Elizabeth Terrell, Mystery/ Crime Novelist, recap

I enjoyed hearing Elizabeth Terrell talk about her creative process and the business of writing.

Beth Terrell assists with Killer Nashville, so she gave us details about that event. At Killer Nashville, a TBI special agent, Dan Royse, actually stages a crime scene, and attendees can try to solve the crime and include the details of the crime, the prize being free admission to Killer Nashville next year.

To learn more about Killer Nashville 2009, click here: http://www.killernash...

One website Beth mentioned was DorothyL, "DorothyL is a discussion and idea list for the lovers of the mystery genre.": http://www.dorothyl.c...

Beth gave us several good websites to assist writers looking for agents or developing a manuscript.

Nathan Bransford, literary agent, maintains a blog that contains good information for all writers: http://nathanbransfor... On the right hand side below the About Me, you get a list of suggestions that every writer needs to know; some highlights include How to Find a Literary Agent, Your Rights as an Author, The Basic Query Letter Formula, How to Format Your Manuscript, How to Write a Synopsis, and How to Write a Nonfiction Book. Bransford calls these the Essentials, and writes "Please read before you query"; it's like having a road map to your new adventure of let's get published.

Beth also told us that Nathan Bransford sponsored a contest on his blog called An Agent for a Day; this is his first blog entry about that contest:
http://nathanbransfor...

Beth mentioned that Jessica Faust has a good blog; she is a primary at BookEnds: http://bookendslitage...

Both of these blogs are, in the words of Beth, good "for demystifying the process."

Beth wrote her first book. Then, she wrote her second book. And in what she learned in writing her first and second books, she went back and revised her second book. She used colored index cards to assist in her revision: white, for plot, clues; yellow, for one subplot; purple, for another subplot; and blue, for character development.

Her first book, TOO CLOSE TO EVIL, received an Honorable Mention in the Genre Fiction category of the 12th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Her book will be re-released in October 2009 with additional material. Her book will be released by Night Shadows Press with a new title, RACING THE DEVIL, and a new author name, E. MICHAEL TERRELL.

The reason for the name change. People of mysteries assume the protagonist is the same sex as the author. Since Jared McKean is male, people will assume Michael is a male author. Another reason: men readers assume women authors write only cozy mysteries.

Beth Terrell is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Private Eye Writers of America. She is also a member of CrimeSpace, a web community where readers and writers of crime fiction can meet: http://crimespace.nin...

Beth also recommended a method of promoting if a person is a shy writer. She got the idea from C. Hope Clark's book, THE SHY WRITER: AN INTROVERT'S GUIDE TO WRITING SUCCESS. You get a fellow shy writer to sign books with you. That writer recommends your books, and you recommend the other writer's book.

In her first attempt to write a mystery, she learned about a competition whose deadline was 6 weeks away. At first, she struggled to write
1,000 words a day, but by the end of the six weeks, she was writing 5,000 words a day. She described a method by which she would get unstuck if she got stuck in her writing. She would get out a notebook and interview her character to see what happens next. While she would type the manuscript on computer, this notebook was handwritten, and that would break the impasse.

Beth mentioned she used to start many projects but not finish. Using ideas she got from Anne Lamont's BIRD BY BIRD and Lawrence Block's SPIDER, SPIN ME A WEB, she began to allow herself to write a crappy first draft. She also uses index cards for a Fast First Draft. She puts one scene per card, and that way, she can mix the cards if necessary, or rearrange them, much like an outline in miniature. Once she gets the first draft done, she views it much like clay; her rough draft can then be molded and sculpted into a novel.

Another website that Beth recommends is J.A. Konrath's website, http://www.jakonrath.... . J.A. Konrath is the author of the Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thrillers. He has collected his advice into a free ebook, THE NEWBIE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING. Looks like good stuff: http://www.jakonrath....

Beth is also the Thursday contributor to the Murderous Musings group blog with Chester Campbell, Ben Small, Mark W. Danielson, Jean Henry Mead, and Pat Browning. You can read all their musings at http://www.murderousm...