But... will you still like me?

My fourth Peri book, A MORE DEADLY UNION, has a cover, jacket copy, has been edited and formatted. It is *thisclose* to being ready to release, apart from all the hoopla that surrounds a book before it's unleashed upon the world.

My editor, Jennifer Silva Redmond says, "A book is released too late for the author and too soon for the publisher." She is correct. My author's heart is telling me to hurry up and hit the bright red Publish button, while my publisher's head is saying, "Whoa, there, Flicka."

I need to make people want it first. It's the tension before the kiss, the suspense before the fright, the build-up that makes you run screaming for the Buy-Me option on Amazon. So here's your first tease:

"How far would you go for someone you love?

Someone is threatening Peri Minneopa’s client. The most likely suspect is a man whose past relationship with her client could ruin his chances at being elected mayor.

This would be easier if her boyfriend, Detective Skip Carlton, wasn’t in a coma after being shot. Peri’s been dating him for 10 years, but without a marriage license, she can’t even visit him in the hospital.

She knows better than to interfere with the police’s efforts to find Skip’s shooter, but her case keeps showing up in the middle of their investigation.

Now she’s questioning her skill and her need for independence. What is she willing to do to solve her case and see Skip wake up?"

I worked and slaved over this story. It was important for me to tell it well and get it right. Granted, my goal is to make each book a well-told, wonderful story, but this one cuts close to my bones. For this one, I aimed for excellence, not knowing if I could settle for exceptional.

Before I release this story to the world, we need to talk.

One thing I've learned in three Peri mysteries is who my readers are. Most of you are women, and of those women, many of you are of a certain age. With Peri being in her 50s, she is a gal you can relate to. There are women (and men) within my age group that hold attitudes about people, attitudes that I will not judge, but that I may not agree with. It's all okay. We can still be friends, I hope.

My original idea for A MORE DEADLY UNION came from the repeal of Proposition 8 (this made gay marriage illegal) in California. Not being gay, Prop 8 didn't affect me personally, except that it did. Being married to a black man, I'm aware that interracial marriage was not approved in the US until 1967, that it wasn't approved by over 50% of public opinion until 1994, and that Biblical verses were cited as being the reason many people disapprove.

A MORE DEADLY UNION is a mystery, of course, but it's also about Peri's fight to be with Skip as he lies in the hospital, in a coma. To underscore her predicament, she is working with a gay couple, who help her understand the importance of marriage from their own experience.

I'm not certain if some of you will be turned off by a gay couple, but I'm hoping for one thing: that you trust me. You know that my mysteries do not feature graphic violence or sex. And my discussion here about the book should let you know that I'm sensitive to your opinion, I'm aware of potential backlash, and I'm not going to blindside you. 

Well, almost... I admit, the ending of this book surprised me. Sometimes characters do that.

If you're still (or even more) interested in the book, you can pre-order the ebook on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D3MMZ9K. Don't worry, there'll be a paperback version, too. 

And stick around for any contests, launch party swag, etc! 

Conferences and Conventions - what's a writer to do?

I'm going to Left Coast Crime next week. Their website defines it as "an annual mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans for mystery fans. It is held during the first quarter of the calendar year in Western North America, as defined by the Mountain Time Zone and all time zones westward to Hawaii."

Notice anything missing in the title or definition? Writers. Authors. This is not a convention for writers. And yet, it is. It is a place for authors and their readers to meet and mingle.

Writers conferences are for writers, period. They are for anyone who is even thinking they might want to write. You-The-Writer are there to learn something about writing, selling your writing, or marketing your writing. You will most likely meet people who talk and think a lot like you. They will be your tribe members and you will be able to discuss your writing with them because they get it. They get you.

At a convention, You-The-Writer are there to meet readers. There aren't a lot of writing workshops. There are few, if any, panels discussing the business aspects of being an author. It's all geared toward giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at your novels. You will meet mystery lovers who want to read more mysteries, like yours. With any luck, they will become your fans and you will be able to share your stories with them because they enjoy mysteries.

When I went to my first mystery convention (Bouchercon, Indianapolis, 2009), FREEZER BURN had just been released. As far as I knew, I had no fans, except my publisher who was hoping to turn me loose in Indianapolis and watch me reel them in. I didn't know a thing about conventions, didn't know they differed from conferences, and probably missed tons of opportunities due to my cluelessness. The best thing that happened to me was meeting LJ Sellers. She has become a great friend.

For a few years after, I didn't go to conventions. I had no minions, no large flock of adoring fans. What was the point?

In 2012, I was convinced to go to Sacramento for Left Coast Crime. Somehow, I got put on a panel to talk about private investigators. This frightened the crap out of me, because I thought everyone on the panel would have actual P.I. experience and all my answers would be, "I don't know, I make it all up." Turns out, no one had experience, the moderator had read all our books and asked great questions, and it was lots of fun. I hung out with LJ again, met Maggie Sefton, and had a running joke with Elle Lothlorien because every time she and I were in a room with Alex Sokoloff, Alex kept saying, "Gayle, have you met my friend, Elle?"

I brought paperbacks to sell, but nothing sold so I had to schlep them back to my car. Here's the thing: I sold a bunch of ebooks that weekend. While I never met anyone who clambored up to me to tell me how much they love my ebooks, I still apparently met people who wanted to buy my ebooks.

LCC was in Colorado Springs in 2013. That's a long way from California, involving plane travel, which I hate. Still, THE HOT MESS had just been released. I needed to meet readers. So I got on the plane. This time, I got to hang with a lot more authors, although not a lot more readers. I'm going to blame this on the way the hotel was laid out and how difficult it was to meet up with anyone. I did get to brainstorm with people I don't see often. I didn't bring tree-books this time. I saw a spike in my ebooks, not as much as Sacramento, but more than usual and I'll take what I can get.

The point I'm trying to make here is that, with each attendance at each convention, I am gathering more readers and becoming more of a fixture in the mystery community. This year, in Monterey, I'm on two panels, and I'm volunteering to help on a couple more. I am bringing books this year, plenty of bookmarks/business cards, and I'll probably offer a special on one of my ebooks. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

If you are a writer, trying to find your tribe, I recommend writers conferences.

If you are an author, trying to find your readers, I recommend conventions.

And yes, I plan to attend Bouchercon this year. It's in Long Beach!

What I do know.

Before I begin, I need to give you my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa gift spiel:

Visit my Amazon page to get the right book in the perfect format for you!

Back to business: this post is a companion piece to something I wrote for my alternate universe, Crime Fiction Collective, about writing what you know. Go read that first. Here's the link. Go on. I'll wait here.

Now that I've told you all about how I write about what I don't know, I'm going to talk about the perils of writing about what I do know.

I'm putting Peri on the shelf briefly, and writing a new mystery with new characters. No, I don't know if it will become a series. Yes, Peri will be coming back.

Have I answered all your questions?

The thing is, this mystery will include one of my great loves - horses. While at a horse show in Burbank, I was walking up to the barn one morning when I saw the pile of used shavings at the end of the aisle and thought, what if there was a body under there?

And that's the way most mysteries are born. I decided that this would be easy. I know a lot about horses and horse shows and I have more than a couple of experts to answer any questions.

Now that I've started plotting and developing characters, I've discovered this will not be as easy as I believed. Knowing too much about a world might be more challenging than knowing too little. I need to write about the world so that horse lovers get enough horse stuff, but mystery lovers are not bogged down in too much horsefeathers.

Not only that, but as big as the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) is, it's a small community. Everyone seems to know everyone. I can't make any of my fictional characters resemble anyone real. Harder than it sounds, people.

Even the crime and its motivation must be handled with a special touch, since I'd hate for the AQHA to think that I think there are crooks and murderers around every corner.

I am nothing if not stubborn, so this book will get written. It will just have a HUGE disclaimer.

Me and Snoopy at the Del Mar National Horse Show

What about it, writers? Is it easier to write what you know or what you don't?

Nineteen days and two hurdles to jump

The third mystery is done.

In some respects, it was hard to write, and in others, it was easy. I had made Hit or Missus such a tangled web, I wanted this book to be more straightforward. Crime, clues, criminal, caught.

Yeah, nice dream.

What I ended up with was simpler than Hit or Missus but still not a straight line from A to B. I was able to outline the plot and stay within the boundaries of the story I wanted to tell.

The hard part was staying focused on this book while my mind leapt ahead to two other books I wanted to write. One of them is a brand-new mystery, perhaps a series, set in the world of AQHA horse shows. Ah, the bodies that could pile up. The other book is my horse's memoir, a book so unlike anything I've ever written that I barely knew where to start, yet couldn't wait to get going.

But I finally pushed and shoved and got this third Peri mystery written. And you know what? I like it. I really like it a lot.

It will be released in ebook form on November 26, and in paperback on December 10. All I have to do is the advanced publicity, which is a lot of blogging and guest blogging and Facebooking and Twitter and setting up of a launch party or two.

But I have a couple of hurdles. First, there's my surgery to consider. Next Wednesday, I'm having a cataract removed and a fancy-schmancy lens put in so I can see. On the one hand, it's considered very low-risk, simple surgery with a very small recovery time. On the other hand, I can't lift anything or bend over or rub my eye or get dust in it or wear makeup for at least a week. No horseback riding for at least two.

Most of this is okay, except for hurdle two - the part where I can't bend over or lift anything or get dust in my eye and we are supposed to be hosting Thanksgiving this year. So... how do I clean the house or cook the meal? Dale offered to help, darling generous man that he is. I think, however, I am going to throw myself on the mercy of our guests (it's just one other family) and ask them to host this year and promise to give them a huge shindig in 2013.

If I keep my eyes on the release date, I'm hoping these two hurdles, of surgery and Thanksgiving, seem more like anthills than moguls, and The Hot Mess gets the fanfare it deserves.

Give it a chance. If you like mysteries, you'll enjoy this one.

 

"It’s a hot time in P-Town.

No one in the small town of Placentia, California is surprised when Benny Needles’s house catches fire. The outside hasn’t seen a paint brush in years. The inside is stuffed with Dean Martin memorabilia. It would be a simple case of homeowner negligence, except for the body found inside.

Under suspicion of both murder and arson, Benny turns to the one person who has always helped him, private investigator Peri Minneopa. Fire investigation isn’t on her menu of services, but Peri’s weak spot for Benny overrules her reluctance, and she agrees to look into things. Her investigation takes a dangerous turn as she uncovers family secrets, going back several decades.

There are skeletons in everyone’s closet, and even Benny’s bones are rattling."

A stranger in a strange land

I'm not here today. I'm over at a new blog I discovered, called Writers Who Kill. They contacted me, after reading my posts at Crime Fiction Collective, and asked me to be their guest. I was, of course, happy to oblige.

They sent me a list of questions, which were interesting and fun. They also made certain my guest post was on a day I'd be available for interacting with readers who left comments. Good idea. If you visit their blogsite, you'll see they're an uber-organized group.

A delightful time was had by all. Come see for yourself.

http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2012/09/an-interview-with-gayle-carline.html