February is Almost Here!

February is almost here, and you know what that means on "Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time!" A month of recipes in a specific category is coming soon to a blog near you! Yes, it's time again for my "Month-of Recipes."

Typically, I ask my readers to vote on what they'd like to see me post recipes for, but this year, I am indulging myself, and my new passion that you see everywhere. February will be one pan/one pot meals to make your life, and mine, easier.

Prep and forget/bake. Clean up one pan only. Makes for a much simpler life when life needs simplification.

Come back here in one-week for the fun to begin. A special treat to kick off the month will be a guest post by J.L. Greger, an author whose medical mysteries are enlightening, informative, and a good puzzle to solve.  So February 1st is a two-fer! Lucky you!

I am not going to do some of typical one-dish meals you may already be cooking such as pizza, slow cooker pot roast, or traditional casseroles like vegetarian lasagna. If I share a casserole, it will be different, I promise.

So do drop in on February 1st to read about Janet Greger's book, The Flu is Coming, and her take on what happens when flu sweeps a small community. And on that same day, in a different post, get the first of the recipes for the month. See you then!

The Mystery of Mysteries: 10+ Tips for Writing Police Procedural Mysteries

Police Procedural and True Crime mysteries (coming next week) share some common elements while retaining their distinctive differences. The major difference is that police procedurals are fiction, and true crime mysteries are creative non-fiction.

In a Police Procedural, the writer must adhere to the basic elements of mysteries while at the same time incorporating what makes the story a police procedural. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish a thriller from a police procedural novel since thrillers also may be filled with lots of detail about the crime(s) and how solved. Because it must be solved. That is part of the covenant between writer and reader.

Additionally, in order to be classed as a police procedural mystery:

1) The investigator is a professional in the public safety world. The investigator might be a police officer, detective, EMS person, firefighter, and so on.

2) The emphasis is on factual operations of police investigations rather than on character development. Characters tend to be tropes, but investigative rules must be followed.

3) The perpetrator may or may not be known from the beginning.

4) There can be one crime or more than one. If more, the crimes may seem unrelated but connect somehow. Or the novel may feature several unrelated crimes being processed by the precinct or department and have multiple investigators, a sort of ensemble cast.

5) Solving the crime is a group effort. Police procedurals demonstrate a range of police techniques including forensic, interrogation techniques, arrest and search warrants, interviews, autopsies, and behavioral science protocols.

6) Police procedurals provide details of the crime scene investigation, from gathering evidence to processing it. A realistic portrayal is demanded. A team is needed for different aspects of the investigation.

7) There is typically a graphic description of the crime scene. Violence often takes place “on stage” with varying degrees of explicit violence or gore described. Sometimes it is provided through the investigator’s reconstruction of the crime.

8) The POV can be entirely or mainly from the professional investigator’s stance. Or the villain’s POV may alternate to show his/her thinking, particularly if a crime spree is depicted.

9) The crime’s perpetrator in police procedurals, though not always in real life, is a worthy intellectual foe for the investigator.

10) Extremely intensive research to write police procedurals includes spending time with safety professionals as they work, if at all possible. If not, spend other time with them to get the small details right.

If you want to read more about types of mysteries and how to write them, check out my June-December mystery posts on the second Tuesdays at Writeon Sisters and search this "Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time" blog for earlier posts.

Before writing a police procedural mystery, read these authors. Of course, there are many other great ones, too!

Michael Connelly   

Jeffery Deaver   

Linda Fairstein    

Elizabeth George    

Tess Gerritsen     

Thomas Harris    

Tony Hillerman    

P.D. James  

Ed McBain    

James Patterson   

Louise Penny   

Martin Cruz Smith      

Guest Post: "Writing Mysteries is about Characters" by Patricia Gligor

I am delighted to welcome Pat Gligor to share her books with you. She is a mystery writer of taut tales that are also warm excursions into the heart. Welcome, Pat!

I love to read mysteries and I especially enjoy reading a mystery series. Whenever possible, I prefer  to start with the first book in the series because I like meeting the characters and getting to know them from the beginning and then, following their lives in subsequent books, watching them change and grow. Because it’s not just about the mystery for me. It’s also about the characters. So, because I love character driven mysteries, that’s what I write.

Here’s a brief synopsis of my first three Malone mysteries. The fourth, Mistaken Identity, will be published by Post Mortem Press in early summer of this year.

It’s estimated that there are at least twenty to thirty active serial killers in the United States at any given time. There’s one on the loose on the west side of Cincinnati.

It’s the week of Halloween and Ann Malone Kern struggles with several issues. Her primary concern is her marriage which, like her west side neighborhood, is in jeopardy. Her husband is drinking heavily and his behavior toward her is erratic. One minute, he’s the kind, loving man she married and, the next minute, he’s cold and cruel.

Ann dismisses a psychic’s warning that she is in danger. But, when she receives a series of ominous biblical quotes, she grows nervous and suspicious of everyone, including her own husband.

As the bizarre and frightening events unfold, Ann discovers a handmade tombstone marked with her name, pushing her close to the edge. Will she be the Westwood Strangler’s next victim?

 

The Westwood Strangler is dead. Or so everyone believes.

Ann Malone Kern is busy preparing for her favorite holiday. She’s especially looking forward to her sister’s annual Christmas visit. But, several things threaten to ruin her festive mood.

The National Weather Service issues a severe winter storm warning for the Cincinnati area, predicting blizzard conditions, and Ann worries that her sister and her new boyfriend won’t be able to make the drive from South Carolina.

Then, a woman is found strangled in Ann’s neighborhood and everyone, including the police, assumes it’s the work of a copycat killer. However, when two more women are murdered in their homes, the police announce their conviction that the Westwood Strangler is responsible.

When Ann hears the news, the sense of safety and security she’s worked so hard to recapture since her attack on Halloween night, shatters. If the intruder who died in her apartment wasn’t the Westwood Strangler, who is? And, who will be the next victim?

As Ann Malone Kern starts her new business as an interior decorator, the temperatures have risen, tulips and daffodils are in bloom and there’s a feeling of endless possibilities in the air. She has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down.

When Janis Riley, a woman for whom money is no object, contacts Ann to redecorate her house, Ann is elated. But her initial visit with her first client leaves her with mixed emotions. Why did Janis react so strangely to seeing a photo of Ann’s six-year-old son, Davey?

But Ann has bigger problems. Her husband, David, a recovering alcoholic, has lost both his mother and his job and Ann worries that he’ll start drinking again. To add to her concerns, their next-door-neighbor, Dorothy Baker, is severely depressed but Ann’s efforts to help her are rebuffed.

Ann is terrified when she wakes up the day before Easter to find Davey gone. Another child, Kelly Kramer, has been missing since December. Where are the children? And what, if anything, can Ann do to get her son back?

If I’ve piqued your curiosity (and I hope I have), my books are available in paper and eBook formats at:

http://pat-writersforum.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007VDDUPQ

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/patricia-gligor?store=allproducts&keyword=patricia+gligor

And, if you enjoy reading them, please consider writing reviews. Thank you!

How to Write Urban Fantasy Mysteries in 11+9 Steps

Okay, so this got a week delayed due to the post on holiday parties. Sorry!

Urban Fantasy mysteries are categorized as speculative fiction. Speculative fiction, a term created by Robert Heinlein in 1947, is fiction with supernatural, futuristic, and/or fantastical elements. You might wonder why we need a term called “speculative fiction” since we have genres for paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Speculative fiction is not clearly one or another of these, rather it is a blended sub-genre.

Urban fantasy mysteries have fewer readers than most of the other sub-genres, but they are passionate ones! To me, an admittedly naïve reader of urban fantasy mysteries, I see similarities with graphic novels. Maybe it is the fantastical. Maybe it is the subject matter which has an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. feel but without a supernatural hero (usually).

Like the other sub-genres, urban fantasy novels owe a debt to the basic elements of the traditional mystery. Nevertheless, each has its unique elements as well. So this week, we deconstruct urban fantasy mysteries.

1) The mysteries are a puzzle to solve.

2) All clues are revealed to the reader but obscured with red herrings and false leads.

3) These mysteries feature a murder (most often) or a crime of great substance.

4) The sleuth may or may not be a professional.

5) The power of reasoning is trusted to restore order and solve the puzzle.

6) Violence often takes place “on stage” with varying degrees of explicit violence or gore described.

7) The murdered person may or may not have been a character in the mystery before death.

8) The mystery uses plot devices to further the confusion of clues, suspects, and timelines.

9) The language of sleuth and suspects is closer to colloquial use and reflects social status.

10) The villain is the intellectual equal of the sleuth.

11) The murder/significant crime occurs near the beginning, often in the opening pages. Usually there are multiple crimes.

In addition to the 11 steps from traditional mystery, to be an urban fantasy mystery:

1)   Most are set in contemporary times but they can be futuristic or historical.

2)   Urban fantasy mysteries contain supernatural elements and must be set in a city.

3)   Urban fantasy mysteries is set in a real world modified by fantasy (magic, demons, vampires, shape shifters, mythological beings, etc.)

4)   Urban fantasy mysteries are often written in first person for immediacy.

5)   Urban fantasies are often a series.

6)   There are often female protagonists.

7)   There is an element of vigilante law enforcement.

8)   Often the urban fantasy mystery is written in a dry, even acerbic sparse tone.

9)   Some urban fantasy mysteries might be considered contemporary works in a Gothic style.

Urban Fantasy Mysteries to read:

Steven Loton--Riker-Night of the Vampire (Vampire Trilogy Book 1)

S.M. Reine--Witch Hunt: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Preternatural Affairs Book 1)

Joseph Nassise--The Heretic: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Templar Chronicles Book 1)

Red Herrings and the Culinary Mystery

I looked it up once. Did you know that herrings, once smoked, turn reddish? I didn’t. In my writing world, I associate red herrings with false clues, logical fallacy, evasive information, a diversion of attention. I didn’t know they were really real. I thought they were a reflection of the real but non-existent, thus misleading.

Mystery authors use red herrings in order to make the puzzle of the mystery tale an active interaction between the reader and the author. I think mystery readers have to work harder than any other fiction readers. Not only are there the normal elements to keep track of, such as character arcs and plot points, but the added element of purposeful distraction makes readers question everything.

Nothing can be taken at face value. The reader MUST mistrust the author. The author is out to fool the reader. The author purposefully misleads down dark alleys, shrouded doorways, and tunnels. The successful mystery writer has the reader searching for patterns, discarding data, elevating other pieces of information. The best mystery is a hard--but, doable--verbal jigsaw puzzle.

Because it must be solvable by the attentive reader. Or at least be a satisfying solution to the discerning reader who agrees that, even if not solved before the end, the author’s solution was foreshadowed appropriately. No good mystery writer uses the deus ex machina device. The clues, though obscured, must be there.

But back to the expression, red herring. For centuries, red herrings have had a dual meaning. My Oxford English Dictionary (Yes, I do have my very own OED!) records the first use in print of the misleading definition in 1686. That was a while ago, eh? In print, it was used as drawing the red herring food across the track to provide a distraction from the real issue.

Edgar Allan Poe, considered the first modern mystery writer (father of the detective story), used red herrings on occasion. Now it is de rigueur for mystery writers to use false clues to keep the mystery going.

On a food note, I guess I could use red herrings in some Jamaican dish or another in an upcoming book. That would be a twist in a culinary mystery no one would see coming--real red herrings to conceal the literary ones! Speaking of culinary mysteries and red herrings, have you read Mission Impastable yet?

For more info on red herrings, read these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/red-herring.html

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30239/where-does-the-phrase-red-herring-come-from