The Demon Dog of Father’s Day

Father’s Day is June 16th – so there’s time for you to recommend some crime-themed reading that could be a useful gift idea for dads of different ages, and with different interests…and allow those reading the blog to order it, and get it in time to wrap it!

by Paul D. Marks

I thought this time around I’d stick with one author for this Father’s Day recommendation: James Ellroy. Seems that people either love him or hate him, both as a person and his books. I’m (mostly) in the dig him daddio category.

He’s a trip. His writing is a trip. His books are a trip. They would be good for anyone who’s into new noir with a retro setting, LA history buffs and the usual suspects.

He writes both fiction and non-fiction, short stories and novels, but I’m only going to focus on the novels here. In the fiction category he’s probably best known for his L.A. Quartet (The Black Dahlia, 1987; The Big Nowhere, 1988; L.A. Confidential, 1990; and White Jazz, 1992.) And, while I’m not going to talk about every novel of his here, I do like most of them with the exceptions mentioned here.

I like the way he deals with corruption and the sultry grittiness of his works. They also deal with the other side of the American Dream. And there's an inner core of darkness and corruption in society, a feeling of fear and paranoia. There's a moral ambiguity. They are the equivalent of an Edward Hopper painting with its cold light and shadows, filled with a sense of alienation and angst.

Ellroy is something to behold, both stylistically and if you've ever seen one of his "readings." The Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction started out with a mild roar, crescendoed to a roar on steroids through a Marshall stack with his L.A. Quartet, but seems to have overdosed on Evelyn Wood (remember her?) speed-writing, making some of his works hard to sink your teeth into.

I used to go to all of his readings. At one event he even had a band with him. And one Thanksgiving my sister-in-law's cousin joined us at my parents’. He was working in a bookstore at the time and had been force-fed a reading by Ellroy. Of course, he thought Ellroy an a-hole in so many ways for his "schtick.” And those were the nice things he had to say. So was it the books or his spiel?  Well, he hadn't read the books but he'd heard a little of one in the reading. That was enough for him. But you have to know him and his mindset and the context of the books. That said, if you’re sensitive and need trigger warnings, Ellroy might not be for you or your dad. But the thing with Ellroy is a lot of it is schtick and he’s trying to get your attention…which he does.

The first book in the L.A. Quartet is The Black Dahlia and that’s the first book I read by him. I remember it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I was hooked on the book and hooked on Ellroy. He had several books before The Black Dahlia, but that’s the book that put him on the map. After reading that I read all of his earlier books and couldn’t wait for each subsequent book.

The Big Nowhere is my favorite book in the L.A. Quartet: All are good, but if I had to pick one as a fave it would be The Big Nowhere. To try to describe Ellroy’s fever dream style is an exercise in futility. The story is set in LA in the 50s right after WWII. In part, it follows Sheriff’s deputy Danny Upshaw through the investigation of a series of mutilation crimes and exposes corruption and hypocrisy amid the “red scare”.

Towards the end of the L.A. Quartet series his writing style became more choppy and staccato. I liked it at first, but with later books it got to be too much. His next series was the Underworld USA Trilogy. And I liked American Tabloid, but Blood’s a Rover and the Cold Six-Thousand left me cold. And much of the reason for that was the style.

His most recent book, Perfidia (2014) seems more back to form for me and is the start of a Second L.A. Quartet. And I’m looking forward to his new book This Storm , releasing on June 4^th…just in time for Father’s Day.

Some of his books, L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia and Brown’s Requiem (filmed under the title Cop), have been made into movies. And he’s worked on screenplays for other films including Rampart, Dark Blue and others.

Here’s a list of his books:

Bibliography:

Brown's Requiem (1981)

Clandestine (1982)

Killer on the Road (originally published as Silent Terror) (1986)

Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy:

Blood on the Moon (1984)

Because the Night (1984)

Suicide Hill (1986)

L.A. Quartet:

The Black Dahlia (1987)

The Big Nowhere (1988)

L.A. Confidential (1990)

White Jazz (1992)

Underworld USA Trilogy:

American Tabloid (1995)

The Cold Six Thousand (2001)

Blood's a Rover (2009)

The Second L.A. Quartet:

Perfidia (2014)

This Storm (2019)

***

I’d also like to say that my books might make good Father’s Day gifts, too. For the most part, they’re gritty L.A.-set stories. Novels: White Heat, Broken Windows, Vortex (stand-alone) and L.A. Late @ Night, a collection of previously published stories. And two collections of short stories that I co-edited with Andy McAleer: Coast to Coast: Private Eyes (14 award nominations, two stories chosen for Best American Mysteries of 2018), Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

New May issue of Mystery Weekly is out. And I'm honored to have my new story The Box featured on the cover. Hope you'll check it out. -- This link is to the Kindle version, but there's also a paper version available.

https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Weekly-Magazine-2019-Issues-ebook/dp/B07RC8XS93

***

My short story House of the Rising Sun and lots of other great stories are in Switchblade - Issue 9, which is available on Amazon (Kindle version): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QW5GVZF. The paperback version is also available: https://www.amazon.com/Switchblade-Issue-Nine-Jack-Bates/dp/0578512971.

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website www.PaulDMarks.com

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Character Incognito – Or: Revenge is a Dish Best Served…On Paper (if you don’t want to go to jail)

Do family and friends and their lives become fodder for your stories and, if so, do they ever recognize themselves and complain? 

by Paul D. Marks

Of course I use family, friends, frenemies, enemies, and virtually anyone else who crosses my path! Don’t we all. That’s not to say there’s a 1:1 relationship between a character and a real person. And most characters are composites of more than one person. But characters are definitely inspired by people I know, people I come across. Everyone I come across is fodder, the way they look, the way they talk. Their character, etc. Not just people I know, but people I may cross paths with for only a few seconds or a few hours. A clerk, someone on a street corner. Someone in a bar.

It’s like we costume our characters, disguise them and send them out into the world incognito. Most of the time people don’t recognize themselves and sometimes they think a character is based on them when it isn’t. People don’t see themselves even when it’s pretty blatant because they don’t see themselves the way you portray them, especially if you portray them in a less than flattering light. They are, of course, too wonderful for words so that evil villain could not possibly be based on them. Yes, I’m thinking of a real person right now. Someone who is barely disguised in something of mine, down to the exact words the character says. And this person read it. If they recognized themselves they never said anything to me. Of course, maybe they sent a hit team after me. I’m sleeping with one eye open.

I was in a very famous LA eatery and bar, Barney’s Beanery, when two guys got into a fight. You can bet that made it into a story. And sometimes I might ‘borrow’ a story someone’s told me and use it. I had a friend who worked in Hollywood who told me that her boss was on the phone with a certain big name movie star and, when the boss inadvertently called him by a shortened version of his name, he hung up on him. That became the inspiration for Joseph – don’t call him Joe – Hartman, the producer that Duke works for in Broken Windows. So be careful what you tell me. If I like it I might use it. (This story is modified to protect the innocent…and guilty.)

But not only do I base characters on family and friends, but on people I dislike, too, enemies. And isn’t that fun? We get our little revenges against people who’ve wronged us and, as long as we disguise them somewhat, we get away with it. What’s better than that? Sometimes just naming the bad guy after someone can be a satisfying way to get back at someone who wronged us.

Some of my favorite stories are revenge stories, The Count of Monte Cristo being the prime example. In it, Edmond Dantes exacts revenge on those who’ve wronged him in very clever ways, hoisting them on their own petards (whatever the fuck a petard is – just kidding, I know).

Once upon a time there was a fellow, let’s call him John Doe. He was a total asshole, though I didn’t know it when we first entered a business arrangement. He totally flaked on me and he made it into a screenplay I was working on at the time. And he didn’t come off very nice. And I didn’t change a thing about him except his name. So I enjoy petarding people in my work.

The first novel I wrote, about a screenwriter trying to make it in Hollywood, was basically a roman a clef. All the characters were based on people I knew, some very well known, others obscure and struggling, including little ol’ me. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but that novel was accepted for publication at a major house. Then a new editorial staff was brought in and like a new broom sweeps clean, my book was swept out with the bathwater. And because it was a satire and the humor was topical it was too late to get it to another publisher. Lesson learned: don’t use topical humor.

And let’s not forget the places, objects, clothes, cars, etc. that I’ve borrowed/stolen. I’ll set scenes inside a friend’s house, only now it’s not their house but the house of one of my characters. Duke Rogers, the private detective and main character in White Heat and Broken Windows, lives in a house that’s very much based on the house of a friend of mine, though with some authorial remodeling. And Jack Lassen, the main character in my story Windward lives in an old 50s bomb shelter. I actually had a friend who lived in one. The one my friend lived in was in someone’s backyard. Jack Lassen’s is under his office in Venice and much larger and nicer. Still, the idea came from my friend’s very cramped, but unique, living quarters. Then there’s the black over orange classic Firebird that Duke drives in White Heat. It was my dream car for many years (well, that and a Porsche Targa). So, one day Amy and I are visiting a friend in Arizona. I’m telling him about that car, my dream car. And it’s like that scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen pulls Marshall McLuhan from behind a sign in a theater lobby. My friend says, “Come with me.” We walk back to his garage. He opens the door and sitting in there is a classic orange and black Firebird. In this case the story came first, but it was one weird coincidence.

So, yes, everything, everyone, is fodder. So be nice or reach a gruesome death…at least on paper.

What about you? Tell us about how you base characters on people you know.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

The third story in my Ghosts of Bunker Hill series, Fade Out on Bunker Hill, appears in the March/April 2019 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. If you like the movie Sunset Boulevard, I think you'll enjoy this story. In bookstores and on newstands now:

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website www.PaulDMarks.com

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Sacrificing to the Gods of Writing

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter on your road to becoming a writer? And how did you overcome them?

by Paul D. Marks

Starting out to be a professional writer is scary. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome. Different ones for different people, though there are many that we all have in common. I’ve always done some type of writing of one kind or another, starting with poems and songs, non-fiction and then screenplays, writing for radio, short stories and novels. Each one had its own set of issues and concerns. I never sold a song or poem, but bands have performed some of the songs.

To begin with, I had to learn to read and write English that could be understood by others. That sounds silly, but try reading things that some would-be writers write and you’ll see what I mean. But the lack of decent writing skills is really for another post. Luckily I learned these things in school and was able to improve those skills over the years. And this will sound silly, but I had to learn to type. I took a typing class in high school. I was bored, but there were a lot of girls so I liked that. After high school I didn’t use it for a while, but eventually I started to write and the typing skills I learned came back very quickly. And I’m a pretty good typist when I want to be. But often when I’m writing I’m just flying so I don’t care about typos. They can always be fixed. But I can touch type and that makes life a hell of a lot easier for someone who wants to be a writer.

Here are some things we all have to deal with at one time or another:


Rejection

We’re all scared of rejection. Some of us handle it better than others. For some that fear either keeps them from finishing something in the first place or sending it out if they’ve finished it. If you send something out and it gets rejected it’s as if someone says your baby is ugly and them’s fightin’ words. Still, it’s something we have to deal with. It’s okay to be scared. It’s not okay to let it paralyze you into doing nothing. When I was starting out and got rejections it only strengthened my resolve to “show them”.

Sacrifice
When I started out I don’t think I realized how much one had to sacrifice to be a writer. I don’t know about other people but for me it’s extremely time consuming. And I was very driven to be successful. That meant spending a lot of time at the typewriter (in those days). And that meant sacrificing other things I wanted to do sometimes, including hanging with friends. And I know it damaged some of my friendships. People who aren't into writing don’t understand the dedication it takes.

Sometimes I might want to procrastinate, so I would go out with friends. I’d even clean my apartment. Women I dated often commented on how clean my apartment was “for a man.” Well, it was less painful to do that than sitting down at the typewriter and opening a vein, to quote Hemingway.

I know a lot of people who want to be writers. They have an idea, it’s the greatest idea in the world. It will make millions. But they don’t have the discipline to put their butt in a chair and work on it. And ideas are a dime a dozen. They’re everywhere.

So, we have to sacrifice many things to the Writing Gods to overcome these obstacles. And the things we need to learn early on are discipline and motivation. I think I’ve touched on discipline above, but we also need to be motivated. We need to want to say something and have something to say. And if we believe that enough, we should be able to find the discipline we need and make those sacrifices.

Focus
I also had to learn how to focus on the job of writing. It has its moments of glamor and fun but the actual writing part is often sitting in room by yourself trying to create something out of nothing. As I’ve probably mentioned here before and definitely in other places, when I started writing I had romantic visions of Hemingway and expats on the Left Bank, sipping absinthe and talking about things that matter. So I tried drinking and writing, but I just wanted to play. And then I tried hanging out at Joe Allen’s a bar in LA, but that wasn’t writing. So I quickly figured out that I need to be in my home office in a chair, working on projects.

And these days with the internet there are certainly distractions that you don’t even have to get up to procrastinate. I love looking things up – research – jumping from hyperlink to hyperlink. I love looking at rock videos and other things on You Tube. And sometimes I do get distracted. But ultimately I return to work and do what I need to do. So you need to maintain focus and shut out the outside world – figure out how to do that for you.

Dealing with stupid people
Another obstacle to overcome is dealing with petty and stupid people. People who want to change your voice or don’t see your vision. People who don’t know who fought on which sides in World War II. People who tell you that your story doesn’t work because people don’t take trains anymore. Don’t do what I did on several occasions and tell them what jerks they are to their faces. It’s not good for your brand. Fight for what you believe in in your work and compromise on other things. Learn to compromise!

Never argue with stupid people. 

They will drag you down to their level

 and then beat you with experience.

 –Mark Twain

Experience
I think one of the biggest obstacles that I had to overcome was life experience. Many people go from grade school (or whatever it’s called today) to junior high (or whatever it’s called today) to high school (or whatever it’s called today) to college (or whatever it’s called today) to graduate school (ditto) and then want to be writers. But what do they have to write about? Maybe that’s why there’s so many retreads out there? It’s good to have lived a little bit of life outside of school to both give you something to write about and perspective on it.

So that’s my two cents on the subject. What about you?

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I’m honored and thrilled – more than I can say – that my story Windward appears in The Best American Mystery Stories of 2018, edited by Louise Penny and Otto Penzler, which just came out this week. I wrote a blog on that on SleuthSayers if you want to check it out: https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/10/the-impossible-dream.html .

I’m doubly thrilled to say that Windward won the Macavity Award at Bouchercon in September. Wow! And thank you to everyone who voted for it.




And I’m even more thrilled by the great reviews that Broken Windows has been receiving. Here’s a small sampling:

Kristin Centorcelli, Criminal Element: 

"Although it’s set in 1994, it’s eerie how timely this story is. There’s an undeniable feeling of unease that threads through the narrative, which virtually oozes with the grit, glitz, and attitude of L.A. in the ‘90s. I’m an ecstatic new fan of Duke’s."

"Duke and company practically beg for their own TV show."

John Dwaine McKenna, Mysterious Book Report:

"This electrifying novel will jolt your sensibilities, stir your conscience and give every reader plenty of ammunition for the next mixed group where the I [immigration] -word is spoken!"

Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine:

"Broken Windows is extraordinary."

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website www.PaulDMarks.com

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

***

Never Say Never

We all write the kind of novels we want to write. What kind of novel would you never write?

by Paul D. Marks

Well, as Sean Connery learned when he said he’d never make another James Bond movie, “never say never,” unless you want to make a latter-day Bond called “Never Say Never Again.” However, in that case he probably should have said no, if not actually never.

And in checking out Wikipedia  (where else am I gonna go?) I can’t believe how many genres and sub-genres of fiction there are, but I’ll only touch on a handful.

So, that said, is there a type of novel I would (probably) never write?

Romance would be up there, especially bodice rippers. I don’t have anything against them or the people who read them, but it’s not something I read and would probably feel very uncomfortable writing.

Horror – Well, I thought I’d never write horror and I haven’t done a horror novel…yet. But I was asked to write horror stories for two different horror anthologies. So I took it as a challenge and gave it my best shot. And both stories were accepted by their respective editors and are in the anthologies Journals of Horror, edited by Terry M. West, and Simple Things, edited by Franklin E. Wales.

Fantasy – doubtful I’d write something in this genre. I don’t read it and I’m not much into it. I prefer things – at least these days – set in the real and present world that deal with things and people that I recognize to one degree or another. That could change over time, but only time will tell.

Dystopian – Again, it’s not something I read much of these days, though I did more in the past. I think I have some dystopian ideas in my idea file, but nothing I’m planning to work on any time soon.

Young Adult – It’s been a while since I’ve been one so I don’t know if I can relate 😉.

Science Fiction – I actually did a sci-fi type story or two a very long time ago. They weren’t published and I haven’t tried again lately. Though I did work on some sci-fi scripts in my previous life.

Western – Again, haven’t written any western prose, though one of my favorite books is Monte Walsh. And again, I did some work on a western screenplay.

Zombie/Vampire – If you would have asked me this a few years ago, I would have said I’d never work on a vampire story. Then I started on one ’cause I thought it would be fun. And it was, but I wanted to get back to what I generally do, mystery, noir, etc. So I abandoned it. Besides, there were so many out there the world didn’t need another bloodsucker.


What I do write are mostly mystery and mostly in the hardboiled/noir vein. But I’ve also written and had published satirical stories, mainstream and other things.

My three novels, White Heat, Broken Windows and Vortex, are all on the hardboiled/noir side of things. But my short stories are all over the place. The Ghosts of Bunker Hill series that’s been appearing in Ellery Queen has a supernatural element to it. My stories Continental Tilt, The Practical Girl’s Guide to Murder and more recently There’s an Alligator in My Purse, from Florida Happens, the 2018 Bouchercon anthology, are all satirical/humorous. Windward, the story that won the Macavity and was chosen for the Best American Mysteries of 2018, is a pretty straight forward PI tale set in Venice, CA. And the first novel that I completed is a satire on Hollywood. It was accepted for publication at a major publisher. Then the editorial staff was replaced and, as a new broom sweeps clean, my novel got swept out with them. And since the humor was topical it was already dated. Remember Fawn Hall and Donna Rice… see what I mean. But instead of rewriting it, I moved on to other things, though I might come back to it someday. But I did learn something from that experience: don’t write topical humor, unless you know something will be published fairly quickly.

So, never say never. And never write topical without a ready market. My wisdom for the day 😀.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I’m honored and thrilled – more than I can say – that my story Windward appears in The Best American Mystery Stories of 2018, edited by Louise Penny and Otto Penzler, which just came out this week. I wrote a blog on that on SleuthSayers if you want to check it out: https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/10/the-impossible-dream.html .

I’m doubly thrilled to say that Windward won the Macavity Award at Bouchercon a few weeks ago. Wow! And thank you to everyone who voted for it.




And I’m even more thrilled by the great reviews that Broken Windows has been receiving. Here’s a small sampling:

Kristin Centorcelli, Criminal Element: 

"Although it’s set in 1994, it’s eerie how timely this story is. There’s an undeniable feeling of unease that threads through the narrative, which virtually oozes with the grit, glitz, and attitude of L.A. in the ‘90s. I’m an ecstatic new fan of Duke’s."

"Duke and company practically beg for their own TV show."

John Dwaine McKenna, Mysterious Book Report:

"This electrifying novel will jolt your sensibilities, stir your conscience and give every reader plenty of ammunition for the next mixed group where the I [immigration] -word is spoken!"

Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine:

"Broken Windows is extraordinary."

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website www.PaulDMarks.com

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

***

Too Much Distraction

We live in a world of TVs at the gas station, split screens, crawl lines, sound notifications, personal message alerts and a thousand other pipes feeding information direct to our over-stimulated brains. What's the place of books in all of that clamor? Do you worry about the future of reading?

by Paul D. Marks

Personally, I hate all those screens everywhere you go. I hate them at the gas station, I doubly hate them in doctors’ offices where I want to read but can’t because I can’t concentrate cause some stupid show is on. I hate them everywhere but at my home where I can choose what to watch and when.

I hate people talking on their cell phones, always looking down. What important business are they talking about? You ever listen in? They ain’t saving the world.

I like computers, I like the net, I like being connected and having access to all sorts of information and videos and friends and other things. But I also think there can be too much of a good thing.

And as it relates to books, I do worry very much about the future of reading. Do you think all those people looking down at their screens are looking up Sartre or the history of the French Revolution? Or are they just glaring at themselves in selfies the way Narcissus glared in the pond?

And, of course, I want people to read. I want them to read in general. And I want them to read my books in particular. Like the recently released Broken Windows, sequel to my Shamus Award-winning White Heat.

I wrote about my thoughts on my fear for the future of books and reading on SleuthSayers about three years ago, but I think what I said there is apropos to this week’s question, so I hope you don’t mind if the rest of this piece is a rerun of that:

One of the things that scares me most as a writer is an illiterate society. Not only illiterate in the sense of people being unable to read and write. But “illiterate” in the sense that, as a society, we have touchstones that everyone or at least most people are familiar with. Or I thought we did at one time. I’m not so sure anymore.

Let’s start with plain literacy on a personal and anecdotal level.

When my wife and I were looking for the house prior to our current house we noticed something odd, at least odd to us. We’d go in various houses in different parts of Los Angeles. But, unlike some of the shows on HGTV, you could still see the real people’s stuff in their houses. Their junk, ugly sofa, hideous drapes and kids’ toys strewn all over, laundry baskets, cluttered closets, etc. One thing we didn’t see much of were books. Sure, a house here or there had them, but the majority didn’t. And if they did they had a coffee table book or two of some artist they thought would make them look chic or intelligent or maybe a book of aerial views of L.A. One place we expected to see lots of books was in kids’ rooms or a potboiler on their parents’ nightstands. But, alas, the “cupboards” were bare.

This was twenty or so years ago, so well before smart phones, Kindles and e-readers. So, it’s not like all their multitudinous libraries were in e-form. No, there just weren’t many books to be seen.

We found this odd, as we have books stuffed to the rafters, as do most of our friends. Here, there and everywhere, in the living room or the dining room, library, the hallway, and even shelves upon shelves in the garage.

Flash forward:  Cultural Literacy

When we went hunting for our current house, about ten years ago it was more of the same. By then there might have been some e-books and the like but the real revolution still hadn’t hit full bore yet.

Again this seemed odd. But more than odd, it’s scary. Especially for a writer. Because a writer needs readers. And if people aren’t reading, I’m out of a job, and maybe likely so are you. Even scarier though is the fact that, imho, we are becoming a post-literate society. And we are losing our shared background, some of which is gotten through books. Aside from the greater implications of that in terms of the country, it makes it harder as a writer because when we write we assume some shared cultural background. And we make literary or historical allusions to those ends. We mention composers or songs or symphonies. Books, authors, “famous” or “well-known” quotes that we assume most readers will be familiar with, some foreign phrases, even biblical references. Hemingway and even Bob Dylan songs (and I’m talking those from the 60s before he found religion in the 70s), as well as other writers, are filled with them. But often these days readers are not familiar with these references, so they miss the richness of the writing. So then we begin to question whether or not to include these references and sometimes end up writing to the lower common denominator. And that diminishes our works and our society, even if it sounds pompous to say that.

Maybe people won’t know who Rudy Vallee is, but many don’t know who Shakespeare is in any meaningful way.

When I would go to pitch meetings in Hollywood I would often have to dumb down my presentation. I would try to leave out any historical or literary allusions. Hell, I’d even leave out film allusions because while these people may have heard of Hitchcock, few had seen his movies. And they were mostly from Ivy League type schools, but they didn’t have much of a cultural background. So when you have to explain basic things to them, you’ve lost them. They don’t like to feel stupid. And sometimes they’d ask me to explain something to them about another script they were reading by someone else. One development VP asked me to explain to her who fought on which sides in World War II, because she was reading a WWII script someone had submitted. The writer of that script already had points against him or her since the development VP didn’t even know the basics of the subject matter. And I would have thought before that incident that just about everybody knew who fought on which side in WWII. And this is just one example. I have many, many more experiences like this.

After college, the stats show that many people never—or very rarely—read another book. Literacy rates in the US are down. A lot of young people aren’t reading, but they think they’re smart because they look things up on Google. But looking something up on Google isn’t the same as knowing, though it’s better than nothing, assuming people do look things up. See: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/12/google_makes_us_all_dumber_the_neuroscience_of_search_engines/

I’ve seen several authors, some very well known, ask on Facebook if they should include X, Y or Z in a novel because their editor says no one will get the references, even though the references aren’t that obscure. But even if they are, what’s wrong with using them and having people (hopefully) look them up. Isn’t that how we expand our knowledge? But nobody wants to challenge anyone in that way anymore. We’re dealing with generations now that have been told how wonderful they are without having earned it. So when we unintentionally make them feel stupid by using references they’re not familiar with, they turn off. Is it just me or does our society seem to have no intellectual curiosity, no interests or hobbies other than texting or watching the Kardashians? They don’t have the will to look further than the screens of their smart phones?

I know I’m generalizing and that there are pockets of intellectual curiosity (like the readers of this blog!), but I feel like we are becoming a minority.

And when you do a book signing or a library event, do you notice the average median age and hair color of the audience? More times than not they’re older and grayer. And where are the young people? That’s scary.

I wish more people would make New Year’s resolutions to improve their minds as well as their bodies, to exercise their brains as well as their muscles. So maybe we should do yoga for the brain as well as the body.

At this point I’d even settle for grownups reading comic books or graphic novels as long as there’s words in them.

All of this scares me, not just as a writer, who might not have an audience in the future. But for society as a whole. We need to have a shared background, a common knowledge, a literate society of people who are engaged. Not everybody can know everything, of course. But there should be some common background that we can all relate to.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

I’m honored and thrilled – more than I can say – that my story Windward appears in The Best American Mystery Stories of 2018, edited by Louise Penny and Otto Penzler, which just came out this week. I wrote a blog on that on SleuthSayers if you want to check it out: https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/10/the-impossible-dream.html .

I’m doubly thrilled to say that Windward won the Macavity Award at Bouchercon a few weeks ago. Wow! And thank you to everyone who voted for it.




And I’m even more thrilled by the great reviews that Broken Windows has been receiving. Here’s a small sampling:

Kristin Centorcelli, Criminal Element: 

"Although it’s set in 1994, it’s eerie how timely this story is. There’s an undeniable feeling of unease that threads through the narrative, which virtually oozes with the grit, glitz, and attitude of L.A. in the ‘90s. I’m an ecstatic new fan of Duke’s."

"Duke and company practically beg for their own TV show."

John Dwaine McKenna, Mysterious Book Report:

"This electrifying novel will jolt your sensibilities, stir your conscience and give every reader plenty of ammunition for the next mixed group where the I [immigration] -word is spoken!"

Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine:

"Broken Windows is extraordinary."

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Shakespeare picture: Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hw-shakespeare2.jpg#/media/File:Hw-shakespeare2.jpg

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