The Bucket List

Zoë Sharp

When I read Dusty’s post from yesterday, about getting out of your own way and allowing your creativity to do what it really wanted to do, it struck a bit of a chord. I’d just been reading the latest issue of Bike magazine, which had a piece from world record-breaking professional traveller and adventurer, Nick Sanders, about ‘How To Jack It All In’. Nick listed the six most important factors as:

     Know what you want to do

     Life is about timing

     Embrace the unknown

     Simplify your life

     Recite five times a day…

          I don’t know anything

          I must listen to clever people

          I am confident this can be done

          I will never give up

          Tape on your handlebars (well, this is a motorcycle magazine) a quote from Albert Einstein: “I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism; have brought me to my ideas.”

     Change the way you think

And if you want to know the specifics, you’ll just have to read the mag, but it sounds simple, doesn’t it? Who among us hasn’t wanted to jack it all in and disappear?

My usual get-away-from-it-all dream involves boats. I was brought up on boats. I love the sea. I get all misty-eyed whenever I’m near it, and the sight of anyone setting out on a yacht makes me yearn to go with them. I was an astro-navigator back in the days before every man and his dog had a handheld GPS. My father recently gave me his sextant, which is something I shall treasure.

So, first on my bucket list (things to do before you kick the bucket, just in case anybody’s wondering) would be:

Sail in the British Virgin Islands

Arriving in strange places from the water is such a different experience to arriving by any other means, that the idea of exploring this fascinating group of islands by yacht has a very special appeal.

Ride a motorcycle around Iceland

Iceland is an amazing country, sparsely populated, and still wild and beautiful. Many of what are official roads are little more than unsurfaced flattened tracks across barren arctic desert. Sounds wonderful to me.

 

Visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Really, this should have come top of my list, because I’ve been fascinated by Angkor Wat ever since I first heard about it. An entire civilisation that disappeared back into the jungle. At its height in the 13th century, Angkor was the most extensive urban complex in the world.  Now, it’s the most stunning ruin.

Ride across the Rockies by train

This is something I’ve had a fancy to do since we were in Toronto for Bouchercon a few years ago, and saw the trains pulling out on their way to Vancouver. Of course, it’s the sort of trip you’d have to do in the best possible style…

Listen to real flamenco in Spain

As an indifferent classical guitarist in my youth, I loved the sound and colour and drama of flamenco. I’d love to go and experience the whole thing in its proper environment.

See the Northern Lights

There isn’t much else to say about this spectacular natural phenomenon, apart from the fact that it’s probably the closest we can get to seeing the kind of images that are being sent back by the Hubble space telescope, but from earth.

Then, of course, I also have a writing bucket list. That sounds strange, I know. After all, I am already a writer, but I write within the specific genre of crime thrillers, and although I thoroughly enjoy it, that doesn’t mean I don’t have hankerings to write other things as well.

Sci-fi

Not spaceships and aliens kind of sci-fi, particularly, but near-future stuff. The kind of stuff that takes the ‘what if’ of our everyday world, and goes with it just one step further into the unknown. I can see the way rules and regulations are going, with risk assessements and everybody afraid of liability and accepting responsibility, and I SO want to take a swipe at that.

Supernatural

No, I’m not talking vampires, or werewolves, but something that delves deeper into the human psyche. And I’ve no excuses for not getting on with this, really. I have an idea that I think would really fly, either as a novel or even a screenplay, but I just need the right shove to get on with it.

Historical

I love history. The turn of the last century, with the advent of the motor car, the aeroplane, and a world both opened up and torn apart by conflict and technological change. Or the Elizabethan period, with its intrigue and complex politics and betrayals. Or the lawless London docklands. It just cries out to be the backdrop to a novel, another larger-than-life character in its own right. So, what’s stopping me? Research, in a word. Now, I really enjoy research, but the prospect of having to check everything simply in order to get your protagonist out of bed in the morning and walk them down the street is a daunting one.

Graphic

Graphic novels have always been there, but recently they seem to have exploded in popularity, and the crossover of crime writers who are producing graphic novels has increased dramatically. I’d love to do it, but the truth is, I have no idea how to go about the process…

That’s it for my twin bucket lists, I think. Of course, as soon as I’ve posted this, loads more things will undoubtedly occur to me. So, what’s on your bucket list? And what’s on your writing bucket list, too?

This week’s Word of the Week is louche, meaning shady, sinister, shifty or disreputable.

Getting Out of Your Own Way

by J.D. Rhoades

I’m getting to the end of the current WIP, or as I call it, “the part where stuff blows up.” The creative part of my  head doesn’t really have room for much else other than trying to keep track of where each player in a medium–to-large cast of characters is and where they’re going, while a mini-Gotterdammerung is raining death and destruction all around. In short, I am having more fun that a human being is allowed to have in most states, and I’d really like to get back to it. So today’s entry will of necessity be rather short.

 One of my daily must-reads is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog over at the Atlantic website. Whatever your political persuasion, I definitely recommend it for thoughtful and fair minded discussion on a wide variety of topics. Recently Coates, in the course of talking about a writing retreat he was apparently making,  made one of those observations that stuck with me:

There’s a great jazz pianist up here with whom I have shared meals and talked often. The first day we met he informed me that the essence of our work was learning to get out of our own fucking way. I am learning that out here–how to get out of my own fucking way–and really listen to what I care about, what I truly ache to say.

That’s such a perfect (if profane) expression of what it takes to get the right words down on paper: getting out of your own way. Forgetting about marketability, forgetting about  expectations, forgetting about “what will my agent/editor/spouse/mom think if she reads this” , and just letting the story come out the way it plays in your head. Trusting your own vision and talent. Listening “to what you care about, what you truly ache to say.”

It sounds so  simple, but it’s so hard to do sometimes. Real life intrudes with interruptions, demands, and pressures. Doubt slithers in. Those Black Birds come and perch on your shoulders, second guessing and criticizing every paragraph, every sentence, sometimes every word. It’s so easy to make things hard.

I grew up near a golf course, and way back in my early years, I played the game a little.  I haven’t picked up a club since I turned sixteen, got my driver’s license, and discovered a lot of other fun things to do. But  I still remember how good it felt when the swing went just right and the club head connected with the ball exactly  at that magical place they call the “sweet spot.” I understand why people get obsessed with the game, because that feeling is so powerful, and it comes so seldom–seemingly at random.

It isn’t random, of course. Making that happen consistently comes from constant practice and repetition and learning not to over-think your swing and tighten up at the wrong moment.  It takes a lot of work to learn how to get out of your own way. It was more work than I was willing to do to get really good at golf, and it’s a lot more than a lot of people are willing to do to learn how to write well. But that’s what it takes.

Even if you’ve put in the time, it’s still easy to over-think, to balk, to trip over your own expectations and insecurities. So share with us, if you would, what tricks and tips you have for getting out of your own way.

Don’t I Know You?

By Louise Ure

I bought a new computer and upgraded my mobile phone a couple of weeks ago. It was beyond due time. I still had the first generation iPhone and my Mac only had 4 GB of space left on it, even though I’d trimmed down all the unnecessary apps and videos and documents. I was traveling down the fast lane in first gear.

Because Bruce had been my previous “tech specialist,” the purchase required hired help. Enter Mitch: my Personal Technology Consultant and new hero. He transferred all the data from one computer to another, set up a secure WiFi network plus one for my guests, cleaned out the old computer so I could give it to my sister, and even recoded my TV remote controls so that I didn’t have to use one for the volume and another to change channels. “We’ve got some time while it’s transferring,” he said once the Firewire was connected. “Got anything else you want me to do?” (I wish I’d known then that he was an ex-chef from Brennan’s in New Orleans. I would have come up with an entirely different list of what to do.)

“Yeah.” I started hauling out every electronic gadget and peripheral in the house. Bruce’s last six cell phones, four back-up hard drives, an ancient Global Village modem — still somehow plugged into a socket! — a rat’s nest of AC adapters and wires, even a Sony Video 8 player that should by now have its own wing at the Smithsonian.

He quickly sorted the mess into piles. “I’ll recycle this for you … I can sell this for you on ebay … you’ll need a spare one of these just in case …”

When all the sorting was done, I still had three spare iPhones with no SIMs cards. “What do I do with these? Sell them on eBay? Give them to a women’s shelter?”

“Sure,” he replied, “or you can leave one in the car as an iPod, use another beside the bed as an alarm clock, put one in your travel bag as a travel alarm. Hell, you can use it as photo-slideshow drink coaster if you want to. It’d be a great conversation piece.”

Brilliant. The guy’s a genius.

After he left, I started playing around with the new computer. Of course, with updated hardware comes the opportunity for updated software and I got my first chance to play with the latest version of iPhoto.

You can organize the photos by event, of course, based on the recorded date and time that the photo was taken. Or by place, if you imported the photos from a GPS enabled camera.

Or you could create folders based on who was in the photo. This is where it got creepy. The new iPhoto software uses face recognition technology to ID and sort through all the photos in your library.

You start by identifying one face in a photo by name. “Bruce,” I marked under one recent portrait of him. The app then shows every other picture it thinks “Bruce” is in. “Is this Bruce?” it asks coyly. “Is this Bruce?” “Is this Bruce?”

Maybe Apple felt like being inclusive that day. The iPhoto inquiries ran the gamut from twelve pictures of Bruce to a photo of Willy Nelson on stage and one of Kris Kristofferson with a beer in his hand. The list included one old boyfriend of mine, whose decades-old photo I’d uploaded to the computer a couple of years ago because the original was in such bad shape (hmmm … I’d never seen the resemblance before). But it also asked “Is this Bruce?” over one out-of-focus shot of a Golden Retriever. (I won’t even go into the iPhoto option to “Add Missing Face” if the subject is photographed from the back or with their face turned. It’s just too, too sad. I’d be adding Bruce’s missing face all over the place.)

But, if this is the state of the vaunted face recognition technology we’re using at airports and high-target mass gatherings to fight against terrorism, then we’re shit out of luck. If TSA has the same success I did, they’ll be arresting an Irish Wolfhound instead of an terrorist.

But as poorly as the technology worked for me, I kind of like the idea of an aid to face recognition. As a person who forgets faces as easily as names, it would have come in handy that time that I couldn’t identify my own cousin at a signing. And I could use a portable version of this app at the next Bouchercon. Haven’t seen you for two years and you dyed your hair? You lost forty pounds and now bear no resemblance to that author photo on the book jacket I’ve been looking at since 2005? No problem. I’ve got my face recognition iPhone 4 right here.

How about you guys? Any electronic joys or travails in your life? And how good are you at recognizing those faces from year to year?

I’d Know Laura Lippman Anywhere

I’m sure other crime writers out there would agree that one of the finest perks of this writing gig is being part of a community of tremendously talented and suprisingly humble writers.  To form friendships with writers whose words you’ve known and loved for years, and to hear them discuss their craft, is pretty darn cool. 

Even among our nifty community, some authors have a special ability to articulate their commitment to and relationship with storytelling.  I think Laura Lippman is one of our best, both as an author on the page and as a spokesperson for the genre. 

Laura is the President of Mystery Writers of America

If you’re reading Murderati, you probably already know a little about Laura.  A former journalist, she has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Gumshoe, and Shamus awards.  She is routinely mentioned as one of this generation’s finest crime writers.    

Laura’s new book, I’d Know You Anywhere, hits stores tomorrow.  It has already earned starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist.  It is is one of Amazon’s Top 10 Picks for August and also an Indie Next pick.  “Stoked by stinging dialogue and arresting evocations of the fog of fear, doubt, and guilt versus the laser-lock pursuit of survival, Lippman’s taut, mesmerizing, and exceptionally smart drama of predator and prey is at once unusually sensitive and utterly compelling.” – Booklist

On the eve of her launch, Laura, with her trademark generosity, agreed to answer a few of my burning questions.

1.  Tell us a little bit about your new novel, I’d Know You Anywhere.

To me, it’s a fairly simple story: A woman who has managed to create a happy, contented life for herself despite being the victim of a horrible crime is forced to confront that crime years after the fact when a man writes her from Death Row. She is his only living victim and he wishes to speak to her before he dies. She’s terrified of speaking to him, but also terrified of not speaking to him. And she has no idea how to tell her children about what happened to her.

2.  You’ve written with such detail and heart about your hometown of Baltimore.  For this book, you’ve taken Eliza to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  How does an author’s choice about location affect the novel as a whole, and why did you decide on this location for I’d Know You Anywhere? 

I am a homebody and I’ve always gravitated to fiction with a strong sense of place. But part of Eliza’s dilemma is that she doesn’t feel at home anywhere in the world. Her family moved in order to grant her greater anonymity, but that well-intentioned change has led to a general feeling of dislocation. She has lived in London and Houston and now D.C., but she’s not really at home in any of those places.

3.  You often find inspiration for your plots in real-life crime stories.  Where did Eliza’s story originate?

There was a serial killer who let one of his victims live. Because that person is still alive and has a somewhat unusual name, I’ve decided to say no more. I got to thinking about the case one day and suddenly thought: Oh my god, what’s it like to be that person?

4.  You and I share a fascination with the frailty of human memory.  How did you get interested in memory?  How has your study of our fallibility as historians and narrators affected your writing, both as a journalist and in fiction?

I used to think I had a great memory. Maybe I did. I got good grades, I was on a quiz team. But a few years ago, my husband told a story he had told many times, and a friend of his shot it down. I think that started my fascination, the idea that someone could have a story that was right, emotionally, but wrong on almost every detail.

Now I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that my memory is bad. But you know what? I think most people my age have bad memories. Perhaps imperfect is a better word. You and I saw each other a week ago. I don’t remember what you were wearing. I can’t even remember your shoes! I can, however, remember what we had for lunch at Coquette in New Orleans back in January. (I had that divine grilled cheese sandwich and you had P&J oysters, which are on my mind because P&J had to close down because of the BP spill.) I have a friend who says she can remember every restaurant meal and WHERE SHE SAT in the restaurant. And it’s not like she goes out to eat only once or twice a year. She’s a foodie.

I will say that I would find it hard to be a journalist again because so much of journalism relies on people’s memories. Bill Bryson has a nice line in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID, about how the memoir is true to his memory. But my memory seems full of blank spaces. I think fiction takes up too much real estate in my head. If you think about it, novelists are living multiple lives. It gets confusing.

5.  You move so successfully between standalones and your Tess Monaghan series (when you’re not writing killer short stories).  When you have an idea for a book, how do you decide whether it’s a Tess novel or a standalone?

A Tess novel is about Tess. That sounds simplistic to the point of being moronic, but while all the Tess books center on a mystery/murder, the real story is what’s happening to Tess. If she can’t be at the center of the book, it can’t be a Tess novel. The idea for Every Secret Thing forced me to confront that notion. I am Tess’s Boswell, for better or worse.

The stand-alones, by contrast, are more idea driven. What are the responsibilities inherent in survival? Does everyone deserve a second chance, a fresh start? Is there a right way to grieve, do we promote closure for the grieving or for ourselves, so we might feel better? Why do girls break each other’s hearts? At what point does a parent’s advocacy for his child cross the line and harm someone else’s child.

6.   You were gracious enough to headline a dinner for the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America last fall.  One of the guests asked you which writers’ careers you would most like to have.  I know you mentioned the uber-talented Megan Abbott among others.  I think many of us would also mention you.  Your writing just gets better and better.  What advice do you have for writers who are just getting started at a time when the publishing industry seems increasingly impatient for early commercial success?

I’m going to be honest: I worry a lot that I am not confronting these issues because the current system is treating me well. There’s a part of me that’s sort of la-la-la, fingers in my ears, I can’t hear you! So maybe I’m not the best person to give advice. That said — how can you go wrong, putting the lion’s share of your writing time, whatever it is, into being a better writer? What do you have to lose by writing the best book you can? Writing a novel is a better gig than digging ditches, but it takes a lot of time. What do you want to have to show for that time? Money? Good luck, and I mean that in the best sense: Good luck, you’ll need it, because luck is a big part of making money in fiction writing. Great reviews? I’ve had great reviews. I’ve had lousy reviews. Neither changed me. The bad reviews hurt more than they should have, the good reviews failed to make me younger and thinner, so what good were they? Awards? For everyone out there salivating to win awards, let me ask you this: Who won the Edgar for Best Novel in 2009? I was there and I can’t remember. (Then again, see bad memory, above. I do remember your Grandmaster tribute. Oh, wait, I just remembered: C.J. Box won. But it took me a while.)

Look, if you don’t HAVE TO write, don’t. Be happy. Go live in the world. But if you want to be a writer, then want to be a writer. Not a millionaire, not someone who’s beloved by strangers, not a guy, like Dan Brown, who can arrive at the airport without his license or passport and grab a copy of his novel to use as ID. Those are all fun things, but they have zilch to do with writing. Write. Write your way. Don’t tell anyone else how to do it and don’t let anyone tell you how to do it.

As for the publishing industry: Whatever shape it takes, professionalism is always valued. Meet deadlines, be nice. It’s amazing how far those two things will take you.

 

See why this fawning fan girl finds such inspiration?

7.  We share a love for good food.  What’s the most ludicrous thing you’ve ever done to partake in a good meal?

A week ago, Mr. Lippman and I finished a meeting in New York City and had to head for home. But, of course, we were going to eat lunch first. I threw out Di Fara, the Brooklyn pizza place that I think might have the best slice in the world. I used the I Want ap on my iPhone, checked the hours, got directions. We drove through hideous traffic only to find it was closed for vacation! And one of Mr. Lippman’s cousins had driven in from Long Island to have lunch with us. So we drove to Totonno’s on Coney Island. It was worth it. To be candid, I was a little bummed we let our cousin have the leftovers. Totonno’s pizza travels really well. A few hours later, we were at the Walt Whitman rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike and I was yearning for that leftover pizza.


Great, now I’m hungry for pizza.  And for yet another Laura Lippman novel.  Learn more about I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE and Laura at her website.  She’s also fun to follow on Facebook.

Please feel free to leave comments for Laura below.

I’m curious: Have you read Laura’s novels?  Which are your favorites?  And what are you reading right now?

Character TV

By Allison Brennan

 

Sometimes, I really hate following Alex. She’s so sharp when it comes to story analysis, that I feel inadequate. And while I’ve seen most of the popular movies, truly, I’m a television addict.

 

It’s true. I love TV. So when I gave it up for three years to write (because I was working full-time, had five kids, and the only time I had to write was in the late evenings) it was a huge sacrifice.

 

But ultimately, it was a sacrifice that not only showed me how much I love television, but made me cognizant of what I watch and appreciate the good shows.

 

My television time is still limited, because writing and the kids come first, and now I will not tolerate commercials, so all TV is viewed either on DVD or my AppleTV. Most shows are 40-45 minutes, so at the end of the evening, when everyone is asleep, after I’ve put in my writing time, I watch an episode of whatever series I’m on.

 

Maybe I don’t write the high-concept big books because I think in terms of episodic television and not two-hour movies. And high-concept movies are, ultimately, about plot. That’s what sells them. The “big idea”, the fear, the universal understanding. Television is about character. Sure, there’s a general structure to the storyline, but television that works (at least for me) is about the characters who tell that story.

 

It’s the same way with books. I like a good, twisty plot, but if the character isn’t there–if I don’t care what happens to them, if I don’t really know them, if they’re not three-dimensional and complex–then I don’t really like the book. I might appreciate the plot or writing, but I won’t love the book.

 

Some of my favorite television shows of late aren’t the popular shows. I don’t watch reality TV, or the singing and dancing shows. I hear about them, I know what’s going on, but I can’t sit and watch them, and I don’t want to DVR them or buy them. I’m just not interested. Few of the shows I watch are on network television. I always thought I had very popular-and populist-taste in modern culture, but maybe I’m just a bit off. After all, after only two seasons network television cancelled one of my all-time favorite shows LIFE, a brilliant story about an LA cop who’s wrongfully convicted of murdering his partner and spends 12 years in prison before his sentence is over-turned and he’s paid $50 million in restitution . . . and given back his old job, which he uses to find out who framed him. Though cancelled, the network let the creators wrap up the show, so it’s worth watching the two seasons. The character study of Detective Charlie Crews is amazing. Hmm, I might need to watch the show again.

 

(Another show that should never have been cancelled was VERONICA MARS, which I believe was on the WB, but I’ve blogged about that before. It’s essentially a modern day, edgy Nancy Drew and was amazing on all levels. It, too, was largely character driven but had the added ingredient of contemporary problems for teens.)

 

So what am I watching now or looking forward to?

 

JUSTIFIED (F/X)

 

The best show of the year. It seemed to be ignored by the awards circuit, but I’ve watched the first season twice. (And I rarely watch re-runs, just like I rarely re-read books.) This fact should tell you that JUSTIFIED is a must-see show. (And not just because Timothy Olyphant stars, though that’s a big plus!)

 

Based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, and from the credits he appears to be involved in production as well, JUSTIFIED tells the story of a US Marshall who, after killing a fugitive in public, is forced to take a position in the US Marshall’s office in his hometown in eastern Kentucky. His ex-wife is there, his criminal father, and his old friends-and enemies.

 

JUSTIFIED would be just another cop show if not for the characters. Raylan Givens, the tortured hero with a lot of skeletons in his closet; his ex-wife Winona who had an affair with a realtor and divorced Raylan (OKAY-I just need to state for the record that I don’t like Winona, and not just because she was an idiot who cheated on her husband-not only her husband, but her sexy cop heroic husband, with a paunchy realtor!-but because she’s a siren, and when she thinks Raylan is falling for someone else, she takes off her wedding ring and . . . well, ’nuff said, you gotta see the show yourself.) Then there’s Ava Crowder, Raylan’s love-interest, who you think at first is a pretty white trash bimbo who killed her abusive husband, but who has more spine and courage than most women and really, she came into her own about halfway through the season until the finale where she really shined. And Boyd Crowder, arguably my favorite character, Raylan’s one-time friend and now a fugitive bank robber, who had an about-face after nearly dying-or did he?

 

The secondary characters are good, primarily in the US Marshall’s office, but they need to be fleshed out more in season two, particularly Jacob Pitts character Tim Gutterson, a veteran sniper who served in Afghanistan. He has a lot of potential. But the show is about Raylan and his past and present colliding.

 

This series has is courage and character and it’s my number one favorite show.

 

WHITE COLLAR (USA Network)

 

Essentially, this is CATCH ME IF YOU CAN if Frank Abagnale, Jr. was a cultured art thief and forger who worked in the field for the FBI after he was convicted. This show was on the skids for me at the beginning, and I’d never have watched the entire first season because the plots were a bit predictable and I didn’t see potential, except I loved the characters. This is a buddy show, with a smart FBI agent Peter Burke (played by Tim DeKay) and a smart con artist/forger Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer.) The stories are hit or miss, but the relationship between this unlikely partnership is terrific. I don’t see this show sticking around more than three seasons (I may be wrong; we’re in the middle of season two) because the conflict isn’t sustainable over time (IMO) but for now, it’s a great character study.

 

THE GLADES (A&E)

 

I didn’t expect to like this show, and honestly, it’s not fantastic, but I find myself compelled to watch it every week when it downloads to my AppleTV. Why? Because of the main character, homicide detective Jim Longworth. Exiled from Chicago after being wrongfully accused of sleeping with his captain’s wife, he thinks he has the easy life in a small Florida town in the Everglades. But of course, murder can happen anywhere! He’s smart, resourceful, sarcastic, and cutting. And he is falling in love with the wife of a convicted felon . . . and she hasn’t filed for divorce.

 

Why is it not fantastic? I don’t know . . . maybe it’s because it’s just five shows. It’s getting more comfortable, and I can’t NOT watch it, I love the character and his quirks and mannerisms. It’s truly a show that works for me because of the actor more than the storylines, because he fits the character so well. So . . . I’ll continuing watching it. I bought the first season, after all!

 

I’ll admit, these aren’t the only television shows I’m watching . . . there’s SUPERNATURAL and THE GATES and LAW & ORDER SVU and RIZZOLI & ISLES and CASTLE (yes, I watch CASTLE, so sue me. Again, character people! Put the bad police procedure aside, because it’s all about the characters. And Nathan Fillion . . . )

 

But these three shows are “off” season, they started mid-season or over the summer, and so they stand out to me.

 

I have BREAKING BAD on my AppleTV and MAD MEN season one on DVD and those will be up next. But when you only watch one episode a night, it takes awhile to get through the backlog. And then there’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, which I’m watching with my daughters and we’ve just started season five . . .

 

What television shows are you enjoying? What shows do you wish were never cancelled? What are you looking forward to the season premiere?  (For me, it’s JUSTIFIED . . . can not WAIT until season two . . . ) 

What is a Big Book?

by Alexandra Sokoloff

A friend of mine did a workshop at the RWA National Conference a couple of weeks ago on the High Concept Premise.   We ended up talking before the workshop about high concept in books and movies, and also about the even more elusive concept of the Big Book.

I was interested to hear that when she polled a number of editors to ask them how they would define a Big Book, while everyone said that the Big Book is the one that everyone is always looking for, no one could give her a specific answer about what exactly it is.   Or even try.   A Big Book is the one all the editors get excited about because they think they can make a ton of money with it.   But what IS that?

I’m used to people being vague about what High Concept is.  And yes, it’s an “I know it when I see it” kind of thing – the idea that is so good that it is painfully obvious, only no one else has thought of it until now.

And as my friend and I were talking, I realized that a Big Book is slightly different from a High Concept book.   They are NOT necessarily interchangeable terms, which is going to make this blog post even more confusing.

But let’s start with High Concept.    This is a Hollywood term.   And very often, it IS what editors mean when they talk about a Big Book.

If you can tell your story in one line and everyone who hears it can see exactly what the movie or book is – AND a majority of people who hear it will want to see it or read it – that’s high concept.   (If you need a refresher on the premise line you can read more here:  What’s Your Premise?).

Here’s another way of looking at it: the potential of the setup is obvious. A movie like MEET THE PARENTS instantly conjures all kinds of disaster scenarios, right? Because we’ve all (mostly) been in the situation before, and we know the extreme perils.

I would also add, not as an afterthought – with a high-concept premise, the moneymaking potential is obvious.

I would also add, because MEET THE PARENTS is a good example of this, that you know what the movie is from the title alone.   (In fact, many movie ideas are sold on the title alone.   I had lunch with an A-list screenwriter friend recently who said that the title might be the most important selling point of any film pitch, these days.)

Here’s another indicator. When you get the reaction: “Wow, I wish I’d thought of that!” or even better, “I’m going to have to kill you” – you’ve got a high-concept premise.

But okay, let’s break it down, specifically. What makes stories high concept? One or more of these things:

– They’re topical – they hit a nerve in society at the right time: FATAL ATTRACTION for AIDS, JURASSIC PARK for cloning, DISCLOSURE for sexual harassment (only reversing the sexes was utter bullshit.)

– They are about a subject that we all have in our heads already (THE PASSION, THE DA VINCI CODE, FOUR CHRISTMASES, JURASSIC PARK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN)

– They exploit a primal fear (JAWS, JURASSIC PARK) or a spiritual fear (THE EXORCIST, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY).

– They are about a situation that we all (or almost all) have experienced (MEET THE PARENTS, THE HANGOVER, BLIND DATE, FOUR CHRISTMASES).

– They are controversial and/or sacrilegious enough to generate press (DA VINCI CODE, THE LAST TEMPTATION, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR)

– They generate water-cooler talk (FATAL ATTRACTION, INDECENT PROPOSAL)

– They have a big twist (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, THE SIXTH SENSE, RUTHLESS PEOPLE, THE CRYING GAME). And not necessarily a twist at the end – the twist can be in the set up. SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is about two people falling in love – when they’ve never met. RUTHLESS PEOPLE is about a group of kidnappers who kidnap a wealthy woman and threaten to kill her if her husband doesn’t pay – which turns out to be her heinous husband’s dream scenario. He WANTS her dead, and now the kidnappers are stuck with a bitch on wheels.

– They are about a famous person or event – or possible event: TITANIC, GALLIPOLI, APOLLO 13, ARMAGEDDON, ROSWELL, 2012, THE HISTORIAN, DA VINCI CODE.

– There’s also just the “Cool!!!” factor. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK revolves around an artifact that supposedly has the supernatural power to will any army undefeatable. Well, what if Hitler got hold of it?

Let’s take a closer look at a few high-concept ideas:

JURASSIC PARK – A group of scientists and the children of an inventor tour a remote island where the inventor has cloned dinosaurs to create a Jurassic amusement park – then have to fight for their lives when the dinosaur containment system breaks down.

What kid has not had that obsession with dinosaurs? And who of us has not had the thought of how terrifying it would be to be face to face with one of those things – live? Throw in the very topical subject of cloning (they get dinosaur DNA from a prehistoric fly trapped in amber) and the promise of amusement-park thrills, and who ISN’T going to read that book and/or see that movie?

Plus, there’s the potential for an amusement park ride.   I’m not kidding.   What made STAR WARS one of the biggest moneymaking franchises of all time?  Action figures.  Light sabers.  Wookie costumes.   Do you think for one single second that Hollywood is not thinking of these things all the time?

FATAL ATTRACTION – A happily married man has a one-night stand and then his family is stalked by the woman he hooked up with.

This film hit a huge number of people in the – uh, gut – because even people who have never had an affair have almost certainly thought about it. Also the film came out when AIDS was rampant, with no effective treatment in sight, and suddenly a one-night stand could literally be fatal. It’s easy to see the potential for some really frightening situations there, as the innocent family is terrorized, and of course we all like to see a good moral comeuppance.

INDECENT PROPOSAL – A young, broke couple on vacation in Vegas are offered a million dollars by a wealthy man for one night with the wife.

This is a great example of the “What would YOU do?” premise. It’s a question that generated all kinds of what the media calls “water cooler discussion”, and made it a must-see movie at the time. Would you have sex with a stranger for a million dollars? Would you let someone you love do it? Oh, boy, did people talk about it!

HARRY POTTER:  A boarding school for wizards?   You don’t even have to say any more about it.   Except that – what kid DOESN’T think that they’re a crown prince/ss wizard or witch trapped in a Muggle family?   (Also, see “amusement park ride” and “action figures”.   Cereal, candy, Halloween costumes… have you seen the EAT PRAY LOVE clothing line, wines, and storage containers at Cost Plus?   I’m just saying…)

Are you starting to get the hang of it?

But with movies, the high concept premise has a couple of incredibly practical considerations.    It suggests a built-in marketing campaign – and it is such a good idea that you could shoot it on a low budget and still have a movie that people would go see.   That doesn’t mean anyone’s GOING to shoot it on a low budget, because we are after all talking about Hollywood.   But you COULD shoot it on a low budget.   It is the idea that is golden.   (Think of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, OPEN WATER – all ultra low budget movies that made mints because the ideas were so compelling and the movies were well enough done to sustain the idea).

A Big Book, however, is almost the opposite.   It’s Big.   Epic.     The HARRY POTTER series, THE HISTORIAN, THE PASSAGE, DA VINCI CODE, THE HUNGER GAMES – these all scream big budget.   Huge setpiece scenes, international or otherworld locations, huge casts.  They have been or all will be made into movies because they are bestsellers and also incredibly cinematic (not to mention in a few cases great books) but without that bestseller thing they are concepts that would give any studio head pause, because of the budget considerations.   But in a book, we have no budget constraints.   We can do the international scope and build a whole other world.   And once that book has proven itself in the book world, Hollywood is more than glad to sweep it up for film or TV production.

So what can we do to start generating more high concept/Big Book ideas for ourselves?

One of the best classes I ever took on screenwriting was SOLELY on premise. Every week we had to come up with three loglines for movie ideas and stand up and read them aloud to the class. We each put a dollar into a pot and the class voted on the best premise of the night, and the winner got the pot. It was highly motivating – I made my first “screenwriting” money that way and I learned worlds about what a premise should be.

Whether you’re a screenwriter or novelist I highly recommend you try the same exercise – make yourself come up with three story ideas a week, and try to make some of them high concept, or Big Books.   You’ll be training yourself to think in terms of big story ideas. You don’t have to sell out. I’m always telling exactly the stories I want to tell, about the people I want to write about.  But there’s no reason not to think in more universal terms and be open to subject matter, locations, themes, topics, that might strike a chord in a bigger audience.

(Also, I hope the brainstorming we’re going to do here today will help.)

The reality is, these days agents and editors and publishers are looking for books that have those unique, universal, high-concept premises, and the attendant potential for a TV or movie sale.

Open your mind to the possibility of high concept, and see what happens. You may surprise yourself.

So I’m really interested in talking more about this today.   Which books do YOU consider Big Books?   What about High Concept – books or movies?    Let’s throw out some examples and analyze what’s going on to make them such successful premises!

– Alex

THE TRAGIC STORY OF NOTHING

 

By Stephen Jay Schwartz

When I think of miracles I think of “Miracle on the Hudson,” which was not a movie or a television mini-series, but an actual real-life event, just a year and a half ago, when 155 people were saved after the captain of U.S. Airways flight 1549 crash-landed their plane into the Hudson River.

Not a life was lost. 

It was an amazing story.  Uplifting, hopeful.  I wondered why I hadn’t seen it emerge as a TV movie or a major motion picture.

And then I remembered my own history in the entertainment industry, and I imagined the pitch meeting that might have occurred after the incident…

 

INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICES/20th CENTURY FOX            DAY

LEW, a gray-haired senior executive, sits in a well-appointed office next to RICHARD, his Vice President of Development.  Posters of classic Hollywood movies adorn the walls.  Lew’s name dominates the credit lines on such films as “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Earthquake,” “The Towering Inferno,” and “Airport.”

JERRY and SANDY, two television producers in their fifties, sit in chairs opposite the execs.  They are well dressed and in full-pitch mode.

                                                        JERRY

            It came as an epiphany, Lew.  I mean, I called Sandy the second I

            saw the footage and I said, “Sandy…Miracle on the Hudson–”

 

                                                       SANDY

            And I said to Jerry, “Everyone survives!”

 

                                                       JERRY

            That’s what she said, Lew, that’s exactly what she said.  And I

            knew we had a hit on our hands. 

 

Lew shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

                                                       LEW

            Jer, how long we known each other?

 

                                                      JERRY

            Christ, Lew, thirty-five years?

 

                                                      LEW

            Remember the fun we had on “Earthquake?”

 

                                                     JERRY

            The best, Lew. 

 

                                                     LEW

            How many people did we kill in that script?

 

                                                    JERRY

            Gosh…dozens.

 

                                                    LEW

            Three hundred twenty-two.

 

                                                   JERRY

            That many, huh?  I think that’s how many bad reviews we got, too.

 

                                                   LEW

            Remember the box office?

 

                                                  JERRY

            We made a lot of money, Lew, we did.

 

                                                  LEW

            How many did we kill on the Poseidon?

 

                                                  JERRY

            Well, that was a finite number, since you can only have so many

            people on a boat to begin with.  It’s not like an earthquake—

 

                                                  LEW

            Six hundred forty, Jer. 

 

                                                  JERRY

            That many?

 

                                                   LEW

            This “Miracle on the Hudson,” …how many people die?

 

                                                   SANDY

            If you’ll allow me to interject here, Lew, I think I know where you’re

            going with this.  See, “Miracle” is the flipside of Poseidon.  Think of

            Jim Cameron’s “Titanic,” think about that kind of box office, right?

            “Miracle” is “Titanic,” except it’s exactly the opposite, see? 

            And “Titanic” made a billion dollars, Lew.  Think about that.

 

                                                     LEW

            So what you’re saying, Sandy, is I can expect to lose a billion

            dollars on “Miracle on the Hudson.”

 

Jerry moves forward in his seat, effectively “cock-blocking” Sandy’s dying pitch.

 

                                                      JERRY

            We’re talking apples and oranges, Lew.  This isn’t a feature film

            here, it’s a movie of the week.  Television has always been the

            place for stories of inspiration and hope.  Like “The Burning

            Bed” or “Raid on Entebbe.”

 

Richard finally speaks up.

 

                                                  RICHARD

            People died in both MOWs.  Entebbe was tragic, innocent civilians

            were shot and killed.

 

                                                  LEW

            That’s it, Jer.  Where’s the tragedy? 

 

                                                 JERRY

            The tragedy?

 

                                                 RICHARD

            The husband burns to death in “The Burning Bed.”  The woman

            kills her husband.  Those kids have to live without a father—

 

                                                 LEW

            What’s the one about that handsome serial killer, ends up eating

            his victims? 

 

                                                 RICHARD

            On the tip of my tongue, Lew.  I can IMDB it if you want.

 

                                                  LEW

            Point is, Jer, you can’t have hope without tragedy.  Where’s the

            tragedy in your “Miracle?”

 

                                                 JERRY

            What have we come to, Lew?  Does every story have to revolve

            around some tragic event?  Don’t we have the responsibility

            to…to—

 

Sandy leans forward, subtly pushing Jerry aside.

 

                                                  SANDY

            There’s huge tragedy in “Miracle on the Hudson.”  The pilot and

            the crewmembers suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for

            months after the crash.  The media swooped in and dissected

            the pilot’s life—they turned him into a hero against his will.

 

                                                  JERRY

            There was a woman on the plane with a baby in her arms, Lew.

            She had to crawl over the seats when the water came rushing in.

            Can you imagine that?  They just crashed into the river, it’s

            freezing in the water–”

 

                                                 SANDY

            Like “Titanic.”

 

                                                 JERRY

            Like “Titanic,” and this woman is screaming and trying to crawl

            over the seats as the water pours in, threatening to drown her little

            baby girl.

 

                                                 LEW

            What happened to that woman, Jer?  What happened to the baby?

 

Uncomfortable BEAT.

 

                                                 SANDY

            Again, I see where you’re going with this, Lew, but—

 

Richard has his iPad in his hands.

 

                                                 RICHARD

            Okay, I’ve got AOL news on line right now, and I’ll read you the

            top three headlines.  “Ten Year Old Kills Father and Stepmother

            with Shotgun he Received on Birthday.”  “Woman Fakes Cancer,

            Bilks Community Out of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars.” 

            “Family of Thirty Drowns on Wedding Cruise to Catalina Island.”

 

                                                   LEW

            I’d watch every one of them.  Although the second pitch is a bit

            weak, since the girl doesn’t really have cancer.

 

                                                  RICHARD

            Sure, but you spin it, have her get something else, Lupus or

            something.  Now she really needs the community she bilked—

 

                                                  LEW

            The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

 

                                                 RICHARD

            Exactly.

 

                                                 LEW

            Can you die from Lupus?

 

                                                RICHARD

            I’ll call Research, have an answer by morning.

 

                                                LEW

            Listen, Jer, it was great seeing you.  I got a four o’clock

            with Arnold and I think it’s going to go long.  He’s looking to

            do a sequel of “Twins.”

 

                                                RICHARD

            God, he’s desperate.

 

                                                LEW

            What else is he gonna do?  He needs work.

 

                                               JERRY

            Lew, I think we really got something here.  A new vision for

            the future.  A world where entertainment isn’t synonymous

            with violence and pain.

 

Lew stands, puts a hand on Jerry’s shoulder.

 

                                               LEW

            I got three words for you, Jer.  P-B-S.

 

Richard smiles, repeats Lew’s comment over and over again, laughing to himself.

 

                                              JERRY

            Lew…

 

                                              LEW

            Say hello to the little lady for me.  We’ll get together for Pesach

            next month.  I’ll have Ethel give her a call.

 

                                                        *    *    *

 

I think I can find PBS on my cable box.  Somewhere in the five hundred channels of chaos and destruction…

 

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS

By Brett Battles

I seldom do interviews here at Murderati. Okay, that’s a lie. I have never done an interview here yet that I can remember. But when I looked at the calendar and saw that a book I really love by a very good friend of mine was coming out this month, I contacted him and asked if he’d like to share some time with us. So today I bring you the immensely talented Tim Hallinan.

Tim writes a series of thrillers set in Bangkok. His main character is Poke Rafferty, a travel writer who has created a new life with a patched together family that have come to mean the world to him. Rose, a former bar girl, is the love of his life, and Miaow, a girl who spent her first several years on the street, is the adopted daughter he will do anything to protect. If you have not picked up one of this books (A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, THE FOURTH WATCHER, BREATHING WATER), you need to do so now. They are, quite simply, outstanding.

Tim’s latest is THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, and it is…well, you’ll quickly see what I think about it. Let’s get started:

THE QUEEN OF PATPONG has just been released. First, congratulations! Now down to business. The book is a very ambitious work in which you’ve done something that many writers would have balked at even trying. The fact that you not only pulled it off, but pulled it off in a way that has helped you create one of the best books of the year (my opinion) is an amazing achievement. Did you ever have any doubts as you were writing this story?  How did you overcome them?

Well, thanks for being so nice about the book, and thanks also for the great blurb. 

 

It’s easy to blurb a book that I love. So…doubts?

 

I was all doubts.  My doubts were so deep-seated that when I turned the book into William Morrow I more than half-expected them to reject it. 

I was worried about two things.  First, and less of an issue, was the way I was screwing with the thriller form.  The first 30,000 words set up a thriller in an efficient way.  Probably gives the reader the expectation that he or she is in for a fast-moving, tightly focused wham-bam story.  A nightmare figure from Rose’s life as a bar girl suddenly materializes, placing the family under physical threat and also revealing up all sorts of emotional fault lines among them: Rose has lied about her past; Miaow, on the verge of becoming a good little bourgois in her fancy school, is horrified that her mother’s life as a prostitute is reasserting itself; and Poke is finding that there are some secrets he may not be able to accept.  So the action intensifies and the emotional conflict comes to a boil and just the family is on the verge of flying apart, Rose sits them down and says she’ll tell them what happened. 

And the reader turns the page expecting the story to continue and instead finds himself or herself in a dusty little Thai village a dozen years or so earlier as an awkwardly tall, tremendously shy teenager named Kwan, which means “Spirit,” spends her last hour in the life she knows, because she’s just about to learn that her father has contracted to sell her into prostitution.  That’s the beginning of the longest section of the book, almost 45,000 words, as Kwan runs away to Bangkok, goes to work in a bar, is befriended and betrayed, and gradually reassembles herself as Rose, the worldly woman whom Poke fell in love with and married, and who quit the bars to be with him and Miaow.  When this section is over, we’ve learned where Rose came from and why she is what she is.

 

That was definitely taking a chance, but it worked out beautifully. In fact, I could have read even more of Rose’s story. And your second worry?

 

In one word, women.  This part of the book takes place in a world of women, and I’ve always been nervous about writing women.  I wrote eight published novels before I had the nerve to put two women in a room without a man present, and that scene was as short as I could possibly make it.  And there I was in QUEEN, not only writing women all over the place, but women at an intimate juncture of their lives.  It’s a story about female friendship and enmity and trials.  The men in the story are mostly customers, faceless, like walking ATMs.  They’re just shadows – the characters are all women.  Scared me to death.  I can’t tell you how many times I almost junked the whole book.

It’s funny.  When I started that section I had no idea how to tell the story – and then, out of nowhere, one character threw a sapphire earring to another.  And the whole story of those earrings came to me as a single piece, and it helped me lead Kwan into this strange new world where she would be merchandise and where everything has a price and where there’s no way to tell what’s real and what’s an imitation.  Writing is the single most interesting process I know of.

One other thing that scared me about this section was that I had to do it right – it couldn’t cheapen what the women go through.  I’m part of a small group that tries to keep at least some girls out of the sex trade by paying their families to maintain them in school rather than selling them down to Bangkok.  The very day I started to write the Rose section, I got a long e-mail with a picture of a 16-year-old girl whose grandmother had been going to sell her until the local school teacher got wind of it and called one of the other people in the group.  And they went up north and had a sort of intervention, and grandma accepted the offer, and the girl is still in school.  The photo broke my heart, and the intervention went straight into the book, where it happens to Rose (or Kwan, as she’s called then).  Knowing what that little girl was almost  put through made it extra-important for me to try to get things right.  And I kept remembering a quote from David Sedaris: “Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it’s just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.”  So I decided that if anyone was going to read this book looking for titillation, I was going to make it very difficult for them to find it.

Anyway, after the long section/novella about Rose, we’re suddenly jolted back into the present and the world of the thriller, through a long action scene that I will say with complete immodesty is the best action scene I ever wrote.

 

This is your forth Poke Rafferty novel – and in my opinion, the best so far (which I seem to have gotten into the habit of saying after each book you finish) – is there anything you set up at the start about Poke, Rose, Miaow and the others that you wish you’d done differently now? If yes, what?

 

No.  In my first series, the Simeon Grist PI mysteries, I wrote Book One, and three weeks later I had a three-book contract.  I was stuck with everything in the first book, including some unsatisfactory relationships and a few crappy ideas.  That series lasted for six books and I kicked myself a dozen times, every time I wrote a new one, about the decisions I’d made in the first.

So before I did anything with the Poke series I wrote a whole novel, Bangkok Tango, just to make sure I’d asked myself all the questions that seem so obvious later.  The mistakes I made in Bangkok Tango surfaced in the second book, A Nail Through the Heart, which was the first one I submitted for publication, and I was able to fix them as they arose.  If I ever write another series, which I doubt I will, I’ll write another “drawer book” first to get the kinks out.

And I’ve cannibalized Bangkok Tango for everything that was good in it.  I feel like one of those guys who rips copper wiring and wooden molding and hardwood flooring out of old buildings.  Poor old Bangkok Tango has been stripped pretty bare. 


Well, it served its purpose. Don’t know if I could write a book knowing ahead of time that it was just going to go into the drawer. But what a great idea. So is there anything you did set up in the books that did come out that has paid off unexpectedly in later novels?

 

You know how it is.  Everything pays off eventually.  Probably most conspicuous is the street kid named Superman who took care of Miaow before the books begin and who’s a main character in the first book, A Nail Through the Heart.   I got hundreds of e-mails asking what happened to him after the end of Nail, and two books later, in Breathing Water, when Poke came up against the most powerful people in Thailand and I wanted to show the other end of the scale – the most powerless people – there Superman was with his army of street kids.  And in The Fourth Watcher, a very shady former CIA guy, Arnold Prettyman, takes Poke to a bar where old spies hang out.  A bunch of those superannuated spooks will be Poke’s main allies in The Fear Artist, which might be the next book. 

Sooner or later, everything seems to come back.


So I guess that semi-answers the what’s next for Poke question…well, sort of. But that brings up a larger view question…since this is a series, I’m wondering if you have an end point in mind? Not so much as the plot of the last novel, but an idea where Poke, Rose and Miaow end up when you’re done. Is this something that you think about? Or maybe you haven’t even let your mind go there yet.

 

I’d like to write this family until Miaow gets married.  And then, who knows?  Maybe I’ll write a much older Poke and Rose, enduring the perils of thrillers and empty-nest syndrome at the same time.  Maybe they’ll split up and Poke will have to deal with being alone.  I have no idea, but I want to stay with them.

One thing I hadn’t realized about the series until I got to the third book was how much attention Miaow was going to require.  Children change all the time.   In four books she’s gone from being a former street child who still can’t believe she has more than one pair of shoes to a burgeoning teen who’s desperate to leave her old identity behind and  be more like the kids in her semi-snotty school.  My God, she’s got a budding boyfriend now, a stuffy little Vietnamese 12-year-old who has no idea what he’s getting into.  As much as I’ve loved everything about writing these books, Miaow has been a total gift of the universe, a joy to write from start to finish.

 

In addition to THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, I understand there are some exciting things happening with your first series, the Simeon Grist books. First can you give those of use who are not familiar with them the quick low-down on what they’re about, and then share what’s going on?

 

Odd you should ask.  This hardly looks prearranged at all. 

Simeon Grist is a Los Angeles private eye with a useless string of UCLA diplomas; he stayed in college because he knew how they graded people in college but he wasn’t so sure how it worked in the outside world.  He finds his vocation by accident when someone throws a friend of his then-girlfriend, Eleanor Chan, off the roof of one of the UCLA residence halls and Simeon solves the case.

There are six books in the series, which one critic called “One of the great lost series of the 90s,” which I guess is a compliment.  They qualified for cult status by getting great reviews and zero sales. 

The first two books series, The Four Last Things and Everything But the Squeal, are now available on Kindle for the – are you sitting down? – amazing price of $2.99.  That’s practically cheaper than free.  And I’m writing Simeon again right now, for the first time in fifteen years, but in a book that’s very different from the first six. 

But if I have a message here, it’s that everyone in the world will approach life differently – be taller, happier, better looking, richer, more popular, sexier, and more like the person in the world they most idolize – if they buy and read The Queen of Patpong.  And I can say that completely impartially.

_____

 

Thanks so much, Tim, for stopping by! Just wanted to tell all of you again how fantastic Tim’s new book is. Seriously, it is stunning, and, as far as I’m concerned, a must read. Tim mentioned above that I provided him a blurb for the book. Here’s what I said:

Queen of Patpong is simply outstanding. Compelling, heart-wrenching, and oh so satisfying. I didn’t think there was any way Tim Hallinan’s Bangkok Thriller series could get any better, but it has. Hallinan has once again proved to me why he is one of my all time favorite authors.

I meant every word of that.

If you have anything you’d like Tim or any comments you’d like to make, go for it! I’m traveling today, so I’ll check in when I can, but Tim will be in and out. Otherwise you can learn more at Tim’s website.

Blank

by Rob Gregory Browne

Stop reading this post right now.

I mean it.

Okay—wait, not yet. Because I have something important to tell you before you do. I want you to learn from my mistake, you see. I want you to understand what I went through one panic-filled day not long ago, in hopes that you won’t ever in your sweet life have to go through it yourselves.

So don’t stop just yet. But when I’m done here, you’d better do exactly what I’ve told you. Because you may not get a second chance.

He’s being cryptic again. I friggin’ hate it when he’s cryptic.

Here’s the story:

It started on a nice summer morning. The air was chilly, but not cold, at least where I live. I sat down to work on my latest manuscript—which I’d made significant progress on—and when I opened the file…

…it was blank.

Wait a minute—did he say blank??

Yes, you read that right.

Completely, utterly blank.

Now, I have no idea how the hell it got that way. It wasn’t as if I’d gotten drunk and erased the entire manuscript before saving it. I can only assume it was a glitch in the software that somehow corrupted the file and wiped away every single word I had spent god knows how long writing.

I didn’t panic, however. Because, hey, I’m not stupid or crazy. I always back up my files. I was using something called Windows Live Sync, which is a great little free program that uses the Internet to sync whatever files you choose to all of your computers.

I have five computers and at least three going at any given time, and they had all been set up with Windows Live Sync—even my Mac. So that’s a good thing, right?

Well, not really.

See, the thing synchronizes your files every time you change them.  So when whatever happened happened, rendering my manuscript blank, the blank copy was synchronized and every single computer had that same corrupted file.

Blank.

But it still wasn’t time to panic.  Because, folks, I really do have a brain, and I also used another backup system called Mozy.  

Mozy backs up any files you choose to their online servers.  It’s a free service up to 2 gigabytes of data, and I highly recommend them.

I set Mozy up to only do backups when I told it to.  And apparently I told it to backup the file right after it got corrupted. 

So guess what?  The file I restored was… you guess it—

—blank.

This is around about the time that tiny little knot in my stomach became a giant fucking lump in my throat. Because, folks, I had just lost a crapload of work.  

Many thousands of words.

Gone.  Completely.  Vanished.  

And I did not, did not, did not—oh my FUCKING GOD—have a back up.

What I had was a blank screen.  A very, very blank screen. And the moment I realized I now had to start writing my book over—completely from scratch—I thought I would cry.

Did I make that clear?  COMPLETELY FROM SCRATCH.

Now I know I’m blaming computer error here.  Because, after all, I had backed up to the cloud and to all of my computers.  I did what I was supposed to do.

But the one thing I hadn’t done that I always do, is email myself a copy.  I don’t know why I didn’t, but I didn’t.  And if I had, I would have had my manuscript back.  Simple as that.

But my manuscript was gone.  Along with all of the great scenes I’d written.  All the the brilliant scenes and pithy dialogue (see, I could think that because I couldn’t read the thing to find out if I was deluding myself).

So now my job was to start at the beginning and see if I could recreate the magic.

A word of advice:  never try to recreate the magic.  Never sit there and try to remember all the witty shit you wrote, because you won’t remember it, or even if you do, it won’t be quite the same, have that same snap. It’ll just lay there on the page looking like the stalest, most awful crap you’ve ever in your life written.

Why?

Because you can’t recreate the magic.  At least I can’t.  Your mileage may vary.

I worked a full eight hours and guess how much I managed to write?

Two paragraphs.  Two really lousy paragraphs.

Needless to say, I was feeling a little depressed.  And I seriously considered just giving up on the book, because…

Why oh why didn’t I email myself a copy?  Why why why????

I got all kinds of sympathy from my friends.  And I appreciated that.  I got people telling me they were horrified when they heard what happened and I’m not surprised.  Because what happened to me is, frankly, every writer’s nightmare.

In addition to writing those two lousy paragraphs, I also spent the day running hard disk restoration software, scouring my hard drives looking for remnants of the erased file.  I was ready to pay a lot of money to purchase that software if it actually found anything.  But it didn’t.  Neither did the other demo I tried.

I had to finally face facts that the file was gone and gone forever.  So back to those two lonely paragraphs I went.

But then, late that night, I thought, why don’t I go back to Mozy and try to restore one more time.  This time I decided not to restore on my desktop.  I went directly to my login on their site to see if I could restore it there. Chances were pretty good that it would be the same blank file, but I figured one last try wouldn’t hurt.

I then learned something about Mozy that I hadn’t realized.  Not only do they back up your files, they don’t overwrite the previous day’s copy.  And there, sitting on their server, was a copy of my manuscript which I had backed up the morning before!

Oh my God.  I couldn’t believe it.  I quickly restored the thing, opened it up and lo and behold, I’d only lost the previous day’s work—seventeen pages.

Seventeen pages!!!!

Any other time I would have been very depressed about losing so many pages, but when I saw that decidedly not blank file, I started jumping for joy.  Literally.

Okay.  So now we get to the lecture part of this post:

Always back up your files.  Don’t rely on your memory to do it, make sure you have an automated system. Make sure you not only back up to another drive, but another computer, a thumb drive, an online server, two or three different online servers.

Because you can never have enough backups.  And to avoid what I went through with all of the back ups I had, make sure you use software that creates a new dated and timed copy every time it runs a task.  You may wind up with hundreds of copies of your manuscript, but believe me, that’s better than none.

Here’s what I now use, all which are FREE:

1. JaBack.  A brilliant piece of software that allows you to create thousands of tasks and run them automatically.  JaBack sends date/timed copies of my manuscript every hour into—

2.  My Dropbox folder (thank you, Toni).  Dropbox regularly backs up all of those copies to its server and shares them with my other computers.  I also use—

3.  Mozy, as mentioned above.  Mozy does its thing a couple times a day.  And—

4.  Since I’m extremely paranoid, I also use SpiderOak, another online service, and—

5.  I still email myself a copy every day.  I created a special macro for my word processor that I simply have to click and it sends my manuscript as an attachment to my google account.  I use gmail because it stores all of those attachments on its server and not on my computer.

I think I’m pretty safe now.  The worst that could happen is that I lose a day’s work again, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Okay.  If you made it this far, it’s time for you to go now and start backing up your data.  Don’t put it off until later.  Do it NOW.  Seriously.

Because the last thing you want to find yourself facing is a blank page.

——-

In today’s comment section (come back after you’ve done your thing):  Tell us all about your data disaster! 

Why dead women sell books

I know this topic has been discussed before, most recently in the thoughtful blog post by our own Louise Ure.  Last year, debate raged when one book reviewer decried the overwhelming number of female victims in crime novels, accusing authors and publishers of blatant exploitation of women’s suffering.  This provoked Val McDermid’s able response. 

No one has contested the fact that, yes, crime novels do have an overwhelming number of female victims.  Or that such novels are popular.  Or that book covers with women’s bodies (alive or dead) seem to attract readers.  Charges have been flying that we authors, male and female, are guilty of misogyny and should be ashamed of ourselves.  Women crime authors are singled out as traitors to our gender, and male authors are accused of being sexist pigs.

But no one has really stopped to ask the question: Why do these books sell so well? Why do so many fem-jep books make it onto bestseller lists?  Where are all the bestselling guy-jep books?  Since the majority of fiction readers are women, why do so many women buy books in which women figure as victims?

I confess, I’m one of those readers.  When I choose a thriller novel for vacation reading, if the killer is targeting big strong guys, I’m just not interested in the story.  But if the killer is hunting for women, I am much more likely to plunk down my cash for that book.  Does that make me a sorry excuse for a feminist?  

For years, I’ve pondered the popularity of these books, ever since a reader told me that she only reads serial killer books where the victims are women.  “What if the victims are male?” I asked her.  “Oh, I don’t care about those,” she said.  She’s not the only reader who’s told me this; again and again, I hear women readers tell me that they’re most attracted to stories in which women are threatened, women are victimized.  

That preference for fictional female victims carries over into my own writing. More than once, I have started work on a novel where the victim is male — only to realize the story isn’t working for me.  The first draft of VANISH, for instance, kicked off with a “dead” man who wakes up in a body bag and spends half the book fighting for his life.  I wrote about a third of that book, at which point my interest petered out and I got a massive case of writer’s block.  I just didn’t care what happened next.  I stopped writing for two weeks, went on a long drive, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration: why not make that man a woman?  A woman who’s fighting for her life, a woman who’s a victim?

The book instantly came alive for me because I could understand her fear, her desperation, and how the odds were stacked against her.  I could identify with her.  But only because she was a woman.

And that, I think, is what makes the female victim such a powerful element in a thriller novel. Women make up the bulk of the reading public, and these women don’t identify with the hero or the villain.  They identify with the victim.

It’s a phenomenon you see in children’s scary books as well.  Kids love to read books in which kids are in jeopardy, kids are potential victims.  But an adult in jeopardy? Eh, not so interesting to them.  Does their preference for kid-jep books make kids masochists?  Do the authors of such novels secretly hate kids? Or are both authors and readers tapping into a deep psychological vein that makes these stories so compelling?

I don’t think this psychology is true for adult male readers, whom I suspect are more likely to identify with the hero.  There certainly are a lot of James Bond-type novels out there, so I suspect that men prefer thrillers where men are battling other men.  

But for women and kids, the world can look like a scary place, and we’ve learned to pay attention to the things that can harm us.  Take a look at where the kids congregate at the aquarium: the shark tank.  Or in the zoo: at the snake house or the lions and tigers.  As a species, our survival depended on our knowing and understanding the creatures that can harm us, and that’s what kids at the zoo are doing.  Studying the creatures that can eat them.  Women readers who prefer books about female victims aren’t victim wannabes; we’re behaving like those kids in the zoo, confronting our fears. We are placing themselves in the role of victim, and mentally rehearsing what we would do to survive.  But that fantasy can’t happen if we’re unable to imagine ourselves in the victim’s role.