Author: Cate Holahan

Guns, Germs and Lead Pipes

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I kill imaginary people for a living. Like John Cusack’s hitman in Grosse Pointe Blank, I’m not quite sure why I do it. Maybe my psychological profile fits a certain “moral flexibility.” I hate doing it with a gun, though.  That’s not to say I haven’t used firearms in my fiction. Guns are efficient, particularly in novels where characters often hit their targets. Readers know what to expect when I mention the gleaming slide of a semi-automatic or a sleek, sloping trigger. And, as American police officers have handguns as part of the uniform, chances favor death by bullet for bad guys (real or invented). My problem with guns in fiction is that they are used all-too-often in the mystery and thriller genres and they deliver death a little impersonally for a psychological suspense book. Shooting someone from five feet away lacks the immediacy that I think readers want when they’ve been inside characters’ heads trying to unravel their thought processes.  I’ve drowned people. There is a certain metaphorical satisfaction to this method of dispensing with marked characters. Sinking beneath the water evokes a burial. The character slips beneath the surface and disappears, the layers of water like fresh shovels of dirt. It also has literary roots (Ophelia in Hamlet, for one). I’ve pushed people off buildings. This method of dispatching with characters has the benefit of working for both women and men. The imaginary person needs only to be someplace precarious and off-balance–in other words in a setting that evokes the atmosphere I’ve been trying to create all book.  I’ve also bludgeoned folks with blunt objects. Writing a scene in which a character was beaten with a lead pipe was extremely difficult for me. I think it took two days to craft and involved looking at head injuries online as well as watching police interviews of suspects in crime of passion killings in which the victims were beaten (YouTube has everything.) I cried a bunch that week. But I think the scene came out with the amount of violence required for the character’s emotional state in the moment.  In a book due out 2018 and currently with my editor, I drugged a character. Employing this method involved reading up on drug side effects and what substances particular pills can and cannot be combined with. The benefit of using this tactic is that I could create considerable tension in the lead up to the death. Would the character imbibe the poison or not? And what if he or she tasted something off? One of the more interesting ways of eliminating a character that I read was in Christine Carbo’s The Wild Inside. It involves a bear and bait–and fortunately for my sensitive stomach happens off-screen, so to speak.  So, writer friends, join me in this morbid discussion. How do you get rid of your victims? Are there any methods that you avoid and why? What are some of the most interesting ways of eliminating characters that you’ve read?  (Also, thanks to Jared Diamond’s book for inspiring my title–even though Guns, Germs and Steel is an amazing historical study of why certain groups of people have experienced a kind of global hegemony and has NOTHING to do with murder mysteries.)          

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Conferences–Worth it?

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 I am writing this blog when I should be booking a ticket to Nashville. I’ve already signed up for Killer Nashville, you see, and–though I’ve paid my conference fee and for my hotel–I have yet to book a flight. I will. I’m hemming and hawing about airline prices and not yet wanting to part with the money in my savings account.  Conferences can empty wallet. I’ve yet to attend one that didn’t ultimately set me back a grand with all the travel expenses and registration fees–not to mention the cost of promotional swag. So, a natural question is, are they worth it?  I think conferences help build an author’s brand and enable writers to connect with other novelists, both of which can sell books. Though I think anyone that believes he or she will go to a conference and see a resulting spike in his or her Amazon ranking will be ultimately disappointed. Conferences are largely attended by other writers. And, though writers buy and read lots of books, they are there to sell their own work–not to spend a bunch of money on their friends’ novels. What’s more important, though, is that writers talk about other writers and, ultimately, will read and promote authors whom they respect. This community promotion can help legitimize a new author’s career and get mid-list authors noticed. Successful writers, in my experience, are very generous with their time and platforms, perhaps because they were once in a similar situation on the mid-list or struggling to get published. (I also believe that people who spend a great deal of time imagining the feelings of others in various situations might be trained to be more empathetic than the average Joe. Though, this is a theory based entirely on supposition).  Conferences also give out awards recognizing stellar books, which can be helpful for sales. And, since writers typically vote for the winning titles, it can be difficult for a novice to get noticed for such recognition if he or she doesn’t have other authors–likely met at conferences and book signings and panels–who are aware of his or her work.  So, I guess that means I should go on Travelocity.     

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Learning From Imaginary People

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At its best, a novel can be a masterclass on life. My favorite books have taught me about myself. More importantly, they’ve allowed me to see myself in others and recognize others in me. They’ve exposed my limited experience and asinine assumptions, and have challenged me to learn more, listen more, and become better.  Most writers I’ve met feel similarly. Often, such feelings are the source of our deep love for story telling. So, my question this week to the MissDemeanors is What Life Lessons Have You Learned From Fiction? Here are our answers.  Cate: At around age eight, Harriet The Spy helped clarify my then budding ambition to become a writer. I pretty much thought Harriet was me with a less well-guarded notebook. Catcher In The Rye’s Holden Caulfield reflected my own teenage angst and frustration with the adult world, and it made me realize that getting through life requires acceptance and change. You can’t fight everything without going nuts. Thanks J.D. Salinger. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Beloved, and Song of Solomon (all of which I read in high school) helped me develop a broader sense of empathy and gave me a sensitivity to other female experiences in America. This was particularly important for me at the time as I was developing my own cultural identity, trying to determine what it meant to be biracial in America and what experiences I could and could not connect with given that my black heritage is often belied by my appearance. Recently, Margaret Atwood’s fiction has served as an reminder to remain aware of the greater political landscape in which I live. Bouncing along in my self-absorbed bubble may be bliss, but it also makes finding myself in a dystopia a hell of a lot more likely. Paula: Emerson’s essays taught me to think, the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales taught me to dream, Nora Ephron’s Heartburn taught me to laugh no matter what. Shakespeare and Jane Austen taught me that people are funny and tragic and generous and terrible and evil and noble and true. Mysteries taught me plot and red herrings; romance taught me meet cutes and happy endings. But I learn just as much writing as I do reading, especially about myself. Tell a story well and you can’t help but reveal yourself, warts and all. I just got my notes back from my editor on my new novel and I was so worried about the plot, but he said the plot was fine, though the relationship between the heroine and the hero needed work. Now that really is the story of my life. Robin: Kurt Vonnegut, Woody Allen and Steve Martin taught me to embrace absurdity. Joan Didion’s Hot Flashes warned me about what laid in store (spoiler: she was right, “flash” is a misnomer). Dean Koontz taught me that humans can be the scariest monsters. James Herriot made me want to be a veterinarian when I was 10 yrs old, until the vet treating my family’s dog invited me watch a surgery and I fainted. I second Paula’s comment – I learn more about myself by writing fiction. What I’m willing to say and what I’m not, how much better my work is when the words make me uncomfortable. I’m writing a YA thriller at the moment and I cried after finishing the first draft of more than one scene. Tracee: Reading Tolstoy made me a lifelong Russophile, Dickens secured my love of history. Mysteries taught me plot and clues and red herrings (which also apply to real life) and thrillers made me realize that I am not a thrill seeker in any way. Anything I’ve ever read has taught me that there are many perspectives and situations that are not my own – some I wish were, and some I’m thankful are not. No lesson is perfect, but fiction taught me that sometimes you don’t get a second chance – but sometimes you do. Susan: Dickens taught me that life has insane highs and lows, and you’re always better off if you can try to find some humor in any given situation. I’m reading The Nightingale now and it’s teaching me so much about bravery and the importance of knowing your values and speaking up for them. Anne Tyler, Louise Penny and Richard Russo showed me the value of community. And Agatha Christie. I always wanted to live in St. Mary Mead, and I suspect I chose my village, and Maggie Dove, for that reason. Reading has also shown me that although it’s a big world, most people are motivated by similar concerns, and I try to keep that in mind when I meet new people. Michele: I read Elizabeth George Speare’s historical masterpiece, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, when I was nine and learned that even in the 1600’s people suffered from feeling different, an invaluable lesson for someone on the brink of adolescence. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn opened my eyes to a world where people lived very differently than in the world in which I was growing up. To Kill A Mockingbird inspired a sense of social justice in me and showed me how one good lawyer can make a difference. Jane Austen taught me that romantic comedy has been alive and well for centuries and how important it is to be able to laugh at yourself. Mark Twain’s lesson was that good humor serves you well in life. Louise Penny has recently touched me and made me appreciate how comforting and inspiring a good story filled with fallible humans can be. Alexia: Alice in Wonderland and Nancy Drew taught me that girls could have adventures, too. 

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How Literary Can A Little Murder Be?

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 First off, my sincere apologies to our readers and fellow Missdemeanors. May arrived without my flipping back the calendar. In my frenzy to complete my fourth novel and finish editing my third book before my young kids finish school for the summer–diminishing my workday to the dwindling hours when the sun isn’t up–I failed to notice April’s exit. Consequently, I also didn’t realize that it was my week to blog. Mea Culpa! The book I am currently writing has been my most time consuming and challenging to date. But, that’s a good thing. Each novel I undertake forces me to think harder, not only about the intricacies of plot and character, but also about what the heck I want to say as a writer. What questions do I wish to pose to readers? In what debates should we engage? How can I craft a story that works both as an entertaining and page-turning puzzle filled with “real” characters that also manages to say something meaningful? (Or, at least, spur interesting book club conversation.)   In my upcoming book, Lies She Told (Shameless Plug: IN STORES SEPT. 12), I wanted to explore the creative process, to grapple with questions such as: Where do story ideas come from? How might an author’s own history influence the scenarios that she envisions and the characters which she invents? Is storytelling a way for authors to wrestle with their own demons? And, if so, is writing an inherently selfish pursuit? Or, is the human experience sufficiently universal that writer and reader will identify with the struggle against the same obstacles and, therefore, find similar catharsis by The End. (COMMENT BELOW!) The resulting book revolves around a writer whose fiction hints at clues to a disappearance in her actual life, forcing her to confront buried secrets about herself and those closest to her. It’s told from the perspective of Liza, the author, and Beth, the first person protagonist in Liza’s under-construction murder mystery. In addition to being an intriguing, taught, satisfying psychological suspense thriller with well-developed characters (I think all these things and pray readers do too.), I also really hope it makes folks consider some of the aforementioned questions that kept me up at night. The novel I’m currently working on was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Considered Woolf’s most experimental novel, The Waves follows six characters with distinct life philosophies from childhood through adulthood, exploring the paths delineated by each person’s inherent desires and seemingly innate visions of self. It does this through richly poetic soliloquies that made me want to cover a room in quotes. (And, it also maddeningly skips POV without warning, perhaps because—spoiler alert—all the individuals might be aspects of the same person.) Because my agent reads this blog, I should state that I am NOT writing a poetic or experimental thriller (either of which would surely negate my contract). I am, however, working on a murder mystery/ psychological suspense involving six characters inspired by The Waves’ protagonists. Each character in my third-person narrated story (had to get around the POV problems somehow) possesses a distinct world view, corresponding needs, and sense of his or herself similar to a counterpart in The Waves. But, since I’m a thriller writer, these characters’ unique perspectives also give rise to defined ideas about marriage and the relative responsibility that individuals within a couple have to themselves, their partners, and their children, which clash with the other characters’ visions to disastrous ends.  A question I’m toying with in this book, tentatively titled Shallow Ends, is does the institution of marriage require a particular worldview and type of person (or, at least, a person willing to morph into that type)? I’m also exploring my own questions concerning how much literary fiction and even experimental fiction can meld with the conventions of the mystery/thriller/suspense genre. Do mysteries allow the depth of exploration of the human experience claimed by literary fiction? Obviously, I think my favorite genre does or I wouldn’t be writing my current book. In fact, I think there are a ton of wonderful recent examples. Emma Cline’s The Girls, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, pretty much anything by Herman Koch. But the fun of publishing a novel isn’t finding out what I think, it’s struggling to communicate my ideas with readers in an entertaining way and, after executing that to the best of my ability, starting a conversation. In the end, what matters most, regardless of genre, are the thoughts of the person turning the page. 

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What's your favorite genre?

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What’s your favorite genre? It’s a loaded question to ask a group of mystery writers. We all love mysteries, thrillers and suspense novels. Otherwise, we wouldn’t write them. So I asked my fellow MissDemeanors, aside from mysteries, what genres they enjoyed the most. Mine is magical realism. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite books. I love the genre, I think, because it forces me to think differently: to imagine yellow butterflies and passionate love affairs and see history through the remove of fantasy.  My writing mind is more inclined towards present-day and the gritty realism of true crime headlines.   Here’s what the rest of the MissDemeanors read when not whittling down their TBR mystery lists.  Susan Breen:I love romance novels. The old-fashioned kind, like Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart. In my first novel, The Fiction Class, I named my protagonist Arabella after the heroine of one of Georgette Heyer’s novels. There was one novel, Jamaica Inn, by Daphne DuMaurier that I liked so much when I was a girl that the library wouldn’t allow me to take it out anymore and so I tried to copy it out by hand. Pre-internet. Tracee de Hahn: My second genre is a toss up. I love reading history….. literal textbook kind (well, perhaps not textbooks but non fiction history). That makes it easy to believe that my second fiction genre is historical fiction (I add things to this that are only “historical” to our eyes- Tolstoy, Austen, you get the picture.). Writing this makes me want to pull out the Colleen McCullough Rome series…. takes me back to high school! C. Michele Dorsey:I’m more interested in reading good writing than focusing on what the genre is. I enjoy memoir, humor, travel, poetry, “literary” fiction (whatever that is), and yes, romance. I also read lots of nonfiction and I adore reading cookbooks, especially when they are about a particular place. Right now I’m reading May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude and Between You and Me, Confessions of a Comma Queen, and I’m ready for my next mystery from the TBR pile.  Alexia Gordon: Science fiction. Sci-fi has rockets and lasers and aliens and sexy, hotshot pilots/smugglers/rogues. Plus the occasional robot and awesome travel itineraries. Oh yeah, and important stuff like satire and commentary on human nature, bigotry, politics, commercialism, bureaucracy, war, and universal fears. But mostly hotshot pilots. (Faves: The Space Merchants by Kornbluth and Pohl and the Retief series by Laumer.) Paula Munier: Oh, geez, this is like choosing among your children. When I’m not reading crime fiction, I’m reading best sellers across genres, which as an agent is an obligatory pleasure, as I need to keep up on what’s working out there in the marketplace. I also read a lot of nonfiction, especially in the areas of science, business, memoir, and mind/body/spirit. I’m a sucker for anything about dogs, baseball, nature, writing, and/or yoga. When I need inspiration, I read poetry and Shakespeare. To wit: I read a lot. Robin Stuart: Hm, I’d say I’m genre-agnostic. I’m one of those people who chooses books by opening them to a random page and if I keep reading, I’ll buy it. The same rule applies to ebooks that allow me to “look inside,” in which case I’ll advance to a random page near the end of the look-see. My recent non-mystery/suspense/thriller reading list includes historical non-fiction (Hidden Figures, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), YA (This is Where It Ends) and literary (The Assistants, Beautiful Ruins). The “why” of being drawn to pick them up/look in the first place is usually because I read about the book or author in the New York Times or San Francisco Chronicle book sections.   

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The Better Book Battle: Mystery Fiction vs. Literary Fiction.

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There’s been renewed debate, recently, about the relative value of mystery fiction vs. its “literary” counterpart thanks to a self-described “passing remark” by Notre Dame English professor William O’Rourke that disparaged the mystery writing community as suffering from a “fatal lack of talent.” In a subsequent article in the Irish Times, O’Rourke clarified that he did not intend for his remark to insult mystery writers in particular but, instead, to denigrate the entire literary culture in America.  After reading both articles, it’s clear that O’Rourke believes our nation subsists on the literary equivalent of McDonald’s, formulaic, processed writing intended to keep readers turning pages thanks to contrived cliff hangers. Other cultures, he argues, consume the good stuff–books that make folks stop and think.  I don’t believe O’Rourke is entirely wrong in his assessment of the average American’s fiction diet. Our busy culture values easily digested entertainment. And, in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with that. I like having a cheeseburger now and again. Sometimes, I want something fun to read on a plane, or at the beach, or to listen to in the car. However, I certainly disagree that mystery writing as a whole is formulaic fast food. Good writing–and there is plenty of it in the mystery realm–transcends genre and turns formulas upside down. A recent example (which guessing from Mr. O’Rourke’s criticism he’d probably dislike) is Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. It’s a fantasy. It’s a mystery. It’s a family drama. Above all, it’s a story that forces readers to contemplate grief. What does losing a child do to a family? How do gender expectations limit an individual’s ability to properly mourn? Do people really survive the murder of a loved one with their former self intact or is violent loss so transformative that there is forever a person before and a person after?   Last night, I saw GET OUT, a movie by comedian, writer and actor Jordan Peele which manages to be a fantastic commentary on race and related micro-aggressions wrapped in a horror film. It certainly made me think about how the construct of race divides Americans, even when people are trying for it not to. At one point, for example, a character tries to prove he is not racist by saying how many times he voted for former President Obama, as though supporting a black political candidate was proof of post-racial colorblindness. Of course, the character brought up his vote precisely because he was seeing the color of the person he was talking to and assuming his support would create a bond.  Personally, I think the best writing is not the sort that purports to be literary from the get go. Sure, authors may applaud themselves for writing a “difficult book” filled with words intended to elevate the Flesch-Kincaid reading level. But those writers certainly don’t win many fans among readers.  The best authors aim to tell an engaging story that also makes their audience contemplate some larger issue. There are plenty of mystery books that do this. Emma Cline’s The Girls, Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl are examples. Each made me consider the nature of crime and punishment as much as I did when reading Dostoyevsky’s novel named for the very subject. These books, each in their own way, made me ponder what constitutes real justice. Can living with the knowledge of an immoral act and evading legal retribution prove worse than serving time?  Perhaps more importantly, these stories stayed with me long after I finished reading them, and I suspect they did for most readers. They were popular and they were smart. As I tell my daughters all the time, it’s quite possible to be both. 

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Agatha Best First Novel Nominees Reveal…

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What piece of advice do you wish you had before you started writing? Nadine Nettmann, author of Decanting a Murder (Midnight Ink)While there are many gems I’ve learned along the way that I wish I had known before, I think the most pertinent one is how fast things move once the contract is signed. You can take years to write a book but suddenly it’s edits, then more edits, then the cover arrives, then the ARCs go out, and the next thing you know, the book that you wrote is now out in the world. During which time, if you’re writing a series, the next one is already due. It’s a wonderful journey, but a very fast one after waiting for so many years. Renee Patrick (Rosemarie and Vince Keenan), author of Design for Dying (Forge)Rosemarie here, answering this question solo. I wish someone had told me how tempting it would be to edit as I wrote the first draft. When I sat down each evening I had to battle the overwhelming urge to polish and tweak–make that heavily revise–the work I’d done the previous day. All I could see were my mistakes. Saggy similes, obvious jokes, and so, so many adverbs lazily standing in for powerful dialogue. I almost talked myself nightly into fixing those flaws, because it seemed easier than pressing on and writing something new. Here’s where having a more experienced co-author gave me a big advantage. Vince told me everyone’s first drafts were the same: they might seem terrible, but when considered rationally always had good bits and passages that could be salvaged. To gain that perspective, though, I had to keep going. When you’re editing you’re not writing, and writing is the only way to finish a novel. Hard as that may be to believe. Marla Cooper, author of Terror in Taffeta (Minotaur Books)I wish someone had told me to relish every moment of writing my first novel. It would have helped to have had a fairy godmother come whisper in my ear that everything would be fine and it would get published and I would someday have the overwhelming good fortune to be writing a group post with my fellow Best First Novel nominees. (!!!!) But here’s the thing: when you write your first book, you have the freedom to do whatever you want with the characters and the setting, and you can take your time figuring out the tricky bits. But when you’re writing a series, suddenly there are deadlines and expectations, and you’ve already committed to your characters so you can’t go in a wildly different direction. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good problem to have. But there is a certain magic to writing your first book… even if you don’t exactly realize it at the time. Cynthia Kuhn, author of The Semester of Our Discontent (Henery Press)Oh, so many things! But mostly, I wish someone had said, “Just do it. Start today.” I waited a long time—years—to begin after I’d had the idea for the book. Sure, there were things happening that made it difficult to carve out the time, but that’s always the case. Mostly what gave me pause was the sense that I needed to take more classes and go to more workshops [or insert other activities here] until I was somehow “ready.” Yet the truth is, until you begin putting words on the page, nothing else can happen—the feedback, the revision, and so on. It does require a rather large leap of faith, that first step. But it launches the journey. Alexia Gordon, author of Murder in G Major (Henery Press)I wish I’d known how different publishing is from writing. I thought once you wrote your book you were done and could relax. Really, the work begins once you finish writing. There’s the search for a publisher and an agent, the contracts, the marketing, advertising, social media. Being an author is a job. An exciting, wonderful, joyful, awesome job, but definitely, a job. Author Bios:Marla Cooper is the author of Terror in Taffeta, an Agatha and Lefty nominee for Best First Mystery and book one in the Kelsey McKenna Destination Wedding Mysteries. Her second book, Dying on the Vine, is set in the California wine country and comes out April 4. As a freelance writer, Marla has written all sorts of things, from advertising copy to travel guidebooks to the occasional haiku, and it was while ghostwriting a guide to destination weddings that she found inspiration for her series. Originally hailing from Texas, Marla lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and her polydactyl tuxedo cat. Learn more at www.marla-cooper.com.
Alexia Gordon has been a writer since childhood. She continued writing through college but put literary endeavors on hold to finish medical school and Family Medicine residency training. Medical career established, she returned to writing fiction. She completed SMU’s Writer’s Path program in Dallas, Texas. Henery Press published her first novel, Murder in G Major, book one of the Gethsemane Brown mysteries, in September 2016. Book two, Death in D Minor, premiers July 2017. A member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and the Writers’ League of Texas, she listens to classical music, drinks whiskey, and blogs at www.missdemeanors.com. AlexiaGordon.net

 Cynthia Kuhn writes the Lila Maclean Academic Mystery series, which includes The Semester of Our Discontent and The Art of Vanishing. She teaches English at MSU Denver and serves as president of Sisters in Crime-Colorado. For more information, please visit cynthiakuhn.net. Nadine Nettmann, a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, is always on the lookout for great wines and the stories behind them. She has visited wine regions around the world, from France to Chile to South Africa, but chose Napa Valley as the setting for her debut novel, Decanting a Murder. The next book in the Sommelier Mystery Series, Uncorking a Lie, releases in May 2017. Chapters are paired with wine recommendations. NadineNettmann.com
Renee Patrick is the pseudonym of married authors Rosemarie and Vince Keenan. Rosemarie is a research administrator and a poet. Vince is a screenwriter and a journalist. Both native New Yorkers, they currently live in Seattle, Washington.

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Time to Read AND Write

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 One of the reasons I became a writer is that I LOVE to read. As a child, I loved immersing myself in fantastical mysteries like Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle In Time and anything with Nancy Drew in it. As I grew older, I enjoyed squeezing in a book by James Patterson, Agatha Christie, or Stephen King in between the required reading for school English classes. When I had my kids, reading the work of Gillian Flynn, Katherine Slaughter, Dennis Lehane, Tana French and Scott Turow allowed me to escape the world of sippy cups and bottle sanitizers and give my mind some much needed exercise.                                                                                          (I am so jealous of this woman in the picture—->) Unfortunately, as a writer with a full time day job of taking care of two young kids, I don’t have much time to read for pleasure. Like most novelists, I must read the other works in my genre (psychological and domestic suspense, for me) so that I am aware of what’s been done in my market. I must read upcoming books from authors that I admire who have kindly asked that I provide a review for their covers. I must read other authors in my publishing house who may be paired with me for upcoming publicity events. And, I can’t do any of this reading while actively writing lest I unintentionally absorb the cadence of other talented scribes and let it slip into my own work. I’m thinking about this, I guess, because I decided to reward myself for finishing some recent edits by reading the wonderful Brad Parks’s latest book Say Nothing. It was so good and it made me regret that I don’t have more time to read all the authors that I admire or with whom I’m friendly. When do you read? How do you fit in it? What do you read first?

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The Lefty Goes To…

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Every year, mystery readers and authors gather in some beautiful state on the West Coast to celebrate the genre and highlight some of the best books of the year with the prestigious LEFTY award. I would like to congratulate fellow Missdemeanor Alexia Gordon for WINNING in the Best Debut Mystery category for her novel Murder in G Major.  This year the awards ceremony was held in Hawaii. The award was crafted out of Koa wood (check it out below. Thanks Alexia!) She had some tough competition from many great new authors. Just to be nominated is an honor. Winning is something extra special.  On the 22nd, we will welcome authors nominated for the Agatha in the best first novel category to this blog for a guest post series. Led by Agatha nominee Alexia, they will be weighing in on what they wish they had known before embarking on a writing career.      

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Pub Day Jitters

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In honor of Tracee de Hahn’s publication day this week for Swiss Vendetta, the MissDemeanors all weighed in on the flurry of feelings they experienced on their first “Pub Day.” (Excuse the snow metaphors. The New York Area, where I live, was just buried beneath a foot of the stuff). For me, I remember a vague feeling of nausea. I was concerned that my first novel, Dark Turns, would be ruthlessly criticized. I was emotional and easily aggravated all day. I am happy to say that those feelings lessened for my second novel, The Widower’s Wife, and I am hoping that I may even approach happiness on the launch day for my third, Lies She Told, next September.  Here’s how the rest of the crew felt:  Susan Breen: I had two book launch days in 2016. On June 14, my first Maggie Dove book was published and I was an absolute wreck because it’s set in a village very much like my own and I worried everyone would hate it. (They didn’t.) On November 8, (Election Day), my second Maggie Dove mystery was published and I was a wreck because I was so worried about the election. So I guess there’s a theme there. C. Michele Dorsey: When No Virgin Island was published, there was a great party held at the James Library in Norwell, Massachusetts, which was attended by more than 100 people, including friends, relatives, clients, fellow-writers, and former classmates. The very generous, effervescent, and talented Hank Phillippi Ryan interviewed me with her usual charm and wit. Later, she wrote, “Now that was a launch party.” As I looked out at the crowd of people who had so kindly supported me, I thought, this is like being at your own wake. The final honor came when relatives of a murder victim in St. John whom I had mentioned in the acknowledgements of No Virgin Island came to honor me and to buy my books. That moment can never be duplicated. Alexia Gordon: I felt nauseated on book launch day. I thought everyone would hate me and no one would buy my book. (No, I’m not at all insecure. ) I distracted myself by hopping on a plane to New Orleans to listen to Walter Moseley’s awesome speech at the Sisters in Crime SinC into Diverse Writing Pre-Bouchercon Workshop. The next day I hopped on a plane to Ireland. So, I guess you could say I dealt with my book launch by high-tailing it to a different continent. Tracee de Hahn: Three days into my launch I have to say that book launch and for me tour is tremendous fun! Interacting with real readers! In real stores! My first two visits were to Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington and in Cincinnati and the stores, the people who work there, and the great job they do promoting books each and every day made for a fantastic experience. Can’t wait to visit the other stores. Robin Stuart: My non-fiction book launch was anticlimactic. On the one hand, I achieved an arbitrary goal I’d set for myself to be traditionally published in my field. And it’s cool to think that university students read my words to learn about digital forensics. But my stretch goal, as we call it in dayjob-land, has been to fill a shelf (or several) with a series of novels bearing my name on their spines. I’ve been planning my debut launch for a couple of years now, pulling together a series of promotional events with a little (okay, a lot) of help from my friends. That’s one I can’t wait to see come to life. In the meantime, I have been and continue to hone the craft. It all begins and ends with spinning a good yarn, after all.

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