March 2023

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

In the olden days of Charles Dickens, fiction novels were often serialized: readers would get a new chapter with every print issue of a magazine or newspaper. (Writers were paid by the word, which is why Dickens can be a wee bit wordy.)

In this new, glorious tech era, writers can use Patreon or Substack to share stories or serialized novels or personal essays with their readers: these can be free subscriptions, or paid.

This year I’ve been so focused on writing my third novel that I haven’t been writing or sharing shorter pieces (for example, on Medium.com), and I miss having that audience.

It’s exciting to see the comments and real-time reactions when people read my stuff.

I’ve subscribed to “gritty” mystery Vancouver writer Sam Wiebe’s Substack newsletter, to support his writing career and also to see how a capable person manages it. 

Maybe I’ll start sharing my new novel in a serialized way. But then: does this complicate things when/if a publisher wants to turn my manuscript into a printed novel?

Thursday, March 2, 2023

I’ve been mid- existential crisis for the last 30 days.

As a writer, I’ve never been better positioned, with two novels written and the third in progress: I’ve worked hard to improve my weak areas (plot! revision!) and know exactly what to do to launch my writing career.

BUT: my tendonitis hasn’t been this bad since I first “broke” in 2012, working full-time at a too-high desk. 

It hurts to type. It hurts to use a mouse.

Writing has always been my ikigai. It’s my reason to live. It gives my days purpose.

Everything else I do is just a fun hobby.

I’m eating Advil, rubbing muscle cream on my joints and seeing specialists … and trying to be patient while my body works through this.

I have to have faith that this flare up will pass, and I’ll be able to get back to writing down this story in my head.

Friday, March 3, 2023

My novel is set in February 2023. I started writing it in the fall and imagined a snowy, -26 degree landscape.

But this winter, everything is ice! It snows, then melts, and we’re all left sliding. Stores are selling out of shoe grips. I experienced ice rain for the first time.

It’s terrifying just to be outside, because falling hurts so much, and this would be an easy, organic way to add tension and suspense to my novel. Imagine a world where every step is perilous! Where car tires can’t be trusted! Where we freefall down hills and inclines!

I’m considering revising my first 19,000 words and changing “snow” to “ice.”

Saturday, March 4, 2023

My boyfriend heard that AI (artificial intelligence) is so pervasive at unversities these days that everyone is passing because robots are writing their essays. 

I don’t know how true this is, but yikes: a Brave New World where my writing is irrelevant. Where anyone can produce a mystery novel. What would writers have left to offer? That’s a personally tragic kind of apocalypse.

I’ve signed my nine-year-old up for a summer camp that will teach him how to use AI to create books, stickers and other creative products. For one thing, I want him to be in on the groundfloor of this next generation of technology. And: I think it’s better to understand things that are otherwise scary.

In the meantime, I showed him how to use Canva. We started by brainstorming ideas for a logo, then he sketched it with pencil on paper, then I showed him how to use templates and elements to re-create it in a professional way.

There’s a line here, somewhere, that I don’t feel comfortable crossing. I’m still not sure where that line is.

Sunday, March 5, 2023

I won “Mom of the Year” by giving my kid and his friend an Adventure Day.

We spent five hours outside: I chauffered them around for a playground crawl, showed them two secret forts, then let them smash rocks and ice on the frozen shoreline.

What’s the first rule of adventure? Go outside.

In the olden days, this is how two nine-year-olds would have spent their free time: wandering, exploring, smashing, free ranging. But in this weird tech era of screen time and Minecraft and only children, I had to SHOW them how to play like this.

There were three moments when I questioned myself. I wondered: “Is this thing they’re doing too dangerous?” And then I remembered that kids are SUPPOSED to be doing these things. They used to do these things, without an adult looming over them. My being there was a safety perk.

So up they climbed. And everyone survived.

Monday, March 6, 2023

Ohmigosh ohmigosh — Bouchercon is coming to Calgary in 2026!!

I am giddy. I’ve longed for a crime writers’ conference. I’ve teased myself with the Malice Domestic speakers’ schedule and searched Westjet flights to Maryland.

And now: Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, is coming to CANADA! To Alberta, a mere three hours drive from my door!

Many details of Bouchercon 2026 Calgary are still to be determined, but Louise Penny will be the Lifetime Achievement Guest of Honour. 

Other special guests: Steele Curry, Jennifer Hillier and P.J. Vernon.

If you’re as excited as I am, volunteer to help make this event happen: fill out the contact form on the Bouchercon 2026 website.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

My kiddo is obsessed with a new computer game he worked hard to earn: Hogwarts Legacy. He was already a proud Slytherin. This game has upped his skills with spellcasting and enchantments.

He wants to play this new game every available minute of his day.

I understand this. I go through obsessive fits too: geocaching, weaving, quilting, building Rolife miniature sets … I’ll find a new hobby and ONLY want to do that all day and into the wee hours of the night.

I cuddled with my kid last night and understood his joy-agony, then gave him special permission to play his new game in the morning before school. (We have a “no screens before school” rule.)

Because it’s fun to revel in obsession. It’s puppy love. It’s pure joy and exploration of a new experience.

I see so much apathy in people these days. We autopilot with routine, and dumb ourselves down with screens and drugs. If my kiddo can taste excitement and care about something deeply, maybe he’ll continue to look for that thrill in life as he grows older.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

I’m a reader AND a writer. I made this official in my 20s by earning a double major BA in English literature and creative writing. 

So it was pretty exciting to re-read my draft manuscript for book #3 (What the Eagle Sees) today and realize it’s GOOD.

I’ve been away from the manuscript for so long now (darn that tendonitis!!) that I can read it sorta objectively. I found one glitch (my protagonist referred to something she didn’t yet know), and the most recent scenes need fleshing out (more sensory detail), but overall it’s a GOOD BOOK.

I needed this confidence boost. I missed writing my story, but there’s always that worm of self-doubt telling me it’s not worth the time or energy: I should just find a full-time job and give up this fantasy of publishing my books.

Now I know this book is worth publishing. It could win contests. Agents and publishers will like it.

I’m excited to keep writing it.

Friday-Sunday, March 10-12, 2023

My kiddo had a judo tournament in Edmonton, Alberta so we spent the weekend walking a million miles in West Edmonton Mall, making friends in the water park’s wave pool and spending WAY too much money at Canada’s largest Lego store.

I’m about to turn 43 and am increasingly conscious of how my generation is no longer mainstream in the media: every single mall poster had a smooth-looking 20-something model. Either there are no 40-something year old models, or the brands don’t want those photos.

It’s humbling to realize we Xennials are aging out, but also a relief. I don’t care about so much of today’s popular culture, and I’m not expected to know it: I can just pay attention to the important things (Russia assaulting Ukraine) and focus on my own world (writing, family).

Monday, March 13, 2023

This weekend at West Edmonton Mall I spent my free time people-watching.

I took special notice of my fellow women: women of every age, from so many cultures. A fancy-looking woman pushed the fanciest leather stroller I’ve ever seen. Teenagers displayed their effortless flat tummies with nonchalence.

Hundreds of women chose to wear a hundred different bathing suits in the pool: we dressed for comfort, or functionality, or shock, or sex appeal. 

My current book is the first book I’ve written with a protagonist who is 20 years younger than I am. I’m very conscious of the risks. It’s not as scary as writing a male or not-white protagonist, but still. Her language, her assumptions, her opportunities, etc would be different than mine. 

I found a photo of me at age 24 to accompany this post. It’s shocking how young I look. No wrinkles, no tired eyes, no crows feet from decades of smiling. Young women are so beautiful, just because they’re young.

I want to capture our variety of ages & stages with my novels. Both the naive, limitless beauty of when we’re young, and the hard-won beauty of being middle-aged.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

I surpassed my 20,000 word mark (finally!) today, and then did the math:

I’m almost at 30,000 words.

This manuscript will be around 90,000 words once I’m done.

So I’m almost 1/3 done writing this book.

That sounds so doable!

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

At Harry Potter trivia tonight, my team talked about how dark the series became.

The advice to writers is to know your genre, to know that genre’s readers’ expectations, and then not to swerve too sharply from those expectations.

While creative ideas sometimes mean upsetting expectations, a book is a pact between the writer and the reader: it’s a risky move to veer from what was promised. For example: if you’re writing a sweet romcom, a graphic, kinky bedroom scene wouldn’t be appropriate.

I’ve been finding this line with my own novels. They tend to be PG-13 mysteries, literary and traditional: no terror, no graphic blood or violence.

But the second book required some sort of sex scene, and the crimes were more disturbing than in book #1.

This third novel walks the same line. I keep rewriting certain sentences to find the right tone.

Writing is an art. I love this part of practicing it.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

I couldn’t resist this Rolife miniature set: a detective’s office!!!

I’ll get to make a Sherlock-esque cap, plenty of books, a crime scene board … it’s so fun.

My favourite way to relax in the late evenings, after my young kiddo is asleep, involves: a miniature set to piece together, a beer or tea, and a murder mystery on Netflix, Acorn or BritBox.

Friday, March 17, 2023

I had to look up the difference between “proved” and “proven” on Google today. Or maybe I should say: I GOT to look it up. It was a perk. It was a moment of joy in my work day.

Writing is a love affair with language: sometimes it’s a sweet, uninterrupted hour of effortless joy, sometimes it’s little sparky happy moments.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Sisters in Crime hosted a webinar on Engaging with Readers today, featuring Shawn Inmon.

He’s a rockstar at engaging with his readers on Facebook (as well as an incredibly prolific, successful author).

I have good intentions moving forward about making better use of my Facebook page …

He’s also made me think about reviving my Patreon page.

AND! I registered for Writers’ Digest’s 9th Annual Mystery & Thriller Virtual Conference. It’s 2.5 days of online webinars and opportunities.

I do these webinars and conferences to learn from others, of course, but also to affirm with myself that I’m serious about my writing goals. 

I’m willing to spend the money and sit inside at my computer on a sunny day. I’m willing to put in the time.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

My friend Darrow Woods has started a SubStack newsletter! That’s two of my mystery writer friends now … I’m feeling peer pressured.

I met Darrow in Toronto when we were both shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada‘s Unhanged Arthur Award (best unpublished first novel). He’s a minister at The United Church of Canada in Ontario.

The writer whose manuscript won in our category is Lyn McFarlane: her book The Scarlet Cross was published in 2022. 

It’s pretty cool to see the progress of other writers’ careers. In The 7 Lively Sins: How to Enjoy Your Life, Dammit! the section on “envy” points out how this feeling is helpful: when we want something someone else has, that’s a big clue as to our own life direction.

I never feel envy, except when it comes to writing. I don’t care about fancy cars or clothes: I just ache to see my novels published, and to have readers love them.

Monday, March 20, 2023

I’m supposed to market myself as a writer on TikTok (something about “#Bookstagram”?) and apparently all the cool literary people are hanging out on Twitter or Mastadon … But no. I LOVE Instagram.

Oh Instagram! You’ve let me communicate with writers I admire, including Amber Cowie, Iona Whishaw, Heather Anderson and Robin Stevens. You’ve nurtured my writerly friendship/fanship with Sam Wiebe and A.J. Devlin.

Because of you, I’ve been able to say “THANK YOU” directly to Hilroy Canada (for their notebooks), Staples (OptiFlow pens) and Scrivener (for everything else).

This morning, an agent I follow & relate to asked for revenge novel submissions, which = the book I just wrote.

I love how Instagram opens doors. I love how it makes the inaccessible accessible. I love how we are all just a finger tap away from our dreams.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Maybe it’s an eldest child thing, but “shoulds” have always been a self-imposed, repressive force in my life.

For example: I should do X to be a good mom, I shouldn’t do Y.

This month I felt the weight of these shoulds more than usual, and then realized: my kiddo is growing up, he’s increasingly independent (yay!) and increasingly resistant to my guiding his behaviour … why am I holding myself to these self-imposed expectations of how I should act as his mama?

So this week I’ve been consciously choosing a different way of parenting.

I’m allowing myself to do more of the things I want to do (e.g. go for a long walk at dinner time) and while I invite my kiddo along, if he doesn’t accept then I still do the thing without him.

I’ve realized that, instead of making him do something, or stressing myself out trying to persuade him to do something, I can role model doing that thing and maybe that’s a more effective, easier way to parent.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Writers’ Digest’s 9th Annual Mystery & Thriller Virtual Conference officially starts tomorrow and runs over the weekend, but today I can access archived webinars and articles.

I got into the mood by reading a bunch of writing essays/articles by Elizabeth Sims (author of the Lillian Byrd and Rita Farmer mystery series), and watched a webinar on forensics in crime writing featuring Jennifer Graeser Dornbush.

Of all this content, some is redundant: I’ve studied writing and the crime genre for decades. But so far I have two index cards with ideas I haven’t considered before, from Elizabeth Sims’s essays:

1. Character relationships: make them triangles whenever possible. Triangles are infinitely more interesting & fraught than just a two-person connection.

2. Setting: don’t revel in description or detail unless you are using the setting as a character, and you use it to explore other characters by how they relate to it.

Friday, March 24, 2023

I’ve wondered about the tone of my mystery novels. In real life, I’m super funny (my boyfriend says I’m the funniest person in the world, in fact). But this does not carry over into my mystery novels, which tend to be more literary.

I’d like to incorporate humour more in my novels, so how do I write a FUNNY murder mystery?

Jesse Q. Sutanto (author of Dial A for Aunties and many other books) shared a bunch of practical tips on a webinar today via Writers’ Digest, and now I’m inspired to try in a future book.

Some tips from Jesse:

• Put your characters in awkward or inappropriate situations. Don’t be afraid of using slapstick humour.
• Set your scenes in beautiful, fun places to keep the mood light.
• Balance the serious and funny moments. It’s important to still show the sad moments: these will contrast with the funny parts.
• When plotting and writing: have fun! If you make yourself laugh, your readers will too.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Starting to write a novel is thrilling because it’s new and full of potential; writing the end of a novel is a relief and proud achievement. But oh: that middle section. It’s a notorious slog for many writers.

The general advice in crime writing is to have a second murder in the middle, to revitalize the story and carry the novel through to the end.

But today I tuned into a webinar by Hank Phillippi Ryan about conquering the “muddy middle” of novel writing, and she offered up a whole list of other ways to put fresh energy into the middle of a story and keep both the writer and the reader interested. For example:

• someone enters or leaves the story (this could be another murder)
• there’s a HUGE misunderstanding
• something assumed to be safe and stable falls apart: a relationship, the character’s job or family, a long-held belief …
• a threat of violence / avoidance of violence / an act of violence: and the character has to make a decision
• the character sacrifices something tangible or metaphorical

In the book I’m writing now, I don’t plan to kill a second character. Maybe that will change, but it’s helpful to have these alternatives in mind.

Monday, March 27, 2023

I booked us a night at a yurt at Radius Retreat, about 20 minutes north of our home. On purpose, I booked the furthest yurt, The Perch, which meant a 2.8 km hike up a snowy, icy trail from the parking lot, carrying our overnight supplies on our backs.

I booked this adventure for me and my son thinking: this is the beginning of a new era! We will become backpackers! We will start with the yurt, then do overnights this summer at Fish Lake, Jumbo Pass, the Conrad Cain hut in Bugaboo Provincial Park … and next year we’ll be ready for the West Coast Trail.

The Appalachian Trail.

So many trails!

It was at kilometer 2.5 that I decided: never again.

What was I thinking?! Why on earth would we pack our own water, food and supplies to camp, when we own a very nice trailer with heat, a toilet and water?

I laughed out loud, seeing my expectations flip 180-degrees mid-hike. How wonderful to go into an experience thinking one thing, and have your own assumptions upset.

We enjoyed our overnight adventure. We read for hours, invented a new way to play Uno, ate well, and I got to light a dozen fires (my favourite thing).

And now: I don’t ever need to do it again.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

These are my favourite lines from reading Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process, edited by Joe Fassler:

“He’d grown up in this very wealthy, very brittle family …”
– Elizabeth Gilbert

“We tend to surround ourselves with the things that make us feel safe, but can then wall us in.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert

“… people don’t end up living their authentic lives … because they’re afraid of failing — they don’t take chances.”
– Andre Dubus III

“I read recently that we’re not suffering from an overflow of information — we’re suffering from an overflow of insignificance.”
– Billy Collins

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Tomorrow would have been my husband Brock’s 44th birthday.

I celebrate this brilliant, sweet, hilarious man every year in different ways, but this year I’m ready to remember him in a new way. I’m going to open up the boxes of his journals and add them to our memorial Facebook page and his website.

I’m doing this in part because our 9-year-old son is starting to ask the same questions his daddy did: why do we use money? What is morally right? What will/should the future look like?

I don’t want Brock’s ideas to die with him. I want to keep them alive for Brock’s sake, and for our kiddo.

Many of us who knew and loved my husband will be thinking of him tomorrow. They’ll drink Old Fashioneds or read a book or hug their kids extra tight. I’ll be sharing the notes he left for us.

Happy birthday, Brock.

Friday, March 31, 2023

I’ve been sharing Brock’s notes to our In Memory of Brock McLeod Facebook page …. This one is extra special to me.

I often feel I’ve inherited Brock’s life.

I have all his scribbled ideas and draft essays boxed away, I know his parenting values and can hear his commentary on real-life events.

In the 5 years since he died, I’ve said “yes” to some things ONLY because Brock wasnted to do them, someday someday, and never got to.

It’s a weighty responsibility and it’s caused me to cry in weird situations.

It’s also a privilege, to have known another human being SO WELL that I can, in a small way, continue his life.