The Lady Killers

Are book publishers out of touch?

Jane here, and yes, some of them definitely are. Not mine, I’m happy to say; Poisoned Pen Press know how many beans make five, and I’m grateful that they do. But some UK publishers seem incapable of this sort of common-sense arithmetic, perhaps because five is the number of brain cells they possess…

I was told  yet again this week by someone knowledgeable in the book business over here that it would be very difficult to find a UK publisher for my Aurelia Marcella Roman mysteries. They’re currently published in the States, which is great; but they are set in England (although rather a long time ago!) and I live here too, and I’d like to see them available here. So, it’s pleasing to note, would many mystery readers who’ve contacted me to ask why they can’t be bought except in a few shops – a few lovely shops that are prepared to sell them now, by buying them direct from me.

So why am I repeatedly told it’s going to be difficult, verging on impossible, to get “yet another Roman series” published in Britain? Well, the argument runs, there are so many writers doing Roman mysteries already, there isn’t room for another one. If publishers are promoting one Roman-era series, they won’t want to take on another, they won’t even look at it. Which means no joy with publishers of authors like (fill in the blanks)…Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis, R.S. Downie, Rosemary Rowe, David Wishart…etc. etc. The assumption is that all mysteries set in Roman times are much of a muchness. You’ve read one, you’ve read ‘em all.

The only true thing about such an argument is the ignorance of the people who believe it. Mystery fans themselves don't believe it. They know better.

“Roman”  implies a time period between about 700 BC and 450 AD, or if you include the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, then it’s 700 BC to the 1450s AD. For much of those two millennia, "Roman" covers an area of the world stretching from Syria to Portugal, from the Sahara to Scotland. A Roman sleuth can be in Government service, or in the army, or a private individual with a reputation for getting justice done…an Finder, an aristocrat, a pavement-maker, an innkeeper…But oh dear, I’ve just thought of a snag. Pretty well all the mysteries they’ll be looking into involve a murder. Surely a publisher who has a series in which someone investigates murders would need to be wary of taking on another author who writes books in which murders are solved?

You think I’m exaggerating? OK then: would a publisher who handles, say, a series about a P.I. in 1960s Los Angeles refuse to consider another series about a policeman in 2001 New York, or one about a lone amateur investigator battling the gangs in 1920s Chicago? All three could be classified as “American Detective Mysteries,” because they feature sleuths solving crimes in the USA. Yet even with five brain cells it’s clear these three sets of mysteries are different. They may be good, they may be rubbish, but they are very unlikely to be all the same.

If publishers truly won’t even check out a new series because it appears, to their blinkered eyes, to be similar to something they have already…if they won’t even examine it to see what it’s like…then they need their heads knocking together, in hopes of bringing them back into touch with the real world.

 

a real beginning

Sharan here, back at home for a few months, I hope.  I had a great time in Omaha and afterward my sister and I went to Central Nebraska and visited all the family graves.  We were in one, very small, on the top of a hill in the middle of prairie, looking for familiar names on a chart.  There were two other women there and my sister heard one say, "Now where are the Whitneys?"  That was the name we were hunting for.  After some chat we discovered to our amazement that we were fourth cousins.  That night I sent them pictures of their great grandparents.  Try writing that in fiction and reviewers would snort at how contrived it sounds.  The four of us were the only ones in the cemetary.  Ten minutes either way and we never would have met.

I was going to put in a photo of the cemetary and may later but when we got home there was a much better present waiting.  My niece had her second baby yesterday.  He had a pile of grandparents, aunts,uncles and cousins of varying degrees all waiting for him.  So I think it's better to annouce a new descendent of all those people on the hillside -- Here is Evan Bayless

If it's Wednesday, it must be blogging!

Rhys here. It's been one of those weeks! I suppose it must have been the holiday that threw me but I haven' managed to catch up with myself yet. I misssed a doctor's appoinment yesterday--got the time wrong, and then we arrived just too late for my granddaughter's piano recital. She was just doing her encore as we walked in. I was seriously miffed about that as we'd driven 45 minutes and they started at 4.30 on the dot. We were there at 4.33. so it's been all around frustrating and I almost missed blogging this morning. I was about to move off the internet when I thought--it can't be Wednesday yet, and it was.

I suppose I have a good excuse to be baffled and bewlidered. I'm in pre-release mode of anticipation for my next Royal Spyness book. It comes out July 7th and for those of you who think that all a writer has to do is go to the bookstore and admire the book on the shelf, let me clue you in. I am currently approving a design for new bookmarks (they are fabulous), setting up guest blogs on about 10 other sites, sending out a pre-pub newsletter to my fans, a mailing to all bookstores and making sure all local events are in place around my publisher's tour. And on the seventh day Rhys rested.

I wish that writers could just escape to a little room with a view of the mountains and just write, like Beatrice Potter did. I'd love to hire an assistant but I'd spend so much time explaining what I needed done that it's easier to do it myself. And more personal if bookstores get a note from me and not someone else.

Oh, and I have to start writing my next Royal Spyness novel when I get back from Canada next week. It's going to be fun--Georgie meets Vampires in Transylvania. A great spoof on all the vampire stuff.

I can't wait, if I can just get through all the clutter of my life.

Chateau bottled

I have never had a book-signing in a more beautiful place. Or half as beautiful, come to that. The Chateau Lorane winery is some 25 miles south of Eugene, a pleasant drive through countryside reminiscent of England--except that I saw wild turkeys on the way!

This year, as an added attraction for their Memorial weekend wine-tasting, they had live music, local artists selling their works, and local authors signing as well. We were set up on a terrace right by their private lake. The weather was perfect, low 70s at a guess, sunny, with a bit of breeze off the water. An osprey flew back and forth for our delight.

Gorgeous place, and I sold some books too. I hope they invite me back next year.

Photo thanks to Patricia Edwards of Groundwaters Publishing. 

Carola

Vicki Delany: Historical Limitations

Ann Parker, Monday's child on the Lady Killers, recently returned from a great Mayhem in the Midlands conference (see Sharan's post Mayhem at 10) and still digging books and dirty clothes out of my suitcase. While I try to catch up on things, I'm turning the virtual podium over to fellow author Vicki Delany and her ruminations upon "Historical Limitations." Vicki is the author of the Smith and Winters mystery series from Poisoned Pen Press and the Klondike historical mystery series from Rendevous Crime. Her Klondike series is set smack-dab in the biggest gold rush ever ... But let's let Vicki talk about that!
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What a good time to have been invited by Ann to be a guest blogger at Lady Killers. Rhys and Jane mentioned earlier the difficulties of writing a historical novel in attempting to keep the facts accurate.
I’m new to this historical mystery thing, being mainly a writer of contemporary police procedurals, specifically the Smith and Winters series from Poisoned Pen Press. Canada’s Rendezvous Crime has just released Gold Digger: A Klondike Mystery, the first book in my new series set in Dawson, Yukon Territory, in 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush. I’ve long considered the Klondike Gold Rush to be an incredibly interesting historical event. Not the least because it stood at the exact end of the 19th century (1896–99) and the beginning of the ‘modern’ world. 
The Klondike Gold Rush has been called the Last Great Gold Rush, last because once the twentieth century began, industrialization and corporations pushed out free-wheeling independent prospectors and gold-seekers.  It was perhaps the last time in North America when thousands of people could simply leave home, sell everything, and set off—on foot!—into the wilderness in the hopes of making a fortune.
I’m fortunate in that the Klondike was extensively photographed. One of the reasons the Klondike Rush is so well known is that it was the only one of the gold rushes to leave a rich photographic record. The age of photography was just beginning, and the camera was becoming portable enough to be transported out of a confided studio and stiffly posed portraits to come into the street (and to the gold fields) and capture scenes and people unaware. I guarantee that you’ve seen some of the iconic photographs (think Alaska license plates).
So the history is well-documented, and well-photographed, to give me plenty of sources to ensure historical accuracy.  And I have tried to be as accurate as possible.
With one notable exception.
There was not one single murder in the town of Dawson, Yukon Territory, during 1898—the year that 40,000 people flooded into town. In contrast to the nearby town of Skagway, Alaska, where gangsters such as Soapy Smith ruled and crime and corruption was rampant.
The law, in the form of the North-West Mounted Police, precursors to the RCMP, was already in the Yukon before tens of thousands of people began flooding in to search for gold, and thus the rule of law was in place. The boundaries between the U.S. and Canada were still in dispute at the time, and the government had sent the NWMP to strengthen its claim to the territory. The police enforced the laws strictly—no one was allowed in from the U.S. without a year’s supply of goods (a lesson from the winter of '97-98 when the town was on the verge of starvation), everything closed on Sunday for the Lord’s Day, vile language was not allowed, guns were strictly banned.
At the same time the police realized that some things needed to be permitted in order to keep the peace in a town full of miners and gold-hunters. Therefore, although prostitution and gambling were illegal in the rest of Canada, they were permitted in the Yukon, but kept under close police supervision.
This is important historical stuff, and largely contributed to the image of Canada as a peaceful, law-abiding place that the country enjoyed for much of the twentieth century. 
In order to create a mystery novel, which some people call a ‘murder mystery’ I had to jettison the sterling record of the NWMP and create a murder. In the second book in the series, Gold Fever, there will be two. And, despite one of the main characters being a NWMP Constable, the Mounties will prove unable to solve the crime and it will be left to my protagonist, Fiona MacGillivray, to do so.
Sometimes, you just can’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

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Be sure to visit Vicki's website and catch up with her on Type M for Murder on Mondays (another Monday blogger!).

Three good signs and a signing

Jane here, glad of a Sunday to recover from a full week, including  a busy day yesterday. I did a four-hour book signing stint at Borders in York, and before and after it, I visited the York Roman Festival. It was all fun, but tiring, so I’ll keep this blog short.

The signing went well. It’s not that easy to buy my books in the UK unless you use the Internet, so I appreciate the fact that Borders’ York branch have always been supportive because I’m a local author. At least the Borders chain give their branch managers discretion to stock books of local interest (even if, as with mine, they have to buy them from me direct because they're not published in the UK,) which is more than other chains seem to manage. Some chains won't buy books that don't fall within their "system" - and here was I thinking that computers are meant to make life freer, not more restricted! But I digress...

Three things about the day were specially encouraging. First, there were plenty of people in Borders buying books, and when I chatted to their sales director he confirmed what I’ve heard elsewhere, that the book business is surviving the credit crunch better than some others.  You’d expect it to be busy on a Saturday of course, and thank goodness, it was. Second, there were a satisfying number of lovely people interested in mysteries and/or Ancient Rome, including youngsters – I don’t recommend my stuff for children, but young adults enjoy it, and the earlier we can get the next generation hooked on mysteries, the better. And third, the Roman Festival was terrific, with the large Library Gardens converted into a Living History Camp, where there were re-enactments of battles and gladiator shows, and stalls with people in costume demonstrating ancient crafts and selling delicious Roman-type food. It was busy too, and again, I saw plenty of young people taking an interest and enjoying the experience.

Actually now I think of it, there was a fourth nice thing too – when I finished and got the train home, Richard and I went for a pub meal, and it was warm enough to eat it outside.

It’s a lovely day today too, and I’m off out into the garden to enjoy the sun. Tomorrow is a public holiday here, so who knows, I might get two days’ in the garden with sunshine…or maybe not, as this is England. All the more reason to make the most of today. Back to work on Tuesday, but I’m not going to think about that yet.

Mayhem at 10

No, that isn't a news bulletin, but the tenth anniversary of Mayhem in the Midlands, the annual mystery conference put on by the Omaha Public Library.  Dana Stabenow is the guest of honor and Zoe Sharp international guest, with Jan Burke as toastmaster (mistress?)  I've been enjoying seeing old friends and meeting new ones.  Ann Parker and I were on a panel together yesterday on historical mysteries, of course and fellow author Donna Andrews took this shot of us with the moderator, Sally Fellows.  Ann is telling us about her new book and I was really much more interested than I look.

In between panels I'm trotting back to my room to write everyone here and to keep working on my next book.  Crimefest sounded great.  I hope to be there next year.

Best to all, Sharan

CrimeFest was A1

Jane here, blogging, as promised, out of sequence this week, because last Sunday was the last day of the CrimeFest convention in Bristol, and I arrived home late and pleasantly tired. The trouble with good conventions is that one tends to stay up late – and the previous night I’d been in the bar till 2.30 a.m.. I wasn’t the last to leave the party either!

CrimeFest is a fairly new convention, but it’s already building up its own traditions. The best of these is an atmosphere of friendliness and welcome to everyone, readers and writers alike. People mix and mingle and spend a lot of time catching up with friends, as I did with Dolores Gordon-Smith and Roger Hudson and Marjorie Eccles and many more that I see all too rarely. I was so pleased to meet fellow Lady Killer Cara Black, who’d flown in from France, where she’d been doing some research (So she said! Writing mysteries about Paris gives a wonderful excuse for visiting the place, doesn’t it?) Her account of adventures in France was fascinating, and it was such fun to meet her face to face at long last.

Another author I enjoyed getting to know was R. S. (Ruth) Downie. Her  mysteries are set in the Roman era, like mine, (the Medicus Roman doctor series,) and we enjoyed comparing notes about our period, and swapping details of worthwhile reference books. I’m looking forward enormously to reading her books, but will have to wait a while, because I make it a rule never to read other people’s Roman books while I’m working on one of my own, as I am now.

There were some really interesting and unusual panel discussions, and plenty of witty and acute observations, as authors talked about their work. If I tried to summarise them all I’d be on the way to a novella, but much of the discussion has stayed in my head and will find space later. One of my favourite panels included Gyles Brandreth, actor, writer, broadcaster, and authority on all things Victorian. I interviewed him long ago in my BBC days, as part of a programme I made about Victorian pantomime; he's always excellent value. Now he’s writing a mystery series featuring Oscar Wilde, which sounds terrific…more titles on my TBR list! The panel was a thought-provoking discussion of the influence of Poe and Conan Doyle on the mystery genre. But Gyles was an MP for a few years, and couldn’t resist including a swipe at the current scandals about British MPs claiming enormous expenses to supplement their salaries, especially for second homes which, admittedly, many of them need because they represent constituencies at a distance from London. Trouble is, some greedy Honourable Members have tended to furnish these homes not as pieds-a-terre but as castles. Gyles said when he was introduced, “I’d like to make it clear that when I was an MP, I dug my own moat.” And if you think nobody has actually claimed expenses for a moat, just google it…

To sum up: I’ve had a fabulous time, and come home with books to read, memories to smile at, and interesting thoughts to mull over. Who could ask for more? Roll on CrimeFest 2010.

 

 

 

Garage sales with sex and chocolate

Rhys here on Wedesday, in the early planning stages of setting up a summer blog book tour. This seems to be the thing to do these days and a great way to reach out to potential new readers. One chooses compatible blogs and visits each in turn for a week, a month or until the stamina runs out. So if anyone has suggestions for a great blog to visit, please contact me (rhysbowen@comcast.net)

Next comes the challenge of what to write about in fifteen or twenty blogs, as it all has to be done ahead of time as I'll be doing a real, physical tour at the same moment. I've been interested in seeing what draws the biggest number of hits to my current blogs. for this blog it was definitely my post on the 10 most beautiful places on Earth. People dug that one out for years after I posted it.

But for my other blog, Jungle Red Writers, we got the most attention for a post on garage sales. It seems that these days people are very interested in saving money! Of course you can still attract attention by the mention of sex and chocolate so I'm thinking of giving all my future blogs the above title, no matter what the subject matter. So do chime in and comment: what do you like to see in a blog post? Do you enjoy knowing what's happening in a writers normal everyday life, or do you like insights into the creative process, research etc?

Or do you prefer garage sales, sex and chocolate?

Daisy in the UK

I've been excited for months now--very wearing!--about Daisy's coming appearance in the UK. At first I was given to understand that the first (Death at Wentwater Court) would be out last  September. Next I heard was this month. Now the website of Constable and  Robinson says the first 3 will all appear on the 27th September this year. We shall see. But at least they have the covers up on their site, all new and really neat!

Curiously, Requiem for a Mezzo has the figure I assume to be the mezzo-soprano victim in a blue dress with brown hair. In the book she's a blond in a blue dress. On the cover of the original hardback, she was a blond in a red dress (which is what the dark haired soprano was wearing in the book). Only the US paperback got it right.

I went to a performance of Verdi's Requiem last week, in Eugene (the performance in the book is at the Royal Albert Hall). Both soprano and mezzo soloists were in black, but the mezzo was (correctly) blond and the soprano very dark haired. However, it was the soprano who had a drink under her chair from which she frequently sipped. I kept having a strange feeling that any moment she would keel over with froth on her lips!

I can go on for hours about book covers, the good, the bad and the indifferent, but apart from the hair-colour, I really like these :-)

Carola