Rainy Sunday

 I really need an updated picture. One of these days...

It’s a dark, rainy Sunday as I write this, and it's a perfect day for snuggling up on the couch with a good mystery. Unfortunately, instead of that I’m writing a story that takes place during a major heatwave. It’s a bit difficult to write about the heat when I’m sitting at my desk, thinking I should get up and start the fireplace. I moved to Washington from Arizona, and I have to think back to what it was like during the summer in Arizona. Plus, the story takes place in Los Angeles.

Location is so important in a book. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve written enough to help the reader “visit” the location. Arizona, Washington and Los Angeles are so vastly different from each other. I can picture the location in my mind, but can the reader?

A lot of things depend on location, location, location: setting up a business, buying a home, planning a vacation, the setting for a fictional story. And when planning where a story will take place, you also have to think of regional issues such as earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, monsoon storms and snow, rain or heat. Even a volcanic eruption can be an issue, depending on where the story takes place.

Last night was quite windy here, and it was pouring rain. I’d just gone to bed when the wind picked up and the roof on the patio began lifting just enough to bang loudly when it dropped. At first I thought someone was trying to break into the house, but, surprisingly, the dogs didn’t react. I hadn’t noticed the wind when I had the television on. I couldn’t sleep and if my characters were in this situation, they wouldn’t get any sleep either. (Lucky dogs slept right through it.)

Your characters are in the middle of a thunder storm? Are there dogs or cats in the story? How do they react to the situation?

Have you ever lived through an earthquake? A hurricane? Don’t write about these things unless you have experience or a good “go to” witness to these disasters.

So it’s more than just location. It’s what the location is like if there’s an emergency. What’s possible at the location you’ve chosen for the story? There are so many details to consider when writing a story. You can research a blizzard, but if you haven’t lived through one you’re liable to get it wrong. At least talk to someone who’s lived through a blizzard, earthquake or something that could be devastating.

Of course, what if it’s just an average day and the weather is great, the air is clear and there’s a pleasant breeze? Be sure to let the reader know that’s what the day is like, but don’t tell them, show them. Let them figuratively walk in your character’s shoes. Maybe it’s nighttime and the weather is comfortable and clear. What might set this evening apart? Maybe the sound of hundreds of frogs croaking. There’s always something to remark on.

The book I’m currently working on involves some homeless people. It’s an extremely hot summer. It’s so hot out you could cook eggs on the sidewalk. In Oatman, Arizona, an historic tourist town, they actually have a contest involving cooking eggs on the sidewalk. Now that’s hot!

Right now I can look out the window and watch the rain fall. I’ve got the fireplace going and the three dogs are lying around the house, sleeping. It’s so quiet – except for the ticking of a clock. If the phone rang right now it would probably scare me out of a year’s growth. Okay, I stopped growing a long time ago, but you get the idea.

I started out talking about location, location, location, but it’s really about details, details, details. Sometimes the little things count, as long as you don’t go overboard with those details.

Now I’m chuckling. Rereading this post tells me that I’m running out of ideas. Or am I?

As a writer or as a reader, do you want those little details to enhance the story? Do you want to feel like you’re walking through a blizzard with the character in the book?

Until next time, think about where you live and the types of things that go on around you. Maybe you’re not a writer, but can you use your imagination and come up with a story about your day (in the rain, snow, or whatever)?

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

You might want to Click above and check out my website to find out more about me and my books.

Using the Little Things in a Story - Part I

We’ve all taken trips and we all have stories. Here’s a brief overview of my trip from Arizona to Washington and how it might involve storytelling.

The trip started with me loading my two large dogs, Sugar and Murphy, into the back of my Jeep.  Neither one can jump that high, and Murphy hates to ride in cars. My Realtor took pity and sent her husband to help me. We had to put their front paws on the rear bumper and then lift their hindquarters the rest of the way. Needless to say, Murphy resisted this procedure. In the meantime I’m pretty sure my neighbors were quite entertained.

To put that scene in a book, I wouldn’t have to embellish the story, but I might go into a little more detail.

I drove to Las Vegas, just me and the dogs, to pick up my daughter, who’d flown in to travel with us. Another adventure. Let’s just say the dogs were wound up.

The trip took three days, so we had to stay at motels for two nights. I headed for the Jeep to load my suitcase the second morning, and a woman was leaving the building at the same time, with two very tiny Chihuahuas. Cute little dogs, right? Uh, one of the dogs took one look at me and leaped into the air, biting my leg. His teeth were like needles. I put my bag in the car and turned around, and the woman and her dogs had quickly disappeared.

In a book? There was one very large and particularly nasty looking dog who didn’t appear to like people in general. The protagonist tries to back away and manages to trip over her luggage. The owner was able to pull the big brute back before he did any damage, but by the time she pulled herself up, they were gone. She had the feeling the man had been watching her. She made a mental note to remember what he looked like, which wasn’t much better than his squirrely dog’s appearance.

As we closed in on Oregon, we ran into a snow storm. It’s been years since I’ve driven in snow, so I pulled behind a large truck and followed in his tracks. Easy peasy.

In a book? The protagonist is driving late at night on a lonely road, and a blizzard moves in. There’s no other traffic, with the exception of headlights she can see far behind her, and she’s on her own. Of course, in the book, she’s never driven in snow before. She slams on her brakes when she approaches a hairpin curve and slides right off the road and into a field. Heart pounding, she slowly pulls back onto the road.

Once we passed through the snow storm, it rained all the way to Washington. They were having almost record-breaking rain and it was an interesting ride. I think, if I remember correctly, they said on the news that the county I live in had over 20 inches of rain in December.

Back to my protagonist. She’s still driving late at night and she’s made it through the snow with her nerves on edge but intact. Can she now handle the rain? Probably, but there’s a sound like a gunshot and she has a flat tire. She pulls off to the side of the road, climbs out of the car, and guess who’s right behind her. You guessed it, the squirrely looking dog and his master. Before she can climb back into the car, the dog runs over, jumps up and licks her like a popsicle.

Take some of the little things that have happened to you while traveling and turn them into a scene in a book. The smallest thing (like a Chihuahua, she said laughing) can turn a humdrum scene into something spectacular.

Speaking of laughing, what if your character has a traveling companion and something strikes them funny. They might laugh themselves right into a ditch. You know the kind of laughter I’m talking about – the kind that makes tears run down your cheeks.

Until next week, don’t let life pass you by without paying attention to the little things, both the good and the not so good. They make for great stories.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

In the works: A Time Travel Mystery. It will be a standalone story, and hopefully it will be worth the wait.

From One Extreme to the Other

I live in the Arizona desert and I’ve seen the temperatures get as high as 128 degrees. We don’t have much rain, although sometimes during the monsoon season we get more than you can imagine. Friday night there was a huge storm with high winds, thunder and lightning. The cleanup took a couple of days, with a smaller storm hitting in the afternoon and causing more cleanup duties.

My house is for sale and I’ll be moving to Washington state where it rains – a lot. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m looking forward to the move.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Arizona, but a new chapter has started in my life and I need some changes.

You may be wondering why I’m talking about weather and moving, when I write a mystery blog. How often, in mysteries, is there a chase scene? Or a scenario where someone is conducting a surveillance? How about trying to sneak around a location?

In a chase scene, you can’t just say, “He ran after the bad guy.” No, you’ve got to include what your character has to endure and face. Needless to say, this is a foot chase. Think about it. What if the chase needs to take place during an extreme hot spell? When you walk outside and the temperature is 128 degrees, it feels like you just opened an oven door and stood in front of it, hoping it would cool off. The ground is so hot you can feel it, or almost feel it, through your shoes. You might start to sweat profusely, or you don’t sweat at all until you walk back inside, and then you can’t cool off.  The sweat is running into your eyes and down your back and chest.

Now a monsoon storm moves in. You’re not only already worn out from the heat, but high winds and thunder inhibit your efforts to catch the murderer, thief, or what have you.

What about the surveillance scenario? You might sit in a car and watch someone, but chances are if you’re there for any length of time you can’t keep the engine running so you can use the air conditioning. Cars become very hot, very fast. I’ve climbed into a hot car during the summer in the desert and found I couldn’t sit on the hot seat. I couldn’t hold onto the hot steering wheel. (You learn to park facing away from the sun or you put a sun screen in your car window.)

A foot chase in the heat and during a storm? Either the good guy or the bad guy, or both, may drop from heat stroke, if they’re not struck by lightning.

At the other end of the spectrum, imagine trying to sneak around with pouring rain slowing you down. Imagine mud sloshing into your shoes, and imagine your clothing becoming soaking wet. Of course, the heat can cause the same clothing problem. Ahem. Let’s move on. Now our characters are wet and cold. The good guy sees the bad guy exit a building and the chase is on. You can add slipping to the list of problems.

Of course, if the villain slips and falls, you might be able to add a little humor to this scene. Well, even if it’s the protagonist, you can add humor and let the bad guy get away, to be sought on another day.

You climb into your car to chase the suspect. I wonder if your wet or damp hands might slip off the steering wheel. The sole of your shoe might slip off the brake pedal. Hmmm. That could aid the bad guy in getting away once again.

When you’re creating a scene that includes weather issues, you can go in any direction and you can make the effort more interesting with just a bit of description. The elements can add something scary to the scene, or it can add humor. Frustration is always a possibility, too. I’ve only touched on heat and rain. There’s always snow to make things more interesting. High winds can cause all kinds of issues.

When writing a mystery, the author needs to picture himself or herself in just such a circumstance. Imagine every possibility, or remember your own reaction to unmerciful weather. Did your power go out during extreme heat or cold?

Make it real, and the reader will feel like they’re right there with your characters.

How do you think you’d react to the stifling heat I’ve mentioned, or any other major weather?

Until next time, stay cool and stay dry. Enjoy your summer and create some great memories. And wish me luck on selling the house.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

If you like the idea of finding a ghost town before anyone else has seen it, give Old Murders Never Die - A Sandi Webster Mystery a try. You’re sure to find a mystery in an old ghost town.

Looking for Topics in All the Wrong Places

 

Note that there's a roadrunner sitting on the back of the chair

 I was sitting in the back yard trying to think of a topic for this week’s blog and listening to the wind whistle through the trees. Actually, they’re palm trees and the palm fronds were banging and flopping against each other. The only whistling I heard came from a black bird in the neighbor’s tree.

A roadrunner came looking for handouts. Did you know they’re carnivorous? They love raw hamburger. I tried wet dog food once, but the roadrunners didn’t want anything to do with it. I even tried pieces of wiener, but that didn’t work either. It’s hamburger or nothing, if a human is feeding them. Otherwise it’s lizards, snakes, or… What am I talking about roadrunners for?

I watched the dogs soaking up the sun. Such relaxed creatures, although it’s not always like that. Sugar thinks she’s the alpha dog, and Murphy is a good ol’ boy who ignores her.

I turned away from the dogs because I was still trying to come up with a topic. What could I write about? Nothing was coming to mind.

Maybe if I went inside the house and ate some chocolate. Chocolate always helps me think. Or does it? Yum. Whether it helps me come up with an idea or not, it would still fill a need.

I’d thought about writing a post on overused words, but it’s been done – more than once. What could I possibly add to what others have said? Not a thing.

I walked back outside. The wind had picked up a little. The desert is known for desert winds – the dust flies, pollen finds its way into my life, leaves fill the air (and the swimming pool, practically a necessity in the desert heat), and flies and bees buzz around.

Walking over to the tomato plants, I saw four tomatoes growing. Yippee! Good eating.

Returning to my chair, I thought about dark and stormy nights. A wind like this would be great on a stormy night. Hmm. I’ve already written about how this would add to the intensity and suspense of a story.

 I played with the dogs for a few minutes. We worked on one of their skills, Take It and Leave It. You set a dog treat on the ground and tell them to Leave It. I laughed because while one dog puts her head in the air and won’t look at the cookie, the other one lowers his head until his nose almost touches it. When they’ve done their duty, I say Take It. Who knew food could disappear so quickly. Love those dogs.

Still, what was I going to write about? Nothing seemed to inspire me. Not the wind, nor the dogs or roadrunner, nor the chocolate or… If you hear a huge sigh, that would be me.

Where are the guest authors when I need them? I have two guest authors – make that three – and a guest reader coming up in the weeks to come. In the meantime, what, oh what, should I write about?

Off to my office. Something in the room I spend so much time in should be inspirational, right? I have all of my book covers lining one wall, but that doesn’t help. I have notes to myself on most surfaces. Those don’t help, either. My bookcases are full and my To Be Read Stack just keeps growing. I could whine, but I won’t.

I’ve heard from several authors that sales are down. I could write about that. Buy a book and enjoy yourself. Okay, that won’t fill up my blogspot.

I have so little reading time. If I wasn’t busy trying to think up a topic, I could be reading a good book. That’s no help because I still need a subject.

This week’s topic came to me when I least expected it. Where do you look for inspiration to write a blog? Everywhere, and you hope for the best. While I didn’t come up with something to write about, I did come up with a few ideas for scenes in books. I hope that in some way I entertained you as much as my day entertained me.

Do you ever have a time like this when nothing lifts its head in the air and says, “Hey! Write about me?”

Until next time, I hope your week is more productive than my day has been. Maybe it’s Spring Fever gripping my thought processes – and I hope it passes quickly.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

Purple cows? Elderly spies? Give How Now Purple Cow – A Bogey Man Mystery a try.