Wordcraft -- The dark, the deadly & the dead

It was an interesting weekend of panels from genre authors and publisher, sponsored jointly by the Barnes & Noble bookstore at The Parks Mall in Arlington, Texas, and the Rising Phoenix Press small publishing house. In one morning, the audience of writers learned how to kill people from retired chemical engineer and forensics consultant David Ciambrone; how to add realistically ghostly characters to our pages, from North Texas paranormal investigator Brandy Herr; and find publishing outlets for these dark imaginations from C.L. Stegall, JoAnna Grace and Jonathon Black of independent Dark Red Press.

The afternoon lineup included panels on romance writing, Westerns and general fiction from nearly a dozen additional Texas authors.

For mystery writers itching for ways to kill victims quickly, easily and cheaply, Ciambrone gave a lesson on the deadliness of common plants and household chemicals. Many of these, he stressed, don't require access to anything more exotic than a grocery store, plant nursery, or pet store--or even our own kitchens and back yards.  Dr. Ciambrone’s Poisons Handbook for Writers stresses that the information is intended only for use in writing fiction. Don’t try these at home!

For those of us who prefer our fictional characters already dead, Herr’s Haunted Granbury details the surprising number of paranormal events haunting a small North Texas town, and the major ways in which haunting can occur. Poltergeists and other “intelligent” haunting involve entities who are able to interact with observers--in some cases, seem actually to enjoy such interactions. "Residual" hauntings, on the other hand, are simply reenactments of a scene, whose participants are not able to interact with the living. Her book is part of the Haunted America series from The History Press, http://historypress.net/.

And whether we’re dealing with the dead or the merely deadly, C.L. Stegall, JoAnna Grace, and Jonathon Black of independent publisher Dark Red Press offered suggestions for turning these dark secrets into stories in a variety of thrillers.

Stegall’s definition of dark fiction is anything that keeps “the thrills and the chills coming. After the first sentence--not the first paragraph, but the first sentence, the reader can’t put it down.”

How to write like that? The specific methods vary from the loglines and detailed index cards of Black, who writes paranormal suspense and romance under the name John J. Smith to the seat of the pants method of confessed “binge-writer” Grace (“I have to say, index cards put me in the fetal position”).

“If anyone tells you there’s a formula for writing a book, you can tell them they’re a liar,” Stegall said. But no matter what the method, the first thing is writing the story.

“It’s not a matter of finding time to write,” Grace said. “It’s a matter of making time, (even) if that means the laundry doesn’t get done for a few days.”

For more about Dark Red Press, its authors, books and events, see
www.darkredpress.com/.

And for more about Rising Phoenix Press and its author events, see www.prlog.org/.

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Want to learn more about publishing? The 2014 SMU LitFest opens tomorrow, March 18, at 4:30 p.m. with a free panel discussion by representatives of local small publishers Matthew Limpede of Carve magazine, Joe Milazzo of the journals (out of nothing) and Black Clock, Will Evans of Deep Vellum Press, and Ronald Moore of Baskerville Publishers. The panel meets in the DeGolyer Library on the SMU campus.

 

 

The SMU LitFest continues through Saturday, March 22, in various locations on campus. For a complete schedule of events, authors, and a map of the campus, see
http://smulitfest2014.wordpress.com/.

Wordcraft -- Justin Cronin's dark passage

Justin Cronin seemed strangely normal and mild-mannered at his recent Lincoln Park Barnes & Noble appearance.  Not what I'd expected from a man whose $3.75 million advance-winning novel "The Passage" deals with such horrors as virally-induced vampirism and super-secret government programs involving child abduction and terrifying amounts of tax money.  Not to mention $13 a gallon gasoline.  Talk about scary.

He looked more like the dad and professor of literature at Houston's Rice University that he was when he and his then eight-year-old daughter plotted the original story, as he informed his enthusiastic audience.  The size of the advance, of course, was enough to excite the envy of some fellow writers in the audience, one of whom was heard moaning to a friend about what should have been "her" idea.  But nice about it.

Sure, Cronin has all the hot topics of techno-thrillers.  He just does them so much better than so many others.

I'm  normally not a fan of horror.  My daughter and I read the first book by that other vampire author -- you know who I'm talking about -- to see what the buzz was about.  We agreed that once was, indeed, more than enough.  So I was leery of opening Cronin's pages.  Lucky for my sensibilities, he kicks any notion of soulful romantic vamps out the door.   No sweet kisses here, perhaps because "The Passage" started as that daddy-daughter collaboration.  It's not kiddie stuff, but in my book, helping your dad plan a story about a heroine too young to be interested in sticky-sweet romance is great family quality time, any time.

Cronin's appearance celebrated the issue of the paperback version of his novel.  And to answer fans' questions about what's coming up, it includes an excerpt from the second book in the Passage trilogy, "The Twelve," dueout in 2012.  The final book in the series, "The City of Mirrors," is expected in 2014.  And the Ridley Scott movie (at this time a one-film deal) should be released in late 2012 or 2013.

And after that?  "I will go back to teaching when the whole thing is wrapped up," Cronin said, noting that he has been on extended leave from Rice, devoting the past three years solely to "The Passage" phenomenon.

But will he keep writing?  He has plenty of projects in mind.  "I'd like to write for a really good TV show.  I feel that series like 'Mad Men' are our new social novels, our Dickens."

Besides, he confided while signing my copy of  "The Passage," "my wife says I'm impossible to be around unless I'm writing."

(Next Wednesday:  in honor of the Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas, Wordcraft offers writing advice taken from Howard's own words.)

Wordcraft -- Quanah Parker's descendent drops in

Empire of the Summer Moon

by S.C. Gwynne

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As we rode up the escalator at the Lincoln Park Barnes & Noble bookstore, Sonia Pahcheka asked quietly whether there were any other Natives present.  A glance at the crowd showed that she was the only Comanche attending Dallas Morning News writer Sam Gwynne’s discussion of his New York Times bestseller, Empire of the Summer Moon.  The book that told the story of the last and greatest war chief of the Comanche nation.

We sat on the back row of folding chairs, the only place we could find two seats together.  Gwynne had already explained how he, a journalist rather than a historian, became passionate about this story of the Comanches’ rise to power, fueled by an “astounding piece of technology that they understood better than anyone else – the horse” and “blowing everybody off the southern plains” in their pursuit of that source of food and sustenance, the bison.

“If you understand (this),” he said, “you’ll understand everything about how the West was won – or lost.”

And within that big story lay the smaller, personal tragedy of the captured nine-year-old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, ultimately famous as the mother of her great son, Quanah Parker.

“I’ve got to ask a question,” Ms. Pahcheka whispered as Gwynne finished.

But hand after waving hand vied for his attention.  At last, she stood and announced herself – here to tell them that Quanah Parker, the man under discussion, was her great-great-grandfather by his third wife, Choni.

I had been nervous that Gwynne’s book would be too painful, especially given his statement in her hearing earlier that he had made “a conscious decision not to interview (contemporary) Comanches for the book.”  But she charmed all, including two long-lost cousins on Cynthia Ann’s side of the family – adding personal and family reminiscences that fleshed out Gwynne’s account.  Gwynne clearly enjoyed his discussion with her of Star House, the mansion Quanah built to house his numerous family members after making peace with the United States government.  The house still stands, with its rooms intact – the bedroom where Quanah kept a picture of his mother, the formal dining room with wallpaper and molded tin ceilings where he entertained dignitaries including Geronimo and Theodore Roosevelt.

“When you go through, you can feel the spirit,” Ms. Pahcheka said.  And, of course, there are the rooms for all the wives.  (She is descended through her great-great-grandfather’s third wife, Choni.)

She added, according to family lore, that when Quanah was asked why he raided, he quipped, “I have eleven wives.  It’s much quieter on raids.”

(Next week, the discussion of character in fiction returns with “The likeability quotient.”)

Independence Day

On this date in 1836, a group of Texans gathered at a village grandiosely named Washington on the Brazos to declare the new Texas Republic’s independence from Mexico.  Four days later, a good portion of the Republic’s army died defending an outpost called the Alamo.

It probably didn’t seem like an auspicious beginning for a new country.  But I’d like to take today’s blog to suggest a few things to it’s worth our while as writers to declare independence from.  Since we all stand on the shoulders of others, I’ll admit these are stolen from blogger/twitterer Kristen Lamb’s classes at this weekend’s DFW Writers Conference.  Kristen gave her audiences postcard-sized reminders of some of the bad guys we encounter – The Procrastination Pixie, who tells us literary agents care more about how clean our floors are than how we write; the Crappy Excuse Troll, who “makes 12 percent commission off your shattered dreams”; and the Mushroom Eaters.  Well, we all know what mushrooms eat.  As Kristen puts it more politely, “Screw aspiring.  Aspiring is for pansies.  Takes guts to be a writer.”

One institution we shouldn’t declare independence from though is our neighborhood bookstore, an increasingly endangered species.  I’m lucky enough to have several within a few miles.  Besides being full of books, they’re great places to write because – I don’t have to clean their floors.  Or even make the coffee.  Which brings me to another cherished and sacred institution – the in-store coffee shop and its baristas.  I truly don’t know how I wrote before finding barista Josh at the Barnes and Noble store in Lincoln Center on Dallas’s Northwest Highway.  He always has a smile and a quip.  Even if I’ve been away for weeks he remembers I take a tall americano with room.  Say hi to him the next time you’re there.  Or to any of the great men and women who keep the caffeine flowing for all us aspiring writers.  Oops, scratch the aspiring part.  For all us writers.

(Like Kristen’s style?  Hear more from her on Twitter @KristenLambTX, at http://www.kristenlamb.org// or see her blog at warriorwriters.wordpress.com.  Or just Google Kristen Lamb.)