Celebration!

Please join us in welcoming the last honored guests of 2011 to the LadyKillers: Bette Golden Lamb and J. J. Lamb, the co-authors of three crime novels. Their most recent book is the independently-published SISTERS IN SILENCE, a medical thriller about a fertility counselor who has gone off the deep end. Their other novels are HEIR TODAY…, a fast-paced suspense/adventure featuring a husband-wife team “reminiscent of Nick & Nora Charles;” and BONE DRY, a high-tension medical thriller described by PW as “not for the squeamish.” They combine collaboration and cohabitation in an air of creative exchange in their Northern California home.

  When not writing with J. J. or on her own, Bette, unmistakably from the Bronx, can be found in her studio playing with clay. She is a professional ceramist, sculptor, and artist (www.bettegoldenlamb.com) whose creations appear in regional, national, and international exhibitions. She’s also an RN, and a devoted gardener. “As an RN, I wanted to write medical thrillers that put nurses smack in the center of a story,” she says. “Most such novels have MDs as the protagonist, when in reality doctors sort of breeze in and out of a hospital a couple of times a day, while nurses run and control the hospital environment.”

J. J. is a former newspaper reporter, Associated Press staff writer, trade press correspondent, and freelance journalist. His journalism career was interrupted early on by the U.S. Army, which provided him with a Top Secret clearance, locked room with table, chair, and typewriter, and time to write short stories. The stories evolved into an original paperback series featuring Las Vegas-based PI Zachariah Tobias Rolfe III. Then came collaboration with Bette on their current series of books. He’s also a proud and skilled jack-of-all-trades, typical of a born-and-raised Hoosier (www.jjlamb.com).

Between them, the Lambs belong to Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the same writers critique group for the past 19 years. In addition to the successful launch of their latest co-authored thriller, they are looking forward to the publication of new individual novels - an Urban Fantasy from Bette, and a new Zach Rolfe caper from J. J. And there is another medical thriller in the works.

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Don‘t know why it is, but we writers have a tendency to be a gloomy lot. Nothing ever seems to be going right, from the weather when we get up in the morning, to the number of books sold (if any) at the end of the week, month, quarter, or year.

And yet…

And yet…

Here, at the end of 2011 and the start of 2012, there is true cause for celebration.

That’s right, celebration!

For all of us.

The struggle to get paid for what one writes, and the even greater struggle to make a living from writing, particularly in fiction, has been going on for a long, long time.

Until 1825, most American authors had to pay printers to publish their work, long before there was a thriving “vanity press.”

At the time, this reportedly wasn’t a problem for people of means, such as Washington Irving, or the New York Knickerbockers group, or a group of Connecticut poets known as the Hartford Wits. Benjamin Franklin, a printer by trade, could publish his own writings. While Walt Whitman set type for a printer so Leaves of Grass could see the light of day.

No surprise then that from the earliest days, trying to write fiction for a living and living in poverty were almost synonymous.  Charles Brockden Brown, generally regarded as the most ambitious and accomplished American novelist prior to James Fenimore Cooper, was also the first to attempt to live from his writing. But in his 39^th year, he died broke. Sort of a prequel to Edgar Allan Poe, who was also impoverished when he died at the age of 40.

But wait! We’re supposed to be talking about having cause to celebrate in this, the early years of the 21st Century.

While we’re living in a time of great consternation and transformation, for both writers and publishers, it’s also a time when we writers have been given the ability and means to control the publication and distribution of our works…through e-books and print-on-demand editions.

At very little expense and with a minimum of effort, a writer can now type “The End” on the last page of a manuscript and within a month or less, have it available to the reading public -- worldwide.  Further, the price can be set at whatever the writer wants it to be.

No more waiting weeks or months for an agent to reply to a query. No more waiting months or years to find an interested publisher. No more waiting a year or more for a book to hit bookstore shelves after being accepted for publication.

The agent-editor-publisher course of action continues to be available, and there no doubt will be times when we might prefer to follow this (tortuous) route to publication.

Regardless, what’s happening today is simply amazing! The entire paradigm has shifted.

(We caution, though, that those who think giving away their writing has a certain fly-in-the-the-sugar romance about it should re-read our earlier comments about the fates of Mr. Brown and Mr. Poe.)

 This thing of writers being able to be their own publisher and distributor isn’t all champagne and caviar, and maybe it never will be. Ah, but our fates are now more in our own hands than they’ve ever been.

And don’t think that agents, editors, and publishers -- the middlemen -- are not paying attention to all of this. A lot of attention. Close attention.

After a lengthy and non-productive period of pooh-poohing electronic publishing, there is now a virtual stampede by these doubting-Thomas agents/editors/publishers to offer formatting and placement “services” to current and potential clients (that’s us, the writers).  It appears that once a middleman, always a middleman. But there is a price to be paid because there is no true altruism.

Are there legitimate concerns about the e-publishing phenomenon? Of course.

 There is a flood of new and reissued e-books popping up on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere.  And currently, there are no gate-keepers, those who would attempt to point out to readers the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But we would say, without fear of contradiction, that the agents, editors, and publishers didn’t always do a really good job with those things either. (And have you noticed the increased number of typos and grammatical errors appearing in new hardbacks of late?)

 Along with our new-found freedom, we need to accept the responsibility of putting out the best book possible in terms of story, language use, punctuation, and spelling…like having someone other than us do the proof reading.

So, unless you still write with pen/pencil on paper or with a manual/electric typewriter, the future is here. Otherwise, the catch-up period for joining the publishing revolution may take quite a bit longer.

Regardless, it’s a whole new world.

We say, celebrate!

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Book trailer for SISTERS IN SILENCE

Comments

[Jacqueline Seewald]

Congrats to you, Bette and J.J. on your novels.

I thinking collaboration must be good for the soul.

Eb-publishing does provide an alternative to the traditional route which I too applaud. However, I agree that simply giving work away for nothing is a very bad idea. Will e-publishing provide more opportunity to authors or simply less pay?

Time will tell.

Jacqueline Seewald
THE TRUTH SLEUTH
THE INFERNO COLLECTION, THE DROWNING POOL--now in ebook formats

[Mysti Berry]

Congrats on the new book! I hope you have much to celebrate in 2012!!!!

[Bette Golden Lamb]

Hi Jacqueline,
Thanks for you comments.
We continue to pursue every publishing opportunity available. And as you so sagely say, "Time will tell." We can only hope it'll be sooner than later:)
Best,
Bette & J.J.

[Bette Golden Lamb]

Hey Mysti,
Thanks for the good wishes! And best of luck (particularly publishing) to you!
Bette & J.J.

[Maddy]

Wise words indeed, but I was so distracted by the fabulous trailer that I've forgotten what I was going to write. Best of luck for the New Year.

[Dana]

Lovely post and may 2012 bring many aazing things to Celebrate!!!

[Ann Parker]

... And into 2012 we go! Thank you, JJ and Bette for a great post! :-)

[Bette Golden Lamb]

Hi Maddy& Dana,
Thanks for reading the post and the good wishes.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[Bette Golden Lamb]

Hi Ann,
Thanks for having us. It was tons of fun!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR & may we all thrive.
Bette & J.J.