Museum Speech: Text Version
The following is the text version of a speech I gave in the summer of 2023 on my Travel Writer Cozy Mystery series. I am only deleted the stage directions that, let's face it, were just for me to ensure I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself. And I've added in parenthesis anything that attendees would know, but those of you reading this might not.
Good evening. I’d like to thank the Bruce County Historical and Genealogical societies for sponsoring this event, and the museum for hosting us. Since you are here, I will assume you know the basics about me, and if you hadn’t heard of me before, my hope is that you will become readers of my books in the future.
When Glenys Johnson contacted me about tonight’s event, I admit I was more than a little surprised. Surely, I thought, there must be more well-known authors out there who write about this wonderful area. (Bonnie Sitter and Judy MacKinnon) There are two others here right now, in fact. After a few e-mails back and forth, it settled in that she was actually serious, and I am flattered to be included.
What brought me to her attention was my Travel Writer Cozy Mystery series. For those unfamiliar with the genre, a cozy mystery is one that is set in a small town or otherwise small venue – actually, this evening at the museum would be a great setting for one. Usually, the cozy mystery has a female amateur sleuth and does not feature any graphic descriptions of crimes; it avoids excessive violence, prolific swearing, or 'naughty content', and often contains animals and humour. The main character is usually engaged in a certain occupation or hobby that features strongly in the book – mine is travel writing, but bakers, fashionistas, vintners, hair dressers, librarians, book store owners, and a plethora of others are common in cozy mysteries.
Those criteria are then applied to a few sub-genres of cozy mystery, namely the contemporary such as my Travel Writer series, the paranormal such as my Haunted & Harassed series, and the historical, of which I haven’t written any. The variations of cozies are truly limited only by writers’ imaginations.
So far there are four books, and one spin-off book in my series, and three of those are set in Bruce County. The Piper Sniper is set in Kincardine, Urgent Quest at Pumpkinfest is set in Port Elgin, and Lethal Shot on Flowerpot is set in Tobermory. My son Steve is not a fan of the rhyming titles, but I told him that the rhyming helps to set the series apart in an increasingly crowded genre. Each chapter is prefaced with part of the Travelling Klutz article my main character is writing, and contains real tourist information of the setting that is featured in that chapter. That informative preface concludes with a humorous tie-in to the events of that chapter. I repeat that formula with each chapter, hopefully bringing the setting to life for the readers.
Which brings me to the topic I’ve decided to speak on tonight: Write what you know.
People giving you advice on writing will often start off by telling you to write what you know. When I first tried my hand at fiction – a long time ago, in high school – that advice confused me. I was 15-years-old, and smart enough to realize that I didn’t really know a heck of a lot. If I followed that advice, I would produce a pretty short work of fiction.
But therein lies the rub, as the bard would say. It’s fiction. Do I know how to shoot a sniper rifle? No, I do not, although I have shot a hunting rifle. But never mind that. Dispose of a murder weapon? Kidnap a person? Steal things? No, I have never done any of those things. And yet I’ve written about a sniper targeting pipers in Kincardine, an ex-boyfriend kidnapping the object of his obsession in Port Elgin, an angry person murdering out of a need for revenge in Tobermory. And that’s just in the three books I’ve mentioned. I’ve done far worse in my thrillers.
Sure, I researched those things, and cleared my search history afterwards, so I kind of know about them NOW. But that’s neither here nor there.
What I do know, and what provides the foundation of my stories, are the settings, the characters, the friendships, the conversations. All of those things in my books are me writing what I know, and I believe they give the books a feel of authenticity that is so important when writing fiction.
I started out with The Piper Sniper and set it in the town I’d lived in for decades – Kincardine. But I wanted to do more than just set the story there; I wanted to highlight the location; make people want to visit.
And hence my travel writer was born.
Like me, she is a former reporter, she’s retired – as in she was tired and now, she is re-tired - she’s a klutz, she’s married to an engineer, she loves to swim and to travel. While she is based quite strongly on me – after all, I do KNOW me - other characters in the books are also based on people I know. But those actual people serve as just a baseline. The characters have diverged somewhat over the course of the books. Her husband the engineer. Her best friend the editor. The grouchy detective – based on someone who is not a police officer but grouchy none the less. And other characters, both minor and major, as the series progresses.
They all started as someone I knew. I knew how they looked, how they dressed, how they reacted in certain situations. That allowed me to make the characters well-rounded. I knew how they talked, and by using that knowledge, sometimes going so far as to use some of the real people’s more common sayings, I was able to make my dialogue more believable, more organic, and hopefully, more entertaining.
Basically, I took some people I knew, stuck them in varied situations, and ran with them. But in the process, the characters grew in their own, sometimes unforeseen directions, diverging from the people I knew into what they have become on the page.
I’ve been on the receiving end of some criticism for doing this. To that, I would say two things. First, the people I based characters on were aware I was doing so, and had no problems with it. Second, I’m not the only author to do this – I’m just a little more blatant about it.
Shirley Jackson, an American author best known for The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House, once said “A writer who is serious and economical can store away small fragments of ideas and events and conversations, even facial expressions and mannerisms, and use them all someday.” She passed away in 1965, the year I turned three-years-old, so as you can see, authors have been doing this for quite a while before I got started.
Will I use your name if I like it? Absolutely! If you repeatedly say a witty thing that makes me smile, will I use that? You bet I will. Will I put you in a book and kill you if you annoy me? Just watch me.
For example, one of my favourite uncles had a habit of saying, “It’s like the old story”, and then following up with that old story. It was endearing, and something I have always fondly remembered. Decades later, the character of the ghost Joe in my Haunted & Harassed Paranormal Mystery series, comes out with that particular gem often, just as my uncle did. But Joe, who shares only this one characteristic with my uncle, doesn’t always get the stories right, diverging from the stories my uncle told. The resulting reactions of the various characters to his mixed-up old stories vary, providing what I hope is comic relief within the book.
But while I’m somewhat more obvious than other writers in basing characters on people I know, I am unapologetically obvious in putting my characters in settings with which I am familiar. Why invent an entirely new place when there are such wonderful places that already exist?
After all, I know a great number of wonderful things to see and do in Kincardine, Port Elgin, and Tobermory; in fact, all of the travel writer tales are and will be set in places I’ve loved to visit. In addition to those three locations, there is Vulcan Alberta, which I transplanted to Ontario in Christmas Tree Mystery when I couldn’t find a town geeky enough for my purposes in this province. In that book, we see the geeky side of my main characters. It was extremely fun to write, because not only have I been to Vulcan a couple of times, but I myself am a huge, cross-franchise geek. If you don’t know what that means, just send me a message at kyoung.author@gmail.com .
Other locations in my books include wineries in Essex County, and Rondeau Provincial Park in Chatham-Kent in Wine and Whines, the first book in the spin-off Travel Writer Day Trips series, and Orillia in the upcoming fifth Travel Writer book called The Sculpture Vulture.
Since The Piper Sniper came out, I’ve had numerous people tell me that Kincardine is now on their list of places to visit. I’ve had similar comments about Port Elgin and Tobermory. It makes me happy to not only share the wonder of the real locations in my books, but to inspire my readers to visit in person.
You’re welcome, by the way. (Said to the people gathered at the event.)
I will never take my travel writer to a location that I have not experienced myself. If I did so, I wouldn’t be writing what I know. Luckily, I’ve been all over Ontario, and it will be a long time before I run out of locations to feature. I just started with the places I knew best.
In case you were wanting proof that I’ve actually visited the locations I write about, the cover photos on my Travel Writer books are ones that I took myself.
And if you are wondering, many of my other books are located in places I know. My thriller Flurries Ending is set in cottage country south of North Bay. My paranormal cozy mystery series, Haunted & Harassed, is set in the albeit renamed city of Chatham. My sci-fi thriller The Six Thousand, at the beginning of the book, features what many of you might recognize as the Walkerton courthouse, where I spent many hours covering court when I was a reporter for the Owen Sound Sun Times and freelanced during a particularly high-profile trial for the Kincardine Independent. These are all places I know. And knowing the places that provide the setting of a book makes it a lot easier to keep track of the details.
Will my travel writer return to Bruce County someday? It’s highly likely – there’s a certain rodent I’d like to make disappear. Do I know how to kidnap a groundhog? No, I do not. Do I know if they bite? Stink? If their fur is soft or wiry? No, nope, and no clue. That’s what search engines are for. Am I familiar with the Wiarton area? Through Explore the Bruce, I have visited it a number of times, and I enjoyed what the area has to offer on each visit; enough so to think that featuring it in a book would be a great idea.
Writing things, places, and people I know. That’s what makes up the foundation of the stories that I imagine and bring to life.
(At this point, I did a quick reading from The Piper Sniper, featuring the preface to the second chapter, included below.)
So many small towns have unique and quaint traditions. Kincardine is no different, thanks to its strong Scottish heritage. Bagpipes and kilts abound, and the town even has its own registered tartan.
One tradition in town surrounds pipers, the iconic red and white lighthouse, and the stunning sunsets over Lake Huron. In the summer, weather permitting, a piper will climb the 69 steep steps to the top of the picturesque lighthouse and make his or her way outside the lamp room. Once perched outside the eight-sided tower, the Phantom Piper, as he or she is called, plays down the sun until it seemingly sinks into the crystal-clear waters of the lake. People gather along the beach, on the docks of the harbour, on the bridge crossing the Penetangore River, on the two piers jutting out into the lake, aboard boats, and up at the Queen's Lookout Park to the east, to watch the sun set and to listen to the plaintive tune with which the piper serenades the sun.
Some people often wonder what the fuss is about. The odd few plug their ears or find reason to be far away during the nightly tradition. After all, bagpipe music is not everyone's cup of tea. Or glass of Scotch, if you want to stay with the town's theme.
There is never a lack of people watching the spectacle, however. Maybe they are enjoying the sights and sounds. Or maybe they're waiting to see if this is the night a phantom piper tumbles from that precarious, high up perch, becoming a phantom in truth.
People are funny that way.
I hope that this has given you enough of a look into my process that you want to give reading my books a try.
One last thing I’d like to throw out there before I go off and chug a glass of wine to calm my nerves, is about the importance of online book reviews to independent authors like myself. They serve as inspiration when we are at our lowest, and give us something to brag about when we’re feeling confident. Reviews don’t even have to be long, or eloquent, or spelled correctly. They just need to be there.
Especially on Amazon, although we appreciate reviews on other platforms as well. But reviews on Amazon result in better placement in algorithms on the site. If a book has over 50 reviews – a dream of mine, actually – Amazon will list it in newsletters and other promotions. That in turn can result in a huge bump in sales. Or so I’m told.
Another benefit of reviews that I never anticipated was that they came into play when I was applying for membership in Crime Writers of Canada. The organization doesn’t normally accept self-published authors, but – and this is key – they checked the reviews on my mystery and thriller books and, because of the percentage of five-star reviews, I was offered membership. Even though there weren’t many reviews, the ones that were there were mostly five-star and that was good enough for them.
Had it not been for the few wonderful readers who had taken the time to write a review, I would not be a member of CWC now.
But beyond the benefit to me as the author, reviews get the word out about something you enjoyed so that other people can enjoy it too. When all is said and done, that’s one of the reasons I write in the first place; to give people something to enjoy, and somewhere to go when they have to or would rather stay put. And hearing about that enjoyment through reviews, or e-mails, or messages, makes me feel all mushy inside.
Thanks for reading.
Here is the audio file of the speech.
Here's a photo of me at the podium.
