For the Love of Crime Fiction

 by: Nina Milton

 

When I tell people I write crime fiction, the one thing I’m not hoping to hear is, “Oh, I neverread crime fiction.”

Not because I want them to buy my books, but because I simply don’t believe them. Of course they read crime fiction. They just don’t know it. No way would I admit what I’m actually thinking, which is, “that’s a whole heap of baloney, pal – the literary equivalent of the excrement of the male cow.”

I belong to a local reading club, ten or fifteen of us discussing the books we’ve loved, and sometimes I get that sort of response when introduced to a new member. “A crime fiction series? That won’t interest me, I never read it.” The second part of their little speech hangs in the air, unsaid but perfectly clear– “Crime fiction is way below my reading standard.”

Even when I overhear whisperings in the reading club shadows, “ah, Nina Milton, she’s a novelist with a big US publisher, you know…but it’s onlycrime fiction…” I don’t bite. I don’t want to be accused of being a “precious author” who can’t take a critique of their work, I just wait, like a cheetah, poised at the edge of the Savannah eyeing up the wildebeests, for the moment they start talking about books…“I love the work of Charles Dickens…” Or, “I’m very into William Faulkner.”

 

 

Then I point out, the smile plastered over my face, that Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist was a story of street kids abused and corrupted by gangs of professional criminals.

 

 

 

 

 

Bleak House was a legal thriller that Grisham would have probably been proud to write and The Mystery of Edwin Brood…well, it’s in the title, you fool. As for Nobel Laureate Faulkner, not only did he work on the screenplay of The Big Sleep, but wrote a thriller called Sanctuary.

Edgar Allen Poe

Then there’s Dicken’s friend Wilkie Collins, who’s every novel was a mystery thriller, plus Patricia Highsmith, Edgar Allan Poe and Graham Greene, all writers now studied at college. 

Donna Tartt produces something criminal every ten years or so, to delight serious readers and crime fans alike, recently winning acclaim across the world for The Goldfinch, the story of a stolen painting. And, as if to prove my point, Scottish novelist Kate Atkinson recently won literary prizes for her surprising and memorable book,Life After Life, straight after publishing  her “Jackson Brodie” series about a DI turned private eye. These have already been adapted for British TV as Case Histories, and Shonda Rhimesis developing a pilot called The Catchfor the US market.

And did you know that Mark Twain’s Huck and Tom solved a murder and collected $2000 in Tom Sawyer, Detective? Twain was also the first writer to use fingerprints in his short story, The Thumbprint and What Became of It.

We haven’t even got started on the many crime novels which have been showered with accolades from the literary giitterati; writers like Dashiell Hammett, Elmor Leonard, Raymond Chandler,  Steig Larsson, Peter Hoeg, Georges Simenon. And of course, P D James, who, in her latter years, also wrote a mystery sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Death Comes to Pemberley.

In fact, it is difficult to write a book, even one that is likely to reach literary heights, without there being an element of mystery within it, without it being thrilling, and without, underneath all of this, some sort of dark secret. I believe it’s the crime writer who best reflects their society, and all shades.

In any case, it’s hard to define exactly what makes a book “good literature”, but I think most people would go with the books which raise questions for the reader, especially about the validity of society’s morals, which is written with style, so that every sentences gets you thinking, and yet is beautiful in its own right.

I don’t pretend to be a literary writer, but I do attempt, right from the start of plotting each of my “Shaman Mystery” novels, to explore the themes I’ve chosen with some depth, and within that, to examine what it is to be human. I do that by choosing crimes that are deeply evil in some way, and observing how people cope, react. In the Moors examines the appalling crime of pedophilia. Unraveled Visionslooks at how desperate people seek a better life in a new country to only become exploited. Beneath the Tor,due for release in December 2015, will investigate the “legal hi” problems and mental health issues. Because my heroine is a shamanic therapist with a big heart, I always feature the victims and their families in my books, as well as the law enforcers and the criminals. These are the people Sabbie Dare is interested in helping.

I think P. D. James put it well; A detective story can give a much truer picture of the society in which it’s written than a more prestigious literature…crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational comprehensible and moral universe.

 

                                                            Ends.



 
 
 
 



 

 

 

The 1st Shaman Mystery, IN THE MOORS -“Sabbie Dare is the most compelling protagonist I’ve met this year...Milton’s tale is riveting.”—Library Journal (starred review)

The 2nd Shaman Mystery, UNRAVELED VISIONS

“[A] thrilling tale.” —RT Book Reviews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The depictions of shamanic journeying are vivid and authentic. Reading BENEATH THE TOR kept me up at night much later than I wanted, because I could not bear to miss the next bit."—RONALD HUTTON, AUTHOR OF THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOON, SHAMANS, AND PAGAN BRITAIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nina Milton (Wales) has been publishing short stories and children’s books for thirty years. She’s won many literary competitions, including the Crossroads Competitions, Kent Festival Prize, and the Wells Literary Shirt Story Competitions. She enjoys exploring the magical landscapes of Britain with her husband, James. Visit her blog at http://KitchenTableWriters.Blogspot.com

 

 



Celebrating Women's History Month #4: Serie-ous Women

Here at Midnight Ink Headquarters, we find that the best way to celebrate Women's History Month is to talk to our authors whose books feature strong female protagonists. Every day this week, return to this blog to find out more about the ladies portrayed in our various series and stand-alone releases this year!

Don't miss our previous posts in this series!
Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

Linda Joffe Hull

Linda Joffe Hull is on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and is a member of Sisters in Crime and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Awarded the 2013 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year Award, Hull is the author of the Mrs. Frugalicious Shopping Mystery series for Midnight Ink and has also published The Big Bang with Tyrus Books. A native of St. Louis, Hull now lives in Denver with her husband and three children. Visit her online at www.lindajoffehull.com or at mrsfrugalicious.tumblr.com.

Maddie Michaels is the wife of TV financial guru Frank Finance Michaels. When he loses all their money in a Ponzi scheme, she reinvents herself as bargain shopper/coupon clipper Mrs. Frugalicious to save the family from financial ruin. Luckily, Maddie is able to look at the dire situations she faces with humor and optimism.  In her latest adventure, Sweetheart Deal (November 8, 2015), Maddie is in Mexico finding deals on destination weddings and timeshares. When faced with both murder and the maddening issue of playing happily married for her new reality show, The Family Frugalicious, she does so with her trademark pluck.

Sallie Bissell

Sallie Bissell is the author of the award-winning Mary Crow mystery series. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, she graduated from Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) and now resides in Asheville, North Carolina. Bissell is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Visit her online at www.salliebissell.com.

Mary Crow was born because I find people who bridge different cultures fascinating. Mary’s half-Cherokee, half-white. She works in an urban, male-dominated American legal system; yet she was raised in the mountains, in the more matrilineal traditions of the Cherokees. The murder of her mother devastated her, but ultimately led her to become a take-no-prisoners criminal prosecutor. Over the years, though, she’s realized that guilt is not often black or white, but gray. In Judgment of Whispers (September 8, 2015), new evidence reopens an old murder case and reawakens rumors that have never died. Mary must find the truth amid some horrific innuendo.

D. A. Keeley

D.A. Keeley has published widely in the crime-fiction genre and is the author of six other novels, as well as short stories and essays. In addition to being a teacher and department chair at the Northfield Mount Hermon School, and a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Keeley writes a bi-weekly post for the blog Type M for Murder. Keeley divides his time between Massachusetts and Maine. You can learn more about the author and series at: www.dakeeley.blogspot.com or on Twitter @DAKeeleyAuthor.

Peyton Cote is a single mother and a top-flight US Customs and Border Protection agent. I love writing her for many reasons—she’s dedicated, tough, and smart -- but she also struggles, like any single parent, to balance her work and home lives. Her strength is founded upon her childhood: she was raised in the farming community where she now works, and she knows what it feels like to lose it all—her family did; they lost the farm, literally. This offers both internal struggle and great empathy when dealing with the people a border patrol agent typically deals with, those individuals desperate to better their lives and the lives of their loved ones. These conflicts are never more apparent than in Fallen Sparrow (June 8, 2015), where Peyton’s past (in the form of a long-lost friend) collides with her duties as a CPB agent, and the teacher of her son, who has just been diagnosed with dyslexia, is smack dab in the middle of it all. 

Nina Milton

Nina Milton has been publishing short stories and children’s books for thirty years. She has won many literary competitions, including the Crossroads Competition, Kent Festival Prize and the Wells Literary Short Story Competition. Milton holds her Masters in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. Milton, a Druid, drew from her background to create the realistic depiction of shamanism presented in the Shaman Mystery series. Visit Milton online at www.kitchentablewriters.blogspot.com.

As a hard-knock kid, Sabbie Dare knew she was different—she saw through the veil that hides other planes of existence. 

Now she has a shamanic therapy business, she’s still facing trouble because clients bring danger with them. 

In Beneath the Tor (December 8, 2015), a friend dies after a night of dancing, and Sabbie investigates the abusive emails the bereaved husband receives. Sabbie can’t resist untangling this mystery, using confused help from the spirit world, but to get closer to the truth, she must penetrate the deranged mind of a killer, whose madness is taking down innocent victims, one by one.

Return to this blog tomorrow for our final round-up, including: Maegan Beaumont, Mark Stevens, Laura DiSilverio, and Catriona McPherson!

Q&A with Nina Milton

This week, Midnight Ink sat down with Nina Milton, author of Unraveled Visions, A Shaman Mystery #2.

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

Nina Milton: When I was five, my infant school teacher Mrs. Marsden read a story to the class. It might have been the fable "The Mouse and the Lion", but I can't really remember. Then she asked the class to write a story. I was dumbfounded. For the first time I realized that the books I loved were written by real human beings. Before that, I believed they must have fallen from some sort of story heaven. It was a revelation—from then on I was scribbling down stories all the time.

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

NM: My early influence was Iris Murdoch; I l devoured all her books in my twenties and thirties alongside Woolf, Dickens and Harvey. But having babies scrambled my brain for years and I discovered crime fiction—anything from PD James to Patricia Cornwell. I also loved John le Carré’s novels from my first read.

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

NM: I trained to be a nurse, but I don’t have the brain for all that technical stuff. Drug rounds scared me stiff in case I fell into dreaming up the next story. I worked in palliative care for ten years, but I’ve now given up the day job to write full time. Not that nursing is precisely a ‘day job’!

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

NM: A better question is, if you’re not writing, what are you doing, which is almost always . . . gardening!

MI: What is/are your favorite thing/s to do when you’re not writing or working?

NM: When I’m not gardening I love reading, cooking, watching movies, seeing friends. Note that a glass of red [wine] goes well with all the above activities.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

NM: I particularly like Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie, and Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins. But for real class, you can’t beat Sherlock Holmes, who’s planet-sized brain holds every fact and can see round every twisted corner.

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?

NM: I love complex plots, slightly ironic and uber-cool sleuths and elegant writing. So that accolade has to go the The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Apparently the plot was always secondary to Chandler . . . this is hard to believe, as the story is so more raveled than the wool in my knitting basket.

MI: What was your inspiration for this series?

NM: The idea for my Shaman Mysteries came to me when Sabbie walked right into my head and  spoke directly to me—sort of —‘“Hi, Nina, I’m Sabbie. I’m 28 and I’m a shaman and a complimentary therapist. I love my job, but sometimes some very strange people come into my therapy room . . .”

At around that time, I went on a walk with my son on the Somerset Levels, a moorland in the west of England. As we hiked along, the day became gloomy and we were almost lost because each field on the levels is surrounded by water; rivers,dykes, rhynes, ditches and canals. We came upon the areas where they extract peat industrially; huge chunks like empty back swimming pools are cut from the earth and they slowly fill with water becoming reed beds and marshes. My first thought? “That would be a great place to bury a body!”

MI: Tell us about Sabbie Dare.

NM: Sabbie Dare is the force majeure of the Shaman Mystery series. She lives a self-sufficient life in the sleepy town of Bridgwater, England, but still struggles with the memories of her difficult start in life, gaining the strength to get through each day from her shamanism and her pagan beliefs She has an open heart, and is adept at inviting trouble into her life.

Sabbie walks between worlds. She is able to tap into the spirit world through her shamanic trances, and that dimension helps her clients solve their problems. Trouble is, her client’s problems sometimes lead to terror and peril.

When a detective called Reynard walks into her life, she’s suspicious of him at first. Rey is the archetypal humourless, maverick policeman, and their relationship begins like an upmarket cocktail—bitter and full of ice, with a sparkler fizzing at the edge. But in the second of the series their relationship takes a new direction . . . 

MI: How do the Shaman Mysteries compare to your past works?

NM: Before Sabbie started her adventures, I wrote for children. My books for confident readers of 8 or 9 plus are not about crime, but they usually have some sort of mystery at their center.

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

NM: We love cats and dogs in our family but we haven’t yet replaced Honey the cat, who died aged 18, and Jessie, our Border Collie who died of leukemia aged 14. We’re still thinking about it! However, we do have hens, which include growing babies and two combative cocks; they’re like part of the family and bring a chuckle every day.

MI: If you don’t have a pet, do you have a favorite animal?

NM: I love standard poodles—can someone please convince my husband that they’re perfectly butch when they’re not clipped in daft ways?

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

NM: I was about to righteously say ‘any vegetable’ when I realized that would be a fib. It’s actually buttered toast. Sometimes, when everyone’s out and I’m writing all day long, I practically do live off it.

MI:Do you have a favorite recipe?

NM: Utterly rich and tomatoey pasta dishes.

MI: What is your favorite part about being an Inker?

NM: I think Midnight Ink supports its writers so well, and the other writers are friendly with each other—friendly and helpful. I’ve experienced massive, conglomerate publishing houses and really tiny indies, and Midnight Ink is my best experience yet.

Unraveled Visions, the second Shaman Mystery, is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink Monthly: September Edition

Midnight Ink Monthly's September Edition featured an essay from author Nina Milton. Check it out below.

Can a Shaman Find a Serial Killer?

Sabbie Dare walked into my life one day, as if she was already a fully-formed person.  That doesn't happen to me as a writer very often, and I grabbed the chance to write about this spunky twenty-eight-year-old.  She helped me create the Shaman Mystery series.

I'd been practicing shamanic techniques for a few years, and knew quite a few shaman who had set up a therapy business rather like Sabbie's.  They loved their work, despite the irregular hours and the terrible pay, but I could see that they never knew who would walk into their therapy rooms next. People who visit a shaman have all sorts of troubles . . . and can be hiding desperate secrets.  

In the first of the series, In the Moors, a man called Cliff Houghton starts seeing Sabbie Dare about his depression . . . and his terrible obsession with a series of child killings.  In the second, Unraveled Visions, Sabbie is approached by Mirela Brouviche, a young Romany from Bulgaria, who's frightend and alone after the disappearance of her sister.  

Each situation throws Sabbie into jeopardy, but she uses her shamanic visions—and her sound common sense—to help her get to the root of a mystery.  What I love the most about her is that once she has a whiff of the answers, she does not let go, however menacing things get.  

              

Learn more about Sabbie in Unraveled Visions by Nina Milton, available  now!

To subscribe to Midnight Ink's monthly publicity newsletters, please email publicity (at) midnightinkbooks (dot) com.

September 2014 Books Available Now!

   

Don't miss Midnight Ink's latest releases!

"A stylish noir voice."

—Kirkus Reviews on Adobe Flats

"Readers will cheer for this avenging less-than-angel as she goes after some very bad people.

—Publishers Weekly on Beauty with a Bomb

"Lively and entertaining . . . [a] well wrought whodunit." 

—Publishers Weekly on Of Merlot and Murder

"[A] thrilling tale."

—RT Book Reviews on Unraveled Visions

Now available from Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and your local bookseller!

INKSPOT NEWS - September 7, 2013

Here are the new releases from Midnight Ink for September, 2013. They're all fantastic reads!

Grapes of Death by Joni Folger

"The characters are vivid, the plot is cleverly and coherently woven together, and the suspense builds up to a hair-raising [ending]."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

In the Moors by Nina Milton

"Sabbie Dare is the most compelling protagonist I've met this year...Milton's tale is riveting."—LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

Mama Gets Trashed by Deborah Sharp

"Readers will eagerly turn the pages [to solve this mystery]."—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Shotgun Moon by K. C. McRae

 "Shotgun Moon is easy on the ear and the eye—definitely an author and a character to watch out for."—CRAIG JOHNSON, AUTHOR OF THE WALT LONGMIRE SERIES

The Money Bird by Sheila Webster Boneham

"Equal parts mystery and dog appreciation, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure, this second case for Janet and her pals...is accessible to fans of all three."—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Sales conference - Fall 2013

I think I might thrive under pressure.  I say that because this week, here at Llewellyn headquarters, we will be doing our Fall 2013 sales conference and I have been slow to get prepared.  For those of you unfamiliar with sales conference, it is a huge meeting where the acquiring editors showcase the fall titles for the sales, marketing, and publicity departments.  For each title, we create a document that gives those departments all the information it needs, such as:

• release date
• cover image
• synopsis
• author bio
• physical book description (page count, sub-genre, ISBN)
• who the audience is
• a one to two sentence sound bite
• three comparable titles with book description and life to date sales

We also create a powerpoint to go with the presentation.  During the presentation, I give a verbal summary of the book and often go deeper into why I chose the applicable comp titles.  I also talk a bit about the author, especially if I have personally met the author.

 

After each title presentation, I ask if there are any questions or other information to add.

 

Is it stressful?  Heck yeah.  The most stressful part for me is the question time, because I have no idea what might come up!

 

But in general, I find sales conference to be fun and exciting.  I acquire books that I love and often refer to them as my children.  And at sales conference, I get to whip all my baby pics!  I tell stories of hanging out with authors and getting to know them.  I might go on and on about how much I loved a manuscript.  I can talk about a series - where it has been and where it is going.  I also work in my vision of Midnight Ink.  Where we have been and where I see us going.

 

But alas, I procrastinate.  Which means I should be filling in my powerpoint rather than typing up a blog post.  By noon today, I will start feeling anxious and stressed out.  Tuesday I will probably be a wreck and finish up my powerpoint.  Wednesday starts the sales conference with nonfiction lines.  Thursday we do fiction.  I can't wait...  now to just finish this powerpoint!

 

 

 

 

I give a big shout out to Kelly Van Sant who did the heavy lifting on my onesheets.  And to Brian Farrey-Latz who put the bones of my powerpoint together.  :)