Hello, this is Lew P and it was difficult but I got Mutt to go downstairs and get a Dagwood Sandwich and a Murphy’s for himself.
Tink and Pam took Jayson to the movies, one of those inane animation things. So the computer is mine for at least the time it takes for the Mad Mutt to gobble a 4-inch high deli sandwich. The BWC agent is out of the house.
I went with my wife to the Mystery Writers of America New York Chapter meeting last night at the National Arts Club. The guest speaker was Laura Lipmann who has written multiple New York Times best sellers starting in 1997. She has a resume that includes being a Journalist in Baltimore (home of Poe, and the late John Hughes both of whom aren’t under the bell curve), and therefore had experience with Druid Hill and the police so she’s been tainted as far as normalcy is concerned. I was very interested in hearing her speak because she writes from the dark side, and I have those tendencies myself.
She was very interesting, but more of that later.
As usual there was a cocktail party prior to the dinner and speaker. They had an exhibition of Pastels from the National Pastel Society, and they were incredible. Some looked like photographs rather than drawings. I wish I could write with the same level of talent. Practice, practice, practice – the rule of three’s.
I corralled a Brooklyn Ale and did the cheese and crackers thing. A lady who had recently published came up to me and introduced herself. I like friendly people, and I am very naïve.
I tried to talk craft because I am still learning. She volunteered her resume, and five reviews of her first novel, including a mild panning review from Publisher’s Weekly.
I asked her about her next project and she told me that her agent has nixed her Muslim in New York murder mystery. I wonder why? She’s determined to write it anyway.
Then she saw someone else who needed to know how she was doing, and she dumped me quickly. Her afterburners singed my eyebrows. I didn’t know a heavyset woman in her seventies could move that fast. But I’ve watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and seen a turbo-charged irate hippo run off, oh boy, flashbacks to my youth.
My wingman Arthur was there with me. He is going to run a satellite meeting of the MWA at Tumulty’s in October. If you live in central Jersey and want to hear Peggy Ehrhart and Mary Jane Clark speak, this is the place. The date is Oct 21. The cost will be posted, but my guess is $35 for a cocktail, dinner buffet and the entertainment. Tumulty’s is three blocks from the New Brunswick train station.
Peggy who is a board member of MWA was talking with Arthur and I horned in. She is a lovely lady who has a PhD in English. Why would she lowbrow-it to mystery writing? Oh yes, she also formed a blues band while a professor in college. She is the type of person who lives outside of categories. I like those type of people. I wish I were one of those.
If you want to know more about Peggy and her writing including her short stories http://peggyehrhart.com is the place to go.
During the time I listened to Peggy, another lady presented. She and I had spoken at the Cocktail Party for the Edgars, Delia Foley. She is writing a mystery, but is a neophyte as am I.
Her sister-in-law has just published her first suspense novel, In Their Blood. October 1st, 2009 she will be launching the book at a party at Partners & Crime a bookstore at 44 Greenwich Avenue NYC. Champagne and hors D’oeuvres at 7 PM. (phone number 212-243-0440)
Partners & Crime’s web site: http://www.crimepays.com/.
I love hearing first time authors made it. It gives us undiscovered people hope, but I am very jealous of Sharon Potts, Delia’s sister-in-law, because she has a quote from Michael Connelly. He is one of my hero writers. I hope if you read the Fatal Blow that you can tell.
I also met a lady named Gail Stockton, who like myself has written a manuscript, but unlike me, she has an agent actively trying to sell it. I found a blog on which she writes, and read some of her work. http://www.womenofmystery.net/search/label/*Gail. I hope she succeeds, as her writing style is very accessible and fun to read. She puts her heart into it, and that is really important.
My Information Science professor, Dr. Ross Todd, will be so proud of me finding Gail’s site all on my own.
Manning the door at the dinner was Marco Conelli, who writes YA mysteries, with a sleuth who is a chess master and a genius, sort of a young Sherlock Holmes. Marco is a really nice person, soft-spoken and when I learned of his occupation I was surprised.
We spoke a little. He ate alone –because he manned the admissions desk through the meal – and I asked if his characters are loners too. He said ironically Matthew Livingston his detective is.
Write what you know, the Mad Mutt is a converted loner, because of Tink and Pam. Maybe Matthew will find someone who sees that it is worth it to get by the emotional barrier and meet the real guy behind it. It doesn’t have to take a Pixie to do it.
Marco’s books are Matthew Livingston and the Prison of Souls and Matthew Livingston and the Millionaire Murder. If you want to learn more about Marco who is a NYPD detective here is an interesting web site http://www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp?member=TeenSleuth.
Finally we come to Laura Lipmann who trisected the root cause – the motive – of murder mysteries to Money, Shame/Secrecy, and Obsession i.e. serial psychotic killers.
She then eliminated shame and secrecy as being valid motives of murder in today’s anything goes Internet world. She believes no one has shame or secrets that are worth killing to hide anymore. People’s lives are just out there and known.
She was raised a Baptist and if you have read any of her novels, she demonstrates this point well.
I applaud her from the shadows of the dark, as the author of three murders, two cardiac arrests and a stroke in my first novel. But the motive for two of the three in my novel is to prevent discovery of the killer in the first murder. Secrecy is a valid motive if you are protecting capital knowledge. The murders are like potato chips, after the first they just keep going down.
She states that while obsession is a valid motive for murder, she would categorize these serial killer books as thrillers rather than murder mysteries. I agree, because a thriller isn’t about who is doing the crime, but whether or not the protagonist can stop them.
This leaves money as the only motive for murder mysteries in the twenty-first century. Being from the school that says, money makes the world go round, but personally adding, whether we like it or not, I have to agree that money is a driving force in most murder mysteries.
The key point of the speech for me, however, related to hooking the reader early and continuously. Allowing your evil, dislikeable, naughty, whatever character to draw the reader’s attention, and never let it waver after that point.
I went home and for the thirtieth time re-wrote my first two pages. I want to thank Laura because I went back to a former beginning but blended in my newer writing. The preachy beginning to my novel is gone, and the in medias res beginning works.
I’ll open a bottle of the wine you were talking about Laura, if you’ll only send me the name. I was too busy writing down the gems to worry about what to drink.
Wait. Mutt just gave me a Murphy’s. I am honored and will get busy with that. Whoa, that frosty mug is cold. I’m pouring it right now. The bubbles come up funny in the Murphy’s. It’s really cool.
Thanks Mad ole boy. Finally someone can tell me I have a good-looking head, even if it is only on my beer. L’Chaim.
Yeah Mutt, you can have the keyboard back now. Pushy- pushy.
Lew P
No comments:
Post a Comment