First Offenders

Going The Distance

Last week some enormous, monstrous waves hit the coast of San Diego. Normal sets in that area generally don’t amount to anything more than four or five feet in the best of spots. But a storm blew in just perfectly and generated waves up to fifteen feet high from the Mexican border up to Newport Beach. For two days, insane waves blasted the coast. The diehards got in the water and went after them. Crowds gathered on the beaches to watch.

And I sat here in Colorado and yearned to be there. There was some last minute talk of hopping a flight as a very major Christmas gift, but a few things got in the way and I couldn’t pull it off. So I called friends and watched via the Internet.

And that got me thinking about place in mysteries. I use San Diego as the setting for my books, mainly because I know it better than any other place on the planet. But I haven’t lived there for nine years and things have changed. There’s a certain amount of distance between the place I think of as home and where I live now. And I think that’s actually helped the setting in my books. I look at things much differently, with a greater appreciation for the area and all the things it offers. I know that while living there for over two decades, I took a lot of things for granted. Now, missing San Diego like I do, I pay greater attention to the details of the city and I’m careful to try and include in the books the minutia and nuance that I think makes the area one of a kind. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do that, living in the middle of it all. So while it gnaws at me that I missed those waves last week, I think the distance helps my writing.

How do you approach setting?
Jeff

Looking to the New Year

So it's just days to 2006, and I suppose there are people out there making resolutions.

Me? I never make New Year resolutions. To me, it's sort of like saying you're going to quit smoking — for the 10th time. Or giving up something for Lent. My dad always joked that he was giving up the ice in his drinks. That was before he gave up drinking — 28 years ago on Jan. 1, 1978. But he didn't see that as his New Year resolution; it was just one day at a time.

If I were to make a resolution, I suppose I could say that I'll finish another book this year. But that's not a big stretch. I could say I'll get more exercise; but I already work out half an hour a day before the rest of the household gets up. I could say I'll give up chocolate. But that's just ridiculous.

I could resolve to spend more time with my family, but we make a point of doing that already. Being a two working parent household forces us to cherish our moments together.

So I'll enter 2006 the same way I've entered each year of my life. With hope, optimism and thanks that I've made it this far.

How will you greet 2006?

Karen

Fake Trees and Farewell Santa

by Lori

I'm taking the Christmas tree down today. "But it's only the 27th," my kids say. Since I put it up a couple of days early, Ifigure I'm entitled to box it up and shove it in the back of the closet until 2006. We didn't manage to get lights up on the outside of the house this year, so this will be a fairly quick process. Why am I so gung-ho on putting Christmas out of sight and out of my mind?  Besides the fact the two 12 ft. plants I had to move to make room for the tree are dropping leaves like crazy?  In addition to the fact it is 60 degrees and not a snowflake in sight, I realized on Christmas Eve as I attached bows to the gifts this will be my last year playing "Santa."  My youngest daughter is 9, and has questioned the jolly man's existence since October.  Despite the number of times we tell her its what *she* believes in her heart that matters, she hears things on the playground.  Her teacher called Santa a "myth", her friends swear they saw their presents in their parent's closet.  At midnight, as I filled stockings, I shed a few tears.  I'd reached the end of one step in this parenting journey.  Seeing the wonder and excitement on those sweet little faces Christmas morning has always been a high point of our year.  Footsteps going down the stairs.  An exclamation of glee. Footsteps coming back up the stairs and our bedroom door bursting open with an excited, "He came! He came! Come on, get up! Come see!"  I'll miss that.  So for those of you with small children, my advice is to enjoy these Santa years as they are gone far too fast.

My favorite Christmas gift

By Alison

Another Monday, another blog post... But after a weekend's worth of  gift-wrapping, champagne drinking and watching Santa come flying into town on a giant dove (Did I mention I live in Woodstock?) it was hard to think of anything to write here about. A Holiday poem? No way. (After reading Nancy Martin's hilarious Lipstick Chronicles opus, I'd never even attempt it.) Best books of the year? Karen nabbed that one last Wednesday. (Thanks a lot, Olson.) Predictions for 2006? I'm too superstitious to make predictions. It got to the point, I was thinking about hiring a ghost writer for this week's entry, 'cause I know lots of good writers. But then, in replying to Jeff's post, Stacey Cochran gave me the most wonderful Christmas gift: a topic. What did ya get? Well, Stacey, I got an idea of what to write here, so thank you! That topic was my very favorite Christmas gift. (Well, next to the snazzy new laptop. And the cashmire sweater. And the bottle of Chanel #5...) What did everybody else get?

Santa Knows His Stuff

I was on a panel recently where we were asked what Christmas present we had received during our lifetime that most influenced our writing.

The answer was easy for me.

When I was thirteen, I received a copy of STRANGER WITH MY FACE by Lois Duncan in my stocking. (FYI – since it was in my stocking that meant Santa brought it. Gifts in the stocking and the unwrapped gifts in front of the tree were from The Big Man. It paid to leave out cookies and milk, as he always left cool stuff. It probably helped, too, that we left out bowls of water and carrots on the roof for the reindeer. We took this stuff seriously in my house.) I read the book the day after Christmas and was totally knocked out. I spent the rest of my Christmas vacation practicing astral projection. Don’t know what that is? Go buy the book and see what a weirdo I was.

Duncan wrote a string of wonderful YA thrillers that I immediately got my hands on. The books scared me, but in a good way. The characters were great and believable, the stories were quick moving, but had some depth to them. I still have all those old original paperbacks and I can remember thinking as I was tearing through her books that I really wanted to write stories like that.

What did Santa bring you?
Jeff

Best reads of 2005

As we near the end of 2005, there are a lot of those “best of” lists all over the place. Because there are so many books and so little time, and I constantly find myself discovering books written in previous years that I just hadn’t gotten to before, I’m not sure I can produce a “best of 2005” list. But these are some of the crime novels published this year that I did read and stood out for me:

The books by our own First Offenders: KILLER SWELL (Jeff Shelby); BLOOD TIES (Lori Armstrong) and HIDE YOUR EYES and YOU KILL ME (Alison Gaylin)

Michael Connelly had two outstanding books this year: THE LINCOLN LAWYER and THE CLOSERS.

TO THE POWER OF THREE, Laura Lippman

DRAMA CITY, George Pelecanos

TILT A WHIRL, Chris Grabenstein

COVER YOUR ASSETS, Patricia Smiley

FORCING AMARYLLIS, Louise Ure

MOST WANTED, Michele Martinez (I’m in the middle of reading her new book THE FINISHING SCHOOL and it’s even better)

GIRLS OF TENDER AGE, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (This is a memoir/true crime that's not to be missed about the murder of her classmate Irene when she was 10)

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, J. Carson Black (Okay, I’m not done with this one yet but it’s living up to expectation so far)

Some of the books I’ve read this year that were published earlier but deserve recognition are DATING DEAD MEN, Harley Jane Kozak; THE BONE ORCHARD, D. Daniel Judson; THE ENEMY, Lee Child; DON’T LOOK BACK, Karin Fossum; CASE HISTORIES, Kate Atkinson; and DECEPTION, Denise Mina.

And although it’s not a crime novel, WAR TRASH by Ha Jin deserves a note in that it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, and of course there’s HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, which is hardly the best writing but is certainly one of the most entertaining.

What are some of the books on your “best of” list?

Karen

The Long and the Short of it

by Lori

Short stories have been on my mind lately. J. Carson Black is creating one with the help of visitors to her blog (Anatomy of a Short Story), Jeff has written one,  MWA has sent out the call for short stories for a police procedural anthology, you can purchase "short shorts" on Amazon.com and its that time of year when the "Best Of" books begin to show up.  I have sort of a love/hate relationship with shorts.  The first piece of writing I had published - and got paid for - was a Christmas short story. Since then I've written a few others, had a few published, but that by no means makes me comfortable writing them.  Most of mine end up either too long, too short, or with plot holes I could drive a cement through.  At Mayhem in the Midlands in 2002, during Laura Lippmann's panel, she commented on short stories.  How writing one takes so much energy, and takes time away from larger projects, such as a novel in progress.  Then she said there is no shame in not being able to write a good short mystery story (obviously she's an exception) but that doesn't mean a writer shouldn't try.  Excellent advice. So, over Christmas break, I hope to flesh out an idea that's been kicking around in my head, so I can accomplish something writingwise before I begin to implement my writing New Year's resolutions.

There are several writers who are masters at novels and shorts: Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Ray Bradbury, Margaret Maron, Ernest Hemingway, to name a few.  I've got two favorite shorts:  "Word Processor of the Gods" by Stephen King, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and "Until Gwen" by Dennis Lehane.  What are yours?

We're fine... Really.

In my new book, YOU KILL ME, Samantha Leiffer and her boyfriend, John Krull are having problems. I'm not giving anything away in saying this. From pretty much the start of the book, they're discovering that, even though they've been living together for more than a year, the don't know each other quite as well as they thought. Plenty of couples go through this during the early years of their relationships, though Sam's and Krull's problems run a bit deeper. That aside, certain friends of mine who have just finished the book are looking at me funny. "The problems Sam and Krull are having seem so.... real..." said one mom from my daughter's pre-school class. (Who happens to have her masters in psychology). "I really liked your book," said another friend's husband, before adding, carefully. "What did Mike think about it?" While I'm glad people find that part of the book accurate enough to question the state of my marriage, I would like to point out:: My books are not an autobiographical. If they were, I'd be in an insane asylum. Mike and I have been married for eleven years and (knock wood) have never seen any one die a v iolent, horrible death in front of our eyes. We have better relationships with our parents than my characters do, we're not paying rent on an apartment in New York City and, being older than Sam and Krull, we've learned how to talk things out, whether we want to or not. Okay. Now that I've made that clear... I do find it funny how many people think writers are always writing autobiographies, no matter how wild the story. How many of you writers have been surprised by the question: "Is any of this true?" (In the interest of full disclosure, Krull does say something to Sam in the midst of an argument that Mike once said to me. It involves the dishwasher.)

Freezing My Pen Off

Last night, my car broke down. Went to turn right and the whole thing just went dead on the spot. With traffic backing up behind me, I did what any guy who doesn’t know squat about cars does in a situation like that – I put in the hazards on, dialed AAA and gave the finger to the people who honked at me.

Now, we’re lucky – we’ve rarely had to use our AAA membership other than for maps and tour books. So when I called and they told me it could take up to an hour, I said okay. I called at 5:15pm. I didn't know any better.

At 7:40pm, the tow truck rolled up.

Now, during those two and a half hours, besides calling AAA several times just to find out where my rescuer was and profanely telling the person on the other line that it was 19 degrees out and I was turning into a Jeffsicle, I was scribbling on a notepad that I found in the trunk. Working on a new, revised chapter to my third book. I wasn’t going anywhere, the writing kept my hand warm and I had nothing else to do.

I’ve struggled for two weeks with the concept of this new chapter. Written probably six different versions and none of them worked. But, as I was sitting there, shivering like I was in detox, I finally wrote THE chapter that I’ve been looking to write. I knew it was the right one as it was coming out.

The tow truck driver arrived and approached the car a little tentatively, obviously warned by dispatch that a pretty pissed-off guy with a foul mouth was waiting for him.

“Sorry it took so long, man,” he said, then stepping back in attempt to avoid the punches he thought were coming his way.

“No problem, dude,” I said, smiling. “I’m good.”

Weirdest writing experience yet. What’s yours?
Jeff

Excuses, excuses

Procrastination.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Especially while procrastinating.

As a newspaper editor, I'm in a deadline business. I can write a 20-inch story in half an hour. I can edit stories, write headlines and design the pages for our weekly Car & Truck section in just about two hours on a good day (barring computer glitches). As a fill-in night news editor, I can steer the production of our 100,000 or so circulation newspaper in just a matter of hours. I am no stranger to deadlines.

But when it comes to writing fiction, I'm finding that I'm pushing the envelope even further.

For years I wrote in a vacuum, as a hobby, you might say. Because of my business, I gave myself deadlines, but it didn't matter if I took a couple of weeks off or even a month. No one was expecting anything of me except myself.

Until now.

I'm working on my third book. Or I should say, I should be working on my third book. If there's an excuse not to write, I'm finding it. Last night, of course, was the finale of "The Amazing Race," and even though I didn't much care who won because it's been a lousy season (you can read my blog about it here), I had to watch it. The night before, IFC showed "Elizabeth," and with my Henry VIII obsession, it was a no brainer that I had to watch. Tonight is my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary so we're going out to dinner, and tomorrow is my daughter's first holiday concert.

If I wanted to, I could find time to write in between all these things. Half an hour here, half an hour there, no problem. But instead I see that laundry needs to be done, Christmas packages need to be sent, I need a nap.  And now I've caught a wicked cold that will of course keep me from my keyboard because I can't write if I'm sneezing.

Granted, I have no set deadline or contract for this book. My agent suggested submitting it sometime this spring. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I NEED a firm deadline to keep me from playing Harry Potter computer games (I've become quite proficient with the wand). Or maybe in January I'll look at the calendar and decide that it's time to stop lollygagging and just get down to work.

Until then, I've got a stack of good books to read and it's cold outside. Hot chocolate, anyone?

Karen