Sharon Daynard

Posted on December 20, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Sharon Daynard has crossed paths with a serial killer, testified before Grand Juries, and taken lie detectors tests. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies in both the US and Canada. She is a member of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.    www.sadaynard.com

Your story in Dead Calm, “A Fortune to be Had” has a cast of highly memorable characters–the psychic, Meg Proctor, her husband Nate and, of course, the two elderly sisters from Portsmouth, NH, Biddy and Patience Pendergast. How do you create such memorable characters?

When writing “A Fortune to be Had” I needed two couples that would almost mirror and play off of one another in a good cop/bad cop fashion. The husband and wife team Nate and Meg Proctor and elderly siblings Biddy and Patience Pendergast took those roles.

At the time, I’d never been to a psychic/fortuneteller and had no one to use as the basis for Meg Proctor. After doing a bit of online research on fortunetelling scams, a jaded Meg, hell bent on making a fortune regardless of the consequences, came to me. A reluctant and guilt ridden Nate easily played the ying to Meg’s yang. Biddy and Patience, on the other hand, just took on a life of their own, demanding center stage in the narrative.

Coming up with names that suit a character can be a challenge for me. I sometimes find myself halfway into a story still referring to the players as X, Y, and Z. Usually, my characters wind up “telling me” their names. This wasn’t the case for “A Fortune to be Had.” I knew what I wanted to call the elderly sisters before I ever began writing the story. I don’t think I could have picked two more appropriate and telling names. Biddy is the epitome of an irritating and opinionated old woman. And Patience is a trusting, mild-mannered, sweetheart of an old doll.

“A Fortune to be Had” is funny–it might be characterized as a romp or a caper. Writing a funny short story is a challenge. How did you bring the funny to this story?

 When I sit down to write a story, the amount of humor that creeps in is up for grabs. I only know how the story begins and how it ends. If the character of Meg Proctor had spoken louder to me than Biddy and Patience Pendergast, the story would have taken on a darker, more sinister tone. When I gave in to the characters of Biddy and Patience and allowed them free reign, the story just naturally took a humorous turn.

If I sat down at my computer with the intent of writing a humorous story, I’d still be staring at a blank page today. I write what come naturally at the time. The humor in my stories is more about attitude than punch lines. I don’t force it. If something make me chuckle, hopefully someone else will find the humor in it as well.

I have to confess that I am, by nature, a silly person. I see the absurd and farcical in almost every situation. Even in my darkest stories, there’s a sentence or two that makes me giggle. I owe my sense of humor to my late father, Francis Lennon, who was a quite a character himself. One of my father’s favorite pastimes was having himself paged over the PA system at Logan Airport as Ambassador Lennon and then rushing to the nearest phone to have an urgent conversation with himself. In “A Fortune to be Had” I named the Bunco Squad detective Lance Lennon, the name my father wanted to go by if he ever made it to Hollywood and into the movies.

You’ve written both dark and humorous short stories. Which do you prefer?

I love a dark humor/comedy. It’s the best of both worlds. Like a lot of mystery writers, I have been witness to the dark side of humanity and I think humor is a coping mechanism.

My favorite author is Stephen King. Most people consider most of his works truly dark. For whatever reason, I think there’s more depth to his writing than he gets credit for. He really has an amazing sense of humor if you look past the horror.

What are you working on now?

I recently completed my manuscript “The Rigors of Murder” which is a dark comedy/caper. It revolves around five women who decide to murder their best friend’s husband for her 50th birthday present. Unfortunately, the hapless group of would-be hit women find out murder is best left to the pros.

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Nancy Gardner

Posted on December 1, 2011 by | 8 Comments

Nancy Gardner has had her short stories published in magazines, anthologies and online. Currently she’s working on a mystery set in Salem, Massachusetts and featuring a modern Salem witch who uses her ability to walk into other people’s dreams to unmask a murderer.

Your story in Dead Calm focuses on a very memorable central character. How did you create this story and character and what were the challenges of writing from this point of view?

Let’s start with character development.  In “Count to Ten,” the main character, Flo, is one of my favorite characters to write—maybe because she came to me so easily, as did her fellow homeless shelter resident, Rose. So I have Flo’s point of view pretty well down. I suppose this is because Flo and Rose remind me of several loved ones from the past who were homelessness and/or mentally ill and/or alcoholic.  It’s plotting that was my biggest challenge.  After many iterations and failed submissions I finally figured out I needed to come at the plot from another angle—looking at Flo through a less clearly defined character, the nun who wants to help Flo.  Once I did that, I understood how the natural conflict between these women could strengthen Flo’s arc.

Congratulations on winning an honorable mention for the Al Blanchard award for “Count to Ten.”

Thanks. I’m really proud of that award. And I’m also excited that “Count to Ten” is scheduled for republication in an anthology of baseball fiction for release in early 2012, and in time for Fenway’s 100th anniversary.

What is your advice for beginning short story writers?

Take to heart Nathaniel Hawthorne’s words, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” I say this because my biggest newbie mistake was to focus on writing to my strength—which is characterization. I’d write good characters and then submit for publication. It wasn’t until I got tough-love feedback from objective readers that I realized—duh!—readers want the whole enchilada. That’s when I focused more on improving my plots. This newbie mistake is not uncommon. Many of us have heard that competency comes after 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice. And haven’t we been writing all our lives?  But it turns out that developing competency requires more than simple repetition. We must do the ugly work of identifying and working on our weaknesses. For more specifics on how writers can develop a more deliberate practice, I highly recommend Louise DeSalvo’s blog posting: (http://writingalife.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/deliberate-practice-by-louise-desalvo/).

What are you working on now?

A short story set in Salem, on Halloween night. It features an aging pickpocket torn between avoiding being sent back to prison and preventing an attack on innocent revelers.  I’m also working on a novel set in Salem.

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Kate Flora

Posted on November 28, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Kate Flora’s books include series mysteries, police procedurals, suspense and true crime. Current projects include a true crime and a novel in linked stories. She spent seven years as editor and publisher at Level Best Books. Flora is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake. She teaches writing for Grub Street. Redemption, a Joe Burgess mystery, will be published in February. Kate’s website is http://www.kateflora.com/ and she blogs at http://mainecrimewriters.com/

Your story this year is the second story starring U.S. Marshal Gracie Christian. Is she going to be a recurring protagonist for you? What do you think is required to develop a character with more than one story to tell?

A funny story here, actually. I had no intention of writing another story about Gracie, but two things happened to change that. First, a number of people who read “Gracie Walks The Plank” in the last collection wrote to me and said they thought she’d make a great series character. That was an interesting surprise. And then, second, when I pondered about the story I’d written, I realized that I’d never explained about the diamond necklace. So I had to write a story to explain how she got it.

I honestly don’t know what is required to develop a character with more than one story to tell. When I write a novel, I do a great deal of planning before I start, and I know where the story is going and what it’s about. In short stories, it’s more like a journey of discovery. I get a character in a situation, and then I let them show me what they, and thus the story, are about.

The first Gracie story began with an off-hand remark my husband made about me being slovenly because I went straight from the bed to my desk and was still in my nightgown at 1:00 in the afternoon. That led to the thought, “the slovenly detective,” which was the original title of the story. I opened with Gracie sitting there in that ratty housecoat, and wanted to know what she was doing there.

This year, for “All that Glitters,” I essentially wrote a prequel to how she ended up in that trailer, and it was fun to learn more about Gracie—her world view, her attitude, her ability and inability to get along with people, her rescue complex, and some things about her past. She interests me.

You write novels, true crime and short stories and you also teach writing. What advice do you give to short story writers that you wouldn’t give to novelists, and vice versa?

Mostly it would be two things:

First, to slow down, listen to your character, and let him or her tell you what the story is about and where it is going. You can do that in the more compressed medium of a short story.

Second, I ask writers what has happened in the story that matters, and how the character is changed at the end. Basically…has there been an epiphany? Have the events of the story changed the character? It can be only a slight change, but I’m looking for development, and change.

These things are true for novels, but in a novel, there’s a lot of time to develop the story. In the short story, it’s very compressed and everything that the character thinks or does or that happens to them has to matter to the story or it doesn’t belong. There’s no space for meanders, subplots, or page long riffs about the weather. If there’s food, it has to matter. If there’s movement, it has to go some place. If there’s confrontation, something has to be changed as a result. I also find I end up talking a lot about making scenes, and how writers use those scenes like building blocks to reach the inevitable conclusion.

Inevitability is a nice word in short stories.

You have a new Joe Burgess book coming out in February.  What’s it about?  Can you give us a little preview?

Thanks for asking. I’m very excited about this new book, which is called, Redemption. My vision for the Burgess series is a quartet, taking place in each of the four seasons. Playing God takes place in February. The Angel of Knowlton Park is an investigation into the awful death of a child, set against blistering, unnatural summer heat. Redemption is my fall book, and it’s a book about endings, and sadness, and the death, and hopefully, rebirth, of hope.

The book opens on Columbus Day weekend, with Burgess having just picked up the two foster kids we met in The Angel to take them on a picnic. A boy rushes into his path, stops the car, and asks Burgess to call the police, saying he’s been fishing and has just spotted a body in the water. Burgess says, “I AM the police,” and watches his day, his plans, his weekend, vanish as he becomes a homicide detective working on a body.

The body turns out to be that of a Vietnam vet who has never truly recovered from the war. Reggie the Can Man is a well-known figure who pushes a shopping cart around town, collecting returnable bottles and cans. He’s also a high school buddy who went to Nam with Burgess, and Burgess has been patching him together ever since. Now Burgess wants nothing more than to give Reggie a decent burial and get on with his mourning. But when the Medical Examiner says it wasn’t a salt water drowning, Burgess knows there is one more thing he must do for his friend.

The investigation won’t be easy. Reggie was working, but no one knows where. Reggie had had some angry tangles with his estranged son over some family land, but no one can find the son. Reggie’s bitchy ex-wife has also shown an interest in the property, but she refuses to talk with Burgess. And a strange relative who claims to be a witch does everything in her power to keep Burgess from finding any answers.

Nothing else in Burgess’s life is going to be easy, either. Captain Cote doesn’t want Burgess wasting resources on an old drunk who fell in the water. Burgess’s girlfriend, Chris, is seriously considering adopting the children, and Burgess knows he’s not ready for that. Even keeping his team together turns out to be a challenge, as Stan Perry goes off the reservation with a seductive married woman, and nearly gets them all shot. Then he gets some shocking news from an old girlfriend.

I’m still looking for the plot for the spring book. All I can tell you right now is that I have a title: And Grant You Peace. But getting to normal, Burgess’s goal, is going to be a rocky road.

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Michael Nethercott

Posted on November 21, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Michael Nethercott has published stories and plays in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; Crimestalkers Casebook; Plays, the Drama Magazine; and various anthologies including Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year; Thin Ice; Dead Promises; and Gods and Monsters. He is a past recipient of the Black Orchid Novella Award for traditional mystery writing and has an upcoming novel published by St. Martin’s Press. His website is   www.michaelnethercott.com and he blogs at http://michaelnethercott.blogspot.com

Your story in Dead Calm, “Plain Vanilla,” takes place in a very specific time.  A lot of the utter fun of it is that’s in written in the style of it’s time.  How did you find this story’s distinctive voice?

I knew I wanted a narrator who’d present the tale in a quirky, quick-witted way. That became  the Wheelman –this streetwise, cocky, funny low-level criminal type. This was one of those cases where I latched early on to a character who knew what he was about and could babble on relentlessly, and my job was basically to hang on his coattails to hear what the hell he had to say. I don’t know that I did much plotting with this story; I just let the Wheelman say his piece

You also write plays and had one produced this summer.  How does play writing inform your short story writing? 

I’d say it gives me a sense of dialog flow that’s helpful when working in prose form. The nice thing with play writing is that you don’t have to mess much with exposition. Outside of a few stage directions, you can just let your characters tell their tale without interruption. In fiction, of course, you need to set the table, so to speak, to support the dialog. Still, once you have two or more of your people engaged in conversation, it’s basically the same dance of dialog as in a play.

You’re multi-published in multiple genres.  What’s new and what’s next?
I have a few projects in mind for the coming year. I direct theater as well as write for it, so I’m weighing what I’ll put my hand to in the coming months. One thing I’m certain of is that I’ll be writing my next traditional mystery novel. I just struck a two-book deal with St. Martin’s Press for which I’m very excited. The first novel’s complete; the second is waiting for me to coax it into the light. Onward!

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J. A. Hennrikus

Posted on November 17, 2011 by | 1 Comment

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. Last fall her story “Tag You’re Dead” was published in THIN ICE. She tweets under @JulieHennrikus, and group blogs on nhwn.wordpress.com. She wrestles with allusions of athleticism, is an avid theatre goer and a proud member of Red Sox nation. Her website is jahennrikus.com

Your story in Dead Calm, “Her Wish” has a special connection for you.  How did you get the idea?

The story is inspired by a friend of mine. I don’t want to give too much away, but while she was battling inflammatory breast cancer a few secrets slipped that were surprising to most of the people who knew her. After she passed away I was inspired to use some of her stories to write this short story. She was also a mystery writer, and would have loved this. When we came to our first Crime Bake together (the second New England Crime Bake) she bought the Level Best book that year, and had everyone sign it. We both agreed that it was a dream of our to be included in the anthology one day.

Your masters thesis is about point of view in Agatha Christie’s novels.  Tell us something about that.

This wasn’t an easy topic to get approved, trust me. There is a bias against genre fiction in academia, and an even bigger bias against Dame Agatha. But I did a ton of research to support my thesis, and it happened. My thesis was that her use of POV moved the genre forward. I used MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS,  THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, THE SECRET ADVERSARY and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE as my primary texts. Each of these uses POV differently and very effectively. I’m always happy to talk about my thesis in more detail, so just ask.

When I spoke to my thesis advisor for the first time, I wondered if I should add a chapter or two at the beginning justifying the subject. He said that anyone who is still read forty years after her death doesn’t need to be justified. One of the best outcomes of this process is that I am more of a fan of Mrs. Christie than ever. She was a very good storyteller.

Tell us something about what you do when you’re not writing.

I am the ED of an arts service organization called StageSource. We support theater artists and organizations in the greater Boston area. I am very fortunate that I work in a field that I love, and part of my job is going to theater. A lot.

I need to set a fitness goal, and get back to the gym. A friend and I both have significant birthdays in August, and we are talking about learning how to surf for the occasion. Since I have no experience in this at all, it could well turn out to be a huge disaster. But if nothing else, I will get a story or two out of the experience.

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Meet Lee Robertson!

Posted on November 14, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Lee Robertson, Photo by Ulrike Sommer

Lee Robertson won the 2011 Al Blanchard Award for her short story, “Prom Shoe on Nantasket Beach.” Her fiction has appeared in Thuglit (“Pink Champagne”), Absent Willow Review (“Emma Bovary”), Yellow Mama (“Doppelganger”), Powder Burn Flash (“Only the Lonely”) and Boston Literary Magazine (“Special”). She is working on her novels and maintains a blog at www.writerleerobertson.wordpress.com.

Lee, your Al Blanchard Award winning story, “Prom Shoe on Nantasket Beach” takes place in and around the old Paragon Park. What inspired you about this setting?

Actually, the story began as an essay I intended to submit to The Southern Review’s “Americana” submission call. The guidelines asked for the “rhinestoned, circus towns, tourist traps, ticket stubs, bingo halls, time capsules, carousels” etc. I immediately thought of Paragon Park. What could be more American than a vintage, seaside amusement park? I wrote the essay (this is where I poured in all my personal memories of the park, our favorite place to go when we were kids) but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with it. It lacked spark. I put a note to myself at the bottom that it “might be a story” and set it aside.

Around the same time, I was working on a science fiction poem I intended to submit to Strange Horizons. It centered on a boy and his two siblings on a bizarre beach, facing strange and threatening creatures. That didn’t quite pan out either, though I still like it.

One night I went out with friends and Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” came on. Suddenly it all came together. A new story was born.

What intrigues me about Paragon Park as a setting is simply the fact that it’s gone. Vanished. The carousel is still there.

You’re a New Englander who currently lives abroad. How does that vantage point affect your fiction?

I love where I live but I will always miss New England. New England is in my bones. My setting of stories there comes from a longing for the place. This longing probably shows in the writing. It’s a wistful feeling. New England has a magic that never lets you go.

Perhaps living far away also sharpens my focus. Who knows.

What are you working on now?

I just finished a longer short story that I’m quite fond of. I’m not sure yet where I will submit it. It’s kind of eccentric and might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

And then there are my novels. They’re coming along. I don’t want to rush them. However, the first one (which takes place on Cape Cod) is just about as finished as it will ever be.

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The twenty-seven stories in Dead Calm represent every kind of crime story– mysteries, suspense, thrillers, horror, humor and more.  And the authors are as varied as their tales.  Meet some of them here and learn more about how they came to be Dead Calm.

A gathering at the New England Crime Bake of many of the authors whose stories appear in Best New England Crime Stories 2012: Dead Calm

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Barbara Ross

Posted on February 21, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Barbara Ross’ mystery novel The Death of an Ambitious Woman was published in August 2010. Two of her short stories, “Winter Rental” (Seasmoke, 2006) and “Key West” (Thin Ice, 2010) won honorable mentions for the Al Blanchard Award. Barbara was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of WebCT, Inc. and served as Chief Operating Officer of Wimba, Inc., both educational technology firms.  She is a contributing editor for Level Best Books. Visit Barbara’s website at www.barbaraannross.com.

Your story in Thin Ice, “Key West,” is about a woman who has run away from her life.  What was your inspiration?

There were a lot of inspirations for the story, but the seminal one came from being at my parents home in Key West and having that feeling of cognitive dissonance that you get when it gets dark early and yet is warm.  If you’re from a northern climate short days mean cold weather at some visceral level.  I was in a writing class, writing to prompts, and though I can’t remember what the prompt was, I wrote about a woman who had that feeling.  I realized that she’d been in the tropics for a long time, but still had that momentary feeling of oddness when it was dark, yet warm and I decided to figure out why she was there and how she got there.

That scene ultimately didn’t end up in the story.  Somehow my seminal scenes never do.

You’ve been a contributor to the Level Best Books anthologies in the past and now you’re an editor.  What have you learned by moving to the editorial side?

I’ve learned some useful things about rejection.  Level Best gets far more excellent stories than it can print.  If we turn you down and say, “This story is wonderful, we just can’t use it this year,” that’s exactly what it means.  Don’t look for hidden meaning or doubt the story.

What are you working on now?

I just finished a short story and I’m plugging through rewrites in my second novel.  It’s about a woman who finds meaning in her life after early retirement by becoming a “professional busybody.”  Sort of a Miss Marple update. We’ll see how it goes. Then a new Chief Ruth Murphy book.

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Mark Ammons

Posted on February 14, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Mark Ammons is a Medford, Massachusetts-based, former stage director, producer, and screenwriter/script doctor. He teaches contemporary drama and advises graduate thesis projects at the Boston Conservatory. His story, “The Catch” in Still Waters, won the 2008 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best first mystery and was also nominated for an Edgar®, the first time a story has been simultaneously recognized in both arenas.

Your story in Thin Ice, “Duck Sandwich,” is written from a woman’s point of view.  How did telling the story from the other gender’s viewpoint affect your writing?

I’ve been the sole male in a mystery writers group with four lovely, homicidally inclined women since the Punic Wars.  So, how hard could it be?  Actually, “Duck Sandwich” was first written in close third person — a POV I’m partial toward because it lets me crawl inside a character while maintaining a certain parallel narrative objectivity that also works well for comic possibilities, usually of the darker variety.  But then, one of my group’s evil cohorts challenged me to rewrite it in the first person. She was right.  Besides, any sensible man understands that his wife is always working on a case for justifiable homicide.  It pays to listen, learn, and mind read.  With a little channeling, it all fell into place, especially once everyone in my group helped me translate several accidental, overly male, idiomatic missteps.  Who knew the average woman wouldn’t say “ginormous?”

After that, the biggest problem was the hot flashes.

If the new Level Best Editors all kill one another in a locked room, what will the most likely motive be?  Story choice?  Cover colors?  Editing?  Inquiring minds…

  • Story choice…no problem.
  • Cover color . . . a scrape or two.
  • Editing…….we don’t.  (Which is probably a good thing).
  • The proper form of an ellipsis? … bloodbath.

What are you working on now?

I’m wrangling an off-center short about a revenge driven third-rate “confidential informant” with first-rate identity issues. Also, with co-author J.R. Rivera, I’m reworking to fit our present basket case of an economy, a humorous but useful self-help survival guide to today’s treacherous workplace jungle.  And, most importantly, I’m pushing to complete a full-length mystery which one early reader describes as an “existential-slapstick tough guy novel.”

 

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Leslie Wheeler

Posted on February 10, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Leslie Wheeler is the author of three Miranda Lewis “living history” mysteries, most recently  Murder  at  Spouters  Point,  published  in October 2010. Her short stories have appeared in four previous Level Best anthologies. Leslie is the Speakers Bureau Coordinator for Sisters in Crime New England and has served as the chair of the Al Blanchard Award Committee for five years. Both roles have introduced her to many fine writers both inside and outside New England. Visit Leslie’s website at www.lesliewheeler.com .

Your story in Thin Ice, “Dead Man’s Shoes”, has elements of the paranormal, or even magical realism.  What was your inspiration for this story?

The inspiration for “Dead Man’s Shoes” came from two sources. One was a pleasant October week I spent two years ago at a friend’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, where the story is set.  The other was a story the same friend told me about how his frugal Yankee father used to call up the widows of friends who had recently died and who wore the same shoe size as my friend’s father, and ask if he could have their shoes.  As for where the elements of paranormal and magic realism in the story came from, all I can say is that I’ve played with these elements in other things I’ve written, and in this story, I thought it would be fun to have the shoes come alive. They became characters in their own right, and I confess I’m quite fond of them.

You’ve been Chair of the Al Blanchard Award Committee and a judge of the contest for five years.  How is being an Al Blanchard judge differ from being a Level Best co-editor?  What is something you’ve learned doing one that influences how you approach the other?

The main difference between judging the Al Blanchard Award Contest and being a Level Best co-editor lies in the number of stories that are submitted and can then be selected either as winners or for publication. For the past two years, the contest has received 160 stories, and of that number, we judges can only pick one winner and four honorable mentions.  For the Level Best anthology, we received about 80 stories, and picked 25 to publish. As a contest judge, I’ve had to accept the fact that I can’t have all my choices. There have been a number of stories that I absolutely loved, but that the other judges, for one reason or another, didn’t pick up on. As a Level Best co-editor, it’s been gratifying to be able to publish more stories that I wanted to see in print. I think that having been a contest judge for five years has helped me better understand the elements of a good story. And this, in turn, has made me appreciate a variety of different kinds of stories, which is what my co-editors wanted to include in the anthology.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new mystery series involving vintage clothing and film noir. I also have a couple of ideas for more stories, including two rather dark ones, and a more light-hearted one involving—you guessed it—the famous/infamous dead man’s shoes.

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