Book Notes — On Writing And Reading And Making Films

My morning ritual includes coffee with blogs – Bill Crider’s, Ed Gorman’s and The Rap Sheet. A couple of days ago each reported the news that the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Blood Simple, No Country For Old Men) might turn Ross Macdonald’s Black Money into a movie. The combination of MacDonald and the brothers makes both the book and the potential film irresistible. I’ll have to wait for the movie, but not the book.

Ross Macdonald

I’m embarrassed to say that despite the fact that nearly every crime fiction aficionado rates Macdonald right up there with Hammett and Chandler, I’ve never read him. It’s inexcusable, I know. The only thing I can say is that Macdonald died shortly before my interest in mystery writing seriously began.  And as is the fate of many great writers and artists, there is often a brief dip in their popularity or notoriety after they die and before they are “rediscovered.” To my discredit, I simply was not aware of this giant until midway through my own career.

The blessing is that there are likely enough of his novels to keep me pleasantly engaged during the rest of my existence. Actually, there are plenty of mysteries by great writers of the recent past, living legends like Crider and Gorman, not to mention books by those just coming into their own.  I will run out time before I run out of books.

Meanwhile, back to Black Money: There are novels that can be textbooks for people who want to understand the history of the genre, or who are beginning to write or looking for a refresher course.  This is one.  Here is an excerpt:

She looked around the room, at the worn carpet, the faded flowers in the wallpaper, the bedside lamp with the scorched paper shade, as I if she were considering her relationship to it.  Externally she didn’t belong here at all.   She had the kind of style that could be bought, but not suddenly at Bullocks or I. Magnin; the brown pouch on the bed with the gold tassels looked like Paris.  But she belonged internally to the room, the way a prisoner belongs to his cell.  She had done time in rooms like this and it was settling in again.

What Macdonald did here was create a vivid narrative that established the setting while simultaneously revealing character and mood.

Though I had not read Ross Macdonald before, I’m partial to writers who do what he does. I want things to move quickly but I also want to see the writer’s painting. I want my senses to be worked. I want to feel, even in my impatience, what there is to be felt.

When I stopped at the Bagshaw mailbox, I could see the ocean below, hung on the horizon like unevenly blued washing.  I had climbed a few hundred feet but I could feel the change in temperature, as if I had moved nearer to the noon sun.

Macdonald has verbal takes that are very much his own, personal and delightful quirks, as well as strange, offbeat humor that mingles with stark, straightforward prose and then poetry.

The question took him by surprise.  For a moment his face was trying on attitudes.  It settled on a kind of false boredom behind which his intelligence sat and watched me.

Or.

But she went on answering unspoken questions painfully, and obsessively as if the past had stirred and was talking through her in its sleep.

The movie, or proposed movie:  After the news broke, subsequent reports suggest the brothers have only signed on to write the screenplay. I have often been disappointed with what Hollywood does to perfectly fine books.  Here we have relatively short novel, about movie length.  The time period is clearly defined, as are the characters. The dialogue is very clearly in place. There is very little internal narrative.  It’s all on the page.  It is detailed and specific, deceptively so because Macdonald’s writing is so very simple and direct. Why waste the Coen brothers’ talents? It’s the overall direction, keeping the mood that’s needed not the dialogue or the plot.

The Coen Brothers are among my favorite directors.  I’d go see anything they make. I love movies. Perhaps more than books. When I read any book, it’s very much like a movie running through my brain. With most books, I can fathom the idea that there could be more than my own interpretation. But most books leave more to interpretation than Black Money. It is often necessary for a director or screenwriter to fill in or add nuance. Not here, I repeat.  This is a matter of casting and cinematography. The brothers should direct not rewrite.

If someone wants something other than the book, why bother with the book?  Write an original screenplay.

However getting back to what writers can gain from his work. To me, whether you like Macdonald type books or not, a writer should strive to be able write a book that could be filmed as is, a book that a smart director would not tamper with. That’s the art.

What do the brothers do here? Is it possible that Hollywood will see that most of the work is done? Are the brothers rebellious enough to simply put the book on film, bringing visual truth to the word?

On Writing — By The Numbers, A Marketing State Of Mind

Next year, publishers will release two new mysteries of mine. The manuscript work is done.  So, for the moment, marketing has replaced murder as a focus of my day. Therefore, I’ve been looking at ways to present my new books in a positive light. in a way that would promote sales or at least attention. This is a necessary, but irritating part of being a writer.

I think it is in the nature of many writers (bookstore workers and librarians — in short, bookish people) to shy away from pubic displays. And yet we must.  In the age of social media, writers take on additional responsibility in the effort to gain attention for our books and justify our existence.  This we must do in an ever-larger marketplace  where every book, e-book and audio book screams ‘look at me!”

Just Released: A New Crider

In the end it is the story and “word of mouth” that determine a novel’s ultimate success. Still, one has to find a way to get things started. One criterion to use when picking a book by an author you do not know (or perhaps no longer remember) is whether or not he or she has been published before. Is there a history?  While there is the excitement of discovering the next Hammett or Christie, there’s also comfort in knowing the author is reputable, vetted in a sense, and therefore worth the gamble of a reader’s time and money.

So, here’s something I came up with: One of my books due out on May is one of the Deets Shanahan mysteries. It is the 11th book in the series’ 25-year history. These are good numbers, right?  And by the fall of 2015, when the second book is released, I will have a total of 18 mystery novels to list on that “Other Works By” page in the front of each book.  Surely this is something. Maybe.  I’m not sure.  There’s always a faster gun. just like there’s always someone with ore money.  No matter how rich you are there’s always someone who has more numbers on the left of the decimal point. So, what is a good number here?

Just Released: A New Gorman

I am reminded that author Bill Crider, whose blog I read every morning, has published 60 or more novels.  And they are still coming.  Ed Gorman, whose blog I also read every morning, has a similar number of published works.  And he keeps adding to the list.  Perhaps I should take a different marketing direction. Compared to many others, my personal tally is no big deal.  In fact, there are plenty of other highly respected and prolific writers to put me in my middling place. Many, like those mentioned above, have awards, citations and other honors in addition to their impressive “published” list.

One of Creasey's 600

To further rain on my pitiful parade, during my research for a blog post capsulizing the year 1962, I came across the name, J. J. Marric.  He won the Edgar that year for Gideon’s Fire.  To my shame, I had never heard the name.  I looked him up.  Marric was a pen name.  His real name was John Creasey and he wrote 600 novels. I say— “600 novels,” as Foghorn Leghorn would have repeated in his blustery way. The mystery and science fiction writer used 28 pen names and God knows how many pens. Some of you already knew that, I suspect.  But I was overwhelmed. 600. I have 18.  All is not lost, however.   He’s dead. That gives me a strategic advantage. To catch up, to really make a difference, all I need to do is write 582 more novels. I do understand that because I’m just a couple of months shy of 70, I’d better step on it.

Observations— Keeping Up With the Business of Writing Crime Fiction

I’m  blessed and cursed.  I’ll save the “cursed” part for some other time.  Meanwhile, here’s the blessing: I am, for the most part able to devote as much time as I want on my books and this blog.  When I say “on books,” I don’t mean just writing and editing.  I have to keep up with the business of books. Most writers have their own routines to accomplish this.

I read a few pertinent magazines: Mystery Scene (a particularly good, broad view of what’s going on in the genre, The Strand, Crimespree, and George Easter’s Deadly Pleasures, the best and most comprehensive source for crime fiction reviews.  When I can, I attend Mystery Writer’s Of America’s annual conference, Bouchercon, held in various cities and Magna Cum Murder, held annually in Indianapolis. Both are highly recommended.

The daily routine is done completely on online. *8:30 a.m. Coffee, e-mail, a Facebook quick check.  Next, J. Kingston Pierce’s rap sheet. I don’t know what I’d do without it. Whatever is happening in the word of crime fiction is usually posted here first. Next Stop: Bill Crider’s Popular Culture — information and lots of humor from the highly respected, and popular crime fiction author. Next is Ed Gorman‘s blog. Among those engaged in crime fiction, I consider Gorman an Elder, not because of age­— we are roughly the same vintage — but because of his mammoth, and continuing contribution to the genre. He has first-hand knowledge of crime fiction’s history.  He has a level of experience in the trenches few (certainly not me) can match. His blog is part of my on-going adult education. Next stop:  Mysterious Matters.  We don’t know the identity of the blogger except that he or she is an acquisitions editor or publisher who gives us insight into the machinations of those who might or might not publish our books. I also regularly check in with Kevin Burton Smith’s essential The Thrilling Detective.  And I rarely miss Tipping My Fedora for its more than worthwhile erudite commentary. Finally, though he does not post often enough for me, I look to get the booksellers’ point of view from seller, conference organizer and publisher Jim Huang.

Thank you, all.

Opinion — Brand Name Writers, Stand Alone Novels, Early Work and E-Books

During my first few cups of coffee in the morning, I meander through various news sites on the Internet and then on to the crime fiction related blogs. After I make my first stop, RapSheet, I visit many of the blogs on their blogroll. I have a few regulars. Bill Crider’s, Ed Gorman’s, Tipping My Fedora among others. And now Murderati has become part of that ritual. Zoë Sharp, a crime writer and regular Murderati contributor, recently discussed two subjects that seem particularly relevant to my writing and perhaps to crime writing and reading in general.

The first is making early and usually out-of-print books in an on-going series available. While there are sometimes copies of these early books on Amazon or E-Bay, they may be expensive. They are rarely available electronically unless the author makes an effort to get them in that format. This often requires a bit of work. But as I mentioned in an earlier post, this work is fulfilling. In a month or two, I hope to announce the reissuing of the first four Shanahans. In the case of Zoë Sharp, she has just announced the availability of the early “Charlie Fox” series, beginning with her first, the highly touted Killer Instinct.

The second subject in her recent post was the conflict that I think both the author and the reader experiences when an author known for his or her series work writes a stand-alone novel. It’s kind of like taking a sip of a drink you thought was a Coke and you find out it was iced tea. It can be a shock. It’s hardly life threatening, but it can be disappointing if you were really looking forward to that Coke. That’s why many publishers look at a writer’s work like as a brand. Readers get comfortable with a series and they have expectations — familiar characters, time, place, tone. To change any of those requires some adjustment on the reader’s part.

This also holds true for writers of more than one series. There are ten Shanahan novels in a series that I began 21 years ago with the most recent one published last year. A couple of years ago, I began a new series, this one set in San Francisco with a whole new set of characters and a different tone. So not only have I fractured my “brand,” such as it was — and we’re not talking Coca Cola here, more like RC Cola — by going out of the comfort zone with a second series, I have also engaged in stand-alone mystery novels. Good to the Last Kiss received a starred review from Kirkus, but I have the impression that its far darker, bleaker tone is not what readers of the Shanahan series have come to expect, nor would any new readers of the Carly Paladino/Noah Lang San Francisco mysteries find even the same San Francisco, let alone the same measure of light and dark in the story telling. Selling novels that vary from the brand can be like trying to break into the market all over again.

For me, and I suspect many other writers, there is something comfortable and reassuring about returning to series characters. They are like old friends. In that sense we can relate to the reader. I found revisiting some of my earlier work to prepare text for the e-book format to be inspiring, educational and, surprisingly, fun. However, creating a new series and the standalone books allow the writer — and the adventurous reader — to really spread the wings of his or her imagination, to take a chance. And a chance it is.

If you want to read a few brief articles by other writers reissuing early books, click here for the collection of Old Gold.