El Segundo Author Fair  

You're now probably going - WOW! she's posted like twice in a week. Well this will be quick.

I just visited a blog where the blogger was commenting on older characters as the sleuth and how popular they are because a lot of people who read are over 40. Well, I can agree with that to a point, many readers are over 40, but that doesn't mean they can always identify solely with someone their own age solving a crime - but then I'm not 50, 60 or 70 am I?

My main character Lydia is in her 40's. She is a mother, a wife, a volunteer and a genealogist. But I don't consider her old. She works for a genealogical society where a good portion of the visitors and members are 10-20 years older than herself, but that doesn't mean she would normally interact well with them. My character Lydia interacts with older people well because she was a mid-life child when the term was taboo (1960's). She grew up with parents who lived through the depression, WWII, Korea, assasinations of our leaders and cultural changes of the most extreme - remember the 1960's? With that background Lydia has a base to understand and communicate with other generations.

Muriel and Julia for instance are in their 70's. They essentially would be about 5-10 years younger than Lydia's mother. There are also other members she deals with in their 60's too. Each of them are formed by their era - women didn't work (not until WWII gave them the chance) and if they did they were nurses, teachers or secretaries, and that image went well into the 60's I might add. Opportunities were closed to them, there weren't too many lawyers, doctors or college deans for that matter. Diseases weren't cured or even put at bay as they are now. They lost children to measles, mumps, polio and the flu. They also grew up on farms, and in neighborhoods where it was safe to play unchecked in their neighborhoods. Gangs wore leather and raced cars down the main street, they rumbled under over passes...

Although I enjoy older sleuths I wanted someone my age, someone who had a life and juggled many tasks at one time because that's what today's woman (whether a mother or not) faces. But I didn't want to make her social group exclusive to her age range because then you get whiny chick lit characters who solve crimes, and I didn't want Lydia like that. I wanted her to have a broad spectrum of experiences and in the process to teach genealogy to people who might never think about their own relationship with their own family. (As for genealogy being boring...we'll that will be my next blog topic!)

To me the character is more than what they look like, it's their insides, it's their formation, it's what makes a character unique and interesting and in a series - keep coming back for more.

I was thinking the other day how characters develop. I just tried to read a book on a craft shop (I'll leave the title generic because I don't want to influence others on their reading choices. I think every writer has a following, and each reader has a choice in what they read...) and I came in on book four. I was just a little disappointed because the author seemed to bring in already established characters like a revolving door.  Even though most of them seemed like they were stable characters, established in book one, they had very little character development. They weren't there to move the story along, nor were they interesting enough for me to want to spend any time with them. As I always do I gave it three chapters before putting it back on the shelf.

This made me think about my characters: Lydia, Muriel, Faye and Julia. They are my base, what my story's foundation is based on. Now of course in any story you have to bring in secondary characters to help move the story along. Those characters also need some fleshing out, otherwise why are they there? They are there to move the plot and the story along.

I have read a lot of books over the years, a lot of mysteries too, and I noticed the successful ones are the ones that kept to a core, but also injected the story with colorful transitional characters. In book one, An Old Fashioned Murder, I introduced Julia's granddaughter, uncle and cousin, although secondary characters they are there to provide a way to move the story along. In my second book A Commitment to Murder I have introduced a few characters from the genealogical society, one in particular who becomes Lydia's protagonist. They not only move the story along they also provide a window into Lydia's society interactions: President of the society, founding member, etc. In the third installment A Case Study in Murder Lydia and the girls go out of town. They spend time together and because of that you get to see a more intimate side of them; how they interact with each other on a 24/7 basis. They get involved in helping with a case study and of course that brings in other secondary characters. I tried to make them rich, interesting characters as well as letting them propell the story along.

I've learned the characters in your story are your bread and butter. They have to make you - the reader - want to return to the town, society, library, store, post office - wherever your setting is - over and over again.

Well thanks to a really nice person I met online, I have decided that I need to let my negative feelings on publishing go (I suppose it's more like other's feelings about the path I chose) and focus more on my writing and genealogy, because that's what it is really all about! I think my negativity all boiled down to a really bad week, a lack of sleep and a bit of low self-esteem. You know how you feel when you're not quite firing on all pistons and you read or see something that sticks with you? We'll, it's Saturday and that's falling away!

So you're reading the blog of the future president of South Bay Cities Genealogical Society! I need to come up with plans to pull our society up by it's bootstraps and get back on track. We're celebrating our 30th anniversary this year with a party that I am stamping napkins for. There was a period of time where I collected all these genealogy stamps - cute sayings and so on - from a company in Arizona and have never had a need for them till now. I need to get colorful stamp pads and do about a hundred of them. My contribution to the festivities.

Speaking of the genealogical sayings - If you have read the first book An Old Fashioned Murder then you know I have encorportated something similar into Muriel's character. She collects genealogy stuff that have sayings on them. For copyright sake I have made up all of the ones in my books. I think it's nice to have a quirky character who is proud of what she does as a hobby and lives by it. That's one thing I haven't done yet in my fourth Lydia Proctor Mystery installment, given Muriel one of her t-shirts to wear. That means I need to come up with something catchy.

I have also decided not to promote Lydia to president of Tri-Cities. She has much more fun as a librarian and meets enough ecentric people at her level to fill at least 10 more books!

Well I am off to help my son clean his room. He's a typical male teenager - you get the picture!

Oh and just a quick note...I understand my contact on this webpage goes to Microsoft Outlook Express, if you want to avoid that just e-mail me directly at : lauriepoolerpelayo@lydiaproctormysteries.com.  Upon reflection, I should have chosen a shorter e-mail address - sorry!

Well either everyone is mad at me because of my POD feelings, or you're all on vacation, or you're apathetic, or my web page is super boring - it's sort of a crap shoot huh? I mention this because my visitors numbers have dropped considerably. I had a ton last month, but that was probably because of my stint on Overbooked.com's Mystery Most Cozy. I never heard back from them either so it was either a horrible book or they didn't have enough to participate to make it worth their while (and to be honest I'm too chicken to ask). 
 
I need to get busy on getting my book - the first one - out and on the shelves, but the more I read about POD's getting equal treatment with other well known publishing houses, I get depressed. More and more small bookstores are closing too. The big chains and discount stores are taking over. So much for free enterprise.

This brings me to my greatest dream - to own a mystery bookstore. Go with me on this...It would be cool to have a two suite store where you have a sliding bookcase that opens with a candlestick, comfy 1940's styled couches and winged back chairs to sit in, even a fake fireplace like Sherlock Holmes would be awsome. Shelves upon shelves of mystery books, and no book would be turned away, no matter who it was published by - as long as it was a mystery.

I would have contest's like Carolyn Hart has in her Annie and Max mysteries and I think my two cats would relish the attention and the space.  High bookshelves too, with those old fashioned ladders on wheels - be damned the lawsuits! That would be paradise...

But back to reality...bummer huh?

Well we all make choices in our lives, and some of us are starting to feel like they've made the wrong choice even when it was probably the best choice for them. You're probably wondering where I am going with this...it's Big Publisher vs POD.

Yes, I chose the POD route. It was for a couple reasons. One was I didn't want to be fifty before I got my first book published and that's where it was heading. My story is not mainstream mystery. It is taking a topic like genealogy and using that to solve a crime. There is no blood envolved or gun shots or hostages being held. It's four women working together to solve a mystery. Who wants to read about that, other than maybe women and genealogists right? Is that bankable? Not really. Who - as a publisher - would want to invest money in that. Now remember when a publisher takes on a story it is an INVESTMENT. It's like buying a house. I just decided to build my own house instead of waiting for someone to build it for me. Also keep in mind that as an investment it doesn't necessarily have to be good, it just has to make money...

The second reason was I had a story to tell. It was in my head and wanted to come out. I think it's a pretty good story. It's not Pulitzer Prize or maybe even Edgar winning, but it's my story to tell. The person who picks it up can read it or not. I don't particularly care. Deep down I do hope they read it and enjoy it, but if they are basing their reading of my story on the premise it's a POD, then it's a reader I don't want or need.

My English skills suck. I'll be the first one to admit that to anyone. I did have an editor who made it throught the first hundred pages - those are the ones without errors. After he left me I corrected a lot on my own, but I also had to let a lot go. Yes, I paid for the set up of the manuscript, if that is considered "vanity" then that's what I have, and so be it.

In the past two months I have read two books I wouldn't ever recommend to anyone else, promoted by large publishing houses with a number of glaring errors that even a poor English student like myself caught without much effort. I also read three others that were fantastic, one of those had two glaring errors. Did it stop me from reading it to the end? No.

This is a discussion that's been going on an Internet chat that I joined. It started out with people venting on being excluded from certain organizations because they were self-pubbed, POD or even small press published.  After that topic was beaten into the ground some "kind" people pointed out that those publishers were excluded because the authors weren't considered polished enough, that the criteria for those organizations was written specifically to weed out the undesirables. I knew there was a divide in the publishing industry, but I didn't realize it was quite this bad, and apparently in this battle I have picked the wrong side.

So why should I feel bad about my decision? Why should I feel guilty for taking my own life, in my own hands, and not letting it be mauled by a New York publisher or an editor who has no clue what genealogy is or what a genealogist does? Does that make my story any less convincing?

I am not a judgemental person, or at least I try not to be. Yes, we all can be, but to take something so sensitive and use it to hurt someone else whether intentional or not, is not cool.

I believe in the freedom of speech, but I also believe in being fair. More people should try to do so.

Well as my repeat visitors can see I have held up one of my promises. I added to my hints and tips page with a page on documentation. I have also started working again on book four and actually wrote a chapter yesterday. Amazing what headphones can do for someone who's trying to block out other noise in the house.

I also got the last page for the DAR scrapbook laid out, now I just need to caption it and then create the title page. It should be ready by next weeks meeting. Then I get to start on next years!

I got a great e-mail from a woman who had joined Mystery Most Cozy and e-mailed me about my family and their influence on my writing. Even though our ancestors both hail from the New England area we didn't have one line that stood out for either of us. It was still great though corresponding with her.

Well today is the garage and the hole in the wall. The garage is so I can actually park in there at night if I so choose. The hole in the wall? Ask my son.