Inkspot News - October 11, 2008

Many Midnight Inkers are currently at Bouchercon in Baltimore. Please check back next week for photos and updates.

G.M. Malliet's Death of a Cozy Writer just made #2 on Creatures 'n Crooks (Richmond, VA) list of bestselling mysteries.

Eat Your Hearts Out on Yom Kippur

Keith here.

Let me generate some envy among my friends and fellow Inkspotters. While you are heading to Baltimore for four days of schmoozing, drinking, and carousing at Bouchercon, the world’s largest crime fiction conference, I am getting ready to spend a day meditating and praying and fasting. Eat (don’t say that word to me tomorrow) your hearts out.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, starts this evening and the fasting that goes with it is supposed to encourage introspection, I guess. The rules are tough in one respect – no liquid or food from sundown tonight till darkness tomorrow – but reasonable in another: the young, elderly, nursing, pregnant, or sick are absolved from fasting. As regular readers of this blog know, I am a tea addict. The hot green liquid fuels my writing engine. Part of being an addict is craving. The other part is a physical reaction when your addiction goes unsatisfied. I qualify on that score, too. If I don’t have tea, I end up with a whopper of a headache. An iron band closes around my forehead, while the top of my head is used as an anvil by an invisible blacksmith. Several years ago a rabbi-friend told me that God doesn’t want me writhing in agony during services. So once or twice tomorrow, I’ll swallow a couple of Excedrin, a dry cocktail of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine.

Living amidst the riches of Silicon Valley requires a level head and good balance. (One daughter had her locker next to a classmate’s whose father made more than $250M in salary and bonus in a single year.) Otherwise, one would spend all his time bursting with envy. An underestimated factor in garnering Silicon Valley wealth is luck. There used to be an eTrade billboard on 101 that said, “Someone will win the lottery. It just won’t be you.” Exactly. In the middle of a wall in my office, I have a piece of framed parchment with a quote from the ancient sage Ben Zoma. In Hebrew it asks, “Who is rich? The person who rejoices in what he has.” I keep trying to remember that as I watch my savings evaporate. I have my family, friends, colleagues, writing, and more – despite the confounded stock market, I need to rejoice more. A worthy resolution for year 5769 on the Jewish calendar, don’t you think?

May you all be sealed in the Book of Life for a good and sweet year.

3 Weeks

My life has been lived in three week increments.

I didn't realize this until I got the notice that "Stealing God's Thunder" was overdue. But I'd just taken it out. Oh wait, that was three weeks ago. Already.

I remember so clearly deciding on that book. It was a spur of the moment decision. Something to listen to the in the car during NPR pledge breaks. How could 21 days have passed so quickly?

I’ve been visiting libraries for fifty years.

I remember the wonder of the rooms filled with books and the thrill of the bookmobile. And walking home with the unbearable burdern of new books to read, barely able to contain my excitement. Books that were mine to keep for three whole weeks. Forever.

My local branch library is closing for six weeks to prepare to move into their new digs. My first thought was: How would I live? It’s not like I don’t own books, or have more than enough reading to get through that period of drought. I do write there on occasion but it's not like there isn't a Starbucks on every corner. But still...

Then I figured it out. Six weeks - that's just one take out period plus a renewal. No time at all.

The Janet Evanovich Interview, by Jess Lourey

Thanks to Janet Evanovich, I write humorous mysteries. (At least I hope they're funny.) About seven years ago, I was having no luck getting my embarrassingly autobiographical "fiction" published, and I needed something to distract me. A friend suggested I read One for the Money. Couldn't put it down. What a person likes to read is personal, but I consider that book one of the top ten best mysteries ever written. It hit all the right notes--suspense, humor, sex, food. When I found out there were more in the series, I devoured them. When I was at the end, and she wasn't writing fast enough, I decided to try my hand at it, and so, the Murder-by-Month series was born.

So yeah. She's one of my idols. And on a whim, I recently emailed her and asked if she would agree to a brief interview, made up of five questions only a Stephanie Plum geek could love. Imagine my surprise when she graciously answered them! Here is the interview:

JESS: You are famous for your dedication to your fans, touring when it is no longer a career necessity. What keeps you going back on the road?

JANET: It's a way of staying in touch with my readers. And I love room service.

JESS: Ha! That room service never seems to find me in the basement of the Motel 8, but it's probably for the best. I don't know what they'd bring, but I'm pretty sure it'd have a hair in it. OK, next question. Tess Gerritsen tells a story of having one of the big dogs reviewing her first book. The review said, essentially, "This book will only appeal to readers who move their lips." Do you have any mortifying interview/review anecdotes that could make us mere mortal writers feel better about ourselves?

JANET: First, let me say that I've been known to move my lips while reading. Second, stop reading the reviews and interviews and use that time to improve a couple sentences in chapter three. Third, just about everything I do is mortifying ...it's a way of life.

JESS: Hallelujah! Back in your pre-published days, you wrote a few novels that would be categorized as literary, or mainstream, fiction. Ever think about dusting those off, revising them using your hard-won writing skills, and publishing them?

JANET: Nope. They wouldn't meet reader expectation in their present form and the editing would be so time consuming it wouldn't be cost effective.

JESS: And I certainly don't want to pull you away from creating more Stephanie Plum adventures! OK, Mark Twain once said, "I prefer having written to writing." (He also said, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society," but that's beside the point). How about for you? Do you enjoy the act of writing, or is it still a challenge, albeit a grand one?

JANET: I prefer writing to having written. I love the process, the isolation, the unique world I go into every morning. Once the book is off my desk it belongs to someone else. The only really good part to having written is that someone sends me a check which allows me to go on writing.

JESS: That is a nice perk! OK, here's the big one, the one many of your fans are dying to know. If you were single and Joe Morelli and Ranger both came to life, whom would you choose? (Morelli would come with a lifetime supply of Cheetos; Ranger w/limitless grocery store birthday cake with crusty buttercream frosting.)

JANET: That's an easy one ...birthday cake.

Ha ha! Thank you to the lovely, ever-funny, and talented Janet Evanovich for her time! In celebration of funny mysteries everywhere, I'm sending out a free copy of August Moon to the three people who write the the best (as judged by me, using entirely arbitrary and shifting criteria) comment to this post. Here's some prompts: Whose your favorite character in the Stephanie Plum novels? Who do you think is the best actor to play Stephanie Plum, Grandma Mazur, Ranger, Joe Morelli, Lulu, Vinnie, etc. in a movie version of the series? Would you pick the Cheetos or the birthday cake? What writer(s) inspire you?

Happy fall, and thanks for reading!

Inkspot News - October 4, 2008

Be sure to visit Inkspot on Monday, October 6 to read Jess Lourey's interview with Janet Evanovich, who once and for all answers the question, "Who would YOU choose: Ranger or Joe?"

*****
Starting this coming Thursday and throughout the weekend, you can meet several Midnight Ink authors at Bouchercon in Baltimore:

Thursday, 3:00 PM, Tim Maleeny - LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER

Friday, 10/10 @ 10 AM, Felicia Donovan: STOP I'M ALREADY DEAD: Keeping a series interesting. Felicia is also a nominee for the Barry Award, to be presented Thursday night. The Barry is awarded by Deadly Pleasures magazine for excellence in crime fiction.

Friday, 10/10 @ 3 PM, Tom Schreck will be moderating I COULD'VE LIED.

Saturday, 11:30 AM, Tom Schreck - MURDER WHAT FUN

Saturday, 3:00 PM, Tim Maleeny - KUNG FU FIGHTING

Sunday, 10/12 @ 8:30 AM, G.M. Malliet - BEGINNINGS: First-Time Novelists

*****
The fourth book in the supper club series, Stiffs & Swines, has been released! See J.B. Stanley's web site for details.

*****
Lynn Sholes & Joe Moore will be signing their new Cotten Stone thriller, THE 731 LEGACY, at:

BORDERS BOOKS
700 University Drive
Coral Springs, FL
Saturday, October 11, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

*****
This week marks the official launch for Deborah Sharp's series debut, MAMA DOES TIME. On Tuesday evening, Oct., 7, she'll be the first guest in an interactive teleconference series, ''Author Talks.'' For more info, or to sign up to participate:
http://www.shelleylieber.com/work5.htm

*****
Don't miss the Midnight Ink ad in the latest issue of Mystery Scene Magazine, along with an article by Midnight Ink author C.S. Challinor, and a nice review for Deborah Sharp. Also, see great reviews for Joanna Slan and Jess Lourey in this month's Crimespree (pdf).

Entertainment in Tough Times

Anyone who follows the news, lives in a mortgaged home, or buys gas for his or her car knows we are in bumpy financial times. Bailout, TARP, Financial Rescue or not, we have a long road of tight financial times ahead.
So, this got me wondering, what kind of entertainment was popular during that toughest of economic times in recent history, the Great Depression? Now, I'm no historian, but I did some digging and was struck by a few interesting facts. First, two types of story telling seemed to flourish, the writing that took you deep into the heart of the problem, Tobacco Road, The Grapes of Wrath, for example, and the stories that took you away from it all to another place and time, like Gone with the Wind.
In my opinion, the hardest of stuggles forged some of the best creativity the world has ever seen. Aside from those mentioned above, the Depression brought us Dr. Seuss’s first book, Robert Frost’s poetry gained in popularity and won three of his Pulitzer Prizes, and in movies, the Depression delivered the fantastic Wizard of Oz as well as the wonderful animation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Games invented during the Great Depression included Monopoly and Scrabble. Early on, we sent in the clowns with the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Mae West, and WC Fields. As the era drew to a close, we moved to the highly stylized big screen musicals, Hollywood’s escapist answer to the beginnings of censorship restrictions.

In our tough times today, we see the strong advent of video games. A clear form of escapism. What else do you see that may be a creative reaction to tough economic times, either then or now? Escapist or not? Your thoughts?

Sign of the Times

by G.M. Malliet

This sign appeared Tuesday on the remaining Olsson's bookstores in my area. Hard to imagine sadder news for book lovers and writers, not to mention all the people who counted on the store's success for their livelihoods.

Olsson's was in business for 36 years. If you don't live in the DC area, you may not have heard of it, but it was an institution here. It was where you went when you had an hour to kill and didn't quite know where else to go. In Alexandria, there was a coffee shop upstairs with a gorgeous view over the Potomac, and you were free to sit there and dream or scribble in your notebook uninterrupted. It was not uncommon to find people asleep up there in one of the easy chairs. No one bothered them. It was that kind of place.

A small chain to begin with, Olsson's had recently dwindled to five stores. Even when they filed for bankruptcy protection in July, we figured they'd weather the storm. But no. They'd been Amazoned and iTuned, as the Washington Post said. They're not the first and sadly, they won't be the last. But they were really great about supporting this newbie author and I want the staff there to know: I will miss you guys. Thank you.

Amazon is convenient, but it doesn't have a river view.