LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

e-books and us


After reading Linda’s reflections on the value of critiquing groups in general and the Ladies’ Killing Circle in particular I must add that because of the group I have more than a dozen short stories and three novels published. Their frank and occasionally brutal assessments of my work inspired me to listen, learn and
internalize their comments. Now I’m afraid that all the critiquing groups in the world aren’t going to help most Canadian mystery writers.

Why this dire prediction? Because it’s looking more and more as if e-books are the future and Canadian small press publishers haven’t negotiated the terms to get our books on e readers.

In the US this last quarter both Barnes and Noble and Borders reported large losses. Along with Indigo/Chapters, these US stores have discounted best sellers, failed to promote the works of small publishers and devoted large sections of their stores to gift items that have nothing to do with books. In other words they’ve done everything they can to monopolize the market and make money but it isn’t happening. If these behemoths can’t do it, can’t sell books for a profit what will happen to books printed on paper and to bookstores?

E-book readers are easy to read and the books are half the price of their print counterparts. But if bookstores and books disappear we will all be poorer. There will be no trading books with friends, no donations of books to libraries, no bookcases filled with old favourites or with the books you read as a child.

Some categories may survive. Coffee table books filled with glorious photographs or paintings may not transfer well to e readers. Parents may still demand children’s books. It’s difficult to visualize curling up with a child and an e reader although among the multitude of aps on the Apple pad there are appealing children’s books. Perhaps a new larger size of reader suitable for picture books and coffee table books may be in the works.

Whatever the options it seems likely e-books are the way of the future.
Because small Canadian publishers have not reached an agreement about the publication of e-books our books are not there, are not available. If we are going to survive as writers, readers must have the option of downloading our books.
I know that small publishers with few employees have banded together to try to negotiate a deal to make this happen. Our survival depends on e-books.

Is there anything we can do? Any way that we can help?

Joan Boswell A member of the Ladies Killing Circle Joan co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit toDie, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

This Week Has so Many Contributors

Sometimes things just take time to settle in. Know what I mean? Like this blog. I started it a couple of months ago, without all the pieces intact. Scoring some regular contributors -- Mary Jane Maffini for Mayhem on Mondays, and the Ladies' Killing Circle for Ladies' Killing Thursdays were the first highlights. Then came choosing names for the days' postings.

I found, much to my delight, that other Canadian mystery authors were quite willing, and even eager, to blog on Tuesdays, now known as Terror on Tuesdays. And, there are a lot of them to enlist so it should be a lively day for a long time to come.

Fridays, I kept for myself to talk about Crime on My Mind. Which means, any criminous or non, thoughts I might have. I'll try to stick to the main focus of Mystery Maven, that being Canadian crime and mystery writers and writing. But the odd time I may stray...it is my blog after all.

Weekends, I'm hoping to get into a routine of posting reviews done by me and by others. I'm working on it!

That leaves Wicked Wednesdays. It's like moving into a new house, painting most of the rooms, but leaving that final one until you see how the sun plays on the walls through a couple of seasons. Then, the colour comes to you. As has the topic for Wicked Wednesdays.

Starting next week, the plan is to have a variety of bloggers posting their comments, giving us all a taste of what this mystery world looks like from their perspective. Included will be bookstore owners, publishers, sales reps, readers, and one Wednesday each month, librarians. Probably more will be added as we go along. This reflects the diverse make-up of our industry and all play a key role in getting the words we write to the readers who read.

I hope this appeals to you as reader and I hope you'll start thinking about what you'd like to blog about, because you never know when I'll be sending you an email asking you to take on a day.

This is a community, one that is in transition and needs support and enthusiasm. So let's enjoy Canadian mystery and crime writing. I welcome you to Mystery Maven!

Do you have any suggestions for me?

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

The Strokes of Brilliance

It took a long time for me to tell people that I am an author. Even with five books under my belt and two contracts on the horizon, I sometimes do not feel like I qualify. I know it’s silly, but the mind believes what the mind believes.

I still do not openly admit that I spend much of my free time working on manuscripts. Beginning a sentence with “my publisher” or “my publicist” still seems affected to me, as if I’m pretending to be more important than I am. When asked what I plan to do on holidays, I list a series of plans and tack on, “uh, and I might do a bit of writing” at the end of the list. In reality, the writing bit is the main thing I plan to do.

Why this reluctance to talk about my writing career and my success to date?

I believe it comes down to how personal and precarious I find the writing process. Past success does not equate to future book contracts. In addition to there being no yardstick to say when you’ve ‘arrived’, once in the business, you realize that there is a hierarchy of success. For instance, I was told about a group in Toronto that will not book an author unless they have won a major award.

As a rule, writers guard their ideas and their manuscripts until their product is complete and ready for the first round of critiquing, and I am no exception. Perhaps, we are superstitious of saying our ideas out loud for fear of losing momentum or belief in the characters and plotline . . . or belief in ourselves. Maybe, it’s simply because I’m never truly certain the story will be worthy until I am done.

My husband and close friends can attest to my angst toward the middle and the end of a project when I’ve lost all perspective on the quality of my writing. I’m certain this happens because I’ve read and reread the same passages so many times. “I have no idea if this is any good. I must have been daft to spend so long on this piece of crap.” Grumble. Grumble. Edit. Rework. Grumble. “The whole story reads like a cliché,” I say. (Read anything enough times, and that tends to happen.)

A few years back, I attended Bouchercon in Baltimore and sat in the audience for a writers’ panel that included the extremely popular American thriller writer, Harlan Coben. He talked about his writing process. To paraphrase Harlan, early on with a manuscript, he says to himself, “You are bloody brilliant! This is genius.” Then, a few weeks later, he complains to his wife, “I’m a failure. This is complete garbage.” On one occasion, his wife looked at him and asked, “Are you on page 130 by any chance?” After he nodded and asked why, she commented, “Because this happens at page 130 in every manuscript.”

So, my creative process, mired in self-doubt and rewrites, is not unique. Even the top guns experience the creative angst. I’m beginning to believe, this is a necessary part of the process. By questioning and fussing with each word and idea, we become better at our craft.

Writing is an adventure. The process is both frightening and exhilarating. Each time we put our thoughts to paper, we are exposing a piece of ourselves for public scrutiny. We are like caterpillars working away silently in our cocoons until the big reveal. Nobody except our nearest and dearest knows of the effort and sweat that goes into making our butterflies; what goes into building the confidence to call ourselves authors.


Brenda Chapman is the Ottawa author of the Jennifer Bannon mystery series for young adults. Hiding in Hawk’s Creek, the second novel in the series, was shortlisted by the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians for the 2006 Book of the Year for Children Award.

Brenda has also written several short stories that were published in an anthology (When Boomers Go Bad, RendezVous Crime 2004) and various magazines. In Winter’s Grip is Brenda’s first adult murder mystery and available at the end of September from RendezVous Crime. When not writing, Brenda works as a senior communications advisor in the federal government.

MAYHEM ON MONDAY

Canadians...trickier than we look!

Contrary to popular belief Canadians are not always crawling out of their igloos to blink at the midnight sun or trapping beavers to display on nickels or crashing through the endless woods after portaging our birch bark canoes past whitewater rapids. Not at all. We are as urbane and laidback as the next guy. In fact, we may be the next guy. We’re always sneaking off to some other country and disguising ourselves as the locals. No one ever catches on. I offer all those comedians in Hollywood as exhibits A through Z.

The same thing applies to mysteries. Recently I’ve read several that proved my point and in very entertaining ways. For instance, in The Cold Light of Mourning, Elizabeth J. Duncan chooses a Welsh village to allow a gentle mystery to unfold. Penny Brannigan, the transplanted Canadian manicurist is at home in her adopted village in North Wales when an elegant bride disappears on the day of her wedding. I loved the village characters and the mood and traditional approach to the story. I’m not surprised that Elizabeth won the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant (2006) for unpublished writers and the St. Martin’s Press/Malice (2008) award for best first novel. She’s the first Canadian to win either. Fooled everyone! I see where her second novel, A Brush with Death, was published in July, 2010. I expect she’ll fool me again. Try your hand and check out the website at www.elizabethjduncan.com

Then there’s Toronto funny boy Linwood Barclay. He can trick you into a false sense of security what with his hilarious columns and comedy routines and the amusing Zak Walker mysteries, before he makes your hair fall out with those thrillers. In Never Look Away, set in Northern New York State, Barclay captures not only the venue but the emotions of a small town journalist beset by cutbacks and office politics. Of course, all that pales when his wife disappears at a fairgrounds and someone tries to abduct his four-year-old son, Ethan. You’d think it couldn’t get worse and you would be very very wrong. Try not to read this on a work night. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Take a peek at Linwood’s work (including the Zak Walker mysteries) at www.linwoodbarclay.com/

Then there’s Yorkshire writer Peter Robinson, author of the Inspector Banks series. Except that Peter Robinson has been cheerfully residing in Toronto for more than thirty years. Hmmm. He can fool people on both side of the pond. Never mind. I fall for the whole shebang including buying his books in hardcover. Bad Boy, the latest Inspector Banks novel, has made the New York Times extended best seller list just after publication. I am very glad that I got my mitts on it. I will walk anywhere with Inspector Banks at my side and I note he’s in San Francisco as this one opens. They’ll be fooled too. I’ll be taking the phone off the hook, my doorbell might go on the fritz and I imagine that my computer battery will die too. Just sayin’. Go have a look at www.inspectorbanks.com/

I’m a bit tricky myself. My own latest book, Closet Confidential, is set in the upper Hudson Valley town of Woodbridge (not its real name!) but that is neither here nor there. If you are scared of your closet, I’ll have you by the throat. Otherwise, you might want to drop in for the banter.

Do you have a favourite tricky Canadian? Let’s hear about that!

Mary Jane Maffini manages to be pretty sneaky in three mystery series.
Her latest book is Closet Confidential. She mentions that from time to time.
You can probably trip her up by checking out www.maryjanemaffini.com

CRIME ON MY MIND

Writing is not a lonely life, as is often stated. How can it be when the writer is immersed in a world filled with such wonderful characters? Of course, they're wonderful...they're your creation. What writing is though, is a solitary life. And, I know there are exceptions to this what with co-authors and such. But basically, we sit alone at our computers or with pen and paper in hand, and write. Hopefully, without too many interruptions from the outside world.

To balance this self-imposed solitude, there's nothing like a critiquing group. We've been together for over 15 years now (I sometimes fictionalize numbers as the memory grows more congested with details) and seen each other through first attempts at novels, moving onto short stories, anthologies, and then, quite wonderfully, published novels! And over that time we evolved into The Ladies' Killing Circle.

Our early routine was a regular bi-weekly meeting. Having pre-read each others chapters made that time together move faster and be of more value. And, of course, it also left time for lunch and a gabfest. When we moved into editing anthologies, it was short stories that claimed our time at these sessions, ours and others. Then, the book contracts started multiplying -- Mary Jane Maffini, Barbara Fradkin and Joan Boswell led the way. Along with Vicki Cameron and Sue Pike, we were being short-listed and winning mystery writing awards on both sides of the border.

I like to think the critiquing group played a valuable role in all of this. We practice tough-love when reading, with a steely eye on logic, grammar, descriptions of characters and settings, and over-all readability. There's not one of us who will ever forget HDSF -- Vicki's code for, How Does She Feel. See that boldly penned in red ink across a page and let the re-writes begin!

Our routine has changed, as careers and life in general intervene, and most critiquing is done via email these days. Entire manuscripts are sent rather than a few chapters at a time. Tract changes take the place of red pens marking paper.

What has not changed is the value of having your fabulous words critiqued by those whose opinions you trust and who also know the business. And, of course, the support. That urging you on to produce, to rewrite, to rewrite again, and to get your work out there...on spec, to a contract deadline. Whatever. Just write it.

But, best of all, is the friendship. BFF! What a wonderful gift to the solitary writer.

Who are the gifts in your life?

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Talking about murder

So far Ladies' Killing Thursdays have focused on research and how easy the internet has made that task. There's no limit to the facts you can ferret out if your willing to move your curser far enough. But another form of research – and my favourite – is talking to people who know things I don't know, especially things that can be used for criminal purposes.

I asked my pharmacist how to doctor a nitroglycerine spray in such a way that it would kill. She gave me her first thoughts on the subject and then called me at home after she'd discussed it with her colleagues. She felt she'd come up with a method that was fast and almost undetectable. I was grateful for the time she took and gave her a copy of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in which the story appeared. But I have to admit that in this case the price was high. Now whenever I walk into the drugstore, she hollers from the back of the store. "Hey Sue, have you killed anyone lately?" She and the rest of the staff get a great kick out of this witticism but I'm the one who has to look into the faces of the other customers and watch their eyes slide away from mine in alarm.

Generally speaking, I find people more than willing to part with gory details. I buttonhole people at dinner parties and make surreptitious notes on the napkins. I talked to a refugee from Vietnam at a bus stop and the result is a story in the upcoming International Association of Crime Writers' anthology.

My husband and I have a cottage on the same lake as the Queen's University Biology Station. The students and staff there have been generous with information on deadly plants and mushrooms and have offered to explain how their bat and bird recording equipment works and how a body might disappear forever inside one of the abandoned feldspar mines on the property.

Of course, this type of research doesn't always work. My doctor used to be a fount of information on methods of death but he's moved his practice to Toronto and his replacement isn't nearly as forthcoming and indeed, seems to be in a great hurry to get me safely out of the office. And my dental hygienist pretends she hasn't heard the question and gouges my gums even harder. I may have to look for a new dentist.

Have any of you had luck conducting research by talking to people? Or not?


Sue Pike has published nineteen stories and won several awards including an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Crime Story. Her latest, Where the Snow Lay Dinted will appear in the December issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Sue and her husband and an opinionated Australian Shepherd named Cooper spend the winter months in Ottawa and the rest of the time at a mysterious cottage on the Rideau Lakes.

MAYHEM ON MONDAY

To Agatha with thanks …

Eighty-nine years ago, a woman that few people had ever heard of tried something that was to change the face of recreational reading. The something? A country house mystery called The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The woman? Agatha Christie. The motivation was said to be a challenge by her sister. Although this unknown and unpublished author had her troubles selling this manucript (actually written in 1916), the book survived and was the first of eighty detective novels books to entrall readers around the world. She has been translated into 103 languages as the first clue to that. She is reputed to be the largest selling individual author of all time and that’s not mentioning the popular plays and short stories. And she is the first name that comes to mind for most readers when they think of mysteries. The world was fascinated by Christie and her works. She continues to be the subject of books, articles and much discussion. Her work continues to be made into television drama and movies. We are still talking about her.

Like many people, I read almost everything she ever wrote, surviving even some of the more bizarre later books (no titles mentioned) and returning every few years to the early ones, like a chocolate addict to a box of truffles. I bought the same books more than once, mislead by the fact that the UK titles are not the same as the American version. This year, I’ve reread several books including Murder on the Orient Express and Thirteen for Dinner and read Curtain which closes the circle that introduced Poirot at Styles so many years before. They are still entertaining and readable, still a bit tongue in cheek, and occasionally campy, but in a good way. They take us to a time when the upper crust had time on its hands, life could be spent country house parties, gowns and jewels and fabulous trips, butlers and cooks and parlour maids, ladies’ maids, kitchen maids and upstairs maids, all in little white caps too. Leather luggage and cigarette holders, hats and hunting parties. Really, to die for. In every way. We lapped it up. Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple became household names.

Agatha Christie’s own life was complex, interesting and mysterious. I think in many ways she’s more fascinating than many of her fictional creations. There was the unhappy marriage, the missing weeks when she disappeared and her later meeting in Bagdad and subsequent marriage to the noted archaeologist, Max Mallowan. Mallowan was thirteen years her junior and the exotic trips with him also gave us such titles as Death on the Nile.


Agatha Christie left a legacy of books and also her gracious residence and refuge (Greenway in Devon) which is now a much-visited National Trust property. It was in Greenway that she kept her notebooks, some ninety of them, filed away and forgotten. The discovery of this treasure trove is the subject of Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: fifty years of mysteries in the making. This book is a joyous examination of the notebooks, by John Curran. To an author it is a fabulous tour, learning something of the infrastructure, the trial and error, the thought processes behind the books, a glimpse at an amazing body of work. It is not only entertaining, but also reassuring to see the questions? The second thoughts and the modifications that underlie well-known stories.

Naturally, I bought the ‘secret notebooks’ in hardcover. Agatha Christie continues to hold my interest and affection. I owe her a lot. So it is with a happy heart that I mention that Agatha Christie will form a part of the plot of a new venture. My daughter, Victoria Maffini, and I will be collaborating on a new book collector’s mystery series. We’ll be writing as Victoria Abbott and we’re tickled that our first book (no title yet) will feature the search for a previously unknown Christie manuscript that seems to have popped up and is tantalizing our fictional collector. Is it real? Is it legal? Is it a scam? You know of course, that we can’t tell you the answer to that, but we can say that we know it will be dangerous!

It was wonderful news to us to learn that indeed there were unpublished short stories found at Greenway during the great notebook excursion. If there were some there, who’s to say there aren’t others? What’s more, with such a well-travelled writer, who’s to say where they might be? We think that the Grande Dame would approve of that part at least. We hope to do justice in our own small way to the Queen of Crime and continue the sense of fun that permeates so much of her own work.

What about you? Is there a Christie story you can’t resist rereading?

Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three, soon to be three and a half, mystery series. You can check them out at www.maryjanemaffini.com