Pssst...Nancy Martin Reveals There's More to the Story

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: LOVE these TBR piles! You all are amazing… as you can see below. And we’ll have even more as the week goes on. Every table tells a story, right? 

I read somewhere that novels are getting longer. Greg Iles terrific Natchez Burning, for instance. and an article in  the Guardian said : "Ken Follett's doorstopper Fall of Giants, if anyone's counting, is about 850 pages." And then it said: "probably to appeal to his American readers."  Huh?

But have you heard the expression “T-L-D-R”? Too Long, Didn’t Read, it means. And others say--"American readers" (whatever that means) want to read shorter.

Our fabulous wonderful Nancy Martin has been thinking about length—yes, she’s a glamorous fashionista, and so is her Nora Blackbird. (Her new A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER is out—finally!—right now!)  But Nancy’s not talking about hemlines—she’s talking about lines of type.

A Novella Idea

    By Nancy Martin

What exactly was Rhett Butler doing when he was “blockade running?” What went on in Boo Radley’s home? What kind of crime does Morelli fight when Stephanie Plum is busy catching bail jumpers?

Questions like these are writer heaven. Sure, we know what our secondary characters are doing while the main character is busy telling the story. But readers rarely get to find out.

Until now.  I think we’re entering the Golden Age of the Novella.

Me, I write a mystery series and publish one hardcover a year. When I’m at the top of my game, it takes me about nine months to write a Blackbird Sisters Mystery. By contrast, when I made a good living at romance novels years ago, I could write two or three books in the same amount of time. But those romances were only 200 pages in manuscript and featured a streamlined A story. The B story was very short, and the C story nonexistent.  

My Blackbird books are driven by a convoluted mystery plot and embellished with B, C, D and E stories—and sometimes more.  I may have several plot threads going--each addressing some current event or subject that takes research.  Plus after the draft is finished, I like to tweak the language to make the book more fun to read. Bottom line? I can’t dash off a full-length mystery in a few weeks.

Can I get tacky here and talk about money?  Because I can only write one book a year, I only get paychecks twice every twelve months. And royalties come in dribs and drabs. That makes for tricky cash-flow.

So I looked around and noticed other writers were supplementing their A writing with some B projects.  The short story has been around a long time in all genres, but not very lucrative. The novella e-book can be priced in the sweet spot of 99 cents to $2.99  and make real money.  Which makes it good business for writers--especially when our readers are clamoring for more, more, more, faster, faster, faster. 

Creatively, the novella can be a blast. As my series matured---published this week, A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER is the 10^th Blackbird Sisters mystery—my protagonist developed relationships with more characters than I can squeeze into a 400 page manuscript. Not without spending the first 100 pages just on backstory. But my email and FB contact with readers told me they really want to know more about the other people in Nora Blackbird’s life. Writing about those secondary characters has been fun.

The novella has become a way to keep readers hooked, and it’s a pretty good source of pin money for me.  Plus I get to fully explore the characters I only knew in a secondary sense. Win, win, win!

So far, I’ve published two novellas about Nora Blackbird’s lover, Mick Abruzzo, the son of a Jersey mob boss and a sometime criminal himself. His efforts to stay out of the life of crime—efforts that aren’t always successful—have made good amateur PI novellas. His stories are more gritty than my Blackbird books, which makes them a creative change of pace for me. Readers who buy the e-books will have better insight into what he’s doing when he keeps secrets from Nora.  His story arc is much different from the one she perceives.

In September, I’ll be publishing a slightly longer novella about Nora’s former sister-in-law, who will be looking into the murder of Emma Blackbird’s husband . . . perhaps at the hands of a certain mob family.  I took one of my previously published romances (pub date 1987!) and rewrote it for this purpose. Good use of my backlist? I hope so. If readers enjoy this one, I’ve got thirty more romances to tinker with—which I can do much faster than writing a whole new mystery.

Maybe the novella is rising in popularity because readers don’t have (or make) the time to read long books anymore. We’re all scrolling through Facebook or trying to communicate with 111 characters instead of reading full-length novels. Are we dumbing down? Losing our attention spans?  Or are we just too busy to read as much as we used to?

So what do you think? What minor character’s story would you read in novella form? What kind of trouble did Rhett Butler get into when he wasn’t charming the ladies of Atlanta?

HANK: Oh, what a brilliant idea!  Rebecca from Mrs. Danvers’ POV? The poor misunderstood Queen of Hearts in Alice? (Hmmm…) What happened to Dill? (I guess we know…) Or how about Bess and George tell all about the real Nancy Drew?  (And do you say “TL,DR?”) 

What do you think, Reds?  A copy of A LITTLE NIGHT MURDERS to one lucky commenter!

And now: today's nightstands!

Lourdes Venard (I see Writes of Passage! xo More to come on that!)

Red Kaye Barley (and monkey!)

Sharon Hopkins (very sleek)

Caroline Richardson Mahaffey (but she knows where everything is!)

Jay Shepherd (has his work cut out for him...)

Brandee C. (oops, more than Jay, even!)


More tomorrow! 

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Nancy Martin is the author of nearly fifty popular fiction novels in the mystery, romance, historical and suspense genres.  She has served on the board of Sisters in Crime and is a founding member of Pennwriters. An award-winning, bestselling novelist, she announces the release of her tenth Blackbird Sisters Mystery---A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER in August, 2014. Find her on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/authornancymartin 

Nancy Martin: Just sayin'

JUST KEEP READING AND NOBODY GETS HURT!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It was great fun, but it was just one of those...no, it wasn't. It was a ground-breaking mind-altering , consciousness-raising fabulous chaos of sisterhood, togetherness, empowerment and fabulousness.

Who didn't love the Lipstick Chronicles? The mother of all blog was so much a part of our lives for so long--its storied beginnings and its thriving and vital years of "Just saying" and "INCHFTS" and "Just keep reading and nobody gets hurt" and a no-holds-barred look at the mysteries of the world (and the world of mysteries.)

And then, one day recently...the tarts packed their belongings and emptied the supply room and with one last glass of champagne, went our separate ways. Leaving many memories and much nostalgia..and, because we are all who we are, some questions.

Now, we welcome the Lipstick alumns here to Jungle Red with a raised glass and a cozy quilt and some fish-net stockings and painted fingernails and a love of life and reading and each other.

Today, we also welcome one of the brains of the operation, Nancy Martin.


Who--no matter what she insists--still has more than a few things to say. And she's here to share and spill..and reveal the latest.

Surrender, Dorothy!
By Nancy Martin

Is blogging over? That’s the question we began asking ourselves at The Lipstick Chronicles water cooler about a year ago.

Can I admit this to you, trusted friends? The amount of time it takes to manage a blog finally overwhelmed me. Sure, most of it was fun. Some days, the blogs were hysterical. And my blog sisters had become almost as close to my heart than—well, anybody I’d ever slept in the same bed with. (I only wish we could have published some of the email threads we went to each other, but too many computer monitors would have been ruined by splurted coffee.)

Plus the backbloggers became my friends! And over six years together we’d built something big, something to be proud of—one of the first clearly successful blogs in the publishing biz that produced quality reading every darn day. In my 30-year publishing career, building TLC was one of the accomplishments I feel great about. But . . . running it was a marathon.

My blunt, practical, Yankee mother said, “Remember the lifeguard rule. Save yourself first.”

Another friend said, “Surrender, Dorothy.”


Would I be better off spending the same hours every day working on something for—dare I admit this, being as how I flinch from avid self-promoters?-- for me?

Most of my equally drained blog sisters said, “Yes.” Which cinched it. It was time to turn off the lights in the TLC office.

Let me tell you what happened as soon as we stopped blogging:

Nothing.

You know that guy who doing the Amish project? Turning off his technology for a while? That’s just about what happened to me. I climbed out of bed every morning to check the blog (oops! No need for that!) and I opened my email box to find it empty. Empty! The usual hour I’d spend answering emails was suddenly available for something else! And checking the blog three times a day to comment and delete the spam? No need for that anymore. No schedule to fill. No traffic-driving FB posts to make, no emails to write begging for attention.

Running a blog had become a small business for me, I realized.

“If I’d put all this time into selling Avon,” I said to a friend, “I could have retired by now.”

I’d been threatening to put old romances up on e-book market, so I’ve started working on that project. While I pound toward my deadline for a standalone. And while I rev up the Blackbird Sisters mysteries with a few more books.

Because, really? Do readers want another blog post from me? I don’t think so. They want more books. (What’s your opinion on this? Would you rather have more books from your favorite authors? Or more author newsletters in your in-box?)

So that’s what I’m working on now. Books. And I love the total immersion in my own writing again. It’s what I love to do. I’d allowed myself to be distracted.

Is blogging over? Of course not. Readers love blogs. I love reading blogs! The communities fostered by blogs are full of wonderful, fun, thoughtful people whom I will always consider friends. But for me? Yes, it’s over. Except when lovely pals ask me to guest blog when I have a book coming out. Which I do.

Plus something totally new, so keep scrolling down.

The paperback of STICKY FINGERS comes out next week, on Valentine’s Day. And the terrific people at Mystery Lovers Bookshop are offering autographed copies (and free shipping!) if you feel like giving a book to a sweetheart in your life. Here's the link: http://www.mysterylovers.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=60115 It’s a rip-snorting, sometimes steamy comic mystery.

In August, my new Blackbird hardcover will hit bookstores, too. NO WAY TO KILL A LADY. Isn’t the cover fabulous? Perfect for tucking into your summer vacation suitcase.

(HANK: OOH, yes, I LOVE the Blackbirds!)

NANCY: Plus, if you’re a Blackbird reader, I’m e-pubbing a short story/novella that’s a prequel to the series. It’s called MICK ABRUZZO’S STORY, and it should be available online next week through all e-book vendors. It’s priced right—just $1.99. Let me know what you think. Because in the time I used to spend writing blogs, I’ll be writing novellas about more secondary characters in the series.

HANK: Yes indeedy. It sounds like Nancy is REALLY taking it easy, huh? Did you read Lipstick Chronicles? What did you think of it? What do you remember from it? Let's do some Lipstick nostalgia..and if you never met Me, Margie or the cousins...well, there's still the archives. Or--maybe we can get Me, Margie to make a visit here!

And a free copy of Sticky Fingers (with love from Jungle Red) to one lucky commenter!

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Nancy Martin is the author of nearly 50 popular fiction books, including mystery, suspense, romance and historical novels. She lives in Pittsburgh. Every February her husband moves into her office to work on their tax returns, and it drives her crazy. Visit her website at http://www.nancymartinmysteries.com/