Where Do I Begin

Three people have read my novel. All three of them have suggested a different point to begin the story. One scene is the essence of the book but would require two immediate flashbacks. The second possibility is the scene that points out the dilemma but it's a talky scene. The third is a driving scene that's in reaction to her discovery of her dilemma. The last possibility casts her in the most negative light so maybe it's not a good place to start. If a unlikable person puts a reader off, this would be most likely beginning to do it, but it does allow me to move forward instead of doubling back.
Do you have trouble knowing where to begin your story?
P.S. Now two recent readers have told me I am writing a rumination on an artist's life with crime elements. WTF. How did that happen? How do I pitch this?

Super Tuesday

Yesterday two friends sent me detailed defenses of Hillary Clinton, one from Robin Morgan, the other from Stanley Fish. You can find either editorial by googling their name. I do believe an agenda is being served with the attacks on Hillary Clinton and that many of these attacks are orchestrated by the Republican Party and the media. Shoot down the stronger candidate now--or at least the one that appeared to be the stronger candidate.
It is easier to get away with attacking a woman than a black man. Racism trumps sexism as an issue as it did in the sixties. We can talk about ironing shirts but not about shining shoes. It is sickening that there are still people who would define either of these candidates in this way.
The important thing to remember is that the Democrats have come up with two highly credible candidates that are both from minority groups. Can you imagine the Republicans even choosing a VP from either group much less a President? And instead of reveling in how far we have come, we have been manipulated into choosing one and denigrating the other. I'm not talking about a vote in a primary but a public show of preference, name-calling and sickening jokes.
Hillary or Obama, take your pick. I will happily vote for either-- candidates who care about universal health care, an end to the insanity it Iraq, a serious commitment to improving the environment, insuring children don't go to bed hungry, a fair tax system, better schools. The list goes on.
It is so important to stand behind whoever the nominee is because we are in danger of doing what seemed impossible a few months ago--losing the White House to another supporter of the war, someone else who says America first, last and always and the rest of the world be damned. Sure McCain looks good next to George Bush but they are not very different at all. They didn't look very different eight years ago and time has not changed that.

Some Things I Have Recently Enjoyed

Persepolis. I admired more than loved this movie because the story was so familiar (not the author's fault) from Reading Lolita in Tehran. But the images were haunting and the story clearly told. A good capsule of what's happend over the last 30 years. And some of the artwork is stunning.
In Treament is my new addiction. Five nights, five patients, each of them telling a story that is poignant and riveting. All of this is held together by therapist, Gabriel Byrnes, who sees his own therapist on Fridays. I didn't like HBO's fall try at a therapy series but this one, minus the embarrassing clinical sex, looks to be a winner.
I've only seen the first two episodes of this Breaking Bad but Brian Cranston holds the screen with the story of a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer who raises money to suppost his family (his son has CP and his wife is pregnant) by opening a crystal meth lab in the dessert. It manages to be funny, sad and engrossing so far.
This book defies the notion that a murder must happen by page 3. No crimes take place for 3/4 of the book and I was not bored for a second. Willeford is a genius at setting , character and atmosphere, and most of all, humor. I laughed more reading this book than anything I can remember. I dread the day when I close my last Willeford book

Insomnia's my middle name

Dinner conversation tonight: what do you watch at 2:00am when you can't sleep? My husband picks movies. It doesn't matter where in the movie or whether he's seen it. He just likes the pace and feel of a movie to get him sleepy.
I can't do this. I have to watch a movie from the beginning, even if I've seen it.
Our two guests, not married, both admit to watching infomercials. Neither cook yet both are mesmerized by cooking gadgets-blenders, processors, coffee-makers, knives. At some point I learned how to tune out commercials (much like Sunday sermons) so this isn't for me either.
I watch old sitcoms-I need a narrative, something cheerful, something short. I wish there was a channel that always had an old sitcom on at 2:00. Maybe Sports Night or Frasier or The Larry Sanders Show.

What do you watch at 2:00 am?

Is sending out queries hard for you too?

Here I am after two weeks of doing this and I have only sent out 8 queries to agents. What makes me so resistant to doing this? Is it fear of failure? Is it the work involved in figuring how who, when, where and what? Something stands between me and finishing this task. Is it hard for everyone or do you whizz through it? So many of their websites seem to chide you for bothering them. Or warn you. Some seem determined to reject you from the start. Are these people any nicer once they've taken you on?

"What's Your "Go To"?

In reading the chapter of Russell Banks' new novel yesterday (thanks to TM for the referral) I noticed the emphasis on weather and setting. I wonder if most writers have a "go to" when beginning a book or story" weather, atmosphere, character description, time period, dialog, a street scene. Many of my stories begin with someone driving in a car. This is sort of odd since I rarely drive. But maybe in my dream life, which is where most of this process comes from, I am quite the driver.
Where do you "go to" to get comfortable in a story? Do you find you begin with similarly-set scenes from project to project?

Will Someone Please Explain This?

One of my favorite writers is Russell Banks. Continental Drift and Affliction both reflect blue-collar male malaise in the late 20th century better than almost any other books I can think of. They are scary, real and sad.
Today his new book The Reserve was reviewed in the New York Times. I am not going to repeat any of the review here. It's possible that this book does not live up to his earlier work. Clearly, Banks is writing about a different sort of person than the blue-collar guys in his earlier work; the book is set in a different stratum of society.
What I want to pursue here is this? Should a reviewer feel he/she owes the public the same sort of critique a newspaper editorialist owes the public when he/she finds out a politician is corrupt. Because I feel this is the sort of review I read today. Should words like cheesy be used? Is this civil language?
How far is going too far for a reviewer?

Patry Francis and The Liar's Diary

I don't know Patry Francis personally. I know her name from "Killer Year," from blog traffic, from her own blog, from favorable mentions of The Liar's Diary.

From the movies and books she lists as favorites on her blog, I know we're a lot alike. We may even be of a similar age, coming to writing later in life--or at least to writing a novel. There's something that catches in your throat when you weigh the chances of getting a first book onto a shelf at this age. But Patry did it.

It's evident from her blog, from her trailer, from all of it, that she throws herself into whatever she chooses to pursue. I hope I meet Patry Francis one day.

As I was thinking about Patry last Friday, I went into a Borders and saw The Liar's Diary on the sale shelf. It was the hardback version, making way for the newly issued paperback today. Not wanting to carry it into the restroom (you know what they do to people who do that) I let it rest on the sales' table. Twenty minutes later, after browsing and such, I came back for it. It was gone. Someone else knew about Patry Francis.

I hope you know about her too. Her book is availabe in paperback this week. Buy it. Don't put it off like I did because she's going to sell a lot of copies. You don't want to be without yours.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD31Ip3y3Gk

The Muse

The Muse

True or false: looking back over my creative work, as a writer, painter, musician, actor, I find it hard to distinguish later what pieces came to me in some mystical (muse-like) way from what pieces came to me through repeated, hard work.This is true for me. The exception being that writing that comes like a ghost in the night sometimes has a more dreamlike quality to it--totally fitting but not necessarily better. What about you.

What Would You Do

Between dinner and seeing Persepolis last night, four of us got into this discussion re: the Heath Ledger death though only as a backdrop. Here's the scenario:

You come into a friend's house. He's lying dead in his bed. It's almost certain, he has died from a drug-related and self-induced incident. Strewn around his bedroom are other illegal drugs, pornographic material, letters from his mistress (his wife lives in his other house), a computer open to his email screen or to a porno cite, a cellphone that probably has calls to a drug dealer, a mistress, etc. on it. Would you tidy things up for him? Would you get rid of some of the damaging objects in his room? Or would you regard it as a possible crime scene and sacrosanct?

An Invitation

A second invitation to submit a flash fiction piece for our Valentine's Day challenge. Mystery Dawg will post all stories from writers without sites of their own on Powder Burn. Both of us will list links to all the stories. Nice to keep it to around 700 wrds and maybe tie love and crime in a big red bow. We have about ten or so writers, but we want more. Come on. You know you want to. Would it be Valentine's Day without some mayhem.

Reading Sideswipe by Charles Willeford, the third Hoke Moseley. Does anyone have a better voice? Okay, maybe Ken Bruen but not many others. He can make you laugh and cry in the same sentence. Whose voice lights up your nights?

Rejections

We all get them--except sometimes we don't. Sometimes we never hear from the editor at all. Sometime we find out we've been rejected when the zine or journal comes out. I much prefer a note or even a sentence telling me this in advance of the zine appearance. Maybe it's hard to say no to writers but it's part of the process--getting rejected and if we can't take it, we shouldn't be in this business.
I can take your rejections. It's the wondering that kills me.
What do you think?

South Carolina Debate

I wouldn't be seeing so much of these debates if my husband wasn't a presidential scholar and that would be fine with me because I'm starting to get scared. I guess the problem is that the Democratic candidates' positions are too close so that Hillary and Obama are forced to argue about voting records, PACS and Boards they've sat on. But even Obama's nearly unflappable civility it starting to fade with the constant onslaught from Senator Clinton and her spouse. Going into this season, I thought I might support her, but all she's proven to me is she's the toughest candidate. Is that her intent? Is that the most necessary trait in a presidential candidate? Is there such a thing as wanting to win too much--because I think she does and it's making her into something scary. I thought she'd found her voice last week, but apparently it's a voice that changes to suit the night.

Where do you write?

There was a fascinating piece in the NYT yesterday about the success of romantic novels written by Japanese women on their cellphones, some while on their way to work on the subways. Many of these novels go on to regular publication and of last year's ten best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels. This led to a discussion in our household on where people wrote. Thomas Wolfe on his refrigerator, Hemingway at the cafes, etc. Neither my husband or I can write by hand any longer. We are limited to computer access, but I can carry my flash drive around from computer to computer and not mind. He prefers his own at home.
What about you? Anyone still using yellow pads? Must you write in one place? Do you write better in Starbucks than at home alone? Can you only write in the A.M.? In the P.M.?
Is anyone here writing on their cellphone?

***Even stranger is that this method of writing (on cellphones) is changing the way books read there. They are growing closer to comics and manga in their extreme terseness. Wonder if that will come are way.

Thirteen Months

We got our first opportunity to babysit for our grandson at our house for an extended period of time and we learned just what things he likes to do: try to fit a small ball into every cubbyhole and bowl in the house; dance madly spinning around and looking upward, arms stretched to Stephane Grappelli's "Night and Day," grab CDs out of the CD stand and watch us change them, push every button on every machine in the house (how do you get you TV off of anagram and back to digitial?) say woof, woof, climb up and down the stairs, always teetering on the top step for a minute, go up the steps with things in both hands which he puts on the step above him, climbs up, picks them up and repeats. And when we all got very tired, watch Barney and Teletubbies. He only likes the puppets though.

The Importance of Proofreading"

Pretty damned funny. Hat tip to Dorene. (Wish I could figure out how to directly download it.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg

The hottest love has the coldest end

I am sick, sick, sick of revisions. I now have two versions of the same novel that differ substantially. One's a lot more literary than the other. What to do? What to do? Write something else while I think.

Will you write along with me? Could we have a Valentine's Day round robin. No one has done this for a year or so. I think it's too much to ask for love stories from you guys, but how about love/crime flash fiction stories. Under 750 words. Is anyone interested? I'd guess we'd need at least 8 or more for it to seem like anything other than a lame-brained scheme. If eight or more people send me a story or tell me they will send one by February 12th, we can do it on the 14th. Link them up and celebrate the day as only we can. What do you think?

P.S. If anyone (and this means you Bryon Q.)has a love story without any crime in it, that's good too. Come on. I bet you all have one or two on your hard drive. That night you poured your heart out. The night you forgot to knock someone off. The night you just didn't have it in you.

This is a one-time thing because I don't know how to make a site. Let me know.

Criminalistics

I've started my class in criminalistics. In the coming weeks I will learn about evidence documentation; shoeprint/tireprint impression evidence; firearms and tool mark examination; questioned document examination, fingerprints and personal identification, serology, DNA, bloodstain pattern interpretation, drugs of evidence, trace evidence, arson and explosives, courtroom testimony. Will this help me as a writer? I hope so.
One thing that doesn't help me is that everyone around me at the back of the class (where I used to sit when I was a real student), spends their time text messaging and checking their voicemail. The class is spending the semester on the Jeffrey MacDonald case (Fatal Vision). I was the only student in a class of 50 that had heard of the case. I'm not even sure they knew who Charles Manson was? And these are the future Detroit Police.

The Michigan Primary

I live in a state (Michigan) where you can only vote for Hillary Clinton or undecided if you're a Democrat tomorrow. If you're a Republican you get the whole roster of horrible choices. Is this fair? Should the Democratic Party be able to decide that a primary in Michigan is invalid because we jumped the queue? Should the Democratic Party in Michigan sue the National Party for disenfranchising it? They've even taken hotel rooms away from eventual delegates to the national convention. When are we going to draft a sensible system for choosing Presidential candidates and what should that be? I vote for regional primaries that alternate every four years. What do you think?

TV Characters

Re: my post yesterday, Gerald has kindly pointed out that Tony Shaloub has perhaps pushed his characterization of Monk beyond the initial concept of the writers, making him more memorable than any individual plotline would suggest. He also pointed out that Jim Garner did this with Rockford, Tom Selleck with Magnum and so on. Now if the writing is superior the actor probably doesn't have to work as hard. Or in some cases, individual efforts don't shine as brightly (take The Wire, which is all about writing). Or maybe also due to a very large cast allowing little airtime for any one character.
What individual efforts made more of a movie or TV show than the writing allowed for. What did you watch strictly for an individual performance?
Julia Louis Dreyfus has done this with her two followups to Seinfeld. Christine is especially tepid save for her performance (IMHO). Tony Randall and Jack Klugman did this with The Odd Couple, which ran out of steam after its many incarnations. Michael J. Fox carried Family Ties on his back for years. What else?

Monk

I am always surprised at how often this television show is willing to turn to pathos rather than crime-solving or humor. Is this lazy writing or do they define this basically as a show about mental illness? I don't watch it that often but it almost always seem to center around the loss of his wife, which is tragic but many years in the past. Dwelling on it so often seems a bit like the easy way out.

Should I Throw in Flying Saucers, a Vampire, a recipe or a sixth century Chinese girl

I signed up for Publishers Marketplace or whatever it is where you get notice of the deals made on books everyday. Someone said it was a good idea to understand the marketplace if you were trying to sell a book.
But no kidding, it just scares me. Every book has some supernatural element. Or is set in a remote place. Or features recipes. Or afghan patterns. Or dogs that are afghans. and solve crimes Or creatures from other worlds that fly and fight. Doesn't anyone write about regular folks? Do you ever consider adding such an element just to make it sell?

Was Hillary's Crying for Real?

I can't figure out how to upload video (I am so computer illiterate!) but you've all seen this. Was it for real? It's an ongoing disagreement in our house. I believe no woman would take a chance on crying publicly as a stunt because it brings all the stereotypes to mind for potential voters. Can a woman who cries because she's losing in a primary be taken seriously as Commander in Chief.

I think Hillary cried out of tiredness and frustration.

My husband thinks it was a strategy to humanize her since this is one of the biggest knocks against her--that she is inhuman.

What do you think? Did it make you more or less sympathetic to her candidacy?

Keep this in mind. When Hillary cried, nobody died. Okay, bad joke.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVlwH7-05Fk

Savages

This is more than an ode to Savages, which except for the penultimate and final scenes was one of the best movies of the year. It is an ode to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who in the last month or two has given three riveting performances, playing three completely different characters.
He has moved into a class by himself. and is so good that he throws lesser performances off--as he did in Charlie Wilson's War. I can't think of any actor so able to inhabit a part. And frankly, he cannot count on a pretty face to help him. Maybe that's the point, too. I would like to see him receive both the best and best supporting Oscars this year. Also wonderful was Laura Linney and Philip Bosco. What a terrific movie. A- and only because of the tacked on upbeat ending. P.S. Thanks to the ten people who offered me aid on the query letter. You rock!

My Top Movies of 2008

President-Elect Obama reading.


In no particular order.




1. In Bruges
2. The Bank Job
3. Transsiberian
4. Frozen River
5. Rachel Getting Married
6. Tell No One
7. I've Loved You So Long
8. Edge of Heaven
9. Frost/Nixon
10. Reprise
11. Beauty in Trouble
12. Slumdog Millionaire

MTM-Hilberry Theater

The Hilberry Theatre is unique - an open stage performance center for the nation’s first and only graduate repertory company - presenting seven plays in rotating repertory from October to mid-May. It is part of Wayne State University, where I work, and students come from across the country to earn an MFA degree in some aspect of theater.

Created in 1963, with the belief that repertory theatre is the best possible training ground for careers in the theatre, the Hilberry was the brainchild of Leonard Leone, now Director Emeritus. Clarence B. Hilberry, then president of Wayne State University, personally took the responsibility of raising the funds to convert the First Church of Christ Scientist in Detroit into an open-stage theatre, which now stands as a memorial to his leadership.

Following the theatre’s opening, he invited a group of community leaders to form a women’s committee to ensure the continuity of the growing company. “The Understudies,” as the group became known, for over 40 years has solicited funds, primarily from individual donors, to provide essential support for the artists of the Hilberry company.The company is composed of 45-50 actors, costume, lighting and scenic designer-technicians, stage managers and theatre managers, who work under the direction of a professional staff.

The members of the company, chosen in nationwide auditions and interviews, receive training leading to advanced degrees in acting, directing, design, or management.The heart of the program is a rotating repertory of outstanding classic and modern plays. Widely known for the high quality of its productions, the Hilberry has received numerous honors. It has been selected to perform at Ford’s Theatre and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in the Far East for the USO. Over the years, the Hilberry has been honored with awards by the Detroit Newspapers, including “Best Director” and “Best Play” for 2003-2004 season’s The Kentucky Cycle Parts I and II co-directed by Patricia Ansuini and Lavinia Hart as well as “Best Season” (Oakland Press), “Favorite Local Professional Productions - Drama” for Glengarry Glen Ross and “Favorite Local Professional Production - Comedy” for Lovers and Executioners (Between the Lines), and many individual awards for members of the company.

This season, playing in rotating repertory, are: Eurydice , by Sarah Ruhl, Oct. 3 - Dec. 13 Hamlet , by William Shakespeare, Oct. 24 - Jan. 24 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , by Tom Stoppard, Nov 14 - Mar. 14 Born Yesterday , by Garson Kanin, Jan. 9 - Apr. 11 All My Sons , by Arthur Miller, Feb. 20 - May 16 On Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , by Dale Wasserman, Apr. 3 - May 8.

New Hope for the Dead

One of the pieces of advice that comes to beginning writers (especially those of crime fiction) is to refrain from too much description of setting or character. Dive right into the plot and stay focused on it. Maybe things were different twenty years ago, but one of the things I most enjoy about the three Willeford novels I have read is that he doesn't do that. The plot can take a long time to develop and he spends time on Florida real estate, politics, etc. He also spends time on Hoke's personal life. Does only a master get to break the rules or were the rules different then? What do you think? Early readers of my attempt at a
novel advised me to cut all the stuff about Detroit and go right to the story. Maybe that was a mistake?

Do You Dread Coming Home or is it Me?

Everyone at the terminal looks depressed. We are all going back to a city where the sky is gray, the weather cold, the economy down the drain. No one is reading more than the newspaper in a crowd of 100. Ipods, sure. Vacant stares, galore, Cell phones, you bet. The only happy travelers are the ones where Detroit is an interim stop. The ones moving on to sunny climes.
Do you dread going home? Is where you're going home to always a lesser place than where you've been? Does it seem like you're living in the least interesting place on the globe?
Sorry. My birthday has really bummed me out. Who wants to be 60? Only the ones out there who are 70.

My favorite movies of 2007

Some maybe actually 2006 movies. No special order and no real surprises. These were probably on everyone's lists. What were yours?

Painted Veil
Volver
Zodiac
Lives of Others
First Snow
51 Birch Street
Away From Her
Once
Hairspray
3:10 to Yuma
Gone Baby Gone
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Starting Out in the Evening
Sweeney Todd

A Christmas Gift (for me)

If anyone is willing to critique my query letter, which I must start sending out next week, please email me and I'll send it along. It's just one page.
Going to that agency conference in November completely spooked me about query letters. Let alone the damned synopsis. Thanks in advance.

aa2579@wayne.edu

Has Your Blog Changed over the Years

I notice changes in blogs: appearances, disappearances, subject matter, frequency, length of entries. I think as time goes on, it's harder to remain fresh. Also some people who use to discuss their family on their blogs, pulled back from that, perhaps wisely. It becomes an organ of publicity sometimes. How has your blog changed? What trends to you see in other blogs?

Sweeney Todd

Although I found the music in this utterly unmemorable I liked everything else about it. Even Sacha Baron Cohen, who I usually find annoying, did a good job with his role. Great atmosphere and the two leads had the courage to play their parts to the max, leaving us with no sympathy for them by the end. No overacting either. This movie continues the trend in strange hairstyles with Depp's styling. Surely a barber should sport a better coiffure. A-.

Charlie Wilson's War

There was much to like in this movie. Smart way of telling the story, witty dialogue, great scenes of Afghanistan (or its stand in, Morocco) but I have to say Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance, brilliant as usual, threw off the performances of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Theirs were the typical Hollywood portrayals, not bad, but a forties style acting; his was a riveting, burn down the house perfomance and the contrast was detrimental to the whole production. I also think the film skirts the final issue-- what happened after we stopped funding Afghanistan-- in an effort to not detract from Charlie Wilson's accomplishiment and much of the audience was puzzled by the cursory mention of funding a school and Congress's refusal to do so.
Tom and Julia like to leave on a high note, Hoffman might have be willing to skulk out. Also a continuation of the strange hair styles we've seen in other films this year. I'd give it a B.

Starting Out in the Evening

This was a terrific movie that beautifully evoked the life of a writer. Great performance by Frank Langella, too. Nuanced, interesting, persuasive. I'd give it a A-. But the movie raises a subject I think about a lot. Passion for a novel. It's been a long time since I have passionately loved a novel. Maybe it's a function of youth--to be able to throw yourself into a book that way. The books I have loved were all read in my teens and twenties--Revolutionary Road, Look Homeward Angel, the early novels of Anne Tyler. The novels of the Canadian Margaret Lawrence, The Great Gatsby and many more. The movie actually raises this issue: a young woman prefers the writer's early works which were about his characters; an older reader liked his later work, which was about issues.
Have you read a book recently you're passionate about? Has that sort of book disappeared or is it my youth that has? Do we reach an age when passion is harder to come by?

Happy Holidays

From the Abbott Family

Year of the Dog

It's strange how a movie many people liked can just elude you. I'm not sure that when I reached the end I even got the point. That it's better to be crazy and impassioned than sane and passive? I guess that's it. I expected the movie to be humorous--it seldom was. It was grim, slow and overly fond of Molly Shannon's face. Truly this obsession with closeups is getting on my nerves, too. Why must everything be pitched at less than three feet? I'd give it a C.
What movie, generally well reviewed eluded you? Or what movie generally poorly reviewed did you like? I liked Across the Universe, which was pretty well panned.
Also, I find I am a lot harder on movies I see on DVD. Easier to walk out of the living room than a theater.

Am I crazy

to start writing a second book about the same character when I originally thought she was too dark to carry a first novel? Plus I have no idea if that novel will find an agent and publisher. Do people do that--write sequels before the first novel is a sure thing?
I keep trying to return to writing short stories but Violet's still in my head and noticing things through my eyes. Maybe this means by the end of the book she wasn't such a bad girl. Or do people write sequels about not-so-nice protagonists. Of course, I don't mean a Hannibal Lector or Dexter sort of protag. Just your ordinary grumpy, bitchy woman. What do you think?

In the Middle of a Big Snowstorm in Michigan

I'd like to thank some of the people in the crime fiction world who have enhanced my life over the last year. Thanks to the selfless editors who so tirelessly put out zines. Especially to the following editors who have published my stories this year: Sandra Ruttan, Bryon Quertermous, Todd Robinson, D.Z. Allen, Megan Powell, Gerald So and Kevin Burton Smith, Tony Black, Joede (MystericalE), Steven McDermott, Dave Zeltserman, B.J Bourg, Ed Gorman and John Helfers, Mystery Dawg. There may be more and I apologize if I've forgotten you. And thanks to Tribe whose friendship endures even if FITG is gone. I have had such a good experience with every one of these editors. You are truly amazing.
Thanks to Graham Powell Daniel Hatadi and Tom Piccirilli for running sites that allow us to communicate. Thanks also to bloggers who run blogs that are strictly non-self-promotional--like Rap Sheet, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Mystery File and many others.
Thanks to the people who stop by this blog now and then to offer advice, solace, congratulations or just to weigh in. I can't tell you how you've brightened my days.
Thanks to my daughter, Megan, who continues to inspire me. She may have tiny feet but she leaves big tracks for me to follow. I am in awe that she spends 40 hours a week raising money for the people of East Harlem and still finds time to write.
It's been a difficult year in many ways, but this is my outlet and I am grateful to have one.

The Return of the Uber Mother

And that was the kind of mother I was, I'm afraid. I threw myself into mothering so thoroughly that I had time for little else. This both advantaged and handicapped my kids. I won't go into how; you can guess.
And now my parents have come under the same regime. My 93 year old father moved in with us a few weeks ago able to care for himself in almost every way. Now he comes to me to blow his nose, get his meds, get something to drink. He coughs and I fly downstairs, confusing both of us.
Are you like this as a parent? Was your mother like this? Why do we feel the need to take too good a care of people even when we know it's not the right thing to do.
Anyway, this is what I'm doing nowadays. Being part of what Philip Wylie called "momism" half a century ago. And it ain't necessarily a good thing? I used to be a writer; now I'm just a Mom. My mother even called me that the other day and she isn't senile. Just overhandled.

Group Signing for A Hell of a Woman at Partners and Crime

Didn't my son-in-law Josh Gaylord do a great job? There's tons more but you get the idea.

I'm Not There

Okay, defend this movie. Perhaps I was influenced by the fact that I dragged my 93 year old father old out in the cold and snow to see this. Perhaps I was influenced by my need for linear plots that make sense. Perhaps I regretted that I was unable to see this with Tribe as we'd planned due to my family circumstances. Maybe it's that I saw the terrific Scorcese doc earlier this year. Or that a couple near us provided a running commentary that made even less sense than the movie. But I hated this movie. It was pretentious, arty. and full of banal speeches. It either idealized Dylan or made him ridiculous. And long, oh so long. Perhaps I got tired of sifting through what was real and what wasn't. Maybe it's that I dislike Richard Gere and even Kate Blanchett got tiresome too. Anyway, this is my biggest disappointment of the year. It felt like Lars Von Trier had directed it.
The only thing I liked was the music. So I shut my eyes after a while and pretended I was awake.

Where to Send It?

I just finished what I would call a "nice" crime story, maybe verging on lit fic, but centering on a small town sheriff. A crime takes place but it is not hard-boiled or noir. I could try EQMM but they tend to only take name writers. So where do I send this piece? It's about sadness and angst, not about violence and exploding heads. This is my dilemma. Where do I send stories that really center on the human element but take place in the world of crime? If I had the technical skills, I would start a zine that looked for this type of story. Megan does it and Bryon from time to time. But who else?

"Not Good in Bed"

You hear this line all the time and from my sickbed today I heard Roz tell Daphne that about some date on Frasier-a go-to morning show if I'm sick.
How many ways can someone not be good in bed. I'll start a list

Selfish
Sloppy
Too quick
Too slow
Unimaginative
Overly imaginative
Kinky
Too fastidious

Got any more? This is not for personal use, btw. Just for writing.

The requirements of the genre

Ed Gorman and others have recently discussed the "don'ts" in attempting a PI novel . The list is so extensive, I have almost always given it a pass. My one foray into it dealt with a retired PI so I could cheat. Having read hundreds of PI novels still doesn't make me an expert on avoiding cliches or employing tropes effectively.

I can more easily enter the arena of suspense where the requirements are less daunting. The thought of trying to pull off a SF novel or SF story is even more challenging. How long would it take to learn the vocabulary alone?

Do you stay away from attempting certain sorts of stories because of the pitfalls in trying to get it right? What is the hardest kind of story for you? Which subgenre is most butchered by amateurs?

A Hell of a Woman edited by Megan Abbott

I can't be there but maybe you can...

A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir
Schedule of Events

Laguna Beach
Latitude 33 Bookshop with Theresa Schwegel, Eddie Muller
and Christa Faust
Date: Friday, November 30, 2007
Time: 6:30PM
Location: 311 Ocean Ave, Laguna Beach, CA
Contact: (949) 494-5403

Los Angeles
Mysteries to Die For with Theresa Schwegel, Cornelia Read,
Eddie Muller and Christa Faust
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2007
Time: 10:30AM
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
Contact: (805) 374-0084

A Hell of a Woman Launch Party
at the Mystery Bookstore
with Christa Faust, Naomi Hirahara, Charlie Huston, Eddie Muller,
Cornelia Read, Theresa Schwegel, Kevin Burton Smith and Robert Ward.
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2007
Time: 2PM
Location: 1036-C Broxton Ave, Westwood
Contact: (310) 209-0415

Pasadena
A Hell of a Woman Group Signing with Christa Faust
and Cornelia Read
Book Em MysteriesDate: Sunday, December 2, 2007
Time: 1PM
Location: 1118 Mission Street, Pasadena
Contact: 626-799-9600 1-800-4BOOKEM New York City

Partners & Crime Bookstore with Sarah Weinman, SJ Rozan,
Charlotte Carter, Annette Meyers, Alison Gaylin, Sandra Scoppettone,
Rebecca Pawel, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jonathan Santlofer,
Wallace Stroby and Charles ArdaiDate: Thursday, December 6, 2007
Time: 7PM
Location: 44 Greenwich Avenue (corner of Charles)
Contact: (212) 243-0440 January San FranciscoNoir City
Date: January 26, 2008
More details to come. February Texas

Murder by the Book with Christa Faust
Date: Saturday, February 23, 2007
Time: TBALocation: 2342 Bissonnet Street, Houston TX
Contact: (713) 524-8597

Trying to Keep Sane Here

And writing this blog helps.

Here's a question: In several recent films, the villain is almost a blank slate, no psychological or other motive is given for his infamy. Is this a good thing? Is evil so universal that we don't need to understand it? If we require psychological underpinnings for our heroes, why not our villains? Even cartoon villains used to have a back story. What do you think?

The cost of aging

We are faced with the probability of spending about $120,000 a year to take care of my parents who now require substantial help. Luckily my savvy brother has managed to parlay their modest savings into something that would allow us a few years of this sort of care. How does anyone afford this otherwise? It is obscene that people who worked hard all their lives often have to end it warehoused. Why don't we provide good health care in this country. European countries value it. Where did we go astray? Why is it better to spend our money on waging war?

Eight Dogs Named Jack by Joe Borri

Just heard about a fellow Detroiter who's published a dynamite book of stories about Detroit and the woods of northern Michigan. It was a finalist in the 2007 USA Today contest in the short story collection category. The stories sound like our kind of thing even if they're not traditional crime stories. Check it out. I will. I added his link to the right if you want to know more about him.

Happy Thanksgiving

Or does this holiday make you nervous too? Are you afraid that Aunt Em won't get along with Cousin Harry? Will Grandmother Nellie forget her brother is long dead? Will the vegetarians insist on a laboroius main course with brussel sprouts and cumin? Will the meat eaters make fun of the meatless side dishes? Will the males watch football, waiting for the call to the table? Did we give the great grandparents enought attention? Will long-standing grievances be brought out to air? Will the question of when dinner should be served be bandied about? Will the side dishes be a source of anquish? Is a bottle of cheap wine recompense for hours of labor? Will the same people do all the work? Will the out-of-towners expect to be feted while those at home sulk and stew? Will we get into the annual war on religion-whether it has ruined the world or provides comfort and a moral code? What are the best movies of the year? Does Hillary Clinton deserve our support? Are Detroiters more racist than New Yorkers or those from Los Angeles or Minneapolis? What do we do about illegal aliens? I'm ready to run and hide. How about you? Is Thanksgiving at your house a peaceful day? And those damned Lions are gonna lose?

What's Your Favorite Magazine

Back home and there's three weeks worth of magazines to read. I love the luxury of piling them up and going through them over the next few days. We get a lot of magazines. Some I never get to. The pile included The New Yorker (3), The New York Review of Books (2), Real Simple, Bon Appetite, Cooks Illustrated, EW (2), Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek (2), Vegetarian Times (no, we're not but Megan is). We also get Crimespree, Deadly Pleasures, a gardening magazine or two and more I'm probably forgetting. (Those cooking and gardening magazines are my husband's.)
What magazines do you get? Maybe we're missing some good ones. Is magazine reading dying off as more and more publications are zines?

Immobilized

Does this kid rock or what?

I know I should be beginning to make the changes on my ms. an agent suggested. He/She didn't promise to take it if I did, but said it would be a good novel if I did some of what was suggested and that it was good enough to finish even the first read, poor thing that it was. According to the info at Backspace Agents Conference, this is a good sign. The changes are both small and large. One change would be fairly major but I think it's a good one.

I know I should also send out queries to other agents in case I can never satisfy this one.

I want to write a flash piece for JR's new site. I have a few shorts that just need a last go-over. And yet here I sit doing none of the above. I just finished reading one of the middle-brow novels I am attracted to when away from home. It was wayyyyyyyy too long. Are all middlebrow novels too long? I find that they are.

What do you do when immobilized to shake yourself out of it? It's time to go home and sit in my room and work harder than this setup allows me.

Plus my darling grandson started walking while we were away. Nine steps or more. Darn.

Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Trying to come up with the right name for a character, I realized all the names I never use because they have too much baggage associated with them. This can apply to famous fictional names or famous real names. Name someone Stella and how can you not remember Stanley Kowalski hollering for her in the street? Though young'uns may not have the same association. I'd never use a host of names too closely associated with one character/person.

Another problem is that names date. A person of either age ninety or two could rightly be named Vivian, Ella, Harriet, Evelyn, Isabelle etc. In between we have the generations of Carol, Barbara, Nancy, Pat. Followed by Jennifer, Amy, Chris and Laura.

Someone reading my novel recently hated the protagonist's name (Violet). Said it made her seem like an old lady. Well, yes it did if you were over fifty and you remembered your great aunts having that name. But under thirty, you'd pick it for your baby. It's fresh for them.

Do you have trouble with names? What do you think about the name Violet?

Villains

Perhaps in the novel No Country for Old Men, Anton Chigurh was a full-bodied villain, somwhat if not fully explained. Perhaps the reader was given insight into the reasons he'd become a killing machine. But the movie was content with portraying him as merely relentless -no explanation necessary. I think this is a current fad and perhaps reflects the society we live in, but I prefer my villains more along the lines of Norman Bates, with at least some half-baked pscychological reason attached to him. The best villains, at least the ones who are not completelety insane, have some humanity attached to them-only if it's only the love for fine food.

Who are the best villains for you? Lex Luthor, The Termintor, Moriarty, the Poet, Hannibal Lector, Goldfinger? What makes a villain great? Do they have a common trait?

No Country for Old Men

Exiting the theater, the guy ahead of us in a soldout show said it was the haircut that made it work. He had a point. It was both the haircut and the weapon. This was one of the most violent movies I've ever seen and it was combined with a humor, which sometimes make the violence even less palatable. Laugh now, hide your eyes later. And I did hide them a lot. I don't know what the body count was. Some ungodly number. Did I like it? You bet. Great acting, great diaglogue, great cinematography. I can't remember a bar of music. Was there any? It wasn't exactly fun, but it was great. Does that make any sense?

Pat Dostine

The first thing I do every day is go to Pat Dostine's blog to see if a new picture is up. Pat does his painting after his three tiny children are in bed at night and after a long day as a policy analyst in Detroit. This is one he did recently. He has kindly given me two and I bought a third at a ridiculously low price for my daughter.
A few weeks ago, some guests at our home saw his paintings and immediately contacted a gallery in Chelsea. Michigan and now Pat is going to have a show there. We are so excited for him.
And if you want to get in on the next big thing before it's the next big thing, take a look at his paintigs at PatrickDostine@blogspot.com or on the link to the right. He's brilliant. (He is also a great writer and plays a mean guitar).

Speechless

And I am. My story "A Saving Grace" was selected for THE YEAR'S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg. The story originally appeared in The Thrilling Detective and I thank Gerald So and Kevin Burton Smith for publishing it. A few years ago, I had no confidence I would ever have any success with this business. I still never use the word "writer" to describe myself. But I am starting to believe it might be true. And I thank all the people out there who've helped make it possible for me to believe it. I mentioned most of them in the last post. But now I add the people associated with this project to my list. I am humbled.

Overheard today in New York: "And I told her I wasn't going to let her spend all that money building a monster."

Spinetingler

I'm in great company in the lastest issue of Spinetingler. Nice job as always, Sandra. http://spinetinglermagazine.blogspot.com/

Also check out the issue of The Thrilling Detective for a good story from Stephan Blackmoore et al.

Isn't it wonderful that people like Sandra, Kevin, Bryon, Megan, Tony, Todd, B.J. D.Z. Mike and all the others who run these zines are willing to do this for so little return. Truly where would we be without you. Thanks to all of you.

Miami Blues

Wow! I loved this book. I also loved Pickup but it's hard to belive it's the same author, even if many years separate the two novels. Pickup could have been written by William Kennedy. It barely feels like a crime novel-it's about down on their heels drunks, stumbling through life. It's heartbreaking, tragic.
Miami Blues could have been written yesteday by any of a bunch of current writers, except Willeford is better, making it impossible to put down. It's funny, scary and quick.
What should I read next and can I find it here in NY? I hope so.
I want more. Give me more.

Pitch Workshop

Four of the eight of us in this workshop are writing crime fiction. The other four are writing sci-fi, historical fiction, lit fiction and nonfiction. We all share one thing. We can't write a decent pitch. In my case, once I say aloud the initial sentence, I'm babbling. And even the first sentence isn't great because I must take two breaths to fit it in. Of course, I smoked years ago and that might account for it. Our coach is brilliant at extracting the elements to emphasize. If only we understood our novel half as well. After some work, I come up with this: Raising the Dead is a suspense novel about a Detroit photographer nearing forty and desperate to succeed. She uses her relationship with a mortician to produce edgy pictures of dead black men. Her new obsession with this subject takes her into still darker territory, involving her in murder, mutilation and the racial and sexual politics of Detroit. What do you think? Remember it's two in the morning. I might come up with something better tomorrow. Does the "politics" thing make it sound like she's running for mayor. HELP.

Before the Devil Know You're Dead

This was a good film yesterday when I saw it. Since then it has risen to a very good film. What I like most about it is that it is not just about a heist gone wrong. It's about a family gone wrong that leads to the heist. Hawke does more with his face than I would have thought possible. His slitty eyes convey weakness and limited intelligence in the subtlest way. His mouth twists with indecision. And Hoffman's always amazing. He breaks your heart but infuriates you in the same frame. He's as out of shape as Marisa Tomei who plays his wife is in shape. Lovely but still playing the slutty wife. Why doesn't someone hire her to play a musician or a missionary?
Albert Finney is the father they deserve. Or they are the sons he deserves. See it. You won't be sorry.

We have lived in a lot of temporary housing in our lives. There are certain things that are always missing: a bathmat, enough lighting, clean pots, a dishpan. And certain other things are always present: mold, dust, the smell of decay. (Okay so we can't afford a first rate rental).
And why does the smoke alarm battery always die on our watch? This is the second time we have lived in this same shitty place. The last time we bought a lamp, a TV table, a bathmat. Only the TV table remains three years later. I get the disappearing bathmat but who took the lamp.?

How Far Would You Go

I may have posed this question last year when I was trying to find an agent for a collection of short stories. (What a dream that was). But now it's more pertinent as I head toward a conference. How far would you go in making changes to a novel based on one agent's opinion. In other words, if Agent X says I'd consider taking this on if you cut the first five chapters would you do it? Would you change the ending? Would you redo it first person instead of third? Would you cut out a character the agent doesn't like? Obviously, you're the author, but let's face it in this market, you might have to be willing to go some distance. Or would you do anything without a contract? Do you have enough confidence in your work to remain firm? I don't think I do since it's a first novel. I'm like a five dollar whore on a slow Monday night in Salt Lake City about now? And much like advanced age wouldn't help her draw business, it doesn't help me.

Skeleton Sculptures

I will desist from writing a travel narrative after this, but I found the celebration of the Day of the Dead at my daugher's agency Union Settlement in East Harlem so interesting I had to share. These little babies, and they are tiny, are sculpted from sugar and last indefinitely. The celebration also included a mariachi band, an altar with a skeleton, flowers, candles and incense, dancers. poetry and speeches. Whole families turned out to participate. If I had kept up my Spanish, I could have followed it more closely.

On a darker note, I'm supposed to be writing five things for the Pitch workshop I am attending on Monday night. 1)Why did I write the book? 2)What's the book about? 3)Who's the audience 4 How does it stand out from other books? 5)Three important things to convey to an agent about it. All of the advice is about how to not be too smartass or gliv or immodest. Is that the way people are because my impulse is to put my head down on the desk and sigh. Why the hell did I write this book?

Storyglossia

"Stranded on Third" is a non-crime story. I think it's funny but who knows. Here's the link and hey, I'm in NY looking out at 29th street. http://www.storyglossia.com/24/cover.html

New York, New York

Off to New York to 1) see our darling daughter and her husband 2) attend Backspace Agent Conference 3) find a museum we've never been to 4) go to the Statue of Liberty with my brother and his wife who've never been there 4) go to a cute town upstate (Cold Spring?) 5) see a few plays 6) try to write story about Australia for crimespace contest 7) go to the Strand Bookstore 8) see the Jeremy Blake exhibit at the Feigen gallery 9) have lunch with two special friends 10) have two dinners with a few more special friends.
My husband will look at the Jack Kerouac papers at the NYPL for a book on writers on the road.

Anyone have something else that's fun? Any restaurants? Anyone free for lunch?

400 Year Old Clam Found

I had no idea clams lived this long. I would have guessed they lived a matter of a season or two with the way they give clamming licenses out at Wellfleet. I just listened to the story on NPR where the scientist said they had to kill it to determine the age. "There's lot more around up in Greenland," he explained when the host queried their actions.
And sure, you bloody scientists will kill them all too--a contest to find the oldest will ensue. Why do we need to know a clam's age? If it isn't polite to ask about age, where's the good manners in killing them to determine it.
How would the marine biologist like it if we cut him up to count his rings?
ET-phone home.

La Doulos by Jean Pierre Melville

There are some films widely praised that certain viewers just don't get and this was one of those for me. I liked the cinematography, the lighting, the music, the acting and the first and last ten minutes. Both scenes were shocking and imaginative, if a trifle Shakespearian.
But in between was a complex plot that had to be explained to the audience in its entirety near the end. The explanation of what actually transpired took at least 10 minutes of film time. It seemed like a ham-handed technique. I think in the best films the audience comes to understand what happened on their own.
I also thought the film worked best from the POV of the original protagonist but somewhere the POV shifed to Belmondo's, and it lost its tightness for me. What happened often seemed arbitrary and even after the explication, I said, "huh?"
Is there a film that others revere that leaves you cold? This is my pick. Good looks only go so far.

Goodbye Columbus

I don't "do" audio books too often. Too hard to stop a DVD in its tracks. And they seem longer on tape than on the page.
But if I'm cleaning my entire house or taking a long trip, I find one to listen to.
If there's one story or movie that takes me back to my youth, it's this one.
The movie came out when I was twenty and encapsulates my youth.
I wasn't Jewish or rich (like Brenda Potemkin) but I was the same age, from the same geographic area, and part of the same time. And although Ali McGraw and Richard Benjamin were not great actors, they did nail these roles.
Now here was a movie that did credit to the book. You can actually read or listen to it and remember scenes from the movie that played out exactly like the book.
What film most perfectly encapsulates your youth? And please don't say The Wedding Crashers. Pretend you're older than that. Also what films are most faithful to the book?
I am so hoping the forthcoming Revolutionary Road will be one of them. We Don't Live Here Anymore did Andre Dubus proud last year and Little Children was another. But it's rare.

Die a Little To Become a Film

I try not to mention my family too often, but I had to put this on here just to have a record of it for myself. Pretty damned cool if the writers don't strike before the screenplay is finished. Go Megan.

Jessica Biel set to Die a Little
Hottie du jour Jessica Biel is preparing to star in the thriller Die a Little, based on Megan Abbott's acclaimed 2006 novel about a schoolteacher whose life is thrown out of whack when her detective brother falls for a mysterious woman. Although the book is set in the 1950s, the movie will take place in the present. Biel, who optioned the book and will serve as a producer on the film, will play the femme fatale, not the bookworm. (Hollywood Reporter)

Criminalistics

It's finally occured to me that I am not taking advantage of working at a university to supplement my woefully inadequate knowledge of police investigatory work on crimes so I've signed up for a class next semester.

Winter Term 2008
CRJ 5150 Criminalistics
Course Description: Application of the physical and biological sciences to criminal investigation; ballistics, fingerprints, DNA, trace evidence, drugs, arson and explosives, questioned documents, introduction to forensic anthropology, courtroom testimony, ethics.

I hope this is the best one for a crime fiction writer. I am totally geeked about being back in a classroom after ten years. I emailed the guy and he's willing to have me in there with all the cops. Even suggested an anthropology course to go with it.

Any other suggestions on how to get up to snuff? I don't think I'll ever write stories heavy on these aspects of crime, but damn it would be nice to have some understanding of it. I just wish I had taken my friend Maria up on her suggestion that I visit a mortuary before writing my novel.

The Almost Moon

I haven't read this book. I read The Lovely Bones and thought it to be a very good first novel: well-written and a great concept, maybe less than fully successful perhaps, but certainly a fine first novel.
Sebold's second novel, The Almost Moon, is now being subjected to reviews that seem to foam at the mouth in their effort to savage this book. Several, and no need to say which ones, are so negative that as a reader I cringed when reading them. There is no reason to write reviews that personally attack the author's motives. No reason to get such pleasure out of the task. You can taste the blood they draw.
Yet the The Almost Moon is #40 on Amazon right now. Most people don't read reviews for better or worse, it seems.
I think of David Montgomery who has said on his blog that he usually refrains from reviewing books he really doesn't care for. Is this the proper tact to take? Do reviewers owe their audience a scathing review of a book if it deserves it, or is it more about taking revenge on a writer who was too successful their first time out of the gate? What are the duties of a reviewer? Of course, they must sometimes write poor reviews but they shouldn't be so hateful. Or should they?

The Good Blog

I read somewhere that the most widely read and influential blogs are ones that get written five days a week. This is kind of an odd thing because few single -person blogs could be very good that often. I mean how often do you have anything pithy to say. On the other hand, perhaps people get addicted to a voice, or an ongoing situation, or a political opinion or the idea they are participating in a blogger's life. Especially if it's a writer they read, an actor they enjoy, a pundit they admire.
Some blogs invite the sharing of stories like Laura Lippman's The Memory Project.
The blogs I like most are single-person blogs with varied subject matter. Or ones that are so honest they blow you off the page. Or ones where the writer is so nice, you want to spend time with him/her. Or ones that do a great job in reviewing books and movies. Or ones that serve as the town crier for the business.
One thing I dislike about multi-person blogs is that I often think it's Suzie when its Bob. So please follow the British model and say "Suzie here" right off the bat. Don't make me scroll down the side bar and figure out what day it is.
What do you like most in a blog? Do you think "more" is better.

It's been a good run but

television and me might be finished. I watch two or three episodes of a show, quickly see where it's going, and get bored. This wasn't as likely to happen when each episode of a series was self-contained. But now with these arcs, boy it gets tiring once you see where you're headed. Those Darlings on Dirty Sexy Money are tedious. How many scenes of them frolicking and being thoughtless do we need? And since they've assigned characteristics to characters, wow, do they drive it home. Does Sharon Gless have to smoke and whine in every frame of Burn Notice?Chuck, are we going to watch the same dynamic play out each week? He flashes through his computer chip of a brain, spots the enemy and the stalwart three go after him. Those are three shows I'm done with.
Pushing Daisies, cute as all get out. Right? But the two leads are immediately in love--BORING. And the cursed voice-over--which doomed Earl for me---is driving me mad. A little of that guy's voice goes a long way. It's too soothing. Reminds me of a voice-over from a children's movie. This one I may try once more because it does have terrific visuals. And that Chuck is so pretty. We sure are loaded with Chucks right now. Two at movies and two on TV. The Curse of the Chucks.
So I'm left with Mad Men, 30 Rock and The Office. And Mad Men's last episode is tonight. My tv past has had its ups and downs, but it's all down now. At least until The Wire.

How Do You Get Ideas for Stories?

And often, I can't tell you. But this week, the birth of one was easy to track because I was so concerned that I had shut off the part of my brain that's receptive to new ideas as I tried to finish my novel.
I was in Canada and reading The Globe and Mail. There was a very long story on a young sheriff who was killed when he answered a call on a noisy houseparty. I read it thoroughly, but there was very little about a crime in it. Mostly it dealt with the town's sorrow over a man with an eight month old child dying in a remote part of Canada.

Flash forward two days, and I'm back in Detroit on a bus and a woman across from me is reading Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I wondered what kind of story would this woman like? She was in her sixties, no makeup, plain clothes, but enthralled by that magazine and suddenly the entire story took hold of me. She'd like a story about a young police officer who died needlessly. In my story, he won't be the same guy at all. Already I know he won't be a father and it'll happen in Michigan, where I'm on firmer ground.

Now this is not saying the story will work, or that it will be good or that it will find a home, but it will get written. I'm mostly glad that my brain is listening again.

Can you usually track where your story ideas come from?

How do you know if it's a series or standalone

I wrote the novel thinking it would be a standalone and wrote the protagonist darker than most series characters (okay, Dexter is pretty dark). But now new ideas are bubbling up in my brain. New places she could go, things that could happen. Hey, and I got to like some of her pals. Maybe this always happens after the completion of a novel. Maybe even in lit fiction, the characters continue to act out in the writer's head and it doesn't mean they need another novel. Putting THE END at the end, doesn't necessarily mean the end. How do you know if it isn't the typical detective solving the crime?

"Place" in fiction

When reader 3 read my WIP, the first non-family member to read it, she red-circled a few parts where I actually described Detroit in more than a sentence or two. Described the politics or level of decay or why there is no shopping in the city or what the public transporation is like. There were only descriptions of a few sentences in each case, but for her it brought the story to a halt. She asked me if I couldn't get the information into a conversation or put it in in some less static way. Or get rid of it and assume if the reader wanted to know about Detroit he'd read another kind of book. I understand her point and in a short story I'd never do this, but I wonder when this sort of thinking took hold. Years ago, we were very willing to allow writers to describe the setting. Now it's all dialogue and short punchy paragraphs in between. I know your thoughts about backstory, but what about setting? Don't a few grafs here and there help you understand the setting? Isn't forcing it into a converstion just as annoying because how often do people actually talk about it in a crime fiction novel? Any examples of writer's who write about their city/town well without being didactic or boring?

Say Something Nice About Detroit Day

We're in Canada (more about that later) and we did what we always do at conferences, looked for a movie theater to escape that awkward opening night cocktail party. We found one nearby and saw Across the Universe, which we loved. I don't understand why the reviews have been so harsh. It was much like Hair but with better music.
Our one bad moment was when the 1967 riots were depicted and although there were riots everything in 1967, they flash to Detroit for a few seconds and the hoots came. Poor Detroit is where a movie always goes to show decay, crime and trouble.
So say something nice about Detroit today. I'll start.
Detroit has two of the most progressive senators: Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin

He Sure Can Cook

I have the world's best husband and anyone who knows him will agree. Last night, a Monday night, I came home to grilled veal chops with rosemary, grilled pears, a baked sweet potato squash with cherries, brown sugar, and pecans, and a salad of yellow tomatoes, avocado and leaf lettuce. People, this is a Monday night! Every night is like this and it's why I've gained 25 pounds since he took over the cooking. He's also the gardener and we have the nicest garden you could imagine. Leaving aside his domestic accomplishments, he's good at everthing else too. The author of 14 books, for one thing, but he still reads everything I write as soon as I hand it to him. It's not his birthday until next week, but happy birthday Phil. How did I choose so well at 18? To the man who has never given me one moment of pain in forty years!

Only two years into this crime

writing gig and I find myself going to esoteric ways of killing people off. No kidding. My last two victims died by having things dropped on them: first a mirror and then a school bus. What's your favorite way to knock someone off? Who's used a good method lately? Does a humourous means of death ruin a good story cause I might hoist that school bus back up. It seems pretty strange already.

Five Days

Five Days was a pretty impressive HBO series that started last Monday. If you have HBO, try the second episode this week.
Other new TV shows, I've stuck with through two episodes are Chuck and Dirty, Sexy Money. Pushing Daisies was charming but it might turn too treacly quickly.
On the movie front, we very much liked Eastern Promises despite a few plot "huhs." The Jane Austen Book Club was pretty good too. (Look, guys, we only get a movie like this twice a year). Yes it was improbable that all the men would turn out to like Jane too and return to their wives, but you never know. Didn't much care for Manufactured Landscapes, a doc. about what industrialization, urbanization and globalization is doing to China. I got the point in fifteen minutes.

To google or not to google

John Rickards is deploring the use of the word "google" in current fiction on his blog Empire of Dirt (http://www.johnrickards.com/). I see some of his points, but I think "google" is not really interchangeable with the term "doing research" because it is so specific to a particular means of researching. When used in a story, it conveys a definite image of someone going to a computer and quickly or not so quickly searching for something. It's so descriptive of the age we live in it must be used to describe this action. In my WIP, a character with no research skills at all is able to find someone quickly by goggling her name. It wouldn't have worked as a plot device without that specific means of research. What do you think? Is the term so specific to this time, it will eventually seem archaic? Is it overused already in novels?

Yesterday's Laughter But a Dim Memory

as I begin compiling a list of agents to query. It seems likely I will be doing this for the rest of 2007. It is shocking how many agencies are closed to even query letters unless you are personally recommended by a current client. One agency virtually threatened legal action should you try to contact them in any way.
Recently universities hiring new professors have begun streamlining their process, making what they require more standardized. But it seems like agents stubbornly insist on individualizing their requirements. There is hardly one name on my list that asks for the same set of things. Google an agent and it takes many tries to actually get the information you need, too
This is why I gave up last year. I only had 12 letters in me then. I am going to New York in three weeks for three weeks, I will do it till then at least. Maybe I can knock at doors while I'm there. I think John Boy Walton did this on The Waltons.
If anyone knows of an agent who's open to a new client, let me know. It's a 72, 000 wrd ms. Suspense.

Big Bang Theory

I am going to go way out on a limb here, risking your disdain, and say I think this is one of the funniest TV shows I've seen in a long time. It's opposite Chuck, which I DVR, and K-ville so it has some tough competition.
Big Bang Theory is filmed in the most conventional way, but the writing is not conventional and the acting is great too. It follows the current trend by being about geeks but it actually writes the lines geeks would say and gives them a personality beyond that. The four guys are physicists, Superman fans, neat freaks, etc. and their interaction with the girl next door are truly funny. (Last night they broke into her apartment and organized it for her.)
Speaking of DVRing, it doesn't pay to watch any hour show now. The commercials take up twenty minutes of each sixty and come close to destroying some narratives. Rescue Me, having a bad season this summer, was made worse by these constant interruptions. The better the show, the more intrusive the commercials.
So go to CBS and watch Big Bang Theory online. I bet you laugh too.

Stress

What do you do to relieve stress? I'm wired in such a way that I am always a bit anxious. Circumstances in the last few years have made that stress worse. Sleep is a real issue. I saw an an in Newsweek last week for a $300 gadget called the Stresseraser that sounded promising. So I high-tailed it to Sharper Image to buy Stresseraser. The gadget is based on biofeedback--the notion thaat you can learn to control your breathing and thus feel more relaxed. The problem is you have to watch the little peaks and valleys and get scored on them. Does this sound like something that would reduce stress, getting scored on how stressful your breathing is? Watching the scratchy climb, the precipitous fall. I would have to use this machine all day to get a satisfactory score. No in fact, the longer I use it the worse my score would be.
Next I'm trying Respirate which gives you musical cues rather than pictures. After that it's a hammer to the head.