Pru Park is one of my favorite cozy mystery heroines. She's a competent grown woman and an expert in her field. In Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the third Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate, Pru is planning her wedding while working at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburg, trying to authenticate a historical journal. A hostile co-worker, who winds up dead, has Pru concerned that there's something fishy about why she was hired for the position. The historical details of the journal are interesting (what is it about Monkey Puzzle trees that intrigues me so much?) and Pru's disastrous dress fittings are absolutely hilarious. I've never been able to picture fictional dresses quite so well.
Today I'm happy to have author Marty Wingate here with a guest post.
Where Writers Write
I love reading about other writers’ writing lives, their peculiar quirks and their special places – Roald Dahl’s hut with the comfortable chair and tray, Vita Sackville-West’s tower (yes, please give me a tower like Vita’s!). I enjoy learning about how they go about the daily task of writing, as long as I’m not told, “This is how to do it.” Don’t tell me what works for me – I’ll find that out for myself. Some writers may swear by the “zero draft” but it’s not something that suits me. I cannot write without looking back at what I wrote, combing through, editing, creating a more tangible setting, adding details to characters.
I can write one or two new scenes at a time, and I’m exhausted. After a break, I go over this new stuff again and then push forward. If I didn’t look back, I wouldn’t see what clues I had already incorporated – tiny details that I pick out to expand later.
Lacking Vita’s tower or Roald’s hut, I go to the library. Libraries aren’t as quiet as they used to be, have you noticed? But it still makes a difference to me to be away from home. At home, I sit down at the computer and am suddenly overcome with the urge to start a load of wash, check Facebook, or play with the cats. At the library, people may be talking, but they aren’t talking to me, so I can tune them out, and I don’t check Facebook. Hardly ever.
Although I write the major part of a book on my computer, paper and pen are still vitally important to the process. I have a Moleskine notebook – the kind with the elastic strap that keeps it closed. In fact, I have two of them, one for each of my mystery series. If I don’t have one of those at hand and a particular word, phrase, or plot point comes to me, I’ll write on anything I can reach. I’ve even been known to jot a few things down on the church bulletin during the sermon. Sorry, Pastor Carol.
Author LinksThere's a giveaway hosted by Great Escapes Book Tours here.
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- Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Marty-Wingate/e/B001JS1AIS
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