Otto Hates Cozies…Again

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Otto Penzler is at it again — trashing women who write "cozy" mysteries. 

A lot of people got really
angry with me when I wrote a harsh criticism of the books nominated for
Agatha awards at the Malice Domestic convention, which is devoted to
"traditional" (i.e. cozy) mysteries. I was so upset I had offended
anyone that, gee, I couldn’t sleep for I don’t know how long.

When it came time to review the six nominees for the 2006 awards
banquet, I kept looking at them but just didn’t have the stomach for
it. In, how can I say it, "conversations" with two of the women I wrote
about last time, their position is that their books should be taken
seriously.

[…] I missed the part
where anyone said she wanted to create original and believable
characters, give them words to say in a manner that a reader will
encounter for the first time, provide a rich emotional framework in
which they can deal with their passions and seek redemption, all in a
carefully plotted story that will clutch a reader by the lapels and not
let go until the denouement.

Seeing what apparently motivates so many writers of cozy mysteries,
I guess I’ll skip the Malice Domestic nominees this year. Maybe I’m
becoming cynical.

So, basically, what he’s saying is that, in his narrow view, "cozy" writers have no desire to create rich, interesting characters or tell compelling, thoughtful entertaining stories. And he knows this because a) the stories are non-violent and b) let’s face it, they are mostly written by women. No wonder they’re shit, right? Everybody knows that the only good mystery is a violent, blood-soaked epic written by a man, preferably one who smokes, drinks, and farts a lot in public.

Basically, Otto seems to believe that if a mystery isn’t written by a rugged man in a 12-step program (and his protagonist isn’t in one, too) then the novel is cozy garbage that’s not worth any attention or respect.   It’s certainly not worth an Edgar.

I’ve got news for Otto — I’ve read many "hardboiled" and "gritty" mysteries where the characters were one-note cliches, the plots were dull, and the pacing was listless (some of those have even been Edgar nominees). On the other hand, I’ve also read "cozies" that were filled with rich characters, clever plots, and genuine momentum.

I love hard-boiled fiction — but for him to shrug off an entire, hugely popular genre of mystery fiction (one that’s predominently written by women) simply because the stories aren’t blood-soaked, relentlessly bleak and filled with morose, self-loathing characters is ridiculous, narrow-minded and, let’s be honest here, embarrassingly ignorant.

Otto isn’t doing himself, or the mystery field, any favors when he comes out of his cave to trash "cozies" and the women who write them. We get the point, Otto. There is only one kind of mystery novel that’s worth a damn, and unless women are willing to get tough, they should stay in the kitchen and leave the writing to us menfolk.

Let’s repeal their right to vote, too.

Chutzpah

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Ron Hogan and MJ Rose both beat me to blogging about a press release flogging a new book written by iUniverse execs that reveals how to get your book published…by iUniverse. How did they fill a book on that topic when I can sum it all up in one sentence:  "send us your manuscript and your credit card number?"  Then again, I’m a professional writer. Ron is impressed by their chutzpah:

The boldness
of the transaction model is actually rather impressive, when you stop
to think about it. Can you think of any other company that charges a
fee just to learn about its services?

Mr. Monk and the Funk

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Super prolific novelist James Reasoner says that MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE got him out of a funk. You can’t get much higher praise than that. He says, in part:

MONK is
maybe my favorite current TV series. MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE
does a fine job of capturing the same things that make the TV show so
appealing: the twisty plots, the colorful characters, the
laugh-out-loud humor. While the plot in this novel is entertaining, its
real strong point is the way Lee has nailed the voices of the
characters, especially Monk. My funk was forgotten as I raced through
this book and had a great time reading it.

Thanks, Jim!

Cat Tales

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Emmy-winning writer-producer Ken Levine talks today about the time a cat held him up for a higher salary.

I said as much as we too loved working with Charlie and greatly admired
his many talents, I would hate to stand in the way of his feature
career so I passed on his offer. 

Unbelievably, we somehow managed to find another gray cat that could sit in a chair.

 

Fanfic Hypocrisy

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You gotta love the hypocrisy and idiocy of fanficcers. It seems the "fanfic community" is in an uproar because some fanficcer stole from another fanficcers work. Author John Scalzi sums up the laughably inane situation nicely:

Let’s remember one fundamental thing about fanfic: Almost all of it
is entirely illegal to begin with. It’s the wild and wanton
misappropriation of copyrighted material (I’m sure there is fanfic that
features public domain characters, just not nearly as much as there is
of, say, Harry Potter fanfic). Copyright holders may choose not to see
it, or may even tacitly encourage it from time to time, but the fact of
the matter is that if you’re writing fanfic, you’re already doing
something legally out of bounds. And, really, if you’re already wantonly violating copyright, what’s a little plagiarism to go along with it? Honestly. In for a penny, in for a pound.

I recognize this attitude probably won’t sit well with fanficcers,
but this is really an "honor among thieves" sort of issue, isn’t it? If
you’ve already morally justified intellectual theft so you can play
with Harry and Hermione and Draco and whomever else you want to play
with, I’m not entirely sure how one couldn’t also quite easily justify taking juicy chunks of other people’s text to play with as well.

[…]Out in the real world, I take plagiarism rather very seriously, but
then, out in the real world, I take appropriation of copyright
seriously as well. If fanficcers want me to oblige their outrage about
fanfic plagiarism, I suppose I would have to ask how it is essentially
more serious than the appropriation of copyrighted characters and
settings, and how if I must criticize one why I am not also therefore
obliged to criticize the other.

(Thanks to Jim Winter for the heads-up on this).

That Girl and Charlie’s Angels

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The Globe  (the sleazy tabloid, not the Boston paper) reports that Marlo Thomas is returning as THAT GIRL in a sitcom pilot for ABC. In the revival, she plays a grandmother whose 20-year-old grand-daughter is a struggling actress in New York. This reminds me of the disasterous MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW movie  (MARY & RHODA) that ABC did a few years back, which focused on the original sitcom stars’ daughters and their laughless struggles.  The tabloid also reports that all the actresses, from Farrah Fawcett to Tanya Roberts, whot starred in CHARLIES ANGELS are reuniting for an ABC TV movie.

Television Chronicles is Back

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Television Chronicles was a magazine made for TV geeks like me. It was chock full of interviews and episode guides on classic and not-so-class TV series. Sadly, the magazine disappeared from news stands a few years back. But I am very pleased to report that Television Chronicles has returned as an online magazine. The current issue has an indepth look at the making and demise of the Bill Bixby series THE MAGICIAN.

Brain Dead

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It seems like everybody is apologizing lately for not keeping up their blogs.  Author Duane Swierczynski, for instance, blames the book he’s working on and Tess Gerritsen blames the beautiful Maine weather. Me, I’m just brain dead. I finished my 8th DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel last week and it feels lke my brain has been wrung out and left dry of any ideas, even for a blog post. So, in lieu of coming up with anything clever for my blog today, I’ll steal some cleverness from others.

My brother Tod found a novel way of dealing with some hate mail, Ken Levine has some good advice for industry outsiders with pilot ideas, and it’s nice to see one of my favorite authors, Daniel Woodrell, is finally getting some attention (my friend Denise Hamilton also gave his latest book a rave in Sunday’s LA Times Book Review).

I’m a Writer

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Michael Bracken was kind enough to alert me that there’s a full-page interview with me in the September issue of The Writer magazine. I did the interview so long ago that it completed slipped my mind. I haven’t read it yet, so please let me know if I come off like a brilliantly clever fellow or a complete moron.