Character Masks

As a new hire, job duties are explained, but inter-personal relationships are not. A neophyte learns the pack structure and identifies leaders, power players, and possibly, staff with their own agenda.

If the work environment is dysfunctional, fitting in can feel like navigating a mine field. Who will have your back? Who will stab you in the back?

Jo, the new volunteer at the Binkley House Museum, is a loner. She’s not interested in finding her place in the pack; she just wants to work with the antiques.

She meets and clicks with Monty, the maintenance man-slash-gardener. He tells her about her co-workers and what’s happening at the museum behind the scenes.

Later, Jo has reason to doubt Monty’s motivation. Was his friendly and helpful approach merely a mask? Was he actually misleading her to further his own personal agenda?

My Life as an Emoji

The internet refers to this emoji as “Nerd,” but I think of it as my writing / author emoji. Same glasses, same buck teeth, same stupid grin.

I’m taking an online class that helps female authors write realistic male point-of-view characters. But life happened, and I ended up procrastinating on my homework.

Yesterday I had a pile of lessons to make up, but I chose to do long-overdue yardwork instead. I’d work on my lessons after dark.

I mowed the grassland, pulled some weeds, then began trimming the vines growing on the back wall. I worked until the light faded, and my yard waste bin overflowed.

This morning, I felt like I’d been attacked by an army of giant allergens. One of my eyelids was swollen closed. I’d become the winking face emoji.

Truly a case of life imitating art.

Writer’s Retreat

I have land in the Pacific Northwest. I would love to have a house on it.

I’ve drawn and discarded floorplan sketches for years. Recently I stopped focusing on designing a family home with great resale value. Now I’m drawing a comfortable, relaxed space that brings the outdoors in and lets me enjoy the property the way I want.

My current drawings resemble a U-shaped cabin with a guest suite wrapped around a two-car garage. Every room would have woodland views through large windows.

The layout is a study in versatility; half of the rooms are multi-functional. Depending on furnishings, rooms can be sitting areas, offices, or bedrooms. The large, open, dog-friendly, dining-family room and kitchen can be closed off to keep wet dogs confined and happily playing indoors.

Set in a small clearing among Douglas firs, cedars, and alders, the cabin could be a perfect writer’s retreat. A three-hundred-fifty-foot driveway through trees and a field would connect the cabin to a county road and civilization.

But I can’t imagine leaving this little piece of paradise.

 

Books and Tea

A delightful combination that can be enjoyed together any time and any place.

I like doing it on my patio early in the morning when the air is cool and heavy with fog.

I’ve done it morning, noon, and night.

I’ve done it at sea level on the beach and 36,000 feet above in a plane.

I’ve done it in a train but never ever in a car.

When and where’s your favorite place to do it?

 

Character Names

“The Power of Names” – Keith Cronin

I was reading a writer’s blog that included this meme, and it brought back memories.

One of my villains was named after a rescue dog. That dog made Cujo seem mild mannered and calm. In fact, Cujo was one of his nicknames.

A dog behavioralist and trainer took him to her house for a month-long boot camp session. He needed a second session. Once when I picked him up for a weekend at home, the trainer said, “He’s doing better, but he’ll never be perfect.”

The dog needed a third boot camp session, but the trainer moved out of state over the weekend. Coincidence? Possibly.

A co-worker beta read my detective story. As soon as she read the character name, she knew he ‘dunnit.’

Naming villains after someone (or something) in your life can be therapeutic. I sure enjoyed it.

New Beginnings

My son moved out of the house late last year but held my bedroom hostage for an additional three months. Last Friday, he removed the rest of his belongs. Saturday, I cleaned and refilled the room with the guest furniture that had been stuffed into my bedroom and office.

A weight lifted from my mind, and I’m decompressing. He was helpful around the house and a pleasure to spend time with, but I’d felt increasingly unsettled and disorganized during his stay. I couldn’t pinpoint specific reasons.

Yesterday I browsed Hallie Ephron’s Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel and ran across her advice to “set up a space for writing.” Hallie writes more effectively with a dedicated writing area.

Because my office was overcrowded with guest room stuff, I’d been writing on the dining table. And every time I had company, or my housecleaner was scheduled, I’d pile up my work, shove it somewhere in the office, and lock the door.

My laptop’s file dates reveal a history of long gaps in productive writing. Now I look forward to reorganizing my office and getting back to work.

Plot Development Technique

Scott Myers’ Screenwriting Tip: Index Cards

Nights are made for sleeping, but sometimes I have insomnia. And I’m making the best of it. During those middle-of-the-night wakeful periods, I work on the plot for my cozy mystery.

After publishing two detective mysteries with simplistic plots and writing a draft for a third detective story with a two-pronged plot, I’m beginning to learn how to create storylines with more complexity.

The main character in the ‘Murder at Binkley House’ cozy mystery is first-personing her way through the plot’s crimes. Things are happening to and around her. The more she digs, the more she puts herself – and her best friend – in danger.

After enhancing the plot with clues and red herrings pointing to multiple suspects, the order of the plot elements was harder to keep track of.

I bought a pack of index cards and wrote one clue, red herring, or plot point on each color-coded card. Now I can shuffle the cards as I experiment with plot order.