Dr. Madison Muttnick was conceived in the basement of a bar in New Brunswick, among the sterno-heated aluminum chaffing dishes filled with chicken marsala and a fleshy white fish whose exact identity remains unknown. It’s not as sleazy as it sounds. In September 2008, Tumulty’s was the site of the New Jersey Satellite meeting of Mystery Writers of America. My friend Arthur had been urging me to write murder mysteries, as Darth Varder to my Luke. I had refused to come over to the dark side until that date.
The guest panel that night included Mary Jane Clark, Jane Cleland, and Jeff Cohen. Chris Grabenstein moderated the meeting. The writing of a murder mystery with three or four tent poles as landmarks, clarified the anatomy of the mysterious literary birth canal. They set the path for the Mad Mutt to spring forth without Caesarian sectioning of my brain. Arthur and the above listed group must therefore be considered Aunts and Uncles of the good Doctor.
In the past, 1985 and again in the 1990’s I started a murder mystery, and each time I aborted it for lack of enthusiasm. I wasn’t ready for parenthood. In 2009 I am the proud father of a novel. Want to see snapshots? Three murders, one wounding via gunshot, an attempted poisoning, and a heart attack with a stroke as the residual, there are also multiple acts of deception. My little one is so precocious.
My mind’s fertile womb nurtured the seed into a 90,000 word murder mystery in which the protagonist, Dr. Madison Muttnick is a middle-aged orthopedic surgeon with an inflated sense of righteousness. He learns that being right can get you killed. The cliché is write what you know, so you have a platform and expertise. I am a retired orthopedic surgeon who discontinued practicing rather than practice medicine that saw the patient as an inconvenience on the way to a bill.
The Fatal Blow is not an only child. Prior to its birth, I created an 115,000 word mainstream novel called Aphrodite and the Frog King. First time parenthood teaches the sire and the author significantly. Re-writing and editing a 600,000 word novel down to 115,000 is a whole MFA program by itself. A literary PhD equivalent is gained through re-writing and editing the synopsis and the chapter outline. The child matures to adulthood through experiences.
A&tFK had no platform and therefore was lost in the crowd, unseen, failing to grow to its full stature. It is confined to my laptop on just rom space and electricity, the computer equivalent of bread and water. It continues to grow in my mind, but stagnates in its development in binary digital flesh.
The Fatal Blow will not remain as the only Muttnick mystery for long. Another embryo grows in the womb. As Mutt recovers from his stroke, he will become involved in another mystery, involving one of his daughter’s clients who is accused of murdering her husband, an abortion practicing Ob-Gyn. Meanwhile, Tink, Mutt's young girlfriend, becomes accidently pregnant with Mutt's child.
So my family of writings will contain one mainstream novel, one murder mystery and a murder mystery on the way. I didn’t even need an ultrasound to deter the new little one’s genre.
Oh and PS as in publish or sink, we will be having a birthday party of sorts for Dr. Madison Muttnick, although the partyers will not know it. Arthur is planning another Satellite meeting of the New York Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America for October 21, 2009. If you wish further information or to be informed of the plan, contact the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, or leave a message on this blog.
