Mystery Writing

Chick Lit Bit

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NY Times book critic Marilyn Stasio isn’t fond of "chick lit mysteries."

you can’t miss its gaudy manifestations — those slender volumes with cute
titles like ”Dating Dead Men” and ”Killer Heels” and covers in such juicy
colors you don’t know whether to read the flap copy or lick the jacket.

Slim stories. Joke titles. Juicy jacket art. Does a pattern begin to emerge?
For a category of mystery still relatively new to the market, the babe book has
already settled into some fairly narrow grooves. Even if you ignore the
generally deplorable level of the writing (which is surely an unintentional
aspect of the formula), these novels scrupulously observe all the basic
chick-lit conventions: the giddy girls in their glamorous jobs, the shopping
sprees and fashion makeovers, the gossipy friends, the disastrous dates and the
wry comic voice of a heroine so adorable she could be . . . you.

Book critic, blogger and industry observer Sarah Weinman thinks the mystery world will be buzzing over Stasio’s take on the genre. I don’t think so. The one thing these "chick lit" authors share in common is a strong sense of humor. I think they’ll shrug it off.  How about you?

Barbara Seranella is on the mend

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I know a lot of you were worried about my friend author Barbara Seranella, who recently had liver transplant surgery.  I’m pleased to say she’s on the mend. Here’s a note from her:

Hi All, I just went through all my cards from the last two months. Again, I 
am blown away by the love. I’m home in the desert, really digging it. I 
drove my car yesterday. Everyday is a new landmark. I hired a
round-the-clock  caregiver, Ophelia. She made me a sandwich yesterday and
then admitted that it  was the first one she had ever made. Then I learned
she used to build houses  with her Uncle and knew a lot about plumbing.
Yesterday, she fixed the toilet. Today we go after a leaking
faucet.

Turns out I have to get the surgeon’s "permission" to travel. I
really want  to and fully expect to go to Chicago, so I’m working real hard
to blow him away  when I see him next. Again thank you to the million
friends who held me in their thoughts and  prayers these last two months.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter Development

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Variety reports that Michael C. Hall of  SIX FEET UNDER has signed to star in Showtime’s pilot for DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, based on the acclaimed novels by Jeff Lindsay. The SIX FEET UNDER connection doesn’t end there… Michael Cuesta, a regular director on the HBO series, will helm the DEXTER pilot.  Dexter is a Miami PD forensics expert who also happens to be a serial killer.

Cannell Cops Award

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On Sunday, the Southern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America honored Steve Cannell with the Marlowe Award, celebrating lifetime achievement in the mystery field. Past winners have included William Link, Dennis Lynds, Sue Grafton and Blake Edwards.

It was great fun…and I got a chance to catch up with authors  Nathan Walpow, Bob Levinson, Harley Jane Kozak, Terrill Lee Lankford, and Michael Mallory (to name a few) and to talk shop with fellow TV scribes Tom Sawyer and Paul Levine (who has a new book out and who, incidenally, was instrumental in getting Steve’s first book sold).

Steve  was, as usual, charming and funny and self-deprecating.  It’s amazing to me that a man as successful as he is can come across as such a regular guy. I’ve known him for years (and worked with him on COBRA and HUNTER and hired him as an actor on DIAGNOSIS MURDER) but he has that remarkable ability to make even someone who has just met him feel like his oldest friend.  He’s also quick to share the credit for his success with the writers he’s worked with… and he did it again today…singling out people like Patrick Hasburgh,  Frank Lupo and David Chase.

He told the story today of how he sold his first book, explaining why it was a surprising and humbling experience for him after his unparalleled hot-streak in TV.  After Steve spoke, Harley interviewed him and managed to get him to tell some anecdotes I haven’t heard before (and I thought I’d heard them all!).

Although a lot of nice things were said about Steve and his career during the ceremony, I think Paul Guyot’s letter (which was read by James Lincoln Warren at the podium) summed things up the best:

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MWA’s Listed of Accepted Publishers

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I got his email today:

My mystery novel XYZ is being published by Publish America. Can I become an active member of the Mystery Writers of America?

I’m afraid not. Publish America is not recognized as a legitimate publisher by the MWA.  You can visit the MWA site for more info. In the meantime, here is the current list of publishers accepted, and not accepted, by the MWA for Active Membership.

(You’ll find the list on the jump)

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No Rewrites, No Editing

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I remember reading an interview with Robert B. Parker somewhere where he said he doesn’t go back and rewrite his work…he just bangs it out and moves on.  Apparently, his books aren’t edited by his publisher, either. Bill Crider posts the evidence.

From Appaloosa,

p. 266: "The room was quiet and
noisy."

p. 238: "Bragg took a tan leather case out of his inside coat pocket. He offered a cigar to Bragg and
me."

I Hate Mysteries

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Well, I do today.  I’m struggling with some clues in my latest MONK novel and it’s hell.  I’ve been in this position hundreds of times (literally) and it never gets any easier.

God, I wish I could write a "mainstream" novel. It must be so nice to just tell a story without having to weave in a puzzling mystery to solve…

I suppose it could be argued that all great novels include a mystery to be solved and clues to the solution along the way… but those are mysteries of character. It’s not easy coming up with those puzzles either.  But in a good whodunit, you need to have the mysteries of character and a murder/crime puzzle as well.

It’s especially difficult if you’re writing a long-runing mystery TV or book series,  because you’re also struggling not to repeat yourself, not to use any of the tricks or clues you’ve used in the past.  So the more successful you are, the harder it becomes.

End of whine. Back to work.

“A Heavily Subsidized Hobby”

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Think of this as a companion piece to the "Day in the Life" post here a few days back. Author Harley Jane Kozak talks today about money,  contracts, and the work-a-day life of  a writer.

I was offered a contract this week. Actually, I was offered two. After a year of writing “on spec” as we say in Hollywood, that was pretty exciting news. It’s not that I made no money this past year; there were  those first two books, and I still get residuals for the acting work I did in my previous life (another six  bucks for that 1986 Highway to Heaven episode) but it’s safe to assume that I spent a lot more than I  took in. Would that I could say the same about calories.

So, when I sold a short story to Ms. Magazine, and was offered a two-book deal from Doubleday on the  same day, I called my husband at work to tell him the good news.

“Great!” he said. “How much?”

I told him.

Silence on the other end of the phone.

I could hear him mentally dividing the book advance by two (two books in two years), then subtract taxes and agent’s fee, then add up babysitting costs, marketing and promotion . . .

“Can you ask for more?” he asks.

The Made Men of Mystery Fiction

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There’s a phenomenon in mystery/thriller fiction… I call it "The Made Men." These are authors who wrote several terrific books…a string of career-making, break-out, wonderful books which have made them icons/leaders/celebrities in the genre…but have been writing  mediocre (or worse, far worse) books for the last few years. And yet, each new book from one of these authors is treated as if it’s another masterpiece, and the hyperbole used to describe the author and his work gets grander with each new release.

Are reviewers in a trance? Are readers under a spell? I don’t know. But I must be one of the few who didn’t get hypnotized. 

My theory is that for some special authors,  once you reach a certain status in sales and critical acclaim, from that point on you are untouchable. You are a genre "Made Man" (though this applies to female authors as well) and seemingly no matter what you write, you are held in the same high regard by critics and readers alike. I recently read the latest book by one of these authors and am dumbfounded that anybody could have ranked it as a masterpiece…or even particularly good. It certainly didn’t come close to matching his previous work (by the way, just because I say "his," don’t assume I am talking about a male author). So why all the praise? Made Man, that’s why.

Am I way off base?  Or am I simply a lousy judge of good writing? Or is it sour grapes on my part? Or am I on to something here? Your thoughts are welcome.