DEBORAH CROMBIE: Who watched the Belmont Stakes on Saturday?? Wasn't it fabulous, watching Justify win the Triple Crown? Every year after Affirmed won in 1978, I watched the Belmont and thought, "Maybe this time..." I was beginning to wonder if I was doomed to disappointment when American Pharoah won in 2015. And, now, Justify, just three years later!
It was a great race, and here to continue the horse-racing euphoria is our Jungle Red friend James Ziskin, with a new Ellie Stone novel, A STONE'S THROW, which just happens to be set at Saratoga, the other New York racetrack.
Jim, I think it was extremely clever of you to time your book release with a Triple Crown race!
As Useful as Tail Fins on a Car
James Ziskin
“Whenever
you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine
writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your
manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”
—Arthur Quiller-Couch
I
write a series of traditional/noirish mysteries set in the early 1960s,
starring “girl reporter” Ellie Stone. As often happens when I’m writing
one of these books, I come across a bit of interesting but
non-essential research that demands to be included in the story. Now I
know we’re supposed to be merciless when it comes to editing out the
extraneous, the unnecessary, and the self-indulgent—we’re told to murder
our darlings—but I don’t respond well to rules. Or rather, I’m a
believer in bending them to hear the cartoonish creaking noises they
make before they break. Sometimes these extra flourishes serve to
enhance the scenery, inform, or create a fuller sense of time and place.
I think of them as a stylistic choice. After all, don’t some people
prefer a simple life of moderation and temperance, while others enjoy
swallowing the entire banquet then visiting the vomitorium to make room
for more? Window frames are nonessential to the façade of a building,
aren’t they? But, to many of us, they look nice. And turrets and gables,
too. Both these skyscrapers are beautiful in their own ways, aren’t
they?
(Whispering: These are metaphors for writing styles.)
Consider the tail lights on these two Cadillacs, one from 1959 and one from 2018.
They
perform the same function, but in very different styles. The 1959
model’s lights are affixed to the most over-the-top tail fins of the
outrageous tail-fin era. The 2018 model is Spartan, clean, and modern.
Which is better? That depends on one’s taste. It’s what makes a horse
race.
Which
brings me to my latest Ellie Stone mystery, A STONE’S THROW, a book set
in the world of Thoroughbred horse racing of Saratoga Springs, New
York. In this novel, and in all of my others, I have included many of
the facts and details I uncovered while researching the early 1960s time
period. And, I confess, sometimes these facts and details weren’t
exactly essential to the plot. I call these transgressions “tail fins.”
There are rafts of rules and interdictions that prescribe what writers
are supposed to include and not include in their work. Elaborate
description is one of them. Extraneous information is another. Opening
your book with weather is a no-no. And I agree… Except when I don’t.
Never accept “never.” What if someone had told Picasso never to put both
eyes on the same side of the nose?
One
“tail fin” I’m glad I included in A STONE’S THROW was a horse race. An
actual horse race. The 1962 Travers Stakes, to be exact. The Travers is
the showcase event of the Saratoga Thoroughbred season every August. And
as fate would have it, the 1962 edition is widely considered to be the
greatest Travers Stakes ever. Two heavy favorites, Jaipur and Ridan,
were the class of the race, and they did not disappoint. They led from
post to wire, side by side for a mile and a quarter—never separated by
more than a neck—and treated the huge crowd to a duel of epic
proportions, culminating in a thrilling photo finish. The difference was
a nose.
 | ||
| Jaipur (l) and Ridan (r) battling down the home stretch |
 |
| Jaipur (3) and Ridan (2) photo finish, Travers Stakes, August 18, 1962 |
Travers Stakes, August 18, 1962, at Saratoga.
So
why did I slap this “tail fin” on my car? For several reasons. One,
because it was there. To have ignored it might have left readers
wondering why such an important event was missing. Imagine telling a
story set on November 22, 1963, and failing to mention what happened in
Dallas that same day? Two, because it gave me a chance to show how Ellie
is affected by the beauty and courage of the two horses. That tells us
something important about her. Three, because it contributed to the
general pageantry and backdrop I was trying to paint of the Saratoga
racetrack in August. And four, because it was as thrilling as a 1959
Cadillac tail fin.
A STONE’S THROW is the sixth Ellie Stone mystery (from Seventh Street Books June 5, 2018).
August
1962. A suspicious fire claims a tumbledown foaling barn on the grounds
of the once-proud Tempesta stud farm near Saratoga Springs, NY. The
blaze, one of several in recent years at the abandoned farm, barely
prompts a shrug from the local sheriff. That is until "girl reporter"
Ellie Stone, first on the scene, uncovers a singed length of racing silk
in the rubble of the barn. And it's wrapped around the neck of one of
two charred bodies buried in the ashes. A bullet between the eyes of one
of the victims confirms it's murder, and the police suspect gamblers.
Ellie digs deeper.
The
double murder, committed on a ghostly stud farm in the dead of night,
leads Ellie down a haunted path, just a stone's throw from the glamour
of Saratoga Springs, to a place where dangerous men don't like to lose.
Unraveling secrets from the past--crushing failure and heartless
betrayal--she's learning that arson can be cold revenge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James
W. Ziskin, Jim to his friends, is the Anthony and Macavity
Award-winning author of the Ellie Stone mysteries. His novels have also
been finalists for the Edgar, Barry, and Lefty awards. Before turning to
writing full time, he worked in New York as a photo-news producer and
writer, as director of NYU’s Casa Italiana, and as a Hollywood
postproduction executive, running large international operations in the
subtitling/localization and visual effects fields. His international
experience includes two years working and studying in France, extensive
time in Italy, and more than three years in India. He speaks Italian and
French. Jim can be reached through his website www.jameswziskin.com or on Twitter @jameswziskin.
DEBS: Jim, I love that you included the Travers Stakes! And it dovetails perfectly with the plot. In this case, at least, I am definitely a tail fins girl.
REDS and readers, what about you? Do you believe writers should "murder their darlings?"
