Mathiya Adams

The Hotdog Detective Mysteries

Best laid plans…

by Leave a Comment

My intention was to spend all this month working on my twenty-first novel, The Unselfish Uncle. I even signed up for NaNoWriMo to help push me to finish the novel quickly.

Alas, my editor, bless her evil soul, informed me that my website (this website) was in terrible shape. “You’re links are not up to date. You don’t have all your books listed. How do you expect to sell any books if you haven’t done the basics, Mattie?”

She threw in a few other comments, all of which shamed me into putting aside Unselfish Uncle for a couple of days and turning my attention to this website. So I started checking the links, the pages, whatever is here, and discovered that she was right. The site was not in good shape. It needed a lot of work.

That’s the problem with websites. They don’t take care of themselves. They are like infants, in that respect. They’re cute sometimes, but at other times they need to be cleaned up and made adorable again. So, for the past three days, that’s what I’ve been doing.

I’m sure if I was a professional web designer, it would have taken me a lot less time. But I sort of have to re-learn how to use the site each time I and told to fix it up. The learning process is good, but I regret the time lost (or invested, if I’m going to be a glass half full kind of girl). But, most of the site is up to date at this point.

However, I discovered that my latest books are not uploaded to several distribution channels. I’ve got to invest (spend, since I’m also a glass half empty kind of girl) some time in uploading my books to these channels.

But I also have to get back to writing Unselfish Uncle. I’m not sure if I can make up the lost word production for the past three days or so, but I will try.

Post Election

by 2 Comments

Thankfully, I got through Election Day. Unfortunately, I ruined my diet, half the people I voted for didn’t win (I’m a “half empty type of girl), and I under-performed in meeting my writing goals. But now, with all that behind me, I have some very clear goals:

  • Get back on my diet
  • Stop watching cable news
  • Learn to appreciate that some of my choices did actually win
  • And get back into writing my twenty-first novel, The Unselfish Uncle

I also have a specific goal for today. I need to write three scenes instead of one or two. While it’s only 3000 words, writing three scenes requires that I have all the plotting, subplotting, and background plotting done for those chapters. Since I am introducing some new characters in the story (they’ve been mentioned before, but now MacFarland gets to interview them), I have to understand a fair amount of detail about the character, even if the character ultimately tells MacFarland, “I didn’t see anything.”

But that’s the joy of writing. You get to play around with all these characters, making them dance to your tune. Well, most of the time. I often discover that characters in my story have minds of their own and frequently take my story in directions I didn’t fully expect.

So, time to get back to work. And not worry about elections for another two years.

Back to Work

by Leave a Comment

Now that the World Series is behind us (congrats to the Boston Red Sox – I didn’t root for you, but you’re a great team!), I can get back to work.

Yesterday, I was chatting with one of my readers who asked me what comes after the Hot Dog Detective series. Although I plan on a total of twenty-seven books in the HDD, I have given some thought to two other series I’d like to write.

The first series is an off-shoot of the Hot Dog Detective. This series will focus on Mark MacFarland’s brother, Robert, and his adventures before he met Jacqueline Lacey. Robert is a bit of a scoundrel, but he is also a matchmaker, so many of the stories will involve him getting into trouble, all the while trying to bring two people together. Needless to say, sometimes Robert himself is the reason one or both parties strayed from their true love.

The stories about Robert MacFarland will not be murder mysteries, but they will have elements of mystery in them. Part of the story will be Robert solving that mystery to achieve his goals.

The second series will be a murder mystery series, focusing on a grandmother named Sally O’Brien who is suddenly responsible for the care of her granddaughter when Sally’s daughter and husband are killed in Indonesia. Sally’s had some problems in her life. Her beloved husband was killed in a hit-and-run car accident; then her best friend dies when she falls down a flight of stairs. Sally falls into a deep depression, and nothing can seem to pull her out of it.

Then Sally discovers that she has a two-year old to take care of. It’s not something she wanted, but who can resist the charms of a two-year old? Sally’s life gets even more complicated when she is caught up in a murder investigation. Fortunately, Sally does not have to solve the mystery alone. Her best friend, who fell down the stairs, is now Sally’s guardian angel–or is she a ghost?–who offers somewhat dubious help to Sally.

The Sally O’Brien mysteries will include twelve stories, one for each month. As Sally solves the murders, she comes closer to her granddaughter and overcomes her grief and depression.

But before I can write those series of stories, I have to finish the last six books of the Hot Dog Detective series. Time to get back to work!

The World Series

by Leave a Comment

I am an avid Rockies fan. As well as an avid Nuggets fan and Broncos fan. I even like the Avalanche. I suppose my choices in favorite teams is biased by some geographic biases, but I resist that accusation.

I am also a believer that a team’s general ranking should be determined by competition. So when one team beats another, I will admit that the winning team is better.

But for two years in a row, the Rockies have been eliminated by a one game playoff. They lost both times, most recently to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

So…the Dodgers are a better team.

Really?

Then what is going on in the World Series? The Despondent Dodgers are losing!

I knew all along that my beloved Rockies should have been playing in the World Series. They would have whipped the Boston Red Sox’s butts, I am sure of it!

Unfortunately, we will never know just how correct I am. And I cannot joyfully pretend that things are right in the universe. So, until the World Series is over, I won’t be blogging. I will be crying and pulling my hair out every time the Dodgers miss opportunities, make mistakes, and convince me that there should never be one-game playoffs…there needs to be two out of three, at least.

Finding Story Ideas

by Leave a Comment

I have been asked where I get my ideas for my murder mysteries. The answer is never easy, since there are multiple sources for ideas. Most of the ideas come from my own imagination, where I contemplate how I would get rid of this person or that person, and what conditions would make this action seem like a plausible course for me to follow. Not that I ever would, of course. I may be murderous on paper (or screen), but I am unlikely to ever carry out my fantasies.

Most crimes come out of situations where some of the main motivators of human behavior come into play. Everyone knows these motivators: protecting yourself, protecting your family, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, fear. There are some motivators that I am less familiar with: political rage, religious zealotry, social outrage. And there are some motivators that I won’t admit to being familiar with: paranoia, psychopathy, delusional rage.

Yet all of these are possible reasons for murder in my stories.

And that’s what make writing mysteries interesting. I get to go into the minds of characters who have these motivations and try to make them real and believable.

As for the murders in my stories, they all come from the challenge I’ve given myself: to write a murder for each letter of the alphabet. I come up with the title of the story, then try to find the motivator that would fit that scenario. Here is an example.

When I first planned the series, one of the last books in the series was ZZ. At first I was going to call the story The Zealous Zookeeper. My challenge was to find a situation in which a zookeeper would be involved in a murder. My earliest ideas focused on someone who so loved their collection of big cats that they killed and ground up occasional visitors to the zoo to provide food for his beloved cats.

Needless to say, I discarded this idea. But that was when the price of beef was a lot lower…

 

Plotting a New Story – Part 3

by Leave a Comment

In the previous post, I described how I use Post-Its to work out the details of the plot, focusing on what MacFarland is doing, what others are doing, and key events that might affect the plot. The number of details I include in this phase varies from book to book, but some general guidelines apply. Since the Hot Dog Detective Series typically has 70 chapters plus a Prologue and an Epilogue, I will have a minimum of seventy two Post-Its. I also have to have an average of another 70 Post-Its that follow the police, the antagonist, and others in the story. Sometimes it is more important to know what these secondary characters are doing, since mistakes or omissions in their plot structure can ruin my story. The last thing I want to do is have a story with a broken plot outline.

I do admit that I often overlook some things that go on during a crime investigation. For example, I don’t always show the role that the press and media play in an investigation. If I were writing a more realistic crime novel, I don’t think I could get away with this omission.

Nor do I include all the activities of the police department. For the sake of simplicity, I often focus on only a few of the individuals involved in solving a crime, whereas reality would recognize that there are literally dozens and dozens of people involved in even a simple homicide. Nor do I describe the complex interactions of many different jurisdictions and policing entities that often get involved in solving a crime.

I am writing a story that is designed to entertain, not describe in extreme detail the procedures of a police investigation.

But…getting back to plotting the story. I take the Post-Its and now determine which of these are scenes that will be included in the story. Since my stories are from MacFarland’s perspective, I only include Post-Its that describe what is happening to MacFarland. I now determine the time of day these events occur and put them into the Blake Snyder outline that I use. A copy of a portion of this outline is shown below.

The Blake Snyder plot structure includes the following seven beats:

  1. Setup
  2. Turning Point 1
  3. Act II Part 1 and Pinch Point 1
  4. Midpoint
  5. Act II Part 2 and Pinch Point 2
  6. Turning Point 2
  7. Act III

Setup – The Setup beat includes three components: the Opening Image (in which I put the Prologue of the story), Theme Stated, and Set-up. In the Theme Stated beat, I try to describe the general emotional and developmental issues that MacFarland is facing. In the Set-up beat, I lay out the basic murder conflict issues that MacFarland must deal with.

Turning Point 1 – The first Turning Point includes two sections: the Catalyst and the Debate. In the Catalyst, I have scenes that show how MacFarland gets incentivized to solve the mystery; in the Debate section, I try to have scenes that bring up some of the competing issues in solving the case. In this section, I often introduce other potential suspects, reasons to doubt the original assumptions MacFarland has made, and potential competing interests other characters might have in solving the crime.

Act II Part 1 and Pinch Point 1 – This portion of the Blake Snyder beat structure includes three sub-sections. Act II, in which there is a dramatic shift in the plot. The investigation becomes more serious for MacFarland or the forces arrayed against him start of emerge.  In the B-Story, MacFarland’s (or someone else’s) emotional attachments come into play, either helping MacFarland pursue his investigation or set up a roadblock to his easy resolution of the case. In the Fun and Games section, we get to play with the emotions of the main characters, setting them up for getting closer to each other, or encountering emotional barriers that thwart their “happily ever after” goals.

Midpoint – The Midpoint is just that…getting back to the goal of solving the crime, or  introduction of a false solution or a possible set-back.

Act II Part 2 and Pinch Point 2 – This section of the Blake Snyder beat structure is all about things getting worse. It consists of three sections: The Bad Guys Close In, All is Lost, and Black Moment. The scenes included in these three beats are all pretty obvious. The early successes MacFarland has had are thwarted as forces are arrayed against him.

Turning Point 2 – In the second Turning Point, the issues and individuals identified in the B-story combine with the main story to hint at a possible solution. This collection of scenes often represents the inflection point in the story.

Act III – Act III has two major beats: the Finale, in which MacFarland finally confronts the killer and solves the mystery; and the Final Image, in which all of the loose threads of the story are resolved. This section also includes the Epilogue, which is a fore-shadowing of what is happening in the next portion of the over-arching trilogy story.

I try to have five scenes for every beat or sub-beat of the Blake Snyder outline. Each scene will average 1,000 words, which makes the scene short enough for the average reader to race through.

Some authors will find my approach to writing a mystery story as too mechanistic. I am sure that there are other approaches that work just as well for others as this does for me. But with this approach, I am able to write a novel every 45 to 60 days.

Are they great novels? I don’t know. That’s for my readers to decide. Are they fun to read? Again, you have to ask fans of the Hot Dog Detective series.

For me, the most important question is, are they fun to write? My answer to that question is unequivocally, yes, they are! And that’s what keeps me going.