Friday's Forgotten Books, February 11, 2011

Check with George Kelley for today's links.

Jack Is Back-Again

That slippery fellow.

You can download it right here.

And for me, this is the greatest thing about ebooks. You can read the books you've heard about yet never laid hands on.

The rest of the Jack Early books to follow.

"HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK" Gar Anthony Haywood

HOW IT CAME TO WRITE THE BOOK:

CEMETERY ROAD by Gar Anthony Haywood

I'm getting old.

Yes, I know, you can't believe it. But it's true. Despite my dashing and youthful appearance to the contrary, I'm not a young man anymore. Having passed that magical threshold of fifty a few years back, I probably have more years behind me than ahead, and with that sobering thought comes several others I find myself wrestling with lately.

Regrets? Yeah, I have a few.

Fortunately, I don't have many, and those I do have aren't really anything to lose sleep over. Cars I'll never drive, women I'll never get to know intimately, stocks I wish I'd bought when the buying was good. I'm sorry I didn't quit the day job I held and despised for nineteen years fourteen years sooner. Other than that, my past is essentially without blemish; there's nothing in it that makes me want to reach back in time and rewrite it.

But not everyone is so lucky. Some people hit their mid-fifties, look back on their lives and see things they would give their right arm to change. And that's the idea my most recent book, CEMETERY ROAD, started with: What happens to someone at this stage of life whose past is a burden he's been trying to shed for years? A man who committed a crime in his youth his sense of guilt will never let him forget?

Even before I had a title for the book, I thought I knew how CEMETERY ROAD would open, with a lament from Handy White, the book's protagonist and first person narrator:

"It's not a problem young people have to worry about, but right around the time he hits his middle forties, a man starts giving serious thought to dying well. In his sleep in his own bed, or in the course of a street fight meant to settle something halfway meaningful. His end doesn't have to be poignant, just devoid of indignity. You wouldn't think that would be too much to ask."

As for the book's title, that came to me not long after the opening lines above did (and it's a good thing, because I can't write Paragraph One of a new book until I have a working title for it). Why "Cemetery Road"? Because I loved the sound of it, and thought its obvious suggestion of impending death was a perfect fit for the kind of story I wanted to tell. I didn't know precisely what it would mean to Handy, however, until I got to Chapter Twenty-One and Handy explained it to me:

"My paternal grandfather, Lionel White, used to say that there were many paths a man could take during his time on Earth, but sooner or later, they all brought him down to the same one: cemetery road. There was no running from it, there was no hiding from it."

It is down Cemetery Road Handy must go to confront the demons in his past, and my challenge in writing his story was to slip back and forth between his adventures in the present and the events that took place twenty-three years earlier that continue to haunt him to this day, giving equal weight to both timelines. It ain't as hard as it sounds.

It's much harder.

I struggled throughout with pacing and timing, bent on making each track of Handy's story move at just the right clip. This was especially difficult because CEMETERY ROAD is a mystery, so the dissemination of critical info to the reader had to be handled with care along both timelines. Had I revealed too much or too little, too early or too soon on one track or the other, and the whole construct would have fallen apart.

Luckily, reviewers have been kind enough to suggest I did a pretty good job of this delicate balancing act, and for that I am extremely grateful. And relieved. CEMETERY ROAD was a book I needed to write at this particular moment in my life, and overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

But damnit, I'm still getting old.

Gar Anthony Harwood also writes as Ray Shannon. He has won the Shamus and Anthony Award for his mystery fiction. He writes stand-alone novels and short-stories as well as series. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, written scripts for television drama series (e.g. New York Undercover and the District) and Movies of the Week for ABC. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of America.

Something Special

We watched HOPSCOTCH the other night and it occurred to me that although I didn't like it as well as I remembered, Matthau brought something special to the part. An intelligent impishness maybe. At any rate, few actors infuse each part with the such a touch. And that a man of his looks could play romantic parts well is amazing. It was totally believable that Glenda Jackson, 20 years younger, would find him endearing.

What actor, male or female, do you always feel makes a movie special? Who has that special something? And what Matthau movie do you like most? I am torn between THE ODD COUPLE and CHARLIE VARRICK.

"And I Wasted My Flash Fiction Challenge on Scars"

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — There's more bad news in the cards for Romania's beleaguered witches.

A month after Romanian authorities began taxing them for their trade, the country's soothsayers and fortune tellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don't come true.

Witches argue they shouldn't be blamed for the failure of their tools.

"They can't condemn witches, they should condemn the cards," Queen witch Bratara Buzea told The Associated Press by telephone.

Superstition is a serious matter in the land of Dracula, and officials have turned to witches to help the recession-hit country collect more money and crack down on tax evasion.

In January, officials changed labor laws to officially recognize the centuries-old practice as a taxable profession, prompting angry witches to dump poisonous mandrake into the Danube in an attempt to put a hex on the government.

The new draft bill passed in the Senate last week. It still must be approved by a financial and labor committee and by Romania's Chamber of Deputies, the other house of Romania's parliament.

Bratara called the proposed bill overblown. "I will fight until my last breath for this not to be passed," she said.

Sometimes, she argued, people don't provide their real identities, dates of birth or other personal details, which could skew a seer's predictions.

"What about when the client gives false details about themselves? We can't be blamed for that," she said.

The bill would also require witches to have a permit, to provide their customers with receipts and bar them from practicing near schools and churches.

Forgotten Movies: GO TELL THE SPARTANS

For a complete list of Forgotten Film, check out Todd Mason's blog here.

Few people seem familiar with this 1978 film starring Burt Lancaster and Craig Wasson. It was the first film I remember seeing about the war in Vietnam and was directed by Ted Post, based on a book by Daniel Ford .

Lancaster is an army major and sent to Vietnam with a small group of advisers. More and more, as time passes, he begins to see the mission as hopeless and in fact, resembling the fate of the French there ten years earlier. The locals are enigmatic and he can't control their actions. The Viet Kong are even more troublesome.

This is a quiet movie. Made just a few years after the war ended, it simmers with frustration and angst. I think it is one of the best movies about that war or any war because it points out its folly from the getgo. There were many fine movies made about the war in Vietnam but this is my favorite.

FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE:Scarry Night

On Saturday night, we passed a young woman on the street who was talking to her male companion and said, "I really don't mind the scars." A good startup line for a little challenge perhaps. I looked for a picture to go with it but 1) they scarred (make that scared) me too much to post and 2) I felt like the pictures steered the story.

So how about a 800 or so word story that contains that line in it. How about an end date of February 28th? What do you think?

If you don't have a blog to post it on, I'll post it here with mine. Just give me a few days' notice.

"How I Came To Write This Book: Eric Beetner and JB Kohl

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK

Borrowed Trouble by JB Kohl and Eric Beetner

Eric here, sharing my take on how I came to (co)write this book:

To do it once was crazy enough. Write a book with someone you’ve never met and never spoken to? An entire novel – over 75,000 words – later we had a book we liked and publisher willing to put it out. How did that happen?

That book, One Too Many Blows To The Head was met with high praise and more goodwill than we expected, but beyond that it was so much fun to write. We haven’t sold a million of them, not by a long shot, but sales had nothing to do with our decision to write another. We enjoyed working together, Jennifer and I. Even before the first book was done we talked of doing it again.

Neither of us had been collaborators before. The few times I had done it on screenplays I didn’t care for it all that much. It helped that the way our story was structured our characters stayed apart for most of the action. It really is like reading two books in one. For the sequel, Borrowed Trouble, the former enemies are now working together. Things got complicated. The outlining process went on much longer. Things changed as we were writing. Scenes were excised, locations changed, the timeline adjusted to compensate for one character being in one place and needing to intersect with another. It became more of a puzzle than One Too Many Blows To The Head, but no less enjoyable.

We adjusted and tweaked right up to the wire. After proofs had been sent out for blurbs I axed an entire chapter of Jen’s work. I felt bad doing it but I found a logic problem I couldn’t overcome. She took it valiantly and rewrote what I think is a superior scene. The blurbs we got on the old version still seemed to like it. Kelli Stanley (City of Dragons) said, “For a knockout punch of hardboiled, look no further than Borrowed Trouble.”

Hilary Davidson (The Damage Done) said, “Everyone has a short list of books that stayed with them long after they turned the last page—add Borrowed Trouble to mine. This is pulp fiction at its finest.”

Rebecca Cantrell (A Night of Long Knives) said, “Borrowed Trouble is like a talented fighter – powerful, quick, and hard to put down.”

So with the publication of Borrowed Trouble Jennifer and I still have no plans to meet. We’ve gotten quite superstitious about it. Oh, we know everything about each other. Kids, family illnesses, life changes – she was right along for the adoption of our second daughter, I was right there when her eldest son went off to college.

We’re at work in the very early stages of a new project. We both write our own solo work as well, so as we each finish a book on our own we exchange emails about little plot points and ideas for our next collaboration. No matter what, we will write together again. It’s too easy, too fun.

It shouldn’t work. I know that. But it does. Best not to question it.

Eric and JB are the authors of ONE TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD and BORROWED TROUBLE.

In Case You Missed it-My Town Sunday

A Nice Review for Discount Noir

The very nice Naomi Johnson spent some time and space in reviewing our book. Head over to THE DROWNING MACHINE and be persuaded you should purchase it.

Leisurely Story Telling

After two plus weeks in California, I can definitely see a difference. People take life more leisurely here--except when they get behind the wheel.

And I am also reading Tana French, who although Irish not Californian, seems to have a similar leisurely approach to telling a story.

I can't remember reading a novel where the story unfurled itself at such a restful pace--as if she knew that we would stick with her through long passages where very little happens. But the set-up, characters, and writing are good, very good, and so we do stick around. I remember books like this from my youth. Where the writer assumed you had time, interest. Who else writes with this confidence, believing that 500 pages are not so much? Who do you stick with because the writing is good?

Some Advice?

I am at sea in more ways than one.

While I am out here in CA, I have been working on putting my second attempt at a novel all in the first person. I had it from two POVs, a mother and a daughter. But it lacked immediacy so I decided it should all be from the kid's POV. Although things happened when the kid wasn't around, her mother told her about them or she heard about them so it was pretty easy to get them into her POV until page 230 or so.

In the last third of the book, there is an estrangement between the two and I cannot figure out the best way to handle the mother's story. Does anyone know of someone who handled such a thing well or have an idea. Or should I just have two POVs for the last third without making a fuss about it? Would it bother you. It would be a chapter thing mostly. I am flummoxed.

Friday's Forgotten Books, February 4, 2011

Todd Mason has the links right here.

Philip Abbott is Distinguished University Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His recent books include Exceptional America: Newness and National Identity (1999), Political Thought in America: Conversations and Debates, third edition (2004), The Many Faces of Patriotism (2007) and Accidental Presidents: Death, Assassination, Resignation and Democratic Succession (2008). He had published more than fifty articles in academic journals and held the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained (New York: Forge, 1973)

Reviewed by Phil Abbott

Readers should note I can count the number of Western novels I have read on three fingers: Portis’s True Grit; Clark’s The Oxbow Incident and Proux’s Brokeback Mountain. My interest was piqued by recently watching Deadwood. Kelton’s The Time It Never Rained was recommended to me as perhaps the best contemporary novel about the American West.

Kelton struggled to find a publisher. He wrote a draft in the later fifties. Unable to find a press, he re-wrote the novel in the early sixties only to fail again. Only after receiving positive reviews of The Day the Cowboys Quit, was The Time It Never Rained published in 1973. From the today’s perspective the novel is hardly innovative. The narrative is linear. There are no picaresque characters. Exploration of racial tension (which Kelton expanded in each draft) is relatively limited. The Time It Never Rained is a family saga about the drought that plagued West Texas in the 1950s. Before the drought began, Rio Seco was a relatively prosperous community of proud and independent ranchers. When the rains finally returned in 1957, the town has all features of The Last Picture Show. Young people have left; ranches have been auctioned; those remaining are angry and dispirited.

Despite its narrative and stylist simplicity, however, Kelton’s The Time It Never Rained is an engrossing novel. The central character, Charlie Flagg, a cattle and sheep rancher, is a figure who exemplifies all the features of a lost masculinity, and by implication, a lost West. Scrupulously honest and hard working, his loyalties are simple. His family and the land are the primary source of his affections. There are some cracks even in this lost world. Flagg’s marriage shows subtle signs of disintegration and one wonders if his wayward son’s behavior is the result of a silent but demanding father. His relationships with the Mexican workers on his ranch are correct and cordial and on occasions affectionate, but as one young Mexican explained to a loyal employee they are also “patriarchal.” The young women on the ranch, both Anglo and Mexican, are treated with exceptional respect by Flagg, but also with a chivalrous manner that is only possible for one who has defined gender relationships on permanently unequal terms.

Perhaps the defining aspect of Flagg’s character is a ferociously protected independence. His refusal to accept government aid indirectly leads to the loss of almost all of his land and stock. On the other hand, Flagg’s resistance to the new economy in which ranchers and the government are partners is for the most part justified. When federal bureaucrats are not incompetent, they are predatory. Thus the tragedy of the West Kelton depicts is one in which the lone rancher’s fate is failure. He will be destroyed by nature or the government. At the close of the novel, the rains finally come but Flagg’s last remaining livestock, a herd of goats, are destroyed in a stampede. Flagg’s reaction to his crestfallen spouse is a classic reiteration of the American Dream: “There is still the Land. A man can always start gain. A man always has to.” This engendering of American enterprise has both a conservative and a revisionist aspect. American greatness is dependent upon the maintenance of masculine values. These values also lead to excess and disaster.

One of the pleasures of novice reader of a genre is simply informational. How a ranch economy works, how sheep are sheared, how coyote predation is managed are all carefully delineated by Kelton. Finally, in terms of the forgotten book theme, The Time It Never Rained illustrates another lost world in addition to Charlie Flagg’s. The conventional novel still has the capacity to transport a reader to another time and place.

How I Came To Write This Book: Kelli Stanley

How I Came to Write The Curse-Maker

First I’d like to thank Patti for inviting me—it’s always special to get to hang out with her!

Now, then. THE CURSE-MAKER. This requires looking backward to 2006, when I was facing a crossroads …

As I slowly (very slowly!) inched my way toward graduation in a Master’s Degree program (in Classics), the ugly question kept asserting itself: what the hell was I going to do with my life?

Teaching meant pursuing a Ph.D. Pursuing a Ph.D. meant another five or six years of complete immersion in minutia. I have the utmost respect for people who do this—but I like too many fields of study, and always have, to be that supremely focused on one. I mean, I’ve been a drama, film and English major. I wound up with two undergraduate degrees (Classics and Art History), and when I graduated from high school, I was accepted into U.S. San Diego as a Chemistry major (though I didn’t accept). So … the thought of more specific study frankly scared me.

Plus, if I didn’t get accepted into one of the two local universities, I’d have to move away from San Francisco. I wasn’t willing to do that to myself or my partner. So what to do?

Back in 2005, I’d finished my very first novel, NOX DORMIENDA. Inspired by Raymond Chandler, the Noir City film festival, and the success of Steven Saylor, I thought, well, here’s something I could try. It was the first novel I’d ever attempted to write. But I was unwilling to invest any money or time into learning about publishing until I had outside validation that I was publishing-worthy. I found that validation—for awhile—when I was signed by the first agent I queried.

Within a few months, however, all was not well. Things happened, and things didn’t happen. The upshot is that I was without official advocacy by May, when I walked up the aisle, received my diploma, and incidentally got to meet Neil Young backstage (honorary degree recipient).

I took a trip to England as a graduation present and presented a paper at the University of London. And because I was interested in curses and how they worked within the culture of Roman Britain, we also stopped off in Bath, where I’d arranged with the kind and supportive curator to do some hands-on research at the museum.

See, I’d made my decision. No Ph.D. And I’d also held my breath and closed my eyes and decided I’d find a day job—preferably half-time—so that I could devote myself to the prospect of a writing career. This despite the vacant agent and a gnawing fear of the future …

So when I returned, I used the last gasp of my last student summer vacation to write a book I called Maledictus (or Cursed), a sequel to my first, as yet unpublished, novel. I finished it on Halloween evening of 2006. I then contacted my former agent, and asked her advice.

She suggested I submit NOX to Five Star, as they’re small but respectable. It sounded much better than pounding the pavement for another agent—which is akin to wandering into a suburban singles bar—and I figured that if they rejected it, I’d either look for another agent, rewrite the manuscript or give up altogether.

Five Star accepted NOX in January, 2007 for publication in July, 2008, and it was at that point that I finally felt validated enough to learn about the business, the publishing community, and to call myself a writer.

Now we flash-forward … maybe with one of those swirling newspaper montages. My first Bouchercon in Alaska (2007) inspired me to start a new series I’d envisioned. So throughout 2008—and with the help of family and friends encouraging me, and the good fortune of finding a wonderful agent—I wrote CITY OF DRAGONS. We sold the series to Thomas Dunne/Minotaur in January, 2009, for publication in February, 2010.

Maledictus was still in a desk drawer, and I hadn’t given up hope of seeing my first series take a crack at the major leagues. So I gave it a complete rewrite—it was too long and too sloppy and I’d learned a few things---and we submitted it to my editor. She liked it! And thus, in October of 2009, we sold what was now THE CURSE-MAKER.

I realize how lucky I am to see my first series reincarnated with a major press, and I’m very thankful. Whether Arcturus’ adventures continue depends, as always, on how well-received the book is. Once published, the quest for validation is continuous.

October 2006 seems both longer than four and a half years ago and just yesterday. I’m still at my day job, and still hoping for a full-time writing career. It’s been a winding road—life always is—and I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and to have made the decisions I made, and most of all, to be part of a community of people I love.

Now—finally—that vision I had on a Halloween night in 2006 can be in readers’ hands. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading!

Kelli Stanley is also the author of City of Dragons (nominated for the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award) and Nox Dormiendo.

You Five Favorite Piece of Music-Right Now

Nina Simone-"I Put a Spell on You"
Charlie Mingus, "Haitian Fight Song"
John Lennon, "Imagine"
Beethoven, "Ode to Joy" (and whole Ninth Symphony)
Chet Baker, "My Funny Valentine"

Pioneers of Television

I have been trying to put my finger on what is wrong with this series. I thought the episode on crime dramas was very disappointing.

First, they show too few clips. You get very little idea of what the shows were like. I realize this might be because they don't have the rights to show clips, but then why include the show if they can't.

I also feel they don't have an interesting, if any, thesis. And the show lacks the sophistication that most PBS shows have. Fifty minutes is not enough time to cover sixty years of any type of show.

The single bright spot was the line from Quinn Martin, "I like sadism but I wish you could come up with another approach to it."

I can't imagine anyone not alive to see these shows in the day would get anything out of Pioneers of Television. There are too many interviews with the same people. Perhaps because many others are dead. Interviews where actors say that they had fun and enjoyed being pioneers only get you so far.

It's a shame that such a broad look at television is so tame. Where are the critics that might shed more light on the history of the medium? Where are the historians who study it. Very disappointing. What did you think?

Stay tuned for a surprise forgotten book review on Friday.

Interesting piece on Women on the Scaffold, right here.

True Crime

Randy Johnson mentioned last Monday that he rarely read true crime books and I don't either. I don't even like writing stories based too closely on true crimes. I'm not sure why because other members of my family love them.

Do you read true crime? If not, why? I can't quite pinpoint the reason. Perhaps because what I most love to read is a story someone invented-not a recounting of a real crime. A story that comes from another place in a writer's head entirely pleases me most. Perhaps this is why the true crime I enjoyed most was IN COLD BLOOD, which sort of bent the genre.