K. B. Owen’s own Alchemy: “Dangerous and Unseemly”

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book release, creativity, murder mysteries, support, writers

It’s Wednesday peeps, and that’s the day we talk about writing and writers. I’m pleased as punch to welcome back our friend K.B. Owen. I am humbled by her greatness and was so thrilled when she asked to stop by Social Alchemy on her blog tour. She has just published her first novel, “Dangerous and Unseemly” a Concordia Wells Mystery. Let’s give it up for K.B.!!!

Alchemy as you know, has to do with transformation. And K.B. has transformed. She went into the chrysalis of “would be” and now she is a “published” author. It’s so much hard work, and takes energy and courage, she is an inspiration to us all.

That sweet smile… hides a scheming, crafty mind

You know we’re big mystery readers here at Social Alchemy, and Kathy’s story offers up a very unique setting and time period as well as intriguing heroine, Concordia Wells. Here’s how Kathy introduces us to the world of her story:

The year is 1896, and Professor Concordia Wells has her hands full:  teaching classes, acting as live-in chaperone to a cottage of lively female students, and directing the student play, Macbeth.

But mystery and murder are not confined to the stage.  Malicious pranks, arson, money troubles, and the apparent suicide of a college official create turmoil at the women’s college.  For Concordia, it becomes personal when a family member dies of a mysterious illness, and her best friend is attacked and left for dead.

With her friend still in danger and her beloved school facing certain ruin, Concordia knows that she must act.  But uncovering secrets is a dangerous business, and there are some who do not appreciate the unseemly inquiries and bold actions of the young lady professor.  Can she discover the ones responsible…before she becomes the next target?

Don’t you just LOVE this cover?

I was lucky enough to score some Skype time with K.B. or Kathy, I had tons of questions. First I wanted to learn more about Concordia:

K.B. Owen: Concordia is named after the Greek goddess of harmony. But “harmony” only applied to her relationship with her father, who introduced her to the world of literature and the intellect. But she has always been at odds with her mother and sister, who embrace a world of fashion magazines, teas, and dances – she was never quite at ease in that sphere.  Concordia’s a square peg in a round hole, so to speak.  In the Progressive Age, upper middle class American women were still expected to follow a domestic path, make the right social connections, marry well, and secure an ideal home environment for their children.  Concordia, on the other hand, wanted to go to college and build an independent life for herself.  By this time her father – the one person who would have championed her dream – had died.  She defied her mother and did it anyway, which has put them at odds ever since.

RFH: Tell me more about her clothing, is it true she had to do all her detecting wearing a bustle?

K.B. Owen: At that time, the bustle was not as big as you are used to seeing them!  Her long skirts are more of an encumbrance during, shall we say, “active” scenes.  She does have a bicycling outfit, which feature bloomers, a shorter skirt and leggings.  Even she would admit it shows a shocking amount of leg.  Abbreviated outfits of this sort were acceptable for particular sports: golf, lawn tennis…even basketball, which was quite the rage in women’s colleges at the time.  Normally, though, Concordia wears the very ladylike shirtwaist and long skirts that were typical of the period.

RFH: What kinds of classes could a young lady take at one of these colleges?

K.B. Owen: In creating this world, I was fortunate enough to find some wonderful resources in the Smith College and Mount Holyoke course catalog archives.  Many of the offerings were based in the classics of the time: Latin, Greek, Rhetoric, Mathematics, and Moral Philosophy.  Schools often had specializations: Smith had an impressive Music Department, and I believe it was Bryn Mawr that offered an Astronomy specialty.  But some of the colleges in the south were more like finishing schools or female seminaries, offering courses in “domestic skills” subjects like child-rearing and sewing. People were conflicted about women’s higher education back then; some of the more progressive advocates wanted women’s colleges to be as academically rigorous as men’s colleges.  But there was also a demand for women to be trained in more practical, domestic subjects, too.  Many colleges offered both types of courses.

RFH: What inspired you to write a book set in this time period?

K.B. Owen: My doctorate is in 19th Century British literature, so I was familiar with the period. But I wanted to write an American mystery.  There are a lot of British series out there, but not as many set in the United States, and I felt more comfortable with American vernacular, obviously.  My mother-in-law was my specific inspiration for the women’s college setting.  After she passed away, we were clearing her desk drawers and discovered cool items from her college days. I thought it would be a fascinating setting for a mystery.  There’s also the fact that I taught college literature for nearly two decades, too, so it seemed a good fit.

RFH: And why do you write mysteries?

K.B. Owen:  My childhood reading – especially Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes – was largely responsible for that, I think!  And I never outgrew my love of mysteries.  Writing them has become a natural extension of that.  In my opinion, it’s a special genre, for a lot of reasons: the thrill of the chase, the battle of the intellect, the restoration of order, justice being done….  In an untidy, unfair world, that can be comforting.

And folks, there is more! K.B., that crafty lady, is running a contest!

Contest:

How about a little mystery fun…and a prize!  Each stop in K.B. Owen’s book launch tour has a mystery question (below).  The alphabet letter next to the correct answer is what you want.  By the end of the tour you’ll have enough letters to unscramble the answers to which ROOM, WEAPON, and SUSPECT.  But it’s just for fun, so even if you just want to answer one quiz question, email Kathy with the answer at kbowenwriter(at)gmail(dot)com.  She’d love to hear from you!  She’ll draw a winner from all the entries and announce it at Karen McFarland‘s blog (http://www.karenmcfarland.com), the last stop of the tour.  What could you win?  A free ebook copy of Dangerous and Unseemly, and a $25 gift card of your choice to either Starbucks, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble!   Full details (with the story of the untimely demise of Sir Reginald “Good Riddance” Crenshaw) at: http://kbowenmysteries.com/whodunnit-play-the-book-tour-game/

Good luck!

Email Deadline: Monday, April 1st

Question:
There was a mysterious incident in Agatha Christie’s life.  In her early adulthood, she:
T) was accused of murdering her first husband
U) disappeared for 11 days and when she was found had no memory of the time
V) had charge of the hospital pharmaceutical dispensary, in which a large quantity of poison disappeared
W) was rumored to have an illegitimate child

Now that your appetite for crime and bustles has been whetted, here are all the ways and places you can RUN NOW and get a copy of “Dangerous and Unseemly” for yourself and your friends:

Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Unseemly-Concordia-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BIOACIC

Paperback (Amazon):
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Unseemly-Concordia-Wells-Mystery/dp/0988997401

Barnes and Noble Nookbook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dangerous-and-unseemly-kb-owen/1114666776?ean=2940016372143

Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284662

Kobo:
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Dangerous-Unseemly-Concordia-Wells-Mystery/book-Fnt2SjyHfkC8405irj-b2Q/page1.html

Scribd:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/126454100/Dangerous-and-Unseemly-A-Concordia-Wells-Mystery

Thanks K.B. for sharing your information about this lovely book. And thanks everyone for stopping by.

Writing Matters: Writer Conference Recordings

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conferences, recordings, speakers, teaching, writing

Today’s post is a blatant promo for a dear friend of mine. Many of you know that I have been a writers conference attendee/volunteer for many years. I spent about ten years at the Maui Writers Conference, and have been lucky enough to attend The San Francisco Writers Conference, and Thrillerfest for the last three years.

One thing all of these conferences have in common, is that all the sessions are recorded by my old friend Patrick Von Wiegandt, who owns VWtapes.com. He records all sorts of conferences including Sleuthfest, Bouchercon, The Independent Book Publishers Association, Left Coast Crime, Desert Dreams, and many, many more.

no, there are no more “tapes” but CD’s and MP3′s

 

He also records many different conferences, and for years, VW tapes was the official recording vendor for Macworld and the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference from 1996-2000. In those days, all the recordings were made on cassette tapes, so Patrick jokes that he helped to deliver the digital revolution — on analog.

I worked for Patrick at the Maui Writers Conference for years, and for years he’d give me left over copies of recordings, and I would always just say “nah” because back in the day, I would just listen to music. Yes, I will admit I’m an idiot for turning my nose up at such a great offer. Finally, I believe it was when he began recording Thrillerfest on MP3’s that I gave a listen. And my world changed.

I downloaded several recordings into my ipod, and started listening to them while I drove and I was blown away. When you are at the conference and listening to the presentation, it is so easy to think, “yeah, I got it, I’m gonna remember this, I’m gonna use this.” But before you know it, you’re hanging out with your friends having fun, and when you finally get back home, and sit yourself down to your work, do you really remember what you heard? Can you even read the notes you took?

I wanted to list a couple of my favorite sessions, just to get you started, the first is from Thrillerfest 2008, it’s Don Maass and the title is “Sorry, Your Thriller isn’t Scary.” He gives you a great plan on how to systematically tighten your plot and raise the stakes so your readers will be turning pages.

Another favorite is from the Independant Book Publishers Association Conference, “Ebook Trends, Who’s Buying, What Are They Buying, What Does it Mean” with Angela Bole of Book Industry Study Group, and Kelly Gallagher of Bowker. This is amazing information that you indie authors really need to hear. (One word of warning, you can not see the power point presentations, but the speakers are very good at explaining the graphics they are using.)

And check out the prices, these are more than affordable, especially if you are can’t afford to attend every writer conference out there. And these are perpetual, you can listen to them over and over, gleaning more information each time.

Writing Matters: Hemmingway’s Iceberg Theory

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characters, charts, conflict, Hemingway, iceberg theory, writing

In this post, I want to look at how ideas about writing evolve and change from writer to writer. In his book, “Death in the Afternoon,” Ernest Hemingway spoke about what he called the “iceberg principle” or the “theory of omission,”he explains that:

 ”If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of the movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”

In James Scott Bell’s book, “Conflict & Suspense” he refers to the iceberg principle under the subject of… Subtext. With regard to writing scenes in a book he says: “A scene should be about more than what it is about. On the surface it is what the characters are doing and saying. But underneath the surface, other story deposits are bubbling up toward the top.”

Now, granted most icebergs don’t bubble, but that’s beside the point. But Bell did include a very interesting diagram in the book, which shows the exposed part of the iceberg as the “scene,” below that he lists, “character relationship,” “backstory,” and “theme.”  This is in keeping with Hemingway’s idea, that if you understand the characters relationship to each other, know some of the backstory, and have considered the theme you are exploring. Those elements don’t have to be written in the scene as part of the action, but it can inform how your characters interact with each other.

Now, I look at all of this and in my small mind, what do I see? I see a form. If I haven’t told you, I’m not big on “pantsing” when it comes to writing, I’m a planner. I don’t outline, as it’s tough to really consider creating an emotional experience for your reader when you are just outlining: “this happens, and then there’s an explosion, and then this happens.”

So, with this valuable insight I created the following form. One on side is your POV character, on the other, the opposition character (in this particular scene) If you fill out each blank, for each character, you know about their backstory, their relationship and this may inform how you are expressing the theme of the overall story. You can use this as a guide to shape the scene, now knowing what to omit.

it always helps to look beneath the surface….

In the diagram, I looked at two characters, Phil, the detective, the POV character in the scene. He’s investigating a murder, Cheryl, is a key witness and he goes to her jewelry store to interview her. Now, add to the mix that Phil broke off a relationship with Cheryl years ago, and Cheryl hopes one day to win Phil back. This gives you, the writer a whole set of choices to make when creating this scene. How does Cheryl look to Phil now? The scene is from his point over view, is she still as pretty as ever? Or has she aged… badly? Is he going to use their past relationship to get more information out of her?

I hope you can see that doing this little exercise works from the top down or the bottom up. Let’s say you have decided on the themes you want to explore but have not created the characters. How would you create a character if you know that one side of your theme question has to do with “everyone lies” they way they did in the television show “House”?

What do you think? Would you find this helpful the next time you are stuck in a scene? When you want to add more tension, the kind that just simmers below the surface? I would love to hear what you have to say. Thanks as always, for stopping by.