1)  Massive info dumps.  And I do mean massive.   I don't know if other genres have them this bad, but a lot of contemporary mystery series are hobby-centric with these inexplicable pages (yes!  PAGES!) devoted to the minutiae of whatever hobby/interest the series is built around.   Like...Minnie the steamboat captain finds the postman with an axe in his head, and right after saying, "OH NO!  He's dead for sure!" finds a way to talk about turn-of-the-century steamboat engines for a page and a half.  To reiterate, I hate this.  

2)  Amateur sleuths who repeatedly, in book after book after book,  vow to crack the case...for no apparent reason.   Any cozy mystery reader has to be prepared to suspend disbelief and accept that fictional people are, with regularity, brutally murdered in Pissant, USA and the police are too inept to handle the cases.   It's just too far of a stretch to buy that regular people haul themselves off the couch over and over again to put their own lives in danger, hunting down killers for no apparent reason other than, "Hey, someone was killed and I've done a crackerjack job in the past.  I'm on it!"   I do keep reading these series if I've grown attached to the sleuth, but this really irritates me.

3) Over the top, kooky-zany, oh-so-nutty, Janet Evanovich May Be Funny But I'm Even Funnier, non-stop hijinks performed by a cast of cartoon-ish characters.   Enough said. 

4)  Switching P.O.V.   I like this in thrillers, occasionally in longer works of "fiction" (I don't know what I mean by that either...just the books bookstores cram together in a section called "fiction"), and I realize other people aren't bothered by switching P.O.V.s in mysteries.  I am.  I hate it.  If I'm reading a book about an amateur sleuth I want to be right alongside that sleuth for each and every page, meeting suspects and collecting (or overlooking) clues with her/him.  What he/she knows, I know, and vice versa.  Or else I hate it.  

I'm taking a plane to Canada on Christmas day (yes, I am flying from Chicago to a destination even further north) and I'd like to put some new amateur sleuth books on my Kindle.   That I won't hate.   Help?   Don't fear me...I won't read it, hate it, then throw some cyber tantrum.  I'll be grateful for the recommendation =D

I gave in to temptation and cracked open the Christmas gift I'd ordered for myself:  Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America (second edition), edited by Sue Grafton.   I've had a million interruptions while trying to read, but already on page 14 I've run across something I'd love to share.  I'm not actually asking these questions, meme-style, or anything (although anyone brave enough to share personal information is certainly welcome to!)  I'm not answering these questions publicly, either.  I'm just throwing them out there for anyone who might find them useful, for whatever reason.  

Writer Marilyn Wallace wrote chapter two:  "Sparks, Triggers, and Flashes."   Under chapter heading, "What sparks you to write a mystery?"  she says all kinds of useful things that I'm forcing myself not cram in here verbatim, then asks a series of questions that I've re-formatted into a bullet point list:

• What makes your blood boil?
• What are you desperate to protect?  To gain?
• What makes you angry, afraid, confused?
• What issues or incidents most often bring you closest to hostile confrontation with other people?
• In what circumstances do you find yourself evading or embellishing the truth?
• What self-deceptions, manipulations, obsessions are part of your personal repertoire?
• What musings take you on extended mental journey?

I'd like to wake up early tomorrow, or else leave my house for some guaranteed peace and quiet, and answer those questions as honestly as possible in the back of my notebook.  Hopefully I'll get to know my characters and their motivations a bit better by the time I'm finished.   Maybe Ms. Wallace's questions can also be helpful to some of you with your current projects, or brainstorming the next one...or just for kicks.

Let me try and dig up the original directions and do a handy copy/paste:

Instructions: Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

I'm going to add something of my own: If you've recently done this meme and would rather not post the answers and the offer in your journal, or if you're just feeling shy and would rather not post the answers/offer in your journal, feel free to participate anyway and just answer your questions in a reply comment right here. I do want to get to know you better, but it's not my intention to create work or embarrassment for anyone.

( Answers to the questions I got from msrainbow )

I've tried NaNoWriMo twice and lasted less than a day each time. It's not for me.

Yesterday I was talking to my sister elizabethdriscoll on the phone and she said something oh-so-wise and inspirational. She said that some writer wrote this thing someplace (that's not the wise part) about how if you're not the sort of person to routinely do what you have to do (clean your house, do a project for school/work, etc.) in neatly parceled daily increments than it's unrealistic to expect yourself to be the sort of writer who will, with perfectly shiny disclipline, write X number of words each day.

Yes, all the writing advice says you HAVE TO have a regular daily word count. And yes, that is ideal. It's also ideal to work on school projects and papers for a certain amount of time each day instead of the night before, clean your house a certain amount every day, etc. For the people who are wired to do that, great! For the rest of us, our uniquely wired crackpot systems have been working so far...why not just find out our own workable balance between productivity and slacking instead of weeping over not making a consistent daily word count?

I'm going to try setting aside one hour a day for working on my project. Some days that hour might end up to be listening to my i-pod playlist that helps me visualize scenes. (Thank you finch for sharing your idea of using "genius" to make a project playlist). Some days it might include time spent finding stock photos to give me tangible visuals. On the writing days I might be scribbling in a notebook (literally...a notebook) at Taco Bell, or I might be on the EeePC in the backyard. Knowing me, I expect the actual writing days to spill over the one hour.

By the end of the week, after everything's typed in on Sunday, I'd like to have between 3,500 and 7,000 words. If I routinely have closer to the lower end I'll tweak the system, but the point is: I'm going to try not beating myself up for not being capital D "disciplined" when it comes to Getting Things Done. My systems may be wacky, but they work for me, I do Get Things Done.

It occurs to me that now is the perfect time to make an entry. The two friends I have don't check their DW accounts, ever! That means I can use my spooky tree icon, NOT use a "cut", and say whatever I want.

For example, I can tell the proverbial ~you~ that the only reason I'm posting anything at all is because my theme looks stupid with only one journal entry. And the mental anguish of putting the theme on, by myself, almost killed me. As of right now my reading page is a formatting nightmare, but this is something I can live with.

Okay then... Why a new account? Because apparently writers are supposed to get their pen names OUT THERE~!!!! So here it is. Out. There. Also, I tend to get sick of myself on internet accounts. In real life, the stupid/annoying things you say and do fade over time. In cyber space they are *right there* for aaaaaaaall time. Deleting only gets you so far. I look back on periods of time when I've been "OH HI HI HI HI HI HOW ARE YOU????? HERE'S WHAT I THINK- LET ME TELL YOU AND BE REALLY WORDY ABOUT IT!" and cringe. Then I open new accounts, stay quiet for awhile, then get uber-friendly and wordy there.

Not good old Margaret Driscoll, though! This cyber-facet of "me" is a focused writer, hoping to interact with other writers, and always stay calm and concise. Starting after this pointless post, obviously.

I keep leaving accounts behind me like stepping stones, but hopefully this one is the final destination. I'm ready to stop fooling around with personas (well...other than this harmless pen name) and just read, write, write about writing, and be in touch with other people who read and write. (Are you picking up on the well-phrased read/write theme? =D)

I won't be making any personal entries on this journal, and I'm not much of a "blogger." I'll write when something specific's on my mind, and most likely not that often. Mostly I plan to be active in communities.

Let's see how this goes!