R. Franklin James on growing tomatoes & the art of writing

HALLIE EPHRON: Rae James has the kind of background you might make up for your female protagonist in a crime novel. She wrote legislation and public policy before being appointed a Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles by Richard Riordan.  Her Hollis Morgan series written as R. Franklin James--#5, The Bell Tolls is just out this month--are informed and inspired by all she learned about law and criminal behavior.

And then, immersed in writing, she started to garden. Here today she shares her thoughts on gardening and the art of writing.

R. FRANKLIN JAMES: In an effort not to become a one-dimensional author I took up gardening. After signing my second publishing contract to produce the Hollis Morgan Mystery Series over the next five years, I soon realized that without some meaningful distraction my brain would be sucked into the vortex of fictional characters appearing as real life.

I decided on gardening for two reasons: it wasn’t aerobic and I didn’t have to leave home.

Doing a limited amount of research I discovered that growing tomatoes takes a minimum amount of effort, money and time. Tomatoes also have numerous hybrid varieties that are pest resistant, produce perfect color and can last for weeks. Most importantly, with only a superficial look at the garden it appeared as if you were really productive. Additionally, tomatoes do not need a lot of space and time for caretaking.

It reminded me of writing. I know the association may initially appear obscure, but bear with me just a moment.

Writing is the same. The seed of an idea, a computer or even pen and paper, are all you need to write. Writing has minimum space requirements and there are numerous fictional hybrids or genres to choose from. Over the years technology has entered our lives and made editing and revisions a breeze and the keyboard has replaced the pen.

Writing is now pest resistant. Those pesky typos, misspellings, double spaces after a period can be eliminated with the stroke of a function key. Even name changes, or reducing the number of “nodded’s” can be updated with “Find/Replace”. And the pièce de résistance is the “Track Changes” key that maintains the corrections path, even as our brains struggle to remember the location of an errant sentence.

Unlike tomatoes, the quality of writing comes from me.

Storytelling and the ability to entertain readers, compels us to keep our butts in the chair and produce what we hope are memorable passages of thought reduced to words. And it is the combination of those words that we hope will touch others the same way they have touched us.  I’m reminded of a quote attributed to Thomas Mann: a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

A writer’s life is fraught with distractions, although sometimes we can’t find enough of them. It’ s said that Michelangelo looked at a block of marble and released the David inside, so do writers face tens of thousands of words and look to release a page-turning novel.

For an author, writing is a passion and like gardening it must be carefully tended to and hopefully loved.

HALLIE: And writers need to be watered... she said, sipping her wine. But not while they're writing.

Rae, I love this connection between gardening and writing.

I'm not a great gardener but I do like to weed. My garden is full of volunteers and I see it as my job to pull the unwelcome ones, rearrange and nurture the rest. Like writing and ideas, yes?

Which brings us to today's question: What kind of gardener are you? Tomatoes or weed pulling or other? 

R. Franklin James is the author of the Hollis Morgan Mystery Series. Her first novel, The Fallen Angels Book Club was released by Camel Press in 2013. The fifth book in the series: The Bell Tolls will be released in June 2017. She is a Bouchercon board member, a member of Sisters In Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Her website is: www.rfranklinjames.com. You can also reach her on Twitter at: #rfjbooks