I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t give it a shot until my wife and I left the cold winters of Maryland and moved to Florida. My first step was to sign up for a writing course at the local community college. The instructor told the class each of us would write a short mystery story by the end of the course. I did that, and I’ve been writing short mystery stories ever since.
I continued writing them after we left Florida and settled here in Fort Worth, Texas. A number of my stories, I’m happy to say, were accepted and published in magazines and anthologies. One of them even brought home the annual Derringer Award as Best Short Mystery Story in 2002.
Along the way, I also finished a mystery novel called MEMORY OF A MURDER, which was first published in 2005. A second edition came out in April 2008.
Any amount of success in writing comes from persistence and paying your dues. I paid mine, I feel, serving a term as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine. Paying your dues also includes collecting rejection slips along the way, of course, and I have some of those, too.
2. What do you write? Tell us about Publications you’ve got available with a link to them.
I write Mystery fiction, both novels and short stories. I enjoy writing all types of stories involving mystery and crime, some very serious and some with touches of natural humor.
Information about my novel, MEMORY OF A MURDER, is available at the publisher’s website: www.cmptp.com
My short stories have appeared in various anthologies, including DIME, Gone Coastal, Techno Noir, EX-Factor, and Carols and Crimes.
Other short stories are available in online magazines (“ezines”), such as:
Mouth Full of Bullets – http://www.mouthfullofbullets.com/Current%20Issue.htm
Web Mystery Magazine – http://lifeloom.com/II4StaggsGold.htm
3. What inspires you to write? Where do your story lines come from?
My inspiration is that wonderful feeling that comes when I’ve worked hard on a story and, finally, it works out just the way I wanted it to and it’s as good as I can make it. That’s when a little fat lady peeks out from behind a comma and belts out a tune. There’s nothing to match that feeling. On a much smaller scale, it must be how Michelangelo felt when he made the last brush stroke on that ceiling.
Story ideas are anywhere and everywhere. All a writer has to do is go into what-if mode. What if, for example, you haven’t seen the lady across the street for quite awhile and what if you’ve recently seen her husband digging in the back yard? It’s not hard to imagine that he murdered her and that’s where he buried her, is it? What if you’re watching a TV show and you think, “What if so-and-so did such-and-such and what’s-her-name killed her because of it?” With that show as a starting point and with a little what-iffing, you can easily imagine an entirely different story.
4. How do you develop your characters?
When a story idea pops up, the characters usually come with it. They need some fleshing out, of course, and that’s where I draw upon people I know or have seen somewhere. For a physical description, I’ll borrow from those people and make whatever modifications needed to fit the story. I also look for tics or traits in people I come across and include them in the character development.
I mentioned above having to write a story story in that writing course I took in Florida. I wanted the main character to be a bit unique, so I gave him some psychic abilities. For research, I met and spent time with several real-life psychics to get it right. I named the character Adam Kingston and after that story was published, the reaction to him was so favorable, I decided to feature him in a full novel.
The result was my first published novel, MEMORY OF A MURDER, and Adam Kingston became a character I plan to use in more short stories as well as future novels.
5. Have you ever written about someone you know and they recognize themselves in your work?
That’s only happened once, and I don’t think my wife will ever forgive me. My wife’s name is Carolyn, you see. In developing Adam Kingston, I decided to make him a widower. That’s all well and good so far, but I made the mistake of naming her Caroline. When my wife Carolyn read it and saw that I killed off a wife named Caroline, she said, “Hmmmmph. What is that? Wishful thinking?”
6. Where do you write?
I have two writing places. One is at home. We turned a third bedroom into a computer room, and I write there. I also do a part time job as a school bus driver, which requires a morning run to take the kids to school and an afternoon run to get them home again. In between, there’s a period of about five hours. I take a laptop to work, plug in, and spend that time in the driver’s lounge writing. It took a while before I could shut out everything going on around me, but when I get involved in writing, I’ve learned to go off into a zone and ignore everything else.
7. Do you find your muse is most prolific in a certain place or method of writing?
I know of writers whose method of writing begins with an outline. I tried outlining, but it didn’t work for me. When I begin a story, I have a good idea where it’s going, but I get there by letting the characters guide me. Once I have a good feel for the characters and what they would say and do, they take off on their own and carry me along with them.
8. What is the one piece of advice you’ve received that has given you the most encouragement?
I can sum it up in two words: Writers write. I’ve known wannabe writers who jog from one writing course to another, join one writing group after another, or endlessly search for that one great story idea that will guarantee them a spot on the Best Seller list. They spend their time learning the so-called “rules” of writing, do endless research on their subject matter, study the process of getting an agent or landing a publisher, but never get around to actually sitting down and writing. I did some of those things, too, but I didn’t begin the journey of becoming a writer until I simply sat down and started pounding out words by the thousands. A lot of those words were dreadful garbage, but little by little, better words began to assemble themselves in the right order and started to make some sense. Oh, I still pump out some garbage, but through practice, it cleans up much quicker than it used to.
9. What would you like to tell your readers?
I think it would be to simply relax and enjoy my stories. I write to entertain more than to enlighten. If readers wants to come away from a story with a message or an epiphany which will improve their lives or achieve world peace, there are other writers to go to. We all have drama and problems in our lives and need a break — a brief respite — from real life once in a while. All I want to do is tell a good story that will whisk them away into a fictional life for a period of time.
10. What advice would you offer to other writers?
There are many good writers out there and the competition is tough. To rise above the crowd, you have to continuously strive to improve your writing skills and become better than good. To accomplish that, I offer this simple advice: always make sure the next thing you write is better than the last thing you wrote.
1. Please, tell me something about yourself:
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment