Don’t Bother Me I’m Reading from James W. Ziskin

What are the best books you’ve read lately? What’s on the stack that you’re looking forward to?

This is a great topic. It gives us all a chance to crow about someone else’s work. In no particular order, here are some books I’ve read recently. I only wish I could read more. But now I’m trying to write a new book myself, so I might have to scale back for a couple of months. I enjoyed all these books. If my comments pique your interest, you should give them a try.

The Corpse with the Granite Heart, Cathy Ace

Yet another gem from our own Cathy Ace. Featuring incomparable criminal psychologist, Cait Morgan, her eidetic memory, and her solid-as-a-rock husband, Bud Anderson, The Corpse with the Granite Heart recalls the best of Golden Age country house mysteries. Its sharp characterizations—one of Ace’s many strengths—as well as the clever, intricate plot, pave the way to a most satisfying conclusion. The artistic and gastronomical treats, the touristic jags, Shakespeare, and Cait’s brilliant powers of deduction all conspire to make this the best yet in this ever-so-smart series.

Serpent’s Doom,

Connie Di Marco

Intriguing and riveting, Connie di Marco’s latest Zodiac mystery, Serpent’s Doom, is a new year’s firecracker of an adventure. Told with heart and conscience, Serpent’s Doom features a superb cast and setting, with a plot right out of the headlines. The best yet in this highly original series.

The Girl They All Forgot, 

Martin Edwards

The Girl They All Forgot, Martin Edwards’s eighth Lake District Mystery, seethes with a foreboding of violence, even as it looks back at a long-buried cold case of murder. The Crooked Shore, accursed scene of the crime, looms ever-present with malicious intent. Magnificently creepy estate agents, stop-at-nothing gigolos, and lustful widows with bags of cash make this a tense and irresistibly gripping read. It will suck you in like the Crooked Shore’s murderous quicksand. No use struggling against it. You’ll lose. Brilliant.

Unpublished Title, Susan C. Shea

I read an early draft of our own Susan C. Shea’s work in progress. I loved it. A great tale of love and revenge. Not sure if she wants me to share the title or any more details. I’ll let her decide and post in the comments below if she wants to. At any rate, this is a book with a lot of potential. I hope she finishes her revisions soon and gets it out on submission.

A Blizzard of Polar Bears, 

Alice Henderson

A favorite author of mine, Alice Henderson writes heart-pounding, suspenseful eco-thrillers. A Blizzard of Polar Bears (after A Solitude of Wolverines) is the second in her highly original and popular Dr. Alex Carter series. Polar bears in the Arctic Circle, helicopters, and bad guys on snowmobiles. This book has it all.

Clark and Division, 

Naomi Hirahara

Clark and Division is a must read. A compelling recount of the lives of interned Japanese-Americans during World War II. This is an award-winning novel that taught me a lot that I didn’t know happened in our own country. A brave and beautiful book.

Aria for Murder, Erica Miner

Coming soon! No cover yet. A ruthless and clever killer haunts the Metropolitan Opera and the hidden recesses of Lincoln Center. Violinist Julia Kogen, a rising star in the pit, must unmask the murderer or become a victim herself. Erica Miner’s richly satisfying Aria for Murder delivers a compelling mystery, replete with devious characters, glorious music, and plenty of behind-the-scenes dirty laundry. A musical and dramatic triumph. Bis! Encore!

One Gun, Vinnie Hansen

Vinnie Hansen’s One Gun unspools a long, exquisite crescendo of foreboding and dread as clouds gather for a chilling, unexpected climax. Top-notch writing, sensitive touch, and heart-wrenching choices. Hansen is an author to watch.

Like a Sister, Kellye Garrett

Kellye Garrett’s Like a Sister drew me in immediately and held on tight for the duration. Garrett paints a complete, compelling, and riveting portrait of two estranged sisters, one of whom—Desiree, the glamorous famous one—has been found dead from a drug overdose on a Bronx playground. Regret dogs her half-sister, Lena, and drives her—relentlessly—to find out exactly what happened to Desiree. Readers will be swept along in Lena’s churning wake, unable to resist turning just one more page. Just one more page. This book is killer good. Garrett is a star in her field.

The Midnight Lock, 

Jeffery Deaver

Deaver is a master of plot and character. He leads the reader where he wants with his sleight of hand. Brilliant. I loved the detail on locks and keys in this book. It felt a little like Moby-Dick, if Moby-Dick had been about locks instead of 19th century whaling. A veritable encyclopedia. Another great addition the Lincoln Rhyme series.

The Ride-Along, 

Frank Zafiro and Colin Conway

The Ride-Along, by our dear Criminal Minds alum Frank Zafiro and my good pal Colin Conway, will challenge your assumptions, prejudices, and biases. With unflinching honesty and remarkable balance, this important novel tackles the issues of policing, politics, institutional racism, Black Lives Matter, and more, all over the course of a dramatic graveyard shift ride-along. A third-generation cop and a police-reform activist engage in a marathon point-counterpoint that seems hopeless from the start. There are no easy answers here. Yet Zafiro and Conway manage to tiptoe through the partisan minefield without taking sides or providing pat, facile solutions. The Ride-Along is a brilliant, measured achievement. An informative and provocative must-read in these contentious times.

Shadows of Men, 

Abir Mukherjee

The fifth installment in our own Abir Mukherjee’s brilliant series set in post-World War I colonial India is fabulous. Abir writes with great insight and sensitivity about the political and social landscape of Calcutta under the Raj. And the action will give your heart a workout. In Shadows of Men, Captain Sam and Sergeant Suren “Surrender-Not” are in Bombay, trying to prevent a breakout of religious strife. And Suren’s neck is on the line.

The Island, 

Adrian McKinty

Simply terrific and terrifying. I’ve been a fan of McKinty’s for years. His Troubles series is stellar. The Island provides non-stop thrills, danger, and suspense. Fantastic characters and lots of local color. This book is a hit. Don’t miss it.

And what am I looking forward to reading? More, I guess. Just more. Especially from my Criminal Minds team. Such great books.

Feeling bookish

What are the best books you’ve read lately? What’s on the stack that you’re looking forward to?

by Dietrich

Nothing like pages of inspiration. Here’s the cream of what I’ve been reading lately.

I started digging into Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire stories — top notch crime novels with a western feel on the fringes. Craig Johnson is a master of dialog, bringing characters and settings to life. I started with The Cold Dish, the first in the series, and I loved every page.

Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes is a novel set in small-town Newfoundland. Booze, drugs, sex and violence swirl around the main character, Keith Kavanaugh, as he faces the realities of life after his girlfriend leaves him. Excellent writing skills packed into this debut novel.

Start Without Me (I'll Be There in a Minute): It’s the autobiography of Family Guy writer, Gary Janetti, and it’s deep and laugh-out-loud funny from page one.

City on Fire by Don Winslow is a gritty tale of survival set in the mid-eighties on the streets of Rhode Island amidst ongoing mob violence. It’s the start of a new series told in Winslow’s wonderful style.  

White Out by Dana King. It’s always great to read an ARC written by one of my writer buddies, and Dana sure knocks this Penns River novel out of the park. High octane and highly recommended.

Irish Thunder: The Hard Life & Times of Micky Ward by Bob Halloran

It’s the true story of boxing legend Micky Ward, a great underdog story that’s well-told, heartfelt and often funny.

The Willow Wren by Philipp Schott is a touching tale of the author's father as a boy growing up and surviving the horrors of war in nazi Germany. 

The Twilight World by Werner Herzog is the true account of Hiroo Onoda and his four-man detachment of Japanese soldiers who defended a small island in the Pacific for nearly thirty years after the end of World War II. It’s an amazing story told by another master story teller. 

Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War by Bruce Henderson is another true war story. This one’s about Dieter Dengler, the only US fighter pilot to escape from a POW camp in the Laotian jungle, battling impossible odds to claw his way to freedom.

Hello Molly! is the memoir by Molly Shannon. I heard this as an audiobook narrated by the author, and it's real, bold, and very funny. 

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton is the story of a palaeontologist who makes an incredible discovery of dinosaur fossils near Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1876. He’s faced with having to protect his find against everything the Wild West can throw at him. 

Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen is a twisted and hilarious tale of a stripper pursued by a crooked congressman across south Florida.  

Some promising books on my reading stack that I’m eager to start: 

The Punishing Journey of Arthur Delaney by Bob Kroll

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke

Rogues – True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

Hero Haters by Ken MacQueen

The Ghosts of Paris by Tara Moss

To Those Who Killed Me by J.T. Siemens 

I hope I’ve given you some titles to add to your own summer reading list. Happy reading.

A Mixed Bag

 

Terry here. This week we are invited to talk about the best books we've read lately and books we're looking forward to reading.   

I’ve had an odd reading glitch lately. I usually read crime fiction. But in the last few weeks, I’ve shied away from reading it and caught up on some non-crime fiction and even some non-fiction. 

 My book club read Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I enjoyed it, although there were some problems with characters that didn’t quite come off well. Still, I would recommend it because it’s refreshing. Even more refreshing was the excellent black cake that one of the book club members made. It’s a fruitcake, with dried fruits…steeped in rum. I mean really steeped in rum. Luckily, I didn’t have far to get home.

Before that I read Liar’s Dictionary, by Eley Williams, which I have to admit was disappointing, although it was interesting. Maybe a bit too cerebral? It’s about Mountweazels. Don’t know what that is? Look it up in a dictionary. 

Currently I’m reading The Lost City of the Monkey God.

Not the first book I’ve read by Douglas Preston, and like the others a little too stuffed with extraneous information. (Like much non-fiction that I read, it would work just as well as a long article). But it’s interesting, about archeological exploration of ancient ruins in Honduras. 

 As for the best crime fiction I’ve read lately, it was hands down Faye Snowden’s A Killing Fire. Homicide Detective Raven Burns is trying to escape her criminal father’s voice in her head, and the fallout from his vicious deeds. It was particularly intriguing for me because I just finished writing a suspense novel in which the main character is plagued by her father’s voice. I can’t wait to read Faye’s next novel, A Killing Rain, which just received a rave review from Krystopher Zgorski.

I was lucky enough to bid on and win a collection of books by Julia Dahl. My latest read from the group is Conviction, about a journalist who takes on the task of investigating whether a man who pled guilty to crime years ago is actually innocent. She’s a dynamite writer. I’m going to dive into Invisible City next.

I usually try to read all the Edgar award-nominated hardcover, paperback, and debut nominees. Because of our move in April/May I haven’t gotten around to any of them (although I have bought a few of them). So that’s what is on my TBRN list (to-be-read-NOW). But with a to-be-read stack as formidable as mine, who knows what I’ll pounce on next. And speaking of pounce, here’s a kitten video for your watching enjoyment. 

My Summer Reading

What are the best books you’ve read lately? What’s on the stack that you’re looking forward to?

Brenda here.

Summer reading -- out on the deck deep into a good book, a cold drink at hand, flowers blooming and the sun beaming down -- is there anything finer in the whole wide world? I think not ...

I've been spending most of my time reading (and rereading) a most excellent books called When Last Seen by none other than ... me! It's the second in the Hunter and Tate Mysteries due out in spring 2023. I'm currently on my third edit, and once completed in a few days, it will be off to my Beta readers for their feedback. All five who critiqued book one, Blind Date, last year have cheerfully agreed to give this one a perusal. My daughter Lisa is also on board. 

So there's that.

The last not-mine, for-pure-enjoyment books I read include Deon Meyer's  Devil's Peak, the first in his Benny Griessel series. Meyer is a South African writer of some repute and he's earned the accolades. Definitely on the gritty side, the book is told from the point of view of three separate characters and all comes together at the end when their paths cross. I'm looking forward to book two in the series, which Amazon should deliver to my door any minute now...

I also read Jane Harper's The Survivors. Great writing and a story that kept my interest although I much preferred The Dry. I've read four of her books, all standalones and each one interesting in its own right. She can spin a tale.

I'm currently reading a Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. This is not crime fiction. The story is a kind of autobiography, and begins with a fetus giving her unborn take on her mother's thoughts and feelings (and the mom is not the nicest of people). There's a lot of subtle humour and some sad bits -- all in all, an entertaining and absorbing story.

I'm also reading Cold Canadian Crime, a Crime Writers of Canada anthology to mark the organization's 40th anniversary. I read a short story each evening before turning out the light to go to sleep. My story "The Final Hit" is the last in the book. Each story so far is a little jewel, completely different and well written -- by some of Canada's finest crime writers from across the country.

(You can find out more about Blind Date and Cold Canadian Crime by checking out this five-minute interview recently recorded on Daytime Ottawa)

All in all, four books that I would highly recommend!

As for the books I'm looking forward to reading, I'd like to continue with the Deon Meyer's series. I'm also keen to read Confidence, the latest Denise Mina book and Adrian McKinty's The Island as well as whatever good book comes my way or sparks my interest. Have you one to recommend?!

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

Facebook & Twitter: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Twitter: brendaAchapman

Con Survival Tips by Josh Stallings

 Q: With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

A: I went to Bouchercon XXXVI with a messy early draft of my first novel and a dream that I’d sit in the lobby and a publisher would discover me like Lana Turner in Schwab’s and sign me up. That isn’t how it happened for me or Ms. Turner. The problem with this kind of magical thinking is it gets in the way of seeing the real magic. I didn’t sell my book for a bag of gold, instead I got to know fellow writers and readers. I discovered that regardless of how brutal some of our writing can be, members of the crime fiction community are some of the most generous, funny, caring people in the world. These people are the magic.

Many years later I’ve learned a thing or two, here is my guide to surviving crime fiction cons.

Managing my expectations. 

Early on I treated cons like they were legitimate business expenses. I paid X amount for travel and registration and that would boost my sales by X+. As a small press and self published writer I poured most of the profit from my early books into going to cons. I was lucky enough to get two of my books nominated for both Lefty and Anthony Awards. 

Nominated... Lou Berney won

I took out ads in programs, gave away merch… and none of that changed my sales. There are multiple reasons for this, one is that the sample group of readers at any convention is small, from a business lens. And in my case as a writer struggling towards the mid-list, I never found myself on a panel in Ballroom A talking with best sellers to a packed house. That might move the needle, don’t know, it’s never happened. But I suspect the group even in the “big room” still isn’t large enough to push me to “sack of gold” sales numbers. 

If I go to a con expecting that damn bag of gold, I am setting myself up for a resentment. Instead I go looking for joy and encouragement. To be reminded why I write. I love hearing smart people talking about the craft of writing. It fires my engine, I always come home exhausted but with my creative battery charged up. 

Stop comparing my career to other writer’s careers.

This applies to social-media as well as cons. In sobriety I learned “don’t compare your insides to other’s outsides.” Translation, “Just because they look like they have the world by its tail, doesn’t mean they aren’t wracked with the same fears and insecurities as you.” Maybe they just hide it better or, and this is the real truth - you haven’t gotten to know them well enough to find out how they really feel. 

My mind was blown when I discovered writers I considered monsters of the craft, also suffered from imposter syndrome. Not only did they, we spent time together helping each other get over it, or at least quiet its screaming in our heads. 

By not comparing my “chart standing” against others I’m able to see we are all fighting battles to put the best words on a page that we can. We are in this together. I am not alone.

Be here now.  

Wherever I am in my career is where I am now. Early in my film editing career I won some awards, garnered the respect of my peers, made a good living, and through most of it, when I wasn’t actually editing, I was busy planning my next move, or looking backwards hoping not to make past mistakes twice. I was looking anywhere but where I was standing. The actual process of film editing and writing force me to be present. They suck me into the world I am creating and block all else out. As I type these very words, it is me and the keys flying beyond time and space. It is my happy place, okay that was too much, sometimes it’s a happy place, sometimes it hurts, sometimes it’s fucking sad, sometimes it’s ecstatic. BUT, when typing I am present to all of it. I am only here now.

When sitting in the audience for a con panel, I have to be there, fully listening if I’m going to hear what I need to hear. When I’m on a panel, I have to be fully there, listening. If I’m on the dais planning something cute or cool to say, instead of listening, my comment won’t be cute or cool, it will be annoying and again I’ll miss what I need to hear.

This also applies to the lauded con bars. This is a real opportunity to get to know some amazing folks. I don’t want to blow it by putting on the “Josh Show.” My only defense against this defense mechanism, is to truly be present. 

Be grateful. 

The strongest tool against “they stole my success” syndrome is a gratitude list.

1) Today I’m grateful I get to spend my day solving creative problems.

2) Today I’m grateful for the support and respect of writers I really admire.

3) Today I’m grateful for readers. And getting a message from someone who thanks me for telling their story. 

4) Today I’m grateful for writers. Reading is the greatest and cheapest vacation, education, and cure for alienation that I know. Thanks writers.

5) Today I’m grateful for the special ed teacher who came up to me at Left Coast Crime after a panel. She had me sign TRICKY, and said, “I wanted to write about the people I’d met but couldn’t see how until that panel.” Something I said helped her see we don’t write about a monolithic intellectually disabled person, we write about specific people.

6) Today I’m grateful for writers who said nuggets of truth that have helped me get out of my own way as I write.

7) Today I’m grateful for Erika who will be editing these messy words as soon as I finish typing. She creates a safety-net that allows me to type with wild abandon.

8) Today I’m grateful for my sons and dogs and the woods and all the creatures in my world who show me how rich life is.

I have found that I can’t hold gratitude and envy in my heart at the same time. When I start to feel envy, I know it’s time to write a gratitude list. 

As for cons in the age of COVID, it is a case by case deal. We each need to evaluate our own risk vs reward ratio. I have people I care for who are immunocompromised, we don’t have unlimited funds, air travel is both expensive and scary, all of these are part of my personal equation. All of us have complicated lists of pros and cons so I don’t judge any of my crime family for their choices. And that is the bigger point, we are a family. We take care of each other. If some can’t make it this year, I know we will save a seat for them when things change and they can come back.  

If big gatherings are still too much, look around for smaller events. See what your local chapter of Sisters In Crime, or MWA are doing. Seek out local readings. Noir Bar readings aren’t just noir, they’re a great way to hang with writers. Find branches of our collective family tree that fit where you’re at right now.

I look forward to seeing you all, when ever and where ever we meet on this collective journey.

Call me Buttercup, while I suck it up, by Catriona

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

I'm going to sprinkle this blog post with selected photos of earlier conventions and other gatherings in easier times. Starting with:

Women Kill at Mysteries, Bouchercon Long Beach

I write this in my parents' house in Scotland, where I've been since yesterday. Yayyyyy. I've been in *Scotland* for two weeks, mind you, with my husband (who has gone on to Spain for work). We stayed in a hotel until all his professional mixing was done and then, five days later, negative COVID test in hand, I checked out and landed back in the family home.

At.

Long.

Last.

And that's not all: a week past Sunday nineteen adults and ten children all got negative tests on the same day and had a family party, at which I met three under-twos I'm related to and had only seen on Zoom until that glorious day.

With Diana Chambers, at Left Coast Crime Vancouver

So I'm feeling pretty lucky right now and I'm not going to push it. I won't be at the Edinburgh Book Festival, or any of the Fringe events, or indeed at any crowded indoor venues (including restaurants) at all. I'm filling up on family and that feels like plenty.

My take on this summer is: COVID restrictions easing is one thing, COVID easing is another and - spoiler alert - it hasn't. (One in eighteen people in Scotland had COVID last weekend.)

Edinburgh Book Festival 2016

So I'm ploughing my own course. If I'm the only person in the room in a mask, so be it. If I upset someone by saying no to an invitation, I don't care. If someone I'm due to hang out with says they won't test, that frees up my day nicely. There's no way I'm bringing COVID home to my 87-yr-old parents if I can help it. (Penny Manson, from my SinC chapter would whittle me into kindling, apart from anything else. She heard my summer plans, fixed me with a glare, and said "You DON'T want to be taking no COVID to your mama." She's right.)

A To-Die-For Panel at Malice 2018

Also, I'm feeling cussed about it now. I haven't had it. I dodged it at LCC (as did we all) and at Malice (as didn't we all) and when that husband I mentioned flew to Florida for a week, then Kansas for another week. At Bouchercon, where I'm planning to be, I will be the one in the mask even if no one else is wearing one, the one not eating inside even if it's boiling hot outside, and not crammed into the bar even when all my best pals have just won Anthonys.

My SinC chapter. Penny Manson, third from left, middle row 

It does take a certain amount of  . . . what would you even call it? . . . resolve? . . . to be a COVID-avoiding outlier as huge swathes of the rest of the world throw up their hands and say "Enough!". (Hint: That's not how reality works. Not even close.) But I've been pretty lucky there too. I've had my comeback line ready for over two years:

    "Why are you wearing a face diaper?"

    "Freedom." 

But I've never had to deliver it. It helps to be tall and "not slight"! And to live in the People's Republic of California. (I was gobsmacked that it turned out to be in Edinburgh, last week, that I finally experienced someone doing persuasion and propaganda instead of information and discussion about a social event. Guess whether I attended . . .)

Left Coast Crime 2015. Where was it????

I'll be as happy as anyone else when COVID becomes a reliably treatable endemic disease instead of what it is right now. Maybe it's the fact that that same husband (now getting his third mention in a single blog post) is an epidemiologist . . . I hear echoes of him teaching his module on "epidemiological methodology" (snappy, eh?) to the students on the Global Diseases major, as he did from our livingroom in 2020. Twice. "Uh huh, uh huh," he'd say. "Do you think the data support that?" I've managed not to say it to anyone in a social setting so far, but my God I think it every day.

 

Should I stay, or should I go... by Cathy Ace

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

It’s been weird not seeing people in person. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not just me, and I know it’s not just crime writing conferences and festivals…but that’s what the question’s about so, yes, I’m going there.

In pre-Covid times, I usually attended Left Coast Crime, then Malice Domestic…then I’d head off to Wales to see my family before attending CrimeFest in Bristol, then back to Vancouver, via Toronto for the Crime Writers of Canada's AGM and the Bony Blithe day of festivities. I’ve also attended several Bouchercons, too.

Waaaaay back in 2019 at Left Coast Crime - the most recent photo I have with fellow MINDS!
(L to R): Susan, Terry, Jim, me, Brenda, Catriona

When everything was off, or happening virtually, it was easy: do everything, see everything, “be” with people online. But then some events came back in-person…and Decisions Had To Be Made.

Canada didn’t remove its travel advisory until the end of February, which meant I couldn’t leave the country because I wasn’t able to get any health coverage beyond our borders. When that became possible, then I could make plans for the months ahead…but it was already March 1^st, and my Most Important Trip was to see Mum…so I couldn’t risk the chance of picking up The Lurgy at either Left Coast Crime, nor Malice, so they were off, for me, this year.

With Alis Hawkins, GB Williams, and Jacky Collins, aka Dr. Noir,
at Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2022

The Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival planners had to make a decision about holding an in-person festival or online in January – they opted for online, which worked well for me, because I was able to be in Wales at the end of April staying with Mum, and using my sister’s home office to Zoom onto my panel. Then I was able to attend CrimeFest…my first event, in person, since I’d been at Bouchercon in Dallas in October 2019.

CrimeFest 2022 - with (R to L): Mick Finlay, Lesley Thomson, Felix Francis, Cath Staincliffe

It was absolutely terrifying, and bloody brilliant, in equal measure! By that time (mid-May) the UK had pretty much removed all restrictions, so bars and restaurants were allowed to run at full capacity, no one wore masks, and there was (dare I say this?) HUGGING!!!!

Panel with (R to L): Andrew Grant (Child), Kate Ellis, Peter Guttridge, Caro Ramsey

It was almost surreal…it was so abnormally normal that I was a bit freaked out. Anyone who knows me knows how huggy I am – but I did my best to hold myself in check to work out the comfort levels of those around me…and it all went swimmingly. Panels with wonderful fellow authors, dinner with publisher, dinner with TV production company, lovely readers to meet, seeing familiar faces and catching up. 

Chatting over dinner, thanks to our generous publisher, Joffe Books, with Simon Brett et al.

Nope, I didn’t catch Covid. Yes, I had a wonderful time. I’m sorry I missed LCC and Malice, but I had to keep healthy to be able to be with my family in Wales for my birthday early in May – and I didn’t want to miss the dinner I’d planned for May 2020 AGAIN. So we celebrated my 62^nd birthday as though it were my 60^th, and I had two wonderful weeks with my mother and sister…which are irreplaceable times.

I won’t be going to Bouchercon this year because it clashes with me having dear friends from France visit…yes, we’re hosting VISITORS (I redecorated the guest bedroom during lockdown, not knowing if it would ever be used again…now I’m so glad I did that!). 

As for 2023? Well, I think we've all learned that plans can change, so I won't say too much about that now...but, fingers crossed, there'll be more hugs to come. 

Meanwhile...please consider signing up for my newsletter: there'll be some EXCITING NEWS there (always first there!) SOON! The link is at my website: http://www.cathyace.com/

Like Moths to Flame

 Q: With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?

 

-from Susan

 

Thinking, yes. Going, no for the most part. I’m still skittish and heard about a lot of Covid from a recent convention. I did go to Left Coast Crime in Albuquerque in early April and most people had masks on most of the time when they weren’t eating or drinking. It was still early enough in the reanimated cycle of big events that people were more cautious. LCC was – as always – terrific, mostly for the chance to see and (gingerly) hug scores and scores of friends we haven’t seen in the flesh. 

 

I have so many memories of past events. Terry Shames and I, pre-published, sticking together like kindergarteners as we maneuvered through a massive Bouchercon in Baltimore, giddy at being invited to join authors at bar and restaurant tables, at taking in panel discussions with Published Writers and actually having casual conversations with them after. 

 

Leslie Budewitz, Helen Smith and I exploring the berthed Queen Mary in Long Beach at a Bouchercon. Other great places to explore: Vancouver, Santa Fe, Monterey, Toronto (where I snuck in an opera performance), St. Petersburg…

 

All of which is to say I am like most every other crime writer I know. We come out from behind our computers like moths to the flames of gatherings of our people, and it refreshes and rewards us for the long metaphoric winter of writing the next book.

 

Change of topic: I came across this great quote, excerpted from a review of her 2021 book and think it is so relevant to how we do what we do: “So this is how you write. You let the writing lead and you simply follow, letting the memories and the images and the language take over.” - Jo Ann Beard in Festival Days. 

 

To Mask, or Not to Mask. That is the question. - Stephen Mack Jones

With Covid restrictions starting to ease, many of us are thinking of conferences and festivals. What are you planning? Any fond memories of past events you’d like to share?
 

        At one point during the devastating COVID pandemic of 2020-2022 and the ensuing lockdown, fear and strictly limited human contact had gotten the best of me. More than usual I found myself slouching around the house muttering “Nature’s trying to kill us all,” or “This is our dystopian future,” or “We’re out of peanut butter. I hate peanut butter—but shouldn’t we have some—you know—just in case?” In fact, it got so desperate that, for my own sanity’s sake, I briefly rebranded the lockdown “Artist in Residence.” I pretended that I was at an exclusive writer’s colony which included all meals and snacks, a number of comfy rooms in which to slack about, and a fat leather recliner in front of a large flat-screen 4K TV of which I had my choice of streaming services. The only thing that spoiled this wondrous fantasy was the absolutely crappy service I received from the property manager, a.k.a., my wife.

        “What are you doing?” the property manager once asked.

        “I’m writing.”

        “No, you’re not,” this pesky non-artist person replied. “You’re watching some old Star Wars knock-off with the guy who played ‘John-Boy Walton’ on TV.”

        “I’m thinking about writing.”

        “Get off your butt and help me clean
the kitchen!”

        “As property manager, I’d say that’s your job.”

        And that, my friends, is how I got this little quarter-moon scar where hair used to grow on top of my head.

        During the height of the pandemic (whenever that was), I got to know the Zoom video conferencing app quite well: Library talks, book clubs, crime fiction podcasts and panels. And though video conferencing proved vastly different from sharing a drink, a laugh, an insight, buffalo wings, and simply rubbing elbows with other crime fiction writers and conference fans of the genre, the physical distancing imposed by the pandemic only underscored the fulfilling need for community and the warmth of rudimentary human contact. Zoom meet-ups began to feel like good first dates; tentative at first, then sincerely fun and temporarily quenching the thirst for fellowship. We promised each other second and third dates. We signed off, at least temporarily fulfilled, energized, hopeful.

        Regardless of what you may have heard, there’s still a pandemic out there. People are still getting sick. Hospitalized. Dying. But we’re exhausted. Enervated from isolation. Fatigued from fear. So many of us have declared the whole mishigas “over.” We still keep a mask in our pocket or hanging off an ear and we duck for cover whenever we hear someone with a raspy cough twenty yards away. But we’ve declared nature’s microscopic death-threat null-and-void.

        Fortunately, a great number of us have received COVID vaccines.

        Me? Dosed twice followed by two-boosters. No side-affects. (Though I had at least hoped to be able to shoot the occasional high-tinsel-strength spider web from my wrists by now.) Being vaccinated has given me a measure of confidence to go maskless at several recent events including the Library of Michigan’s “Night of Notables” Book Award Event (winning my second award for DEAD OF WINTER); the Richland, Michigan Public Library “Meet the Author” event; the Warren, Michigan Public Library, etc. (According to Library of Michigan author-talk surveys my appearances have often been referred to as “part engaging author talk, part stand-up comedy routine”.)

        The question is, Am I comfortable enough to wade back into the throngs of crime fiction authors and fans at conferences and festivals?

        Yes.

        No.

        Maybe.

        To begin with, I’ve become rather comfortable with my quiet, private, slacker’s life. Nothing that’s pertinent to COVID, but true, nevertheless. Also, my capacity to party has been greatly reduced over the years. Partying for me these days involves appreciating a good bourbon while listening to Herbie Hancock’s early catalog (Takin’ Off, Empyrean Isles, Maiden Voyage). And frankly, the more panels I do, the less I feel I actually know about writing and crime fiction. Both have become more ethereal, more magical and intriguingly fantastical. I am overwhelmed with wide-eyed wonder, envy and awe at the wisdom of other authors and readers.

        These days, I prefer to simply listen.

        That being said, I’m 85% willing (with a +/- 4.2% margin of error) to go to any conference/festival my publisher deems imperative I go to. On their dime, of course. (We are soon to become grandparents, so our travel dollars are heretofore committed to some godforsaken Northern California hippie-dippy-tie-dyed commune where our grandchild will likely be named “Rain” or “Topaz” or “Wolf Moon” or some such nonsense.) In fact, I might rather enjoy attending several conferences or festivals as I did the 2018 St. Petes, Florida Bouchercon Conference or the 2019 Mississippi Festival of the Book, both where laughs were plentiful, the panels fast paced and informative, embraces were freely shared, and fans were exceedingly friendly, appreciative and generous.

        And should I go, I will, of course, have my KN95 mask and a gallon jug of hand sanitizer at the ready.

        That, my friend, is how much I love you.

My Life is a Dumpster Fire

by Abir

If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go?  

Once in a while, more often than I’d like, we get a question which makes me feel guilty. The guilt stems from my rather haphazard approach to writing and to life in general, and the feeling is always exacerbated when I read the responses from my fellow writers. It’s a bit like when you see everyone else’s perfect photos on Facebook while your own life is a dumpster fire with alarm bells ringing constantly in the background.

 

I wish I was disciplined. I wish I had a set, efficient routine. I wish I could produce a decent number of words each day. I wish my plots made more sense. I wish I could pants. I wish all of these things and more. But they won't happen.

 

I can’t do any of those things. There are several wellsprings to my general inefficiency/uselessness. Some stem from my own personal character flaws. I am intensely lazy - always have been, for as long as I can remember. As a teenager, I’d leave homework to the last possible minute, often finishing it on the bus on the way to school or during break-time. As an adult, not much has changed. There’s always something more interesting to be doing than the task at hand. To paraphrase the philosopher, Yoda:

 

A writer must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was.

 

And that’s me. The writerly equivalent of galactic screw-up, Luke Skywalker. Concentration, that’s my big probl- oh look! A puppy!

 

But it’s not just my character. My life is also chaotic for other reasons. I get the feeling (not that you could tell from our profile shots on this blog) that I might be a bit younger than some of my fellow writers. I also started late – not just writing, but on life in general. As a result, I’ve got two young kids who unfortunately take after me. I also have a wife with a full time job. As I'm self employed, it means I have more flexibility and so end up doing a lot of the family stuff.

 

My mornings look like this.

 

6am – Alarm goes off.

6.01 – Switch it off – go back to sleep.

6.30 ish – crawl out of bed (on bad days I wake up screaming at 7.15 realising I’m already late)

6.45 – stumble downstairs and make coffee for the wife and me. (I always make the first coffee of the day for my wife. This then means that she has to make every other hot beverage or meal for us during the rest of the day.)

7.00 – Shout at the kids to get out of bed.

7.01 – Start making the kids’ breakfasts – (note – wife is still in bed drinking the coffee I made her)

7.10 -  Shout at the kids again to get out of bed.

7.12 – Go back upstairs and kick the kids out of bed.

7.15 – Put poorly prepared breakfasts in front of kids. Shout at them to eat it.

7.20 – Try and find clean school uniforms for the kids.

7.25 – Give up and just dig items of yesterday’s uniform out of the laundry basket.

7.30 – Shout at kids to get a move on and eat their damn breakfasts which I have lovingly prepared.

7.33 – Consider taking a shower but wife has beaten me to it.

7.35 – Bribe kids by adding chocolate spread to their toast in a last attempt to get them to eat it.

7.40 – Shout at kids to get dressed and brush their teeth.

7.41 – Shout at kids to come back and take their dishes to the sink first – “this isn’t a hotel you know” etc.

7.45 – Dig through laundry basket for second school shirt to replace one now covered in toothpaste.

7.50 – Daily hunt for kids’ shoes, school bags, water bottles, hats – "Where did you put it last night when you came home?” etc.

 8.00 -  kids are ready (one of them missing a hat and the other wearing shoes on wrong feet, but it’s good enough). Wife comes downstairs and checks e mails.

8.05 – I rush upstairs for a shower.

8.15 – Get dressed (ie throw on t shirt and shorts)

8.25 – take kids to school.

9.am – Get home and collapse.

 

I do try and start work at 9am but too often there domestic fires to fight – bills to pay, admin to do, e mails to respond to, so it’s generally about 10am before I can sit down to write. Since covid, my wife’s been mainly working from home. She says that I type, write and breathe too loudly, so I must go up two flights of stairs to the attic bedroom to write.

Even in the attic room, it takes me about half an hour to clear my head and get into writing mode. I’ll write for half an hour and then get hungry and wander down the stairs for a cup of tea and some toast sometimes with jam, sometimes with Marmite (that’s a British thing – it’s basically brown and sticky and doesn’t taste remotely like anything else in the universe. People love it or hate it. I love it).

Anyway – I get back to my desk and start writing again, but then soon it’s lunchtime, and then at 3pm the kids come back and all hell breaks loose. So my writing is curtailed.

 

On a good day, I’ll get a thousand words done by lunch time. On a normal day, I’ll struggle to produce 500 words by the time the kids get back. This used to upset me, but I’ve there are other writers whose work I admire who produce 500 words a day. The difference is, their words are good.

 

So, long story short, what would I like to change about my writing habits?

 

Everything and nothing.

 

I won’t change. I can’t change. This is as good as it gets.