First Offenders

This keyboard sucks... and other important facts.

By Alison
Excuses, excuses, I know, but I'm still at work (closing night) and I'm off to the Cape tomorrow so all I can think about is sun and sand and lobster rolls and this keyboard sucks, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Did I mention that this keyboard is so sucky and sloooooow that I feel like I'm on another planet from the  computer screen and I'm watching things I typed YEARS ago finally appear, after I've forgotten writing them? I think it's the magazine's design program. It just seeps into everything...

Anyway... I just got my  Bouchercon panel assignment, and I thought it was a pretty interesting thing to think about. Plus, I'd like your opinions on it so I can rip you off on the panel and act like your brilliant thoughts are mine. So in the spirit of all that, the panel title is "Which End is Up?"   And it's about plotting. When you plot a novel, do you start at the beginning with a premise and work from there, or do you start with an ending and work back??

Personally, I'm a premise person. I tend to change my endings drastically in the second draft, so they're just not reliable enough to work back from. But how about you? When you're plotting a book, which end to you start at? And readers: Do you ever do that thing I hate and read the last page first? 

Thanks for playing. I will now throw this computer across the room  .

PS. I also wanted to fling a little BSP at you and let you know that HEARTLESS is out in paperback -- here ad in the UK -- this week. Cape Cod here I come!!

Back To School

So school started last week here for my daughter and she's now a big time first grader. Just ask her. She'll be happy to tell you.

I always liked school, but I was ALWAYS nervous the first few days for reasons that I'm now unable to recall. But I do recall the knots in my stomach that would always forms during that first week until everything settled in.

My daughter does not appear to have that apprehension. Couldn't wait to meet the teacher. Couldn't wait to pack her lunch. Couldn't wait to leave the house. Couldn't wait to charge into the cafeteria and find her class. (It would take me at least an hour to explain the drop off process at our school, but suffice to say that about one million kids get dropped every day in the cafeteria and then are somehow sorted out and hopefully end up in the right class.) Couldn't wait to go back the next day. Couldn't wait for the weekend to be over and to get back there today.

Nerd!

Anyway, school's back in session and routine has entered our lives again. So has quiet. Yay for routine and quiet.
Jeff

BABES IN JOYLAND
If you are my Facebook friend, you will see that this song has been in my head for close to a week now. You will also see that I am taking a fair amount of crap for it. Fair enough. My hope is that, one, it will now be in your head; and, two, that you are caught somewhere in public later today mumbling under your breath "...nodding my head like yeah, moving my hips like yeah..." If I'm really brave, one day I'll videotape the dance routine my daughter and I are working on to it and show it to you.

BREAKING NEWS: FO Rocks the Shamuses!

Now there's even MORE reason to drink at Boucercon. That's right people...TWO First Offenders have been nominated for Shamuses this year!

We here at FO would like to congratulate KAREN E. OLSON (nominated for SHOT GIRL) and LORI G. ARMSTRONG (nominated for SNOW BLIND) -- both in the paperback original category, both First Offenders, both tremendously talented writers with whom we are proud to share a banner.

You go, girls! (And no, Jim Born, they're not going to mud-wrestle for it.)

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, SO I CAN POST WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT

You know, just thoughts and shit from the last couple of days:

• Yes, Neighbor Dude, I know the difference between your lawn and my lawn.  Your kid was running back and forth across my lawn.  A lot.  Loudly.  Just say "Won't happen again" instead of trying to defend him!
• I see a lot of books that are interesting enough to put on my Amazon wish list, but months later, I see them there and can't imagine ever wanting to read them.
• I hope the flank steak tacos I'm cooking tonight turn out awesomely.
• I don't really like to drink.  Occasional cheap wine and Mexican beer with lime, and then only with good food.  I prefer Coke.  And not Diet Coke (it tastes like chemicals).
• Why can't I stop eating food that's bad for me?  It's sooooo good.
• I don't believe a lot of what I used to.
• Scoffers can scoff, but The Daily Show actually is the best news out there.  Why will no one else call these people on their double-talk? Why has journalism become all about the sensationalism and no one is willing to say "Hey, you're just bullshitting me now, aren't you?  You don't really believe this crap, right?"
• Flying is terrifying.
• I have a lot of CDs.  I don't listen to them that much.  I immediately have buyer's remorse whenever I'm stupid enough to buy another one.
• When will someone build the machine that takes all our garbage, sorts out the recycling on its own, and turns the actual garbage into mulch or fertilizer or something?
• Watch this.
• If you're not watching The Venture Brothers, just shut up.
• Speaking of: TV is better than movies.
• I'm nervous a lot.
• For my birthday next year, it would be really cool if I could spend it on a train, going to someplace cool like Niagara Falls or Montana.  But I bet I won't.

Get me some candles, a cake, and someone to throw the whole shebang at when I'm done wishin'.

Friday Bonus Music Video:

Five pages and sunscreen

I wish summer were just a little longer.

Not for the reasons Jeff probably does, though (see his blog post from last week).  But for the fact that for the first time this summer, I'm in a writing rhythm and it's all going to end a week from Monday when my daughter goes back to school.

For the last two weeks, I've been getting home from work at 1:30 and then taking my daughter and her friend to the pool club. While they swim, I eat my lunch and write five pages of the third tattoo mystery, Driven to Ink. Once I finish both, I reward myself with a swim and the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

It's a perfect system. It's the one I used last summer when I wrote The Missing Ink. The one I wished for when I was struggling with writing Pretty in Ink during the dark winter months.

But now it's almost over. School does start early this year, since Labor Day is so late. But there will be a week of school flurry and then the holiday weekend and then the pool is closed until next summer. I will have to devise a new system, one that will be as productive.

I'm going to try to eek as much out of the rest of the summer as I can. My five page a day regimen is on track; by the end of today, I'll have 56 pages. I hope that I'll be able to stay in the zone even without the sounds of splashing, the scent of sunscreen in the air.

What about you? Are you superstitious about your writing regimen? And if you're not a writer, what will you miss about summer?

Karen

Gotta kill that scene. If you know what I mean...

By Alison

This past weekend was the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock. As the four people who regularly read this blog know, I live in Woodstock -- and therefore had to contend with the 5 bazillion clueless tourists, who flooded our town in the hopes of some sort of major rock and roll/world peace-inducing commemorative happening -- only to find our annual month-and-a-half late 4th of July picnic and fireworks at the community center green. Hope you enjoyed the hot dogs, folks... Got a revolution!

Excuse the sarcasm, but as we Woodstock residents know, the real Woodstock was not held in Woodstock -- but 50 miles away at Max Yasgur's farm in rural Bethel, NY. It's since been turned into an outdoor performing area called Bethel Woods -- and that's where we were on August 15, watching the Legends of Woodstock concert. First of all, let me say we had a great time. The main reason we went is that my husband is a big Ten Years After fan, and even without Alvin Lee, they kicked ass. All the other bands were great too -- my personal favorites being the Levon Helm Band, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, who played so well, and seemed to be having so much genuine fun with their shockingly good young lead singer, who sounds very, very close to Janis, had rehab been an option.

BUT... this is what I wanted to talk about, which, believe it or not, has something to do with writing. You know that group Mountain? Mississsippi Queen? Okay well, they were there. And they played a couple of songs. And then, all of a sudden, the lead guitarist Leslie West says "I'm going to get married." And he DOES. All the guitarists from the other bands come out and put their guitars in an arch, and the bride comes out and then  some sort of minister, and we're all sitting there in one collective "huh?" as Leslie West and his girlfriend exchange vows and rings and the whole thing seems to go on forever and ever.... Then finally, they kiss for a very long time, and after she leaves the stage, he plays an abbreviated Mississippi  Queen and LEAVES!

I don't know about anyone else, but given a choice between 20 or 30 more minutes of music and watching Leslie West get married, I'm going with the music. In all honesty, given a choice between waiting for a bus in 90 degree heat and watching Leslie West get married... Well, it's a tough choice, but at least the bus may take me somewhere I want to go.

Yet for Leslie himself, I'm sure the experience was very enjoyable -- and that's what made me think about writing. In my original draft of HIDE YOUR EYES, I had this cop character, Munro. He was good friends with Detective John Krull's partner Art Boyle, and he was a nice guy and he got killed. I loved Munro. Loved writing that whole subplot. For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of writing that book was a scene I did where Boyle talks at length about losing his dear friend. I thought it was very well-written too. My editor, on the other hand, thought I should kill the whole thing. It slowed down the plot, she said. It was too far removed from the main action.

I couldn't believe she wanted me to do this. But once I read through the book, I saw she was right. I cut all 40 pages of the Munro subplot, and though I personally miss him, the book is better for it. They say "kill your darlings" for a reason. Some scenes -- like Leslie West's wedding -- are simply more fun from the inside than the outside.

Have you ever fallen in love with a scene or character, only to find, later on, that it was Leslie West's Wedding?

Thirty Bucks???

So last week I was all excited because Pat Conroy's new book South of Broad was released. And as the four of you who follow this blog regularly know, Conroy is pretty much my literary hero. Can do no wrong and even though the reviews of this book have been lukewarm, I didn't care and couldn't wait to get my hands on the book. Dude seemingly writes a new book only about every ten years now and I'd had the date marked on my calendar for awhile. (BTW - every author should take lessons from Conroy on how to greet fans at a booksigning. The one time I met him in Denver when he was signing for My Losing Season, he greeted every single person the same as they came to the table - extended his hand, smiled this huge smile and said "Hi. I'm Pat Conroy. Great to meet you." Every single person. I probably shouldn't have kissed him. It was sort of awkward.)

Anyway, I roar into the bookstore - with, btw, a 40% coupon from One Of Those Stores That Shall Not Be Named. It's right there at the front on it's own special little rack and I grab it, caress it, hug it, wink it, whisper in its ear. Then I opened up the front cover to read the jacket and I stopped cold.

$29.95

WTF????

I mean, really. $29.95??? For a...book????

Yeah, yeah, I know. This practice has been slowly going on for awhile now. Publishers are upping the cover price in order for the bigger stores to be able offer their deep discounts and so everyone can still make money and everyone can walk away happy.

Everyone except the guy who has to drop that kind of money on the book.

After using my second grade math skills and realizing even with my badass coupon, I was still going to be paying in the neighborhood of twenty bucks for the book...I set it back down.

Thirty bucks for a book? I mean, I know I wasn't gonna pay that price, but supporting that price point just felt wrong to me in principle. I couldn't do it. THIRTY BUCKS.

I'm really hoping Mr. Nyren or some of the other publishing professionals who hang around here from time to time can shed some light here on exactly how that price is reasonable, not just for the consumer, but also for the independent bookstores who cannot offer the discount on the book and actually have to try and move it at the cover price. Because I'm just not seeing it. I'm really not.

So I will wait for you, South of Broad. I will wait for you. With longing and lust in my heart, I will wait for you. I will find you at the library or in paperback. I WILL FIND YOU!!!

For thirty bucks, I could take my family out to dinner tonight. Tell me - what else could we do with thirty bucks?
Jeff

BABES IN JOYLAND
Fergie's a babe, right? She counts, right? I guess will.i.am is cute, too. Anyway, I had a special request for this song this morning and you know me. I am here to please you. I am all about you. Really. Seriously. Also - it will help your enjoyment of this song if you picture me dancing to it. Try it. You'll get sick like it.

THE DEATH OF THE DEATH OF STUFF

If someone tries to tell you "indie is dead", or "genre is dead", or they're giving last rites to crime fiction, rock and roll, the novel, a certain political party, etc., just ignore them. Go about your day. Don't take it to heart.

I mean, these articles are well-thought, well-researched, and full of intriguing examples usually, but they're also really boring in the long run.

So novels are dead, eh? I guess that means no one will write any more good ones ever, or if they do it won't matter, so how's about you novelists stop that silliness now?

Or the death of the indie scene.  Okay...um, I don't feel that much different.  And didn't we go through this in the Nineties when a bunch of grunge bands got signed to major record deals? Don't we go through it every ten years or so?

Or the death of genre writing...no, it's breathing.  Moving around, sitting up, all that.  Maybe it'll lose some of the excess fat and be a leaner, meaner machine, but dead? Nope.

Maybe it's just me, but this sort of analysis seems insanely dull compared to the thingitself.  When I go into a bookstore and there aren't any new novels, then I'll say the novel is dead.  Same with crime fiction or rock and roll bands or Republicans.  Seems there's always an example of someone coming along who either finds some new life in those supposedly dead ideas or forms, or they either just work the traditional form so fucking wellthat you can't just toss out the whole goddamned thing because pop culture gave up it--like classical/serious music, or even jazz (actually, maybe that one should be dead), or painting, or the musical, or The Western (it's doing quite well after being shot full of holes many, many times), or, or, or...

Yeah, some trends and sub-genres and political parties do die off, but the people who write those books, play those tunes, or subscribe to those doctrines don't always just stop doing stuff.  They create new works of art, new parties, new sounds, and generations trailing them take the old and the new and mash it up into something different (if not groundbreaking) that leads to more difference and then suddenly you are surprised by what's going on out there.  "Wasn't that dead?" You'll ask?  And the zeitgeist will answer, "Th' fuck are you talking about?"

As for the people saying all these things are "dead", what's the value in that?  I'm curious.  And don't say "Oh, not literally dead.  Just a metaphor.  You don't get it.  I mean the significance of it." No, I get it.  I know what you mean.  I got a Ph.D. in English during the Big Complicated PoMo Theory days.  I went home from classes exhausted just having to think about some of this shit. 

I guess I just don't get why people want to insist that certain trends, art forms, genres, musical styles, political beliefs, and so on are all dead when cultures all over the world have shown a remarkable affinity for recycling and remolding and mashing and resurrecting stuff. It all rolls back around.  That's much more cool than stuff just being dead.

Friday Bonus Music Video:

When Paris interrupts

A week ago today, you didn't hear from me because I was in Paris. I had no laptop, no cell phone, no television, no radio. I had no idea what was going on in the world. No one could reach me. I was completely untethered. I put all thoughts about the book I have to write out of my  head. And I started thinking about a book that I started over a year ago and haven't finished, because I'd stopped writing just at the part where the protagonist jets off to ... Paris.

I didn't stop writing because Paris flumoxed me. I'd been there before and had some memories to draw from. I stopped because I got a new book contract and I needed to start getting into the tattoo and Vegas zone. Because I wrote two books in a year about Vegas, I couldn't even think about returning to Paris. And now I'm in the same boat: I have two more books in the tattoo shop series to write by next August. Paris seemed a million years away.

Until I was on a Bateaux Mouche, gliding along the Seine and I spotted the houseboats anchored along the side of the river. For some reason, my first thought was that the protagonist in that as yet unfinished manuscript could end up on one, gazing up at Notre Dame and Pont Neuf and the Eiffel Tower (although, yes, I know, not all from the same vantage point). And she stayed with me for the rest of the trip. I was seeing Paris through her eyes: what neighborhoods she could visit, what brassieries. I wanted to come home and start writing about her again. Because I knew I could pick up where I'd left off very easily.

But I can't. I came home and started the new book. I'm 20 pages now into Driven to Ink, the third tattoo shop mystery. I'm back in Vegas. But I've started jotting down notes, thoughts for that other manuscript. Because I will go back to it when I can. I know I'm not done with it yet.

Have you ever done this? Have you ever worked on something and another project just rears its head and demands to be listened to?

Karen

Guest Blogger JASON STARR has ways of making you register...

JASON STARR's PANIC ATTACK -- which Michael Connelly calls "the ultimate page-turner" -- is out NOW from St. Martin's. Buy it! Read it! And keep your eye out for Jason's terrific graphic novel, THE CHILL, coming soon from DC/Vertigo Crime! But first, read what Jason has to say about BoucherCon, Thrillerfest, and all those other things we buy drinks at...

 

Hey, great to be back here!

 

There has recently been a lot of discussion on-line about book buying (or the lack there of) at Bouchercon and other mystery conferences, and Reed Coleman recently wrote a thoughtful piece on the subject for Crime Spree Magazine, so I thought I'd jump into the fray.

 

As authors, our goal is to sell as many books as possible wherever we go. I would love to sell 100 -- hell 500 -- books at every conference I attend, but the reality is an author is lucky to sell about 20 books at an average Bouchercon, and probably much less at smaller conferences. I believe this is mainly due to sheer numbers and not to a lack of interest in our books from fans. Fans would love to buy many of our books, but they have limited book buying money and limited room in their suitcases. Also, the ratio of authors to fans at Bouchercon simply can't support tremendous book buying of individual author's books, so as authors we are forced to find other incentives, beyond immediate book sales, to attend conferences.

 

For me, the main incentive has been to hang out with writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians and fans at one location. With publisher-financed author tours becoming increasingly rare, conferences are a great way to meet multiple bookstore owners at one time. For example, my new novel PANIC ATTACK just came out and, while St. Martin's Press scoffed at my suggestion of a 30-city author tour, upcoming conferences are a great opportunity to meet with booksellers I didn't get the chance to meet on the road.

 

That said, I agree with Reed and others that there is a major problem here. As much as we enjoy conferences, it ultimately becomes a matter of cost. What with hotel, travel and paying for Jim Born's drinks, a trip to a conference can cost 1,000 dollars or more, and there's a limit to how many times authors are going to be willing, and able, to shell out this kind of money. If authors don't think they are getting enough bang for their buck at bigger conferences, they won't be able to justify attending the smaller ones. Early on in a writer's career, attending conferences is a must as they need to get their names out there. But as authors become more known around the community the networking incentive begins to wane. Note how many brand-name authors don't attend conferences at all, and this is a major problem because the top guns are the potential big draws.

 

One way to encourage authors to regularly attend conferences is to give them more to do. Multiple panel assignments and more local publicity opportunities would help, but perhaps the best incentive would be if the panels, and book room, were opened up to the public, giving authors more chance to meet potential fans. At Thrillerfest (by the way, probably the most expensive conference) the book room is virtually empty, even though the conference takes place in New York City with many brand-name authors in attendance. There has to be a way to bring the public in, perhaps by having more events outside of the conference centers, perhaps in nearby parks.

 

Lastly, if conference organizers want to stimulate book-buying at conferences here's an idea. Instead of charging say, 150 dollars, to attend a conference charge 200 dollars and give every attendee 50 dollars in "book room tickets". This would ensure a lot of book buying and make booksellers and authors happy in one fell swoop.

 

I realize conference organizers have a lot on their plate and are trying to resolve a lot of these issues, but recently there had been more and more rumbling from authors about the cost of conferences compared to the impact they have on their careers. And if more authors have to cut back on their conference attending, it won't help any of us.