PLA and SC (and Elvis!)

I promised an update on some of my recent travels and adventures and here it is. It takes me longer to do these because I'm still getting the hang of wrangling the photos (knocking rocks together, no problem; HTML, blogs, etc.? Not so quick.). The latest event was helping out at the MWA (Mystery Writers of America) and SinC (Sisters in Crime) booth at PLA (the Public Library Association), which was in Boston this year. There were 11,000 librarians at the Hynes Auditorium, and not a "shhh" among them. They were a raucous crowd! I started off with the SinC panel and breakfast at the BPL (Boston Public Library--gotta love those TLAs (three letter acronyms)), where SinC New England president Roberta Isleib (shown above, standing on left) moderated a panel with fellow SinCers Kate Flora, Linda Barnes, me (sitting, R-L), and Hallie Ephron (standing, right). Doris Ann Norris (standing center), the Two Thousand-Year-Old Librarian, said a few words of introduction. She did a boffo job of organizing the MWA/SinC booth, where we had signings with Donna Andrews (shown in action), Susan Conant, Hallie Ephron, Kate Flora, Lynne Heitman, Margaret Maron, Susan Oleksiw, Leslie Wheeler, and others. Lots of folks, including Toni and Steve Kelner, and Dan Hale, helped promote both organizations, and it was gratifying to hear how many of librarians knew about us and made our booth one of their first destinations. Doris Ann, Donna, and Toni are there with the SinC and MWA banners, on the right.

One unexpected event was a meeting with the King. Yes, Elvis was in the building, shown here with M. E. Kemp, me, and Alex Sokoloff. Of all the people I'd thought I might run into...well, he just wasn't on that list.

Last month was the trip to the South Carolina Book Festival. That was a real treat, as I'd never been to Columbia or South Carolina before. It was a wonderful affair, beautifully run. I was on a panel about community, careers, and crime, with Laura Durham, Cathy Pickens, and Susan McBride (shown right), organized and moderated by Paula Benson. Paula did a great job of moderating and she also took us on a tour of the state house, which was full of history. I'm sorry not to have a picture of Paula here--she looked after us in what can only be described as a royal fashion--but I'll be sure to include one of her when I see her at Malice Domestic.

I love book festivals because I get to meet readers and other authors. The SC Festival was no exception; I saw Nicholas Basbanes and Jennifer Crusie (though not at the same time). I also got to meet readers Delores, DiAnna, and Lil, who were a lot of fun (and are shown at the left).

Everyone at PLA and the SC Book Festival loved books. Was crazy and knowledgable about them, wanted to talk about them, couldn't get enough of them. This shouldn't be a surprise, but there are times--not often--when I'm chatting with someone who will say "I never read. I don't like books." Sometimes--not often--this will even happen in a *bookstore*. Maybe they're at the bookstore to get something for a friend, maybe they're looking for a bathroom, but to say I find this confusing would be an understatement. So events like PLA and SCBF--and the folks that make them happen--are a balm.

The cover for ASHES AND BONES is here!

I just received the cover for the sixth Emma Fielding mystery, Ashes and Bones, and it is gorgeous! It is very different from the first five covers, but I love the feeling of loneliness and spookiness that it evokes. And since the new book is a bit darker, more of a psychological thriller than the earlier books, I think it fits beautifully. Wheee!

What doesn't go into a short story

I learned a lot about short stories in the past month or two. Some of that was courtesy of my friends, fellow Femmes Fatales and writers Donna Andrews and Toni Kelner, who were kind enough to give me feedback on “The Lords of Misrule,” a short mystery set in 18th-century London at Christmastime.

Some I learned from Toni’s new short story in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, “Sleeping With The Plush.” Click here to see an excerpt, and then run to your nearest bookstore and get a copy for yourself. I was blown away. Toni’s writing is always great, but here she conveys the sense of a whole subculture—carny life—in a beautifully crafted short mystery. I keep trying to read it and really study it, pull it apart and see what makes it work so well, but I always get sucked into the fun of reading of it. That should tell you something about Toni's writing.

What I’m learning about short stories is probably pretty obvious, until you try to do it, which is how you learn about writing. You can’t explain too much, and yet it’s death if there isn’t enough information. You can’t have too many characters, and those have to work hard, conveying a lot, very economically. Every word has to do double and triple duty, there can be no slackers, and yet…the writing still has to be readable.

So I tried one draft, and put in as much as I wanted and thought I needed. It got pretty chunky right away, stuffed with all of Margaret’s siblings, a letter/epilogue, and a whole household of chatty servants. I realized that I was going to have to do some serious slash-and-burn, and things got shook up in my little corner of imaginary 1722 London. Margaret’s surplus brothers and sisters were banished to the country. The letter was excised altogether (there was no room for my tribute to the 18th-century epistolary novel). Toni suggested that two maids with dialogue weren’t necessary and Donna pointed out that one of the gentlemen needed to do more onstage—or be removed altogether.

Getting the details of historic life was tricky. How do I explain about courtship, meals, etiquette, law, family life, fashion, and holidays, ye gods, without footnotes? A bibliography? Illustrative comparisons? Having been an academic trained me well in a certain kind of writing; it’s been harder to learn to write concisely for an audience who might not be familiar with 18th-century England. I had to divorce myself from the urge to go into exhaustive detail and explanation, but incorporate just enough detail with dialogue, gestures, and description to get the sense of place and time across. Not easy. Like building a stone wall, all of the elements have to be carefully selected and fit well together, and then you add the extra detail and structure with the mortar.

So there’s no room for footnotes, extra characters, or recreational purple prose. No time to warm up and draw breath, no time to explain. You have to pick the right pieces and start moving them around until they fit, becoming more than the sum of their parts.

I am going to Malice Domestic

I know there were some glitches on the Malice Domestic website recently, and I believe they have been fixed. Just to reassure any of you wondering, I will be attending (my name got dropped from the list, along with a number of others). Thanks for your patience!

And...it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm behind on blogging (and email and sleeping and laundry), but on the other hand, I met three deadlines that just happened to fall in the same week. Yeep. I had a fabulous time at the South Carolina Festival of Books, and will get back to you with more details (and, one hopes, some pictures) very soon.

One amusing note: on the way back from Columbia, SC, my suitcase didn't quite keep up with me, and I had to put in a report to have it delivered to the house. Asked for a description, what could I do? I'm a writer, coming back from a conference, so it was the standard "black wheelie bag, full of books, papers, and dirty clothes." There was one difference: I was able to tell the airline that there was a one pound bag of grits in the bag, one of the welcome gifts from the Festival folks.

I hastily reassured my husband that the grits weren't cooked.

Locally milled grits, from a historic mill. I was psyched and I've already got a recipe already picked out: grits with wild mushrooms. Ooh, baby.