Debut Author Guest Post & Book Giveaway: Murder in the Abstract by Susan Shea
Thoughts by Jennifer (Crazy-for-Books)
Murder in the Abstract
Author: Susan Shea
Publication Date: June 24, 2010 (TODAY!)
Publisher: Avalon Books
Danielle O'Rourke's gala evening at the Devor Museum ends in catastrophe when the body of a young artist plummets from her office window. The police label it murder and suspect Dani, the Museum’s chief fundraiser. Self-preservation and an insider's understanding of how money moves the art world drive her to investigate who might have a motive for murder. Dani's playboy ex-husband and a green-eyed cop complicate matters as her search moves through the fashionable worlds of San Francisco and Santa Fe.
Susan Shea's Guest Post:
Jennifer asked me how I went about writing my debut mystery, from conception to completion. Every author has a somewhat similar story, but with details that tell a lot about the many avenues to success open to writers. If you’re writing a work of fiction – or even considering it – I hope you’ll keep that in mind: every writer gets to set her or his own set of rules. If you’re a reader (bless you!), this is one glimpse behind the curtain.
Here are the rules other, generous authors shared with me and that I adapted and took for myself:
1. Write what you know unless you love, love, love research. I chose to put my protagonist, Danielle O’Rourke in a professional setting I knew: fundraising for a large non-profit organization. She works at the fictional Devor Museum, which bears a passing resemblance to two of San Francisco’s real museums of art and antiquities. (I worked mostly for universities.) Had I chosen to write a tale of 18th century New England, I would have had tons of work to do before I felt comfortable writing a single word, and I think I would have been nervous about getting something wrong.
2. Write what you love. There’s always a lot of talk about writing what’s selling, but as any agent, editor, or author will tell you, you’re just chasing trends that may shift quickly and leave you stranded. It’s also true that passion, curiosity, and delight show in writing. I wrote about the contemporary art world, which fascinates me, and about the intersecting social circles of people who have considerable wealth and those who want some of that treasure. I hope readers catch my enthusiasm and sense of humor about those dynamics.
3. Write every day – almost. Waiting for lightning to strike, as those of us on the LadyKillers blog are discussing right now, is a tricky and frustrating way to approach the craft. There’s no substitute for what someone else called “butt in chair” every day, or at least on a frequent, regular, no-excuses schedule. I did what you’re never supposed to do – quit my day job – because I found I wasn’t able to develop a strong writing habit, given the demands of my job (which were a lot like Dani O’Rourke’s.) Finished the draft in five months.
4. Finish. It’s related to #3 but not quite the same thing. A successful author of a long-running series once told me, as I was complaining about my slow progress, to “just finish the book, Susan. Pretend there’s no back button on your keyboard.” What she meant was that we often spend too much time trying to perfect the first several chapters - rewriting, polishing, yada, yada – not realizing that our agent or editor may say, “Love the book, but the action that grabbed me starts in chapter four, so drop the first chapters.” The single most important thing you can do as a writer is finish the book! Plenty of time for tweaking later.
5. Celebrate. Seventy-five thousand words. First draft or last. Finding an agent. Selling the book. Seeing it in print. I’d been told many times by fellow members of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime that this is as important as any rule related to being a writer. Wow- 75,000 words, a whole book! Break out the chocolate chip cookies! Finding the agent of my dreams – meet family for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant! And today, on the official launch date for MURDER IN THE ABSTRACT, I’ve invited dozens of dear friends, family, and fellow crime authors to join me in a dance of victory at an art gallery/watering hole downtown because it’s good for the soul and because next week, I’m right back at the keyboard, polishing the second book in the series and I’ll need all the happy memories I can muster to make it through revisions.
Thank you, Jennifer, for letting me celebrate this day with you and your readers!
About the Author (from her website):
Susan C. Shea spent more than 25 years as an executive in the non-profit world. She worked with universities, arts and science organizations, and other charitable groups, helping them connect with donors. During those years, she directed award-winning communication, public relations, fundraising, and marketing programs and was an active member of the professional organizations that serve the advancement community. Today, she lives and writes in Marin County, California, where she is on the board of the northern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America and is a member of Sisters in Crime.
*** Please visit Jennifer's Crazy Book blog(http://www.crazy-for-books.com/)... for information on how to enter!***
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