Hooray for James Ziskin and Ellie Stone!

INGRID THOFT

It would require a separate blog entry to list the accolades garnered by James Ziskin's Ellie Stone series, but let's start with nominations for Edgar, Barry, Anthony, and Lefty Awards.  The latest installment, Cast the First Stone, will be released next week and is receiving rave reviews (including my own).  I'm thrilled that Jim could stop by to tell us about Ellie's latest adventure and answer your questions.

INGRID: Let's talk about your main character, Ellie Stone.  What inspired you to write a female character based in the 1960’s?

JIM: Through the first five novels, Ellie is a twenty-something woman in 1960-62. She was born in 1937 into a cultured, academic family in Manhattan. A series of family tragedies has left her the last Stone standing. She now works for a small-town daily newspaper in upstate New Holland, New York, where she must use her guile to do a man’s job while wearing a skirt. She’s not consciously aware of blazing any trails for women; she just wants a career that doesn’t come with a boss’s hand on the rear.

I wanted to make things as interesting and as tough as I could for my fictional newspaper reporter. Constant, regular challenges and conflict. That's part of the reason why I chose to write a female character set in the not-too-distant past. The early 1960s interested me because of the moment in history. We were entering a new decade that would bring political upheaval, war, the women’s movement, and the sexual revolution. But the Ellie Stone books predate those cultural seisms by a few years. Ellie’s both a witness and a catalyst in a changing world, one drink and one man at a time.

IPT: What do readers think about Ellie? 

JWZ: People seem to react to her better and better as the series progresses, perhaps because they’re getting to know her. It’s always a challenge when you introduce new characters. It takes some time for readers to feel comfortable with them, especially if you take some chances. Sometimes writers overreach and try to cram too much personality or backstory or description into the first pages of a new series.  Of course, in the best of all worlds, the writer achieves the perfect balance, and character and reader hit it off instantly.

But the most consistent feedback I get from readers about Ellie is that they love her spirit. She’s tough without being harsh. Wickedly funny and passionately empathetic at the same time. And they worry about her. She has some “bad” habits—drinking, smoking, putting herself at risk. And, of course, men. Readers often wish she’d be more careful. I think that’s great. It means they care about her. But I like to ask readers, “Do you wish Jack Reacher would take fewer chances?”

IPT: Bravo to that question!  Can you tell me about your time working in the film industry?  Has that played a role in your writing?

JWZ: My time in Hollywood was on the post-production side, specifically subtitling, translation, and visual effects. We translated and subtitled thousands of films and television shows (from Citizen Kane to Duck Dynasty) into as many as fifty languages. All of it contributed to my understanding of storytelling. One thing I realized early on was to appreciate the work screenwriters did, even on a bad movie. The screenplay made sense of the story.

I confess, however, that I did not learn about scriptwriting in any traditional sense. At least not the three-act structure people talk about. For my purposes, I call that “beginning, middle, and end.” It’s something I feel intuitively when telling a story, and I try not overthink it.

Translation, too, teaches valuable lessons about narration. Finding the right words, telling the story succinctly, reducing to the bare minimum without losing the essentials of the plot and the characters. And that goes for visual effects as well. There’s a visual lexicon in film that can be applied to description and action in fiction as well. Visualizing a scene helps me construct my narrative.

IPT: What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?

JWZ: How quickly one book turns into five with a sixth in progress. If you take it professionally, you’ll be surprised how productive you can be.

And a couple of other things. One, how generous mystery writers are. I love meeting and talking to writers and readers, and worry that too many writers miss out on this perk. At conferences and readings, they might see someone who intimidates them, who looks too shy, and they avoid that person. I want to search out people like that. I’ve met some great friends in this industry that way, readers and writers. I’ve learned a lot from them. Received invaluable feedback and support. And thanks to the generosity of the “big” writers, you can approach them. Even the biggest names give generously of their time.

And two, I am appreciative and so impressed by the work publishers do. Editing, cover design, and publicity. Of course, I knew there were people who did those things. But when you actually witness it up close, it’s remarkable how good the final product turns out.

IPT: Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain?  Something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans?  A romance? Sci-fi?

JWZ: Well, actually, the Ellie Stone books were those wannabe books once upon a time. I didn’t know if anyone would want to read a 1960, twenty-something female newspaper scribbler written by a man of certain age. But I fell so hard for Ellie, I sensed others might too. She’s just so fun to write.

But I also have other ideas brewing. Lots of them. A couple of thrillers in particular. Not modern-day thrillers, but throwbacks to the 1970s. The Cold War provided a fantastic backdrop for stories, don’t you think? I particularly love Frederick Forsyth. And Graham Greene. I’d like to write like them. How’s that for aiming high?

Jim is giving away a copy of Cast the First Stone.  Just comment to enter!

CAST THE FIRST STONE
February 1962: Tony Eberle has just scored his first role in a Hollywood movie, and the publisher of his hometown newspaper in upstate New York wants a profile of the local boy who’s made good. Reporter Ellie Stone is dispatched to Los Angeles for the story. But when she arrives on set to meet her subject, Tony has vanished. His agent is stumped, the director is apoplectic, and the producer is dead. Murdered.

Ellie is on the story, diving headfirst into a treacherous demimonde of Hollywood wannabes, beautiful young men, desperately ambitious ingénues, panderers, and pornography hobbyists. Then there are some real movie stars with reputations to protect. To find the killer, Ellie must separate the lies from the truth, unearthing secrets no one wants revealed along the way. But before she can solve Bertram Wallis’s murder, she must locate Tony Eberle.


James Ziskin (Jim to his friends) is the author of the Edgar-, Anthony-, Barry-, and Lefty-nominated Ellie Stone Mysteries. A linguist by training, James studied Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his graduate degree, he worked in New York as a photo-news producer and writer, and then as Director of NYU’s Casa Italiana. He spent fifteen years in the Hollywood post production industry, 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. James lives in Seattle. He’s represented by William Reiss of John Hawkins and Associates, Inc.

What You Say About SAY NO MORE!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I wish I could show you what I'm writing right now, because it might be fabulous. Or not. But I'm not sure, and you'll be the first to know when I decide. (It has to be done in three months, so I'd better decide pretty darn fast.)

But I am thrilled thrilled thrilled to be about to go on the road with SAY NO MORE--which is getting one hundred per cent fabulous reviews! (PW called it "Engrossing" (among other laudatory words) with a "conclusion that thrills and gratifies" and Booklist called it skilled and compelling and timely! And Kirkus starts with "Boston's smartest and sexiest team is back.." and continues just as wonderfully.) 

So see below to win an advance copy of SAY NO MORE!

Anyway.  One of the things I love about his book (as the reviewers also do! :-) is not only the Jake and Jane team, but the three other major characters. One is Willow Galt. And in this part of the book, she's just witnessed a murder--or has she? And she called the police. 

Now her husband is not happy.

So read this snippet below.

And then afterward, I have a question. Because I need your help.

from SAY NO MORE

 Willow Galt

“I’m so glad you’re home.” Willow buried her face in Tom’s shoulder, clutching his arm, breathing in his citrus and coffee fragrance, feeling the damp skin of his neck on her cheek. They’d be fine. They would.  She’d done the right thing. The police were gone. She’d explained it all the moment Tom walked in the door. As they climbed the stairs to their bedroom, together, her voice following him, she’d told him the whole story. Most of it. And now she was safe, safe in his arms.

 “They hardly stayed ten minutes.” Her words—fudging on the time just the smallest bit, but how could that matter--went into the wilting collar of Tom’s pale blue shirt. She felt the knot of his loosened tie against her own throat. He was home, and everything would be all right.

“Willow.” Tom’s voice had a knife edge, her name a slash as took one step away from her. “Why in hell would you do that?”   

She felt his words, cutting through her very being. She couldn’t move.

“Honey? I’m sorry.” Tom came closer again, put his hands on her, one on each bare shoulder.

She could feel his heat as if he were the sun, her private sun. As long as he kept touching her, she’d be fine.

 “I know it’s nerve-wracking for you,” he said. “But why would you call the cops? It’s the last thing… You allowed the cops into our house?”

“What else could I do?” She would float off the floor without those hands grounding her.

But Tom had turned away again, back to the window, flattening his palms on the pane, peering out.

Willow tried to look through his eyes, see the tree, Avery’s back yard, the forsythia hedge, that dark blue watery corner of the pool. Her brain revved with anxiety, she needed another pill, so maybe she hadn’t really seen it? But she had.  The dog barking and barking. The dark shape in the water, and someone leaving. Maybe.

It was wrong, and awful, and she, a human being, could not ignore that.

“No one’s down there now,” Tom said, talking to the window. “Are you sure? What you saw? What time was it? The person who calls 911 is always a suspect, Willow. Haven’t you learned anything?”

She felt her resolve failing, her knees unreliable. Should she have turned her back on Avery?

“I had to call, didn’t I?” She needed to explain. “I had no idea she was dead. What if she wasn’t dead? What if there was a burglar? The dog was so upset, and I’m here by myself, and--”

Tom touched one finger to her lips. “Shhh,” he said.

He kissed her palm, then lowered her arm to her side. She stood, still feeling the ghost of his kiss as he moved away from her and went back to that window.

“I can’t cut myself off from the world, Tom,” she whispered. “No matter what happened back home.”

“We’re not talking about that.” Tom turned, then straightened the lampshade, tilting the white pleated fabric. “This is home. All the other is gone, over, in the past. No, not in the past. It never happened. It’s erased.  We weren’t there. I’m Tom, you’re Willow, and so it shall be.”

Willow. She’d bend like a willow in the wind, whatever she had to do to survive, she’d do it. That’s why she picked the name. And maybe Tom was right. Maybe she’d been wrong to call. Maybe someone else would have called, and then the police would have gone to someone else’s house. But now she’d made her bed, their bed, and they’d both have to face the consequences.

“The police will come again. They said so.” She felt the tears welling, tears of fear and uncertainty. “What will I tell them? What will you?”

Tom pulled the tie from around his neck, then silently coiled the strip of fabric around his hand, pulling it, striping his hand in red and black silk. Willow saw his fingers flex. Then he unwrapped the tie, one loop, then another, then another. Hung it on a steel hook next to his others in his closet, smoothed it flat.

“We’ll tell them the truth.” Tom unbuttoned his shirt, one white button at a time, as if it were a difficult task, important and significant. “Our new truth."

HANK: So here's my question. Reds and readers: Do you think this would be a good section to read out loud if someone on book tour asks me to?   Do you enjoy when an author reads from their book? 

(And don't forget, Bouchercon-goers: WHAT YOU SEE is an Anthony nominee!)

And one lucky commenter will win an ARC of SAY NO MORE!