Who's the Sleuth Here?

Who your sleuth is determines what type of mystery you are writing or reading. Did you know that?

Whodunit? Is important, but who is investigating it brings a whole quandary of possibilities to explore as well.

Whether you are a writer (of any style, from novel or short story, to play or the big screen) you should read how to books. If you’re a reader, you should read how to books. It will give you some idea what your favorite author goes through to write what you love to read.

Let’s talk specifics. Let’s talk Crime Fiction. Perhaps you call it mystery, suspense, or thriller – whatever you call it you need to know what a publisher, book club, bookstore, movie director or editor calls it, so that you can find what you love to read or so you can direct your Manuscript query to the right place.

Most of us classify crime fiction simply as mystery, suspense or thriller. But, how do publishers and bookstores class them?

Robert McKee, author of Story, substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting offers some clarification:
It all depends on the Point Of View (POV) of your character. Who is holding the camera on his/her hypothetical shoulder? Who is telling the story?

If the story is told from the Master Detective’s Point of View, it’s a Murder Mystery. A Caper is told from the crooks POV and a Detective Story is told from the cops POV.

A Gangster story will be told from the Crooks POV, Thriller or revenge tale, is told from the victim’s POV. If we have a lawyer’s account of the tale it becomes a Courtroom Drama. Reporter’s POV, it’s a Newspaper Tale, Espionage tale is told by the spy and more than likely on the side of good vs evil.

If you want to tell a Prison Story it should be told from the POV of an inmate. Now, a Film Noir enthusiast will have his/her protagonist be part criminal, part detective, part victim of perhaps a feme fatale POV character.

So now you are armed to find the type of story you want to read, or to classify your story so that a publisher will look at your query and know you know what you are trying to portray.
Write Like the Wind and Read What You Like!
Billie
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Billie A Williams, Mystery – Suspense author whose Accidental Sleuths solve crimes with wit, wisdom, and chutzpah
www.billiewilliams.com, billie@billiewilliams.com,
P O Box 134, Amberg, WI 54102

A Piano and You - You're Similar, How?

I read something to day that really brought home just how incredible we are as human beings. Brad Yates talked about an analogy between people and a grand piano. “I think human beings are like grand pianos—incredible creations capable of producing wonderful music.” I add or whatever good thing they dream of and work toward. Our self-talk can derail our dreams; uproot our fragile seedlings of beginnings before they get a chance to grow at all.

Think of some one you know and respect – your hero – be it Michelangelo or Bach, Beethoven, Natalie Goldberg, Kenny G, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Regan, Suzanne Lieurance, Jack Canfield, Joe Vitale—whatever field they are in – Do you think they had a special break, or the luck of the draw?

Chances are they worked, faced defeat and rejection numerous times before they “won”. Joe Vitale was down and out, homeless, penniless, he's worth millions today. Not by luck, but through hard work and following his dream.

Not everyone can climb Mt. Everest, or design an Empire State building, Or be the thing someone else already is – I read a church billboard that said “Be Yourself—[the best you, you can be] — everyone else is already taken.” That is enough. That is what you should be. But, do not go to your grave with your music, your talent, still trapped inside you.

“Imagine a world where people felt free to share their grandest music…” Yates

What is your greatness? What if…? Think about it.

Music and Writing a Comparison

What is Music Anyway? What is Writing Anyway?
By Billie A Williams

In The Intellectual Devotional by David S Kidder & Noah D Oppenheim we are given a lot of food for thought. One thing they say is that Music has a pattern where noise only has sound. I’m afraid that could define Heavy Metal for me. Noise, loud and busy that has no rhyme or reason for being. Sorry Heavy Metal fans, it just doesn’t translate for me.

Kidder and Oppenheim say the basics of music compared to noise have to do with
Pitch —How high or low a sound is to the ear;
Scale—a stepwise arrangement of pitches;
Key—which is an arrangement or system of pitches usually based on one of the major or minor scales.

Simple isn’t it? The Ghost Music of Vaudeville as a mystery has a similar basic set up. Pitch: how intense (high) or relaxed (low) the action
Scale: an arrangement of pitches that take us from each paragraph with a beginning, middle and end, to each chapter with its beginning, middle and end; to the book as a whole with a beginning, middle and end.
Key: That is a little harder, but I think of it as all the system of pitches – the paragraph, page, chapter, and book according to one of the Major (genre) or Minor (sub-genre) scales –genre and subgenres of the mystery from cozy, procedural, true crime, or hard boiled.

Therefore, everything in writing the mystery can be reduced or elevated to its musical counter part. Our culture influences our pitch, scale, and keys whether that is in writing or in music. Extremes may abound even while the rules are followed. For instance music in India compared to the music here in the west such as opera or Country. Or, compare the Native American Drum, to the drum of modern rock – they are nowhere in the same playing field – the Native American Drum is spiritual, the rock drum is entertainment. Both, however, are entertainment and in some circles could be called spiritual.

Music and writing are both creative processes. Whether we use pitch, scale, and key or whether we use some other method to join the parts into a complete whole – they compliment each other, and I believe they embody each other.

It is said that we each “march to our different drummer,” and I believe that is as true in creating fiction as it is in creating music.

Sing Loudly, and Write like the wind--enjoy the rhythm you create.

When an Author Looks Back

Hopefully I've grown as an author, sometimes it's scary though when...


When an author re-reads something they have written long ago it’s sometimes very disconcerting, at least I thought so. I thought I was the only one who looked at my once written, even once published books and thought, oh my good gracious how could I have let that go as a publishable piece? I don’t feel so bad any more after reading this from Aldous Huxley (Brave New World 1932 among other novels) This was in the revised/republished 1946 edition of Brave New World. “…Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment….”

He goes on more eloquently but it boils down to what we both feel after pouring over the short comings of a novel written at a younger more inexperienced time in an attempt to patch a faulty piece into a perfect masterpiece. That particular piece having missed that mark the first time around—should be repaired to a place where growth had taken me. To spend time trying to mend the artistic sins committed by that different person, the person I was then—is surely vain and futile. Its defect may be part of its charm.

I could rewrite the whole book as an older, perhaps wiser, other person. What might happen then though is I probably would get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also rid it of some of its merits as it originally possessed them.

So, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I leave well and ill alone and move on to ‘next’ with what I have learned and am able to create in my next novel, with much thanks to Aldous Huxley for making me feel less alone and imperfect.

Billie A Williams
www.Wings-Press.com
www.billiewilliams.com

It's Here, it's published, it's ready to buy

The Ghost Music of Vaudeville

by Billie A Williams

ISBN 978-1-59705-310-5 (electronic)

978-1-59705-728-8 (print)

April 1, 2008

CONTACT: Billie A Williams

P O Box 134

Amberg, WI 54102

billie@billiewilliams.com

Wings ePress, Inc

www.wings-press.com

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

Stepping center stage to entertain you ….

None other then –

In this day and age of razing landmarks to make way for High Rise Apartments or concrete parking ramps there is little left of the old world. When it comes to entertainment, the environment changes even faster. The Ghost Music of Vaudeville is about a troupe of actors, actresses and musicians who were part of the vaudeville stage at one time. The theatre sits in disrepair, and a greedy land developer is out for revenge. Part of that revenge is to demolish every Keith Theatre in the United States.

Charlie Wolfe, reporter for the Ironwood Daily Globe, Tommy Forester, teenager and champion for the down trodden, and Piano Man, (aka Rudy Poncigrau) who used to play for the vaudeville acts, the black and white movies, and more all have other ideas.

Will one last performance bring out enough support to stop the bulldozers before Damien Callistrari and his henchmen extract the revenge he seeks? Roberto Callistrari is going against his father’s wishes when he begins to fall for Charlie Wolfe –with his ties to Hollywood and Broadway he entices Bette Midler to bring her creativity and personality to help bring the Keith Theatre back from the edge. Together will they be enough to save this Keith Theatre and those lives so intrinsically entwined with the Ghost Music of Vaudeville that still haunts the walls and stage of this Keith Theatre in Ironwood, Michigan.

April is Fast Approaching

And we'll have new releases, new interviews, new excerpts posted on the Wings Web site before you know it. Here is a sneak peak at The Ghost Music of Vaudeville - by Billie A Williams.

The Keith Theatre is a community landmark and has been for more years then Charlie can count. Why would Damien Callistrari who professes to be a patron of the arts and a huge contributor to that cause be ready to bulldoze the theatre down? And why depose all the residents who still hear the echoes of the vaudeville shows from the past in her walls. Will Piano Man, his young friend Tommy, Charlie Wolfe and perhaps a little bit of help from Roberto Calistrari be enough to stop the senior Callistrari and save the theatre and the lives of those hanging in the balance?

Murder, kidnapping, black mail, and more await you in the pages of the second in the Music Series. [Skull Music, released June of 2005 was the first. these are stand alone books - watch for more soon]