mysteries

This post will appear two days after I and my wife return from this year’s Bouchercon, “The World Mystery Convention.” I’m writing it as I prepare to make the trip. September 6^th through 9^th fellow writers in the crime-mystery-thriller genre from around the world will have converged on St. Petersburg, Florida, to trumpet their most recent works, bask in the limelight, hustle for new deals and contacts, and generally squeeze the flesh and shamelessly self-promote.

If only I weren’t dreading it so.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m very much looking forward to connecting with friends I typically only see once or twice a year, precisely at these sorts of gatherings. In many ways the genre has provided me with my tribe, and it’s populated with smart, witty, unpretentious and hard-working writers of every stripe.

In particular, I’m very much looking forward to sharing a panel with Jess Lourey, who appeared here with Shannon Baker at Writer Unboxed on August 26^th (“Write What You Fear: Why, How, and a Lifesaving Bonus Tip”). I just wish we didn’t have to do it at 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning.

Not only will 90% of the attendees be sleeping in or demonstrably hungover from all the parties the night before—Friday night is infamous for such festivities—it will be 5:00 AM for me, since I’ll still be on west-coast time, meaning I’ll have to rise and shine at 4:00 AM BT (Body Time) to ensure I actually stumble in on time. As for being articulate—who knows?

I’m also looking forward to taking part in a Thursday morning panel on historical research, given how relevant that is to my own recent novel, The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday. The downside: a great many conference attendees will not yet have arrived, so this panel too is likely to offer only limited exposure.

Given such vicissitudes (I hear you ask), especially considering the expense of travel and accommodations, why bother making the effort at all?

Ah, Grasshopper, allow me to explain.

[Read more…]

Our guest today is Daphne Uviller, the author of the Zephyr Zuckerman Series—Wife of the Day, Hotel No Tell, and Super in the City—optioned for television by Paramount Pictures and Silver Lake Entertainment. She is also the co-editor of the anthology Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo. She is a former Books and Poetry editor at Time Out New York, and her reviews, profiles, and articles have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, The Forward, New York Magazine, Oxygen, Allure, and Self, for which she wrote an ethics column. She lives with one husband, one dog and two children, and divides her time between the Hudson Valley and New York City.

You know how some people have a five-year plan? I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, and my writing is reassurance that this is working for me. I never set out to write mysteries – I’m still surprised that my books are considered mysteries — let alone a mystery series. The fact that I have three Zephyr Zuckerman books out reminds me that my biggest successes have been utterly unplanned.

Connect with Daphne on Twitter and Facebook.

Cuz Breaking Up is Hard To Do: The demons and delights of series writing

After my first novel came out, I was so over my main character. We were done. I loved Zephyr Zuckerman, but I had no intentions of being a literary monogamist. I had a contract for a second book, and it could be about anything I wanted, and what I wanted was to roam free, sow my oats. I mean, I considered continuing our relationship – I owed that much to her – but really, wasn’t there something a little presumptuous, a little unimaginative, even lazy, about writing a sequel? You’re assuming that readers enjoyed your characters enough the first time that they want to spend more time with them. And even if they assure you they liked or even loved your characters, it still risks being too much of a good thing. And then, of course, there’s the niggling sense that maybe you’re writing a sequel because you’ve only got one character in you, and she’s already all set up, with an insta-background and the legwork done.

Well, Zephyr had the last laugh, because I wrote that sequel. And then she had the last last laugh when those sequels morphed into a trilogy.

How did my heroine know what she and I needed better than I did?

Writing a novel, for me, is like making a savory stew in a crockpot out of otherwise unsavory leftovers. [Read more…]