Hank says it's: What We're WHINING Week. BUT! Prizes and surprises!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Lots of fun stuff in today's blog – – including some prizes and loot for you! But first:

A tiny bit of whining.

What's that noise you're hearing in the background? That is the wail of the poor pantser–author, approaching 110,000 words in a manuscript, and realizing that the big dénouement had better appear pretty darn fast, not to mention the climax and coda, and having no idea what it is.

I’m telling you, Reds and Readers, I have no idea. I have asked myself: what does the main character need beyond all need? What would she REALLY do now? What does the bad guy need to have happen? (Who is the bad guy, anyway?) What will the final big conflict be? And how will the main character get out of it? What will she learn? What do I want to leave the reader feeling at the end of the book? What is the last frame of video in the story?

Ha ha ha. Whatever. I have no idea. I am wallowing in the slough of despond–it’s the scourge of the pantser, staring at my page and waiting for inspiration. Last night, seriously, I had the best idea. The. Best. Idea. I woke up in the morning, all excited, so relieved that I had figured it out, and I am telling you, it was the worst idea that anyone has ever had in the entire history of the planet. And we will leave it at that. I have two more weeks to finish this, and then a month for revisions. So that should be fine, right? Right?

All I need is ONE idea. Seriously.

In other news, there is a lot of fun stuff brewing. And as I said, above, here’s a drawing for you, a bargain for you, and an offer to get something in your actual snail mail box !

Do you enter Goodreads giveaways? If you do, you know how wonderful they are. Some fabulous publishers—including mine—give away dozens of free books in brief, but fabulous drawings. And this year, Forge Books is giving away 50—yes 50!—hard covers of The House Guest!

Just click here to enter!



ALSO! HER PERFECT LIFE is now-–briefly!--just $1.99 on all platforms that sell e-books! 

(It's reassuring to see this, you know? Because I DO remember at one point I had no idea how that would end either, and it turned out fine. More than fine. So…onward ) ANYWAY! But if you missed HER PERFECT LIFE, snag it now!

Just click here. 

And remember, you can give an ebook as a gift, and isn’t that a great idea? They'll never know you got it on sale!

And now, back to staring at my manuscript.

Still, wait. Might as well write SOMETHING! So I know it’s silly and sentimental, but I absolutely love to get holiday cards in the mail. Even the glittery ones, where the glitter falls onto the carpet and takes forever to clean up. I love seeing the family photos, and the family newsletters, and having a moment with each card to be grateful for a friendship.

I love to send them, too. I think of each recipient as I address and sign them, and it's so much fun to take them to the post office and imagine their journeys. So, would you like a holiday card from me? If you do, I am making it easy this year. Just click to this easy form, fill it out, and the holiday elves will get me all the information. And your card will be on the way. 

And oooh, the reviews and blurbs are coming in for THE HOUSE GUEST! Here's a VERY nice one!

And now, back to staring at my manuscript. It’ll happen, I KNOW it will. Any words of encouragement for me? And how about holiday cards? Is that what you’re writing these days?

What We're Reading

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We had so much fun with our "recommends" yesterday I thought we'd extend our chat to WHAT WE'RE READING–always a big fave here on Jungle Red. We love nothing more than talking about our latest finds.

I'll start with BLOOMSBURY GIRLS by Natalie Jenner. Set in 1949 London in a bookshop in Lamb's Conduit Street (the location of Duncan's police station in the present day–how could I not want to read this book?) three very different women navigate a changing world.

The male characters are very well done, too, and lots of famous literary figures are woven into the plot. I loved this book so much that I read Jenner's previous (and debut) novel,  THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY, as there is some character and plot crossover. I enjoyed it, too, although I didn't adore it as much as BLOOMSBURY GIRLS.

Another big thrill for me was a new book by Ella Risbridger–you may remember me raving about MIDNIGHT CHICKEN last year. This one is called THE YEAR OF MIRACLES and is ostensibly a cookbook, but it is so much more. The subtitle is "recipes about love + grief + growing things) and is a journal of Risbridger's year following the death of her partner. It's also an accounting of the first year of the pandemic, as it begins in January, 2020. Risbridger's writing is absolutely gorgeous and it's a very inspiring and affirming book. The book is beautiful, too, so I'd highly recommend the hardcover. It will be a keeper even if you never cook a single recipe. (NOTE: It won't be released in the US until July 26th but it is out in the UK and you can order from Book Depository. It's fast and no more expensive.)

And one more! I somehow ran across a book called THE NOTHING GIRL by Jodi Taylor. We've mentioned her CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY'S series before, as Julia and I are big fans. Do not be put off by the invisible talking golden horse!! This is a gem of a novel about an isolated young woman who agrees to marriage as a business proposition and gets much more than she bargained for. It's laugh-out-load funny, touching, suspenseful, AND it's on Kindle Unlimited at the moment!

I also thoroughly enjoyed Connie Berry's latest Kate Hamilton mystery, THE SHADOW OF MEMORY. This series just gets better and better. Connie will be here Thursday to tell us more!

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m betwixt and between. I have just finished Alicia Bessette’s SMILE BEACH MURDER and I hate to leave the Outer Banks! Last week I hated leaving Julia Child’s Paris. I have a lot of books ordered, including Krista Davis’s newest and Sarah Stewart Taylor’s newest and Paula Munier and Kristan Higgins, and I have a million books on my nightstand. But still, sometimes it’s hard to dive into something brand new. Any recommendations for THE PARIS LIBRARY or THE TASTE OF GINGER or FENCING WITH THE KING?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Absolutely do not miss Sulari Gentill’s THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY.  It’s a meta-literary mystery and I cannot say anything more, but just–read it.

Along those same lines, ish, THE APPEAL by Janice Hallett. Those books both delve into the workings of a writer’s mind, and a reader’s too, and they’re marvelous and hilarious and brilliant, both of them.  And I am getting ready for THE MURDER RULE by Dervla McTiernan.   Also LOOK CLOSER, by David Ellis, one of my favorite authors ever. And I am reading JAMES PATTERSON by James Patterson–in preparation for interviewing him in June!  Reds and readers, this autobiography is AWESOME and wonderful and charming and unique.

DEBS: Hank, what fun! I sat next to James Patterson at the Bouchercon Dallas GOH dinner, and he was so nice. A very charming and interesting man.

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve been enjoying a wild variety lately. ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A Black Guys Guide to the Constitution by Ellie Mystal. Fascinating book mostly about the amendments and why they need to be revisited. DOUBLE SHOT DEATH by Emmeline Duncan.

A terrific cozy mystery set in Portland about a coffee cart owning amateur that really captures the PNW vibe. THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell. Delicious suspense novel about three families and deep dark secrets. So good! 

RHYS BOWEN:   Rhys, the blurb queen here. It seems like a never-ending stream. They are mostly good reading but sometimes I’d like to choose.

I’ve just finished another upcoming book to blurb called The Spying Eye by Michelle Cox.

Quite good

And now I’m embarking on a non fiction about women’s lives around the world called Women’s  Work by Megan K Slack. Fascinating so far.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The heat has been climbing into the 70s and even 80s here in southern Maine, I've been mowing daily for the past five days (yes, I have that much lawn) so for me, it's beach read time! First up, THE HOMEWRECKERS by Mary Kay Andrews. If you've ever read her, you know she describes home renovation and decorating like a dream, and when I saw she had come up with that's basically about a young widow getting her own HGTV-like show, you know I had to have it. 

Next on my TBR pile, NEVER COMING HOME, a delicious domestic thriller from Hank's First Chapter Fun buddy, Hannah Mary McKinnon. Here's the start of the jacket copy:

Lucas Forester didn't hate his wife. Michelle was brilliant, sophisticated and beautiful. Sure, she had extravagant spending habits, that petty attitude, a total disregard for anyone below her status. But she also had a lot to offer. Most notably: wealth that only the one percent could comprehend.

For years, Lucas has been honing a flawless plan to inherit Michelle's fortune. Unfortunately, it involves taking a hit out on her.

Sounds awesome! I love rich people behaving badly.

Finally, this summer's book from my friend Nancy Thayer, SUMMER LOVE. It doesn't feel like summer until I've read one of Nancy's tales of heartache and hope, set on the idyllic island of Nantucket. SUMMER LOVE is about a reunion of people in my age bracket, which I love, accompanied by their twenty-something kids, which my daughters love. Something for everyone.

HALLIE EPHRON: I’ve just started reading Susan Orlean’s ON ANIMALS. She’s a wonderful essayist, musing on everything from household pets (hers) to the animals we eat to her experiences keeping chickens and critters further afield (Moroccan donkeys)… and on and on. It’s a book for animal lovers and perfect for the summer because you can savor it in chunks.

 

READERS, what books have tickled your fancy lately?

Kate White Dishes on the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: We are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to host Kate White today--she's here to chat about her latest herding-cats project--editing the Mystery Writers of America cookbook. Kate, welcome! Please tell us about the book!

KATE WHITE: Because I was both a mystery author and have had experience as an editor—I ran Cosmopolitan magazine for 14 years, and four other magazines before that—MWA asked me to edit the cookbook for them. I loved doing it. True, at moments it was a bit like herding cats to get some of those successful authors to send me their recipes, but I enjoyed having contact with famous writers I’d never met and I also got a kick out of seeing what recipes they submitted. There are also some fun sidebars in the book, which I enjoyed researching and writing, like: What Exactly Is a Red Herring? And “Pretty Poisons Right in Your Garden.” The latter got me thinking about using poison again in a mystery. Only a few toxins are routinely tested for in autopsies, so poison can be a good way to kill someone and never be caught.


LUCY BURDETTE: Were you surprised at which writers chose what recipes? (Was there a pattern, like hard-boiled=appetizers, cozy=dessert?) What were some of your favorites?

KATE WHITE: Oh, that’s a great question about patterns. I didn’t see any. For instance, Joseph Finder, the author of such strong, gritty suspense novels, offered a yummy apple crumble recipe. And James Patterson gave me a delicious chocolate cake recipe. (Conclusion: many male suspense writers are real sweeties!)

      There were some wonderful surprises. Gillian Flynn writes such fabulously dark stuff so it took me aback to see her recipe for the very All American-seeming “Beef Skillet Fiesta.” And Nelson DeMille’s funny “Male Chauvinist Pigs in the Blanket” almost made me fall off my chair laughing. 

     Other recipes were like little gifts. For instance, I still remember reading my first J.A.Jance novel year ago (Edge of Evil) and practically smelling the Sugarloaf Café sweet rolls she describes, and lo and behold, she sent in the recipe for them. And thanks to Lorenzo Carcaterra, I finally have my go-to marinara sauce.

     I’ve actually added a few of the wonderful recipes to my regular repertoire, like Kathy Reich’s “Shrimp Scampi” and Hank Phillippi Ryan’s “Worth-the-Effort Turkey Tetrazzini” (I always wanted to know how to use leftover turkey!).

LUCY BURDETTE: Do you like to cook? What menu might you serve at a dinner party?

KATE WHITE: I do love to cook and I do it a lot for friends and family. I’m not imaginative but I’m a cookbook addict, and I’m decent at following recipes. I have all the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, for instance, as well as those by Nigella Lawson and Giada De Laurentiis. We live in Uruguay part of each winter, and my favorite chef is Francis Mallmann, who has a restaurant not far from us. His cookbooks—Seven Fires and On Fire—are fantastic. He believes that charring both meats and vegetables brings out unusual flavors. And he’s right! What I’ve also learned from him is that simple is so often best. Don’t overthink things, use just a handful of ingredients (but be sure they are the best you can find), and don’t fuss with food that’s grilling (let it char!!!). One of my favorite Mallmann dishes is a salad with thinly sliced raw zucchini, almonds, fresh mint, and parmesan cheese, dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. For a summer dinner party, I might serve that first and then do a main course of grilled chicken, which I’ve marinated to death in lemon and oregano for two days, fresh sliced tomatoes, and Tuscan beans.

LUCY BURDETTE: Your suspense novel, THE WRONG MAN, will hit bookshelves in June. Tell us a little about that. And is it true that part of the book is set in the Florida Keys? 

KATE WHITE: The Wrong Man comes out in June, and yes it’s about Islamorada, which I discovered after being invited to a wedding there. In the book, a woman named Kit Finn takes her vacation in Islamorada and ends up having a very brief but thrilling fling with a man who is staying at the same hotel. He’s from New York City, as she is, and he asks her to dinner at his apartment in the city the week they both get back. But when she arrives, the man who opens the door has the same name as the man she met in Florida, but it isn’t him. That begins a nightmare that doesn’t want to quit.

LUCY: Kate thanks so much for visiting. Reds, we have a giveaway today--a copy of the MWA cookbook! To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment with your email.

KateWhite, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, is the New York Times bestselling author of six Bailey Weggins mysteries and four stand-alone suspense novels, including Eyes on You, and the upcoming The Wrong Man (June). She is also the editor of The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Connect with Kate at katewhite.com

Where Joy and Tragedy Meet

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You may have noticed I haven't been here much over the past couple of days--my work as a reporter was blasted into fast forward by the horrible hideous unbelievable events in Boston. I announced it live, as it was happening...before we even knew anything for sure. I have no idea what I said..although I seem to think it began--"Breaking news now, we're getting word there was some kind of explosion at the finish line of the Marathon...."

 I've seen swat teams and armed guards stalking the empty streets, carrying assault weapons with their fingers hovering at the trigger. I've  interviewed everyone from vicitms' families to departing runners to law enforcement to the Governor. I said to him--"Someone is out there who bombed the Marathon. How do you tell the public everything will be okay...when you don't know that?"

My husband was inside the federal courthouse when it was evacuated for whatever happened. (And  what's actually pretty funny, he was live on the phone on Channel 7 reporting what was happening! )

Boston is--on edge, careful,  suspicious, and everyone is trying to pretend they're not terrified.
Normal is such a wonderful thought. We're all wishing things could go back to the way they were. But they won't.

And that's one reason I am so thrilled to have Andrew Gross here today. He's the nicest, most comforting, most normal guy you can imagine. Yes, a terrific writer. And also thoughtful, and compassionate and funny and loving. Exactly the perfect person to come to Jungle Reds today.



WHERE JOY AND TRAGEDY MEET

                         by Andrew Gross

Writing this, a day after the heartbreak in Boston, it feels a bit petty and mercantile to put together something charming and witty that every writer knows is basically a veiled promotion of my new book. It somehow seems fitting that Hank asked me to prepare something for this particular week, she being a TV reporter from Boston, me from New York, and that it happened to converge with the horrible events up there.

 In a similar way to how the extremes of joy and tragedy came together up there too. Colliding at that finish line. Joy. Tragedy. I’ve written of those things many times; it’s basically what I do. Take a likeable, everyday person, someone you’ve met a thousand times, a doctor on his way to a conference or a yoga mom, and through one fallible or ill-fated moment, rip apart their happy lives. I wrote on Facebook that the image of that eight year old boy, who at first was said to be reaching out to cheer on his dad crossing the finish line, will stay with me a long time. Maybe a bit shamefully perhaps-- at least for a while-- because I’ve drawn up such similar images in my books so many times.

But every writer will tell you its hard for fiction to keep up with reality in recent times.

When I’m asked, “Why thrillers...?” I always answer that in my view thrillers are absolutely the most relevant form of fiction being written today, as they best reflect the real issues and crises that mirror our world. Thriller writers are rarely MFA candidates; they’re journalists, and ex-CIA agents; and doctors and lawyers and cops whose broad experiences inform their craft—and then I say that I understudied for a career writing about crime by spending twenty years in the women’s apparel business.

That’s my only yuk, but I do feel I probably got the better education.

How I made that transition s a story in itself, but my point here is that thrillers matter. And they matter by not just taking stories off the front pages, but also in how those stories grab the heart. It’s my goal to invest the reader in the plight of my hero within the first ten pages—something I learned from writing with Patterson, who understood early the intersection between joy and tragedy. Likeable, everyday people who on a hundred other days would just go on with their lives, but today will be different. And I choose to write about families, because family is the universal back story, isn’t it?

 And I always go for an emotional affirmation at the end. After the bullets stop flying and the chase cars screech to a stop, what I want you to take away from one of my books is a dad who had to save his family, not such himself; or a suburban mom who slipped in a moment of weakness and now, when accused of two murders she didn’t commit, doesn’t just have to just prove her innocence, but has to regain the trust of her kids as well. What I always go for, I realized, as I watched the newsclip from Boston over and over, is that eight year old boy.

Which brings me again to yesterday’s events one more time.

There is a moment in NO WAY BACK (just out this past week by the way—couldn’t resist!), where Wendy Gould is at a hotel bar waiting for a friend where an attractive stranger starts up a conversation, thinking she’s got her eye on an overhead baseball game.

“Yanks or Red Sox?” he asks.

“Yanks, of course,” she says. “Born and bred. South shore.”

“Sox,” he replies. “South Boston. Okay, Brookline, if you beat it out of me.” That random start leads to a one-in-a-million series of events in which Wendy’s happy, suburban life will never be the same.

As a New Yorker who grew up hating the Red Sox, Celtics and the Bruins, I guess we share a common bond with Bostonians right now.

Thanks for inviting me to share these thoughts.

HANK: Thank you, Andrew. And thank you all. And I can tell you--everything will be okay. 

 

**************************

Andrew Gross is an incredibly successful New York Times best-selling author. (You know this, right? And before he started writing on his own,  he wrote six books (at least) with James Patterson. Whoa.) Of his new book, NO WAY BACK, Publisher's Weekly says" "A fevered stand-alone. Tense, false clues, narrow escapes. The action spins to an exciting ending."  And if you've read this far, thank you. And lucky you.  Leave a comment.and you'll be in the running for a free copy from Jungle Red!

On Rejection

ROSEMARY: The following is an excerpt from Time.com's Helthland website.

Lab participants who watch as photos of them are rejected — even if they know the rejection is being done by a computer — experience not just emotional but physical distress. Your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, fluctuate when you think you're being rejected. It turns out that all of us are the nerdy kids on Glee: pathetic and weak when Sue Sylvester comes around, even if we know she's a robot dressed in a sweatsuit.
This week a new study shows that these physical effects go further: rejection actually stops your heart. Thus the clever title of the new Psychological Science paper: "The Heartbrake of Social Rejection." The authors of the study — a three-member group led by a University of Amsterdam psychologist named Bregtje Gunther Moor — measured beat-by-beat heart rate changes in 22 students as they received either rejection or acceptance of portrait photos they had submitted. When hooked up to electrocardiogram monitors, the students reliably showed a skip in their hearts when they thought they had been rejected by someone shown their photos.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/29/heartbrake-how-rejection-literally-stops-your-heart/?xid=aol-direct#ixzz10yUslWtm

ROSEMARY: I hope they didn't spend too much on this study.


I was fortunate and only got a few rejections before my current book deal, so I don't know how I'd have handled the 36 or so "no-thank-yous" James Patterson supposedly got before his first book was accepted for publication. But the reality is, as writers, most of us experience rejection on a regular basis - agents, editors and readers make their choices every day and frequently - gasp - they may reject us. There's not much I can do about it if an editor is looking for the next PEN or Booker Prize winner (I write genre fiction.) Or a reader is in the mood for a vampire book (I write traditional mysteries.)

There are plenty of best-selling books or enormously popular movies and television shows that I don't particularly love. And that's what I tell myself every time I'm on the receiving end of a rejection. Hey, not everyone is going to love you. Chaque a son gout. Jan, did I get that right?

What do you tell yourself?

Getting to Know You Day

Whoooo are you? Who who, who who?
**The Who

HANK: Hey! Who's out there? If we talk about what we're doing and where we are and what we're thinking, will you do the same?

It's Getting to Know You Day on Jungle Red!

One of us has a brand new book out--hurray, Rhys! So she gets to go first and get the spotlight. The rest of us are..well, you'll see.

And then it's your turn. Introduce yourself!

And one lucky commenter will get a free copy of Rhys' new book! And hey, why not, someone else will get one of mine--AIR TIME. (Any other JR's want to jump in here? Watch the comments, readers, and see!)

RHYS: Royal Blood is spilled today!
Today my penniless royal heroine is back with a new adventure, called Royal Blood.

Lady Georgie is thrilled to be asked to represent the royal family at a wedding in Europe, until she finds out it's at a castle in Transylvania. She is a modern young woman. She doesn't believe in vampires--but something is definitely crawling up the castle wall, and why does the bride have blood running down her chin? Rhys has had tremendous fun with a completely spoof of the vampire genre. If you love to laugh and be scared at the same time, then this is for you.I'm setting off on a book tour this week, and would love to see Jungle Red fans along the way. The schedule is posted on my website.

HANK: I'm in Boston, and where did summer go? My dahlias are amazing, and I can't even cut them fast enough. Still fighting the stupid biting ugly earwigs that love to live in the beautiful flowers. (Is that a metaphor? I do think it is.)

In my study, working working working. Will it be a new book? I'm thinking about how many people it's believable to have killed in one two-week period in one city. A big city. So--what's ridiculous and what's logical? (On so many levels.) I had a synopsis, but that's getting changed every second as I write the actual book.

In my day job as TV reporter--desperately looking for a blockbuster story or two. (Any ideas?) And got a new sweater dress and boots. So it's fall, for sure. (Anyone wearing the little ankle boots with skirts? Can't get used to the look.)

HALLIE: I'm enjoying everything about summer's end. Going barefoot. Eating delicious fresh tomatoes and corn. Sleeping with the windows open. Walking on Wollaston Beach (Boston) where it's easy to find parking.

Noticing how all the weeding this summer I did in my garden has paid off and everything looks abnormally tidy and peaceful. Ideas for the next book are starting to bubble up. Did we have stretches of hot disgusting summer weather? I've already forgotten.

Also gearing up for "Seascape Escape to Write" retreat in Madison - this will be the fourth time Roberta and I and S. W. Hubbard and I have run this intensive Friday-Sunday workshop in a wonderful house that used to belong to Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue set on the beach in Madison CT.

ROBERTA: Of course, I'm getting ready for "Seascape: Escape to Write" too! We're expecting 15 students this year, all crime fiction writers--so that's a lot of work reading everyone's submissions so we can be prepared. Always so much fun to put faces to the names and the work--and then to watch the stories improve over the weekend by leaps and bounds!

Last night, I took the train into New York (from Connecticut) to the MWA New York chapter meeting where James Patterson was the speaker. I won't take up too much time here--I've posted more on my blog. (http://www.robertaisleib.com/blog) If you don't think that room was crammed with people wanting to know the secret of his success!

And work--yeah. Slaving away on a thriller, maybe it's suspense, never can tell the difference. And waiting to hear about a couple of other irons in the fire. Does everyone have their fingers and paws crossed out there?

JAN: After two and a half weeks on the beach (in Nantucket) I'm ready for fall. I never want to eat grilled food again, and I'm thrilled to be home and back to my work routine. While I was away, I got a lot of big breaks on my non-fiction book, tentatively named the Combat Zone, and am working out the fine points of the proposal. This is the same 1976 murder I wrote a screenplay about and let me tell you, it's incredibly hard to go from a Screenplay to a book. You have to get the first structure out of your head, but it doesn't want to stay out. It keeps infiltrating.

I also finished the first draft of my novel, The Devil In Waverley, when I was on vacation YAY!!! Still a a second draft to go, but the Challenge and the change of seasons have done wonders for me. And if I'm being completely honest, I've benefited from tennis elbow and not being about to get on the court!

ROSEMARY: I was at the Patterson dinner too. Got to sit with the great man himself. Really charming - especially when one questioner asked how he chose his writing partners "Do people send you sample chapters?" Yeah, right!

My garden (in Connecticut) was heavenly this summer, but I'm bringing in far too many plants to overwinter. Spent two long wonderful days at the US Open and hope to see Roger Federer hoist that trophy before I head for the Cape where I will kayak and hatch some ideas for next book.

Oh, yes...lots of drama this week over the cover for SLUGFEST. Life would be so simple if people just did what I told them to do.

HANK: Oh, YES. I'm with ya, Ro. Going to mention that to my boss right now. And SPILL! What did James Patterson say? And as for paws and fingers,yes, crossed. Big time. (And for you, too.)

So, your turn! Who's out there? Where are you? What's on your mind? What are you working on?

James Hayman on WHERE YOU WRITE

JAN: A native New Yorker, Jim Hayman spent nearly thirty years working for Madison Ave's ad agencies before moving to Portland, Maine. There he decided to follow in the footsteps of some other former madmen like James Patterson and Stuart Woods and begin a new career writing thrillers. His debut novel is The Cutting.

“Bookstores have been looking for a writer of popular fiction who can reliably produce a bestseller. James Hayman…has invented a cop with sophisticated tastes. If your summer reading includes a psychological thriller, this one’s for you.”-Mandy Twaddell, Providence Journal

JAN: I met Jim via email when I helped line him up as a panelist for the New England Crime Bake mystery conference this November (14th, 15th, 16th at the Dedham Hilton outside Boston, mark your calendars). I'm thrilled to introduce you to his writer's insight today.

JAMES HAYMAN: A Writer Retreats.

“Where do you write?”

I’m sure most writers have been asked that question. I know I have more times than I can count. At least once at every public event and private gathering I’ve attended since my first suspense thriller, The Cutting, leapt its way onto bookstore shelves at the end of June. (Author’s Note: Okay, leapt is a bit hyperbolic. But, as a writer of stories involving sex, violence, murder and mayhem, I do like action verbs, and “leapt its way” seems more appealing than the more sedate, though possibly more accurate, “found its way” or the more passive, but definitely more accurate, “appeared.”)

Anyway, for me, the short answer to the question of where I write is: Not At Home. A lot of people who know where I live find that puzzling.

Thanks to a couple of decades spent churning out detergent, car and army recruiting commercials for the likes of Procter & Gamble, Lincoln/Mercury, and the US Army, home for me is now a beautiful light-filled house set on the rocky coast of Maine. From its many windows I can watch the waves crashing onto the shore and gaze at a series of islands receding into the distance across the water.

Sounds idyllic, right?

It is.

Sounds like the perfect writer’s retreat, right?

It ought to be.

So, that’s where you wrote The Cutting, right?

“Uhh, well, no. Not exactly.”

Turns out, that for me at least, the perfect writer’s retreat only works perfectly as long as my mind is in gear, the plot is unfolding as planned, and my characters are behaving exactly as I want them. In other words, when I’m writing the easy parts.

However, when I get to one of those places where I’m not quite sure what Mike McCabe, my hero, and Maggie, his partner, ought to be doing next. Or exactly how bitchy I ought to be making McCabe’s ex-wife Sandy. Or how graphically I should describe the next slaying or autopsy, well, then what seems to be the perfect writer’s retreat unfortunately morphs into the perfect place for procrastination.

It’s the place where I can stop writing for any of a million reasons. All valid, all rational, all stupid.

“Gee, shouldn’t I be checking my emails?”

“Gee, shouldn’t I be checking that stock I bought last week and see if it’s recovering yet from its precipitous fall?”

“Gee, I’m almost out of clean underwear. Shouldn’t I be washing a load?”

Annie Dillard, a writer whose work I admire, once described the perfect place to write fiction as a small cinderblock cell without windows, without telephone and without Internet access. A place where one’s imagination can stay in its imaginary world because there are no other choices.

My choice of the perfect writing place isn’t as extreme as Dillard’s. I chose a fifth floor carrel in the library of a nearby university. Once there I can’t log on to the Internet because I’m not a registered as either a student or a teacher. I can’t stop for a snack because there are no snacks to be had. I can’t even go to the bathroom without lugging my laptop with me.
Yes, I miss the view of the waves and the islands, but my carrel is ideal. Without it I wouldn’t get the next book done.

To learn more about Jim Hayman or his terrific debut book, The Cutting, check him out at http://www.jameshaymanthrillers.com/

Compassion Fatigue

ROBERTA: I recently submitted a section of my current opus to a couple of my reading buddies and was struck when one said: “I can’t believe your character would do that.” (I think the character in question was leaving his wife abruptly rather than confess to financial misdeeds.)

Lately, the paper is full of that kind of stranger than fiction stuff. Doesn’t it seem like another public figure goes down in flames every week? I don’t have any trouble buying that people do stupid things. (Although Blagojevich has taken this to a new level.) I can believe that Alex Rodriguez was feeling a ton of pressure about the high-paying contract he signed, and that he was immature and maybe (maybe!) naive. I can believe that Bill Clinton was dizzy with power and tired of being watched at every moment.

People are steeped in denial about their own weaknesses and motivations. We writers know that from our own lives and we exploit it fully in our characters. Where I get lost is when public figures get caught and then deny wrong doing. I'm thinking maybe we should all make a pact on Jungle Red: If one of us does something dumb, let's all remind her or him to fess up? Any takers? Or takes on the subject?

HALLIE: Confession: if there WERE a performance-enhancing drug for writing, I'd have long ago taken it. And inhaled. Then, despite my dozens of NY Times best sellers, I'd fess up, here and now. If only.

RO: No fair....Hank is quite perfect and the rest of us would look like losers.

HANK: Oh, now who's on drugs?

ROBERTA: So we need a new pact, then? If one of you guys comes up with a performance-enhancing drug for writing, we're all in?

JAN: Definitely in. The coffee isn't working anymore. But I did have a sports/energy drink the other day for tennis that I was going to try to apply to writing. I'll let you know.....

HANK: There was an amazing article in the NY Times a few months ago, and it haunts me every day. The bottom line was that people who are less than intelligent have NO idea they're dolts.

Here's what the experiment did, if I have it right. They gave a group of people a test. Then, afterwards, they asked each person how they felt they did. By a huge and indisputable margin, the people who said things like "Oh, I aced it" or "I knocked it out of the ball park" did poorly on the test.

The people who said--"oh, I don't know, I could have done better" or "I wish I could go back and answer some of those questions again" were the ones who, absolutely, did well.

To me, that explains so much. I mean, it's brilliant. If people have NO IDEA that they have no idea, doesn't that explain so much?

SO. We have Elliot Spitzer, who, I guess, figured he could do anything he wanted. The guy in Boston who said his name was Clark Rockefeller but it was really Christian Gerhartsreiter. The guy who crashed his plane so he could pretend he was dead.

The WOMAN WITH THE CHIMP. I mean, let's just stop right there.

RHYS: Right now I'd wrestle Hank for the performance enhancing writing drug! Two books a year is getting to be overwhelming. Also thinking of doing a James Patterson and hiring a mini-me.
But the people who astound me are all those millionaires who coughed up serious money to Madoff without any guarantees. Surely if you have millions you have financial advisors and you run any transaction through them. I suppose the simple answer is greed. Also the simple answer to the housing crisis. Mortgage bankers were just too greedy and people took loans too good to be true.

We are all wise, sensible and all around fabulous people. The problem will be when they write our tell-all biographies, will they have anything juicy to tell.
Okay, so my misspent youth but....

RO: You know...I met that chimp. A few years back, one of the owner's dogs followed Bruce home when he was out for a run and the dog wouldn't leave. We had to call the owner and drive the dog home..which was uh, untraditional with, as I recall, a horse trailer, a maybe an rv..it was like a travellers camp..you know..the Irish travellers..weird...and then the chimp came out...

HANK: Rhys, I definitely want to hear about your misspent youth. But it's RO they're gonna want in People Magazine for her close encounter of the primate kind. Now--what were we talking about,again?

ROBERTA: Did I meet you during my misspent youth, Rhys? Okay, JR Readers, pick a thread and do the best you can! If you don't like any of these topics, come back Tuesday for the amazing Nancy Pickard or Wednesday for the fabulous Kate Collins or Friday to hear psychologist Carolyn Kaufman talk about writing great fictional characters.

Reading maketh a full man..Francis Bacon

RO: According to the Baltimore Sun, reading also maketh a fullback, a halfback, and a quarterback as the Sun reports that the NFL's Baltimore Ravens are apparently quite addicted to James Patterson. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-sp.ravens17oct17001523,0,2547755.story

Who'd a thunk it? I think it's wonderful. Who else would you like to see with books in their hands..and what books?

I'd like to give James Dobson a copy of The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta.

JAN: I'd like to give Venus Williams a copy of Yesterday's Fatal. She's one of my tennis heroes and apparently, she's a big mystery reader. There's also a famous women's tennis coach from Stanford University whose name is also Jan Brogan, only her USTA rating is much, much, much higher than mine. I'd like to give her a signed copy of my book and check and see if our signatures are anything alike.

HANK: I think I know what you're going for here, RO, and it's fascinating. I'd like to give the Tao De Ching to--well, any number of politicians. But we won't go there on Jungle Red, is that the deal? Give 1984 (War is Peace...remember the rest of that slogan?) to--well, just imagine. The Great Gatsby to Donald Trump. Not that it would matter. To Kill a Mockingbird to Clarence Thomas. Little Women to Britney Spears. Presumed Innocent to OJ Simpson. (But if we're doing the wishful thinking mode, okay, I'll play. Please get Face Time to Renee Russo. Or Jane Kaczmarek. Just a thought.)

HALLIE: When I did a Sisters in Crime talk for Massachusetts prison librarians, we asked them what authors prisoners favor--turned out to be James Patterson (#1), followed by Janet Evanovich. Go figure. Did everyone see Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature? We should all give ourselves The Golden Notebook and read (or re-read, as the case may be) to remember why.

BREAKING NEWS: FACE TIME makes the Boston Globe best seller list! And is now number 7 in paperback fiction.

RO: Holy Cow!!! And I know the author...