I Love a Good Mystery and A Great Mystery Author

I'm not a collector. Still can't understand the attraction of collecting piles of stamps, coins, dolls or whatever. Sounds a bit nutty to me.

Ahem. However, I can't make fun of those collectors with quite as much superiority in my tone. I confess to one obsession- mysteries and crime stories. I'm hooked on 'em. Hello, my name is Lynn and I've seen every episode of the original Law and Order series, at least twice. Not only that, I've read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories two or three times. And watched the PBS Sherlock Holmes mini-series twice. I know what the characters in The Hound of the Baskervilles are going to say before they do. But it's not just fiction. I'm absolutely hooked on The Forensic Files and similar stories about real cases. Any wonder I'm writing a mystery?

Imagine my delight when I read a story about one of my beloved authors Agatha Christie. Her grandson was cleaning out a house and found old tapes she recorded talking about her writing. Fascinating. Listen to the NPR story to learn more

I also love George Simenon and his famous Inspector Jules Maigret. I adore Chester Himes novels. I discovered the raw power of Daddy Cool, one of sixteen novels written by Donald Goines. I've also enjoyed reading Angela Henry, Paula L. Woods and more. I love a good murder mystery. Can't even list the now hundreds of "favorite novels" I've read over the years. Guess I'm one of those eccentric collectors after all. Oh my.

Writing Through Adversity

I think of prolific writers, recall legends of artists who kept creating even when they were going hungry and about to tossed out on the streets. So I try to live up to that high standard. Lately my efforts have been in vain.

I've learned that writing as if nothing else matters or is going on just doesn't work for me. Now I can't recall what author gave this advice, but it's good. Very good. The advice is this- authors should have a life because doing so enriches the writing. Amen. I could have forced myself to write during two hurricanes, health issues, and while I juggled family responsibilities. At times I felt like a real slacker, a lazy bones with questionable commitment to my creative process. Then I realized taking time off from writing is part of my creative process. My brain needs a break. I can't say my novel will be more brilliant because of it. One thing is sure though, not feeling like a hamster on a wheel pressured to write fast feels great. Not that I recommend NOT having a contract. Sure I want to sell again. I just remember that brain numb sensation each day as I pushed to write because I had to finish two books a year. Don't miss those days at all.

For a good ten years I was a "five pages a day" writer. My routine was set and for the most part I kept at it. In fact, I cracked the whip real hard. No excuses. I had deadlines to beat. That's right. My goal was to be well ahead of my deadline. I've never been a down-to-the-wire type. One day I turned down a contract. For about a minute I felt uneasy. I'd been under contract continously for ten years straight, back to back. Then I felt this kind of giddy freedom. No rules, just me writing the kind of book I wanted to take a chance on. So I went back to my original goal- to write and sell a straight murder mystery.

But I've swung too far the other way. I could use a bit more discipline. So now my challenge is to meet myself in the middle. I've taken the freedom thing a bit too far a few times and should have cracked the whip. In fact, I've got to search for the dang thing. I'm sure it's around here somewhere piled beneath a bunch of junk. Gotta dig it out, dust it off and keep it nearby. And when I'm tempted to watch one more Lifetime movie instead of write- snap, crackle and pop goes the whip on my butt.

Through The Storm

I've been through it y'all. Anybody who doesn't have a healthy respect for nature and God's power has never lived through a hurricane. I'm willing to bet there are very few atheists living in southeast Louisiana right about now. Most probably turned in their "Atheist" membership cards right after the wind stopped blowing!

Even more interesting to me as a writer is the power of the word- I include spoken words. Without exception none of the major national media entities even reported on the devastation Hurricane Gustav caused. Ninety percent of Louisiana was in the dark. The power grids were torn up by the wind. Thousands of trees fell on homes. Thank God we didn't have a high number of casualties like we did with Hurricane Katrina. But you should have seen the long lines to get food, ice and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Since so few gas stations had power the few that opened had long, long lines. The heat and humidity made tempers run just as hot as the Louisiana temperature. Stores were empty. Have you ever seen a Walmart Superstore with no food? Scary sight. We had house fires, lightening strikes, flooding and tornadoes. My minister commented after all that, plus a week of suffering with no lights in the heat and the dark that a whole lot of us understood a little how Job must have felt. Sadly more than a few people lost everything when their homes were destroyed.

And for most of the country all they saw was New Orleans and that the levees didn't fail. Oh well, everything turned out fairly well, right? Anderson Cooper, et al packed up and left. Sarah Palin became the big story.

This reminded me really why I decided as a kid to be a writer. I wanted to tell the stories that maybe nobody else might tell. What happened to a lot of people in Louisiana is an untold story for the rest of the country. To me that's just wrong. I want to be part of at least striking a blow toward telling the greatest stories never told (before).