sit down (repeatedly) and write; to sit down (repeatedly) and re-write. You have to provide and maintain your own structure to keep up productivity.

3. Sensitivity. As a writer, your senses need to be heightened so you hear, see, smell, taste, feel in a vivid and deep way. You need a sensitivity to language—to develop your skill at selecting words.

4. Flexibility. As a writer, you need to be able and willing to shift gears, to discard what doesn't work, to make repeated trips to the drawing board, to start over, to accept criticism.

5. Sense of Humor. As a writer (and as a human being), you can't ever take yourself too seriously. If you can't draw back and see the humor in about 80 percent of human activity, you can easily grow neurotic and morose. What you write from that perspective will not be worth reading except by those who are neurotic and morose.

6. Curiosity and observation. As a writer you need to be detail-oriented. An exceptional curiosity will serve you well whether you are writing about people, places or designing a plot. Relating the truth, employing a keen awareness of the senses, and noting details sets a written work apart.

As you read works of publishing authors, you will surely find that each possess virtually all of the above attributes. Join the posse.

Questions/Comments? Contact Jim at james@jamesfalk.net, or visit www.jamesfalk.net.

James Falk, as a teen-ager, used to dream of being a big-time racketeer. Fortunately, his dream didn't come true. A 10th grade dropout, he finished highschool after four years in the Marines and went on to earn a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Communications.

By Carlotta G. Holton

Those who love the Victorian era are in for a treat with Chance’s erotic murder-mystery tale set in New York City, circa 1857. Murder and mayhem, spiritualism and the supernatural combine to create an armchair thriller. Amidst the atmosphere of gaslit streets, roiling fog and the rapping at the weekly séance table, her heroine evolves from her repressed status, common for her gender of the times, into a woman of action and passion.

The daughter of a detective and a mother with secrets, Evelyn has risen into Knickerbocker society by marrying the wealthy attorney, Peter Asherton. She is included in the balls and soirees of the upper ten thousand who comprise society’s crème de la crème. Yet she is lonely due to her husband’s unexplained absence every night. “I buried my loneliness in night after night of glittering New York society.” But society dictates the woman’s role of acceptance. When she confides in a friend, she is told, “don’t go wanting things you can’t have.”

With her husband’s admission that he attends séances, she is invited to join him at the home of wealthy society matron, Dorothy Benton, in hopes of contacting her husband’s late mother. She encounters the mysterious and seductive Michel Jourdain, the medium who channels not only the spirits of the afterworld, but the affections of many women as well. Is he a charlatan or the real deal? The evening is interrupted by gun fire and the die is cast for an unexpected chain of events.

Peter leaves her at home that evening to investigate and doesn’t return. When his body is found floating in the East River, the façade of her relatives is quickly shattered and their true characters revealed when it is learned that she inherits the family fortune. The author does a good job of showing the differences between social classes as the world of snobbery and cliques is threatened by and in turn threatens those who stand in their way. The days when she thought she would “be an Asherton forever” come crashing to an end when at her arraignment she realizes that “Peter’s family means to see me hang.”

Charged with her husband’s murder, dislodged from the family home, an outcast by his family and the society into which she married, she finds refuge in Benton’s mansion. At times the plot pulses with a steamy sexual undercurrent as Evelyn discovers not only a latent talent for spiritualism, but begins to acknowledge an awakening of her own long-suppressed physical and emotional desires.

Betrayal comes from all sides, save for her husband’s partner, Ben Rampling, who takes on her case. Using her position in the house they scheme to force out the identity of the killer. The compelling characters of Evelyn, Michel and Ben propel this novel into a quick and intriguing read. The author skillfully weaves Evelyn’s transformation from her earlier belief that “The uncertainty of living as a woman without prospects, without money was terrifying. To always be alone, to know that despair might lead one to a life of degradation and shame, where each day one only wished for the strength to end it.”

With each ghost she encounters from her family’s past and present, and with each spirit writing that comes through her from beyond, she grows closer to uncovering the truth about her husband and his murderer. A surprising twist sheds light on Evelyn’s marriage and helps empower her to become the woman she was meant to be.