Today I am pleased to welcome guest blogger Therese Greenwood, author and editor of mysterious short stories, crime fest organizer extrordinaire, and I think she stole my grandpappy's old Palamino, Clive.
Whenever I can, I like to work a runaway horse and wagon into a story. The first piece I published, in the anthology Over the Edge, edited by Peter Sellers and Robert J. Sawyer, was about a runaway horse and wagon. I’ve published a few more runaway wagons, maybe half a dozen — although once the horse was not running, more plodding, being an old mare. I slipped my favourite horse and wagon story into an anthology Mystery Ink, I edited with my pal Jake Doherty. Some day, I’ll have enough stories for a runaway horse and wagon anthology. I plan to call it "Tales of Whoa."
It’s easier to work in a horse and wagon when you write historical mysteries, which luckily I do. A horse and wagon does some things for your story, like give the readers a clue to the time period without sentences like, "It was the windiest day yet in this year of our Lord 1867, the match seller thought, as she pondered how the winds of change would blow now the Dominion of Canada had been confederated."
It lets you do fun things with character, too, creating relationships without having to add another suspect to the mystery, like a Christmas story I wrote about a movie cowboy who hates his Wonder Horse.
I like these stories because when I was kid on Wolfe Island, my grandfather had a doozy of a story about a runaway horse and wagon. It was THE last word in stories, let me tell you. The stakes were high (bystanders in danger), the action swift (fast horse, expensive wagon), the hero brave (Grandpa), the setting colourful (Wolfe Island).
Wolfe Island is a great setting for a story. It has all the basics: An insulated place where the limited suspects know each other, where a crime tears through the tight-knit community like a runaway wagon through the middle of town.
It’s a great setting for a crime writing festival, too, because it’s the birthplace of Canada’s first crime writer, Grant Allen. Allen churned out more than 40 books and was a great pal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In his book, Canadian Crime Fiction 1817-1996, my great pal David Skene-Melvin wrote a fine profile of Allen — "one of the cornerstones of the crime writing genre," David says. That’s why some friends and I founded a crime writing festival, Scene of the Crime, on the Island and we named an award in Allen’s honour, for pioneering Canadian crime fiction. This year’s Grant Allen Award winner is Maureen Jennings, who writes Canadian historical fiction, which pleases me immensely.
It’s a great festival. Mystery fans love it and they love the Island, too, so I am delighted to write about it in a guest blog for Jill Edmondson. But I couldn’t resist working in a runaway horse and wagon.
Therese Greenwood grew up on Wolfe Island, Ont., the largest of the Thousands Islands, where her family has lived since 1812. The region forms the backdrop for her historical crime fiction, twice short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Award. Therese is co-editor of two mystery anthologies, as well as the Sun Media Summer Mystery in newspapers across Canada.
Therese tweets about authors, writing and mystery happenings on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wolfeislander Follow @wolfeislander . Her story "Wrecked" — which, sadly, does not feature a horse and wagon — will appear in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in the spring of 2012.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Interview with Author Bill Cameron
Today I'm happy to share an interview with mystery author Bill Cameron with you. Bill's newest book, County Line, will be released next week. Bill has several novels under his belt, plus a number of short stories.
1. What can you tell me about the writing of your newest release, you know, the behind the scenes story that readers don’t know...
County Line is the most autobiographical story I’ve written in many a year. In the acknowledgements, I describe a bit about my years in Farmersville, Ohio. A lot of the story is crafted around my memories of that time, though the specific events aren’t anything I experienced myself. But there is one thing which happened to me before it would happen to Ruby Jane in County Line many years later.
As a football player in training, I got into a fight with a teammate, and the coach sentenced us both to run the bleachers at the football stadium every day for a week. When it was over, I’d gained the same ability Ruby Jane would gain after her own stint running those same bleachers. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I won’t say what that was, but I will say Ruby Jane used her newfound talent to much more dramatic effect than I ever did.
2. Who would you rather dine with: Don Henley, Don Knotts or Donald Trump? Why?
Well, Donald Trump is totally out after the way he ate his slice of pizza with a fork. What the hell was that about? Don Knotts always kind of creeped me out. That, coupled with the fact that “The Boys of Summer” is one of my all-time favorite songs and the edge goes to Don Henley. But we’re not allowed to talk about the Eagles.
3. How close is Skin Kadash to you (give a % if you like). Have any friends or family been inspirations for characters?
Skin and I are both bird watchers, though he’s much more knowledgeable than I am. In addition, we share a kneejerk hostility toward authority, and we both value compassion and empathy. Beyond that, differences mount. Skin is more dogged than I am. He’s tough in ways I can only dream of being. I’m not sure where the percentages would be, but in the small stuff we are more different than similar. My feeling is the differences add up quickly, but Skin is still someone I could be friends with, even if he would probably intimidate me.
I try not to actively base characters on real people. That means I’m doing it unconsciously, of course. Little pieces of friends and family do make their way into my characters, but more often than not it’s a synthesis. I don’t think it’s fair to put people onto the page, whole cloth. It’s also not as interesting as building my characters up piece by piece.
That said, there is one character in County Line who is drawn more directly from life than most. Mrs. Parmelee, Ruby Jane’s English teacher and advocate, is named for my favorite high school teacher. While I’ve given the fictional Mrs. Parmelee her own life history, the caring aspects of her personality are based on my memories of the real Mrs. Parmelee.
4. What manner of killing would you like to use in a future book/story?
There is a defenestration in my future. I love the word defenestrate, so I really have no choice in this matter.
5. Which provides a greater challenge: novels or short stories? Which provides greater satisfaction?
Short stories are more difficult on a word-for-word basis. I often struggle to my focus enough to write a short piece. Even when I do write a short story, it’s likely to trend long. My average is about 6,000 words. So pulling off a short story can be a real treat. But the long haul of the novel offers its own pleasures, and the satisfaction I feel upon completion has more staying power.
6. Is there such a thing as too many bodies? What’s the optimal number of corpses in a whodunit? Do you think readers of today have a greater tolerance for death and violence than readers of a generation or two ago?
This is a tricky question. I do believe there’s been a kind of arms race on the dark thriller side for a while now. You only have to look at the Thomas Harris/Hannibal Lector arc for the archetypical example. The push to kill more people, more horrifically, more quickly has probably been most evident in movies, horror in particular, where they are now buying fake blood by the tanker truck. But there’s no doubt it’s happening in print as well.
At the same time, I think the broader category of mystery is about people more than bodies. Though “character-driven” is a phrase which oversimplifies a complex approach to storytelling, in recent decades it’s fair to say we’ve seen a significant shift toward stories which fall into that category. Mystery is often glibly described as being about the puzzle, the plot, or the solution. But look at any great mystery and at its heart you’ll find fascinating, richly-drawn characters. I think the blood-soaked arms race at the fringes will ultimately be overshadowed by these great characters.
7. Your thoughts on social media and book promotion...
For me, the key to social media is to keep it social. While I know it has a certain promotional value, my first interest is in getting to know people. I want to chat with friends, make goofy jokes, see what others are up to. If some book promotion comes along for the ride, great. I’ll mention events and releases, or share a good review. But the first order of business isn’t business, it’s friendship.
Book promotion is tough, because I don’t think anyone is all that sure what works. Oh, some people THINK they know what works, and when they do, they won’t shut up about it. Is it about appearances, blogging, Twitter and Facebook? The answer is most likely a little of all of it, but measured and with a mind toward engagement rather than the hard sell. If all you do is fill your Twitterstream with pleas for people to buy your books, then I’m going to stop following you. You’re not talking to me, but at me … or past me.
But if you talk to me like I’m another person, not just a credit card number, there’s a good chance I’ll take a look at your stuff without you even having to ask. And if I like you, I’ll probably end up promoting for you. Because what are friends for but to support each other? And share bacon recipes.
8. What would Skin Kadash say to Glenn Beck if they ever happened to meet?
Skin doesn’t fault anyone for being wrong. Being wrong is a side effect of being alive and taking risks. Most of us are wrong more often than we’d like, and we can only hope our mistakes aren’t too harmful for ourselves or others, and that we learn from them. But there’s wrong, and there’s venally, wilfully, malevolently wrong. Skin’s response to someone like Glenn Beck would be not to the demonstrably false nonsense he spouts, but to the fact the makes money by hypocritically exploiting and encouraging other people’s fear and ignorance. He probably wouldn’t have much to say to Beck—waste of breath—but he would look for any opportunity to take him down.
9. Name a favourite NON-MYSTERY author. What do you like about his/her writing and what did you learn from him or her?
It’s hard to point to one. I adore Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. I’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude more times than I can count. If I’ve learned something from him, it’s to appreciate the wonder and beauty and sorrow of life.
I grew up on science-fiction and fantasy (with lots of mystery mixed in). Robert Heinlein was huge to me. I probably learned more about dialog from him than anything else. Stephen R. Donaldson was a master of the unsympathetic protagonist.
In the last few years, I’ve become a huge fan of a number of young adult authors. Courtney Summers stands out for me there (and she both inspired me to attempt the young Ruby Jane’s story and helped directly by reading and commenting on an early draft). I am also a fan of Laurie Halse Anderson.
10. I’d love to hear your thoughts on motive, in my opinion the whole raison d’être for a mystery novel...
I see motive as at the heart of all storytelling. We don’t just want to know what happened, we want to know why it happened. Our day to day lives are bound up in trying to make sense of world; we’re always looking for reasons. Stories are one of the ways we do that.
The old saying, “truth is stranger than fiction,” is a cliché for a reason. Events in real life often make no sense, are beyond our understanding. Stories serve as one way to make sense of the senseless. Ripped from the headlines books, movies, and television all attempt to make fathomable the unfathomable.
While I don’t go for the ripped from the headlines approach myself, I still see the act of writing as one which is about making sense of the inherent ambiguities of existence. Yet, that said, I don’t always feel the need to explain everything away. Some things we can never know, so all my work features some element—a character choice, an event, something—which remains unexplained.
11. What’s on Skin’s iPod?
If Skin had an iPod, it would be mostly 60s cool: Creedence, Stones, some Dylan. He wouldn’t skip the Beatles, but for the most part they were a little too giddy for him. Of course, while Skin is hardly a Luddite, he’s not interested in gadgets much. He has a low-end cellphone, a three-year-old computer, and no DVR. He’s content to listen to whatever music is playing in the coffee shop, from Lady Gaga to Philip Glass to Blake Shelton. What’s important to him isn’t what’s playing or the device doing the playing, but who he’s with and what they’re talking about.
12. What are your thoughts on settings? Does the city/setting almost become a character?
To me, setting isn’t almost a character; it IS a character. Sometimes it’s a background presence, like that creepy guy eavesdropping on your conversation in the coffee shop, sometimes it’s directly involved in the action at hand. Our decisions can be shaped as much by our environment as by our feelings and reactions to other people. The same can be said for who we are.
In developing characters, my first step is to map out their personal landscapes, how their environment influenced and tweaked the raw genetic material they started with. Skin would be a different person if he came from somewhere else. Portland is infused in him as surely as rural Ohio is infused in Ruby Jane. Understanding their environmental biographies is as important as understanding the interpersonal aspects of their lives.
13. What are you working on now?
Well, it’s half secret, half a YA mystery. I’m putting more time into the secret project at the moment, though I plan to get into the YA mystery as the summer wears on. Both are a departure from the world of Skin and Ruby Jane, though I’m not leaving them behind. Just shifting gears for a little while.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
OUCH! Criticizing the Critics.
“Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.” -Eli Wallach
“Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it’s done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.” –Brendan Behan
“Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.” –John Updike
“Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic!” -Jean Sibelius
“The world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.” -Henry Fielding
“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.” –Christopher Hampton
“Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.” –Peter Ustinov
“I never read a book before reviewing it - it prejudices a man so” –Sydney Smith
“Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it’s done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.” –Brendan Behan
“Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.” –John Updike
“Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic!” -Jean Sibelius
“The world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.” -Henry Fielding
“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.” –Christopher Hampton
“Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.” –Peter Ustinov
“I never read a book before reviewing it - it prejudices a man so” –Sydney Smith
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Death by Bear and other Unusual Ways to Die
Last week, a freak accident led to two deaths near Luskville, PQ (about 25 miles from Ottawa). A 440 lb. black bear became airborne after being struck by a car. The bear was launched into the path of an oncoming vehicle. It went through the windshield, killing the driver and a passenger in the seat behind the driver. The bear then sailed through the rear window. The person sitting in the passenger seat up front suffered only minor injuries, and the two men in the car that initially struck the bear were unharmed. The bear did not survive.
This is a horrible and unfortunate story and is much stranger than anything I could ever write in a mystery novel. I can imagine the reaction from a publisher if I were to write such a scene in a novel. But the whole thing got me thinking about truth being stranger than fiction.
Here are some other stories of unusual deaths:
Bazooka Joe: In 2009, a Ukrainian student named Vladimir Likhonos died after accidentally dipping a piece of homemade chewing gum into explosives he was using on another project.
Bad Moon Rising: Two years ago a Canadian folk singer named Taylor Mitchell was fatally attacked by two coyotes.
Men will do anything for sex... A horny 28 year old Russian guy, Sergey Tuganov, died after winning a bet. The wager? He bet two women he could have non-stop sex with them for 12 hours. He won the bet but then died of a heart attack, apparently caused by ingesting an entire bottle of Viagra just after he accepted the bet.
Get that Monkey off My Back: A few years ago, the Deputy Mayor of Delhi, India died a a result of monkeys in his home. Surinder Singh Bajwa fell from a balcony as he tried to chase off several Rhesus Macaque monkeys in his apartment. He suffered from fatal head injuries after the fall.
Skin is Porous: An unnamed Taiwanese woman died of alcohol intoxication after she spent 12 hours in a bathtub filled with 40% ethanol. At the time of her death, her blood alcohol content was 1.35%. Apparently, she immersed herself in alcohol in an effort to prevent or ward off the ongoing SARS epidemic.
Source for above - click here.
ALSO (update added July 14, 2013) Death by Cow Falling through Bedroom Roof
See story HERE
This is a horrible and unfortunate story and is much stranger than anything I could ever write in a mystery novel. I can imagine the reaction from a publisher if I were to write such a scene in a novel. But the whole thing got me thinking about truth being stranger than fiction.
Here are some other stories of unusual deaths:
Bazooka Joe: In 2009, a Ukrainian student named Vladimir Likhonos died after accidentally dipping a piece of homemade chewing gum into explosives he was using on another project.
Bad Moon Rising: Two years ago a Canadian folk singer named Taylor Mitchell was fatally attacked by two coyotes.
Men will do anything for sex... A horny 28 year old Russian guy, Sergey Tuganov, died after winning a bet. The wager? He bet two women he could have non-stop sex with them for 12 hours. He won the bet but then died of a heart attack, apparently caused by ingesting an entire bottle of Viagra just after he accepted the bet.
Get that Monkey off My Back: A few years ago, the Deputy Mayor of Delhi, India died a a result of monkeys in his home. Surinder Singh Bajwa fell from a balcony as he tried to chase off several Rhesus Macaque monkeys in his apartment. He suffered from fatal head injuries after the fall.
Skin is Porous: An unnamed Taiwanese woman died of alcohol intoxication after she spent 12 hours in a bathtub filled with 40% ethanol. At the time of her death, her blood alcohol content was 1.35%. Apparently, she immersed herself in alcohol in an effort to prevent or ward off the ongoing SARS epidemic.
Source for above - click here.
ALSO (update added July 14, 2013) Death by Cow Falling through Bedroom Roof
See story HERE
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Synopsis: The Lies Have It
Now available on Amazon!
_____________________________
It’s election time in Toronto, and this year’s mayoral race is hotly contested. However, private investigator Sasha Jackson is more focused on bondage than ballots. After a wild night at a fetish party, a man Sasha had briefly met is found murdered near Cherry Beach, the whip marks on his back punctuated by two bullet holes. It initially seems like naughty sex that went a bit too far, but Sasha soon discovers that politicos like to play rough too, and might be hiding more than just their handcuffs.
Meanwhile, Sasha has two other cases on the go. A couple of distraught parents have hired her to find their runaway daughter Macy. Sasha’s search for the girl leads her to some of Toronto’s shadier neighbourhoods where she learns more than she wants to about teenaged angst and Ecstasy. Sasha soon discovers that Macy is a stoned cutter, and has been chillin’ with squatters and squeegee kids.
On top of the spank me, shank me cases, Sasha’s restaurateur brother has referred her services to a fine dining colleague who is convinced that someone in his restaurant is cooking the books instead of cooking five-star meals. Sasha should have just asked ‘Where’s the beef?’ but instead she spends a rainy night looking for it.
When Sasha dries off, she encounters an artistic dominatrix with passion for the environment, a political wife who never met a camera she didn't love, and a furry white cat that will inadvertently help to expose everything about Sasha’s latest case.
_____________________________
It’s election time in Toronto, and this year’s mayoral race is hotly contested. However, private investigator Sasha Jackson is more focused on bondage than ballots. After a wild night at a fetish party, a man Sasha had briefly met is found murdered near Cherry Beach, the whip marks on his back punctuated by two bullet holes. It initially seems like naughty sex that went a bit too far, but Sasha soon discovers that politicos like to play rough too, and might be hiding more than just their handcuffs.
Meanwhile, Sasha has two other cases on the go. A couple of distraught parents have hired her to find their runaway daughter Macy. Sasha’s search for the girl leads her to some of Toronto’s shadier neighbourhoods where she learns more than she wants to about teenaged angst and Ecstasy. Sasha soon discovers that Macy is a stoned cutter, and has been chillin’ with squatters and squeegee kids.
On top of the spank me, shank me cases, Sasha’s restaurateur brother has referred her services to a fine dining colleague who is convinced that someone in his restaurant is cooking the books instead of cooking five-star meals. Sasha should have just asked ‘Where’s the beef?’ but instead she spends a rainy night looking for it.
When Sasha dries off, she encounters an artistic dominatrix with passion for the environment, a political wife who never met a camera she didn't love, and a furry white cat that will inadvertently help to expose everything about Sasha’s latest case.
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Scene of the Crime (sort of...) Part 3
The style of dress among the S&M crowd is interesting, to say the least. At the fetish parties in The Stealth Lounge at The Pilot Tavern the dress code was strictly enforced by the party organizers (this kept gawkers and tittering teenagers at bay).
I never stuck around after my shift to see the party once it was in full swing. But, for the brief crossover during shift change, I saw more than enough... probably more than I wanted to. Some of the more outrageous outfits are described in The Lies Have It, which starts off with Sasha bartending at a fetish party at The Stealth Lounge.
I saw people wearing every conceivable style of studded dog collar, leather and PVC outfits, face masks (they took them off to eat), pierced nipples galore (men and women), chaps, miniskirts, bustiers, pink feather boas, plus lots of chains and handcuffs... the list goes on. There was a guy who looked like the Count from Sesame Street, a few chicks who looked like Morticia Addams, a couple of role-playing nurses and doctors, and there was a guy who came as the back end of a horse (everyone called him Pony Boy).
With all these strange outfits and costumes, and given the nature of the bondage and domination setting, it struck me way back then that this scenario would make for a great murder mystery.
So, I finally wrote it. The Lies Have It will be out in November 2011.
I never stuck around after my shift to see the party once it was in full swing. But, for the brief crossover during shift change, I saw more than enough... probably more than I wanted to. Some of the more outrageous outfits are described in The Lies Have It, which starts off with Sasha bartending at a fetish party at The Stealth Lounge.
I saw people wearing every conceivable style of studded dog collar, leather and PVC outfits, face masks (they took them off to eat), pierced nipples galore (men and women), chaps, miniskirts, bustiers, pink feather boas, plus lots of chains and handcuffs... the list goes on. There was a guy who looked like the Count from Sesame Street, a few chicks who looked like Morticia Addams, a couple of role-playing nurses and doctors, and there was a guy who came as the back end of a horse (everyone called him Pony Boy).
With all these strange outfits and costumes, and given the nature of the bondage and domination setting, it struck me way back then that this scenario would make for a great murder mystery.
So, I finally wrote it. The Lies Have It will be out in November 2011.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Urban Dictionary....
New words for me and Sasha. I admit to being a word nerd, but I'll also (reluctantly) admit that I'm not up on the latest slang used by those crazy kids nowadays... I am familiar with many of the acronyms, like LOL, BRB, IMO, CUL8R, etc. I know many of the words or terms teens today think they invented, ecpecially for drunk (shitfaced, plastered, etc.) or joint (spliff, blunt, etc.). However, after whiling away a morning on Urban Dictionary, I did learn a few things:
Rendezbooze: When a group of people (friends, co-workers, acquaintances) get together to drink.
ProcrastinEating: Do I really need to explain this one? Usually involves chips or ice cream.
PWN (or PWNed): Means losing badly at something/getting your ass kicked. (At the Olympics, we PWNed the podium.) This apparently comes from a misspelling of 'owned'. Seems logical.
Beef Walk: Going outside or away from the group in order to fart with less consequence. In other words, leaving the room to break wind or toot. We said "cheese" kids now say "beef".
Netglow: Someone (or something) that is better online than in real life. Term is frequently used in reference to cyber-dating and vacation spots.
MMORPG: Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. A treadmill that makes you fatter. In other words, sitting on your ass in front of the screen. Get outside. Get some fresh air.
MBAese: An indecipherable language taught in MBA factories where the user has mastered the art of using large, multisyllabic words to make meaningless, intelligent sounding action statements. This is becomingan epidemic.
Edgehog: A passenger on the bus/subway who hogs the aisle seat so that you either have to climb over them to get the window seat or so that they have the two seats to thelselves. Basically an asshole.
Bed Gravity: Happens to me every weekend. An irresistible force that draws you back to bed, or toward any mattress, couch, or other soft horizontal surface. Usually stronger when one or more persons are already on said furnature. Also happens often when you have an 8:00 am class.
Powerpuff Presentation: Love this! All sizzle, no steak.
Rendezbooze: When a group of people (friends, co-workers, acquaintances) get together to drink.
ProcrastinEating: Do I really need to explain this one? Usually involves chips or ice cream.
PWN (or PWNed): Means losing badly at something/getting your ass kicked. (At the Olympics, we PWNed the podium.) This apparently comes from a misspelling of 'owned'. Seems logical.
Beef Walk: Going outside or away from the group in order to fart with less consequence. In other words, leaving the room to break wind or toot. We said "cheese" kids now say "beef".
Netglow: Someone (or something) that is better online than in real life. Term is frequently used in reference to cyber-dating and vacation spots.
MMORPG: Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. A treadmill that makes you fatter. In other words, sitting on your ass in front of the screen. Get outside. Get some fresh air.
MBAese: An indecipherable language taught in MBA factories where the user has mastered the art of using large, multisyllabic words to make meaningless, intelligent sounding action statements. This is becomingan epidemic.
Edgehog: A passenger on the bus/subway who hogs the aisle seat so that you either have to climb over them to get the window seat or so that they have the two seats to thelselves. Basically an asshole.
Bed Gravity: Happens to me every weekend. An irresistible force that draws you back to bed, or toward any mattress, couch, or other soft horizontal surface. Usually stronger when one or more persons are already on said furnature. Also happens often when you have an 8:00 am class.
Powerpuff Presentation: Love this! All sizzle, no steak.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Scene of the Crime (sort of...) Part 2
Disclaimer first: The Lies Have It is a work of fiction!!! Nobody I know from The Pilot Tavern has ever been murdered, or been accused of murder, or ever even jaywalked for that matter. In fact, I don't even think they'll serve you if you have unpaid parking tickets.
But The Pilot, especially the second floor Stealth Lounge, is a great inspiration for the plot of a murder mystery.
While I was in university, I worked at The Pilot. It was a great job, I met a lot of people who remain close friends, I made good money and had a lot fun. Back then (before a new team of managers came along sometime after I left), the management was, um, lackadaisical on one hand, and, um, edgy on the other.
Manager X. was balls-out batshit crazy, Manager Y. was seldom sober but a genuinely nice person, and Manager Z. was an absolute bitch (who was ultimately deported, dunno how or why that happened... I was living in Mexico at the time...)
I don't know which of the three of them gets credit for the following, but since it went on for a few months, I guess all of them were in favour of it.
As mentioned in the previous posting, The Stealth Lounge is reserved or rented out for private parties or special functions (being near Yonge & Bloor, they do a lot of corporate gigs). Back in my days working there, The Stealth was rented out two Saturdays nights a month for fetish/S&M parties.
I NEVER ACTUALLY WORKED ANY OF THE S&M EVENTS!!! (My Dad reads this blog).
Every Saturday, I worked the jazz matinee on the main floor. My shift was roughly 1:00 pm to about 7 or 8 (the crowd would trickle out after the music ended ). The Pilot gets some great jazz bookings and the customers are a fairly loyal bunch of pretty serious jazz fans. The regulars will shush the uninitiated for talking too loudly during a sax solo.
On the Saturdays when the upstairs was booked for the fetish parties, we'd often get some crossover between the studded leather dog collar fetish crowd and the professorial tweed jacket with elbow patches jazz crowd.
The doors opened at 8:00 pm for the fetish party upstairs. Often, though, the S&M folks would come a bit early to catch the tail end of the jazz matinee and grab a bite to eat before going upstairs to spank each other.
Then, when my shift finished, I'd help out a bit with the staff upstairs: making sure they had enough lemons and limes, bringing up a case of beer, getting change for the till and such.
For however brief my exposure to the fetish corwd was, it was eye opening! The way some of these folks dressed when they were at the jazz downstairs was pretty far out, but once they got upstairs to the private party room, well... they let it all hang out, so to speak.
More on "hanging out" in the next post. Stay tuned.
But The Pilot, especially the second floor Stealth Lounge, is a great inspiration for the plot of a murder mystery.
While I was in university, I worked at The Pilot. It was a great job, I met a lot of people who remain close friends, I made good money and had a lot fun. Back then (before a new team of managers came along sometime after I left), the management was, um, lackadaisical on one hand, and, um, edgy on the other.
Manager X. was balls-out batshit crazy, Manager Y. was seldom sober but a genuinely nice person, and Manager Z. was an absolute bitch (who was ultimately deported, dunno how or why that happened... I was living in Mexico at the time...)
I don't know which of the three of them gets credit for the following, but since it went on for a few months, I guess all of them were in favour of it.
As mentioned in the previous posting, The Stealth Lounge is reserved or rented out for private parties or special functions (being near Yonge & Bloor, they do a lot of corporate gigs). Back in my days working there, The Stealth was rented out two Saturdays nights a month for fetish/S&M parties.
I NEVER ACTUALLY WORKED ANY OF THE S&M EVENTS!!! (My Dad reads this blog).
Every Saturday, I worked the jazz matinee on the main floor. My shift was roughly 1:00 pm to about 7 or 8 (the crowd would trickle out after the music ended ). The Pilot gets some great jazz bookings and the customers are a fairly loyal bunch of pretty serious jazz fans. The regulars will shush the uninitiated for talking too loudly during a sax solo.
On the Saturdays when the upstairs was booked for the fetish parties, we'd often get some crossover between the studded leather dog collar fetish crowd and the professorial tweed jacket with elbow patches jazz crowd.
The doors opened at 8:00 pm for the fetish party upstairs. Often, though, the S&M folks would come a bit early to catch the tail end of the jazz matinee and grab a bite to eat before going upstairs to spank each other.
Then, when my shift finished, I'd help out a bit with the staff upstairs: making sure they had enough lemons and limes, bringing up a case of beer, getting change for the till and such.
For however brief my exposure to the fetish corwd was, it was eye opening! The way some of these folks dressed when they were at the jazz downstairs was pretty far out, but once they got upstairs to the private party room, well... they let it all hang out, so to speak.
More on "hanging out" in the next post. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Bitchy Obituaries... Really Bitchy!
Since I write about murder mysteries and unfortunate deaths, a quick look at some obituaries seems like a good idea. These obits are anything but warm and fuzzy, though.
H.L. Mencken on William Jennings Bryan (Scopes Monkey Trial) "To Expose a Fool"
They say it's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but that didn't stop Mencken from saying:
"His last days were spent in a one-horse Tennessee village. The man felt at home in such scenes. He liked people who sweated freely, and were not debauched by the refinements of the toilet.... He was, in fact, a charlatan, a mountebank, a zany without any shame or dignity."
Hunter S. Thompson clearly didn't shed any tears over the death of Richard Nixon "He was a Crook". Thompson comments on the bonds of hatred:
"Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.... If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president."
Rufus Wilmot Griswold on Edgar Allan Poe "The Ludwig Article"
It makes sense to finish off this posting with the obituary of the father of mystery fiction.
"Edgar Allan Poe is dead. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it... Irascible, envious--bad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were all varnished over with a cold, repellant cynicism, his passions vented themselves in sneers. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility; and, what was more remarkable in a proud nature, little or nothing of the true point of honor."
Ouch. R.I.P.
H.L. Mencken on William Jennings Bryan (Scopes Monkey Trial) "To Expose a Fool"
They say it's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but that didn't stop Mencken from saying:
"His last days were spent in a one-horse Tennessee village. The man felt at home in such scenes. He liked people who sweated freely, and were not debauched by the refinements of the toilet.... He was, in fact, a charlatan, a mountebank, a zany without any shame or dignity."
Hunter S. Thompson clearly didn't shed any tears over the death of Richard Nixon "He was a Crook". Thompson comments on the bonds of hatred:
"Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.... If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president."
Rufus Wilmot Griswold on Edgar Allan Poe "The Ludwig Article"
It makes sense to finish off this posting with the obituary of the father of mystery fiction.
"Edgar Allan Poe is dead. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it... Irascible, envious--bad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were all varnished over with a cold, repellant cynicism, his passions vented themselves in sneers. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility; and, what was more remarkable in a proud nature, little or nothing of the true point of honor."
Ouch. R.I.P.
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Scene of the Crime (sort of...) Part 1
I am heading into the homestretch re: editing the third Sasha Jackson mystery, The Lies Have It. Once again, the book is set in Toronto, and like the other books, many of the places mentioned in the novel are real. I do, however, take some liberties (occasionally a lot of liberties) with locations.
The Pilot Tavern has been mentioned in both Blood and Groom and Dead Light District as one of Sasha's favourite hangouts, whether she's eating a Patty Melt to help cure a hangover, or drinking gin & tonics on the rooftop patio on a sunny day.
The Pilot is a real place, obviously, and it is one of my favourite hangouts, which is why I've included it in my books. I go where Sasha goes (or she goes where I go...? Wait, Sasha Jackson is fictional...)
The Pilot is located at 22 Cumberland Street (a stone's throw from Yonge & Bloor). As mentioned in my books, The Pilot has three levels: The main floor is a tavern/restaurant with good food (love the Thai Noodles and the California Salad), great atmosphere and fantastic jazz matinees every Saturday. It's also got some of the best bar staff in the city: Masoud and Derrick have both been there for years and I'm always glad to see them when I go in. I name-checked both of them in Blood and Groom.
The third floor is a rooftop patio called The Flight Deck. It's a huge patio - one of the biggest in downtown Toronto - with a great view, a full menu, and a nice selection of draught beers, but unfortunately NO SANGRIA! Recently, I was on the roof with a friend and it was the perfect day for sangria, so we made our own. We ordered a half litre of red wine, soda water with lots of fruit slices, a shot of Triple Sec and a couple of empty pint glasses. We didn't spill too much and our low-rent sangria was actually pretty good!
The second floor of The Pilot is known as The Stealth Lounge, and it's used for private parties and special functions - everything from bridal showers to polticial fundrisers to office Christmas parties to poetry readings. I had both of my book launches there, and the third one will be there as well. In fact, the idea for the third book came from an event held there long ago, and The Stealth Lounge is a significant part of the plot in book three.
Also, I used to work at The Pilot, so you must check my next posting for the "story behind the story." Stay tuned.
The Pilot Tavern has been mentioned in both Blood and Groom and Dead Light District as one of Sasha's favourite hangouts, whether she's eating a Patty Melt to help cure a hangover, or drinking gin & tonics on the rooftop patio on a sunny day.
The Pilot is a real place, obviously, and it is one of my favourite hangouts, which is why I've included it in my books. I go where Sasha goes (or she goes where I go...? Wait, Sasha Jackson is fictional...)
The Pilot is located at 22 Cumberland Street (a stone's throw from Yonge & Bloor). As mentioned in my books, The Pilot has three levels: The main floor is a tavern/restaurant with good food (love the Thai Noodles and the California Salad), great atmosphere and fantastic jazz matinees every Saturday. It's also got some of the best bar staff in the city: Masoud and Derrick have both been there for years and I'm always glad to see them when I go in. I name-checked both of them in Blood and Groom.
The third floor is a rooftop patio called The Flight Deck. It's a huge patio - one of the biggest in downtown Toronto - with a great view, a full menu, and a nice selection of draught beers, but unfortunately NO SANGRIA! Recently, I was on the roof with a friend and it was the perfect day for sangria, so we made our own. We ordered a half litre of red wine, soda water with lots of fruit slices, a shot of Triple Sec and a couple of empty pint glasses. We didn't spill too much and our low-rent sangria was actually pretty good!
The second floor of The Pilot is known as The Stealth Lounge, and it's used for private parties and special functions - everything from bridal showers to polticial fundrisers to office Christmas parties to poetry readings. I had both of my book launches there, and the third one will be there as well. In fact, the idea for the third book came from an event held there long ago, and The Stealth Lounge is a significant part of the plot in book three.
Also, I used to work at The Pilot, so you must check my next posting for the "story behind the story." Stay tuned.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Reviews for DLD - Round Up of Good Karma!
I am very fortunate (and proud!) to have received a number of favourable reviews for Dead Light District in the last little while. Here are some of the highlights:Reviewer Amy Steele of Entertainment Realm says: "Dead Light District makes the reader adore Sasha even more ... Dead Light District makes the perfect summer read as it speeds along and follows Sasha’s train of thought as she works to solve the case."
Lynn Farris, who reviews mysteries for The Examiner.com says: "While the book is well written, offers solid characters and an interesting plot, the strength of the book is based on philosophical questions and the research that went into telling this fascinating story. Edmondson shows extreme finese at attacking these deep subjects, while keeping the story still enjoyable to read and exciting."
The love keeps flowing with this review by Joan Barfoot in The London Free Press where she says: "interesting moral ambiguities get discussed in Dead Light District, and Sasha continues to be an appealing character."There are also some very nice reviews posted on Amazon, some of the warm fuzzies include:
"Sasha Jackson is a spunky, vibrant, witty girl that gets caught up in the seedy underworld of prostitution and sex slavery while investigating her latest case. This is a fast paced novel ... The author's sense of humor is prominent throughout the book and has many points where I actually Laughed Out LOUD!" From BobbiD.
Another review says: "DEAD LIGHT DISTRICT is another fun romp by Jill Edmondson... The storyline keeps the reader turning the pages right up until the surprising conclusion. Sasha Jackson is sexy, funny, irreverent, hard-working and many other things besides." From Bryan Bessner.
And there's some good karma on Good Reads:
"It's a soft-boiled, sometimes madcap mystery ... but its heart is always in the right place and, despite some of the more outrageous things she does, it's hard not to be routing for Sasha ....A recommended diversion, perhaps over a freshly made mojito." From Alexander InglisOf course, I was really happy to see all of these reviews - they sure put a smile on my face!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Recent Reads: Beyond Street Bach First Professional Brain Thursdays Society Name
I've had two long vacations in the last six months had a chance to do some reading, finally! Here's a quick look at the last few books I've read:
Wow, he's been more effective and more productive in his post-presidency years than he was in office. I learned a lot from this, about all sorts of things, including foreign relations and diseases. A tad self-serving (but how could it not be?), but a thoroughly enjoyable read! Kudos to the Carter Center.
Street Gang by Michael Davis Okay, so this is a history of Sesame Street, but is is SO MUCH more than that! It's about education and educational theory, social policy, economics, Disney, income levels and differences, inclusiveness... and Gordon was a cokehead. Fascinating story.
Bach, Beethoven and the Boys by David W. Barber Pretty good, I guess. I know nothing about classical music and I wanted to get a basic foundation out of this. However, it was a bit more on the people and their (personal) lives than about the music and its impact/importance. Having said that, I still enjoyed it because they style of writing was great: irreverent, tongue in cheek, witty, funny...
The Professional by Robert B. Parker Hmm... I guess this will be the 2nd last Spenser book :( I wonder how complete this (and the yet to be read Painted Ladies) were at the time of Parker's death? I love Spenser and have read every single one of them. This wasn't one of the best, but I like getting together with old friends.
This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitan Interesting, clever, edifying, down to earth. I learned a lot from this one and enjoyed the way Levitan explained things. He gave great examples to illustrate his points and spoke in plain, simple language. The subject matter was at times a tad out of my league, but that didn't seem to diminish the enjoyment index. 
One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde I love Fforde and the Thursday Next series. Love them, love them, love them! I also love the Nursery Crimes books and am anxiously awaiting the next one. Jasper Fforde is awesome! He is one of a handful of fiction authors that I turn to without question, without hesitation. Funny, clever, many oblique or inside jokes, brilliant literary references and send ups. Keep 'em coming!
Dead Politician Society by Robin Spano
What can I say? I've met Robin several times and our professional lives have overlapped here and there. I knew before reading this that I would enjoy it - and I did, very much so. Spano's sleuth is Clare Vengel and Clare rocks, the mystery is solid, the dialogue is snappy. I can't wait to see what she gets up to next in her coming release Death Plays Poker (Fall 2011).
Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
This book will wake you up and make you angry. Blackmon tells the story of how blacks were treated in the years (roughly four decades) after the end of the Civil War. The research and sources are solid, the personal strories are poignant. Blackmon aims a magnifying glass at topics that make people uncomfortable but that shouldn't be ignored. Should be required reading for any course on American History.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Damn Titles!
I had a tough time coming up with a title for the third Sasha Jackson mystery. I sort of set a bit of a pattern with puns in the titles of the first two books of the series (Blood and Groom, Dead Light District), so I kind of wanted to keep up with the pun theme. As well, the punny titles relate to the plot of each book (weddings in Blood and Groom, prostitution in Dead Light District).
The plot of book three centres on politics and the fetish world, and let me tell you, the title was hard to come up with! I had some great suggestions from fans and friends plus a few ideas of my own, such as:
Cuff Me Tender
Lash and Burn
Tied and True
X Marks the Plot
In the end I chose The Lies Have It (a play on “the ayes have it”) because it encompasses the lies told in the sex games part of the story plus it sort of alludes to voting, although I must say there were things I really liked as well about the other title suggestions.
Now I need to start thinking of a title for book four... can't give many details yet, but it involves XXX films and I don't want to end up with a title that gets blocked by parental controls :-)
The plot of book three centres on politics and the fetish world, and let me tell you, the title was hard to come up with! I had some great suggestions from fans and friends plus a few ideas of my own, such as:
Cuff Me Tender
Lash and Burn
Tied and True
X Marks the Plot
In the end I chose The Lies Have It (a play on “the ayes have it”) because it encompasses the lies told in the sex games part of the story plus it sort of alludes to voting, although I must say there were things I really liked as well about the other title suggestions.
Now I need to start thinking of a title for book four... can't give many details yet, but it involves XXX films and I don't want to end up with a title that gets blocked by parental controls :-)
Monday, May 30, 2011
Book One is actually Book Three
The Lies Have It (which I refer to as the fetish book or the S & M book) is the third book in the Sasha Jackson mystery series. It’s due to come out in Fall 2011, and I can’t wait for it to be released! You see, even though this will be Sasha’s third mystery, it’s actually the first book, or at least it’s the one I started first. I began writing the fetish book in 2005!
I kept getting stuck on the plot of this book, so I left it on the back burner and had no real plans about writing overall. Then BANG! The idea for Blood and Groom came to me, and I wrote the whole thing in six months and six days.
After that, I tried to do more with the fetish book, but still kept getting stuck on the plot. I liked the overall idea – a murder related to an S & M fetish party – but couldn’t iron out several wrinkles in the plot. Everything I came up with relied too heavily on coincidences and was just too hard to swallow. So, once again I left the S & M book on the back burner.
Then I came up with the idea for Dead Light District, and that book took only five months to write, from start to finish. Its genesis was an essay I did for my MA, and the book practically wrote itself.
Finally, I figured out the plot for the S & M book, and came up with a title for it. The Lies Have It (as it’s now called... but I still think of it as the fetish book). So, book one is actually book three, and even though the other two books were quick to write (six and five months respectively) the third book took about six years! I hope to hell the fourth book will not take nearly as long :)
I kept getting stuck on the plot of this book, so I left it on the back burner and had no real plans about writing overall. Then BANG! The idea for Blood and Groom came to me, and I wrote the whole thing in six months and six days.
After that, I tried to do more with the fetish book, but still kept getting stuck on the plot. I liked the overall idea – a murder related to an S & M fetish party – but couldn’t iron out several wrinkles in the plot. Everything I came up with relied too heavily on coincidences and was just too hard to swallow. So, once again I left the S & M book on the back burner.
Then I came up with the idea for Dead Light District, and that book took only five months to write, from start to finish. Its genesis was an essay I did for my MA, and the book practically wrote itself.
Finally, I figured out the plot for the S & M book, and came up with a title for it. The Lies Have It (as it’s now called... but I still think of it as the fetish book). So, book one is actually book three, and even though the other two books were quick to write (six and five months respectively) the third book took about six years! I hope to hell the fourth book will not take nearly as long :)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Character Bio: Antonio Agostino Antonelli
We’ll be meeting Antonio Agostino Antonelli in book four of the Sasha Jackson Mystery series (I don’t yet know the title for the fourth novel). Here’s a sneak preview of him.
Name: Antonio Agostino Antonelli
Profession: Porn Producer. Antonio A. Antonelli has produced 577 “adult” films in the last three years. Yes, that’s almost 200 films a year. We’re not exactly talking high art here; most of the porn flicks are made in about a day.
Hobbies: Rug hooking. Currently making a 4’ x 6’ mat with a very chesty naked woman on it.
Secret Dream/Ambition: He has always fantasized about competing in the Tour de France, but at 280 lbs (on a 5’8” frame) it is highly unlikely he’ll achieve this.
Role Model: Larry Flynt.
Pet Peeve: People who bite their nails and unaddressed mail/junkmail. He also hates Campbell’s Soup, any and all flavours, and he'd love to throw acid on those Warhol paintings.
When he thinks no one is looking: He fondles himself and whispers loving words to himself in Italian as he’s doing this. He calls himself “gorgeous” and “handsome” and “hot stuff” and then kisses himself on his hairy shoulder.
Afraid of: Spiders, dogs, marmalade and flying.
Embarrassing Fact/Temper Tantrum: Gained twenty-nine pounds (and three inches) within six months of having liposuction on his gut at a dodgy clinic in Mexico. Flew back to Mexico to pummel the doctor, who now works as a one-armed street sweeper.
Criminal Record: Rather long, and he was framed... that other guy did it.
Invented the Word: Blowjoberrific. The meaning should be obvious.
Why would anyone want to kill him? The list is too long to get into, but he's a dirtbag with no morals whatsoever. The kind of d-bag who says things like "blowjoberrific". Unfortunately, no one has done him in... yet...
Name: Antonio Agostino Antonelli
Hobbies: Rug hooking. Currently making a 4’ x 6’ mat with a very chesty naked woman on it.
Secret Dream/Ambition: He has always fantasized about competing in the Tour de France, but at 280 lbs (on a 5’8” frame) it is highly unlikely he’ll achieve this.
Role Model: Larry Flynt.
Pet Peeve: People who bite their nails and unaddressed mail/junkmail. He also hates Campbell’s Soup, any and all flavours, and he'd love to throw acid on those Warhol paintings.
When he thinks no one is looking: He fondles himself and whispers loving words to himself in Italian as he’s doing this. He calls himself “gorgeous” and “handsome” and “hot stuff” and then kisses himself on his hairy shoulder.
Afraid of: Spiders, dogs, marmalade and flying.
Embarrassing Fact/Temper Tantrum: Gained twenty-nine pounds (and three inches) within six months of having liposuction on his gut at a dodgy clinic in Mexico. Flew back to Mexico to pummel the doctor, who now works as a one-armed street sweeper.
Criminal Record: Rather long, and he was framed... that other guy did it.
Invented the Word: Blowjoberrific. The meaning should be obvious.
Why would anyone want to kill him? The list is too long to get into, but he's a dirtbag with no morals whatsoever. The kind of d-bag who says things like "blowjoberrific". Unfortunately, no one has done him in... yet...
Monday, May 23, 2011
Weird Research: Smut...
The Lies Have It - the third Sasha Jackson Mystery (coming in Fall 2011) centres on the fetish and S & M world. The idea for this book has been mulling around in my head for many years. I kept getting stuck on the plot, even though the overall idea struck me as a good one.
Sex is a dominant theme in the Sasha Jackson series. If you've read Blood and Groom, you know Sasha worked part time at a phone sex hotline in that book. In Dead Light District, the background to the story is the world of prostitution and commercial sex. And now, this time around, it's all about leather and latex, and whips and chains, and dominance and submission... YIKES!
For Blood and Groom, I just made up all the phone sex stuff (and laughed my head off while I was doing it). Since I really didn't have a clue what I was doing (this was my first book after all) I mostly just showed Sasha's reactions to the smut calls, and I had great fun coming up with sarcastic replies or reactions for her.
In Dead Light District, the research came from an essay I did for my MA. The course was Equality in Context and the paper was about human rights in the sex trade.
With The Lies Have It, the smut stuff is more central to the plot (as compared to Blood and Groom), so I can't just make it all up. So, this is where the research comes in. Believe it or not, one of the first things I looked up was the BDSM entry on Wikipedia! Next up was Google Groups and general Google searches for terms I had stumbled upon thus far. Some of the many topics or subheadings re: fetish and S&M that you'll find via Google are::
Foot Fetish
Fat Fetish
Vampire (I vant to suckh your... toes?)
Hot Torture
Munch
Playmates
Naughty Nursery Rhymes
Pirates
Catsuits
Watersports (not exactly windsurfing...)
Bestiality
Goth
and on and on and on...
So, this was a bit of an eye opener. (Note to self: clear cookies from computer).
A second look at Wikipedia led me to the section of types of "play". You can probably guess the obvious ones (whipping and handcuffs or things like that) but there's a whole lot of interest in medical role play and there's also a specialty in erotic electrostimulation (ouch).
This list (below) gives names to a long list of quirks or "paraphilias". Who wouldda thunk there'd be so many? From Albinaphilia to Teratophilia and everything in between...
Wow. And I thought writing was about creating settings and coming up with plotlines and writing snappy dialogue...
Sex is a dominant theme in the Sasha Jackson series. If you've read Blood and Groom, you know Sasha worked part time at a phone sex hotline in that book. In Dead Light District, the background to the story is the world of prostitution and commercial sex. And now, this time around, it's all about leather and latex, and whips and chains, and dominance and submission... YIKES!
For Blood and Groom, I just made up all the phone sex stuff (and laughed my head off while I was doing it). Since I really didn't have a clue what I was doing (this was my first book after all) I mostly just showed Sasha's reactions to the smut calls, and I had great fun coming up with sarcastic replies or reactions for her.
In Dead Light District, the research came from an essay I did for my MA. The course was Equality in Context and the paper was about human rights in the sex trade.
With The Lies Have It, the smut stuff is more central to the plot (as compared to Blood and Groom), so I can't just make it all up. So, this is where the research comes in. Believe it or not, one of the first things I looked up was the BDSM entry on Wikipedia! Next up was Google Groups and general Google searches for terms I had stumbled upon thus far. Some of the many topics or subheadings re: fetish and S&M that you'll find via Google are::
Foot Fetish
Fat Fetish
Vampire (I vant to suckh your... toes?)
Hot Torture
Munch
Playmates
Naughty Nursery Rhymes
Pirates
Catsuits
Watersports (not exactly windsurfing...)
Bestiality
Goth
and on and on and on...
So, this was a bit of an eye opener. (Note to self: clear cookies from computer).
A second look at Wikipedia led me to the section of types of "play". You can probably guess the obvious ones (whipping and handcuffs or things like that) but there's a whole lot of interest in medical role play and there's also a specialty in erotic electrostimulation (ouch).
This list (below) gives names to a long list of quirks or "paraphilias". Who wouldda thunk there'd be so many? From Albinaphilia to Teratophilia and everything in between...
Wow. And I thought writing was about creating settings and coming up with plotlines and writing snappy dialogue...
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Works In Progress
WORK(S) IN PROGRESS
I have four things on the go, in addition to The Lies Have It (the third Sasha Jackson Mystery, which will be out in November 2011).
1. The fourth Sasha book
2. The fifth Sasha book
3. A Canadiana thing I hope to finish someday
4. A biography of a guitar legend
So, what can I tell you about each of these?
Sasha Jackson Mystery #4 has something to do with the porno industry. It’s too early to say much else about it for now, other than the plot will centre on XXX movies (video and internet) and I expect to have two dead bodies in it, not just one. I haven’t given any thought yet to a title, but it will likely include some play on words, something vaguely naughty.
Sasha Jackson Mystery #5 is in my head and has been for quite some time. I have a feeling this one will essentially write itself, but given my manner of using days and dates instead of Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc., I need to get book four written first. Dead Light District ends in early September; The Lies Have It ends in October; so book four will take place in November-December. Book #5 needs to be set in winter, January-February. Book #5 will be a wee bit of a departure (I think) from the usual sexually themed backgrounds (a re-cap: Blood and Groom has Sasha working part time at a phone sex hotline, Dead Light District is about prostitution and bordellos, book three – The Lies Have It – is centred around the S&M or fetish world, and book four will be about the porn industry – see above). In the fifth book, Sasha will tackle the construction industry, and a bit of shady real estate as well.
The Canadiana Thing is a pet project. I really like the idea, but it’s not as pressing to me as the Sasha books or the guitar guy book. This is to say, that I carve out less time for it than I do for the others, so God knows when I’ll finish it.
The Guitar Guy is something I am passionate about. It occurred to me ages ago that there needs to be a book written on this person. So that’s reason #1 for this work in progress. Reason #2 is that I miss being a student and doing research. I thoroughly enjoyed working on essays when I was in university. However, I don’t want to go back to school (at least not yet). This book is filling a need or a desire to dig and dig and dig. Let’s see where it goes…
So, those are all the balls I’m juggling for now. I hope to get at least two of them… okay, maybe only one of them, finished by the end of the year.
I have four things on the go, in addition to The Lies Have It (the third Sasha Jackson Mystery, which will be out in November 2011).
1. The fourth Sasha book
2. The fifth Sasha book
3. A Canadiana thing I hope to finish someday
4. A biography of a guitar legend
So, what can I tell you about each of these?
Sasha Jackson Mystery #4 has something to do with the porno industry. It’s too early to say much else about it for now, other than the plot will centre on XXX movies (video and internet) and I expect to have two dead bodies in it, not just one. I haven’t given any thought yet to a title, but it will likely include some play on words, something vaguely naughty.
Sasha Jackson Mystery #5 is in my head and has been for quite some time. I have a feeling this one will essentially write itself, but given my manner of using days and dates instead of Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc., I need to get book four written first. Dead Light District ends in early September; The Lies Have It ends in October; so book four will take place in November-December. Book #5 needs to be set in winter, January-February. Book #5 will be a wee bit of a departure (I think) from the usual sexually themed backgrounds (a re-cap: Blood and Groom has Sasha working part time at a phone sex hotline, Dead Light District is about prostitution and bordellos, book three – The Lies Have It – is centred around the S&M or fetish world, and book four will be about the porn industry – see above). In the fifth book, Sasha will tackle the construction industry, and a bit of shady real estate as well.
The Canadiana Thing is a pet project. I really like the idea, but it’s not as pressing to me as the Sasha books or the guitar guy book. This is to say, that I carve out less time for it than I do for the others, so God knows when I’ll finish it.
The Guitar Guy is something I am passionate about. It occurred to me ages ago that there needs to be a book written on this person. So that’s reason #1 for this work in progress. Reason #2 is that I miss being a student and doing research. I thoroughly enjoyed working on essays when I was in university. However, I don’t want to go back to school (at least not yet). This book is filling a need or a desire to dig and dig and dig. Let’s see where it goes…
So, those are all the balls I’m juggling for now. I hope to get at least two of them… okay, maybe only one of them, finished by the end of the year.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Interview with Michael McPherson
In my ongoing series of interviews, today I'm pleased to share my chat with Michael McPherson, author of the Sioux Rock Falls series.. Here's what's going on inside his head...
1. Tell me about your newest release.
I have two books coming out by June 1st:
A Summer of Bridges is an anthology of the Sioux Rock Falls series of short stories that first appeared in Storyteller magazine. Kenny is a teenager sent to work with his uncle's construction crew--five-hundred miles north of Toronto. Kenny's single mother is trying to keep him from hanging out for the summer with a friend that she considers a bad influence. But Kenny finds more trouble in Sioux Rock, and he's forced to make tough choices over the summer that will deeply affect other lives, as well as his own.
Vampire Road is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a disease that causes vampirism has infected over half the population of the planet. I came up with the idea after reading Salem's Lot and thinking: but what if they didn't kill the vampire and he just kept making more vampires? If I make two vampires and they make two vampires, etc, eventually humans will be forced to live in walled towns and fight off armies of vampires.
New religions evolve, as humans stressed to the breaking point fight amongst themselves despite the external threats. Thus our hero, Fitz, finds himself threatened by human enemies as well as vampires, or rippers as he calls them.
Think of the movie, Priest, just released this week, combined with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.
2. What is the best thing about independent publishing?
Speed and control. I've been working on Vampire Road for over ten years, but when a friend sent me the link to a movie trailer for Priest two weeks ago, pointing out how similar it was to Vampire Road, I could respond quickly to take advantage of the promotional hype of the movie. I sent the manuscript to my editor (Storyteller Magazine's former editor) and called a cover artist.
If I sent Vampire Road to an agent or publisher today, they'd say it was too much like Priest and they wouldn't be able to bring it to market for two years. By then readers will have moved on from vampires, and maybe poltergeists will be back in vogue.
3. What is the worst thing about indie publishing?
Getting past the stigma of self-published. Despite the fact that there are many excellent indie-pubbed authors out there, I hear more often about the bad ones, like Howett, author of The Greek Seaman. She went ballistic on a reviewer for complaining about her poor grammar and non-existent copy editing. She dropped the f-bomb a couple of times. It went viral.
But now that mainstream authors like Barry Eisler are going indie, I think readers will begin to realize that a $2.99 e-book can be a good read. Authors like Amanda Hocking, John Locke and J.A. Konrath are also setting the traditional publishing world on edge by proving that there are quality indie-pubbed authors out there making money on their own--although Hocking has recently signed a seven-figure deal with St. Martins.
4. Who is one of your favourite mystery authors and why?
The fun thing about being on the Crime Writers of Canada is that I've been reading a lot of Canadian mysteries over the last few years. I hate to pick just one though. I'm a big fan of Giles Blunt, not just because he's a great writer, but also because the Algonquin Bay (thinly disguised North Bay) setting is in northern Ontario, an area I know well and love. But I'm also a big fan of Barbara Fradkin's Inspector Green novels. And then there's Mel Bradshaw, Sylvia Multash Warsh. I could go on and on.
5. Which is harder to write: dialogue or description?
Description--especially in action scenes, which is why I rely heavily on beta-readers and an editor. I get carried away with the pace and forget to add the details that give taste and touch. Fortunately I have a grumpy editor who helps me fill in the blanks by asking the right questions.
6. What is the most challenging thing about plot for you?
Staying focused. I have a lot of ideas, so it's easy to run amok on side plots that don't drive the main plot and can be ripped out with no loss to the story. As Michael Crichton said: "novels are not written. They're re-written." I look at each story thread and ask, "if I pull this out, will the reader be missing anything at the end of the novel?" If the answer is no, then it has to go.
7. If you could bring any fictional character (from any genre) to life for just one day, who would it be and why?
Jake, from W.O. Mitchell's Jake and the Kid. I had a similar mentor in my teen years. Mentors are important for boys and young men, and Jake is one of those people who can be trusted to point in the direction. He proves that common sense doesn't require a university degree, and it sometimes comes with very rough edges.
The character Merv in A Summer of Bridges is a lot like Jake. I based Merv on my mentor, a man who could swear up a blue streak and drink a bar dry, but he watched out for me and taught me to think about how my actions could affect other people.
8. Imagine writing a profile for Kenny for an internet dating site. What would it say?
Just went to lavalife to see what an internet dating site looks like. So here's what I would put up there for Kenny.
Kenny: reliable skater-dude available for dating. Age: 18. Body type: slim. Smoking habits: Thinking about it. Drinking habits: Socially. Religion: somewhat Catholic.
9. Canada is too small a country for an artist (any of the arts) to really make it “big”, to become a success. And there are those who say that if an author wants to “make it”, he or she needs to have a setting in the USA. How well do you think American audiences respond to Canadian settings?
They've responded well to Giles Blunt's Algonquin Bay, but as Agent Helen Heller pointed out, that is unusual, and Blunt's novels are great depictions of a part of Canada that is unlike anywhere in the US. I think that Canadian writers should stay out of our more American-like cities. Lonely Planet travel guide describes Toronto as an American city in Canada. It simply isn't an exotic location for American readers, so why bother reading about it?
When I launch, A Summer of Bridges, I intend to market it to Canadians, because it’s set in our backyard, but I am going to take a stab at the American market too, because the far north is unique. It's still a frontier, and frontiers sell well.
10. Whether authors want it to be or not, social media is an important part of being an author. What are your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, and the like vis vis being a successful author?
Indie published author John Locke has over 20,000 twitter followers and is selling thousands of books. I'm late to social media, so I've a lot of catch-up to do, but clearly this is the marketing that allows an author to connect directly with fans. It's incredible, and it puts indie-authors on the same platform as traditionally published authors.
In fact, publishers that are desperately trying to keep market share in the face of e-books have finally started hiring staff to promote their authors again, a task they have just left up to the authors since the advent of social media.
11. What else would you like readers to know about you?
A friend once described me as a walking contradiction because I was spending my winters working toward a B.Sc in physics and my summers working construction. I think it has given me a unique perspective into our culturally stratified society. I can drink beer and watch the hockey game in a tavern in New Liskeard, Ontario, and yet I would still fit in after a symposium at McLennan Physical Laboratories, sipping wine and discussing particle physics. This helps me bring a wide variety of characters and perspectives to my writing.
For more on Michael McPherson, check him out his website http://www.michaelmcpherson.ca/
You can find Michael's works on Amazon at this link.
1. Tell me about your newest release.
I have two books coming out by June 1st:
A Summer of Bridges is an anthology of the Sioux Rock Falls series of short stories that first appeared in Storyteller magazine. Kenny is a teenager sent to work with his uncle's construction crew--five-hundred miles north of Toronto. Kenny's single mother is trying to keep him from hanging out for the summer with a friend that she considers a bad influence. But Kenny finds more trouble in Sioux Rock, and he's forced to make tough choices over the summer that will deeply affect other lives, as well as his own.
Vampire Road is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a disease that causes vampirism has infected over half the population of the planet. I came up with the idea after reading Salem's Lot and thinking: but what if they didn't kill the vampire and he just kept making more vampires? If I make two vampires and they make two vampires, etc, eventually humans will be forced to live in walled towns and fight off armies of vampires.
New religions evolve, as humans stressed to the breaking point fight amongst themselves despite the external threats. Thus our hero, Fitz, finds himself threatened by human enemies as well as vampires, or rippers as he calls them.
Think of the movie, Priest, just released this week, combined with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.
2. What is the best thing about independent publishing?
Speed and control. I've been working on Vampire Road for over ten years, but when a friend sent me the link to a movie trailer for Priest two weeks ago, pointing out how similar it was to Vampire Road, I could respond quickly to take advantage of the promotional hype of the movie. I sent the manuscript to my editor (Storyteller Magazine's former editor) and called a cover artist.
If I sent Vampire Road to an agent or publisher today, they'd say it was too much like Priest and they wouldn't be able to bring it to market for two years. By then readers will have moved on from vampires, and maybe poltergeists will be back in vogue.
3. What is the worst thing about indie publishing?
Getting past the stigma of self-published. Despite the fact that there are many excellent indie-pubbed authors out there, I hear more often about the bad ones, like Howett, author of The Greek Seaman. She went ballistic on a reviewer for complaining about her poor grammar and non-existent copy editing. She dropped the f-bomb a couple of times. It went viral.
But now that mainstream authors like Barry Eisler are going indie, I think readers will begin to realize that a $2.99 e-book can be a good read. Authors like Amanda Hocking, John Locke and J.A. Konrath are also setting the traditional publishing world on edge by proving that there are quality indie-pubbed authors out there making money on their own--although Hocking has recently signed a seven-figure deal with St. Martins.
4. Who is one of your favourite mystery authors and why?
The fun thing about being on the Crime Writers of Canada is that I've been reading a lot of Canadian mysteries over the last few years. I hate to pick just one though. I'm a big fan of Giles Blunt, not just because he's a great writer, but also because the Algonquin Bay (thinly disguised North Bay) setting is in northern Ontario, an area I know well and love. But I'm also a big fan of Barbara Fradkin's Inspector Green novels. And then there's Mel Bradshaw, Sylvia Multash Warsh. I could go on and on.
5. Which is harder to write: dialogue or description?
Description--especially in action scenes, which is why I rely heavily on beta-readers and an editor. I get carried away with the pace and forget to add the details that give taste and touch. Fortunately I have a grumpy editor who helps me fill in the blanks by asking the right questions.
6. What is the most challenging thing about plot for you?
Staying focused. I have a lot of ideas, so it's easy to run amok on side plots that don't drive the main plot and can be ripped out with no loss to the story. As Michael Crichton said: "novels are not written. They're re-written." I look at each story thread and ask, "if I pull this out, will the reader be missing anything at the end of the novel?" If the answer is no, then it has to go.
7. If you could bring any fictional character (from any genre) to life for just one day, who would it be and why?
Jake, from W.O. Mitchell's Jake and the Kid. I had a similar mentor in my teen years. Mentors are important for boys and young men, and Jake is one of those people who can be trusted to point in the direction. He proves that common sense doesn't require a university degree, and it sometimes comes with very rough edges.
The character Merv in A Summer of Bridges is a lot like Jake. I based Merv on my mentor, a man who could swear up a blue streak and drink a bar dry, but he watched out for me and taught me to think about how my actions could affect other people.
8. Imagine writing a profile for Kenny for an internet dating site. What would it say?
Just went to lavalife to see what an internet dating site looks like. So here's what I would put up there for Kenny.
Kenny: reliable skater-dude available for dating. Age: 18. Body type: slim. Smoking habits: Thinking about it. Drinking habits: Socially. Religion: somewhat Catholic.
9. Canada is too small a country for an artist (any of the arts) to really make it “big”, to become a success. And there are those who say that if an author wants to “make it”, he or she needs to have a setting in the USA. How well do you think American audiences respond to Canadian settings?
They've responded well to Giles Blunt's Algonquin Bay, but as Agent Helen Heller pointed out, that is unusual, and Blunt's novels are great depictions of a part of Canada that is unlike anywhere in the US. I think that Canadian writers should stay out of our more American-like cities. Lonely Planet travel guide describes Toronto as an American city in Canada. It simply isn't an exotic location for American readers, so why bother reading about it?
When I launch, A Summer of Bridges, I intend to market it to Canadians, because it’s set in our backyard, but I am going to take a stab at the American market too, because the far north is unique. It's still a frontier, and frontiers sell well.
10. Whether authors want it to be or not, social media is an important part of being an author. What are your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, and the like vis vis being a successful author?
Indie published author John Locke has over 20,000 twitter followers and is selling thousands of books. I'm late to social media, so I've a lot of catch-up to do, but clearly this is the marketing that allows an author to connect directly with fans. It's incredible, and it puts indie-authors on the same platform as traditionally published authors.
In fact, publishers that are desperately trying to keep market share in the face of e-books have finally started hiring staff to promote their authors again, a task they have just left up to the authors since the advent of social media.
11. What else would you like readers to know about you?
A friend once described me as a walking contradiction because I was spending my winters working toward a B.Sc in physics and my summers working construction. I think it has given me a unique perspective into our culturally stratified society. I can drink beer and watch the hockey game in a tavern in New Liskeard, Ontario, and yet I would still fit in after a symposium at McLennan Physical Laboratories, sipping wine and discussing particle physics. This helps me bring a wide variety of characters and perspectives to my writing.
For more on Michael McPherson, check him out his website http://www.michaelmcpherson.ca/
You can find Michael's works on Amazon at this link.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Interview with the Super Fantastic Steven Steinbock
Today I am very pleased to share an interview with Steven Steinbock, President of the International Association of Crime Writers (North America).
Interview questions for Steven Steinbock:
1. You have lots of impressive street cred in the world of mystery fiction, as an editor, a critic, a blogger and so on. How did you get to be Prez of Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers? And are there (or were there) any members who felt the position of Prez ought to have gone to a published mystery novelist?
Thanks. I’m not sure about street cred, but I have been involved in crime fiction for a long time. The path that led me to become president of the North American branch of IACW is a strange one. The short version is that I helped solve a couple of issues we’d been having, and members of the board nominated me. At the time I was nominated I didn’t have any fiction published, but as far as I know, I was the only person who protested.
2. What is your most prized – not necessarily the most valuable – mystery collectible? What elusive mystery or whodunit collectible are you still looking for?
Easy. I spent an afternoon as a guest of Evan Hunter (AKA Ed McBain) a number of years ago. He treated me to lunch and I treated him to an interview. I brought along a small stack of books for him to sign. When he saw the first edition of Blackboard Jungle in my pile, even he was impressed. He paused for a moment of reflection before signing his name to the title page.
Another treasure: I have everything written by Jacques Futrelle, a turn-of-the-previous-century mystery writer who died aboard the Titanic. My copy of Diamond Master is signed by Futrelle. (I got him to sign it before the Titanic hit the iceberg).
3. In your opinion, is the grammar rule about never ending a sentence with a preposition (as in question #2 above) going the way of the dodo bird?
I don’t know the rule about which you are speaking. Seriously? It’s a bunko rule, designed by uninformed pedantics to criticize better writers than themselves. Shakespeare did it, didn’t he? Imagine if Prospero had said, “We are such stuff on which dreams are made.” Shakespeare probably dangled his modifiers, too, and beautifully.
4. If there were one review you could rescind/undo, what one would it be?
When I was writing for the Maine Sunday Telegram in the 1990s I reviewed a first book by a new author (no names) which I thought was badly written. I didn’t like the style. I felt the tone was wooden. Neither the characters nor the plot grabbed me. I gave it a less-than-warm review. It wasn’t a nasty review, mind you. But it would have been clear to anyone reading it that the book didn’t work for me. Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times all gave the book glowing reviews. I’m not sure I’d rescind the review, but it gave me pause.
5. How has your exposure to and involvement with AudioFile changed your view of books/stories/mysteries?
Words are very aural for me. I love the sound of good writing. Pick up a book by James Lee Burke or Gary Phillips and open it to any page and you’ll find words set out like notes in a symphony, words that beg to be savoured on the palate.
I disagree with the people who think audiobooks are for lazy people, that listening is cheating. Audiobooks may not be for everyone, but something that allows me to “read” – to consume books – while I’m driving or working out is a good thing.
6. Surely you have been to many crime fiction events over the years, at locations far and wide. What was the most memorable mystery event/conference/convention you attended? What was unique/special/interesting about it?
That would have to be Bloody Words in 2010, of course. That’s where I met you, Jill! Every mystery event I go to – the Edgars, Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, Malice Domestic – is memorable. Crime writers are the nicest people on the planet. We commit murder for a living, but when we get together, you won’t find a more affable group anywhere.
7. Without fawning, there surely must be some author somewhere whom you have met who left you feeling a bit star struck, or maybe you even asked for an autograph or a photo op. Which author were you most excited about meeting and why? Ah, go ahead – fawn away…
I’ve known him now for eighteen years, but Lawrence Block still awes me a little. But like I said in response to your earlier question, crime writers are a genial bunch. Even Mary Higgins Clark is laid back and accessible.
8. Tell me about your current work in progress. I am dying to know more about the madman with the lynx and the quixotic rabbi.
It’s a mystery/suspense novel. My hero is a young, idealistic rabbi named Jake Lurie who wants to do the right thing, but isn’t sure he’s man enough. He’s also lonely. Then he meets up with his complete opposite – sort of cross between Joe Pike, Lord Falstaff, and a mountain man. His name is Santelli, and he makes it his mission to educate Jake in the ways of the world. Oh yeah, and he lives with a lynx.
9. What do you think is the best manner of killing/best weapon in a whodunit?
In one of his novels Earl Emerson dispensed with a villain at a dog-food processing plant. I thought that was pretty cool.
10. You have published one short story in Ellery Queen, and you are now working on a novel. What is the most difficult or challenging difference between short stories and novels?
They’re totally different animals. A short story is an idea or incident that is distilled into its essence and unveiled to the reader in the most efficiently elegant way possible. A novel is a series of characters and events woven and expanded toward resolution into something new. That’s what “novel” means, after all. Something new.
11. Your young, idealistic rabbi… (name?) How much is he like you? How much do you wish you were like him?
Jake is a lot like I was at 28. I wouldn’t mind being 28 again, but other than that, no. As I’ve gotten older, I think I’ve become more like Santelli, the madman with the lynx.
12. How many Yiddish words (if any) will you have in the book? You do not need to give the exact number, rounded off to the nearest one-hundredth is fine. I hope you use oy vey at least thrice, fahrklempt (sp?) verklempt (sp?) at least once, and schmuck no less than a dozen times. Have you read much if anything on Yiddish? It fascinates me. This question is more for my own curiosity than for the interview.
Ironically, the person most likely to use Yiddish in my story is the Italian mountain man. I didn’t want the book to turn into a parody of a “Seinfeld” episode. I didn’t want to get caught in Jewish clichés. When a Jew is chomping on a bagel while speaking Yiddish between spittle, it’s cliché. It’s much more interesting when a Korean or a Pakistani calls someone a putz or a shlimiel. An excellent recent book about Yiddish is Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex. It’s informative and clever, and so funny I could almost plotz.
13. I’d like to know more about the transition from theologian to your, ahem, “life of crime”. What do you wish to share? (Not sure how personal this might be and I don’t want to overstep my bounds…)
I rediscovered mysteries while I was attending a seminary in Jerusalem. I found a copy of The Big Sleep and I never looked back. Distilled down to their essences, detective fiction and theology are about the same stuff: chaos and order, crime and justice, and a little sex and intrigue thrown in for good measure.
14. Open ended final question: what else would you like readers to know about you/your writing/your character/your experience in and exposure to the world of crime fiction?
Nothing I can think of. Thanks for the opportunity to chat.
For more on Steven Steinbock, check out:
http://criminalbrief.com/
Interview questions for Steven Steinbock:
1. You have lots of impressive street cred in the world of mystery fiction, as an editor, a critic, a blogger and so on. How did you get to be Prez of Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers? And are there (or were there) any members who felt the position of Prez ought to have gone to a published mystery novelist?
Thanks. I’m not sure about street cred, but I have been involved in crime fiction for a long time. The path that led me to become president of the North American branch of IACW is a strange one. The short version is that I helped solve a couple of issues we’d been having, and members of the board nominated me. At the time I was nominated I didn’t have any fiction published, but as far as I know, I was the only person who protested.
2. What is your most prized – not necessarily the most valuable – mystery collectible? What elusive mystery or whodunit collectible are you still looking for?
Easy. I spent an afternoon as a guest of Evan Hunter (AKA Ed McBain) a number of years ago. He treated me to lunch and I treated him to an interview. I brought along a small stack of books for him to sign. When he saw the first edition of Blackboard Jungle in my pile, even he was impressed. He paused for a moment of reflection before signing his name to the title page.
Another treasure: I have everything written by Jacques Futrelle, a turn-of-the-previous-century mystery writer who died aboard the Titanic. My copy of Diamond Master is signed by Futrelle. (I got him to sign it before the Titanic hit the iceberg).
3. In your opinion, is the grammar rule about never ending a sentence with a preposition (as in question #2 above) going the way of the dodo bird?
I don’t know the rule about which you are speaking. Seriously? It’s a bunko rule, designed by uninformed pedantics to criticize better writers than themselves. Shakespeare did it, didn’t he? Imagine if Prospero had said, “We are such stuff on which dreams are made.” Shakespeare probably dangled his modifiers, too, and beautifully.
4. If there were one review you could rescind/undo, what one would it be?
When I was writing for the Maine Sunday Telegram in the 1990s I reviewed a first book by a new author (no names) which I thought was badly written. I didn’t like the style. I felt the tone was wooden. Neither the characters nor the plot grabbed me. I gave it a less-than-warm review. It wasn’t a nasty review, mind you. But it would have been clear to anyone reading it that the book didn’t work for me. Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times all gave the book glowing reviews. I’m not sure I’d rescind the review, but it gave me pause.
5. How has your exposure to and involvement with AudioFile changed your view of books/stories/mysteries?
Words are very aural for me. I love the sound of good writing. Pick up a book by James Lee Burke or Gary Phillips and open it to any page and you’ll find words set out like notes in a symphony, words that beg to be savoured on the palate.
I disagree with the people who think audiobooks are for lazy people, that listening is cheating. Audiobooks may not be for everyone, but something that allows me to “read” – to consume books – while I’m driving or working out is a good thing.
6. Surely you have been to many crime fiction events over the years, at locations far and wide. What was the most memorable mystery event/conference/convention you attended? What was unique/special/interesting about it?
That would have to be Bloody Words in 2010, of course. That’s where I met you, Jill! Every mystery event I go to – the Edgars, Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, Malice Domestic – is memorable. Crime writers are the nicest people on the planet. We commit murder for a living, but when we get together, you won’t find a more affable group anywhere.
7. Without fawning, there surely must be some author somewhere whom you have met who left you feeling a bit star struck, or maybe you even asked for an autograph or a photo op. Which author were you most excited about meeting and why? Ah, go ahead – fawn away…
I’ve known him now for eighteen years, but Lawrence Block still awes me a little. But like I said in response to your earlier question, crime writers are a genial bunch. Even Mary Higgins Clark is laid back and accessible.
8. Tell me about your current work in progress. I am dying to know more about the madman with the lynx and the quixotic rabbi.
It’s a mystery/suspense novel. My hero is a young, idealistic rabbi named Jake Lurie who wants to do the right thing, but isn’t sure he’s man enough. He’s also lonely. Then he meets up with his complete opposite – sort of cross between Joe Pike, Lord Falstaff, and a mountain man. His name is Santelli, and he makes it his mission to educate Jake in the ways of the world. Oh yeah, and he lives with a lynx.
9. What do you think is the best manner of killing/best weapon in a whodunit?
In one of his novels Earl Emerson dispensed with a villain at a dog-food processing plant. I thought that was pretty cool.
10. You have published one short story in Ellery Queen, and you are now working on a novel. What is the most difficult or challenging difference between short stories and novels?
They’re totally different animals. A short story is an idea or incident that is distilled into its essence and unveiled to the reader in the most efficiently elegant way possible. A novel is a series of characters and events woven and expanded toward resolution into something new. That’s what “novel” means, after all. Something new.
11. Your young, idealistic rabbi… (name?) How much is he like you? How much do you wish you were like him?
Jake is a lot like I was at 28. I wouldn’t mind being 28 again, but other than that, no. As I’ve gotten older, I think I’ve become more like Santelli, the madman with the lynx.
12. How many Yiddish words (if any) will you have in the book? You do not need to give the exact number, rounded off to the nearest one-hundredth is fine. I hope you use oy vey at least thrice, fahrklempt (sp?) verklempt (sp?) at least once, and schmuck no less than a dozen times. Have you read much if anything on Yiddish? It fascinates me. This question is more for my own curiosity than for the interview.
Ironically, the person most likely to use Yiddish in my story is the Italian mountain man. I didn’t want the book to turn into a parody of a “Seinfeld” episode. I didn’t want to get caught in Jewish clichés. When a Jew is chomping on a bagel while speaking Yiddish between spittle, it’s cliché. It’s much more interesting when a Korean or a Pakistani calls someone a putz or a shlimiel. An excellent recent book about Yiddish is Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex. It’s informative and clever, and so funny I could almost plotz.
13. I’d like to know more about the transition from theologian to your, ahem, “life of crime”. What do you wish to share? (Not sure how personal this might be and I don’t want to overstep my bounds…)
I rediscovered mysteries while I was attending a seminary in Jerusalem. I found a copy of The Big Sleep and I never looked back. Distilled down to their essences, detective fiction and theology are about the same stuff: chaos and order, crime and justice, and a little sex and intrigue thrown in for good measure.
14. Open ended final question: what else would you like readers to know about you/your writing/your character/your experience in and exposure to the world of crime fiction?
Nothing I can think of. Thanks for the opportunity to chat.
For more on Steven Steinbock, check out:
http://criminalbrief.com/
Updated Profile on Sasha Jackson
The first profile on Sasha was posted so long ago, that it's now time for an update. Here are some bits of trivia about Private Investigator Sasha Jackson:
Last fiction book read: the latest release by Jasper Fforde... what was it called again? Thursday Next is a blast.
Last nonfiction book read: "Beyond the White House" by Jimmy Carter. His post-prez legacy is greater than his years in office.
Pissed off about: missing the Kid Rock summer concert tour. Damn, why do I have to be so far away?
Happy about: going to see Motley Crue and Poison (again). Hair bands rule. Bret is hot! Tommy Lee is uber sexy, No idea why.
Disappointed in: Canadians... for giving Stephen Harper a majority. Can we overthrow him? Stage a coup? Have an out and out revolution?
Three Likes: cheese, palm trees and coffee. Not necessarily in that order.
Three Dislikes: the letter V, the colour orange and cinnamon. Exactly in that order. Cinnamon is okay with apple cider or in sticky buns, sometimes. Orange is never okay. And you can ne-er a-void the letter V e-en if you make a -aliant effort to do so.
Preferences: Coke over Pepsi; BlackBerry over iPhone, McDonalds over Burger King.
Quotes: Walk softly and carry a big stick. Hope is the confusion over the desire of a thing with its probability. Fall down seven times, stand up eight. And of course, Alfred E. Newman saying "What, me worry?" Words to live by.
To-Do List: Learn to drive. Take off chipped nail polish. Figure out my love life. Find a runaway teen. Find out who killed the dude at the fetish party. Get some sleep. Do it all again tomorrow.
Last fiction book read: the latest release by Jasper Fforde... what was it called again? Thursday Next is a blast.
Last nonfiction book read: "Beyond the White House" by Jimmy Carter. His post-prez legacy is greater than his years in office.
Pissed off about: missing the Kid Rock summer concert tour. Damn, why do I have to be so far away?
Happy about: going to see Motley Crue and Poison (again). Hair bands rule. Bret is hot! Tommy Lee is uber sexy, No idea why.
Disappointed in: Canadians... for giving Stephen Harper a majority. Can we overthrow him? Stage a coup? Have an out and out revolution?
Three Likes: cheese, palm trees and coffee. Not necessarily in that order.
Three Dislikes: the letter V, the colour orange and cinnamon. Exactly in that order. Cinnamon is okay with apple cider or in sticky buns, sometimes. Orange is never okay. And you can ne-er a-void the letter V e-en if you make a -aliant effort to do so.
Preferences: Coke over Pepsi; BlackBerry over iPhone, McDonalds over Burger King.
Quotes: Walk softly and carry a big stick. Hope is the confusion over the desire of a thing with its probability. Fall down seven times, stand up eight. And of course, Alfred E. Newman saying "What, me worry?" Words to live by.
To-Do List: Learn to drive. Take off chipped nail polish. Figure out my love life. Find a runaway teen. Find out who killed the dude at the fetish party. Get some sleep. Do it all again tomorrow.
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