The Mistake That Almost Got Away

I recently attended the Anderson Center's 11th Annual Celebration of Minnesota Children's Authors and Illustrators in Red Wing, Minnesota. The Anderson Center is nestled on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. It's a wonderful place that sponsors arts programming, exhibitions, residencies, and more. This annual celebration is sponsored by the center, along with the Red Wing Public Library, the Red Balloon Bookstore, and the U of M's fabulous Kerlan Collection of children's books and manuscripts.
The day featured speakers, signings, a Civil War reenactment, balloon animals, and many other fun activities.  I heard talks by Michael Hall (My Heart is Like a Zoo), Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss (Alphabeasties), Mike Wohnoutka (Davey's Blue-eyed Frog), and met Joyce Sidman, John Coy, Lauren Stringer, and others.

At the celebration, I met up with Debra Frasier, author and illustrator of A Fabulous Fair Alphabet, a children's picture book that debuted at the Minnesota State Fair to great acclaim. She had a fun activity for people of all ages: to assemble their names out of the colorful letters she'd photographed at the fair and used in her book. Debra's activity tent was very organized, with large laminated letters carefully sorted into bins. There were also these 4-foot long foam noodle things, a bizarre invention that I've seen used as musical instruments, as play swords, or for pool exercise. Debra was using them as oversized letter holders. A narrow slit along their length was to be the gripper for the laminated letters.
I turned down the offer of help. What could be so difficult about putting my name letters in order into a slot on a foam noodle?
Plenty, it turns out.

This was long after I'd dried off from the day's earlier incident: I'd been minding my own business talking to someone at another booth, when a young girl on stilts wobbled by behind me. She bumped into me, teetered, and grabbed onto the edge of the canvas booth roofing for balance. The roof had been holding a nice big batch of cold rainwater since the night before and suddenly, all of that water went down my back! At least I kept the booth's display material from getting wet.
Debra's fair alphabet booth activities seemed a bit less high-risk, so I headed over there.  I chose colorful letters for my name and using the noodle like a paper clip, stuck them in the lengthwise slit. But the letters kept falling out. Finally one of the kind helpers approached me again and gently suggested that most people turned the noodle so the slit would face upward. I turned the noodle over and started over.
Finally, success! Here's the colorful result:

But there was STILL something wrong—that I didn't notice until that evening at home, when I looked at the photo. See if you can spot it.

How is a Book Made?

Those of us who work as writers and editors know how much work goes on to prepare a manuscript for publication. But that's only part of the whole process. There's further work done within a publishing house, including more editing, cover art, marketing, and sales, just to mention a few areas. The material is prepared for the printer, these days, digitally, where it goes through a sequence of pre-press preparation, printing, collating, binding, packaging, and shipping.
Here's a look at how a book is physically put together by a printer here (created for Webcrafters Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin).

Hey, Wait, Come Back! I Wasn't Finished Yet!

Writers and artists often do on-site research for their works-in-progress. That's what I was doing recently, trying to capture those fleeting moments between winter and spring, this year on the early side in mid-March. It's when the ice goes out on the lake, cracking, crunching, sloshing as it changes forms. Warm-weather birds begin to return and join the morning avian chorus. The ground starts to thaw, grass tinges green, tulips and day lily leaves start to peek through the soil, and humans resume their outdoor activities.
On-site research doesn't always work out how you expect, though. This mallard on Minnehaha Creek was too busy to stick around and pose.

Eighth Annual Write of Spring

I'll be appearing along with more than 50 Minnesota mystery authors at Write of Spring, Once Upon a Crime's annual celebration! Saturday, March 20th, 12-4 pm, 604 West 26th Street (off Lyndale Avenue South). Here's the schedule:

12:00 • Joel Arnold, Judith Yates Borger, Laura Childs, Katie DeCosse, Pete Hautman, Monica Ferris, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Priscilla Herbison, Kathleen Hills, William Kent Krueger, Jackie Maher, David Oppegaard, Deborah Woodworth 

1:00 • Carl Brookins, Gary Bush, Jan Dunlap, Margaret Frazer, Brian Freeman, Ellen Hart, Jenifer LeClair, Victoria Houston, Camille Hyytinen, Andrea Sisco, Beth Solheim, Roger Stelljes, Richard Thompson 

2:00 • Barbara DaCosta, Pat Dennis, Barbara Fister, Steve Horwitz, David Housewright, Chuck Logan, Larry Millett, Julie Schaper, Rick Shefchik, Anthony Neil Smith, Steve Thayer, Christopher Valen, Lance Zarimba  

3:00 • KJ Erickson, William Fietzer, Lois Greiman, Judith Koll Healey, Dean Hovey, Julie Kramer, Michael Allan Mallory, Sujata Massey, Scott Pearson, Susan Runholt, Marilyn Victor, JP White

Winter Postcard: Wish You Were Here

A picture arrives from a friend in Hawaii--a fine sand, sunny beach on the ocean, no clouds, waves gently lapping, palm trees swaying. "Wish you were here...." she writes.
I sigh as I put on my sweater, my snowpants, my hat, my jacket, my scarf, my boots, my mittens, and walk to the lake, where finely grained snowflakes spin through the air, as frosty breath rises from my mouth, and I listen to the quiet that comes with a thick blanket of snow. In the distance, someone's set up an ice-fishing shack, and nearby, a long dock has been marooned away from shore for the winter. Skiers glide by, ducks congregate around an open patch of water by a storm drain, children and dogs frolic. I walk out onto the lake where the wind has created ripples in the snow, and I think of my friend in Hawaii. Maybe she's lying in the warm sun. Maybe she's reading a good book, sipping ice tea. Maybe she's building a sand castle on the ocean beach.
Or--just maybe she's dreaming of building a snow-castle on a lake.

Mystery Festival at Loft

The Loft Literary Center's first Mystery Festival was held on a balmy November 2009 weekend and had well over 100 attendees. Among the presenters were William Kent Krueger, Mary Logue, Carl Brookins, Rich Thompson, Julie Kramer, Lois Grieman, Ellen Hart, Erin Hart, and Jess Lourey.
After an inspiring and humorous keynote by Vince Flynn, workshops covered technique, genre history, sub-genres, and the book-publishing biz.
Some highlights include Mary's presentation of the "Mystery Wheel," a technique by which you can chart and brainstorm relationships between the plot and characters; Kent's hitchcockian-suspense-filled talk on how to create and use suspense in your novel; Erin's coaxing of imagery and metaphor from listeners, and Jess' admonitions to PLAN your series from the start including creating a character and locale bible. "Just make sure it doesn't become a scrapbooking project that keeps you from your writing," she warned.
Presenters also presided over lunchtime table discussions, which were very popular with attendees.
Kudos to the Loft staff and volunteers and everyone else who made this event happen!

Rebel in a Recliner?

Into the category of "if I wrote this in a novel, no one would believe it" stories goes this one.  A Duluth-area man souped up his La-Z-Boy recliner chair with a motor from a lawn mower and gussied it up with stereo speakers, headlights, and pinstriping. Catch is, he got picked up for a DWI after drinking too much and crashing into a car in the bar's parking lot. The Proctor, Minnesota Police Department is auctioning it off on Ebay. The bids are already over $37,000. How long before the man gets a book contract? (Read the NPR news story or the EBay bid page.)
 
Update: After a complaint from the La-Z-Boy company, the sale was withdrawn and then reposted as the DWI Chair. Final sale just over $10,000 proceeds to city of Proctor (11/8/09). 

Morning Glories

Morning glories have always been a favorite flower of mine. This year, even though I planted them early enough and they produced spectacular leaves, they didn't bloom. June, July passed, then August. There was no way to rush the blooms, no way to know if the weather would improve (too wet, too dry, too cool) . Then September came, the decisive month, the last chance. Would these sprawling dark-green vines that finally had shown some tiny flower buds bring forth their stunning flowers just as fall made its decisive mark? Taunting the weather gods, the flowers finally made their appearance in the middle of the month.

I never had thought much about the flower's name, though. I knew morning glories bloomed during the daytime, but I didn't know exactly when the one-day blossoms opened--they were usually fully open by the time I'd be out in the garden. So today, putting on my scientist's hat, I decided to track their activities. Before sunrise, around 6 am, with a nip in the air, a few blooms were already open to greet the new day, and gradually, over the next two hours, a couple dozen other stunning blue flowers joined in, reflecting the newly bright blue of today's sky.

Yes, fall is coming,
the dry trees leaves rustle blowing down the alley.
But a late reprieve:
Glorious flower opens in the morning;
morning glory.

 Photograph ©2009 Barbara DaCosta

Fall Book Events

Two big book events are coming up:

The annual Twin Cities Book Festival is coming up, Saturday, October 10th at Mpls Community and Technical College. This is FREE and open to public, usually has thousands of attendees. Event includes readings, talks, used book sales, vendors (most of the area publishers and many authors), book arts, children's activities, and more.

The Loft Literary Center is having its first Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Festival, Sat-Sun, Nov. 14-15, at Open Book. Vince Flynn is the keynote speaker. Others presenters include: Carl Brookings, Masha Hamilton, Mary Logue, William Kent krueger, Jan Dunlap, Philip Donlay, Jess Lourey, Ellen Hart, Susan Runholt, Erin Hart, Rich Thompson, and more. $180 members/$195 non-members.

See you there!

New Crime Anthology Honors Bookstore

"Once Upon a Crime: An Anthology of Murder, Mayhem, and Suspense is a perfect name for a new anthology of short stories by some of Minnesota's best-known crime/mystery writers, as well as a few from outside the region. The book is a tribute to Minneapolis-based Once Upon a Crime bookstore and its owners, the husband-wife team of Gary Shulze and Pat Frovarp. Their little store...which routinely hosts readings by some of the nation's top-selling writers, was just voted Favorite Mystery Bookstore in the country by Crimespree magazine. Once Upon a Crime—the book—was born several years ago when Shulze was hospitalized with leukemia, according to Gary R. Bush, a Minneapolis author who co-edited the anthology with Chris Everheart.

'Putting this book together was a labor of love,' said Bush, who writes books for children, young adults and adults. 'Pat and Gary have been so good to us and other authors, we wanted to honor them. They don't care whether you are a beginner or have had 30 books published. They will treat you equally, with respect, and push your books. They're kind and encouraging.' " Featured authors are Everheart and Bush, Stanley Trollip (who writes with Michael Sears as Michael Stanley), Maureen Fischer, Anne Frasier, Pat Dennis, Terri Persons, Sujata Massey, William Kent Krueger, David Housewright, Lois Greiman, Pete Hautman, Ken Bruen and Marilyn Victor. Launch party for "Once Upon a Crime: An Anthology of Murder, Mayhem, and Suspense" 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27th at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Minneapolis (612-870-3785). See Mary Ann Grossman's full article in the Pioneer Press.

Poe Celebrations

There are some fabulous events happening this year to mark Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday (in addition to the stamp issued by the USPS mentioned below in a previous blog entry).

Poe Conference: "The Third International Poe Conference will meet in Philadelphia Oct 8 to 11, 2009, at the Hyatt Hotel. At the conference, Poe scholars will present new scholarship, participants will attend a premier of a musical composition, inspired by Poe, and written by Augusta Reed Thomas and see a performance by Norman George as Poe." The National Park Service maintains the Poe National Historical Site in Philadelphia, where a number of additional events will be held.

Baltimore's Year-long Celebration: "The city of Baltimore will host Nevermore 2009, a yearlong celebration of the life and works of one of Baltimore's most famed residents. The year will be filled with a variety of events, including birthday celebrations, lectures, wine tastings, art exhibitions, theatrical performances, special tours and more." These events include an October reburial of Poe next to his grandfather.

Feature Articles: The New York Times has put together a slide show of images from Poe manuscripts and published works in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library. The New Yorker recenlty featured a lengthy article by Jill Lepore on Poe.

Virtual Writers Conference Begins

What a terrific idea! Gayle Trent, author of Murder Takes the Cake, has put together a virtual writers conference featuring guest writers, editors, agents, and others. Topics include book trailers, plotting, publishing, social networking, and more.
The advantages: attend any time, attend everything, no expense of travel, and you don't have to get out of your pajamas.

New Stamp Honors Poe

The United States Postal Service has once again issued a beautiful literary stamp, this one on the occasion of Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. Poe (1809–1849, was a poet, soldier, editor, author of the famous poem "The Raven" ("Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...."), The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the Fall of the House of Usher, among others. Poe is considered by many to be the father of the detective genre; his own death is still considered to be a mystery.

Buy stamps at post offices or online. Visit the Poe Museum's website for more information about this important American writer.

Stamp copyright USPS 2009.

Got Website?

It used to be that to create something like a poster, for example, that you'd take pencil and eraser and paper, pen and ink and maybe a ruler (if you were really high-tech and serious you'd have a light table). Then, you'd get to work, sketching, erasing, drawing, inking. In a matter of hours, you'd be done.

Now, websites. It's simple, they say. You can make a website bing-bang-bung done! Realistically though, the creative process is no different, even though the tools are. Think, design, rework, start over.... Of course with computers, there's also the "delight" of learning new software, and the absolutely unforgivingly exacting manner in which programming needs to be done. Every little imperfection means that either your webpage won't work or will look odd. Hours, days, and weeks can go by as you search for that one tiny little crumb of code that's messing the whole thing up.

In the old days, mistakes were easy: you firmly held down the paper with one hand, gripped your eraser in the other, and rubbed out your mistake. Then you swept and blew the eraser crumbs off the paper, and re-did the problem section ... and you were done.

Visit my new site http://www.barbaradacosta.com and let me know what you think!
Photo by Barbara DaCosta ©2008

Ｗrite of Spring

Once Upon a Crime, one of the Upper Midwest's finest independent bookstores is putting on their annual "Write of Spring" Saturday, March 28th, 12–4 pm. I'll be appearing there at 2 pm.
There'll be more than 60 authors besides me appearing that day: Carl Brookins , Gary Bush, Laura Childs, Chris Everheart, Brian Freeman, Ellen Hart, Steve Horwitz, Wm. Kent Krueger, Lori L. Lake, Jess Lourey, David Oppegaard, Bruce Rubenstein, Julie L. Schaper, Roger Stelljes, Christopher Valen, Pat Dennis, William Dietrich, Lois Greiman, Bob Gust, Camille Hyytinen, E. Kelly Keady, Jenifer LeClair, Chuck Logan, Michael Mallory, Larry Millett, Peter Rennebohm, Rick Shefchik, William Swanson, Richard Thompson, Marilyn Victor, Robert Alexander, Sean Doolittle*, KJ Erickson, Barbara Fister, William Fietzer, Jeff Foster, David Housewright, Victoria Houston, Dean Hovey, Kathryn Koutsky, Linda Koutsky, Linda Morganstein, Susan Runholt, Steve Thayer, R.D. Zimmerman, Joel Arnold, Judith Borger, C.C. Canby, Philip Donlay, Monica Ferris, Erin Hart, Pete Hautman, Judith Koll Healy, Priscilla Herbison, Kathleen Hills, Julie Kramer, Mary Logue, Sujata Massey, Scott Pearson, and Deborah Woodworth. See the website for the full schedule, or click on poster image above.

Bloomington Writers' Festival and Book Fair

Come enjoy the 6th Annual Bloomington Writers' Festival and Book Fair, Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:30 am - 4:30 pm in Bloomington, Minnesota. The keynote speaker is mystery writer William Kent Krueger, speaking on "This Writer's Life." Kent will also discuss "Importance of Narrative' in morning and noon panels.
An afternoon panel "Is It A Crime?" features authors Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart, Susan Runholt, and Gary Shulze (co-owner of Once Upon a Crime Bookstore in Minneapolis). And, the Twin Cities Sisters in Crime will have a booth.
Panels and keynote are $10 each. To register, contact the center.

National Train Day to be Held in May 2009

National Train Day will be held May 9th, 2009. Check your local papers for events!

Macbeth 101 for Writers

My model for fiction writing came from eighth-grade English class, when our three tormented student teachers acted out the famous witches' scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble .... eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog" and the other gory ingredients too repugnant to recall here. None of us ever forgot Macbeth or those three student teachers, nor the list of memorable ingredients that we delighted in reciting at lunch hour the rest of the year.
I imagine that the three student teachers were trying to teach us how to appreciate and read and analyze Shakespeare. For me, the lessons were more oblique, finding use decades later:
• don't turn your back for even a minute on twenty-five eighth-graders
• literature read aloud is has a different effect than when read silently
• if you're going to speak in public, be assertive, especially in front of dozens of kids
But the most important lesson to me as a writer was that you don't have to look far for ingredients; real life supplies an ample amount—people, things, ideas, coincidences. Then, you mix it all into a brew so well-blended that it becomes something new and original. There's the magic—all you need is the cauldron.

On Writing

Once Upon A Crime in Minneapolis recently hosted a fabulous panel discussion with writers Mary Logue, K J Erickson, and Ellen Hart. Presenting to a packed room, the three well-known authors covered topics from knowing one's characters, to writing a series. Here are some nuggets I jotted down (blending the voices of the three, who are old friends who often finish each other's thoughts):
On writing: When the writing is flowing, it's like being in a groove, and you know it's working so it feels great; the novel takes on a shape, becoming a living thing, growing organically, or like fractal. For the three, a writing group has been essential for their growth as writers, and as a balm for the solitary task of writing.
The great puzzle: If, as according to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours to master any particular thing, how is it that an author's first book is often their best? Conversely, why does it take so long for some authors to become well known?
On characters: They take on their own lives. When writing a series, you get to know them over time, and you realize different things about them. Of course, you can always throw a little conflict in their paths to shake things up for them—and for you, as well.
On agents and editors: They should act as advocates for readers, understand the market, and are ideally there to help the writer do their best work.
The publishing industry: there are natural cycles to it, small presses will grow as bigger presses struggle, technological changes have to be embraced, that there's still—beyond the blockbusters that every publisher seeks—a need for diverse, interesting writing; the big presses will always need to seek out new, good books.
KJ closed the evening with a passionate plea for both readers and writers to understand the important role of independent bookstores, whose staff actually read and recommend books to customers, and sponsor author events.

On Very Short Stories

I've figured out why I'm very fond of short stories—especially the 300–1500 word range—it's from years of writing short journalistic pieces. Whether in the form of a poem, column, essay, letter to the editor, or terse pay-by-the-word ad content, or blog entry, brevity is often the soul of expression.
So when an article by Sandra Seamans on "flash fiction" at
Bookspot Central came to my attention, I was thrilled to read about its popularity in the mystery genre.
Any short fiction demands succinct delivery, all the more so with short-short fiction. In fact, there's a newish form, the six-word biography (see article in New Yorker). It was reputedly started by Hemingway, who is said to have written the tragic “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Try it out and let me know what you think!