Meet Meredith Cole
JRW: Today's JR guest is Meredith Cole. Meredith has done what so many of us hope and try to do - she won a major writing contest - the St. Martin’s Malice Domestic Best Traditional First Mystery Competition. We know lots of people who'd like to be in her shoes so we asked her to tell us what it's been like.
MC: St. Martin’s Minotaur has several wonderful contests that allow unagented writers to send in their manuscripts directly to the publisher. They choose the one they like and give the winner an advance and a publishing contract. Sounds pretty incredible, huh? It is, and, amazing enough, it happened to me.
Before I became a novelist, I was a filmmaker and screenwriter. I directed two feature films (“Floating” and “Achilles’ Love”), and found the process of trying to cajole 20-50 other creative people to do what I wanted not always satisfying. I wanted more control over the storytelling process. I started writing screenplays exclusively, and then realized how few screenplays are ever made into films. I was a finalist for the Chesterfield, and won a New York Foundation for the Arts grant in screenwriting, but my scripts stayed in a drawer. And then I got pregnant, and I knew that there was no way I was going to be back on the set anytime soon.
I’ve always loved to read, and mysteries have been some of my favorite books. So I used some of my downtime during my pregnancy to write a mystery with a setting that was dear to my heart—my artist neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I made my sleuth, Lydia McKenzie, a photographer since I’ve done enough photography to know my way around a camera, and crafted a plot I thought was downright entertaining. The trouble was I spent pages and pages giving the backstory of my characters before all the entertaining stuff kicked in. Needless to say, no one was particularly interested in my first novel.
I’ve always loved to read, and mysteries have been some of my favorite books. So I used some of my downtime during my pregnancy to write a mystery with a setting that was dear to my heart—my artist neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I made my sleuth, Lydia McKenzie, a photographer since I’ve done enough photography to know my way around a camera, and crafted a plot I thought was downright entertaining. The trouble was I spent pages and pages giving the backstory of my characters before all the entertaining stuff kicked in. Needless to say, no one was particularly interested in my first novel.
But I loved my characters, and, since I’m incredibly persistent and stubborn, I came up with another book idea for them that was even more closely tied to my characters. This time Lydia is having a gallery show of her murder recreation photographs, and she finds out that someone is killing her models just like her photos in POSED FOR MURDER. I began to shop the book around and I also entered it into the St. Martin’s/Malice Domestic competition in October 2006.
While I was waiting to hear back from the competition, Lydia still wouldn’t get out of my head. So I wrote a couple of short stories featuring her and her neighbors and friends. One called “Out in the Cold” ended up in the anthology MURDER NEW YORK STYLE, and the other, “Exercise is Murder,” was in Ellery Queen Magazine’s Department of First Stories in June 2008.
In February 2007, I found out from my judge that I was a finalist. I was incredibly excited but I was also knew I had to be realistic. Only one book out of all the hundreds written and entered could win. So no one was more shocked than I when I got a call from Ruth Cavin, an editor at St. Martin’s Press, telling me that I had won…
In February 2007, I found out from my judge that I was a finalist. I was incredibly excited but I was also knew I had to be realistic. Only one book out of all the hundreds written and entered could win. So no one was more shocked than I when I got a call from Ruth Cavin, an editor at St. Martin’s Press, telling me that I had won…
JRW: A legendary editor, we might add...
MC: At Malice Domestic, where I was officially announced as the winner, I began to learn what a big deal the competition really was. Many writers have started their careers with the contest, and I was so pleased to meet Julia Spencer-Fleming and Donna Andrews at the conference. St. Martin’s Minotaur not only published their first books, but has continued to nurture their very successful careers. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to follow in their footsteps, and very excited to have my first book, POSED FOR MURDER, come out at last on February 17, 2009.
If you want to find out about the competition I won, or any of St. Martin’s other competitions, check out their website:http://us.macmillan.com/Content.aspx?publisher=smpminotaur&id=4933
JRW: Meredith Cole's winning book, POSED FOR MURDER, hits store shelves February 17, 2009. She is a member of the MWA NY board, and she blogs at http://www.thedebutanteball.com/. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by Partners & Crime, 44 Greenwich St, NYC. Tuesday, February 17th, from 7-9pm for Meredith's launch party! It's going to be great!
Visit Meredith at www.culturecurrent.com/cole
