Category Archives: Mystery

December 18, 2012 · 12:19 am

The Next Big Thing Blog Chain

Last week, fellow author Cate Ashwood tagged me on her blog as part of her Next Big Thing, so now it’s my turn to post my latest project and then pass the baton to another author.  So here’s what I’m working on:

The Next Big Thing

What is the title of your book?

Murderous Requiem

How did you come by the idea?

I was inspired by a number of different things, including The DaVinci Code (the book and the film), some books I bought years ago on Marsilio Ficino (a Renaissance magician, doctor, and musician who believed that music could heal the body), my interest in Norse mythology, Alfred Hitchcock films like The Birds, and murder mysteries like And Then There Were None.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal/Occult Mystery

Which actors would you choose to play your characters if it were a movie?

Three Characters

I’m not really sure I can pick actors, apart from perhaps Brad Pitt in Interview with a Vampire as Bowyn.  I did find pictures online that captured what I imagined.  From left to right, these would be Jeremy and Bowyn, the two love interests in the novel, and the enigmatic playboy, Rafe.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Renaissance music expert, Jeremy Spencer, is dragged back into the occult commune that he co-founded years ago with his ex-boyfriend, Bowyn Clarke, in order to transcribe an ancient manuscript, but he soon discovers the Temple holds dangers beyond stirring up old feelings he isn’t sure how to deal with — the manuscript contains a dark secret that somebody is willing to kill for.

Will your book be self-published or traditional?

It will be published by Dreamspinner Press in eBook and paperback.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Hard to say, because I don’t always write a complete first draft before going back and rewriting, especially in something this tightly plotted.  I went back over the first half several times before I wrote the second half.  From beginning to finally having a complete story in my hands was probably a little over a  year.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It’s a bit like The DaVinci Code, though there is considerably less running around.  It all takes place in one location.  I’m not sure which M/M novels it might compare to.  (EDIT –12/31/2012:  I am now reading a book by Shelter Somerset called The Rule of Sebastian, which I wasn’t aware of when I first wrote this post.  It has a very similar feel to Murderous Requiem, though it’s much more of a murder mystery than Requiem is.  I haven’t finished it yet, but I suspect I’ll be able to give it a good recommendation when I have.)

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

To put this mystery together, I drew from a number of sources:  the writings of Marsilio Ficino, alchemy, the life of John Dee, Enochian, ceremonial magick, Aleister Crowley and his occult order, the O.T.O.  I also blended in some horror elements to give the mystery a creepy feel.

So that’s my Next Big Thing.  The writers I’m tagging for next week are:

Lou Sylvre on December 25th

Jana Denardo on December 26th

Zahra Owens on December 26th

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November 5, 2012 · 5:43 pm

“Murderous Requiem” is finished and submitted!

I decided it was finally time to wrap this one up and get it out the door, so I gathered all of the notes I’d gotten from various beta readers and spent about a week and a half polishing.  As usual, the hardest part was writing the summary.  I loathe summaries.  Somehow you’re supposed to summarize the entire novel in one page.  I’ve never managed less than two pages.  And they’re usually awkwardly written.

Yes, I know I’m a writer and a writer should be capable of writing a one-page summary without collapsing into a gibbering, sobbing heap.  But I still have trouble with them, and judging from comments made by other writers I chat with, I’m not alone.

I’ve been talking on and off about changing the name from Murderous Requiem to something else, since the piece of music in the novel ended up being a standard mass, rather than a requiem.  But though a number of people offered good suggestions, none of them seemed quite right.  I considered Missa Mortis (Mass of the Dead), but rejected it because I didn’t think a Latin title would be well-received and the English translation felt weak.  I tried several others, but my husband finally just said, “I still think Murderous Requiem is good.”  So screw it.  The novel is a murder mystery involving a piece of music that may or may not be capable of raising the dead.  Murderous Requiem it is.

The next question is, will Dreamspinner Press be interested in it?  I’ve sent them stories that I felt were really something they’d be interested in.  But this one?  I’m not sure.  I think it’s a good novel, and I think it’s got a decent romance at the core of it.  My beta readers had a lot of good things to say about it.  But I delve deeply into a subject that makes many people uncomfortable:  ceremonial magick.  And I do it in a realistic manner with considerable detail about preparation, methods, and the underlying belief system.  Then there’s the “free-love” environment.  M/M romance novels are often far raunchier than I tend to write, of course.  But the idea of the two heroes participating in that kind of thing will probably put some readers off.

So we’ll see what the editors have to say about it.

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October 29, 2012 · 12:32 pm

GayRomLit, Head Colds, and Murder

I haven’t posted much this month, largely because I’ve been under the weather, in various ways.  To begin with, my doctor changed the painkiller I take for migraines, which seemed like a good idea at the time.  But it turns out that Tramadol has some unpleasant side-effects.  I spent a month wallowing in the deepest depression I’d suffered since I lived in squalid conditions in an unheated cabin, during an incredibly bad Winter in 1994.  I couldn’t figure out what exactly I was depressed about.  Then I ran out of Tramadol and the depression cleared right up.  Turns out that depression can be one of the side-effects of that med.  Nice.  My doctor and I need to have a little chat soon.

For six days in the middle of October, I was at GayRomLit.  If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a retreat for writers and fans of gay romance.  This year, it was hosted in Abuquerque, New Mexico, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  I had a terrific time, meeting and chatting with people I’ve talked to online for years, and even though I wasn’t one of the well-known authors there, I did have more than a few people recognize me and tell me how much they loved my books!  I even autographed a few copies!

On the downside, the jet lag, high altitude, and the dry desert air really kicked my butt.  I kept waking up at two-hour intervals during the night, feeling dehydrated.  The first night I staggered downstairs at 4am in search of coffee to kill the headache I had coming on.  Thankfully, the casino had a 24/7 diner next to it, where I was able to get some really bad (but caffeinated) coffee — and I looked so pathetic that the nice lady at the counter gave me the coffee for free.

I never did make it to the casino, even though I walked through it daily.  Probably for the best.

I came back desperately needing sleep and with a throat so scratchy that I could barely talk.  Then, just when I seemed to have recuperated, I got hit with a head cold this weekend.

Bah.

But I’ve decided to take a break from other writing for a few days, in order to finally finish polishing up Murderous Requiem (or whatever I end up calling it), my occult murder mystery, so I can submit it before November 1st, when I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo again.  This is another story I’ve fretted over for too long, even though several beta readers have told me they loved it.  So it’s time to stop worrying about whether or not it’s too “weird” to find an audience and just send it out.  I have no doubt there are people out there who will like it, even if it isn’t a typical romance.

 

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July 23, 2012 · 5:48 pm

The First Draft of Murderous Requiem is Finished!

Okay, it’s actually been finished for a few weeks, but I’ve been so busy with other stuff, I haven’t really talked about it.

The first reports back from beta readers indicate I may have something here.  I was told that it hooked them and carried them right through the story and the occult stuff was really creepy and interesting.  Score!

There have been criticisms, of course.  The beginning may throw the reader into a bizarre environment (called “the Temple” — sort of a free-love, occult commune) a bit abruptly without giving her or him time to get used to the idea.  Additionally, some of the occult information is imparted in big wads of text that would be better served by dialog, perhaps.   And my husband, Erich, felt that adding one or two characters with speaking parts might serve to increase the impression of the Temple being a busy place with a lot of people, and could also divert suspicion from the obvious “suspects.”  (As a “murder mystery,” the ending is a bit too obvious, perhaps, but the story apparently works well on other levels.)

Two things that gave everyone pause:  the  sexual acrobatics and the open relationship between Jeremy (the viewpoint character) and his love interest, Bowyn.

Sexual acrobatics…well, I set out to write a novel that takes place in a free-love commune.  It was deliberately designed to provide me with a lot of opportunities for casual sex between the characters.  Nobody has complained about that, specifically, but there’s one scene that gets pretty kinky, and it’s been raising some eyebrows.  When I ask, “Should I change it?” I invariably get a response along the lines of, “I’m not sure….”  Nobody is certain whether it pushes the boundary too far, or just enough to be vaguely uncomfortable.

That’s something I might run by my publisher.  The scene doesn’t technically violate their submission standards (or the standards of most publishers of M/M erotic stories), but they know what they’re comfortable with.

The open relationship might be a bigger issue.

I believe in open relationships.  Several of my friends have been in “poly” relationships and they seem perfectly happy, or at least as happy as anybody else.  True, sometimes poly relationships blow up or otherwise disintegrate due to jealousy or for other reasons, but so do monogamous relationships.  In my story, Jeremy realizes that the poly relationship he had with Bowyn eight years ago fell apart because he (Jeremy) was too jealous of Bowyn showing affection for one of their mutual friends.  He was fine with Bowyn sleeping with other men.  But he couldn’t handle Bowyn loving anybody but Jeremy.

Jeremy and Bowyn end up deciding that they need to be together.  And for that to work, they need for their love to be exclusive.  But the possibility of casual sex with other men now and then isn’t completely eliminated, due to the situation.  This, to me, is a perfectly good solution and a happy ending for the romance.  Unfortunately, a lot of romance readers would probably disagree.  For them, the only happy ending is a monogamous (emotionally AND sexually) ending.  It’s possible to have a threesome, of course, but even then, most readers would prefer that all three people involved be monogamous to that relationship.

Should I change it?  I don’t know.  This isn’t as simple as modifying one scene to remove some kinky sex.  Two men who co-founded a “sex cult” aren’t just going to decide casual sex is “bad.”  They don’t think it’s bad.  For them to suddenly decide to put that life completely behind them and start over as a traditionally monogamous couple living in suburbia in a house with a white picket fence…well, I can’t see that happening.  And I don’t think I could make it believable to readers.

So once again I find myself with a book that a lot of people tell me is really good…but they don’t think it will have broad audience appeal.

The story of my (writing) life.

Incidentally, I have to change the title.  It’s no longer about a requiem — it’s about a mass.  But Murderous Mass would be a terrible title….

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June 23, 2012 · 1:30 am

And Sometimes I Just Don’t Feel Like Writing

It’s not usually for very long, but whenever I finish something I’ve been working on, I spend a week or two floundering, not knowing what I want to write next.  I’d been planning on doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month and getting most of part two of a fantasy trilogy finished, but I spent the first week wrapping up my occult murder mystery (finally!) and I haven’t been able to get moving on the fantasy novel.  I’ve written a chapter, but that’s it.

I think I’m finally starting to get in the spirit of the fantasy novel.   We’ll see.  Edits are beginning on By That Sin Fell the Angels, and that’s a somewhat dark drama, so I may end up taking up the half-finished psychological drama I was working on a month and a half ago.

In the meantime, I haven’t been completely stagnant.  I’ve been doing author chats and Blogathons (on my YA blog) and book giveaways.  Saturn in Retrograde has been getting good ratings on Goodreads and received a terrific 5-star review on QMO Books!

Seidman has been doing well, too, though it has less momentum, since my James Erich pseudonym is less well-known.  But the ratings have been very good!  I just need to figure out how to get the word out.

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May 21, 2012 · 12:45 am

We Now Resume Our Regularly Scheduled Murder

I’ve made significant progress on my psychological contemporary, but at nearly 40,000 words, I’ve decided I need a short break from it.  I have plenty of other novels to finish up, including parts two and three of my cyberpunk story (the one that began with The Dogs of Cyberwar) and the occult murder mystery I’ve been working on for a bit over a year now.  (I started it as a NaNoWriMo project two Novembers ago.)

The Dogs of Cyberwar certainly needs to be finished, but I’m only about a third of the way through Part Two right now, whereas Murderous Requiem is nearly finished.  I picked it up this afternoon and I’ve written half of the climactic scene already!  At this rate, I suspect I’ll be finished with the first draft in a few days.

Finally!

The next step will be to have some people read it and see if the “mystery” part of it works.  I’m somewhat skeptical, but I can’t really judge, because I always think my plot surprises are too obvious.  Many readers tell me that isn’t the case, but some do figure things out early on.  So I really have no idea.

This story is a weird one.  I was kind of going for a Da Vinci Code-style occult mystery with ancient manuscripts and occult mysteries, but less of a thriller and more of an everyone-trapped-in-a-house type of mystery.  I also wanted to throw in a bit of the paranormal.  Not everything turns out to be Old Mr. Johnson in a rubber mask.

The last time I read through the manuscript, I was actually disappointed at how little of the occult mystery was coming through.  It needed more piecing together of hints in 15th-century grimoires.  Everything seemed too easy and straightforward.  Of course, if you go too far the other way, it becomes a boring treatise on Renaissance occult theory.  You have to strike a balance.

So after my readers get through with it and hopefully report back that they were not bored to tears, I need to go through the occult bits and pieces with a fine-toothed comb and make sure everything is consistent and holds together.

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October 15, 2011 · 1:52 am

Galley Proof for “The Dogs of Cyberwar”!

I’ve received the (nearly) final galley proof for my cyberpunk novella, The Dogs of Cyberwar, and I have until Monday to go over it and correct any minor mistakes.  As the editor says, this is not the time for major corrections — mostly just things like typos, mispellings, grammatical mistakes that escaped us the first time, etc.  If I don’t find anything major, this will be the last I see of the novella until its release date, on November 30th.

I still haven’t seen the cover art, and I’m anxious to get a look at it.  But of course we have a month and a half to go, so there’s no huge rush.  Presumably I’ll have a chance to critique it a bit and offer suggestions, such as “I don’t really picture Luis wearing a beanie with a propeller.”

In the meantime, I’ve nearly finished Murderous Requiem.  No, really.  I’ve just completed the last sex scene and now all that remains is the climactic scene in which the villain gets his comeuppance and All Is Revealed.  I’m still not convinced the “mystery” is completely obvious to any reader who isn’t baffled by Murder,She Wrote.  (For those of you who never watched the show, the killer is revealed in the opening scene, leaving the audience to wonder,  Why haven’t we turned the channel yet?)

I’m trying to wrap it all up before NaNoWriMo next month.  My original plan for that was to write another murder mystery, but as I suspected would happen, I’m pretty much burned out on mystery, at the moment.  Instead, what’s caught my attention is sword & sorcery.  So I’m returning to a YA fantasy novel I’ve nearly finished (still a few chapters to go) and the sequel will be my NaNo project.  If I can possibly finish up the end of the first one this month, that will be a bonus.

I have most of it plotted out, which is exciting, because until now I’ve had absolutely no idea what was going to happen in it, apart from the ending.  (It is, of course, part of a trilogy.)  This month has been incredibly busy, but hopefully things will calm down soon.

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September 27, 2011 · 1:38 pm

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

With October approaching, the time has come for me to begin planning my next NaNoWriMo project. The rules state that you can work our your plot, work out your character descriptions and research all you like, as long as you don’t start actually writing until November 1st at midnight, so I like to spend October in the planning stages.  So far, I have one finished novella from NaNoWriMo (The Christmas Wager) and I’m getting close to wrapping up last year’s project, Murderous Requiem.  Obviously, NaNoWriMo is a good way for me to force myself to come up with a new novel every year.

I’m tentatively planning another murder mystery, but since Murderous Requiem breaks the rules of traditional murder mysteries — and its popularity may suffer, as a result — I’m digging up a very traditional mystery I plotted out in college, or possibly even as long ago as High School.  A magazine — I think it was Woman’s Day, though I can’t say for certain, and I can’t recall how I even came across it — was sponsoring a murder mystery contest, hosted by Mary Higgins Clark (I think).  The only rule I can remember was that it had to include a certain number of clues from a list provided in the magazine, and the only clues I can now recall are a red dress, an answering machine message and…actually, those are the only two I can remember.

I diligently plotted out my mystery, creating a number of characters and a complex plot, but it soon became obvious that my mystery, featuring gay characters, wasn’t particularly suited for Woman’s Day (not in the 1980s, anyway), and was going to end up being too long for the contest, anyway.  I was also not really up to writing it, at that time.  I started it, but didn’t get very far.  It would be decades before I learned how to finish writing projects reliably.

I’ve been searching through boxes in the attic, looking for my original notes, but this may be a lost cause.  I know they’re kicking around somewhere, because I’ve stumbled across them several times over the years, and every time I did, I thought to myself, “I should really finish this someday.”  They might turn up over the next few weeks, but for now, I’m just going to dredge as much up out of my memory as I can.  Chances are, I may come up with better ideas now, anyway.  I know the basic idea behind the mystery, but it isn’t the greatest mystery ever conceived.  With or without my notes, I’ll need to put some effort into reworking the story, if I don’t want the reader to solve it in the first chapter.

But I’m getting excited about it and NaNoWriMo, in general.  I keep poking at the website and tweaking my profile.  If I recall, they’ll open the site up for people to enter the basic info about their novel projects at the beginning of October.

In the meantime, I’ve finally worked out an ending for Murderous Requiem, and now I just need to write it.  Hopefully, I can get that done in the next week or two.  It will require a lot of rewriting, I already know, to fix inconsistencies in the plot and possibly to obscure the solution to the mystery a bit more.  It seems far too obvious to me, at the moment.  But I’ll just finish it and see what the final result looks like.  I still think it’s a fun read, and hopefully others will agree.

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September 14, 2011 · 1:11 pm

Solving the Murder

Okay, so I’ve set up the muder scenario in my occult mystery, Murderous Requiem; I know who did it, I know how they did it, and I think I’ve obscured it enough so that my amateur “detective” doesn’t seem like a complete idiot for not figuring things out immediately.

Now what?

The murderer probably shouldn’t get away with it.  I think we’re all agreed on that point.  (Be quiet, Tim!)  But how is Jeremy (my main character) going to solve the crime?  I’ve been dropping clues, but most of them are meant to send him off in the wrong direction.  And at the moment, there’s nothing really pointing to the murderer, other than the fact that said murderer doesn’t really appear capable of killing anyone — always a dead giveaway in a murder mystery.

Then there’s the added problem of Jeremy not knowing that the murder has occurred….

Oh, he knows one murder has occurred.  But not the one that’s critical to the plot.  The way it’s set up, I’m not sure if he’ll find out about the second murder until the very end.  If he did, it might mess up my carefully constructed misdirection.  Of course, since this is my first murder mystery, my carefully constructed misdirection might be as transparent as glass to the reader.  But I’ll have to worry about that later.  For now, ignorance is bliss, and I choose to believe I’m a plotting genius.

Except that I can’t figure out where to go next.  I know it can’t be a slip-up on the murderer’s part.  That would just be lame and make my detective look like a halfwit for needing the solution handed to him.  So a new clue has to turn up somewhere, preferrably connected to the mysterious manuscript the entire story is revolving around, and one that points to the identity of the murderer.

Maybe when Jeremy finishes translating the 14th-century Italian manuscript, it will say, “Verily, the murderer is….”

Oh, dear.  We’re back to Jeremy being a halfwit again.

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