A Great Mystery Series: Whitechapel

Last night, I watched a series called Whitechapel. It was brilliant. Being a mystery writer, an avid fan of serial killers, and of course, Jack the Ripper, I loved he three part series. I haven't read much on the conspiracy theories of the identity of JTR but, I think this show delves into most. One of my favorite characters, besides the quirky DI Chandler played by Rupert Penny Jones, was that of Edward Buchan played by Steve Pemberton. Buchan was a Ripperologist who helped the detectives with events that happened 120 years in the past. Great movie.

You can watch the movie on youtube.com here.

SLEEPING WITH SKELETONS

I have a few things to blog today. First, I have to make a shout out about a great book I read. It's called 'Sleeping with Skeletons.' Full of what I love: spys, intrigue, action, and love. Right now, the author is blogging about the book. She really knows her craft. Get over there and read it.

The site: here

Punctuation I Hate -- the ugly semicolon.

I review many writer's manuscripts and the one thing I hate to see most: semicolons. Personally, I think they're ugly. I see a comma or a period, my eyes flow over them nicely, but I see the ';' and I want to vomit. Maybe it's just me. Yeah, probably just me. My eye doesn't flow nicely over it. It's like a repeated slap in the face.

I am going home;(slap) I intend to stay there.

It rained heavily during the afternoon;(slap) we managed to have our picnic anyway.

 

So what can be done? Because frankly, my cheek is starting to hurt. I like what this man has to say: "Any separation of independent clauses in fiction I feel is better crafted with two well written sentences rather than a singular crammed one." (Source here) 

 

 

So for my face's sake, let's just make better sentences, shall we?

The Yuri Code

In my second book, I have a code that a man named Yuri made for my character Sophia to crack. He gave her objects that will lead her to a book. See if you can crack the code from the objects below. Feel free to ask questions or tell your answer in the comments.

You need to figure out the title of a popular book from these photos and the publisher. If you have the title, you will know the author. The pictures are in no particular order.

Here is the excerpt from my book:

With the cup of coffee settled within sniffing distance, she opened the bag and took out the items she retrieved from the forest. A bible? She unwrapped the plastic from the black soft-bound book and flipped through it. What is this supposed to mean?

Everything with Yuri had to be complicated. The informant was old school: no emails, never meeting in person, everything was a code -- a secret. He would never give her the answer; she had to figure out the key first. Based on her previous communications, she knew the answer she looked for would be in a book. She flipped to the marker in the bible; it opened to the book of Psalms, first chapter. What did the book of verse mean? Was she looking for a specific scripture?

She put the book down and picked up the penny. A plain, copper penny put forward many options. Crowned portcullis with chains and the head of the Queen? Did the penny symbolize the number one or money in general? More questions than answers at this point.

Laying out the rest of the items, she picked up the pictures. An old car and a ship – that would take research.

ann elle altman

 

 

 

How do you format a manuscript?

Source: here

Novel:

• Page Information
   
  • Margins -- 1.5 inches all the way around
     
  • Font -- Courier, Courier New, or other clean monospace serif font from 10-12 pt. (I use 12 pt. Dark Courier.)
     
  • Line spacing -- Double-space
     
  • Paragraph indent -- first line, 5 pt.
     
  • Header -- right justified, contains the following information:
    
    Last name/ TITLE/ page#
    
    A header does not belong on the cover page. Start headers on page one of the actual manuscript.
     
• Cover page -- depends on whether you're agented or not.
   
  • Unagented:
     
    • Contact information -- Name and address, phone number and e-mail address in the top left corner of the page, single spaced, left-justified
    • Title -- centered, just above the middle of the page
    • by -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the title
    • Name or pen name -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the word by
    • Word count -- centered and rounded to the nearest thousand, one double-spaced line beneath your name or pen name
       
  • Agented:
     
    • Title -- centered, just above the middle of the page
    • by -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the title
    • Name or pen name -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the word by
    • Word count -- centered and rounded to the nearest thousand, one double-spaced line beneath your name or pen name
    • Agent's contact information -- Name, business name, mailing address, phone number (e-mail address if you have the agent's okay first), left justified, single spaced, bottom of the page
       
• First page
   
  • Header -- should be in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and page number should be 1.
     
  • Chapter header -- can be anywhere from one to six double-spaced lines down from the top of the page, and can be centered or left justified. You can title your chapters, or just write Chapter One or Chapter 1.
     
  • Body text -- drop down two double-spaced lines to begin your story.
     
  • Scene breaks -- drop down two double-spaced lines, insert and center the # character, drop down two more double-spaced lines, and begin your new scene.
     
  • Subsequent chapters -- start each chapter on a fresh page. Keep chapter formatting and titling consistent with your first chapter.
    

Short work

• Page Information
   
  • Margins -- 1.5 inches all the way around
     
  • Font -- Courier, Courier New, or other clean monospace serif font from 10-12 pt. (I use 12 pt. Dark Courier.)
     
  • Line spacing -- Double-space
     
  • Paragraph indent -- first line, 5 pt.
     
  • Header -- right justified, contains the following information:
    
    Last name/ TITLE/ page#
    
    A header does not belong on the title page. Start headers on page two of the actual manuscript. First labeled page number should be 2.
     
• Cover page
   
  • Do not use a cover page with short work, either fiction or non-fiction
     
• First page
   
  • Contact information -- Name and address, phone number and e-mail address in the top left corner of the page, single spaced, left-justified
    
    
  • Word count -- top line, right justified (you'll have to do this with a table if you're working with a word processor), either exact count, or rounded to the nearest ten
     
  • Title -- drop down four double-spaced lines, centered
     
  • by -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the title
     
  • Name or pen name -- centered and one double-spaced line beneath the word by
     
  • Body of the story or article -- drop down two lines and begin.
     
  • Scene or section breaks -- drop down two double-spaced lines, insert and center the # character, drop down two more double-spaced lines, and begin your new scene.
     
• Second and subsequent pages
   
  • Header -- should be in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and page number should be 2.
     
  • Body text -- begins on the first line, doublespaced throughout.

Characters that we love...

I'm in the middle of editing my second book. A book I think is absolutely fabulous -- I think it's wrong to love your own writing this much -- and I'm afraid that eventually, I will be brought back down to earth. Ah, well, I write because I have to. If I didn't, I would go crazy. My characters want me to tell their story. So what option do I have.

Now, about characters...what can I say about characters? I think this: You know your characters are real and you know them well if they manage to surprise you every once in awhile. I love writing a chapter, and in my mind I know exactly where it's going, and then bam! my character pulls a stunt. Although I'm the writer and I could just push the delete button on their actions, I know I can't. Because I know that's exactly what they would do in that situation.

I just have to change the plot to match the characters.

That, in my opinion, is how I know I know my characters really well.