Background Values by Andy Scheer

If you want your fiction to drive home a message, consider not making it your story's focus.

The past few weeks, I've re-visited the mysteries in Aaron Elkins's series with forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver. Reflecting on them, I see several themes.

Foremost, as with any classic mystery, there's a quest for justice and a restoration of shalom.

But other chords resonate. With their use of recurring characters, I sense of the value of friendship. I see the pleasures of exotic travel, well-prepared food, and the comforts of home.

Must underneath runs an even stronger testament to the worth of a great marriage. These aren't romance novels, but they resonate with glimpses of a married couple deeply in love. Gideon and Julie argue, they reconcile, they share ideas and chores. But especially they complete one another's lives – serving as models of mutuality that surpass even the best sermon on Ephesians 5.

There's nothing threatening for a reader whose marriage fires don't burn as warmly. Just an invitation to enjoy the glow with your own partner.

Plus discovering whodunnit.

Books for Tired Readers by Andy Scheer

I've been know to immerse myself in reading sophisticated literature – but not lately.

The past couple weeks my 8 to 5 job has been spilling over, with a few similar weeks in sight. My brain is tired.

But not quite as tired as when I left the office. As I started the engine to drive home, my ears were greeted by an audio version of a book in the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series of British Naval fiction from the age of sail.

My brain wouldn't have been ready to unpack Patrick O'Brian's printed prose, filled with archaic British syntax and naval jargon. But the narrator, with his authentic accent, delivered the words directly to my ears. A half-hour later, I was invigorated enough to tackle some writing of my own.

As I finish tonight's last project, I'm again running out of steam.

So I will take another trip though a familiar mass paperback. This time a mystery by Edgar-winning author Aaron Elkins. I won't read to discover the bad guy, just to enjoy the trip.

If you're writing something literary, I wish you well. Your readers will be people at the top of their game. Tonight, I need a book for a tired reader. If that's what you're writing, consider it a cup of refreshment for someone who's gone dry. Thanks.

Late-Night Writing by Andy Scheer

I hadn't planned to work on my novel's opening chapter between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m.

But I woke up, my mind filled with questions about the story's maguffin – the item my characters would pursue.

I'd thought everything was in place. But yesterday evening I began re-reading one of my favorite mysteries: Curses! by Edgar Award-winning novelist Aaron Elkins. Early in the story Elkins makes sure readers grasp the rarity of a pre-conquest Mayan codex.

No lights flashed as I read that chapter, but my subconscious mind took note. At 3:30 I woke up and began considering what my Professor Hastings had packed into his Gladstone bag. For readers to understand why two criminal syndicates were after the bag, I had some to do some explaining.

And that means further research into two obscure subjects. Then I'll simply have to figure out a way to convey that information without intruding into the story.

Maybe that will come at 3:30 next Saturday morning.