Balance

  Q: The balance between life and work can be difficult to manage as a writer, because we all "work at home". How do you succeed, and fail?

Being fairly prolific (my 33rd book comes out Feb 27th) I am asked quite often how I manage to write so much in what time I have lefter working a day job, raising two kids and all the extra curricular I try to take part in.

There’s no simple answer other than to manage the time you do have well. I’m a night writer. It was easier when my kids were younger and they went to bed earlier, but after my wife and two daughters are in bed and the house is quiet is when I get to work. I know by the end of the day I may only have 60-90 minutes of time, or more to the point of brain power, left in me to get some words down that day. I need to go into that slim window knowing what I’m going to write and to be able to utilize that time efficiently. 

I’m an outliner, which helps. I like to finish a thought or a scene during a writing session so I’m not spending any time picking up on yesterday’s momentum. I write in silence. All small things I do to use that time well.

The harder part is shutting off the rest of my day and switching over into the world of the book and nothing else. We all know stresses of life can easily creep in to the creative side of our brain and make a real mess. The end of 2023 didn’t see much output from me since I’ve been stressed over being out of work. As a freelance employee it is something I deal with regularly, but the current slowdown in the TV industry has meant I’ve been out of work longer than I have at any point in the past 25 years of my career. Hard to concentrate on a made-up world when my real life presents real problems.

Also, last year my wife battled breast cancer. She is doing well now and is in remission with a good prognosis, but it also drained any mental energy and inspiration for writing for several months. Life will always creep in.

No matter what the roadblocks in the way, though, writing is always a welcome distraction and a way to think about anything and everything but the stresses of normal life. It’s why we read and why we write.

The balance between being present and attentive to your “real” life and to the imaginary world you are creating can be tricky. At its best, writing can be a way to return that balance, even in the most trying of times, when it serves are a respite and a form of therapy to work out issues weighing on our minds. 

And then some nights there’s a great movie I want to see or dinner with friends. Those nights I can’t let myself feel guilty if I miss my word count. It is balance, after all. If your book takes over your life then you’ve only swung the pendulum too far the other direction.

Scene Unseen by Gabriel Valjan

 

Thirty(ish) years ago, Octavia Bulter’s Earthseed novels looked forward to an uncannily accurate (and pretty grim) version of present-day America. Let’s have some “fun” and write out own utopian/dystopian tales of the publishing business thirty years from now.

 

SCENE UNSEEN

 

He had witnessed all the cruelties that accompanied a long life, from the massive stupidity of politicians through the decades, which included senseless wars and two pandemics, the deaths of friends and family, and the decline of his own health. His mind was strong. His body, however, struggled to pay the rent because the cost of living increased with time. He understood that he was no longer young, no longer pretty, but he was one of them, a writer. As with all scribblers since time immemorial, he was not spared the meeting with his editor at the publisher’s house.

 

He had set out his clothes the night before. He would wear black because death could come at any hour now, and he wanted the clothes on his back to be his choice for the casket and crematorium. What he desired more than anything was what every writer wanted in life: to be read.

 

He awakened to an upside down world. He dressed slowly as old men do, with care and precision with his buttons, laces, and zipper. While the law of the land said all must wear sunglasses in public, his one act of rebellion was to dispense with the tie. Every man, woman, and child was obligated to wear shaded glasses in public because emotions were not allowed to be detected or displayed. What people were to think and feel was determined by the images taken in with the eyes from a multiplicity of sources, such as screens, walls, and that item he created: books.

 

Naked eyes were permitted at home. Answer the door in shades. Talk to the boss, coworker, or friend with spectacles on. Other than the family in the privacy of one’s home, only the physician was allowed to examine bared eyes during the annual physical exam.

 

He’d outlived his other editors, those persons of power who sat behind a desk and hid behind their own visor. They never ceased to have an opinion and offer suggestions. What mattered most was that The Work sold. A writer was as good as his or her last book. Today was no different. He sat in the chair and waited. This particular editor had survived the purges within the industry, a true veteran of the slush pile.

 

“Your average sentence is twenty words. Reduce it to ten, but vary the rhythm.”

“The rhythm?”

He’d learned long ago to parrot answers as questions because they skirted confrontation.

“Think jazz, fast and punchy, something that keeps the heart rate up, and pages turning.”

“Heart rate?” he asked, not certain he had not heard right. His hearing was not what it used to be.

“Between 120 to 240 beats per minute. Long enough to finish the book. You can do that.”

He thought to himself, if it doesn’t kill me first, and answered, “I can,” he said. While not a ‘yes’ for the recording for the lawyers, his answer showed compliance, agreeableness. “Anything else?” he asked his editor.

“Trim the story down to the new sweet spot. 75,000 words.”

“75 is the new sweet spot?”

“Folks in Production say it keeps print costs down and our margins intact. Think of it as a challenge, how to make the story work harder with less.”

“I’ll see what I can do to keep the heart alive,” he said to this new challenge.

“Easy solution is to do away with your subplot. The couple can go to the wayside.”

“Because they’re same-sex?” he asked, curious.

“Not because of that,” the editor answered. “They go because of their politics, and they’re the wrong demographic this year. Why offend, right?”

“No, we wouldn’t want to offend,” he said as genuine repetition and not as agreement. “Anything else?” he asked, eager to leave now.

“Yes, your cover art will be something neutral.”

“Blue?”

“No, the Persuasion Department was thinking along the lines of something gray.”

“Gray?”

“Safe, conventional. Readers crave what is predictable.” The editor smiled. “Oh, one more thing, your name.”

“As in high or low on the cover?”

“Neither,” was the answer. “We want to drop your first name and keep it simple.”

“Simple how?”

“Initial, and last name. It adds a little mystique, as to your gender.”

This perplexed him. “I’ve been writing for forty years, so I’d think there’s no mystery as to my gender.”

“I told them nobody would notice, but they said this was an experiment,” the editor said.

“An experiment?”

“Proof of concept on product placement. They claim that we’ve trained readers, between the color for covers, the choice of font on the page, and when we announce releases. I believe they said it’s like flakes on the water.”

“Flakes on the water?”

“Fish always come to the surface to be fed.”

“Fish don’t read.”

“But, a sale is a sale, and a royalty is a royalty. Once a book is sold, we never know if it is read or abandoned. Therein is the beauty of the sale: money is made when the bell is rung.”

He held onto those words for a moment because what he wanted above all things was to be read. “Don’t the folks in Persuasion have programs that can tell us the number of pages read on devices?”

“That would be an invasion of privacy. Anything else?”

 

He left the office, sunglasses on in compliance to Society and the world he’d leave one day. The shades hid the emotions in his eyes, but they’d see the words on the page that he would have to kill later that night, and tomorrow, and the day after.

I'm Late, I'm Late

 Q: The balance between life and work can be difficult to manage as a writer, because we all "work at home". How do you succeed, and fail?

 

-from Susan

 

Perfect example. Today’s post is late because, whoops, all weekend I was busy trying to figure out where the brand-new leak in my bedroom window is coming from and who I should ask to fix it. And getting the furnace installers back because the brand-new furnace wasn’t working at all, brrrr. The second problem has been fixed but they still have to come back because it's not "quite" fixed. The first is not and rain’s expected tomorrow. 

 

Never mind cats. When they’re in, they demand to be out and when I put down yesterday’s favorite food, they loudly scorn it and demand variety. When I’m on a zoom call, they demand fresh running weather or threaten to die of thirst. 

 

Work life balance? Sometimes, but not always and I have no tips on how to manage it except 1) have a spouse who can deal with house crises and 2) forget about pets unless you’ve trained them to be less spoiled than my two.

 

In Gratitude, by Harini

 It’s nearly four years since our lives took that big swerve into the pandemic. Has yours gone back to the same as before? Or are there new normals? Any silver linings?

By Harini Nagendra

My first post for Criminal Minds! So thrilled to be here - a huge thank you to Jim, Susan, Catriona, Brenda, Gabriel, Terry, Dietrich and Josh for inviting me - and hello to Eric too. 

The pandemic and the seclusion changed many things for us - especially since India had a series of extended lockdowns. My mom, now in her mid-80s, moved in with us in early 2020 for what she planned to be a temporary visit, but then had a series of health crises that led to her living with us permanently. And that's really where my first point of gratitude comes from. The lockdowns hit us without warning, and I am so very glad that, purely by accident, Amma was with us at the time - so we could hunker down and take care of each other. 

India had one of the longest periods of school closure because of the pandemic - my daughter took classes online for 22 months, and that was so hard on her. But - we got the gift of time together, crocheting our way through granny squares, skirts and hats; working on jigsaw puzzles; going on walks; and binge-watching our way through MasterChef Australia. Of course one can't just watch cakes being baked without making and eating them - so, over the pandemic, she took to baking in a huge way. She now makes her own birthday cakes (and ours) - serving up what my dad would have called 'fancy' cakes that are absolutely delicious. Of course this also means I put on far too much weight during the pandemic, and am still walking that off, pound by pound, but hey! Still silver lining. 

                                        Cupcakes for a friend's birthday

The pandemic years were hard, and scary, often terrifying, and I don't mean to minimize any of that. I teach in a university, and we lost far too many young people. But gratitude is what kept me going, and I want to hold on to that thought for a while longer.

My writing life changed during the pandemic - I turned 50 in 2022, and my best birthday gift was my first fiction book, The Bangalore Detectives Club. Living across the oceans in Bangalore India - and being a complete novice to the world of fiction publishing - I didn't begin with high expectations. I enjoyed writing the book, and loved researching the historical period of the 1920s, in which it's set - if a few hundred people read the book, I would have felt pretty good about it. But thanks to Sisters in Crime, I e-met wonderful fellow-authors like Catriona, who not only offered to write blurbs for the book but also introduced me to many other lovely writers who did the same. The Bangalore Detectives Club was nominated for an Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Historical Dagger, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 - and I'm now writing book 4 in the series, and planning books 5 and 6, so I'm having a party. To discover a second career after 50 which I love so much is a gift - I keep telling my husband that this is a good mid-life crisis to have, and I'm holding to that line!

        The Bangalore Detectives Club advertised at Champaca, one of my         

                        favourite independent local bookstores in Bangalore  

Onto the last - anticipated - silver lining. I used to travel a lot for work. Post-pandemic, because of my mom's health, I've had to cut down on travel - and I have to say, I don't really miss the long airport lines - but I do miss meeting people, face to face. Nothing can quite replace that, can it? I absolutely loved my first mystery writers conference experience, speaking at MOTIVE in Toronto in 2023. I'm really hoping I can make it to one of the mystery conferences this year in the US, hang out with my 7 Criminal Minds co-writers in person, and buy them a round of drinks! That would be the silver icing on the cake...  

 

            At the Harbourfront in Toronto, in front of a ginormous Motive poster  

--Harini Nagendra     

Website: www.harininagendra.com

Twitter: @harininagendra

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harini.nagendra/ 

I Hereby Resolve AGAIN from James W. Ziskin

It’s nearly four years since our lives took that big swerve into the pandemic. Has yours gone back to the same as before? Or are there new normals? Any silver linings?

My life has more or less returned to normal, albeit with some changes. For starters, during the pandemic, I went back to work. Over the past three and a half years, I’ve been teaching middle school and high school French, and I’m loving it. The kids are wonderful, and the energy keeps me active and sane.

But speaking of Covid—at the risk of jinxing myself—I’ve so far managed to dodge it. One of the habits I’ve retained from that awful time is constantly washing my hands. I also keep a can of Lysol spray on my desk at school, and I’m not afraid to use it! When I travel on a plane, I wear a mask and always wipe down the seat carefully with sanitizer. I think those are excellent practices. I confess, however, that I no longer wash my groceries.

Now, with apologies for the brevity of my comments, I’d like to reprise my New Year’s tradition of posting my resolutions. For your reading enjoyment—once again—I give you…

I Hereby Resolve

Upon the first of Jan-u-ary each and every year

I choose a comfy cushioned chair on which to park my rear

Then taking pencil, pen, or plume I think with all my might

About my life, my hopes, my dreams, and then begin to write

I make a note of all my flaws, my missteps, and my sins

And number them from one to ten and sort them into bins:

A catalogue of wishes, goals, and changes to achieve,

To lose some weight, to write more books, and royalties receive!

But not all thoughts are for myself, I also have a heart

So I resolve to do some good, pitch in, and play my part,

To be a better person and to help human-i-tee,

Or maybe just be satisfied to keep my san-i-tee

For all in all you must admit that things are not so good

At home, abroad, in Baltimore, and in your neighborhood

With guns and hate and politics and fears we cannot quell

It often seems we’re on a highway heading straight to hell 

But then I reason as I sit here in my pensive pose

Some things I can control and fix, so why not start with those?

My wrath, my sloth, and moods most foul are faults I could improve

Why not correct them right away? Cast out, erase, remove?

While in the past I must admit that my resolve was frail

This time my pledge is resolute; I don’t intend to fail

I vow to change, to grow, to thrive, and forge myself anew

And through hard work and sweat and blood I’ll make my dreams come true

But just in case my will is weak and my plans gang ag-ley

I’ll save this verse for twelve months more until next New Year’s Day

Then with high hopes and best intents I’ll shout for all to hear

The very same prom-is-es that I made and broke this year

On the upside

It’s nearly four years since our lives took that big swerve into the pandemic. Has yours gone back to the same as before? Or are there new normals? Any silver linings?

by Dietrich

Has life gone back to the same as before? Well, there are fewer masked faces, less of those floor stickers warning about keeping a safe distance, and less elbow bumping too. But, instead of looking in the rearview at all that, I’d rather look at what’s ahead for ’24.

As for silver linings on the writing front, I’ve had plenty of time to sit and create. I’ve got some ideas and notes for a new crime caper that I’m eager to get to work on. And just before the holidays, I had some positive news on a film adaptation I wrote which I hope to share soon.

Currently, I’m working through a final draft of a story that’s set in different parts of Europe toward the end of the second world war. It’s a departure for me, a kind of anti-war novel. 

And there’s another novel I completed last year that’s been contracted with ECW Press. I won’t mention the title yet, but I can say that it’s set in the depression-era, and it’s in line for editing and should be released sometime in ’25. 

Right now, I’m looking forward to getting a glimpse of cover design ideas for the one that’s coming out this fall, also from ECW. It’s called Crooked, and it’s also set in the 30s. It’s based on Canadian-born Alvin Karpis and the notorious Barker Gang. It follows actual events and tells how Karpis joined forces with the Barkers, and how they set on a trail of bank robberies and kidnapping on their way to becoming the most hunted outlaws in America.

Details haven’t been worked out for any tours or any reading events for this year, but they’ll be posted on my website once they get finalized.

And there are plenty of conferences and festivals to look forward to this year as well. I’m not totally sure which I’ll be attending, but there have been a few favorites over the years. Bouchercon will be in Nashville this September. It’s big, well organized, always well-attended, and it’s a guaranteed good time. I’ll bet some of the Minds, past and present, will be there, and it’s always great getting together with them. Plus, it would be hard to pass up a chance to visit Music City all at the same time. 

Left Coast Crime’s in Seattle this year. It’s not as big an event, but it’s just as much fun. And for me, there’s no excuse for not attending since it’s just a short drive across the border. 

On the Canadian side, I took part in the MOTIVE festival in Toronto last June. It was a great opportunity to catch up with some Canadian author pals. And with any luck, I’ll be returning again this year. And Toronto is also home to the TIFA festival which takes place in the fall. It’s Canada’s largest and longest-running literary festival, and it’s also a great event to take in. 

And there are plenty of books to look forward to as well: A new collection of Chester Himes stories called The Essential Harlem Detectives; Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem; and for literary fiction there’s James by Percival Everett; and Knife by Salman Rushdie. And one I didn’t get to in 2023, Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz.

That’s some of what I’m looking forward to in the coming year. 

And here’s to wishing you all a great 2024. May this be your best year yet. 

New Normal

 

Terry here, answering our heavy-duty question: It’s nearly four years since our lives took that big swerve into the pandemic. Has yours gone back to the same as before? Or are there new normals? Any silver linings? 

 Here is why my life has not gone “back to the same as before:” 

 New normals: 

1) We moved to Los Angeles. 

2) Both our dogs died. 

3) I parted ways with my agent 

 4) I gained weight. 

 Silver linings 

1) We moved close to our son and we see a lot of him. 

2) I signed with a new agent. 

3) I did a lot of writing. 

4) We got a new rescue kitty. 

5) We got a new rescue dog. 

 Expanding on the above: 

 New Normals: 

 1) The move to LA was badly timed. First of all, we happened to be looking at places to live when it seemed like everybody in the world wanted to buy a house. We ended up with a place that we bought because we were sick of looking. It has plusses and minuses, but so far I haven’t been successful at really settling in. Probably the hardest part of the move for me was leaving dear friends behind. And we found in LA that people were still not “out” from Covid, so making friends has been a challenge. Luckily, I do have some pals who have stepped up, especially a new writers group that I love. 

 2) Losing both our dogs was traumatic.

I counted on them to continue to be my friends while I was navigating a new place. It was not to be. For the first time in forever we were without pets for almost a year. A very hard time. 

 3) Parting ways with my agent was bittersweet. I really liked her, but we just weren’t a good fit anymore. 

 4) As for the weight gain, I am an emotional eater and being unhappy meant eating. But it’s a New Year! And a new opportunity to reassess the weight gain and beat it into submission. 

 Silver Linings: 

 1) When we said we were moving close to our son, several people said we’d probably never see him, but that is not the case. We see him and his long-term girlfriend all the time. We have a lot of laughs.

2) Happily, I was able to sign with a new agent, Kimberley Cameron, and she’s terrific. A good partnership. 

 3) During Covid I did a good amount of writing, so in 2022 I had a book come out, another in 2023, and in 2024 there will be two out, including the debut of a new series.

Plus, I have another book out on submission (seems like forever, but it has only been a few months). 

4) Last spring my son’s girlfriend called to ask if I would foster a kitty that she had found hiding in a truck engine. She sent a photo. I said, no I won’t foster him, but I’ll take him! Max the Cat is a wonderful kitty.

5) After that we decided we needed another dog and found our funny little Monty as a rescue. He’s asleep in my room at this very moment. 

 All in all, I know I’m lucky. So many people’s lives changed in very bad ways during the Covid years and our struggles pale by comparison. 

 Now it’s a new year and anything is possible! I’m hoping for the good things.

Post-Pandemic Hangover

It’s nearly four years since our lives took that big swerve into the pandemic. Has yours gone back to the same as before? Or are there new normals? Any silver linings?

Brenda here.

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to Eric Beetner and Harini Nagendra!

We were saying this holiday season that it feels like ages ago since we were in lockdown but it truly hasn't been that long since we were confined to our homes and couldn't gather to celebrate together. I got used to staying home during the pandemic, contacting friends and family through Zoom or by phone, and generally embracing the reclusive lifestyle. I've found this a difficult habit to break.

We were fortunate to have neighbours who dropped by regularly during those years (3?), and we got in the habit of meeting outdoors, spaced apart, even during those cold Canadian winter months. We each bought a gas fire pit and my husband tarped in our back deck for protection from the snow and wind. (with appropriate spaces for air flow). We still meet most often outdoors, although the winter meet-ups have all but stopped.

My daughter in our 'covid hut' in February (gas fire pit in the foreground)

I got used to wearing a mask indoors on those rare occasions I ventured out, and lined up for every Covid vaccine available (now up to seven shots). I don't wear a mask much anymore except for medical appointments and the like. I figure if I get sick, I've got enough immunity to weather the storm.

We were fortunate at the start of the pandemic to have Zoom, and I watched a lot of webinars this way, many hosted by Sisters in Crime. I also launched a book and took part on panels via Zoom. My local crime fiction group, Capital Crime Writers, still has guest speakers using Zoom as do other organizations, and I tune in when I can. My last book launch for When Last Seen was a party at Irene's Pub, although I'm reminding myself to also make use of Zoom next time around.

As for silver linings, I wouldn't say there was much about going through a pandemic that feels like a blessing on first blush. Too many people lost their lives or lost someone close to them. Too many suffered and continue to suffer with the after-effects. The terror of those first weeks in lockdown is something I hope we never have to experience again. Yet I know that we've come out stronger with even more appreciation for the people in our lives. I for one don't take this life for granted anymore, and try to live every day to its fullest and to accept more invitations - to go outside my comfort zone. Still, it's nice some days simply to snuggle in with a good book and let the world carry on without me taking part - if anything, the pandemic has made this a more acceptable pastime!

Website: https://brendachapman.ca/

Instagram & Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

X: brendaAchapman

No Yum Yucking, by Josh Stallings

 Q: What are your most and least *favoured sub-genres of crime fiction. And, in both cases, why? Since it’s this time of year, is there anything you’re exhorting yourself to read more of?

A: I am not a fan of the entire concept of fiction genres let alone sub-genres. They stem from an outdated way to organize a bookstore. Looking around my public library we have a fiction section that encompasses all fiction. It is a land where Catriona McPherson’s comic period novels and her darker thrillers live happily beside Terry Shames small town Texas police novels and Gabriel Valjan’s hardboiled books. It is kinda like this group of criminal minds here on the blog. No, it is exactly like us. A damn fine group of writers. Each different from the others, all of whom I respect and am proud to be counted as a member.

Speaking of which WELCOME to our new criminals, Eric Beetner and Harini Nagendra. I look forward to reading more about how they do what they do.

Back to genre. As young reader, or listener to my father’s reading, I didn’t ever think Winnie the Pooh, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, or Little House on the Prairie belonged on different shelves. They were all just books Pops read and we Stallings kids loved.

As a teenager finding my own taste in books I read Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Hunter S. Thompson, Sherwood Anderson, S. E. Hinton, Chester Himes, Raymond Chandler, etc…. I didn’t need genre to discover books I loved. Discussing books with fellow readers I heard about what they liked and discovered what I did and didn’t like.

When I started writing books I admit I lost my way for a moment. I forced myself to read the crime books everyone was talking about, even when they weren’t my cuppa tea. I read sub-genre as a way to understand the conversation in the publishing community. I missed some books I would have loved by chasing this down.

I spent a large portion of my life working in movie marketing, I get why publishers want well defined boxes to shoehorn a book into. It makes life so much easier on the marketing team. “If you liked best seller X, you’ll love the debut novel by Y.” Selling books or movies on their own unique qualities is hard in a sound bite meme-o-matic driven world. 

Rant over, time to answer the question…

I just finished Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water. A book had my brother Lark not crammed down my throat I never would have read. Too much hype, NY Times bestseller, Oprah’s book club pick, AND it was 724 pages (or in dyslexic speak, it will take for-fucking-ever to get through.) It is one of my favorite reads of late. Heart felt, a multi generational tale about a time and place new to me. What is its sub-genre? Damned if I know. It linked in my brain with The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis. Multi-generational tales, is that a genre?

Oops. I thought I was done ranting….

My *favoured sub-genres of crime fiction for a long time were hardboiled. From Chandler to Crumley there are some top notch writers working in the field. It, like any other sub-genre also has its share of books that rely on tropes and negate real human behaviors. Hardboiled also can lean into over driven toxic masculinity.  

My least favoured were puzzle mysteries. “Chrystal couldn’t have done it because Hillbilly Bob was in the garden at five fourteen making out with Sideshow Clem.” I do see the elegance in good puzzles and solving them, but my brain is not wired to track time lines and such. Also I like why-done-its better than who-done-its. Simply personal taste. That said, a good novel is a good novel regardless of what shelf it sits on.

I underlined were because as a reader and a writer I am a work in progress. At this moment in my journey I am drawn to books that neither play with or against tropes. As I said earlier I want to be surprised. I love the feel of writers on a tightrope with no net in sight. There are so many wonderfully inventive writers out there working in crime fiction and horror and fantasy and… It gives me hope. 

My current WIP has me reading fiction and non-fiction from Ecuador, and down the rabbit hole I fall.        

*I am using the British spelling of favoured because it irritates my spell checker allowing me to snap back, “Not so fast smarty pants, it is spelled correctly, we’re just on the wrong side of the Atlantic.”

I am currently reading: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and The Woman in The Shaman’s Body, by Barbara Tedlock, Ph.D.) 

If we are what we read . . . I'm a work-in-progress, by Catriona

Q: What are your most and least favoured sub-genres of crime fiction. And, in both cases, why? Since it’s this time of year, is there anything you’re exhorting yourself to read more of?

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to our new Minds, Eric and Harini.

Man, I thought this would be an easy post. (I'm scrupulous in not working out which questions I'll be answering before I dream them up, avoiding self-dealing, but I was pleased to see that I'd bagged the "reading genre" option this week.) All I had to do was look at what I read last year, divide it into sub-genres, then report.

Hm.

I stand by the method. It's like the time when I got a new doctor and, at the first consultation, he said "what did you eat yesterday?" and I said, "yesterday's not a good example of my diet" and he said "yeah, it is". Similarly, if you ask people what they read they might say "Oh, you know: Proust and restoration drama. Bit of Walter Scott after supper". But if you ask them what's on their bedside table (US nightstand) you find out about the celebrity memoirs and biblio-romance. (Paul O'Grady and Jenny Colgan, if you're looking for recommendations, by the way.)

Despite that, I still expected that the hard numbers would reveal what I believed to be true about my crime-fiction reading. Which is: a lot of psychological suspense, a smattering of procedural, not much historical or cozy, no noir to speak of, ditto espionage, and zero action thrillers.

Here's the truth:

• Five psychological suspense - only five? I feel like there are years I *wrote* five
• Eleven procedurals - slightly skewed by PJ Tracy, but still.
• Nine historicals - nine!
• Seven cozies - seven!
• Three noir - really jet black, bitter noir; the stuff that makes espresso look like cherry coke. And then some noirish stuff like Jonathan Ames and Lawrence Allan. 
• Four espionage - who knew? Not me.
• And an action thriller. I think. Ruth Ware's Zero Days, is the book. Look at it. That's a thriller, right?

I also read four or five paranormal or horror-inflected crime novels last year, all brilliant. And a few YA, which I would never claim to know much about, but which I have also never read a bad example of. 

Plus whatever Secret Identity, by Alex Segura is. (Anyone?) And Bookworm by Robin Yeatman. The closest I could get to a sub-genre for Bookworm is that it's whatever Oyinkan Brathwaite's My Sister the Serial Killer was.

My take-away from this exercise in trying to pin down what I read is that it's not driven by sub-genre. Some books I read because I was moderating a panel; some because I was writing a blurb; some because Kristopher Zgorski told me to (e.g. Christopher Carlsson's terrific Blaze Me a Sun (scandi noir); some because I will read every word Stephen King writes until and unless he stops, then I will wear a black veil; some because I'm a sucker for a found family, anything set in a bookshop, or "one last job"; some because how could you not pick (e.g.) this book up:

To turn to the second bit of the question. Nope. I don't exhort myself to read more or less of anything (see above, Proust v. Paul O'Grady). But I do sometimes, because of the lavish wealth of absoutely fabulous writing in our beloved genre, forget how much I love some of the subs and sub-subs until I pick up a book that reminds me. So, in September, I binged on all three of Robin Gigl's Erin McCabe legal thrillers which refreshed my love of courtroom dramas and made me resolve to find more in 2024. Ideally, I'm looking for a fourth Erin McCabe, but maybe there's more Lincoln Lawyer since I last looked, or maybe Lisa Scottoline will revisit Mary DiNunzio . . .

It's going to be a bumper year for reading crime again, certainly.

Cx

Sub-Genres

 The world of entertainment is growing ever more stratified. TV, music, films and books all seem to have split into serving niche audiences with increasingly narrow sub-genres. Like rock music? What kind: Hard rock? Prog rock? Indie rock? Punk rock? It goes on.

In the wide-ranging genre of Crime Fiction novels we can sub-divide by Noir, cozy, police procedural, spy thrillers, domestic suspense, serial killer, historical, and many more. In thinking about my own tastes, I’ve always leaned toward stories often described as Noir and Hard-boiled. I also like straight-up thrillers and taut suspense tales.

But we’re talking sub-genres. Tiny slivers of the crime fiction pie. For that we get to perhaps my favorite little slice. While I certainly do love stories set in confined spaces like on a train or a submarine, for my favorite sub-genre I will read anything you put in front of me that starts with an ordinary person stumbling over a bag of money.

Don’t know why, but I love it. You’ve got classics like The Red Scarf from Gil Brewer, Murder Money by Jay Bennet and Too Late For Tears by Roy Huggins. Then maybe the best of the genre, A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Another contender for that ‘best of’ title is The Cold Kiss by John Rector. Then we have Good People by Marcus Sakey and more recently, Heaven’s A Lie by Wallace Stroby.

Something about this plot fascinates me. I think it is because it does what the best fiction does in that it makes me think “What would I do?” Maybe this says a lot about me and shows where my easy temptations lie, but for most readers if you can put yourself into a story as you’re reading, you are instantly hooked.

Got any that I didn’t mention? I want to read them!

I often feel like I have too narrow of a reading bandwidth. There are many sub-genres I don’t read and tend to dismiss out of hand, even if I get annoyed when other people do the same thing. I grumble when people say Noir is “too bleak” or “too dark for my taste”. I think you just haven’t read the right stories.

Then I’ll go and dismiss all serial killer novels because I think they don’t interest me. Now and then I’ll get brave and try one and find myself enthralled by a book like Unsub by Meg Gardiner and think, have I been missing out?

I’m not usually a Police Procedural guy but then I read Sweet Thing by David Swinson this year and enjoyed it quite a lot. It makes me turn to the massive 87th precinct series and wonder if maybe I’d love it.

Same with probably the most divisive genre for crime fiction fans – cozy. It’s not my thing, not by a mile. Then again, I’ve read books by friends like Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly books and find them charming and engaging. (she did sucker me by setting Danger On The Atlantic aboard a ship at sea. Confined spaces. Anyone want to psychoanalyze that one for me?) Susanna Calkins’ historical novels have snuck up on me when I didn’t think they fit into “what I read”.

Sub-genre’s are an effective tool to find the exact story you might be in the mood for, or one that, like me, you just have an inexplicable soft spot for. But we all, as readers, need to be wary of letting a narrow label warn us off a book we might end up loving. For every sub-genre I say I don’t like, I’m sure I can dig up a few examples of books I’ve enjoyed. My go-to novels will always be on the darker side of Noir Alley, but that doesn’t mean I won’t venture out from time to time to explore other avenues.

P.S. As this is my first post let say thank you to the crew for welcoming me aboard. Looking forward to many discussions with you all!