Martha Conway

author of The Underground River

  • Home
  • Author
  • Novels
    • The Underground River
      • Foreign Editions
      • The Floating Theatre (UK)
    • Thieving Forest
    • Sugarland
    • 12 Bliss Street
  • Craft
    • Daydreaming Your Novel
    • Exploring Your Main Character
    • Find the Feeling
    • Getting to Know Your Character
    • How to Be Creative
    • Play a Little
    • Reworking your novel
    • Stay the Course
    • What’s in a First Chapter
    • What are the Best Rules for Writing
    • Writing Prompts
  • News & Appearances
  • Contact
  • Book Groups

September 2, 2016 By Martha Conway Leave a Comment

Sugarland – Jazz, Speakeasies, and Mayhem

Sugarland, my latest novel, was named for the corn sugar that bootleggers used to make hooch. One of the fun things about writing about the 1920s is all the great slang I could use, like hooch. My daughter has recently expressed a wish that saying “the bees’ knees” would come back into style. I agree!

The novel is an historical mystery, and I started thinking about it one evening years ago when I was listening to the song “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere” (If You See My Mother) with the great Sidney Bechet on saxophone. I realized that in the back of my mind I was envisioning a scene: a woman was walking along a cold winter street, looking for someone or something. That’s all I knew at the time; the rest came slowly. But to this day I can still see that woman: her back is to me, and she’s wearing a hat like one that my grandmother used to wear.

You can check out the Kirkus Review here. . .

And order it here. . .

 

In 1921, talented young jazz pianist Eve Riser is caught in a drive-by shooting that kills the bootlegger standing next to her. Rescued by Lena Hardy, the bootlegger’s sister, Eve recovers only to find that her pregnant sister Chickie has vanished. Navigating the back alleys, jazz clubs, and speakeasies of 1920s Chicago, Eve and Lena must fight racial barriers in order to save Chickie and learn the truth behind the murder.

 

Save

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
+1
Total Shares 0

Filed Under: Uncategorized

June 1, 2016 By Martha Conway Leave a Comment

Sugarland Q & A

Recently I answered a few questions for Gef Fox’s Den for Dark Fiction about the impetus for writing my latest novel, Sugarland; writers who inspire me; and my least favorite writing advice. I thought I’d post an excerpt here.

What was the spark that made you sit down to write Sugarland?

I was listening to an early piece of jazz—“Si Tu Vois Ma Mere” played by the great Sidney Bechet, and I realized I was imagining a story in the back of my mind. A woman was walking down a cold, winter road looking for something or someone. That’s all I knew.

How long have you been toiling away at your craft, and how have you found your progression as a writer thus far?

I’ve been writing since I was about five years old, only back then it was with crayon on wallpaper. Since then I’ve graduated to paper and even sometimes computer.

My first published book, 12 Bliss Street, was a mystery, which I think is absolutely the best genre for a new writer to cut her teeth on, since writing a mystery really teaches you how to build up a plot, and prepare (and exploit) reader expectations. In mysteries, every plot point is a development of something that has happened previously. There’s no wandering (even if it seems, at times, like there’s no clear direction). That’s good practice for any kind of writer.

As I move into historical fiction I find that, whether my novels include crime-solving or not, I want the plot to move fast and have a lot of twists. But every twist has to have its own logic within the story. You have to make a case for it. Sometimes I think that writing is a lot like being a lawyer.

Who do you count among your writing influences?

Dickens, definitely, for his sense of fun and his amazing characters.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you ever received? Or what piece of writing advice do you wish would just go away?

I studied with a teacher who used to say, “Never go into a character’s head or heart.” This lends distance to the story, in my opinion, and makes it much harder for readers to care about or engage with the character.

I also dislike this advice to new writers: “If you can do anything else, do it.” Sure, writing is hard and can be frustrating and you may not succeed with your project. But I think if you want to write (even if you can do something else—William Carlos Williams sold insurance) you should try! Why not? We’re not all of us going to be Toni Morrison, that’s true, but being creative is an activity that is rewarding in and of itself. At least, I think so.

What kind of guilty pleasures do you have when it comes to books or movies or whatnot?

I love Patrick O’Brian, all his sea-faring tales. Reading read him and reading Jane Austen is like eating comfort food.

What projects are you cooking up that folks can expect in the near future?

My next book will be coming out in 2017; it’s tentatively called THE FLOATING THEATRE, and takes place on a riverboat theatre on the Ohio River before the Civil War. A socially awkward costume designer gets caught up in the Underground Railroad— that’s all I’ll say. 🙂

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
+1
Total Shares 0

Filed Under: Uncategorized

May 23, 2016 By Martha Conway Leave a Comment

164 5-star reviews!

Today’s Featured Kindle Book on FKBT: Thieving Forest by Martha Conway
4.4 out of 5 stars!

Thieving Forest

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
+1
Total Shares 0

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: amazon reviews, creative writing, featured kindle book, FKBT, good books, historical fiction, novels, Ohio, pioneer, writing

April 26, 2016 By Martha Conway Leave a Comment

What are the Best Rules for Writing?

“Good stories have a quality of authorlessness. The better they are, the more authorless they seem. . . They give a sense of being out there, like facts.” (Janet Malcolm)

I have this quotation in front of me on my writing desk, and every once in a while I read it and ponder once again how I can apply it to my work. Clearly it is meaningful to me (why else would I give it such a place of prominence), but like every writing rule, it’s not going to be helpful to every writer. I cannot imagine Zadie Smith or Lauren Groff, both talented writers, being moved by this rule. Their zingy sentences show imaginations hard at work, whereas the novels of Michael Chabon, another writer I admire, display a kind of genius for creating multi-dimensional characters and plot without so much sentence zing.

There are so many ways of writing a good piece of fiction, and just as many ways of failing to do so. This must be why writers collect rules. At times I’m astounded at some of the rules my colleagues put forth — “Never use parentheses (or semi-colons, or dashes) in fiction” or “Never go into a character’s head or heart” or “Always remind the reader of your character’s physical presence” just to name a few.

WriteGoodNew writers are particularly susceptible to rules, and I always like to warn students away from trying to follow too many. At the same time, rules are there to keep writers alert to possible pitfalls, usually ones that many others have fallen into before them. Rules also serve to keep us attentive. The same teacher who told me never to go into a character’s head or heart (advice I ignore), also taught me to look at each sentence carefully. Really carefully. Like it was under a microscope. Even if you’re writing a 1,000 page epic, every sentence counts.

My rule (or one of them) is to look at writers you admire, writers who write fiction that more or less falls within your wheelhouse, and study how they do what they do. When I was writing short stories, I once took a short story by Rick Bass and re-wrote the first paragraph using my character and my situation and my setting but his sentence structure, just to see how he moved a story along. When he wrote about the weather, I wrote about the weather; when he wrote a facial description, I wrote a facial description. It was illuminating. Of course, I couldn’t use that exercise as my story’s opening (much as I wanted to), but it taught me some interesting techniques. (A revelation: you don’t always need to use connecting sentences to go from one image or action to another. Just make the leap.)

Here’s another note card I have propped up before me: “Character is action. Action is plot.” Paraphrased from David Mamet, who paraphrased from Aristotle.

Virginia Woolf would not abide by that rule.

The answer—my answer—to what are the best rules for writing is this: you must compile your own particular set of rules, and follow them. Study writers you admire, think about craft, pay attention when reading to what you enjoy and what you don’t. Think about your reader. Think about writing. And when you write, follow your rules.

As it turns out, following your own rules is basically called style.

What rules do you follow? Which do you ignore?

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
+1
Total Shares 0

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: craft, fiction, good fiction, good sentences, how to write well, Lauren Groff, Michael Chabon, publishing, reading, Rick Bass, writers, writing, writing craft, writing rules, Zadie Smith

December 6, 2015 By Martha Conway Leave a Comment

Featured Title and Giveaway

So happy that today Free Kindle Books and Tips is featuring Thieving Forest!
FKBT TF Feature

 

I’m also hosting a year-end giveaway. I’ll pick five winners for either a paperback or audiobook version of Thieving Forest on December 15th.

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Your Message

flourish2

 

Martha Conway’s new novel, Thieving Forest, won the North American Book Award in Historical Fiction and a Silver Medal in Historical Fiction in the Independent Publishers Awards, and her first novel was nominated for an Edgar Award. Her short stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Folio, and other journals. She teaches creative writing at Stanford University’s Online Writer’s Studio and UC Berkeley Extension.

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
+1
Total Shares 0

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Copyright © 2019 Martha Conway · Site Design: Ilsa Brink · Privacy Policy