These Books Are Not For Burning by Josh Stallings

Q: The building’s on fire, what books do you save?

A: Easy, the books that matter are my signed editions. This year Thomas Pluck gifted me with signed first editions of most of James Crumley’s oeuvre. Tom knows how important Crumley is to me. The Moses McGuire trilogy is a love letter to Crumley’s tarnished drunken knights. Three books were missing, Dancing Bear, luckily my friend Steven Hertzog gave me a signed first edition years ago. That leaves only A Right Madness and The Wrong Case, (weirdly these are his first and last detective novels,) I will find them sooner or later.

So after I make sure Erika, our sons, and the four legged beasties are safe, I will run back in for the Crumleys and that’s it.

Charlie signed this to our son Jared after seeing his punk band play.

Ok that and the books Charlie Huston signed to me and my family. He has been a friend and supporter since I first stumbled onto the crime scene. That’s six Crumleys and seven Hustons. Nothing else.

Except for November Road, a brilliant book, and Lou Berney signed it with a wonderful note to Erika and I. 

Looking on my shelf Bad Boy Boogie screams, “Yo gonna let me fry?” How could I leave signed Thomas Pluck books behind? 

I have signed copies from my oldest best mate, fantasy writer Tad Williams. Young Americans is dedicated to him for good reason. We lived through so much, and more to go.

It’s been said that book are old friends. These are old friends written and signed by dear friends. Picking up Monday’s Lie, I remember Jamie Mason signing it at Bouchercon San Diego. I moderated a panel she was on. I had no idea we would remain good friends over the years. 

Every book here has memories attached of the book and the writer. When Erika couldn't make a conference, Catriona McPherson signed a copy of Scot Free to her.

The first time we met Terry Shames was at Noir Bar Los Angeles, she signed a copy of her first book to Erika. She remains one of my favorite writers and people. So yeah, her books are coming.  

What about Eric Beetner or Gary Phillips’ books? Johnny Shaw? Todd Robinson? Sara J. Henry? Hillary Davidson? All great writers and old friends. Yeah, their books are coming along. 

Stuart Neville added a drawing to his signature. As did Scott Phillips when he signed Ice Harvest. Got to keep those.

I have a copy of Chandler’s “Farewell My Lovely” published in Russia and signed to me from actor Victor Wong. He was in a movie I wrote and edited that was shot in Russia. This book has personal value and the back where it explains english idioms to Russian readers is priceless.

And the books of Ian Ayris, my brother from another world. Ian signed April Skies to me  praising my memoir, “It helped me more than you will ever know.” I feel the same way about his work.  

Ok, tally up time. I count thirty six heavy books that must be saved. Maybe I can drag those out of a fire in one trip… maybe… until Erika chimes in, “What about the children's books we read to the boys?” I look at the covers and remember reading to Dylan and Jared. I read Where the Wild Things Are so many times I could read it with my eyes closed, and I did some nights. 

I just asked Jared if he remembers any particular books he was read. “Yeah, Where the Wild Things Are, Everyone Poops, and Goodnight Moon.” The children's books survived the move to the mountains and the downsizing of our life, they will not burn. Not even hypothetically.

Erika’s beautifully bound with original art work Folio editions? Yep. Those are simply too beautiful to let burn.

Books have been a part of my life since before I was me. They are attached to memories, they are gossamer threads that help me drift back. Winnie the Pooh is a very little me lying on my father playing with a Steiff bear and hearing the words rumble up deep and rich from his chest. 

Peter Pan is my mother reading to us from the very book she was read to as a child. It was faded and magical. My mother was Wendy and we were her wild children.

What books would I save? 

All of them, clearly. Wouldn’t you?

Happy Jólabókaflóðið from Skye by Josh Stallings

Q:  If you could spend whatever winter holiday you celebrate anywhere in the world, where would you be? Close your eyes and describe the scene. 

A: The Isle of Skye. 

I can smell the cold clean brine of the Hebridean Sea. Waves roll more than crash on this part of the Waternish peninsula. The sky is grey, I pull up the hood of my duffle coat. The temperature would be considered cold in Southern California, but I prefer to call it “fresh.” Maybe it’s my Nordic blood. There is a Swedish saying, “There is no bad weather, just the wrong clothing.” Then again my Danish grandmother used to say “Don’t trust the Swedes, they have frogs behind their ears.” And Bel-Ami a Norwegian shield maiden, likes to taunt them with, “A thousand Swedes ran through the weeds, chased by one Norwegian.” As this is Yule or Jul, the time of winter solstice celebrations, perhaps we should throw a Yule log on the fire and leave petty taunts for another day. 

Erika and I are staying in a B & B run by a retired officer from a London Armed Response Team. Whilst recovering from a horrendous attack he learned to throw pots, and has become a rather good potter. His wife is an underwater body recovery expert. For breakfast they serve groaning platters of meats, eggs and oatmeal, with a healthy side dish of stories from their lives.

After a healthy stomp through the heather, and trot up the beach to check out a local artist’s work, we return to our room with its quilts and view of the coast line, for what is the greatest winter celebration ever, Jólabókaflóðið, or Book Flood. Icelandic and only dating to 1944, it is one we can all get behind. It involves giving and receiving books, drinking hot chocolate by a fire, and reading to each other. Perfection. 

2021 has been a difficult year for so many of us. Much time spent helping friends and family members. Erika and I didn’t get nearly enough time to be together.. And that is why I am drawn back to a trip we took to Scotland. We are absolutely boring travelers. We find a good bookstore or two. Buy some local writers. On an earlier trip I discovered Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory, finding his work was well worth the cost of plane fare. If you find yourself in Scotland I suggest House. Tree. Person. by Catriona McPherson and The End of the World Running Club, by Adrian J. Walker. Books found, we walk in the mist holding hands and snooping on how the natives live. We lie in bed reading late, nudging one another to share a lovely or powerful passage.

  

Growing up, my mother believed for Christmas, the only thing excess needed was more. Lacking funds, she made doll’s dresses and pajamas and Robin Hood capes. Every year she would take us to F.A.O. Schwarz in San Francisco, just to look at the beauty and wonder of it all. We were Quakers, but that didn’t stop her from crashing a Catholic midnight mass. Latin let us avoid any spiritual conflicts and simply enjoy the pageantry.

Looking back, I see that as wonderful as this was, it made me feel uncomfortable. No, anxious is how I felt. The pressure to make that one day a year set all wrongs right, prove familial love, finding the right gift to say all this, was too much weight for any holiday to hold. 

On our first Christmas together Erika explained the concept of unplugging the Christmas tree. Dialing back the crazy excesses. Enjoying time together. What an insane thought. But it is what I long for. I want the extravagance of a good book, a log on the fire and beloved friends and family share it with.

Where ever you are my dear readers, I hope the the spirit of Jólabókaflóðið fills your heart and home.   

Kill the Backstory. By Josh Stallings

Q: How do you deal with backstory? How much do you need, and where do you put it? How do you know what to leave in, and what to take out?

I just finished reading Heather Levy’s debut novel, Walking Through Needles, it takes place in 1994 and 2009 from the point of view of two teenagers and later, adults. It is a hard book handled brilliantly. By jumping time frames she makes backstory feel immediate. It made me think, backstory must drive the story or be dropped. 

I’m editing my newest book and I hear in my head, “Dude, your research is showing.” You know those paragraphs you put in because you spent hours to discover the exact military vehicles bought by the LAPD in 1984? It’s the Vietnam era Cadillac Gage Commando V-100, or M706, if you’re wondering. I could give engine specs, but this info dump has slowed the essay down enough as it is. How about I go with  “LAPD was the first American police force to use tanks against its citizenry.” Readers don’t care about the rabbit hole I fell down to research the novel. 

Backstory is often things I discovered about characters in early drafts. My job in editing is only keep backstory where it is absolutely necessary. Tricky is the story of a detective trying to discover what happened the day of a shooting and more importantly who the suspect is. In many ways the book hinges on discovering Cisco’s backstory. What keeps the mystery going is how the backstory is doled out, and the fact that most witnesses that tell about Cisco’s backstory could be lying. I wrote entire chapters set in the past, used them as research and then tossed them out. I needed to write them, readers didn’t need to read them.

Tangent alert: Some research facts are needed, as proven brilliantly in Throw Mamma From The Train. A woman from Billy Crystal’s writing class reads from her MS, “"Dive... DIVE" yelled the captain through the thing. So the man who makes it dive pressed a button, or something, and it dove. And the enemy was foiled again!”

My backstory: At sixteen I moved to LA to study acting at The Lee Strasberg Institute. To build a character I was trained to start with biography. Know a character inside and out. Then forget it and simply be. 

No one needs to know that Detective Madsen’s grandfather was a Texas Ranger, and the truth of the Texas Rangers is darker, more racist, and evil than the myth we have been fed. Well no one except me. I need to know it to write honestly about Madsen. To understand a character I need to understand their backstory. The hat trick is to figure out what readers need and when? Early into Tricky I show a printout of Cisco’s rap sheet. It is the police record of an evil SOB. It is part of his backstory. I also introduce believable characters who swear Cisco is a good man, and incapable of doing the things they say he did. The tension in Tricky is delivered by this simple idea; are we our backstory or is real transformation possible?

I broke somebody’s cardinal rule by starting Young Americans with a flashback. A young girl works to open a safe while her grandfather times her. She is a safe cracking prodigy. I needed the reader to believe this fact from the get go. Next chapter she’s in her early 20’s, living in Humboldt dancing for a living. A character mystery is set in motion, why would a safe cracking wunderkind end up working in a low rent club in the sticks?

Catriona McPherson’s thrilling novel Strangers at the Gate hangs entirely on backstory. Discovering what really happened versus what people say happened is the difference between life and death. McPherson’s skill is such that I never once felt a writer’s hand on the mechanisms of suspense. It was scary as hell and felt natural and believable. 

Could you live without a backstory? The crime fiction trope where an amnesiac wakes to find a dead body in their bed, is fascinating and terrifying. The question of who are we without our history, is universally fascinating. 

Backstory can be used as a deception. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl gives us two compromised visions of the backstory, both factually kinda true, both leaving much out. Who do you trust, when you can’t trust your narrator?

When dealing with backstory remember, “show don’t tell.” My least favorite note, until on my 6th book, when I finally understood it. Now I’m starting to see how it applies to backstory. 

A Telling) “Johnny Killjoy grew up on a farm in Driscoll county… blah blah blah…”

B Showing) “‘Boy, grab that calf’s feet and pull.’ Johnny was seven and felt the mortal weight of the newborn animal’s life in his hands.”

Both of these examples give you the information that Johnny grew up on a farm, but only one of them makes you feel what that did to him, how it affected his world view. You know, the stuff we actually care about.

“But I want the readers to know Declan grew up in Belfast.” I say rather stridently to myself. 

“Why?” Myself asks me. “Irish isn’t a character trait.”

Oh… So once I really know who the character is, I can discern what information is actually needed to deliver that person fully alive in three dimensions. Why didn’t I say that to myself in the first place?

Now I’m starting to worry that I got this whole idea wrong. Maybe backstory simply means a character’s biography… If that’s true, and it doesn’t enlighten or amuse, or move the plot or widen the mystery… Then leave it all out.

Four pages into James Crumley’s The Wrong Case, Milo Milodragovich lets us know that he is broke, and when he turns 52 he'll inherit his family’s fortune. Pure backstory and yet it explains why he acts like a man in limbo, a true slacker, before that term came to be. I love it even if it ruins my “leave all backstory out.” So I’ll amend my earlier statement, leave all backstory out… unless it works.

Criminal Minds Think Alike

Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not? Why?

by Paul D. Marks

Another Two-fer today. I’ll respond to this week’s question and also talk a little and post some pix from the California Crime Writers Conference that took place last weekend. The CCWC is a two-day conference that lately’s been taking place every other year in Culver City/Los Angeles at the Double Tree Hotel. It’s worth it just for the cookies they give you when you arrive.

It’s put on by the Los Angeles chapters of both Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America. I’m on the board of the latter and have been on the board of the former (a long time ago). That sort of helps in determining whether or not to go 😉. However, I would go anyway. This is one hell of a good conference. And it’s local – well fairly local for me. And that helps.

Our own Catriona was one of the keynote speakers. The other was Tess Gerritsen. Unfortunately, I could only be there on Saturday so I missed Catriona’s Sunday keynote speech, but on Saturday she also gave a workshop called “Deep in a Bowl of Porridge,” about how to plant clues. I did catch Tess’s keynote on Saturday. Her speech was short but pithy and to the point. She spoke about something that writer’s rarely talk about: what not to do.

My panel was Bringing the Past to Life. Panelists were Anne Louise Bannon, Jennifer Berg, Rosemary Lord, Bonnie MacBird, me, and moderated by Amanya (“A.E.”) Wasserman. We discussed writing mysteries set in the past and how we do our research for them. Everyone on the panel has a book or books set in the past, covering everything from the 1870’s to the 1990’s. My books White Heat and Broken Windows are mystery-thrillers set in the 1990s, the first during the Rodney King riots, the latter during the Proposition 187 debates about illegal aliens, much of which is still in the air today. I also have a new novel coming out in 2020, The Blues Don’t Care, that’s set on the Los Angeles homefront during World War II. And let me tell you, it was easier to research that than the 1990s books, where the era is still fresh but one has to be careful about what was and wasn’t around then since it was very similar to today…but not the same. Everyone on the panel had interesting things to say about how they went about researching the past.

Audio of this and other panels are available from www.vwtapes.com and you can see a list of them at https://ccwconference.org/panels/.

I also ran into Criminal Mind Terry Shames, and it was nice to chat with her for a while.

So that’s the abbreviated version of my weekend at CCWC. I hope you’ll be able to join us there in two years.

***

And now to this week’s question: No, I don’t really read different “stuff” when I’m writing. The problem, if that’s the right word, is that I’m always writing. Always working on one thing or another. So either I wouldn’t be reading or I might as well just read what I normally read.

Sure, maybe we can be influenced by what we read. This applies to TV and movies as well. It’s impossible to avoid the buzz in the air...or over the air.

Does it mess with my own writing? I don’t think so. In fact, I’d say just the opposite. Since ideas can come from anywhere—we just pluck them out of the air, a newspaper, TV, a snatch of conversation—we can also be inspired by what we’re reading. Of course, we don’t want to borrow something directly, and that’s not what I’m referring to. But a line, a turn of phrase, a character, an incident, etc., from something we’re reading, might inspire us to get over a hump in our work-in-progress.

But, from the Great Minds Think Alike Department, the frustrating thing for me is that sometimes I might be working on something and find similarities in something else that already exists, even though I hadn’t seen it or read it at the time of writing my project. That just happened to me. I’ve been working on a novel and it’s been going well. But I heard there was something that was similar to it. I debated if I should watch it or not, but decided maybe I should. And sure enough, there’s a couple of characters with the same names as my characters. Some incidents that are similar to mine, though I had written several early drafts before seeing this show. So I’ll change the character names, but the events might stay the same since I came up with them on my own. Still, it’s frustrating. But I guess writing about certain subjects one tends to write about similar things that others might have because we’re exploring the same experience.

Sometimes, when reading something by an author you admire you get inspired by them, not to copy or steal, but to take their inspiration and spin it in a different direction or take it to another level. Like reading Ross MacDonald and wishing I could dig into the psychological depths the way he does or being envious of Chandler’s descriptions and metaphors. I think reading some of these great authors has helped me to become a better writer.

James Ellroy doesn’t read fiction anymore (though that was a while ago so maybe it’s changed). But I like reading fiction and crime fiction in particular. It’s a good escape. Often the world comes out better in the end than in real life.

The worst part is finding the time to do the reading. Seems I used to have tons of time for that, but not so much these days. But when I do read I read all sorts of things, from various non-fiction subjects to literary/mainstream and crime fiction. I don’t read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy, YA, things along those lines. To each his/her own, right?

And I suppose the question can be applied to almost any activity, even just sitting in a café listening to people. Inspiration and ideas, whether for a whole novel or just a snatch of dialogue can come from anywhere, so why limit ourselves? Sure we want to create something from whole cloth, so to speak, but even if we were to shut ourselves off in a hermetically sealed room we’d still be influenced by things we’ve read, watched, seen and lived. So there really is no “escape” from having things “mess” with our writing.

So there you have it. What about you? Do you read different stuff when you're writing from when you're not?

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

My story Past is Prologue is out in the new July/August issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I don't have a picture of the cover yet, but the issue should be available at bookstores and newstands as well as online at: https://www.alfredhitchcockmysterymagazine.com/. Hope you'll check it out.

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

website 

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

For your enjoyment...by Cathy Ace

End of year recommendations - always tough, and I haven't read as much as I'd hoped this year. I've decided the best thing to do is to list those books which have stuck out for me, and try to help you understand what they are like. Not everything is everyone's cup of tea - but, whatever you read, enjoy the Festive Season, and thanks for your support, Cathy  

For juveniles: CHASE – Get Ready To Run by Linwood Barclay

This book won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for best Juvenile/YA book in 2018, and it’s great fun! Here’s what the judges said about it – they speak more eloquently than I could:

The plot is inventive and captivating from the opening chapter where the reader is taken into the mind of a dog as Chipper, the Border Collie, escapes from a top secret, scientific facility. This is a highly imaginative but believable story exploring the potential of cyber crime using a dog to mask the nefarious goals of his handlers. The book has strong boy and girl characters with the girl, atypically, being the computer expert and the boy expressing well the emotions and difficulties of being an orphan. It quietly introduces an emerging boy girl relationship suitable for the juvenile age group. The author employs age appropriate language and uses humour to temper the more frightening aspects of the story.

For those who enjoy an escapist adventure with wit, whimsy and dead bodies: A SPOT OF TOIL AND TROUBLE by Catriona McPherson

I’m catching up with my TBR pile and, although Catriona has a new book out in the Dandy Gilver series, I just read this one!  GREAT FUN!

Scotland, 1934.

Aristocratic private detective Dandy Gilver arrives at Castle Bewer, at midsummer, to solve the tangled mystery of a missing man, a lost ruby and a family curse.

The Bewer family's latest wheeze to keep the wolf from the door is turning the castle keep into a theatre. While a motley band of players rehearse Macbeth, the Bewers themselves prepare lectures, their faithful servants set up a tearoom, and the guest wings fill with rich American ladies.

Meanwhile, Dandy and her sidekick Alec Osborne begin to unravel the many secrets of the Bewers and find that, despite the witches, murders and ghosts onstage, it's behind the scenes where the darkest deeds are done.

A lone man on a lonely road? PAST TENSE by Lee Child

I settle into a Lee Child Reacher book with a certainty that I’ll enjoy it! This one is an instant CLASSIC!

Jack Reacher hits the pavement and sticks out his thumb. He plans to follow the sun on an epic trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been: the town where his father was born. He thinks, What’s one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the same moment, in the same isolated area, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians had been on their way to New York City to sell a treasure. Now they’re stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. The owners seem almost too friendly. It’s a strange place, but it’s all there is.

The next morning, in the city clerk’s office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in town. He’s always known his father left and never returned, but now Reacher wonders, Was he ever there in the first place?

As Reacher explores his father’s life, and as the Canadians face lethal dangers, strands of different stories begin to merge. Then Reacher makes a shocking discovery: The present can be tough, but the past can be tense . . . and deadly.

Fancy some dark deeds and damaged souls? DAMAGED by Martina Cole

Martina Cole never disappoints, so if you want Brit Grit at its best, this is for you!

DCI Kate Burrows might be retired, but when the bodies of missing schoolgirls start turning up in Grantley, she's the first person DCI Annie Carr calls for help.

Life for Kate and ex-gangster Patrick Kelly is thrown into chaos when his long lost son turns up out of the blue, bringing trouble with him. This new case could be just what Kate needs.

But as the body count grows, Kate and Annie face a race against the clock.

Without any clear leads, can they stop the killer before another schoolgirl dies?

I'd be honoured of you'd consider reading my work. You can find out all about it here:  http://www.cathyace.com/

I have a new book coming out on January 9th (PRE-ORDER now!) - and it's a bit different for me! Here are a couple of blurbs from two fellow Criminal Minds:

"A close-knit community in a quaint Welsh village in an area of outstanding beauty. Sounds cozy. But Cathy Ace's stunning new standalone, THE WRONG BOY, is about as cozy as a cornered snake. Told in a rising chorus of authentic voices, the story is deft and disturbing, creepingly claustrophobic, and with a grip that tightens to a choke-hold before its shattering conclusion."  Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of ‘Go To My Grave’ 

“Drenched in Welsh atmosphere, forbidding weather, and mysterious folklore, THE WRONG BOY is a gem of a thriller that bewitches right up to the twisted ending you won’t see coming. Masterful plotting and characters so real, you’ll swear you know them. Ace is a master portraitist.” James W Ziskin, multi-award-winning author of The Ellie Stone Mysteries

Find out more: CLICK HERE