A Cat in the Window

At a recent Boulder Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association meeting, a detective described a burglary ring that had been broken up several years ago. The bad guys broke into a number of expensive homes and were not caught for a long time. When finally apprehended, the perpetrators described the techniques they used to identify homes to hit. One of the signs they looked for was a cat in the window.

They would case a neighborhood after dark and when they spotted a cat in the front window of a house, they would target it. The reason—if the owners of the house were out for the evening, the cat would sit in the window and await their return.

In the group hearing this presentation, there were three mystery writers including myself. When we heard this story we all looked at each other. Our immediate common reaction—ah ha, the title for a mystery novel.

E-Book Box Sets

At the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference I attended in September, a speaker described e-book box sets. She had published several of these, combining books from a series to be purchased as one item. The idea intrigued me, so I add this to my to do list.

Finally, this week I got around to completing this project. I own the e-book rights to the first four books in my Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery series: Retirement Homes Are Murder, Living with Your Kids Is Murder, Senior Moments Are Murder and Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder. I concatenated the four Word documents, added hyperlinks pointing to my other published books and hyperlinks from a table of contents at the front to each book. My daughter-in-law had designed a book cover for me. With all of this set, I loaded the manuscript on Kindle and published.

Here is the result at http://ow.ly/D2P6E

Bouchercon

Bouchercon is the largest mystery conference, typically around 1500 attendees, and this year it’s taking place in Long Beach, CA, November 13-16. I’ll be attending and participating in a number of events. I’m partial to the location since we lived in Long Beach before moving to Boulder, Colorado, thirty-seven years ago.

On Thursday morning I’ll be giving pitches to groups of readers from 8:30-10:30 during the Author Speed Dating event.

On Friday morning from 7-8:30 I’ll be hosting the Meet the New Author Breakfast where I have the honor of introducing fifty-three new authors who have published their first mystery/crime novel in 2014.

On Saturday morning from 8:30-10:30 I will be participating in Men of Mystery, were each of us in a group of male mystery writers will give a one-minute pitch.

On Sunday morning from 8:30-9:30 I’m on the panel titled, Sleuths of Every Age: Young, Old, or In-Between, They’re On The Case. I’ll have the pleasure of participating with authors Allen Eskens, Janet Dawson, Becky Masterman and Thomas Perry.

It’s a good thing I’m a morning person.

The Worlds Authors Live In

I remember years ago when working in the business world and raising a family. I had numerous roles to play including a businessperson, husband and father, Now that I’ve retired into writing, I still retain a number of those roles, but have added a number of new dimensions—the writing worlds I live in.

To effective write a novel, I have to immerse myself in the story. This entails putting myself into the role of the protagonist, feeling what he’s feeling, seeing, hearing and smelling his environment, in other words, living in that world. Writing has been therapeutic for me, giving me a chance to capture the ideas swirling around in my head. Although I didn’t start writing until I was fifty-six years old, I had a lifetime of ideas ready to get onto paper or into a computer.

What are some of the worlds I’m living in right now? First thing in the morning I work on my new manuscript. At the moment it’s a sequel to my paranormal geezer-lit mystery, The Back Wing. This new one is called The Front Wing and takes place in a retirement home where this is a front wing with normal but snobby people and a back wing with friendly but extraordinary residents. In the afternoon I’m working on two revision projects, making rewrites to a manuscript called Court Trouble, a mystery novel that involves the game of platform tennis, a sport I play. Then I’m also editing the biography I’m writing of a World War II veteran, titled, The Greatest Chicken Thief in All of Europe. So every day, I’m in these three worlds as well as my real life world. Keeps me busy.

Genre Specific or Genre Diverse

I’ve had a number of discussions with fellow writers lately about sticking to one genre or writing different genres. I read a blog by an agent recently who admonished writers to stick with one genre. That has been the traditional thinking. The rationale makes sense—establish a base of readers and continue to deliver what they expect and enjoy. On the other hand, I’ve read authors who sink into a predictable pattern that becomes boring.

I think there is also something to be said for writing different genres. From a writer’s perspective, I enjoy trying new things, and this provides both a learning experience for me and, hopefully, something fresh for readers. The cautionary note—it’s important to set and meet readers’ expectations and to provide a positive reading experience. In writing multiple genres, it’s necessary to be clear on what’s being delivered to readers so someone isn’t expecting a cozy mystery and find their reading horror.

With this said, what is your opinion of authors sticking to one genre or writing multiple genres?