All right, folks. I don’t care if you’re tired of hearing me blather on about how AMAZING Stephanie Black’s books are, I just can’t stop. She was kind enough to send me a copy of her latest, Methods of Madness. I got it on Saturday (and did a dance of joy), started it on Sunday and finished it on Monday.

Emily Ramsey has spent the last three years putting her life back together after her sister was killed in a hit-and-run and her fiancé disappeared—the same night. But now that she’s engaged to Zach Sullivan, someone doesn’t want her to move on—and someone is trying to steal Zach away from her.

Yeah, it’s all fun and games until someone gets murdered.

I’m proud to say that I suspect the bad guy and/or guys all along. (I’m good like that.) Of course, I suspected everyone. I questioned Emily’s sanity right along with her as her world seemed to conspire against her. So I guess maybe that’s not such a great skill this time. . . .

This book is so intricately plotted, and the characters so well-motivated . . . sigh. I’m ’bout to die of jealousy here, folks. Yes, this is technically an LDS book, but seriously, don’t let that stop you—you don’t have to know anything about the LDS Church to enjoy this book!

What I want to know: how much do you plan ahead, Stephanie? Do you always know most of the turns the story will take in advance (because I doubt we ever know all of them)? How much do you have to go back and add in later—planting clues, lacing in new characters and motivations?

And I need to thank you, too—while I read this book Monday, I also had an idea for a book. Chapter one (2600 words) pretty much tumbled out yesterday. I know what one major plot turn will be, and of course I know the end (Nuclear bomb! Everyone dies! No, wait . . .), and I’m about to sit down and plot from here to there. I usually know my major plot twists—but sometimes the best twists simply present themselves as I’m writing.

How about you? How many layers do you put into your plot? How much plotting do you do before you start?

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I believe I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to be Stephanie Black, right? Well, I finally got ahold of her first book, The Believer. Although plot-wise, it’s completely different from Fool Me Twice (my review), I saw some definite parallels in the complexity of the mystery plots.

The Believer deals with a future dystopia where religion is outlawed. The main character, a history professor, has slowly wandered down the path of “treason,” reading unapproved and even (gasp!) religious literature—a crime punishable by life in prison.

As Dr Roshek (which is an anagram of kosher! Am I not clever?) tries to do the right thing, his world begins to fall apart the day that he is arrested for defending a student accused of treason—a stranger—from a brutal attack.

Like Fool Me Twice, the plot is very complex. I was happy that I couldn’t guess the ending of the book—by the black moment, it definitely looked like there was no way any of the main characters would make it out alive. However, the plot wasn’t so complex that I felt lost or overwhelmed—just like with Stephanie’s other book, as the book neared the climax, I could see some things coming (though there were a few surprises!), but only about 20 pages in advance. She did a good job of planting clues, too—in such a way that you could remember them if you’d paid attention.

In a way, this reminded me of All’s Fair by Julie Coulter Bellon—with terrorists insurgents trying to overthrow the government, but mostly because I was all ready to pull out my American Heritage principles to teach just why insurgencies don’t work. Really, as a history professor, Stephanie’s protagonist could have even lectured on these principles himself.

As always, I have to point out anything that detracted from the story for me. Lt. Alisa Kent, a policewoman torn between duty to her country and her conscience, is supposed to be severe, from her coloring and clothing to her mannerisms and speech. But sometimes she came off as more wooden than severe to me.

I’m eagerly awaiting Stephanie’s latest book, Methods of Madness, which is due out this month!

What do you think? Would you (or your writing) benefit from learning about why insurgencies fail? Do you like books to be complex enough to be unpredictable?

Last month (is it August already?!), I participated in a writing challenge hosted by Tristi Pinkston. Well, actually, I did almost no writing, unless you count rewriting, but then again I did have two family reunions, a road trip, moving my sister and a long visit from my family in July, so I tried to take it easy on myself.

Yeah, apparently I don’t know what that phrase means.

So I had to lighten my own load with revised goals the first week of the month—and I’m glad I did.

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS. Woot! I mentioned this before, but not only did I finish the two rounds of editing, I added a bunch of words (side note: once I had a writing client inform me that you cannot use “not only” without the accompanying “but also.” Riiiight.). I’m still working on cutting. Well, not really. I’m working on getting chapters to critique partners, still. My mom read it and liked it, though .

2. Read my library books:
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.) Read, now to review.
   • Death in Holy Orders Decided I’d have to check it out again.
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life Skimmed. Some chapters might really be useful enough to read again, especially the chapter on “Transcendency.”
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.: Lockdown, reviewed last week! Hm. . . . two challenges this summer. Have I ever met a challenge I didn’t like? (Oh yeah.)
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) Mulled like cider, baby. (Um, wow . . . let’s just move on.) I have most of the book outlined, though I still need to clarify a few things and work on the conclusion. Still doing a lot of research in this area, and I definitely want to brush up in the genre before I nail down the characters and events, but I’ve already written a little of the opening. It was tough going, though, and I don’t like fighting with my writing from the beginning, so we’ll see.
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits. Thankfully, there wasn’t much demand in this area.

Even if you weren’t part of the challenge, how did your writing (or your vacation ) go for July?

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

Note: coming up in our deep POV series this week: Getting into our characters’ heads in two different ways!

Well, we’re almost a week into Tristi Pinkston’s July Writing Challenge. I admitted when we started that my goals were rather lofty, especially given that I’ll be spending the rest of the month with family in town. Plus, my library due date is fast approaching. So I’m revising my goals a bit, and reporting on the progress I’ve made so far.

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
   • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters. Down to the last five!
   • Go through the second half of the book last eight chapters again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes one scene to go! and cut out the parts people skip
   • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand.
2. Read my library books:
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.) Read, now to review.
   • Death in Holy Orders (Ten guesses why.)
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life Skimmed. Some chapters might really be useful enough to read again, especially the chapter on “Transcendency.”
   • The rest of the books will go on my “to be checked out again later” list.
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) (Mulling away!)
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

Even if you’re not part of the challenge, how is your writing (or your vacation ) coming along?

Tristi Pinkston is hosting a July writing challenge! For the month of July, we’re setting goals for what we’d like to accomplish in our writing projects, whether that’s words written, pages edited or even research done.

July is set to be a pretty busy month for me—festivities for the Fourth of July (seriously; my husband just called and said he got us tickets to four different events next week), my family here for most of the month, two family reunions, a road trip. . . . I think I’m getting a little ambitious. But we’ll try, anyway!

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
   • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters
   • Go through the second half of the book again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes and cut out the parts people skip
   • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand.
2. Read my library books:
   • Cover Her Face (PD James—the literary edge of the mystery genre. Or so I’ve heard.)
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.)
   • Never Street (An actual PI likes Estelman’s PI portrayal.)
   • Death in Holy Orders (Ten guesses why.)
   • Farewell, My Lovely (Obviously I’m on a bit of a classic mystery authors bent.)
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (I haven’t found a lot of Noah Lukeman’s stuff helpful, but I’m giving him another shot.)
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.)
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

This is a great way to help us reach our goals. By writing them down, we have something concrete to work toward. And part of the challenge is checking regularly at Tristi’s challenge blog, where you get accountability and encouragement. And at the end of the month, we report to Tristi for our final dose of accountability. All of these things can help us achieve our goals.

So what are your writing goals for the next month (well, five weeks—my goals start from today for me)? Share them in the comments or on your blog to participate in the challenge!

Photo credit: Richard Dudley