What We're Writing Week: Julia is Catching Up and Checking Out

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Don't be alarmed by the title; I'm not checking out of hotels or my day to day activities. I used the phrase because I love me some alliteration, and the writing I've been doing lately is all of a sort - reaching out to readers.

 

I have to admit, when I was pouring over issues of WRITERS DIGEST and reading mystery novels to learn the craft, I never expected the life of the author to involve so much, well, communication. Ironically, many of us are well suited as writers because we love to sit in a small room by ourselves and not have to talk to anyone. We're not misanthropes - a visit to any mystery conference will disabuse you of that idea - but we all like spending a lot of interior time. I suppose if we didn't turn to the written word, a lot of us would do well as contemplative monks (although Jenn and Hank and Rhys would be HIGHLY energetic ascetics.)

 

But I began my career at the dawn of the social media age. The first change was the author website, which enabled readers, for the first time, to connect to their favorite writers without showing up at a bookstore or library. As more and more people got online, we switched from physical newsletters (yes! I had one, done by a lovely local printing business!) to email newsletters. 

 

Then came the social media sites that are now part of our day-to-day lives. I can't recall if anyone was using MySpace professionally (anyone remember how big MySpace was for about five minutes?) but once Facebook stopped being just for college students, the whole world joined up, and authors came in droves as well. Then, for a while, the novelty of YouTube meant Book Trailers - a whole business popped up around producing them! Facebook stayed, and grew, but YouTube was quickly colonized by content producers putting out stuff that was, let's face it, much more entertaining than book trailers, so authors migrated to the cool new world of Instagram.

 

You also had to be on Goodreads, and LibraryThing, and everyone became bloggers, and it was about then when you'd start to hear writers huddled together at conferences asking each other how much social media was the right amount, and how did everyone manage to get any actual, you know, writing done while also posting and mailing and Tweeting and commenting.

 

Don't even get me started on Tik Tok. No. Not gonna go there.

 

Most of us have settled down to a few, reliable ways to connect with our readers, in part because EVERYONE has gotten a bit tired and jaded with the social media world. Quality, not quantity, has become the new standard. Which leads me to my catching up - on FB comments and writers' emails, and checking out - other authors' newsletters, because I'm restarting my own NEWS FROM THE KILL and I want to make sure it's up to date; ie, giving readers what they want and nothing they don't.

 

So, dear readers, tell me: what sites online do you find gives you the best value when interacting with writers? And, if you subscribe to any, what do you like to see in author newsletters?

And Debs Is...Still Writing

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The last several times What We're Writing has rolled around, I've sworn that Kincaid/James #20 was ALMOST finished and that the next time I checked in, I'd be able to show you a neatly typed THE END.

But, no, alas, I am still writing.

The pages are piling up (yes, I do still print manuscript pages, because I always find mistakes in printed copy that I don't see on the screen, and as a "just in case" because even though I back up regularly, digital catastrophes do happen.) I still use the manuscript format I was taught as a very newbie writer, Courier, double-spaced, twenty-five lines a page, which averages 250 words a page. My current page count is 503, or roughly 125 thousand words, and I am imagining the publisher's horror as they are calculating the cost of paper and printing–this is a very big deal.

And I am not finished.

Actually, this book is not all that long for me. The first draft of A KILLING OF INNOCENTS clocked in at 650 pages, which my then-editor happily slashed by a hundred pages, I'm sure making it a much better book in the process. WATER LIKE A STONE was long, as was NECESSARY AS BLOOD, but GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS takes the cake–it was so long that my editor said it should have been two books, and it is my longest published book to date.

I suspect this current book has another 50 or so pages to go, and then we'll see what comes out in the wash, so to speak. It's pretty terrifying, I have to admit, working with a new editor and not really knowing what to expect.

It's also scary, so close to the end, to wonder if the finished book will live up to that "Platonic book" I first conceived. I've filled three spiral notebooks with notes, and now I'm wondering what bits of all those ideas I've left out. And there are so many series characters I love that I just couldn't squeeze into this book–not unless I want it to run double that 500 pages!

I am excited to be so close to the end, and frustrated that I can't write it faster. 

And now for some really good news!

Kincaid/James #20 is scheduled for publication in Winter '27! I don't have the exact date yet, but things are moving fast. Cover art is in the works! 

And it looks like my working title is going to stand, so the book is called

 

THE LONG COLD SLEEP

You can see I'm really under the gun! 

Dear Reds and readers, how do you feel about long books? I know you can get away with really long novels in sci-fi and fantasy, and in historical fiction or family sagas, but how do you like your crime novels? I worry that if a book isn't long enough, my readers will feel cheated.

What We’re Writing: Lucy’s Still in Paris

LUCY BURDETTE: I lost a week while we made our way north from Key West to Connecticut (not complaining after the winter New Englanders suffered), but gosh it’s chilly! Other writers manage to keep writing while on the road, but I’m not one of them. It took a few days to get reoriented to my draft and figure out what to tackle. So as of now, I’m back with Natalie (the protagonist of The Paris Recipe) in Paris. She’s temporarily staying on another Chef’s houseboat and trying to find her place in the fancy kitchen at Chez Cassan, as well as in her heart. It isn’t going well…

When Natalie woke early the next morning, the sky was only marginally lighter than black. All night she’d dreamed of the zucchini flowers and goat cheese. It felt like forever since she’d cooked anything, and she missed it so much. She loved that first spark of delight when she read a recipe that she thought would turn out so delicious that her stomach rumbled before she’d even set foot in the kitchen. She loved to read about food too, even though that was one step away from eating. She couldn’t imagine being a critic for her life’s work, prepared to take down a chef and his recipes as she went into the evening. What a waste, a tragedy almost, if you weren’t enjoying the food as you ate it, savoring each bite in the moment. Instead, everything had to be dissected, compared, contrasted, and possibly condemned. She could still recite a line she remembered from the movie Ratatouille, which she’d watched many times. The movie starred a rat who was a chef and managed to win over a food critic, who’d finally admitted: "But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

She could lie here for another hour and a half until the light expanded, ruminating about the fact that she’d heard Giselle come onboard the houseboat late last night. She’d heard them arguing again, followed by the enthusiastic noises of their lovemaking, which bothered her more than it should have. Natalie’s presence on this houseboat was not Didier’s choice, and Giselle had clearly been identified as his girlfriend. Why would she allow herself to think that her dinner with him was anything more than a small kindness to a lost soul who’d suffered a shock?  

    She could waste time waiting while the sun rose and then walk to the restaurant to begin her day, or she could go now and use their kitchen to try the recipe that she couldn't get out of her head. She had the cheese and the honey, and she knew there was a farmer's market that opened at 6:00 AM. She also knew that the exact chives she needed to tie up her little squash bundles were growing in the backyard of Chez Cassan. She glanced at her watch. If she hurried, she could prepare the dish, take some practice photos, and get everything cleaned up before anyone else arrived. The only evidence that would remain in the kitchen would be the slight scent of fried flowers. Hopefully no one would notice, and that lingering scent would soon be overtaken by the sauteing of onions and simmering of stocks.

I wish I could show you the real kitchen at Chez Cassan, but I've made it up this time. There won't be a bar with seating as in this photo, but there is a big stainless steel island. Are you a big fan of settings that are real places, or are you happy to go along wherever the writer takes you?