Welcome to Thoughts on Writing! Here I will share articles about the writing process, fun things about the locations in my books, and my thoughts on my writing journey! Hope you enjoy!

As a mystery writer, today is a favorite day. Author Raymond Chandler was born on this date in 1888. When he began writing mysteries about Los Angeles, he described the city as having “more than its share of misery and murder.” His gritty, dark, and realistic look at the underbelly of a “city full of promise” has inspired many mystery writers, including me.

While Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were influencers of my love of mystery, it was Chandler who spurred me to write. He taught me the art of constructing a mystery, and John D. MacDonald taught the art of creating characters.

A quote from The Big Sleep:

“Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.”

My father was a voracious reader and responsible for my introduction to Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Rex Stout, Edgar Allen Poe, P. D. James, and John D. MacDonald. I was able to return the favor and introduce him to authors Scott Turow, Tony Hillerman, Michael Connelly, and others.

I won’t say that I have never read a bad mystery. I have read a few and most of those ‘bad’ mysteries are those that forgot to follow the authors before them. I read one novel where a detective from the southern United States was heading a northern city detective squad. The caricature of this detective was rooted in every cliche written about southerners and detectives. The story may have been good, but the characters were so stereotyped that the book became impossible to enjoy.

I think the key for any mystery from a ‘cozy’ story to a ‘serial killer’ follows the same path. Graphic details are not what drives a good mystery. What drives a good mystery above all else is a good story, characters that are both believable and allow the reader to embrace their quest, and good writing skills certainly help. Always regardless of genre, be the best writer that you can be, and remember these words from an interview with Raymond Chandler.

“Had my books been any worse I would not have been invited to Hollywood and if they had been any better I would not have come.”

(Interview)

Here’s to Raymond Chandler! His books were always better.

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Images and quotes from Esquire Magazine.
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a6742/raymond-chandler-quotes/

Musings of a Southern Writer’s Journey

Deborah Ratliff

I am an unabashed lover of books.

My journey into the world of words began when I was five years old, and I have never stopped. Granted, at five, the books I read were golden or comic, but I loved each of them. As I grew older, I progressed from Chip’ n Dale and Justice League of America comics to reading Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and The Adventures of Tom Swift. A neighbor, Miss Boozer, a retired librarian, recognized my passion for reading and on my birthday and Christmas, gave me money to buy books, several books. I liked her.

As a young girl in a small Southern town, there was a certain proprietary expectation that we would behave like proper young ladies. Birthday money in my Barbie purse, I walked into the local bookstore with my mother to buy books, Hardy Boys and Tom Swift books. I had a list that I handed to the owner. She read the list with one eyebrow arched and then said to my mother, “I do not think these are appropriate books for a young lady.” My mother—all five-foot-nothing of her—politely responded that I could read whatever books I chose. My legacy was born. About age twelve, I discovered Agatha Christie, Alexandre Dumas, and Arthur C. Clark, cementing my love of science fiction, murder mysteries, and musketeers.

Through the years, I’ve read the classics (loved some, hated others) and followed my passion for murder mysteries and science fiction. I won’t bore you with a litany of favorite authors as we all have our own. I will say that John D. McDonald is among mine. His “Travis McGee” series is rich with well-crafted characters, a gritty, sunny South Florida location, and compelling storylines. My father encouraged me to read McDonald, saying that the author’s insights into human behavior were good lessons for life. He was correct about the life lessons, but I gained more from his books. McDonald’s characters also became a blueprint for how I would write my own.

My desire to write began in elementary school in Aiken, South Carolina. I was one of ‘those’ students who loved writing essays. I found a great deal of satisfaction in researching the topic and then crafting the words. However, when recently trading school stories with a friend, I had an epiphany of the moment that the inspiration to write struck me. My fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Jewel Maxwell, was the epitome of the perfect Southern woman. She was perfectly coiffed, tweed skirt and Peter Pan collared blouse, a sweater draped around her shoulders held on by a sweater connector and had the most genteel demeanor imaginable. She was also a spinner of tales. From Birmingham, Alabama, she would tell us stories of her youth and of gazing out her bedroom window at night, watching the fiery slag pouring over the mountain from the coal smelts. Her description of the dark starry night, the looming shadow of the mountain, and the bright gold of the molten coal spilling over the ledge like a waterfall remains in my imagination. While she spoke of what she saw, I saw it too, and I wanted to be able to tell tales like that.

Although my desire to write never left me, I fulfilled it in other ways after college. As a science major, I wrote a lot of papers and procedures. As my career advanced and took a turn into administration, I wrote more policies and procedure manuals, even a newsletter or two. I continued to read, and then I reached a point when I had time on my hands. A company division closed, and my new job wouldn’t start for at least two months. To fill up my time, I decided to start writing. I will admit that my first foray into fiction was writing fanfiction of my favorite sci-fi show. My rationale was that with canon in place, I could learn how to create a story. For me, it worked, and once I felt confident, I began to add original characters and then left fanfic behind.

I currently serve as an administrator for a writing group on Facebook, and one of the frequent questions asked by members is, “How do I start writing.” The answer is complicated, at best. It starts with reading, for reading provides a broad vocabulary and an understanding of the structure of a story. But I knew when I started that I had to educate myself. Despite taking creative writing classes in high school and college, I realized there remained a lot to learn. Using an Internet search engine, I sought information on every topic and question I could think of to ask. How do I write the first line or the first paragraph? How do I write dialog? How do I structure a story? How do I world build? The list is endless, as the questions are endless. But using the tools at hand allowed me to understand my craft and to write with confidence.

Writing is one of the most satisfying activities I have experienced. I do not plan my stories as I find pleasure in having the story play out in my mind as I type. As British author Terry Pratchett observed, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” To see the characters’ words and the story unfold gives a sense of accomplishment.

All writers travel along a unique path as they ply their craft. My way is solely mine, and the best I can hope for is the reader to enjoy my stories as I enjoyed Mrs. Maxwell’s.

This essay was written for the Writers Journey Blog, a wonderful site run by Elaine Marie Carnegie-Padgett, who provides a platform for writers to share their path to writing. Check out Elaine’s blog here: https://www.authorelainemarie.com/

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Terry Pratchett quote courtesy of https://www.goodreads.com/

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Bio:

Deborah Ratliff is a Southerner with saltwater in her veins and a love of writing. A career in science and human resources provided the opportunity to write policies/procedures and training manuals, articles, and newsletters, but her lifelong love of mystery novels beckoned. Deborah began writing mysteries, and she will publish her first novel, Crescent City Lies, in 2021, with a second novel, One of Those Days, to follow. She has published several short stories in various anthologies. Deborah regularly contributes articles on writing to the blog Writers Unite! and serves as an administrator on the Facebook writing site, Writers Unite!, which has 77,500+ members from around the globe.

www.thecoastalquill.wordpress.com

https://www.facebook.com/thecoastalquill

www.writersuniteweb.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/groups/145324212487752

Passwords and the Two-Step

D. A. Ratliff

Learning lessons is a vital part of life. However, some of those hard lessons are everyday occurrences. Some, unfortunately, are of our own doing, as my latest lesson was my fault!

Like everyone these days, I have too many accounts, Google Gmail, streaming video services, social media sites, writing programs, financial, shopping—the list is endless, and managing those passwords can become cumbersome and frustrating.

Google has a password managing program, and there are others available, but I have had more experience with hackers than I care to say. Leaving my passwords on a site where a hacker can get a whole list of them doesn’t seem prudent. Like a good little writer, I keep a notebook with me that occasionally has writing-related notes but mostly holds the grocery lists and my list of passwords.

Now, my plan of keeping my passwords in one place, with me the majority of the time, seemed to be smart. All I had to do was keep up with any changes I made and copy the list when I got a new notebook. Easy, right? Nothing could go wrong with that plan, could it?

I can tell you are far ahead of me. Let’s say getting in a hurry and never bothering to grab the notebook when you can’t remember the password doesn’t work. I’ll remember the new password. I’ll write it down later. Uh, no.

However, forgetting passwords is not the most egregious thing I have done to myself in the password world. And this is where the password recovery process becomes a nightmare.

It is one thing to forget a password. It is another to have your email program crash and throw you out of every email you have. The personal, the author, and the group emails I had to log back into were not an issue for the most part. Then there was my writing blog.

As we all know, with increasing security necessary, most social media, email programs, etc., require a two-step authentication—a password and the ability to receive a text or email with a code. However, if one of those is not available, then trouble looms.

When I set up my author blog on WordPress, I used a landline number as the emergency contact and the email address associated with the blog. At the time, my cell phone service was spotty due to tower issues, and the cell signal was weak, so I was in the habit of leaving the landline when necessary. Then I forgot.

I remembered when I could not access the text or email that was associated with my blog account. Nor could I recover my email as I had the other ones because I used a landline number no longer in service. Without those elements to prove who I was, WordPress denied access to my blog. All the hard work I had done over the years to build blog followers for my writing, gone.

In my defense, I had changed my Google account phone number, and for some reason, all the emails associated with the account had the new number associated with them. The blog email did not.

Let me warn you. These social media sites do not answer inquiries about this situation. Due to security, if they cannot prove the account belongs to you, the account is unrecoverable. There is no recourse. I tried.

I want to impart some unfortunate words of wisdom. Sad for me but hopefully a reminder for you.

• Keep your passwords secure. If you trust a password management program, use it. If not, keep them written down and in a safe place. Please do not share them with anyone (okay, that’s a given).
• If you are writing them down, do that. It takes a few seconds. Never be in such a hurry that you think you will record a new password later. You likely won’t.
• Keep your phone number used for texts updated. Use a secure email that you always have access to as your emergency email.
• If you have a personal blog, add a person you can trust to an admin position, so if you lose access, you will have someone who can invite you back in.
• Remember: You cannot prevent all hacks, but if possible, use a VPN service and keep your passwords to yourself.

Lesson learned as I am in the process of redoing my blog. After several years, it is a daunting task, but starting over can be a good thing too. If you followed me in the past, then I would love to see you again.

More than anything else, don’t forget your passwords or correct phone number. It’s madness.