FROM WRITING FUNNY FICTION TO WRITING TRUE CRIME
by Morgan St. James
I’m
one of those people who definitely is
a workaholic. When I’m asked what I do for fun, I often reply that I write—and I read. How
lucky is that? Being an author, speaker and columnist with ten books and over
500 published columns to my credit is something I really enjoy and look at as
fun.
Until
last year I mainly wrote funny crime fiction. In the mid-1990s my sister
Phyllice Bradner and I came up with the idea for the Silver Sisters Mysteries
featuring identical twins born in different decades, different years, different
months and on different days. They look like silver-haired Mae Wests and have a
talent for solving mysteries, but lest you get the wrong idea, they don’t go
looking for trouble, it finds them. Although identical on the outside, they have
two very different personalities and lifestyles. One is a wealthy Beverly Hills
widow who writes the “Ask G.O.D.” syndicated advice column from her luxurious
estate. The other is an over-the-hill flower child who owns an antique shop in
Juneau, Alaska and is married to a cruise ship captain.
Flossie
Silver and Uncle Sterling Silver, their 80-year-old mother and uncle, live in
cottages on Godiva’s estate and round out the cast of characters. These former
vaudeville magicians perform at the Home for Hollywood Has-Beens every Thursday
with Waldo the Wonderdog, love to go undercover in disguise and often use magic
illusions to get out of the scrapes they get into. The wacky Silver family and full
cast of other characters give us the opportunity to concoct funny crime capers
with lots of twists and turns. It all began with the award-winning A Corpse in the Soup, followed by Seven Deadly Samovars and Vanishing Act in Vegas. The fourth book
in the series, Diamonds in the Dumpster,
is in work.
My
most recent funny crime caper, Who’s Got
the Money? co-authored with Meredith Holland, was inspired by a series of
true events and, while fiction, is a different sort of crime caper. Meredith
and I both worked as marketing reps for prison-manufactured furniture for about
4 years—a little-known
business that actually does book about 800 Million Dollars of business annually— with about 600
Million in furniture. Government fiascos and misuse of funds are constantly in
the news, so we felt the time was right to concoct a fictional scheme to
embezzle millions from the Federal prison manufacturing entity. Then we added three
savvy female executives who turn into Charlie’s Angels wannabes and
accidentally uncover this diabolical plot.
Who’s Got the
Money?
was my foray into using true life knowledge and events to create pure crime fiction,
and was a good training ground for what came next.
Writing
is a solitary profession and it is fun to have someone to interact with during
the process. I’ve written other books on my own, but really do enjoy writing
with co-authors. For me, a primary consideration is the goal of writing
seamlessly, so the reader can’t tell where one author begins and the other
leaves off. Writing with partners is always different depending upon the other
person’s strengths, skills and knowledge. To me, it is essential to decide how
you will write together before one word is tapped out on the computer. Because my
writing partners always seem to involve a long-distance writing situation, God
bless email, Skype, unlimited long-distance phone service, etc.
When
I write with my sister, it is also a sister bonding time, so we try to get
together for a few days when we create the plot points and for a final
read-through, either in Oregon where she lives or my house in Las Vegas. Like
many things, the destinations have changed during the years we’ve written
together. We started out with her in Juneau, Alaska and me in Los Angeles,
California.
That
brings me to my latest fascination and what I’ve learned about the difference
between writing funny fiction and true crime.
Last
year I was approached by Dennis N. Griffin, an author with several true crime
books to his credit, relative to a project he was about to begin. He wanted to
know if I would be interested in co-authoring what is now the about-to-be-published
book La Bella Mafia. He wanted to be
able to write the events in Bella Capo’s startling life from a woman’s
perspective. Bella has severe PTSD and he also knew I’d had experience with a
mild case of PTSD after a life-threatening auto accident. He warned me this
wasn’t a project for the faint-of-heart. I accepted and for the past year we
have been using email, phone conferences and Skype to work with this incredible
story. It begins when she was the abused child of a crime boss, to the time she
ran clubs and after-hours clubs on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, later becoming a white
female boss in a notorious national gang and then founding La Bella Mafia, an
online organization to protect and counsel abused women. Although this
beautiful woman also has Traumatic Brain Injury from the beatings she received
earlier in life, you’d never know it and that doesn’t stop her from being a
dynamic force.
I
immediately adjusted to the big difference between funny fiction and true
crime. You don’t get to make up stuff, and have to ask for backup and
verification, particularly when writing about organized crime. After all, isn’t
like stories you watch for an hour or so on TV or in the movies. Brutal things
happen. Chances are taken. Some work out and some don’t. Terror often rides in
the passenger seat. Most of all, it is all real. The reliving is generally very
traumatic to the person whose story it is, so you must be compassionate and
understanding.
In
my opinion it is very important to keep that person’s speech patterns and
descriptions, known as “the voice.” In our case, Bella is an excellent writer
in her own right but what happened to
her and what she experienced was enough for 20
lives. Our job was to pick and choose what to include and what to possibly save
for another book, create the flow and instill Bella with very three-dimensional
human qualities and emotions in the book. It was imperative she not be a “cardboard
character.” That’s where a fiction background came in handy. The facts weren’t
changed, but it wasn’t written as a documentary or in investigative style
either. Dennis and I both used all of our experience and skills to make it a
book from written the heart in such a way that it will offer inspiration and
help to other abused women.
So
now I’m hooked on writing true crime. Dennis has brought me into two future
projects and in this case collaboration is good. Besides being the author of
many books, he is a former police investigator with the background to know what
we have to fact-check and has first-hand knowledge of police procedures. I’m
quick to admit I don’t have that knowledge.
What
a balance. I can work on funny fiction and true crime side-by-side now, looking
at both the light side and the gritty side. No wonder I love what I do.
Morgan St. James |
2012 RELEASES:
Getting Even - A Kindle Only Prequel to WHO'S GOT THE MONEY?
Confessions
of a Cougar from
Marina Publishing Group
Can We Come In and Laugh, Too?
(Edited by Morgan)
order
online at most booksellers or order at your favorite local bookstore
Visit
my websites:
www.morganstjames-author.com (general)
www.silversistersmysteries.com (series)
http://writerstricksofthetrade.blogspot.com (blog for writers)
Thanks for visiting me today, Morgan. Loved learning about all this.
Comments
Marja McGraw