On a gorgeous sunshiny Saturday, perhaps the calm before the storm, 25,000 people attended the Boston Book Festival!  Who says people don't read anymore?  There was a huge program of writers, agents, artists, musicians, stuff for kids, stuff for adults, stuff for everybody.  Wow!  Of course this is a polite, good-natured crowd, and I saw a man with a cat clinging to his shoulder like a baby.  The cat's expression said "don't tread of me."  There were more dogs, also good-natured, some tykes in strollers, and ladies in classy hats.  Lots of booths with publishers and everything to do with books.  I signed copies of World of Mirrors at the Sisters in Crime New England Booth. My co-signers were Lea Wait and Kat Fast.  We had authors throughout the day, schmoozing, signing and enthusing about the crime genre.  Dennis Lehane sparkled, as usual as the panel about place and time, and lots and lots of literary lights from the Northeast were on various panels. Soho Crime was next door to our booth, and of course I bought just about as many books as I sold. Boston Book Festival

We trekked over to Newbury Street and Papparazzi for a lunch and wine that couldn't be beat.  Big crowd at Stephanie's too, the weather so good you could eat outdoors, and in a couple days we will be experiencing the rains and probably the power failure.  It always happens.
We have our candles, hurricane lamps (kerosene) and batteries.  Food in the house, dry wood for the fireplace.  We know the drill, and we're high above the slough.Plenty of cat food in the house.  You never want to run out of cat food.

More on the book fair tomorrow.

Grapeshot

Fall in New England

First, some of the maples turned, then lost their leaves. Subsequently, all the other trees and bushes sat there, like, well, like bumps on a log, apparently unaware that autumn was here.

Yesterday, driving up Route 128, hooray, finally, glorious color. Last night: monsoons. Many of the leaves fell, but good color today in the village of Mansfield. This is the weirdest fall ever, following the weirdest non-summer of the tomato blight.

We have three big tomatoes ripening in the kitchen window. Finally.

Last Friday we hiked up the hill beyond Concord Bridge. Always scenic. The beech trees were splendid.

The slough rose during the night, and we still have red leaves on the bushes within and color across the slough.

Yesterday was the first Boston Book Festival, and we took the Green Line into town to partake of the festivities. What a huge crowd. Gave me hope that there are a lot of writers and readers and bibliphiles out there. Not the usual geriatric crowd but lots of young folks. We particularly enjoyed Grub Street's Writer Idol, Orhan Pamuk's reading and talk and Boston Noir, a reading and after hours party with fine folk, food and bevs, a congenial crowd and what more do you want?

A fine day, and we got home just as the rains came in a major way.

Kate's Mystery Books

This evening, Kate of Kate's Mystery Bookstore in Cambridge, MA will throw her annual holiday party, a soiree not to be missed. The crime-writing literati of the Boston area will gather to chat with fans, autograph books, nosh, schmooze, and yes, imbibe.

Kate is Boston's best known promoter of the mystery genre. Her wide umbrella shelters thrillers, cozies, horror, true crime and of course the traditional mystery. Her collection of black cats (statuary) is totally awesome.

With the book business in crisis, this is an opportunity to buy personalized (signed by the author) holiday gifts the recipients will actually read and enjoy, support local authors and give a leg up to one of our local booksellers. Kate can always recommend books that you or your gift list will adore, a knack born of many years in the business. Her knowledge is encyclopediac and her inventory is vast.

The party is from 5:30 - 7:45 at Kates (2211 Mass Ave in Cambridge). Close to Porter and Davis Squares. Lots of eateries and drinkeries nearby. The party becomes a mob scene but is ever so much fun. You literally rub elbows.

I'm bringing my spicy empenadas, a riff on Paula Deen's recipe. The dough is resting in the fridge and the filling is waiting for the diced tomato. The party food is always toothsome. One year there was a meatloaf to die for.

Look for me. Ah, hell. You'll probably be gazing at Robert Parker or Dennis Lehane. So will I.

http://www.katesmysterybooks.com/events.html

Come "dressed to kill."

Cheers!

Grapeshot

Writing Down the Bones, the Sinews, the Connective Tissue and the Tendons

Lately I've heard and read much discussion about how productive a writer needs to be to stay au courant, so to speak. The consensus seems to be that you better muster up a book a year, although some can write three or even four. Of course an easy little cozy mystery that tips the scales at 75,000 words or the light as a feather romance that is barely 60,000 words may be easier to churn out than that 135,000 word thriller with its sixteen subplots. Some writers say, no way, and will take their sweet time, be it two years or five to produce the new oeurve.

Me, I'm taking about 3 years per book but that was with work and lots of other "stuff", but why would I bust my butt to write, write, write when no one is able to read, read, read? It is already mega-depressing to have three, count 'em three books unpublished, but think how I'd feel with six or ten? Set my hair on fire? You got it.

The Boston Globe had a long article on the topic today. Hooray fro Dennis Lehane who writes slower and better than most. If you scan the hard cover best seller list, do the plots make you want to race out and buy the books? Not me. On the other hand, the trade paperback list usually has lots of "must reads." Depends, I guess, on what you're looking for.

Here is the link to the Globe.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/06/09/top_writers_feel_heat_from_publishers_presses/

Series versus Standalone

Whether to write a series or a so-called standalone is a decision every mystery and suspense writer faces. The beauty of a series is, that if it takes off (think Spenser and Reacher and Kinsey Milhone) you will not only be laughing all the way to the bank, and chortling and clicking your heels and stopping in at all the stores along the street, but you have already developed your main characters. Again, think Spenser and Hawk and Susan and the dog. Each book doesn’t require starting from scratch with all the characterizations which means the author can develop the characters even more and concentrate on the story.

The down side of the series is that often after 4-6 books, or even less, the series tanks, sales are flat or worse, and the publisher drops the author like, well, the proverbial hot potato. And then whatcha gonna do?

Many very successful series writers take time off for a standalone. I am thinking of two excellent writers: Laura Lippman and S. J. Rozan. These have been real breakout books. Look at Dennis Lehane. He had his Boston series and then bam! Mystic River.

So the best of all worlds is to write both. Sounds easy, huh? I am here to tell you it isn’t.
I have 5 books in my series: the “in the closet” book, the published book, the two for sale and so-far unsold, and the third one soon to be ready. Actually, I took World of Mirrors out of the series, by changing the back story and changing the characters names and the age of the female lead. The reason I did this was that otherwise the series character would be getting excessively old. And I was able to cut almost 15,000 words out of the story, never an inconsiderable feat. But anyone who did a close reading would find the series heroine, Emma, and the stand-alone main character, Zara, soul sisters. Zara, being younger and feistier, puts up with less crap.

So now I want to do this 1928 California book, not crime fiction, not series, and a historical to boot. This ain’t easy. I’ve been thinking about it and doing research for a few years and it still seems awfully difficult to get going. What is the hardest thing is that I don’t really know these characters yet. I haven’t been working with them for 15 years. And do to the time difference, I don’t think they’re going to come to me fully dressed with all their little tics and peccadilloes.

Nope, there’s going to be a lot of work involved. Eeek! I never thought it would be a breeze, not did I think it would be THIS HARD. Of course I could just slap a first draft together and do serious character development in subsequent drafts, but that’s not my style. Hmmm. Time to roll up the sleeves and think. Thinking is hard. Suck it up and think? Thinking is messy. One doesn’t think in a straight line.

Nonetheless. . .