Top 5 New Years Resolutions for Writers in 2016

You don't have to be a writer to think, "Someday I'd like to...." Well stop putting it off! There's no time like the New Year to make resolutions that you have a chance to keep.

Stop smoking? Lose weight? Find your soul mate? Pfft. If you want a real challenge, check out my Top 5 Resolutions for Writers in 2016.

1. Write a book. I don't mean start writing a book. Anyone can start. Write a full book from start to finish. NaNoWriMo is a great place to start. Don't wait for November. They have camps in both April and July that can help you kick off your next novel.

2. Join a writing group. This will help a lot with the first resolution in this list. My writing group not only helps me stay on track with my writing goals, but they also challenge me to write outside my comfort zone which improves my writing. Check on sites like Meetup, or if all else fails start your own.

3. Attend a conference. If possible, attend with members of your writing group. You will learn a lot and it will give you something to bond over at future meetings. You will also get the opportunity to network with other people (both authors and readers) in the writing industry. Two of my favorites are the MAFWI conference and Bouchercon, which is geared toward the mystery genre.

4. Build your social networking platform. If you're not ready to go public with a Facebook author page, then consider building up your Twitter followers. Develop a routine of following 10 new authors or publishers per day. If 10% of the these people follow you back, then by this time next year you'll have over 350 new followers! And when you are ready to develop your Facebook account, then you can link it so your posts also show up on Twitter.

5. Hire an editor. It's the best thing I ever could have done and my first book, a collection of short stories titled HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS is so much better for it. What you pay an editor is an investment. Learn more about my editor, Sheila Haab, on her website.

Here's to a New Year filled with lots of literary progress!

What are your writing resolutions for 2016? I'd love to hear about them in the comments section!

Giving Your Characters the Gift of Forgiveness

Christmas is the season of forgiveness, but I'm here to tell you it's not easy. Take a look at any social media network and you'll find groups of people who are offended by everything from skin color to use of a certain phrase. While I am first to preach tolerance, there are some things that seem pretty unforgivable!

For example, I am not sure I can forgive LeAnn Rimes for butchering one of my favorite songs. "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" was fine just the way it was. There was certainly no reason for her to add a country twang and double the pace.

Another example of something that seems unforgivable is when someone tells a lie that involves my kids. Treat me like crap if you must, but please do not drag my boys into it. They are not angels by any stretch, but they are my angels and nobody's going to lie about them.

And finally, let's talk about pictures of me on social media. I'm not a huge fan. It's taken me six years since first creating my Facebook account to be comfortable enough to post a selfie. When I find other people have posted them, I have a little meltdown bemoaning all my flaws to my husband, who patiently and lovingly suffers through it. Every. Single. Time. (Because after all, the photo on my book jacket will be much more flattering.)

Now that I've given some examples of seemingly unforgivable acts, look at them from the point of view of a character in a book.

• A musician hears a remake of his song on the radio, and plots his revenge.
• A neighbor lies about kids traipsing through her flower beds to hide the fact that a feral cat colony living in the crawlspace under her home is the real culprit.
• A photographer posts a photo of a political figure online acting suspicious to social media and, as a result, winds up stalked by members of the mafia.

In each of the above situations, the character wields quite a bit of power. They can forgive or not, and that will weigh heavily on the outcome of your story. Just like whether or not I forgive people will affect the outcome of my story. I'm trying to come to terms with the second and third items on my list, but LeAnn Rimes will never hold a candle to Gayla Peevey when it comes to my favorite Christmas song!

Have you given your characters the chance to forgive anyone? Were any of their situations inspired by things in your life? Let's chat about it in the comments section below!

Confirmation in Unlikely Places

After attending the Mid-Atlantic Fiction Writers conference in August, 2015, I was on my way to take possession of a rescued crested gecko when I got the idea to write a cozy mystery that would delve into some of Blackbeard's history.

I'm about 2/3 of the way into the book and the worst thing happened. I lost focus. For a few weeks my book stayed closed. The pages began gathering dust. Terrible thoughts entered my head, like: Should I scrap what I have and rewrite everything in limited first-person point of view?

In case you're wondering, I posed that to my fellow Mountain Scribes (my writing group) at our First Annual Christmas Party and the answer was a resounding, "No!"

Then two wonderful things happened. The first was that I confessed my fears to my friend David. He quoted lines from a NaNoWriMo Pep Talk by Neil Gaiman. Knowing that Neil Gaiman suffers from these same qualms actually made me feel a lot better.

The second thing happened when I was randomly looking at bits of analytical information from the Becky Muth Author Page on Facebook. When trying to decipher who in the world (literally, places like Nigeria and Las Vegas and Australia, even!) liked my page, I saw this:

There you have it. One of my fans speaks pirate. If knowing that Neil Gaiman suffers from "I'm not good enough"-itis wasn't enough, then having a fan who speaks pirate is more than plenty. Whoever you are, you pirate-speaking-fan of mine, than you. I so needed this.

Are you a writer who found confirmation in unlikely places? Do you feel like your train of thought derailed around Chapter 8 and you're not sure how to get back on track? Let me hear about it in the comments section. I'd love to talk about this with you!

7 Gift Ideas for Book Lovers

Christmas time's a-coming! If there is a book lover on your list, then you might be wondering what to get them. Lucky for you--and anyone else in this predicament, book lovers are easy to please!

How could we not want to go above and beyond to reward book lovers for their happy-go-lucky nature when it comes to receiving presents? Here are some ideas for the book lover in your list:

1. Bookmarks - It might seem like the obvious choice, but we book lovers can't ever have too many bookmarks. I use mine in both books I'm reading, and notebooks I'm using to jot down ideas for my next writing project.
   
2. Book Light - Show me a book lover, and I will show you someone who stayed up reading past their bedtime. Clip-on book lights allow reading in the darkest of conditions, whether you clip it onto your book or your glasses.
   
3. Notebook - A book lover can use a notebook to write down thoughts about their favorite books. And a writer can never have too many notebooks--just sayin'!
   
4. Book Art - Sites like Etsy and Uncommon Goods offer unique gifts, a lot of which are handmade by up and coming artists. You can tickle the book lover in your life while simultaneously supporting creative arts.
   
5. Gift Cards - I have never known a book lover to turn down a gift card. In the past my family has given me cards for shopping at Amazon, coffee shops, and local bookstores, and I've enjoyed them all with equal enthusiasm.
   
6. Travel Mug - It's easy to get lost in a good book, but important to stay hydrated. A travel mug helps solve the problem and if it gets knocked over then the lid means the mug's contents are less likely to spill on the pages.
   
7. Warm Blanket - Last year my mother-in-law gave me a blanket for Christmas. It is not only dog-themed, but it is also made from the warmest fleece I have ever felt in my life. When I curl up on the couch to read on a chilly evening, you can bet I have my blanket with me.

And there you have it! It is no coincidence that writers are also book lovers. If you have a writer on your holiday shopping list, then many of these ideas would work for them as well.

Do you have a different idea not listed here? Tell me about it in the comments section below!

I Won NaNoWriMo Now Where Is My Book?

Anyone who writes 50k words within the 30-day time period (i.e. the already hectic month of November) is eligible to "win" NaNoWriMo. The site requires you to validate your novel by copying and pasting everything you've written into a magical box.

It's okay. Once your novel's validated the site forgets whatever it saw, so nobody's stealing your ideas. Besides, there are no original ideas. I mentioned (the highlighted, glossy parts of) an idea to a couple of friends in front of someone else who said, "Oh! So it's JUST like Shirley Jackson's THE LOTTERY?" Um, no, totally NOT like that. Kudos that she knew Shirley Jackson was the author, but I digress.

According to an array of reputable sources, including Writer's Digest, a novel in the genre of general literary fiction is somewhere between 85,000 and 100,000 words. Depending on your genre and intended audience though, your novel might be slightly longer or much shorter.

If you just finished NaNoWriMo for the first time, then you might be thinking, "But I wrote 50,000 words!" So you did. Good job! And now it's time to write the rest of the book.

While writing my current NaNoWriMo winner, a cozy mystery, ONE SQUASHED VICTORY, the characters revealed the ending scene, how the book will wrap up, and the plot for books two and three. But I still have about 27,000 words to go before I can say the first draft of the novel is really done.

Even after I write those words, there's still a lot to go as outlined in "Revisions, Bloody Revisions," a Midnight Ink blog post by Tracy Weber. Some authors the book, send it to the publisher, and from there it's on your shelf or e-reader. Tracy uses a 14-step process. Mine is at least 14. (Does she mention drinking copious amounts of wine and coffee while crying on the dog's shoulder because it's 3:30 A.M. and everyone else is asleep?)

So there you have it! While finishing up this book, HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS (my NaNoWriMo "win" for both 2013 and 2014) is on the verge of dropping into the hands of my benelovent beta readers. It's only slightly less terrifying as the day I put my sons on the school bus for the first time. Wish me luck!

Do you have any questions for me? Any comments on this topic? I'd love to discuss them with you in the comments section below!

Why Fiction Writing Is like Therapy

Writing fiction is like therapy. I enter a virtual room (within my brain) where a group of people (my characters) sit in a circle and tell me their stories. Sometimes their stories intertwine, and sometimes their stories are standalone.

And sometimes, their stories imitate things from my life.

Let's look at Maggie Sawyer, for example. Unlike me, she's in her mid-30's and single. Her high school boyfriend has just re-entered her life, but they're not hooking up any time soon. Like me, Maggie has some issues, one of them being a parent with an explosive temper. (Boy do I know about that!)

When Art Imitates Life

It's no secret that artists create things that imitate life, and nothing makes art more appealing than a little tragedy. When I write, I slip the dark things from my life into my fictional works. It helps me confront them in a creative way.

Slipping those negative emotions into my fictional work also helps me take control of the details of the situation behind them. Sometimes I come up with a different outcome. Maybe even a better outcome.

Accepting the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Everyone has creative talents and I'm blessed with more than a few. During my quilting phase, I made memorial photo quilts. When on my knitting kick, I whipped up scarves and hats for the local cold weather coalition. And during my pen and ink era, I sketched pets that had crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.

Looking back, it's easy to see how I've spent my entire life using art to get past the rough times in life. Depression and the holidays go hand in hand, and the ugly black claws are already threatening to sink in. If this happens to you, then please reach out and talk to someone.

For now writing is doing the trick for me. Whenever a dark memory threatens to drag me down, instead of wallowing in it, I'm pulling out my notebook and jotting down details. Making poor Maggie Sawyer suffer along with me in her own, fictional way really does help.

If you're a writer, I'd love for you to chime in with your thoughts on this subject. And if you're a reader, then let me know how you tackle the tough times, through the holidays or otherwise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What Is a Cozy Mystery?

Despite all the cozy series available through both online and retail book sellers, there are still a lot of people who have no idea what a cozy mystery is. Books authored by Agatha Christie are probably the best and most recognized examples of cozy mysteries.

Also called "cozies", a cozy mystery is a sub-genre of the larger one known as crime fiction or mystery. In a cozy mystery:

• Sex is all but nonexistent. What happens in the bedroom stays there.
• There's a lack of blood and gore. If it does feature, then it's downplayed.
• The overall tone is light, if not lighthearted. There might be puns!
• Crime typically takes place in a community or small town.
• The sleuth is an amateur with ties to some brand of the law.

If cozy mysteries were television shows, then you'd most likely find them on the Hallmark channel or some equally family-friendly television programming station. Some good examples are Murder She Wrote, Pie in the Sky, the Father Dowling Mysteries, or Matlock, although the latter was a criminal defense lawyer and not an amateur sleuth.

As Lieutenant Columbo would say: Oh, just one more thing....

My cozy mystery for NaNoWriMo is coming along nicely. I'm slightly ahead of the curve as far as daily word counts, and look forward to completing the book so I can move on to the next phase of seeing it in print.