District 5 of the Kansas Authors is pleased to host Paul Bishop as the featured Keynote speaker at the convention October 4-6, 2019 at the Wichita Holiday Inn, 549 South Rock Road. His planned topic for the Keynote speech is “When Worlds Collide.” For thirty-five years, Paul Bishop pursued two careers—putting villains in jail, and putting words on paper. As a detective with the LAPD, he chased bad guys and solved crimes. Under the cover of darkness, however, he donned his Cloak of Stories, finding cathartic release writing novels…But what happens when the cop and the writer inevitably crash into each other?
In addition, Bishop will offer two seminars at the convention. “Murder and Mayhem for Writers” will explore how to get police procedures right in your next mystery novel. Veteran LAPD detective Paul Bishop will take you into the world of homicide crime scenes, sex crimes investigations, suspect interrogations, and many other aspects of law enforcement so you can get the details right.
A second seminar, “Getting the Words Right” examines how to trim excess wordage from your drafts. “Do these words make my manuscript look fat?” Writer, editor, and publisher Paul Bishop shows you how to cut empty calories from your manuscript—words and phrases that will get your stories rejected before the end of the first page. He’ll also explain why putting second things first is important, and how to avoid the deadly sin of info dumps.
A special opportunity for four lucky participants will be a 15-minute private conference with Bishop as a writing coach and editor. District 5 will raffle off chances for these conferences. Win one of four fifteen-minute, one-on-one sessions with writer, editor, and publisher Paul Bishop. Bring the first five pages of your manuscript to battle The Red Pen, scourge of all writers. Get answers to make your manuscript bulletproof. This will be a possibly harsh, but honest experience. However, it could be the fifteen minutes you need to get published.
Novelist, screenwriter, and television personality, Paul Bishop is a nationally recognized behaviorist and deception detection expert. A 35-year veteran of the LAPD, his high profile Special Assault Units produced the top crime clearance rates in the city. Twice honored as LAPD’s Detective of the Year. Paul is the author of sixteen novels, including five books in his LAPD Detective Fey Croaker series. He has written scripts for episodic television and feature films and starred as the lead interrogator and driving force behind the ABC TV reality show “Take the Money and Run” from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. His book, Lie Catchers, is the first in a new series featuring two top LAPD interrogators. The forthcoming sequel is titled Admit Nothing.
Bishop’s books include:
Hot Pursuit
Deep Water
Penalty Shot
Fey Croaker: Kill Me Again
Fey Croaker: Grave Sins
Fey Croaker: Tequila Mockingbird
Fey Croaker: Chalk Whispers
Fey Croaker: Pattern of Behavior
Shroud of Vengeance
Running Wylde
A Bucketful of Bullets
Nothing But the Truth (Almost)
Suspicious Minds
Felony Fists
Swamp Walloper
Lie Catchers
Bishop wrote three episodes of the TV Series Diagnosis Murder:
The Last Resort (1998)
Down Among the Dead Men (1999)
Murder at BBQ Bob’s (2000)
He was featured as the Chief Interrogator in the 2011 Reality TV Series Take the Money and Run produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and in the 2004 Unsolved History documentary JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet where he appeared as himself.
Since his retirement as a full-time detective, Bishop has been a featured speaker at law enforcement conventions and writing conventions across the country, including the 2018 Writers’ Police Academy Conference in Wisconsin.
(This is a continuation of the previous post about the story behind Sundrop Sonata.)
How did you decide on the “sonata” structure?
The term “sundrop” has almost always been part of my working title. The “sonata” part kind of fell into place after writing friends axed earlier titles. For years, I thought of the novel as The Sundrop Conspiracy. The “conspiracy” part was a bit much, so I tried Ebony, Ivory, and Mystery. That didn’t seem quite right either. On a whim, I proposed “Sonata.” A musical term, ripe with metaphorical implications for real life, “Sonata” seemed to stick.
What drew you to the suspense genre? How did you approach the particular challenges of that genre? How did you build your plot?
I didn’t actually choose the suspense genre. I think it chose me. This story grew in my mind and I was compelled to write it. People kept calling it a mystery, or a cozy mystery. But it wasn’t exactly a mystery. I had a story and I wrote it, then I had to figure out what kind of novel it was.
Denver hotel lobby
The plot built itself. My imagination went to work on that road trip long ago, and by the time we were home again, the story was basically there. Given the recent terrorism against the US, I wondered what other forms of attack might be possible? What might those with a grudge against the country be able to dream up that would remain unnoticed by the population until it was too late? What kinds of things might be smuggled into the country? I knew that many pianos in today’s market are imported. I also knew there are lots of places to hide things inside a piano.
“The gate is open.”
I have found interesting additions in quite a few pianos, though nothing sinister to the best of my knowledge. But what if someone with an ax to grind had access to pianos heading into the country? What if they slipped something inside those instruments? How would anybody ever know? The same would be true for automobiles, or electronic equipment, or anything that is imported from other countries.
I re-wrote the beginning of Sundrop Sonata about fifty times, learning something not to do each time. I went to writing workshops, joined writing clubs and critique groups and listened to what everyone had to say. After outlining the story structure, I went to work with daily writing sessions, and revised the original many times to come up with the published version.
Any advice for others interested in self-publishing?
The literary world has changed a lot since my attempts to write during my young adulthood. I realize I no longer have decades left to piddle around. I finished writing Sundrop Sonata as well as In the Shadow of the Wind, years after their seeds were planted. I revised and edited them many times, trimming, tightening, and clarifying each time.
Stage 1 at the Walnut Valley Festival
I pitched each book to editors and agents at conventions and workshops and actually had several professionals express interest. Each book attracted small presses and I was offered contracts. The contracts had me doing all the footwork and editing, but the publisher would get all the rights and 85% of the royalties.
I figured if I was doing all the work, why not take the next step and independently publish? It’s fairly easy to do that these days. Many big name authors started out self-publishing and some continue to publish and represent their own work. I was fortunate to have an experienced mentor, Paul Bishop, a California author with many detective novels to his credit, (and a cousin-in-law of mine as well). Paul gave me excellent advice and guided me through the steps toward the Lionheart press.
To self-publish, you need to be clear on your motives for writing. If you are doing it for the money, don’t. If you are writing because you enjoy the process and you have a story to tell, give it your best effort and offer it to the world of readers. There are lots of readers out there, but there are also lots of books to choose from. Take the time and effort to make yours the very best it can be, offer something different, but still polished. See what happens.
You have to believe in yourself first. I have always thought Sundrop Sonata was a good story—a great story. I put my best effort into it and I enjoyed it very much. After all, I write first for myself. I hope to spend my retirement years doing something I thoroughly enjoy. If others enjoy the story, that’s a great reward in its own way. If other women, other piano lovers and music lovers, or those with adventurous hearts rave about the story, that is a bonus. I am honored when enthusiastic readers tell their friends about Sundrop Sonata.
Walnut Valley Festival
Will there be other novels?
I certainly hope so. I have some threads of ideas percolating for about three more in a Sonata series of novels. I just hope they don’t each take a dozen years to arrive! I better get busy.
Red Spider Lilies
(If you are curious about what the Walnut Valley Festival, red spider lilies, music on the prairie, and open pasture gates have to do with pianos, murder and mystery, read Sundrop Sonata to find out. If you enjoy the story and you think others would also, post a review on Amazon or share this blogpost with your friends.)