Tag Archives: trends

Vampires, Monks, English Lit Teachers and other Paranormals

Posted on February 24, 2011 | 4 comments

I was recently interviewed on a talk show where the hostess said what a change of pace it made to have a writer of ecclesiastical thrillers on the show because they had had a string of authors who wrote about vampires.

I laughed and said that I thought that to many readers the monks in my books would probably seem just as esoteric as vampires do to many people. My interviewer admitted that, to be honest, she was among that number.

All of which got me to wondering if my Monastery Murders could be classed as paranormal. But actually, it was Felicity, my heroine, who had the thought first.

Early on in A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE, Felicity, a very modern young American woman who found she hated teaching Latin and didn’t know what else to do with her classics degree, went off to study theology in a monastery “in a fit of madness” as she says, muses:

What was the right term to describe how she was living? Counter-cultural existence? Alternate lifestyle? She pondered for a moment, then smiled. Parallel universe. That was it. She was definitely living in a parallel universe. The rest of the world was out there, going about its everyday life, with no idea that this world existed alongside of it.

It was a wonderful, cozy, secretive feeling as she thought of bankers and shopkeepers rushing home after a busy day, mothers preparing dinner for hungry school children, farmers milking their cows— all over this little green island the workaday world hummed along to the pace of modern life. And here she was on a verdant hillside in Yorkshire living a life hardly anyone knew even existed. Harry Potter. It was a very Harry Potter experience.

Therein, I think, lies much of my reason for choosing to write in this rather esoteric subgenre: This is a world — parallel universe— I have become acquainted with through my own research of English history, my own spiritual journey, and my daughter’s decision to— yes— study theology in a remote monastery in Yorkshire after finding she really, really hated teaching school in London. (Well, literature follows life.) And I found myself wanting to share this world and some of the amazing adventures I had tromping over ancient holy sites.

Background is always one of the most important factors in a novel for me— perhaps even the most important factor— so my books have to be set in places I love to visit, both for the research and for living there mentally while I write.

For me, if I am going to give my reader a “you are there” experience it’s much easier if I have had the experience myself— except for the murders, you understand. So I try never to put Felicity and Antony in a place I haven’t been myself, then I can only hope my reader will follow me there: St. Ninian’s cave on the edge of the Scottish coast, the windsweapt bluff of the ruined Whitby Abbey, the Holy Isle of lindisfarne in a raging storm. . .

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a writer is to lead their readers into dreaming the fictive dream. And once we’ve lulled them into that state, not doing anything graceless to jerk them out. This is especially true when one chooses to write about an unfamiliar world that many readers might consider paranormal, so I try to make that alternate universe feel real by using references to everyday things such as the weather— always lots of that in England— and food— not always easy to come by when you’re chasing and being chased by murderers.

Another interesting aspect in developing Felicity’s Alice-Through-the-Looking-Glass experience (as she describes it in another place) is showing her delights, confusions and frustrations of being an American in England. Yes, the plumbing almost defeats her.

One of the major functions of fiction is to expand the reader’s universe (the English lit teacher speaking again) so if you, gentle reader, find monks as arcane as vampires, I invite you to take a glimpse at Felicity’s parallel universe. And, yes, she does visit Dracula’s home.

To see the trailer for A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE , view pictures from my research trips or buy the book, to go: http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/

Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of 35 books, mostly novels dealing with British history. The award-winning GLASTONBURY, an Arthurian grail search epic covering 15 centuries of English history, is her best-known work. A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE , book 1 in the Monastery Murders series is her reentry into publishing after a 10 year hiatus. Book 2 A DARKLY HIDDEN TRUTH will be out in 2011. THE SHADOW OF REALITY, Book 1 The Elizabeth & Richard Mysteries, is a romantic intrigue available on Ebook. A MIDSUMMER EVE’S NIGHTMARE, Book 2 in the Elizabeth & Richard series will be out spring 2011.

Donna and her husband have 4 adult children and 10 grandchildren. She is an enthusiastic gardener.

4 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, Guest Bloggers, Just for Fun

Tagged Donna Fletcher Crow, ecclesiastical thrillers, fiction, readers, trends

I Sorta Kinda Wanted to Write This (Guest: Alan Cook)

Posted on February 7, 2011 | 2 comments

I don’t text or tweet but I can see how using abbreviations and shortcuts while texting or tweeting can be helpful. I usually write complete sentences in emails, but if others don’t want to that’s fine. But as the son of an English teacher, I’d like to complain about the state of oral conversation, from newscasters on down to college graduates.

This situation with the way we speak English these days has been kind of nagging at me and I sort of wanted to write a little bit about it, but I’ve been, you know, kind of busy, and like, I haven’t been able to find the time.

The other day I did something for a man and he said “Thank you” and I said “No problem” and he said “Whatever happened to ‘You’re welcome?’” and I said “No problem,” because I didn’t know what else to say.

I’m pretty good at doing good deeds for people. A woman at the market was, you know, having trouble with a grocery cart and I said, “Can I help you?” and she said, “I don’t know, can you?” so I slapped her since she was being kind of a wiseacre.

The sun was warm and it was a pretty amazing day out so my wife and I went to the museum and we saw the most unique exhibit I’ve ever seen. It was, you know, one of those dinosaurs who was like, kind of big, like a T-Rex, and he was eating this other guy who was laying on the ground. I’m not lying when I say that. But I can tell you that if I met a T-Rex in real life I’d be a little bit scared because he was sort of awesome.

So that’s the, you know, reason I haven’t been working on this English project, because I’ve been, like, kind of busy, but I expect to do it soon, and when you read it you’ll say, “Wow, this Cook writes pretty unique stuff. He is amazing.”

Alan Cook began writing books after he abandoned the computer industry (or it abandoned him). He is the author of eight mystery novels. He has won two Silver Quill awards from the American Authors Association and two best geographical location awards from Reader Views. His latest mystery, Forget to Remember, features a young woman with amnesia. She is declared to be a non-person by the government and someone may be trying to kill her. Alan lives with his wife on a hill in Southern California. His website is http://alancook.50megs.com

Click Cover to Buy Now!

Carol Golden isn’t her real name. She doesn’t remember her real name or anything that happened before she was found in a Dumpster, naked and unconscious, on the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California.

After helping her get some initial medical treatment, government at all levels officially declares her a non-person and doesn’t want anything more to do with her. She can’t work because she doesn’t have a Social Security number, which she can’t get because she doesn’t have a birth certificate. She can’t get a driver’s license, and, having no I.D. she can’t fly.

Fortunately, she receives help from Rigo Ramirez, the young man who found her, and his family. Frances Moran, a genetic genealogist who is an expert at identifying and finding people using DNA and the Internet, offers her services, but nobody appears to be looking for Carol. Nobody, that is, except whoever left her for dead. Is this person going to return to finish the job?

Carol must overcome the obstacles placed in her path by an unfeeling bureaucracy while she searches for clues to her identity. If the law doesn’t protect her, why should she stay within the law? In addition, as her situation gets publicized, the risk of her attacker finding out that she’s still alive increases.

Carol discovers that she’s an “action kind of girl” who doesn’t take kindly to being told what she can’t do, which is just about everything. She realizes that if she’s going to find out who she is, she has to travel to the East Coast and England and do whatever else needs to be done, regardless of the risks.

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Posted in Blatherings, Guest Bloggers, Writing

Tagged alan cook, author, authors, change, english language, language, oral conversation, T-Rex, trends, TRex

Independents at what cost?

Posted on August 19, 2010 | 13 comments

Who loves Independent bookstores? I’d really like for you to take a moment after you read this note and tell the rest of what the name of your favorite Independent bookstore is and why. I’d also like you to tell us where that store is. They deserve to recognized! But before you do that, I want to share my current thoughts with you. This comes on the heels of a week of phone calls, e-mails, and one snail mail letter regarding Independent bookstores.

Okay, I’m going to speak freely and hope not to get kicked out of the industry, but I have to ask.

How are the Independent stores going to survive if many of them have taken on the attitudes of the superchains? We, authors and publishers, are constantly driving ourselves insane with ways to market, many times focusing on marketing to the Independent stores with the sole purpose of supporting them as Independents.

What the heck for?

I don’t direct this at all Independent stores, just the ones who feel the need to:

1. Forgo good customer service.

2. Refuse to do author events.

3. Treat most authors like second hand muck.

4. Refuse to think outside the box when picking books to sell.

These are just a few of the things my authors and I Have faced over the last two weeks with more than a dozen Independent stores in 4 different states.

When we call to talk to them, they are rude. We leave messages, they never return calls. We drop by with promo materials they hold them like they are infested with bacteria. (One Independent store actually dropped the materials into trashcan as author was leaving store–gosh how good that author must have felt seeing that.)

It seems to be becoming common practice to charge authors to do events? They call it co-op, but it is far worse. Two stores this week, claimed they only work with Self-published authors if–I explained we are an Independent publisher, they insist this is pretty much the same as self-publishing-um, side note: why are we consider self-pubbed (and not in a good way) because we are Independent, and yet they are Independent and are convinced they deserve to be worshipped and adored. Back to point: we pay a certain amount to be on the shelf, on consignment, they won’t order through distribution channels, we pay a higher price to be in store and mentioned in newsletter, and another twice as high price for an event. PLUS we have to give them 50% discount. Um, and this wasn’t just one store it was two in as many days. Two different states.

When did it become okay for Independent stores to look down upon other Independent businesses with total disdain. I had one author go back to a store several times. She asked who the owner was, was given a name and told she wasn’t in. Went back a few days later, asked for owner, was told by “customer service rep” wearing name badge with the same name as the owner that the owner was not in. Okay, it could have been the same name different person, but what are the chances, really?

Augie Aleksy, World's Greatest Bookseller!

And what happens to Independent stores when they refuse to bring in anything but the bestsellers and everyone already has all the best sellers? The best seller list has been known to keep the same books on it for weeks at a time.

Doesn’t this cut into potential sales when customers buy them up the first week? What do they buy the second week?

There are authors out there who are marketing their butts off to readers and doing everything right, but still can’t sell books because they want to support their Independent stores but the Independent stores won’t carry the books the readers want. Those same Independent stores get furious when we Independent pubs and authors promote the likes of Amazon. It is traitorous, they tell us and they aren’t going to support us if we do that. Problem is we do that because they won’t support us.

I ask again, why is it demanded that we support a business that refuses to support us?

And the poor readers. I often visit bookstores when I travel. I rarely tell anyone I am a publisher, I am usually visiting to buy books or just enjoy the feel of a cozy bookstore. The last ten Independent bookstores I have been in were dreadful. I was never greeted, not once in any of the ten stores. I asked for help in a couple and while the responses were varied, only ONE bookseller was willing to help me, and that wasn’t until after she finished talking to her daughter about her grandson’s upcoming birthday party—15 minutes. Glutton that I am, stayed just to see how long it would take.

Several of the stores did not have the books I was looking for and one refused to even try to get it because it was not from a real publisher. Really?

: Once Upon A Crime, Minneapolis, MN

I LOVE Independent bookstores. I used to own one, and I miss it dreadfully. But I can say with pride that even the nastiest most disgusting and rude customers were treated with respect and my staff and I did everything in our power to ensure they were satisfied, we were even nice to the creepy guy who sat in the back corner of the store reading the romance novels and making scary moaning noises. Why? Because he was a customer and after his little sit downs, he always bought books.

I beg of you Independent booksellers out there, don’t put yourselves up on pedestals and think you are better than everyone else and should be treated special. Give us the good customer service our loyalty and money earns us and let US put you up on the pedestals. If you treat us well, we will adore you.

Now, because I ask you to do it, I will tell you my favorite Independent bookstores.

First and foremost is Centuries & Sleuths in Forest Park, IL. If you’ve never met Augie Aleksy, you should make the trip. He is a delight and he loves his customers. I honestly think he is my favorite bookseller ever.

I also give huge kudos to the folks over at Olde Towne Books & Tea in Oswego, IL. These people are just plain cool.

Another store in Woodstock, IL that earns my praise is Read Between the Lynes, I’ve never been there, but have worked them repeatedly and they are nice as pie.

Ooh, and the Pat and her gang at Once Upon a Crime in Minnesota. Now, those are some nice folks who really know how to treat their customers.

Mr. Shaw who owns Books Plus in Amelia Island, FL is a doll and his store caters to their customers.

There are plenty more, but I would like to know who YOUR favorite stores are and why. Don’t they deserve your praise?