Hey, There's A Dead Guy in the Living Room

What to do, what to do?

Terri Bischoff

 

I almost always have difficulty finding a blog subject but today the reason why is a little different. Today I'm feeling the weight of the terrible things happening in our country. Blogging feels a little silly, you know? In the big picture does it really matter when a writer of literature disses genre fiction? That has been going on forever, so it's not that huge of a deal. Does it really matter that I'm a little bit behind on work? Not really. I somehow manage to fit it all in by the time various deadlines come. These things seem to trivial when our country is unraveling. It just a scary time, plain and simple. So, what to do?

I'm serious in that question. How do we cope with all hate and negative rhetoric that is out there? We can log off of facebook, and all other social media, for a while. We can turn on itunes and read a book. We can color, meditate, and do yoga. Those are all good things. I think they are things we should all do on a regular basis. But at some point we have to join society again. How do we do that? How do we work for peace and equality without becoming overwhelmed with the enormity of the task. I don't know. I feel like I am being a bad citizen yet I'm also feeling sad, and battered, and scared. I can put my head in the sand. I can pretend that all is fine and normal. I'm only a woman and a lesbian after all, I have a certain amount of privilege. That makes me a little sick to my stomach. That I could just float along like a ghost ignoring all the turmoil around me. But I don't have the answer. I don't know what I can do when I am struggling so hard just to get through my own personal battles.

What to do? I mutter this to myself more often than I would like to admit, somehow hoping that somewhere in my brain I have the answers. I know how to set things right in my life and in my world. What to do, what to do? I don't have the answers. But I have always leaned on my family, both biological and chosen, to help me navigate life's twists and turns. What are you doing? I don't ask that as a challenge - I ask it as a sincere question - how are you coping with our current political climate and affairs? What do you do with your worries and concerns? How do you make through the day without feeling weighed down?

What to do, what to do? 

All The Same Words in a Different Order

Jeff Cohen

E.J. Copperman

10 Reasons to Read Dog Dish of Doom

1. It has a big, shaggy dog in it.
2. Fans of musical theater will not be disappointed.
3. Kay's parents are a hoot. ("Resilient, warm, funny"--Publishers Weekly)
4. Isn't that a nice cover?
5. It's funny. ("Laugh-out-loud"--Library Journal, starred review)
6. Stuff blows up.
7. Small town NJ and big-city Manhattan.
8. No dogs were harmed in the creation of this book. (People worry.)
9. Kay has two dogs named Steve and Eydie.
10. It has a big, shaggy dog in it.

So now it's out there, and it's up to you to see if it's good.

Everyone understands that movies are not filmed a week before they appear in your theater. People get that a theatrical production is written, financed, designed, cast, rehearsed and prepared before being mounted on a stage. Even television, the most hot-off-the-presses form of entertainment, is written and planned long in advance of its airdate. 

Books, however, seem to occupy a space in the average consumer's mind that is different, and that's understandable. A writer puts some words on a computer file and those words show up on pages between covers or on an e-reader in pixels, or whatever e-readers use. Right? That's what happens?

No. Not really. 

Yes, authors write a bunch of words, in my case usually somewhere around 80,000. Beyond all the rewriting and revising and proofreading I do before sending the manuscript to an editor (things I'm not counting in the timeline here), it generally takes about a year before that tome will appear on a shelf or site near you. And that's not because we're trying to milk the suspense for readers. It's because marketing and production and revision and editing and marketing (yes, I know I listed that twice) have to be done before you can have something as hopefully polished and complete as you deserve to read.

(It always cracks me up when a reader tells me to "write faster." The speed of my typing has nothing to do with when a reader gets to see the work. But perhaps that's a topic for another day.)

So now Dog Dish of Doom, the first Agent to the Paws mystery from Minotaur Books, is available to readers, and it's not because I wrote it last week. Truth be told, the first manuscript sent to my editor (the wonderful Marcia Markland) was completed sometime in 2015 if my records are right. And there's no reason to think they are. Since then, corrections have been made, revisions have been revised, covers (I really like this one) have been created, reviews (ecstatic) have been posted and marketing has been... marketed? (I don't really understand marketing but appreciate that people who do it actually do understand.)

I sincerely hope readers take to the book. It concerns Kay Powell, who grew up in a show business family but escaped the three-person act with her parents for law school and eventually became a theatrical agent for... non-humans. Kay represents dogs, cats, birds, monkeys and various other creatures with entertainment ambitions. And in Dog Dish of Doom she is dealing with a full plate: Her latest client, Bruno (a large furry dog of undetermined breed) is a natural, but his owners Trent and Louise Barclay, are the real beasts here. They're threatening Bruno's role as Sandy in a Broadway revival of Annie by being--especially Trent--difficult stage parents and clashing with the director, Les McMaster.

When Trent is discovered with a knife in his back and his nose in Bruno's water dish, the job gets a little trickier for Kay. And things go decidedly downhill from there.

The cast of characters includes Kay's parents Ellie and Jay (the act was Jay, Kay and El), between gigs and crowding Kay's two-bedroom house in suburban New Jersey, her friend--and maybe more--Sam Gibson, who runs the local coffeehouse, Les, Trent, Louise, Kay's assistant Consuelo and considerably more. You'll see. I hope.

As has been noted here before, pub(lishing) day for an author is relatively quiet and uneventful. So I'll be taking a guitar lesson. More on that next week.

Keeping it in the family

Just a quickie this week – packing to do, holiday to look forward to. Then off to the sunshine for two whole weeks. If weather forecasts are to be believed, possibly a little too much sunshine; the temperature where we're going is up in the 'Oooh, what a scorcher!' bracket and then some. But after two days of rain and a summer that seems to promise for a couple of days then retreat again, I think I'll be able to bear it.

Meanwhile... I seem to have discovered domestic noir in a big way over the past few weeks; seven out of the last ten books I've read fall firmly into this burgeoning sub-genre, and I'm liking what I'm seeing. For me, the best books are about people who leap off the page as real, living, bleeding entities, and when you add in the tension and bad-guy factor that goes with the noir part, it makes for the kind of book I want to read at a single sitting.

Hard to say which of the five was best of the bunch, because they're all different. I mentioned four of the seven a couple of weeks ago, in a slightly different context: each a great read in its own way. Since then I've added Clare Mackintosh's terrific follow-up to her gripping bestseller I Let You Go. This one is called I See You, and couldn't be more different. Family life is very much at the centre of the story, and there's a generous helping of well-researched police work (Clare used to be a police officer, so she knows about these things) and a glorious ending which turns the whole thing on its head.

Then came Obsession, a debut by Amanda Robson. This is a tangled web of two families, or two couples and their kids, who are inevitably collateral damage in this kind of book. There's a character you love to hate at first, but I warmed to her when a little more truth emerged; a lot of did-she-didn't-she as the story unfolds; and an ending that's so sad I almost forgot to be shocked by it, though shocking it certainly is.

Finally, there was Where She Went, by B E Jones. I went into this one with a big grin on my face because it's set in an area of Wales I know and love – and I was still grinning at the end, albeit a little more wryly by then. Just when you think you've encountered all the twists, all the differences, all the variations on the family-based psychological thriller theme, along comes an author with something new to offer, even in a sub-genre with relatively narrow parameters. I'm saying no more about this one. I think it comes out on top, at least on my list, and if you only read one psychological thriller this month, or even this year, I strongly recommend you make it this one.

Now I have to go and pack a few books. Maybe a spare t-shirt or two as well, and I'll try not to forget my toothbrush. But the books are what really matter.

Find the End

Jeff Cohen

I can write anything if I know the end.

Fact is, as much of a pantser as I am, I always have something in mind. Not necessarily a plot for the whole book, not every stop along the way, certainly. But the second I start writing a chapter, my first thought is about its end.

Each chapter in a novel is a self-contained entity. It will tell part of a larger story, of course, and it might very well be incomprehensible if read out of context. But it is its own thing, one part of a story that isn't what came before it and isn't what's about to happen. It is this moment in the structure. As a writer you live in that moment. Each time.

Given that, the writer thinks about what will keep the reader involved beyond this one segment. What plot point is going to keep the pages turning when the reader hits it at the end of the chapter? In short: What's the story point that's going to progress the plot in this chapter?

That's the end of the chapter, and that's what you're aiming for as you write.

Once you've grasped that concept, that all you have to do is find the end of the chapter, any claim of "Writer's Block" is easily dismissed. You know where you're going. How you get there is your own business. String enough of them together and the ending of the story as a whole will present itself to you at the proper moment. 

Coming a week from tomorrow is a little tome Minotaur Books and I like to call  Dog Dish of Doom, the first novel in the Agent to the Paws mystery series. Library Journal called it "hilarious," Publishers Weekly said "nifty" and Booklist used the word "humorous" because, well, that's how Booklist talks. As it was being written, there were many moments along the way where the end of a chapter had to be identified in advance. And the gift of this process is that it can lead to some surprises for the writer.

In Chapter 12, for example (starting on p. 150), I knew precisely what the ending was because a major plot point was coming up and I'd prepared for it. This comes from the screenwriting days when I would look for a midpoint to the story, something that turns the whole thing on its ear and keeps the audience (reader) engaged for the second half. But in Chapter 15 (p. 180), one of the big action set pieces occurs and I had no idea going in what it was going to be. Our heroine Kay Powell is going to confront people who have been doing bad stuff (you didn't think I was giving away plot points, did you?) and there was going to be something spectacular, I knew. It wasn't until I started writing the chapter and considered the ending that the big sequence could be defined. I sort of like it. Maybe you will too. There's no chance I'm about to give it away, so buy the damn book if you want to know. It's explosive; I'll tell you that.

The point is that sometimes you have a planned chapter end and sometimes you need to consider it just as you start the chapter. It's the goal you're searching for, the thing that pushes your overall story ahead and teases your reader into staying up just a few minutes longer to read on. If you can intrigue yourself as a writer, there's a decent chance you can do the same for the lovely people who put down their hard-earned cash to read your words.

Consider the ending. It'll get you where you want to go.

Goodbye, Tuttlet

Jessy Randall

For fifteen years I've worked in "Tuttlet," the 1980 addition to the Colorado College Tutt Library (built 1962). 

This is what Tuttlet looks like this week:

And soon it will be gone altogether.

I'm in my new digs in the "Garden Area" (i.e., the basement) of the new building, and all Special Collections materials are now in a state-of-the-art environmentally controlled area.

Hurray!

 

 

 

 

My days in the sun

Yes, thanks for asking, I had a lovely time. It was only a couple of days, but a very pleasant interlude. Enjoyed meals I didn't have to cook or clear away, relived my not-especially-misspent youth (though my mother would probably dispute that) as we watched a show based on 1960s music, relaxed in the spa in 90 degrees of heat to acclimatize myself for next week's French sunshine, and, most important of all, read two books.

And as of a week on Sunday, while my good friend Chris Nickson fills this slot, for which I'm very grateful, I'll be doing much the same in France. No spa, and I'll probably be responsible for some of the meals, but somehow even food shopping is more fun when the product labels and deli choices are in a different language. And there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance as well. I'll try not to go AWOL next Thursday, but if I do, please forgive me; I'll be packing, and finishing up those last-minute jobs I'd rather not come home to after two weeks of doing nothing in particular.

So, since I'm off to France, I thought I'd offer my loyal reader(s) a taste of it as well, in book form. I'm not a fan of translated fiction, so both series I'm about to highlight are written in English – but both authors clearly know their chosen corners of France so well, and are such ardent Francophiles, that reading their books is almost as good as visiting for myself. Which I may very well do, another year.

The first is Martin Walker's wonderful Bruno series. Bruno is chief of police in a small, bustling village in the Dordogne. He's a typical country policeman who would rather hunt for truffles than solve crime, but it turns out he's much better at the solving crime part than many of the city types who get involved in his cases. He's also a great cook; I'm sure I've mentioned his method of cooking steak in previous posts. He puts it on the barbecue and sings a verse of the Marseillaise, turns it over and sings it again. He runs the local kids' football team, turns a blind eye when it comes to some of the more drastic health and safety legislation imposed on local food producers, and knows exactly where to go for the best wine.

The second is Peter May's Enzo McLeod series. Enzo is a forensic expert whose day job is running a university department in Toulouse, but somehow he keeps getting entangled in mysteries in other parts of France. He lives close to Cahors, which is one of my favourite French cities, not least because the best red wine in the world is made around there.

Both Bruno and Enzo are great characters with complex personal lives and backstories. I won't go into detail; I'll leave all that for you to discover. And if you make that discovery in the next few weeks, spare me a thought. I may be here as usual next Thursday, but if I'm not – see you in September.

Always something...

Terri Bischoff

 

I feel like I might complain about my job too much. For example, here is my big complaint today: I have too much to read. At the moment I have a ton of things to read. I have a submission that I am really enjoying. I have two revisions turned in that I have to read and accept. I have the second manuscript of a series turned in. I am reading the draft of a friend's book. And finally, I'm reading the ARC of another friend. And frankly, I want to read them all first. Such problems, right?

Thankfully another problem in my work life was solved recently. A couple weeks ago, the Midnight Ink publicist gave her notice. I waited about two hours before I walked over and plopped myself down in the sales, marketing, and publicity manager's office and gave him my two cents. Actually, he got more like a buck or two. I am an introvert in almost every aspect of my life, but not when it comes to work. Anyway, I walked away feeling great about the ideas they had. Yesterday I got to announce that plan. Midnight Ink has hired Dana Kaye to do our publicity. I am so incredibly excited about this. If you don't know Dana, check out her website. She is awesome and this is such a good thing for Midnight Ink.

I had a great trip to Indiana for the Midwest Writers Workshop. I met some incredibly kind and nice people. I spent a great deal of time with Jess Lourey and that is always a good time. I heard some great pitches and read a couple awesome manuscripts. I look forward to the submissions rolling in. I will let you know down the road how they pan out. That, for me, is the true measure of a successful conference - does it result in any acquisitions. Second to acquisitions is did I make some great connections? I did accomplish that, so I'd say so far it was a big thumbs up. I think the best part of the conference was the diversity panel. It was fantastic. The panelists were amazing and intelligent and funny. I'm not sure how I landed in that group, but damn, it was great.

Anyway, back to reading. Catch you all next week!!

A Brief Plea for Help

Jeff Cohen

BRAINTREE, MA--I am not here today. That is, I am here, but not where I usually am, because the family is taking a long-coming long weekend here in Enemy Territory

Me at the JFK Museum and Library

(Red Sox Nation) to see where John Adams lived, where John Kennedy left his library and where some witches got themselves hanged except they weren't so much witches. So I'm not actually posting anything new for visitors this week.

I'll use this post to add my voice to those of many in the mystery community: Our friend Jeff Abbott, a fine mystery writer and better person, and his family were left without their home when lightning struck their house and the subsequent fire took it from them. I think the lovely Elaine Viets did this best so I'll suggest you click here and leave it to her. 

If you are able to help, please consider doing so here. I have. 

I'll be back next week. (In fact, I'll be back home tomorrow. But I'll be back posting here next week.)

What does justice look like?

Meriel Patrick, deputizing for Lynne

I recently re-read Thrones, Dominations, a Lord Peter Wimsey story started by Dorothy L. Sayers in the 1930s, and completed decades later by Jill Paton Walsh.

It contains this passage - part of a conversation between Peter and his crime writer wife Harriet:

"'Frivolity can give a great deal of pleasure,' he said, mildly. 'But I don't like to hear you call detective stories frivolous.'

'But aren't they? Compared to the real thing?'

'What do you call the real thing?'

'Great literature; Paradise Lost; novels like Great Expectations, or Crime and Punishment or War and Peace. Or on the other hand real detection, dealing with real crimes.'

'You seem not to appreciate the importance of your special form,' he said. 'Detective stories contain a dream of justice. They project a vision of a world in which wrongs are righted, and villains are betrayed by clues that they did not know they were leaving. A world in which murderers are caught and hanged, and innocent victims are avenged, and future murder is deterred.'"

This set me wondering: if crime fiction contains a vision of a world in which justice is done, how much does it matter what sort of justice it is?

Literature is full of sleuths who crack the case by breaking all the rules. Amateur sleuths often can't work on a case at all unless they at least bend a few rules to get access to the evidence. And we - the reading public - don't usually seem to mind this. In fact, it's often what makes a character popular.

But (unless Lord Peter is wrong, and we don't really care about justice at all) there's a delicate balance to be struck here. The detective can't operate with the same sort of disregard for the law as the bad guys, or the line between the two dissolves.

I'm still pondering exactly where I think that line lies - what's OK and what's not. So I wondered if the rest of you had any thoughts on the subject. Are there rules that should never be broken? How far is too far?

Hair and Goals

Jeff Cohen

And so it begins. 

It's good to have a goal, something to shoot for in most aspects of life. Right now with my hair just beginning to grow back, I'm setting hair goals. I think the first--and I should be able to achieve this fairly quickly--will be the Joe Girardi. That's doable, right? 

That doesn't look so hard to do, does it? Another week or two and I should be there. Then I can really apply myself (the key here is to do nothing) and aim for the next level up, which would be the Drew Carey.

Mind you, we're talking the standup comedian/sitcom star Drew Carey, and not the game show host Drew Carey, who slimmed down and grew his hair somewhat longer. Still not exactly Jimi Hendrix, but still a couple of steps away from where I am now. It's important to set achievable goals and when possible to set them in stages, so you still have more levels to achieve when you've reached your next success. 

But hirsute matters aside, goals are a helpful tool to the writer. Sitting down to write an entire novel at one time would be not only daunting but also close to impossible. One has to eat and sleep, for example. So let's assume our hypothetical author will be in for the long haul. That makes incremental goals essential.

Start by writing the opening you had in your mind. Because if you didn't have a premise ready, you have no story and should be off planting ferns or painting the kitchen until you have an idea. What are you doing wasting our time here, for crying out loud? 

So let's assume you have a premise and you're off to the races. When you get back from the races, sit down and write your opening. Your goal here is simple: Get the story moving and introduce your character(s). First goal: Write enough to make today feel like an accomplishment. It doesn't matter how many words that might be (For me, it's 1,000 words because that's what I've decided. It's completely arbitrary but for my process it works.), but get them down on pixels. 

Next (and I'm not making any estimates in terms of time, so this could be the same day, the next day or three years later because it's you writing and not me--if it were me it'd be another 1,000 words the next day) the aim should be to finish a chapter. It doesn't have to happen today, but it's what you're driving toward. The end of a chapter. That's all.

Once the first chapter is done, the goals become more obvious. Chapter after chapter until you reach the centerpiece of your story, where things go a little nuts and something BIG happens to drive your character forward into the second half. That's something you'll probably want to have in mind ahead of time, although it might change as you write. Stories have a way of deciding what they want to be about.

Perhaps you're a plotter, unlike myself. You have index cards with each scene represented and you know exactly what the plot point after the one you just wrote is going to be. Good for you. But you still have to write it. Your goals might be more tangible, more concrete. You can see them. That's great. Now sit down and meet them.

Once past the midpoint the end is the final goal. There is no reason to believe you have to reach it today unless you're one step away from THE END. But it is the incentive, the initiative. It's what you drive toward. Keep going. Each day, each chapter, each page, each paragraph, each sentence, each word along the way is a step toward that achievement. Feel good about what you're doing even if today isn't a a fun one. You'll reach the last goal as long as you don't quit. So don't quit.

I hate writing. I love having written. And in only three weeks, my 20th published novel will be released. Reviewers have called it "hilarious" and "nifty," among other nice things. Guess why? Because I kept my goals achievable and I kept them in sight. You can do that too.

maybe a way forward

Jessy Randall

My friend, political scientist Kris Kanthak, delivered this sermon at a Unitarian Church in Pittsburgh this past Sunday. I felt better after reading it and feel like maybe there's a way forward in the U.S. after all.

*******************

I am a political science professor. For over 20 years now, I have been studying the American political system. And from that vantage point, I can tell you that things are actually crazier right now than you probably think they are. Congress is more divided than it ever has been before, and that includes the period just before the Civil War. People are more divided than they ever have been before: Political scientists have recently created a concept called “negative partisanship,” which is tied to the fact that people define themselves more by the party they are NOT than the party they are. Being NOT a Republican, in other words, is a more powerful part of many people’s identity than BEING a Democrat. The number of people who say they prefer their children not marry outside their race is at an all-time low, but the number of people who say they prefer their children not marry outside their political party is at an all-time high.

So what can I tell you as a political scientist about the state of our political system that you don’t already know? And many of you may be thinking that the phrase “political scientist” may be a misnomer. Can you really have a science of politics at all? My position is, yes, which shouldn’t be surprising since the existence of political science is pretty important to my ability to keep my job as a political scientist. But I’d like to ask you to think about the world as a political scientist for a few minutes and see where it takes us. 

--

For the most part, as a political scientist, I build theoretical models of how the political world works. I start from an assumption and see where the logic of that assumption leads me. For example, here’s an assumption: Politicians want to keep their jobs. Now politicians want lots of things, so this is a simplifying assumption, but it is a good one because the other things politicians want (power, a better job, good public policy) require politicians to keep their jobs. So how can that assumption help us to understand the world around us? 

Let’s take a fact that has been in the news of late: Senator Pat Toomey is a part of a small group of Senators who have been working privately on legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare. He has been under a great deal of pressure to hold a town hall meeting, an open forum where constituents can tell him what they think of this idea. He has resisted that pressure. Why? One possible theory falls from the assumption that Pat Toomey is just a jerk. He isn’t holding a town hall meeting because he is a jerk. I have no evidence to refute that theory.

But I would pose an alternate hypothesis: Holding a town hall meeting won’t help Pat Toomey keep his job and it may make it harder for Toomey to keep his job. If he holds a town hall, a bunch of people who don’t like him will come and yell at him. This will make for good television. It will be played over and over again and will make him look bad to people who may otherwise vote for him in his next election. And no one will be MORE likely to vote for him because he held a town hall.

So in other words, holding a town hall may increase the chances that Toomey loses his job and it will be totally not fun for Pat Toomey. So one theory is “Pat Toomey is a jerk who wants to keep his job,” but another theory is “Pat Toomey wants to keep his job.” Scientists prefer parsimonious theories to overly complicated ones, so the simpler theory is, in my view, better. Maybe he’s a jerk, but he doesn’t need to be to be a jerk to be the kind of senator who won’t hold town hall meetings on Obamacare.

Now, you may think you don’t care if Toomey loses his job and he should hold the dang town hall anyway because that’s his job, but think about this: When was the last time you did something at work that both wasn’t fun and increased the chances of your losing your job? Plus, if you had a job where doing one of the functions of the job made it more likely that you lose that job, is that a problem with you or with the job? 

And then you may think, oh, term limits are the answer because then Pat Toomey won’t have a job he wants to keep. That’s fine, but it is also pretty likely that he wants A job once he is term-limited out of the one he has, and we can follow the implications of that theory to mean that if voters can’t give him that job, he will listen to the people who can: lobbyists, his political party, etc. So it makes logical sense that term limits aren’t a good way to make politicians more responsive to their constituents because it falls directly from the assumption that politicians want A job and if you don’t let them keep the one they have, they will try for another one (Being an ex-president is a pretty good job in and of itself, by they way, so term limits work OK for them).

So we can see here that the assumption “politicians want to keep their jobs” gives us some pretty good traction for understanding why our current political system works the way it does.

--

This last year, the University of Pittsburgh not only allowed me, but encouraged and supported me to engage in an experiment on the effects of political dialogue: I would take a small sub-group of students from my Introduction to American Politics large lecture class and ask them to talk one-on-one about their views on American politics. Now, these students were selected on the basis of race, gender, partisanship, socio-economic status and other factors to be diverse as possible. The theory is, if you get a diverse group of people together to talk – really talk and really listen – about what divides them politically, you may get some traction on helping people to understand that what binds us together is more powerful than what divides us. 

For example, we Americans, 240 years ago last Tuesday, decided to go in together on an experiment in democracy based on one particular assumption: All men are created equal. Now, that assumption is non-falsifiable: I can’t prove that it is true, but I can’t prove that it is false, either. But it is the basis for our democratic government and I would argue that the history of the United States is the history of us working out the implications of that simple assumption. Is the assumption that All men are created equal compatible with the institution of slavery? No, so the 13th Amendment to the Constitution got rid of it. Is the assumption that all men are created equal compatible with the idea that we should define “men” based solely on their sex or gender identity? No, so we passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. And the debate continues today as to what that assumption means for public accommodations for people who are trans or non-binary. So “All men are created equal” is a powerful assumption that we have made as a group, and it continues to be our touchstone, from the Gettysburg Address to Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech. It is an assumption with powerful, complicated, and controversial implications and our nation’s history is a struggle for working out those implications. All men are created equal.

So to properly test the theory that inter-group dialogue can have great benefits, I again have to start with an assumption. And in this case, it was an assumption I asked all the students in the dialogue to share with me. It wouldn’t work if we couldn’t share this assumption. The assumption was both simple and profound: We are all trying our best.

At first it sounds like nursery school pablum and really obvious that we should just give people the benefit of the doubt. But assuming people are trying their best can be really, incredibly hard. I now drive my husband crazy when we are in traffic and some idiot cuts him off. I interrupt his anger and the poor guy responds “I know, I know. We’re all trying our best.” The guy who cuts you off in traffic and then gives you the finger is trying his best. It doesn’t mean you have to be his friend and it doesn’t even mean he doesn’t have to live with the consequences of his actions. But you choose not to decide he is an awful person because of his poor behavior.

In inter-group dialogue, assuming that others are trying their best means that you have to listen to stuff you might otherwise not want to hear. It means that when I share something with you about my reality, you will use that information to try and understand me and relate to me, rather than to correct me and decide my views have no value. It means that when someone says something truly outrageous – even racist or sexist – you need to take a deep breath and remind yourself that the person is trying his or her best.

But if you are in my inter-group dialogue class, you get the benefit of that same assumption. So you can counter the outrageous statement. You can say you were offended and you can say why. And the other person is obliged to hear you out under the assumption that you, too, are trying your best.

But here’s where it gets harder: Think of the person you dislike the most in the world. Now assume that person is trying their best. Pat Toomey is trying his best. Nancy Pelosi is trying her best. Paul Ryan is trying his best. Donald Trump is trying his best.

--

I know what many of you may be thinking: Your assumption that people are doing their best is just plain wrong. Some people are just awful and they need to clean up their acts.

So what if my assumption is wrong? What if people are not trying their best? What if they’re just jerks? What if they are irredeemable? What if they are not even human? 

As a scientist, I have to admit: If my baseline assumption is wrong, everything that follows from that assumption is probably wrong, too. Ptolemy believed that the earth was at the center of the universe and he built a model of celestial movement around that assumption. It was wrong. 

But here’s the thing: Ptolemy did a lot of really excellent work based on that wrong assumption. Working through the implications of the assumption of a geocentric universe was what led us to learn a lot about how the universe works. We got closer to the truth because Ptolemy held fast to that wrong assumption that he honestly believed was right. So wrong assumptions can be valuable. You don’t have to be absolutely convinced that people really are trying their best to believe that it is valuable to make that assumption regardless.

Those of you who have dabbled in meditation may be aware of the loving kindness meditation. You start by thinking about a person you love, and sending them good and kind thoughts. You wish them well, and that feels great. But you end with choosing a person you don’t like and sending them good and kind thoughts. You wish your enemy well. “May you be happy, May you be healthy. May you be safe. May you be at peace.”

Now I can tell you from experience that it is HARD to do a loving kindness meditation and wish good things on a person you don’t like. And I should note that I don’t actually believe that sending good thoughts to people really does make that person feel better. But you know who feels better? Me. 

The same thing is true from assuming that someone you don’t like is doing their best. Reserving the assumption that someone is trying her best only for those people who deserve it misses the point of the exercise. You need to assume the best in people who don’t deserve it. Again, you don’t have to be their friend. You don’t have to work with them and you sure as heck don’t have to vote for them for president. But if you want to take the assumption seriously, you need to offer it to everyone, not just the people who you think deserve it. In fact, you especially need to offer it to the people who don’t deserve it because they are the ones you understand the least and therefore they are the ones from whom you can learn the most.

--

So here’s something that is true about me and I’m telling you this because I’m hoping you will believe that I am up here doing my best. Here’s my truth: I am mad. I was all ready to get to celebrate having the first woman president and instead I got a guy who can’t stop tweeting sexist stuff about Mika Brzezinski. I’m mad. I’m mad at Trump and I’m mad at the people who voted for him. I’m mad because I think they turned their backs on the concept of “All men are created equal” to give power to a bazillionaire who literally brags about the size of his penis. I’m mad and I really, really want to stop at just being mad. It would be so easy to stop at anger. I could stop at anger and never have to get up from my couch. Plus, I would get to feel self-righteous, which is my absolute favorite thing to do.

The Declaration of Independence that starts with “All men are created equal” ends the following way: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” It’s fine to be mad. I can’t decide that I’m not allowed to be mad, because being mad is part of me doing my best. But I am mutually pledged to every single Trump voter out there, whether they know it or not, and whether I respect it or not. The day after the election, a Trump-supporting student in my inter-group dialogue class came into the dialogue looking as shell-shocked as anyone. “I just wanted to stick it to Wall Street,” he said. “I didn’t want people to be scared. I’m sad that people are scared.”

Now I completely acknowledge that I have tons of privilege in this society, and so that privilege may be linked to my ability to believe that everyone is doing their best. My privilege allows me to look at a student who should’ve KNOWN people would be scared and see a person who needs to be told that people are scared. I need to share that with him. I understand that it is much easier for me to believe that everyone is doing their best than it is for many of you. Many of you are angrier than I am, and you have an absolute right to be angrier than me. I have no right to say you must drop your anger at the foot of some belief that people who do awful things, people who tweet awful things, are doing their best. If you can’t make that assumption, if you aren’t there yet, if you will never be there, that’s OK. I have the privilege to be able to make that assumption, and if you do to, I think you should. All I want from you, and all I believe in my heart and my soul you are giving me, is your best. I’m mutually pledged to you. I have no choice.

 

Kris Kanthak is an associate professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Keeping it in the family

I seem to be in an analytical frame of mind this week; maybe it's because mostly these days, Real Life seems to take up more than its fair share of time, and when I sit down in front of my computer, it's mainly to review a book I've just finished. So bear with me while I do a little analysing of my recent reading habits.

Since most fiction is about dysfunction of one kind or another, and the dysfunctional family is a feature of 21st century life whether we like it or not, I suppose it isn't really surprising that 'domestic noir' has become a burgeoning sub-genre of both conventional crime fiction (the kind with a body and a sleuth) and the psychological thriller variety (the kind with a mystery to solve, but not necessarily a murder.)

I seem to be reading a lot of psychological thrillers at the moment. I go through phases; I seem to recall basing an entire post on them a few weeks ago. But then a handful of police procedurals came my way, and my focus shifted for a while.

Well, now it's back; four out of the last six books I've read have been psychological thrillers – and whaddya know, every one of the four has involved a dysfunctional family, or a stable family which becomes dysfunctional as a direct result of the situation on which the plot hinges. The four are Give Me the Child by Mel McGrath, Exquisite by Sarah Stovell, Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica, and Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell.

It says something about the breadth of the sub-genre, and a lot about the four authors, that the family setting is just about the only thing the four books have in common, in plot terms at least. In addition, they all share great character development, an excellent sense of place, and a style so fluent I didn't notice – my main criterion of good writing. And I don't hesitate to recommend them all to any lover of something a little unusual.

Thinking back over what marketing gurus rather pretentiously call the 'reading experience', I recall something else all four have in common. Kids. Well, of course – a family isn't a family without kids. Six altogether, seven if you count a newborn baby. Different ages, and all beautifully drawn; the authors clearly have kids of their own, or spend a lot of time with them. In two of the four books, the child or children lies/lie at the heart of the story; in the other two they don't lack importance, but the plot doesn't turn on them. So there's one pretty major difference. So how else do these four very talented authors ring the changes in a way which produces four very different books which all belong to the same sub-genre of a sub-genre?

Hm. Let me think; how can I do this without spoilers? I'll try. In Give Me the Child, a hitherto unacknowledged love-child turns up on the doorstep, and creates havoc in a previously stable family. In Exquisite, a passionate relationship takes two women by surprise, and one deals with the situation far less ably than the other. In Every Last Lie, secrets start to emerge when a young, much-loved husband dies in a car crash. And in Then She Was Gone, ten years after her teenage daughter disappeared without trace, a mother is faced with a lookalike.

Four different mysteries to untangle, all asking much the same question: what the heck is going on here? OK, I suppose that's the question at the root of all crime and mystery fiction, but in psychological thrillers the answers are less straightforward. That's what makes them so interesting. The best authors of police procedurals and PI mysteries, and other kinds of murder mysteries too, know how to ring the changes too, but you always kind of know the outcome: the good guys will catch the bad guys and justice of one kind or another will befall the murderer. In psychological thrillers justice isn't necessarily the issue, and the outcome is less cut-and-dried, so the author has more freedom to twist and turn the plot.

OK, analysis over, for this week at least. Think of me next week, as I indulge myself with a spa day and relaxing massage. I'll leave my blog day in good hands, I promise.

Burning Buildings, Broken Windows and My Dad

Jeff Cohen

I posted the following on Facebook earlier this week and it got enough of a response that I thought I might let my DEAD GUY friends see it as well. It's true, as well as I can remember, and it is meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of a violent moment in the history of Newark, New Jersey from which the city has still not completely recovered. I will not debate the politics of that moment, which some call riots and others a rebellion, as I was nine years old at the time and not exactly a savvy observer of social issues. This is a personal story, and it's related as well as I can given that a half-century has gone by since it happened.

I've done a little revising.

Fifty years after the violence in Newark (call it riot or rebellion) I have a very modest story to tell: I was nine years old and we lived in Irvington, a suburb of Newark, less than four miles from the heart of the disturbance. Since then Irvington has gained its own reputation for violence and crime, but that is another story. 

My father owned a paint and wallpaper store on West Market Street in Newark and traveled there every morning at six. He came home at six every evening. The people in the neighborhood, who were almost exclusively African-American, weren't "friends," but knew him well enough to understand the kind of man he was.

When the trouble began during the "Summer of Love," there was extensive coverage on television and radio. I remember my mother being terrified and calling the store to reach Dad. He was waffling on staying there and waiting for things to quiet down. She was adamant: COME HOME NOW!

My father would do anything for my mother, and acquiesced to her wishes (later letting us know he had stopped at the bank and had a decent wad of cash on him because he didn't know when he'd be back). There were no cell phones, children, so the time between that first phone call and when he'd be expected to walk through our door was radio silence.

But walk through he did and I've never seen my mother, who is now 88, look so relieved. I felt it myself, although I wasn't sure why everybody in Newark was so angry (I found out later). He told us about the buildings on fire and the broken windows and doors he's seen on the drive home. He'd seen violence on Springfield Avenue and downplayed it in front of the children, but the newspapers, television and radio didn't care that we were young; they told it all.

There were reports of arson and looting going on in and around the neighborhood of my father's store. He was concerned about what he'd find when he went back.

I honestly don't remember if Dad returned the the store the next day or three days later. My mother says he was probably home a couple of days until the state of emergency was lifted. But he called us when he got there and reported no damage to his business.

Instead he found that the locals had taken bars of soap and written the words SOUL BROTHER on his front plate-glass window. The store had been untouched.

A few years after that summer my father had moved the store back to where it began, on Chancellor Avenue in Irvington because the new University of Medicine and Dentistry was expanding and bought the building from my father. Today a parking lot stands on that street. I don't know if he ever discussed those awful days (26 people died and many more were injured) with his neighbors on West Market Street, or thanked them for their kind gesture. But there had been a trust--probably unspoken--between and among them and it had been borne out.

It speaks to me today of what kind of man my father was, but also of what kind of people lived in that city. When the real time of crisis--and it was nothing short of that--came, they looked out for those who had treated them with respect. It says a lot.

Who, what, when, where, why?

Much as I would have loved – would still love; I haven't given up hope – to have been primarily a published novelist, over a writing career spanning ftymumble years my main source of income from the written word seems to have been from journalism. I didn't exactly intend things to turn out that way; it was simply a matter of taking the opportunities that were presented to me, and the first of those was a magazine article, closely followed by reviewing and feature writing for the local newspaper. That lasted a long time (decades, reluctant though I am to admit I'm old enough for that, since inside I'm still in my twenties) and came to an end a couple of years ago when the paper decided it wasn't going to employ freelancers any more.

I didn't stop writing fiction. Of course I didn't; nothing was ever going to stop me asking what if...? and turning the question into stories. Quite a few of them even got published, though never a novel, alas. And I don't think it's an accident that most of the published stories happened after I started on the journalism.

I had no formal training; I kind of picked it up as I went along. It was plain from the outset that the way to gather material a news item (I did a little of that too) or a feature article was to ask questions (yeah, OK, obvious or what?), and that those questions were pretty much the same in every case: who, what, where, when and why.

And whaddya know, when I was invited to teach some courses at a local adult education centre and started to analyse the process of writing in order to have something to teach, I discovered that in order to create a piece of fiction I needed to ask exactly the same questions.

OK, I know, I know; that's pretty obvious too, when you sit down and think about it. But I didn't think about it. Until then I'd been a seat-of-the-pants writer, and it seemed to be working, so I didn't ask any questions at all; I just did it.

I rapidly arrived at the conclusion that learning the craft of writing – which I never really did, until I started trying to teach it to other people – was a little like learning to drive a car. Which, coincidentally but not irrelevantly, I had done only a few years before I started to teach those courses. When you begin, you think very carefully about what to do with your hands and feet, when to press, push, turn, slow down, speed up, and, probably most important of all, stop. And after a while you stop thinking about it, at least on a conscious level; it becomes second nature, and you find you're just doing it.

I went through that process and sequence of events when I began to drive, but somehow it had passed me by when I began to write, and I arrived at the 'just did it' part without thinking about how I got there. These days, though, I think about it a little more; I review other people's books, and actively look for the who, where, what, when and why. And that has led me to another conclusion: it's all a matter of balance. When and where are common factors, and carry much the same weight in every book. Some books focus on the who; the entire narrative is devoted to working out who did the crime. In others, it's plain from the start, and the focus is on the why. Then there's the what. I finished Lee Child's Night School not long ago, and a big question from the start was what is going on here? It didn't become obvious until very close to the end, and even after it did, another what raised its head: what was Reacher going to do about it? How was he going to save the world this time?

If I wanted to wax philosophical, I could begin to muse about the way those five little words lie at the root of pretty much everything. But I'm not a philosopher; I leave that to my daughter who is much better at it than I am and has letters after her name to prove it. Me, I'm a writer. But the questions are still the same.

Dog Days of Summer

Terri Bischoff

 

Ok, maybe it's a little early to be calling it, after all, it's only like 85 degrees. With the humidity, it feels like 91. Yuck. It will get worse, I know it will. But in summer the days at the office seem so very looooong and my commute even longer. Sigh. How to combat it? This is how I (try) to do it.

1) Have plenty of fruit on hand. I think you all know about my addiction to blueberries. We have now moved into cherry addiction. Quite delicious. 

2) Stagger manuscript reading schedules so that you always have one to escape into. For real. Today was one of those days where I just couldn't seem to get started on anything productive so I turned to a revision that was just turned in a few days ago. (Also, if you haven't yet read Gwen Florio, I really urge you to do so. I LOVE her books. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them. You should too. Go here to check it out.)

3) When you find yourself sweating at your desk, go take a lap or two around the building. When you come back in, it will feel cold even though it's not. 

4) Bring plenty of change so you can hit the vending machine for ice cold diet coke, chips, and candy bars. Better yet, bring in a 12 pack to put in the fridge. Costs less. But only put in a can at a time and label it so some bastard doesn't steal it from you.

5) Learn how to send fireworks and balloons via imessage. That little adventure brought at least 20 minutes of joy.

6) Do a tarot card reading. Cause why not? I mean, my cards were awesome today!! (I use the Steampunk Tarot.)

7) Forget to eat lunch. Might have been the fault of the all day snacking.

8) Check out recipes on facebook. Pickle sandwiches? For real? YES!!!

9) Answer emails.

10) Get back to reading that manuscript.

11) Hey, it's suddenly time to go home! Sweet. Quick dinner then a night filled sitting in the sun watching lacrosse then soccer. Rock on!! Have a great day, y'all. It's Wednesday! Cruising to the weekend. :)

Do Not Wait for Inspiration

Jeff Cohen

Health update: So treatment has been over for 6 weeks. Had a PET scan after 5 weeks, which appears to show that most if not all my lymph nodes have cooperated nicely. Now I go on "maintenance," which means I go in every two months for one treatment of immunotherapy--NOT chemo. I do that for the next two years. That's 12 treatments for those of you keeping score at home.

This treatment will NOT make my hair (which is growing back... slowly...) fall out. It will NOT make my fingertips and toes tingle and become clumsy. It will NOT make me want to head for the couch for a nap every two hours. This is what I'm told. And so far the scans look nice and I will only be a (very) part-time cancer patient here on out. 

I've also gone from looking like a cancer patient to looking like a grizzled old prospector. That's improvement. (I'd show you the top of my head and the slight downy stubble that's growing there now but I'd have to put a microscopic lens on my phone and that's not happening.)

That's your update.

And now, to this week's business. 

There's a lot of talk in the writing business about inspiration. I'm not talking about influences or other writers who did the kind of thing you do before you did it so you realized you could do it. No, I mean the lightning-flash kind of thing that's supposed to catapult one from sitting around watching the ballgame (which I can't do until Friday now!) to rushing to the keyboard and writing an entire book in one night because it's in there and it's gotta come out.

Here's the thing about inspiration: If you wait for it to happen you will never be a working writer. And I identify as a working writer the way a person who gets supporting roles on a regular basis sees him/herself as a working actor. I mean someone who writes for a living and can do so consistently. That's not a knock on people who have a day job; I have the utmost respect for those who can do both at the same time. It's a distinction between those who write when they feel like it and those who write whether they feel like it or not.

A working writer writes. All the time. Every day, whether there's a deadline or not, but certainly when there is. Whether it's a weekday or a weekend. Whether it's convenient or not. Writing every day. Preferably for money. That's what a working writer does. Waiting for inspiration is like waiting to win the lottery before you can buy groceries; maybe you should have saved the money for food. It's impractical, unrealistic and generally destructive to the writing process. Inspiration kills a working writer.

In a few weeks (five) Minotaur will release (because it's been imprisoned up until now) DOG DISH OF DOOM, the first novel in the Agent to the Paws series about Kay Powell, a theatrical agent whose clients are all animals (not the usual Hollywood kind--actual furry types like dogs, cats and birds, which are technically not furry but you get the idea). Believe me, I'll be telling you more about that as August 15 gets closer. But the key fact today is that DOG DISH OF DOOM will--on August 15th--be my 20th published novel. And there are at least four more that are written and will be published later. Another is being written now. That's 26 novels (not counting the ones that haven't been purchased by a publisher YET) and if you want to get technical, two non-fiction books in print.

If I had waited for inspiration to write them, there might be... two?

Allow me to be specific about this: I'm not talking about the process of getting an idea for a book. Obviously, that has happened for me at least 26 times (although I believe I mentioned there are a few more I've written that I'd like to sell, so...). In the vast majority of those 26 cases, the idea was a conscious process of trying to decide what the characters from an ongoing series might be up to the next time they're trotted out before an unsuspecting public. Other times it's about starting a new series and deciding what character might be interesting to spend some time with while killing off the odd bystander so there will be a plot. That's work. That's something a person decides to do.

Inspiration is an idea that strikes when the writer isn't trying, and it's so, well, inspiring that it's hard to stop writing once the idea arrives. It's about a feeling that invades the mind and won't let go. It's about an impulse. It's about some area of the brain that works on background and occasionally sends out a memo when it can get through the static. (I'm mixing metaphors. This post was not a product of inspiration.) 

It's a wondrous thing to be struck by inspiration. It's just not something you can anticipate on a regular basis. The reason there aren't more working writers isn't the writing part. It's the work. Don't wait for inspiration. If it strikes, great. If it doesn't... write anyway.

 

Laurie R. King's Lockdown

Jessy Randall

Laurie R. King's new novel, Lockdown, is really good. I read it on the beach and on the porch during a vacation that just ended. And now I will go back to dealing with the over 300 emails that piled up while I was away.

From London, With Love

Each year, my husband and I flee the Florida summer for a few weeks, relocating to cooler climes. This year, we’re in London.

Last night, we wandered into a bookstore. I love bookstores. Especially ones that aren’t in the US, because I like seeing the different covers, and I find that wandering around is a good way to get a feel for a place.

As I was snapping photos of various books that looked interesting but I hadn’t heard of I wondered again whether publishing is ever going to build a viable (if virtual) bridge across the ocean. I’ve opined on this before, but really, there’s no longer any reason for a book published Over Here to not be available Over There.

I suspect publishing still thinks the differences between readers on different continents are too vast for this to make sound business sense, but Canada kinda puts the lie to that, doesn’t it? I go to events in both the US and UK, and while there are cultural differences for sure, the readers I meet are strikingly similar. I think the biggest thing that separates them is the assumptions that publishing makes about them.

If you’re an American reader, thankfully you have resources like The Book Depository or Goldsboro to get books. But if you prefer e-books, you are, as the saying goes, SOL. Which is hugely unfortunate.

I suspect that Amazon might one day get their proverbial head around this and grab up the publishing rights for all the fantastic authors who are, at the moment, only published on one side of the pond or the other. And loads of publishing professionals will freak out. And readers will rejoice.

 

We're all going on a...

Or am I the only person around here old enough (or possibly sad enough, or British enough) to remember the film and therefore the song? Cliff Richard, anybody? Big red London double-decker bus? Una Stubbs being cute?

For everyone who needs a reminder, which could well be most people who happen to be reading this, the next words in the song are summer and holiday, and that's also the title of the movie. Well, I enjoyed it anyway. Mind you, I was only about fourteen at the time, which is surely an excuse for a lot of things.

I mention it merely in passing, and because, having had to cancel our last two summer holidays because of medical issues in the family (not me; I'm in rude health. It's just other people who are falling apart around me), we're now in serious danger of actually getting away to the sun at some point in the next few weeks.

Which means, of course, that I need to think about my holiday reading matter. No one who has dipped into this blog over the past few years will be surprised to learn I don't own an e-reader, and have no plans to change that state of affairs. So when I depart for my preferably annual R & R, there's always a trade-off between books and clothes. Fortunately we don't opt for the kind of holidays which, and I'm not the kind of person who, require(s) twelve pairs of shoes and a change of wardrobe for every day; as long as there's a washing machine on hand I'm fine with some sandals, a few t-shirts, a pair of shorts and one nice dress for the evenings. So there's plenty of room for the essentials.

So which essentials am I going to choose? My to-be-read shelves currently hold about fifteen books. Most of them are crime fiction (natch!); a few aren't. And then there are the books I receive for review, of which I'll probably take at least one. That's the unknown quantity: the surprise treat, if experience is any criterion. I'll also need several more. So which ones shall I save?

A recent visit to a very large London bookshop yielded up some unexpected goodies, including one titled The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield. I read one of hers for review a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it a lot, so it was her name on the cover that drew my eyes. The premise is intriguing and I'm curious: murderer's father wants to atone for the kid's sins in a rather dramatic way. So that one starts the pile off.

Close by on the shelf is the newest in my extensive collection of J D Robbs: Apprentice in Death. I'm lagging behind; two more have come out since this one. My excuse is that paperback editions take longer to arrive in the UK. No need for the curiosity factor with this one; I know I'll love it, so it definitely goes into the pile.

Another of my favourite authors is Peter May. I especially like his Enzo McLeod series, set mainly in one of my favourite parts of France; and since the proposed holiday will almost certainly – no, make that definitely – be in France, though possibly not quite that part this time, the one I haven't read yet would seem to be an appropriate choice.

One criterion for my book choices is would the others like it? I habitually holiday with three other people (husband, daughter and friend), and we like to share our books around so we get even more options. I think the above choices score two out of three; the others haven't discovered J D Robb yet, and I'm so far along the series that they'd miss out on a lot if they started with Apprentice. But two, and possibly a third depending on the review book, gives them options too. So I think I'll leave it there, and wait to see what goodies they offer in return.

But if anyone has a suggestion, feel free. I'm not going anywhere till next month.

Declaration! The Musical

Jeff Cohen

Tomorrow, for those who have not bothered to check a calendar, is July 4, designated as Independence Day here in the United States of America. And while many things have changed in this country recently--and I will refrain from listing them here--there is still an absolute halt of activity on that day. No mail is delivered. Most people do not go to work (sorry, those who must). Many stores are closed. Sales of hot dogs go through the roof.

In my house we will observe the holiday as we have come to do every year: by watching the 1972 film of the Broadway musical 1776, a movie as historically accurate as you can expect when it includes scenes of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams dancing through Independence Hall, which as you can expect was called something else then.

Although not critically acclaimed on its release, 1776 earned a place in our hearts through its depiction of the Founding Fathers as men, not, as Franklin puts it, "demigods." (Yes, I can quote numerous passages from memory. So I'm a geek.) Yes, enormous liberties (you should pardon the expression) are taken with history. Members of the Second Continental Congress who did not oppose American independence are seen doing so. Dramatic license is taken throughout, as when the entire Southern delegation walks out over Adams's refusal to remove a clause abolishing slavery in America. That never happened, and the debate did not take place until after the resolution declaring us free from Great Britain had already passed.

Which occurred, by the way, on July 2, 1776. You read that right.

Yes, there is singing and dancing in 1776. There are wisecracks that in all likelihood were not uttered at the time. But a good chunk of the dialogue, particularly between Adams and his wife Abigail (and there needs to be a movie just about them) comes from letters exchanged at the time. There is some attempt, albeit a theatrical one, to be accurate when it doesn't get in the way of a good story.

But the people in the film are what bring us to the DVD every year. It's not out of a sense of duty that we view 1776 every July 4 anymore than our tradition of checking in on the Marx Brothers each New Year's Eve. We like to visit with the men (and very occasionally women) at the center of the patriotic drama.

Chief among these is William Daniels's brilliant turn as John Adams, a role I wish I could become an actor to play. Short, overweight, viewed universally as "obnoxious and disliked": I was born to play the part. Alas, I lack the talent and Mr. Daniels could act me out of town while just sitting in a chair.

We understand exactly why Adams is seen as abrasive (even if in real life he was not such a social pariah before his rather disastrous presidency). He is bossy, arrogant, egotistical and obsessed--and those are his good qualities. But we also get to see Adams as dedicated to a principle we can all embrace, the need for a people to follow its own destiny and not have one imposed upon it. Yes, the founders made enormous mistakes, particularly toward people of color and women, but they did what they could and this movie doesn't ignore that. It celebrates the attempt and it revels in the necessary compromises. Would America be born today in the political climate of the moment? It's a really good question.

Is 1776  a great cinematic achievement? Not really. It contains some terrific performances and it strives to entertain, to move and to provoke thought. It has some snappy dialogue and a few catchy songs. That's not bad. It's not Hitchcock, but hey, he was British and who knows what alterations he'd have made to the historical record? As entertainment and food for thought, it's good enough for me.

So enjoy your backyard barbecues, Americans. Have a great time at the fireworks (ours were on July 2, and not for historical accuracy so much as low costs and lack of competition). Maybe take in a ball game or go to the movies. It's a day off. You should have fun.

We'll be watching John, Ben and Tom create a country. Not all by themselves and far from perfectly. But hey: so far it's lasted 241 years and it was created by people who wrote their ideas down. 

A country made by writers. What a concept. 

And if that ain't a lesson for today's political age, I don't know what is.

Language, please!

No, no that kind of language. Well, not only that kind of language. This isn't a diatribe against the use of four-letter words in fiction; sometimes they're appropriate. And that's my point – appropriate language.

'Voice' is a word that gets used a lot in creative writing classes and workshops. I use it myself, and I'm not apologizing. As a copy-editor, which I am some of the time, I have to take great care that my tidying up of the prose an author uses doesn't have an adverse effect on the unique 'voices' of either the author or the characters.

And of course creating that voice, or those voices, is all a matter of the language the author uses. Sometimes those 'bad' words are part of it. Don't you find, though, that sometimes there's so much of it that it leaves you a little numb? One of the things a copy-editor has to look out for is repetition: over-use of a word, or two or three instances of the same word in a paragraph or half a page when it's clearly not done for effect. Over-use of the f-word soon becomes plain tedious, and loses the impact it is surely intended to have.

Unless it's done for effect, of course. One of the funniest short stories I ever read had the f-word on every line, and it worked, because it was deliberate, and – that word again – appropriate.

But that's not really how I meant to approach this topic. It came about because something reminded me of a talk I once attended by a well-known and successful author of historical fiction, mostly set in mediaeval England. She took questions at the end, and someone asked where she stood on the two points of view about the use of language: was she an advocate of the 'gadzooks' style, or did she take the view that to historical characters they way they spoke would have sounded natural, so authors should use updated language that sounds natural to the reader? She agreed that both were valid approaches, and placed herself on the 'language of the time' side, though she strongly denied (not without humour) that she would ever use the word 'gadzooks'. But then she said something like this: 'It's important to reproduce the language that would have been in use in the characters' world, in order to fix that world in the reader's mind.'

A kind of buzz went round the room. The questioner stood up again, and began to read from a copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in the original 14th century Middle English. 'Is that what you mean?' she asked, after a few sentences.

Hm. Ever tried to read Chaucer in the original? Point made, I think; it certainly was that day. That was one red-faced author of historical fiction.

So – gadzooks or not, how do you 'reproduce' that language? I recently read The Witchfinder's Sister, by Beth Underdown, set a century or two later than our friend Chaucer, but still at a time when the language in common use wasn't exactly user-friendly to 21st century readers. She captures a flavour without going overboard. Likewise my good friend Chris Nickson, whose John the Carpenter trilogy is set in Chaucer's century; the language is simple, devoid of images and references which simply wouldn't have occurred at the time, and feels right, even though it bears little resemblance to the way people would actually have spoken in the 14th century.

So there you have it: my take on it, anyway. Quite simply, it has to feel right. Dialogue has to sound like the characters it's coming from; exposition has to reflect the theme and subject matter. I'm delighted to report that in most of the books I read, it does.

5 Questions with Kathleen Ernst

Terri Bischoff

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going well. Mine has included a migraine, another bout of acid reflux, watching my oldest play lacrosse, swimming, and working on my sales conference powerpoint. I really need a nap, too. But instead I bring Kathleen Ernst to you. When I started here at Midnight Ink in October of 2009, we were already in the process of acquiring Kathleen's first Chloe Ellefson book, Old World Murder. It was one of the first books I worked on. In October, Kathleen's eighth book, Mining for Justice will hit the shelves. Chloe Ellefson is a curator at Old World Wisconsin in the 1980's.

This is Kathleen (also back in the 80's) when she was an interpreter at Old World Wisconsin.

Throughout the series, Chloe visits other museums and solves current day crimes. Kathleen also weaves into her stories the narratives of immigrants that have settled in Wisconsin. The immigrant stories are connected to the current day museums or artifacts. Both the series and Kathleen hold a special place in my heart. So here we go!

 

1. What is your job title?

 Full-time Author

2. What do you actually do?

Three-quarter-time Marketer, one-quarter-time Author

3. Is your desk messy or clean?

Messy.  I seem to be constantly behind, with files piling up.  Isn’t that the sign of a creative mind…?

4. Have you mastered gluten free baking?

No, but I’m pretty good at historical and ethnic baking. If you need aebleskivers or kuchen or a sourdough starter made from scratch, I’m your girl.

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world right at this moment, where would you go?

Norway.  I had the great good fortune to visit two years ago, and hope to return.  It’s gorgeous, the history is fascinating, and it would make a great setting for a book…

 

Since the books are primarily set in Wisconsin, (Chloe does travel to the Twin Cities to what becomes the Mill City Museum in Tradition of Deceit and follows the path of Laura Ingalls Wilder in Death on the Prairie) Kathleen has enjoyed the support of museums, libraries, and Wisconsin public radio. Here she is during an appearance on the Larry Meiller show:

Thanks to Kathleen for playing along. If you want to learn more about Kathleen, the Chloe Ellefson series, or her YA books, head over to her website here. Have a great week!

 

Don't Give Away (My) Story!

Jeff Cohen

I read reviews of my 

Available now!

books. I know I shouldn't but I do and there's nothing you can do to talk me out of it. So let's accept that as a given and move on.

It's also to be expected that some of the reviews are not glowing, and that's also not what this is about. People are entitled to have their opinions and they are also free to not like my writing if it doesn't work for them. That's fine. I'm not that easily wounded.

What drives me crazy is when they give plot points away.

No matter what your opinion of a book might be, revealing story elements that are supposed to be surprises--especially the ending of a mystery novel (!)--should be out of bounds in all cases. The reviewer is not the only person who will read the book, hopefully. Give another reader a chance to discover what goes on and decide for him/herself whether the execution of that story is enjoyable or not.

I don't understand the motivation to spoil a story for someone else. Does it give the reviewer a feeling of power? Is it simply that they don't think the story is all that surprising, so telling the world (or a small part of it) what goes on is not a problem? Are some reviewers merely stupid, or mean? I can't answer those questions. 

There was a time when I was in college that I would review books for the Rutgers Daily Targum. Mostly I reviewed music or 

Coming August 15!

movies, but the occasional book would come by. And some of them were terrible, which many years later led to me thinking that maybe I could do better than that, certainly. But I was careful, scrupulous even, not to give away plot points even in the most turgid of tomes that crossed my desk. That, I thought, was a line that no reviewer would cross.

Apparently I was wrong.

On sites like Amazon it is possible to report the reviewer and note that important story elements are revealed in the course of the review. I don't do that because I don't want to come across as the thin-skinned author who can't put up with anyone who doesn't simply heap praise upon his work. Because I have noticed that the spoilers do tend to come more often (although not exclusively) in negative reviews.

Elsewhere it's often just too late to do anything about it. But here I can appeal to those readers of this blog who might offer the occasional review of a book or a movie (or a story of any kind): Be careful what you choose to reveal. Use the back cover synopsis if there is one as a guide. Talk about the premise of the story and refer, when you must, to scenes along the way for illustration of a point you're trying to make. 

But don't give away the store. There's no benefit to it and you simply come across as a poor reviewer. Spoiler alert: Nobody likes that.

when you're trying to write a poem

Jessy Randall

When you're trying to write a poem and your cat sits on your notebook.

How do they know? Why do they do this??

The folks at Bustle have some possible explanations.

Let's talk about... mavericks

The crime fiction world seems to have a large population of maverick cops. In fact, the kind of cop who follows the rules, abides by procedure, fills in the paperwork and has a stable marriage to an understanding partner to go home to is so unusual that s/he probably qualifies as a maverick now, too.

Unsurprising, I suppose. Who wants to read about ordinary, after all? Or even live it? In real life as in fiction, the slightly off-centre people, the black sheep, the unconventional and nonconformist, are the most interesting; likewise, procedure and paperwork aren't ever going to make gripping fiction, however important they are to solving real crimes.

I've encountered more than a few mavericks in my extensive reading – and whaddya know, some of them aren't even cops. Here are a few recent ones you may like to sample, if you haven't already.

I first discovered Grace MacBride, Harley Davidson and the rest of the Monkeewrench crew a few years ago, when Patricia Lambrecht and her daughter Traci joined forces to become P J Tracy. There's now a whole series based around Minneapolis, featuring a pair of cops who (mostly) keep the rules, alongside the most talented bunch of IT geeks the bad guys are ever likely to bump up against. And like a lot of talented geeks (allegedly), they know where to find the back doors into the information the cops need, as well as the ways to make it all stand up in court. Each member of Monkeewrench is a larger than life personality with a Past. And that's all I'm saying. If you've already discovered the books, I don't need to say any more. If you haven't – why not?

And then there was... Brigid Quinn. So far Brigid's creator, Becky Masterman, has only run to three books, but the first won awards, and the others deserved to. Brigid is a woman after my own heart; she doesn't know the meaning of retirement, much less growing old gracefully. Like many Americans, so I understand, she has moved to Arizona to wind down in later life. Unlike most of them, Brigid used to be an FBI agent. And when trouble comes knocking as it does in fiction, when most sensible retirees would bar the door and call the cops, Brigid... deals with the situation. If like me you're past youth's second or even third blush but certainly haven't given up living, you'll love her. If you're not – well, you will be some day; read the books and take heart!

There's just one book, so far, about William Benson, maverick lawyer. It's called Summary Justice, and the author is John Fairfax, except it isn't really; it's a pen name for a rather better known author called William Brodrick. The backstory gave me a distinct impression that more books were planned; I hope they are, because William Benson is one of the most interesting lawyers I've ever encountered, in fiction or elsewhere, and if I'm ever up on a murder charge I want him to defend me. As well as the best at his job, Benson, you see, is a convicted murderer himself. Whether or not he was guilty... Naturally, we're supposed to believe he wasn't, but there's just a hint of a hint that things may not be exactly as they seem. Watch this space. And beg, borrow or preferably buy the book.

Which leaves us where we started: maverick cops. It's a subject on which I could keep going all day and still hardly scratch the surface, and we both have other things to do – read some books, for one. So I'll just mention two names.

Tom Thorne. He's made Mark Billingham deservedly famous on both sides of the Atlantic, and you gotta love him! He's the cop who has so much regard for putting bad guys away,and so little for keeping the rules while he does it, that rumour says there's a whole filing cabinet with his name on it at Professional Standards, the department with the thankless task of looking into cops who, well, don't keep the rules. The difference between Tom and most of their victims, sorry, cases, is that he is on the side of the angels. Very firmly.

And then there's Fiona Griffiths. Maverickest cop I've ever encountered. We can thank Harry Bingham for Fiona. I won't even attempt to sum her up, in a sentence or otherwise. Fiona is unique, in all six books. Find them, if you haven't already. You won't regret it. Or any of the above.

5 questions with Susanna Calkins!

Terri Bischoff

 

 

Today please welcome Susanna Calkins! Susie is the author of the award-winning Lucy Campion historical mysteries (with Minotaur/St Martins). Her books have been nominated for 7 awards, including the Mary Higgins Clark Award, the Agatha for Best Historical and the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award (Lefty) and she was awarded the Sue Feder Historical Mystery award (Macavity). She lives with her husband and two sons outside Chicago. And she is an all around great person! I love to hang out with Susie at conferences. :) So without delay, here are the five questions she chose to answer:

 

What is your job experience?

 Ha! In addition to this writing thing I do, I’ve sold tickets and candy in a movie theater, been a projectionist (for an ill-fated stint when I managed to let an entire film spool out onto the dusty projection room floor), ran amusement park rides (after just a few hours of training—not recommended!), worked in a Girl Scout camp (and I still know hundreds of truly wacky songs, warped only in the way that scouts can make them); flipped a few burgers, made a few shakes, served as a resident hall counselor, and taught history at the college level for many years. But nothing compares to my time as a pirate in London (I was a living history specialist—tour guide—aboard the Golden Hinde for six months, and ran pirate parties on the weekends for little British kids.)  A lot more exciting than my current job, where I work with faculty to develop their teaching and do research on learning (boy, I almost fell asleep describing my current occupation).

Is your desk messy or clean?

 I cannot abide a desk. Out of necessity, I have one at my ‘day job’, which I do keep pretty neat and organized. But I can’t write there. Not one creative word. That desk is the death of creativity.  So I like to write in coffee shops, spreading out so no one can sit too close to me unless I’m in the mood for eavesdropping.  Then I only use my laptop to draw interesting conversationalists in, because I’m fascinated by the crazy stuff people will talk about when they think no one is listening...

 

What would your autobiography be called?

KNOW WHO THE MURDERER IS—A True Story of Meandering, Indecision, and Confusion

I wrote my first historical mystery, A MURDER AT ROSAMUND’S GATE, over the course of ten years, scene by scene, without any knowing the identity of my murderer, even though as the antagonist he (or she!) was the entire driver behind my story. I was so interested in the impact of the murder of a young 17^th century serving girl on her plague-ridden London community, and the toll it took on a man wrongly accused of her death, that I truly forgot about the “mystery” part of the story. I had to go back and basically learn the craft of mystery writing, so I could shape that stack of 300+ disconnected pages into the novel that it one day became.  And in some ways, the story of that novel is the story of me as an author—how I came to find myself as a writer, and in this wonderful world of books and readers that I’ve happily discovered for myself.

 

What is your perfect murder weapon?

While I appreciate the arcane poison (who doesn’t?), I am drawn to the everyday objects that should not be murder weapons. Studying murder weapons is how I got into this mystery writing thing in the first place. When I was graduate school I began to study the gender patterns of domestic homicide in 17^th century England. My (somewhat simplistic) thesis was that men killed differently than women, but they both used the tools that surrounded them. So for women, the tools came from the home—spinning needles, herbal concoctions, cooking implements, and the easy one, pushing your victim into the hearth. (Think of the kids pushing the old woman into the fire in the gingerbread house—a homicide of convenience). Men tended to use tools of their trade (awls, hammers, nails) or from the field (pikes, hoes etc). I don’t know if our murder weapons are so gendered today, but it is interesting to contemplate!

 

What is your favorite unsolved mystery? I don’t have a famous one, but years ago, my high school ring flew off my finger in my bedroom. I didn’t see it right away, so I looked everywhere! Under my bookcases and desks, through my stacks of clothes etc. And search as I might, I never ever found it. I’m really hoping that this mystery will be solved for me one day, because it truly bugs me. Where did it go? (Of course, when I do find it I’m sure I’ll be struck anew by how hideous the thing was. But still it’s a mystery that I would like to see solved! I imagine that it will be found hundreds of years from now, and people will wonder who in the world this person could have been....).

 

Also, you can head on over to Susie's website to learn more: 

www.susannacalkins.com

Find me on twitter: @scalkins3

[email protected]

A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate (2013)

From the Charred Remains (2014)

The Masque of a Murderer (2015)

A Death Along the River Fleet (2016)

Does A Midlist Author Need Privacy?

Jeff Cohen

Spent the day Saturday at the Deadly Ink convention in Rockaway, New Jersey. It's my home state's only mystery conference so it's always nice to go and see other Garden Staters who like to talk about crime fiction. Yeah, it's a little tiring to spend a day being borderline charming to people--all of whom were legitimately lovely--when you're recovering and yes, being cancer boy in a gathering of people can get old in a hurry, but it's nice to see old friends and catch up on things. No doubt my trip to Malice Domestic next April will be less exhausting and I'll have hair then so that's a plus.

But it did open up a question I'll admit I haven't given tons of thought in my 15-year crime fiction career: How much access to an author, even a decidedly midlist one like me, is too much? At what point should I be guarding my privacy ahead of trying to promote my latest release or my next one? Readers aren't a nuisance and I'm certainly not afraid of them, but where should the line be drawn?

First, in the interest of full disclosure: Nobody at Deadly Ink even came close to violating any personal space I might own and there were no suggestions of privacy issues. It was not a specific incident that got my head running in this direction--it was more the feeling of being back among a crowd of mystery fans after an unusually prolonged absence and the crime writer's sense of a decent murder possible at any moment that might have prompted this train of thought.

There is a push-pull effect in being a writer who needs exposure as opposed to someone like Stephen King, who can draw a crowd just by going outside or James Paterson, who can sell millions of books no matter who else's name appears on the cover usually below his own. We midlisters need the help. They need their privacy because there are millions of people who know who they are and at least three of those people are crazy. (In King's case, probably at least four.) We have to decide how much privacy we need because there is a need for exposure in order to sell enough books to keep this job, but there might also be the occasional reader who crosses the line.

For us, the tricky part is figuring out where the line is before it gets crossed. 

It becomes a question when, for example, we might be running a contest that gives out free copies of our books to the lucky readers who answer the question or ask quickly enough or whatever. Lord knows we could certainly get rid of a few of the books in boxes around the house, and we're happy--no, ecstatic--to give them to loyal fans despite the fact that we're probably cutting into a tiny slice of our sales by doing so. 

But when we have just a home address and we need to put it on the envelope, is that a problem? Do we want readers to have our home addresses? (By the way, the fact that the reader has to give us THEIR home address doesn't bother us at all because we know we pose no threat to anybody.) Should we get post office boxes and put that address on the envelope? Are we being paranoid? (Do we really have to pay for a PO Box and check it for the inevitable junk mail we'll get there?)

When I see a reader at Deadly Ink especially (because it's a local conference) and they ask where I live, I'll tell them the name of the county I live in. I don't mention the town. Too easy to track down an address that way, even if you have a name as absurdly common as mine. (Hint: Not Copperman.)

If a reader wants an email address I'll certainly give that out. It's on both of my web sites and email doesn't help someone find out where you live. My cell phone number? No. Nobody's getting that and it's just because I don't need any more calls on my cell phone, as well as the fact that I'll probably ignore a call from someone not in my Contacts file anyway.

Does all this sound a little nuts? A little Gene Hackman in The Conversation? Maybe. I don't want to overestimate my place in the minds of my readers or their intentions. I've never--ever--met one that scared me. But I do wonder about the privacy question. How much does an author need, and where is the line drawn?

I have no answers.

 

Something to say? Tell us a story.

Sometimes books are just entertainment. Jack Reacher, for instance. I don't think Lee Child means any of the 20-odd titles in his addictive series to exercise the reader's mind beyond the point where we try to kid ourselves we know more about what's going on than Reacher himself. They're a great read, and I can't wait for enough time to open up in my life to enable me to pick up Night School. But I read them, enjoy them, and move on to the next.

Likewise, I don't think Reginald Hill meant most of his early work to carry any deep message. I recently read Red Christmas (he was calling himself Patrick Ruell at the time, in case you're moved to go in search of it), a mere 60,000 words long, discovered by my lovely daughter somewhere in the depths of the internet. Most of the early work by the immortal Reg (don't we just wish that were true?) is out of print now, but it's out there if you know where to look, and happily Meriel does. The book was plain unashamed fun: a bunch of people holed up in a snowbound hotel for some Christmas jollity, but some of them aren't quite what they seem...

The plot of Red Christmas is one that doesn't date, and the writing and characters are as fresh as they ever were, but the book came out a long, long time ago. More recently published were Pendulum by Adam Hamdy, featuring a man whom no one believes when he insists he is a murderer's target; Coffin Road, by Peter May, in which another man wakes up to find his memory of recent events, including his own identity, completely gone; and Money Tree, by Gordon Ferris, which features a well-known journalist, disillusioned and heading down the slippery slope to alcoholism, until a whistle-blower throws down an explosive gauntlet.

These were a rather different kettle of herring from either the Reachers or those early Reginald Hills. All, on the face of it, are the stuff of riproaring high-octane thrillers, and indeed that's what they are on the surface. But under all the fast-pace action and crash-bang-wallop, they all have something to say. Something that matters. Something people really ought to be listening to.

I've often said that for me one purpose of fiction is to explore important truths, and present them in a way that makes readers think about them and get a discussion going. The entertainment factor is vital, of course; that's what draws readers in and makes them stay with the story long enough for the idea at the heart of it to reveal itself. The three books listed above are packed full of entertainment: nailbiting mystery, chases by car and other means, an occasional great sex scene (though not enough of that to be a distraction), bad guys popping up out of nowhere pulling guns and knives. All the ingredients a fan of good thrillers could ask for, in fact. But more besides. A lot more.

I can't reveal the nature of the whistle that's being blown in two of the three, because it would give the ending away; suffice to say in each case it's an issue that affects us all, and if the world doesn't start to listen soon, it will begin to head down a very steep and slippery slope with sharp rocks and boiling seas at the bottom. The theme of the third is pretty clear from the outset, so no harm is done if I say it tells us a few uncomfortable things about the international banking system.

I think what I like most about this kind of book is the way it shows writers, even (or maybe especially) writers of so called 'popular' and 'commercial' fiction to be thoughtful people with a care for the way the world works. (We knew that anyway, right?) And since that kind of fiction mostly seems to garner more readers than the more earnest literary kind, it would be good to think that the truths being perpetuated are reaching a large audience. And since change happens one step at a time, and it takes one person to take that one step, maybe we readers are making our own contribution, simply by picking up a good book.

Comings and goings

Terri Bischoff

Yesterday was a great day! My great nephew arrived yesterday afternoon. His name is Grayson and I can't wait to shower him with kisses. He came in at 7lb 3oz and 20 inches long.

But the day also brought some sadness to my family. One of my aunts passed away last night. I don't get to see my extended family much since I live about 5 hours away, but I have very fond memories of my Aunt Kathy. Man that woman could bake! She had a lot of health problems and her body just couldn't make it any longer. But I know she loved and was loved.

So, comings and goings. Two different types of love and both bring tears to my eyes, but love nonetheless. And I celebrate Aunt Kathy's life and the joy of Grayson's arrival in our lives.

"I Can't Hit and Think at the Same Time"--Yogi Berra

Jeff Cohen

First and most important: Happy birthday to my absurdly wonderful wife Jessica Oppenheim! Take the day off, do only what you want to do and I'm hoping you'll include me in your celebrations! (Actually we've discussed this already and I'll be around all day. It's a nice wish, though, don't you think?) I love you as much as it is possible for one person to love another. But I'll keep trying for more.

I've been thinking a lot about writing lately and that's no help at all. Thinking about writing is just another way to postpone writing. And writers enjoy nothing more than not writing. It's our best thing.

There have always been problems (in my mind anyway) with my giving writing advice. I can explain character in the abstract and I can easily tell good dialogue from bad. But the dirty secret of what I do--and I make no claims for any other writer ever--is that I operate almost entirely on instinct.

That's not a boast. I don't want you to think I'm some kind of writing savant who can just wake up in the morning and create better than others because that is definitely not true (although truth is more flexible these days than it used to be). If anything, I mean it as a confession: I write entirely off the top of my head and sometimes it works. Other times, well, that's what rewrites and editors are for.

This is not the same thing as being a "pantser," despite the fact that I am certainly one of those. What I mean here is that I'm not giving deep thought to how a chapter will start. I get an impulse (usually in the form of a line of dialogue, for those keeping score at home) and I jump in. The pantser thing kicks in after that as scenes develop. There's not a lot of intellectualizing going on. I'm sure loyal readers of mine are shocked at the revelation, but there it is.

The point for those who write is not to feel bad about your process no matter what it is. If you need to ruminate before every word and that's what works for you, do that. I don't do that because it wouldn't result in good writing from me. I can't dictate what other writers should do. Many of them produce work that's at least different if not better than what I do. 

But I just write. That's what I do. In fact, I just wrote this. Had no idea what this post was going to be about, and it turned out it was this. Go figure.

Happy Birthday!

when do literary journals usually respond?

Jessy Randall

Now and then, on Facebook, I'll see a post along the lines of "why are all the rejections arriving at the same time??". I went into my submission records to see if there are certain months when magazines are more likely to respond. (As far as I can tell, no one else has done this sort of study, but of course I could be wrong.)

Short version of my results: April truly is the cruelest month, and December is the quietest.

I have submission records going back to 2001. Here's the breakdown of responses, by month, over that period:

January 64

February 63

March 43

April 76

May 62

June 64

July 48

August 44

September 60

October 55

November 66

December 39

I didn't include magazines that responded within a day or a week of receiving the submission, since those magazines are operating in a very different way than most -- statistics for them would only show my submission habits and not their response habits. (If you'd like to find these quick-acting journals, try this list from Authors Publish or this one from Trish Hopkinson. 

For anyone who's counting, that's 684 submissions over 17 years, about 40 per year.

 

It's all in the mind

Lynne Patrick

A stressed-out woman whose memory keeps letting her down. Another woman abused by a bullying husband, then forced into an impossible dilemma. A common theme, kind of, and very much the stuff of one of my favourite crime fiction sub-genres: the psychological thriller.

We voracious readers are at a slight disadvantage when we read something like this. Just as, in a conventional police procedural we know the good cop is going to hunt down the bad guy and bring him/her to justice, in this kind of psychological thriller we have a pretty good idea that the hero/heroine really is telling the truth and someone is working on him/her to drive him/her to the edge.

But most books seem to pass the fifty-page test – so what turns a psychological drama into an edge-of-the-seat thriller? What, in other words, keeps the reader reading – even the kind of reader, of which I am assuredly one, whose scepticism and sense of 'oh, come on, guys, really?' has been honed by hundreds of other books?

At risk of repeating an old, old story – it's the characters. Fiction of any genre, any period, any style has to be about the characters. They have to come across as real people, and the reader has to care what happens to them. It doesn't have to be obvious who the bad guys are; they often present as on the side of the angels, and are as well drawn as the real angels. But when they're finally exposed for what they are, their motives have to be clear and credible, and there has to be a sense of 'Oh yeah, of course, why didn't I see?'. Even more important, the protagonist, the one under fire, can't be a wet heap slumped in the corner; he/she (usually she) has to have a tough streak, an edge of determination, and also be sympathetic enough to make the reader want right to triumph.

The two books I've summed up in a few words above all fulfil both these criteria. They are The Breakdown, by B A Paris, and The Choice by Samantha King.

They both fit firmly into the 'domestic noir' slot, which some would say was kickstarted by Gone Girl. I'm developing quite an affection for domestic noir; it seems to reflect what goes on in real lives rather more effectively than the larger-than-life serial killer fiction and police drama that seems to be in the majority in the bestseller lists and on the front table in big bookshops. More than that: for me, one major function of fiction is to reassure me that there really are answers to tough questions and solutions to big issues, that good does sometimes come out on top and the world isn't really such a grim place after all, so I'm going to lean towards books that tell me about lives that feel real.

Because, let's face it, the real world is more than usually grim at the moment. Two out-of-the-blue terrorist attacks (aren't they always out of the blue?) in as many weeks don't leave us Brits lying easy in our beds, especially when the police start running just-in-case 'exercises' in my own quiet little market town, which I'm told actually happened earlier this week, though I didn't witness it.

My not-quite-weekly posts seem to be turning into a several-part series entitled Why I Read. Over the past few weeks I seem to have covered making friends with the characters, visiting new places, and now reassuring myself that hope still lies at the bottom of Pandora's box. It's not deliberate; it's just kind of happening. I wonder what I'll add to the list of reasons next time...

5 Questions with Dru Ann Love

Terri Bischoff

Hi everyone! Today I am doing 5 questions with one of the coolest women in crime fiction - Dru Ann. She was recently award the Raven Award for her excellent blog. She is a friend to many authors and I feel lucky to know her.

What is your job title? Technically we do not have job titles, but if I must give myself one, I’m a senior market research analyst. However, I can call myself CEO and founder of dru’s book musings.

Is your desk messy or clean? My desk is clean and minimalistic. I’ve learned from an earlier supervisor to keep your desk clean, both on top and in the drawers so in the event of an incident, you can just leave and not worry about personal properties.

What do you want to be when you grow up? At first I wanted to be a lawyer, but nixed that idea when they said I had to spend a few more years in school. Then I wanted to be a social worker but then I was told the salary wasn’t high. So I decided that I would combine my love of sociology and math and be a researcher, which is what I’m doing now. But what I really want to be when I grow up is independently and financially secure to do what I enjoy.

You just won $1,000 in the lottery. What do you do with it?  I would put the 55% payout in my retirement account.

(follow up) You just won $1M. What do you do with that?! I would take my immediate family on a trip of a lifetime (okay, it will be my trip of a lifetime) and that destination is a European tour.

What would your autobiography be called? The Biggest Heart

The reclusive figure of Dru Ann Love reportedly spends her working hours at the mysterious daytime situation doing “research.” She is probably not a spy. Maybe. Her non-working hours are spent less reclusively on her blog, dru’s book musings. She is an avid reader who writes poetry, creates quilts and is happy to be in “her element” within the mystery community. Dru Ann is a 2017 MWA Raven Award recipient and dru’s book musings is an Anthony Award-nominated blog. Website: https://drusbookmusing.com/

And Of Course Henry the Horse Dances the Waltz

Jeff Cohen

As you may have heard if you were living on Earth this past week, it was in fact 50 years ago today (last week). A half-century ago a bunch of guys and no women got together in London to record some music and unleash it upon what could hardly be described as an unsuspecting public. The Beatles were unable to order a pizza without some kind of scrutiny and it had been, after all, an eternity (seven months) since they'd made any new music.

So they created  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

And yes, the ensuing hysteria upon its release was justified; the music was wonderful. The recording techniques crafted sounds that had literally never been heard before. The songwriting was at a level the musicians had been building toward for a couple of years now, but rose above what had come before in complexity and in some places honesty. Where Rubber Soul and Revolver had seen the four Moptops (please) evolve musically, Pepper busted the door down and insisted rather stridently that this was now Art.

With the half-century mark being reached it was not just inevitable but necessary that the Beatles marketing machine, still very much alive and well after all these years, note the occasion with some perspective. And a bunch of products to be bought. As it turned out, there was a four-disc reconsideration of Pepper that included a remixed stereo version, the original mono version and two discs worth of outtakes and alternate versions (which, in contrast to alternative facts, actually exist).

As it happens this year also marks--as I have noted here before--the 30th anniversary of my wife having made a foolish error in marrying me. Knowing that I am a dedicated Beatles lunatic she decided very generously to make a gift of the Pepper mega-set (which also includes Blu-Ray and DVD versions of a Making of Sgt. Pepper documentary made in the innocent days of 1992 when the album was only 25 years old, although I'm sure it seemed older at the time.

So through a series of circumstances that included sending the enormous box set (it also comes with a book I haven't even looked at yet that must weigh 20 pounds) back because of defects and receiving a working copy, I have been listening nonstop to Pepper for a week now.

I have to tell you, I'm a little sick of it.

This may seem blasphemous to the Beatles maniacs within the sound of my keyboard, but  Pepper has never been my favorite of the canon. I lean toward the aforementioned Rubber Soul and Abbey Road as high water marks. Yes, Pepper was incredibly innovative and interesting and I'm not saying I don't like it, but it's an arm's-length kind of album that doesn't care if you like it or not and I was nine years old when it came out. It was, to be honest, a little scary for someone of that age, although it certainly isn't now. I have the American government to be afraid of these days.

The songs themselves, on extremely close examination (which this set surely invites) are mostly pretty conventional. Lovely Rita or Fixing a Hole could have appeared on the Beatles album immediately preceding or following Pepper. Something like When I'm Sixty-Four (which doesn't seem all that amusing anymore) harkens back to the British music halls. The opening medley of the title song and A Little Help From My Friends is a lot of fun and promises a sort of concept album that doesn't really materialize.

The album's masterpieces come, not surprisingly, from John Lennon. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (and you can believe the story about the initials or not) is surreal in a way the Beatles hadn't been before. A Day in the Life is mundane and terrifying at the same time, which isn't easy to do. Lennon's voice is intentional eerie. Nobody did that better than he did.

All the hoopla and fanfare that have come with the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper are justified. It was a turning point in popular culture and bands have now spend a half a century trying to catch up. Bravo. As a work of art, it is to be admired and applauded, but it does not wish to be loved. That's okay, but there are others these unmatched musicians made that connect emotionally more completely.

Oh, and She's Leaving Home is about a young woman moving out and getting her own apartment. The melodrama, effective as it is, is a bit much.

Cheap? Fast? Good?

by Erin Mitchell

Back in the proverbial day, before there was social media and a correcting Selectric was the bomb, I used to hear this Business Rule a lot. I haven’t heard it lately, but it’s as true as ever, so I’m gonna try to reintroduce it to the vernacular, starting right here. Here is it:

Cheap. Fast. Good. You can have any two, but not all three.

It’s true, y’know, whether you’re talking about book marketing or plumbing or websites or bridges. But since I’m here to talk about book marketing...

People who provide marketing services are, ultimately, selling our time and expertise. It’s not a pre-packaged product. (And if you are being offered a pre-packaged product, run a mile! Each book, author, publisher, or series requires a custom set of activities.)

So how do you figure out which of the three you want?

Just like the House Hunters shows where they eliminate one of the three abodes right away, take Good out of the mix. It’s a must-have. Non-negotiable. So now you only have to pick between Cheap and Fast.

First question: What’s your budget? Knowing how much you can afford to spend will make the process much more efficient.

Second question: How much do the services you need cost? This is tricky because, like I said, each program is custom, so there’s no off-the-shelf price per se. For promoting a book/author, I’ve seen budgets everywhere from $400/month to $12,000/month. You should figure on a multi-month commitment; I ask my clients to stick with me for at least three months because any marketing/communications program needs at least that long.

And moving on to fast...

Few book-related marketing projects need an unreasonably short timeframe, so I find that this is usually the easiest element to forego. There are exceptions, of course. And remember, if you’re not working toward a strict deadline, cost is going to be easier to manage.

Also, never forget that a book’s release day is hugely important to authors and publishers, but to readers, a book is new the moment they open it for the first time, whether it was published this week or 100 years ago.

So if I was offering advice, I’d suggest focusing on Good and Cheap. Forget Fast. And remember that your idea of Cheap might be different from mine, which is different than her and his and theirs.

The first strawberries of summer

According to the TV weathermen, summer officially starts today. And yes, folks, I ate my first strawberry of the year this morning. The patch devoted to the scarlet beauties in our garden has been liberally festooned with green fruit for about a week; a couple of days of sunshine has reddened a few up nicely, and this morning I picked two, dug a small slug out of one (I don't like to discourage the wildlife too far, and it was very small) and enjoyed the taste of the new season.

In other news... Chatting with my daughter last night (she's visiting her aged parents for a few days in lieu of the vacation in France we were all supposed to be enjoying round about now) brought about some thoughts about themes and trends in crime fiction plots. She mentioned Ronald Knox's Chinese villain trope (see here, if I've made it work if I haven't, maybe Google it if you're interested?: Decalogue ), and it sent me into musing mode. Not about Chinese villains, particularly; rather, about what Knox really meant. We discussed it at length, and arrived at the conclusion that the Chinese part is irrelevant; the point is not to fall into cliché, by using the current bad guy, either in real life or in fictional trend, as an easy option, or worse, as a bolt-on plot which results in a resolution but carries a whiff of deus ex machina.

Meriel mentioned Isis as an example of the current real-life bad guy. In fact I've come across remarkably few instances of this appalling phenomenon being translated into fiction: two, to be precise, which is a tiny proportion considering my voracious appetite for crime fiction. And both of them were very well done, certainly weren't bolt-on plots, and had some interesting things to say as well as being damn good thriller fiction. The two books are The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe, a much underrated British author; and The Absence of Guilt by Mark Gimenez, a slightly less underrated American author of brilliant legal thrillers. Find them. Read them. You won't regret it.

So, what is the modern equivalent of Knox's Chinese villains, I wondered. That's when I realized how many of the books I've read recently seem to have child abuse as a theme. Huge quantities of evidence of this most heinous of crimes in real life have been crawling, slinking and oozing out of the woodwork in the UK for several years and in many walks of life; a major enquiry is currently in progress (as long as it hasn't gone pear-shaped again, as it has several times), and one incidence has already been turned into a major TV drama. And it keeps coming up in fiction.

Which is fine, as long as it's well done. And as long as it isn't done to death, as it were; the more of it there is in fiction, the less impact it has, and that would be seriously worrying. It's something which needs to have an impact; people need to know it's really happening, and still be as appalled and horrified by it as they are now in a year, five, ten years, in fact forever.

So, crime writers, while you're enjoying your summer strawberries and contemplating your next plot, do you think you might bear that in mind? Once a theme begins to elicit yawns and cries of 'Oh no, not again!', you not only lose your reader's attention, you also divert it from what really matters. Enough child abuse, already. In life as in fiction.

Free stuff ramblings

Terri Bischoff

Free stuff. Everyone wants free stuff, right? Or at least discounted stuff. We want the best deal we can get, we shop around and we clip coupons. I admit that I check groupon quite often to see what deals they have going on. But sometimes I wonder what that mentality is doing to us as readers and to publishing.

Let's say that you read two books a month (and let's face it, some of us knock out two books in a day, so that is a very conservative number). If one is a hardcover and one a trade paperback, that is $40 a month or $480 a year. That is a nice chunk of change, isn't it? Let's say you buy four trade paperbacks a month. Approximately $60 a month or $720 a year. I get why people don't want to pay full price for books. I absolutely get it. In fact, I think I get it more than most folks do because before this gig, I worked in bookstores where we got free books and ARCs. In a lot of indie stores the owners allow booksellers to buy books at cost because they want their staff to be well read. Now I wince whenever I have to shell out big bucks for books.

But here is the flip side - if the publisher doesn't make back what it has invested in the series/author, then that series/author is dropped in a heartbeat. The author has to earn back the advance we paid them. That is the first hurdle. The second hurdle is selling enough so that both parties are making a profit. We have to sell A LOT of books to make that happen. It's not a perfect system and there are so many things at play.

Bottom line is - if readers aren't buying books, the author isn't getting paid and neither is the publisher. Quite often in this equation, publishers are made out to the be the bad guys. We are the gatekeepers that reject hundreds of submissions for the few that we actually acquire. We are the ones who no longer support author tours or book signings like we used to. We are the ones supposedly making all the money off the backs of readers and authors. I'm not entirely sure that is the case. Yes, I reject a lot of manuscripts. Author support isn't what it used to be. I'm not actually sure who is making money in this business.

Side note: As a publisher we end up giving away a ton of books. We send out ARCs to reviewers and bookstores. We hope that this investment will pay off over time when it comes to reviews and handselling books. We run contests through goodreads and facebook. I've been known to give books to folks who I know will talk up a book if they love it, even if they aren't a traditional reviewer. I get hit up for books all the time. And I expect it. It is part of the business. I will gladly put books in the hands of those who can reach a larger audience of readers.

Last week I was at a signing at our local mystery bookstore, Once Upon a Crime. There were two authors there that I count as friends. When it came to signing time, I picked up a copy of each of their books to have them sign. I already had an ARC of one of the books. The author asked me, don't you have a copy? And she knew I did because she gave it to me. But I told her, an ARC doesn't help your sales or help the bookstore's sales. So yeah, I shelled out. I love free books just as much as the next guy, but I have come to value books more than I did when I was a bookseller. Now I know how much work an author puts into a book. Most authors write one book a year. ONE BOOK. Countless hours of writing, and editing, and plotting. Usually followed by more editing. I know how much work the publisher puts into a book. I've blogged on the publishing process before and would be happy to again. I know how much work booksellers put into their stores. Man, do I know. It's hard work. So much time and energy is spent by the author.

I guess I don't know what my point is other than this - even if you buy a book at a discount, it still helps the bottom line of the author and the publisher. Hopefully it also helps the bookstore you bought it from. (Call my crazy, but I will sing the praises of indie bookstores til the day I die.) Yes, we all love free. But free is never free. As a consumer, we might not be able to buy all we want. If I'm not distracted, I can easily read four books in a weekend. But I can't financially support that kind of habit. I do get books from the library or friends and I buy what I can. My boys are totally spoiled because I will buy just about any book they ask for. What we shouldn't expect, as readers, is that authors will happily give away copies of their books. 

Maybe my point is this - we need to start valuing what people create. I don't exactly have a plan of how to do that. But I do know that even though I can read a book in a couple hours, my reading pace doesn't negate what it took to create that book. And frankly, my job is to find exceptional books that are commercially viable. If I won several million dollars, I'd buy books and give them away for free because I love to give away books. Sure, I would probably buy them at a discount, but I would make sure that it counted toward the royalties for the authors.

Sorry for the rambling today. It's been that kind of week! And, if you follow the Midnight Ink facebook page and sign up for our newsletter, you will have many opportunities to win free books. :)

Thanks For Seeing Me Through Chemo

Jeff Cohen

Don't get used to this look.

Last Wednesday marked my last of six chemotherapy treatments to get rid of Hodgkin's lymphoma, which it appears they did. So I'm grateful I had the treatments and I'm REALLY grateful they're over. The next month or two will be devoted to feeling--and hopefully looking--like myself again.

But I didn't get through this alone. From the very first moment I was diagnosed (even before, to be accurate) I've had the support of many people in varying roles and degrees. And this is the time, now that treatment at least is in my rearview mirror, to acknowledge those people. I'll never be able to thank any of them enough but consider this a down payment on what I hope will be a very long period of gratitude and admiration.

If you were looking for snark this week you are going to be cruelly disappointed. Be back next week. I'm sure I'll be cranky then.

Thank you first and foremost to my wife and children. A support system is absolutely imperative to getting through something like this, and I couldn't have had a better one if I'd had my pick of the world's population. Jessica, Josh, Evie: I can't tell you how your love and your concern for me during this time has meant to me. You guys never asked what I needed; you just provided it. And I adore each and every one of you more than I could say in 1000 long novels, let alone a single blog post.

Thank you to the medical team that identified and beat my lymphoma. Big thanks to Kara Saggiomo, the advance practice nurse who was "in charge" of me, who saw me through each infusion and explained the stuff that my Liberal Arts brain was refusing to understand. She did it with grace and patience, both of which were sorely needed. Thanks to Dr. Roger Strair, the physician overseeing my case, for being straight with me, having a sense of humor, and telling me the secret of selling sodas in the old days at Yankee Stadium. Also Dr. Jeffrey Levine, my primary physician, for knowing when I needed to go see the specialists. Thanks to the nurses at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, particularly Lisa, Faryn, John, Kate and anyone I'm leaving out because the Benadryl made me forget your name. It wasn't intentional. Thanks to the man in the fedora and the glasses whose name I never knew but whose function it appeared was keeping a hopeful, joyful tone at the entrance to the treatment center. An amazing job.

Thank you to my friends on Facebook who rallied when I mentioned my illness. Put out a post that you're about to start chemo and you expect 20 or 30 people to respond with warm wishes. I got 483. Brought tears to my eyes, I'll admit. Thank you for respecting my wishes about prayers (go ahead and do what you want but don't tell me about it) for the most part and thank you for caring. That really did make it more bearable and will continue to do so for the next couple of months as I recover.

Thanks to my author friends. I won't name names because I know that embarrasses some people, but the mystery writing community has been amazing, mentioning my book when I couldn't fully promote it and just being there when I needed someone to unload on. You guys are terrific. Special mention, not so much an author at the moment: Dru Ann Love. Never has a person been more aptly named.

Thanks to Josh Getzler and everybody at HSG Agency. One of the worst aspects of the past few months has been the boredom because I wasn't working as much as usual. Josh made sure to call up with news even when there wasn't any, and it was a blast to see him and his wife and son at the NJPAC last week. We had all gathered to see Young Frankenstein with Mel Brooks in the house, and it was a fantastic way to gear up for my last treatment three days later. (I'd thank Mel Brooks, but does he read this blog? I think not.)

Thanks to the distractions. There are a lot of things about cancer that are awful. One of them is the constant thinking about... cancer. So anything that took my mind away has been a real gift. So thank you, Circe Link and Paul Melancon and The Marx Brothers and Speechless and Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (especially you, Drew Z. Greenberg!) and perhaps most of all the New York Yankees, who have not only taken my mind away but actually been unexpectedly good at the same time. The benefits to my sanity (such as it is) have been impossible to overestimate.

Thanks of course to readers of HEY THERE'S A DEAD GUY IN THE LIVING ROOM. Don't think I haven't noticed that visits spike when I've written about my cancer. Don't think I haven't appreciated each and every comment. We write this blog each week with hopes that you'll like it and respond. Knowing that you've done so a little bit more when I've needed you most was very touching and put a little wind at my back on days when I really needed it.

Of course thanks to my family and friends, especially my brother Charlie and my cousins Barbara and Linda, as well as my fake cousin Ken Cohen and my friend Jeff Pollitzer who have been checking in (usually when I'm about to take a nap because I'm always about to take a nap) and showing concern. There's no need to worry. I'm going to be fine.

Really. 

 

One more thing: Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. That is a day set aside to honor those who have lost their lives in the conflicts this nation has fought in. It's not "the official opening of summer" and it's not a day designated for backyard barbecues. It's also not Veterans Day, which is November 11 (originally called Armistice Day because they foolishly thought wars were over), a day to honor those who served and returned. So yes, have a nice time and enjoy the day off, but don't forget what it's meant to commemorate.

The Woman in Cabin 10

Jessy Randall

Ruth Ware is my new favorite mystery author! This book's so good. I'm gonna go back and read her first novel, In a Dark, Dark Wood, and I can look forward to her new one, The Lying Game, later this year.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is similar to the locked-room mysteries of olde, but it takes place on a luxury cruise. Lo Blacklock, our narrator, overhears a murder -- or thinks she does -- she's not sure -- and nobody on the boat seems to be missing.

I particularly like the fact that this book has "woman" in the title rather than "girl." I'm not against being called a girl, at the ripe age of 47, but the plethora of "girl" mystery novels of late is wearing a bit thin, despite the books being terrific (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, and so on).

 

So many books, such a great show...

A million thanks to my lovely daughter Meriel for filling this space two weeks out of the last four; she does such a great job that I sometimes think I should ask her to take it on full time. What's the old saying? If you want a job done on time, ask a busy woman... Which takes nothing away from my other regular deputy, Chris Nickson, who isn't a woman but is still busy, and yet finds time to give me a week off now and again. I love you both. In different ways, of course.

While Meriel was deputizing last week, I was enjoying a little self-indulgence. Just for the record, the previous time she took it on was less conducive to high spirits; my husband had a hospital appointment. But last week I was on my way to London for the most brilliant show I've seen in years. It's called The Girls, and it's a fictionalized musical version of a real-life event that took place a few years ago. For the benefit of American blog-followers (other non-UK dippers-in are probably available), here's potted edition.

Here in the UK we have an organization called the Women's Institute, popularly known as the WI. It pops up in villages all over the country, and is generally perceived to be the preserve of conventional middle-aged ladies whose speciality is home-making. In fact it's rather more than this, and the ladies are often far from conventional, but that's how people see it. They meet weekly or monthly, and among other things they listen to visiting speakers expound on something of interest, or possibly not really of interest, and they raise money for charity.

One particular WI decided to raise enough to buy a new couch for the local hospital's relatives' room, after one member spent rather more time than she wanted to sitting on the old one because her husband was under treatment for leukaemia. And the way they chose to do it was... rather unusual. Twelve members , all of them ladies of what is diplomatically called uncertain age, posed for a nude calendar, all in the best possible taste, with their naughty bits concealed by jam-pans, iced cakes, knitting, flower arrangements and all the other things the WI is known for. They hit the headlines, sold far more than the few hundred calendars they expected, and after a few months the proceeds not only bought the couch; they paid for a whole new wing for the hospital.

Their story became a stage play, then a major movie starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters – all making yet more money for the cause. And now it's a musical. And it's wonderful: poignant, funny, uplifting, everything a great show should be. If it comes to a theatre near you, see it or miss a treat. And give generously to leukaemia research. Please.

My day in London got even better. Right opposite the theatre in which the show is being performed is Foyle's, one of London's biggest and best bookshops – so guess where I whiled away an extremely pleasant hour or so before curtain-up? And to answer Jeff's list of questions quite succinctly: for me, far and away the best way to promote a book is to bribe, threaten or cajole a bookshop to PUT IT ON THE SHELF!* I have a book wishlist which is useful when birthdays and Christmas loom, but when I'm let loose in a bookshop with some disposable income, you can pretty well guarantee I'll come out hugging at least two books I hadn't even thought of. (In this case it was three, and it could so very easily have been a dozen.) And though building a fanbase is an invaluable aid to selling books, it's important to catch the eye of the impulse buyer too. That way the fanbase keeps growing.

*Unfortunately it's not as easy as bribery, threats or cajolery; I know that all too well. But there are still a few of us who do things the old-fashioned way.

A Day in the Life

Terri Bischoff

 

If I had to break down my job, I would say that 50% of it is planned and 50% is putting out fires or unplanned. Today my plan was to read a manuscript. I am acquiring for spring summer 2018 so reading is really the highest priority for the next few days. I also have a rather large to-do list as well. It includes sending out developmental edits to a couple authors, getting to a handful of specific submissions, writing a trip report for the Edgar's and Malice, applying for my passport, etc. My to-do list will never actually be done as more tasks get added daily. But hey, that is my job. I don't complain because my job is way better than most jobs, right? A lot of my to-do list doesn't have hard deadlines, so I am forever adjusting and squeezing things in.

This afternoon I had a meeting scheduled. Which was great. It's a Midnight Ink specific meeting where we determine strategies for upcoming publications. In this case we were talking about the Winter 2018 season. Debut books/authors are always given an A status. Other titles are then given a B or C status. The biggest difference in the three categories is that for A titles, we are going to send our galleys to the printers 2-3 months earlier so we can get out to reviewers sooner. We saw that strategy pan out with Hollywood Homicide. I hope that we will eventually get there with all the MI titles. Great news, right?

It is. But it also came with some unplanned duties because it's not just sending the galley files early. It means that I need the manuscripts earlier. I have to have revisions back sooner. Production has to shuffle their schedules to create the galley. I have to work with marketing on the back cover copy earlier... one little pebble makes a huge ripple.

So did I get to read that manuscript today? Only a little bit of it. I'm disappointed because I like it and I want to keep at it. But my ADHD job keeps pulling me away. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up and I will be spending most of it reading. I might also take a little time to plant some flowers.

Have a great day, y'all. I hope the fires that pop up for you are small and manageable. And if all else fails, put on your headphones, close your laptop, and escape into a good book. I will be doing that in just a few minutes. Later tonight I will be seeing a couple author friends at our local mystery bookstore. Yep, today was a good day.

A Day in the Life

Terri Bischoff

 

If I had to break down my job, I would say that 50% of it is planned and 50% is putting out fires or unplanned. Today my plan was to read a manuscript. I am acquiring for spring summer 2018 so reading is really the highest priority for the next few days. I also have a rather large to-do list as well. It includes sending out developmental edits to a couple authors, getting to a handful of specific submissions, writing a trip report for the Edgar's and Malice, applying for my passport, etc. My to-do list will never actually be done as more tasks get added daily. But hey, that is my job. I don't complain because my job is way better than most jobs, right? A lot of my to-do list doesn't have hard deadlines, so I am forever adjusting and squeezing things in.

This afternoon I had a meeting scheduled. Which was great. It's a Midnight Ink specific meeting where we determine strategies for upcoming publications. In this case we were talking about the Winter 2018 season. Debut books/authors are always given an A status. Other titles are then given a B or C status. The biggest difference in the three categories is that for A titles, we are going to send our galleys to the printers 2-3 months earlier so we can get out to reviewers sooner. We saw that strategy pan out with Hollywood Homicide. I hope that we will eventually get there with all the MI titles. Great news, right?

It is. But it also came with some unplanned duties because it's not just sending the galley files early. It means that I need the manuscripts earlier. I have to have revisions back sooner. Production has to shuffle their schedules to create the galley. I have to work with marketing on the back cover copy earlier... one little pebble makes a huge ripple.

So did I get to read that manuscript today? Only a little bit of it. I'm disappointed because I like it and I want to keep at it. But my ADHD job keeps pulling me away. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up and I will be spending most of it reading. I might also take a little time to plant some flowers.

Have a great day, y'all. I hope the fires that pop up for you are small and manageable. And if all else fails, put on your headphones, close your laptop, and escape into a good book. I will be doing that in just a few minutes. Later tonight I will be seeing a couple author friends at our local mystery bookstore. Yep, today was a good day.

You Haven't Answered Yet?

Jeff Cohen

After reading Erin's very helpful post on promotion I got to musing--as I do frequently these days--on what actually drives book sales other than having the name "Stephen King" or "James Patterson" on the cover. (Even Bill Clinton is going to Mr. P. to work on his first thriller.) And while this sitting and staring made me look all sorts of deep it did not really result in much of an answer.

It did raise a few more questions, though. But they were not the sort that I can answer on my own. I need your help. I need readers (and what author doesn't?). So I'm asking the readers who visit this blog this week or every week a few things that can help authors better understand what works and what doesn't. For example:

• Do contests help? If you see an author is offering a free copy to anyone who can identify the 14th word of the Gettysburg Address (it's "a") will that make you stop and take notice? Will you enter? How do you feel if you don't win?
• What kind of contests are most appealing to you?
• Do posts on Facebook or Twitter give you information or just annoy you in the course of your working day?
• Does this blog, in addition to giving you vital data on my health, get you at all excited about upcoming books?
• Do you go to an author's web site? What generally drives you there? What do you look at on a web site?
• What gets your attention: The cover? The title? Do you just buy everything one author you know writes?
• Do reviews make a difference to you?
• Do blurbs?
• How do you find out about new books and new authors?
• Is this too many questions?
• Is Terri going to ask me Five Questions? 
• What do you want to know when an author takes questions? If I did a session of Ask Me Anything on Facebook, what would you ask? Would you follow it?
• Have you ever thought: Why doesn't an author do [fill in the blank]? If so, what?
• Do book signings drive you out of the house (to get there) or out of your mind (from boredom)?
• In short: How can I (because let other writers ask on their blogs) get your attention with a new book, like for example EDITED OUT?

Come on now, readers. I'm counting on you. Don't be shy; answer below in comments. Let's start a discussion. Because without readers a writer is just some yutz who types things out and then wonders why that was necessary. Besides, it's way too late for me to get a real job.

Order, order!

Meriel Patrick, deputizing for Lynne

When I seek out an author's website, the thing I'm most commonly looking for is a list of their past books in reading order. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this: when I start typing a name into Google, it's amazing how often one of the suggested searches is something like "[author name] books in order".

Most author websites are pretty good at providing this information. Some, however, are not, and I always find this rather baffling. Only the other day, I was looking at a site which featured elegant little thumbnail images of the cover art for the author's backlist, arranged in what seemed to be a random order. But I only knew this because I've read several of the books in question.

This set me wondering: did the author not think it mattered which order the books were read in? Like a lot of people, I'll often start reading a series in the middle, because I happen across something that piques my interest in a bookshop, or because someone lends me a novel they think I'll like. But if I enjoy it enough to seek out more of the same, I tend to go back to the start and work my way through methodically.

This is mainly because most of the series I love have a strong background story arc: relationships between key characters develop, or things happen in their personal lives that are as significant as the main mystery plot of each novel. Later books in the series constitute major spoilers for earlier ones. Crime writers are very adept at referencing earlier works without giving away whodunit, but it's a bit harder when it comes to the background story. Detective and sidekick can reminisce about the grisly case they investigated three books ago without naming the murderer, but if book 4 ends with a cliffhanger about whether the two of them are going to get together or part forever, and book 7 starts with them married and expecting a baby, it's fairly clear what the general trajectory of books 5 and 6 must have been.

The rise of the background story strikes me as a relatively recent phenomenon. As a teenager, I devoured Agatha Christies in whatever order I happened to come across them. A little I later did the same with Ngaio Marsh and Ellis Peters, and it didn't feel like a problem. There were elements of background story, but they were much less prominent: my impression is that Golden Age novels and those from the middle of the 20th century tend to be more focused on the puzzle, with the lives of the protagonists as not much more than peripheral detail.

To some extent, there's also been a practical shift: twenty years ago, if you wanted to read an author's backlist, your best bet was to look out for them in second-hand bookshops and libraries, and nab whatever you happened to see when you saw it. These days, you can find pretty much anything online, so it's easier to start at the beginning. Though it still takes a bit of effort: I've often heard it lamented that shops selling new books tend not to stock anything except the most recent volumes.

All the above said, I have to admit that my favourite background story arc of all time is from a Golden Age author, and that I read the books out of sequence. In fact, if I remember rightly, I first read Dorothy L Sayers' Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey books almost in reverse order, and it didn't seem to dent my enjoyment of them.

So I'm left torn. Is it important to read a series in order? Does it depend on the series? What do you think?

5 (or more) Questions with... ME!

Terri Bischoff

 

What is your job title? Acquiring Editor, Midnight Ink Books

What do you actually do? Just about everything other than line edits

What is your job experience? 13 years as a bookseller, almost 8 years as an AE

 

Is your desk messy or clean? Totally messy. Crazy messy. But I know where most things are!

What do you like to read outside of work? It's hard for me to read crime fiction while I am actively editing/acquiring and frankly, that is all the time. So I like to read non-fiction and LGBT fiction.

 

 

What do you want to be when you grow up? I have absolutely no idea, but I would love it if I could figure it out soon.

You just won $1,000 in the lottery. What do you do with it? Probably pay bills or try to save it for emergencies.

You just won $1M. What do you do with that?! Well, sad to say, I might quit my job, lol. I would buy a house and a new car.

Any tattoos? yep, several. And if I won that $1M lottery I would get a lot more! Sorry mom.

If you could travel anywhere in the world right at this moment, where would you go? anywhere. I really would love to travel the world and see new things and try new foods. 

 

What would your autobiography be called? Well That Didn't Work Out As Planned...

 

Oh, and this happened today:

 

It Happens Every Day. For a While.

Jeff Cohen

Buy this book. Medical bills don't pay themselves.

I get cancer every day. In fact, I get cancer multiple times every day.

There's that moment when I first wake up in the morning and I'm not thinking about my health that I put my hand to my head or my face and that's the reminder. So I get cancer then. 

Anytime I glance into a mirror, that's a time I get cancer. When fatigue makes me lie down on the couch at 10 in the morning (or 3 in the afternoon) I get cancer. Take a pill at a certain time and that's a moment I get cancer.

It's about being reminded. Most of the day I don't feel all that different than what has become usual. I've adapted to this life and I forget. Then there's a trigger moment and I have to remember that I'm not exactly healthy again. Yet.

But the fact is, I'm probably quite healthy technically right now. The cancer that was in my lymph nodes has almost entirely vanished and according to the proper scans is in "normal" limits of whatever it is scans measure. I have only one chemotherapy treatment left, a week from this coming Wednesday (May 24 but it's not like I've been counting the days since early February) and I'm in the stage of the cycle right now where I feel relatively normal. So I'm doing well. Believe me.

Still, there is some neuropathy in my fingertips (one of the pills I take each day is to ease that a little). Food doesn't taste the way it's supposed to, ever. There's a medicinal odor in my nostrils all the time. I do get tired a couple of times a day, but not as much as I did earlier. 

And yes, I'm still bald. I won't say anything else about that because there are people who think I'm obsessing on it or am concerned that I look bad. That's not the issue and I've explained that here previously, so enough. Suffice it to say that August or September will be a good time to check in on that situation again.

The multiple reminders every day are the issue. The mind is the place where we really live, and mine tends to forget that I have/had lymphoma. I'm suffering now from the cure. And I'm having periodic jolts of consciousness every day when I remember what's been going on for the past four months and I get cancer again each time.

I'm looking forward to that not being the case. Gerry Rafferty once sang, "You can learn to love a lifetime of distraction." He was pointing out the danger of looking away from important goings on, but in my case, I find distractions to be an excellent tool right now. I've been watching a lot of TV and movies, listening to a good deal of music.

Reading books with fun stories can be good, too.

I'm going to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center next Sunday. Mel Brooks will be screening Young Frankenstein and answering questions afterward. There are few better distractions. Three days later I'll get my least chemo treatment and then you can start counting down to when I will feel normal again.

To the day I stop getting cancer.

Jessy Randall

I'm reading a mystery-not-mystery novel right now, Barbara Gowdy's Helpless. It's the story of the kidnapping of a preternaturally beautiful nine-year-old girl. Gowdy got into the minds of elephants in her novel White Bone and now she's in the mind of a kidnapper, his accessory, the kidnapped girl, and the girl's mother. She is amazing.

Happy Mother's Day to all who are celebrating.

Promote Yourself

by Erin Mitchell

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff posted about his Chemo Promo Conundrum. The core situation he described—an author confronting the problem of having to promote their books—is a common problem, I think, made immeasurably harder for Jeff because he’s going through chemotherapy, which saps whatever excess strength one might have.

So what’s an author to do? When I read Jeff’s post, I started making a list...

Focus your Energy

Preorders help books. But we live in an immediate-gratification society, and even the most spectacular preorder promotions likely won’t generate a ton of sales. Or even a few pounds of sales. So I suggest saving most of your energy for after the book is released.

Spend on Social

A Facebook post and Tweet with some money behind it to boost visibility will help. And I’m not talking a lot of money. Even $50 can go a long way. The trick here is that the advertising platforms for both Facebook and Twitter are complex, and you might need help navigating them.

Ask for Reviews

Once your book has been out long enough for folks to read it (keeping in mind that many of us read slowly), ask people to post reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads. There’s no need to convince them or offer one of those “10 ways to help an author” memes (I really hate those because they imply that a reader has an obligation to help authors). Just ask. Give them the links to make it as easy as possible.

Speaking of Goodreads...

Consider buying 5-10 copies of your book and giving them away on Goodreads. Goodreads giveaways are more powerful than many authors think and are easy to set up. Once your giveaway is live, be sure to post it on Facebook and Twitter and ask people to share it.

Consider Other Promotions (but reject most of them)

There are approximately eleventy billion websites and companies that do book promotions, ranging in price from free to expensive. This is a tricky area, because frankly, most of them don’t sell more than a handful of books, and a lot of them require a book to be on a special-offer price, which means you’ll need participation from your publisher. Also, investigating them takes a bunch of energy.

Update Your Pages

Amazon Author Page. Facebook Page. Website. Twitter Profile. Make sure they’re all updated. Wherever you can add links, do.

There’s a lot more that can be done to promote books, of course, but these are good places to start. And now that you’ve read this, you should go grab a copy of EDITED OUT by E.J. Copperman (aka Jeff) because it really is a fantastic read.

 

Out of this world

Sometimes it all gets too much. Sometimes you just need to get away. And since, for the second year running, we've just had to cancel a holiday/vacation I was really, really looking forward to (family health issues – you don't want to know; I wish I didn't have to), take a guess where I go when I need to escape.

Anyone who knows me at all will have no difficulty with that little conundrum. I head straight for my bookshelves. Specifically, the ones in the corner behind the table, designated the To Be Read shelves. Every single one of the books on those shelves is guaranteed to take me somewhere else: somewhere, and maybe somewhen, other than the here and now.

And I think the ones I like best are the ones which transport me to a place I've never been, maybe never will go, into a way of life so different from anything close and familiar that it almost feels as if I'd taken a holiday/vacation there. Usually with murder included, but hey, what's life without a little excitement? So, as part of my 2017 resolution to introduce new people to books I've read, here's a small selection of the places and alternative lives I've escaped into recently.

A group of islands called Shetland lies off the northern tip of the UK; you'd think it was a calm, easy-going rural community, the kind of place you can leave your front door unlocked and the keys in the ignition of your car without fear of loss or damage. But if you take note of the way Ann Cleeves and Marsali Taylor describe it, you tread carefully and trust no one.

I'm not sure which of them started it, but they both have unputdownable series in progress. Ann Cleeves's DI Jimmy Perez is the islands' senior cop, and in each of the seven books in the series he seems to trip over at least one body, sometimes more. In the latest, Cold Earth, nature delivers the victim right at his feet, when the wettest winter in memory culminates in a landslip. Marsali Taylor's yachtswoman Cass Lynch isn't a cop at all, but bodies seem to turn up in her life remarkably often: in Ghosts of the Vikings at a country house about to be the venue of an opera recital. Both these authors bring Shetland to vivid life: its bleak beauty, characterful cottages, open spaces and wild sea, even the oil terminal and busy airport, form a background that makes the reader, this one anyway, feel she's there, with the wind in her hair and an occasional glorious sunrise.

Anything by Tony Hillerman is probably a bit of a cheat when it comes to transporting me to new places, because I've visited New Mexico, stayed in the real-life Window Rock, driven past the Shiprock, marvelled at the red rock formations and revelled in the little bits of Diné and Hopi life I've been allowed to find. But I love his books because they take me back there, and let me into a world I've always found to be touched with magic. My most recent taste of it was The Shape Shifter; Hillerman takes an image from Diné mythology and gives it a down-to-earth spin, and I loved every sentence.

Michael Farris Smith's Desperation Road took me to Mississippi, a part of the USA I haven't visited. The book gripped me, and I cared what became of his characters, but if I'm honest he didn't make me want to jump on the next plane. His small-town Mississippi was a dismal place, peopled with unhappy folk and others I wouldn't want to meet. But I suppose even that serves a purpose: it shows me that sometimes what's close to home is preferable to what an author has to show me.

Likewise A Life to Kill, the latest case for Matthew Hall's maverick coroner Jenny Cooper. Jenny was investigating a death in the military, and that's a world I've never had the smallest desire to explore. But the book also took me for the first time into the world of a coroner – and I had no idea how fascinating it could be. I thought the job was paperwork at a desk; in fact it's part detective, part investigative journalist, with a slice of grief counsellor and storyteller thrown in for good measure. Great stuff, and I'm looking forward to more, though maybe in a different environment.

That's a few of the places I've escaped to recently. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going exploring again. It never ceases to amaze me where you can go just by opening a book.