"Oh, Kaye!" - Who Do You Love?

Who do we miss?



Thankfully, there are plenty enough books still out there that I haven't discovered yet, along with all the new books being released every day, that I'll never be lacking for new reading material.

But.

There are some series that have come to an end that I mourn.

One I mourned long (and loudly) was Margaret Maron's Sigrid Harald series.  I'll be forever grateful to Margaret for having Sigrid and Deborah meet.  What a treat to have two much loved characters meet and visit in one another's home settings.  (see there, dreams do come true!).

Others I fear may not enjoy a similar comeback include - - -


Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager (one more Moe book to come, THE HOLLOW GIRL, out in early 2014 - Yay!!!)

 

 

Mark de Castrique's Burryin' Barry

 

 

 

 

 

Phillip DePoy's Flap Tucker

Carolyn Hart's Henry O.

 

 

 

Deborah Morgan's Jeff Talbot



Gillian Roberts' Amanda Pepper

Sarah Shankman's Samantha Adams

Sharon Wildwind's Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen

 

 

 

 

 

and I often wonder what Archie and Nero Wolfe are up to.  And, how things might be with Pierre Chambrun at the Hotel Beaumont.  And what kinds of sandwiches Sgt. Edward Delaney has concocted during the last several years . . .

 

oh, Laws, don't even get me started on Harry Potter!

 

 

How 'bout you, Reds, who do you miss?



 

 

 

 

No Magic Pills

 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: If Reed Farrel Coleman is in a crowded room there's an easy way to find him. Listen for the laughter. Wherever he is, he's making people laugh with this droll humor and laser wit.

Reed is now wincing, probably, as he reads this. And thinking: "laser" wit? I'm sure she could have found a better word.

We teach together at MWA University, and it's such fun to be in the audience for his honest, irreverent and well, also reverent class. He loves writing, and the process of writing, and the reality of writing. And he's not afraid to give his fellow writers his trademark hit of tough love.

 No Magic Pills

       by Reed Farrel Coleman

I had a therapist who used to say that there were no shortcuts, that there was no substitute for doing the hard work. In other words, there were no magic pills. I’m not sure I believed her until I got it in my head to make myself into what I always dreamed of being—a writer. And I thought therapy was supposed to help you get less crazy! Silly me. But the fact is that my therapist was right. There are no magic pills and that regardless of the choices you make about process and routine, regardless of the genre or subgenre you choose to work in, there is one double-sided, inescapable fact: there is work to do and you must do it. Or to quote Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

The thing my therapist, Yoda, and I are getting at is that doing is its own reward. I am not telling you that you shouldn’t fantasize about spending your millions or signing autographs. On the contrary, fantasize away. But I would urge you to find satisfaction in the act of writing itself. Enjoy the rainbow instead of looking only to what may or may not be at the end of it. It took me many years to figure that out, to let the act of writing become self-reinforcing. Once I did, my writing not only became easier, it became better. I learned to focus all my energies—most of them, anyway—on the words I was putting down, not on the end product. Each day’s writing became an end unto itself as well as part of a greater whole.

The adjunct of this notion is that you should avoid falling in love with what you produce. As I once told an editor: I have my writing and I have my children. I try to never get them confused. Your words are not precious. They are not revealed knowledge. Realize that editing is almost as important as the writing itself. And in this less-than-brave new world of e-self-publishing, you must really have the discipline to work hard at your craft and be willing to polish your work until it’s suitable for submission to an agent or publisher.

 Don’t let fear of rejection drive you to self-publishing. I am not saying that self-publishing is inherently bad, though I will always have some reservations about it. What I am saying is that new writers in particular should not turn to self-publishing as a means to avoid rewriting. Criticism and rejection are part of the career, so embrace them instead of trying to avoid them.

If at the very early stages of your journey as a writer, you are open to these few suggestions, you may find that you won’t need those elusive magic pills after all.

HANK: Where are you on your writing journey? We'd love to hear. We'll give a copy of ONION STREET  to a lucky commenter! 

And to celebrate Reed's newest book--and Reed's journey as a writer..there's a party! (Kind of exactly what we need right now...)

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Called a “hard-boiled poet” by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the “noir poet laureate” in the HUFFINGTON POST, Reed Farrel Coleman has published sixteen novels and one novella. He is a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year and a two-time Edgar Award nominee. He has also won the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. Reed is an adjunct professor of English at Hofstra University and a founding member of Mystery Writers of America University. He lives with his family on Long Island.

MWA University: A Labor of Love

ROSEMARY: On August 13th, MWA is holding another session of MWA University, this time in my home chapter of New York and featuring - not only two of our very own Jungle Reds - Hank and Hallie - but award-winning mystery writer Reed Farrel Coleman.
I asked Reed to tell us how this incredible opportunity got started.

RFC: About five years ago, right after my term as Executive Vice President of MWA ended, I began teaching mystery and genre writing at Hofstra University on Long Island. I teach an accelerated summer term during which the students attend class for four hours a day, five days a week for two consecutive weeks.

It struck me during my second year at Hofstra that there had to be a way to accelerate the process even further. This was also during a period when new writing classes and workshops were sprouting like weeds. For me, the sad part of these new classes and workshops was that they didn’t actually focus on writing at all … not unless you consider composing a query letter writing.

I have always believed and continue to believe that the vast majority of a writer’s energy needs to be spent on the writing itself. That finding an agent, finding a publisher, and developing a marketing strategy are concerns to be tackled after a writer produces the best work possible. Unfortunately, I found that even many of my own students were more concerned with agent hunting, marketing schemes, and ideas on how to spend their millions than on writing. I began to develop an idea for a one- or two-day event to be held at Hofstra that, for the most part, would focus on the writing skills necessary to produce good work. I went to then-EVP Harry Hunsicker with the idea of MWA co-sponsoring the event and calling it MWA University. He was enthusiastic about the concept. Then, at the time we were ready to move ahead, the economy went south.

About two years ago, Larry Light, the current EVP, and I had a conversation. He remembered my MWA U concept and asked me to revive it, to make it something MWA could offer to the chapters as a benefit, a recruiting tool, and, more importantly, as a program in keeping with the spirit of MWA. I agreed to co-chair the Education Committee with Hank Phillippi Ryan who was as enthusiastic about the idea as Larry and I. Hank, Jess Lourey, Dan Stashower, myself, and the rest of the committee worked at it for many months and came up with a proposal for the board. With little alteration, that proposal is what MWA U is today: six hours of college-level writing instruction for the nominal fee of $50. These six innovative sessions are not your grandma’s writing classes. New and original techniques are employed to make the best use of the time. The classes include instruction on the process of developing an idea into a novel, on setting, on plotting, on character, and on editing. The last class is usually taught by Hank, and is less writing instruction, per se, than inspiration to write. If listening to Hank doesn’t make you want to run through walls to get home and go to work, I don’t know what will.

Our goal is not to make money. It is to give people with a dream a chance to take one step closer to reaching it without bankrupting themselves. Dreams shouldn’t be held prisoners of a bad economy or tough circumstances. MWA U is a way for us to give back to the mystery community, to let people know we’re all in it together and that we want you to be successful.

There’s room for all of us. Do yourself a favor by joining us on August 13 for what promises to be a great day. MWA members and non-members alike are welcome. Your dreams are welcome too.

ROSEMARY: Hank, Hallie and I will be there. What about you? Register at http://tinyurl.com/445rhma

Reed Farrel Coleman has been called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan. He has published twelve novels—two under his pen name Tony Spinosa—in three series, and one stand-alone with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. His books have been translated into seven languages.

Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn, and his short fiction and essays have appeared in Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, These Guns For Hire, Brooklyn Noir 3, Damn Near Dead, and other publications.

Visit him at www.reedcoleman.com and look for his latest release Hurt Machine, 10/2012 from Tyrus Books.


Today's music quiz -
"It was still September when your Daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls in the county jail"

Guess the title and artist and you'll win a signed copy of Dead Head. Good luck!!

Runaway Bride, Murder Victim or Hero?

ROSEMARY: I first heard about Dr. Sneha Anne Phillip a few days after 9/11. She was my friend's doctor and she was missing, believed to have been a victim of the World Trade Center attack. Like thousands of others her distraught husband put up flyers and searched hospitals until the worst possible news became reality. No survivors would be found.

Over time more details emerged and it was discovered that Sneha had actually been missing since the evening of September 10. Her doctor husband believed suggesting she was a 9/11 victim was the only way anyone would care about what happened to one woman in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks and the only way anyone would look for her. He was probably right.

Sneha Anne Philip was last seen on September 10, 2001 by a department store surveillance camera near her Lower Manhattan apartment. Due to the proximity of the World Trade Center and her medical training, her family believes she perished the following day trying to help victims of the terrorist attack. (She and her husband were on different working schedules so he claimed it was not unusual for them to go for many hours without being in touch - this was 10 years ago, before people tweeted their every move.)

An investigation into her disappearance by the New York Police Department revealed a very different possibility as evidence of a double life including drugs, alcohol abuse, a troubled marriage and a sexually adventurous lifestyle suggested it was equally possible she may have intentionally disappeared or been murdered by someone she met on her frequent nights out.

What does my friend think? He's Scottish so he doesn't reveal much, but I was reminded of a conversation not long before 9/11 when he told me his doctor had flirted with him rather aggressively.

No evidence has ever been found of her having perished in the Towers, but that's also the case with many other known victims. And there's nothing that prevents someone from behaving heroically even if their previous history might suggest otherwise.

From time to time articles appear in local papers and magazines, but the mystery remains.

For her sake I hope she ran away - but then I'm an optimist.

Today's music quiz - "...and you're sorry for what you've done..you should never been playing with a gun..." Guess the song title and artist and you'll win a signed copy of Dead Head.
Stop back tomorrow for a visit from award-winning mystery writer Reed Farrel Coleman who'll be telling us about his labor of love - MWA University