"You Know My Methods, Watson!" Murder, Historically Speaking with M.R. Graham

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome to ThrillWriting!

It's not so "elementary, Watson," when it comes to writing a historical mystery.

M.R.
I know a lot of would-be historical writers are daunted by research and have no idea where to begin, but that's something I do in academia, so I can shed some light on process and resources.

And of course, the importance of pretty rigorous research when you're messing with social issues. For example, there are still strong ties between poverty and crime, and even stronger PERCEPTION of the ties between poverty and crime, and it gets really sensitive.

Fiona - 
Let's start there - can you give me a your background as it pertains to preparing to write a historical novel?

M.R.- 

I'm actually in education and anthropology, not specifically history, but research methods between the two are extremely similar. 

I've taught college students how to conduct research of the library-and-journal variety, without putting too much faith in shallow, often questionable sources like Wikipedia. Working in academia, you realize pretty quickly how little a Wikipedia article really tells you, even if all of the facts are totally accurate. They don't provide context, and they rarely provide conflicting interpretations of theories or events. They're overviews, and that's okay, because that's all they're supposed to be. But that's not enough for someone who wants to portray a complex and nuanced culture, whether in another place or another time. 

The past really is another culture. People thought differently than we do, now, in a lot more subtle and varied ways than the "everyone was a bigot" or "it's all about manners" portrayals we often get. I do recommend at least a cursory study of anthropology for historical fiction writers, just to get a feel for the ways one culture CAN differ from another, things that are so ingrained in our way of thinking that we assume they're human nature, when they're actually learned attitudes.

Fiona -
You have a book that's been included in the Murder and Mayhem boxed set. Can you tell me about that book and how you applied your unique expertise to the plot line?

M.R. - 

Absolutely. My contribution is titled No Cage for a Crow, and while it's historical fiction, it's also more specifically pastiche, placed in Victorian London, directly into the world of Sherlock Holmes. 

This one has actually been in the works for about twenty-five years, now, and it's the first story I ever began, so the research for it has been going since before I really knew what research was. (I was rather small, twenty-five years ago.) A lot of it was just mounded-up knowledge I collected without rhyme or reason, and unsurprisingly, the story went nowhere fast. 

Sadly, a lot of it also came from historical fiction I read as a teenager, and I've had to un-learn a lot of things I thought I knew. It was about ten years ago that I actually got methodical about it, and from that point, the writing has become easier, and the history sounder. All research starts with a question, and the one I chose was "Where are all the women in Sherlock Holmes's world?" Now of course, there are women mentioned. An awful lot of them come to Holmes for help. There's Mrs. Hudson downstairs. There's Irene Adler. But Doyle's work is overwhelmingly masculine. I always meant to write about Sherlock Holmes's sister, but I honestly didn't know what that kind of story would look like. 

I needed to know what was going on with the other half of the population. 

It may sound counter intuitive, but I actually turned to fiction, first. It's important to note, though, that I turned to fiction written BY women DURING the period I was interested in - people who ought to know what they're talking about. As I read, I made notes every time I didn't understand something: a word I didn't know, or a reference to a person or event. The list came out to several composition notebooks full. And I took the time to look up every one of them. Wikipedia was perfectly useful for this part. If anything sounded really significant, like something real people would have strong feelings about, I took the inquiry to Google Scholar, which is a great free resource everyone should know how to use. GS has lots of primary-source accounts, like archived letters, diaries, newspaper articles... the things that would tell you how people felt.

Fiona - 
And you picked a time frame that appealed to you. What called to you about the Victorian age and what did you discover that you found intriguing enough to weave into your plot?

M.R. - 
I was always drawn to the Victorian age. At first it was just because my grandmother was obsessed with it and talked about it constantly, but the more I found out, the more fascinated I became with the sudden, rapid change. It was the first time in history that the end of a decade could look dramatically different from the beginning, in terms of technology and social change. It threw people for a loop, even then. People suddenly had to learn how to use new technology, when for millennia, everyone had used basically the same stuff their parents had. 

And people were suddenly granted rights, denied privileges, starting to move up and down the social ladder, and no one knew how to deal with it. I have a radical suffragist in my story, as well as some social climbing and social plummeting, which really upset what had previously been a rigid class system. 

People at the time pretended the class system was still rigid, even though it wasn't! And part of the way they fooled themselves was to link class to morality. In the middle ages, there was a strong concept of the virtuous peasant, someone who did his job and worked hard and never complained unless there was a famine or something. By the Victorian age, this idea had developed of a strong division between the "deserving poor" and the "criminal poor". Of course there are some good poor people, but most of the poor are where they are because they're intellectually and morally inferior! It was widely believed that there was something genetically criminal about the poor, and something genetically noble about the nobility. (Unsurprising that the English language links wealth with honor.) Looking back at actual court records, it's actually more likely that the nobility were pretty skeevy, just rarely convicted.

Fiona -
Absolutely fascinating! I am hungry to read you novel, but am also hungry to look at your research notes. When my children were little they read the Magic Tree House Series and there was a novel with an accompanying factual book - just throwing that out there.

We have a tradition of asking about your favorite scar or harrowing story - will you indulge us?

M.R. - 
None of my scars have interesting stories, sadly! (I face-planted off a bus, once?) My most harrowing adventure was my senior trip. My mom took me and my grandmother and my little sister to Italy, but we routed through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. And while we were there, my grandmother's nose started bleeding and would not stop. We didn't know why, and we couldn't continue on to Italy. She was taken to the indigent hospital, which apparently is where you go if you're foreign. It's also in a part of town where the taxi refused to take us! It took us ages to get there after her, and then we had to get a hotel room in this part of town where taxis won't go. Long story short, we were stuck in a very scary part of Paris for three days, not knowing why my grandmother wouldn't clot. The hospital staff was wonderful, though. Incredibly kind. I no longer let anyone claim the French are rude when I can hear them.

Fiona - 

I've been to that hospital. The ambulance took an American girl to the hospital because she was bleeding out. They asked me to go and translate. When we got to the first hospital, the doctors stopped the bleeding but said we had to go to the other hospital. They had her on a gurney with an IV, pushed her out the door, and drew a map on how to get there. I pushed this chick - whom, I never met before, down the road, with cars passing and everything--the IV dangling from one of my hands--in the not so nice part of the city. I was terrified. I'm mean - what the bloody heck? LOL But it was lovely once we arrived, and the hospital staff took good care of her.

Before we give them a blurb of your wonderful work as an individual novel, folks should note that this work is coming out soon in a fabulous boxed set!

M.R. -
I can't believe how fortunate I've been to have the chance to work with the great authors in this set. These are some big names, some I've admired from afar for a while, and having had the chance to preview the work they'll be including, I think everyone ought to be as excited about it as I am.

ThrillReaders and ThrillWriters, it's been my pleasure to get to know M.R. while working on our boxed set Murder and Mayhem. We would very much appreciate your support. Could you take a moment and order our boxed set? 99 CENTS for 20 Books - all by award winning, authors including USA Today and NY Times bestselling authors. We are hoping to make the lists with this set and every single sale is appreciated. Thank you! (HERE)

To stay in touch with M.R.:

https://quiestinliteris.com/
facebook.com/authormrgraham
twitter.com/quiestinliteris
goodreads.com/mrgraham

Sherlock Holmes has become legend,

 but his sister was lost to history. In one hellish night, Morrigan Holmes ruined everything: her home, her family, her confidence, and her name. Fleeing scandal, loss, and grief, her only choice is to run, but London’s gaslit streets are not kind to young women alone. Within hours, she discovers the horrors of homelessness and the terrible invisibility of the marginalised poor. A child is kidnapped before her eyes, and she barely escapes the same fate. Adrift and alone, Morrigan seeks help in strange quarters: a radical suffragist with a haunted past, a half-blind journalist, a sinister physician, and a gang of street boys led by the striking and enigmatic Magpie. As the number of kidnappings grows, something dark begins to take shape in the London mists. Time is short, still Morrigan cannot escape the family she devastated. Could Sherlock be her salvation… or her destruction?

quiestinliteris.com

facebook.com/authormrgraham

twitter.com/quiestinliteris

goodreads.com/mrgraham






M.R. Graham

Author






Sherlock Holmes has become legend, but his sister was lost to history. In one hellish night, Morrigan Holmes ruined everything: her home, her family, her confidence, and her name. Fleeing scandal, loss, and grief, her only choice is to run, but London’s gaslit streets are not kind to young women alone. Within hours, she discovers the horrors of homelessness and the terrible invisibility of the marginalised poor. A child is kidnapped before her eyes, and she barely escapes the same fate. Adrift and alone, Morrigan seeks help in strange quarters: a radical suffragist with a haunted past, a half-blind journalist, a sinister physician, and a gang of street boys led by the striking and enigmatic Magpie. As the number of kidnappings grows, something dark begins to take shape in the London mists. Time is short, still Morrigan cannot escape the family she devastated. Could Sherlock be her salvation… or her destruction?



I can't believe how fortunate I've been to have the chance to work with the great authors in this set. These are some big names, some I've admired from afar for a while, and having had the chance to preview the work they'll be including, I think everyone ought to be as excited about it as I am.

LOL - thank you. Cheers I will have this to you Sunday for you to review. Changes may have to wait a few days. My SAR team is searching for a lost person in the national forest and I'll be off grid Sunday day. Then we are on standby for the hurricane - so it all depends on how things go.



Oh, whoa! Be careful and be safe! Best of luck. :<THU 9:34PM

Thank you kindly.







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Eye of an Eagle Heart of a Tiger - A Fighting Mindset info for Writers with Danielle Serpico

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, we are talking with Danielle Serpico about a fighter's mindset, so we can get our characters right as well as write better fight scenes. Danielle, can you start us off? Tell us a bit about your background.

Danielle - 
Hi, sure yes, delighted to. The arts I have trained in are American and Chinese Kenpo and Taiji Chuan. I am a Gold and Silver European Champion. My instructor was Alan Ellis, and I also had the privilege of training on many occasions with, mainly Tommy Jordan, Erle Montague, Larry Tatum. I teach various classes and self defense seminars in the empowerment aspect of things.

Fiona - 

Is there a personality difference between a lover and a fighter?

Danielle -
I believe we can be both a lover and a fighter. We touched on this previously in my other interview with you, regarding yin yang.

(Read that article HERE.)

I believe we can be both a lover and a fighter but...

Our instinct is to avoid conflict and fighting, it is not natural for us to want to fight, however we posses a primal coding that enables us to move into fight mode when needed. Our most primitive state is one of fear, which is actually a good thing. Our ancestors would have known fear on a daily basis, and they would have understood how that fear worked, in order to enable them to survive, procreate and live some semblance of a 'happy life'. Unfortunately, society has eroded this sense of understanding of fear, and now we are confused and sometimes frightened by our 'fight' instinct. This can lead to severe emotional and health issues, such as depression and anxiety.

Fiona -
Can you talk about the mindset of a trained versus an untrained (oh, boy I hope I can get out of this one!) fighter?

Danielle - 

Essentially, a trained fighter will not 'think' but will react.

Fighting is an illogical activity for us to engage in as human beings. We are not programmed to harm each other so even when confronted with our own imminent destruction or injury many of us will tend to not want to fight.

The trained fighter is someone who has developed the ability to overcome layers of civilized behaviour and to automatically enter into a primal state. In this state, the thought process is bypassed because if we were to think during an altercation the thought process would slow us down.

The Chinese saying 'If someone attacks you, hit them first' is indicative of this philosophy.

In our training and preparation, we do of course have to 'think' about what we are doing, to the point of having to learn specific moves and body mechanics. However, during the actual moment of confrontation, we need to give ourselves over to our primal or animal instinct and allow that inner rage to come forth.

Fiona - 
So tell me about "self-defense for the mind."

Danielle -
The greatest enemy we face is fear. The paralyzing effects of fear cannot be underestimated. In defending the 'mind' and creating strategy of protection we need to KNOW fear.

What I mean by this is we need to embrace our fear, examine them and confront them one by one. I like to have my students and clients make out a fear pyramid, with the least fearful issue at the bottom and an ascending scale of fear as it reaches the top.

The object of this is to, from the bottom up, examine and actively confront each of those fears. We don't necessarily want to completely eradicate fear, but we want to know it and why we are fearful and to be able to get ourselves to a point where we can accept that fear but not let it bind us.

In a sense, to have NO fear one must KNOW fear.

Fiona -
Having the character confront their fears is an important part of character building and can make for some very interesting plot twists. 

Another technique that you speak about with your students is Eagle Vision - can you talk about this?

Danielle -
In a martial or fighting context, one should never look at an opponent's eyes, the person's eyes won't pop out and strike us!

If we concentrate on the attackers eyes or face, we narrow our field of vision, leading us vulnerable for attacks outside this visual range what we need to do is to have a peripheral view of our opponent, that is to say for example, if our opponent were standing in front of us, we would rest our gaze on their shoulder this allows us to pick up movement from our attackers hands or feet, and we can react accordingly

The Chinese call this Eagle Vision and what this technique mimics is how an eagle would look at its prey. The eagle doesn't focus on its prey, but rather on a wider area around the prey and in that way can track any movement.

I relate this technique to stepping back and taking an overview of any life situation, not just focusing on the problem but rather having a view of the bigger picture in order for us to have a better perspective of what we are dealing with.

Conversely, if the student does not understand the effects of adrenal dump, whereby the body is flooded with chemicals, which actually creates tunnel vision, then the concept of Eagle Vision will not work.

Its important for the student to understand that we must be quite proactive in our defence and learn to react before the adrenal dump kicks in, so we have a huge advantage on our opponent.

Likewise in life, in general, prompt action and positive thought can often preempt and negate many problems.

Fiona - 
Obviously, one of the aspects of a trained fighter mind v. an untrained fighter has to do with thinking about things/working with mindsets that aren't normally offered to us in our day to day lives, taking the time to ponder such things as stress and focus. 

What other techniques do you work with your students on to broaden their understanding, and how would these techniques show themselves in decision making by a trained fighter v. a seat of the pants fighter?

Danielle - 
Firstly, for us to manifest it in our outside world, we have to first manifest it in the inside world.

Therefore, we have to go there, to a place which is not necessarily pleasant. The same is true for the opposite of course.

In martial terms a huge part of the training with my students is the working of scenario based drills. By this I mean we deliberately fire the adrenal response.

This is achieved by placing the student under verbal assault and triggering the adrenal response by various verbal and physical methods.

The object is to place the student under a high level of stress to enable them to become familiar with the feeling of being swamped by an overload of chemicals running through the bloodstream.

It is important that they experience this because they can then know how to flip this switch in their opponent and this allows them the option of controlling the situation.

To control the situation at that point the student would have to practice what we call the Escalation drills. This allows the student to loophole their opponent and perhaps a get out clause to avoid the situation becoming physical.

I like to use what I term the Traffic Light method, whereby we have the reverse of the normal light procedure. We have red, amber and green.

Red, obviously you're stopped, nothing is happening. Amber you're switched on, your waiting and green is a go.

The life lessons from these drills in the studio can be easily assimilated into everyday life. A confrontation with the boss, a difficult argument with your spouse or children, etc. All this can be much better handled when we understand our own capacities.
And also, it doesn't have to be a violent confrontation. As I said pre-planning and programming works both ways. If you plan for a situation to go well, you stand a much better chance as you have prepared.

As is said..

Whether you think you can't or think you can, you are right!

Fiona - 
Let's talk about that last sentence for just a moment. I have found in the young people I speak with that our social environment encourages us to think we are capable of anything we put our minds to. Unfortunately, the last bit - we put our minds to - gets lopped off. They think that without putting in the brain training/muscle training/time and effort that spur of the moment they will have what it takes to do the job. That complicates the think you can/can't equation. Can you add your two cents?

Danielle -
The prevailing line of thought seems to be...that we are capable of anything.

The truth is and it is a lovely thing...is that we are not in fact capable of anything.

However, we are capable of MUCH more that we think we are.

Of course though, that requires effort as you say. The effort to success ratio is an extremely important factor.

Edison and the light bulb are a prime example. It took him many hundreds of attempts before finally achieving success. In fact each 'fail' takes us a step closer. Our unconscious mind, which makes up 93% of our decisions, doesn't know the difference between what

s real or imagined. When we visualise with real intent, the mind believes it has happened. This gives us drive and momentum but of course we now have to take action!

So whether in the Dojo or in everyday life, we must practice daily inside and out.

Fiona - 
Last thoughts?

Danielle - 
A true fighter will always recreate and innovate. Embrace your fears and get to know them. Remember...your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open.

Much of my teaching and philosophy was inspired by the works of Erle Montague, Larry Tatum.

Thanks, Danielle. 

You can stay in touch with Danielle Serpico HERE

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