Those Post Partum Manuscript Blues

Afraid I've been a bad corespondent of late, having been holed up in my writer's woodshed the last 6 weeks or so while I finalized the edits to Reese's Leap—the second book in my Island Mystery series due out in March of 2013. Everything else left to go to hell in a hand basket, I'm afraid. Well, I'm happy to report the manuscript is finally finished and has been shipped off to my copy editor. Thought I'd be elated but I'm feeling kind of down. I miss my characters already—Gil (with all his excesses and obsessions), Duggan (Gil's best friend whom I've just introduced in this book but plan to bring along into book three) Pete (not much to like there, I'm afraid, but oh, don't we love to hate him), and the lovely Island Women with whom Gil and Duggan find themselves stranded on remote Mistake Island during a week of unrelenting fog. Still, it's nothing that throwing myself into some major marketing work won't cure, not to mention there's always book three to gt started on!

Be sure to check back on December 19th, when I'll be part of a Blog Hop, answering some intriguing  questions about the Maine Island Mystery Series and giving you my tips for some great authors to follow!

A Second Printing and Upcoming Events

Sorry to be so long between posts. So much going on here! We've finally moved off our sailboat for the year and are busy transferring our lives from our sea home to our land apartment which means moving clothing, food, bedding, etc., as well as draining and winterizing all boat systems. Not to mention a good general cleaning both inside and out. A ton of work which we'll turn around and do in reverse in the spring!

Big news on the book front is that we've just had a second run of Matinicus printed (that's me signing hundreds of copies last week at Maine Authors Publishing up in Rockland, ME) and I'm about to hunker down for the rest of the final edits of Reese's Leap, the 2nd book in my Island Mystery Series, which I will have to the copy editor by Thanksgiving IF IT KILLS ME!! This may mean another few weeks of non-communication, but so be it!

A few upcoming events to tell you about. Sunday, November 11th, I'll be one of about 50 authors participating in the annual NE Authors Expo Holiday Book Sale at the Danversport Yacht Club (Danvers, MA). This event is free to the public and runs from 1:00 - 7:00 p.m. A great opportunity to pick up some fabulous books for your Holiday gift list!

I also have two events coming up in January, the first the New England Book Festival and Awards which runs all day and into the evening of January 19th at the Parker House Hotel in downtown Boston. I'll be both speaking and selling books at this event, which also includes the annual and much anticipated NE Book Festival Awards. The second event is on January 26th, when I'll be a guest at the Local Buzz Coffee House and Wine Bar in Cape Elizabeth, ME as part of "Local Writers at the Local Buzz" from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Hope to see you at one of these events!!

What I Read on my Summer Vacation

Okay, I'm back from three weeks of sailing, a vacation for the most part taken up with research on the Island Mystery Series Book #3, editing of the upcoming Reese's Leap, and lots of reading. We sailed hundreds of miles and had far too much fun--well, except for the part where I broke my nose (whole other story).

This time out I read mostly mysteries as that's what I'm writing just now, though I also picked up Mark Wisniewski's Show up, Look Good--the story of a twenty-something girl from the Midwest who relocates to Manhattan on a whim after breaking up with a fiance who prefers sex with power tools. Chapter One begins "I know of a secret murder and I've loved a speechless man...," and if that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will.

Next on the list was Broken Harbor by Tana French, an excellent writer with a terrific series based in Dublin whose protagonist, Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, is the brash, love'm/hate'm cop from her bestselling Faithful Place.

And right now I'm about halfway through the British author Elizabeth George's Believing the Lie--the latest in her Detective Inspector Lynley mystery series. I love this author and these characters, never mind this is #17 in the series. Very much worth a try if you're not familiar with her.

Next up will be Jen Blood's Sins of the Father, the 2nd in her Erin Soloman series, and look for a review on this blog soon. I loved the first book, All the Blue-Eyed Angels, so am really looking forward to this!

In vacation mode now…well, as much as I ever am. Two weeks of sailing in Maine while I edit the upcoming book (#2 in the Island Mystery Series) and research Book 3. Going back to Matinicus, over to Criehaven and later on to the infamous Casco Bay island of Malaga. More on this next time.

Oh, and I’m once again cooking up a storm. Nice to have time to do that again. Spent an hour or so picking blueberries in the hills above Bucks Harbor (off Eggemoggin Reach) and making my friend Marty’s Double Berry Pie—all while thinking hard about the “baddies” I’m dreaming up for Book 3. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy.

Marty’s Double Berry Pie

Prepared Graham Cracker Crust

½ C. sugar

2 TBS. cornstarch

2 TBS. water

Pinch salt

3 Pints Blueberries

Mix the first four ingredients with 1 ½ pints  of the blueberries. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and gently stir in remaining berries.

Spoon into crust and chill at least 3 hours.

Top with whipped cream.

Serendipity, Research and a bit of Vacation

Love those middle of the night plot ideas! This one for Reese's Leap, (follows Matinicus as book two in the Island Mystery Series). Decided to turn the Prologue into the first chapter and create a new Prologue dating back to 1905. Rounds out the characterization of one of the main protagonists and explains so much that happens later. Putting the bones of the ideas in now.

Rainy, foggy weekend meant the clothes were strung in the aft cabin (a.k.a. my writing room) to dry, so my "studio" was temporarily moved to the saloon.

Just so you know, I leave on an extended sailing trip  in Penobscot Bay Maine (where this series is set) on Wednesday, August 8, to do some research on book three, and grab a bit of a rest from all the crazy Matinicus marketing. I'll try and keep up the blog during the three weeks we're gone, but some of these places are pretty remote, and I may be out of pocket for a bit.

Chat soon!

On the Writing Process

I recently heard from Peter Schwartz, an old classmate/friend who's an avid and astute reader. His insightful, probing comments about my first book, Hunter Huntress (here he is, reading it somewhere in France, I believe), were unsparing and dead-on. A writer himself, he was curious about about my process, frustrated with his own, and had some real thought-provoking questions that forced me to think hard about my personal approach to my writing: how I get ideas for a book and how I massage those initial glimpses of plot into a final manuscript. Thought I'd take a break from my usual type of post to share what I sent him in response. Hope you find it interesting!  Feel free to send me your thoughts and/or questions via my website: http://www.darcyscott.net/.

     Firstly, Pete, for me a story usually starts with a situation--something that happened in my own life or that of someone I know. Some writers cull newspapers for inspiration. I sit with my bit of an idea for a while, letting it resonate. Then I turn to this huge file of notes I have--things that have occurred over the years, bits of dialog I've overheard, things I decided not to use in another book for whatever reason, etc.--and cull through to see if any of it might fit to move that initial idea along.          
     Sometimes characters are part of that initial idea, sometimes not. I try not to force this early phase of things; based on your comments, I sense this might be where you're getting in trouble. And because I'm a visual person, once I have an idea for a character, I have to find a photo (LLBean catalogs, Time Magazine--they've both worked for me). That makes all kinds of things "come." You never know what will push things along. Sometimes coming up with a title helps. I'm currently editing Island Mystery #2, for instance, but also working on plot elements for #3 and have been stymied. Then my husband came up with the book's title and things began to fall into place. No idea why it works this way, but it does--at least for me.

     In the beginning I, too, had trouble being "mean" to my characters. An early reader of a draft of one of my first books complained that the people I was hurting/killing off weren't any that he cared about. Made me realize the only way to really engage the reader is to lure him emotionally, make him care about the very people you're gonna kill off. Trust me, as a writer you become inured to it after a while.

     Your questions about subplots and layers and believability had me digging deep. The mythology sub-plot in HH, for instance, only occurred to me when I was about a quarter way through an early draft and after I'd had a series of dreams much like the episodes in the book where Jamie's dreaming about the figure running through the woods. Again this part of the process has to do with patience. You have to embrace the fact that things will come in spurts, sometimes requiring you to rewrite everything to date. It takes me anywhere from two to eight years to finish a draft of a book. Probably not what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

    I think a lot of your writerly discomfort stems from the somewhat misguided belief that the writer is in control of the process. I find things go more smoothly if I simply trust my characters and get out of their way. Writing fiction is a very intuitive thing. Just wait and listen, and it will happen.

Lots of Writing and a Little Sailing Trip

We dropped the mooring last weekend and took an eight-hour sail up to Casco Bay, ME, trying to wash off some of the green growth and sea critters that had grown on the bottom thanks to our staying put for so long. I spent a few hours in my aft cabin/writing room organizing yet more of the Reese's Leap editing while the skipper remained at the helm plied with sandwiches, fruit and chocolate.


First stop was Yarmouth Island, the remote island where Reese's Leap takes place and a place I've gone for many retreats. Very cool to be there again, to wander the fragrant trails through 200 acres of deeply silent woods, reconnecting with the physical setting of the new book, due out next spring.
                                  
We spent that night just a few miles upriver in Quahog Bay, working out plot elements for the third and final book in the series. Have a lot of editing to do on number two, first. Planning to hunker down this weekend at the Isles of Shoals. Look for more photos to come!