I’m happy to welcome author Laurel Peterson to this blog. Today, Laurel discusses writing advice and introduces her latest release, Shadow Notes.
Here’s Laurel!
First, thanks, Joanne, for having me on your blog. Writing these kinds of lists is fun and makes me think about what really matters in terms of giving and getting good advice. Ok… here we go:
1. Write what you know: Two of my colleagues from grad school commented on this one: Dustin Lesperance said, “I’ve found learning new things motivates me to write more. I’m already bored with what I know… That’s why I’m writing in the first place.” Tiffany Ferentini said, “I just feel I don’t really know anything… what I know doesn’t warrant being written about. I find it much more entertaining and fun to write about what I don’t know.”
Although we are all always writing what we know at some level, I agree that it’s the exploration of new ideas, places, points of view that challenge me to push beyond who and where I am right now into new insights.
2. Write every day: Unless writing is your job or you are independently wealthy, it is very difficult for most people to fit writing into every day. The end result of this piece of advice is guilt for those who only manage to get a couple of hours in on a weekend. I find Julia Cameron’s advice (The Artist’s Way) to be far more useful: do it when you can. If you only have fifteen minutes, use it. It’s better than not doing anything. If you do fifteen minutes whenever you can, you will still pile up pages, which is the goal. If you do nothing, there’s no pile!
3. Write less about the domestic. This one came from a grad school professor. Can we talk about how many great novels are about domestic topics? Since when does writing about what’s outside the home count more than writing about what’s inside the home? Even though this was said to me by a woman, I still think this is a piece of advice that originates in patriarchy. Otherwise, all topics would be of equal value, right?
4. Make all your chapters the same length. Because?
5. Listen to me; I’m your professor. Ok, I’m a professor and I occasionally say things like this. However, each of us owns our own writing. We know what our intention is and only we can do the necessary work to achieve that intention. Sometimes, we’re not sure where we’re headed, or things appear in our work that we didn’t expect. Then, other eyes and brains can help us sort it out. But it’s a good idea to never, ever give over control of one’s work to anyone else.
6. Let me take you to lunch, and I’ll tell you how to get published. Beware the come-on.
7. Stop writing. You’re not good enough. Maybe you are and maybe you aren’t. Maybe you’re not right now. Maybe the person giving this advice isn’t your audience. I did a mentor program once with Mystery Writers of America, and the (well-intentioned) mentor commented on my grammar. I teach writing for a living. Grammar isn’t my problem. I did have, however, other problems I could have used help with. So just keep writing. No one gets to control what you do but you.
8. Don’t waste creative energy talking to others about your writing. Another grad school colleague, Donna Miele said about this one: “No, don’t spew to people who don’t care and are really just asking to be polite; or who just want to take you down for your aspirations. But keeping your ideas sacred and secret from other good writers? For me, that just stems from the fear that my ideas are no good. When I can form an idea well enough to express it as a pitch, that’s often my first step toward actually knowing what I’m writing about.” I think the source of this advice is that sometimes we use all our skills telling the story verbally, so that we don’t need to write it down any more.
9. Write for yourself, and don’t worry about audience. Yes, we write for ourselves, but writing is fundamentally an act of communication. Do we really want to talk only to ourselves? I don’t. Writing is very intimate, and sometimes it’s too scary or painful to share something. That’s OK. We don’t have to share every single thing we write. But writing is about voice, so let that voice have its full range.
10. Artists (and writers are artists) who are commercially successful (or write romance or mystery or science fiction) have sold out, and aren’t real artists any more. Don’t sell out; keep your art pure. Writers need to eat. It is not selling out to write so you and your family can eat. The romantic notion of a garret and a candle went out with consumption. If you continue to work at it, you will get good enough (if you aren’t already) to sell your work. Whether you sell enough to eat is another story, and so far, it’s not mine. But I write mystery fiction, and I would argue writing anything well takes guts, courage and perseverance, including that which is commercially successful.
The best writing advice I know is butt in chair, with plenty of rewards (chocolate, tea, massage, yoga, whatever you love). The more I focus on do rather than don’t, the more writing I get done. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever gotten? How about the best? I’d love to hear from you, and thanks for stopping by.
Blurb
Clara Montague didn’t want to go home to Connecticut for Christmas. Her mother Constance never seemed to like her—or her intuitive dreams about the people she loved. Clara tried to warn her mother that her father was about to have a heart attack, but Constance wouldn’t listen—and her father died.
Now living in Europe, Clara dreams her mother is in terrible danger, and can’t ignore it. Shortly after she returns, her mother’s therapist (and former lover) Hugh Woodward is murdered—and Constance is jailed for the crime.
Since Constance won’t talk to her about the case, Clara decides to investigate by cozying up to her mother’s former best friend, wealthy socialite Mary Ellen Winters. Mary Ellen insinuates that Constance has many sordid secrets to hide—and Hugh is just the tip of the iceberg.
Frantically seeking clues to her mother’s hidden past, Clara uncovers the file of “shadow notes” that Hugh maintained to document his sessions with her mother, but they are snatched from her hands before she can read them.
As Clara gets closer to the truth about Hugh’s murder and its connection to her mother’s past, threats against her own life escalate. Can Clara’s intuition help her peel back years of high-stakes secrets to identify the real murderer?
Bio
Laurel S. Peterson is the author of Shadow Notes for Barking Rain Press. Before Laurel Peterson became an English professor, she sold housewares, catered, managed advertising accounts, and worked as a tree company secretary. Her writing career has included a column on local history, serving as the editor of the literary journal, Inkwell, and two poetry chapbooks, That’s the Way the Music Sounds and Talking to the Mirror. She co-edited a collection of essays on women’s justice titled (Re)Interpretations: The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Experience. She and her husband live in Connecticut and Vermont.
Where to find Laurel…
Website | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Amazon | Barking Rain Press
1. Souls Entwined Book One of The Souls Trilogy was first titled Maledicta, the Latin word for Cursed. It was initially written in notebooks while I watched my three kids swim at practices and meets. Here are the original notebooks I took to the pool and penned the story in.
3. Souls Endure combines time travel from the first book, suspenseful action from the second book, and concludes the trilogy with a taste of Greek Mythology. Gods, goddesses, and monsters were carefully researched and crafted into the story. Sam faces many Greek monsters during trials to prove himself worthy. My favorite monster he encounters is Manticore. I studied this image when I wrote the Manticore scenes.
5. The inspiration behind the Trilogy is a red garnet ring my grandmother gave me.
‘Without faith, love may not exist. Without love, evil takes control.’
Anne loves to read all kinds of books so she decided to write a time traveling adventure with supernatural spirits, pirates, and a touch of sweet romance. All this and more are combined in her novels to attract teens through octogenarians. Anne lives in Indiana with her husband and three teenage children and teaches two classes of preschoolers. Her hobbies include running so she can indulge in constant cravings for ice cream, donuts, and chocolate chip cookie dough.
Once I have the initial spark of an idea, I let it percolate for several days, sometimes longer, until the right words come to mind. Those two to six words often come with no warning and provide the starting signal for a marathon of sixty to eighty thousand words. Even though it may undergo several incarnations, that working title motivates me to complete the manuscript.
These are some of my favorite books, some classics, some contemporary. They’re in no particular order.
Los Angeles homeboy Magdaleno is paroled from prison after serving time on a gun possession frameup by a rival, Rico, who takes over as gang shotcaller in Mags’s absence. Mags promises himself and his Salvadoran immigrant family a fresh start, but he can’t find either the decent job or the respect he craves from his parents and his firefighter brother, who look at him as a disappointment. Moreover, Rico, under pressure to earn money to free the Cyco Lokos’ jailed top leader and eager to exert his authority over his rival-turned-underling, isn’t about to let Mags get out of his reach. Ultimately, Mags’s desire for revenge and respect pushes him to make a decision that ensnares him in a world seeded with deceit and betrayal, where the only escape from rules that carry a heavy price for transgression is sacrifice of everything – and everyone – he loves.
The summer before senior year, Chloe starts an internship as a reporter at a local newspaper. While on assignment, she meets Kieran, a quirky aspiring actor. Chloe becomes smitten with Kieran’s charisma and his ability to soothe her soul, torn over her parents’ impending divorce. But as their bond deepens, Kieran becomes smothering and flies into terrifying rages. He confides in Chloe that he suffered a traumatic childhood, and Chloe is moved to help him. If only he could be healed, she thinks, their relationship would be perfect. But her efforts backfire, and Kieran turns violent. Chloe breaks up with him, but Kieran pursues her relentlessly to make up. Chloe must make the heartrending choice between saving herself or saving Kieran, until Kieran’s mission of remorse turns into a quest for revenge.
When a group of companies decided to establish Information Overload Awareness Day, their primary objective was to remind employees (and the general public) that there is simply too much information out there. Unchecked, this “infobesity” can have a negative impact on overall productivity and happiness.
1. Schedule blocks of time for email, doing research, completing work-related tasks, and simply browsing. Do not simply jump on anytime you feel like it. If necessary, disconnect from the internet if you need to focus on a particular task. In his book, The Power of Less, 
7. My youngest son was given a pair of jockey goggles at the Saratoga Race Course by notable jockey Samuel Camacho, Jr., who was kind enough to autograph them. My son treasures this gift.
Where to find Stacy…
Yesterday, I joined over thirty local authors, poets, publishers, and literary organizations for this year’s Book Bash Festival at the 
Host Anna Bowen and singer/musician Madison Gallway for an entertaining afternoon.
Have you ever been alone with your thoughts and realized you had a purpose beyond your past or the future others believed was in your cards? Well, I became aware at an early age that my future was more than I understood at the time. In my heart, I realized that my life would change when I became an adult; that it would change from the limited vision of my youthful experience. I planned for a better life from that point forward. I knew at an early age that I would someday express my thoughts and stories through the written word. I wanted to be an author from that time.
10. BLOOD SIMPLE (Joel & Ethan Coen) – The debut film of the Coen brothers who developed the story from Dashiel Hammett’s phrase “blood simple” meaning crazed by violence.
9. LADY FROM SHANGHAI (Orson Welles) – Orson Welles ran out of money trying to stage a musical version of Around the World in 80 Days. He allegedly pitched The Lady from Shanghai to Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn while looking at the cover of a pulp novel he’d never read. It’s a “who’s gonna kill who” thriller with adult dialogue sparked with sharp-edged barbs.
8. SORRY WRONG NUMBER (Anton Litvak) – A spoiled, bed-ridden heiress overhears a murder plot on her telephone. Through a series of phone conversations with strangers and her unhappy husband, she realizes the thugs are about to murder her.
7. MILDRED PIERCE (Michael Curtiz) – Based on the novel by master noir writer, James M. Cain. The film depicts the rise and fall of businesswoman, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford).
6. VERTIGO (Alfred Hitchcock) – A masterpiece mystery thriller that shows how a grippingly profound story can be created with a minimum of characters. The film explores the destructive power of self-delusion and mental illness at a visceral level.
5. THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed) A thriller filmed on location in the rubble of post-WWII Vienna. It goes beyond genre in examining business corruption, betrayal and the tragedy of misplaced loyalty.
4. FARGO (Joel & Ethan Coen) A police thriller where the misery of a North Dakota winter and the mundanity of Midwest culture work as well as the mean streets of noir.
3. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (John Huston) The heist film that spawned the caper sub-genre. Classic noir: tough criminal characters, mean streets, desperate motivations, greed and corruption.
2. TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson Welles) Tough choice between my top two favs: they’re really a tie.
1. SUNSET BOULEVARD (Billy Wilder) Not just my favorite film noir, but one of my all-time favs period. In the story, a broke screen writer, Joe Gillis (William Holden) is trying escape the repo men. He hides out on the grounds of a mysterious Hollywood mansion inhabited by a forgotten star of the silent movies, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Determined to make a comeback, Norma hires Gillis to rewrite her awful screenplay. Gillis figures it’s easy money, so he agrees, but gradually he becomes Norma’s boy-toy. When he decides to escape, well, guess what happens.
GLOW GRASS and OTHER TALES – COMING FALL, 2016
WINDIGO FIRE – SERAPHIM EDITIONS, SEPTEMBER 2014
M. H. Callway is a writer to watch – Margaret Cannon, Crime Fiction Reviewer, The Globe and Mail
Joanne Guidoccio 