A Deadly Seance (Working Title): A Dr. Emily Goldman Mystery

And so it begins! If you haven't read the first Dr. Emily Mystery, Murder at Canterbury Faire, it is available in print and e book from Amazon.

Chapter I

   Erica Etheridge reveled in the power that surged through her outstretched arms; her fingers gripped the hands of the students sitting on either side of her. She was the leader of the circle as they sat cross-legged on the floor of the darkened stage in the auditorium of Rose Hall. The twelve students—she called them her disciples—had been told to hold hands and close their eyes. Erica had prepared them for what was to come.

   “No matter what happens you mustn’t break the circle. If you’re scared, you need to leave before we begin!”

   They had all been sworn to secrecy, and they were ready to call up a messenger from the spirit world. There would be no backing out now. No one moved and the circle remained unbroken.

   Rose Hall was the ideal setting for a Séance. It was the oldest building on the Merryvale College campus, dating back to before the Civil War, and was the preferred setting for the numerous ghost stories that were told over the years to the incoming freshmen of the college. It was late, an hour or so before curfew, as Rose Hall stood in all its antebellum glory under a chilly autumn sky. It was the dark of the moon.

   If Rose Hall was the ideal setting for a Séance, Erica was the perfect medium. In fact, Hollywood couldn’t have done a better job of casting. She was tall and painfully thin with a hawk-like face. Her eyes were small and dark, deeply set; and her nose, although aquiline, was reminiscent of a bird of prey. Her arms and legs were long and ungainly; her hair,  thin and wispy, a nondescript shade of brown. Until her arrival at the college the year before, she had been a loner, an outsider during her high school days; but at Merryvale, she had finally found her niche.

Day of the Otters

Last week we talked about the importance of creating a picture with words when writing fiction. I readily admit I’m from the old school and have a tendency to use quite a few descriptive details in my writing. I want my readers to be able to visualize the characters in the fictional world I’ve created. As a result, I depend on details and try to stay away from reliance on dialogue to create setting and mood. I’m not saying that my way is better, only that it works for me. In the last post I talked about historical fiction and the importance of reading and research about the time and place. But what if your setting is in the present, in a location that’s familiar? You might choose a place you’ve visited or perhaps your hometown. Where do the details come from? You might be able to do a little reading and research, but now you’re writing about what you know. Remember, this is what so many of us have been told to write about. At this point you’re pretty much on your own and have to depend on “the mind’s eye.”

What is “the mind’s eye”? First of all, it’s something we all have; and the good news is that it can be developed. It’s pure imagination! It’s what we see—a mental picture—as we imagine and create. When we write about setting or describe a character we’re using our “mind’s eye” to make the writing come alive. Let’s say you’re writing a story set in your hometown, a place you know inside and out. You close your eyes and try to visualize a picture of the place; the image is in your head rather than facts on a page. After all you don’t want to sound like Wikipedia. Your description will be unique, because you’re writing about your hometown as you see it instead of using factual information. Everything you have experienced in that place you know so well, both good and bad memories, will influence what you write. Now you’re writing about something you know first-hand, but your description of your hometown will be based on the details you have observed and the impressions you have collected throughout your life.

Now let’s go back to the question: Where do the details come from? Certainly, the writer can use his/her imagination and create details; just think about Science Fiction and the creative process of describing unknown worlds. But the details you are most likely to use in your writing will be based on observation. The people and the world around you will provide more than enough details to use in your writing. You simply have to develop the ability and the patience to see them. Get into the habit of paying attention to the world around you.

Yesterday I spent almost an hour on the Town of Beaver Trail near my house. I get many of my ideas there next to our one-lane wooden suspension bridge across the White River. It was Porsche Weekend in Eureka Springs, and the tourists were out in force; but around noon folks must have gravitated to the restaurants. Suddenly all was quiet. The fall color is at its peak, and I was entranced with the beauty as I strolled down the trail. When I got back to my car, I simple sat and soaked it all in. We’ve been short on rain lately and the water level has dropped considerably, revealing old logs and snags left from the big flood we had two years ago. I sat and looked at the water for a long time. The sun was making the water sparkle and the colors were vivid. The water reflected the brilliant blue of the sky. I suddenly saw the curve of an otter’s back as it approached the logs near the shore. The driftwood there reminds me of a jungle-gym with a complicated structure of broken limbs and trunk. I held my breath. A year ago I saw an otter at this exact spot and told everyone about it. Yesterday, the whole family was there: two adults and two adolescents. I watched them as they played in the water, catching fish and climbing up on the logs to eat them, scales and all. They fed on small fish for at least ten minutes and then decided it was time to go. I watched as they swam away up river to their secret den. What a thrill to see a whole family! When I got home my husband, the biologist, told me that I’ve seen something very special. But here’s the important thing—it would have been so easy to miss. I was reminded to slow down and make time to see the details that are all around us. At some point—I’m not sure when—I’ll use the otter family in my writing. I’ll be able to go back and see the river, the fall color, and the otter family in my “mind’s eye” and use that experience to create a time and place.

Get the Setting Right

What’s so important about the setting of your story? In my humble opinion, it’s one of the most important elements of a work of fiction and is dependent on a descriptive style. I know some of you may not agree, and that’s fine if you can create atmosphere by using dialogue. In other words, the characters tell us about the setting and life in general so that we get a sense of the time and place of the action. Some writers succeed in creating setting by using a character’s voice; but I prefer the descriptive paragraphs that transport me to another place and time. Give me Charles Dickens any day! You could say that I don’t have the patience to piece together the time and place from the dialogue. When I pick up a new novel, I want a vivid description of the setting. That’s what I like so much about historical fiction. I’m fascinated with the details of life in another time, not just the historical facts of a particular period; and writers of this genre usually rely on detailed descriptions that create a picture with words.

I’ve just completed a short work of historical fiction targeting middle grade and early high school students, and I must admit I enjoyed the research almost as much as the writing. As I read extensively about the time period (1838-1855), I realized the need to not only describe the physical characteristics of the setting, but to also give the reader a sense of what life was like during that period. It wasn’t enough to simply provide a description of the home place of the main character and the surrounding countryside. All of the details of everyday life had to ring true. So where do the details come from? Broad reading and research are essential in writing historical fiction, combined with a narrative style that brings to life a time that the writer hasn’t experienced. To put the reader in that time and place is the key. Of course, this is what we want in any genre, not just historical fiction.

So that old advice to the writer that states you should only write about what you know is not always the way the creative process should work. You can certainly learn about something new and write about it without actually experiencing it. The unfamiliar becomes familiar when seen through the “mind’s eye”—the author’s imagination. A word of caution. I’ve talked before about how characters can take over a work in progress and go off in unexpected directions. So be flexible about your plot line. My recent experience writing historical fiction was very enjoyable, but before I reached the end of the manuscript, the characters I had created were taking up too much of my time when I wasn’t writing. They got a foot-hold in my head, and I must admit I was glad when I came to the end of the story. They’re not living in my head anymore! And no, I’m not alone in feeling like this. I was greatly relieved when I watched an interview with best-selling author, Lee Child, on one of the national morning news shows. He said he has a basic idea when he starts a book, but then his character, Jack Reacher, takes over. See, it’s not just me!