Books I May Not Write

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

Terry Shames

Never say never! I’ve had three short stories published in the past couple of years after saying I would never write short stories, so take the following with a grain of salt:

                                                               

I don’t think I’d enjoy writing straight romance, but I do like to throw in a bit of romance for spice. When I was deciding what I wanted to write, I sampled a few romance novels and I read some truly dreadful books (it just wasn’t my taste) but I also read some that grabbed me right away and kept me interested to the end. The difference? Character.

                                           

I love to read and would love to write science fiction, but I simply don’t have the imagination for it. Again, I’ve read some truly awful sci-fi, even famous books that I thought fell flat. But I’ve read some great ones as well. You might think the “science” part of sci-fi was the important part—and sometimes it carries me along. But again, what can make humdrum idea come alive is interesting characters.

I didn’t think I’d ever be interested in writing “women’s fiction,” until I read Lianne Moriarity. She owns that genre, but she dips into mystery at the edges of her books. And I totally get involved in her characters. Kate Atkinson’s first books were “mainstream” fiction with a mystery at the heart of them until she went full-bore mystery with the great character to Brodiie.

Are you getting the theme here? It’s all about character, whatever we write.

There has recently been an uptick in huffiness about the dismissal of genre fiction as being “lesser” somehow. For that reason, I prefer the term “mainstream” rather than “literary” for non-genre work. I wrote some “literary” short stories in my early days—brooding, atmospheric fiction that I thought might be what I ended up writing. But it seemed that every time I sat down to write a novel, it became a “mystery.” So I suppose that although I might think about writing a mainstream novel, I’m not sure how successful I would be.

                                               

But in the mystery corner, I think I could write almost anything—historical, super-cozy, traditional, noir, thriller, you name it. I could do it as long as I had a feeling for the characters. Sometimes people ask if I could set my novels anymore other than Texas. Although I know my small-town Texas setting well, and that makes it easier to find my footing when I start a novel, I think I could set them most anywhere. It’s the characters I really need, though.

There are subjects I shy away from. I’m not much interested in crazy villains. I want someone with an understandable purpose, someone who took a wrong turn out of volition, not out of an inability to make another choice. I am not fond of books about war, although I’m reading The Winter Soldier right now. It doesn’t appeal to me to do the research I’d have to do to write about men or women in combat.

                                           

I’d probably never tackle a children’s book. Writing for children seems very daunting. Children know so much viscerally and yet are so innocent of customs. I admire anyone who can tackle that successfully. That said, I have a half-written young adult novel that I’d love to complete at some point. Young people can be so fierce, and I love the idea of running with that—with its pitfalls and its tenderness.

                                                     

Finally, I would be very wary of writing a novel in which I appropriated the experience of those whose cultural background I don’t share, even though I think imagination can lead writers to inhabit such characters. The first novel I was aware of that made people of color bristle about appropriation was William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, which won the Pultizer Prize. I thought it was a brilliant novel until I read some of the criticism from black readers. Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin defended the novel, but others criticized it, especially for his portrayal of some slaveowners as being “saintly.” When I thought about the novel, I had to really weigh those factors. I have always admired Styron’s work, and it was tough to realize that the critics had a point about appropriation of the black experience. How far down the road do we have to go, though, to say no to a writer who wrote with such imagination about not only people of color but of women? Is Sophie’s Choice an appropriation of a Jewish female? In Lie Down in Darkness, he writes a tour de force depiction of a young woman’s descent into madness. Is that an appropriation? If Styron had not tackled these subjects, readers would be the poorer. Because of the fear of appropriation, I would think long and hard before I went that route in a novel. Still, it doesn’t’ keep me from writing black characters in my books—to ignore them in my small Texas town would be a different kind of insult.  

To sum up, I’m not ruling anything out, but some books would be a greater stretch than others.

What I Won't or Can't Write

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

- from Susan

1.    A historical with battlefield scenes.

2.     A bodice-ripper.

3.     A Western.

4.     A story with torture scenes.

5.     Science fiction.

6.     The Great American Novel.

7.     A Jane Austin novel.

Some because I’m never going to be good enough, some because I’m never going to be brave enough, some because I don’t read that kind of fiction. 

The shelves of bookstores are full of books I couldn’t or wouldn’t write. But I am glad other authors have because I know we don’t all have the same tastes and there’s room for every writer and every reader in this glorious world of books.

 What I have written are two series different from each other. A savvy San Francisco divorcee with a wicked sense of humor and a passion for art. 

A flighty American artist with a talent for getting in way over her head in a small French town. 

Fingers crossed there’s another in the making. There’s always something I DO want to write!

Measure Twice, Cut Once

From Jim

Because I’ve been struggling to finish my latest project, I’ve decided to go off script this week and talk about outlining.

I’m trying to finish off book 7 in my Ellie Stone series. TURN TO STONE is due out June 4, 2019, and it has turned into a nightmare of false starts, redos, and takeovers. And why is that? Because for the first time in my professional writing career, I began working on a novel without an outline or a clear plan. Okay, I confess, I’ve also been busy moving from Seattle to Boston and writing several short stories. But the outline is a big part of my struggle to finish.

Now we all know the writing world is divided into two camps: the plotters and the pantsers, those who plan out their books before they write them and those who fly by the seat of their pants. I have always been a planner. At least I have always known the ending of my books and a lot of the plot turns before I start. Of course new ideas come as I write, and I am happy to make changes to the story to accommodate them. Nothing is WRITTEN IN STONE, after all. I find that having a plan reduces the time spent staring off into space, trying to find a new direction to take the story, when a new day of writing begins. It also eliminates a lot of the tearing down, reworking, and correcting made necessary when you improvise.

Ever heard the old carpenter’s saw, “Measure twice, cut once”? (See how I used “saw” there?) I don’t like to paint myself into a corner.

I often hear proponents of the pantser method say that it gives them the freedom to be more creative than when they are tied down to an outline. Some have likened the pantser method to driving a car in the dark with only the throw of the headlights as a plan. I assume plotters would rather use Waze and Google Maps.

I won’t say which method is better, but I’ll give an analogy to support my way.

Imagine Tom Brady and the New England Patriots huddling up before the snap.

Number 12 looks his charges in the eye and tells them, “Okay, fellas, we’re gonna wing it.” They break the huddle and rumble up to the line of scrimmage, ready for action. Yes, they might pull off a brilliant, creative play, but chances are, they’ll just be spinning around in circles like the players in those old electric football games. By the way, I’m pretty sure Coach Belichick is a plotter.

\

Everyone works differently. I would never suggest we all do it the same way. There are advantages to both styles, and, depending on the way you like to work, one or the other will be right for you.

Plotters. Pro: Less work at the end. Con: More work up front.

Pantsers. Pro: No work up front. Con: More work at the end.

Now back to fixing the book that I should have outlined...

How about you? Which are you, a plotter or a pantser?

Living between the pages

Of all the books you have read over the years, crime novel or otherwise, which book or books created a world and characters that you would like to live yourself? Which character would you want to be?

by Dietrich

I remember the books I loved as a kid, and the images created by Mark Twain, Jack London, Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling and other great writers remain in my head. I can still picture myself along the banks of the great grey green greasy Limpopo River, scenes I imagined of Victorian England, and I can still hear Aunt Polly dealing with Tom spinning one his wild tales.

There are so many great authors that kept me reading throughout the years. What kid didn’t want to go along on an adventure with Frank and Joe Hardy? Those early mysteries giving way to the thrillers and spy novels of Ian Fleming, Ken Follett and John Le Carré and so on. And later on the crime novels of Robert B. Parker, Richard Stark, James Ellroy and Ed McBain.

I still read a lot of crime fiction, and there are so many more worthy novels than there is time to get to them all. Plus I often reread old favorites by George V. Higgins, Charles Willeford and Elmore Leonards. Away from the crime genre, I’ve also been rereading some Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. I love those books set around Monterey and the Big Sur area, one of my favorite places to be.

I can’t think of a character I’d really want to be in the kind of crime novels that I usually read. They’re often marginals with plenty of baggage with  trouble coming at them from all directions, but they sure are interesting to follow. I really enjoyed the Boone Daniels character created by Don Winslow for his novels The Dawn Patrol and The Gentleman’s Hour. And there’s James Crumley’s main character C.W. Sughrue, ex-army turned private eye, who shows up in The Last Good Kiss, The Mexican Tree Duck, Bordersnakes and The Right Madness. Also Raylan Givens who first appeared in Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole,” and came back in the novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and later still was portrayed by Timothy Olyphant in the FX series Justified. 

Maybe I wouldn’t dream of being one of these characters, but one thing they all have in common is they’re all entertaining. They’re flawed, they drink too much, get in bad relationships, and most of them ride that fine line between law and order which adds to the fun and to the unpredictability of the stories in which they live.

With Terry, Susan and John Lansing at Copperfield's Books,
Santa Rosa, CA, October 17th.
Photo: Leo Baquero

At a couple of recent book events in California, along with a host of other author friends, I had the good fortune to get together with fellow Criminal Minds authors Catriona, Terry and Susan, and I loved hearing them talk about and read from their latest novels, adding some great new books to my own reading list. I’ve got to find out what happens next in Catriona’s new one Go to my Grave, and I want to get to know Susan’s character Katherine Goff, solving mysteries in the French countryside, and Terry’s Samuel Craddock in the fictional town of Jarrett Creek, Texas.

With Catriona, Kelli Stanley and Mark Coggins at Octopus Literary Lounge,
Oakland, CA, October 19th.
Photo: Andrea Kalteis

Entering a Fictional World - by Brenda Chapman

Of all the books you have read over the years, crime novel or otherwise, which book or books created a world and characters that you would like to live yourself? Which character would you want to be?

The first character who comes to mind is Sue Grafton’s ground-breaking Kinsey Millhone. Kinsey lives in a somewhat simpler time — the sixties to eighties approximately — in the fictional town of Santa Teresa, California before climate change, cellphones and the Internet. She has an apartment above a converted garage and works as a self-employed Private Investigator.

The best thing about Kinsey’s life, apart from her ability to solve interesting cases, is the simplicity of her existence. She has no interest in clothes and travels with a simple black dress in her car that she wears whenever the occasion arises. She’s been married twice, but as she puts it: More often than not, I rejoiced in my freedom, my mobility and my solitude.

Kinsey is particularly attached to her landlord Henry, a man in his eighties who loves to bake, and he and his elderly siblings become her family. She has the odd lover, but in the main is independent and fearless. She has a wise-cracking, fine sense of humour and a dogged intelligence.

Kinsey is in her thirties, an age I wouldn’t say no to reliving and she ages much slower than the rest of us through the series, which famously takes titles from each letter of the alphabet. She’s made a niche for herself in a primarily male domain, much like her creator Sue Grafton.

Grafton worked as a hospital admissions clerk, a cashier, and a medical secretary and wrote in her spare time. Her father wrote detective novels at night and taught her lessons on the writing and editing process and groomed her to be a writer. She completed her first book at age twenty-two and subsequently wrote six more novels with only two finding a publisher. She made a career change into screenwriting where she had more success and learned the basics of structuring a story, writing dialogue, and creating action sequences. Only then, did she return to writing novels and Kinsey Millhone was born.

I met Sue Grafton — a chance meeting at Left Coast Crime in Monterey California in 2014. We crossed paths in an empty hallway as I was making my way to be on a panel and she was about to be interviewed on stage. She asked if I knew how to silence her phone and we put our heads together trying to figure it out. I only had a work Blackberry at the time and had no experience with other brands. In the end, I was no help, but I remember how gracious and friendly she was even in such a short meeting. I later sat in the audience listening to her being interviewed. She spoke of the struggle making it in the writing industry in the early days. Her warmth and sense of humour were evident and she put both qualities into her writing and into Kinsey Millhone.

Sadly, Sue Grafton died in December 2017 before completing the final letter of the alphabet, but her books will live on for future generations of crime fiction fans. I feel fortunate to have listened to her speak about her life and her writing and to have read almost every book in her series. She was one of truly gifted writers and a role model for women in the industry.

Kinsey Millhone wasn’t the first female private eye in crime fiction, but her endearing eccentricity and resourceful smarts have made her the paradigm for a generation of others. -Seattle Times

The Great American Book Ban

by Paul D. Marks

PBS’s Great American Read recently announced Americans’ favorite book. It’s To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We all know the basics of the story. Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Atticus’s children, Scout and Jem, are taunted by other children for their “N-loving” father. It’s more complex than that, but that’s at least part of the story in a nutshell.

Around the same time that To Kill A Mockingbird was named America’s favorite book, “A 17-year-old Shorewood boy has been arrested for making threats on social media relating to the controversial ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ play, the Shorewood Police Department said Wednesday,” said the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. ( https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/northshore/news/shorewood/2018/10/17/shorewood-play-cancelled-again/1668869002/ )

According to WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee, “The show had been canceled last week after groups threatened to protest over the use of the N-word in the play.”

According to the American Library Association, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most “challenged” books. Here’s an excerpt from the ALA’s page:

To Kill a Mockingbird Challenged in Eden Valley, MN (1977) and temporarily banned due to words "damn" and "whore lady" used in the novel.

Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980)  as a "filthy, trashy novel."

Challenged at the Warren, IN Township schools (1981) because  the book does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents  institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature." After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee's novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory  council.

Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the  word "n____."

Challenged in the Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985). Challenged at  the Park Hill, MO Junior High School (1985) because the novel "contains profanity and  racial slurs." Retained on a supplemental eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, AZ  Elementary School District (1985), despite the protests by black parents and the National  Association for the Advancement of Colored People who charged the book was unfit for junior high use.

Challenged at the Santa Cruz, CA Schools (1995) because of its racial themes.  Removed from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, LA (1995) because the book's language and content were objectionable.

Challenged at the Moss Point, MS School District (1996) because the novel contains a racial epithet. Banned from the Lindale, TX advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book "conflicted with the values of the community."

Challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) School Board member because of profanity. The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, OK High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text.

Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High School's sophomore literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans.

Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, NC (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word "n_____." 

Challenged at the Brentwood, TN Middle School (2006) because the book contains “profanity” and “contains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest.”  The complainants also contend that the book’s use of racial slurs promotes “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.” 

Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, NJ Board of Education (2007).  A resident had objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression.  The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it. 

Removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the word “n_____."

So, how is it that the #1 book on the Great American Reads list is also one of the most banned books in the country, and for a variety of reasons?

Isn’t the point of the book to work against racism? How can we do that if we hide the harsh reality from people, including children, though maybe extremely young children shouldn’t read it. Sometimes we have to talk about unpleasant things and use unpleasant words to make certain points. In both my Shamus Award-winning novel White Heat and its sequel, Broken Windows, that just came out a few weeks ago, I deal with very sensitive issues – racism and immigration respectively – in the context of mystery-thrillers. I use the N word. I debated a long time about that and was very concerned, but ultimately thought it was what the story required. I did, however, put a warning at the head of the stories to caution readers and ask them to consider the use of that word and other things in the context of the characters, the time and the situations. Today we’d call them “trigger warnings”.

And Mockingbird isn’t the only book on the Great American Read’s list to have faced bans and challenges.

I did a post a while back on SleuthSayers, the other blog I write for about free speech, along with Elaine Ash (Anonymous 9) and Jonathan Brown. If you want to check it out you can find it here: 
https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2018/05/are-sensitivity-police-coming-to-get-you.html . But the bottom line is I’m a free speech absolutist. I may not agree with what you say but I’ll fight for your right to say it. And I think as writers, and as readers and citizens, we should all be concerned about any constraints against freedom of speech. So, let the play go on, let people read the book. And the other books that have been banned.

What do you think?

***

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:

Here’s a small sampling of excerpts from reviews for Broken Windows:

Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine:

"Broken Windows is extraordinary."


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!"

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Halloween Round Up

There's a yearly tradition round our way: on the afternoon of Halloween when the businesses of downtown Davis hand out sweeties to trick-or-treaters, my mother and I (and sometimes my father too) sit outside the coffee shop and silently judge admire the costumes.



Here's what I now know:

• Elsa is over. Last year, Frozen was hot. This year we only saw one little pale-blue princess. (But there's still nothing more adorable than a tiny bedraggled princess with sugar all round her mouth.) 
• Unicorns are in: fluffy or otherwise. 
• Notorious RBG is this year's Bernie Sanders. (What can I tell you? It's California.)
• Everyone agrees Trump is no laughing matter. Good.

Also, I've got a new hot tip for a Halloween costume for a tiny baby. Put it in a plant pot in a brown romper with palm fronds stuck to its head. Cute and easy to carry!

And of course we were judging, Ranking, even. My second favourite costumes of all (adult division) are the superhero ones in XXXXL sizes. I love to see what Precious Ramotswe calls "a lady of traditional build" decked out as Wonderwoman or Elastogirl and looking extra-fabulous. Take that, body fascists.

But my absolute favourite costumes of all are the "is he or isn't he" ones. This being the People's Republic of Davis, there are a few . . . how can I put it . . . differently normal folk around every day of the year. I love it when someone walks along the street on Halloween and everyone catches everyone else's eye and wonders "Halloween costume? Or just Davis?"

This year we shared the coffeeshop sidewalk area with a woman who might have been dressed up as The Spirit of California or might just have been living her best life. Then there were the two sharply-suited guys in sunglasses, talking on their phones who strode purposefully by. Men In Black? Or just men. In black. We'll never know.


Happy All Souls Day, everyone. And let the pumpkins roll.