mystery « Dee Savoy

Archive for the 'mystery' Category

Sep

Keeping you in suspense

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: for writers, mystery, mystery/thriller, publishing, romantic suspense, writer's resources and writing

For all you writers who visit my site looking for info on how to write romantic suspense, the wait is over!

Starting October 19th, I will be teaching my romantic suspense class.

Here’s the description:

Fall Suspense Thing Writing Workshop is now accepting students!!!

National bestselling, Emma-award winning author for Romance Suspense Deirdre Savoy will be facilitating this month-long workshop set to begin the week of October 19. This workshop is for authors wanting to learn the basic craft of writing romantic suspense or those seeking to add a bit of dramatic spice to any novel.

Course syllabus:

October 19: What is suspense–how do you achieve it and how do you use it:

October 25: Dark suspense vs. light suspense–how to create the effect you want

November 3: The devil in the details–making suspense believable.

November 10: Love on the run–how to use suspense to heighten the romance and vice versa.

Each week, a lecture and assignment will be posted. Completion and posting of assigned work for peer review is not mandatory but advised if students want to get the most from the class.

Who should take this course:

–first time R/S authors looking to learn the basics

–R/S authors looking to hone their craft

–any author interested in taking their writing to new levels

How to register:

Apply for group membership here. You will receive an e-mail telling you how to make payment. Once tuition is received, you will be added to the group.

Tuition: $25. (First 5 students to complete registration will receive a free synopsis critique.

Jun

Let sleeping bodies lie?

By writerds 7 Comments

Categories: my work, mystery, romance and romantic suspense

Almost two years after my second book in my Body series came out, two new and rather delicious reviews have surfaced. The first, posted at Michelle Lauren’s blog blew me away. The review was totally unexpected and absolutely wonderful. Here’s my favorite part:

“Why I Love the Book
Must I count the ways? I haven’t read any mysteries/suspense novels for a long time, but when I received Body of Lies from Ms. Savoy I couldn’t put it down. Suspense is this author’s forte. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. The characters aren’t cardboard cutouts: Although Alex was victimized as a child, she is not a victim. Although Zachery broke her heart years ago, the author doesn’t vilify him. Both characters learn from their mistakes and become better individuals.”

Just as I was basking in the glow, I came upon another review from Reading While Black. Again I was surprised and pleased. Here’s my favorite part of that review:

“One thing I can say for Savoy is that she doesn’t hold punches. This isn’t your Disneyland version New York or of a serial killer. She didn’t hold back on the reality of violent, destructive forces and gut-wrenching circumstances that affect the lives of everyday, ordinary people–especially your average cop.”

Ah, if only I could manage to get the smile off my face.

Jun

Ooops (upside the head, or otherwise)

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: mystery, romantic suspense, writer's resources and writing

Forgive me folks. It’s been brought to my attention that there is a little confusion involving the class I’m teaching this summer. Apparently in the body of the post it stated that class began the week of May 19, though the schedule for the class lists the first lesson will be posted the week of June 30th. Obviously, that doesn’t jibe and May 19th has already passed, so that can’t be right. Unfortunately, I had intended to give the class in the spring, but that didn’t work out, which accounts for the May 19th date that I forgot to change. Many apologies for that.

So, if you were thinking about taking this course, no you haven’t missed anything. Class doesn’t start until June 30th. Registration is open until the Friday before the first class. Just in case, here’s the complete, revised announcement.

National bestselling, Emma-award winning author for Romance Suspense Deirdre Savoy will be facilitating this month-long workshop set to begin the week of June 30. This workshop is for authors wanting to learn the basic craft of writing romantic suspense or those seeking to add a bit of dramatic spice to any novel.

Course syllabus:

June 30: What is suspense–how do you achieve it and how do you use it:
Jul 7: Dark suspense vs. light suspense–how to create the effect you want
July 14: The devil in the details–making suspense believable.
July 21: Love on the run–how to use suspense to heighten the romance and vice versa.

Each week, a lecture and assignment will be posted. Completion and posting of assigned work for peer review is not mandatory but advised if students want to get the most from the class.

Who should take this course:

–first time R/S authors looking to learn the basics
–R/S authors looking to hone their craft
–any author interested in taking their writing to new levels

How to register: Apply for group membership here. You will receive an e-mail telling you how to make payment. Once tuition is received, you will be added to the group.

Tuition: $25.00 (plus a $2.00 administrative fee).
BONUS: FREE SYNOPSIS CRITIQUE FOR THE FIRST FIVE STUDENTS TO COMPLETE REGISTRATION!

May

The Roof, the roof, the roof is on fiyah

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: in the news, mystery, writer's resources, writing and wtf?

Normally, I pay no attention whatsoever to Fifty Cents (I refuse to debase myself to call him Fitty or whatever). However, the story of his house burning down with his baby and baby mama inside just couldn’t be ignored. Already law enforcement is calling it suspicious, and as baby mama tells it, he vowed to kill her. Now I don’t know whether that’s true but, like many other things, this event reminds me of the writing of crime fiction.

Please folks, if you are plotting a novel, or arson for that matter, let’s make the onlooker have to guess a little. I think one major flaw of young crime writers is not making it hard enough for readers to figure out whodunnit or if they are supposed to know whodunnit make the motivation a little difficult for the reader to comprehend. Every reader wants to work just a skosh for that satisfying ending. Something. That’s what makes the ending satisfying (and one of the reasons I’m teaching my class on suspense).

Law enforcement, on the other hand, likes a quick and easy resolution, so Fifty–or whatever name he might possibly be indicted under–might want to try being a bit more mysterious (or hard to find) as the case may be.

May

Summer Suspense Thing Writing Workshop is now accepting students!!!

By writerds 2 Comments

Categories: mystery, romantic suspense, writer's resources and writing

Course syllabus:

Each week, a lecture and assignment will be posted. Completion and posting of assigned work for peer review is not mandatory but advised if students want to get the most from the class.

Who should take this course:

–first time R/S authors looking to learn the basics
–R/S authors looking to hone their craft
–any author interested in taking their writing to new levels

How to register: Apply for group membership here. You will receive an e-mail telling you how to make payment. Once tuition is received, you will be added to the group.

Tuition: $25.00 (plus a $2.00 administrative fee).
BONUS: FREE SYNOPSIS CRITIQUE FOR THE FIRST FIVE STUDENTS TO COMPLETE REGISTRATION!

Apr

The Old Gray Lady’s Gone Batty

By writerds 4 Comments

Categories: industry, mystery, publishing, reading and wtf?

Recently the New York Times announced its list of the 50 best mystery writers and most of the folks I know went, “huh?” I’ll admit, I’m late to the table reading mystery. I can’t say I’d picked up anything beside Christie or Hammett and only because I had to for school. That is until a few years ago. Then I couldn’t get enough.

But I still have to wonder how they came up with this particular list. Did they stick a bunch of names in a hat and pick out the first 50? And who came up with the cheesy descriptors??? But let me ask you–do you agree with this list? If not, who would you kick off? Who would you add?

1. Patricia Highsmith

Rule-breaking master of amorality

2. Georges Simenon

The Trojan horse of foreign crime-writing

3. Agatha Christie

The original Queen of Crime

4. Raymond Chandler

The most profound of pulp writers

5. Elmore Leonard

The Dickens of Detroit

6. Arthur Conan Doyle

Creator of the ultimate hero-and-sidekick team

7. Ed McBain

Thrilling writer of snap-and-crackle dialogue

8. James M. Cain

Godfather of Noir

9. Ian Rankin

Edinburgh’s gritty crime laureate

10. James Lee Burke

American spinner of bleakly lyrical tales

11. Dennis Lehane

A tender craftsman with a tough centre

12. P.D. James

Prolific and cerebral grand dame of British crime

13. Dashiell Hammett

The man who dragged murder back into the alley

14. Jim Thompson

Revered creator of corrupt cops and sociopaths

15. Sjowall and Wahloo

The mother and father of Nordic crime

16. John Dickson Carr

King of the “locked room mystery”

17. Cornell Woolrich

Tortured pulp novelist known for Rear Window

18. Ruth Rendell

Criminal mastermind of unparalleled breadth and depth

19. Ross Macdonald

Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled heir

20. James Ellroy

The most literary of American crime writers

21. Charles Willeford

Aficianados’ favourite who is ripe for a break-through

22. Dorothy Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey’s witty creator

23. John Harvey

The man behind the jazz-loving Nottingham cop Resnick

24. Wilkie Collins

Godfather of the detective novel

25. Francis Iles

Pseudonymous writer of radical plots

26. Manuel Vasquez Montalban

Intellectual gourmand whose fiction mapped Barcelona

27. Karin Fossum

Norway’s foremost cold-climate crime writer

28. Val McDermid

Influential author of high-grade “Tartan Noir”

29. Edgar Allan Poe

Mould-setter for the modern sleuth

30. Derek Raymond

Hard-drinking, hard-writing British crime legend

31. George Pelecanos

Energetic, music-loving social crusader

32. Margery Allingham

Golden Age sophisticate who can chill or charm

33. Minette Walters

Unflinching chronicler of humankind’s dark side

34. Carl Hiaasen

Rapid-fire satirist of Miami vices

35. Walter Mosley

A bold American voice, not afraid to tackle race

36. Reginald Hill

Playful creator of British favourites Dalziel and Pascoe

37. Michael Dibdin

Late, great ironist who investigated Italy’s corruption

38. Patricia Cornwell

Shrewd pioneer of gruesome pathology

39. Scott Turow

Legal thriller-writer famous for Presumed Innocent

40. Dick Francis

Former jockey and king of equestrian intrigue

41. Edmund Crispin

Elegant and accomplished Oxford plotter

42. Alexander McCall Smith

Scottish Professor whose Mma Ramotswe has won hearts and minds

43 Andrea Camilleri

Italy’s foremost crime export

44. Harlan Coben

Mature metroplitan stylist loved for his twisting plots

45. Donna Leon

American explorer of the Venetian underworld

46. Josephine Tey

Acute 1940s author whose books describe the danger of love

47. Colin Dexter

Former classics teacher who found fame with Morse

48. Nicholas Blake

C. Day Lewis’ crime-writing foil

49. Henning Mankell

Swedish novelist with a bleak take of modern life

50. Sara Paretsky

Spirited creator of feminist sleuth VI Warshawski

Apr

Keeping it real

By writerds 1 Comment

Categories: blogosphere, industry, mystery, reading, romantic suspense and true crime

I think I’m in love with Lee Lofland’s blog The Graveyard Shift, particularly the last entry on “getting it right” in crime fiction posted by literary agent Scott Hoffman. He’s discussing why writers should strive to know what they are talking about, with both agents and the general public. You can read for yourself what he says about agents, but as for readers, here’s my favorite part.

Well, readers of crime fiction like to feel smart. To the extent that you can debunk closely-held myths in the course of your writing, agents, editors, and ultimately readers will love it. If you can tell readers how things REALLY happen—as opposed to the way they look on TV, it will give your work a feeling of authenticity that’s often missing in crime fiction (and nonfiction.)

That’s always been my goal in writing crime fiction–to show what I know that the reader doesn’t without making them feel foolish for believing everything you see on CSI.

So, I end by asking you the same question as Mr. Hoffman does his readers–whast are your bugaboos and pet peeves about crime fiction (or even reportage of true crime)? What story line could you do without ever seeing again? Fess up!

Mar

Hitting the nail on the head

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: blogosphere, my work, mystery, reading, romance, romantic suspense, sounding off and writing

I had planned to write a rather frivolous post about the hunks on Dancing with the Stars today–until I happened over to Dear Author. The day’s post about the trivialization of serious issues in romance intrigued me, since this has been a criticism of mine about the genre since I first started reading it. In romance, tragedy is often nothing more than a plot device to get the hero and heroine to a certain place in the story, without adequate consideration of what real impact such experiences have on people.

This is how the post starts out:

A legitimate criticism of romance as serious literature is it’s often cavalier treatment of important life topics. Too often, war, separation, human indignity, are treated as plot devices, conflict mechanisms, and not given the attention and treatment those important issues deserve. How many romance books are thought provoking? How many challenge your personal concepts of right and wrong? How many portray multi hued individuals as both heroic and villianous? Surely within the umbrella of the romance genre, there is room for these books.

I can’t argue with anything that is said here, which does not mean, in my opinion, that no romances deal with important issues head on, but, in my opinion, fewer than should do. In other words, if you’ve got a protagonist recovering from a bad marriage, missing child, breast cancer, rape, whatever, or you’ve got a character who’s a soldier or cop, nurse or counselor, they experience life in particular ways that are often glossed over rather than exploited properly for the verisimilitude of their story.

This to my mind doesn’t mean every story has to be heavy or heavy handed. However, if you’re going to bring up the heroine’s unkind personal history, or whatever, let the effects of it reverberate in her life on a deeper level than making her wary of the hero’s attentions. Almost any serious event injected into a character’s life produces a constellation of effects. These can be explored even if you do it in a less than grave way.

I know that I had a hard time writing my hero for Soldier Boys. The story was supposed to be light and airy, so I kept it that way as much as I could. However, the guys a freaking marine sniper, and after reading even minimally about these guys and giving him the background that I did, I knew I couldn’t divorce the story from the realities of the ongoing war and keep it in any way beleivable. So I didn’t. The result is a deeper story, I hope, even though it is also really, really hot. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it works.

But I also don’t think that romance is alone in glossing over serious events or issues. The more suspense and mystery I read, the more I become aware that every genre has its way of trivializing that which it isn’t prepared to deal with. Ever read a sex scene in your average testosterone-filled thriller? Either it’s one of those wham-bam- excuse me while I come, ma’am, deals where it’s over in two seconds (doesn’t say much for the hero if you ask me) or it’s the sappiest bit of crap that no romance writer could get away with in a million years.

The truth of it is, there is room for shades of gray in every genre: true exploration of the human psyche and human emotions in every genre; contemplation of right and wrong and just in every genre and when we gloss over it or exploit it not for what it is but what we want it to be, we do both ourselves and our readers an injustice.

Mar

Murderers on my mind

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: mystery, romantic suspense and writing

I’m currently taking an online course on serial killers given by one of the RWA chapters. Frankly, so far, they haven’t discussed anything I didn’t already know. Well, what do you want for $25? Besides, I’ve already done extensive research on my own so I’m no newbie. I’ve even had some experience with real-live whack jobs, so I know ‘em when I see ‘em. But what I’m finding interesting is the discussion on how these folks come into being. My take is that, like greatness, some folks are born to it, some are made and some have killing trust upon them.

The easiest to comprehend is the last. Some regular guy or girl has to defend themselves, their loved ones or their property and takes a life in the process. Facing such a dilemma we all have the capacity to kill.

Comprehensible to is the made killer, to some extent. The man or woman who was abused, neglected, or otherwise deprived psychologically of the right socializing influences. They know no remorse, no conscience, no compassion, no understanding. As the saying goes, they’d cut you as soon as look at you. You may not like what they are, but you can see where it came from.

Then there’s my least favorite–those folks whose warpedness seems to have no genesis. Their wiring must be screwy since nothing in their background explains why they behave as they do. The “just plain crazy killer.” I hate this guy, partly because I want my villains to make sense, both in real life and in fiction. I want to be able to say this crazy mo fo is crazy cause of X and Y, and I don’t mean his faulty chromosomes. I know there are folks who love this just plain crazy guy, but I don’t.

In fact, I’m reading Allison Brennan’s Killing Fear right now, which has a “just plain crazy” villain. Even though this is the first book I’ve read by her, I can say I like her work (though her heroine in this one suffers from what I call Pretty, pretty princess disease). Her villain is nasty enough to overcome any of my misgivings about his origins as a bad guy.

So I ask you, what kind of villains do you prefer–the crazies you can figure out or the ones nature made that way? Do you prefer nature as an explanation or nurture? Who’s your favorite fictional killer? The creepiest? Who made you sleep with the lights on? Do tell!

Feb

Random thoughts on the upcoming election and secondary characters (how’s that for a title)

By writerds Leave a Comment

Categories: my work, mystery, romance, romantic suspense and writing

I’m not going to discuss the Democratic end of the drowning pool, since the contest between Hillary and Barack I find simultaneously heartwarming and the most depressing bit of business I’ve seen in a long time. I was thinking of the Republican side, as in what is Mike Huckabee’s problem? Long after common sense says he can’t win, there he is. My take on it is that Huckabee looks at McCain’s age and figures if he can be enough of a pain in the butt he can give the old guy a heart attack and since he never withdrew like Romney, guess who’s the candidate? Talk about a spoiler!

Maybe not. Maybe that’s a political thriller I’d like to read. But here’s the point I’ve really been pondering–it’s obvious what’s in it for Huckabee for him to stay in the race, but what about McCain? Why doesn’t he get someone in the party to thump Huckabee on his hard head and tell him to sit down?

That’s what I pondered (okay, thought about it once or twice) until I was watching the political shows this Sunday morning. I think it was on the McLaughlin group where someone posited that McCain needs Huckabee to stick around to keep his name in the newspapers the same way Clinton and Obama act to generate press for themselves and each other.

I can buy that. As an author I can appreciate the use of a good foil. Using one character to illuminate the character of another is as pervasive as having a title. However, how we make use of that foil can either enhance or detract from the story.

Most often in romance the foil is the best buddy, who can generally be more outrageous, outspoken or otherwise unsuitable to be the protagonist of that particular story (though they may come back somewhat sanitized in a story of their own). Foils work best when they are fully formed characters in their own right, or at least fully formed in the aspect that is being compared. Think of Hamlet and Laertes. Laertes is the obedient son and dutiful brother, while Hamlet stumbles around, unable to figure out if and it what way to avenge his own father. (Incidentally, if you haven’t seen the Gilligan’s Island Hamlet-a-go-go interpretation, it’s a must-see.)

Come to think of it, mysteries and other genre fiction works basically the same way, as well. Main characters are usually more conventional than their foils. Think Spenser and Hawk or Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. That’s just off the top of my head. There are probably better examples if I really think about it.

One thing is certain in my mind, especially if you are creating a series in which the same characters will appear more than once, you really need to do some analysis of not only each character but how they will relate together, what their relationship is, how it started, what each of them really wants from one another, etc. if you want that pairing to be dynamic and not fall flat. Just one more thing to think about while plotting and planning a novel. Oy!


Get into your most comfortable reading chair,
take off your shoes,
turn off the phone
and let Ms. Savoy's incredible talent take you away.


  --Debra Ross,
     Romance in Color

A skewed sense of humor has kept me sane through 10+ years of teaching and almost as many writing. I invite you to come in and look around. Leave a comment if you like. My goal is to leave you with a smile on your face and a few new thoughts to mull over. If you like the blog, please tell your friends. If not, tell your enemies.