Hello Reader!
Happy November! For someone who didn't grow up in a place with fall (the seasons in New Orleans are 'Hurricane', 'Mardi Gras', 'Football', & 'Crawfish') I've come to really enjoy it. Leaves change color; apple and pumpkin everything that can be flavored. I'm still not a fan of the cold weather but I guess it has to get below 60 at some point. I feel like baking more this time of year, and Dove is enjoying playing in the leaves and losing her squeaky ball (you wouldn't think it possible to lose a bright orange ball, but it is). What's your favorite thing about fall?
I did a fun interview for a newsletter that comes out soon! Check out "Etiquette Can Be Murder" by mystery writer Lucinda Gerlitz on Substack. We talk about the etiquette authors should know when working with editors, what they don't need to worry about, and more!
How is your writing looking right now?
Thanks for inviting me into your inbox this month.
Happy writing!
Anne
MEET THE AUTHOR
I want to help authors celebrate their accomplishments! Do you have a book getting published soon? Email me: I'd love to interview you about your experiences to share with fellow writers!
Victoria Zackheim & Murder at Hotel Gloriosa
Q: What made you decide to write this book? What is its backstory?
A: Murder at Hotel Gloriosa is the second in a 3-part series. The first, The Curtain Falls in Paris, introduces Aria Nevins, a disgraced San Francisco journalist, and Noah Roche, a senior homicide detective in Paris. Together, and despite an early and palpable animosity between them, they work together to solve the murder of an actor. It takes place during a widely publicized performance in a Paris theater and every member of the cast has a motive.
Q: How long did it take you to write this book and get it published?
A: Unlike the first in the series, which took me (are you sitting down?) twenty-nine years from first draft to publication, Murder at Hotel Gloriosa was written in perhaps six months and was published in June.
Q: What particular challenges do you face in your writing? What is difficult for you?
A: I tend to create far too many characters. In Aria/Noah #3, that I’m outlining now, I’ve already deleted four characters. I loved them all, but I realized that I was working too hard to make them germane to the story. While I was writing Murder at Hotel Gloriosa, I was challenged by the setting. The first in this series was in Paris, so descriptions, locations, etc. were easy to describe. In Gloriosa, it takes place in the high desert above Santa Fe, N.M., so I had to do quite a bit of research to get terrain and flora descriptions accurate.
I know that a comprehensive outline is vital, and without one my stories would be disjointed and jumbled, but I find the process of creating the outline very challenging.
Q: Do you have any tips for other writers who face similar challenges?
A: Yes! If you’re a writer who follows the “Oh, I’ll just write whatever comes into my head and then sort it out later” process, you’re heading into a world of frustration. With a comprehensive outline—mine usually run over twenty pages—I can reorganize scenes, redefine characters, come up with more interesting and exciting plot lines, and do this before I’ve written one word of the novel. It saves me literally weeks, even months, of having to rewrite an entire novel that was haphazardly written.
Q: Can you talk a little about your editing experience for new writers? What made you choose your editors?
A: I have the great fortune of working with exceptional editors. When I completed Death Times Seven, the seventh in the late Anne Perry’s Daniel Pitt series, I worked with two extraordinary editors at Random House/Ballantine, Susanna Porter and Anusha Khan. If I had a question, I’d email one of them and hear back quickly, often within an hour. With my Aria Nevins/Noah Roche novels, published by Level Best Books, I quickly discovered that Shawn Reilly Simmons was a gifted editor.
If writers entrust their work to an editor, and there’s a sense that this editor is not tuned into the novel, then a change might be required. However, we writers love our stories and cringe (or suffer) when an editor recommends a change in plot or character. If this happens, it’s important to put aside our pride (or love of what we’ve written) and seriously (open-mindedly) consider the editor’s suggestions. It’s never a matter of telling our story, but of telling our story in the most compelling way possible. Often, it takes an editor to show us the way.
Let me take that same question and respond another way. I didn’t choose my editors. In these four novels, I was given an editor. But… I’m a freelance editor, so I can answer that question from the editor’s side. Writers, if and when you decide to hire an editor, be sure it’s someone who resonates with your story, your plots and characters. Ask them to give you a one-page edit, no fee, so you can see their process. If it doesn’t feel right, thank them and look for another editor. Most of my freelance work comes through www.Reedsy.com, a UK-based company with nearly 1,800 editors with an expertise in fiction, memoir, sci-fi, biography, memoir…and more!
Q: Are you a traditional or self-published author? Why did you decide this was the path for you?
A: My first novel, The Bone Weaver (2001) was a hybrid. That is, it was published by a traditional publisher that also offered a semi-self-publish program. Everything after that, including my seven anthologies and four novels, are with traditional publishers.
Q: Can you describe your publishing experience for writers who hope to publish one day?
A: For all of my anthologies and novels, I’ve been very fortunate. I enter into each relationship with my publisher with respect and gratitude, which tells the editor that I won’t be difficult or unreasonable. Too many writers treat editors like private secretaries, with the expectation that they get special treatment. But some editors are working on many books at the same time. Who will they be more receptive to…the patient and respectful author, or the prima donna demanding immediate attention? Patient and respectful keeps the project moving forward. Don’t get me wrong…as writers, we’re not genuflecting in gratitude to editors. Instead, we’re establishing a relationship where we can work as a team… with the same goal of producing the best manuscript possible.
Q: What is one piece of advice that someone gave you that you'd like to pass on to other authors?
A: Ah, now I’m channeling my dear friend, mystery writer Anne Perry. As much as she resisted that pesky outline, she finally acknowledged that it was the backbone for her last fifteen novels and novellas. The outline for the sixth Daniel Pitt novel ran around twenty-four pages, single-space. When the outline was finalized and she was certain that little needed to be added/deleted, she began to write. The outline was clipped to her writing pad (yes, longhand!) and she checked off each scene after it was written. I learned a lot from that. And to emphasize this: I just completed the lengthy outline for Aria/Noah #3, showed it to my agent and my sister (who’s a much-published author), and deleted it. Yes, it was that bad. But the new outline, the new ideas and characters, are now organized and I’ll start writing this novel next week.
You can find out more about Victoria and her books on her website
Australia May Legalize AI Training On Your Books
I don't publish too much industry news, but here's something you should know about. The Australian government is planning to introduce legislation to change copyright laws, which would allow AI companies to use author's works to train their models. We can only assume other countries will be watching.
Even if you haven't published your book yet, you can sign a statement opposing this. The Authors Guild and other creative industries are working to fight to make sure copyright still means something. Go here to find out more and sign the petition if you support it.
🎉New Services🎉
I've added new services to my editing & coaching portfolio!
Discovery Draft Editing: Did you know you can get feed back on an unfinished draft? A "discovery draft" is an early, incomplete manuscript where the author is still exploring the path their book is taking: what plot threads lead to the heart of the story and which don't fit? Do the characters resonate with the reader? This service focuses on helping you find the most promising possibilities in your story when you aren't sure what direction your writing should go.
Brainstorming Sessions: Single coaching sessions that can run from 30-60 minutes. Need to brainstorming ideas and get some feedback? It could be anything from character names to how to solve that tricky locked room crime. This is your time.
Accountability Coaching: Sticking to the timeline you've set yourself can be tough. Accountability coaching helps you create a writing plan you can follow and stick to that timeline by not going it alone. Because sometimes you need deadlines.
Now We're Talking: What Dialogue Helps Your Book Say
Why is dialogue so important? For the same reason so many of us find it difficult to write: dialouge has a lot of work to do in any given scene. It isn't only about what dialogue does, but what it shouldn't do.
What Dialogue Tells Us: Characters
It's all about your characters. What is their voice? That might sound obvious, but I don't just mean if they have an accent or always say "okay" when they talk. How someone talks can tell us a lot about them, which is especially helpful if they aren't our viewpoint character.
Is someone's normal tone abrupt? Aggressive? Quiet? Polite? Apologetic? Are they so calm you think they must be on something or talking so fast you want them to switch to decaf? When you hear these tones, especially as the person's normal speaking voice, what kind of character are you envisioning? If your character has one, very characteristic way of speaking, ask yourself: what would get them to change that pattern? Or who?
What Dialogue Doesn't Do: Conversation
As people who (probably) aren't in a book, we may have empty conversations just to pass the time. But in a novel, conversations have work to do. Your MCs are never just chatting about the weather. They should always tell the reader something about the character: their goals, their motivations. What is moving your story forward? Dialogue is another form of action, moving your characters from Point A to Point B.
Look at your outline or chapters and ask yourself if any of your descriptive scenes could be replaced with dialogue. Does that speed up the pacing? Does using dialogue to increase tension, insert humor or flirtation, or any other emmotional interaction make the scene more interesting? Remember: if you're having fun writing it, chances are your readers will have fun reading it!
As You Know . . .
Have you ever read something and found yourself saying "But we all know that?" Sometimes dialogue gets used as a way to drop information on the reader by telling a new character. It can work—or it can't. Don't let your characters fall into the trap of talking for pages to catch the newbie up on something. Let them (and your reader) get the basics and then find out the rest as you move forward. Any time you find yourself writing "As you know Bob . . . " (yes, that's actually what this phenomenon is called in the craft) to summarize information that the characters all know: cut it and find another way to get the information to your reader. Because if Bob knows, he doesn't want to hear the recap just so you can get the reader up to date. Does Bob have one sister? Then don't have someone say "Your sister, Vanessa." Pick one or the other. "Your sister" or "Vanessa". Bob knows who his sister is. Using both only works if he has multiple sisters. Some of these things sound minor, but read a few books or watch some TV where it happens a lot and you'll see how much you can improve your written dialogue by cutting it out.
Think of dialogue as a tool in your writer's toolbox. It's another way of sharing the goals, motivations, desires, fears and conflicts of our characters. From fights to seduction and everything in between, conversations are an active and interesting way of exploring characters, revealing them to our readers, and moving the plot forward.
My Reading Shelf
Elizabeth Kostova's Mystery Play takes readers down theater's dark past in search of answers to family sercrets. Between American castles, archives, and libraries must lie the answers to Gilded Age theater questions suddenly, murderously, relevant. Fans of Kostova's The Historian will recognize the gothic atmosphere and vampiric clues along the way in this sequel, those who haven't read the first will still find this an atmospheric read. Best not read alone at night.
Nathaniel Philbrick's The Rush is a fascinating new book on California's Gold Rush & how it changed America. From the lawless approach to staking a claim to California's impact on the Civil War—and how in very nearly supported the South during the war! I was shocked at the underhanded politics and near-feral mob rule long after California became a state. I thought I knew this time in CA's history, but I learned so much in this fascinating book!
