New Writing Initiative

As I sit here writing this blog, I am breaking my new writing initiative so not off to a great start!

"False Details" the novel that I have been working on recently has been finished to the first draft stage, it was a long process (6 years!) but it was fully worth it as I feel a massive sense of achievement and have accomplished something I had been dreaming about for a long time.

I know that "False Details" is only at stage 1 of the process, I have some people looking at it and editing it! I tried to edit it myself but I was not finding the mistakes as easy as someone else, the sentences made sense to me but to someone else a reader would not understand it!! 2nd Draft will obvious be an improvement due to these people so THANK YOU...

 

After a little rest period, I needed this so that I could clear my head more than anything else...I am eady to start writing again! I want to start writing again as my ideas are flowing out of my ears at the moment and if i don't do something about i will go insane or more tragically lose all the things I am thinking of! A notebook helps to the point of recording small ideas but when I go into free flow and can not control all the words as they ooze out of my brain so I came up with a little idea to capture some of them.

I will write every day for as long as feel is possible but the minimum aim EVERY day is 1000 words. 1000 words a day is nothing, I hear some of the writers say...I agree but I want this to be my minimum and to show this on Tuesday I wrote 5000 words all on one subject but on Monday I wrote 1200 on 3 totally unrelated things but I got my ideas down on paper and can come back to them and make them longer!!


Here is my inspiration at the moment for my short entries I am doing...I think of a word and then write the first things that my brain wants to that sounds like a good story...at the moment it is wonderful to write different genres, different settings, different peoples story. The only downfall is there are words everywhere and this is a massive problem as I want to write about a new word I think of so discipline is needed in abundance.

Here is a little something, I wrote so far this evening...minimal editing and it is an idea in working.

The sky darkened like the sight of the events that were about to unfold as layer by layer, the mystery is unearthed from its grave.

A small team standing around awaiting instruction and the signal to start their processes, the limited number of people from the university set in motion anticipation the find that others find insignificant.

As Stuart Bennett approaches his task for the next few hours, he took the time to look around the beautifully cared for allotments that had been produced. The years of hard work arranging and planting beds was evident throughout, the perfect resting place if there ever was one.

The recently painted wrought iron fencing blended perfectly with the runner beans and pea shoots that adorn the structure and have now reached their summit.

Beginning with the crude removal methods, Stuart can not watch this part and takes a walk. The hired digger crunches its way through the top layers ripping away the root system of the old oak tree that once stood not 50 years from the plot.

Once the top layers have been taken away the hardware shovels are grabbed and the human digging starts.

When the first evidence of the grave has been reached, the crude stops and the intricate methods starts until the prize has been found.

Stuart mans up the trowel with one hand carefully placing the other tools in their cloth carry case on the graves edge in close proximity. Starting from the centre of the gaping hole he carefully drags the soil to the edges indenting into the pile covering the bones.

All the precision is suddenly undone as the mound collapses leaving the soil to rush into a newly created hole, the grains form around the skeleton that lies beneath. Stuart glances down unable to stop the flow to see two dark eye sockets looking back at him. The clean white bones standing out against the heavy black dirt.

Stuart can now see that the burial has been planned with a casket encasing the skeleton. The excavation can now begin with the painful process of brushing away the detritus.

Marc's A-Z of Crime Fiction

BACKGROUND

As we read through our novels, engrossed in our TV shows or films.
The writers keep us gripped with not only the crimes as they unfold but also the love lifes, relationships, family problems that come with our beloved detectives.
We need to know what has happened to our characters in the past, this makes them seem more real to us, we can relate to them more if they have suffered heartaches, marriage break ups or even the occassional drink problem. Also the backgrounds of the characters make us understand more why they react the way they do.
In Crime Fiction, characters history may fuel the plotline, other characters, dialogue, location so this is critical to a crime writer to know their characters back to front, top to bottom. Whenever I start a new book I create a character profile.
Questions I ask myself about a character:
Basic Statistics
Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Hometown:
Current Residence:
Occupation:
Talents/Skills:
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse (describe relationship):
Children (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant Others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:
Physical Characteristics:
Height:
Weight:
Race:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Glasses or contact lenses?
Skin color:
Shape of Face:
Distinguishing features:
How does he/she dress?
Mannerisms:
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.)
Health:
Hobbies:
Favorite Sayings:
Speech patterns:
Disabilities:
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):
Greatest flaw:
Best quality:
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background:
Intelligence Level:
Any Mental Illnesses?
Learning Experiences:
Character's short-term goals in life:
Character's long-term goals in life:
How does Character see himself/herself?
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?
How self-confident is the character?
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
What would most embarass this character?


Emotional Characteristics
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?
How does the character deal with anger?
With sadness?
With conflict?
With change?
With loss?
What does the character want out of life?
What would the character like to change in his/her life?
What motivates this character?
What frightens this character?
What makes this character happy?
Is the character judgmental of others?
Is the character generous or stingy?
Is the character generally polite or rude?

BILLINGHAM, MARK - http://www.markbillingham.com/
Author from Birmingham so had to include him!! Mark Billingham is a genius of tension, suspense, crime thriller novels in my opinion. BEST THING ABOUT MARK BILLINGHAM IS: HE IS A COMIC ASWELL!

My first book from him was Sleepyhead, all those years ago...I brought this in a 3 for 2 deal, I needed another book for the deal and thought WHY NOT?? And what a fantastic choice it was!

Now Tom Thorne is coming to our TV screens, GET IN THERE.
I loved the Rebus series, Taggart and I think that DI Tom Thorne as a book character is right up the same street so if he portrayed as in the book and lives up the REBUS/TAGGART TV series, we will have a cracker on our hands.



BLOOD

When I think of blood in Crime Fiction, two ideas come to mind: 1st - Blood analysing (type, splatter etc) and 2nd- lots spilt at crime scenes. I am going to cover both!

1st - When a crime scene examiner goes to a scene in the present day, they collect a sample then off it goes to DNA. What a fantastic finding but in previous years to this, the blood evidence was from the Blood Type and this was used to trace victims or suspects. A/B/O/AB and +/-.



Blood pattern analysis:

This used for a number of things at a crime scene:

• Movement and direction of persons or objects while they were shedding blood.
• Position of persons or objects during bloodshed.
• Movement of persons or weapons after bloodshed.
• Weapon used to create a specific pattern.
• The direction a stain was traveling when it was deposited.
• The area of origin of an impact pattern.
• The minimum number of impacts during an incident.
• The sequence of events.

2nd -Crime writing and Horror novels were very closely linked at one point in the context of their narrative. When a crime writer thought about their ideas, the idea was to be better than the last one. In the case of crime, this meant how many people could be killed and how can you disguist the reader the most by having the most bloody scene possible.
Blood as in gore, no not really anymore. Crime Writing used to be all about how much blood, murderers evil tactics of death and good old gore.
Nowadays, crime writing has come to be more about suspense and being a page turner.

False Details: Update

I have now got to the point where all things are good, ticking along very nicely and a brickwall has now hit the free flowing narrative and creative word count.



I have written up all the ideas and now I trapising through the words to find things I have missed, does the story flow, does it make sense?!
Well it does to me, I keep saying but when I read it as non-writer, no it does not!!!

PROBLEM!

Here is an extract of my latest chapter written for False Details:

“M12, are you free for an immediate”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“It has come through as “The Inn”, which looking does not look like it is anywhere we know. We are trying to find out, consulting Google”

“Local knowledge it is the youth club at St Martins Church” shouted up someone with some information.

“Thank you that officer, then according to mapping shows to be part of St Martins Church, Stanton Green off the Highway close to Princes School.”

“All received. What is the job please?”

“There has been a party this evening, well not a party as such but a group of youths have gone to the youth club for the memorial of Natalie Woodman, killed a few days ago. And it looks like it has got out of hand and criminal damage has occurred, large groups are now spilling into the surroundings.”

Kenny had sat and listened to the whole exchange on his radio. His ears pricked up from the calming melodies and rifts of Joe Bonamasa streaming from his computer terminal. He spoke to intelligence this afternoon after his visit to the school and receiving such information from the teaching staff and students. He wanted to find out how he could best distribute the information across the force in case of any issues that spilled out of Birmingham South into other police areas. They suggested using the Intelligence Management System otherwise known to the officers as IMS. IMS is good for long term issues that need to be collated for a one off event that is happening that same evening not so good.

He called the Service desk, logged the conversation and asked it to be brought to the attention of the local Neighbourhood Team. Which would have been fine but they booked off duty at 10pm according to the shift pattern, it is now nearly half past 10. It was now up to response and the units to deal with.

“M12 arrived at the scene. More units required. Approximately 30 youths standing outside the premise. Very intoxicated and I don’t think the Police arriving has calmed them down.”

“Thank you for update. Other units are one minute away.”

“Blue lights and sirens may need to be switched off, silent approach.” Sergeant Blake barking orders from the comfort of his office. “I repeat no tones; do not want hostility to rise.”

Suddenly, the air was clear of two tones and the crowd moved away from the centre.

False Details - My Novel

Here is a post about my writing for a change instead of my feelings on the world we live in!

Well, whilst on holiday a few weeks ago (Check out the post on my blog) I was writing every day. The writing was consistant and was determined to keep up routine even if it was making notes and changing the manuscript I had printing.
I have since the holiday made all the changes that I jotted down and written up all the paragraphs and ideas that I thought of.

Now, I sit here in front of the computer having not written a word for nearly a week on my novel. I have lost the momentum that I gained whilst having my writing hour before holiday, I am out of sync.



I set myself a target of finishing at Christmas, this target is still 40 odd days away but I have reached only 35,000 words.

Can i finish in time for my deadline, I can only try but I need to buck up my ideas and quickly I should think.

Check out Lulu.com for an extract of my novel (the prologue and first two chapters can be downloaded)

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/false-details/18545321

Karin Slaughter - Kisscut

BOOK REVIEW



Synopsis:

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember. But when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton - the town's paediatrician and medical examiner - finds herself entangled in a terrible tragedy. What seemed at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse, of ritualistic self-mutilation, but when Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, they are frustrated at every turn. The children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. But when a young girl is abducted, it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one far more shocking than anyone could have imagined. And unless Sara and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again...

Personal Review:

I am a big fan of Karin Slaughter and have read a lot of her more recent books and when I spotted this book at the local charity shop I knew I was going to buy it.

Quick entry in the first scene and the beginning of the twists and turns in the first chapter, very typical Karin Slaughter, the action is quick fire and the storytelling is made for the page turner that develops.

The story itself was very detailed and the content of domestic abuse unravels and you start to suspect it is maybe the usual suspects then the twist that all is not as it seems, false identities, friends and families working together. All this makes for a very good read and a brilliant read that last me all of a day of reading!

Extract from my Book

PROLOGUE

0700 hours 19^th June 2011

Officers were crammed into the smallest briefing room in the entire station, The Sam Waters Room, Birmingham City HQ Police Station. More officers entered the room which held an oval wooden table in the centre with 10 chairs around; for a normal tasking meeting this would be sufficient, with the 32 officers now present it was like a tin of sardines. All of the chairs were pushed under the desk tightly and everyone stood or leaned against the nearest wall or piece of furniture, trying to have individual conversations with the closest person was verging on impossible.

Luckily for people’s eardrums, Detective Chief Inspector Holland wandered in and then stood to address his troops for the forthcoming days work.

“Good Morning, getting straight on with things; gathered from recent intelligence linking Human Trafficking gangs to a number of addresses across the Birmingham South area, Operation Safeguard has been put in place to raid and secure a number of addresses...”

“….he said exactly the same bloody thing yesterday, why the f…” sitting at the back of the room chatting was probably not a good idea.

“…is there a problem PC Bradford? My fucking problem is that we are now a person down in 1:7 nominations. Get changed and meet me in my office NOW!” the usually calm persona was broken. DCI Liam Holland knew one thing no-one else did, they were going to be busy today and tomorrow, especially now, and another officer will be needed.

DCI Holland allowed the officers to murmur for a moment and then cracked on with the evidence presentation; this contained a map of the addresses to be raided, pictures of the suspects and video footage of some exchanges made with the suspects.

After a moment of composure, “Everyone else, good luck for today, remember you are all working towards my promotion from DCI” He chuckled to himself as he walked back to his office, recently his fast track promotion had come to a slow halt.

4 addresses were raided on the Operation Safeguard that morning, there was series of arrests for numerous offences from human trafficking, prostitution, drug possession and cultivation and evidence bags were filled from all the locations. All the addresses held links with a local gang who have targeted the quiet suburbs of Birmingham for their operation.

DCI Holland had no interest in any of these addresses; all he wanted to learn about when he called Operational Support Unit Sergeant Thompson was from 65 Winding Lane, where the intelligence was led to believe that it was a storage house for the larger cultivation plants related to the rest of the raid. DCI Holland had been using an intelligence source that had been giving information since Liam Holland was a beat sergeant on the local policing team. The source was meant to be at 65 Winding Lane and to be arrested for some minor offences.

“Address was checked, there were no signs of life in the premises. Had been lived in but not for at least a month. Following from the intelligence from the premises, we seized approximately 5 VHS recordable tapes from the living room area.”

“Good, very good. The Intel was very strong then, your team did well today with the whole series. Scene from 65 Winding Lane has been secured and forensics requested?”

“Yes, Yes, Sir, I don’t see the requirement for forensics at the address and it was not in the original notes for the address...”

“…the requirement is there, please just go along with the request and update me with the results. Thank you, Sergeant Thompson.”

DCI Holland had found from a number of the addresses checked one further residential property kept popping up and the interview conducted gave more details. This was the one address to check and this would be completed tomorrow, the address check would be completed by his team with him leading, he knew that this was going to be the big one, but he didn’t expect to find what was in store for him.

Ebooks v Publication

First of all let me start with my view point on Ebooks then lets onto the main issue in this blog.

I love to read, and I love read off a freshly picked book off my bookcase, I love to be able to flick through the pages, I love to lie back in bed or on the sofa and get stuck into a good paperback novel.

Well there it is, my whole life I have and will continue to buy books from a bookshop, Amazon or any other shop that sells a book made with paper.

I can not stand the idea that Ebooks have taken away the excitment of looking round for the next installment of whoever and whatever, you now can download the book in minutes.

I would like to point out that all these comments refer to fiction where its the excitement of waiting, and holding that book in your palms.
If I want to learn anything I will continue to search Google!



Now that has been covered onto my little conscience issue, as i have pointed out I love paperbooks.
I have been doing some research into publication and all I am reading as advice seems to be go Ebook route, get yourself established and then once your name is known to the audience move from Epubs to paper.
I dont like this idea but then I want to feel that others can enjoy my blood, sweat and tears from the past 12 months. Read my novel, get my novel, my name known to wide world.
Due to the fact I am writing a blog, shows I hope that I am not a technophobe I know that things have moved on and publication through the old routes are no longer the norm but seeing my Book in Waterstones or else where would be so much better! Isnt it!

Do I send my book to all the people I think will snap my book up first, and get rejected (I know that you have to be reject at some point and it makes you a better writer) and then if only then I am unsuccessful go Ebooks?
Or do I go straight into Ebooks?