Category Archives: JT Ellison

How Do You Write A Novel?

JT Ellison

It’s a good question, isn’t it? One I’ve been asked more times than I can count, sometimes with genuine curiosity, sometimes with a sneering edge of "I can do that, you’re nothing special," sometimes with an air of absolute incredulity from a reader who gets it. More often than not, and remember, I’m talking about people who don’t read regularly, I get asked these questions with a sense of dismissal.

There is an overwhelming misapprehension among laypeople about publishing in general, about writing, about the realities writers face. People assume that you dash off one hundred pages and a publishing house says cool, we’re going to publish your book, and two weeks later it’s on the shelf. Oh, that would be nice, wouldn’t it?

So the reality — the years of work, blood, sweat and tears that go into a novel, the marketing and promotion, the Internet presence prior to landing an agent, or a publisher — all that is lost on people who think books grow from the grocery shelves like so much hamburger or broccoli.

But how do you write a novel? How do you make the jump from fiddling with words, putting them in order, maybe even writing some poetry or short stories, to building a salable story, developing characters and plots, writing hundreds of pages of coherent prose that will be worthy of a cover?

I’ve been thinking about this lately. (As usual, I’ve been exposed to something new and I’m making sense of it, in my way.) The first was Stephen King’s ON WRITING, so highly recommended by Mr. Guyot some weeks back. The second was a comment made by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Both of these fantastic authors obviously have THE SECRET figured out, and do a great job explaining it.

Julia was speaking to our local chapter of Sisters in Crime and was being grilled by the audience, made up of mostly writers that night. The inevitable question of where do you get your ideas was put forth, and I settled back, fascinated, as I always am, to hear the answer. No doubt you’ve noticed that no two authors can give you the same answer. Some dream, some plot, some are struck by things they see on their morning walk, some just have wild, creative minds. It wasn’t the idea answer that captured my attention, it was what she followed with. The ooga-ooga.

We all have ideas. We all have the facilities to turn those ideas into stories. But HOW do we do it? Yes, yes, we sit at the computer and write them down. We’re disciplined, and work hard. We know the rules, we understand the grammar and punctuation, know how to spell and use dialogue tags. But can we really explain HOW we turn that knowledge into a novel?

Julia calls it the ooga-ooga. I had a vision of cannibals standing over a cauldron, sharpened bones piercing their lips, tossing various bits of vegetable matter into the stew, a dash of pepper, a pinch of salt — Ooga-Ooga, dinner’s ready. And I felt every constraint I’ve ever been saddled with disappear. Oh, you mean we’re allowed to admit that there might be an element of writing we can’t explain? That it’s not wrong to look at our extraordinary ability to manipulate words as a gift? As Julia pointed out, could Beethoven explain how the notes came together in his head? 

I was trying to explain this to a new friend at a party this past weekend. At a loss and knowing ooga-ooga wasn’t going to cut it, I fell back on another analogy I’ve used. Do you cook from a recipe or from scratch? Have you ever watched a cook who uses recipes as a suggested guideline? They season to taste. They toss in the pepper and salt, oregano and onion, garlic and basil, stir, add, taste, stir, add, taste until their face takes on that triumphant glow. It’s perfect. Can they tell you what ingredients to use? Yes. Can they tell you how just one extra dash of oregano and a pinch of salt makes it perfect? Well, yes, they can tell you, but you need to taste the finished product to understand.

That is how I write a novel. I build the story with words, toss in the spices, and season it to taste. I can’t necessarily explain HOW that happens, but I know when it’s ready to be read, just as a master chef knows when it’s time to turn off the heat and serve their dish.

In ON WRITING, King says:

"At its most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style . . . but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we’re also talking about magic."

Magic. Ooga-Ooga. Call it what you will.

King also gave permission to do all the reading and writing my little heart desires. Of late, I’ve been up to my ears in the Internet — promotion, web sites, groups blogging, reading blogs, reading list serves, keeping up with sales and tracking books, MySpace and now Crimespace — and I feel like my writing, and reading, are suffering because of it. This break couldn’t have come at a better time. Last year, when I was in heavy book mode, I shut off my lists, didn’t play on email, and got the work done. I was happy when hubby got home from work because I’d accomplished so much each day. I’m about to go into that mode again. So if you don’t see me around as much, it’s nothing personal. I’ll be doing my blog here, but the rest of the time I’ll be focused on my writing, and catching up on reading. That’s how I write a novel. With a little ooga-ooga on the side.

Wine of the Week: Let’s do a 2003 Clos de L’Obac, a nice Spanish blend of granacha and cabernet sauvignon, with some syrah, merlot and carinena. Yum!

The Great Character Co-opt

JT Ellisoncoming to you from a beachside tavern in sunny central Florida…

I’m away this week, celebrating a most blessed event. My parents have been married fifty years today. FIFTY years! Can you imagine being with the same person for the vast majority of your life? (I can, but I’m lucky.) What an amazing example they’ve been to me, both in life and in love. Thanks, guys!

I love creating characters. They come from within and without. Today I’d like to talk about the characters that are inspired by people you may meet — the ones with personalities, looks, language abilities (or lack thereof), even smells — the strangers who flit through our lives. How many have you come across who are so striking you feel compelled to co-opt them directly into your manuscript?

Simon had a great post a while back about people’s hidden superpowers. I said at the time that I had none. Since I’ve had time to think more about it, I realize that my secret superpower is to be in situations where strangers feel it necessary to share their innermost secrets with me. I also seem to attract people very different from myself. I’ve always seen that as a blessing. Now that I’m writing full time, it’s a bit deeper than that.

I’ve had two of these run-ins this week alone. It got me thinking about the effect these chance meetings have on my writing, and the simple fact is I co-opt these people, fictionalize them and slap them into my books or shorts.

The first was a woman, late forties, bleached blond hair in a Farrah flip, lots of make-up. That was my first impression. I watched her stand in front of a mirror, a large make-up bag at the ready, reapplying another layer of foundation. She moved on to her lips, then refreshed her eyeshadow and mascara. She turned to me and I thought she looked a bit like a Kewpie doll, all dressed up and nowhere to go.

I was getting a pedi, in preparation for this trip. She came and sat next to me, shoulders slumped. She dunked her feet into the water and I noticed her wedding band, on her third finger. I saw the veins running under her nearly translucent skin, blue and sluggish, and realized she was terribly thin. And pale. She spoke in a whisper, telling the tech that she’d just left the hospital. There was a problem with her heart. They didn’t know what it was. She talked about the tests, the uncertainty, how very alone she felt.

She was in the shop the entire time I was there, and I overheard most of her story. Her husband was cheating on her and had just filed for divorce. A sister was dumping problems on her which seemed like minutiae compared with possible congestive heart failure. She felt taken advantage of by everyone in her life, was complaining bitterly about how bad things were. I started to wonder if perhaps she just had a broken heart, a real live broken heart.

Snip. She went directly into the mental tertiary database.

The second was as disturbing, but in a different way. Hubby and I went out to breakfast on Sunday. Our usual spot had a long line, so we went to a different place, a same name chain store two exits up the highway. We took a seat at the counter, ordered our cheesy eggs, and I started looking around. The non-smoking section was made up of an amalgamation of typical middle Tennessee — a middle aged woman in capris, with a Coach bag and fine highlights; an interior designer meeting with a client; two young couples: one with two adorable little boys dressed in madras pants and polo shirts with the collar up, the other childless, faces pinched at the noise.

The smoking section was more ethnically oriented, with several Hispanics and African-Americans sitting along a low counter. Smack dab in the middle of the line-up was a skinhead and his woman. And I’m not talking about some wanna-be young kid trying to look cool, this guy was the real deal — Aryan Nation, prison tats all over him, two giant swastikas on his neck, and a "White Power" T-shirt. And he was yapping. Loudly. Rudely. Enough that the poor African-American waitress behind the counter burned four waffles in a row because she was blinded by tears at the outrageous goings-on. The rest of the folks gamely ignored him, and left quickly. There was one man, with a doo-rag and tattoos so thick on each arm that no flesh showed, sitting with his son, who engaged in a friendly battle of intellectualism with this asshole, but the rest of us sat stiffly, not knowing what to do. To be perfectly honest, I wanted to go tell the skinhead what a jerk he was, but I was afraid. My God, this guy could snap my neck with a single hand. And isn’t that where the problem lies? They can have power, and control, through intimidation alone. What kind of power is that?

But when I put him in the book, and create a scenario around him, my tough as nails cop can engage him. Physically. I’m looking forward to meting out some fictional justice in honor of the innocent people sharing my brunch. Maybe I’ll dissect what made him who he is, how he came to be on that path, search for a reason. Maybe I’ll let him be a stereotype; that’s certainly how I reacted to him in person. Hmm. Maybe I’ll be the one with the power in the end.

I can’t help but steal these strange souls for my tertiary characters. I don’t know who influenced me, but I’ve always felt that it’s vital to a story to make every character count. If they are going to exist in my pages, they need to have worth, big or small. Characters can be drawn with simple strokes or complex explanations. I do a little of both depending on what the scenario calls for.

Do you have a favorite ripped from real life character? And if you’re a reader, what makes these sometimes nameless characters sing for you?

Wine of the Week: Layer Cake Shiraz

From the back of the bottle, a sentiment so fitting for this post — "My old grandfather made and enjoyed wine for 80 years. He told me the soil in which the vines lived were a layer cake. He said the wine, if properly made, was like a great layer cake, fruit, mocha and chocolate, hints of spice and rich, always rich…" A. Orlando

May all your stories and characters be layer cake! And please join me in congratulating New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman on her first NYT slot (whoot! whoot! whoot!) and fellow debut author Kristy Kiernan, whose brilliant first novel CATCHING GENIUS just went into a second printing, a mere two weeks after its release! (Triple whoots to you too!) Seems I remember predicting people might like that one…

Beware the Ides of March…

JT Ellison

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

It’s in the air. Can’t you feel it? The pervasive grumpiness, the short tempers, the unkind thoughts, words and deeds. It’s everywhere, this unsettled, speculative funk. It creeps under doors in the middle of the night, infusing its victims with an overwhelming urge to scream, to lash out at their friends and foes alike. And it breeds. Yes, it’s that time of year again. One imagines Ceaser might have heeded the warning had he been a scribe rather than a king.

Winter lasts a few weeks too long when you’re a writer.

I know what happens to me when I’m not getting my proper allotment of daylight. I get cranky. And snappish. And when I’m under stress, which I have been quite a bit lately (go figure) I turn into the wild woman of Borneo, replete in my frustration, tearing my hair out at the slightest provocation. This is not me. It isn’t my personality. And from what I know of the rest of the crime fiction microcosm I call home, it isn’t a normal state for any of you, either.

Now someone on high decided it would be a good idea to move the clocks around early, which means I’m doubly frustrated because my body tells me it’s a different time than the clock, and I’m all kinds of screwed up on my schedule. Grr.

There is a cure. Well, there are a couple of cures. One would be to stop going to list serves and blogs, quit reading email, stop the paper for a few weeks, turn off the televisions, cocoon in our little holes, not having contact with anyone or anything until the days are longer, the vitamin D deficiencies are restored, and people can be nice again.

Or, you can join a basketball pool. That’s right. It’s that time of year again. MARCH MADNESS is here!!!!!!

                        20060121insidelofton_2

The brackets save me. Every year, just when I’m starting to think winter will never end and my husband is about to wring my neck, I get the email from my bracket manager telling me it’s time. Woo-hoo!!! I’m generally not a betting person, but I’ve won big in the pool before, and am completely hooked. I do two brackets each year, one of reasonable chance, and one wildcard, with the 13 seeds moving into the Sweet 16, major upsets, and other unlikelihoods. Last year, my wildcard bracket got me further than my mainstream, and I had a chance at taking the whole thing until Florida made it to the Final Four. Whoops, I just thought of a very ungracious word to call them.

My spirits are rising as I write this, because I know once I’m finished here, and I do my 1,000 words for the day, I get to sit down with laptop, ESPN, the newspaper and my gut, and start making choices so I can turn my brackets in.

This is the exercise that works to drag me out of the winter doldrums. What do you do to call a moratorium on grumpiness??? Is it too early to start hoping for a little sweetness and light?

Wine of the Week: Francis Coppola Diamond Series Merlot

I’d tasted this at a festival and wasn’t thrilled. Had it alone the other night at the hockey game and loved it. Apparently my tastebuds are in betrayal mode.

——-

Late breaking update:

The brackets are submitted and I’ve taken few chances this year. Florida takes it all on sheet 1, Georgetown on sheet 2. If either of them lose early, don’t blame me.

The Origins of the Species

JT Ellison

Toni Causey had an excellent blog about fear on Killer Year, and at the end, she broached a
question. What’s the first book you
ever read that made you want to keep reading? That made you realize that yes,
this is a way of interacting with the world, of learning about it or
finding someone similar, and you became a reader for life?

I’ve been dreading this question. The truth is, I don’t
know. I can’t remember. All I know is I’ve always, always read, always written,
and somewhere deep inside my conscience, always knew I’d be a writer one day. So
I thought I’d try to trace it out, see if I can find my way back to the moment.

There are certainly books that I recall affecting me so
strongly that it ultimately shaped my childhood.

The first book I remember having an impact was THE THORN
BIRDS. Damn Colleen McCullough. Maggie’s daughter gets lice, and my mom used to tell me that if I didn’t
let her brush my hair, I was going to get lice too. I couldn’t have been more than
six or seven (yes, I read much too weighty tomes early.) I forced my mother to
cut my hair. My gorgeous white blond waist length hair. Arghhh. So I guess on
some level I knew how powerful storytelling could be.

The second that really stands out is Peter Straub’s GHOST
STORY. Pardon my French, but it scared the living shit out of me. I couldn’t
comfortably go to the bathroom by myself for months. I was about nine or ten then, because
we’d moved into the new house on Apache Drive. (That’s partly how I track these
pieces of memories – where they happened is the only way I can figure when it
happened.)

I know I read all the typical books a budding female reader
goes through – Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Dr. Spock (because
honestly, who didn’t), Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Aesop’s Fables, anything on
mythology, C.S. Lewis’s brilliant series The Chronicles of Narnia, Madeline L’Engle,
Jack London, Tolkien — I could go on and on. I read everything I could get my hands on,
whether my parents said it was okay or not. I actually don’t ever remember my
mother taking a book from me and saying no, you can’t read that. God bless her
for that.

So, interspersed with Judy Blume’s ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S
ME, MARGARET and FOREVER, I was reading the grown-up books. When I was eleven
one came out that changed me. Jean M. Auel’s CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR.

It was by far the most complex and far-reaching book I’d
read. At eleven, conceptualizing a young woman your age who is the link between
you and your pre-historic past can get a little heady. But there was more. Midway through, Ayla is raped by Broud, son
of the leader of the clan. Brutally beaten and raped.

I was outraged for Ayla. She was my hero, and she’d been
demeaned and used. Plotwise, it’s an inevitable situation. Reading the story as
an adult, as a writer, Auel’s intent is clear. But as a child, precocious as I
may have been, the inequity was nearly insurmountable. I hated Broud, cried
when Ayla found herself pregnant with a mixed breed child. As the book drew to
a close, I seethed and brooded. “It’s just a story,” my mother told me. Just a
story indeed.

Twenty-six years later, as I puzzle may way through my
inceptions as a reader and a writer, I wonder if this is the moment I’ve been searching for.
Have I found my Pygmalion? Is this the genesis of my love for crime fiction? And more importantly, is
this why I write serial killers?

I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure. My journey for
self-awareness will continue.

How about you? Can you pinpoint the book that solidified
your journey, made you a reader, or a writer?

Wine of the Week: Zenato Ripasso Valpolicella 

Reminded me of a nice Pinot Noir, actually, smooth and deceptively simple.

————–

NEW… NEW… NEW… Daniel Hatadi Creates A Virtual Bar For Crime Writers and Readers!

CRIMESPACE on the Ning Social Network

A place for crime fiction writers, readers and lovers to schmooze,
booze and draw up plans for the heist to end all heists. Find new
authors to delve into and discuss the latest in crime fiction. Join up
and enter the forums. Share photos, videos and make some friends.

Pull up a chair at the bar and share your poison.

 

Neil Nyren — No Longer a Man of Mystery

JT Ellison

It is my great honor and privilege to welcome legendary
editor Neil Nyren to Murderati. Neil kindly agreed to be accosted by my
keyboard for an interview, and I’m delighted he was willing to partake. First,
a little background for the uninitiated.

Neil S.
Nyren is senior vice president, publisher and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s
Sons.
He came to Putnam in 1984 from Atheneum, where he was Executive
Editor. Before that he held editorial positions at Random House and Arbor
House. Some of his authors include
Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John
Sandford, Dave Barry, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Randy Wayne White, Carol
O’Connell, James O. Born, Patricia Cornwell and Frederick Forsyth; nonfiction
by Bob Schieffer, Maureen Dowd, John McEnroe, Linda Ellerbee, Jeff Greenfield,
Charles Kuralt, Secretary of State James Baker III, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Sara
Nelson, and Generals Fred Franks, Chuck Horner, Carl Stiner and Tony Zinni.

And now, on with the show!

You edit so many of my favorite fiction authors – John
Sandford (Lucas Davenport), Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon), James O. Born (Jim
Tasker), Carol O’Connell (Kathy Mallory) and several writer that any reader of
fiction would recognize (Clive Cussler, W.E.B. Griffin, some guy named Tom Clancy.)
Let’s talk about the crime fiction authors first. Each writer brings unique
stories and characters to the crime universe. What attracts you to the
characters in these novels?

In many ways, this question is related to #7, what I look
for in a new writer, so I’m going to combine them.

Whenever I get a new ms,
here’s what I want to see: 1) Something different, a situation or character or
voice that I haven’t seen hundreds of times before (or if they are familiar
types, presented so damn well that I can’t resist them); 2) A sure command from
the very first page – I want to feel immediately that the author knows what he
or she is doing – if it’s wobbly, I’m just going to move on to another
manuscript; 3) Something extra. This is hard to describe, because you only know
it when you see it, but for me it’s a special intensity, a fierceness or
passion that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

After all that, I’m interested in who the author is, because
if the author has something about him or her that’ll help us gain attention for
the book, give us a leg up amidst the sea of new fiction pouring out, then
that’s helpful.

With Jim Born, I liked the first book, Walking Money, not only because it had a great voice, a
well-executed plot, and a nice collection of quirky characters, but because his
hero was in the FDLE and Jim was in the FDLE, and that guaranteed not only
authenticity, but some leverage for getting attention once the book came out –
which was exactly what happened.

With Sandford, not only was the first book, Rules of Prey, truly electric, but I
loved the dangerousness of Davenport, the sense that he might do anything to
achieve justice. The same was true of Mallory in Carol O’Connell’s Mallory’s Oracle. Carol’s style is so
unique and her heroine so unpredictable that I definitely felt those hairs on
the back of my neck. I immediately called the people selling it – which
happened not to be an agent but Random House UK (how a NYC author came to be
first published and represented by a British publisher is a whole other story)
– and said, “I want this. What will it take to pre-empt it?” And with Daniel
Silva – well, you don’t get as complex a character as Gabriel Allon that often
in suspense fiction, and he has only become more so with each book.

And the blockbuster thrillers? Are you swept away by the
action or interested in the detail?

Action or detail? The answer is both – I want to get
swept away, get the adrenalin pumping, and that’s what the best thriller
writers do so well. They don’t give you time to hesitate – you have to keep turning the pages. I often
think of the writer and the reader at opposite ends of a rope, and the writer
is pulling the reader forward,
steadily, inexorably, not letting the rope slack or the pace sag, until the reader
ends up, exhausted but happy, at the last page.

I also like the thriller writer to create his own universe,
if appropriate, and invite the reader into it. That’s always been one of
Clancy’s secrets – he brings the reader into his world, makes him feel he’s
learning things no one else can tell him, whether it’s about technology or
geopolitics or the way institutions think and act. Cussler does the same thing
in a different way. He digs deep into history and technology, then transforms
them into complicated interlocking what-if storylines and setpieces.

Redemption is a strong theme throughout many of the books
you edit. Do you think it’s vital for a series character to grow and change?
How many iconic characters like Jack Reacher, who are who they are and don’t
“grow,” can crime fiction afford?

Readers love to follow their favorite characters through a
series and watch them evolve – we feel a kind of ownership of them. But that
doesn’t mean that all heroes have to
evolve. Travis McGee never changed one inch, but we loved him all the same – in
fact, it was sometimes a comfort that he was always the same man.
Contradictory? Nope. Just means we like all kinds of characters. How many Jack
Reachers can crime fiction afford? As many good ones as we can get!

You’ve seen some changes in the publishing industry
during your career. What are the best and worst trends you’ve witnessed?

A lot to comment on here, but I’ll just choose one, which
has been both good and bad. The independent stores are being increasingly
squeezed by the chains and price clubs and the internet, and that’s an enormous
shame, because there’s nothing like a well-run independent. You go into
Poisoned Pen or Black Orchid, and tell Barbara or Bonnie what you like and they
load you up with new writers they think might be up your alley, and it’s just a
joy. On the other hand, books are now available literally everywhere. Hundreds
of towns have bookstores now that never used to, or you can sit at home and
order whatever you want whenever you want. The ease and availability of
bookbuying now is unprecedented – and that has to be good.

As a sort of corollary, someone’s always writing in some
newspaper or magazine about publishing being in a crisis. Big publishers
consolidating and blockbusters dominating the industry and enough scary stuff
to make writers want to turn their PCs into planters. The vision is being
promoted of a handful of publishers
selling a handful of commercial books to a handful of accounts, and that’s the
future of publishing. But I don’t buy it. There’s a bunch of reasons why – but
that’s a whole other rant. Maybe some other time!

Is there a white whale in your background – the book that
got away?

No editor worth his or her salt doesn’t have a story like
this, a book that didn’t interest him enough and it went on to success
elsewhere. There’s a flip side, too, though – most of us have books that others
weren’t crazy about and that we published successfully. It’s all in the gut
reaction – you feel an affinity or you don’t. And if you don’t, then you have
no business messing with it.

Two stories, one on each side of the fence. Many years ago,
at a different publisher, I received a ms that, if I remember rightly, was
already on its second agent. I thought there was definitely something there – I
especially felt that intensity I mentioned before– but I was the only one
in-house who liked it. My boss said I could make a small offer, though. It
wasn’t enough for the agent, and I said I understood – that if he couldn’t get
what he was looking for, he was welcome to come back to me. Some weeks later,
he called and said, “That offer still open?” The title was Shrunken Heads, which we changed to When the Bough Breaks, and it was the first Alex Delaware novel by
Jonathan Kellerman.

Also many, many years ago: I received a legal thriller,
which had already been sold to Hollywood, though that and a token, as we used
to say, got you on the subway. The author had one other book to his credit,
which had done nothing. I thought the book was okay, but I wasn’t nuts about
it, and a couple of other readers felt more or less the same. We decided that
if we didn’t feel we had to have it,
then we shouldn’t get involved. Doubleday felt differently, however – and the
book was The Firm.

So there you go.

At the risk of growing your submissions pile, what do you
look for in a new writer?

See #1.

You do a great deal of non-fiction work as well. What
makes a non-fiction title a success?

Depends on what your definition of success is (just as with
fiction). You always hope to make a profit, of course – that’s one. But there’s always a great satisfaction in a
book that makes noise, that reaches an audience, that creates some excitement
or fills a need. I published a memoir this January titled The Birthday Party. It was written by a one-time federal prosecutor
who was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan, and what happened during his
bizarre, terrifying, and sometimes downright Tarantino-esque captivity. It was
a project very dear to the author’s heart, for obvious reasons, and he’d spent
many years getting it right. When it was published, he got tons of local media,
and then the New York Times gave it a rave, and he graduated to nationals like
NPR and CNN. The New Yorker wrote him up in “Talk of the Town.” United Artists
bought the movie rights. He’s on top of the world now. And whatever the book
ends up making, that’s a success.

Tell our unpublished readers three things they can do to
help get them noticed by an editor.

1) Get an agent 2) Get an agent 3) Get an
agent.

Can you tell us what every writer should know about their
editor, but doesn’t?

Absolutely. What people don’t always understand is that once
the editor and writer have finished working on the ms until it glows like a
little gem – that’s when the editor’s work has just begun. Because it’s then
the editor’s job to figure out how to publish
it, how to cut through the noise in the marketplace, how to increase the book’s
odds of success. Every editor must be a mini-publisher. It’s not enough to find
the book and edit the heck out of it. He has to be aware of every aspect of its
publication and what every department in the house needs to know and needs to
do to make that book successful – and this is true no matter what level you’re
aiming the book at.

The editor is the liaison between all the departments and
the author – sub rights, publicity, sales, production. He or she has always got
to be thinking: what does the publicity department need? Is there a particular
hook? Is there something that can get the author in the press? Does the author
have contacts we draw upon to give us quotes, write an article, set up an
autographing, buy quantities of a book? Does the author have a track record?
Sales has got to know. Has the author published in magazines, does she/he have a
friendly magazine editor? Sub rights has got to know. Is there any particular
look for the jacket that might help, any jackets you think it should look like
to reach the target audience? The art department has got to know. And so on.

I’ve got lots of stories about aspects of this – but this
interview is already getting long! Suffice it to say that anything the author
can do to help the editor in these efforts will bear fruit.

Do you believe the Internet has changed the face of
publishing in a good way?

The Internet’s definitely helped. Besides the fact that
books are universally available through it, there are many more publicity, and
to a certain extent, advertising possibilities for new books. If we have, say,
a novel about the Korean War, we have a guy here who’ll research Korean War
sites, contact them, offer news about the book or even free copies to be
included on the site. You’ve reached a core audience. Meanwhile, maybe you’ve
set up your own website for that book and linked it with others’, made the book
available to military bloggers, maybe advertised on some key sites. All kinds
of things are possible.

You can bring three writers from any time period along to
a deserted island. Who would you choose for pure entertainment value, who would
you to choose to provoke thought, and who would you choose to learn from?

Ah, I never know how to answer these questions. I’ll move
on, if you don’t mind.

What do you do in your down time? (Is there such a
thing?)

In my spare time, I love movies and theater – and I read a
lot. The key to the latter is making the time for free reading, because work
reading takes up so much time on evenings and weekends. I read, first of all,
because that’s why I’m in the business to begin with, a love of books. It’s
also important for perspective. I may have a ms for what seems to be an
excellent WWII thriller in front of me – but if I’ve haven’t read some of the
masters of the WWII thriller, I may not realize, no this manuscript is okay – these books are excellent.

Is there room for women writers in the ranks of crime
fiction at the level of the Lee Child and John Sandford, or will this remain an
exclusively male club?

An exclusively male club? Hmm, Sue Grafton might disagree.
And Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich, Mary Higgins Clark, JD Robb. Not to
mention Sara Paretsky, Martha Grimes, Kathy Reichs, Elizabeth George, Lisa
Gardner, Lisa Jackson, Linda Fairstein, Iris Johansen, Faye Kellerman, JA
Jance, Kay Hooper, Diane Mott Davidson, Lisa Scottoline, Sandra Brown…..oh, you
get the point. Sure, some of these women aren’t at the levels of Lee Child and
John Sandford (and those two are at different levels, by the way), but some of
them sell quite a bit more!

Thank you so much for taking time to answer these questions.
It’s been an honor to have you at Murderati!

Wine of the Week: Well, let’s do something special to celebrate Neil’s contribution to the written word. Château Cos-d’Estournel St.-Estèphe

Full disclosure — I can’t afford this wine, so take an extra sip for me.

Cover Me

JT Ellison

One fun aspect of being a first time novelist is learning
the internal publishing ropes. I’ve just passed a major milestone – the
copyedits
 of ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS are finished and have been turned in to my editor at
Mira. Whoo-hoo!

This was by far the most difficult step I’ve faced in the
process. It took me three days to go through all the notes, changing a word
here or there, striking a repeated sentence, double-checking tertiary character
names. It’s amazing what these copyeditors catch. You see so many readers on
the webthreads discussing errors in manuscripts, and I hate to be culpable for
any reader distress. You have to wonder, though, if they knew what went into
these pages, understood the process and the care taken by the publisher to make
the book error free and pretty, maybe they’d cut us a little slack.

The term STET, Latin for "To Let Stand," is now my best friend. Especially because
I’m writing a novel based in the South with some lesser-known southern
vernacular. Our colloquialisms seem strange to many outsiders, including
copyeditors from New York.

I’m at the point where I can no longer hold back. I’ve got
my cover. I’ve had it for a couple of months, and have been sitting on it
because . . . well, I don’t know why. Newbie terrors, the sense that you’re
going to wake up and find out all of this is a dream? It certainly feels that
way sometimes.

I’m beyond thrilled with the art. My editor sent it to me
and I about passed out from sheer joy. It captured the essence of the book in a way
I could have never begun to suggest. It’s time to share. This book is
happening, and there’s no sense holding back any longer.

Without further ado . . .

                        Atpgcover_2

I leave you with a thought that sums up the current
experience quite well.

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light!

            — First Fig, Edna St. Vincent Millay

Wine of the week: Vitiano Falesco

The Other Side Of The Story

JT Ellison

Bless everyone who has been talking about process for the
past couple of weeks, especially this guy, who always makes me think. I fear I was being held prisoner in a marketing hell,
surrounded by brambles with thorny ridges and forced to babble incessantly
about promotion, publicists and press releases. Granted, these are all
exceptionally important, but who am I kidding? I’m a writer. A writer. Man,
that feels good to say out loud.

This little epiphany has been building. I finished Book 2
and turned it in. What a relief to have that off my shoulders. And I decided to
try something a little different for Book 3. I planned, and plotted, and came
up with a comprehensive 12 page synopsis. It starts at the beginning and goes
through the end. Before you say “Umm, JT, DUH!” realize that I’ve only ever
written a synopsis AFTER the books are done or have been in process for a
while. This is new territory for me.

I’ve always fought against doing this, because I really
enjoy seeing where the story takes me. Well, I don’t have that choice anymore.
Now it’s someone else who wants to know where I’m going prior to me leaving the
station, and I’m thrilled to provide that for them.

Realizing that I’m doing this right, and that I can plan, is
a good feeling. Because there was a time when that wasn’t the case.

When I was trying to write my very first book, (I thought it
was a book, I found out later it was a novella) I hit a huge wall. It wasn’t
writer’s block. It was "I don’t know HOW to do this" block.

I’d been reading a great deal at the time, and was
fascinated with John Sandford’s PREY series. I’ve told the story before – I was deep into the series and said to myself “I can do this.” Ah, hubris. I sat
myself down at the computer, started to write. The first page came out with
such ease that I got up and did a dance. I’d written the opening for my first
novel. It’s quite a feeling. The next thing I knew, I had the first chapter. A
woman had appeared as a main character. She was a cop. She was a young cop. She
was a young homicide detective. No, she was the Homicide Lieutenant. She would
get involved with an FBI profiler. On and on and on.

There was just one problem. I had no clue how to make that
into a book. I typed and typed. Taylor Jackson (she was Bethany Taylor then) became a one-dimensional
character, pretty and intelligent, but lacking in those qualities that make an
iconic character come to life. The story was progressing, but things just
weren’t right. I knew that deep in my heart. I was writing a book, but it sucked.
Doubt crept in on its silent little cat paws and settled like a fog in my
brain.

All stop. My college writing teachers were right. I’d never
get published. Why was I doing this?

I nearly gave up. But I got disgusted with myself for those thoughts.
I mean come on, anything worth having is worth sacrificing a little ego for,
right?

I took a different tack.

I sat down with a notepad and one of Sandford’s novels, and
I outlined it. I started at the beginning and went chapter by chapter. I looked
at the point of view. I looked at the pace. I looked at the frequency with
which his main characters appeared, how they interacted with the story and the
other characters. I did what I’d been good at in college, deconstruction. Looked for all the things that weren’t being said.

The little lightbulbs began to turn on again, one by one. I
still had a ways to go, but after tearing apart how one writer did it, I taught
myself how I needed to do it. I wrote the book. And yes, it sucked. It
was fine, just nothing special. So I stole the best parts from it and wrote
another. That one went a little easier, and got my agent’s attention. It still
wasn’t good enough. It all came together on the third try. I was lucky. Very,
very lucky.

As I start my newest novel, I look back at the road I took
to get here and feel so blessed. I have a lot to learn. But I’ve also learned
so much by paying attention to how the people I enjoy reading write their
books.

My question for you – what did you do the last time you were
hopelessly mired in self-doubt and unable to move forward on your life’s
passion?

Wine of the Week: I did something different this week. All I
can say is I’m mad at Barry Eisler. I’ve been reading about Caipirinhas in his excellent
books
, and found myself at a Brazilian restaurant in Nashville this week
that serves them. I was feeling frisky and decided to try one. I am completely
addicted. Hubby and I bought some Cachaca rum, a bag of limes and
sugar in the raw
and have been making them at home. They are wonderful and
totally addictive, taste like a sweet margarita. So thanks, Barry, for leading me
astray.

PS. I’ve been reading Stephen King’s ON WRITING today and am further convinced that I want to read his novels. One problem. I’m a big wuss, which is why I haven’t been reading him. Can you recommend a couple of King titles that won’t leave me with nightmares for weeks?

Meet True Crime Writer and Blogger Gregg Olsen

While Pari’s away, the mice are playing…Gregg_225x300

One of the greatest aspects of being a member of the crime
fiction community is the chance to meet other writers. As many of you know,
we’ve got a group of debut writers called Killer Year, and through that organization,
I met a phenomenal writer named Gregg Olsen. Any true crime aficionado is
familiar with Gregg’s work – seven non-fiction titles, New York Times
bestseller, oft-quoted
television personality, expert is all things criminal.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of getting
to know Gregg, I thought I’d introduce him to you. He’s written a fiction novel
called A WICKED SNOW that is garnering rave reviews. Publisher’s Weekly says
Gregg “brings complex mystery and crackling authenticity to bear on a cold case
police procedural.” Not so bad.

Gregg has several lives, as many of us do. In addition to
being a lauded true crime author, and now a fiction author, he is the
proprietor of one of the most entertaining, intriguing and disturbing blogs on
the net. CRIME RANT caught my attention months ago. It’s a gritty, no nonsense
look at the crime permeating our society, the stories that make headlines, and
those that just create a ripple or two. The site is one of the most active in
the crime fiction community, and if you spend any time watching the bleeding headlines, you
can be sure Gregg and his co-blogger Matt Phelps (another spectacular true
crime writer) will be covering the story.

Without further ado, meet Gregg Olsen.

How did Crime Rant get started?

I’d been thinking about blogging for quite some time. The problem wasn’t
topical. Plenty of things to say about true crime. But I really didn’t want to
do it alone. Blogs are like hungry, make that starving, animals and you’ve got
to feed them often. Everyday is best.  I hooked up with my partner in
crime, Matt Phelps, and that made the prospect of doing something every day go
down a little easier. I told him when we started we’d have to give it a year to
see where it takes us. So far, so good. We’ve been linked to by ABC News, Court
TV, Wired Magazine, and USA Today. Not bad for a couple of upstarts.


What’s your favorite aspect of blogging?

There are so many things that I love about it. Of course, interaction with
readers is at the top of the list. But I have to admit my favorite part is
seeing which topics are really sticky. Sometimes we’re right on the money,
other times, the post goes flat. And it doesn’t matter how much effort you put
into a post. I put up an item that was only a paragraph long and we’ve had
almost 300 comments.


Tell us about your new book, A WICKED SNOW.

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of infamy. I’ve written about people
like Mary Kay Letourneau who have become famous and celebrated for a bad act. I
wondered what would it be like if there was a female serial killer who got away
with a major crime? You know there would be anniversary stories in the media,
songs written, TV shows….that’s what A WICKED SNOW is about. A woman
disappears after a grisly crime and her daughter and the FBI agent who
originally investigated the case team up to catch her.

What inspired you to try your hand at fiction?

Curiosity mainly. I just wanted to see if I could do it. It wasn’t like I
thought I had some fantastic novel that I just had to get out to the world. For
me, fiction was an adventure in the process of writing. No rules. Just a good
story to tell.

What is it like to switch between true crime and fiction? Which do you find
easier?

Like I’ve said, I’m not saying I’m some great novelist. I’m still learning. But
fiction is easier. No question. In a lot of ways, I’m sure I’m not suited to
write true crime as I care deeply about the people I’m writing about. They —
and their stories — never leave me. With fiction, my characters are an
invention and I don’t have to worry about them after I type the last sentence
of a book.  I enjoy both genres and switching between the two seems pretty
natural right now. But ask me later — because its what the readers think that
matters most.


What is your favorite unsolved crime?

The JonBenet Ramsey case, or as those of us in the true crime world call her,
JBR. I was elated with John Mark Karr confessed and similarly crestfallen when
it turned out to be a hoax.


If you could tell the criminals of the world one thing, what would it be?

You’re so vain; you probably think this novel is about you.

What’s next for Gregg Olsen?

Too much. I’m finishing up my next TC for St. Martins, my first hardcover in
the genre. It is about a local pastor convicted of murdering his wife. It has
all the elements of a great true crime — sex, religion, and murder. Also, I’m
polishing the next novel, A COLD DARK PLACE for Kensington.

New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen is the
author of eight books, including the Western Writers of America Spur Award
finalist,
The Deep Dark: Disaster and
Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine
(Crown Publishers).
As a journalist and true crime author, Olsen has been a guest on Good Morning
America, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight, CNN, Fox News, 48 Hours, and
other national and international programs. The Seattle native lives in rural
Washington with his wife, twin daughters, five chickens, and obedience school
dropout cocker spaniel Milo.
A Wicked
Snow
is his fiction debut, coming from Kensington in March.

Under the Influence

JT Ellison           

When’s the last time you wrote drunk?

There seems to be a perception, propagated by such literary
heavyweights that are famous for exploits, like Hemingway, that one can create a masterpiece while under the influence.

I’ve been asked more than once if I drink while I write. It
seems on par with asking a heavy machinery operator if they’ve taken a few nips
off the old flasks prior to firing up the Cat, or pouring an airline pilot a
few draughts of Guinness whilst awaiting takeoff.

So my short answer is no, I don’t drink while I write. I
don’t drink before I write. If I am clumsy enough to get near a keyboard after
imbibing, I tend to warn people in the subject line – JT’s EWI (emailing while
intoxicated) – so I won’t be taken seriously nor made fun of for my
extemporaneous  riffing.

You see, I CAN’T write under the influence. Of alcohol, that
is.

Now before you get excited, I’m not talking about anything
illegal. I’m not a big drug proponent. What you do in the privacy of your own
home is entirely up to you, and as long as no one is in danger and small animals
aren’t being harmed, I couldn’t care less.

But there is a drug that frees my mind, allows me to think
past all the barriers I bump up against in my daily, tethered life.

Nitrous Oxide, better known as Laughing Gas.

                       250pxnitrousoxide2ddimensions

You see, my incredibly lovely dentist is new school. He sees
absolutely no reason to torture his patients. When you get right down to
it, a relaxed, calm patient begets a better result. I couldn’t agree more.

I looooove going to the dentist. It’s Fear and Loathing in Nashville.

There’s something about the nitrous that expands my
horizons, if only for an hour. I lie in that chair and flat out create. I have
an arrangement with Vicki, my technician. If I hold up a hand, she stops and
lets me speak. She nods and agrees and promises to “write that down.” Then we
keep going. I’m entirely aware the whole time, just… unrestricted. I’m
brilliant under the gas. Mind-bogglingly inventive. I could probably cure
cancer if given the right components, but hey, I’ll settle for a plot twist or
two.

There’s only one problem.

Nothing makes sense. When you come out of it (takes just a
couple of minutes) all the fire and brimstone and luminous perspicacity is
gone. You’re back to being you.

So I wondered about the rest of you. Do you use artificial
means to further the process? Or are you like me, prudishly making the synapses
fire while decidedly non-juiced?

This post is in honor of all of my wonderful writing buddies
who are attending Left Coast Crime and Love Is Murder, cavorting and imbibing
and networking, oh yes, the networking. I miss you guys!!!

I guess we should skip the wine and go with
shooters. Someone hand me a lime and the Patron, please. 

———————————————————-

PS. Feeling creative? Jason Pinter is running a contest over at THE MAN IN BLACK blog to determine, well, what kind of contest to run to promote his debut thriller, THE MARK (Mira Books, July).

It’s Up to You, New York, New York…

JT Ellison

                          I_love_ny_2
 

It’s official. I’m a Big Apple virgin no more. Hubby and I
made the trek north last week. I have a small section in my second book that is
set in the city, and I just wasn’t entirely comfortable relying on friends and
the Internet to give me the details I needed. There were two spots in
particular that I needed to “see”, but the most important aspect of this
research was the sensory experience.

I needed to feel the city, to flow with its unique rhythms.
Surprisingly, we managed to accomplish that. New York very kindly gave me every
bit of detail I was looking for. Sight, scent, texture, noise, beauty, snow,
crowds, pace, food (oh, the meals we devoured…) fog, clouds, people, parties,
champagne, graffiti, cappuccino – we got it all in a two day whirlwind.

The book will be richer for that.

And it only took me a day to stop saying, “It’s so BIG.”

                             View_from_st_martins_1
 

I had my first major rite of passage as well. The author
lunch. Oh my. It comes highly recommended.

There’s something absolutely surreal about sitting in a
swanky New York restaurant with your editor and you agent, talking about this
compilation of words you’ve slaved over, and there’s laughter, and smiling, and
compliments, and personal information, fantastic red snapper and talk of the
future. It’s a heady feeling, to be sure.

Follow up the next day with a laid back
meeting with your agent (who smiles a lot more than you’d ever expect, he’s an
AGENT, for God’s sake, they’re supposed to be biters!) and lunch at a excellent
diner in the Flatiron district with your other great editor, and you can say
this has been a successful trip.

To top it off, my lovely friend MJ Rose kindly invited us to
be her guests at the ultimate literary event – Linda Fairstein’s book signing at the Mont
Blanc store at 57th and Madison. Getting to rub elbows with the
cognoscenti, the New York literati, two Killer Year mates and the divine La
Weinman was very cool. I enjoyed getting hip checked by Cindy Adams. I gave
Anna Quindlen my business card. I also gave it to the coat check girl, who
likes mysteries. MJ’s got divine taste — dinner after was even better.

                             Killer_year_at_fairstein_event

We spent some time just absorbing. We walked from Union
Square into SoHo and managed to get lost in the one section of New York that
didn’t have a coffee shop every third door. We did Rockefeller Center, Times
Square, Fox News, The New York Times.
We walked and walked and walked, and only
had one cab incident (note to self: probably not a good idea to get into an
argument about Tennessee looking a great deal like Italy with a cabbie who
informs you you’re riding in the best cab in all of the city and has just
finished mainlining three shots of Illi espresso.)

                              Randy_and_jt_rockefeller_square_1

And I got pissed off about September 11th all
over again. How dare they mess with this jewel?

When we left for the airport, I realized that New York is
now a part of me. As we move closer to publication, as more decisions are made
and paths taken, my future will be inextricably tied to parts of this town. New
York is such a vibrant city, I can’t help but feel it in my bones.

I did realize one thing. If I ever lose that sense of
wonder, stop feeling that it’s my privilege to be a part of this world,
it will be time for me to pack it in. You can take a lot of things for granted
in this life, but being paid to follow your dreams isn’t one of them.

So tell me. What’s YOUR favorite aspect of New York?
If you haven’t been, what do you look forward to the most?

Wine of the Week: 2005 Poggio al Santi, La Guardie, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

————————

MJ Rose started this incredibly worthy meme in honor of our dear Barbara Seranella.

Please consider signing up to be an organ donor. The gift you give will change many lives.