Book Addicts Unite

Lucy in 2009

LUCY BURDETTE: I confess that I am greedily, unredeemably addicted to books. I can’t wait to enter each new world created by an author, visit places I’ve been (or haven’t,) and root for my new friends, the characters. I might own more books than I can finish in a lifetime, but hmmm, what if none of them were books I wanted to read at that moment? I have suffered a bookless panic twice--both times abroad. The first time, I carried a stack of books in my luggage that I judged would last me more than a week. But I got sick and spent more time reading than I'd expected. And we were in Barcelona, so the selection of English books in bookstores was quite limited. Ack! Ack! A ten-hour flight home with nothing to read? Impossible! The second time my new Kindle failed--on the first day of the trip. I had to read whatever anyone else in the group had finished...

So I can’t help buying books at every store I visit. Over the last two weeks of December, I hit the Key West Island bookstore and Books and Books in Key West, RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison CT, and the Strand bookstore in New York City (twice, because I was afraid I might've missed something the first time through—it was very crowded, you understand, and that made it hard to browse.) 

This bookish greediness might help explain why I have volunteered five times to judge the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award contest for best mystery of the year: twice in the best novel category, once in young adult, once in best TV series (OK those were DVDs not books,) and this year in the middle grade mystery fiction category. One of the bonuses of serving as a judge is that you receive your own copy of every book submitted. (In the first photo, you can see part of the loot I collected during my 2009 best novel tenure--we had to whittle the winners down from over 500 books.) 

Here’s part of my current TBR stash—I didn’t buy all of them, some were Christmas presents, and that was followed by a big birthday (they’re all big at this point…) The six on the top right I tore through and loved right after the MWA reading was concluded. 

Inquiring minds must know, what’s on your pile? I have a niggling feeling most of you share my addiction…And how do you choose what's next? AND PS, SEND ME A PHOTO OF YOUR TBR PILE AND I'LL TRY TO POST AS MANY AS I CAN ON SATURDAY!! raisleib at gmail dot com

And PPS, don't forget to come back tomorrow for our JRW book discussion of Bel Canto!

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

Critic Oline H. Cogdill on Mystery Reviews — the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Oline H. Cogdill

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: A few months ago, when it was my week on Jungle Reds, I had Macavity-winning novelist Daniel Friedman as a guest. If you recall, Dan's the author of the Macavity-winning Don't Ever Get Old and now the sequel, Don't Ever Look Back. Dan talked about reviews and we all had a lot of opinions on the comments page. 

And so, to continue the conversation, I'm delighted to introduce Raven Award-winning book critic Oline H. Cogdill, one of the mystery and thriller community's most respected professional  reviewers. Her bio speaks for itself:

Oline H. Cogdill reviews mystery fiction for Mystery Scene magazine, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Publishers Weekly, McClatchy Features Wire and the Associated Press. Her mystery fiction reviews appear in more than 300 newspapers and publication sites worldwide. She blogs twice a week at mysteryscenemag.com. She has received the 2013 Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the 1997 Pettijohn Award from the Sun Sentinel and the 1999 Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing by the American Crime Writers League. Oline was a judge for three years for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the mystery/thriller category.

And now, today's guest Red, Oline H. Cogdill!

OLINE H. COGDILL: I know that for me journalism was as much of a calling as it was a career. And I feel the same way about reviewing mystery fiction. It’s practically a mission to me to introduce people to exciting crime fiction.

The newspaper industry certainly has changed as has the nature of reviewing. What hasn’t changed for me, though, is the way I approach reviews. It is still a labor of love. I love crime fiction genre -- I have, ever since I was about 10 years old.
I first began reviewing mystery fiction back in 1990 when book sections seemed to have plenty of space for myriad reviews. The past 24 years have brought so many changes—the rise of Amazon reviews, sites such as Goodreads, and so many bloggers it’s impossible to keep track of them all.

I think it comes down to one simple question—who do you trust?

Trustworthy: I don’t trust any review I see on Amazon because too many people have an agenda there. I haven’t made up my mind about Goodreads as I see some people give very thoughtful opinions while others seem to use it as a forum to be nasty. At the same time, I know that several bloggers are quite committed to offering insightful reviews of novels, and those bloggers deserve our attention.

I am a professional critic. I am paid for my reviews by the publications and wire services for which I write.

Who do we review for: I don’t write my reviews for the authors or the publishers.  That my reviews may help an author’s career is a great happenstance. I write reviews for the readers, to help a reader make an informed decision about a book they should buy, read or check out of the library.


Positive vs negative: I don’t shy away from giving negative reviews, but I prefer to give positive ones. That has nothing to do with not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings. It has all to do with me wanting to enjoy myself. If I am choosing a book to review, I may read a chapter or two of 10 or even 20 novels before I decide which one to review. I want to tell readers what they should read, not what they should avoid. That doesn’t mean I shy away from giving a negative review. I have to be honest. 


Oline’s Rules of Reviewing: 

I have some simple rules that I try to follow with each review.

1) Don’t give away any surprises. The less said about a plot, the better. It is infuriating to read a review in which the critic seems to take great delight in spoiling plot points.

2) See beyond the plot. How does this novel work in the author’s series and in terms of the genre.

3) Be fair, be honest, be tough, but don’t take cheap shots. When a reviewer becomes so in love with their own voice, then it’s time to close the book on that career.

4) Never use the phrase “transcend the genre.” I hate this phrase. It is not a compliment, but an insult to the genre. The genre is capable of so much. Crime fiction is the social novel of today, a mirror to our society, our legal system, our way of dealing with societal issues and crime and punishment. I might write that a novel expands the genre or uplifts it. But if you see transcend the genre in one of my reviews, I didn’t put it there.


SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: OK Reds and readers, we have a professional reviewer and mystery maven on hand to answer all of our questions. Do you have a new perspective on reviewing? On professional reviewing? Will you use Oline's rules? Why or why not? Please tell us in the comments! Oline will be dropping in to answer all your questions.

Kim Fay, Author of THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES on the "Vice" of Research, and a book giveaway!

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Please join with me to welcome novelist Kim Fay officially to the Jungle Red Writers blog. (Kim's a regular in the comments section, so you may already know her!) Her Edgar Award-shortlisted first novel, THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES just came out in paperback, and she's here to talk about her "vice" of research — one of my obsessions as well.

If you don't know Kim Fay and her work yet, you should. Kim's the author of the historical mystery novel The Map of Lost Memories, the Mystery Writers of America's 2013 Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel by an American Author. She's also written the food memoir Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam, winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards’ Best Asian Cuisine Book in the United States. She lived in Vietnam for four years, has traveled throughout the region for the past twenty, and now makes her home in Los Angeles.

Kim and I were fellow nominees for the 2013 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author — and when I read her nominated novel, THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES —I absolutely fell in love with her writing. Booklist gave THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES a starred review and said, "Fay’s extraordinary first novel has everything great historical adventure fiction should—strikingly original setting, exhilarating plot twists, and a near-impossible quest . . . Every word of this evocative literary expedition feels deliberately chosen, each phrase full of meaning."

Here's a description:

In 1925 the international treasure-hunting scene is a man’s world, and no one understands this better than Irene Blum, who is passed over for a coveted museum curatorship because she is a woman. Seeking to restore her reputation, she sets off in search of a temple believed to house the lost history of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer civilization. As Irene travels through Shanghai's lawless back streets and Saigon’s opium-filled lanes, she joins forces with a Communist temple robber and an intriguing nightclub owner with a complicated past. What they bring to light deep within the humidity-soaked Cambodian jungle will do more than change history—it will solve the mysteries of their own lives.

Today Kim Fay joins us to talk about her research process, 

and also to give away three copies of 

THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES.

KIM FAY: When I tell people that it took me fourteen years to write my first published novel (I’m also the proud owner of many unpublished ones), it’s true and it’s not true. Yes, from the day I started it until the day my agent felt it was ready to send out, fourteen years passed … but not all of that time was spent writing. Some of it was spent editing travel guidebooks, working on a non-fiction book and indulging in one of my greatest vices: research.

I was that kid who turned her reports in early because I loved investigating the culture of Hawaii or the history of the Bicentennial so much that I’d gathered all the information I needed within a few days. I worshiped at the spines of my family’s set of encyclopedias—I could decide I wanted to know something and look it up, or I could simply open a volume at random and discover something entirely new. My grandpa did not buy me dolls. He bought me Time-Life series. The Old West with twenty-six volumes including my favorite, The Women. This Fabulous Century with a book for each decade, filled with archival photos, newspaper articles and cultural tidbits. 

I have heard some writers say that there’s such a thing as too much research, and when it comes to stuffing everything you’ve learned about a subject into a novel, I agree. As for too much researching? Impossible! It’s a joy, it’s gratifying, and I feel that it makes my work so much stronger.
Take, for example, my first novel, The Map of Lost Memories, set in 1920’s China and Indochina. Although I lived in the region for years, I obviously needed to do a lot of research to understand that part of the world during that time period. My main character loses her job at a museum and sets off for Cambodia to find a lost treasure; to understand her and the world she operated in, I read eight different books on the history of art collecting and looting. Was I going to use all the information I learned in these books? Not even close. But the wealth of knowledge I gained bolstered my confidence and gave me a firm understanding the context for the story I was choosing to tell.

I am working on a few new books now, one being the first volume of a mystery series set in Los Angeles in the 1970s. The idea was sparked by my meeting with a woman who was one of the founders of the L.A. Times food paper. It’s not well-known that in its heyday the weekend food paper was a 50-plus-page magazine and its staff operated one of the largest test kitchens in the country. My desire to know more about this world (by conducting interviews, digging through old food papers and testing old recipes) began to shape a character named Barb, a housewife and food writer whose life changes dramatically when a young P.I. moves in next door.

I decided that Barb was addicted to mystery novels as a young woman in the late 1950s. The next thing I knew, I was on AbeBooks at midnight ordering the first ten Edgar award winners for best novel so that I could understand my character through her reading habits. Turns out I also want to learn about the rise of the Los Angeles Conservancy, which was born with the efforts to save our downtown library. So guess what? Barb’s husband is an architectural conservationist whose career trajectory follows the failures and successes of twentieth-century conservation efforts in L.A. As for 1970s L.A., it has always fascinated me, which is why I find myself at the downtown library prowling through local magazine archives and reading the 1971 Los Angeles phone book as if it was the latest New York Times bestselling page-turner.

One lesson I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) is to never fall so much in love with a piece of research that you bend your story out of shape just to fit it in. No matter how much I’ve read or know about a subject or issue, it’s important that I let my research be an organic part of the actual writing process. The second it stands in the way of the story’s flow, it must go.

So, how about you? Do you like researching? Do you have a favorite topic? Have you ever OD’d on research? Has too much research ever gotten in the way for you as a writer? As a reader?

All readers who comment on this post with be entered into a random drawing to win one of three copies of The Map of Lost Memories, compliments of Kim's publisher, Ballantine Books/Random House.

Find out more about Kim Fay and her books at her website.
Friend her on Facebook here.
And follow her on Twitter here.

JAN BROGAN: Please welcome MARGARET MCLEAN today. An attorney, former prosecutor, and adjunct law professor at Boston College's Carroll School Management, she is the author of the legal thrillers  Under Fire and Under Oath (Forge/MacMillan).   She has co-written a dramatic courtroom play, based on Under Oath, which is in development with the Playwrights and Directors Unit at the Actor's Studio in New York City. 

McLean is the host of the popular radio show, "It's A Crime" on NBC News Radio KCAA in the Los Angeles area where she dishes on  law and crime. Check it out on itsacrimeradio.com.  She also co-hosts another radio show," The Business of Life" with Coach Ron Tunick in the Los Angeles area - and as if that doesn't keep her busy enough, she is also the  president of the New England Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

MARGARET MCLEAN: Last weekend I watched the 1960 movie, Inherit the Wind, starring Dick York, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly.  Why did I hush my friend when he asked if I wanted a piece of chocolate cake?  That’s not normal for me, but I didn’t care about the cake.  I cared about the characters and what was at stake.  After the movie I read the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, and wished I could simply stuff all that drama into a genie’s bottle and uncork it as needed for my books.  Writing is never that easy.  In the alternative, I’m going to read classic plays this summer and stuff all that good writing into a journal.  I can do this.  It only takes a day or two to read a play, and I’ve kicked off the summer with a good one. 

            Inherit the Wind is based on the 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial in Tennessee where the defendant is tried for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in a public school.  It was a courtroom battle between the creationists and the evolutionists; Clarence Darrow verses Williams Jennings Byran.   The play is a reflection of the times for it was first performed in 1955 during the anti-intellectual red scare of the McCarthy era.  I enjoyed the history, but a good play should withstand the test of time.

            Inherit the Wind opens with a crisis or turning point for the town and the characters involved.  The trial is about to begin. There is something big at stake and the audience knows it from the beginning.  It drew me in.  Throughout the play, the trial consumes everyone.  The set includes large windows where the town square can be seen from inside the courtroom, so the town is a character too.   The lawyers create high drama as they battle each other in the sweltering, packed courtroom.  The townspeople know each other, and so do the lawyers—all are connected.  The playwrights create rising conflict between characters who share a long history and care about each other.  They don’t make characters argue for the sake of creating conflict.  When characters care for each other and fight, it increases the stakes.   This rising conflict reveals how each character grows and changes through all three acts.

Crisp dialogue is used to drive the plot and define the characters and setting.  A playwright doesn’t have the luxury of explaining in prose what a character is thinking at any given time.  There are neither wasted words nor filler in this play.  The stage forces the author to show and not tell.  In describing the lawyer who is coming to prosecute the big case, Meeker says: “I seen him once.  At a Chautauqua meeting in Chattanooga.  The tent-poles shook!  Who’s gonna be your lawyer, son?”  I loved those lines.  The audience knows this guy is going to be a loud, boisterous orator, a force to contend with.

As I embark on this summer of plays, I’ll be entertained by the masters and will hopefully come away with some tips on how to write dialogue, conflict, and create characters that an audience will care about.  My daughter Sarah just gave me the complete works of William Shakespeare for my birthday.   I’m thrilled.  Join me and we’ll pick the next play. 

    

We are Working Hard. Really.

Today Jungle Red comes to you from Deerfield Beach, Florida, where Mystery Writers of America's Florida chapter hold its annual writer's conference, Sleuthfest.

Sleuthfest is a writer's conference, rather than a fan conference, with workshops, programs, and panels designed to help aspiring writers improve their work and get it published.

This year's Guests of Honor are Denis Lehane, Meg Gardiner, and SJ Rozan--a steller line-up. Yesterday Meg Gardiner gave the keynote speech at lunch, then a poolside chat later in the afternoon. Let me repeat. POOLSIDE.

Meg is charming, gracious, articulate, and passionate about writing. In fact, I was so impressed that I bought Meg's China Lake as my first Kindle book, as in first ever.
(Marcia Talley and I pose by the pool with Meg.)

Today, Dennis Lehane will be speaking at lunch, then later giving a poolside chat about the film adaptation of his book, Gone, Baby, Gone. And tonight there's a poolside party with Heather Graham's band.

Sound fun? It is. But it's also a great opportunity for aspiring writers to meet pros and learn what it really takes to be successful at this business, and a way for those of us in the business to stay connected, and learn about new writers. We all were, after all, fans before we were writers.

That's what it's all about.

And then there's the hot tub.

Wish you all were here.