We’ll Always Have Albany from James W. Ziskin

 Give us some of your funniest and most memorable stories from traveling to book festivals

This week’s topic takes me back to my very first writers conference. It was September 2013, and I was attending Bouchercon in Albany, NY. My debut novel, Styx & Stone, was set to be released three weeks later, and I knew nobody, except fellow author Lynne Raimondo. Our editor, Dan Mayer, had introduced us via e-mail, and Lynne provided me with my first blurb. She and I met for dinner in a restaurant not too far from the Empire State Plaza,  and we became great friends. We’ve remained close ever since.

Many people in the mystery and crime writing community recall Albany with disdain. But not me. I loved it. Maybe because I grew up about thirty miles from there. The setting was familiar and a bit nostalgic. I remembered class field trips to the brand-new museum at the Empire State Plaza when I was a kid. If I’m honest, I must admit that the place hadn’t changed since the late sixties when I’d first visited. Nothing had been updated.

The Empire State Plaza was the brainchild of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He was reportedly moved to action after Princess Beatrix, the future queen of the Netherlands, visited Albany in 1959. The governor was embarrassed by the squalor of the state capital. The project to transform downtown Albany took more than ten years to complete, and included razing about a hundred acres of Albany’s South End to make room for the Empire State Plaza and the Egg. (If anyone is interested, I included a brief tour of the South End neighborhood in A Stone’s Throw, my sixth Ellie Stone mystery. The year is 1962.)

At Bouchercon 2013, most complaints from the attendees had to do with the lack of a centralized location. There was no hotel large enough in the area to accommodate the throngs of writers and readers, so people were scattered. The venue itself left something to be desired. The panels were held in windowless rooms below street level, deep inside the Empire State Plaza. It felt as if we were in a bunker. And since the bulk of the conference took place on the weekend, when the usual state workers were off, there were few options for food at the site.

But by far the loudest grumbling from the attendees was that there was no convenient bar where the faithful could gather to socialize. As anyone who’s ever attended Bouchercon—or other writers conferences, for that matter—knows, the bar is the place to meet, even if you don’t drink. So it’s natural that people came away from Albany feeling somewhat deprived of the social side of the event.

I happened to have been staying with relatives about twenty minutes away, so, for once, I was not parking myself in the bar, since I was driving back and forth to the conference. As I mentioned above, I knew no one anyway. So I wasn’t complaining. I was having an amazing time. It reminded me of my first few days as a freshman in college. I was uninitiated and naive, but loving every minute.

I may not have known anyone when I arrived, but I did by the time I left Albany. Wonderful people. The very first writer I met was Barry Lancet. We hit it off immediately, perhaps because we were newbies. I also met Sara J. Henry and Michael Sears the first day. And my dear, dear friend and fellow 7 Criminal Mind, Cathy Ace.

With Cathy Ace at Monterey

My editor at Seventh Street Books, Dan Mayer, made sure that his authors all got to know each other at Albany. That’s when I first met my fellow 7 Criminal Mind Terry Shames. She’s one of my favorite writers, and we’re fast friends to this day. We all had a great lunch together (if you don’t count Mark Pryor’s presence...) Just kidding. He’s a great guy and a fabulous writer.

L-R Lynne Raimondo, Mark Pryor, me, and Terry Shames in Albany

My editor, Dan Mayer, also introduced me to Louise Penny in Albany. She was with her dear husband, Michael, who has since passed away. Louise was so gracious, and when I saw her again at Bouchercon Toronto in 2017, she said she remembered meeting me in Albany. I was thrilled. Here I am with Louise and the oh-so-talented Art Taylor in Toronto. We were celebrating our Macavity Award wins.

L-R, me, Louise Penny, and Art Taylor, Bouchercon Toronto 2017

I may not have funny stories from my first writers conference, but I can say that it was a life-changing experience for me. I found so much inspiration and so many new friends. Since 2013, I’ve become a regular at the major conferences. I look forward to the day when we can all meet again in person.

Hitting the road

Give us some of your funniest and most memorable stories from traveling to book festivals.

by Dietrich

I walked into a bank yesterday, wearing a hat, dark glasses and a mask, with a withdrawal slip in my hand. It felt like I was in a scene from one of my own stories. A year ago walking in like that might have had a different outcome.

After months of masks, lockdowns, and elbow bumps, I think even a bad trip would be a good one. Next time I get a chance to travel, the getting there will likely feel as good as the being there.

Traveling to book festivals — it’s where I met most of the criminal minds here, all but Abir. And with a little luck, we’ll run into each other at a festival down the road. I first met Cathy, along with alumnus Robin Spano at the first Bouchercon I attended. And I met Paul, Catriona and former mind Danny Gardner at the next couple of Bouchercons. I first met Brenda at Ottawa’s Prose in the Park, Susan and Terry at a reading event at Copperfield’s in Santa Rosa, then again at Left Coast Crime here in Vancouver, where I also met Frank and Jim.

After I signed my first novel, my publisher, Jack David, arranged a road trip from Toronto down to that Bouchercon in Albany. I mentioned to him that John McFetridge was one of my favorite Canadian authors, also signed to ECW. So, Jack arranged for the two of us to take a road trip from Toronto through New York state. The day before John and I left I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning, something to do with expired anchovies on a pizza. I almost tapped out, but I was determined to go, and I’m sure glad I did.

ECW crowd at Bouchercon, Raleigh, NC — L to R: John Jantunen, me,
John McFetridge, Jack David, David Whellams, Anne Emery, and Bob Kroll

I ended up on another road trip with John — to another Bouchercon — this time heading to Raleigh, North Carolina. Behind the wheel of the extended van was our fearless leader, publisher Jack, whose only fear was all we would talk about on the twelve-hour drive was how to increase book sales. Also on the trip were John Jantunen and Sam Wiebe. We started out early one morning and arrived in the wee hours of the following one, a lot more than the estimated twelve hours. But, once we got there, a good time was had by all.

There have been many memorable festivals and they’ve all been great fun, and I’ve met many interesting writers as well as many avid readers.

My first reading event was at a pub in Toronto, and I practiced a chapter on the long flight, until I could read it smoothly. It was a violent scene with a lot of foul-mouthed dialogue, and just as I got on the small stage, I noticed a woman with a couple of very young children in the front row. After wondering who brings little kids to a crime-fiction event, I read the scene, taking out all the f-words and downplaying the violence, and my scene sounded flat and lifeless.  

Another time, I was invited to read at a festival back east, and I chose a funny, but steamy scene from a novel I had just finished. As I stepped to the mic, I realized there were a lot of people my grandmother’s age in the crowd, and a steamy scene might not be the best choice. But, this time, I was committed and I read it word for word — and it turned out they loved it, and I ended up signing a lot of copies. 

Over the past few years, I’ve traveled to various events in California, often by rail. And I’ve picked up some interesting bits that I’ve used in my stories, like the time the train stopped for a smoke break, and I watched out the window as two guys stepped away from the other smokers, one guy pulling out a small pipe, the other getting the rock ready, The one with the pipe thought it was a good idea to slip a nylon jacket over both their heads while the second guy flicked his lighter — what could possibly go wrong. And there was the time a big drunk fellow got on the train during a late night stop. He got in the wrong seat, and despite the coaxing of the offended passengers and the conductors, he refused to take his assigned seat, saying there was no force on Earth that could make him do it. As we pulled into the next stop, two members of the local police force got on the train, I got out my notepad and started writing the scene.  

Writing conferences and festivals are the social highlight for most writers, and it’s great getting together, seeing some old friends and making some new ones, along with the many readers who attend. And I’m sure looking forward to that happening again — and doing it without keeping a safe distance, the masks and elbow bumps.    

And Then There's the One About

Terry Shames here, talking about some of my most memorable stories from traveling to book festivals, conferences, and conventions. I have many wonderful memories from book events, but I only remember one about the actual travel. I was in the Phoenix Airport on the way to the Tucson Book Festival, going through the TSA line and a TSA agent looked at me, her eyes widened and she said, “You’re Terry Shames! I love your books.” And she threw her arms around me (no, not to cart me off to jail.) I can honestly say I’m the only person I know who was ever hugged with joy by a TSA person. Bouchercon is the biggest writer/fan convention in the mystery world. My first, ever Bouchercon was in 1986, in Baltimore. I was persuaded to go with two author friends, who told me that it would be a bang-up weekend. It’s still right up there with one of the most amazing conferences of my life, for three reasons: One, I was just dipping my toe into writing a mystery and every writer I met was incredibly encouraging and kind. They gave me agent advice, writing advice, and talked to me as if I was “one of them.” I now know that this is the way mystery authors are, but at the time I was stunned and gratified.

Two, I knew very few people, and one night they were all off at parties with their publishers. I went into a restaurant alone and as I was looking around, someone waved to me and said, “You’re here with Bouchercon, right?” I said yes I was, and Mary Higgins Clark said, “Come join us.” And had the waiter pull up a chair next to her. I was dazzled at the time, and I still am. Three, my writer friends were off to join some kind of splinter group that was having a first meeting to see if there was any interest in a group that would support women in the mystery field. They wanted to know if I cared to come along. Sure. A few years ago I had the great pleasure of being the president of our local chapter of this little splinter group—Sisters in Crime. I will never forget seeing Sara Paretsky standing at the front of the room delivering her passionate message.

Here's Sarah with some of the Sisters in Crime National Presidents at one of the Bouchercons. In short, I knew I had found my tribe. The fact that it took many more years to get published seems irrelevant now. Of all the other wonderful experiences through the years, sitting at Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach waiting to hear the name of the winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel was a standout. Hearing my name called, and having Charlaine Harris, who was sitting a few chairs down, and whom I did not know at all, coming charging over to throw her arms around me to congratulate me, and William Kent Kruger on the other side with a beaming high five. And seeing dear Janet Rudolph’s grin light up the podium when she handed me the award. Of course that sticks with me!

So many of the events blur in my memory, but the blur is positive. I love going to panels and hearing the wit and wisdom of writers/agents/publishers I admire.

I love hanging out at the bar to get the latest gossip. I love having a chance to catch up with writers I see only once or twice a year.

There are really too many to recount, but I’ll close by giving kudos to Capitol Crimes of Sacramento for their outstanding Bouchercon this year. The team had worked incredibly hard for two years to make Bouchercon a wonderful conference. When Covid forced them go on-line, instead of whining and moping through a skeleton of the convention, the team made it into an entirely new and inspiring event. Many people were dazzled by their amazing innovation in handing out the Anthony Awards. It was truly almost as good as being there in person.

The Bouchercon Initiation

On the Road Again – Give us some of your funniest and most memorable stories from travelling to book festivals. 

Hi everyone. It's Brenda Chapman starting off the week.

I've had some great times over the years at book conferences in different cities in Canada and the U.S. but one that stands out was my first Bouchercon in Baltimore, October 2008. At the time, I had a series of four middle grade mysteries published and managed to secure a spot on a panel. I was fortunate to have my good friend Katherine Hobbs agree to come along to keep me company. We signed up before I realized exactly what weekend I'd be away from home (more about this later).

As anyone who goes to these book conferences knows, Bouchercon is one of the biggest book events going, drawing over a thousand readers and authors from around the world. Everyone converges for four days of panels, interviews and schmoozing in the chosen host city. I was new to the entire book business and nervous about the self-promotion so having Katherine along was huge moral support. It's easy enough to get overwhelmed.

Anyhow, Katherine and I landed in Baltimore and arrived at the conference hotel early afternoon. We decided to go exploring. We wandered onto a street with some dubious looking bars that we'd just walked past when a brawl started in the middle of the street behind us. Lots of yelling and fists a-flying. While Katherine thought it would be interesting to stay and watch, I convinced her it might be prudent to get the hell out of there since American gun laws are quite different than in Canada. Laura Lippman, a Baltimore native, later told the audience when she was on a panel to be very careful where we walked because some of the neighbourhoods weren't safe. In case we weren't already convinced, the police and ambulance sirens that raced by all night every night, lent support to her warning.

This was also the period leading up to the November election and we were stopped on the street when someone mistook Katherine for Sarah Palin. (Well you can see Canada from Alaska on a good day.)

Katherine waiting for a panel to start

This particular Bouchercon had attracted some mighty big names in the crime-writing business, including many from Great Britain, the U.S. and Canada. I've since read many of these authors' books, but at the time, I wasn't familiar with many of them. Think Harlan Coben, John Connolly, Mark Billingham, Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, Lawrence Block, Laura Lippman ... I credit Bouchercon for many happy hours later spent reading their books. Anyhow, we realized early on that these A-team authors were terrific on panels and started organizing our schedules to be in the audience for as many as we could take in. Katherine also thought it would be great to have our photos taken with as many of them as possible and seeking them out became something of a game.

Harlan Coben won't be recruiting me for his basketball team anytime soon.

Katherine had me back up to pretend to be part of the conversation - with John Harvey and Rick Mofina.

Posing with J.A. Konrath

One funny panel story - Mo Hader recounted how she became interested in crime. When she was a kid she looked out the upstairs window and saw a tent that her neighbour put up in his backyard. She and her brother thought it would be great to have a tent in their backyard too so that they could camp out. They learned later that her neighbour had killed his wife, buried her  in the yard, and erected a tent so no one would notice the grave. Definitely one of life's defining moments for anybody.

On the last day of the conference, Katherine had some exciting news. "The authors are hanging out in the smoking area outside!" she said as if she'd stumbled upon the promised land. Neither of us smoked but we made our way to the smoking area and happened upon Lee Child standing all by himself. He was very friendly and approachable and we had a nice chat, even though I had no idea who Jack Reacher was. I recall watching John Connolly surrounded by female fans and walking past Val McDermid (I knew who she was!) on her way inside.

Mark Billingham and John Connelly waiting for their interview.

Anyhow, this is the conference that I remember with the most delight. While I've painted Baltimore in something of a bad light, I also remember having a couple of wonderful meals at the downtown restaurants and loving the waterfront and the local people we met. There was also a contingent of Ottawa authors with whom to hang around.

Back to my opening comment about the timing of the conference, my husband likes to tell people that I spent our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in a Baltimore hotel with another woman. This always earns him a big laugh. As a result, I learned to check the calendar before booking future conferences :-)

One other not quite so funny bit about this conference was that I was fighting off a cold the entire time and managed to stave it off until the taxi ride back to the plane. I spent the entire next week sick in bed but with some happy memories of a really great time.

Made new friends in the airport on the way home. Ted still wears the Obama t-shirt I bought him as a belated anniversary present :-) 

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

Twitter: brendaAchapman

Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

Guest post: Announcing a new international crime fiction festival for Wales...and the WORLD!

Alis Hawkins here, co-Chair of Crime Cymru. I'm happy to have been invited to write this guest post today by Paul D. Marks (via Cathy Ace, our "inside agent").

Until now, there has been no established crime fiction festival in Wales. But, if you’re keyed in to UK-based crime fiction social media, you’ll know that’s about to change. In spring 2022 – when, hopefully, we’ll all have learned how to live with the Coronavirus – Welsh crime writers’ collective, Crime Cymru, is launching the country’s first international crime fiction festival Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival.

The just-revealed logo for our festival, the winner of a competition run throughout schools in the Aberystwyth area. This winning design was created by the talented Glain Jones - she's a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig. 

The inaugural three-day festival will take place from April 30^th to May 2^nd 2022 in the lovely West Wales coastal resort and university town of Aberystwyth.

Picturesque Aberystwyth, setting for the new festival

In case you aren’t familiar with Crime Cymru, the collective was founded in 2017, with three very simple aims:

·         To support crime writers in and of Wales

·         To support the development of new crime writing talent in Wales

·         To promote Wales, Welsh culture, and Welsh crime writing in particular, to the wider world.

(See https://crime.cymru/ for more information and members.)

Over the last three years, we’ve been concentrating on the first of those three aims, building up a supportive community amongst our members and appearing in other people’s festivals. Now, we’re ready to launch our own.

The Crime Cymru panel at CrimeFest 2019
(L to R: Rosie Claverton, John Lincoln, Cathy Ace, Alis Hawkins, G.B. Williams)

In 2021, as a warm up to Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival, we’re going to put on a free, digital festival - Virtual CRIME CYMRU Digidol –  to introduce people from all over the UK (and the world – such is the beauty of online festivals!) to the brilliant crime writing talent we have in Wales, as well as showcasing some of the UK’s crime fiction household names as they’re interviewed by Crime Cymru members. And, during our digi-fest, we’ll be doing our bit to support those who support us – booksellers. Each of Virtual CRIME CYMRU Digidol’s events will be partnered by a bookshop from which we’ll be encouraging Zoom audience members to order panel members’ books if they’ve been excited by what they’ve heard.

2021 will also see the launch of the Crime Cymru First Crime Novel Competition which will be launched at Virtual CRIME CYMRU Digidol. The winner will be announced at a champagne reception as part of Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival ’22 the following year.

We’ve decided to break the mould and make Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival a biennial event, with a digital festival in the interim years. Running a digital festival every other year means that readers who can’t travel to Aberystwyth will still be able to enjoy the fantastic line-ups of writers on offer, and it will also allow us to continue supporting bookshops with our partnership arrangements.

Welsh-set crime fiction panel at Crime and Coffee 2018 (run by Crime Cymru in partnership with Cardiff Central Library) L to R: Sally Spedding, Katherine Stansfield, B.E. Jones, Cheryl Rees-Price.

As far as Crime Cymru is concerned Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival will be a not-for-profit festival but we want it to be of financial as well as cultural value to Aberystwyth – and Wales more widely. So we’re committed to a festival that’s:

·         Collaborative – we’re already collaborating with organisations and businesses in Aberystwyth and we’ve run a competition in local secondary schools to find our festival logo.

·         Inclusive – we want Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival to have a welcoming, family feel and to encourage people who wouldn’t ordinarily see themselves as the sort of people who go to literary festivals to come along and see what we do. And, as Wales has two official languages – English and Welsh – we’ll be making sure that there are events in both languages. 

·         Sustainable – we want our festival to be as environmentally responsible as possible and to keep our carbon footprint to a minimum. This means we’ll be doing things like using QR-code downloads so we can reduce the number of printed programmes, and encouraging people to come to Aberystwyth by public transport.

·         Authentic - as Wales’s first national crime fiction festival we’re thrilled to have the chance to give festival-goers a real taste of Wales in Aberystwyth – a vibrant, multicultural town.

So, what will Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival offer festival goers?

We’ll open our inaugural festival on Friday evening with a big community event – a dragon lantern parade starting in the town centre and finishing at Aberystwyth castle in its commanding position overlooking the town and the sea. Later that evening, we’re planning a quiz in the festival bar where festival-goers can compete against authors – and only one round will be on crime fiction!

On Saturday night people will be able to experience a traditional Welsh Noson Lawen with entertainment from selected authors who’ll be displaying their lesser-known talents. The event will feature food from some of the fantastic local producers of everything from smoked fish to cheese, bread to beer. The Noson Lawen will be festival-goers’ chance to chat to participating authors in an informal atmosphere.

Sunday evening will see Crime Cymru and sponsors throwing a champagne reception to mark the award of the inaugural Crime Cymru First Crime Novel Prize. 

And, all weekend, festival-goers will have the chance to see household names from the worlds of TV crime drama and crime fiction talking about their work as we run panel events throughout Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning, as well as free meet-the-author book signing events in Aberystwyth bookshops.

In line with Crime Cymru’s aims, aspiring authors will be catered for, too, with a pitch-the-agent session, and we’re looking into the possibility of running workshops on how to write crime fiction and thrillers.

To learn more about the festival – including headliners and special guests as they are announced:

Follow us on Twitter @GwylCymru2022, Instagram at GwylCrimeCymruFestival and like our Facebook page ‘Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival’. 

And keep an eye on our website – http://gwylcrimecymrufestival.co.uk/– for more information and details of how to book tickets for Virtual CRIME CYMRU Digidol next year.

We hope to see you in Aberystwyth in 2022!

 

Two of Crime Cymru's three founder members (and festival organising group members) Alis Hawkins and Matt Johnson representing Crime Cymru at Wales Week Berkshire 2019

Alis Hawkins, Co-chair, Crime Cymru

 

The Reichenbach Option, by Catriona

Endgame – After considering killing off his hero, Lee Child is handing over the writing of the Jack Reacher Novels to his brother, Andrew. Would you consider killing your protagonists, and how do you envisage ending their careers?

I talk big. Several times on panels I've said one of the good things about standalones is anyone can die (although first person POV is a bit of a problem). But when it comes to the bit my protagonist always survives beyond the last chapter. In fact, I usually end up musing about a sequel. I've never done it yet but I've got premises for follow-up novels to AS SHE LEFT IT and THE CHILD GARDEN. 

Which is not to say no one dies. I have written the fictional deaths of many characters beyond the murder victims, including some high-scoring cards: a dog, a kitten, a child, and an old lady. On another panel one time, when the panellists were considering whether our books were cosies, someone shouted form the audience "It's not a cozy if you nail a kitten to the road". Good point well made, I thought.

                                                                This is the one to avoid.

But about the series . . . That's a tougher question. Dandy Gilver was born in 1886 and I've got her up to 1938 in the first fifteen novels. I've got a peach of an idea for 1972, when she would be eighty-four. In other words, the sort of age when Jane Marple was just hitting her stride. But I might need to start skipping years, because I'd be ninety-three when I was writing it. (It's an enduring mystery to me how Dandy and I started out the same age and, as I write a book a year, she's now so much younger.)

I did have to kill off another dog in this series, mind you. That's why one of my core pieces of advice to any writer starting a series with a dog in it is "make it a puppy". Bunty the Dalmatian started out seven-ish and when she'd got to a cloudy age somewhere around fourteen or fifteen I knew it was time.

I had more serious discussion about Bunty's end-of-life writing than about anything else in the whole series. I couldn't decide whether to pack her off between books or have her plunge into an act of reckless heroism at the climactic scene of a book, and go out in a blaze of glory.

My then editor, Suzie Dooré, made the call, saying "Yeah but no matter how glorious the glory, you turn the page and you've still got a dead dog."

So here's what we did. At the end of one book I had a postscript where Alec and Dandy revisit the scene of the investigation and reminisce that "this was poor old Bunty's last case". Then, at the start of the next book, I had Dandy still grieving and an authorial voice pointing out that unbeknownst to her, right at that moment, Bunty II was three weeks old and currently squirming into her mother's flank in a dog basket in Glasgow.

If only we could say goodbye to real life pets that way, with a bit of sleight of hand and fast-forward. 

                                                                Rachel finds this rather morbid

A plague on their heads? by Cathy Ace

Endgame – After considering killing off his hero, Lee Child is handing over the writing of the Jack Reacher Novels to his brother, Andrew. Would you consider killing your protagonists, and how do you envisage ending their careers?

My immediate, and brief, response to this is “No, I wouldn’t (currently) consider killing off any of my protagonists, and I haven’t yet given any thought to how I might end their ‘careers’.” (I’m hoping this is good news for anyone reading this…fingers crossed!)

However, I understand that an author might reach the point where they just don’t want to write about certain characters any longer, and that they then have to choose how to allow that character to “end their life” or continue it, somehow, without the original author’s input. I dare say this implies that I believe I might reach this point at some time in the future, but I don’t want it to imply that point is on the horizon!

To be honest, I’m amazed that some authors are able to write 20-30 books featuring the same small cast of characters; I hope I’m able to find and employ their enduring enthusiasm and ability as the years march on. 

With “only” nine Cait Morgan Mysteries penned to date (I’m working on number ten right now) I have so many adventures I still want to enjoy with Cait and Bud that I believe they’ll be around for some time to come. The fact that the books have been optioned for TV means I need to keep my focus on the Cait books at the moment, because – though the industry is at a standstill at the moment – things are moving on this front (no, I cannot say more at the moment!) and they’ll hopefully need as many Cait books to work with as I can write! Thus, with two protagonists who are in what they believe to be “their prime” I believe they have many sleuthing years ahead of them, and they’re ageing more slowly than the rest of us, so I hope they’ll have a good, long run. If I ever do consider “killing them off” I think they’d have to go out, together, in a blaze of glory, doing something courageous and deadly in the name of justice…which is what motivates them both, in different ways.

From the Free@LastTV website

This raises the question of “what will happen to my other characters”, of course. Well, there are two novellas and four novels featuring the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency; I have left the publisher of those, but they sold the rights to the Kindle books to Joffe Books (another UK publisher) who have dropped the price and are republishing them; the three republished to date have all reached either #1 or Top Five, or at least Top Ten, in Kindle cozies in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, so you can imagine how thrilled I am about that…YAY! However, with only the fourth novel to republish (soon, I promise!) readers will then have run out of WISE books to read…YIKES! At the end of the fourth book there’s a pregnancy, a nascent romantic relationship, a gunshot wound to be recovered from (yes, in a cozy!) and a few other cliff hangers – I didn’t know I was going to leave the publisher, you see. I have already outlined two more books for this series…but I only have so many hours in the year to write, and Cait needs my attention right now. If I were ever to kill off the WISE women there’d need to be some awful disaster to be able to kill off four lead protagonists, plus all the recurring characters at Chellingworth Hall and in the village of Anwen-by-Wye…which doesn’t smack of cozy wonders at all!

New covers for the Kindle WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries

Also, I’ve been asked if Detective Inspector Evan Glover (retired) and his wife Betty might feature in any more psychological suspense novels in the future. With their “success” in The Wrong Boy (and their track record in previous novellas contained in Murder Keeps No Calendar and Murder Knows No Season) AND the fact they’ll be on television (speaking in both English and Welsh, no less!) then, yes, they will be back. I’ve already outlined their next outing, but plan to wait until the mini-series is well in hand before I turn my attention to them again. Once again, I’m not sure how I’d ever kill them off…though if I needed to, well, okay, I have a few ideas. 😉

Is DI Glover (retired) the right boy for more books?

But, overall, I’d rather focus on writing more featuring the characters I already have (because, for me, the mix of traditional (Cait), cozy (WISE) and psychological suspense (the Glovers) is a good, and satisfying one) than planning to stop writing about them, hand them over, kill them off, or create more new worlds. I hope you enjoy reading about them!

If you'd like to catch up with any of the characters I haven't killed off yet, please check out my website by CLICKING HERE

Time for the Gold Watch

Endgame – After considering killing off his hero, Lee Child is handing over the writing of the Jack Reacher Novels to his brother, Andrew. Would you consider killing your protagonists, and how do you envisage ending their careers?

- From Frank

The short answer is yes. I have, in fact. I won't tell you which books, though - that would ruin things.

I will let on with a smaller spoiler, though. Although he is not a protagonist, per se, Officer Anthony Battaglia is a significant support character in my River City series. Mostly, he provided some comic relief along with his partner, Officer Connor O'Sullivan, especially in the first three books. They had the patrol cop banter down, each affecting a caricature of their own ethnic roots to rib each other.

A curious thing happened as I approached the fourth book in the series, And Every Man Has to Die. See, in addition to River City novels, I've written many short stories set within the universe. Most of the stories were written before the novels, though some were published around the time of the first two books. For context, the first book in the River City series, Under a Raging Moon, was published in 2006 but the novel is set in 1994. Point is, even though many stories were written before this, quite a few of them actually take place later in the timeline.  

One example of is the story "No Good Deed," published in January 2005. It is narrated by Connor O'Sullivan, and set in the summer months of either 2004 or 2005 (I forget which at the moment). The story details an off duty altercation Sully stumbles into and the fallout afterward. But the salient point here is that the reader learns through the course of this story that his partner, Anthony Battaglia, died some years ago. There aren't a lot of details, as the focus is elsewhere, but the death is made very clear.

Flash forward to 2011 in real life. That fourth River City novel, And Every Man Has to Die (story set in 1998 - are we confused yet?) is published. One of my good friends, Jill Maser, was aghast to read an early draft and learning that the "man" in the title is, in fact, Officer Anthony Battaglia. She told me I couldn't kill Batts, and she listed several stellar reasons why. She was right, and I told her so. But the die was cast. See, I'd already killed him back in 2005.

I didn't kill him for shock value or for fun. I did it for that strange reason I think most writers will understand - because I knew it was what happened. Sounds odd, I know, but I just knew. Probably beneath that knowledge lay some subconscious ideas that the impact of such a death on the various characters would be far-reaching. Exploring them would be interesting, and difficult. If I had those subconscious ulterior motives... well, I was right about that. But Jill was right, too - the comic relief that Sully and Batts so easily provided has been impossible to replicate elsewhere, and because it has its dark moments, perhaps the series is poorer for that.

But I can't help it, folks. Batts died. That's what happened.

To finish off the post, I'll say one thing about envisaging the ending of the careers of some of the major characters in the series. I've already written one - Thomas Chisolm survives to retirement, leaving the job in 2003 (so the next River City novel, Dirty Little Town will be the last for him as a patrol cop). Of course, that doesn't mean he has to disappear entirely. He has a post-retirement adventure in Chisolm's Debt, for example.

But what about the emotional core of the series, Officer Katie MacLeod? She's been on patrol for ten years, and let's face it - she's been through hell. It's been a hard decade for her. Over the course of the last two books, she's talked about promoting to detective to get a change. Will she follow through? You'll know in the next book, Dirty Little Town.

As for the endgame with Katie, I am pleased to report that I know exactly how her career will progress and where she will be at the end of it. And for those who see her as something of a beacon of hope in a series that can get a little dark at times... rest assured, she will never lose faith.

She's stronger than any of them.

**********************

As long as we're talking River City, I should end with a reminder that the sixth book in the series, Place of Wrath and Tears, is now available.

It is the nightmare of every community – a school shooting.

When a disturbed teenager masterminds this terrible event, everyone in River City is plunged into the darkness that surrounds it. The students and teachers try to survive, and the men and women of RCPD try to save them. But when things go horribly wrong, everyone seems to be looking elsewhere for someone to blame.

Officer Katie MacLeod is among many who discover that the nightmare doesn’t end when the shooting stops.

Takes place in 2001.

Immortals

 Q: After considering killing off his hero, Lee Child is handing over the writing of the Jack Reacher Novels to his brother, Andrew. Would you consider killing your protagonists, and how do you envisage ending their careers?

-from Susan

Kill? Kill? For a crime writer, I’m pretty squeamish when it comes to my own protagonists, my creations, my fictional siblings. I bump off bad people easily and with pleasure, but Dani O’Rourke, or Katherine Hoff or Pippa? No way. In fact, I long to go back and find out what they’ve been up to in my absence. 

Who knows? Dani’s rich ex-husband Dickie might have finally worn down her resistance by swearing on his snobbish mother’s grave (which would mean she had died since her last nasty comment) that he would never even look at another underwear model, much less abscond with her to a ski resort in Switzerland. But I would make sure Dani was stronger and more forceful the second time around, and that she insist on a sensible pre-nup just to be on the safe side.  

Or, she and the cute cop might have come to terms with his crazy work schedule and her stubborn unwillingness to let lethal injustice slip past the authorities. And since one requirement of each book in the series is that Dani conduct part of her sleuthing in a place I love, I’m thinking the investigation of the next art crime might take her to Kauai, or even to Paris. Wherever she goes, I want to go with her and there’s no way I would kill her off.

Katherine’s a different sort of protagonist, a middle-aged, happily married woman transplanted into rural Burgundy with a meager pocketbook and good French. A would-be people pleaser in a rigid society that almost never embraces outsiders, she has made inroads in two books. But it's still tenuous and definitely not universal. Her young English sidekick bumbles and stumbles her way along, hardly aware of the social norms she’s upending. She’ll be fine – her innocence protects her. But I left Katherine with a new and unsettling circumstance and I really want to know what happens. Michael, her supportive husband and an aging rock and roller who was shafted by his band years ago, is making an exciting comeback. He’s about to start an American tour as the opening act for none other than his former band. Rapprochement? Payback? So what does it mean when Eric, the former best buddy and leader of the band, starts making mildly suggestive remarks to Katherine, who slept with him one time during the messy years? She’s just about to fly back to the States to join Michael on tour. Now what? 

And what about Jeannette, the quirky village teenager so many readers fell in love with? Without her friend and surrogate mother, how will she navigate the boys who want sex and the father who wants her to continue her light-fingered thieving on his behalf?

They need me! Or, I need them. As we all know, it’s not that we make all their decisions. Sometimes we just hang on to our seats and watch and listen as they surprise us. I am mildly jealous of the Minds who have long running series that give them ringside seats for their protagonists’ changing lives. But none of them decide to take their own lives, I’m quite sure. And if they turn to me mid-page and ask for my verdict, I will assure them they never have to die.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Secret

 

Tell us about your next book. Your WIP or the one after that.

Abir Mukherjee

 

Morning. Abir here, which means it must be Friday. The weekend is only hours away!

 

Just enough time to tell you what I’ve been working on.

 

So, the last twelve months have been an exciting time chez Mukherjee. It all started with my agent swanning off to New York. Of course I just rolled my eyes and thought, ‘there goes Sam, off on another of his jaunts across the pond'. To be fair, my agent is very glamorous - he tells me so every time I see him. Anyway, this time he called me, trans-atlantically, and this was the word for word conversation approximately:

 

Me: Hello? 

Agent: Abir! Baby! 

Me: Who is this? 

Agent: It’s me, Sam.

Me: Sam who?

Agent: Sam! Your agent.

Me: You told me never to call you again.

Agent: Yeah, but I’m calling you.

Me: I thought it was reciprocal.

Agent: No. Why would you think that?

Me: Well, after that incident at your Christmas party, with the pop-up edition of the kama sutra and the cardboard cut out of Kim Kardashian, I rather thought…actually never mind. What do you want?

Agent: Well, I was out cruising around Manhattan, doing top, hot-shot international agenting stuff, and I got talking to this American chap in his office, well it was more of a bar, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, long story short, he's an editor at a big publishing house and he said he likes your work.

Me: He said that?

Agent: Well he said it was, salvageable.

Me: Salvageable?

Agent: It's the next best thing to actual admiration. Anyway, he said, if you ever decide to write something more modern, he’d be keen to buy you a cawffeee.

Me: Don’t do the accent, Sam.

Agent: Sorry.

Me: More modern eh? Like you mean the 1940s?

Agent: Moderner.

Me: 1960s, flower power, Burn the Bomb, Ban the bra - that sort of thing?

Agent: Present day.

Me: 2016?

Agent: It’s 2020.

Me: Not in my house. I don’t count the Trump years. You told him that I don’t do modern?

Agent: Sort of.

Me: Sort of?

Agent: I told him you were yesterday’s news. But hey, the offer stands. Write something modern and he’d love to talk, maybe buy you a bagel.

Me: Stop with the New Yorkisms, Sam.

Agent: Okay caio. Taxi!!...

 

So basically I decided to write something modern, something up to date, something really 2016. Anyway, I wrote a 2 page summary, sent it to Sam, who used it to mop up some tea he’d spilt. It was illegible after that, so he sent it to the guy in the US, who, fortunately liked the stains and  asked for a partial.

 

I wrote 13,000 words, and then wrote a few more because as we all know, 13,000 is unlucky. I sent them to Sam, who sent them to the American, who said. ‘I like this. 2016 was a good time. I’d like to see more.'

 

So now I’m writing a modern day novel, set in the UK and the US, and I’m having tremendous difficulty finding all the right words, mainly because you north Americans have mangled the English language. I mean the issues around jam and jelly and jello alone have caused me to almost have a stroke. Anyway, I’m persevering. That book should be out in 2018 (or 2022 if you include the Trump years.) In the meantime, I’ve got another Wyndham and Banerjee book out next year, called The Shadows of Men. It is brilliant. You should buy it, if not for the words, then at least because my kids are growing up fast and they need new shoes.

 

Cheers and thank you in advance.

Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Abir