Travels with the Muse

The Last Matryoshka Comes to a "Theatre" New You

2012-03-03T14:14:00.003-08:00

Am thrilled with the atmospheric book trailer that Istoria Books produced for the upcoming e-release of The Last Matryoshka. This also raises a question -- how do readers react to these videos - are they seen as mere marketing tools or is there real entertainment value perceived?

Comment and reviews welcome :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5PWZ00Jh74&feature=youtube_gdata

Travels with an Identity Thief – Part Three – Seeing Through Marilyn’s Eyes

2012-02-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

As a writer assuming the identity of a visual artist, I amfaced with a special set of challenges. Marilyn thinks in pictures, whilst I processlife through words. To be true to my ‘character’s character,’ I must learn toexperience the world as she does, to open myself to her emotions as triggeredby the colors and textures around us, to let my eyes experience the worldbefore my intellect.

On the other hand, to be true to myself as a wordsmith, I amcommitted to finding the language that will convey Marilyn’s experiences asvividly as possible. No wonder I am totally exhausted at the end of each day!

It was not until I reached Aurangabad, two weeks after myarrival in India, that my shift into the visual mode gained noticeable momentum. Who can visit the rock-cut caves of Ajanta—discoveredin 1819 by a band of British officers hunting a tiger—without being transfixedby images masterfully created by the great sculptors and painters of 2^ndCentury India?

Marilyn had pored through books of photographs and listenedwith fascination to her husband Shankar telling Jataka tales of Buddha’sreincarnations and the Bodhisattvas. No way had this prepared her for aface-to-face encounter with the ancient world.

Later that same day I visited a market in Aurangabad, alongwith hundreds of shoppers caught up in the Diwali festivities. From the grey stonesand ancient murals of the caves out into a modern riot of color… what atransition! I could hardly snap pictures fast enough. This one will definitely inspireMarilyn to paint as she never has before.

Travels with an Identity Thief - Part Two

2012-01-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Varanasi, searching out experiences that will reveal Marilyn’s character and provide settings for scenes in the new book. I have assumed her identity yet in many ways she is a total mystery. She is an artist who lives through her eyes, while I’m a writer who lives through words. And how can I think straight, with my senses transfixed by the chaotic sights and sounds around me?

The annual Hindu festival of Durga Puja is in full swing. The streets of Veranasi are packed with worshipers of the goddess, who have come to offer food and flowers at her feet and visit the pandals (temporary temples) where they celebrate the goddess who saved the entire cosmos from destruction! Trucks packed with young men commandeer the narrow alleyways, blasting earsplitting chants and music in honor of the holiday. The best I can do is to keep my eyes open and “give” Marilyn my camera, setting her loose to follow her instincts...

It’s dawn, and Marilyn and I watch a golden streak of sunlight paint the dark waters of the river as we listen to the happy chatter of bathers near the ghat steps. Maa Ganga envelops us inher peaceful embrace. India may be crowded, noisy and hectic, but carved into the chaos, like a Buddhist cave hollowed out in a rock, moments of boundless serenity await. I know Marilyn will stay in Veranasi for at least a year –far longer than the three days I will be here – and that I too will be back.

Travels with an Identity Thief - Part One

2012-01-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted but I have a good excuse - traveled to India, where I assumed the identity of Marilyn, a character in a new book I'm co-writing with Arindam Roy. I covered a lot of ground on the Subcontinent and will start with my marvelous experience in Varanasi, where I stayed at Nirman School and met many talented teachers and artists. On my very first day I was privileged to hear the classical vocalist and Bhajan singer, Ganesth Mishra, accompanied by Nawal Singh on tabla. Since one of the characters in the new book is also a talented singer, this was a good sign that my travels were already bearing fruit.

Marilyn is an artist, so my second day in Varansi I interviewed a remarkable mural painter from Kerala, Suresh Nair. He works with traditional materials, which means it takes him a full month to prepare the surface of a brick wall with layers of lime, sand, and coconut milk before painting. Visit his Facebook page to learn more!

Photo courtesy of
Balakrishnan Kavungal Anat
Stay tuned for more pictures and some discussion of my travels as an Identity Thief.

Timothy Hallinan talks about settings

2011-02-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to welcome author Timothy Hallinan to Travels with the Muse!

Timothy Hallinan was just nominated for the 2010 Best Novel Edgar for THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, the fourth book in his series of Bangkok thrillers featuring expatriate travel writer Poke Rafferty. With ten conventionally published books to his credit, Tim has decided to alternate in the future between “tree books” and e-books and his first e-book original, CRASHED, is now available for $2.99 on Amazon. CRASHED is the first in a series of “thrillers with a laugh track” about Junior Bender, a Los Angeles burglar who moonlights as a private eye – for crooks. Coming soon is Junior's second adventure, LITTLE ELVISES. He lives in Los Angeles and Bangkok.

Here's what Mr. Hallinan has to say about the settings for his novels, along with some terrific photos he has provided for your enjoyment.

-----------------------------------------

A setting is usually defined as the place in which a story unfolds.

But what's a place?

I believe it's an experience, and it's different for almost everyone. My Seattle, my Bangkok, is different than yours. I see different things, smell different things, experience the climate and the light differently. What we see or remember is only partly a function of where we go. It's also what we look for and what's important to us.

That's why I think the best-written books don't have a setting. They have settings. Every major character will – and should – experience the book's geographic setting differently.

If they do, then I thing two things will happen. First, the setting will be in three dimensions, because at least two perspectives are necessary for 3D. Second, the writer will find literally dozens of ways that reactions to the setting can differentiate his or her characters.

I write a series set in Bangkok, so let's look at one of my Bangkok books, The Fourth Watcher. I'm using my own books as examples because (a) I know them better than I know anyone else's, and (b) it's a sneaky way to plug them.

In The Fourth Watcher, my central male character, travel writer Poke Rafferty, comes up against the person he wants least to see in the world, whom we'll call Mr. X, and also a member of the U.S. Secret Service named Richard Elson. And he's married to a Thai woman named Rose and the adoptive father of a little girl, a former street child named Miaow (pronounced like the sound a cat makes.)

To Rafferty, Bangkok is his new environment. After a few years there, he loves it, he doesn't yet completely understand how it works, and he tends to accept what he sees on the surface, although he's gradually learning that in some situations, that might get him killed.

Rose came to Bangkok as a teenager and has had a very rough time there. She regards it with a kind of wary understanding and worries about the way her husband accepts things at face value. Miaow has in her head a complete map of the city's unlighted areas – its alleys and empty buildings, shuttered hotels and all the places where it's especially dangerous to be a child.

Elson, the Secret Service guy, has just arrived, and he hates every square foot of it. He hates the traffic, the noise, the heat; the food gives him the squits; but at the same time, he's secretly distracted by the city's Byzantine sex scene. And for Mr. X, Bangkok is a great place to hide from some extremely dangerous people.

We see the city from all these people's perspectives, even if it's only in the way they talk about it, and I think that helps the reader see Bangkok as something more than a picture postcard or a stage setting in front of which the story is acted out. When reviewers like my books, they almost always talk about how real the setting is. I think the reason is that they've experienced several different Bangkoks, through the eyes of very different characters.

Dreams as a source of writing inspiration

2011-02-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

I’m no Carl Jung but I do occasionally have flashes of insight that goes directly from my subconscious into my writing. These usually come in the form of images that float to the forefront of my mind upon waking from a dream.

Sometimes the characters in my books have a parallel experience – in THE LAST MATRYOSHKA, when Jo Epstein falls asleep in her Vladimir hotel room to the pulsing of bass and drums from the disco below, she dreams of dancing bears—a sign that she is coming closer to the heart of the mystery she has come to Russia to solve.

In ASK THE DEAD, Jo falls asleep on an airplane and dreams about a calypso singer serenading a Wall Street crowd from a hot air balloon. He hits a high note, transmutes into an ancient Egyptian priest spouting proverbs, and I wake up in time to gulp a cup of coffee before we begin our descent into San Juan Airport. These are all elements in the case that her subconscious is working on.

These sculptures outside a museum in Moscow seem like characters in a dream

For me, culling material from dreams is like snorkeling in clear water in search of elusive tropical fish. I may catch a glimpse of the extraordinary early on but soon the day fills with distractions and the water becomes cloudy—unless I act quickly, many of the best ideas recede into the depths. Sometimes I can bring them back with meditation or exercise – or even by taking a nap!

So tell me – do you mine your subconscious when you write? Do the characters you write about have a rich "dream life"? How do you “stay in touch” with the depths of your psyche?

Please share your thoughts!

How Matryoshka Dolls Inspired a “Nested” Mystery

2011-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Note: This article on my trip to a matryoshka factor outside Moscow appears in this month's issue of Mystery Reader's Journal. You can check out this excellent publication at http://www.mysteryreaders.org/

Walking into the Souvenir Factory in Sergiev Posad, (45 miles from Moscow) my 16-year-old son, Ian, and I were greeted by the earthy smell of wood chips laced with the pungent odor of lacquer. Souvenir was a landmark stop on our whirlwind trip to Moscow and the Golden Ring to research settings for my new mystery novel, THE LAST MATRYOSHKA. Guided by the factory director, Elena, we stopped first at the lathe operator’s workshop, where we watched a master craftsman create the bottom half of a doll by hollowing out a round piece of linden wood spinning on his lathe. He fashioned the top half in the same way and then started on the next, smaller version of the doll. All this accomplished with no patterns or templates in sight.

In the painting room, a half-dozen highly skilled women employed the tiniest of brushes to paint intricate designs and faces on the matryoshki. Ian was given a blank doll and he surprised everyone by painting a Brazilian soccer player, all greens and yellows to match their flag. His creation now sits atop his computer at home.

Originally known as the Zagorsk Artistic-Production Workshop, the factory was built in 1944, during what Russians still call the Great Patriotic War. The Soviets considered Matryoshka dolls to be powerful representatives of Russian culture and soldiers were even called back from the front to manufacture them. Under Soviet rule, the artists were forced to paint one image only on the required yellow background—the noble peasant woman, wearing a bright red scarf. But of course it hadn’t always been this way. During the early 20th century, an astounding variety of nested dolls were created and decorated with everything from fairy tale scenes to the faces of famous generals and the life of Christ. Many nested dolls contained as many as 30 pieces! Today these early masterpieces are avidly sought by collectors.

The core idea for THE LAST MATRYOSHKA came to me while visiting my mother in Brooklyn. As I listened to her neighbors chattering in Russian, admired the Russian fashionistas shopping in high heels on Kings Highway and gazed at the newly minted Matryoshka dolls in the shop windows, the mystery writer in me got to wondering: what if a Russian émigré had a lurid past in Russia that followed him to Brooklyn and created havoc in his new life? I imagined him receiving a series of packages, each containing a nesting doll with a threatening message inside. The smallest doll would be opened in Russia and reveal a devastating fact that would turn the tale on its head.

The storyline of my book soon began to resemble the way a nesting doll is constructed, with the antagonist hiding his true identity inside layers of deceit and challenging poet and private investigator Jo Epstein to unmask him. By the time I reached the part of the novel that was to be set in Russia, I realized that I could read a stack of books and click through endless pages on the Internet and still fail to find the telling details I needed to lend credibility to my Russian characters. So I booked a flight to Moscow and learned some basic Russian phrases—please, thank you, where is the Metro?—from a CD that I played in my car while driving around Seattle.

In addition to touring the Matryoshka factory, Ian and I visited Vladimir Central Prison and were told that we were the first American tourists to do so. It was chilling to see all the books on exhibit in the prison museum that had been written by authors imprisoned there.

Ian was my “official photographer,” and we were always on the lookout for unusual settings to document. Since I love “writing to picture,” almost every setting we photographed appears somewhere in THE LAST MATRYOSHKA: the Monastery of St. Euthymius at Suzdal, the iconic telegraph office on Tverskaya Ulitsa, the apartment where was stayed (which during Soviet times housed three families), and of course the famous Petrovka 38, headquarters of the Moscow Criminal Police.

Everywhere we went, Ian and I saw Matryoshka dolls. The widely accepted story is that a Russian merchant transported the first nesting doll from Japan to Russia in 1899. Russian lathe operators had been making nested Easter eggs for years, so it was no surprise that they were quick to adapt the dolls—whose many “babies” made them potent symbols of fertility—to their own culture.

But much like the country in which they are made, these dolls have broken free from their past while remaining distinctly Russian. It was inspiring to see how post-Soviet artists have ushered in a Matryoshka Renaissance. There are Bill Clinton dolls inside of which Hillary and Monika reside; dolls painted with scenes from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are; reproductions of masterpieces from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; even dolls portraying the family members of the last Russian Tsar.

One of my favorite matryoshkas is the Famous Russian Poets and Authors doll. Who knows, maybe Famous Mystery Writers will be next…

How many times do I have to tell you to feed the dog?

2011-01-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

I'm delighted to welcome author Susan Schreyer today as a guest blogger! Susan lives in Monroe, Washington with her husband, two teenage children, an untrustworthy rabbit and a demanding old cat. Her horse lives within easy driving distance. When not working diligently writing her blogs "Writing Horses" and "Things I Learned From My Horse," articles for worthy publications, or about people in the next town being murdered, Susan trains horses and teaches people how to ride them. She serves on the steering committee of the Guppies Chapter of Sisters in Crime and is co-president of the Puget Sound Chapter of SinC. Death By A Dark Horse, is Susan's debut mystery and the first of a series. Her website is http://www.susanschreyer.com/

In the conceiving of a new story, the creation of unique characters can be difficult. We don't want them to be just like all the others, but with different names, so we build complex biographies. We explore the family trees and significant events in their time that shape each character and the way they respond to the world around them. It's all good, and all useful. Occasionally, a character will spring fully formed into our minds. We see them, hear them speak, feel we know them like a brother or sister. Lucky us! Or is it really lucky? We may know them well, but how are we going to bring that knowledge to the reader? We still face the same struggle we had with characters we had to build from the ground up.

We try to avoid a laundry list of personality traits in much the same way we try to avoid a laundry list of physical traits. For example, if a character is overweight we can show his size by making him unable to squeeze through a small restroom window and escape his pursuers. That solution is pretty easy, and obvious. And it's fun for a writer. More complex and frustrating is how to communicate the nuances of character and emotion.
We can show the character's body language, and write dialog between that character and another. We can show how he responds under pressure. We can have other characters talk about him. All of these tried and true methods have potential for conflict -- and conflict is excellent for driving the reader to turn the page.

Yay!

But…can't we add more depth, be more subtle, do something else to pull the reader into the story and build understanding of our character?

Of course. Add a pet.

We can explain much about a character by showing his interactions with animals -- and without screaming the information at the reader. This is one of my favorite tools. People can act very differently around animals than humans. Much pretense is dropped and we catch glimpses of their psychology that would normally be hidden in human interaction. Animals also respond differently to individuals. What's more, the writer can use a character's relationship with an animal to mirror and add a depth of understanding to another plot line. There's a lot of creative potential in this approach.

So, consider getting your character a pet. And instead of using it as live furniture, exploit the opportunities they can provide. Your readers may thank you for it.

What are some of your favorite character-revealing moments involving animals?

How to avoid the “sag” in the middle

2011-01-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

We’re talking about strengthening a writer’s storyline here, not his or her tummy—although that dangerous “sag in the middle” may require some vigorous exercise to fix.

How many times have you reached page 200 in a book that got off to a great start and wondered why you feel compelled to describe the passengers on a bus in excruciating detail or flash back to childhood memories so distant that their relationship to the main events of the plot are totally obscure? Maybe you don’t have this problem. Maybe you’re one of those writers who doesn’t experience the doldrums in Act Two. In that case, unless you’re fooling yourself (I’m just sayin’) I extend my congratulations.

For the rest of us, how do we bust out of the mid-book stalemate? Let’s say you’ve got an excellent outline, complete with solid motivations and growing conflict, with the crises and resolutions laid out on a graph, peaks and valleys in all the right places, no surprises. Did I say no surprises? Oops.

You may know exactly where you are going and still run out of gas before you get there. It happens to driver on the highway all the time, why not to writers?

What to do? Here are a few ideas:

Ask yourself – “did the plot come easily to me and if so, will the reader find it as predictable as I do?” The answer may be “yes,” but don’t despair. You can use this predictability to your advantage—for example, if you are writing a thriller or a mystery, consider reincarnating your run-of-the-mill villain as a red herring. This will leave you free to create a new, more complex antagonist whose machinations will spiral the story up to a whole new level.

Let’s say your story is a quest and you think you have successfully mined your protagonist’s insecurities and challenged her to face her greatest fear. Or have you? Dig deeper.

In her excellent book, “Write Away,” Elizabeth George quotes author T. Jefferson Parker as saying “When my story stalls out on me, I’ve played my hand too soon.” Take another look at the journey – have you taken shortcuts around obstacles that you need your protagonist to face directly in order to build suspense? Does she have an Achilles heel, a weakness that trips her up just when she is about to prevail? In ASK THE DEAD, Jo Epstein’s biggest fear was that she would die by drowning and this was foreshadowed in the beginning, intensified in the middle and resolved at the end. I didn’t plan it this way, but as her character developed and her core needs and emotions surfaced, the story gained traction.

I hope I’ve provided enough examples to get the discussion going. Now it’s time to hear what YOU have to say.

Timeliness vs. Timelessness

2011-01-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

This seems like a good topic with which to start the “turnover” into the new year.

Like most authors, I want my books to last, to be free of the limitations of “dated” material and stay relevant for many years to come. Sounds fine – but does this mean I should resist the temptation to glean storyline ideas from today’s headlines? How does one achieve a balance?

A case in point is THE LAST MATRYOSHKA, (started in 2006 and published in Nov. 2010) in which private investigator Jo Epstein visits Russia for the first time. This vast country, with its labyrinthal political system, may be slow to change but there were still a few last-minute edits required before publication—such as handing over the presidency from Putin to Medvedev! I also kept track of developments in the conflict between Russia and Georgia and the insurgency in Chechnya, so that the plot would stay fresh for future readers. My reasoning is that readers enjoy a book that provides insight into current events, even when those events recede into the past, as long as the historical and cultural context is solid.

In ASK THE DEAD, Jo visits a fictitious Caribbean island, which was a great way to sidestep the issue. However, my next book is partially set in Cuba, and has sparked a whole new set of questions: Will today’s slow progress in reforming the Cuban economy reach critical mass and become a rapid transformation, such as happened in the Soviet Union in the ‘90s? Will the United States lift the embargo before (or after) the book is published? What about the status of Cuba as now defined in the Patriot Act? Since I do not have a working crystal ball, I have chosen to rely on interesting characters and realistic conflict to propel my storyline, with politics kept to the background as much as possible. It will be interesting to see if I find myself scrambling to incorporate last minute changes before publication, or not…wish me luck!

Please share your own views about timeliness vs. timelessness.

Nuggets of Wisdom

2010-12-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

Since it’s the holiday season, I’m talking about gifts today—the metaphysical rather than the paper-wrapped kind.

The late Fred Myrow, a brilliant composer and dear friend, once told me that before starting a new film score or instrumental piece he would spend days doing mundane chores—shop ‘til he dropped at the supermarket, hang out at the mall, clean house, read junk mail, anything but write music. Only when his boredom meter was in the red and about to explode would Fred get to work, and inevitably inspiration would come.

Over the years I have learned to “put the top down and throw the car into neutral” before starting a new book or writing a series of poems. I’ve always been grateful to Fred – who I worked with in the recording studio, where he regularly performed miracles – for sharing this wisdom, along with many other things he taught me about writing and performing music. As I write this, I am listening to Brad Mehldau playing "Goodbye Storyteller (for Fred Myrow)" - http://bit.ly/edD9r7 - so expressive and beautiful.

What nuggets of wisdom have you been gifted with from friends and fellow writers or artists?

Don’t be shy. Please share!

How We Imagine the Real

2010-12-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Although the American Heritage Dictionary defines imagination as “the formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses,” my favorite poet, Wallace Stevens, has a completely different view. In his book of essays, The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination, Stevens maintains that “The imagination loses vitality as it ceases to adhere to what is real.” These words have followed me throughout my writing career and encouraged me to search out telling details and sensory stimuli that lend vitality to the products of my imagination and hopefully provide a rich and accessible experience for my readers.

In his poem Anecdote of the Jar Stevens shows us how powerful one “real” object can be in conveying an idea:

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion every where.

The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

In my mystery novel, THE LAST MATRYOSHKA, I use the nesting doll to symbolize how pieces of the past can gain power over time and come alive to motivate actions in the present—in this case the relentless pursuit and persecution of a man accused of committing a crime fifty years ago.

What powerful symbols have you recently employed in your writing to lend vitality to your imagination? I can’t wait to hear!

Mystery Novels Set in New York City

2010-12-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

Mystery writers all have their favorite settings and today I’d like to kick-start a discussion about writers who set their mysteries in New York City and how they create characters who embody that upscale yet gritty setting—from Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy, an early 20th-century immigrant who wants to be a private investigator to Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr, a burglar and bookseller, in New York City.

In the late 1980’s, when I first read Greenwich Killing Time and When the Cat’s Away, I had no idea that someday, like Kinky Freeman, I would have a hyphenated identity as a singer/author. Friedman’s books delighted me with their quintessential New York flavor, irreverent humor, and day-glo colorful characters.

Walter Mosely’s Leonid McGill, a black ex-boxer and old-school private investigator, is an outsider in today’s glitzy New York. In these books, Mosely uses the city as a foil for his struggling hero. Here, McGill describes himself at the beginning of The Long Fall:

I was wearing a suit and tie. Maybe my shoe leather was dull, but there weren’t any scuffs. There were no spots on my navy lapels, but, like that woman in the corner, I was obviously out of my depth: a vacuum-cleaner salesman among high-paid lawyers, a hausfrau thrown in with a bevy of Playboy bunnies.

I no longer live in New York City, but I visit as frequently as I can, especially when working on a new book.. I thought I knew the city until I began to write about it (both Ask the Dead and The Last Matryoshka are set at least partially in New York) but it would take more than one lifetime to plumb these depths. Still, I try not to be intimidated by what Agatha Christie had to say on this topic: It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

Visitors – please share your own experiences writing or reading mysteries set in New York!

Thanks!

Joyce

Driving a Story with Political and Social Issues

2010-11-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

With our country so dramatically divided along political lines, I’m wondering how many of us are exploiting this rich source of conflict in our storytelling. Of course, there are many reasons not to do so, among them the danger of including time-stamped references that annoy our readers and the trap of using today’s headlines to drive a story that may not be published for years to come. So are there perennial political and social issues that can drive a story without running the danger that a book will become obsolete?

I would say ‘yes,’ based on how Raymond Chandler wrote about corruption and racketeering in southern California in the 1930s and '40 in The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely--books that became classics that are avidly read today. Another example of using current events to write a timeless story is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, which he calls a ‘non-fiction novel’. In this case I think the timelessness of the book comes from Capote’s masterful portrayal of the psychological relationship between two murderers who commit a horrendous crime that they might not have been capable of as individuals.

In my own work, I strive for a balance – for example, there are some current events, such as Russia’s interference in the government of Chechnya, that I used to drive elements in the plot of The Last Matryoshka. My reasoning was that this was a persistent conflict that might change but unfortunately will not disappear overnight. In Ask the Dead, one of the antagonists is an anarchist, whose misguided idealism and thoughtless actions have a domino effect that harms several innocent characters in the book. In this case, the material was not time-sensitive and will hopefully pass the test of time.

Using political and social issues to drive a story is a big topic! So please - fellow readers and writers – join this discussion and share your own favorite “political” mysteries or examples from your own writing if you would like to do so.

Thanks!

Joyce

Writing and Reading International Mysteries

2010-11-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

In both Jo Epstein mysteries, Jo travels outside the US to work a case. In ASK THE DEAD, she tracks a suspect to a fictitious Caribbean Island—St. Dominic—and in THE LAST MATRYOSHKA Jo tangles with the Russian vory in Russia.

So what is the best way to introduce a foreign setting that our protagonist is visiting for the first time? How can we best take advantage of a new and strange environment for our story in order to foreshadow dramatic events and set the scene for conflict?

For the sake of discussion, here are two short excerpts in illustration of this:

from ASK THE DEAD

The yellow rental jeep, with its light metal frame and canvas top, seems more appropriate for Disneyland than this rugged countryside. Heading south from the airport on the coastal road, the cliffs are on my left – the same side I'd better not forget to drive on – and the proximity of empty space is both terrifying and exhilarating. When the road curves, I'm so close to the edge that I can see the roots of the palm trees growing out of the rocky cliffs. Down below, the waves of the Atlantic crash onto black sand beaches, while up here the salt spray gently stings my face. I'm entranced by the sounds of cadence-lypso on the jeep's radio, a heady mixture of calypso, rhythms from Haiti and down home funk from the U.S. If only this were a vacation.

from THE LAST MATRYOSHKA

Maybe it was the grime on the cab window, but the outskirts of Moscow seemed to project the persona of a crumbled empire, tired of keeping up appearances, with only the occasional Georgian mansion or gilded church dome breaking the monotony of socialist cement. Then, as we crossed the river and drove down Tverskaya Ulitsa into the city center, the wide sidewalks began to fill with people. Even at a distance I could see that many in the crowd out-dressed the most elegant Fifth Avenue shopper. As if on cue, the haze lifted, and I found myself in a sunlit, prosperous European-style city, bustling with energy.

Our creep slowed down to a crawl, and although the streets were so wide they made the Avenue of the Americas look like a hiking trail, I felt we were in danger of being spotted by the occupants of the BMW.

If you are a reader or writer of international suspense, please share your thoughts here!

From Torture to Art Appreciation – Vladimir Central Prison

2010-11-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

On my tour of Vladimir Central Prison, to research material for THE LAST MATRYOSHKA (the follow up to ASK THE DEAD), I saw many things on exhibit in the prison museum that I expected: weapons confiscated from prisoners, books written by writers who served time at Vladimir, medieval instruments of torture, photographs of Japanese visitors whose POW ancestors were buried near the prison. But the paintings lining the hallway were the big surprise! I knew that Russians were generally well-educated in the arts, but it had never occurred to me that this would extend to their prison population.

Mounted in the hallway leading to the prison museum, the prisoners’ paintings were beautifully rendered and told powerful stories, such as the one shown below – a prisoner shot during an escape attempt.

Vladimir Central is a working prison, located only 45 miles from Moscow. After a visit to the prison museum, I was taken to an “art therapy” room where both guards and prisoners come to “express themselves.” My guide said this was one of the many reforms that have taken place at Vladimir Prison in post-Soviet times. In stark contrast to this are the allegations of torture at Vladimir made by prisoners as recently as 2008. Once again, Russia proves to be the center of the ironic universe where contradiction seems to be a way of life.

Please share your own most intense travel experiences – either as writers or avid travelers – in your comments.

Thanks!

Joyce

Phillip Marlowe vs. Super Hero

2010-11-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

FC Etier, talking about Jo Epstein - the protagonist of my mystery series - on Blogcritics said:

"Can she kick your teeth in? You bet! And as she walks away, leaves an impromptu haiku to savor while you lick your wounds."

I was gratified to hear that Jo's combined literary and crime-fighting skills appeal to my readers but I'm wondering - why are so many writers creating protagonists with super powers and the gift of invincibility? Is it the challenging times we live in that make these mega-heroes appealing?

In his essay, The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler describes the ideal gumshoe as follows:

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it."

I love that last phrase - "without saying it." My vote is that we continue to create characters who embody the best qualities in all of us without bragging about it - whose "super-powers" are subtle and admirable.

What do YOU think?

Writing "to picture"

2010-11-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about taking pictures while traveling to research settings for your books, is that you can bring these photos home and paste them on the wall in front of your writing space. I've found that frequently a picture will connect with a story I'm working on weeks, months, even years after it is taken and that's the point where the setting then finds its way into the book.

Pictures can also help a writer keep track of themes or intentions within a book. For example, this photo - taken in the NY subway, constantly reminded me that the goal of the protagonist in The Last Matyroshka was to exonerate her Russian emigra step-father, in spite of her negative feelings towards him.

What photos do you keep in your writing space and why?

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Suspenseful Places

2010-10-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

A little announcement before I get started. The first book in my Jo Epstein series, ASK THE DEAD has been published by Ampichellis Ebooks for both the Kindle and the Nook. If you have a reader, you may want to check out these links:

OK - enough promotion!

Today I'm writing about how choosing a particular setting for your story can create a suspenseful atmosphere from the "get go."

Alan Furst is a master at evoking the dark atmosphere of Europe during World War II - a place and time so fraught with tension and danger that the reader is immediately drawn in, even before the action starts. For example, "The Foreign Correspondent" opens on a rainy street in Paris in 1938. A Lancia rolls to a stop and then the chauffeur drives a few feet further and stops in the shadows between two streetlamps. Who could possibly stop reading at this point?

But what if you’re writing a story that is set in a more commonplace, less resonant setting than WWII—how can you make the setting work for you from the start? My own way of dealing with this dilemma is to ask myself, “What does my protagonist care about? Fear? And what setting is most likely to threaten or arouse a feeling of dread within her?”

It can be subtle—for example, a scene set in an apartment building in New York might include a burnt-out light bulb in the hallway or a window off an airshaft through which we can hear the sound of neighbors quarreling. Or it can be blatant—for example, your protagonist is on the run and is forced to sleep in a car under a viaduct in a strange city, waking up every few minutes to check her surroundings, clutching a can of pepper spray in her hand. In either case I think you’ve done your job is the reader feels apprehension and if the story is propelled forward both emotionally and physically.

I’d love to hear from my readers about their favorite openings—whether written by their favorite author or themselves. So please comment away!

What I Learned from The Novel: Live

2010-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

This past week I participated as a managing editor at a remarkable event - The Novel: Live. Thirty-six prolific Northwest authors took turns on-camera at Hugo House, in two-hour writing stints, to contribute chapters to what is now a completed (but not yet edited) book that exceeds 70,000 words!

The writers worked from a bare-bones, but extremely well-structured outline that contained information on the protagonist and some of the main characters (whose names were sold at a fun, pre-event auction).

It was fascinating to see each author at work - bonding with a particular character, writing in a new voice, moving the plot forward in unexpected ways, while doing their best to maintain story continuity. Some writers focussed on moving the storyline forward, others dug deep into a particular character's history and motivations. They took occasional suggestions from the audience in the Hugo House Cafe or from the online chat that went on for six days. I found the whole experience to be inspiring and would love to see it happen again next year.

As a writer, participating in this event reinforced my belief that a strong story structure gives us the freedom we have to stretch its boundaries and take the reader into new territory. I also learned that many writers love to "perform" their writing - that writing in public seems to heighten creativity (the pressure of writing a chapter in two hours definitely contributed some adrenalin too).

This event benefited the Writers in the Schools program and was organized by Seattle7Writers who did a great job recuriting volunteers and involving the Seattle writing community. You can go to the Novel Live web site to learn more (and even make a donation!) - at http://www.thenovellive.org/

Day 4 of The Novel: Live

2010-10-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Deb Coletti is writing away. The novel is really coming together here at Hugo House - lots of great characters, conflict and action.

You can read individual chapters by these amazing authors at http://www.thenovellive.org/novel/

As a managing editor, I've had lots of fun passing suggestions to writers from the audience and occasionally researching on the web at an author's request as they write "under the gun" for a steady two hours each.

I'll add some pix later. Tune in and enjoy.

The Novel:Live - Day one

2010-10-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm here live, at The Novel:Live event and Jennie Shortridge, the first "writer up" is making great headway on the first chapter of the book! She is writing from an outline, but suggestions are also funneled through the managing editor (in this case, me) and are posted on butcher-block paper in the Green Room here at Hugo House.

The event is streaming live from http://www.thenovellive.org/novel/live/

When Jennie has put in her two hours, the next "author up" is Teri Hein and then comes William Dietrich. For a full schedule see: http://www.thenovellive.org/schedule.php

As a mystery writer, I'm especially excited to see that Elizabeth George is writing on Saturday!

The Novel:Live

2010-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

I've signed up to volunteer as a managing editor for The Novel:Live, a wildly creative event here in Seattle. 36 writers will collaborate on writing a book on one week's time - each contributing 2 hours of writing time starting tomorrow - Monday, Oct. 11th. I plan to share my experiences here - will take some photos and post them.

The event wil be streamed live and you can follow it from http://www.thenovellive.org/

More as it happend!!

Characters Who Reflect Their Settings

2010-10-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a writer has a chance to draw a direct parallel between a character and his or her environment – Kate Atkinson does this brilliantly in One Good Turn, clueing us in to Louise’s character and the nature of the city of Edinburgh simultaneously:

Louise was running. Louise hated running but it was marginally preferable to going to the gym. The gym involved regular commitment, and outwith her job, she as crap at regular commitments. Go ask Archie. So, all in all, it was easier to grit her teeth and throw on her sweats, than jog sedately around the estate to warm up before heading off over the fields and, if she was feeling virtuous, or guilty (the other side of the coin), then up the hill and back again. The one good thing about running was that it gave you the space to think. That was the downside as well, of course. Dualism, the Edinburgh disease, Jekyll and Hyde, dark and light, hill and valley, New Town, Old Town. Catholics and Protestants. A game of two halves.

Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn

Can you think of some settings you have used in a similar way? Please share!

Writers Framed by Place and Places Framed by Writers

2010-09-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve been asked to present a workshop on The Place of Place in Mystery Writing at the Write on the Sound Conference ( October 2nd and 3rd – Edmonds, WA). Since I’m in the midst of researching material and creating writing exercises to expand the workshop into a series of classes, this seems like a good opportunity to share ideas and invite feedback – so here goes!

Raymond Chandler is so strongly identified with the settings he choose for his stories that these places are now defined by him. Chandler’s books are synonymous with Los Angles and a mini-industry has sprung up in L.A., taking mystery fans tours of places that he used as settings or as haunting images to plant in the reader’s mind:

Mars flicked the Luger out again and pointed it at my chest. "Open the door."

The knob rattled and a voice called out. I didn't move. The muzzle of the Luger looked like the mouth of the Second Street tunnel, but I didn't move. Not being bullet proof is an idea I had had to get used to.

From The Big Sleep

Chandler made the Bryson Tower Apartments famous too:

He drove down to Wilshire and we turned east again.

Twenty-five minutes brought us to the Bryson Tower, a white stucco palace with fretted lanterns in the forecourt and tall date palms. The entrance was in an L, up marble steps, through a Moorish archway, and over a lobby that was too big and a carpet that was too blue. Blue Ali Baba oil jars were dotted around, big enough to keep tigers in. There was a desk and a night clerk with one of those mustaches that get stuck under your fingernail.

From Trouble is My Business

Try it!

Describe the setting of your short story or book as if it were a person. Describe her…How does she walk and talk? Dress? Interact with people? Is she transparent or does she hold secrets? You get the idea…

Eye on the Starting Gate

2010-08-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

A month ago you started browsing several branches of the local library by day and exploring the recesses of your fevered brain by night, in search of a seminal idea for your new book or short story. You find it’s impossible to guess, let alone decide, what to write about, although you do have ideas about what you should do—that high concept thriller that might bring in some cash, that paranormal high school tennis club that could make you a fortune. Still, something is holding you back.

You find yourself discarding each logical choice in turn and then, if you’re lucky, something unexpected happens. A seemingly random connection—let’s say between a salsa dancer and an Eskimo—scores a direct hit, demolishing the competition and leaving no choice but to tell this particular story, set in that particular place.

Has this happened to you?

If so, please share. If not, please share your own “starting gate” process.

Flash Forward

2010-07-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that 4 years have passed since my son Ian and I traveled to Moscow and stayed with Lena in her 3 bedroom apartment that was once occupied by three families!

In November, the book I hoped to write after my research trip to Russia will actually be published - title: "The Last Matryoshka" / Publisher: Five Star/Cengage.

In the coming weeks I will continue this blog by discussing how many of the places we visited in Russia worked their way into The Last Matryoshka. I'll also be exploring how writers I admire, such as Walter Moseley and Michael Chabon, use telling geographical and cultural details to reveal personality traits and create atmosphere.

Touring Vladimir Central Prison

2006-07-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

We were the first Americans to tour Vladimir Central, a prison located about 2 hours by train from Moscow. My son Ian and I were welcomed warmly, if quizzically. I explained to the staff of the museum located inside the prison, that the purpose of my visit was to conduct research for a book. We were shown many exhibits - including this one featuring Francis Gary Powers - the U2 pilot shot down and then exchanged for a Soviet spy during the cold war.

Researching our trip to Russia

2006-05-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of my new blog - "Traveling with the Muse." I'm going to get started by posting some of the wonderful material about Russia I have found on the web while preparing for the upcoming trip.

My son, Ian, and I will be traveling to Moscow, St. Petersburg and several other locations in Russia, as I look for settings for my second mystery novel, working title: "The Last Matryoshka." Here's a link to my first book, Ask the Dead, if you're curious.

We'll also be interviewing writers and artists about what their lives are like now in Russia and how they feel about the past.