The LadyKillers

Arthur Ellis Shortlist

Hello all -- Lyn here. I'm just back from a reception at which the short lists for the best of Canadian crime writing were announced.  There are a number of awards, but here is the short list for best crime novel in Canada:

Linwood Barclay - Lone Wolf

Emma Cole - Every Secret Thing

Barbara Fradkin - Honour Among Men

Kathy Reichs - Break No Bones

Peter Robinson - Piece of My Heart

Please forgive spelling errors. I was jotting the names down while standing in a crowd.  The list will be officially out later tonight or tomorrow am.

Just as an aside, there is a new award this year for unpublished authors. The prize is a chance to be published. Several of the short listed authors were there, and it was terrific to see how excited they were to be on the list.

The winners will be announced at the Arthur Ellis Awards dinner on June 7 in Toronto.  (Arthur Ellis was Canadian hangman.)   Best, Lyn

From Mary Anna--Useless but fascinating information

In her last post, Lady Killer Jane mentioned an interesting dilemma that afflicts writers who enjoy their research a little too much.  She says that when she uncovers a cluster of interesting facts about her time period--Roman Britain--that don't fit into her book, she just saves them for the next book in the series.  This is a distinct advantage to writing series, because if that happens when you're writing a standalone, you've got to have immense self-control to resist shoehorning those irrelevant factoids into your story.

We've all read books where the writer was too weak to resist that temptation.  If Jane weren't so strong, she'd be torturing her readers with dialogue like, "You know, my friend Petrus, here in Roman Britain, we have bedbugs the size of hedgehogs."  Even if there are no beds anywhere in the whole story, and the plotline is utterly devoid of bedbugs. 

(I'm pretty sure bedbugs were of normal size in Britain during Roman times.  I made that up.  But you know what I mean.)

I recently moderated a panel on research.  I truly love my research, but I was afraid that an hour of talking about arcane search engines might put our audience to sleep.  Searching for a question to ask that would spice up the conversation, I came up with this one:  "What was the most interesting thing you ever learned while researching a book that you weren't able to use?"

Here's how I answered my own question.  While researching EFFIGIES, I did a good deal of reading about caves in Mississippi.  One of my references mentioned some caves that were out of the ordinary.  One cave in particular captured my imagination.  First, it is in a sandstone deposit, which is not usual for caves.  Second, the sandstone has a high concentration of salt in it.  Third, (this one isn't really out of the ordinary, but it's important), the cave is located in a cow pasture.

Now, cows like salt.  Can you see where this is going?  Somewhere in Mississippi, there is a cave dug completely with cow tongues...

Edgars

Hi, it's Rhys, posting on a Tuesday night as I'm off to New York at crack of dawn and will have no time for computers tomorrow. I'm going to the Edgars. This is our Oscar party, the night when all the glitterati of our industry get together. This year the banquet of 750 people is sold out and an array of celebrities are coming to help make the evening more festive. Al Roker, the NBC weatherman, is our MC. We've Dave Barry, Stephen King, Donald Westlake, Nelson De Mille and a cast of thousands, as they say.

I'm one of the presenters this year, which is almost as nerve wracking as being a nominee. Maybe more nerve wracking as I am guaranteed a trip up to the stage and have to handle a china statue. Plenty of opportunities for tripping and dropping things. Also I'm wearing a white beaded top so I just hope that no red sauces are included in the meal.

When I've been a nominee at one of these banquets I have discovered that I know in advance whether I'm going to win or not. If I eat my meal with gusto, I obviously sense that I don't have a chance at the award. When I can't seem to swallow my food and spend the evening pushing it around my plate, then I've usually won. I'll test this theory watching some of the nominees on Thursday!

Actually it is cruel and inhuman to make nervous nominees work their way through several courses of half a field cut into a salad, rubber chicken, plastic broccoli and pink or brown mouse. Maybe it will surprise me and be better. I can't remember what it was like last time. I was a nominee, I was nervous. I couldn't eat--oh, and I didn't win. Bang goes that theory!

I'll report when I have juicy gossip to share!

Rhys Bowen

www.rhysbowen.com

The long and the short of it

Jane here, ruminating on Rhys’s analysis of the difference between writing series and one-off novels. I especially like reading series, and that’s why when I wrote my first mystery, I thought of it as a story that was destined to have sequels. Of course as I was a new writer, whether my debut became the first of several featuring the same characters also depended on my publishers seeing it my way, but thank goodness they did.

The first and biggest advantage of a series is that writer and readers get to know and love (or hate) a set of characters around whom each story is woven. The characters have to move on through their own lives too – marry, have children, get established or promoted, become more or less prosperous – and this is helpful for the writer. It’s like watching a soap opera (and we all know how popular they are!) You recognise old friends, and when one episode ends, you want to see the next to find out how they are doing.

Another plus, at least for someone (like me) who does a lot of historical research, is that my knowledge of my chosen time and place builds up as book follows book. I don’t have to start the research from scratch every time. And often I come on a lovely interesting cluster of facts about some aspect of Roman Britain I simply hadn’t considered. I’d love to use them, but they have nothing at all to do with the work in progress. Never mind – I can use them in a future book!

But as Rhys pointed out, sometimes an interesting new idea has no relation whatsoever to the series you’re working on. Yet it's too good to waste. Maybe it’ll be the germ of another series some day? Or perhaps it’ll make a short story.

I love short stories in almost any genre, but especially in mystery and in science fiction. In both these fields you stumble across wonderful miniature masterpieces, where a single brilliant idea is king, and the characters, though not exactly cardboard, don’t need to be as rounded as in a novel. Take one of my all-time favourite short stories: Isaac Asimov’s “The Feeling of Power”. It’s set on a distant future Earth when humans are so dependent on calculators that they can’t do mental arithmetic. (I think some schoolchildren have reached that stage already!) One man  alone re-discovers how to calculate in his head, but he has terrible trouble persuading the government that this is possible, let alone of any practical use. They find a use for it eventually – I won’t spoil the ending. And isn’t that a perfect example of an idea that made a brilliant short story but wouldn’t have sustained a whole novel?

Speaking as both reader and writer, I’m only sorry there isn’t more short fiction produced nowadays. Maybe Internet publishing is the way forward here. It’s easy to download 5000 or even 10000 words onto your computer and either read them on-screen or print them off; much less hassle than downloading and either reading or printing a full-length novel.

Of course there’d be copyright issues, and perhaps fraud or plagiarism. And what if hackers tried to interfere with their rivals’ award-nominated creations in cyberspace…hey, wait a minute. A plot about the Internet is precious little use to Roman Britain, but maybe…Now let me think…

 

Elections a la Francaise

Well, it's Friday morning and it's all France today. The French Presidential election is tomorrow and
with the myriad of candidates and Chirac finally stepping down after 12 years France faces
a new road. So does Europe.
Here's an article from the Guardian that explains the candidates and the frightening popularity that
Le Pen the far right wing candidate has attained. With Sarkozy, monsieur Law and Order, as he's known (during the riots 15 months ago in the suburbs he was the Minister of the Interior and called the disaffected immigrant youth 'scum') leading the polls, Segolene Royal, a mother of four and Socialist candidate who is smart and vague on issues, and Francois Payrou, a Centrist candidate from near Lourdes who's been around for years and has now emerged in the polls - according to French papers - because so many in France are undecided and don't want to vote for either the Socialists (Segolene Royal) or the Center Right (Sarkozy) because they think it will be more of the same a la Chirac... who knows?
And with ten or more Socialists running and gathering 1 - 2 % of the projected vote that siphons off the lead Segolene Royal could muster. No doubt it will lead to a second round of elections but considering Le Pen's vote count last time, it's scary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2061771,00.html

Today, my French neighbor is coming over so we can choose the films from the SF International film festival and buy tickets together. It's our tradition and yet today I'm going to grill her on who she's voted for...she's already voted at the Consulate... and why. I know last time she refused to tell me who she voted for and had this sinking feeling she'd voted for Le Pen...maybe a vote of frustration, like so many.
Right now in the polls he's only 4% behind Payrou...

Have a good weekend,
Cara
www.carablack.com

From Mary Anna--A modest proposal

My last two posts detailing my recent travels were chatty and happy, because I didn't want to rain on my own travel parade, but I've been saving up for a rant: What can we do about people who are relentlessly self-centered?

My trip to California with my daughter was truly fabulous.  We got along famously, sightseeing and eating unhealthy food.  This is what vacations are all about.

One of the highlights were our visit to Disneyland.  As Floridians, we're experienced veterans of Disney World.  One of us visited Disney World in its first year of existence.  (Yes, I'm older than dirt.) 

Just as we passed under the archway that tells you to leave the cares of the outside world behind, we witnessed the most unspeakably rude act I've ever seen with my own eyes.  It was just before opening time and some people were in a big hurry, having read the guidebooks that tell you how essential it is that you force your way to the front of the crowd, so as to be the first in the park.  (As an experienced Disney guest, let me assure you that it's a good thing to arrive early, but you really don't have to make yourself and everyone around you miserable by trying to be at the front of the pack.  It's a big park.)

A man who was old enough to know better (in his thirties, I'd guess) was pushing his toddler in a stroller and running at top speed.  Because he had no business running through that congested area, he careened directly into a young woman.  She staggered back, but didn't fall.  If he'd hit my eleven-year-old that hard, she'd have gone down for sure.  (Then I might have had to hurt him.) This man was in such a hurry that he didn't apologize or ask if she was hurt.  He didn't even pause.  He just backed the stroller up and kept running.

I have a very ladylike vocabulary, but I confess to being so shocked by the whole incident that I blurted out, "What the h*ll?"  The poor young woman caught my eye and shrugged, then just limped away.

In case you missed the most flagrantly antisocial part of this incident, I'll point it out.  He recklessly ran into another human being with his child's stroller.  While the child was in it.  What has he taught that child?  To look out for number one, and to heck with anybody who gets in the way.

The whole incident happened very quickly, and I found myself wondering if I should have done something.  The perpetrator disappeared quickly into the crowd and he didn't have a license plate on his rear, so I couldn't report him to the Disneyland officials with any hope of having them find him.  Would they have kicked him out of the park?  Called in the Anaheim police and had him charged with reckless endangerment?  I don't know if there are laws that apply here, but there should be.

So here's my modest proposal--courtesy police.  If there had been a "courtesy policewoman present, maybe she could have had the power to ask 12 witnesses whether the infraction was truly egregious.  If this jury of his peers convicted him of extreme anti-social behavior, then he could be served a citation requiring him to get sensitivity training.  If he flunked that, he could be sentenced to anger management, and so on up the touchy-feely ladder until somebody got it through his thick skull that other people are as important as he is.

It sounds like a frivolous endeavor, until you realize that people who just don't recognize the importance of others are sociopaths, and they're capable of terrible things.  If only there had been some way to realize that the young murderer at Virginia Tech was a danger to those around him...

Now I'm really depressed.  I thought ranting was supposed to make you feel better.  It should help your feelings to get things off your chest.  Instead, I think I need to go lie down now.  Next week, I'm writing happy-dappy stuff again.

Series v. standalones

Rhys on a lovely bright Wednesday morning in California. Spring has sprung here, flowers are out in abundance, the mocking bird is singing its head off on a nearby branch. And I am sitting staring at my computer. I am just starting the re-writes on my seventh Molly novel before I send it off to my publisher. And the moment it is in the mail, I have to start on the second Royal Spyness tale.

In many ways I'm looking forward to it, but it is reminding me that writing a series is like a marriage. One can't stray from one's promise--or in this case premise. For many writers this is a comfort and I agree it certainly makes life easier. We come to know our characters, our setting and can be off and running with a new plot each time we start a new book, knowing that the framework already exists.

However for a writer like me, the sort of person who constantly has a zillion ideas flitting around in my head, writing a series can also be a frustration. I come up with a brilliant idea at two in the morning, only to realize that I'd have to wait several years before I could think of writing it. I'm itching to write that one big book that will define me as a writer. Rhys Bowen--didn't she write X? But when will I ever have the time? I've just completed my latest Molly contract and I expect I'll accept a new one for three books. I already write two series, two books a year so there is no time for a third.

I know I should feel lucky that I have publishers who like my work, that I have readers who wait for my next book. I do feel lucky about both those things but I wish the publishing industry wouldn't shove us writers into pigeonholes because it's the easiest way to market us. Most of us (with the exception of our dark horse Cara) are classified as cozy writers. God forbid if we wanted to write noir. Our publishers would blanche, our fans would desert us. And yet a good writer can write almost anything.

Fortunately I write short stories. Some of them are very dark and let me explore my noir side without having to dwell there too long. Maybe I'll write one noir book under a pseudonym and when it is published and doing well, I'll reveal that it was written by little cozy me!

If I can ever find the time, of course!

Rhys Bowen

please check www.rhysbowen.com for my signing and touring schedule

I nearly didn't blog

Jane here, and when I woke up today I decided not to blog. I felt so angry and sad about the Virginia Tech murders yesterday. I couldn’t think of anything positive to say in the wake of such horror. There are no words.

But something has comforted me. This post is probably going to sound like the worst kind of slush – “soppy”, as we used to say, something I dislike. But I’ll risk it! 

I took our dog for his usual morning walk before starting work. It’s glorious spring here – “Oh to be in England now that April’s there” and all that – but the beauty of it made me if anything sadder. Then I met a man with his dog, who told me he’s staying in our neighbourhood on holiday for a few days, and asked me for some local information – about  good walks, and the nearest beech where dogs can run free. I answered his questions, at first flying on auto-pilot more or less, not wishing to be rude to a stranger. But as we talked I remembered the good things about the places I was describing. Like our local beach: Richard and I took our pooch there last Sunday, and it was warm and happy, with families enjoying the sun and sand, and several games of cricket going on in among the picnickers. The holiday man thanked me and remarked how lovely everything looked in the spring sunshine. I said, “Yes, it does,” and realised I meant it. Trees putting on their green leaves, flowers coming out, birds singing, sun shining in a beautiful blue sky. I walked home feeling better.

Of course I’m no less angry and sad about mindless violence, but this small incident reminded me how life goes on. It must. What we have to do – it’s probably the hardest thing in the world – is not to let rage and gloom overwhelm us to the exclusion of everything else. If we allow that, the influence of evil deeds spreads far beyond the poor people directly hurt. To use an expression from World war 2 – when they had gloom enough to face – we must keep on keeping on.

Well, I did warn you it might sound soppy. But it’s true.

Elaine Viets/Saving history

Hi -- Lyn here.  May I add my expressions of both dismay and hope to those of Rhys for our friend Elaine Viets, who is one of the great people in the mystery business.  She is funny and tough, and if anybody can overcome this, Elaine is that person.

On another note, an article about how the normally arid fortress of Masada in Israel is in danger of collapse because of torrential rains made me think about how global warming is threatening some of our most cherished heritage sites.  (I hasten to add that, as bonkers as I may be about history and antiquities, I do know this is not the most pressing issue re global warming.  It is, however, one of the many irreparable effects that come along with it.)

So many heritage sites are threatened by acid rain and other environmental causes, but now we face an even greater threat.  Ancient people picked the same spots to build as we do, for their convenience and their beauty, and there are many sites on coast lines that will disappear if sea levels rise as predicted.  Fortresses like Masada and others in desert areas that have survived millennia because of the dry conditions are now just melting away.

When I was in northern Peru researching The Moche Warrior, I took a side trip to spend a day at Chan Chan near Trujillo where archaeologists were desperately trying to save the beautiful mud brick walls from an approaching El Nino season.  How much worse will it be now?  The Moche lived on a narrow strip of land between the Pacific and the Andes, sometimes a very few kilometers wide, and they, too built pyramids of mud bricks.  Just a few inches rise in the level of the Pacific could obliterate so much of what we know of that dazzling civilization.  Just one more reason to come to grips with the environmental disasters we are responsible for.  Best, Lyn    

Sad News

I don't normally post on weekends, but the mystery writing community got the startling news two days ago that our fellow writer and friend Elaine Viets had suffered a major stroke and was in a coma. There have been frequent updates and I'm happy to report that her prognosis is encouraging. There appears to be no paralysis and she is responding to light. What's more she keeps trying to spit out the ventilator, which is typical feisty Elaine!

News like this really punches me in the gut. Elaine was the most energetic, vivacious person you could ever meet. She wrote two books a year. She worked full time for several months at one of the dead end jobs she wrote about, coming home from her shift as a maid, pet bather or whatever to write about it. She wasn't old. She was tall slim and beautiful.

Adding this to the various other unnerving events of late--a skin cancer removed from my cheek that has left a two and a half inch scar and was much bigger than expected, the death of Kurt Vonegut and mystery writer Jill McGowan, and health problems of dear friends and suddenly I'm having some pretty sobering thoughts.

My husband has been telling me to slow down for ages. I'm not a slowing down sort of person. I write two books a year (like Elaine). I travel the country speaking and signing (also like Elaine). In between I look after my grandchildren, sing in a choir, hike with friends, swim and travel a lot with John.  Maybe I should take Elaine as a warning and seriously consider doing less.

The problem is that it's so hard to say no. What would I do with myself if I weren't writing, speaking, rushing around?

To anybody who reads this, please send positive thoughts in the direction of Florida and Elaine.

Rhys Bowen

www.rhysbowen.com