Motown Mysteries: The Eighth Issue

A blink of the eye and it’s time for the eighth issue of my newsletter. October brings the change in weather, the end or beginning of daylight savings time (depending on your location) and the appearance ghosts, goblins, witches and horror. Not to mention Halloween. So let’s catch up with a little writing, an update on latest efforts and the interview with a true lady of horror.

Writing

Characters drive the story. I can’t think of a single book or movie that doesn’t involve characters. They are essential to drawing the readers or audience in. Recently I picked up a mystery that had been recommended by a friend. Twenty pages in, I had to toss it aside. The book failed to keep me interested. The characters were bland, boring and without anything that made me care about what happened to them. Worst of all, I couldn’t find anything that separated them, nothing that made them stand out even from each other.

As a writer, my role is to tell you an engaging story. Develop characters you can relate to. Someone you may like or despise. Perhaps some of their traits remind you of yourself or someone you know. Or someone you’d like to know. Maybe you want to sit down and have a drink with them. You might want to smack them up the back of the head for their stupidity or faults. But I want you to react. If my characters are indifferent, you’re gonna get bored. Then you might use the book as a projectile or a doorstop. That’s not what I want.

Here’s a reaction from Joanna, a loyal reader.

Development of the characters is what draws me into a Mark Love novel. Whether it’s a novel , a movie or a TV show, if I don’t like the characters I stop reading/ watching. Great job Mark!

That note gives me the incentive to keep working on the characters, to help them grow. Because I don’t want the readers to stop until they finish the story. And hopefully, they’ll be reaching for the next one.

Work In Progress

Last month I mentioned my efforts for promotion. I ended up being interviewed on The Writer’s Podcast out of Australia and Impact Radio from Detroit. I was also interviewed on author Andrea Hintz’s blog. Links to all three are below. A special note of thanks to Melanie, Paul and Andrea for the opportunity to visit with each of you.

The two podcasts focused primarily on the Inkspell Anthology “Magic & Mischief” and the novella “Don’t Mess With the Gods” that I co-wrote with Elle Nina Castle. Since the collection of nine paranormal stories ties in so well with Shocktober, Melissa at Inkspell decided to put it on sale for just 99 cents through November.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BKD7B5H

The Writer’s Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/999724/5617309

Dr. Paul’s Family Talk:

https://pod.co/impact-radio-usa/author-mark-love-10-9-20

Author Andrea Hintz:

https://andreahintz.wixsite.com/andreahintz/post/interview-with-mark-love-author

Author Interview

This month it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Peggy Christie, another talented Michigan author. We've crossed paths at several author events over the years and the conversations are always memorable.

Where are you from?

I was born in Pontiac, MI, and grew up in Troy. I still live in Michigan but in a much smaller town than either of those!

What’s your ‘someday’ or dream vacation spot and why?

I would love to see South Korea/Japan/Transylvania. I’ve been obsessed with Asian culture and movies for a long time, Korean Dramas being a particular passion. And I actually have a friend who knows someone in Romania – where they have tours of Dracula’s Castle. And if you keep reading this interview, you’ll know why THAT is on my bucket list.

What’s your favorite thing to do for relaxation?

Vegging out on the couch, watching horror movies, and eating snacks!

Any favorite hobbies?

I’ve recently learned how to crochet, so that’s something I’d like to keep improving on (two scarves and snood so far). I also like to craft stuff – paint, foam, clay. I’m working on a costume right now that is super fun and, hopefully, terrifying.

How long have you been writing?

For about 20 years. I got a late start.

Are you able to write full time or do you also have a job/career?

I am lucky enough to be able to stay home and write.

Is there a particular genre that you write? Or more than one? What led you to there?

Horror, horror, dark fiction, and horror. Pretty much everything I write is horror and dark fiction; sometimes there’s a little fantasy thrown in. I’ve been a horror junkie since I was a kid.

Do you use friends or family as characters in your work?

They ARE the best source of inspiration.

What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult?

I hate to say this, as an author, but I was never a big reader as a kid. I didn’t really get into reading until after I started college (don’t ask how I got through high school lit classes). But once I started, Dean Koontz was one of the first ones I fell in love with (Stephen King is almost required as a horror author). But later I discovered Bentley Little and his twisted mind. So Koontz and Little have had the biggest influence on me.

Has anyone in your life influenced you or encouraged you to pursue your interests of writing? (teacher, family member, friend)

Not really. There were no writers in my family; I liked creative writing in 6^th grade but my teacher said I wasn’t allowed to write the stuff I wanted to write; my best friend was always a great writer (not horror, but for any school paper she always hit it out of the park) so I think partly, wanting to be like her may have had an influence.

What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite?

I love when a story starts to come together. Even if it’s just once particular scene, once I sit down and get into the flow of writing, I never want to stop. Sometimes I can’t stop until I get the story or scene or action out of my head. The least favorite part is editing, despite how important it is. Editing is the bane of my existence.

What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on?

Being able to just sit my butt down and write more often than I do.

Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing? (Food, drink, silence, noise, location, scented candles)

I need quiet. If there’s any music, all I can think of are dance routines; if my dog wants attention, I can’t ignore him; if a movie or tv show is on, I just want to watch it (there was one exception – I marathoned Dirty Jobs one day and cranked out a bunch of drabbles. It was very weird.) I don’t NEED snacks or booze, but they do help fuel the creative juices sometimes.

Is there a common theme or item that appears in each of your work?

I have a lot of humor throughout my writing, probably because it was my family’s coping mechanism through my whole life. I have noticed quite a few stories with mother/daughter relationships – usually bad, but that’s a whole other backstory. I also tend to write a lot of my protagonists as male. Not sure what’s up with that. I think maybe I was a man in a previous life. *shrug*

What have you learned the most from being in the writing business?

Networking, as cringy as that concept can be (as an introvert, I’m awful at it), can help you find markets, publishers, readers, artists, editors, conventions, work - everything a growing writer needs. And with all the good is the bad: the scams, the predators, unprofessional behavior (including other writers), egos, insecurities. But interacting with all those aspects can make you better at selling yourself and your work, in the best way. It helps you learn your worth and how to fight for yourself, I think.

Tell us about your latest work:

I’m actually working on a really cool project now, called The Plague of Man. The Kickstarter for it just ended so the artist, Don England, and I are working on gathering all the tier stuff. But the book is an illustrated novelette about a young boy trying to survive a concentration camp in WW2 by assisting a crazy doctor and his experiments. And while that’s happening, a group of Plague Doctors are watching everything go down.

BLURB

1945, Germany. Young Jakob has done all he could to survive the prison camp, including helping Dr. Sauer in his medical lab. But what he doesn’t know is someone is watching him, waiting. Someone outside the realm of human misery, who watches what the plague of man has done to the world.

How did you decide on your story plot?

We originally had talked about doing a Nazi zombie story with some kind of mutated virus, but once I started researching the Black Death and Plague Doctors, the original idea of a one-shot book turned into what we want to create as a series. Most of the plague doctors from the 14^th century had no medical training. So they were there to simply write down the name and numbers of victims, or to witness wills being written by the dead and dying. So our Plague Doctors (so far) are the watchers of history, and writing down the happenings of the human world.

Describe how this method works best for you. Outline or ‘seat of the pants’?

Seat of the pants. Outlines, for me, are a waste of time because the story I start writing usually ends up changing direction several times through the process. I’ll write down key ideas or characters or scenes I want to include, but nothing so detailed as an outline.

Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written? What makes it special?

Not sure if I have one scene, but I’m proud of anything I write that gives me goosebumps, or makes me laugh or cry out loud. I do have one favorite story I’ve written, because it was based on two guys I used to work for when I was a secretary at an advertising agency years ago. The story is “’Til Death Do Us Part”. You can find that story in my anthology, Dark Doorways, from Dragon’s Roost Press. (available at Amazon: paperback and Kindle)

https://www.amazon.com//dp/0998887870

DARK DOORWAYS

Enter this dark mansion of ghastly delights. Each dark doorway opens to another tale of horror. Some rooms are large banquet halls, others are tiny servant’s quarters. Each contains wondrous, fear inducing words from master scribe Peggy Christie. If you have the courage, take hold of one of the latches, open the door…and enter.

EXCERPT from ‘Til Death Do Us Part:

Mike nodded. “But, Steve, don’t you want this to end sooner rather than later?”

“No. I’m not ready for that yet. I guess I haven’t reached the point where I’d rather be truly dead than live like this. But I’ve always--”

Steve felt his nose split and slide off his face. It plopped onto the table in front of him with a wet smack. He picked it up, and cradled it in his palm. The cells broke down so rapidly that what he used to consider his best feature turned into a small puddle of chunky, black slime in his hand while he watched. He looked up at Mike who tried to cover a smile, and failed.

When Mike began to snicker, Steve ground his teeth in anger, reaching his arm back to throw what was left of his nose at Mike’s face. He skipped that plan when four of his teeth popped loose. He spit them out into the same hand holding the remnants of his nose. Mike stopped laughing, reached over, and plucked one of the loose teeth out of Steve’s hand. He held it up to the light as if inspecting a newly cut diamond.

Placing it back in Steve’s palm, Mike grinned. “Are you sure you’re not ready yet?”

You can learn more about Peggy and her stories at the sites below.

www.themonkeyisin.com

www.facebook.com/authorpeggychristie

www.instagram.com/@PMonkey710

www.twitter.com/@PMonkey

Music

Guitar legend Eric Clapton has been on the rotation lately. Clapton is the only artist to be elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, once as a soloist and as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton is listed second in the Rolling Stone’s list of 100 greatest guitarist of all time.