Crime Fiction Dossier (Old)

A few updates...

My review of Duane Swierczynski's excellent The Wheelman ran earlier this week in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I've talked about the book before, but this is my formal take on it. Obviously, I liked it a lot.

There are a slew of new reviews over on Mystery Ink, including several UK books critiqued by Fiona Walker, plus a review of Randall Hicks' The Baby Game by Yvette Banek.

On the novel (and Bet) front, I have modest progress to report. I'm up to 50,000 words, so it's a little more than half done. I think Guyot's written "Once upon a time..." but that's about it.

In other writing news, the short story anthology that Guyot and I are putting together now officially has an agent representing it. Considering that Ken Bruen has already written his story (and yes, it's excellent), I hope we're able to place the book somewhere.

I started reading debut thrillers for the ITW Awards. (I'm one of the judges for Best First Novel.) I've plowed through about 8 so far. I'm probably not supposed to comment on them publicly, so I won't say much. It hasn't been the strongest year for debuts, though, I'm sorry to say.

That's it for now. Let me know if there are any books I need to read or authors I need to write about. I'm always looking for good ideas to steal.

Latest Overnight Success? stories

Three new stories just went up on the Overnight Success? website:

Chris Grabenstein, Sean Doolittle and Brian Freeman

The more of these stories I read, the more my belief is confirmed that there are no short cuts to becoming a published author. It's hard, it's frustrating and it usually takes a long time, but for those who finally make it, it's worth it.

You can't get around it just by writing a check.

Latest Overnight Success? stories

I recently added two new Overnight Success? stories to the website: Sean Rowe and Naomi Hirahara. Check 'em out!

Slightly Sarcastic Rules for Writers

Over on the Lipstick Chronicles, author Susan McBride offers her Slightly Sarcastic Rules for Writers, which include some light-hearted tips on word counts and margins, but also some gospel truth about not paying to be published and never paying an agent reading fees.

This is advice that a lot of aspiring writers don't want to hear, but McBride is right on. There is no substitute for the traditional way of doing things, and no shortcut to getting it done.

Publishing can be an awful, frustrating business, but talent, persistence and a little bit of luck can still bring success. You can't get around that by writing a check.

(Thanks to Lee for the tip.)

Behavior 101

Joe Konrath has a post over on his blog questioning his time at Bouchercon and the feedback he received about what went on there. (Some folks thought Joe was a little out of control and came on a little too strong.)

I’m not going to address his specific case, but I do think this is an interesting touching-off point for a more general discussion.

One piece of advice that I would give to any author is to remember that, when you’re at a conference like Bouchercon, a lot of people are watching you and how you behave, and that you should always be aware of how your behavior is influencing them.

Once you go beyond the point of being “John Doe” so that attendees might actually know who you are, you don’t have the freedom of behaving as carefree as perhaps you once did. You have to be conscious of what your “image” is and how you are affecting that with your actions.

I know that I now have to watch how I handle myself at conferences (be careful of what I say, don’t drink too much, etc.) because I have built up a certain amount of credibility as a critic and journalist and I don’t want to blow that.

The same is true for authors. When you’re at a conference, you’re interacting with a lot of people who can potentially impact your career one way or another: fans, reviewers, publicists, booksellers, other writers, etc.

It’s important to be aware of how acting in a particular fashion affects those groups. It’s one thing to consciously decide that you don’t care, for example, what fellow writers think. It’s quite another to alienate them without even knowing it. (And I would suggest that either one is a bad idea.)

None of this is to say that you can’t be yourself. But you need to be the appropriate version of yourself for the situation. We all act differently in different social and business situations, and it’s important to chose the right one for the given circumstance.

When you’re a writer and you go to Bouchercon, you’re at your place of business. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, but you always have to have an eye towards business while you’re there.

If, for example, you get drunk and make a fool of yourself, you’re going to risk alienating people, and they might just be people you can’t afford to lose. The same thing goes for being loud and obnoxious, delivering political diatribes, or otherwise behaving in such a way as to turn people off.

The mystery community is such that most people are genuinely friendly to each other and get along very well. But if you squander that reservoir of good feelings, you’re likely to do serious damage to your career.

The importance of rewriting

I'm back from vacation. Missed me, did ya?

Paul Guyot has an excellent post on rewriting over on his blog. I won't excerpt it here because I think the whole thing is worth reading.

Rewriting is one of the hardest parts of writing because it requires you to think about your story objectively and try to come up with new and different ways that it can be improved. That's one of the reasons that it's essential to have reliable, knowledgeable people who can read your work and give you advice on it.

I think Guyot downplays the importance of a strong opening a little too much, but that's a minor point. His thoughts are useful and a good reminder to all of us never to settle for just getting it done.

Joe Konrath's day job?

Making a living as a writer is such a difficult proposition that J.A. Konrath, author of Whiskey Sour and Bloody Mary, has apparently had to take a day job working at a library.

At least, I thnk that's what's going on here...I can't really tell from his expression.

So everyone, please go out and buy a copy of Bloody Mary. You don't want the poor folks at that library to have to put up with Joe!

(Thanks to the Owen County Public Library for the pic.)

Two new Overnight Success? stories

Over on the Overnight Success? website, I just posted two new author stories, from Margaret Coel and Clea Simon. I think you'll find both of them interesting.

Check 'em out!

"In Philly, D.C. or Mil-wau-kee..."

With apologies to Cole Porter... If you're an author with a new book coming out sometime in the next few months, and will be hitting one of those 3 cities on tour, please let me know.

Thanks!

The importance of dialogue

Good dialogue is one of the most important parts of good storytelling. No news flash there. What's surprising is that this is an area that too many writers don’t seem to pay enough attention to. (That’s one of the reasons that authors who are really good at it, like Elmore Leonard and Robert Ferrigno, are justifiably celebrated for their skills.)

Writing good dialogue requires both an ear for language and a firm understanding of the characters. You have to know who they are in order to know how they speak, but you also need to be able to translate their words to the page. Good dialogue is not how people really talk, but rather an artificial version of it that seems authentic, but is actually slightly stylized.

Some folks, though, just don’t have the gift. Case in point: a much celebrated thriller writer whose latest book I just finished. Although the story overall was entertaining and the writing was generally good, the dialogue was at times so bad it was painful.

Writing gimmicks

Screenwriter Paul Guyot has an excellent post on his blog today about screenwriters using character "gadgets":

What's a gadget? I'll give you an example:

On the new TNT show The Closer the lead character has a weakness for junk food.

That's it.

Take that little gadget away and that "unique" character is suddenly very similar to several other female TV leads. But network and studio folks like gadgets. They think it makes the character unique. It's easy. It's simple. And much safer than doing something deeper, or darker, or less mainstream.

This is similar to a problem I've noticed recently in a lot of novels: the overuse of what I call "gimmicks." These come in 2 forms: plot gimmicks and writing gimmicks.

Guide to Writing Chick Lit Mysteries

I had a discussion with author Susan McBride earlier today about an upcoming talk she's giving on writing Chick Lit Mysteries.

Thus inspired, I decided to offer my own semi-serious, semi-smart ass advice for aspiring authors of this popular sub-section of the genre.

Author Kate White on Writing

The latest entry in our series of essays on writing is from bestselling author Kate White. The editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Kate also writes mysteries, the latest of which is Over Her Dead Body.

How to Write a Book When You Have a Job, Kids, or Your Life is Otherwise Crazed
by Kate White

Probably the question I get asked most frequently when I do book signings is "How do you manage to write fiction when you have a full-time job?" I've often thought the question should be "Why do you manage to write fiction when you have a full-time job?" Because there are moments when it seems insane to be writing a book a year while running Cosmopolitan magazine — and parenting two teenagers.

But if you're like me — and I suspect you are since you're reading this — you fantasized for years about writing books. From the time I was little I had a secret dream to publish a mystery series, and I just hated to think I was never going to get around to it. For financial reasons going on a sabbatical from my job as editor-in- chief of Cosmopolitan wasn't an option (and besides, who would want to give up writing cover lines like "Mattress Moves So Hot His Thighs Will Burst into Flames"?), so one day I decided to take the plunge regardless of the fact that my plate was heaped pretty high.

At first I was crazed, but over time I've learned a handful of tricks that have made writing my books easier. I've also relied on a few nifty time-management strategies that I came across while writing articles on the subject back in my twenties. If there's a book you're dying to write, but you're not sure how the heck you can pull it off, some of these tips may proof useful.

Shhh...they're listening

Agent 007, an editor-turned-literary agent who has recently joined the blogosphere, gives prospective authors some very good advice:

These days, most of you have blogs. That’s great. In fact it’s quickly becoming a requirement. But please, if you’re using your real name, don’t blog about your struggles to find an agent, or your agent’s struggles to find you a publisher, or even your struggles to get published by the New Yorker (unless you’re really really funny about it).

Agents and editors can Google search, too, and before we sign you, we usually do. It can be so hard to feel the love when we read that you’ve already been rejected fifty times. We know it happens, but we don’t need to know that it happened to you. And we certainly won’t feel comfortable sending your work to editors with that kind of info so readily available.

It makes publishers squirm, and that’s not a good thing.

I would extend that advice beyond the topic of struggles and rejections, and urge published authors to consider it as well, especially when discussing topics that might be controversial.

Two new Overnight Success? stories

I've added 2 new contributions to the Overnight Success? website (which compiles author's stories about the process of publishing their first book). The victims this time are Susan McBride (author of the Debutante Dropout Mysteries) and Karen E. Olson (winner of the Sara Anne Freed Memorial Award, her first book is due this fall).

Check 'em out!

The Girl Ghetto - my views

It's my turn to chime in over at the Lipstick Chronicles on the subject of crime fiction's Girl Ghetto. A few of my statements might be somewhat provocative, like this one:

In general, books that take on serious issues will be treated more seriously (by reviewers, fans, whoever). If a book is about a wacky wedding planner on the case of a runaway bride, or a psychic cat that solves crimes, you can’t expect it to be viewed the same way as the story of an abused woman stalking and killing the men who have wronged her.

We'll see what people think. My basic take on the whole thing is that it's overstated. I think the differences among individual writers are much more prominent and important than the differences between the genders.

Advice on writing from Barry Eisler

I recently interviewed author Barry Eisler -- man, this blog is turning into Eisler Central! -- and he had some very insightful advice for aspiring writers. I thought I would include it here now, in advance of the rest of the interview.

Writing Advice from Barry Eisler, author of Killing Rain

1. Keep writing. Can't emphasize this one enough. Every day is ideal, but the goal is to just be as regular as you can. Same as learning a language, or a martial art, etc.

2. Reread passages from books you love and ask yourself, what is the author doing here that's working so well? And if you see something that you think is bad, ask yourself, why is this bad? What could the author have done differently to make it work?

3. Read books on writing. Stephen King's On Writing helped me a lot. David Morrell's Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing is also terrific. There are many others. But don't read the how-to books at the expense of your own writing. Whenever you have to choose, practice your writing instead.

4. If you've got time and you're serious, a writer's workshop can be a huge help with motivation, feedback, and discipline. Google "Writer's workshops" and the name of your city and you'll probably be able to find a bunch.

5. When you think your book is as good as you can possibly get it, it's time to try to find an agent. The way to do this is to go a library or bookstore and get a book like The Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents. Identify the ones that handle your kind of book and contact them in exactly the manner they request.

6. One of your best friends as a writer is what I think of as the "what if" question. "What if someone cloned dinosaurs and planned to open a dinosaur theme park on a remote island?" (Jurassic Park) "What if a semi-yuppie drug dealer were about to do a seven year prison stretch?" (The 25th Hour) Etc. If the what-if question interests you enough, it'll lead you to other questions, all of the who, what, where, when, why, how variety. Follow those questions and you'll start to find your story.

A lot of people think that, in the writing business, it's not what you know, but who. This has not been my experience. Who you know might get an agent to take a look at something you've written, but after that you will stand or fall entirely on the quality of your writing and other business calculations.

In other words, the best a mutual acquaintance can do is to possibly get your work moved closer to the top of the agent's pile. But this is a minimal benefit, because agents read everything that's submitted to them anyway. That's their business. It may take the agent a while, but eventually he or she will read what you've sent.

To learn more about Barry Eisler and the Gumshoe Award-winning John Rain series, visit his website.

Body counts

Over on Ed Gorman's blog, western writer Richard Wheeler offers up an interesting thought on body counts in books:

I have a theory that runs counter to common sense. I believe that readers who are squeamish about violence or the depiction of death go for novels, both mysteries and westerns, with high body counts. There is a simple reason: a novel with a lot of killing in it means that the victims are not developed as characters and thus their deaths do not evoke feeling among readers. I've read westerns where there is a whole range war, raggedy cowboys against cattle barons flanked by hired killers, and all sorts of cowboys and badmen expire. But they are little more than names, and the reader shrugs that off even though fifteen or twenty people are dead by the end of the book. Characters who are only names never pierce to the heart of a reader.

If a novelist really wants to deal with the tragedy of death and killing, the novelist will create only one victim, maybe two at the most, and invest those characters with rich humanity and personality, hopes and dreams, frailties and foibles. Only then does the cruelty of death generate a deeply tragic quality in the novel.

Great point and one that I never really thought of in those terms before. The death of one victim in a book is so much more affecting than the slaughter of a faceless dozen. That's a good reason why most mysteries do tend to feature only a couple of bodies in them. Beyond that and the reader starts to become numb.

Author Barry Eisler on Writing Killing Rain

Barry Eisler, author of the award-winning Rain series, shares some of his thoughts about the process of writing his latest thriller, Killing Rain.

I start each Rain story by asking myself questions about the characters from the previous book. For Killing Rain, this task required primary focus on Rain himself. Rain is a guy who's spent a lifetime building up an armor suit of cynicism. He protects himself professionally and emotionally by assuming the worst about people -- "preempting betrayal," as he describes it to Delilah in Rain Storm. But the sacrifice Dox makes at the end of that book to save Rain's life punctures Rain's emotional armor and forces him to acknowledge that there are people out there who are trustworthy. So in searching for the story that would become Killing Rain, I started by asking how Rain would be dealing with the selfless good Dox did him.

The Blog Short Story Project

I was invited by Dave White and Bryon Quertermous to participate in the 2nd Blog Short Story Project, along with a couple dozen other writers. The goal was to write a story involving an item from a police auction.

Apparently there was also a 3000 word limit, an instruction I somehow missed, as my story is twice that. Sorry folks! I never was very good at following instructions, which is why I had to repeat kindergarten twice.

I'll forgive you if you can't plow through the whole thing. I just appreciate you stopping by. (Story after the jump.)

Why writers write

Paul Guyot has an excellent essay this morning on his blog about why writers write. Since I wonder sometimes myself, I found his comments to be interesting.

I think about how lucky we are to be writers. Whether you're  having to struggle through a "day job" that you hate, writing late at night or whenever you can find time, or whether you're making a fat living off your words, or whether you're somewhere in between, thank God or Buddha or L. Ron or whatever for shining down and turning your heart and soul into that of a writer. We've been around almost as long as whores and shepherds. And we'll be here till the end. By then we may be writing... God knows what we'll be writing, but we'll be doing it and loving it. And probably still not getting paid much.

I'll confess, the days ween I'm feeling it like that are few and far between lately...so it's reassuring to know that the Muses are smiling on someone. Maybe it'll be my turn next.

Rules for writing mysteries

Anyone who's read more than a few detective novels will start to pick up on the unrealistic clichés common to the genre: the unbelievable cases, the cozy relationships between the P.I.'s and the police, the psycho sidekicks who do the hero's dirty work...

You have to accept a certain number of artificial conventions in order for the form to work. If those tropes bother you too much, it's probably time to switch to another type of mystery. For my part, I can handle them.

I started a debut P.I. novel today, though, that breaks a rule no mystery writer should ever break. I'm not going to name the book or the author, since the point of this is not to criticize that novel in particular, but to use it as an example of a more general writing mistake.

In this story, the half-assed P.I. protagonist has been hired to find a young woman who's gone missing. Two pages later, as our hero is driving away after questioning his very first witness, he spots a car on the edge of the parking lot... and something about it calls to him, forcing him to turn around and take a look. In the trunk of the car, he finds the corpse of the missing woman.

Staying focused

Over at the Ink Slinger, Paul Guyot writes about the trouble he's having finished his screenplay, when what he really wants to do is focus on his novel. (You know, the one that is his side of The Bet.)

See, I can't stop thinking about the manuscript. Not The Bet, not defeating Monty, but the book itself. The main character and the story. His story. It is consuming me. To the point where I can't focus on the heist film... which is about 70% finished after my shower disaster. Now, I'd be the first one to tell someone like me - "Drop it and go write the book. Go with your heart and blah, blah, blah" - all that artist crap I throw out all the time.

But being unemployed, and with the cancellation of Carnivale I am thinking about things like, oh, feeding and clothing my kids for the next couple of years. Of course, there's no guarantee the heist film will sell - trying to sell a spec feature is like buying a lottery ticket - but it's in my chosen vocation (screenwriting), as opposed to venturing into a new world (prose). And if it did sell the money comes much faster than book dough, and even if it didn't sell it could very well lead to another paying gig. The screenplay is definitely the left brain choice, the book the right brain.

I, of course, advised Guyot to focus on his screenplay and forget about the novel. But I'm hardly a disinterested party.

Writing away from home

My soon-to-be amanuensis Paul Guyot, tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he prefers to work in public places, like the St. Louis Bread Co. (known around these parts as Panera Bread), so that he doesn't give in to the temptation to goof off with his kids, like he does when he works from home.

(Guyot thinks the article puts a negative spin on his escaping the wee ones, but it didn't seem bad to me.)

I, on the other hand, write from home, where I have no kids, no pets, no friends, neighbors I don't talk to, and a wife who's usually out working hard to support my pathetic butt.

It's no wonder that I'm crushing Guyot in The Contest!

How long is too long?

Sandra Scoppettone, mystery author and writer of a terrific blog about writing, shares the realization that her current book is going to end up too short:

Did you know one is now told in their contract how many words you have to have? In this first draft I’m going to come up short so that I’ll have to make it up in the rewrite. This disturbs me because I never want to put in filler. I’ve spent my whole career learning how to write lean and mean. And I think I’ve accomplished that now. But if I have to get to the right word count by adding unnecessary words it will make me unhappy. This trend to get writers to make their books bigger is terrible, I think. [emphasis added]

I agree with her completely.

The Contest -- update

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I'm currently in the middle of a competition with screenwriter-turned-shoeshine boy Paul Guyot.

It's kind of like "The Contest" from Seinfeld, only Paul and I are better looking than George Alexander and Michael Richards (not saying much, I realize)...Oh, and it has nothing to do with masturbation. (At least, it better not, Paul.)

We are currently engaged in a Celebrity Deathmatch to see who will finish his novel first. The loser will buy the winner dinner at the restaurant of his choice during the next writer's conference after a winner has been declared.

Paul hasn't said how much progress he's made since issuing his challenge. I thought I'd give you an update, though.

Grabbing readers right from the start

I participated in a panel of reviewers at the Left Coast Crime mystery conference earlier this year, and one of the topics that inevitably came up was, “How do reviewers chose which books they review?”

That is something I have talked about on this blog before and will surely do so again. One of the points the panelists agreed upon, though, was that the book has to grab the reader right away. No goofing around, no meandering, no slow openings. You’ve got a couple pages at most to do your job and if you don’t, you just lost the chance of getting a review (or a sale).

That is a piece of advice that I can’t emphasize strongly enough. It is crucial that the writer immediately draw the reader in to the story and grab their interest. If you don’t, then the reader will likely put the book down and move on to something else. That’s certainly what I do.

What fresh Hell is this?

What happens after a novel is turned in to the publisher.

By Robert Ferrigno

I just turned in my ninth novel, a crime thriller, to my publisher. The editor is happy, my agent is happy, and for a brief moment, I’m happy.

The filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock described the difference between surprise and suspense in movies by imagining a happy fellow sitting in a train compartment, looking at the scenery rushing past. The compartment suddenly explodes into a ball of fire from a bomb placed under his seat. That’s surprise. Now let’s imagine that same happy fellow on the train, only this time he knows that there’s a bomb under his seat. He just doesn’t know when it’s going to go off. He can’t remove it. And, oh yeah, he can’t get out of the compartment. So he has to sit there very quietly, hoping that someone opens the door before the bomb goes off. That’s suspense.

The writer who has just turned in his first novel is the happy fellow in the first example, enjoying the ride, blissful in his ignorance.

The writer who has turned in his ninth novel is the poor sap squirming in his seat, wondering if he’s going to hear the explosion before he’s blown to hamburger.

William Kent Krueger's writing process

William Kent Krueger, a wonderful mystery writer, shares some details of his writing process in today's Washington Examiner newspaper:

It's 6:30 in the morning. I'm sitting in my car, eyeing the dark windows of the St. Clair Broiler across the street. There's almost no traffic. The sidewalks are empty. A peach glow in the east suggests that the sun will rise within the hour.

Deep in the Broiler, a light comes on. It's located in the kitchen where Juan is firing up the griddle. A minute later, the red neon flame over the front door flickers to life. Inside the cafe, there's movement. Karen - or Lis, or Sydney, or Carol, depending on the day - flips the main light switch and unlocks the door. I grab my notebook and pen and head to my office - booth No. 4.

It's been this way for twenty years. I write mysteries for a living, and I write them at the St. Clair Broiler in St. Paul, Minn.

It's always interesting to read how writers go about the nuts-and-bolts of their craft. Kent reveals in the piece that he still writes everything out long-hand in spiral notebooks. I would never get anything done that way, although it obviously works for him.

Kent has a new book coming out in August (Mercy Falls), and it will be in the Cork O'Connor series. Looking forward to it!

Paul Guyot calls me out

Paul Guyot -- friend, writer, nemesis -- has issued me a challenge:

I'm officially calling out David J. Montgomery.

Over on his blog the Crime Fiction Dossier he has dared to insinuate that I created this blog to avoid writing. Ha! I say.

I am calling his review writing, goatee wearing, self-righteous butt out!

See, DJM has a little piece of unfinished work sitting in his desk drawer. And if this blog is merely procrastination in disguise, then what the heck are all his sites???

So...I offer an official challenge to Mr. Montgomery:

Starting right this second, whichever one of us is the first to complete a full first draft of our manuscript wins dinner (including wine) AT THE RESTAURANT OF WINNER'S CHOICE at whatever conference or convention is first up after the ms is finished.

Honor and food being at stake, I, of course, had to accept the challenge. I will crush Guyot like Poland...as soon as I finish blogging.