On a Rainy Day

October 21, 2018 by 18 Comments

It’s snowing today. Just showers, but snow nevertheless. Naturally, conversations with others are focused on the weather. The other day, I was sitting in the dentist’s office and overheard two people talking about the weather. Outside, it was rainy and cold, and one of the people said she liked rainy days. Her comment reminded me of a coworker in Los Angeles many years ago. She was from Portland, Oregon, a city with a reputation for considerable rainfall. My coworker’s approach was that you just dress for the rain and do what you want to do anyway.

The second person in the dentist’s office said she didn’t like rain, but she loved days that were windy, not hurricane windy, but with winds that were strong. Her comment made me stop and think as well. When I was growing up in northern California, I lived on a farm and always seemed to have reason to be outside, no matter the weather. I loved storm winds and remember clouds scudding across the moonlit sky, carried by strong winds. It was exciting, so much so I didn’t mind the pelting raindrops on my face, the cold, or the buffeting force of the wind against my body. I was skinny in those days, so maybe I should have feared being blown away. I didn’t, though.

When I lived in the Los Angeles area as an adult, I recall going out on the pier at night during the winter and embracing the winds off the ocean. I had crossed that ocean more than once while in the navy. I still thrilled to the excitement of faraway places those winds seemed to promise. I do today.

Of course, not all weather conjures up thoughts of adventure. Cold, wet and rainy days summon images of coffee shops, warm fires and a good book as well. Blustery, cold days stir thoughts of soups and stews, fresh baked bread, and hot, homemade pies in any cook’s heart, don’t you agree?

My series protagonist, Bobby Navarro, must have some of my love of winds and weather when he’s not actually on the road and exposed to the elements on his Harley. I think his enjoyment of cooking must include a repertoire of favorite dishes to match the weather like many of us as well. So, I assume rainy days carry a litany of images and memories for Bobby as well as me. How about you? Is the first snowfall exciting? Does a rainy fall day make you want to curl up with a good book, get something baking in the oven, or dress for the occasion and go outside?

 

Filed Under: blog posts, Country Living, Reading, Village Life, writing

What Readers Enjoy Reading

September 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment

We were talking about this the other day, not a new topic for conversation, and Lesley commented about a cozy she was reading as being rather plain. The characters weren’t all that remarkable, or even very different from each other. There was little in the way of action, and nothing very exciting when it occurred. I asked why people would enjoy reading that, and she suggested people might find the characters and plot more relatable than some fiction. After all, many people don’t lead particularly exciting lives, albeit they may live from one crisis to the next. They may find it enjoyable and relaxing to read about lives that are not crisis-ridden and filled with threats of world destruction. We have enough of that in our real lives with international tensions, terrorist attacks and people venting their anger at coworkers, or even strangers, with assault weapons.

Our discussion led me to think about popular media drama, past and present. Certainly, Mayberry did not involve the sheriff in anything catastrophic. The episodes of Barney Miller never dealt with crazed gunmen or terrorists. They were light entertainment. A chance to enjoy a short escape from one’s workday, family problems, or community and world events. Some programs got us thinking about social issues. All in the Family gave us an entertaining look at a working-class family learning to cope with social change, including racial relations.

Today, there seems to be an interest in superheroes. I’m not into that, but I can’t help but wonder if superheroes saving the world from supervillains is ‘safer’ than trusting the world’s survival to a single individual ‘licensed to kill’ who we can always trust to ultimately do the right thing. There’s enough faith vested in individual world leaders today to use up every last shred of trust out there, I’m sure. Better to let imaginary heroes fight the good fight for a while.

So, when we look at murder mysteries, how exciting should plot and characters be? Is it more comforting to have a sleuth bake a batch of cookies while solving a murder rather than become entangled in life-threatening danger? Or, is that too blah? I enjoy Agatha Christie, but I would never think of her characters as blah. I love Robert Parker, but his heroes have a heart, even if they find it necessary to kill someone from time to time. For the most part, I don’t care to see the world exploding in nuclear devastation, even though the hero escapes to save the world yet another day. So, what kind of characters do people love to read, and what is it they find appealing? Any thoughts?

As far as my own series goes, I’m still happy with Bobby Navarro. He’s not a superhero, but he is willing to take on a challenge for the right cause, like solving a murder because it’s the right thing to do. Meanwhile, the weather is fall-like and beautiful, and the day is right to go for a hike around a nearby pond with some friends. How is your fall taking off?

Filed Under: Back to basics, Books, Country Living, Reading, Village Life, writing

Empathy-a powerful tool for writers

September 9, 2018 by 2 Comments

Empathy—a powerful tool for writers

Empathy—the ability to feel another’s perspective. It’s a fascinating subject. Empathy can provide a useful tool for survival, such as improving one’s ability to anticipate the moves of an adversary or envisioning the likely response of an opponent to one’s own actions. We see this portrayed in stories of hostage situations in which a victim is able to thwart an armed attacker by getting into their head and appealing to base emotions.

I suppose empathy can be weaponized. I think that is the basis of psychological warfare. Empathetic understanding can be associated with criminal profiling. But, using empathetic understanding for better communication and fostering of improved social relations has greater appeal to me. Empathy can bring insights into the behavior of colleagues, family and friends. It can help one understand the actions and motives of others. I remember my mother talking with a young boy who was jabbing a stick into the earth alongside a shallow ditch. He revealed that he was unhappy in his family’s recent move “to a place where a kid can’t even dig a hole without getting in trouble.”

 Empathetic understanding can be especially important to writers. It can help a writer to understand the feelings and motives of a villain, providing for a more interesting and believable bad guy. This is particularly important as mystery novels increasingly emphasize character complexity. Since a writer must depict a whole cast of characters, good empathetic understanding enriches our portrayal of characters in addition to the villain.

Empathetic skill is important to the writer while conducting research for a novel. It’s not enough to learn about facts and events we want to use in a novel, we need to gain and portray the way people we are writing about, or who have inspired our writing, felt when they did what we want to write about. Those feelings must so permeate our understanding of the people we write about that attitudes and motives will come through in how our fictional characters talk, act, and interact. Their feelings must be more than an analytic deduction, they must be ingrained by the writer and infuse the writing.

Admittedly, some people are simply more empathetic than others. But, can empathy be developed as a skill? I think so. As with most things, practice leads to perfection. We can ask ourselves how people we observe, or study must feel about something. We can consciously ask ourselves what our friends and colleagues seem to feel as we interact with them in a host of differing situations. As we people-watch, and I suspect most writers are people-watchers, we can seek glimmers of empathetic understanding of the behaviors we observe and not simply listen to dialogue or look for amusing situations and characters. I think empathy can be one focus of attention, and that we can improve our ability to employ it with conscious practice.

I don’t portray Bobby Navarro, my series protagonist, as being particularly empathetic. He’s a biker, a blaster, and a loner. But, he’s a people-watcher. And, he solves murders because he cares about people, especially the young and vulnerable. He was able to understand the feelings of a young woman who was a bit of a marginalized individual in Murder on the Mother Road and gain important information leading to solving the murder in that story. Perhaps there’s a little empathetic capability in most of us. It just needs to be developed. What do you think?

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Reading, Self-improvement, writing

Overcoming Overload

July 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment

I used to follow six news sources morning and night and sometimes seek out more. Guess what? That got to be overload. It wasn’t just that I was reading, or viewing, the same focal issues repeatedly. It was that I was being jolted by the same atrocities and crises over and over. The reasons I followed these multiple sources was to check their consistency and seek out more information, but there seemed little I could do with it. I wasn’t a journalist or national decision-maker, just a concerned citizen feeling a need to stay informed. I wanted to touch bases with others, but soon every conversation was either a minefield of socio-political difference, or an exhausting reiteration of similar concerns. I lost balance.

Now, conversations seem to bring out things in addition to the latest political catastrophe or unbelievable event. I wouldn’t call it a return to normalcy, but I suspect there has been a collective attempt to regain normalcy to the extent and in those areas of life where it might be attainable. Now, I sometimes skip one or two news reports in favor of sitting on the back deck and enjoying the evening, or morning. I look at the local wildlife. We have a young cotton tail bunny in our yard we have enjoyed watching since early spring. The birds have built nests, produced offspring and become busy teaching them to forage and survive. Now, they provide an evening concert from their various secure places in the massive tree limbs overhead. The creek is quite low, but beautiful in its burbling meander at the edge of our back yard. Tiger lilies and hostas are the current attraction for butterflies, and fireflies punctuate the night, albeit with smaller flashes than I remember, this year.

The national, and international, social scenes are still chaotic and uncertain. But, that uncertainty provides a needed base for hope as well as angst. The earth still turns, the seasons move along, and there is a majesty in the progression of natural events that surround us. There is a beauty and joy in the quick glimpse of that young bunny running across the expanse of clover underfoot. There is a sense of a functional community in the chorus of birdsongs. And, a mug of coffee just tastes better outdoors than in front of the evening news. The editing phase of my latest Bobby Navarro mystery is nearly complete, and I’m anxious to bring this story to publication. Like the outdoors, Bobby offers a sense of hope and decency, not just diversion. Although, I think a good murder mystery provides plenty of diversion. How about you? Has this been a time in which you’ve had to struggle for your sanity and well-being? What helps, or has helped, you maintain your balance?

Filed Under: Back to basics, Books, Outdoor living, Reading, Village Life, writing

When Things Heat Up

July 1, 2018 by 1 Comment

 

Well, it’s officially summer, but I  convinced by the temperatures in the nineties. As usual, when I ask around, people don’t remember temperatures like this in upstate New York. I suspect people all over are saying much the same thing. I do remember driving my motorcycle through Tennessee one time when it was ninety-nine with ninety-nine percent humidity. That was brutal. I also remember taking my oldest son across the Mohave desert into California in the cooler hours of the night on another motorcycle trip because it had been one-hundred twenty-three degrees that day in Arizona. In spite of traveling at night, exposed parts of my hands ended up with a “sunburn” from heat radiating up from the highway. Temperatures in the nineties? That shouldn’t keep me from working outside on the house, should it? Or, should it?

Turns out, there may be hope for my gaining wisdom in my old age. I stayed inside and did some editing on my latest manuscript. Smart move, I think. The Amish in our area are still working their fields in this kind of weather. Glad they are. The vegetables they sell in their local produce stand are fantastic. To be fair,  most of them are younger than I am. Makes a difference. I know I wouldn’t want to ride through that brutal Tennessee heat and humidity on a motorcycle now either. And, that scorcher in Arizona? Forget it. I’ll let my protagonist, Bobby Navarro, take those rides, and I’ll accompany him through memories rather than recent “research”.  Although, I do recall that several days of my last cross-country trip on the bike hovered around one-hundred-twelve degrees. The thing is, once you’re on the road you have to ride. Trouble is, weather has become even less predictable than it was then. And more brutal.

Growing up in northern California, summer heatwaves invited trips to a local stream where we swam in the beaver ponds. The water was always cold and refreshing. And, when my children were young it was trips to the Connecticut shore that seemed a must-do thing. How do you handle those periods of high heat when it seems too daunting to go outside? I’m thinking a good book and hammock strung up in the shade sounds appealing to me. What’s your approach?

Filed Under: Back to basics, Books, Camping, Outdoor living, Reading, Village Life, writing

Technology Today

June 17, 2018 by 2 Comments

This week I’m running behind schedule on most things, my blog included. I’ve been working on replacing the siding on our house. That means hammer and pry-bar, dozens of nails and bag after bag of debris—not to mention Ibuprofen at the end of the day. Definitely a low-tech operation. That part, I like. I have problems with technological innovations that keep offering to help me do whatever it is I’m doing when I’m on my computer. I have one on my bank app that doesn’t seem willing to concede defeat when I tell it to go away, and one that pops up on my computer when I start up that seems to think I need to install a program I’ve long been using.

I find these ‘helping hands’ an annoyance. I didn’t ask for their help, or their appearance. I don’t feel comfortable with the thought of using them or trying to. And, it doesn’t help when I’m told even a nine-year old can figure it out. I don’t want a nine-year old running my life or having more control over it than I do. One reason I don’t trust these pop-up helper appearances is they want permission to use information from all sources on my computer or phone. I don’t believe they have my best interests at heart. Come to think of it, I don’t think they have a heart.

I concede that there are great advantages to enjoy from the use of modern technology, but they come at the tacit acceptance of disadvantages as well. The trouble with technology, is that it gets ahead of us. Especially those of us who have learned a few things since we were nine-year olds. Like reading a map, writing a memo or note. Or letter. Some of us think we can handle our own organization of documents and photos. We can even organize our own thoughts and put them into a novel of our own creation.

Speaking of novels, I can’t picture my series protagonist, Bobby Navarro, embracing some of this technology either. He rides a Harley across country to relax and enjoy life. He camps out and cooks real food over a fire. Sometimes he stops off at a burger joint for lunch because he feels hungry and sees a place that’s handy. He doesn’t try to find a particular dining experience on the internet and then follow his device to the suggested location. That’s one of the many things I find interesting and reassuring about Bobby. He can do things for himself. Sometimes he gets stubborn in that regard, like when he is solving a murder. I’m glad he does. And, none of his intelligence is artificial. How’s your relationship with modern technology going these days?

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Camping, Cooking, Motorcycles, Outdoor living, Reading, Uncategorized, writing

If Truth be Told

April 19, 2018 by 2 Comments

These days I’m hearing and reading a lot about people lying. Worse, I hear it’s becoming normalized. It’s in our ads, the statements salespeople and contractors make. Top government and business officials seem to do it with impunity. While lying for self-interest is not new—e.g. the ancient principle of caveat emptor—its current normalization has me concerned for several reasons. Obviously, I want to be able to trust elected officials who work for us, and for the good of the country. I want to receive the value for which I pay when I buy something. But most important, I want to know truth is still an important value in our country, not an antiquated bit of culture. Sometimes people lied when I was growing up. At the same time, a person’s word was supposed to mean something. A deal could be sealed with a handshake. If you were caught lying, you got punished.

Now, this concern may seem strange coming from someone who places so much importance in writing fiction. I’ve heard fiction writers referred to as people who lie for a living. But, I think that’s far from the truth. It would be a lie to write something, claiming it was true when it was not. That would be unethical. It would also violate the point of fiction. Fiction is an effort to capture more than a literal snapshot of some people or event. Fiction is an attempt to say something about life, about people, about ideas principles—and truth. Truth of character. Decent behavior. Justice. Things which we should care about.

I write murder mysteries. But, they are always more about personal and social crisis and response. And, good wins out. They are works of fiction I’ve crafted to say something about people, communities, situations and events. My protagonist, Bobby Navarro, is a fictional character, but he is not a lie. His stories support decency, not murder. I don’t want to see lying normalized. That would be giving up on ideals I think important to us and to society. Any thoughts on the matter?

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Motorcycles, Outdoor living, Reading, writing

Managing Memories and Memorabilia

March 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment

A friend of ours is getting ready to move after twenty years or more in the same house. I’ve been through that process. It’s astounding how much accumulates over that length of time. It amounts to a lot of work. There are the forays for packing boxes, yard sales to set up, things to take to Goodwill, and hours to spend sorting though everything. However, from an outsider point of view, it’s like catching glimpses of someone’s life never suspected before. Memorabilia from times we’ve heard about but briefly, and otherwise didn’t share.

It also made me think about my series protagonist. I don’t see Bobby Navarro accumulating boxes, closets and rooms filled with stuff to be disposed of someday. After all, he spends his travel time on the back of his Harley. One doesn’t accumulate a lot of souvenirs riding a motorcycle. An old helmet, maybe a worn leather vest or pair of boots. Perhaps a tee-shirt with the Route 66 logo on the back. Not boxes of nearly forgotten things tucked away, out of sight for years. There must be a few things though. Something from his days in the Marine Corps? A piece of camping gear no longer used, but not discarded? An old knife? I wonder. He lives in a furnished apartment. He could probably throw all his belongings into sea bag or large duffel. It’s fun to speculate as to what he might hang onto.

The thing is, these artifacts of our existence were important to us at one point, and trigger memories about who we have been and the roads we have traveled. In that context, it’s important that our fictional heroes have a past, a collection of events and encounters that helped define them in the same way a prop room contains elements from past theatrical sets that made a former play come to life. Remnants of our past were props constructing who we were and help explain who we have become. However, as writers, we have to be careful how we bring forth the past belonging to our protagonists; a little bit can go a long way. Dredging up the old memories of our characters can easily become an unwanted data dump. It’s tricky. At the same time, a little glimpse into the past life of our protagonists can give them depth and add to the things that make them real and interesting. I wonder what memories Bobby will uncover if he ever does go through his accumulated belongings, however meager the stockpile.

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Motorcycles, Reading, Village Life, writing

The Second Rule of Writing

February 24, 2018 by 4 Comments

For cozy mysteries, the first expectation I usually hear is the story must be set in a small town or village. The second is that the protagonist is an amateur sleuth. Now, in real life it seems unlikely a murder would be solved by an everyday person who becomes curious, gets involved and solves the murder. That’s okay. I’ve understood for a long time that a suspension of disbelief is part of enjoying an amateur sleuth novel. No problem. I enjoy Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, for example. She has a curious disposition, and it’s both part of her charm and a reason for her involvement.  Most of her sleuthing amounts to eavesdropping and applying her considerable wit. Over time, she has gained a reputation for her abilities, and people ask for her help. You see? No problem–however tenuous this scenario might be in real-life.

On the other hand, I recently put down a book I’ve been trying to get into, and I probably won’t pick it back up. Over-all, the story is well-written. The reader can have fun making guesses as to what’s coming, but the story is sure to play out with unexpected twists and turns, and some of the early scenes are filled with suspense. Problem is, I just don’t think the protagonist had believable reason to become that involved in the first place. The deeper the involvement, the less believable it becomes, and the harder it is to develop liking and concern, or caring, for the protagonist.

When I began learning the basics of writing it seemed there were myriad rules to be religiously adhered to. After a while I got used to that. Until now, I had pretty much taken it for granted that an amateur sleuth must be given a credible reason for his or her involvement in a murder investigation. I remember an editor asking about my protagonist’s reason for involvement when I was pitching an early novel. I felt a great sense of relief when I could give a good answer, but I knew beforehand that a good reason needed to be there.  Now, I understand why. It makes all the difference. Coming across a novel that appeared to violate this basic principle has been an epiphany. 

In the book I was attempting to read, a small voice in the back of my mind kept challenging each unfolding scene with the question of why the hero was doing what he was doing. Not surprisingly, his involvement became riskier and more suspenseful as the story progressed. But for me, it didn’t progress. It just kept getting more unbelievable. That small voice got louder. The frustration of trying to suspend disbelief grew and was ruining the story for me. The hero just wasn’t believable.

I think most of us who are writers have spent many hours learning the craft. When someone hasn’t, that fact usually stands out when you read what they have written. I’ve encountered this over and over when reading something written by a writer still in the novice stage. When it happens, it reinforces the rules of the craft, and I try to help the writer learn them. The book I was reading that set this train of thought into motion was not written by a beginner with great potential. He is well-established and a good writer—usually. For me, this was a glaring discovery of what happens if the basic expectation of the need for a reason for involvement is missing or breaks down.

I wonder how many others have discovered the importance of some basic tenet of writing by encountering an established author’s failing to follow it in some instance. Have you had a disappointing experience reading the work of an author who should have known better? Any pet peeves to share?

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Reading, writing

Zen, Archery, Fly-fishing, Motorcycles and Writing

February 9, 2018 by 2 Comments

One of my sons was talking about archery the other day and described shooting his new longbow in terms suggestive of a Zen experience. He is an instinctive shooter, as am I, which means that the aim and release is a subconscious process rather than mechanical alignment and control of machinery. Struggling for adequate descriptive terminology starts to sound a bit flaky, but the archer experiences the event instead of deliberately committing the act. It’s far different from lining up the sights and target using a compound bow constructed with wheels, pulleys, and cams. The reward is that it provides the archer a Zen-like aesthetic experience.

While I’m only a beginner, I think fly fishing offers similar relief from the cacophony of everyday life in modern society. There is something meditatively rewarding and peaceful in presenting a fly at a desired spot on a burbling trout stream. You can escape the high powered motors of a fishing boat throttled-up to cover the next twenty five or fifty miles to an intended fishing area as quickly as possible. You can simply enter a stream in a pair of waders then carefully move toward a likely spot without alerting or disturbing any trout lurking ahead,. When you do you feel more in touch with fishing as it has occurred over millennia and less deluded with a sense of having power over nature. The fishing becomes a Zen-like experience.

Things I’ve read about Zen often seem paradoxical. You have to abandon yourself and give up trying to be in control of your bit of the world in order to find yourself and the truth of what is. But then, much of what I’ve encountered in life has been paradoxical—good/bad—win/lose—right/wrong. In literature, I think interesting fictional characters are complex, and such complexity reflects the paradoxical and dual nature of our universe. They are not all one thing. Heroes are good, but not entirely good. Villains are bad, but not completely bad.

But, you can’t simply toss a contradictory set of behaviors into a story and end up with a more interesting character. The complexity must emerge from some underlying truth about the character. I suspect that emergent truth is often discovered by the writer as well as the reader rather than planned at the outset. In a sense, the writer must discover and experience the story as well as write it. More paradox.

Of course, a writer must dutifully sit at the keyboard and write, but you cannot wring a good story from a mind crammed with rules and literary prescriptions by sheer force. You have to lose yourself in the story to write a good one. The Zen of writing? Perhaps so. When it happens, it feels real and truthful, and that is a very precious experience to have these days.

I remember leaving the fast-multi-lane freeways and putting the tires of my motorcycle on the narrow, undulating pavement of old Route 66 on a book promotion tour for my first novel, Murder on Route 66. I felt an instant sense of being in touch with the fields and ranches alongside the roadway, more in tune with the skies overhead, the smells of the fields I passed, and the cool shade thrown onto the road by trees growing close alongside. I had let go of my schedule and purpose and became more in touch with both it and myself. I remember taking a deep breath of air, smiling at how good I suddenly felt, and how fortunate I was to be on that ride. I knew my series protagonist Bobby Navarro had that side to him as well. I knew it was something I wanted to be able to communicate in the stories I would write about his adventures on the road. Riding Route 66 wasn’t about overcoming the traffic ahead or powering past a row of eighteen wheelers blocking my lane. There was no traffic. There was no hurry either. By slowing down, I captured some of the magic and allure of that old, iconic highway I had pushed hard to reach.

Writing a story is a tremendous amount of work, but it is also rewarding when the words set down on the pages reveal the story you have been struggling to bring to life. Paradoxically, it is sometimes when you let go of your attempted control and let the story emerge that the tale you’re trying to write appears. The Zen of writing? What are your thoughts?

 

Upstate Trout Stream

Filed Under: Back to basics, blog posts, Books, Motorcycles, Outdoor living, Reading, Village Life, writing