WELCOME TO DEE ANN'S WEB SITE!

HELLO, AND THANKS FOR VISITING

Like most writers, Dee Ann has been writing since she first learned cursive. However, having no idea people got jobs in, and were paid for, writing, she chose nursing as a career.

She's convinced that if you're a writer nothing can squelch the need to write. Ten years after high school graduation, married, with a bachelor of science in nursing and a firstborn son, she sold her first article.

Although her career has been in nursing, today she's also an award winning writer and poet with publications ranging from children's stories to nursing journal articles. She had to retire to finish her first novel, Cry of the Bells, and Dee Ann admits she loves writing full time as a second career.

Click here for Mystery Writers of America and below for the Sisters in Crime national organization.







Darrell James' short story Trust a Dead Man to Keep a Secret has just won the Deadly Ink 2007 short story competition. Running in Place won the prestigious 2004 Fire to Fly Contest held by Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine (FMAM). In 2003, his story The Bridge had placed third. Both appear in Body Count.

Fire to Fly illustration by Peter J. Wellington.

Recently, I participated in a discussion about accuracy in historical novels. The exchanges were very heated.

One woman had thrown a book across the room because of a mistake. Someone with a history degree refuses to read historical novels. Period.

I can understand the history major's abhorrance. Musicians, too, have difficulty tolerating inept music. But having written three historical fiction pieces, I know it's a daunting - and often impossible - task to be completely accurate. I lean toward the belief that an error doesn't warrant a refusal to read a book or a toss across the room. However, extensive research is imperative. You know must know everything about the period and place you've chosen.

What did they live in, wear and eat? What forms of address were used? How did they communicate? What dances were popular, what was happening politically and with the weather? Was there a class system? What hatreds existed, not only among your characters, but in society? You might not use all of this in your story, but knowing it is vital to give your piece authenticity. YOU know it. You'll write from that perspective.

I shared parts of my first novel with a critique group, and one member became hysterical (that's hyperbole, of course) because I had a house with two stories. She insisted there were only single-story buildings in that State in that time period. After agonizing over the decision, I decided to leave my house as it was because it was essential to the plot.

After I sold the book, I lived in terror someone would throw my book across the room. However, at Left Coast Crime in Monterey, I stumbled across a building built in the very year in which my story was set. It had two stories.

Sometimes you have to go with your gut.

At least, that's what I think.

NEXT TIME: TIPS ON CONDUCTING RESEARCH

Body Count: A Killer Collection by Darrell James - Honorable Mention