EDGAR AWARD NOMINATIONS

Every year the Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar Awards, named for famed mystery author Edgar Allen Poe. This year the Awards banquet will be held in New York on April 29. There are fourteen categories, such as Best Novel, Fact Crime, short stories, Juvenile, TV show, etc.

The nominees for six of the adult Awards are:

Best Novel

THE DARK ROAD TO MERCY, by Wiley Cash (Harper Collins)
WOLF by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic)
MR. MERCEDES by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster)
THE FINAL SILENCE by Stuart Neville (Soho Press)
SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
COPTOWN by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte Press)

Best First Novel

DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY, by Tom Bouman (W.W. Norton)
INVISIBLE CITY by Julia Dahl (Minotaur Books)
THE LIFE WE BURY by Allen Eskens (Seventh Street Books)
BAD COUNTRY by C. B. McKenzie (Thomas Dunne Books)
SHOVEL READY by Adam Sternbergh (Crown)
MURDER AT THE BRIGHTWELL by Ashley Weaver (Thomas Dunne)

Best Paperback Original

THE SECRET HISTORY OF LAS VEGAS by Chris Abani (Penguin Books)
STAY WITH ME by Alison Gaylin (William Morrow)
THE BARKEEP by William Lashner (Thomas and Mercer)
THE DAY SHE DIED by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
THE GONE DEAD TRAIN by Lia Turner (William Morrow)
WORLD OF TROUBLE by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)

Best Fact Crime

KITTY GENOVESE by Kevin Cook (W.W. Norton)
THE SAVAGE HARVEST by Carl Hoffman (William Morrow)
THE OTHER SIDE by Lacy M. Johnson (Tin House Books)
TINSELTOWN, by William Mann (Harper Collins)
THE MAD SCULPTOR by Harold Schecter (Amazon - New Harvest)

Best Critical/Biographical

THE FIGURE OF THE DETECTIVE by Charles Brownson (McFarland & Co.)
JAMES ELLROY by Jim Mancall (McFarland & Co.)
KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS by Robert Miklitsch (U. of Ill Press)
JUDGES & JUSTICE & LAWYERS & LAW by Francis M. Nevins (Perfect Crime Books)
POE-LAND by J. W. Ocker (Countryman Press)

Young Adult

THE DOUBT FACTORY by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little Brown)
NEARLY GONE, by Elle Cosimano (Penguin - Kathy Dawson Books)
FAKE ID by Lamar Giles (Harper - Amistad)
THE ART OF SECRETS by James Klise (Algonquin)
THE PRINCE OF VENICE BEACH by Blake Nelson (Little, Brown)

For those of you interested in such things, here are some facts: Of the 33 authors, 8 are women, and 4 more might be women (I’m guessing about pen names). 30 publishers are well-known traditional publishers, one is a university press, and 2 are Amazon imprints.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Recently I came across a clever saying attributed to a mystery writer. “Crime doesn’t pay... enough.” To me, this was more than just clever word-play, because I’ve just signed a contract for my first mystery novel and, after fourteen romance novels, and twenty-some years as a member of RWA, I dropped that to join Mystery Writers of America. Imagine my disappointment, therefore, to read this:

“In a rapidly changing publishing industry, it is harder for all writers to make a living from our craft. The sales bar for midlist and beginning writers has been steeply raised, while advances and promotion budgets have dropped just as steeply. Everyone is suffering, but for African-American, LGBT, Asian and Hispanic writers, the suffering is more acute. Disproportionate numbers of... those crime writers have been forced into self-publishing or have left crime fiction altogether.

“As a woman...I’ve been acutely aware of the marginalization of women’s voices in society and in the industry during...the last thirty years. We are more likely than men to lose contracts, to lose print options and to lose marketing and promotion opportunities. The marginalization of writers of color of both sexes and of LGBT writers is even more egregious. It is my hope that...we can start raising consciousness in the industry about these problems, offer ways to address them, and also provide support to more writers on the margin.”

The above article was an eye-opener even though I’m already self-publishing many of my titles and thought I knew all the reasons why so many authors do the same. Now I find that self-publishing is better than Traditional not only because of superior royalties, control over titles, covers, book prices, publication dates and royalty payments, but also because self-published women writers are doing fine, thank you. No one is denying them contracts, print options or marketing opportunities.

Just last week I read an article about publishers allowing writers to avoid agents and go straight to editors, an obvious tactic to attract more manuscript submissions. Self-publishers are already bypassing agents and even publishers, and Amazon welcomes them. Besides their own imprints, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, and 47 North, the latest program is Kindle Scout where ordinary readers, visitors to the site, can nominate books they think should be published. It would appear the Number One retailer in the country will soon be the top publisher of most of the books in the most popular genres.

This, on top of the recently-published fourth Author Earnings report, reveals why traditional publishing is hurting. Unlike Trad publishing’s authors, more and more self publishers report quitting their day jobs because they can finally make a living doing what they love to do. And, once those “crime writers forced into self-publishing” learn they can actually make more money and have more control on their own terms, they won’t be back. And they won’t be alone.

HOW LONG SHOULD A NOVEL BE?

If you don’t read the blog of Dean Wesley Smith, you missed a good post recently. It’s from his updated writing book, KILLING THE SACRED COWS OF PUBLISHING, where, chapter by chapter, he points out that some things beginning writers are told, as if they’re etched into stone tablets, are flat wrong. In fact, they’re myths.

Smith points out that length used to be a criterion for whether a book was acceptable. Some traditional publishers still use length as a guide for whether they’ll consider publishing something, and that can severely limit an author’s ability to tell the story he wants to tell. Having been a published author for many years, Smith remembers when books suddenly had to be very long - 80,000 to 100,000 words - or not considered worthy. That was a hoax because the truth was those publishers were faced with rising expenses and needed to make more money. Their scheme was to publish longer books and charge more for them.

Now, thanks to self-publishing and small presses, authors are free from being forced to write to a certain length. Which is a good thing. Smith offers a list of famous novels which were less than 40,000 words long and enjoyed great popularity and acclaim. Here are some of them:

Jack London’s CALL OF THE WILD
John Steinbeck’a OF MICE AND MEN
George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM
Robert Louis Stevenson’s DR. JECKYLL AND MISTER HYDE
Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL
H.G. Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE
Philip Roth’s GOODBYE COLUMBUS
Joseph Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS
Stephen King’s SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Ira Levin’s THE STEPFORD WIVES
John Steinbeck’s THE PEARL
Norman MacLean’s A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

This is only a partial list, and it can be argued that many of these novels are quite old, written before publishers decided to raise book prices as a way to avoid having to leave their expensive New York offices. But the desire and necessity to write short is growing. Today’s readers want to use their I-Pads, even telephones, to catch up on the latest romance or thriller from their favorite author. “Short is the new long” is the slogan of today. And that doesn’t mean the reader can’t have an excellent reading experience. After all, the author, not some publisher, is the better judge of the “right” length for her story.

Blog reader/author: Do you write shorter books than you formerly did? Do you find them more, or less, popular than your other work?

DOES TRAVEL INSPIRE WRITING?

A post about whether traveling results in writing books, which I read on another blog, reminded me it was time to write about how so often my books were inspired by my travels. I’ve been lucky because my husband spent his gainfully employed years working for a major airline. In fact, I wish we had traveled more, but we also raised children, and it’s not always easy to combine the two. But, at the risk of sounding like a travelogue, here are my completed books, in alphabetical order, that were the result of travel.

A DEATH IN PHOENIX, not yet published, didn’t require hopping on an airplane. I drove there, but, having been born and reared in Illinois, it was a different background for me. Palm trees, hot summers, Christmas shopping in short sleeves or even shorts, were exotic to me.

CHOICES. Currently unavailable during rewrites. This one takes place in Los Angeles and San Francisco, so it wasn’t a long trip from my home in Northern and - later - Southern California.

COLD APRIL. Obviously I wasn’t on the Titanic, but we did travel to Branson, Missouri, where there’s a replica of the ship, a guided tour and a large bookstore which provided me with plenty of information. I’ve also seen every film and documentary from the comfort of my TV chair.

FINDING AMY contains scenes in both London and Paris, both of which I visited more than once. But we were there for visits to friends and relatives or on vacations, not trying to solve a mystery. And, thank goodness, not arrested by French police.

FREE FALL takes place in California’s central valley, again not too far away from home. Research for that included going up in private planes and also a small helicopter which didn’t even have a door on my side. The seat belt worked, however.

THE GREEN BOUGH - about a schoolteacher in an Oregon logging camp in 1913 - got most of its research due to Aunt Gladys telling me about her adventures and material from the Oregon History Society (where we have our family name on a brick).

THE ITALIAN JOB. That time I got to fly to Rome, Pisa, Florence, and Venice, plus a train to Milan and a rental car to Lake Como. As did my heroine. After all, that was her job.

NORTH BY NORTHEAST required a flight to New Orleans, then a train trip from there to Washington, D.C. with stops in Savannah, Charleston and Richmond, and another flight to St. Louis to see the arch (but didn’t put the arch in the book).

SOUTHERN STAR required a flight to New York where we boarded a 56-foot yacht owned by friends and sailed up the river. It was very romantic, although we were already married.

STRANGER IN PARADISE took advantage of my extensive knowledge of Hawaii, especially the island of Maui, because we owned a condo there for twenty years and visited twice a year to maintain it for guests. Yes, we did find time to swim and snorkle between chores.

I’ve also traveled to Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Mexico, Vatican City, Switzerland, and a few other places, so I have material for more books. Now that I’m adding mystery to my romance repertoire, I may become another Jessica Fletcher, finding dead people wherever I go.

Blog readers, what exotic places have you visited?

BOOKS AND MOVIES

The big news this week is that a second book written by Harper Lee has been found and will be published. Actually, it was a first book, having been written before TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and, in it, Scout is grown up, not a child, and has returned to Alabama to visit her father, lawyer Atticus Finch.

The publisher, Harper, is planning a print run of two million copies, expecting all Lee’s many fans - who longed for another book - to want to grab a copy now that there is a sequel. I, too, read TKAM the year it was first published, but will wait for a few reviews, I think, before ordering one. Not that I fear it won’t be good, however. After all, Lee was 34 when she wrote it and, perhaps, at the height of her literary talent.

For some reason this story reminded me of a film, originally produced in 1966, that was remade in 2012. I’m afraid I must agree with a film critic who complained a few years ago about Hollywood’s penchant for remaking successful films into less-worthy versions, “Why,” the critic suggested, “don’t they choose a “flop” and remake that into a good movie?” Something the public actually needs. We don’t need a crappy version of a successful one.

I saw the second version on Netflix and it had the same title, GAMBIT, but of course, different actors. Instead of Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine and Herbert Lom, it has Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman. Now, I happen to be a big Colin Firth fan and I admire Alan Rickman, but Cameron Diaz leaves me cold, especially playing a Texan with an thick accent.

In fact, I barely followed the updated story because of all the accents: British, Texan, Italian (Stanley Tucci) and six Chinese (or Japanese) characters. No wonder they gave it only 2-1/2 stars.

I think you can still get a copy of the original GAMBIT, so order that and you’ll be pleased. It got 5 stars and was labeled a “Classic.” If they don’t have it, write and complain.

THE ELEVATOR STORY

Sorry this is late - Saturday instead of my usual Wednesday - and it’s also not about writing. Unless you clever authors find a way to put what I’m going to tell you in one of your books. Perhaps a historical romance. It’s about a fact which, like me, you probably didn’t know. Fact: no skyscrapers were built in American cities before the 1850s.

Well, maybe you did know that, but did you know why? It wasn’t because architects and engineers didn’t have the means to build them, but rather because people who lived in cities were deathly afraid of them. Back then, elevator accidents were an all-too-common problem, and every time an elevator cable broke and people plunged to their deaths, it was reported in the newspapers.

Then, in 1854, an inventor named Elisha Otis did something ”crazy” at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in New York City. Otis built a very tall tower with no sides so that an audience could see in from all angles. Then he put an elevator inside it, gathered an audience and grabbed an axe. The Crystal Palace exhibition was a kind of World’s Fair and thousands of people watched Otis get hoisted to the top of the tower in an elevator car. When he reached the top, he waved to the crowd and chopped at the elevator cable with his axe. When the first cable snapped, the audience gasped, but he didn’t stop.

He yelled to the crowd, “You haven’t seen anything yet,” and chopped at the second cable. The second cable snapped and the elevator car began to fall. But then something remarkable happened. After falling only a few feet, the car stopped and just hung there in mid air.

Safely on the ground again, Otis told the audience, “This is what I have invented, an automatic elevator brake. As long as you see the name ‘Otis’ in the compartment, you need never be afraid to use an elevator again.” Cities all over the world began building skyscrapers, and you see the Otis name in elevators everywhere. Now you know why.

I hope you enjoyed my little history lesson. Alas, my husband's uncle died in an elevator accident, but not because a cable broke. No one knows why, but the elevator door opened, and he stepped in, but there was no car there.

THE GREEN BOUGH

Many of you may know that this book, THE GREEN BOUGH, which is a memoir I wrote about my husband’s aunt, is one of my most popular. I don’t sell thousands, or even hundreds a month, but it’s always on the list of my books sold through Amazon or Smashwords, and definitely a top seller at the two Arts & Crafts Fairs I attend every year. When I ran out of copies at the November show two months ago, people actually stopped at our club table and asked me for it.

Aside from the writing, which I think is some of my best, perhaps the reason is that it’s a true story and the book contains pictures of her school and her first pupils, taken by Aunt Gladys herself.  Or perhaps it’s because of the title.

Some years ago, when I was attending a writers conference, I became friendly with another writer whose first name was Phyllis. Only her name tag spelled it “Phylis,” one “L” instead of two, and she told me her mother had spelled it that way. Since we live in a time when “Alice” is often “Alyce,” and “Larry” might be “Lary,” that’s not surprising. In fact I have a long list of names that didn’t exist when I was a child. (But I digress.)

Phylis asked me if I knew what the name meant and when I admitted I didn’t, she told me it means “The Green Bough.” What she didn’t know was that I had just finished writing Aunt Gladys’s memoir and I titled it THE GREEN BOUGH. Shortly after that I purchased a book of baby names and, sure enough, it was there. A good omen.

In one of his blog posts, Joe Konrath, an early self-publisher, and one who admits he makes a good income selling his books, wrote something interesting, which I plan to emulate. Joe has far more published books than I do, and he pointed out that he revisits his older ones from time to time. He might lower the book price temporarily, or give it a new cover, or update the back cover blurb. After all, e-books never go out of print, and new readers come along regularly. Plus, in the case of THE GREEN BOUGH, Aunt Gladys’s year of teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in an Oregon logging camp is historical. It took place in 1913.

So... within the next week or two, I plan to lower the price and get the word out. Check back here from time to time so you won’t miss the announcement for when it goes on sale. Stock up for gifts to your friends and relatives who are schoolteachers. I think they’ll enjoy it.