BCW board member Connie Berry discusses first novel, ‘A Dream of Death’

Book launch party for Connie Berry's 'A Dream of Death,' to be held from 2-4 p.m. April 13 at Fortin Ironworks, 944 W. 5th Ave., Columbus.

Another one of our members, board member Connie Berry, has her first book, ‘A Dream of Death,’ publishing in April! Find out more in her interview with fellow board member Kandy Williams.

KW: Ms. Connie Berry has done the near-impossible–she’s gotten a book published! Not only that, she has a contract for the sequel and has signed an agent. This is a feat that many writers aspire to, so it makes sense to begin by asking, her: Could you please share the story of your journey? How long did it take you to write your book and find an agent?

CB: I know writers who claim to have dashed off their first novel in three months. My journey took a bit longer—ten years, as a matter of fact, from the moment I first typed Chapter One until the day I signed my publishing contract with Crooked Lane Books.

My initial problem was time. Lecturing on theology by day, writing was relegated to evenings, weekends, and summers. That in itself wasn’t insurmountable. Lots of successful writers have day jobs. My biggest problem (although I didn’t recognize it at the time) was impatience — or maybe stubbornness. I just wanted to write, and worrying about peripheral stuff like story structure and pacing slowed me down. Or so I thought.

I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

One thing I did know: my book wasn’t ready for submission. Once I realized that writing a good book required learning the craft, I began to educate myself. Little by little I learned. Around Christmas of 2017, after many rounds of revision, I decided I’d done everything I knew how to do. The following February I attended Sleuthfest, a writers’ conference in Florida, and met my editor, Faith Black Ross, from Crooked Lane Books. She read my manuscript and offered me a two-book contract. With contract in hand, I contacted my agent, Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary, and she took me on.

Book One in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series comes out in April. Book Two will be published the following October.

KW: Now that you’ve gone through the process of writing a book–from idea to finished product–what advice would you give to writers who are still working to make the dream come true?

CB: Learn from my mistakes. Take time to learn the craft of novel writing. Writing to please yourself is a wonderful thing, but if you want to actually sell that book, you must learn what today’s publishers, agents, and readers want. Breaking the rules is okay. Not knowing the rules isn’t. Fortunately this information is readily available. Attend writers’ conferences, take online classes through Sisters in Crime and other writers’ groups. Find out what story structure is all about. Join a critique group. Find a couple of beta readers (not your spouse or your mother) who will tell you the truth. And read, read, read. Notice how authors you admire use setting, character development, point-of-view, dialogue, and description. If you need somewhere to start, I recommend Don’t Sabotage Your Submission by Chris Roerden, and Mastering Suspense, Structure & Plot by Jane K. Cleland.

KW: What can readers expect from the Kate Hamilton Mystery Series?

Well, I hope readers will find an engaging protagonist and a mystery that keeps them guessing until the end. Since Kate is an antiques dealer, antiques will play a role in each book along with a sense of history. Readers who enjoy stories set in the UK will spend time in the Scottish Hebrides and a village in rural Suffolk, England.

KW: Can you share an excerpt from A DREAM OF DEATH?

BC: I never wanted to return to Glenroth.

Three years had passed since Bill’s death, and the veneer of coping I’d laid over my grief was as thin as eggshell porcelain and every bit as breakable. It didn’t take much — the smell of the sea, hearing a snatch of a Scots accent, finding one of Bill’s distinctive doodles on a scrap of paper — and there I was, back in the land of memories and regrets.

That was the problem. On the Isle of Glenroth, memories and regrets lay as thick on the ground as yellow gorse in autumn. Still, a promise was a promise. Even one I’d never intended to keep.

“Going somewhere fun?” my mother had asked.

“Scotland. Glenroth, actually.”

 There’d been a moment of tactful silence. “Sure that’s a good idea, Kate?”

Of course I wasn’t sure. Especially at the moment. Thick curtains of fog swirled across the deck of the car ferry, swallowing the landing ahead. I was the only passenger, and I’d been instructed to set my emergency brake and remain in the driver’s seat for the duration of the twenty-minute voyage. The boat lurched, and I gripped the wheel of the hatchback I’d hired at the train station in Fort William, grateful for the metal railing dividing the deck of the small craft from the icy depths of Cuillin Sound.

With a long blast of the ship’s horn, the fog parted and the Isle of Glenroth rose before me like Brigadoon materializing in the Highland mist. Trees lined the banks, their bare limbs dark and lined with snow. An old movie in black and white. The bell sounded, and I started my engine.

“Take care, lass,” the burly ferryman called through my partially open window. “Roads ’re slick.”

My second warning. The man at the car-hire desk had made a point of telling me about the “wee airly storm” that had blown through the Inner Hebrides the previous night, surprising the islanders with a layer of wet snow.

“Could I talk ye into waitin’ till mornin’?” he’d asked in a wheedling tone. When I explained that I’d learned to drive in snowy Wisconsin, he’d shrugged. “Whit’s fur ye will no go past ye.” What will be, will be.

I closed the window, tasting the salty tang of the sea on my lips. Ahead to the north, I could just make out the rocky peaks of Skye. Behind me, although I couldn’t see them, were the islands of Rúm and Eigg. The car bumped over the ramp onto solid ground.

Twenty-two hours after leaving Cleveland’s airport, I’d arrived—by plane, train, automobile, and ferryboat — on the small Hebridean island where my husband was born. And where he died.

KW: You’ve been hard at work on book 2 in the series. How different was the experience of writing that book compared to writing the first?

CB: Writing Book Two, A Legacy of Murder, took far less time because I didn’t make the mistakes I made with Book One. I plotted out the whole book in advance, so I knew where I was going and how each scene fit into the whole. Nevertheless, my characters sometimes said or did things that surprised me. That made writing an adventure.

KW: Fun question. You’re locked in a castle for an escape room-style adventure. What authors (living or deceased) would you want on your team?

CB: Obviously I’d enlist the help of John Dickson Carr, king of the locked room mystery. If he couldn’t get me out, no one could. And I’d invite Agatha Christie with her well-known eye for details and hidden clues. I’d include James W. Hall, author of the Thorn, P.I. books, would keep us all laughing. And Michael Crichton — just because he’s nice to look at.

An interview with Katharine Weber, our March 30 guest

You know, sometimes we get lucky and find a famous writer who agrees to spend a Saturday afternoon with us.  On other occasions we’ll get a well-established professional who decides to share their wealth of knowledge out of some personal magnanimity, altruism or simple desire to move it forward.  This time we managed to get both; for some reason known only to the writing gods, we somehow secured for March (wait for it) . . . Katharine Weber.

Katharine is in her 7th year as the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College, and previously taught at Yale and Columbia as well as writing workshops in Paris, Mexico and Ireland.  In addition, she’s written several books praised by the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times.  And if that’s not enough, her most recent novel, Still Life With Monkey, made the Washington Post’s list of ’50 notable works of fiction in 2018.’

And now, on March 30th, she’s going to be speaking to BCW about crime writing in popular fiction, from books such as The Great Gatsby to the more recent Mockingjay.  Touching on subjects such as what makes great crime fiction, why it’s important/enduring, how it’s influenced other genres, etcetera.  So if you feel the need to jump-start your creative juices and get some fascinating insight into the history and mechanics of crime fiction, this is a no-brainer.  What next?  Go open up Outlook, pencil in your calendar or write on your forehead the following:  Katharine Weber, Gahanna Library, Sat. 3/30/19, 12:30 – 2:30.  And per usual, please feel free to hang with Katharine and the crew for lunch at a nearby restaurant afterwards, where we’ll discuss the mysteries of life (like why does the waitress always wait until you’ve got a mouthful of food to ask if you need anything), and other existential conundrums.  Until then, keep writing.


In advance of the March 30 presentation, our president, Patrick Stuart, conducted an interview with Katharine Weber about her recent book Still Life With Monkey). Read on below!

PS:  OK, let’s set the scene:  you are Katharine Weber, the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College (who also taught at Yale and Columbia), and the author of several critically acclaimed books including Still Life With Monkey, which was picked for the Washington Post’s list of “50 notable works of fiction in 2018.” The novel involves Duncan Wheeler, an architect in Connecticut at the beginning a successful career when a horrific car crash renders him a quadriplegic, not to mention killing his young apprentice.  Duncan’s wife Laura discovers an organization in New England that trains capuchin monkeys as helpers for people with spinal cord injuries, and they adopt Ottoline to help with Duncan’s daily needs (turning pages, picking up dropped items, etc.).  So how did you come up with the storyline?

KW:  A friend from high school, Andy Zerman, one of the book’s dedicatees, became a quadriplegic some 25 years ago in a boating accident that took someone else’s life. His circumstances and choices in life are completely different from Duncan (Andy was a gay Broadway show casting director, who lived and worked and continued to work for many years after his accident in New York City).  But Andy’s situation, and the day to day needs, were familiar to me. I first heard about monkey helpers long ago. As a novelist, sometimes the spark that ignites is the juxtaposition, no matter how unlikely, of two separate things that I find intriguing and filled with narrative possibility. For me, developing plans for a novel is never one single moment of aha! but the gradual accumulation of ideas and situations, many aha!s, and then comes the gathering feeling of the need to bear down on something particular in a particular way.  Andy died in January, very unexpectedly. I am very glad I had seen him just a couple of weeks before, and that he lived to see publication of a book dedicated to him. He was an avid reader and he was very willing to answer questions from me about everything from the function of a tenododisis grip (which he called his “teena” — I can show you what this is and why it matters with damaged hand function) to his depression when he was first recovering from the accident — he told himself “I’m going to give this a year.”  That was an aha! moment for me — my ticking clock!  All fiction needs a ticking clock.

PS:  Full disclosure:  I have an architectural background (as well as a son named Duncan), so this novel hit home for me.  The amount of detail in Duncan’s background is spot on (well beyond the typical Wikipedia/Google search), as well as an important part of his character.  A similar amount of detail was evident with the fictitious Primate Institute where Ottoline was trained (based on an actual organization), Laura’s job as an art curator, and other areas.  Exposition is important in establishing realism in a story; what’s your process for gathering such detailed background information?

KW:  Wikipedia? Please!  For one thing, I worked in an architecture office (Richard Meier) as a ghostwriter and general office and archive clerk of the works. I have intimate knowledge of art restoration.  I read deeply into monkey behavior studies, and I spent time behind the scenes at Monkey College, where Helping Hands, in Cambridge Mass, trains capuchin monkeys. They are the real thing on which my fictional Primate Institute is based.  When I don’t have personal knowledge, I certainly do read deeply, but I also ask people questions, I delve into the personal relationships with professions or circumstances as much or more than I gather concrete information.  If you operated a garbage truck I would want craziest/best/worst/stories, I would want to know if you dream about your work, as much as I would want to know how you actually operate the truck.

PS:  The novel shifts perspectives between Duncan, Ottoline, his wife Laura and his twin brother Gordon.  There isn’t so much a linear path as several views from different vantage points.  Was this intentional or did the story structure grow this way organically?

KW:  It was both intentional and organic. I am not being coy. I very much wanted to write in the close third person, what kids these days call free indirect discourse. Most of my previous novels depend on first person narrative much of the time, and here the only true first person narrative comes late, in Duncan’s long farewell letter to Laura.  The close third person isn’t limited to one point of view as much as a first person story really is. I also wanted to write in a male perspective, which I have not done before.

PS:  (Spoiler alert to readers:  this question involves the ending):  Duncan’s identical twin brother Gordon is the polar opposite of Duncan’s personality.  Whereas Duncan is independent, Gordon is dependent on everyone around him.  Duncan is controlling and driven to succeed, whereas Gordon prefers his daily routine and is a bit of a ‘squish,’ etc..  But after the accident they seem to switch places, and Duncan is forced to rely on others as Gordon steps up to become more responsible for his brother.  Duncan can’t make the adjustment and eventually takes his own life; definitely a tough subject, but in Duncan’s eyes he did what he thought was right.  Was this always Duncan’s ending, and how did their dichotomy play a part in his decision?

KW:  I am very interested in copies, mirror images, matched pairs that can never really be perfectly matched. We can discuss the role of these twins, the way Duncan isn’t content at all, and maybe despite his enjoyment of all sorts of things he was never fully content, given his deeply hidden (from himself too) homoerotic attraction to Todd, while Gordon is content with his life in ways others don’t recognize. What is a successful life? Gordon and Duncan would define very differently. I am interested in the limits of how much we ever really know about other people, what we think we know, the difference between the inner life and the outer life.  

PS:  Chekhov came up with that great quote about a gun being shown in the first act of a play necessitating firing by the second act.  One potentially unfired gun in SLWM (in my highly subjective opinion) involved Todd Walker, the apprentice killed in the car crash.  There appeared to be something beyond a working relationship developing between Duncan and Todd.  But then the accident happened and the issue kind of disappeared.  Intentional?  Unintentional? 

KW:  It didn’t disappear. It drove Duncan’s desire to end his life. Nothing unintentional here. Just subtle. Starting with the scene riding back on the ferry, with Duncan gazing at Todd (a close paraphrase of a scene in Death in Venice, when Von Aschenbach is gazing at Tadzio (Todd, todt = death in German).

PS:  And lastly, in a blatant rip-off of James Lipton and his t.v. series Inside the Actors Studio, what is a) your favorite word, and b) your favorite (literary) curse word?

KW:  My favorite words may vary from one day to the next, but today:

Favorite word: lunch

Favorite literary curse word(s):  numpty fuckwit (I spend a lot of time in England and Ireland) 

BCW member Dan Stout talks first novel, ‘Titanshade’

Buckeye Crime Writers member Dan Stout’s first novel, ‘Titanshade,’ is slated for release on March 12. He answered a few questions from BCW in advance of the release.

Dan Stout
Dan Stout

You recently Tweeted out a photo of you holding a stack of copies of your first book, Titanshade. When they arrived, can you even begin to describe what that moment felt like?

It was a pretty great feeling! There’s something much more concrete about the final product, even after seeing ARCs and proofs. But if I’m being honest, the real thrill is when I know that someone else has a copy and is getting ready to start reading. Because love it or hate it, they’ll be engaging with it. And once it’s in their head, it’ll stay there as an influence, no matter how subtle.

For me, that bit of cultural engagement is the real magic in any art, from literature to film to sculpture and more.

You not only wrote a detective story, you set it in a different world, where sorcerers, eight-tracks and disco are all the rage. What prompted you to create that kind of setting?

When I was a kid reading Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS, I used to wonder what someplace like Middle Earth would look like when the inhabitants began to develop technology. Eventually, they’d have their own industrial revolution, and then increased urbanization. And that in turn would require a centralized infrastructure and emergency services like fire and police departments. And of course, police departments mean police investigations. Add in the fact that fantastic creatures and magic are still around, and it’s a pretty fun sandbox to play in.

Tell us about your main character, Carter. How difficult was he to conceive, and then to let grow?

Carter’s voice came to me along with the core of the story. The trickier part was understanding the many ways in which he fails to understand the world around him. He’s a very observant person, but he has major blind spots. These are pointed out by those who support his case, and exploited by those who don’t.

Once I understood both his strengths and weaknesses, I was able to see the choices he’d make in a given situation. And from there, everything kind of fell into place.

How did you come up with the concept behind Titanshade?

I was a member of a writers’ website called Liberty Hall. There, once a week, a hidden prompt would be posted. If you viewed the post, a 90 minute timer would start to count down, and you’d have that long to write a story and post it to the site. All the stories were anonymized, and everyone who took part in that week’s challenge would give feedback. What was brilliant about the system was the time limit: you didn’t have time to second guess yourself, and the time frame meant that everyone understood that most of the submissions would be preliminary sketches at best. TITANSHADE came out of one of those challenges; I got the set-up and murder scene, along with a basic arc of the plot. 

How long did it take you to write it?

It was almost exactly two years from writing the first sentence to my agent going out on submission with it. Of course, there were more edits after that, and in some ways I continue to add layers to the world and its inhabitants, so I don’t know that I’ll ever really be done writing that book!

What advice do you have for other writers who are still working to get their first books published?

Be as honest as you possibly can. Talk about the world as you know it, and tell stories about characters who behave in the most authentic way possible. (Even if that’s being authentically dishonest.)

When you’re honest about the truths you believe, and your characters have their own worldview, your stories will resonate with readers. From there, it’s just a numbers game before you have the audience you need to keep on going.

When does the book come out, and where can people buy it?

It comes out March 12th, 2019. It will be available in most book stores and libraries, and if they don’t have it, they can order you a copy! If you prefer to get your books online, it will be available at all major online vendors. The audio version releases at the same time, and will be available at all those spots, as well as on Audible. Links to all those sellers can be found on my website (DanStout.com).

Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about my book and my publishing journey!