The Mystery Starts Here

When you stand in the library or bookstore in front of shelves filled with mysteries, how do you chose? What catches your attention and tempts you to pull the book down for a look-see? Certainly I’ll go for an intriguing cover, something unusual. The title too. I’ve heard it said over and over, when you title a book try and make it short and to the point. I’ve done that will all of my books. If it can allude to the story inside, more the better. One thing I abhor is cutesy titles. Of course the kinds of mysteries I like don’t usually go that route, but still, if a title is to cutesy, I’ll pass. Example? It wasn’t a mystery but that book that hit the bestseller lists a few years ago: The Devine Sisterhood of the Ya-Ya or something gag inducing like that. Nope, not for me. So many books, so little time.

Okay, you’ve got that precious gem in your hands – what next? I like to read the book blurb. If it sounds interesting, the book will come home with me. I also scan the back cover to see who’s recommended the book and gushed over it. However, I’m finding out more and more that doesn’t mean zip. Unfortunately you really can’t tell a book from the cover. My husband says he likes to open the book to a random page and read a few sentences. If he likes what he reads, he’ll take the book. I might have to try that. Sometimes I’ll read the first page. If that grabs me, I can usually finish the book.

My husband and I are both avid readers, so we patronize the library system. Why not? Your tax dollars paid for those books. We both chose six books (that way we can remember how many to return! Old People). Lately I’ve found that I’m lucky if I can read – two. My husband reads nothing but Sci-Fi, reads two or three simultanously AND can answer Jeopardy questions without paying attention to the television. Sometimes I don’t like him. Back to books. Why don’t I read them? Same old, same old – they lose my attention. Too much description. Too much wandering off the track. Too many characters or characters with names too similar so I can’t keep them straight. I once started a book that had characters named: John Johnson. Pete Peterson, Lars Larson, and on and on. I wanted to send that author a character naming book. And don’t get me started on authors who sometimes give you the characters first name and sometimes the last name, and…sometimes both names! Jeeze, pick a name and stick with it! When the writer does that, I think there are three people running around on those pages instead of one.

In the end, it all comes down to the music of the words. If they are playing my tune, I’ll read the book. So tell me – please – how do you pick a book to read?

One more thing before I go. I hate Daylight Savings Time! Who’s idea is this, anyhow? Tijme to stop this nonsense NOW. I’m going to take a nap. Till Thursday, Happy Reading.

Rose wrote a good comment and asked where I get my ideas. What a great topic for all of us. Personally I get more ideas than I could ever write about. I clip newspaper articles, a great source. I saw a short piece on an airline crew who found a dead body on an airplane. I’m still mulling that one over. One the front page of today’s newspaper was an article about turning cremins (human cremated remains) into diamonds! There’s got to be a story there. When I watch television, ideas will pop into my head. For instance, I watched part of a program on TLC about women who marry prisoners on death row. I wrote a confession story from that idea called, “Inside/Outside Love.” Another program I saw was on women stalking women. I turned that idea into another confession story titled, “Twisted Love” and sold it to True Romance for $300.00.

Where else? Take a class in a subject that interests you or do volunteer work. I’ve always been an education junky and have taken classes for one thing or another most of my life. Because I am such an avid reader, I always wanted to do was teach adults to read. I did for two years, and got a very good article from that experience, one that I sold three times. I will talk more about slanting articles for multiple sales in a future blog. I volunteered at the Sheriff’s Department for two years and wrote a non-fiction book about my experiences (SHAMELESS PLUG!) It’s titled An Extra Pair of Eyes and is available as an e-book at www.Silverado Publishing.com. Not content with that, I went on to write a romance based on my experiences titled Call Sign: Love. My romantic suspense novel, Stormy Love, started when I was on a business trip with my husband on Amelia Island off the coast of Florida. There are some lovely old Victorian homes there and as I wandered around looking at them, I thought, what if? What it? My husband and I were in the printing business for twenty-one years and out of that experience came my humorous mystery, The Colors of Death.

Have you ever served on Jury Duty? The possibilities there are endless. Sometimes just looking at a photo or painting will spark that old, what if? Just listening to friends and hearing about their lives should spark some great ideas. One of my friends ran away and joined the circus when she was in her 40’s! Yup, I’m half-way through a mystery loosely based on her experience and it’s been great fun to write.

Still not coming up with ideas? Well, there are countless books available that were created for that purpose. I have several, even though I don’t have trouble coming up with ideas. You see, I have this little book-buying habit. I love books about writing and have, well pretty much all of them. Two of my favorite idea-generating books are: The Write-Brain Workbook by Bonnie Neubauer and The Writer’s Book of Matches, 1001 Prompts to Ignite Your Fiction by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts. Both books are excellent and fun to read and peruse. Here’s a prompt from The Book of Matches: Following the trail of several terrible murders, a London detective stumbles on an unlikely clue when he makes an impulsive visit to Stonehenge. Now, go write a story and share it with us!

Expand your experiences, keep your mind open to possibilities and you will find there are ideas to write about everywhere! Until Sunday – keep writing!