Kim Batchelor

Writer of magical realism and other imaginative fiction

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Feb 26 2017

Light, Desert, Sky

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Last summer on the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I avoided the fastest most direct route from I40, opting instead for the ‘scenic route’ just east of the city. I’d taken that same route before, and only agreed to my spouse’s suggestion to take that road knowing that sundown was still an hour or so away.

What I hadn’t counted on was the mute light in the waning hours of the day, making the hairpin turns more treacherous and the shadows a substantial impediment to knowing if someone had drifted over to my side of the narrow two-lane road. In between those white knuckle moments, were periods of stunning beauty. I had never before seen the light play off the red soil like that afternoon. I couldn’t recall among my many trips to New Mexico the strands of muted sunlight bring out the details of the terrain so well as it did on that stretch at that time of day.

Later that weekend, on Museum Hill just outside Santa Fe, an afternoon cluster of storm clouds became more dramatic through the dark lenses of my sunglasses. The mountains in the distance stood out more prominently, as did the vortex center of those clouds that at that moment discreetly held the rain and the raw materials to fuel the lightning and thunder that flashed and boomed shortly after.

I’m not a trained photographer, so I didn’t get the photos that would do justice to either of these phenomena. All I can do is share painter Georgia O’Keefe’s vision of what she saw of the desert from her home in Abiquiú, New Mexico.

These observations made me think of writing in terms of illumination and darkness. Consider one example: a girl and her brother and their friend discovering the world. Illumination comes from the father of the boy and girl as he explains the implications of race in their community. Later, darkness threatens the girl and her brother, and in the shadows a mystical character reveals himself in order to save them both.  The book, of course, is To Kill a Mockingbird, and the characters are Scout and Jem Finch and their friend Dill. The mystical figure is one of my favorites from literature, Boo Radley. What reader of the book can forget Boo in the shadows, watching over a bed-ridden Jem?

We writers are weavers of light and darkness, daybreak and sundown. We hide the danger in spots of low-light along treacherous roads and call up turbulence just when everything seems calm in those bright blue skies. The safest story would have been for me to drive along the well-traveled freeway with nothing to hide. The struggle between darkness and light, shadow and filtered strands of sun make for a much more interesting ride.

In the end, I conquered my fear like any protagonist I would hope is worth reading about.

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Written by Kim · Categorized: Inspiration, Storytelling, Writing · Tagged: darkness, desert, light, Santa Fe, storm

Dec 05 2016

Satan’s Tips for Being a Terrible Critique Partner

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Hello. Satan here. Sure, I’m best known for war, pestilence, brussels sprouts and those songs in commercials you can’t get out of your head. And some of you have met me because we’ve made a little deal for your soul. You know who you are.

Now some tips for those critique groups you’re all involved in.cartoon-devil_gybpoopd_l

As a writer, too (I’m the author of all those bestsellers you tried to read and thought were garbage), I know the value of participating in a critique group. I thought I’d share some of my views on how I approach my role as a critique partner which I do for fun.

  • Don’t make suggestions. Instead tell the writer how to do it the way you’d do it. That’s what they’re there to hear, right?
  • Read too carefully. Look for anything to criticize. There’s got to be something to point out. Something nit picky. Maybe the font?
  • Don’t read carefully enough and make an irrelevant comment. This is one of my favorites. There’s nothing like it that’s more frustrating for the writer who isn’t allowed to talk while being critiqued. I enjoy how their faces turn red.
  • Don’t read at all. Or don’t pay attention when the writer is reading his or her own work. Just act bored and stare at your nails.
  • Engage in revenge critique. No one says anything negative about my work without getting an irrelevant comment back.
  • Use your body language to full effect. Eye rolling. Furrowed brow. Clenched teeth. They all work for me.
  • Pop in and out of established critique groups. When you’ve got all you need, drop out. There’s nothing like stepping on the heads of others as you claw your way to the top.

So feel free to use any of these tips. Productive and respectful critique groups are not my friends. Too much competition from better writers.

Oh, by the way, I’m running a year-end sale on soul acquisition. Hurry before this deal runs out. Contact me. I’m all over Twitter.

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Written by Kim · Categorized: Writers, Writing · Tagged: critique, tips

Oct 03 2016

Bouchercon 2016 Part II: Observations as a Writer

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Two weeks ago I attended my first Bouchercon, a convention named for one of its founders, Anthony Boucher. For those of you who have never heard of Bouchercon, it’s a volunteer-driven convention focusing on mystery and suspense novels and thrillers. Since it is a convention that attracts both writers and readers (and most, like me, a combination of the two), I thought I’d divide up my impressions into what I got out of this almost fifty-year-old gathering.

One of the highlights of attending for me as a writer was a revolving ‘panel’ of writers not participating in other panels. The panel was known as the “Continuous Conversation.” I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was scheduled, but it turned out to be a pleasure to be interviewed by the moderator with one other author for almost an hour. (A couple of authors skipped their slots which allowed me to stay a little longer.) We ended up with a small but enthusiastic group who heard us talk about what inspires us, where we get our stories, the value of workshops for us, and other topics.

Several workshops, too many for me to attend them all, dealt with craft—setting, research, social media, and, apt for a mystery conference, crime scene investigation. Markets were discussed on several panels. I’m not currently a reader of “cozies,” mysteries with less edge and absent of gruesome violence, but I learned that food related cozy mysteries are very popular and demand is good.

One of my favorite sessions was on “Corsets and Crime,” a panel made up of writers of historical mysteries. Many of the panel members—Tasha Alexander, Laurie King, Lyndsay Faye, C.S. Harris, Deanna Raybourne, and Susanne Calkins—are historians or very adept at historical research. A couple of the useful tips for someone writing fiction came out of this panel. Laurie King, known for her bestselling novels of Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, said her strategy was to research only as much as she needed to know to draft the novel, then fill in the blanks. Authors should avoid being drawn into the “research vortex,” when the research becomes so interesting they can’t stop themselves. Several panel members confessed to having to struggle against this, especially when historical research is part of their training. I not only learned how successful authors of historical mysteries do it, I found some new authors whose books I look forward to reading.

I have a police procedural sitting in a drawer and I’d like to take it out someday and revise it for possible publication. Unfortunately, the only disappointing session I attended was one on weapons. I’d expected to hear about different weapons and how an investigator investigates their use, but I didn’t receive much information on this topic in the workshop.

I’m happy to be on the volunteer committee of the 2019 Bouchercon in Dallas, the 50th anniversary of the convention. This meant that I spent some time staffing the Bouchercon table, and will order session downloads of some of the sessions I missed. I’m looking forward to our opportunity here in Dallas to take on this convention that has become an institution. We’re already in the process of planning, and hope it will continue to be an opportunity for writers as well as readers to find plenty that enhances their work.

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Written by Kim · Categorized: Bouchercon, Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers, Writers, Writing · Tagged: Bouchercon 2016, historical fiction, novel research, workshop

Sep 19 2016

Bouchercon Part I: Diversity

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Yesterday, I returned home from New Orleans and my first time to attend Bouchercon, an annual convention dedicated to authors and fans of mystery, suspense, crime fiction. Bouchercon is named for Anthony Boucher, who with a group of volunteers established the first Bouchercon in 1969. It has since grown into a conference attended by hundreds of people; this year the attendance is estimated to be 1800. I am part of the committee organizing Bouchercon 2019 in Dallas, when the convention celebrates its 50th anniversary.

I started on Wednesday by attending a preconference afternoon session on diversity sponsored by Sisters in Crime (SinC), an organization founded by author Sara Paretsky in order to, originally, promote women mystery writers. With much discussion of the need for diverse books and protagonists, as well as supporting characters, I found this and a separate conference session the next morning to be very valuable. Since one session went on for five hours and the other about an hour, both with multiple presenters, there’s too much that was shared to be able to describe it all in only one blog post. What I will do is list a few highlights.

The afternoon session began with a brief talk and extended Q&A with author Walter Moseley. His remarks were wide ranging and it hardly does justice to summarize them. He started with a rousing call to action on issues of social justice and described the importance of diversity as part of that call. He let us know that we are all people of at least some color. The critical issue is expanding in our writing the inclusion of voices that are too often unheard.

Here are the main points I took from each of the other presenters:

Greg Herren, author of the Chanse MacLeod and Scotty Bradley mysteries: Throughout a humorous presentation, Greg’s best advice was ‘drop the gay male friend,’ especially if he’s your only gay character. Include gay, lesbian, transgendered characters, just don’t make them stereotypes or sidekicks.

Cindy Brown, Agatha-nominated author of the Ivy Meadows mysteries: Cindy was part of the afternoon session and another session the following day that addressed the challenge of creating characters with disabilities. She talked language—use a person with a disability and avoid the use of disabled and ‘handicapped’ (especially) as descriptors. The disability is something the person has, not the totality of the person. She also advised against terms like ‘other abled’ and especially cautioned about how we describe people who use wheelchairs for mobility; e.g., wheelchair bound.

Also important, Cindy educated us on how we should think of disability. It’s not just physical but also mental. Depression and other psychiatric disorders can also be disabling.

Linda Rodriguez, award winning author of the Skeet Bannon mysteries: Linda stressed the importance of really doing our homework when we want to include a character who comes from a different experience from our own. She used author Tony Hillerman as an example; the Navajo thought he ‘got it right’ with his Navajo characters, and even embraced him as an honorary member of their nation. Some were upset by the secrets about the Navajo that a few members shared with him, an outsider. Linda joined the chorus that we diversify our characters; we just need to do our research and expect that there will often be criticism. Do it anyway.

Frankie Bailey, PhD, author of the Lizzie Stuart and Hannah McCabe mysteries, criminal justice professor, and director of Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st century at the University of Albany: Dr. Bailey covered several topics on dialogue, but two of the most important points she made were (1) be careful of walk-on characters who can be easiest to stereotype, and (2) while women and persons of color have been hired in significant numbers in many police and fire departments, they can be subject to feeling like “insiders within” these organizations.

To recap the overarching theme: We need to incorporated diverse characters in our writing, know more about the people we write about and where they come from, create fully fleshed out characters, and get feedback from people living within the skin and cultures similar to these characters.

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Written by Kim · Categorized: Writers, Writing · Tagged: Bouchercon, diversity, Sisters in Crime

Aug 25 2016

Magical Realism: The Magic and the Real

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Ava Feather for Blog

 

Remedios the Beauty represents purity while walking about the Buendía household without wearing a stitch of clothing. Remedios the Beauty, always oblivious to the men who lust after her. And in a magical moment, Remedios the Beauty, while hanging clothes on the line, is suddenly caught up in a brisk wind and ascends into the heavens.

After reading this passage, I was hooked.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature and the best-known writer of what has come to be known as “magical realism,” created Remedios in his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. The ascendance of Remedios is the ‘magic.’ The ‘real’ of Remedios may be a story of girls who actually disappeared. Those girls, unmarried and expecting babies, ended up in convents, out of sight of those who would judge them. For me, the breathtaking passage where Remedios ascends will always be bound up in the other story of girls made invisible by circumstances.

Isabel Allende combined ‘magic’ and ‘realism’ in her House of the Spirits—ghosts stand in for strong feelings. Salman Rushdie incorporated the dualistic real/magic in several of his books, and wrote about the concept of magical realism in an article in the New York Times Book Review shortly after Garcia Marquez’s death.

The term ‘magical realism’ is not without controvery—many Latin American writers feel pressured by some to write in Garcia Marquez’s style even as they reject it for their own writing.  Many of those who do don’t like the term; I’ve heard suggest ‘hyper-realism’ as a substitute.

It doesn’t matter to me what it’s called, I’m drawn to books that include the fantastical standing in for the real. I frequently insert fantastical elements into my own writing. In The Island of Lost Children, flying and mystery rivers and horses made of sea foam also represent something more profound.

Just recently I finished a lovely book, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. From the very beginning the reader knows that Ava is born with wings, and the presence of wings keeps Ava trapped in her own home because of her mother’s fears for her. The ending is stunning. Through this book, I dipped my toes in a familiar yet alien universe. My review of the novel is here.

I have read many books considered magically realist, among them Beloved by Toni Morrison, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman—who often writes novels considered to be in the magical realism genre—is a book where the fantastical is only an illusion.

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” So begins One Hundred Years of Solitude. The image of ice and its importance in the memory of a man facing the firing squad—those words and similar images made me return to the book not once but three times. I’m not sure the meaning of ice in the world of Macondo, but I’m certain it’s important in conveying something outside the most obvious thing.

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Written by Kim · Categorized: Fantasy, Magical realism, Novels, Storytelling, Writers, Writing · Tagged: alice hoffman, erin morgenstern, gabriel garcia-marquez, laura esquivel, leslye walton, salman rushdie, the night circus, toni morrison

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I write for children. I write for adults. I write fiction short and long, real and fantastical, foreign and domestic.

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