Interview with Kathy Ryan

The Women of Mystery's own Kathy Ryan is interviewed today over at M. M. Gornell's blog. It's a great back-and-forth and you can find it here.

I'm Reading a Book

A couple of days ago, I found a new video by Julian Smith that several literature-related websites and blogs were raving over. I'm not surprised; it's a great video. Julian has been making a name for himself the past few years with his creative and fun videos. "I'm Reading a Book" is his latest effort, posted just a week ago.



For more Julian Smith videos, just go to his website.

Online Grabs- Links for Thee

Image via MPTV.net

Some of these links and tweets have a longer pedigree than Secretariat, so I'm just putting down the parent link, the place I saw it first.

@hauntedcomputer pointed me to this Hollywood Reporter article about Snooki's lousy book sales. Oh, my weeping heart.

@tatteredcover referred me to their own bookstore blog with a link to a free documentary on H.P. Lovecraft. I was reading him yesterday while stuck in a snow-delayed and, therefore, cattle-packed train last night. When you're reading horrors like that, being squashed and over-scented feels minor.

@elizabethscraig referred me to this post from The Creative Penn blog, where Joanna Penn also discusses what I and others have been bandying as an opportunity for years: More beautiful bound books in truly limited editions. Per our Laura, who's added this genius notion: What about pricey pre-orders of these beauties that could be signed before shipping? Tell me I can order, up-front, a customized, signed, keeper-worthy specialty volume in a fixed first run of 500 copies. As a collector of certain authors, I would absolutely pay a juicy premium for that, and I know I'm not alone.

Henry Allen of the WSJ talks Bogart in "Cool Is as Cool Was" at the release of a new biography, Stefan Kanfer's Tough Without a Gun. I can't resist the subject, not ever, although the article's comparisons to other "Bogarts" of their fields was a stretch for me. Still, I relate to needing a new angle on a well-trod and so-celebrated topic.

Kurt Vonnegut Short Stories

Short story collections are really taking hold of the literary market. Was it really only a few weeks ago that I was crowing because not one but three short story collections made the front cover of the New York Times book review? See here.

Well, now the Los Angeles Times has an exquisite review of “While Mortals Sleep,” the third posthumous collection of stories by Kurt Vonnegut to be published in the last three years. Dare we hope for more?

Richard Rayner, author of “A Bright and Guilty Place” and writer of the Paperback Writers column at the L.A. Times, subtitles his review: "Early short stories by the master of American satire reveal a writer honing his already apparent skills."

Rayner also points out that with these sixteen previously unpublished stories and the two previous posthumous collections, it is evident that “ Vonnegut left behind great troves of unpublished material and, in one period of his life, devoted far more time and effort to the conventions of short fiction than he later liked to admit.”

The review interweaves glances at several of the stories with a peek at the short fiction market in the 1950’s. Raynor concludes by saying : “Vonnegut worked hard to make it look so easy. These taut, concise stories show us the roots of a great Rube Goldberg literary career.”

Please click here to read the entire review.

Terrie

2011 Writers Conferences

It's hard to believe the first month of 2011 is almost over. Get out your calendars and see if any of these conferences might fit into your schedule (and budget):

Next weekend, hundreds of writers will descend upon Chicago and Washington, D.C. to attend writers conferences ~ and if you're a last-minute planner (and not worried about potentially missing the Super Bowl, which airs next Sunday), it's not too late to develop a plot make arrangements to get away.

Washington, D.C.: AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) will be holding its annual conference and bookfair from February 2-5, 2011. Registration is only on-site at this point, at the Marriott Wardman Park & Omni Shoreham Hotels. Among the 350 presentations, Robert Swartwood, editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, will moderate a panel, "Hint Fiction: Stories that Prove Less is More," with my fellow Hint Fiction contributors, Randall Brown, Michael Martone, Daniel Olivas, and Roxane Gay, at 3 p.m. on Friday. Salvatore Pane, in his "2011 Guide to AWP," says the Hint Fiction session "has the potential to be great." Mike Petrik offers advice in "Surviving AWP," which appears in The Missouri Review.

Chicago: Love is Murder, from February 4-6, 2011, at the InterContinental Chicago O'Hare. Check out the impressive list of attendees. For an additional cost, writers can participate in Pitch-a-Palooza and attend Master Classes. The Local Guest of Honor is Michael Allen Dymmoch. J.A. Konrath will talk about e-publishing.

A brief overview of several conferences/conventions this year:

Sleuthfest ~ March 3-6, 2011, Hilton Deerfield Beach/Boca Raton, Florida. The Guests of Honor will be Meg Gardiner, Dennis Lehane. Become a Sleuthfest fan on Facebook.

Malice Domestic, the annual "fun-fan" convention that salutes the traditional mystery will be held April 29 - May 1, 2011, at the Hyatt, Bethesda, MD. The list of registered authors is awesome. Carole Nelson Douglas is the Guest of Honor, and Donna Andrews is the Toastmaster.

Romance Writers of America 31st Annual Conference ~ Marriott Marquis, New York, New York, June 28-July 1, 2011. Madeline Hunter is the keynote speaker, and Sherrilyn Kenyon is the Awards Luncheon speaker. Meg Cabot will emcee the 2011 RITA and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony, and Julia Quinn will speak at the Librarians Day Luncheon.

The Public Safety Writers Conference ~ July 14-17, 2011, Orleans Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference is open to anyone writing crime and mystery fiction or non-fiction, technical writing for public safety magazines in print or online, or anyone interested in writing.

Bouchercon 2011 ~ September 15-18, 2011 ~ The Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel, Missouri. The American Guests of Honor are Robert Crais and Charlaine Harris; International Guests are Colin Cotterill and Val McDermid. The Toastmaster is Ridley Pearson.

Newpages.com has compiled a list of conferences by state.

How about you? Are there any conferences, workshops, retreats, conventions, etc. in your plans for 2011?

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Feminism Is Alive & Well

Here we are, women writers, posting on our blog,telling our stories, speaking our minds, discussing ideas that are important to us.

As you know, it wasn’t always that way. There were many who came before us, those who fought to overcome adversity and to be accepted as themselves.

Journalist, author and founder of Feminist.com, Marianne Schnall, celebrates these empowering women in her new book, Daring To Be Ourselves. The book is a compilation of the interviews Marianne’s conducted over the course of her career with women from all walks of life including Gloria Steinmen, Eve Enslser, Madeline Albright, Annie Lennox and Cameron Diaz, to name a few, as well as writers Isable Allende and Alice Walkers. The interviews offer insights into these inspiring and influential women. And while nobody ever said it was going to be easy, these women make it seem very worthwhile.

Marianne will be reading from her book, next Monday, January 31st at 7:00 PM at Bluestockings Bookstore, 182 Allen Street. Hope you can make it.

Follow me on Twitter @cathicopy and let's be friends on Facebook.

image from: http://www.daringtobeourselves.com/book.html

Does Your Crime Story Include the Internet?

Image source here.

There's a great article by Laura Miller in The Guardian which discusses the many ways modern literary novelists deal (and more often, do not deal) with the internet age. Read the whole thing! It reminded me I was recently discussing the subject with another crime writer who confessed to setting manuscripts back in time so as not to have to deal with the ubiquity of current technology, to be able to discuss the more shoe-leathery, psychological, personal aspects of investigation.

I understand completely, and perhaps this explains the increase (it seems like an increase to me) in historical mysteries. On the other hand, what's more personal than this unreal place where we writers spend hours absorbing content for research and inspiration, sharing our thoughts and self-doubts, cultivating relationships, and even collaborating on works-in-progress? From Miller's article "How novels came to terms with the internet" [edits mine]:

Venturing back in time isn't the only option for novelists loath to address the mass media that most of us marinate in. There are also those populations cut off from the mainstream for cultural reasons, such as recent immigrants and their families – a very popular choice of fictional subject these days. And then there are those at the geographical margins, living in remote rural areas where broadband access is hard to come by. It's remarkable how many recent American literary novels and short stories are set on ranches, from writers as established as Annie Proulx and Cormac McCarthy to newcomers such as Maile Meloy and CE Morgan. And this is especially curious when you consider that the vast majority of the people who write and read these works live in cities and suburbs. Perhaps it's because the characters in ranch novels spend most of their time contemplatively driving long distances in trucks or climbing up snowy mountains to rescue stranded animals, scenarios in which there's absolutely no danger that a TV will be switched on or a laptop flipped open. (Real-life ranchers, of course, treasure their satellite dishes.) [snip]

The further literature is driven to the outskirts of the culture, the more it is cherished as a sanctuary from everything coarse, shallow and meretricious in that culture. It is the chapel of profundity, and about as lively and well visited as a bricks-and-mortar chapel to boot. Literature is where you retreat when you're sick of celebrity divorces, political mudslinging, office intrigues, trials of the century, new Apple products, internet flame wars, sexting and X Factor contestants – in short, everything that everybody else spends most of their time thinking and talking about. [snip]

No wonder American literary novelists have found it easier just to bow out of the whole "Way We Live Now" rat race, especially when the designated enemy was television. Sure, people spend (or spent) six hours per day watching TV, but they aren't actually doing anything while they're at it. You can address the time your characters presumably squander in front of the tube the same way you treat the time they spend asleep: by passing over it in silence.

However, the internet, as we are always being told, is different. Only certain parts of it are passively consumed, while others have completely supplanted longstanding realms of daily activity and human interaction. [snip]

It is what the internet lures out of us – hubris, daydreams, avarice, obsessions – that makes it so potent and so volatile. TV's power is serenely impervious; it does all the talking, and we can only listen or turn it off. But the internet is at least partly us; we write it as well as read it, perform for it as well as watch it, create it as well as consume it. Watching TV is a solitary activity that feels like a communal one, while the internet is a communal experience masquerading as solitude...

Are you dealing with the internet in your own crime fiction? Are you steering away from it in your reading? Are there crime novels, perhaps other than Larsson's Salander novels, that you think deal with it particularly well? Let's integrate your perspective into this uniquely interactive venue called a comment thread!

Full Disclosure: I once outlined a possible thriller plot with a blizzard knocking out power and cell service along the eastern seaboard so I could set the story in the current-day without having to deal with these communication and information-gathering possibilities. The ostrich above represents me.

Prom Night, Date Night

As writers, we are always asking"what if." What if he met his birth mother and she is related to his in-laws? What if someone tampered with the boat ramp? What if a tree fell on the car?

In my wildest flights of fancy, I never would have asked, "What if the Democrats and Republicans mixed their seating arrangements for the State of the Union." As a long time political groupie, it never entered my mind that such a thing could happen and that every one could still applaud or stand as they wished but the visual for the television viewer would have been so much more pleasing.

My point is that if the State of the Union seating plan could change as it did, nothing is impossible, so let's all stretch our imaginations to the wildest "what if." And then let's write it down and see where it leads.

Terrie

Two Sentence Tuesday - What Brand Are You?

With all the fuss and bother about author branding, I thought I would share some sentences this week from a post I read rather than a book. It's from the often-hilarious and almost always insightful Steve Weddle:

I must admit, it wasn't the postcards that first drew me to Cormac McCarthy. It wasn't the bookmarks that made me pick up Dennis Lehane's newest novel. No. I went to their websites. I saw how professionally they were put together, how they used top-notch fonts, and I knew that I was dealing with talented writers.

I will say right here and now, I've never bought a book from either a postcard or a bookmark. But then, I'm a genre reader and I generally know what's coming out in my preferred genres before they get here. I do look at websites, but what I care about isn't that the website looks like the books, which look like the brochures, but that the websites have actual (gasp) information on them!

And now a couple of sentences from my work in progress:

They moved through the dark, wood-paneled bar and paused on the threshold of the dining room, allowing the full effect to sink in. Chandeliers hung from the twelve-foot ceiling and candles lit every table with a warm glow.

What about you? Did you read anything fun this past week? Write anything other than a grocery list? Share it here and we'll update the blog as the day goes on with links to you!

• Travis Erwin shares both stats and sentences this week.
• Dorte doesn't like to clean, doesn't think you should have to read about it!
  

MTM: Yorkshire, England

Literary Agent Donna Bagdasarian has been a great friend to the Sleuthsisters, so imagine how happy Sleuthsister Deb and I were to run into Donna at Bouchercon in San Francisco. Somewhere along the line Donna introduced us to one of her clients, a very interesting retired cop/author named Colin Campbell, who, you guessed it, had traveled to San Francisco from his home in Otley, Yorkshire, England. Colin’s police procedurals “Blue Knight, White Cross" and “Northern Ex” have been well received by the mystery community, in fact no less than Lee Child has commented that Colin’s work is “Very real. And very good.”

Since these novels are set in West Yorkshire, and since Colin is such an entertaining guy, I decided that I would do a little research on Yorkshire and share it all with you.

Yorkshire is the largest county in the United Kingdom and sits in northern England. Now what with the rain and all, I think of England as being almost as green as my beloved Ireland, so I was intrigued to read that large expanses of land in the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales are considered to be among the greenest areas in all of England. The accompanying picture is of the Yorkshire Dales and implies much open space beyond the camera lens. Naturally, Yorkshire has a number of busy cities as well. Leeds, serves as a major financial center for all of England, and Sheffield, which flourished as a major industrial city, and of course York, from whence the shire got its name.

And should you wonder where Colin Campbell got his urge to write fiction, perhaps writing permeates the Yorkshire air as the county was the home of the three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

In all of England you would be hard pressed to find a Sunday roast beef dinner that didn’t include Yorkshire Pudding, a delicious concoction of eggs, milk, flour and beef drippings. Don’t believe me? Here is an easy recipe, try it for yourself.

For more My Town Monday posts, please link over to the My Town Monday blog and see where in the world everyone is talking about today.

Terrie

UPDATE: This Monday, Barrie Summy has seals in La Jolla, CA and Travis Erwin reveals his own hooliganism in Amarillo, TX. Just when we're complaining about the cold in the comments, Reb reminds us of its unique glories with sculptures from an int'l carving festival, Ice on Whyte in Edmonton, Alberta.

Marketing & Social Networking

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Joanne Kaufman, entitled, "How Authors Move Their Own Merchandise," which emphasizes the benefits of marketing and social networking. An alternate title for this article could be "How to Be Your Own Best Advocate" when it comes to increasing sales.

By the way, I discovered this article via a tweet. I found it interesting, and I thought others would, too, so I re-tweeted it.

I am a staunch supporter of sharing information, and it is one of the features I admire about Twitter. Are you Twitter-shy, or shy in general? Check out Holly Jackson's guest post, "Marketing for Shy People: How Social Media Can Help," on Laura Roeder's blog.

Ms. Kaufman's article points out several ways in which web-savvy authors (which include Ayelet Waldman, Alafair Burke, Emily Giffin) uniquely market their books and augment their sales in the process. She's gathered input from editors, agents, and publishing reps, too.

On the flip side, Christopher Floyd wrote his interesting take on Ms. Kaufman's article and makes many valid points in his HubPages.com post, "Why We Write. A Heartfelt Rant of Sorts," in which he writes, "It is hard enough to be a writer in the Digital Age. Now we are supposed to offer door prizes?"

Today I am speaking with the newly-formed Long Island chapter of Sisters in Crime at the Emma Clark Memorial Library. One of my topics (insert big surprise here) is the benefits of using Twitter.

So, what are your thoughts on authors creating their own buzz via social media, and coming up with unique ways to promote sales?

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Do Covers Sell Books?

When a book has been well-marketed, the title’s already floating around in my gray matter, but at the bookstore the name and author may not surface without a boost. Catching sight of a memorable cover does the job, draws me like a magnet. It practically demands that I pick up the book, weigh it in my hands, stroke and page through it. Oh yeah, I think. I was meaning to add that one to my bedside stack.

On the Inspiration Blog, I ran across the post, Empty Space: 40+ Stunning Minimalistic Book Covers. Some of these arresting images made me want to brave tonight’s snow to make a half-hour foray to my nearest bookstore. Elegant.

At Writer’s Blog, Judging a Book By Its Cover offers a CBS video exploring how a book’s cover - its color, design, shape and feel - can be as memorable as the book itself. (When the cover for The Little Prince floated by, I thought, yes yes! I know that one. I love that one.) A good cover can hint at what kind of book it is without giving too much away. It will come as no surprise that the covers of crime novels are often dark, with shadowy figures or weapons. One criterion for selecting cover art, says the publisher interviewed, is the “Subway Test”; would a man be comfortable reading that book while riding the train?

I can see a similar test being applied to adolescents. No pre-teen would be caught dead pulling a book with a geeky cover out of her locker. I’ve got a friend who’s a librarian, and she claims young adult books with great covers fly off the shelves. Take a look at Inkweaver’s Book Cover Art Slideshow if you wonder why I’m considering a shift to YA.

When does a cover make little difference? When I already know the author and I’m looking for the next in a series. And I really hate to say this, because I’m an e-book advocate, but I got to thinking: what’s the point of great cover art when more and more people are downloading electronic versions? I may be struck by a cover while browsing Amazon for Kindle versions, or maybe I’m already sold because I’ve seen the cover in bookstores, ads, reviews, and on library shelves. But if I’m in a rush to download a novel based on my best friend's recommendation, I may miss the cover altogether. And that’s a shame. It's a huge part of the magic.

Note: The subject of covers fascinates the Women of Mystery and our readers (check out Clare's Covers, Covers, A Book by Any Other Cover Won't Sell as Well, and More on Covers...as well as Elaine's Book Covers, Advertising, and My Nerves and Terrie's Crimes By Moonlight Cover Art).

Hooray for Small Moments

As a writer of short mystery fiction, I am always happy to see any acknowledgement of the short story, so imagine my joy when the Book Review section of the New York Times this past Sunday was titled Small Moments in honor of short fiction and the lower half of the front page contained the leads for not one but three excellent reviews of short story collections.

First, novelist Francine Prose reviews The Empty Family, stories by Irish writer Colm Toibin. Prose contends that short stories are the perfect vehicle to reveal a character’s heart, and not in a romantic way. She describes the collection this way: “For Toibin, memory seems not merely a function of the heart but proof that the heart exists. Even the least appealing of these mostly sympathetic characters is humanized or humbled by an immersion in the past.”

You can read the entire review here.

Next Joyce Carol Oates reviews Gryphon, new and selected stories by Charles Baxter. After challenging the reader to be able to define contemporary American short fiction, Oates tells us that Baxter belongs to the group of writers that focus “on small yet illuminating moments of self-realization and set in recognizably real places.” And Charles Baxter’s place is the midwestern United States.

You can read the entire review here.

Novelist Roxana Robinson is stymied by the fact that she, like many of us, has never heard of Edith Pearlman, author of Binocular Vision, new and selected stories. Pearlman’s work has repeatedly appeared in volumes of Best American Short Stories. So why, Robinson wonders, don’t we know her and her writing? As to the crux of the collection, Robinson says: “Thematically, many of the stories are explorations of the postwar Jewish diaspora. Pearlman’s characters struggle with relocation and disconnection, the complexities of cultural, religious and linguistic loyalties.”

You can read the entire review here.

So if, like me, you write short fiction, hoist the flag and dance 'round the flagpole. Short stories have received supreme recognition in the New York Times at the beginning of 2011. I can’t wait to see what the end of the year will bring.

Terrie

Conferences and Conferencing

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and fiends, I have a question for you this fine(?) morning. Have you ever been to a genre conference? Mystery, romance, thriller, sci-fi? A fan conference, or a writers' conference?

If you were going to such a thing, would you consider not staying at the hotel in question? Just going for the events?

I am currently registered for this summer's RWA national conference. It's an ungodly expensive deal, and while it's been worthwhile every year that I've gone, this year I am seriously considering staying at my parents' apartment rather than at the conference hotel. It would probably take me about half an hour to get to the hotel every day, and I would doubtless miss out on some of the late night fun, but I'd have far more cash and I wouldn't worry about bedbugs. (I freaking dreamt about bedbugs last night after registering. NYC hotels are infested with them.)

So, what do you think? Should I spend the $ and go for the whole experience, or should I be a day-tripper?

Two Sentence Tuesday: Mush and Mash Edition

Image from Iceberg Kennels

Yes, it's mushy and cold outside, and Laura may return with stories for you from the great, chilled Isle. However, in the meantime, you'll have to make do with me, and Mush! also refers to the speed with which I must post this morning.

First, thanks to Patti Abbott's always interesting Forgotten Books Friday, I'm now reading Mark Frost's The List of Seven and really enjoying it. Go here to learn more about this cool mash-up of themes and characters. But here are two about young Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, earnest seeker and, therefore, frequent debunker of spiritists:

Low and foul characters, these swindlers generally sprang from the criminal class and only understood the idiom of violence: hard words, tables overturned, physical threats promised and delivered. At the urging of a Scotland Yard confidant, Doyle had recently begun to carry the revolver after the exposure of a counterfeit Gypsy provoked a dagger attack that nearly provided him with firsthand experience of the Great Beyond.

Myself, I'm finishing another edit on a short story that might finally be ready to be accepted somewhere. I find, for me, it takes at least one rejection and another complete overhaul before they get in shape. Here's one reworked, one new, and one fragment from "The Limits of Brotherly Love":

After I hung up, Igor dragged me around the corner behind his rolling, seasick gait. My brother had wanted a dog, then wanted to impress the cute volunteer at the shelter's desk, so here I was, poop bag in hand. Again.

Is your Tuesday mushy, too? Share any two sentences you've written and/or read this week in the comments, or let us know where to link!

UPDATE: In the comments, David Cranmer gets points for having a new story accepted with the word cankles.

Travis offers rum and boners at his site. *I kid not*

Huddlekay offers a conflicted desires and thoughts of home.

In the comments again, Anita offers some poetic beauties that just match this day, and Lois find a kindred spirit in Ebenezer Scrooge. Also, Laura comes in from the cold to chime in, and Judith Gaines matches her violence to the weather. Comments rock today!

Humpty Dumpty in Free Fall

Author Sarah Hoyt has run the gamut of authorial reactions to the e-book earthquake. Read how a woman who used to have a typewriter sound effect added to her computer's keyboard action ( I did, too!) went from Bleck to AAArrgh to What If? [snips mine]:

We can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again, but there will be omelets and nice crafts from his gigantic shell. And perhaps we can figure out how he grew so big and tasty and grow more of him only smaller and more portable? It might be better to get moving on that and stop trying to get horses to pull the shell together. (Horses? Who thought that was a good idea? Was this run by committee?)

So, let’s think of ways to brand books, and ways to promote books, and ways to make reading ebooks even better and more fun. Let’s find better, more efficient, more profitable ways of bringing together stories and the people who love them. And perhaps in this we can find better niches than the ones we’re losing.

The Salander Phenomenon

In her piece about Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy in the January 10th issue of The New Yorker, critic Joan Acocella does not reveal the solution to the puzzle Mikael Blomkvist undertakes to solve in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In fact, she doesn’t mention that aspect of the book at all. But be warned. She does reveal details about key episodes in all three books that will spoil the experience for the reader or filmgoer unfamiliar with the work. These she should have kept to herself.

That said, Acocella’s article, which delves into Larsson’s background and the publishing history of the trilogy, raises interesting questions about his work. For her, the central mystery of the trilogy is why it’s so popular. She points to the poor pacing, the “staggeringly boring” twelve-page dialogue in the first chapter, “vast dumps of unnecessary detail” such as the one we get in Lisbeth’s shopping trip to Ikea, and “banal” dialogue. Many readers, including Larsson fans like myself, would agree that he wasn’t a great prose stylist. I also agree that the films, with the marvelous Noomi Rapaace as Lisbeth Salander, are better than the books.

We part company, however, when Acocella claims that the “most crippling weakness” of the books is the character of Mikael Blomkvist, whom she finds “anti-masculinist.” She objects to the fact that while Mikael sees plenty of action, women are always the sexual initiators. That's consistent with her complaint that “you can’t go twelve pages without being almost screamed at on the subject of feminism.” “Screaming” and “feminism” and “anti-masculinist?” Okay, so we’re on opposite sides of the barricades here. I’ll only say that my friends and I had no problem with Larsson’s feminism, and were quite happy to see Mikael coaxed into bed, though we didn’t get to see much of what went on there.

Why then, in Acocella’s view, are the books so popular? She concedes that despite his weaknesses as a writer, Larsson was a good story teller. She also cites the “absolutist” morality that drives Blomkvist and Lisbeth, the cutting edge technology that plays so large a part in the plots, and Lisbeth’s role as woman warrior.

Lisbeth—with her tattoos and piercings, her dyed black hair, her fragility and her strength, and above all her attitude— grabs us the second she steps onstage. She's the reason readers hang in through the boring parts, and the reason the trilogy has so far sold over fourteen million copies in this country alone. Larsson acknowledged that his inspiration for the character was Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking. (V. Villakula is the name outside the door of Lisbeth’s apartment in The Girl Who Played with Fire—an inside joke for Pippi fans.) Pippi, as you may remember, is the smart, strong and utterly self-reliant child who lives alone with her monkey and her horse, and who easily defeats any adult who attempts to put her in her place—a brilliant antidote to the powerlessness that’s part of the script of even the most idyllic childhood.

Lisbeth Salander’s childhood was as far from idyllic as one can imagine. Acocella suggests that Salander as woman warrior may appeal to male sexual fantasy, but I think Patti Abbott nailed it when she said on her blog of Dec. 12th: “I think [Lisbeth’s] appeal is that she has the strengths and weaknesses of both sexes. So we all relate to her. We all feel like the abandoned child, the person being pursued, the victim of an unjust world.”

I agree, and would add that Lisbeth’s survival, her resilience and her determination to exact justice is the message we crave as we deal with our own sense of powerlessness in the face of social institutions that so often fail us. That message, I believe, is the reason for the trilogy’s phenomenal popularity.

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts on this.

We're All Friends Here, Right? Between us...

The Women of Mystery know this, and some other folks, too, but I'm finally sharing it here, because dagnabbit, you're probably fans of crime stories like we are, and this might offer a nifty opportunity for someone.

I just became the "Community Manager" for publisher Macmillan's upcoming crime blog, likely to launch sometime in the spring. Despite the title, think of my role more like the editor of a small daily paper where I help work up ideas, wrangling contributors and copy so we have continuously fresh and varied content.

Currently, I'm filling the pipeline of posts and our roster of contributing bloggers (potentially up to 50 folks). At this moment, the site is wide open to all sorts of crime-related topics and approaches, but it's meant to be a lively, upbeat place to discuss things substantively, but also to share opinions. We're carving out niches for special interests and under-appreciated fiction, but of course, we need to hash about classics and our favorite contemporary work, too.

You can browse Tor.com for the basic model of how the crime site will look and work when done. Like Tor.com, the crime site will be absolutely publisher-agnostic as to subject matter and authors, and will have blog posts, interviews, excerpts, features, podcasts, original fiction and artwork. We'll also be talking about crime stories in other forums, like TV and movies, games, whatever. Posters can sign their work with links to whatever else and wherever else they choose. The top priority is building a wide-ranging community with lots of cool content.

To that end, if you've got topics, send 'em on! And if you are, or know, rabid crime story fans of any flavor or medium who'd like to write at least monthly about their passions and peeves, receiving in return only slightly better than an eyepoke, by all means, contact me! Best address Clare(DOT)Toohey (dot)contractor - you know how to type the AT sign - macmillan.com or DM me at Twitter @clare2e

*For those of you who may have seen this announcement in other private forums, this is the last shout-out, and it's for our awesome blogpals!

I'll still be participating here, of course. The existence of Women of Mystery is part of why they hired me, and this is a place where I can always let my hair down and talk about the writing side of my life. So, thanks for being here for me, and perhaps, I'll also see a few of you over there, too!

The Right to Write

I'm always amazed at the lengths some people go to for a chance to complete their writings. I once interviewed Mary Higgins Clark, who told me she would wake up an hour before her five children did to work on her fiction. She would then get the children dressed and off to school and put on her own makeup during the carpool ride across the George Washington Bridge into New York City.

The prolific Christian writer, Francine Rivers, used to keep her newborn son in a desk drawer while writing her early novels. Well-known novelist Joan Johnston wrote her first books by hand on yellow legal pads while making numerous business trips as a corporate attorney.

I thought for many years I wouldn't be able to write without the sound of the washing machine in the background. I have three children so my machine was seldom idle and since my laundry pair was in the kitchen of the older home where we lived, it was always a part of the chaos of our lives. When I began my early work with my collaborator Jan Hamilton Powell (a.k.a. Celeste Hamilton), we worked side by side at the computer. The one who wasn't writing at the time would give out spelling words and answer homework questions while the kids worked at the dining room table.

Many of us who write now began writing in the olden days before electric typewriters and the ability to erase mistakes without hindering a manuscript. Who can forget typewriter erasers ripping through thin paper or proofreading and discovering you have to retype an entire page due to a missing word or an error?

Writing isn't just an occupation or a vocation, it's often a passion and can't be held back by anything as mundane as making money to provide for necessities. That's why so much of what's written leaves such an impact on those who read it, that passion and need to put word to page comes thorough and makes the story unforgettable.

Share your tales of writing. Tell me how you find a way to escape and create the characters and their world that will inspire readers in the future.

Handwritten Letters: Part II

When I saw this article by Jeremy W. Peters in the New York Times ("The Handwritten Letter, An Art All But Lost, Thrives in Prison"), I couldn't help but think of two things: my very first post here at Women of Mystery, "Handwritten Letters" (March 16, 2009), and the letters I used to receive at one of my old jobs in the early 80s, as a gal Friday at Unicord in Westbury, NY.

At the time, Unicord was selling Korg synthesizers and Marshall amps. Ads appearing in magazines offered a catalog of their products for a few dollars. I had a desk (more like a table) up against a cinderblock wall in a large storage facility directly behind the main offices, and I had a typewriter. Part of my job was to answer these requests. Several of them came from prisons, including Leavenworth in Kansas. I thought they were hysterical and I kept some of them instead of throwing them out. I know they exist somewhere in my house, probably in a file in my attic. Sometimes they were written on disposable, folded hand towels or toilet paper. One letter in particular I will never forget.

It started like this:
"I do not think that Marshall is the best amp."
His next sentence:
"I think it is the only amp."
He could have been an ad man, I thought, if he wasn't doing hard time.

According to Peters' article, magazine editors have coined a term for these letters from prisoners: "jail mail."
Occasionally on Wednesdays at my blog, FROM COP TO MOM AND THE WORDS IN BETWEEN, I write "War Story Wednesdays" about memories on the job. I guess this one counts as a war story from one of my jobs before becoming a cop (yet it still connects with bad guys...). Last week I wrote about my encounter with an Alzheimer's patient at 2 a.m. on a freezing winter night on patrol. Readers are always welcome to share their own "war stories" ~ stop by to visit sometime.

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13.

Two Sentence Tuesday

I don't know about you, but 2011 has been tough on me so far! Among other things, there's the blasted snow. We're supposed to get up to a foot more between tonight and tomorrow. Lovely. And here I am writing about a nice, warm fictional town in Tennessee. But there you are.

This week, I've been reading a couple of books. One is on witicisms, the other on analogies, metaphors and similes. These compilations are fun and funny, and they don't challenge my ability to think in the kind of straight line that a story does. As I currently have very little brain power, they're perfect. My two sentences today are from I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like by Dr. Mardy Grothe. They are attributed to Livia Squires.

Going out with a jerky guy is kind of like having a piece of food caught in your teeth. All your friends notice it before you do.

My own thoughts have been nowhere near as clever. I offer them anyway.

Benny gave an exaggerated shudder. "I hope you don’t expect me to come with you. Silver isn’t exactly a nice, Christian name. Especially when it used to be Silverstein."

What about you? Read anything? Written anything? As usual, let us know and we'll update the blog with links to you as the day goes on!

• David Cranmer updates us on the further adventures of Cash Laramie this week.
• Leah J. Utas growls today.
• Anita Page has her two-fer in the comments.
• Travis Erwin shows he's witnessed plenty of mother-daughter drama.
• Kwana Jackson joins in this week in the comment section. Welcome, Kwana!
  

No comment

Is there right way and a wrong way to write a blog comment? Nathan Bransford thinks there is. Responding the right way can help you build your own blogging presence and make sure your comments are right on the button, or should I say mouse?

Click on over to his blog post at http://blog.nathanbransford.com to read all about it. And, if you comment, well ....

Follow me on Twitter @cathicopy and let's be friends on Facebook.

Image from: http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701&va=free+wrong+way+sign

MTM: Wolves At The Library!

Usually, the only wolves at the library are in stories like Little Red Riding Hood, or sometimes in educational programs like the one pictured at left. Both of these are excellent resources offered by libraries, but here in Mount Kisco, we don't settle for the abstract. Not when we have wolves right next door!

Back when I first wrote about the Wolf Conservation Center, I mentioned that they had four ambassador wolves who can be seen by humans. (The others are too shy.) Unfortunately, the past year was tough on the Center. Two of the wolves, Lukas and Apache, died. Luckily, Atka, the one who goes out to schools and other places in the community is still with them. (And, in further exciting news, they are getting new ambassador wolf PUPS!)

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Atka came to visit the Mount Kisco Public Library (which I wrote about here when it first opened). It was supposed to be a children's program, but there were plenty of adults hanging around, too. Because, face it, wolves are cool. I tried to hijack my nieces and nephews so I could pretend I had a reason to go, but they were all busy, so I just had to admit I wanted to see Atka for myself.

First, the Conservation folks put on a brief presentation about wolves and their necessary place in the ecosystem. They even had videos of the wolf pups that were born at the center this year, complete with little wolf pup yaps and howls. Then they brought out Atka, to many oohs and aaahs.

The children (and adults,) were all transfixed. Atka, however, was unimpressed. He gave a few tremendous yawns, as you can see from this picture. My, what big teeth he has!

Since Atka seemed so tired, they gave him a caramel macchiato. And a banana.

--

He likes to eat bananas without the peel, so he stamps on the banana until it pops open, and then he eats the insides. Wolves aren't meant to drink coffee, though, and they really didn't give him very much. In typical wolf (and dog) form, he decided that he needed to smell like the drink. So once he'd licked out the little bit of the foam, he rolled around in the remnants.

It was a fabulous day for everyone, and it led me to wonder how many other unusual programs I might have missed at the library. It turns out, the library offers a huge variety of things, from ESL resources and computers, to knitting classes, art and craft projects for kids, movie nights (the latest one was Despicable Me) and, of course, wolves!

What does your library have to offer beyond books? Have you checked it out?

You can find other My Town Posts at the My Town Monday Blog!

Winner of THE DAMAGE DONE Announced

A special thanks to all visitors for reading my interview with Hilary Davidson this past Monday and for participating in the giveaway of a signed copy of Hilary's debut novel, The Damage Done, by entering a comment. I am also grateful to the many friends who helped spread the word on Twitter and Facebook.

Utilizing the List Randomizer at Random.org, the winner of the the giveaway is: Elaine Will Sparber. Congratulations, Elaine! What a nice way to begin the new year.

Enjoy The Damage Done ~ what Publisher's Weekly calls "a razor sharp mystery debut." I hope that everyone gets a chance to read this awesome novel.

Thanks to Hilary for the fascinating interview and thanks to Forge for providing Women of Mystery with a signed copy of The Damage Done to giveaway.

Come follow us on Twitter @katcop13; @hilarydavidson.

Forgotten Book Friday: Borkmann's Point

Please join me at Patti Abbott's place today where I write about Borkmann's Point, a fine police procedural by Swedish writer Håkan Nesser. If you haven't heard of Nesser, you aren't alone. He's not nearly as well-known in this country as he should be despite the fact that he's the only writer to have won the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize three times.

Why It's Good to Write When...

Recently, I've been distracted from writing my book-length fiction. I'm not very sorry. Much of it is temporary, and it's all good stuff to do! However, my WIP has rust creeping around its perimeter, and it can feel futile to drag myself back to it for what will, necessarily, be a wham-bam-write-and-scram type fling.

The frighteningly prolific Elizabeth Spann Craig (aka Riley Adams) has some reasons at her blog for why it's good to write even when you're writing poorly. I also think much of it can be applied to when you're too busy.

I think sometimes even taking ten minutes to write two lousy sentences serves as a prayer and a promise, a kiss on the cheek of my MS as I head out the door. I care, I'll be thinking about you, and there will be quality time for us together soon.

XXXOOO, work-in-progress! We'll always have that Tuesday morning paragraph.

Can you do it? Do you know how to have a quickie with your fiction?

You Have 3 Seconds for Cool Swedish Crime

Our blogpal, B.V. Lawson, runs the awesome site In Reference to Murder. She wants you to know if you're one of those new fanatics of Swedish crime fiction-- or just want to read what all the fuss is for yourself-- she's giving away 5 copies of THREE SECONDS, a just-issued translation of Sweden's Best Crime Novel for 2009.

Try to beat that with a meatball and lingonberry sauce. You can't! Now link on over there to enter before Wednesday at midnight!

Two Sentence Tuesday - 2011!

Welcome to the first Tuesday of the new year! All I can say is I hope my productivity for the past few days is not indicative of what's to come for the rest of the year. I plan to write this afternoon, though. See Clare over there? I have a writing date with her, and I know she won't let me down.

I did manage to write a brief article on knitting and mysteries for the upcoming Macmillan crime fiction site, so here are a few sentences from that.

While I have never been in a knitting group, I was in a needlepoint group when I was in grad school. We met at someone’s house every couple of weeks, ogled men on television, gossiped, and occasionally worked on our canvases. It didn’t really surprise me, therefore, to find a host of knitting, crocheting, and sewing mysteries when I began to explore the mystery genre. After all, we talked about everything and we came from very different backgrounds, so if we’d been faced with a murder, we’d have been able to call upon a wide variety of skill sets.

I read some great stuff while I was on break, and tried to read some awful stuff and gave up. Right now, I am trying to get back into my contemporary romance WIP, so I am reading Lori Wilde's The First Love Cookie Club. Here are a couple of sentences from that one:

Observing the others, she felt herself sinking into the dark spiral that had plagued her since early childhood. A dark spiral she oftentimes found oddly comforting in its bleakness.

What about you? Have you gotten back into the swing of writing? What about reading? As usual, share your two cents, and we'll link to you!

• David Cranmer offers up more Cash this week, with a full story over at the Tainted Archive.
• Leah J. Utas squeezed enough time out of her peppered schedule to provide us with two sentences.
• Crystal Phares is back this week with a big, beautiful chunk for us.
• Travis Erwin has also returned with a substantial bite. Not only am I jealous of his productivity, but I am infuriated that he lost 8 pounds over the holidays...I think he sent them to me.
• Judie takes her first turn with us this week! Please welcome her by stopping over to visit her blog!
• Dorte has left her sentences in the comments and has a thriller review up on her blog.
  

Interview with Hilary Davidson & Book Giveaway

Hilary Davidson's debut novel, The Damage Done, was published by Forge last September. I recently had the chance to ask Hilary, a fellow New York Sister-in-Crime, a few questions. Thanks to Forge, we are offering a signed copy of The Damage Done to one of our lucky U.S.- or Canada-based commenters. Just leave a comment (and be sure to include an email address so we can notify you to obtain a mailing address should you win) by 11:59 p.m. ET by this Friday, January 7. We'll announce the winner on Saturday, January 8.

Q: Like your protagonist, Lily, in The Damage Done, you are a travel writer. Is there one particular place you have visited that is your favorite? Is there a location you long to visit?

A: While I haven’t traveled as much as Lily has — she’s been around the world many times, while I’ve been shuttling between Toronto and New York, writing guidebooks —I’ve had the opportunity to visit some amazing places. It’s tough to pick a favorite, but I especially love Peru. I spent three weeks there, which sounds like a long time but only let me scratch the surface. Peru has everything that intrigues me: glorious ruins, stunning scenery, incredible art, a vibrant history and culture, and great food. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

The place I’m longing to visit right now is Cambodia. I dream about Angkor Wat. Argentina and Brazil are also high up on the list of places I want to see. But I’m not sure when I’ll manage to do any of this. I traveled across the US to promote THE DAMAGE DONE this fall, and I’ll be doing a lot more travel in the US and Canada in 2011 to attend conferences and promote my second novel. I’m not sure yet when or if I’ll be on the road beyond that!

Q: Do you have a title yet for your second novel, the follow-up to THE DAMAGE DONE? Do you know the tentative release date yet?

A: The book is called THE NEXT ONE TO FALL, and Forge will publish it in October 2011. It’s set entirely in Peru, and it takes place about three months after THE DAMAGE DONE ends. In it, Lily and her best friend, Jesse, are at Machu Picchu when a woman falls and dies on the mountain. Lily is still dealing with fallout from the events and revelations and betrayals in the first book, and she’s seeing the world through a much darker lens. She’s certain that the woman was murdered, even though there’s no evidence of foul play. Lily’s determination to get justice sets in motion a disastrous chain of events.

Q: Congratulations on winning the Spinetingler Magazine Award for Best Short Story on the web. As a writer and a fan, I’d love to know about your writing process when it comes to short fiction.

A: Thank you! My short fiction usually spins out of strange scenarios that are playing out in my head. That was the case with “Insatiable,” the story that won the Spinetingler and is now in the BEAT TO A PULP: ROUND ONE anthology. I had an image of a man at a party watching his wife looking for a new lover, and the story spun out of that. In the upcoming CRIMEFACTORY: FIRST SHIFT anthology, my story, “Ladykiller,” came about because I was thinking about what it would feel like to have your fiancé accused of murdering another woman, someone he was having an affair with. I play this game of “What if…?” a lot. When I was in school, it was called daydreaming.

Sometimes stories are directly inspired by a something I read. In the spring, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine will publish a story of mine called “Hedge Hog.” That piece was inspired by a spate of articles I’d read about women aspiring to be trophy wives. Those stories left me speechless, but they also intrigued me. It’s not hard to imagine that ambition going horribly wrong.

Q: Which writer would you consider a mentor?

A: There’s more than one. In 2005, I took a workshop on getting your book published from a journalist named Susan Shapiro, who’s published several books, including the novel Overexposed. She was an amazing instructor, and my favorite thing that she said was “Write about your obsessions.” She is also absolutely tenacious and determined and fearless, and I try to channel her attitude. I recommend her classes and workshops to everyone, regardless of genre.

Among crime writers, Dave Zeltserman has been a wonderful mentor. The only reason Ellery Queen is publishing me is because Dave contacted me out of the blue to say that he loved my short stories but wondered why they were all online instead of in print. I told him about my long history of rejection by Ellery Queen, and that I’d given up even sending them stories. He slapped me upside the head and made me send a story in. He’s been incredibly supportive of my work, and I got to meet him in person when he came to my reading in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Some of my other mentors: Megan Abbott, Linda Fairstein, Dennis Tafoya and Rebecca Cantrell, all of whom have been incredibly generous with me. Another mentor is Jon Jordan, who publishes CrimeSpree Magazine. A couple of times when I’ve run into problems, he’s the person I’ve turned to for advice.

Q: You’re a native of Toronto, Canada. What was it like to move to New York City in October 2001?

A: The timing was accidental — I’d married a born-and-bred New Yorker in 2000, and my Green Card came through in August 2001, so I made plans to move. 9/11 made me question my decision to move to New York, but it didn’t change my plans. Moving to Manhattan felt like a foolhardy thing to do, because there were reminders everywhere of the attack — posters of the missing, no-drive zones, increased security everywhere — and it felt as if there could be another attack at any time. It was isolating, too, because no one wanted to visit New York in those days, and some of my friends in the city moved away. But I never regretted moving, because I got to see the city bounce back. I’m in awe of New York, and completely in love with it.

*****

Thanks, Hilary, for visiting with Women of Mystery today. We wish you all the best in 2011, and look forward to the publication of The Next One to Fall, and reading more of your short stories, too. (For a list of Hilary's awesome crime fiction stories, visit here.)

Is Stephen Fry Right about Language?

Or can exactitude co-exist with blissy, expansive usage? I originally saw this at The Affected Provincial and then went to scoop it from YouTube

I don't like being limited to being either a mean, cramped sphincter or a poet, especially since 6 minutes provides enough time to mention that a language-loving mind necessarily contains multitudes. I'd say Fry's own argument about context and circumstance pertain. I'm not mad at people who notice the difference between correctly-used and sloppy language--no matter how decipherable the meaning may be-- because so few people bother, and I want the knowledge preserved. (How do I know my palate is trained enough to tell the difference between sage and rosemary unless I test it in the wild?)

A hand-lettered kids' bedroom sign is different to me than an ugly misuse stenciled on a firm's shop window forever, or until the erosions of weather take pity. I don't think ignoring institutionalized wrongness in language helps the culture much, because I do enjoy language and the sound of the word "fewer," and relish finding opportunities for this underused hero. In advertising alone, "less" gets more than enough play. The popular corruption that bugs me most isn't about verb-ifying nouns, but the larger trend toward compressing language towards fewer words in almost every case.

I feel the same about fiction which uses $#*@ words endlessly. It may be a realistic depiction of a character who speaks and thinks in fewer than 100 different words per day, but, to me, it's a wasted squiggle on the page if it doesn't reveal anything new or propel the action somehow. I don't need to spend my reading imagination manifesting another's thoughts and speech if they're no more creative or better formulated than those I overhear on the subway. I expect fiction writers to turn a niftier trick than mere transcription.

Is there a position for us fans of "fewer" that doesn't come from prissy tight-hindedness? I'd like to believe it. What do you think? *Side note: the animation, kinetic typography that is, looks way cool. I enjoyed it almost as much as repeating "fewer" softly to myself.*

Pick Five

If the dinner table conversation lags on this first day of 2011, try this. In the recent issue of The 3rd Degree, MWA announced it will be asking members to vote for up to five books to be considered for its Top 100 Mystery Novel list. The 100 books receiving the most votes will comprise the new list, replacing the one generated in the mid-1990s.

Not easy coming up with five titles that “have had a lasting impression on the genre, influenced other authors, broken new ground or otherwise been influential mysteries,” but let’s give it a shot. One note before I start. I’ve focused on titles that didn't appear on the earlier list, which is why I haven't mentioned any of the classics. Of course work by writers such as Chandler and Sayers and le Carre should be included on the new list as well.

My first choice would have to be Megan Abbott’s Bury Me Deep. Broken new ground? Absolutely. In my opinion, Abbott has re-invented noir. Her stories are profound and painful, her prose gorgeous.

Any list of influential mystery writers must include Sara Paretsky. Hardball is one of my favorite of the V.I. Warshawski books.

Next up, Lawrence Block’s When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. I think the Matt Scudder books represent Block’s best work, and this is the title I go back to most often.

When I learned that Denise Mina was going to be at Bouchercon, I visited her website, was immediately intrigued, and went straight to Amazon and ordered some books. My choice here is Field of Blood, the first in Mina’s Paddy Meehan series. Mina's voice is unique and Meehan--a gutsy, vulnerable, smart, overweight, sexy young reporter from a poor Glasgow family--is a compelling protagonist.

Elmore Leonard’s Stick made the first list; I’ll suggest Get Shorty for this one. I can't think of any mystery writer whose voice is more distinctive than Leonard's.

Okay, your turn.