I kill people for fun. In books.
We just made our self-imposed Christmas deadline. The final Musubi Murder audiobook has been uploaded to ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange)! Once it goes through their quality control, you’ll be able to get it on Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon.
In the meantime, here’s a sample.
Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.
On this pleasant (warm, drizzly) Christmas Eve, Leslie over at Custard and Clues shares highlights from the Hilo, Hawaii Tribune Herald’s Letters to Santa.
Young hopefuls showcase their credentials (” I’ve been helping my mom at dinner time by washing the rice”), help Santa get oriented (“If you come down our chimney, one you will get dirty, and two, our Christmas tree will be right in front of you”) and throw themselves on the mercy of the court (“Can I know if you give people on the bad list another chance?”).
Read the whole thing here!
Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.
The Musubi Murder audiobook is almost done. You’d think that I’d know my own manuscript pretty well by now, but:
1. That whole “said” issue really took me by surprise. My producer has gone back and clipped out the unnecessary “said”s and now the dialog flows more smoothly. It wasn’t bad before, but those small edits make a big difference.
2. The humor in the book is broader than I realized. I thought I had written a low-key meditation on academic life, and I found myself listening to a boisterous comedy. The written word is quiet. I think this is where Confessions of a Shopaholic (a book that I found very entertaining) ran into trouble in the movie adaptation. The main character’s compulsive shopping and prevaricating was amusing in print, but on the big screen, many viewers couldn’t bring themselves to laugh at untreated addiction and compulsive lying.
3. You can start with a perfectly flawless manuscript, but if you let it sit too long on your hard drive, tiny typos will start to appear spontaneously. This is less an observation about my own particular book and more a law of nature, so there is no point in assigning blame.
Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.
The Musubi Murder audiobook is nearing completion. I’ve really enjoyed listening to the chapters as they come in. I should be well sick of the manuscript by now, so I have to give the credit to my talented (and, as you will see in a moment, very patient) producer.
In a printed book, when you have a conversation going on among three people, you’re going to need a few dialog tags. This is especially true when you’ve just introduced the characters and the reader doesn’t know them yet.
But in an audiobook, the listener can hear the different voices. All of the “said”s break up the flow of the dialog.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until after Nicole had done a good amount of recording. She is now going back through the recordings and removing the superfluous dialog tags. This is beyond the call of duty, and I am extremely grateful. It’s a hassle for her, but it improves the listening experience.
Here’s an example from the print manuscript of The Musubi Murder:
“Who’s Moira?” Emma asked.
“His sister,” I said.
“What kind of Korean name is Moira?” Pat asked.
“Moira’s not a Korean name,” I said. “Why would it be a Korean name?”
“Yeah, Pat,” Emma said. “Stephen’s not a Korean name either.”
“Why would Stephen be a Korean name?” I asked.
“I didn’t say that Stephen is a Korean name. I said it’s not a Korean name.”
“All right,” I said, “why would you say it’s not a Korean name?”
Emma made an impatient, palms-up gesture.
“Because it’s not?”
“Why do you keep talking about Korean names?”
On the printed page, Emma’s words look a lot like Pat’s words or Molly’s words, so the tags help the reader to keep track of who’s speaking. But in the audiobook version, the characters sound distinct. Pat is the only male speaker; Emma is the only local. Too many “said” tags become repetitive for the listener. For the audiobook we’ll remove one or two of them.
What have I learned for the next audiobook? I’d mark in advance which dialog tags should be omitted by the narrator. I wouldn’t take them out entirely, because the narrator needs to know who is speaking, but maybe I’d strike them out to indicate they’re not to be read aloud.
And yes, I realize that this might mess me up with Whispersync. But maybe by the time the Kindle version of The Musubi Murder comes out, Amazon’s algorithm will be set up to deal with this.
Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.
Here’s an old theater trick for extending the time between garment cleaning (they can’t dry-clean the entire wardrobe after each performance, after all): Put some cheap vodka in a spray bottle
and spray it on clothes to freshen them up and get rid of wrinkles.
I just picked up a big bottle of vanilla flavored vodka on sale at the local grocery store.
I wouldn’t drink it on a bet, but it makes my clothes smell like birthday cake. (It’s sweetened, though, so I wouldn’t put it on dryclean-only garments, or wear it on an anthill.)
Have you ever had a student who seems lost, truly lost, and you wonder what is going on inside hir head?
Now I have my answer. Because recently I tried to learn Bridge.[1]
I knew the game was supposed to be fun, even addicting, if E.F. Benson is to be believed. I couldn’t wait to see what the fuss was about.
Well.
I don’t know if it’s because I have little experience with card games, or a brain that isn’t wired the right way, or some combination, but I wasn’t getting it. My tablemates tried to explain unfamiliar terms to me, using other, equally unfamiliar terms and concepts.
One individual (whose personal value system apparently ranks honesty above kindness) opined that I needed to be placed into the remedial class.
There’s been a trend recently toward getting rid of remedial classes at the college level. It’s not hard to see why. Remediation is expensive, and barely moves the needle.
But I’m not sure tossing students into the deep end is the best approach. Being that far behind everyone else can be pretty demotivating. I still had a delightful evening, but most college classrooms don’t offer the option of giving up and heading for the bar.
[1] Many thanks to Leslie and Robin for their hospitality and patience!
Hawaii by Mark Panek
They Die Alone, by Christopher Bartley
Or, preorder The Musubi Murder
Or if you’re looking for a classic, or nonfiction, there are many other great ways to spend this coupon:
“Mrs. Emmeline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) is the recently-widowed newcomer to the village of Tilling, eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbent Miss Elizabeth Mapp and to install herself as its benevolent dictator. In their polite acts of sabotage, as they ruthlessly jockey for the position of cultural arbiter, Mapp and Lucia tear up the conventions of drawing-room diplomacy and enter a protracted conflict using fêtes, garden parties, musical soirées, and bridge evenings as their deadly weapons.” (From the publisher).
This volume contains five Mapp and Lucia novels.
Sarah Caudwell is “Without doubt, one of the funniest crime writers – ever!” — Mike Ripley, author of author of the award-winning ‘Angel’ comedy thrillers.
The latest in the Agatha Raisin series. I admit, it took me about halfway through “The Quiche of Death” before I warmed up to the prickly Agatha, but after that I was hooked.
The Deluxe Edition includes a 20-second experiment that allows the reader to measure the speed of light using any kitchen microwave!
Q: After Dawn has been praised as a fresh and original take on the paranormal romance. I’m not a big paranormal reader myself, but I couldn’t put the book down. Briefly, what is the book about?
A: After Dawn is about a young woman named Aurora who is troubled by dreams that she can’t understand. As she studies Hawaiian Language in college she gradually figures out what her dreams are telling her: she has cancer. Her parents and friends do their best to support her through the medical treatments, but they also face their own challenges. Eventually, a dream lover tries to persuade her to go away with him, and she has to choose between her world – and his.
Q: What inspired you to write After Dawn, and what was the development process?
A: The development process was… a long and winding road. It started when I was a teenager, and a young friend died. That caused me to reflect deeply on impermanence and the unpredictability of life. I wanted to write a story about the need to seize the day, living your life as fully as possible. At the same time, I was trying to live that philosophy, so writing took a back seat. But the story kept nagging at me, so while I was in college I began to put it down on paper. Since my background is in theatre, I initially wrote this as a one-act play and it was staged in my hometown. It was very rewarding to see actors breathe life into the characters. But I didn’t feel that live theatre was able to fully capture the otherworldly nature of the story, so I put it back in my desk drawer and let it sit for a few years.
In graduate school I had to write a short story in Hawaiian for one of my classes. I decided to try writing Aurora’s story to see how it would come across entirely in that language. It was an interesting experiment. I got an “A” on the project (and in the class), but I felt the story was better told primarily through English because part of the suspense involves Aurora’s struggle to understand what those Hawaiian language dreams are about. So again, I put the story away and left it alone for a few years.
Eventually I decided to rewrite it as a screenplay. The story switches back and forth between reality as we know it, and Aurora’s dream world; and writing for the screen allowed me to explore what those realities would look like. I received great feedback about the script but quickly found that local producers already had their own pet projects, and without money, turning my script into a movie was not likely to happen. I put it in a drawer and tried to forget about it.
A few years later, I dug it out again. Although I had no experience in novel writing, I decided it wouldn’t cost me anything to experiment with that form. This allowed me to explore the interior lives of the characters more fully than I could in other formats. Since I was older and had a different life perspective, the story evolved in unexpected ways. I was happy with the result, but having no knowledge in the world of publishing, I didn’t know what to do with it. So I set it aside and continued with my daily life.
Then, last year, I had a health crisis that brought me back to the question of mortality that sparked my initial desire to write the story. I asked myself if I would regret leaving anything undone if my life ended suddenly. With that in mind, I quickly researched publication options, and the day before flying to Oʻahu for surgery I sent my manuscript to an independent publishing company. Suddenly, it was out in the world. It was exhilarating and a little scary, but I’m glad I had that impetus or it would probably still be sitting in a drawer.
Q: The Hawaiian language and culture are at the center of After Dawn, rooting it in Hawai’i; this story couldn’t have taken place anywhere else. Why did you choose to place the story here?
A: I wanted to explore the idea of language: how it is tied up with identity, how it is acquired, how it works in our subconscious lives, all those things. I use standard English, Hawaiʻi Creole-English (Pidgin), and Hawaiian in the story, because those are the languages I grew up hearing and speaking. And as you said, that makes Hawaiʻi the only logical place to set it.
After Dawn is set on the island of Oʻahu. I chose that locale for a variety of reasons. As writers, we are often admonished to “write what you know,” and since I was raised in Hawaiʻi, that is the environment I am most familiar with. I would’ve had a hard time writing with authenticity if I had set it anywhere else.
I chose Oʻahu specifically because it has a big city, Honolulu, where young adults can have adventures, get in trouble, and separate from their parents to immerse themselves in the college experience as they try to figure out who they are as human beings.
Oʻahu also exemplifies the cultural/environmental disconnection that many contemporary people face. Beneath all the concrete and cars, it is a breathtakingly beautiful island with deeply significant wahi pana or sacred places, but that is a reality that most of us don’t see when we are caught up in the rat race of daily life. Aurora grew up on the outskirts of the city, and on the outskirts of her own culture. She knows there is a wealth of traditional cultural knowledge that she hasn’t had the opportunity to learn because her family always encouraged her to focus on the here-and-now; what it will take to survive in the world today. I wanted the setting to reflect that.
Q: You say Aurora grew up on the outskirts of her own culture. What do you mean by that?
A: Aurora’s father is Hawaiian-Chinese, and her mother is local Haole. So she is the product of two different cultures. Really, her father is the product of two different cultures, and that is reflected in the way he and Eileen have raised Aurora. Like most local kids, especially on Oʻahu, Aurora is surrounded by the trappings of American culture: TV, cars, fast-food, etc. And because her mother values a higher education, she also has that drive to go to college – which is a pretty mainstream American value. Aurora grows up more American than Hawaiian. As a child, she was close with her Tūtū (grandma), who was her strongest connection to her Hawaiian roots. Tūtū wanted to teach Aurora about her culture, but she was discouraged from doing so; and then she passed away, taking that knowledge with her. It’s a common story here in Hawaiʻi. There was a period of time, several generations, when the language and traditional knowledge was devalued, and many kūpuna (elders) passed on without being able to transmit their skills and traditions to the younger generations. Today there is a much stronger desire to acquire that knowledge while there are still people around who can share it.
Q: What would you say is the unique twist that makes After Dawn stand out from other books in its genre?
Q: Why did you choose to write under a pseudonym?
A: Mainly for a sense of privacy. We live in such a public world now, where information about anyone or anything is right at the tips of our fingers via the internet, it’s a double-edged sword. I just wanted to have that extra layer – however thin it may be – to separate my artistic self from my everyday self.
Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a Hawai’i based author?
A: For me, the advantages are the inspiration I draw from the rich cultural diversity and fascinating history of these islands, along with the breathtakingly beautiful environment that can’t help but color any story set here.
The disadvantage is the difficulty in getting a book “out there,” whether that’s getting it seen by a publisher, getting it into stores, or promoting it through author appearances. There are only a handful of bookstores on this island. To promote the book beyond that means flying to other islands or other states, and those costs quickly become prohibitive. Thank goodness we have the internet these days; it helps us deal with those limitations in ways that we wouldn’t have even thought of a decade ago.
Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”
A: Normally, I’m a “plotter.” Once in awhile, though, I have to fly by the seat of my pants and let a character take the lead. Generally, I have a starting place and an ending place that I would like each character to get to, and I try to be flexible in how they get there.Currently, I have my sequels roughly plotted out, mainly so I can track the timelines and make sure that if their stories overlap they’ll make sense. But once I get into the actual writing, the characters will very likely influence the way the stories develop.
Q: So, there will be other books?
A: I think so. I’ve had enough people ask me “what happens afterward?” that I’ve decided to follow some of the main characters to see where their stories take them. At this point I can’t tell you which characters I’ll be focusing on, because that might give away information that I’ve deliberately left ambiguous in After Dawn. Well, I can tell you one… Aurora’s best friend Alex is definitely getting his own book. He has just kind of taken on a life of his own. I don’t know if that book will be the first sequel I write, but it’s definitely going to be one of them.
I’m definitely going to pick that one up. I adore Alex! For readers who want to find out more about Alex, Aurora, and the rest of the cast of After Dawn, it’s available here:
Calling this a “recipe” might be a little grandiose, but it’s a great way to get a main dish going with minimal effort and maximal deliciousness.
What we call pork butt is actually the shoulder.
1) Buy a pork butt. It will probably be somewhere in the 5-10 pound range. If you’re lucky enough to have locally raised pork available, go for it! If you can get a bone-in butt, you’ll get the benefit of all of that glycine, proline, and other bone-y benefits.
2) Drop the pork butt into your slow cooker.
3) Dump Montreal Steak Seasoning all over it. Make sure it’s on all the surfaces.
4) Put the slow cooker on medium or auto and leave it to cook until it’s fork-tender, about 8 hours.
4a) Obligatory Spam reference: Leftovers can be pan-fried until crispy in the same pan as diced Spam for maximum pork-y goodness.
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