When the Magic Happens

by LynDee Walker of the Femmes Fatales.

Donna here, just briefly to say the Femmes Fatales are excited to welcome another new Femme: LynDee Walker. I've enjoyed LynDee's work since reading Front Page Fatality, which was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 2013. LynDee's heroine, Nichelle Clarke, is an investigative reporter in Richmond, Virginia—LynDee draws on her own experience as a reporter to craft Nichelle's action-filled and almost gritty adventures. I was also delighted to be one of the first readers for the debut book in her upcoming new series about a female Texas Ranger. Not sure which was the best news—that the new series has sold, or that she'll also be continuing with Nichelle's adventures.  Take it away, LynDee!

From LynDee: Thank you, Donna! I’m still thrilled about my big flurry of book news, and so happy to be joining this group of talented and inspiring authors! 

Most writing days are good ones, y’all. 

I think when you’re doing something that’s part of you, and you’re lucky enough to make a living at it, you’ve got it pretty good. For me, that came about by happenstance a few years and a few thousand diapers after I left the newsroom to be a mom, and five years on, I’m thankful for it every single day. 

Even on the hard ones. Writing wise, those are rare for me, thankfully, usually arriving in the middle of a manuscript when I’m wrestling with where my story is going. Every word is an effort. Hours tick by and I click to check my word count and find I’ve increased it by another hundred. I get up and walk, I scribble brainstorming on my whiteboard, I make more coffee. I resist the siren song of Facebook, because if I open Safari, I’m killing any productivity I might find for the rest of the day. It’s the downside of writing the way I do, where every line is a surprise and I never know what’s coming next.

I’m glad those days don’t come often. 

Just as rare, but far more enjoyable and exciting, are the days when “the magic” happens. My friend Hank Phillippi Ryan told me once that Sue Grafton called those moments when the story all comes together and takes a wild and wonderfully unexpected turn “the magic.” And I loved that as I love Sue’s dear Kinsey, so I adopted it because it’s the perfect description. 

The magic in my current project, the seventh in my Nichelle Clarke series, came last week, I think with more fanfare because it followed on the heels of one of the harder days I’ve had with this manuscript. 

After a day of forcing words onto the page, looking askance at where the story was trying to go, opening a new scene and trying again, and walking more than eleven thousand steps (thank you, Apple Watch) around my house, I was wary of turning on my laptop Thursday morning.

But thinking of the readers who’ve waited so patiently for this book, and how grateful I am for that patience, I focused my energy on my desire to give them the best Nichelle book yet and dove back in. 

And…magic. 

With three paragraphs, I fixed all the issues I’d had with the story the day before, and I suddenly saw clearly why everything that happened up to this point had happened. And lost my breath and nearly fell off the chair when I realized it. And then I typed. As fast as I could, my normal vigilance about typos and spelling falling away as my fingers flew over the keys. For about five hours, I was the embodiment of the frantic, inspired writer, cramming words into my computer at warp speed as I let the magic lead me to the key to the end of this book. I logged twice as many words as my best day on this project so far, and shut my computer at school pickup time practically floating. I snatched up my phone to text my husband, who had patiently listened to me try to work the story out for most of the day before. 

I GOT IT. (Spoilers redacted. I can tell him because he doesn’t read fiction, and I was so excited I had to tell someone.)

I love what I do, but I on days like last Thursday, I love it a whole extra lot. They make the hard days more than worth it. 

How about you, Femmes: How does the magic happen for you? And readers, does it hit you the same way, when you see those moments happening to your favorite characters on the page? What do you love about it?

Comments

[Art Taylor]

Welcome! And so glad all is going well with the new book--and so much more!

[Kristopher]

Another wonderful new addition to the Femme line-up.

[LynDee Walker]

Thanks, y'all! :)

[krisneri]

Welcome to the Femmes, LynDee! That's all true for me as well. There's always a tipping point when the impossible threads come together and I see how all the payoffs will work. "Magic" is the perfect word.

[Diane Garland]

I love being caught up in the moment as a reader. Where everything ceases to exist except for myself living vicariously through the character. When the magic hits the character, it hits me also and I surge with anticipation and then sigh at the contentment of a story well ended.

[Barb Goffman]

The magic so often happens for me in the shower. Something about the power of negative ions. Just a few days ago I opened a story I'd written months before and had thought was good, but with fresh eyes I knew it needed work. But I wasn't sure exactly how to fix it. That night I hadn't been in the shower more than two minutes when it all became obvious, and the story is now revised and so much better. Magic!

Welcome to the Femmes!

[Ruth]

I’m so grateful for “magic” moments— for the day when I’m the right person opening the right book, and I forget where I am and just hang with my book-y buddies. I’ll curl around that book for indetmerninat hours as the sun fades, and I’ll gladly have hummus, fruit, and crackers for both lunch and dinner because anything else would take me too far away from the magic. Those days are golden, and for them I thank you LynDee and all the writers who keep my shelves piled high. May the writerly magic find all of you often.

[Mark]

Welcome to the Femmes!

Yes, I can tell when an author has had “the magic” happen for them. It usually takes my breath away, too, at how everything came together.

[Deb Romano]

As a reader, it happens for me when I look up from my book and am startled to see that I’m in my living room, and not on another continent or in another century, etc.
Sometimes it carries over into other aspects of my life. During the summer I was a passenger in my sister’s car, when a car that was coming towards us seemed familiar. I was just about to say to my sister “doesn’t that fit the description of the car the police are looking for?” when I remembered that that car looked similar to a suspicious car in a mystery I was reading. My sister already thinks I read “too many mysteries”, so I’m glad I didn’t say anything!

[LynDee Walker]

Thanks everyone, for the warm welcome!

Kris, I stole it from Sue via Hank, so feel free to adopt it for yourself. ;)

Diane, I love that feeling! But I'm always sorry the book is over, too.

Barb, YES! The shower or the car or washing dishes...or walking. This was a rare time it all clicked while I was in front of the computer, once I backed up and tried something new.

Ruth, thank you so much! As a writer I love seeing those moments come to life on the page but experiencing them as a reader is such fun, too. Every once in a while a book comes along that makes me issue notice to my family that they're on their own until I'm done reading. I actually have one on my desk right now, Lou Berney's new NOVEMBER ROAD, that carries that warning, ready for me to get lost in as soon as I finish up this draft of the new Nichelle.

Mark, thank you! I'm so glad to know those moments come across for the reader, too.

Deb, I love that story so much! That's the sort of story every writer hopes to create: One that transports you and comes to life for you.

[Cynthia Kuhn]

Congratulations, LynDee, for joining Femmes and for finding that magic! I know what you mean, both with the tortured kind of writing and the magical kind of writing! Suspect that it has something to do with the subconscious working in the background, piecing things together? But in any case, it's wonderful when it happens. (Amazing how visceral it can be.) Love your post!

[Jennifer McMillan]

When I have those moments as a reader, I devour the pages. There's just no other way to describe it.

As a writer, I just walk away for a while and come back to it. I don't plot anything. I just write. Everyone is different, though.

[Donna]

Not sure which makes me happier . . . that other folks will get to read the new series, or that the magic has returned with Nichelle. Write on!