What We're Missing (sigh)

JENN McKINLAY: When I first started writing, I wrote in this Emily Dickensonesque solitude where not only did I not take any classes, go to any conferences, or find any other authors to commiserate with, I also didn't tell anyone I was trying to be a writer. This is one of my biggest regrets. Why?

Well, it turns out, writers are, by and large, very friendly, generous with their knowledge, and extremely supportive of their fellow pen monkeys. Conferences are where I've made some of the best friends of my life -- like this crew of divine women: 

Jungle Red Writers Bouchercon 2019

And I've been to places I'd likely never have gone to without a conference being held there, such as Toronto's CN Tower. Yes, I'm standing on the glass floor, looking down at the aquarium. (Bouchercon 2017).

The friendships that are forged while being on a panel with other authors, going to dinner with your editor and agent, or just hanging out for a coffee or a large breakfast (my favorite) with readers is the BEST.

My bestie and frequent conference roommate Kate Carlisle, whose book THE GRIM READER is coming in June! I can't imagine my life if I'd never met her. Yes, we're enjoying
pre-book signing "salads" here. 

At the recently aborted Left Coast Crime, I even got to see blogger and Reds regular, Mark Baker, moderate the panel What's Cooking? He did an amazing job!

Left Coast Crime 2020

For most of us in the crime fiction world, this is the week for the Edgars, where our Hank is up for a Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Murder List (Available RIGHT NOW in ebook form for $1.99). It will be announced on Twitter on April 30th at 11:00 EST. I love you, Twitter (okay, not really) but this is NOT the same.

Today, I should be on a plane headed to the second Malice Domestic I've ever attended. Kate Carlisle and I were going to check out the Library of Congress, but the big event was to celebrate our Julia, who was Guest of Honor! Obviously, it, too, was canceled. 

This is particularly sad for me, because one of the friendships I forged at Malice, way back in 2012, was with our dearly departed Sheila Connolly.  Sheila passed away last week. It was a crusher for the entire cozy mystery community, but her blog mates at Wicked Authors say it best with a lovely tribute written by our friend Edith Maxwell. It's cold comfort, I know, but I'm so glad we have Sheila's books to take us with her to Ireland or an apple orchard or wherever her talents lead. 

Sheila was a genuine character, wickedly smart and with a delightful sense of fun. Here we are posing as Charlie's Angels, with finger guns and everything, because we're both so tall. We laughed pretty hard at ourselves. I'm so sorry I won't get to laugh with you again, my friend. RIP. (photo by Dru Ann Love)

So, if there is one thing I've learned and learned and relearned in the spring of 2020, I won't take any of these conferences, the amazing people who put them together, or those who attend them for granted -- ever again! Here's hoping I get to see you all at a signing, a conference panel, or a breakfast again soon! 

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, what conferences, signings, or other book centric events are you planning to attend, if any, when the world starts up again?

Mary Higgins Clark Award Hoopla!

HALLIE EPHRON: I'd never heard much about the Mary Higgins Clark Award until my first suspense standalone, Never Tell a Lie, was nominated for it. Then I read the qualifications:

• No on-scene violence, strong four-letter words, or explicit sex scenes.

The protagonist:

• Is a nice young woman whose life is suddenly invaded
• Is self-made and independent, with primarily good family relationships
• Has an interesting job
• Is not looking for trouble–she is doing exactly what she should be doing and something cuts across her bow
• Solves her problem by her own courage and intelligence

Check, check... And discovered this is (more or less) the kind of book I write. 

Hank won this award for The Other Woman (she's been nominated twice.)

I just received my FIFTH Mary Higgins Clark nomination. We have to wait until the Edgar Awards April 26 to find out who takes home the gorgeous glass doorstop. Maybe I'll win this time, but honestly it's okay if I lose because the other nominees are formidable. Really. Really. Really.

• Lori Rader-Day, who is up for the third time (she won once) with THE DAY I DIED
• Carol Goodman, up for the second time with THE WIDOW'S HOUSE

And first-time nominees who are both writing about wine!

• Ellen Crosby, THE VINEYARD VICTIMS
• Nadine Nettman, UNCORKING A LIE

I’m thrilled to welcome these authors to Jungle Red. Put their books in your queue! I'm putting them in mine.

I asked them each: tell us a little about your main character, and what is it that "cuts across her bow"? And, be honest now, did you think about this award category and go through and remove the swear words before you finalized it? 

NADINE NETTMANN: My character, Katie Stillwell, is a sommelier at a restaurant in San Francisco. She believes every bottle of wine has a story behind it and feels it’s the same with people, which is why she often refers to people in her life as wines. For example, her best friend is a Merlot because she has a tarnished reputation she didn’t deserve and her dad is a Barolo because he’s stoic and stern.

In UNCORKING A LIE, Katie is at a dinner party in Sonoma when she realizes an expensive bottle of wine is not the one on the label. She confides in a friend and he’s found at the bottom of the staircase a few minutes later. So really it’s a fraudulent wine with a side of murder that cuts across her bow.

As for the swear words, I’m generally not a person who swears a lot. I don’t mind reading it or hearing it, so don’t worry if you say it around me, but it’s just rare for me to swear so it doesn’t come out in my writing. So far I haven’t written a character that would be prone to swearing but if I did, I would probably remove the words as I want my books to be ones my mom can recommend to her friends without having to warn them about the language. 

ABOUT Nadine Nettman: A Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, Nadine is always on the lookout for great wines and the stories behind them. She has visited vineyards around the world and pairs wine with every chapter in her award-nominated Sommelier Mystery Series. 

CAROL GOODMAN: I’ve always been drawn to the narrative of a courageous, independent woman taking on whatever cuts across her bow.  I think of my protagonists as women who are leading their lives, struggling to keep work and family balanced, and then something throws the balance off.  

Clare Martin, the protagonist of The Widow’s House, is struggling with financial troubles since her husband Jess hasn’t been able to write his second novel.  When they’re offered a chance to live as caretakers at the estate of their former writing teacher, Clare thinks this is the perfect solution.  Soon she and Jess are living in Riven House and Clare finds the atmosphere inspiring to her own writing … but also disturbing.  

Diving into the history of the area, she discovers that inhabitants of Riven House are menaced by strange forces that now seem to be targeting her and Jess.  And yes, she has to save herself through her own courage and intelligence.  

So while I wasn’t thinking about this award while I was writing The Widow’s House, I’m always thinking about the many perils that may cut across our bows and what we need, as strong independent women, to survive them.

ABOUT Carol Goodman: The critically acclaimed author of twenty novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages and The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, her books have been translated into sixteen languages.  She lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, and teaches writing and literature at The New School and SUNY New Paltz.

LORI RADER-DAY: In The Day I died, Anna Winger is a handwriting analyst who is leading a quiet little life in a small town in Indiana that reminds her of her old hometown—the town she can't go back to, because she fears for her safety and the safety of her now-teen son. And then across her bow comes a handwriting assignment from the local sheriff's office to look at a note left behind in a kidnapping/murder case, a case that looks more and more like what might have happened to Anna if she hadn't run when she did. 

I *did* take out a certain four-letter word from this book, late in the game. There was only one, and even though I've been known to dabble in the four-letter arts myself, it felt OK to take it out and make it more palatable to readers. Watch out, though, because in the book I have coming out in August, Under a Dark Sky, I left that word in. 

About Lori Rader-Day: A three-time Mary Higgins Clark Award nominee, Lori won the award in 2016 for her second novel, Little Pretty Things. She is the author of The Black Hour, winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and The Day I Died, an Indie Next Pick. Lori’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and Good Housekeeping. She lives in Chicago, where she is active in Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and co-chairs the mystery conference Murder and Mayhem in Chicago. Lori’s next novel, Under a Dark Sky, will be published by Harper Collins William Morrow in August.

ELLEN CROSBY: In The Vineyard Victims, Lucie Montgomery owns a vineyard on land that has been in her family for nearly 250 years so she has deep roots in small-town Atoka, Virginia. Family means everything, as do old and abiding friendships. So when former presidential candidate and beloved local philanthropist Jamie Vaughn extracts her promise to ask someone named Rick to forgive him just before Jamie dies in a fiery car crash at the entrance to her vineyard, Lucie intends to keep her word. 

What cuts across her bow is that her promise will alienate Jamie’s friends and family who don’t want Lucie asking questions asked about Jamie’s controversial past and a thirty-year-old murder. When her investigation unexpectedly leads to her own near-fatal accident ten years ago, Lucie is forced to face her own unresolved demons in a search for justice for a condemned man on Death Row.

While I didn’t consider the Mary Higgins Clark award as I was writing The Vineyard Victims, I would like to say for the record that I began writing this story before Donald Trump—who happens to own a vineyard in Charlottesville, Virginia—announced he would be a presidential candidate. Honest!

The death of a former presidential candidate in a fiery car crash at her Virginia vineyard has ties to a thirty-year-old murder as well as to Lucie Montgomery’s own near fatal accident ten years ago as she searches for a killer who now may be stalking her.

ABOUT Ellen Crosby: The author of the Virginia wine country mysteries, including The Vineyard Victims, her most recent book, featuring vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery, as well as Multiple Exposure and Ghost Image, which feature international photojournalist Sophie Medina, and Moscow Nights, a standalone mystery. Previously she worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC News Radio, and as an economist at the U.S. Senate. 

And finally, ME 

HALLIE EPHRON: In You'll Never Know, Dear, the sudden reappearance of a doll that belonged to a girl that went missing 40

years ago cuts across the bow of her mother, her sister, and her grown niece. It's about finding a lost child, survivor's guilt, and what our dreams can tell us. 

And yes, since this is my fifth time to the MHC altar, yes I do think about swear words in my books. Do I really need this one, or that one? More often than not, there's a better way to dramatize the situation. And that's just good writing.

So we're opening it up for a potpourri of questions and comments! About wine, handwriting analysis, creepy houses, doll-making... and the four-letter words we keep out of our books.

Jenny Milchman--Road Warrior

RHYS BOWEN: When I started out in the mystery genre I decided the only way that people would hear about my books was to hit the road and visit as many bookstores as I could. My husband and I made three cross country trips, visiting small towns. I thought I had been quite adventurous and hard working, until I met Jenny Milchman. She is the road warrior par excellence. Who else would take her kids out of school and literally car-school them while she cross-crossed the country? So I'm glad to have her back to Jungle Red today to share her story. And if you're a writer, she has some great tips for bookstore events. All yours, Jenny.

Jenny Milchman: On the Road Again

As some Jungle Red Readers already know, I had a thirteen year journey to publication. The first book I published was the eighth one I’d written; I worked with three agents over the course of eleven years, and we had fifteen almost-offers before an editor stepped in and became my literary fairy godmother. But that, as some writer once wrote, is a story for another day.

·         Tip to Get Published: Knock on every single door, then start knocking on things that aren’t doors.

Once I finally arrived at the starting line, I did the next logical thing. Rented out our house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, pulled the kids out of first and third grades to “car school” them in the backseat, and hit the road with my husband, touring the bookstores, libraries, and book clubs of this great country for seven months and 35,000 miles.

·         Tip to Put on a Good Event: Get outside the read-from-your-book box. Teach a lesson that pertains to something from your book (craft, recipe, genealogy); lead a writing or publishing workshop; act out a dramatic section.

My publisher thought I was nuts. They actually convened a conference call to tell me I was nuts. My editor, publisher, marketing director, publicist were all in on it. I remember wondering how I was going to differentiate voices from my position at home—everyone in New York publishing tends to be young and female, or at least female—but I needn’t have worried because they all said the exact same thing. JENNY, STAY HOME.

They worried that I’d walk into a lot of empty rooms—and I did.

·         Tip to Bring Out a Crowd: Identify where your FB friends and Twitter followers live, then invite them personally; connect with local chapters of writing organizations; hire a publicist to get local media coverage in advance.

In Goshen, IN there was one person at my event, and he didn’t buy a book. This always troubles me on behalf of the bookseller who has gone to the trouble of setting up an event. (I mean, let’s be honest—one book is not going to cover the cost of my going to Goshen, IN). But this gentleman agreed to buy a book that I recommended, which meant the register rang once that night due to my coming, and salved my conscious. And here’s what happened next.

The man explained to me why he wasn’t buying my novel. It was because he already owned three copies. One to read, one to loan, and one to “keep pristine.” And he had to hurry then—because he had a three hour drive home.

Now. If I were to say to Mr. Bertelsmann over in Germany—or whoever sits at the helm of Penguin Random House these days—“Do I have a marketing plan for you! It consists of me going to some tiny town to meet one reader. And get this, he’s already bought the book!” Well, that’s probably not going to become their line of attack for every author on their list.

·         Tip to Make a Happy Tour: Create little gifts related to your book, and give one to each person who hosts you. For instance, for a wintery book, think pouches of hot cocoa in a mug with your book cover on it.

Book tours may or may not make dollars and cents, but they sure make dollars and sense. Their ripple effect can cause a bookseller to keep my book in stock months and months after it’s no longer new. At another low turnout event, one of the few people in the audience wound up being a book reviewer for a major paper. I’ve had lines from my books quoted back to me by attendees like I was Taylor Swift and the audience was singing my song. One of the deepest exchanges I ever had was with a reader whose brother committed suicide and read my book to feel less alone.  

·         Tip to Engage Attendees at Events: Talk about things beside your books. Ask people what they’re reading that they love. Or hate. Ask what brought them out that night. Have them tell their worst author ever story.

Guess what happened after the world’s longest book tour? My debut novel went into six printings in hardcover. Not mega printings—it’s not like everyone reading this post has heard of me, far less read my work. But my book did better enough compared to my publisher’s expectations that when I returned home, they said, “Hey, if Jenny wants to go out with her second novel, we’re not going to stop her.” And by the third book, they helped set up a portion of the tour.

All told, over the course of three releases in two and a half years, I’ve spent 13 months on the road with my family. Does it “work”? I think that depends on what “working” means. My sales spike each time I’m on tour. It would be hard to separate that spike from the fact of having a new book out—except that they spike for my backlist titles, too.

But my rubric has never been book sales. Book sales are a Medusa’s head of interactions, timing, quality, connections, and luck. If we get too bogged down in a pursuit of numbers, we’ll go mad. We writers have to compute our success by a different schema. A mathematics that counts things one by one. Reader by reader, smile by smile, and word by word.

·         Tip to Try Something No One Else Has: Know that this is your dream and in the end, only you can make it come true.

      Jenny's Bio:    Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New York State, who lived for thirteen months on the road with her family on what Shelf Awareness called “the world’s longest book tour.”

    After a thirteen year journey/trek/slog toward publication, Jenny’s debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, won the Mary Higgins Clark award for Best Suspense Novel of 2013, was praised by the New York Times, AP, and many other publications, and chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick. RUIN FALLS landed on multiple bookstore Best Of lists, was chosen as an Indie Next Pick, and a Top Ten of 2014 by Suspense Magazine. Jenny’s third novel, AS NIGHT FALLS, also an Indie Next Pick and one of PureWow's Top 30, is a summer 2015 release.

J  Jenny speaks nationwide about the publishing industry and the importance of sticking to a dream. She is Vice President of Author Programming for International Thriller Writers, and the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in all 50 states and 6 foreign countries last year. She teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop.

J

A Day in the Life: Preparing to Hit the Road on the World’s Longest Book Tour, a guest blog by Jenny Milchman

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Jenny Milchman, apparently, never does things half-way. When she decided she wanted to be a writer, she didn't just bang out a story and quit: she wrote eight novels over the course of eleven years before getting published. Her debut, Cover of Snow, didn't just get starred reviews and praise in the New York Times, it was nominated for a Barry Award and won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. And now her second book, Ruin Falls, is out, she's not just going on book tour. She going on the world's longest book tour. For the second time. Crazy? You decide...

Since the Reds have been so amazing about sharing word of my, um, unusual book tour, I thought I would shine a glaring spotlight on the interior workings of the trip.

First, a little background. Last year, when my debut novel came out after a thirteen journey/struggle/battle to publication, my husband and I decided to rent out our house, trade in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, and withdraw our kids from first and third grades. We spent 7 months and 35,000 miles on the road. We “car-schooled” the children as we traveled the country, visiting bookstores, libraries, book clubs, and other places where readers tend to congregate. On line at the supermarket instead of online via Facebook. Face-to-face in a virtual world.

 Now, with my second novel just released, we’re set to do it all over again. So, how do we do this? What is it like, getting ready for such a trip? Come along with me for a straight up accounting of one day. You know how glam the life an author leads is, right? Jet planes, handlers, caviar. Well…the day you’re about to take part in may not be exactly like that.

6 am: Wake up but try very hard to go back to sleep. 7 hours’ sleep won’t be enough for what lies ahead. Try the yoga position that sometimes works. Today it doesn’t.

6:20 am: Go downstairs. Kids are already up, eating breakfast, causing me all sorts of worry about how tired they'll be by the end of tomorrow night’s first book event, which always goes later than planned.

6:25 am: Enough time for worrying. Open up laptop and begin to respond to email, Facebook posts, Tweets. Enjoy catching up. Wonder how much time has passed.

8:30 am: Holy something!!! That much time? I haven’t eaten anything. I have to finish a round of edits on my new novel before we hit the road. And—weren’t the kids supposed to learn something today?

8:31 am: Call to the living room where husband is working. Ask him, “Weren’t the kids supposed to learn something today?”

8:45 am: Devise lesson about dictionary skills. Explain task to children, state that they must SHARE the brand new, shiny Merriam-Webster’s, hand out pencils and pads. Husband will do math afterwards.

8:46 am: Tell child one that he can sharpen his pencil himself.

8:47 am: Tell child two that no, five words are not as good as ten.

8:48 am: Turn attention to interview I have to fill out and ask husband when that call from the reporter is today.

8:49 am: Figure out why pencil sharpener isn’t working.

8:50 am: Tell child two that no, five words are still not as good as ten.

9:10 am: Finish interview. Check kids’ progress with dictionary. Debate whether to give child two a hard time about beginning a story using the second word she looked up instead of continuing on to her third word. Decide to give her fifteen minutes with her story. Praise child one for being nearly done. Anguish over whether child two will feel unappreciated while cleaning up kitchen.

9:30 am: Enough time for agonizing, not to mention cleaning. Do interview with reporter. Put children under strict instructions not to make any noise under any circumstances whatsoever. Hope that the house doesn’t catch fire and I hear, “But you told us not to make any noise!”

10:00 am: Talk to husband about buying a roof cargo carrier. If we don’t, we will not be able to fit everything we need in the car. Clothes, boxes of bookmarks, gifts for booksellers, books in case a shipment goes awry, car toys, beloved things from home that kids will miss on the road. Oh, the kids have to fit too.

10:01 am: Check on kids. Note that child two is still writing her story. Decide not to redirect her to dictionary lesson. Then agonize some more.

10:03 am: Help with second breakfast for kids, which consists of bread, jam, and crumbs everywhere.

10:10 am: Return attention to email, Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, online interviews.

11:30 am: Holy something!!! Where are the kids? Do we have a rooftop carrier yet?

11:31 am: Suppress urge to ask husband why, when I’ve completed 800 blog posts, 30,000 Tweets, a zillion FB mentions, etc. one little rooftop carrier hasn’t been purchased yet. OK, OK. I’m sure it’s harder than it looks. Plus, I’m cranky. I knew I hadn’t gotten enough sleep.

11:32 am: Eat something. Finally.

11:33 am: Review spelling assignments. Content myself that kids really do seem to be learning something. Agree that child two can finish her story until Daddy is ready to do math. Check the status of the rooftop carrier.

11:34 am: Fix third breakfast. Cheese and crackers, if you're curious.

11:40 am: Announce that if I can’t get to my edits, I will never be able to fall asleep, go on tour, and the world may crumble to bits as well. Absent myself for lunchtime and everything else.

1:30 pm: Emerge from editing cave. Do we have a rooftop carrier? And why haven’t the kids started math? Boy, am I a nag.

1:31 pm: At least I don’t nag for very long. Begin calling booksellers to fill in holes on tour. Reflect how lame I feel, making these calls. What if no one wants to host me?

2:00 pm: After much time spent on hold, checking route, more time on hold, two more events are booked. Kitchen is covered with crumbs. More bread has been consumed.

2:01 pm: Cut up and serve a plate of fresh fruit out of sheer guilt that if left to their own devices, my kids would turn into cream cheese sandwiches.

2:10 pm: Return to blog posts, email, etc. Hear child one ask if I’d like to read her new story. Decide there isn’t anything I would like more.

2:20 pm: Utter panic. I was supposed to turn in an article to my publicist—today! How could I forget this? What happened to that snazzy reminder system set up by tech husband (whom you now know does basically everything)?

2:25 pm: Pace around, knowing I can never write another word worth publishing as long as I live. Stare at screen. Start to write a bunch of words not worth publishing.

3:35 pm: Realize I forgot to have lunch. Go out to crumb-coated kitchen. Peer out window—kids are playing outside. Wonder if they ever got to math. Eat three mini brownies. OK, maybe four. Five.

3:45 pm: Go back to computer. Delete words not worth publishing and really get to work on article.

5:00 pm: Finish article. Send it to my publicist. Get a "this is great" email in return. Write back, “Seriously?”

5:05 pm: Ask husband: DO WE HAVE A ROOF RACK?? Husband points to car. There's a big old box bolted to the roof. Hmm. How'd that get there?

5:10 pm: Come out to kitchen. Crumbs have been cleaned up. Kids are working at the table like two decimal-computing angels.

5:15 pm: (Missing minutes accounted for by kissing husband and telling him he’s the best). Decide what kind of take-out to get for dinner.

6:00 pm: Eat. We’ll be on the road tomorrow and not having dinner in a kitchen of our own.

7:00 pm: Tuck kids into bed. Agree to let them read for a while. It’ll be late nights soon enough.

7:15 pm: Return to computer to answer email, go on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But swear to stop by 8: 30 so I can catch husband up on everything I’ve done today (and he doesn't learn about it on Facebook).

9:30 pm: Holy something!!! How did that much time pass? Decide to take some more missing minutes. Not to talk about work, but just to talk about…us. And those sweet and now decimally equipped kids.

10:30 pm: Fall asleep having finally come up with a blog post idea for Jungle Red Writers. It will explain how I spent one single day.

Jenny Milchman's journey to publication took thirteen years, after which she hit the road for seven months with her family on what Shelf Awareness called "the world's longest book tour". Her debut novel, Cover of Snow, was chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick, praised by the New York Times and San Francisco Journal of Books, given the Mary Higgins Clark award, and nominated for a Barry. Jenny is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day and chair of International Thriller Writers' Debut Authors Program. Jenny's second novel, Ruin Falls, just came out, and she and her family are back on the road.You can find out more about Jenny and her books at her website, friend her on Facebook, follow her adventures on Twitter as @jennymilchman or talk books with her on Goodreads.