Opinions are Like... Well, We've All Got One - Part II

On Veteran's Day, and all year through, I'd like to say thank you to all who've served the United States of America in order that we might maintain our freedoms. Thank you!

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A couple of years ago I wrote a post about opinions and political correctness. I guess you’d call that Part I since I’m bringing it up again.

There’s a huge difference between being polite and thoughtful and being politically correct. It seems to me that political correctness has crossed a line. I read an article in yesterday’s newspaper about a Secretary at a corrections facility who sent a memo to staff saying “Those serving time in prison will no longer be referred to as prisoners, offenders or convicts. Instead, they will be called students if they are in some type of class and patients if they are in the prison infirmary.” A spokesman said “…if no other moniker applies, they will be identified as incarcerated persons.”

I’m sorry (she said facetiously), but I intend to call a prisoner a prisoner, a convict a convict and a criminal a criminal. Chances are they were convicted of a crime or they probably wouldn’t be in prison.

Some of the stories I’ve heard on the news about new college rules make me glad I’m not going to college today. I won’t repeat some of those rules because they’re simply ridiculous.

Frankly, I’m tired of feeling like I have to watch every word I say in public. One of the reasons I enjoy being a fiction writer is that I, or my characters, can say what they want. Mystery writers tend to include crimes in their books. Are we supposed to pussy foot around what happened to create the mystery? Are we supposed to be politically correct with our words? If we aren’t, are the Word Police going to show up at our doors?

The way I look at it, books are like television in that if the story is upsetting the reader, they can get rid of the book just like they can change a channel.

I wrote the original post because I read that a number of colleges had students requesting “trigger warnings” on books. That means if there’s a controversial crime, or even a non-controversial crime in the story then there should be a warning on the cover. Someone could read the book and be upset over what it says. It could bring back bad memories. If that’s the case, don’t read the book.

If a book contains specific and graphic violence or graphic sex, maybe it could be in the blurb on the back of the book. Reader beware. Read the blurbs on the back cover.

When did common sense fly out the window? Many of the things written in books would never be tolerated in today’s real life situations, even if they’re innocently said. Have people become that thin-skinned?

I recalled reading about a kindergarten boy kissing a kindergarten girl on the cheek and it was considered sexual harassment. When I was a kid that simply would have caused giggling among the children. So the little boy has to pay a price for kissing a little girl on the cheek? Give me a break.

How hard is it to change a channel or set a book aside if you find it offensive? How hard is it to acknowledge that children will be children?

If you disagree with me, that’s your right – just as it’s my right to speak up. Enough is enough, and I certainly hope this political correctness, at the lengths it’s reached, is dealt with soon. Yes, be polite when it’s called for and, yes, be thoughtful when possible. However, don’t try to dictate to everyone else how they should act or speak.

Okay, this deserves some discussion. Do you feel things have gone too far? Do you feel things are out of balance? Does it affect your writing? Do you ever change something you’ve written because someone might not accept it (in terms of political correctness)? Or do you write what you feel is right?

Until next week, try not to judge me too harshly. I do frequently use my common sense, although maybe today I should have kept my trap shut. It just felt like it had to be said.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

Having a Great Crime – Wish You Were Here (A Sandi Webster Mystery) is just waiting for some new readers. Give it a try.

Uh... What?

(My daughter says this isn't an award winning post, but when you've got out-of-state company coming in any minute..."

I recently received a new credit card, and all of the flyers, instructions, and legalese were in Spanish. Other than a few words, I don’t speak or read any foreign language. I wish I could speak Spanish, but I don’t. I took it for one year in high school, but the second year we had an Asian teacher with an Asian accent, and none of us could understand what he was trying to teach us. But that’s neither here nor there, just an interesting story.

You know how the stores get you. “Don’t pay cash. Sign up for a credit card and you’ll get an extra 20% off. You can pay it off and never use the card again.” The item I bought was already on sale, and an extra 20% would make it even better. Woohoo!

Anyway, of all things, this got me to thinking about writing. Surprise! Doesn’t almost everything make me think of writing?

What might happen if your protagonist received a threatening note, left in her mailbox, in a language she wasn’t familiar with? She could find an interpreter, but by the time that happened the person sending the note might have carried through on their threat. Not good.

Ah! How would she know it was a threatening note if she couldn’t read it? Good question. Maybe the bad guy drew a picture of what he was planning to do. Uh huh. Not likely, but for purposes of this post, let’s say he did.

The protagonist could become suspicious of everyone around her who speaks Spanish. Also not good. (By the way, this isn’t political. It’s about writing mysteries and figuring things out.)

She might try to remember if she’d had any run-ins with someone of Hispanic descent recently. No?

Moving on.

Maybe the note was left in the wrong mailbox. She might start talking to neighbors and discover she has a new woman living a few houses away. Interestingly, this new neighbor speaks both English and Spanish. She also has a son who’s in trouble and she needs help to keep him safe. It would be too cliché to say he’s involved in drugs or gangs, no matter what his ethnicity, so let’s say he witnessed a crime. Drugs and gangs have been way overused in books and on TV.

The neighbor translates the note and begins to cry. “My baby boy is in big trouble. Will you help us?” Of course, her “baby boy” happens to be nineteen and fit as a football player. In fact, maybe he does play college football. However, the protagonist can’t turn down someone who’s as upset as this mother happens to be.

The end of this story is up to you. Use your imagination and figure out what the protagonist, mother and son might go through. Violence? Guns? Knives? Or maybe just some whacko who thought he was being funny. It could be someone from a rival team hoping to throw the young man off his game.

You may be thinking, what’s the relevance of this idea? It’s too unrealistic. So what if she got a credit card in Spanish? Why would that make her think about a threatening note?

Writers pay attention to everything and everyone around them. That’s what would make one think of this scenario.

I received the bill shortly after the credit card. Guess what? The bill was in Spanish. I refused to pay it until I receive a bill in English. Silly me. We’ll see what happens.

Hmm. Maybe my protagonist will have to go through something like this. No. I don’t think so.

Until next time, have a great week and I hope all of your bills are in a language you understand.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

The Sandi Webster Mysteries, the Bogey Man Mysteries and two standalone books are waiting for your attention. Give them a try.

Lessons Learned - Part I

This week I did a guest post about self-publishing on Patricia Gligor’s blog at

 http://pat-writersforum.blogspot.com/ . Is it for your or not? One of the people who commented was Sunny Frazier of “The Posse” and she asked me to write a series about the steps and trials and errors of self-publishing.

Initially I wrote a long, boring post about how I started out and how I reached the point of changing my publishing strategy. I hit the Delete button after rereading it.

I honestly believe an author is better off if they try to find a traditional publisher before self-publishing. It may turn out to be right for you, but if it isn’t, it can’t hurt for your “resume” to include traditional publishers in your background.

My start was not an auspicious one. Often times we tend to jump in with both feet without knowing what we’re doing. I had no contact with other authors, authors’ groups or anyone with publishing knowledge, and I didn’t understand researching on the Internet. I was new to computers, too.

Long story short, someone told me about a self-publishing company at a time when self-publishing was frowned on. I didn’t know about The Big Frowning Face and tried it.

I submitted a manuscript and I was thrilled when I received an email telling me I was the best thing since sliced bread, even comparing me to some big name authors. I was elated, printed the email and taped it to my wall. I was in heaven. It took a while for me to realize that they probably sent this type of email to all of their writers.

Then the real work began. I tried marketing and promoting, but to no avail. There was that frowny face looking mean and nasty, and looking me straight in the eye.

There were issues with the self-publisher that made me sit back and take a long, hard look at what I was doing. After some work, I cancelled my contracts with the intent of going elsewhere. Was I naïve? Uh, yes.

It seems no one wanted to deal with a self-published author. Things have changed today, but that was then and this is now.

I started submitting a rewritten novel and found a taker, an epublisher. I was thrilled, and in all honestly I still feel that way. They were willing to take a chance on me and the Sandi Webster series. The first royalty check I received wasn’t for very much, but I began to feel like I’d made it. What a rush!

I started writing a second series, The Bogey Man Mysteries, which was a spinoff from the Sandi Webster series.

A long period of time had passed since I first self-published, but at that point I was feeling pretty full of myself. I decided to try to find a different publisher for the new series, and I did.

Over time I realized the two publishers were on one road, and I wanted to be on another. There was no common ground. I once again cancelled my contracts. That brings up another point. If you find a publisher, read your contract carefully. There are pitfalls and you don’t want those in your contract, but I’m not an attorney so I won’t go into detail.

My intent was to rerelease all of my books on my own. I’d been hearing great things about Amazon’s self-publishing program and had a feeling I was at the beginning of the road I wanted to take.

Jumping in with both feet again, I took my own road and I don’t regret it. However, I had no idea how much work was involved, and that’s what I want to pass on to you. You have to be your own publisher and it’s not a job for sissies.

Next week I’ll talk about where that road has led me, and how I did it. In the meantime, remember that if you’re writing as a career, not just for fun, you’re running a business. Treat what you’re doing as a business and look for the marketing plan that will work best for you.

Have any of you had similar experiences to those I had in the beginning? Were any of you as naïve as I was? I was an avid reader, and heck, since I read so much, how could writing my own book be so difficult? I have to laugh at myself when I think of how I perceived The Business.

Until next week, think long and hard about what you’re doing. Do you really want to be your own boss? Remember, it involves a lot of hard work.

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

Bad Guys and Bullies

I’m offering you a rerun this week. It’s been busy and I couldn’t pull my thoughts together to come up with a new topic, so I took a look at some old posts. This goes back about five years. I hope you enjoy it and maybe take something away from it.

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Mysteries generally contain at least one bad guy or bully. If there’s been a murder, then chances are there’s a rotten apple hanging around somewhere. Right? 

 Sugar - The Bully Turned Sweetie

I had occasion to give this some thought this week, but not for the reasons you might expect. We have an eighty pound yellow Labrador retriever named Sugar. While she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, she does believe she’s an alpha dog. She’s been this way since the first day we saw her, as a small puppy. She tries to dominate everyone and everything, including bigger dogs, little dogs, and my husband and me.

 Murphy - The Good Ol' Boy

Well, she’s met her match. Yesterday we brought home a ten pound yellow Lab puppy named Murphy. No matter how hard Sugar tries to dominate him, he’s not having it. If dogs could laugh in your face, that’s what he’d be doing. “Alpha dog? hahaha I don’t think so.”

Watching the interaction between them has been a learning experience, as well as amusing. In less than twenty-four hours, Little Miss Alpha has gone from boss to mothering. The most he’ll let her get away with is “herding” him. Ten pounds vs. eighty pounds, and the ten pounder wins?

When you’re writing a bad guy or a bully into a story, chances are he’s pushy, either physically or verbally. Stalking is bullying, and so are anonymous phone calls, emails or letters, along with comments on the Internet. It doesn’t have to be a face-to-face confrontation.

Picture a really big guy standing with his arms folded across his chest, a take-no-prisoners expression on his face, and his feet are spread apart. He’s standing very straight, almost leaning back a little, and he’s looking down his nose at a smaller man or woman. He’s being a bully; trying to intimidate this other person. Now let’s say the other person places their hands firmly on their hips, spreads their own feet apart and looks up at the bully with disgust. One of several things could happen, but the two that come to mind are that the bully will punch the other person in the face, or he’ll lower his arms and go look for someone else that he can intimidate. Of course, he could just go to the closest bar and have a beer while contemplating where he went wrong and wondering if he’s losing his touch.

Years ago a woman started receiving obscene phone calls – another form of bullying. By the third phone call, this woman decided she wasn’t going to be intimidated. When the phone rang again and the caller made his newest lewd comment, she innocently said, “What?” He said it again, louder, and she said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you.” He repeated his comments, almost yelling by this time. She said, “Is there something wrong with you? Speak up!” After a couple of nasty words, the caller hung up, apparently frustrated. He never called again.

Yeah, that was my mother. She used common sense and words to end the harassment.

I guess my point is that there are all kinds of ways to deal with bad guys and bullies. Some of the most unique confrontations take place in fiction. However, some of the really good stories take place in real life. No, we can’t always get rid of a bad guy in the same ways that were mentioned above, but in a book we can do it any way we like. As an author, I can write any result I want to, and I can make it work. Whether or not it’s realistic depends on an author’s writing style.

Do you have a bully or a bad guy in your life? Use your common sense when dealing with that person. Simply walk away if you can, but don’t give them (figuratively speaking) the ammunition to shoot you unless you’ve taken leave of your senses. No, I’m not talking about physical ammunition. I’m talking about playing into their hands. Don’t do it.

Until next time, I hope you have a good week and that no bullies step into your path and block your way.

(By the way, Sugar is now 90 pounds and Murphy is 112 pounds. She still rules the roost, more or less, but he ignores her. They’ve become something akin to best friends. Their pictures are on most of the Bogey Man book covers.)

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw's website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com