Candice Hughes

It felt a bit like peeking at my horoscope, which I admit I do once in awhile for a lark. I’m talking in this case about a writer’s mysterious black box- “I Write Like”. Everyone’s doing it, I thought, why not me?

So who do I write like (according to “I Write Like”)? Drum roll- envelope please. The answer is….JD Salinger.

Since he passed away, perhaps he won’t mind that I write like him. Particularly that I’m a woman who writes like a man who writes about what it’s like being a boy growing up to become a man. If that makes any sense at all.

Now I’d better go and begin scouting remote towns in New Hampshire for a cottage.

Because the frightening thing is that both JD Salinger and I have lived/worked in New York and Connecticut. But then he fled deep into New England to Cornish, New Hampshire. And I wonder if that is what “I Write Like” noticed- something in the Yankee words spiced with New York attitude. Then again maybe it’s just a mysterious black box like whatever generates the fortunes in Chinese fortune cookies.

Now you can follow me on Twitter.  Keep in mind that my tweets will cover both my thriller author life and my alternate identity as a pharmaceutical communications expert. I’ll try to hash tag so readers will know which is which but, being a woman who juggles many bowling pins at once, I may forget once in a while so apologies ahead of time. My twitter link is below:

http://twitter.com/candicemhughes

Apologies for the relative silence on my blog! If I released audiorecordings, the past few months wouldn’t be silence (as it appears on the blog) but an unrelenting click clack of keys typing out words. I’ve been fully consumed by editing novel 2. Beside the editing there’s the query and synopsis writing. Finally, the dreaded pitch (yes, indeed, you can get 400 pages down to one line)!

I’m tremendously lucky to be part of CoLoNY and RWA as a whole. Through these groups, I’ve been cramming with my writer friends. I feel just like I’m at college again! Only this time, I’ve got generous, wonderful, highly experienced writers showering me with advice and reading drafts (not to mention listening to my pitch!)

So, please, excuse the silence and do check back! I hope to get some posts in during the conferences and will definitely post afterwards with some highlights of RWA Nationals and ThrillerFest.

This weekend I thoroughly enjoyed myself being an archaeologist for a day. Who ever thought that digging through someone’s trash could be so much fun! After several hundred years, the yuck factor disappears and trash becomes an amazing window into another world. I was lucky enough to get a look into a world almost four-hundred years ago when Native Americans lived throughout New England (and other parts of the United States as well, only they weren’t states then, and you get the picture…).

Archaeologist call the trash pit the midden. In the 1600s, a Native American midden contains things like oyster and clam shells and burned seeds. Our group was lucky to find some European flint. Not bad for a hour or so of digging! Other members of our group investigated an area of the old fort that used to be living space and found glass, beads, and a large piece of flint.

I also learned about a field unknown to me, archeobotany. Since most seeds have been cooked or burned by Native Americans and since seeds lose water and shrivel, it can be hard to identify them. Of course, it’s not easy to find them in the first place since they’re small! But if you’re patient and  have a good eye, seeds show what types of plants people ate or utilized in daily life.

The downside of archaeology is trudging through mud and poison ivy. Of course, there are also mosquitoes, ticks and other insects to dodge (or if unlucky, to suffer from). Overall, I’d say it’s worth getting a bit dirty to watch the past unfold before your eyes.

For anyone who has missed it, Elisabeth Sifton has an essay in The Nation this week (The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes). Her experience in the industry spans decades giving her a rare perspective. She expresses frustration and sadness at the many changes in the industry, particularly the consolidation and transformation to what she describes as a poorly functioning profit-focused model. She declaims the lack of interest of those running publishing companies in their products and product generators (books and writers). Her essay is well worth reading.

I know so many people who are passionate about books. A good number of these people are young- just the sort of readers the industry needs because they have many years of book buying ahead of them. I’ve seen tweens drooling over catalogues of books at libraries. They aren’t shy about putting in requests for book orders with their librarians. Recently when I commented on how teens/children may soon be reading text books on the Kindle, one groaned and told me he certainly didn’t want his books on one.

Books as objects have a special power. Think of magic books like in Harry Potter. Would it work to have a magician’s blog? How about books so controversial they’re banned. I have an early edition Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The cover is stamped, “Not to be introduced into the British Empire.” Woolf’s book provoked thought and discussion. It served it’s purpose. How does one ban a web site or a blog for offending sensibilities? Except for the most egregious offenders, few web sites or blogs are removed. Electronic words are more accessible and more pervasive yet Web sites and blogs simply have less psychological power than books in my opinion- even though all are based on words and all attract readers and discussion. Somehow being intangible dilutes the power of the words. Imagine holding up a print out of a blog as one shouts about its seditiousness. Or maybe one would bring a laptop on the podium and (shudder) display it with PowerPoint?

While I welcome and embrace electronic media (I am a true techie at heart), I think books retain their magic. Why, I wonder, can’t electronic media and books continue to live in harmony? Each will serve it’s purpose.

Cynthia Crossen in The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about when and what triggers her to give up on reading a book. From her comments and from those of the person writing into her column, one gets the impression that a lack of enthusiasm or just not feeling “hooked” is a trigger to stop.

Cynthia says she has gotten as far as 300 pages into a book and been unsure of whether to continue (this was a 720 page book- for many other books she’d be closing the back flap by then). Her reader says after page 50 she would stop, although she’s heard some people stop at page 1.

This column and reading a book that I was unable to get through got me thinking about what really makes me or anyone else stop reading. I agree with the lack of enthusiasm concept but it’s so vague I find it entirely unsatisfactory. What causes the lack of enthusiasm? I’ll give you my thoughts. For one thing, it could be plot. A meandering, muddy plot without constant tension and action is a sure book closer for me. Sometimes, the plot has tension but it’s either a totally unbelievable circumstance or it’s the sort of tension that has no resonance with me. For example, a woman stands in front of a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s and a pair of Prada’s and is down to her last $500.00 and what on earth does she do? Sorry, but I’d rather worry about the clerk handing her the shoes who works part-time as a janitor in a nuclear power plant and found the reactor control code in the boss’s trash can last night.

But sometimes, it’s not the plot. Sometimes, it’s the characters. Either I just don’t like them or I am so neutral as to be unconcerned about whether they get blown up in chapter 6 or not. Sometimes, the characters themselves who are unbelievable. For instance, what about  five-year-old who speaks in complete sentences with multisyllabic words and tries to advance new equations for Einstein’s theory of relativity when he’s not in nursery school? Sorry, don’t buy it.

I think some of the reasons people stop turning pages are universal but others are unique to the reader. As a writer, I try very hard to not put in universal stop signals. But, I believe other stop signals are coded in the reader’s DNA- unknowable and unavoidable since the next reader may love that part of the book. For example, some may love reading about shopping crises and some may attack a 720 page book with enthusiasm whereas others may run from the room screaming….

Happy Reading!

I thought I’d introduce a new way to start posts (OK- I admit I’m cribbing this idea, with my own twist, from Pub Rants- a great blog- I’ll add it to my blogroll).

Bookmarked (reading): Just finished- The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag; now up- Pyramids by Terri Pratchett.

It might seem a tad presumptuous of me to be thinking of July with a good 3 inches of snow on the ground and the thermometer refusing to even stick a toe past the single digits, but it’s time to work on summer conference plans. This year RWA will be held in our nation’s capital. Sure, I’ll have missed all the inauguration commotion but I won’t have to wear a balaclava and ski gloves. So I’m looking forward to the energy that comes from thousands of writers not to mention soaking up the aura from the new regime.

Thrillerfest looks fantastic as well! The only negative point is being 4 days away from RWA.

So there’s the rub, to sleep or to attend, perchance to dream (of pitches and lectures and balls with gowns).

So while I ponder over agendas, trains and hotels, I’ll try to imagine that the ice will melt and I’ll find there is asphalt under it after all. Maybe I should even save a piece of ice for the days when it hits 90 F.  As Mark Twain said, if you don’t like New England weather, just wait a minute.

One of the biggest benefits for me of being a writer is that I’m always learning. To focus on learning more about investigation and police procedures, I’ve joined the Kiss of Death Chapter of Romance Writers of America. You’ll see that I’ve added this group to my “blogs of interest” listed on the right hand side.

Somehow, I keep writing about key characters who are detectives. Maybe I like detectives because I feel they make great characters who like to place themselves in the middle of the action and who don’t back down when challenged. Did I also mention that it’s acceptable for them to be nosey? That’s fun too. Or, maybe it’s because I love reading about detectives.

At any rate, it’s critical to get the details as authentic as possible.

Another bonus is meeting new writers and hearing their stories. So, this is my writer’s life tidbit for the day…

Happy Holidays to All!

Several months ago, I wrote of stepping down from my position on my local chapter (ColoNY) RWA Board. Nothing stands still and our chapter hasn’t either! Hence, my update. Currently, I’m continuing as Acting Treasurer on our Board. Our group is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to our wonderful Board and enthusiastic members. As part of that growth, we now have a new blog (thanks, Maura!). I have added the ColoNY blog here. Our group is continuing it’s mission to nuture writer-member’s careers.

One of our members (and our group founder), Marianna Jameson, recently hit the New York Times Bestseller list with Category 7. You go, girl!

As the summer draws to a close, so to my term as Treasurer for my RWA Chapter reaches the end. I have been priviliged to work with some wonderful women on the Board. All of them are passionate about writing and it’s good to be around people who inspire me to keep moving forward with my work. It will be hard in some ways to step down but I hope to gain more writing time. It’s a hard battle to carve out minutes here and there but it’s necessary to keep moving Novel 2 forward. On the bright side, I plan to continue being involved in the chapter, to keep being inspired and to watch the group grow!