Meet Chris Kraemer/C.L. Kraemer/Celia Cooper: Healthy Homicide

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

I guess one could say my mother inspired me to write by inspiring me to read from a VERY early age. At 9, I can recall being excited I was able to check out Agatha Christie's books.

I'd always dabbled in storytelling. I'm the eldest child of a career Marine. My father was NOT an officer so when we were transferred from one side of the country to another, we drove. Spending four to five days in a vehicle traveling through this big country of ours, I began to fantasize about the passing scenery--the beginnings of a writing career. A challenge to myself in 1998 to enter an online contest and, consequently, becoming one of the 25 finalists out of 500 entries, fired the hidden desire to write.
I can't turn the tap off now!


2. How did you come up with your idea for Healthy Homicide?

Funny story that... a friend and coworker in California was trying to increase her energy. She was researching various vitamins and asked me to help. I choose the B-vitamin complexes and was reading how one can die from an overdose of vitamins! At that particular time, I was trying to come up with an inexpensive, thoughtful gift for our supervisor who was retiring after 25 years on the job and figured since the supervisor was a published poetess, she might appreciate the time invested in writing a story. As my friend and I were laughing about dying from an injection of vitamins, my friend popped up with, "Gee, that would be a healthy homicide, wouldn't it?"

Well, anyone who knows writers knows I couldn't pass up that phrase for a book title. The rest of the story happened because I wanted to include members of the staff as characters so every time our former supervisor read the story, she'd be reminded of the people with whom she'd worked. I'd been listening to the radio on my hour drive to work and they'd been promoting the opening of a local day spa and the rest, as they say, is history.


3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

What I bring to my writing is an innate love of the English language and a fair grasp of grammar and punctuation. I've always been good at English and early in my working life wound up writing columns in the newsletters published by whichever business I happened to be working at the time. For quite a while, I put together resumes for friends and the like and quite a few folks got hired on the strength of my work. One gal got hired without a face-to-face interview because of the resume I prepared for her.

I think another expertise I bring to my writing is my knowledge of the country. As a military kid, and lifelong gypsy, I've lived in 14 different states from Alaska to Florida, New York to Hawaii and all points in between. I have fairly good recall which works well when I place a story in a certain location. Toss in a love of research and I have great background to set up the scenes I need.


4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

My husband and I have recently reconnected with his children, and I'm a grandmother of eight! They are, of course, the greatest kids in the world--all wonderfully talented [as are their parents] and beautiful and handsome.

I'm also a member of the Rogue's Angels. I'm Sable Angel.

5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I have so many ideas cooking, I'll have to live to 120 to get all my books written. Either that or learn to put my tukus in the chair and write three to four books a year. I find myself drawn to fantasy and science fiction more than romance these days.

Currently, I'm finishing a dragon story that is the basis for a series, I hope. I've started two other books for the series and find myself thinking of additional stories for the characters created in this base book.

6. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

There is a Swedish shapeshifter/dragon named Petra who is small, petite, and appears fragile. However, as we all know, things are not always what they seem, and I think Petra is going to surprise readers with her strength. But that's not why I'd like to be her...she has violet eyes like Elizabeth Taylor, think of Elizabeth in National Velvet. My own hazel eyes get so little notice, I'd love to have startling violet eyes. Just my ego!

7. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?

I've set this book in the current time. We humans have this tendency to think we are the only intelligent life living on this rock we call earth. What I've done is play a game of 'what if?'.

What if four to five hundred years ago in the British Isles a war began which would change how we all look at magic? Witches, wizards and dragons fought each other for the right to remain active in the scheme of day-to-day life. A pair of dragons escaped to a new continent and created a haven where they mated and hid their clutch of eggs, but duty to the clan called, and they were pulled back to the British Isles to fight for their survival and they perished.

Fast forward to May 18, 1980 and an explosion from a mountain thought to be inactive. The heat built up the previous months has incubated a clutch of eggs lying in stasis for hundreds of years. With the blast of Mt. St. Helens, a new era begins. People begin to report seeing -- dragons(?) in the skies of the Northwest. Around the world, the most bizarre occurrences are reported in the back pages of newspapers. Dragons are appearing on city streets, in national forests, and, apparently, out of thin air.

Reporter Aleda Sable knows about fabricated news, after all, she writes stories about Bigfoot, but when her editor insists the tip he's received from a dubious source is worth checking out, Aleda rolls her unusual gold, slitted eyes to the ceiling and agrees. After all, if it gets her started on her vacation sooner, why not? But really, dragons? In the Northwest? Right. And the forest is full of faeries and leprechauns. But Aleda finds the beliefs she holds fast fading into the realm of the unbelievable. Something is happening in the world that will change the truth as everyone sees it. Dragons in this day and age?
Maybe.

8. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I belong to a critique group of writers who shall remain nameless... oh, alright. It's the other two Rogue Angels members. When I was a very green writer and not sure where to turn to pursue my craft, these two incredible individuals along with Rosemary Indra gently guided me through the first hurdles of writing. I'll always be thankful these wonderful people came in to my life.

Although Healthy Homicide is book five of six that I've had published, I still need guidance on my writing. I had a great aunt who lived to 96 years old. She commented she was continually learning, and the day she quit learning was the day she would be dead. I believe the same is true of everything, writing included.

We writers have a tendency to get too close to our stories. We become involved in the storyline, the character's motives, points of view, our story voices, and on and on. It is necessary to find reliable critique partners who will be constructively honest about your work. Please note the word constructive. There are too many out there willing to "knock you down a peg". I once had someone tell me [after my 3rd book was published] I had too much time on my hands! They exist.

Good critique partners point out the obvious bumps in your story you've overlooked because you're too close to see it. They are also the first ones to applaud your success and toast the book contracts you get. If you're very lucky they become great friends.

9. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

In 1998, my husband and I moved back to Oregon from Hawaii because my father-in-law was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and we wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Watching this wonderful, healthy human being morph from an 80-lb pack backpacker to bedbound in less than a year was agony for all of us.

As I said above, I'd "played" with writing for a few years but never got serious. I was surfing the web one day and stumbled across a contest being put on by Diet Coke. The theme was "Living life to the fullest." Well, I told myself if I was a writer then I needed to write. I entered the contest with a story where the main character has one more day of getting up, taking a shower, fixing breakfast, walking his dog...until the sound of the ventilator kicks in and... it was a dream. Yeah, yeah I know, done to death, but it was my first real attempt at writing, and it was chosen out of 500 entries to be one of 25 finalists.
The approval from winning the contest [prize was having my bio and story published on a website Diet Coke set up specifically for the winners for 3 months] opened the door for my writing. I finally realized what I wanted to be when I grew up -- a writer.

Through all of this, my husband has been my BIGGEST fan and promoter. He constantly carries my business card and passes them out like candy. Anyone who talks about reading will have their ear bent as to my abilities as a writer. Think I'll keep him!
Along with him, my critique partners have cheered me on, held my hand through the nagging doubts every artist has and cheered when I've gotten a contract.

10. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

The best advice I recieved was from a publisher who was kind enough to read my first attempt at writing and point out the characters were so nasty why would she want to read about them much less publish a story about them. I reread the story and, after swearing she didn' t have a clue what she was talking about, agreed with her. I went back, rewrote, and resubmitted my work to another publisher because the first had told me she already had one story about a younger man/older woman she was publishing, and those kind of stories really wouldn't interest anyone. Really? Every publisher around has an "older" heroine line now. Must not have gotten the memo she did.

I tried to find the publishing house a couple years ago and they've closed their doors.
Oh, well. Her honest comments helped me to realize I needed to edit, edit, edit my work before I let anyone see it including critique partners.


11. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I start out as a "seat of the pants" writer, no outline. That having been said, I found myself having to institute a few assists I hadn't used previously with the dragon story. Since I have a great many characters scattered all over the world, I've started bios on them with descriptions and a little bit of back story. When I submitted the idea to my publisher, I had to write a synopsis of the story - essentially, an outline. It helped to gel the direction of the story. Writing by seat of the pants creates the best story for me because my characters take the lead and move the story forward. However, it's good to aim for a goal at the end of the story, and an outline can provide the target.

For the most part, I allow my characters to steer the story in the direction they want. So far, they've done a pretty good job.

12. Anything else you might want to add?

There is discussion that those of us who are epublished aren't "really" published, and I want to weigh in on that discussion. It takes me around one full year to write, edit and pull my quick books (less than 300 pages) together. I can pretty well guess other writers take the same time to do the same thing. I've yet to have someone buy my print-on-demand book, have me autograph it, then tell me I'm not a real writer. For real readers, the format doesn't matter. And for me, I'll write whether or not my book is published.

Since I've discovered how much I love storytelling, I'll not quibble about the form it takes. I just hope I offer readers an enjoyable respite from the problems we all face. After all, when you're lost in a world of dragons, who cares about the New York Stock Exchange?

C. L. Kraemer/Celia Cooper/Sable Angel

Meet our to new editors: Chris Kraemer and Sheryl Lynn Gerety

Chris Kraemer
Chris Kraemer has one dragon story published, three romances, two suspense stories, a short comedy screenplay that was performed, recorded and sent to the troops in Iraq for 'entertainment'. She also has a "faerie" story included in the anthology being released by RoguePhoenixPress in February 2010 and hope to have the beginning of a dragon series, Book 1, Dragons Among Us, published in March of 2010.

Chris has presented classes on "making it through the publishing maze" for the Parks and Recreation department of Palmdale, CA. and has been involved with RWA since 2002.

Sheryl Lynn Gerety
Sheryl's education has included: Oregon public universities, General School at Columbia and degree at University of North Carolina in public policy analysis. She has taken South American literature courses, the use of novels as models for anthropological theories in theses and has been involved for many years in a book club. She has done extensive copy editing for Bruce Winterhalder (head of the anthropology department at UC Davis) and his Ph.d. candidates.

To characterize her editing goals: She looks for and encourages precise language, paragraph structure, consistent and inconspicuous punctuation while maintaining distinct character voices, and overall development of a theme or theory in the body of the work. Dealing with fiction, she looks for character profiles that are plausible given the fundamentals of human nature: looking for social groups, stable life partners, the spiritual; characters sacrificing to protect offspring if possible; characters struggling to balance personal ambitions with caring for family, friends, neighbors.

Meet Richard H. Williams: Author of Romantic Misadventures of Two Miami Denizens

How did you come up with the idea for your book?
All of the following made some contribution to the formulation of the idea for my novel, Romantic Misadventures of Two Miami Denizens.
military experience-I served in the U.S. Army and my duties were at Fort Dix, New Jersey, Fort Knox, Kentucky, Fort Story, Virginia, and Point Barrow, Alaska. So the two denizens from Miami in the novel also joined the Army and served at these posts.
reading program-constant reading led to ideas for stories and information regarding writing style. I enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies of famous writers as well as books such as Interviews with Flannery O’Connor.
Tom Wolfe’s The New Journalism (1973) contains innovative ideas useful to both journalists and writers of fiction.
interacting with persons that crossed my path-this type of stimulation was most helpful for developing ideas for characters. When one of my fictional characters is similar to a real person, I use the person’s real name initially in writing. This makes it easier for me for I can anticipate the character’s actions and words. Later on I employ the Microsoft Word’s Replace command to change the actual name to a fictitious name.
living in Miami-Since I lived in Miami for many years, I used this city as the geographic basis for the novel.
attending professional conferences---especially those held in New Orleans. This led me to employ this fascinating city as the starting location in my novel.
summer jobs-I worked right on a farm one summer and assisted the dairy farmer in delivering milk another summer. These experiences crept into the novel.

What expertise did you bring to your writing?
As a college professor, my activities include writing and editorial work. I publish articles in refereed academic journals. I often wondered whether scholarly writing would have any carryover to the writing required in the “creative domain.” Although the two areas of writing have certain differences, there is a great deal of overlap. Both require knowledge of word usage, spelling, and punctuation, as well as organization and lucid communication of a message to be delivered, etc. I therefore learned that there was indeed transfer of training.
I found that certain courses studied in high school and college gave me background for writing stories. In my case, the classes that proved most useful were English Composition, American Literature, Experimental Psychology, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Education. In the last three courses students were required to produce brief, tightly written papers.

What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
My mother was kind to an old woman who appeared to be poor. The lady lived in a tumbled down shack. She would go to the back door of a restaurant and say, “Do you have any old bread or fish heads or bones or other food scraps for my dog?” But the woman had no dog. My mother would often provide food, clothing, and other needed items to the old impoverished lady.
But when the woman died her will revealed that she had in reality been rather wealthy. And in the will she bequeathed a tidy sum of money to my mother’s first child, which was me. I inherited the money when I turned 21 years of age, at which time I immediately purchased a metallic blue Jaguar XK 120 fixed head coupe with Dunlap road speed white wall tires. My father thought this was foolish and he urged me to instead invest the money in blue chip stocks. But this English machine was the car of my dreams, so I went against his will.
After completing Infantry Army basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and serving duty at Fort Knox, Kentucky, I was assigned to Point Barrow, Alaska. Before I left for the frozen north, I gave the keys to the car to my father. While at Point Barrow I received a letter from my mother telling me that my father had fallen in love with my Jaguar. He liked to drive along the narrow, curvy, country roads near our hometown, enjoying the speed and road maneuverability of the machine.
So when you read in Romantic Misadventures of Two Miami Denizens that York inherited money from his favorite aunt and that the two denizens, York and Biff, served military duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Point Barrow, Alaska, you’ll know where these ideas came from. And if in any of my writing you encounter a character driving a metallic blue Jaguar you will be aware of the antecedents for that idea.

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I would like to write a criminal detection thriller. To prepare, I am perusing Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels to gain knowledge of police procedurals. I am also reading works by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Agatha Christie, and Elmore Leonard. I may read some of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Best of Mystery in case I decide to give the criminal detection novel a spine-tingling twist.
I am thinking of preparing a book comprised of a sampling of my short stories, essays, poems, reviews, sketches, a play, and correspondence. A tentative title is
Potpourri. It is modeled after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920 blockbuster, This Side of Paradise, which is also a composite work.

When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
I took several small steps before undertaking a big step. I submitted poems, short stories, and essays to E Zines. I also experimented by writing very brief pieces, never more than 500 words, that I call “Snapshots.”
Incidentally, I found the private website of Piers Anthony, the well-known science fiction writer, useful in locating publication outlets. “Predators and Editors” is also useful for that purpose and contains a wealth of other information useful to prospective authors.
I pieced together some of the earlier, less ambitious works to generate longer stories---first novellas and then a novel.
The fact that some of the published works I encountered were not of great quality encouraged me to try my luck.

What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
The worst advice was: “Give up on writing. You will never get anything published.”
The best advice was to cut down on narration and inject more dialogue. One of my editors said that I should employ dialogue to make the story move along and develop the plot. She said I should do more showing and less telling and thereby get the reader more involved. This was initially difficult for me, for as a professor I like to pontificate. I also found Elmore Leonard’s ten rules of writing useful. He spoke of making the author invisible or unobtrusive and outlined certain mechanisms to enable the writer to do so. His tenth rule is: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” An analogy in the domain of drama might be: “The actor should convince the audience that he/she is not acting, so that believability can set in.”
I studied the dialog in the novels of Ernest Hemingway and Elmore Leonard, as they are the masters of dialog. The novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were also helpful. Chandler’s use of metaphors and similes is first rate.

Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I have never used an outline in my writing. I do take copious notes, however, some of which are influenced by my readings. On occasion I say the words I have written onto a tape and then listen to them. Depending on my mood and level of confidence, I start off a story using a legal pad or a word processor. Even if I don’t have a clear idea for a story, I write almost every day. I never wait around for a sudden flash of creativity or originality. In my opinion one must write and write and write, and supplement the writing with reading and with interacting with persons in one’s environment. In my case I set aside a definite block of time for writing each day and my work is conducted in a fixed setting. I like it to be relatively quiet when I write, although I sometimes play instrumental music while writing. And in between the time I stop writing for a day and then resume the next day, I engage in unrelated activities. One such activity is to read good detective novels, such as those authored by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Agatha Christie, and Ross Macdonald. Or the activities might be physical in nature. It is possible that my subconscious is implicitly working on my own story during the interim.
Here is my website: http://manicreaders.com/richardhwilliams/