Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Tag - you're it...by Cathy Ace



Do you have a literary executor named in your will? What would you like (or loathe) to have happen to your work when you've shuffled off this mortal coil?

This is a surprisingly easy question to answer, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. The answer to the first part of the question is “yes” – at least, I will have one when my new will is drawn up. 

I realise the announcement that I am drawing up a new will has probably shortened my life expectancy to a few days (because it always does, right?) but I’ll dare to share the information here, with you, in the hope you’re not suddenly wondering where you can get your hands on some arsenic or strychnine to drop into my next cuppa. 

By way of further disclosure, I have told the two persons in question that they’ll be “It” (depending on which one of them is left when I drop from my perch), and they seem fine with the idea. As for what they will/won’t/can/cannot do with my work when I’ve gone – I have told them I don’t give two hoots; I’ll be gone, and if they can pry more money out of it after I’m dead than I could while I was alive, then good luck to them. 

Who knows, maybe I’ll be worth more dead than alive – and no, thanks, I don’t want that cuppa now! 

Cathy Ace is the Bony Blithe Award-winning author of The Cait Morgan Mysteries and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (#4, The Case of the Unsuitable Suitor will be released in hardcover in the UK in September 2017 and in the USA & Canada on January 1st 2018).  You can find out more about Cathy, her work and her characters at her website, where you can also sign up for her newsletter with news, updates and special offers: http://cathyace.com/ 

 

5 comments:

James W. Ziskin said...

A very sensible attitude toward your literary legacy. Nice post, Cathy.

Susan C Shea said...

Agree, Cathy. I haven't gone as far as naming a 'literary executor' but I'm with you - if my heirs can figure out a way to get something fresh from my work, I say go for it!

Cathy Ace said...

Thanks Jim and Susan - nice to know I'm being "sensible" and thinking ahead. Wonders will never cease :-)

joshpac said...

I wish every author would take this advice to heart. Dale Andrews and I are currently co-editing The Misadventures of Ellery Queen, a collection of parodies, pastiches, and homages, for Perfect Crime Books, and there are some excellent pieces we won't be able to include — by Dennis Dubin, Norma Schier, Robert Twohy — because the authors either made no arrangements for post-mortem representation or else arrangement so esoteric that it's been impossible to track them down.

Cathy Ace said...

Hi joshpac....I've been away from my desk and didn't spot your comment until today - my apologies for allowing it to languish unacknowledged for so long! The situation you describe is so sad...and you're right, we authors do need to think about what happens when we can no longer speak for ourselves, or our work. All the best with the anthology.