Just the Facts, Please

Recently I’ve been working on a family project including family stories and legends. Sometime back I plugged in the name of a notorious ancestor and what I found surprised me. I found two blogs about this man and both were a figment of someone’s imagination. The information in the blogs said that this ancestor was Italian and that he was a force in the Mafia in Old Los Angeles. First of all, he wasn’t Italian. Secondly, although he wasn’t a particularly stellar citizen and he was in a questionable profession, he was not involved in the Mafia. This blogger hadn’t done his research but had, instead, made some assumptions based on my relative’s surname. (Immigrants often changed their names or changed the spelling when they moved to America, and this man was of one of those.)

When I’m working on a book I do the best research I can on nonfictional subjects. In A Well-Kept Family Secret, part of the story took place in Old Los Angeles. I researched what was going on back in the day. I read newspaper articles, obtained information from an archaeologist and used family history as a basis for the story. The story was very loosely based on the above-mentioned relative. I researched books dealing with the late 1800s and early 1900s. I even interviewed a few people who’d lived through that time. Needless to say, the interviews took place a very long time ago. 

On another front, Old Murders Never Die takes place in a long-abandoned ghost town. In the interest of accuracy, I researched everything from old cook stoves and washing machines to the way people talked and lived. Thankfully, I received a comment from a woman who works as a steward for ghost towns. She said I had everything right except that the town would have been a lot dirtier. While that’s a good point, I didn’t want my protagonist to spend the entire story cleaning while stranded in the ghost town and trying to solve an old crime.

I have a relative who came home from World War II and became somewhat of a recluse, living in the mountains and only coming down when it was necessary. He was actually one of my favorite people, and I was so used to his lifestyle that it was years before I realized he probably had PTSD. That realization brought on research for a book titled, The Silver Dollar Connection. The men in this story are memorable. Believe it or not, I was able to include some humor in the story. My relative would have appreciated that.

Readers are smart. They know the type of material they enjoy reading, and it’s often something they have knowledge of, which is why they enjoy it. If the writer gets it wrong, a reader may very well let them know.

I’ve read a few books where you simply knew that the author was fictionalizing every word because they were so off the mark. It’s not just history, but includes how a business is run, what terminology is used in certain situations, whether it’s a gang member talking, a cop speaking or a mother of twins bragging about her kids. Very few readers want to read a story that has no basis, at all, in fact.

My latest book, The Accidental Gumshoe, was particularly fun to write. I had to learn about slang terms from 1920 and how people dressed and thought. I needed to create a character who would have fit comfortably into that era.

I try to include lightness or humor in most of my books, and because of that sometimes things aren’t as realistic as they might be. However, the basics are researched. Sandi Webster, my favorite protagonist, is a private investigator. While a real P.I. wouldn’t be able to get away with some of Sandi’s antics, there wouldn’t be a story if I didn’t fudge a little (or sometimes a lot).

So there you go. Fiction needs to be combined with fact. Don’t fudge with something that can be researched. An author should be as accurate as possible while still telling a good story.

Now you have some idea why most writers research their projects, sometimes even to the smallest detail.

Until next time, have a good week and check your facts before making a statement.

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Look Up, Look Down

When my husband was in the police academy, something they emphasized was, “Look up, look down, look all around.” That’s good advice for anyone investigating a crime, real or fictional.

Have you ever played one of those Search & Find games on the computer? Some of the objects you’re told to find will turn up in the most unlikely places. That’s true in life, too. I recently lost my car keys. Thankfully, I had an extra set of keys. I looked everywhere for those missing keys, including emptying out my purse (which would frighten a mere mortal) and all of my pockets. I’d had an appointment that day and finally decided I must have dropped them in the parking lot without realizing it.

I missed those keys because there were other things on the keychain besides my car and house key. The house key is another story. Whoever lived here before had different locks put on every door. Lots of keys for lots of doors. But I digress.

About two weeks later I put on a jacket to wear to the store, stuck my hand in the pocket and, surprise, surprise, there were the lost keys. I could have sworn I wore a different jacket the day of my appointment.

In Old Murders Never Die – A Sandi Webster Mystery, Sandi and Pete are stranded in a ghost town. To the best of their knowledge, no one had set foot in Wolf Creek for over a hundred years. Without much else to do, the two detectives started looking things over and they discovered unsolved murders from around 1880. Thus began their desire to solve the old murders. As the pair began searching houses in the town, they looked for clues, and Pete (an ex-police officer) offered Sandi the advice my husband offered me. She looked up, down and all around, and a few clues came to light after all those years. 

 This looks like a good hiding place.

Between my daughter and me, we have three dogs. Things disappear all the time. The little angels just love to walk off with whatever is within their reach. Very frustrating. The same advice works when looking for a lost slipper or sock. However in the case of the dogs, it’s also advisable to look under rocks or where it appears fresh digging has taken place.

Readers, including me, love secret rooms or passages. These things add to the suspense. So when our protagonists see something that doesn’t look quite right, they take a second look and generally, in a mystery, they’ll discover something unexpected. How about a secret room that houses a mummy? (Gin Mill Grill – A Sandi Webster Mystery)

When writing a mystery, have a little fun. Close your eyes and picture the last place someone might look for a clue, information, or a body. Of course, there are times these places need to fall short of offering help. Don’t forget red herrings. Also, don’t forget that not all mysteries include a death. The mystery might include a missing person, or as in my case, lost keys.

Speaking of keys, my grandfather had a key collection. Some of them were pretty old. I had a very old trunk that was locked and no one could figure out where the key might be. What’s the fun in calling a locksmith? I dug out Grandpa’s key collection and after trying several of them, I found one that opened the trunk. The case of the missing key? Solved, although I have a feeling that this might have been a skeleton key that would open many things.

So, whether we’re talking about fiction or real life, remember to look up, look down and look all around. If that doesn’t work, start checking pockets.

Have you ever lost something important and found it in a very unusual spot?

Until next time, take in your surroundings and look for the unusual or unexpected.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

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I Never Met a Chocolate I Didn't Like

Most people, both real and fictional, have something they’re addicted to, or maybe they consider it a habit. In the case of one of my characters, Sandi Webster, it’s a chocolate addiction. Sandi finds herself in a situation where she’s stranded in a ghost town and, horror of horrors, she’s out of chocolate. When her partner asks her what the deal is with chocolate, she says:

** “I can’t explain it,” I replied. “If I’m in a bad mood, chocolate will perk me up. One time when I was frightened, I ate a whole box of Bordeauxs, a specialty candy. They kept me going. There’s a type of chocolate called ganache. It’s chocolate mixed with heavy cream, and it’s… It’s a taste that can’t be described. Chocolate is sweet, but not like other sugary candy. As it melts in your mouth, it leaves its own unique flavor bouncing off the tongue and back again. I’ve read that dark chocolate has some healthy attributes, but unfortunately I prefer the light chocolate. It’s kind of like a nerve tonic for me.” I put my hand to my mouth, checking to be sure there wasn’t a trail of drool on my chin.

Does this, by any chance, sound like I understand Sandi’s addiction? Well, yes, I do. I wrote from experience and actually downplayed it.

 My Hero

Writers can give their characters all kinds of addictions or habits. As you can tell, candy can be one of them. However, a fictional character might also be fighting against an addiction to cigarettes or alcohol, or any number of other things. Some characters may be addicted to using certain words in their dialogue. It happens.

In all honesty, I believe having things they have to battle makes them more real to the reader, and maybe more relatable.

Before describing what she feels chocolate does for her, Sandi runs into a wall, figuratively speaking.

**I reached for my chocolate. There was no more chocolate. I searched through my backpack, but it was all gone. My heart thumped a couple of extra beats and I wondered if this was the way a smoker might feel if they ran out of cigarettes and there were no more. Anywhere. Well, I’m a bigger person that that. I could live without chocolate. Piece of cake.

When her partner, Pete, realizes she’s out of chocolate, he reacts.

** He took a step back. He knew. If he had any chocolate, he’d probably run out the front door and toss it to me as he ran by, and I doubted he’d be back until I’d eaten every last bite.

When we give our characters idiosyncrasies or addictions, the other characters have room to react and emphasize the problem. Many times the characters play off of each other. Chocolate may be a small thing to many, but it can help keep the story moving, as can other habits or addictions.

Unfortunately, when I write about Sandi and her chocolate, I find myself developing a craving. Consequently? I keep a candy dish on my desk with goodies in it.

Now that I think about it, I don’t recall giving Pete an addiction, other than he likes to keep busy. The same can be said about many men and women. I think some women react differently to things that keep them motivated. Curiosity will keep women motivated and, whether they’ll admit it or not, many men are the same way.

The point is, think about keeping your characters real. Maybe a specific color will play a part in their lives. It doesn’t always have to be an addiction to a specific thing. Can you become addicted to a color? (I’m shrugging my shoulders.) I love yellow. It’s cheerful. There’s a lot of yellow in my life. I even have a yellow trench coat.

Watch the people around you and pay attention to your own habits. You’ll begin to see things that fit a character in your book, even if it’s a character who only plays a part in one book.

Think about it. What addiction or habit might make your characters memorable? Peanut butter? Ice cream? Jelly beans? A particular car? A song? Maybe a cranky attitude. What might endear your character to readers?

Until next time, try to give something up and see how well you do. Of course, in my case chocolate will be the exception.

** Excerpts from Old Murders Never Die – A Sandi Webster Mystery

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Is Gin Mill Grill – A Sandi Webster Mystery about an addiction? Probably not, but you might give the book a try.

 Yes, that is a mummy sitting in the chair

The History

 I’ve been commenting on the fact that I’m packing and moving to another state. The process has surprisingly made me think about things that relate to writing mysteries.

I’ve run across things that I’d forgotten about. Things that make up my history; things that made me. I can look at something and remember where it came from and how it became a part of me. That is, how it’s effect on me created who I am. I guess I’m kind of talking in circles, but let me explain how it relates to mysteries.

When we create a storyline for a mystery, each part has to have some kind of history. What led the perpetrator to the point of committing a crime? What caused the victim to be in a certain place at a certain time? Was there a witness? Why was the witness there? What was everyone’s motivation?

All good questions. They deserve answers. Yes, sometimes situations are truly based on coincidence, but more often there’s an underlying story.

What about the protagonist? He or she needs a history, too. These characters don’t just pop up out of thin air. Nor do we.

If you want the characters in a story to be believable, they need a background, even if it forms over a number of stories.

Sandi (of the Sandi Webster Mysteries) was a teenager when her father made some disastrous decisions – and then he died. She went from being a happy-go-lucky teen to a proponent of doing the right thing overnight. She didn’t have time for friends or boyfriends and her life changed drastically. What got her through a rough situation? A new found maturity and a sense of humor. Years later, her life is turned around again when she opens an investigative firm and takes on a partner named Pete.

Chris and Pamela Cross (of the Bogey Man Mysteries) met by chance. Chris was a mailman and Pamela was a waitress, each wanting changes in their lives. Chris is a Humphrey Bogart lookalike, which has a huge bearing on where they go on their journey. Pamela was widowed young and has a son she’s raising by herself. They have histories that come together to create two amateur sleuths and an entirely new lifestyle.

There are a few things in my own history that have inspired stories, although those things have taken twists and turns and become something other than what real life handed me. Has anyone read Bubba’s Ghost? The story is based on something that happened to me, involving a drunken bum who harassed me and my young daughter. I’m talking about a total stranger, not someone who knew me. I happened to live in the wrong house at the wrong time, and I knew it would make a good story. The characters in the story are not me and my daughter, but fictional characters who handled things differently than I did.

History. Even a drunken bum needs a background, which I provided in the story, although it’s fiction.

Not all stories are based on true life situations, and yet our characters still need to have come from somewhere where things happened to shape them and their lives. Old Murders Never Die was one of those stories and it is complete fiction. The crimes in the story happened in the late 1800s and the victims’ stories were lost over time. Enter Sandi, who discovers an abandoned ghost town and a mystery that she can’t let go of without solving it. The town and the characters have an unexpected history.

Is there some small thing that’s happened to you in real life that would be fodder for a mystery? I’m not just directing this at writers, but also at readers. We each have a unique background. We have stories we can tell in a book or when we sit and talk to a friend. Some are funny – some are not. However, a story is a story and I, for one, love to hear them.

I especially enjoy the humorous stories. Then, again, I enjoy telling them and making people laugh. The other day one of the dogs… Never mind. I’ll save that for another post.

Until next time, clean out one of your cupboards and see if you find something that triggers a memory that helped turn you into who you are.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

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I Love Surprises and Clues

I watched a commercial on television recently that was about people enjoying surprises. I’m one of those who loves a good surprise, and mysteries generally hold plenty of them, although not always good ones.

For the purposes of this week’s blog, I’m going to talk about clues, or what could be considered clues.

I’ve mentioned a few times in recent blogs that my house is for sale.  Being the positive thinker that I (sometimes) am, I’ve started packing already. When the house finally sells, I’ll be ready to go.

It’s been interesting. There are a number of boxes that have been stored rather than unpacked. Now I’m having to go through the boxes to sort and throw out or repack. I’ve always been a “saver”, and there are plenty of things I’d forgotten I had. I’ll open a box and think, Wow! I forgot I had this. Other times I’ll think, I wonder why I saved this.

I’ve watched several television shows having to do with forgotten items. I used to watch If Walls Could Talk. People would buy an historic house or building and find amazing things in unlikely places. Recently I watched a show called Attic Gold which involves a small company who will clean out an attic, free of charge, but they keep what they find and remodel the attic. I’ve watched some of the shows where people purchase the contents of storage units and find amazing things. I realize that some “finds” are staged. After all, this is television. However, I also know that there really are some surprises out there.

I remember a show I watched a long time ago where the new owners were going to renovate an older house, and they found old movie posters that had been used as insulation in the walls. They were in pristine condition and valuable.

Where a mystery is involved, people will hide things in the most unlikely places. When a writer is developing a story, they can create a scenario wherein a character might find something of historic importance, or they might find something recently hidden – clues.

I wrote Old Murders Never Die, which had to do with finding a ghost town that no one had seen since the late 1800s. All Sandi Webster had to work with were things she found in the town. The people had left suddenly and many homes and businesses were found just as they were left, with plates still sitting on dining tables and merchandise still in the general store. It was fun to dream up what a modern day person might find and coming up with an old mystery. The clues were all there, just waiting for her.

I found a letter that a soldier had written to my grandmother during World War I. He wrote it on Armistice Day and described what was going on. He was in the Argonne Forest when this took place. Fascinating. He included a few comments about what was going on in her life, which made it even more personal and interesting. (She’d recently been in an industrial accident and lost her arm. This would have been in 1918. It’s difficult to know how long it took her original letter about her arm to reach him.)

Another unexpected, and shocking, find was a photograph that was mixed in with family photos. I know I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but it’s difficult to forget. My grandmother gave me a large trunk filled with photos dating back to the 1800s through around 1980. There were so many to sort through, and as I looked at them I found a photo of a firing squad shooting people. The Officer in Charge sat astride a horse, the troops were in the background, and you could actually see the smoke coming out of the rifles. The people being shot appeared to be starting to fall. For clarification, no one involved was American. I sent the photo to a retired military historian and he believes these were possibly Asians. Even more startling, or to add to it, it appears that my grandfather took the picture. This would have been between 1904 and 1907. I won’t include the photo in this post because it would shock too many people.

Clues? They can be found in the darnedest places. Maybe you’ve found something of interest mixed in with the ordinary, everyday things. Tell us about your most surprising find.

Until next time, try sorting through some of those old boxes that have been stored and forgotten. You may find things that make you smile, or that make your mouth pop open in surprise.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

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