Mother's Day

Ladies and gentleman, may I present FARLEY, my newest namesake. She was born earlier this week on The Bag Lady's farm in northern Alberta, Canada.

The Bag Lady tells us Farley is strong and tenacious. I'm sure that means she'll be a writer some day.

Bag Lady, I am greatly honored and deeply appreciate this wonderful Mother's Day present.

The following message is for all those moms, aunts, girlfriends, daughters, grandmas, sisters, cousins and great-grandmas, including those who come to us in a blend of steps and halves, and those who come to us through marriage and other family arrangements.

You bring us love and laughter each and every day, we wish you a joyful Mother's Day.

Terrie

Criminally Brief

Just a short note to tell you about last night. I went to the Mystery Writers of America Agents and Editor’s Cocktail Party. I was planning to meet my pal and fellow Sister in Crime, Anne Marie Sutton. Even before I found Anne Marie, I ran smack dab into Cheryl Solimini, an old friend from Sleuthfest 2006. Cheryl’s mystery novel, Across the River, won Deadly Ink’s Best Mystery Award and will be released by DI Press on June 24th. I can’t wait to read it since I am so familiar with the New Jersey geography that is central to the story. You know I’ll be telling you more as soon as I get my hands on a copy.

The Women of Mystery blog was well represented. It’s always super terrific to see Laura, Clare and Catherine in person and not just on the blog.

I turned away from a serving tray and there he was, the inimitable James Lincoln Warren from the Criminal Brief blog. James introduced me to Angela Zeman, a former Criminal Briefer, whose blog entries I much enjoyed. If you love reading or writing short stories, you should visit Criminal Brief. The eclectic mix of writers talking about the craft frequently sets my mind a-whirling. And that's always a good thing.

And yes, I did manage to pitch and collect a few business cards, but for me, talking with these friends made the evening a grand and glorious time.

Terrie

What's Not To Love?

Clare's post yesterday on the various kerfluffles around the writing world got me thinking about two strains of chatter I have seen in the past week.

First, there are numerous blogs participating in a project started by Patti Abbott wherein blog authors use Fridays to recommend books. Says Patti, "I'm worried great books of the recent past are sliding out of print and out of our consciousness. Not the first-tier classics we all can name, but the books that come next."

On the other hand, there seems to be quite a bit of chatter about what turns readers off. On one reader forum I belong to, the moderator posted a poll asking about bad editing in published books [membership in Delphi forums required]. Here are the options:
• It makes me mad, but what can you do?
• It makes me mad, and I'm going to write to the publishers.
• It makes me so mad, it's putting me off buying books from the worst offenders.
• Other (specify).

At the moment, there's a 60-40 split between "what can you do" and "not buying books from the worst offenders." (If you feel like answering this yourself in the comments, I'll be happy to pass along your comments.)

At the same time, a conversation began in a romance readers forum at LibraryThing about "wallbangers", i.e., books so bad you throw them against the wall. These appalling books range from books with horrendous plots or dialogue, to those with factual errors, to...well, you name it.

In both of these discussions, a good number of people have been turned off entire bodies of work--either they won't read anything written by an author or anything published by a certain publisher. As a writer, I find this both encouraging and frightening.

On the scary side, what if I accidentally publish with one of those publishers people refuse to read? What if I make a mistake and am shunned forever for it? But I can control those things. I research publishers, and the list of those who publish my kind of work who I'd work with is comparatively short. (Compared to what, you ask? Compared to the list of publishers of genre fiction overall.)

As it happens, the ever-helpful Victoria Strauss has a post today on researching small presses. One thing she mentions only in passing, but I would emphasize, is actually reading books published by the press in question. That's usually the first thing I do. And I evaluate every aspect of a small press book if I am considering them as a viable publishing option-- not just the contents, but the price, the design, the paper quality. I am a consumer of books in both the literal and figurative sense and I don't want to put my own work out in a way that doesn't please other readers.

As for the factual stuff turning off readers, well, luckily, research is something I enjoy (witness all the years I spent in school getting useless advanced degrees). Some things I will, inevitably, get wrong, especially in the law enforcement arena, but I hope I won't make the glaring kind of errors people are talking about in these threads.

But I find all these discussions--not just "don't forget about these great books," but also "these books are so awful they left dents in my wall on the way to the trash"--encouraging. They mean that readers are still passionate. Some people, at least, are involved enough in what they read to be both enthusiastic about books they love and angry about books that aren't what they should be.

All that, I think, bodes well for the future of genre fiction, in whatever form it may come to be distributed.

While the Kittens are at Malice...

Sproing! If all's gone according to plan, two of our WoM, Nan and Elaine, will soon be arriving in the D.C. metro area. There, they'll be feted with malice aforethought for three days, and we expect succulent morsels of still-steaming dish served promptly upon their return. We also wish them a wonderful time, and to Nan, fingers crossed for the Agatha award! Since our ranks have been thinner as of late, I've been taking the mouse's chance to post, boing, post. It can't last.

All the recent conference activity (mystery, comic-sff, romantic) in turn spins off lots of spirited blogtalk about the states of the industry from various angles. Combine that with recent kerfuffles, first spawned online, re: plagiarism and reviews, and lots of questions have been raised recently about civility and collegiality across genres and cyberspace itself. I don't claim to have the answers, but there are more raw and funny opinions you may enjoy reading while coming to your own conclusions.

Nancy Martin of The Lipstick Chronicles enjoyed the recently-held Romantic Times in Pittsburgh, but behavior from attendees and exhibitors got beyond some folks's comfort range. As a prime example, some of the gentlemen models promoting an erotica line seem to have become 'handsy' in old parlance, creating consternation and issues of accountability. Where's the line between appreciating playful, edgy marketing and needing to get yourself steam-cleaned? Aside from her notes about hand sanitizer, Nancy makes fascinating observations about the different ways she saw readers connecting with books (the news ain't all bad!) and the way romance is growing its new generation of fans. Interesting stuff with wider application, I think.

Richard K. Morgan wrote a commissioned piece about the vitriol in the speculative fiction community that was so negative, he says, the man paying didn't want to run it. So he posted "Sound and Fury, Signifying...?" on his blog. If you don't know or care about the difference between mundane scifi and space opera, for example, feel free to insert any other warring sub-genres of your choice as you read. Now, I think Morgan would disagree with this last suggestion, as he claims that the world of mystery is eminently more civil than sff. Well maybe, and maybe it is the average age of the writers and readership at work. However, I think he grants the crime fiction crowd too many laurels when he writes:

...you don't get this gnawing, mutilative thread of self-hatred, this bulemic purging of whole sub-genres or readership sub-sections as somehow unworthy. A quick trawl through a couple of dozen crime writer websites and messageboards reveals no agendas or dogme-style utterances, no towering rages or griping about how the genre's going to shit these days, how there's all this generic pap being published, how this strain of crime writing is so much more valid than this other strain...

I quickly found this interview with legendary publisher/agent/bookseller Otto Penzler on Evil E, where he does take shots, as is his wont, at the so-called cat mysteries. He's known for it, but he's not alone. The books involving animals centrally, especially as crimefighters their furry selves, are extremely beloved and also widely mocked and reviled. Noir versus Meow- you can easily locate that snarking once your own antenna's hoisted. Perhaps this dispute is milder than ones in sff, but there are plenty of writers of "gritty, dark" fiction (and I've written some myself) who hold what's "cozy" in contempt. Lots of the cozy readers and writers feel disaffected and unwanted, and resent being pushed into ever darker stories as if it weren't okay to like what they like.

I'm a jukebox that plays all the songs from time to time, and believe more graphic violence and less-redeeming characters do not necessarily equate to elevated quality in the writing or storytelling. Careless writers toss in expletives and savagery without humanity, assuming their blue-streaked dialogue sings like Leonard's can and that readers intrinsically care for any thug or thugette they meet. Well, no. Even other thugs cross the street from certain crazies and death-bound baddies. Fans of the grimmest stuff are mostly quite nice, but getting readers over instinctive urges to cut bait with these losers is part of what makes the great writers of bleakness so satisfying to read. When they're not as good, repulsion and fatigue win for me. But, aside from that aside, I think this kind of internecine fragmentation happens any time someone likes mild versus hot salsa, for example, and doesn't much feel like they need improving simply because of their preferences.

The online world of free opinion sometimes seems less like a great party and more like an arena. There are times you want to change conversations or even grab your coat, preferably of rhinoceros hide. How you respond isn't really anyone else's purview, and depends on how you yourself are wired. You may decide finally to walk away, concentrate on your writing as best you can, and stay out of the scrum. Fair enough. You might also decide to join in with gusto and glee, irony as your Kevlar. For myself, I still find it all more exciting and amusing than awful, and as long as I do, I'm glad to have a front-row seat for whatever's Next.
Boing!

Two Sentence Tuesday: Your Exquisite Corpse

Image via E.C. Gallery, beinArt Int'l Surreal Art Collective


I wrote: “And you don’t want your nosy parishioners to know? This mysterious meeting, for which you insisted I abandon my glassware unwashed, isn’t for anything embarrassing or tawdry, is it?”


I read: With a straight razor and a sure hand, he rapidly scraped away at his cheeks, his squared-off chin, and his pale throat. Then he took out a small scissors and carefully clipped any errant hairs that might disturb the shape of his luxuriant black mustache.
- The Midnight Band of Mercy by Michael Blaine

If you'd like to play along, offer up a random 2 sentences you've written and read this week in our comments. Once we get a string going, it's like an exquisite corpse in writing, or eavesdropping your way through the most fascinating hotel bar.

Update: C'mon, anyone? E-mails, grocery lists, anythang... Is the picture scaring you away?

Crime and Books

At this instant, I should be writing my book about crime, well, criminals of a sort. Instead of that odious duty, I'll post here about books and crime. But not the kind that goes inside the covers. I'm still avoiding that.

1) I had to extract and highlight this from Laura's comment to Elaine's last post where she linked the hilarious Book Reporter's Memo to Eliot Spitzer: "If you spent the $4,300 you were alleged to have spent on the night of February 13th on books, you could have bought 172 hardcover books at an average price of $25..." Read it all.

2) A former member of MI5 is under action by Her Majesty's government over his binding confidentiality agreement. The former agent, who has written a 300-page manuscript, "was decorated by the Queen for bravery, was recruited and trained to develop multiple personalities which he used to penetrate criminal and terrorist networks for more than 15 years." The book and methodology sounds fascinating, but will it compromise national security? The High Court is deciding.

3) Seattle's the Stranger has the entertaining scoop-- if it's not your cardiac arrest-- from a bookstore worker about chasing thieves and the top 5 stolen books. Number 5 is any graphic novel. Wait a minute...My peeps don't buy? A strategic career U-turn may be called for.

4) My own book crime. I lifted the two classics above from my 5th grade classroom's lending shelf and could never bring myself to return them. I still can't, ill-gotten gorgeousness that they are.

5) While designed for obsessive text-messagers, this civic scheme works equally well for people like me who used to walk miles with my nose in a book. Britain's Brick Lane has prudently prevented injury and liability and padded its lampposts for distracted pedestrians. No kidding.

BFP: Acknowledgments and Dedications

In this case, the F is for Blatant Friend Promotion, rather than Self, dagnabbit.

The Good Liar is a recently-released international thriller of romance and espionage by a writing group buddy of mine, Laura Caldwell. (Hmmm, Laura C.'s are good omens!) In my entirely biased opinion, having been lucky enough to read/crit as she wrote it, this one's a yummy read with snappy characters in exotic locales. That said, I must admit that the writing of hers I've enjoyed most recently is in the acknowledgments.

To explain: Not long ago, while doing the weekly errands, my sister-in-law was able to pull a Laura Caldwell title off the rack of their neighborhood drugstore, and show my 8 and 6 year-old nieces my name in the front while explaining why it was there. This led my oldest niece to surprise me later by asking how many authors I've helped, and whether I can get her a publishing deal for her picture books, and whether I'll be eligible for the Caldecott. I'm afraid I had to let her down a little, but it was neat to get the stamp of legitimacy as a publishing professional, though I've never been published (yet). Even if my own name's not on TGL's spine, it's in there, and has the potential to sneak insidiously into tote bags and onto nightstands across the nation. Feel free to buy and share multiple copies to aid my subliminal infiltration campaign.

"I know I've seen that name somewhere before...Don't bother with the manuscript. Just fax over a contract. The fat one." I imagine it'll work something like that.

Yesterday, WoM's own Laura C. discussed being in the acknowledgments of her sister-in-law's non-fiction book on weddings, which led me to think more about the subject of front matter.

Acknowledgments are a tip-of-the-hat from an author, and I've been warmly flattered (buttered?) to think someone found my comments useful. Some acknowledgment sections are sprawling and widely inclusive, while some are hardly there at all. I think they have to remain somewhat fluid based on what and whom one goes through in the research and publishing. But dedications, it seems to me, get decided and stone-cut a lot earlier.

So, have you been thrilled or dismayed to find yourself in an acknowledgment or dedication? Has your credit hit the cutting room floor? Whether you're already in print or not, do you know how your next dedication will read? Confess in the comments.

Sometimes a Picture Does-

(He can turn away, but it's all his fault. You'll see.)

- Represent a thousand words, or at least a hundred. This one to the right is of the singular Leigh Lundin, and if you follow the link to Criminal Brief, you'll see how he was inspired (is that the right word, Terrie?) by some of the photos and personalities here. Yikes! And can I have a gun or samurai sword next time? He's started a thread for flash fiction to accompany the photo I originally posted here. I've already added my lame contribution. So jump in, the pixels are warm!

The Murky Demimonde

The title belongs to Slate. The image to Tairan Zhang.

Can't remember if I ever posted this, but it's an interesting article by Garth Risk Hallberg on Amazon's top reviewers, including the speed-reading and plot-summarizing icon Harriet Klausner.

Agatha Christie Goes Wii

Several months ago I introduced you to BV Lawson and her terrific blog, In Reference to Murder. BV’s blog posts are timely and interesting and her side bar has the most amazing array of links to every imaginable topic that mystery writers and readers might enjoy.

The other day, I visited BV and found big news: Agatha Christie is entering the world of Wii. I freely admit that I am the least technically aware person in the world. My idea of gaming is to play the hundred or so solitaire games from a CD-Rom I bought in the drugstore ten years ago. Still, if anything could pull me into the age of Wii, it would be the ability to follow Miss Marple around London, or better yet, St. Mary Mead.

Terrie

Who's Buying the Bookstore?

Cover image from Parasitic Ventures Press. I believe this art book is exactly what it claims.


As a follow-up to my recent post about surviving independent bookstores, I thought I'd link this article I just read in the Wall Street Journal about how some of them are trying to do it: community investment.

What do you think? Would you buy/donate a share?

Saluting Bookstores

I have no idea where she came from originally. Fab salute, though!

Upon reading the sad news of the closing of another local bookshop, JB Dickey, owner of Seattle Mystery Bookshop, jotted a note to the newspaper asking why it seemed so difficult to get publicity for local bookstore successes. I read this from the Seattle Times site (snips mine):

...When we moved our shop, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, over the Memorial Day weekend in 2005, we sent out a press release saying how here was a story about a small, independent bookshop that was doing so well that it could move to a larger space after 15 years, and no one in the local press paid any attention. Two and a half years later, business is terrific; 2007 was our best year yet, a 6.5 percent increase in sales over 2006...

If you want to know how independent booksellers really are doing, come ask us. Reacting to the closing of one bookshop by saying it is another death-knell of an industry simply isn't fair or correct and can be counterproductive. It can also mislead customers and drive more into the hands of the corporate Big Boxes, encouraging the difficulties that small independents face. Why not do a story about how some independents are doing fine because of their customers who want to support small businesses? Isn't there a story in that?...

JB has more background and more insight at the bookstore's blog, and it's also worth reading if you like charting how little online happenings suddenly swirl over their banks.

So, are there local bookstores near you doing it right, and what do you like about them? Let's celebrate!

On Being A Good Citizen/Member

I submitted my mystery, A Snake In The Glass, to the MWA/St. Martin's First Crime Novel contest (making the deadline by the skin of my teeth) and today received a note from my assigned judge saying he had received it.

I don't have much hope that Snake will win the contest (like its author, it doesn't fit comfortably in any genre), but I appreciate the fact that my judge--let's call him "Bob"--took the time to drop me an email. More than that, I appreciate that he's willing to read who-knows-how-many manuscripts from writers like me.

I always wonder what motivates people to do things like this. "Bob" gets no reward for reading however many manuscripts he has to read. He's not an editor at St. Martin's, he's part of MWA--an author--so reading manuscripts by unpublished writers is not his job. And it's not as if the manuscripts he gets are guaranteed to be good. (Although I suppose he can say "next" after a couple pages if they are really awful, since he isn't critiquing them, just judging.)

If I wrote a book about a man who was murdered because he volunteered to judge a contest, I'd have to know why he had decided to give up his time to do so. I'd have to be able to explain his actions in a way that would sound logical to my readers. But all too often, motive in life is less clear than it is in fiction. People act in ways that are counter-intuitive. Fact, as they say, is stranger than fiction.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you do something? Something difficult? Something that gives you no obvious reward? Did you come up with an answer, or did you just settle for "I guess that's just who I am," the way I seem to all too often?