Candice Hughes

Recently I read the first two Stieg Larsson detective novels. I had to wait weeks for each one at my local library because the waiting list was pretty long.

I believe one reason these novels are so popular is the female protagonist. Mr. Larsson created a very engaging and unusual female character, Lisbeth. I admit I liked her much better than the male protagonist. What makes her so interesting? I feel the whole constellation of traits, particularly her intelligence combined with her anti-social behavior (bordering on Asperger’s syndrome). Some people debate whether a man can create an accurate female character or a woman an accurate male character. I feel Larsson has done an excellent job with Lisbeth. Lisbeth may not be a “girly girl”, but she is believable as a female character. One aspect Larsson gets right is Lisbeth’s emotional involvement with people in her life. In contrast, his male protagonist (Blomkvist) often seems disconnected with people around him.

I am still waiting for the third book (another long long list of readers). Interest in reading these books is still amazingly strong. I was motivated to read the first book after observing a woman buying five copies of the first book at a large  (to be unnamed) book store.

The saddest part of the story is that Stieg Larsson is no longer with us to keep the story going. I can only imagine what other fantastic books he’d had written if he’d had time.

The past week or two have been peak foliage colors here in New England. Fall is a magic time of year when tonal greens explode into gold, ruby and pumpkin. It always reminds me of Tolkein and the two trees of Valinor.

Although heavy rains have been washing away the leaves, leaving us to tidy up the faded brown husks that litter the lawn, some color remains.

So all my readers can get a taste of New England fall, I’ve attached a photo.

Frosts Turn New England Foliage to Gold

This summer has gone by at light speed. The past couple months have included frenzied activity editing and polishing novel 2. This week, I released novel 2, hoping that it is ready to take flight. Waiting to see how reviewers will react is always a nail biting moment.

In between bouts of  motherly concern for novel 2, I’ll take some time to decompress from the intense activity. Maybe even take some walks and start thinking about what a novel 3 might look like. I love this time. It’s a time of free fall when almost anything can happen. A time when there are many doors waiting to be opened and it’s so hard to decide which door should be opened because everything is interesting, fresh and exciting.

The end of summer is a perfect time for free fall. Life starts gathering inward to protect itself from the snow and ice of winter. But winter hasn’t come yet. For now, I can still walk outside without a coat and sit on my porch to read. But the days are numbered. That’s alright though because every ending is a beginning.

Bookmarked: Watchman by Ian Rankin

Almost without my noticing, we’ve slipped into the final haze of summer.  August saps motivation. Still, I believe we need August. August is the month when the world slips into a torpor.  Only the insects make sounds, repetitive chirring sounds that mix with the heat and sun. When the air starts turning colder, we wake up refreshed and ready to go.

Of course, if you live in Southern California, you can dismiss all this as ranting New England blather. Seasons are part of what I love about New England. Seasons mark off the passing of time. And it’s hard without seasons to pay attention to something you’d rather ignore, like time. Unless you’re under the age of twenty when time goes too slowly.

Today I’ll sit back in my chair with a cold ice tea, a cloudless blue sky, and crack open a book.  Ah, and it occurred to me that in my conference frenzy I’d stopped listing my reading books. So today I added back “Bookmarked.”

When I’m done reading, it’s back to writing.  What else is there for a writer to do?

CraftFest and ThrillerFest is over for another year. This year’s meeting was as enjoyable as last year’s. I am continually astounded by how generous leading authors are with their time in teaching up and coming authors the tricks of the trade. Today I will highlight a few tidbits that stuck with me from the conference.

Andrew Gross gave tips for how to keep readers turning the page. One tip was to focus on the essentials of each scene. Don’t get bogged down in unnecessary description, explanation or character definition. Short focused chapters also help. With that said, there is also a spectrum of “pace focus” in thrillers. Some authors voice will call for more description/characterization/atmosphere than others. Writers through exploring their work will find their comfort level in the spectrum. But at the same time writers must realize that the more the book focuses on atmosphere, etc, the more the pace will be slowed down. Readers will gravitate toward authors whose pace is comfortable for them as well.

James Rollins advised writers to set a target number of pages to be completed each day and do it. I find myself that if you focus on a large project in it’s entirety, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So I agree with his focus on daily small goals to achieve a larger goal.

On marketing of thrillers, attendees heard from Robin Cook about his innovative “prequel” movie that was released in installments before his recent novel (Foreign Body). (Note, this is not an inexpensive undertaking so you may not want to try this at home!)

That’s the wrap up for ThrillerFest. I better get to work on my target pages!

Today, there was a strong focus on structure and plot. I’ll give a brief recap. Start your thriller with action, preferably involving the main character. Move quickly to the inciting incident (within at least the first 50 pages if not the first few pages). From the inciting incident, you need to move toward turning point 1. After the action of turning point 1, a brief respite is needed. Then build to your next turning point followed again by a release from the action. Continue this pattern with each turning point making the stakes higher and higher until you reach the climax of the story. There is generally a short release or denouement after the climax, which some authors may prefer to to be quite brief while others like it longer (several pages or a chapter).

Lisa Gardner also gave a wonderful presentation on how to edit your first draft. She recommends a note card method of laying out scenes on note cards to visualize what happens in your novel. This facilitates seeing what needs to be cut or changed.

Another bonus, I now have a nice sized stack of books from ThrillerFest to add to my “to read” pile so I can see I’ll be kept busy this summer!

Happy writing and reading!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on pitches recently. You need to pitch to sell your novel. What makes the perfect pitch? Having an attention grabbing hook is key. The hook is a short (1  sentence) summary of the essence of your novel. After the hook, you want to give your audience (either agent or editor) a feel for your characters- who are they and why would they do what they do in the novel. Additionally, you want to summarize the essential plot of your story from beginning to end in paragraph or two of content. The pitch lasts three to eight minutes generally.

Three to eight minutes might seem like a long time if you hate public speaking. (Regardless of whether you pitch one or five people or more, I consider a pitch public speaking. It differs substantially from an everyday conversation where there is a lot of back and forth and generally lower stakes like locating the nearest highway ramp or finding out if a seat in a theatre is taken).

On the other hand, you may feel three to eight minutes will be a breeze. A few minutes- how hard can it be? My advisor once told me, “I can give an hour talk, but I don’t have time for a ten minute talk.” As I began giving presentations myself, I understood how accurate he was. The shorter the presentation, the more critical each word is. Distilling ones thoughts down to a concentrated nectar and then presenting this nectar intact and with style is tough.

The only thing that works for me is the brute force slog. Get the words on paper and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. After a long time, the words seem to flow naturally. They carry passion and elegance. When a presentation is perfect, it seems to take no effort at all. The words just flow out as though the speaker just stopped in for coffee and just had to put his/her two cents in. But we who present know differently.  We know the secret. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

ThrillerFest is coming up soon and a lot of writers are wondering if they should pay the fairly substantial fee to attend. Last year I attended the CraftFest and AgentFest portions of the ThrillerFest conference. Based on my experience, I recommend that any writer who focuses on the thriller genre should attend this conference if possible.

CraftFest emphases basic writing techniques as well as pointers for selling your manuscript. Lectures at CraftFest are given by well-known authors, agents and editors. If you you want to learn or brush up on technique, you will benefit from this portion of the conference. You will also have the chance to network with industry professionals.

I highly recommend AgentFest. I don’t know of any other opportunity to pitch to 40 top literary agents at once. That said, the agents do not accept every manuscript pitched to them. Expect that some will say no based on suitability of your novel to their interests. What you will get at AgentFest is experience in pitching and the chance to meet agents who might be interested in your work. I recommend researching the agents before pitching to them. Select those most likely to be interested in your specific story. That will make the experience better for you (the writer) and for the agent. If you haven’t finished at least one full draft of your novel, I recommend not pitching. It’s hard to pitch if you don’t know what happens in the story. (Unless of course you have several published novels that sell well but if that is your situation, you could likely contact agents outside the pitch room.)

To attend AgentFest, you must attend CraftFest.

Good Luck and Happy Pitching!

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.

Bookmarked: Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect by Vahan Janjigian

After many months (a year or so) of writing, I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for novel 2. I’m in the closing scene, which is one of my favorite parts to write. For me the closing scene is the final confrontation where all the action is. There is more after that, I consider the rest the calm after the storm. That is where the sub-plot and loose ends are tied up. My other favorite part to write is the opening scene where everything is fresh and there are so many possibilities.

Perhaps I turned to a nonfiction book last week though because writing, especially the intense closing scene is draining. I also was attracted to the book because the financial world is so much on everyone’s mind now. But, it’s looking like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here as well. I hope so! I’m hoping the turnaround will lift the publishing industry as well. Then my manuscript will be well timed. Although everyone will tell you, you can’t time the market. So, I’ll keep my fingers crossed!