Under Cover #2

Time to check in to see what our detectives have been reading lately!

W.H. Beck: I've been booktalking like crazy in my school library lately. One of the new books I love sharing is Tommy Greenwald's CHARLIE JOE JACKSON'S GUIDE TO NOT READING. All I have to do is read the first page to students and they're clamoring to check this funny book out. "Hi, my name is Charlie Joe Jackson, and I hate reading. And if you're reading this book, you hate reading, too. In fact, you do whatever you can to avoid reading, and the fact that you're holding a book in your hand right now is kind of shocking." 
If you have a reluctant reader in your life, you may want to hand them this book.

Kristen Kittscher: Recently I read Zilpha Keatley Snyder's THE EGYPT GAME, a 1967 Newberry Honor medal winner that I had never read as a child. Though not strictly a mystery, it's wonderful read that captures the sense of imaginative play in childhood yet juxtaposes it with a sense of lurking danger. It reminded me in parts of To Kill a Mockingbird, as the protagonists play near the store of a Boo Radley-esque figure. If you missed this one along the way, I highly recommend picking it up!

Diana Renn: I've just started NOWHERE GIRL, a new middle-grade novel by A.J. Paquette. It's about a girl who is born into a Thai prison, and who must leave and make her way in the world after her mother dies. While this is not a traditional mystery, or even marketed as such, I think there is a strong undercurrent of mystery here. I'm intrigued by the personal mysteries that 13-year-old Luchi Ann must solve, since her mother kept the past a secret from her daughter. How did Luchi Ann's mother end up in prison, and why didn't she want her daughter to live out in the "unsafe" world? Who and where are their other family members? These questions are very compelling to me, as is the foreign setting.

Elisa Ludwig: This week I'm reading INCARNATE by fellow Apocalypsie Jodi Meadows. I'm just starting to get into the meat of the story but it's a fascinating otherwordly story of a girl who discovers she's the only one on her planet who has not been reincarnated and is on the hunt to discover just why she has been born. Lots of mystery, intrigue and a truly exotic setting.

Locked Room Mystery

Perhaps I'm the most puzzling of the detectives here, the noir-ish gumshoe with a cheap rented office, a frosted glass door, and prickly disposition. The guy who's maybe on the case because he has to be, not because he wants to be. The enigma. You see, I never set out to write mysteries. Don't really know that much about the rules. I make it a point NOT to know.

That way, when I break 'em, I've got an excuse...

I've written across many genres, everything from romantic comedy, to bone-chilling horror. I like good stories. Period. I hope I've written a few. I start with a scenario first, character second, and let the experts worry about what to call it. So, you can imagine how troubling it was to me when I got the idea for my latest novel, WHISPERTOWN  (HarperCollins, Summer 2013).

I knew I wanted to write about how being part of a WITSEC (that's Witness Protection for those who don't know) family affects a teenage boy. I also knew I wanted him to solve a murder. Right away, that sort of limited my options.

What I knew about the genre pretty much amounted to this: keep 'em guessing. I'd read some Hardy Boys growing up, and watched plenty of Scooby-Doo (okay, it was A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, don't get technical on me), but was far from a scholar on the mysteries. Was a novice, like myself, ALLOWED to write one? Maybe not. I'm sure there are some who'd say DEFINITELY not.

Remember when I said I've got an excuse for breaking the rules? Ignorance is bliss, my friends. I plowed forward.

I didn't exactly FALL into the genre. I'm more like a trespasser. Or a squatter, since I've decided to stay.  I've fallen in love with mysteries. And I plan to write more. WHISPERTOWN is meant to be the first in a series, so maybe I ought to educate myself on the rules and conventions...

Or not. There's a certain appeal to flying by the seat of your pants. I think I'll do it awhile longer.

For the purists out there, you're probably wondering how I did it? How can I possibly get away with such a heinous crime?

Well, I'm sort of like a Locked Room Mystery. The hardest to solve. No easy answers.

I like it that way.

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Lamar "L. R." Giles writes for adults and teens. Penning everything from epic fantasy to noir thrillers, he's never met a genre he didn't like. His debut YA mystery WHISPERTOWN is about a teen in witness protection who investigates his best friend's murder and stumbles on a dark conspiracy that leads back to his own father. It will be published in Summer, 2013 by HarperCollins. He resides in Virginia with his wife and is represented by Jamie Weiss Chilton of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Mystery Monday #3

It's Mystery Monday!
Welcome to our regular Monday feature, where you'll find different kinds of writing prompts and exercises. Each week, we'll give you something to help exercise your mystery-writing muscles.

This week’s prompt is designed to help you enrich (or conceive of) a setting for your mystery. A strong sense of place informs the tone and plot in any fiction, but especially in mysteries. What would Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca be without the crumbling ruins of Manderley? Or, for that matter, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler without the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Ever since Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, mystery authors have relied on setting to create atmosphere and suspense.

Sigmund Freud wrote a famous essay exploring the power of the unheimlich or uncanny in literature. Literally translated, unheimlich means “un-home-like.” While there’s plenty captivating about haunted mansions, graveyards, an abandoned amusement parks, often the most unsettling is when a writer transforms something familiar (a home) into something strange:

• Make  a list of unassuming, familiar settings — invented or real. Feel free to use something from a work-in-progress. The strip mall down the street. Your parent’s kitchen. A fifth grade science lab. Your public library. A newly built subdivision on the outskirts of town. Whatever comes to mind.

• Next, sit quietly, close your eyes, and imagine one of these places. Run through all of your senses as you imagine it: What do you hear, smell, touch, and feel? What colors, shape, texture, people, shadows do you see?

• Do a ten minute free-write to describe what you’ve been imagining in as much detail as possible, using all your senses.

• Now try to imagine the same place from the eyes of person overcome with fear. Perhaps they’ve just found something especially disconcerting? A jar containing teeth and a lock of hair? A dismembered doll? A single blood-stained shoe?  A strange coded message painted on the walls?

• In a free-write of however long you choose, describe the same setting from this frightened character’s point-of-view in as much detail as possible. Feel free to use a character from your WIP.

Afterwards, you may want to now return to a description of setting in your own work to see how you might infuse it with even more tension.

Excerpt from Kirsten Miller's THE IRREGULAR GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY

A sneak peak at Kirsten Miller's THE IRREGULAR GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY, a book she put together for all the fans who asked for her advice about unusual New York sights!

OUTHOUSES AND PRIVIES

Go for a stroll through Manhattan’s Greenwich Village or Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by so many old houses that you may feel like you’ve taken a trip back in time. Many of the buildings you’ll pass were constructed in first half of the nineteenth century. Lovely, aren’t they? Now here’s something to think about: Most were built before indoor plumbing made its way to New York. So where did people go to the toilet, you ask? Why in the backyard, of course!

Take a peek behind any old house or apartment building in New York City, and you’re likely find a yard of some sort. Today, these little patches of ground are used for gardens or barbeque grills. But not long ago, they would have held an outhouse or privy. These structures came in all shapes and sizes. Some were quite fancy. Others were little more than a shack. But no matter how nicely an outhouse may have been decorated, it was still just an outdoor toilet built over a pit.

If you were rich, your family would have had its own outhouse. If you lived in an apartment building in a poor neighborhood like the Lower East Side of Manhattan, you probably shared the same privy with more than fifty other people. Even the deepest pits tend to fill up rather quickly when that many people are making deposits. The filth would often overflow into the courtyard and seep into neighboring basements.

Keeping an outhouse or privy (somewhat) sanitary was a nasty business. Just like today, well-off New Yorkers hired others to do their dirty work. The pits beneath their outhouses were emptied by “necessary tubmen” who worked the nightshift. While the rich slumbered, the tubmen would fill their “night carts” with sewage which they later dumped in the city’s rivers. On hot summer nights, even the wealthy couldn’t escape from the stench that followed the tubmen as they made their rounds. 

Want to visit a New York outhouse? There’s an original outhouse at the Merchant’s House Museum (see page 27) and a reconstructed privy at the Tenement Museum, located at 97 Orchard Street.

Mysteries Among Us #1

Welcome to "Mysteries Among Us," one of our rotating Thursday features. In this feature, our sleuths will share mysteries that have caught our attention or intrigued us recently. They could be mysteries we've uncovered in the news or heard about in our own communities. They could be mysteries from the past that continue to haunt us. Mysteries are everywhere! Maybe some of what we've found will spark ideas for fictional mysteries. We'd love to know what mysteries you've come across lately too!


Diana Renn:
Thanks to a friend on Twitter, news of a literary/artistic mystery recently came my way. Throughout this year, beautiful paper sculptures have been mysteriously appearing in libraries and other cultural institutions in Scotland. The unsigned sculptures are accompanied by notes stating that they are gifts, and also stating they celebrate libraries, books, words, and ideas. These are exquisite, elaborate works of art, made from cut up books and paper. Several sculptures have been made out of books by bestselling crime novelist Ian Rankin, though that is not the case with all of them. I love the idea of this mystery because it reminds me not to fall back on obvious mysteries, e.g., objects that have disappeared. This is the reverse: art is appearing. And the motive of this guerilla artist appears not to be malice, but love. Here's the link to a full article about it, and lots of wonderful photos of the mystery art! http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

L.R. Giles:

The Lost Colony of Roanoke is a creepy historic mystery that's local to my region. In the 16th century an entire colony disappeared from an island off the coast of North Carolina leaving only a single clue behind, the word "Croatan" carved into a tree. They were never heard from again. There are a ton of theories about what happened to them. Some suggest mild circumstances--the colony simply dispersed and was absorbed by other nearby colonies. Others go as far as to suggest witchcraft or other paranormal activity. This is the type of story that has always intrigued me and informed my writing. And of the wide range of explanations, of course I gravitate to the supernatural end of the spectrum. That's just more fun!

Laura Ellen:

One of my favorite unsolved mysteries is that of DB Cooper, the guy who hijacked a plane and after he got the money he requested, skydived out of the plane with the money, never to be heard from again. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/index.html

Kristen Kittscher:

I'm always fascinated by Los Angeles history, especially the scandals that rocked Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s. Even though I've lived in L.A. for thirteen years and formerly worked at a Hollywood studio, I'm always stumbling across new stories about crimes of passion, corruption, and greed. One of the more interesting old Hollywood murder mysteries is the unsolved murder of silent film star and director William Desmond Taylor. No less than 12 suspects were named in the case, including two well-known leading ladies, a studio boss, several possible male lovers of Taylor's, including his ex-con valet who feigned a fake Cockney accent much of the time, and an actresses' fame-obsessed stage mother. Add the sensationalized newspaper reports and the false confessions, and this case can really set your mind reeling! It's not one for kid's books, but the characters involved do inspire me, anyway. As a side note, the "Norma Desmond" character in Sunset Boulevard is named after William Desmond Taylor and actress/suspect Mabel Normand in order to evoke the memory of Hollywood scandals past.

Elisa Ludwig:
Right now I'm really intrigued by the Toynbee Tile Mystery. These are plaques with cryptic messages referring to Stanley Kubrick and David Mamet. They have been embedded in the asphalt in cities all over the U.S. and South America over the past 30 years. A recent film called Resurrect Dead explores the phenomenon and the various theories about who is behind the tiles. It won the director's award at Sundance and has been renewing interest in this bizarre story.

W.H. Beck:
My "mystery" is much more local. It came from my house! This summer, we tackled sorting through things in our attic. As we finally got back to the stuff that was left here when we moved in seven years ago, we came across three framed pictures. Upon closer inspection, we realized they were the original blueprints for our house. We poured over them for ages, squinting at the owners' notes about hallway measurements and where to position doors and toilets. We didn't find any big surprises--we've already discovered the "hidden passage" between the attic and garage storage areas. But it got us thinking. What if there was a secret room, a secret space, that we never knew about? What would be in there? Why would someone need it? We had so many ideas sparking we could have fueled a week's worth of campfire nights. I guess for us, sometimes the possibility of mystery is mystery enough.

Suspect #1 in The Interrogation Room: Edgar-Nominated Author Ben H. Winters

This week we've hauled author Ben H. Winters to face the glare of The Interrogation Room spotlight and questioning from Diana Renn and Kristen Kittscher. 

Ben is the author of several plays and novels, including the Edgar-nominated middle-grade mystery The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and its follow-up, out today, The Mystery of the Missing Everything. He also wrote two parody novels, the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters  (with Jane Austen) and Android Karenina (with Leo Tolstoy). Over the years, Ben has also worked as a bass player, ice-cream scooper, creative writing teacher, and (disastrously) as a cat-sitter. These days Ben lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his family. 

Here's the full transcript of our interview with the suspect:  

Ben, our panel of detectives has brought you into the Interrogation Room on suspicion of imprisoning teams of writing elves in your basement. After all, you have written everything from plays to survival handbooks and have THREE books coming out in September: your new middle grade mystery The Mystery of Missing Everything, a paperback release of The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, and Bedbugs, a novel for adults. How can this all be the work of one writer? We’re hoping your answers to these questions can chase away our suspicions…

Kristen:   Let’s say you’re not guilty. What’s your secret to finding time to write?

Ben:       First of all, let me say that I appreciate the presumption of innocence. And while I am indeed innocent of having a basement full of writing elves, I am guilty of having two small children, with a third small child arriving any day now. Somewhat counter-intuitively, I’ve found that since becoming a parent, though I have much less time to write, I have become better and better at managing and maximizing the time I do have. Having very clear and intractable boundaries at the beginning and end of my writing day focuses my energies. There’s none of this “I’ll just finish this part later tonight,” or because when “later tonight” rolls around, I won’t be writing anything. I’ll be doing dishes or cleaning bottles or making a row of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So it’s not about finding time to write, it’s about making the best use of the time you get.

Secret #2 is a cheap and marvelous computer program called Freedom, which allows one to disable the internet on one’s computer for a set amount of time. I use it both as an anti-procrastination machine and a high-tech kitchen timer.

Diana:   What have you found to be the particular challenges and rewards of writing mysteries for kids?

Ben:      Funny you ask, because right now I’m working on a mystery for adults, and I’m surprised at how many of the lessons I learned writing The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and The Mystery of the Missing Everything are so directly applicable in this very dark, very adult new novel. It’s all about the careful corralling of information; I, as the writer, have to know everything (meaning everything -- you can’t B.S. it), and figure out the best ways to reveal just enough to keep the reader from becoming irritated, while withholding enough to keep them intrigued. That basic truth holds true, I don’t care if you’re writing for grown-ups or children or chickens. I guess if you forced me, I’d say that kids need clearer signposts, more jokes, and brighter characters, to keep them interested. But don’t hold me to that, either; there are some very smart young mystery readers out there, and some dense adult ones.

Kristen:   Your portrayal of school life is hilariously dead-on. Do you rely more on memories or recent experience working with students?

Ben:    Thank you! It’s a combination. I’m always surprised and delighted to meet kids now who remind me of kids I knew way back when...I think there’s a wonderful continuity across generations in the mindset of the middle-grader: that mix of anxiety, enthusiasm, self-discovery, fear, and joy. That said, there are definitely certain individuals from my long-ago youth that pop up, variously altered, in my middle-grade fiction. And anyone who has ever been to Montgomery Mall (now Westfield Mall, or some nonsense), in Potomac, Maryland, will recognize the mall where Bethesda Fielding and her friends hang out -- complete with the animatronic chef that pops up and says ‘witty’ things in a thick French accent.

Diana:     Who are your favorite mystery authors and why?

Ben:       PD James. Richard Price.

Very different writers, but both are incredible prose stylists, and both masters are masters of the very tricky art I mentioned above, of the withholding and slow unveiling of information -- when to whisper secrets in our ear, when not to, and when to tell us just enough to figure it out for ourselves.

Kristen:   We hear you teach humor writing workshops. What advice do you have for writers who want to pepper their work with more humor? Can being funny be taught? (Or should we haul you in on charges of impersonating a teacher, as well?)

          

Ben:       Humor, like plot, should come from the core of the characters: from anxiety, ambitions, and desire. People comically embarrass themselves, for example, trying to get something they desperately want, and it’s what we want that makes us who we are. (Sorry -- do I sound like I’m trying to be fancy and philosophical? I’m not. A scene where a seventh grader gets ink all over his face is funny, but it becomes really deeply funny if the pen breaks because he’s been chewing on it all morning because he’s nervous about the math quiz because he forgot to study because that, that right there, you see, is the kind of kid that this kid is.)

Diana:     The Secret Life of Ms. Finkelman is told from multiple points of view, which only intensifies our suspicions about those poor imprisoned teams of writing elves. Why did you decide to tell the story that way? Were some characters easier than others to write?

Ben:      Here comes Mr. Fancy-Pants again, but I think the story will tell you how to write it. In this case I realized early on that it was Bethesda Fielding’s story, but that to move forward properly, and to keep the reader guessing, we’d need to shift around and get to know the other folks first-hand.

          I’m quite proud of the fact that the sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything also shifts points of view -- and there’s one POV where the reader does not know whose head they’re in until the very end of the book.

Kristen:  To what extent was writing the sequel different?

Ben:      The nice thing was that, where I wrote Finkleman on spec (as they say), with Mystery I had a deal with HarperCollins. So I benefited from feedback all the way along from my editor there.

Diana:     One last thing — what writing secret will you reveal only under the harsh lights of this interrogation room?

Ben:       Get off the stupid internet. Get a program like Freedom, and/or Antisocial. Don’t start your writing day by checking email. Write down research questions to check later, instead of going online to do it right away, and spiraling into two hours of aimless web surfing. Writing is hard, and we will always find ways to talk ourselves out of getting down to it. So block your internet connection and get down to it.

It looks like we can safely clear Ben of the charges. He’s the real deal! Many thanks to Ben for putting up with the interrogation. We're going to make it up to him by buying copies of his three books out this month. We hope you will, too:

The Mystery of the Missing Everything

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkelman (paperback)

Bedbugs (for adults)

Tomorrow we'll announce the lucky Interrogation Room Book Giveaway winner, who'll receive a free copy of The Mystery of the Missing Everything. UPDATE: We have a winner: congratulations to Sarvenaz Tash! Many thanks for all the entries. There were lots of correct guesses to put into the hat.

We plan to call at least three suspects for questioning in October, so do check back for more author interviews and chances to win!

Clueless in California

I’d make a terrible sleuth. It took me three decades to actually notice how much of a mystery fan I am, despite heaps of early evidence. I missed every clue. The dog-eared pages on The Westing Game and The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The bookshelves lined with the trademark yellow spines of Nancy Drew volumes, each one promising to reveal all manner of secrets about clocks, ranches, and bungalows. The unwise seventh-grade choice to study French instead of Spanish, motivated by an urgent need to understand Hercule Poirot’s untranslated asides. And what about the hours spent with the Bobbsey Twins, for goodness’ sake? Anyone who’ll put up with Nan and Bert — let alone Freddie and Flossie — clearly suffers from advanced stage mystery disease.

 Freddie & Flossie:
Symptoms of Stage IV Mystery Disease

I can forgive my bad detective work, though. It isn’t as if I was drawn to mysteries exclusively. Mysteries merely amplify what I already love about stories: the delicious withholding of  information until just the right moment, the transforming of the familiar into the strange, the satisfying way order triumphs over chaos in the end. In his book On Moral Fiction, John Gardner described art as a “game played…against entropy.” It’s an apt description, I think. Stories weave the unruly strands of everyday life into a satisfying whole. And what’s more satisfying than a case solved and a culprit brought to justice?

My younger self would claim that nothing is more satisfying. Which means, too, that nothing could possibly be worse than a book that leaves too many questions unanswered. I am more forgiving now (though I have to admit, the trend of cliffhanger endings in series still rankles me), but back then I loved mysteries because it comforted me to see justice served and order restored. My family was constantly on the move, and by the time I turned 9, I had already been the “new kid” at 5 different schools. I craved neat resolutions to distract me from the abandoned plot-lines in my own life.

Idaville would be in
serious trouble without
Encyclopedia on the case

Besides, I loved reading about kids who had all the answers for a change. That Sheriff Brown couldn’t solve a single Idaville case without Encyclopedia taking charge. And Carson Drew may be good in a courtroom, but let’s face it: the dude would have long been dead if Nancy wasn’t always saving him. In my own life, adults always thought they knew better than I did. That got old fast, especially considering they lacked answers to life’s most basic questions.

As I got older, mysteries compelled me because they wrestled with the same uncertainties I faced as I navigated an ever-changing social landscape. At their simplest level, mysteries deal with a central question: whom can you trust? They remind us of the secrets lurking not far from the surface, the lies people tell, the incongruity between some people’s public faces and their private selves. They dramatize the same questions about loyalty and friendship I was asking myself as a teen. In fact, mysteries delved into an even more troubling question I was wrestling with, whether I recognized it at the time or not: how much could I really trust myself?  Like a mystery reader, I was constantly questioning my own perceptions and revising my assumptions about the cast of characters around me.

I write for the younger unsuspecting mystery fan that I was. The one who didn’t realize she was wrestling with questions of loyalty, assumptions, and self-confidence because she was all wrapped up in madcap hijinks and battles of wits. For me, there’s nothing more rewarding than writing for an age group still working hard to solve the mystery of who they are and where they fit in.

I’ll be sharing more about how I came to write my comic middle grade mystery in more Tuesday “Notes from Our Detectives” ahead. In the meantime, though, I’m curious about you. If you’re clicking through the pages of this brand-new blog, unlike me, you’ve probably long since recognized your passion for mysteries. What draws you to the genre?


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Kristen Kittscher’s debut middle grade mystery YOUNG & YANG DETECTIVES (Harper Children’s) will be released in early 2013. It follows the comic misadventures of two tween sleuths who suspect their school counselor is a dangerous fugitive — and just might be right! A former middle school English teacher, Kristen lives in Pasadena, California with her husband, Kai. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her running her after-school tutoring business or taking orders from her hopelessly spoiled pets.

Mystery Monday #2

It's Mystery Monday!

Welcome to our regular Monday feature, where you'll find different kinds of writing prompts and exercises. Each week,we'll give you something to help exercise your mystery-writing muscles.

This week, we're going to use some images for ideas. Choose any or all of the three photos below. As a starting point, write a few sentences describing what you see in the photo. Then, go back in time—it could be a week, a month or ten years—to explain what was leading up to this moment. Think about the most dramatic explanation possible. What would readers most want to know about what is happening here? What would be the most unexpected twist you could give the story? What can be seen with the naked eye and what might a sleuth discover upon further investigation? Good luck!

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Writing DNA #1

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

Elisa Ludwig:
For me it's fall. Knowing that cooler temperatures are on their way, and with them, the desire to stay inside and drink hot beverages is keeping me at the computer focused on my WIP. While the change of seasons isn't affecting the content of my writing, it's just inspiring me, period. After a long, super-hot summer, there's a renewed sense of energy, and the back-to-school time of year always makes me want to buckle down and get serious.

Laura Ellen:
Music is the one thing that inspires me most, and it always goes hand-in-hand with my creative process. When I am kicking around a novel in my head, I start gathering songs that remind me of the characters or the setting or the plot - even the tone and pacing. It can be in the lyrics or the rhythm, but something in each song attaches to something in my plot. As I begin writing, I am constantly adding to the songs and rearranging them in a playlist that parellels my plot. This playlist becomes a tool for me. I listen to it before I start writing each day to get back into the story, or when I get stuck and need to figure some plot point out.

Kristen Kittscher:

Nothing inspires me more than re-reading a book I loved, no matter the genre. When I find myself feeling blocked and tired, I take a break and pick up a favorite -- maybe only to read a chapter or two. Without fail I return to work feeling refreshed and eager to forge ahead, even though I know I won't match their greatness. Some middle-grade titles I've turned to are The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall), When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead), and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg). However, I've also re-read favorite classics for adults such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark), Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier), and Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), as well. 


Lamar "L.R." Giles:
I live by a really great bookstore and when I need inspiration I like to go and walk the aisles. It's something about the smell of all that paper, and the way the light gleams off glossy dust jackets that gets me really geared up. Usually I'll find something new to read, but the atmosphere just does something for me. It's like the feeling of coming home.

Diana Renn:
Whenever I'm gearing up for a new project, or stuck in the middle of an ongoing one, I like to look at a postcard I have had over my desk for a decade. "Giacomond," by Quint Buchholz, shows a surreal image of a man walking on a tightrope from the edge of his roof toward a distant full moon. He's holding the end of the tightrope over his head and laying it out as he walks. This image always makes me think of how writing can feel precarious, even impossible, but it can be done calmly, one step at a time. I also love the confidence of the tightrope walker here. He seems strangely in control. This reminds me of how I want to use a voice of authority when I write, even when I'm feeling my way through the dark.

Thanks for entering! The identity of our suspect will be revealed Wednesday, 9/21 along with the interview. (Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. on 9/20)

Puzzling over Mysteries

Like Diana, my involvement with mystery writing is mysterious in and of itself. I sort of fell into this genre through a series of (very) fortunate events. And now I’m going to leave that statement purposefully vague and intriguing, to keep you reading, just like a good mystery writer should.

So since I’m a newbie to whodunit, I am very much learning as I go, studying every book I read and paying attention to structure, pacing and logic in a way I never did before. Up until now, I’d considered myself strictly a contemporary YA writer, and my concerns were with character, dialogue and emotional arc. Things happened in my writing, but it was often accused of being “too quiet.”

As it turns out, I like the action-driven, big-drama aspects of mystery. I like the process of creating a puzzle and letting my characters unlock it piece by piece. And I like that it demands constant engagement with the reader, as I try to tell the story in a way that is leading without being obvious and withholding without being cryptic. My suspicion is—and I only have one such book plus one first draft of its sequel under my belt—that learning to write mystery is going to make me a better writer, period.

******************************************************************************

Elisa Ludwig's debut young adult novel PRETTY CROOKED (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins), will be released in March 2012. It's the story of Willa Fox, a teen girl who goes Robin Hood on her rich classmates —the first of a three-book series of thriller/mysteries. Even though she had to extensively research pickpocketing techniques to write it, she remains a law-abiding citizen. Elisa lives in Philadelphia with her husband Jesse and cat Beau a.k.a. Bread. When she's not writing for teens, she's cooking and/or writing about food for The Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications. Elisa is a proud member of The Apocalypsies. 

Mystery Monday #1

It's Mystery Monday!

Welcome to our regular Monday feature, where you'll find different kinds of writing prompts and exercises. Each week,we'll give you something to help exercise your mystery-writing muscles.

This month on our blog, we're introducing ourselves and discussing what drew us to mystery writing. As you'll learn, some of us stumbled into the genre, and some of us made a deliberate choice from the start.

If you're thinking of writing a mystery, or have already embarked on that journey, it's good to think about what kind of mystery you might like to write -- there's a lot of variety out there. Do you want to try your hand at a classic whodunnit? Police procedural? Cozy mystery? Mystery/thriller? Paranormal mystery mash-up? Historical? Mystery/thriller? Murder mystery? Treasure hunt? Missing person? Missing item? Caper? The first exercise here is intended to raise your awareness of the kind of mysteries that interest you.

Journal Prompt / Writing Warm-Up:
Write freely about these questions for 10-15 minutes.

• What mysteries do you most enjoy reading? Why? What do you find appealing about these mysteries?

• What mystery authors do you like to read or want to read? Why?

• Do you watch any mysteries on TV, or enjoy mysteries in movie form? Which ones? Why? 

• Picture a cover for your mystery (even if you don't have a title). What does it look like? What kind of image does it have? What colors are used? (If you're so inclined, draw a picture of it!)

Tracking Down Ideas
Ideas for mysteries are everywhere! Try listing ideas or writing freely for each of the following questions:

• What news stories have caught your attention lately? Are any of them mysteries? (Hint -- check the Local News section of your newspaper, as well as Police Logs in your community newspaper).
• Have there been any mysterious goings-on in your neighborhood (or school, or workplace)? What happened? What details could you change or add to turn a neighborhood event into a story?
• Did you ever lose something or have something stolen from you? What did it feel like? Was the item ever found? Could this experience grow into a bigger story? Can you imagine who took your item, and why?
• Do you have any mysteries in your family? A family heirloom or object that went missing -- or that mysteriously appeared? Any family "legends" -- either current ones or in the past? Could you add or change any details to turn a family mystery into a fictional one? 
• Visit an ordinary place -- a library, a clothing store, a public park, a parking garage, etc. Take notes on details you notice there. Then list any details that seem out of the ordinary\. (Is a door ajar? Is there an unclaimed bag on a table?) Finally, list details that you could add or change to create a sense of mystery. Look at all your lists when you get home and write freely about what kind of mystery might happen here.

Where have you found ideas for mysteries? Where else do you like to look for ideas?

Under Cover #1

We're going undercover to find some great reads! Check out some of the titles we've been investigating lately:

 

Kristen Kittscher:

I'm reading The Stone Child, Dan Poblocki’s first book. What a suspenseful read! It takes me back to the best of John Bellairs. Thirteen year old Eddie Frenzer and his parents move to a remote town where his favorite horror author once lived, only to realize the monsters in the books aren’t so fictional after all. While the book is middle grade, it’s scary enough that it’s best for slightly older readers. Dan has a series out for younger middle grade readers that’s also fantastic: The Mysterious Four. Rumor has it he may be interviewed in our Interrogation Room this fall…

 
Talia Vance:
 I’m reading Clarity, by Kim Harrington (YA). Psychic Clarity Fern must find out who killed a teenage tourist to clear her brother. She's aided by the hot son of a detective and her ex-boyfriend. A fun mystery with a supernatural twist and just enough romantic tension.

L.R. Giles:

L.R. Giles:
I’m reading Reality Check, by Peter Abrahams. It’s a great YA mystery, though the mystery factor doesn’t come until later in the book.







 

Diana Renn:

I’m reading Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists, by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg. I'm addicted to nonfiction books about art theft in general, and the famous Gardner Museum heist in particular. I've just started this book, which was co-authored by the head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. So far it's a fascinating look at how black market art works, and the many motives and methods of art criminals.

 



W.H. Beck:

I’m in the midst of This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel. It's a prequel of sorts to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I love the tension between the teen characters, especially the love/hate relationship Victor has with his twin brother Konrad.

Elisa Ludwig:
I'm reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I was inspired after seeing him speak at SCBWI. It's not a mystery per se but the story of a boy stuck in the woods after a plane crash is definitely suspenseful! He's a master at using the rhythm of his language to evoke an emotional response in the reader.

I'm in the midst of This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel. It's a prequel of sorts to Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. I love the tension between the teen characters, especially the love/hate relationship Victor has with his twin brother Konrad.