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Making time to write

18 Jun
Sharon A. Crawford's latest in the Beyond series

Sharon A. Crawford’s latest in the Beyond series

If you want to write some more of that novel, that short story, that essay, sometimes you need to take drastic actions.

Like toss all the other work-related stuff into the holding bins. Yes, for some of us one holding bin just isn’t big enough.

That’s what I did (for the most part) the last three days. And not only finished a personal essay that was in an appalling draft state, I wrote some more in my next Beyond novel. I woke up my characters – the fraternal twin PIs Dana Bowman and Bast Overture and my stuttering detective Donald Fielding.  I also straightened out some plot inconsistencies, smoothed some other parts, sorted out and included the last bit of info from my police consultant, but also more questions arose for research. Most of it has to do with police procedure and I’ll be getting back soon to my police consultant about that.

Something else happened as I wrote both the novel content and that personal essay. I go lost in my writing, i.e., the world around me continued on – cars driving by, neighbours cutting their lawn, etc. but it was on the peripherals and if I noticed, it was sub-consciously or just in passing to silently acknowledge it way back in my mind.

The phone ringing is another matter. Although I am glad to have the phone working, it did intrude. No, I didn’t answer it; if I did someone would get a nasty earful. I did answer the door because at the time I had the inside door open to let in fresh air.

It was someone selling something to do with heating the house equipment – I was curt and sent him on his way.

The moral here (besides keeping your doors all closed when you are writing) is if you want to write, don’t only says so, do so.

You will get taken in by your story and you might just get somewhere writing it.

The creative satisfaction can only be described as…well the words you write do it more than justice.

Happy writing.

 

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 

Sharon A. Crawford is the author of the Beyond book series. More info at www.samcraw.com and www.bluedenimpress.com – my publisher – you can also purchase e-books – both Kindle and Kobo from Blue Denim Press. Click on the Beyond Blood Book cover at the top of this post.

 
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Posted by on June 18, 2015 in Beyond Blood, Blue Denim Press, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Time Management for Writers, Writing, Writing Time

 

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Don’t forget the ears – Promoting your book on radio

30 Apr
Sharon A. Crawford's latest in the Beyond series

Sharon A. Crawford’s latest in the Beyond series

In this graphic online world we sometimes forget there is another older way to promote your book. And it can be done online – live streaming or download or via the website’s Archives. The word is “radio” and although your audience can’t see you they can hear you.

I’ve had that radio interview experience a few times lately for my mystery novel Beyond Blood. None were straightforward. But all were interesting and satisfying.

Probably the closest to “straightforward” was a phone interview for a local (Cobourg, Ontario Canada) radio station. The q and a was normal but it felt a little strange reading an excerpt from Beyond Blood into my wireless phone.

For another radio station I was interviewed in a closet. No brooms or mops but lots of chairs piled up. The location was the Cobourg Public Library and the occasion was Word Northumberland in October 2014. The radio host had a micro digital recorder and among the chairs we did the q and a. Fortunately, I didn’t have to read in the closet. That was done on the small stage in the corner of the publishers and authors exhibit room where authors took their turns reading excerpts from their latest books. And yes, those segments were recorded.
Perhaps the most interesting is the interview I did with Nancy Bullis Tuesday night at 10 p.m. for her Howl show. Love that title. And love the location even more. CIUT 89.5 FM is the long-running University of Toronto radio station. Nancy has been hosting Howl for fifteen and a half years. But they weren’t always at this Hart House location. Until fall 2010 they were in another building closer to a main drag – Bloor Street – and Howl was broadcast live at 2 p.m. on Sundays. Nancy said she always ran into the annual Santa Clause parade just as it started.

But the curious thing is the studio’s actual location – if you can find it. Took me two preliminary visits and a chat with the station manager to find out exactly where on the third floor of historic Hart House it is situated.To make the search more confusing, the first recording studio you see is NOT the correct one. You have to walk along an inner corridor in front of that one until you come to another door which leads you to another corridor with the correct studio at the end.

I had no trouble finding Hart House or its west wing as instructed. Apparently some interviewees can’t do that and land in the east wing. Nancy has chased after lost interviewees before.

But not me. I found it without any problems the night of the interview; my research paid off. When Nancy arrived (and she was early too), she found me chatting with Robert the technician. Nancy and I had a preliminary chat then went inside the studio – the recording part in the front and the actual place where the interview occurs in a small room behind. We sat at a small oval table with huge table-top mics. Nancy checked to see which ones were working and then gave me mic instructions – how far away to put my face from the mic. She adjusted the mic a bit.

I’m usually useless with microphones. I get too close, too far away or worse – have to adjust the mic because someone taller used the mic before me. When I try to adjust these mics, I either can’t move the stand part and/or the mic comes off and I feel like a would-be rock star who can’t sing. That’s me. So I use my loud outside voice.

With the CIUT radio interview, no mic problem I guess. My publisher’s editor listened to the show live while driving home and said the interview was good. I gather he could hear it all right.

So what went on in the interview? Nancy asked questions and I talked about how I got into writing mysteries, about research, some of the characters (the fraternal twin PIs Dana Bowman and Bast Overture) and Dana’s son, David, plus a couple more eccentric characters, Great Aunt Doris and the stuttering Detective Sergeant Donald Fielding, and if my characters appear in both my books.

We also talked about that other Beyond book – the short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point (Blue Denim Press, 2012) and the four linked stories connected to Beyond Blood and why the two weren’t published in chronological order.

And where I am reading in the near future. I also managed to get in my website address somewhere in the conversation. Those two are very important.

Speaking of reading – I did read a short excerpt from Beyond Blood. And it didn’t feel like I was reading to a wall or a wireless phone.

Until Wednesday, May 6 you can check out my interview at http://www.ciut.fm/shows-2/ciut-audio-archives/ scroll down to Howl and click on Howl. You need an MP3 player to listen, from what I see there. But remember, I am not technically inclined.

And for those who must have their visual, you can see and hear my interview about Beyond Blood and writing on thatchannel’s Liquid Lunch at http://youtu.be/i2bBaePIWgY

 

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

Sharon A. Crawford is the author of the Beyond book series. More info at www.samcraw.com and www.bluedenimpress.com

Beyond Blood Book cover at the top of this post links to my Amazon author profile. If you buy a copy there, please do a review on amazon.com.

 

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2015 in Author Interviews, Author Reading, Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Characters and plot in fiction, Reading out loud, Writing

 

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Let your fiction characters evolve

23 Apr
Sharon A. Crawford's latest in the Beyond series

Sharon A. Crawford’s latest in the Beyond series

How relevant is your original concept of your fiction characters? You do an outline of their traits and how they act, talk, etc. Then as you write your novel something happens.

Your characters have the nerve to change. They don’t act according to your plan, your concept of them. And worse, the little devils want to take over your novel.

Excuse me. It is their novel too. Without them you don’t have a novel or at the most, you have a bare bones plot with some iffy and maybe characters.

If you remember, last week’s post dealt with guest characters wanting to take over https://sharonacrawfordauthor.com/2015/04/16/fiction-characters-who-want-to-take-over-the-story/ so let’s take that a step further. But first we have to step back. You and your friends and family did not suddenly stop changing and growing (and not just physically here) at age five, age 20 and so on. You evolve; you change; things happen.

Same with your fiction characters. As you write your novel, no matter what you put in your outline for characters and plot, something is going to change if for no other reason than the original idea, the original concept, just won’t work.

I’ll give you an example from my recently published mystery novel Beyond Blood. One of the biggies was changing the POV characters from one – private investigator Dana Bowman, PI – to also her fraternal twin and PI partner Bast Overture, Dana’s six-year old son, David, and the mysterious Him. That sure opened up the plot. It also meant getting inside four, not one, characters’ heads.

And dealing with their development, their actions and their demands. Sure it puts the writer on edge. Would this change work? Should I do this or should I do that?

I’ve found when you get to a point where you have to deviate from the original plan, it works best to write spontaneously and see what happens. Each character will invade your mind and make demands. You may not use all of what they want, but listen to them. And just write. You can make more changes later.

That’s what I do even though it means scrolling to and from different parts to fix something that doesn’t seem consistent or make sense. And I do it when my characters insist.

Remember, characters are real to you and to your readers. Just like you, your family and friends, characters evolve over time.

Let them.

And if you want to hear a bit about the point of view changes I made, I will be reading from Beyond Blood this evening when I join 15 other Crime Writers of Canada authors reading at the Arthur Ellis Short List Party. We each get three minutes to read – I can just squeeze in my two pages of Prologue – one from Him’s point of view and one from Dana’s.

After the readings all the CWC authors short-listed in the various Arthur Ellis Awards categories will be named – out loud. If you are in the Toronto or GTA area in Ontario, Canada, please join us from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Indigo Book Store in the Manulife Centre at Bay Street and Bloor Street West. It promises to be fun.

Cheers.

 

Sharon A. Crawford

Sharon A. Crawford is the author of the Beyond book series. More info at www.samcraw.com and www.bluedenimpress.com including a link to a radio interview at http://bluedenimpress.com/authors/sharon-a-crawford/ Online TV interview from Liquid Lunch is at http://youtu.be/i2bBaePIWgY

Beyond Blood Book cover at the top of this post links to my Amazon author profile. If you buy a  copy there, please do a review on amazon.

 
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Posted by on April 23, 2015 in Beyond Blood, Blue Denim Press, Channelling Fiction Characters, Characters and plot in fiction, Credible Fiction Characters, Fictional Characters Interviewing Authors, Plot and Characters, Point of View in Fiction, Sharon A. Crawford, Uncategorized, Writing

 

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Getting the scene right in your story

15 Jan
Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press.

When writing fiction it is not only important to make your characters and plot realistic, but you need to do the same with your setting. Especially when you combine the setting with your characters and plot. Especially in rooms. Especially in action scenes in rooms.

Remember, you may have the visual in your mind but the reader is reading words, not watching it on TV. Think of police mystery shows, such as Chicago PD where the police are entering a building in force. The characters don’t know what they will find inside – people or structure, but you can bet the writers and director do. It can mess things up if you have a setting that just doesn’t match up with what the characters are doing.

Let’s take that scene mentioned above. As a fiction author, you need to know if there are stairs inside, where they are, if any of them have defects or squeak, how big the rooms are, and what rooms there are and how many levels. Otherwise you might unintentionally have a scene akin to the Keystone Cops.

In Beyond Blood, I had somewhat tight quarters to play out the climax – a medium-sized yacht. I had to know what would be on board, its arrangement, if my characters would all fit and be able to move around as needed (I solved that one by not having them all in one place at once).

But before I did that I had to get on a yacht, so I did. I got a tour of a somewhat smaller yacht and asked the owner/sailor about the terminology. And I read books on the subject.

There is a certain amount of micro-managing by the author once you get your building rooms straightened out. You need to consider any windows, if they face the sun and at what point of day. Is it dark and rainy outside when your characters are inside? You can’t have a character come in out of pouring rain and when he or she is in the living room or an office have bright sunlight streaming through…unless it suddenly clears up.

Then there is the feasibility of your characters moving around in a room and what they can see while they are in action. For one scene in Beyond Blood, I actually stood up from my computer and tried to re-enact the scene to consider room corners and furniture (my desk substituted for the office desk) to see if it would work.

You can also draw room sketches and if you aren’t somewhat incompetent in Math, do the rooms to scale. No, I don’t do the latter. But I did go around in different areas, different cities and towns with my camera to find the perfect house that would work with the Attic Investigative Agency on the top floor for the fraternal twin PIs – Dana Bowman and Bast Overture. This house had to be at leastt 75 years old, three stories, with two balconies and a turret. I found the house in downtown London, Ontario. I believe it is used for offices now) near a park and snapped away. No, I didn’t go inside. I used my imagination and memories for the inside.

But that’s fodder for another post.

Cheers.

 

Sharon A. Crawford

For something completely different check out when I was interviewed about Beyond Blood and writing on radio station Northumberland 89.7 FM http://bluedenimpress.com/authors/sharon-a-crawford/

All my TV interviews are posted on You Tube. Click on “Video” at the top right of this blog

Check out my website www.samcraw.com for more information about Beyond Blood and my writing workshops. I do update it.

The book cover at the top links to my Amazon author profile and my books. E-copies are also available at my publisher’s website http://www.bluedenimpress.com

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2015 in Beyond Blood, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford

 

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Merry Christmas from Beyond Blood characters and Sharon A. Crawford

24 Dec

Dana Bowman, David Bowman and Bast Overture from Beyond Blood are here with me on this Christmas Eve. I am posting a day early this week because southern Ontario has a horrible weather forecast from late tonight and into tomorrow – very heavy winds so there is the worry of damage and power outage. Scrooge’s saying “Bah Humbug” comes to mind.

Dana: Now Sharon, it’s not that bad.

Me: Fine for you to say – you are 30 miles north of Toronto in Thurston.

Dana: But we do have Snow Lake, a pretty big lake so could have lake effect weather issues. We do have a wind warning.

Me: But not 60 k an hour with gusts up to 90 or 100 k depending on where around the Great Lakes you are.

Dana: True.

Bast: It doesn’t hurt to make preparations.

Dana: Yeah right, little brother. Like you did for Y2K? Bast already is creating outside-the-fridge storage for our food.

David: And I’m making a tent for my stuffed beavers.

Me: Really? How many beavers do you have now?

David: Twenty.

Me: Will they all fit in your tent?

David: Yes, it’s a big tent.

Dana (scratching her head): At least that gets them out of his bed. At this rate we’ll have to get him a bigger bed.

David: Aw, Mommie.

Me: I, too am making preparations for this wind storm, but hadn’t thought of a tent. Anyway, aside from the storm, what are you doing to celebrate Christmas? David, I bet you are waiting for Santa.

David: Yes, Uncle Bast says the chimney is big enough for him to get down. But is it safe for him to land on the roof?

Bast: Santa could also land on the ground and get through a window.

David: But all the windows are locked.

Bast: Santa will figure a way to get in. Don’t forget he is magical for Christmas.

David: Goodie. Mommie; don’t forget to leave a snack out for Santa – near a window.

Dana (ruffling David’s hair): Don’t worry, I won’t.

Me: So how else are you celebrating Christmas? Is Great Aunt Doris coming for dinner?

Dana: No way. If that woman comes, she stays and stays and stays. No just the three of us this year. We have a turkey…

Bast: already cooked in case of power outage.

Me: And where are you keeping it in case?

Bast: In a Styrofoam container on the back porch outside the kitchen door.

David: With a brick on top to keep out racoons.

Me: I thought Thurston was rid of racoons.

Dana: Sh. Don’t give the plot of Beyond Blood away.

Me: Did I mention Beyond Blood?

Dana: Well, no.

Me: Let’s just wish everybody a happy and safe Christmas.

Dana, Bast, David and Me: Happy and safe holiday.

David: And build a tent to keep you safe.

 

Next week’s post will feature my review of another suspense-mystery author’s new book – Rene Natan’s The Woman in Black. I’ll also be asking Rene some writing-related questions. Stay tuned and hopefully I’ll post on New Year’s Day instead of one day early.

Meantime see Sharon’s website http://www.samcraw.com for more info on Beyond Blood and other writing, editing and workshops. And visit Sharon at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sharon-A-Crawford/412730865439394
For last-minute Christmas shoppers: see below and click on book covers for online purchase of Beyond Blood e-copies from the publisher Blue Denim Pess (e-pub and Kindle). For print copies go to http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/contributor/author/sharon-a-crawford/?langtype=4105 Or go to any bricks and mortar bookstore and ask to have the book ordered in.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 

 

 
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Posted by on December 24, 2014 in Fictional Characters Interviewing Authors, Interviewing fictional characters, Merry Christmas, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing Time

 

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Beyond Blood character takes over blog post

11 Dec
Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

Last week I mentioned that the fraternal twins from Beyond Blood would be posting here for the next couple of weeks. Today, Bast Overture will write this post. He was given one criteria – he had to discuss his feelings about his actions, etc. in Beyond Blood – without giving away the plot. Bast…

Bast Overture here and I have my recorder turned on. I know, bad habit of a former crime writing journalist.

Sharon A. has given me a difficult task. Talking about my feelings is not my big point. My twin, Dana, however, wears her emotions on her sleeve. But we are connected as only twins are, even though we’re fraternal twins.

When Dana’s six-year-old son (and my nephew) David is kidnapped … and Sharon this is NOT a spoiler as this info is on the back cover of Beyond Blood … I was almost as devastated as Dana. I say “almost” because Dana is David’s mother. As Dana had to cope as both a mother and private investigator, I tried to keep cool, tried to keep an even keel with some humor in our talks – but never anything insulting about what had happened. When Dana hit her down side I tried to comfort her, tried to help her. But I felt so helpless. So I did what I do best – dug in like the crime writer I used to be and helped Dana interview some of the people we had to talk to.

In hindsight I probably should have interviewed them all. But Dana being Dana had to do some of it herself. That’s the way she is. She won’t let herself sit still and do nothing.

I was the one who found Debbie’s body (not a spoiler, as it’s also on Beyond Blood’s back cover), I was sickened and could barely stagger back to tell Dana who had just found out David had been kidnapped. That surprised and infuriated me – I’m supposed to offer support and comfort to my twin, even though she is 43 minutes older than me. And she makes sure I know that. In all the crime stories, some with gruesome details, I’ve written, I had never seen a murdered dead body until Debbie. But I used some of these crime stories to help Dana get to the truth. I even passed along some information to Detective Sergeant Fielding.

However, I’m sorry I encouraged Fielding and Dana to go on a date on his sailboat. Well, maybe not entirely or maybe the story would have ended differently. Maybe…

Dana: maybe what little brother? You’re not supposed to give the plot away.

Bast: What? I didn’t see you come in. And I’m not giving away the plot. Why are you here? Your turn isn’t until next week.

Dana: Well, I had to hear what you were saying about me.

Bast: And do you approve?

Dana: Yes, except for Fielding.

Bast: So there is something going on between the two of you.

Dana (shaking her fist): That’s none of your business unless I make it so. After all, as you said, I’m 43 minutes older than you.

Bast: But I’m 15 inches taller than you.

Dana: Oh for Christ’s sake, Bast, grow up.

Bast (shrugging): Fine. You’ll have your say in next week’s post. So, now together let’s say it.

Bast and Dana: Read Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford. See below and click on book covers for online purchase of Beyond Blood e-copies from the publisher Blue Denim Pess (e-pub and Kindle). For print copies go to http://sleuthofbakerstreet.ca/ . Or go into a bricks and mortar bookstore and ask to have the book ordered in.

Cheers.

Bast and Dana

and Sharon A. Crawford

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2014 in Author Reading, Beyond Blood, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Interviewing fictional characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

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Tales from the book promo trenches Part 2

04 Dec
Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

The book promo for Beyond Blood continues. This time the promo took on somewhat different formats.

 

Wednesday, November 26 I was the guest speaker at the East End Writers’ Group. Disclaimer: it is my own group but because we meet in a library branch (S. Walter Stewart in Toronto) in their large auditorium, we can schedule guest speakers for the first part and after the break do our usual writing critique of members’ works-in-progress.

I talked about how I transition from short stories to novels and vice-versa with series characters. As my situation of writing/publishing is backwards in time, i.e. not chronological, that makes it more complicated. Beyond the Tripping Point, the short story collection was published in fall 2012 but the four linked stories with the fraternal twin PIs Dana Bowman and Bast Overture, occur in 1999. Beyond Blood is the pre-quel novel set in eight frantic days in August 1998.

My dirty little secret is an older version of Beyond Blood had been written 12 or so years ago. Of course, it had to be completely rewritten. But some of the plotline and character development was already there – something I had to keep in mind when writing the BTTP short stories. It was a constant back and forth as was this presentation last week because I also had q and a with the audience. We even worked humour into the discussion. I ended by doing a short reading from Beyond Blood.

No, didn’t sell any books there – at least in print. But maybe a few people bought e-books on line. Also, when I thought of it, some of the people there had come to my book launch and had already bought a book. Still a good evening.

Saturday, November 29 my books were part of the Toronto Heliconian Literary Group table at the Toronto Heliconian Club’s first (in this incarnation) art and gift sale. In fact, I organized our table. Like sometimes happens with the first of anything, attendance wasn’t great. But I did sell three copies of Beyond Blood and had some good chats with the other member authors. Afterwards, three of us went to the nearby Hemmingway’s Pub for some wine, an early supper and more chatting.

And I bought a mask from one of the artist vendors at the club sale. I collect masks.

But I am now wiped out from all this physical book promo, organization and also client work. I will be taking some time off soon this month to reconnect with family and friends, to attend some Christmas parties and to do some more writing/rewriting of the next novel in the Beyond series. And I will focus more on social media promo for Beyond Blood. And getting more sleep.

But this blog will continue on its weekly (Thursday) basis. However, for the next two weeks I’m letting my two PI characters – Dana Bowman and Bast Overture – do the posting.

Meantime, you can go to my publisher’s website www.bluedenimpress.com to order e-pub and Kindle copies of Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point. Also check out my interview with Tom Taylor on cable TV. I talk about writing novels, short stories and some of the characters in Beyond the Tripping Point. Go to http://bluedenimpress.com/authors/sharon-a-crawford/ and scroll down on the right until you get to  Watch Sharon A. Crawford and Beyond the Tripping Point on Rogers Cable TV

And I will be going to the book launch of World Enough and Crime Anthology featuring stories by Rosemary McCracken, Rosemary Aubert, Melodie Campbell, Donna Carrick and many more this Saturday, Dec. 6 from 2 p.m. to 3.15 p.m. at Sleuth of Baker St., 907 Millwood Avenue in Toronto. Check out Sleuth at http://sleuthofbakerstreet.ca/ Beyond Blood is also available there to order online.

Cheers.

 

Sharon A. Crawford

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

 
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Posted by on December 4, 2014 in Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blogging, Blue Denim Press, Book Promotion, Juggline book promo and writing new novel, Plot and Characters, Series Characters novels and short stories, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing, Writing Critique Groups

 

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Why do writers write?

27 Nov
Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

 

  • Tennessee Williams

 

I was hit with this question and connected it to my crime fiction Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point.

The trigger was listening to best-selling author Linden MacIntyre being interviewed this morning by Mike Duncan on Classic 93.6 FM radio station. MacIntyre was talking about his new novel Punishment and its theme of vengeance versus justice. And he is also a former journalist, albeit a high profile broadcast journalist lately host of CBC’s investigative TV show The Fifth Estate. (More information on MacIntyre in this Toronto Star story http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2014/11/21/linden_macintyre_on_community_vengeance_and_punishment.html

 

What is it about journalists turning to writing fiction, often crime fiction?

I’m beginning to think it is our sense of justice, justice not really being meted out today to those who commit crimes, especially heinous crimes. And as journalists we certainly see our share of that in the true stories we write, as well as in what we read in the newspapers and magazines, whether in print or online. (For the record – now that is a journalistic phrase – I read both print and online.)

With me, this sense of justice is something I have carried from my childhood. Blame it on my Catholic background. As an ex-Catholic I can no longer stand by some of those beliefs. Although I have to admit that my sense of justice comes more from the “eye for an eye” of the Old Testament.

That may be where the vengeance factor fits in.

In all my short stories in Beyond the Tripping Point, no one who commits a crime gets away with it. Not all the baddies get arrested but they get their just desserts. For example, in “Unfinished Business” a woman who was sexually assaulted as a child gets her chance to get back at the guilty party when he becomes a threat to her 12-year-old daughter.

Then there are the four-linked stories featuring the fraternal twin PIs Dana Bowman and Bast Overture. Here all the baddies do get arrested. Dana and Bast both have a great sense of justice. Bast was a former crime reporter so he’s seen a lot of bad things and talked to a lot of bad people. As a journalist he had to try to sit on the observation side. As a PI, especially in my new novel Beyond Blood, he can do more.

But it is Dana who drives this search for justice. Especially after her son David is kidnapped. Then it becomes more personal. Nothing like motherly love to motivate someone.

Maybe that has something to do with my sense of justice – at least adds fuel to the fire. My son is in his mid-thirties now and was never kidnapped but there have been instances over the years where I went to bat for him, even if just the normal growing-up incidents that happen.

Of course, there are other reasons why I write and why crime fiction. I’ll cover them in future blog posts.

For now, I would like to know

Why do you write?

Please comment.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

This Saturday, Nov. 29, 11 a.m. to  4 p.m. I will be selling copies of Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point at the Toronto Heliconian Club Fine Arts and Gift Sale, 35 Hazelton Ave. (Yorkville area), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For more info about the Toronto Heliconian Club and this sale (open to the public), see http://heliconianclub.org/ Scroll down a bit – it is there.

For those not in the Toronto, Canada area, you can click on my book covers below – they will lead you to my publisher Blue Denim Press’s website. Scroll down and you can see where Beyond Blood is currently available, including at www.bluedenimpress.com.

And check my website www.samcraw.com – click on Beyond Blood. I constantly update my gigs on that site.

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to publisher’s website

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection. Click on it for publisher's website

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection. Click on it for link to publisher’s website

 
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Posted by on November 27, 2014 in Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing, Writing to solve real life problems

 

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Beyond Blood character puts Sharon A. Crawford in hot seat

06 Nov
Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

 

  • Anais Nin

 

The other fraternal twin in Beyond Blood – Bast Overture is now going at me with the third degree. At least his journalistic techniques appear familiar to me – he has a recorder running and is also taking notes by hand to back it up in case of technological difficulties.

Bast: Okay, Sharon A., I’ll try not to cover exactly what my sister did last week, but I may want to add to it.

Me: Okay. Fire away.

Bast: First, I’d like to know more about your journalism career. You mentioned you did some crime stories but not a lot. As that is my forte, I wonder if you could tell me what stories you did write and why you wrote them.

Me: Sometimes the story was about a crime that I had first-hand experience with. I see you looked perplexed. No, I didn’t do the crime but it was done against me. For example, when I lived in Aurora, Ontario, my house was broken into. So I wrote a humorous personal essay on that. It was published in Wordscape Seven: Mystery & Suspense Anthology, MTB Press, 2001. I also wrote a story for a community newspaper about protecting your home from invasion.

Bast: What about other stories?

Me: I wrote a story about fraud against seniors in their homes, particularly about home renovations and repairs – this was before Identity theft, although I did write a story on that too. But as I told your sister Dana, I believe that if you do the crime you do the time – one way or the other. So, one of the ways I get back, if you will, is to write about prevention, so people don’t become victims of crime. I talked to seniors as well as police and a unique hardware store then in Aurora – the owners recommended legitimate and trustworthy tradespeople for this. I even found a handyman for me, although I didn’t interview him as that might be considered not at arms length – you know too close to the writer.

Bast: Hmm. You mentioned writing a story on Identity Theft. Can you tell me a bit about that? Did you pitch that story to a magazine or was it assigned?

Me: A little of both. I pitched it to the now defunct Homemakers magazine and the editor there was interested and added more scope to the story so that besides police and identity theft protection experts, I interviewed a couple of people who had their identify stolen – one by getting his regular mail redirected so he had to replace all his credit cards and other ID. The other one was the victim of mortgage fraud – someone put a mortgage, in her name, on her house without her knowledge.

Bast: I gather fraud is something you are interested in and you have that as one of the many crimes in Beyond Blood. How did that come about?

Me: Well, without giving the plot away beyond what is on the back book cover, the fraud in there comes from or maybe I should say is related to some of the other crimes. And I’m not saying any more except that some of the plot events are peculiar to that time (1998) and not completely relevant today.

Bast: That’s a bit obtuse. Care to elaborate.

Me: All right. Without giving it all away (and this is on the back cover) abortions, or rather illegal abortions are part of the story in Beyond Blood. And you know, abortions are in the news again with all the anti-abortion movements in the States and even some press in Canada. But the interesting thing here is not that so much as that one thing related to abortions which was illegal in Canada in 1998 is still illegal in Canada today.

Bast: Let the record show that Sharon A. is not talking about Canadian law regarding abortion itself. Abortions are legal in Canada. Sharon A. is referring to…

Me: Stop. Don’t give the plot away. Let’s just say it all is part of the plot and you and Dana figure it out, but will you do so in time to save Dana’s son and your nephew David?

Bast: Right. But maybe you could include that plot blurb on the back of Beyond Blood. That book cover photo at the top of this post shows the front page only.

Me. Okay. Here it is.

In Beyond Blood (Blue Denim Press, fall 2014), Dana Bowman has misgivings about starting the home-based Attic Investigative Agency with her fraternal twin, Bast Overture. Especially when the agency’s launch is preceded by a break and enter downstairs and a kidnapping at the Mini-Mall involving her son David’s babysitter, Debbie Sangwell. Especially when David is kidnapped and Debbie is murdered during the agency’s opening ceremonies. Hovering in the background is the mysterious “Him.”

Further digging reveals more kidnappings, murders, fraud, and abortion. The twins’ investigation also leads to run-ins with police detective Donald Fielding and CKNT TV reporter Charles Haas, the latter who has the “dirt” on Bast. A colourful cast of characters dot the pages, including Dana’s ex-husband Ronald, Great Aunt Doris, Mini-Mall merchants Lois and Ray Chalmers, and various nosy neighbours. Hovering in the background is the mysterious “Him.”

Dana is pushed beyond blood ties trying to avoid an emotional meltdown as a mother and focus on finding her son. The twin detectives discover that everything seems to be connected. Which connection will lead them to David, and to Debbie’s murderer? Will they be too late for David?

Click on my book cover above – it will lead you to my publisher Blue Denim Press’s website. Scroll down and you can see where Beyond Blood is currently available, including at www.bluedenimpress.com.

And check my website www.samcraw.com – click on Beyond Blood. I constantly update the gigs etc. on that page.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on November 6, 2014 in Beyond Blood, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Fictional Characters Interviewing Authors, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

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Dana Bowman interviews author Sharon A Crawford

30 Oct
Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press

I suppose all fictional characters, especially in adventure or heroic fiction, at the end of the day are our dreams about ourselves. And sometimes they can be really revealing.

  • Alan Moore

Dana Bowman sits before me, sketch pad and charcoal in hand. She is going to give me the third-degree interview.

Dana: I understand you and my brother Bast share a career background.

Me: Journalistic, yes. I am a former journalist for 30 years, so a bit longer than your twin. I did write a few crime-related articles but my beats were the arts, health, seniors, and profiles of all kinds of people.

Dana: How and why did you switch from journalism to mystery fiction?

Me: That’s really two questions. First, the journalism one – it wasn’t really a switch. I just got tired of all the work for newspaper and magazine stories for little pay. Guess I ran out of steam but I am still interested in people and writing their stories, so profiles aren’t off the table completely.

Dana: But why mystery fiction?

Me: Because that’s what I like to read and watch on TV. I grew up with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and from age 12, Agatha Christie. And my late mom and I used to watch the Perry Mason TV series – the original one in black and white. From all that I got hooked on the puzzle – why people do what they do, why it brings them to murder and who the heck is the guilty party. I also have a sense of justice – people who do the crime should do the time – in one way or another. That doesn’t seem to be happening anymore in real life, even back in your days in the late 1990s.

Dana: As Bast would say, let the record show, that Sharon is referring to the timelines in Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point. So, Sharon, can you tell us how you, well created Bast and I? Are you and I similar in any way?

Me: That’s two questions again. I see that’s how you operate.

Dana: You started it all.

Me: Right.

Dana: How are we similar? Especially with our height.

Me: Yes, you and I are shorties, but I have a couple of inches on you.

Dana: Why did you make me 4’11”? Couldn’t you have brought me up to 5 feet at least?

Me: Too close to me. Actually the idea of both yours and Bast’s height came from an aunt and uncle on my dad’s side. Aunt Marguerite was 4’ll” and Uncle Miles was 6’2” But I did give Bast an inch. But I gave you some qualities and traits I don’t have. You own and drive a car. I couldn’t drive a car to save my life.

Dana: Would you want to?

Me: Very occasionally but seldom. I know I would be guilty of roadkill, so it’s safer if I’m never behind the wheel of a car. Also you have a cell phone and I don’t. Sure, it would come in handy in emergencies but cell phone technology is a whole lot more complicated in 2014 than in the late 1990s. And I gave you the gift of being able to draw because I can’t draw a straight line even with a ruler.

Dana: A little jealousy here?

Me. Maybe, but I wanted you different than I. And you and your brother evolved over 15 or 16 years of on and off writing, now definitely in the on stage.

Dana: And Bast? Why did you make him gay?

Me: Because when I first started writing Beyond Blood back in the late 1990s, gay people were just coming out more. The annual Pride parade was just starting up in Toronto. And I wanted a character that was different than what was being published. I know there are now gay (male and female) mystery characters, but how many of them are a fraternal twin?

Dana: True. What about my son David? Where did he come from?

Me: Well, I do have a son, who is now in his mid-thirties and I too was a single parent, so I suppose some of that originated there. And I had issues with being a working mom and wanted to bring that out in the stories.

Dana: Okay. Now, moving along. You mentioned that you want justice done in this world. Is there anything in your background, particularly when growing up, that made you feel this way?

Me: Several things. I was bullied as a child by both one of my best friends and also by a nun in grade school. Never beaten up – it was more verbal. Also I read a lot in the newspapers about 11 and 12-year-old girls getting murdered and that really upset me. I was the same age then. You have to remember this was around 1960 when things were supposedly stricter. Well, they were at school and church – I grew up a Catholic and so there was this belief in the bad being punished for their bad deeds, even an eye for an eye. So, if you killed someone, you deserved to die. But Canadian justice seemed to be getting too liberal. Many convicted murderers were getting their executions (hanging in Canada back then) stayed. I remember in grade 11 at high school class discussion on capital punishment – it was around the time that the government was considering dropping the hanging sentence. I was one of the few in the class who wanted Canada to keep the death penalty. We all know that didn’t happen and a lot of the criminal law got too much in favour of the criminals since then. Sure, some harsh sentences remain, but the convicted killers get jail credit for time spent in prison leading up to and during the trial. The bottom line is I don’t think justice for the victim is being given. But in a mystery novel you can have this happen – one way or the other – even with any lenient laws.

Dana: Wow. That sounds familiar. That’s me; that’s how I feel. And now understand better why I do what I do.

Me: Well, remember I may have created you, but you go out on your own in my stories.

Dana: Oh, so you give me enough rope to hang…. sorry, bad choice of words.

Me: Right. We don’t want you getting killed. It would kill the stories.

Dana: Of course. And I thought it was because you like me.

Me: I do.

Dana: Okay, that’s it for this time. Bast wants to interview you next week.

Meantime click on my book cover above – it will lead you to my publisher Blue Denim Press’s website. Scroll down and you can see where Beyond Blood is currently available, including at www.bluedenimpress.com.

And check my website www.samcraw.com – click on Beyond Blood. I constantly update the gigs etc. on that page.

 

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 

 

 
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Posted by on October 30, 2014 in Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Fictional Characters Interviewing Authors, Sharon A. Crawford

 

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