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of 2006 David Morrell Local Guest of Honor: Libby Hellmann What the Chicago Tribune
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How I fared at “Love Is Murder” 2007
by Jacquée Thomas | www.jacquee-t.com
I was green, as green as an Irish meadow after a rain, when I walked into the Wyndham O'Hare to attend the Love Is Murder conference. By the end of the weekend I was ripe, and ready to apply what I learned to my writing career.
I’d heard about Love Is Murder through the writers’ grapevine, and announced it in my column, “Letter from Chicago.” I was also interested as a paranormal fiction writer. After learning about this event’s scheduled goings-on, I thought I oughta check it out. Here’s what I found:
Mysterious people attended the conference, folks with mystery on their minds, that is. They were published and pre-published authors, mystery fans and readers, and weapons and crime scene pros.
I attended seminars on book promotion, on crime scenes, polygraph tests and handwriting analyses. I learned …
• that it’s important for authors to contact booksellers in independent stores and in large chains. Book promotions with the personal touch are still the most effective.
• that not all semi-automatic guns have safeties, and that all semi-autos eject to the right.
• that the first polygraph was put to use in 1906, and that a polygraph exam takes at least two hours.
• people who dot their i’s close to the stem are people who pay attention to detail.
Those were only splashes of what I learned in the seminars. People who had “been there,” namely the pros in the fields, led seminars as panels, as teams, or as individuals. The idea was to put writers “on the scene” with them, and it worked. Writers as well as mystery fans corresponded with pros who had been intimately involved with subjects at hand.
Meanwhile folks mingled between seminars, at meals and during cocktail hours.
I rubbed elbows with the likes of Jacqueline Vick and Dave Vizard, both of whom had successful pitching sessions with publishers who attended Love Is Murder, with Tom Schreck, whose first novel “On the Ropes” comes out this September, with Todd Stone, author of mystery fiction and of “Novelist’s Boot Camp,” and with Ken Bruen, noted Irish author of the Jack Taylor mystery series.
Mr. Bruen and his friend, novelist and screenwriter Robert Ward, convinced me to tell them about my vampire novel in the works. Jacqueline Vick introduced me to Mike Manno author of the Parker Noble Murder Mysteries. Mr. Manno was a gent, and lit my cigar.
See, I’d forgotten my clove cigarettes and in lieu of that purchased a couple lady’s cigars in the Wyndham gift shop. The late night clerk, Queenie, knew me well.
I considered myself a “Love Is Murder” neophyte, not prepared to pitch my novels. I ended up seated at dinner next to John Helfers of Five Star Expressions publishing line. I brought up my books in mere conversation, or so I thought till I realized who he was. He invited me to submit my novel manuscript.
Evidently there are surprises during the annual Love Is Murder conference, pleasant surprises. Attendees walk away feeling empowered.
*****Read more about 2007 Love Is Murder at my “Letter from Chicago” weblog Feb. 6-8 posts at www.daily-journal.com/bloggers/letter.
Editor’s note: Jacquée Thomas is the authoress of A Poet’s Moon, and columnist of “Letter from Chicago.” Learn more at www.jacquee-t.com.
Ten “Things” I Learned at
Love Is Murder 2007
By Joanna Campbell Slan | killerhobbies.com
- From Anne Perry: “Your protagonist will only jump as high as your antagonist makes him.”
- From Nancy Pickard: “If you describe a character, do that the first time we meet him or the reader will have a ‘picture’ that might not be the same as the author’s.”
- Turn is the change in a character’s momentum—which can be a change in his/her emotion or goals. Without “turn” in a scene, nothing has really happened.
- From Libby Fischer Hellmann: “Violence has to happen to a character we love or we don’t care.”
- From Todd Stone: “Craft your scenes. Do not just be a camera. Don’t just record and scan and put on a page (what you see). What you write must be for effect and purpose.”
- In a series, as the character becomes deeper (more well-developed), the stakes go up when the character is exposed to violence.
- Part of the power in a violent scene has to do with where it takes place.
- Reviewers would like books six to seven months in advance of publication. If you send an ARC (Advance Reading Copy), include the normal cover material and blurbs (if available), your platform, website, contact information, ISBN, whether it’s part of a series or not, price, author’s bio, and publication date.
- From Todd Stone: “A window character is a screenwriting term for the person the main character talks to most.”
- Never send a raccoon skull to a publishing house to try to persuade them to print your work.
And here’s the lagniappe--
Nancy Pickard said, “(I am happy to share what I’ve learned because) I not only want to write better stories, but I also want to read better stories.”
Hypocrisy is better than having no standards at all.
Nancy Pickard said, “Some books are like children who graduated a little too early.” In response, Charlaine Harris added, “I do have one book that would be riding the special bus.”
Anne Perry said, “The big difference between mysteries and literary novels is ours have a plot.”
The reviewers said that blurbs don’t always sway them. Beware the “blurb sluts.”
Todd Stone suggested cutting your writing goals into such small pieces that you can “kick them to the curb, spit on them, and call them names.”
