Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

No monkeys were harmed in the creation of this award

On the one hand, you have to hand it to James Patterson. He wants to give back to the reading community by giving money to those who find "original and effective ways to spread the excitement of books and reading." I believe this was even written with a straight face.

And I managed to keep mine while reading through all the salient points of the "Patterson Page Turner Awards" including the following:

• The first $25,000--the PageTurner Award--will go to any person, group, company, or institution that spreads the excitement of books in an effective and original way. For instance

  • A librarian, educator or bookseller who's promoted the joy of reading
  • Anyone who's publicly highlighted the entertainment value of books
  • A philanthropic group that orchestrated a unique event that drew attention to books and reading
  • A book group leader, web site operator, or other person that singles out books in an exciting or unusual way.
• The second $25,000 award--the PageTurner School Award--goes to the elementary school, middle school, high school, or college that inculcates the joy of reading for pleasure in its students. The winning school will also win a visit from James Patterson for reading, signing, and talking about books.
• There will also be twenty-five $1,000 awards of merit to individuals and organizations who have made notable contributions to promoting the excitement of books and reading.
• In honor of the two $25,000 winners, First Book will donate 1,000 books to programs serving disadvantaged children in cities of the winners' choosing.

OK, all well and good. But then I got to this:

The Award Council is composed of executives at Little, Brown and Company and the Time Warner Book Group as well as appointed delegates (ed. bolding mine) of James Patterson.

Well, can't say the man isn't consistent...

The future of book touring

There's been a lot of talk about what to do with book tours. Some folks love to do it; others think it's a waste of time. What seems to be a consensus is that it needs to be rethought, and that there has to be new approaches.

Duane Swierczynski will be going out on the road in October to promote his upcoming novel THE WHEELMAN, and he's hit on a rather ingenious plan:

So I was e-mailing Dave White yesterday, and he asked about book signings for The Wheelman. I told him that I'm in the process of arranging a bunch for October and November. Mr. White then recommended a store near him, and jokingly added, "You should do a reading in my basement."

I jokingly replied: "A reading in your parents' basement would be fun."

Be careful when you say things "jokingly."

Next thing I know, Dave e-mails: "Dude, believe me. We can set it up."

I reply: "I think we might be onto something here. The Tupperware Party model... guarantee me 10 people, half of whom will buy books, and I'll do a basement/den/living room signing."

"Dude, if you're serious about this," Dave says, " I could guaranatee ten people five of which will buy the book."

Christ. As a first-time novelist, that's a better deal than I'd get at most bookstores.

And so, if you're willing to open your home to a newspaper editor-in-chief of Polish extraction, just remember: you're on the leading edge of the next wave of book touring.

Although that said, Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers Journal has been hosting "at homes" for years, and I'm surprised more people haven't thought of doing this....

Partners and reprints

Maggie Topkis, one of the founders of the mystery bookshop (and my old working haunt) Partners & Crime launched a new imprint last week at the bookstore to bring back underappreciated gems into print:

Frustrated that so many titles requested by customers were out of print, Maggie Topkis, co-owner of the 12-year-old Partners & Crime bookstore in New York's Greenwich Village, has launched her own press, which she says is "dedicated to reviving the best in bygone mysteries."

Felony & Mayhem Press's initial six titles were released last week, but readers will find the titles only in indie stores. "If I sold books to Barnes & Noble, they would get shunted off to Siberia, lost among a million mystery titles where no one would find them," she says. Distribution is taking place through independent reps, including many who work for Consortium.

Felony & Mayhem Press plans to publish six books every other month. The first group includes Caroline Graham's The Killing at Badger's Drift (the first in her Chief Inspector Barnaby series) and Lynn Hightower's Satan's Lambs (the 1993 Shamus Award winner), among others. Upcoming releases feature familiar names like Julian Symons, Stuart Kaminsky and Robert Barnard.

The opening list of books is of really high quality, and judging from the catalog I received, Topkis has many more goodies scheduled for re-release. I do wonder, though, if boycotting the big chains and Amazon will work out in the long run, because not all readers, alas, are discerning enough to make the trip (or make a phone call, even) to their favorite independent bookshop...

[insert links here]

The Telegraph went a little hogwild with crime fiction over the last few days, what with roundups by Susanna Yager as well as David Isaacson and Jake Kerridge. Also, Susan Hill is interviewed about her recent foray into the genre, spurred when her daughter was late coming home and was feared abducted.

John Koch of the Boston Globe compares and contrasts two thrillers by Michael Crow and John Shannon, and prefers the latter by a wide margin.

Robert Parker, '54, talks to the paper at his alma mater, Colby College, about his new western and how he's written everything but one thing -- science fiction. And he never will, either.

Civil War expert Shelby Foote is dead at the age of 88, and the Washington Post's Linton Weeks remembers him fondly.

Wondering where former Orion CEO Anthony Cheetham had landed? Are you one of five people that cares? Well if so, you'll certainly be interested in hearing about the Friday Project, his latest venture into publishing.

If you're sick and tired of all these Hot Young Turks getting press, consider Donald McLeod of Durban, South Africa, whose first book was published at the ripe young age of 80.

Quinn Dalton probes the murky world of anonymous reviews after getting a bad one from Kirkus. But the thing is, Kirkus hates everybody, so is a negative review from them really going to hurt sales when industry folks know this bias? (link from Beatrice, where Ron has posted his thoughts on the matter.)

And finally, when the family of a biographical subject starts making the publisher kowtow to every whim, this is a very, very dangerous precedent.

The Idiosyncratic Interview: Sandra Scoppettone and Vin Packer

This interview is a little different from what I've done before. I originally intended to interview Sandra Scoppettone to coincide with the publication of her latest novel (the marvellous THIS DAME FOR HIRE) but after reading several Vin Packer novels in succession, a brighter idea showed up: why not have a round-table discussion with both of them? As two of crime fiction's most important and longstanding female writers, I knew each would have a lot to contribute -- never mind that they've known each other for over 50 years.

For logistical reasons, the resulting interview between Scoppettone and Packer (also known by several names, including her real one, Marijane Meaker) was conducted over email. They get things started with their own versions of how the two originally met:

Marijane Meaker: I believe the year was 1953.  I was living with a gay man from my hometown who worked as a clerk for an airlines.  I knew very few gay people except some from the real butch/femme circle.  I met them at the old 82 club where the waiters were females in drag and Titanic, the transvestite entertainer came out nightly on a swing in an evening gown singing Balls! Balls! How I love balls!...I was despairing of meeting anyone, and as these people pointed out: I was ky ky.  I didn't fit in with their set...One night my "roommate" went for a drink after work with Sandra Scoppettone, who was also employed by the airlines. He called me to say there was this great bar called The Grapevine, in the Village, with all sorts of women, none into the femme pose...all welcoming.  He said I should meet his fellow employee, Sandra.  I got dressed and caught a cab downtown.  That is all I remember about our first meeting, except she was cute, funny, and smart. I liked that.

Sandra Scoppettone: It was 1955. I was working for the now defunct National Airlines as a phone reservation clerk.   There was this one guy, Bob, who was a very obvious gay man and we began to talk.  Nobody was intending to make a career of this job so he asked me what I wanted to do with my life.  I told him I wanted to be a writer.  He told me he had a very good friend who was a writer.  I asked who and he told me she wrote under the name of Vin Packer.  I almost fainted.  I had read her first novel Spring Fire and two others that were crime oriented.  I thought Packer was very good and I desperately wanted to meet her. He said he'd see what he could do.  It seems to me there was some negotiating on his part with Packer, who he told me was really Marijane Meaker.

I worked the 2-11pm shift so going directly home was out of the question. Eventually the night was set.  I was very nervous about this meeting.  She was an idol to me.  There was a bar in the Village called The Provincetown Landing.  We went there.  I believe Packer/Meaker was late so Bob and I got a table and I had two fast drinks while we waited a short time until she arrived.

She was so funny and smart.  I think we immediately started a sparring type conversation, but it was in fun.  I kept up with her and we both liked that.  She was the first published writer I'd ever met. I don't really remember, but I'm sure I asked questions about writing and her books, because that would be like me.  On the other hand, it would be like her to deflect them.

For the rest of their conversation, read on after the jump.

Rap away at this Sheet

Good lord, I don't know how J. Kingston Pierce does it but he's assembled yet another fine edition of reviews, news and more in the world of crime fiction. Yes, the Rap Sheet is back and it's chock full of good stuff. I was about to summarize what each reviewer looked at but damn, it was getting kinda long. So just enjoy, scroll through, and there's pretty much something for everybody.

No doubt Paul Giamatti has to figure in this somewhere

Mostly because of the working title of the opening book in this new two-book deal:

Ellen Crosby's THE MERLOT MURDERS and UNTITLED second mystery, set at a family-owned vineyard in Virginia wine country and full of details about wine-making, to Sarah Knight at Scribner by Dominick Abel at the Dominick Abel Literary Agency (World).

Now let's think of some titles for book two, shall we? All I can think of is KILLER CABERNET, but I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning...

An update from James Preston Girard

Earlier this year I wrote about how much I loved James Preston Girard's work, especially THE LATE MAN, which I consider to be one of the best crime novels I have ever read. And while I'd hoped that the piece would lead to the revelation of his recent whereabouts (as he hasn't been heard of, publication-wise, since 2002's SOME SURVIVE) I was nonetheless surprised to find a note from the author in my inbox the other day.

He's kindly allowed me to post his update, which reveals what he's been up to the last few years and debunks what may be the most common misconception about him: that he based his work around the crimes of BTK:

I've gotten somewhat disconnected from the world of publishing in recent years, and it's always pleasant to discover that I (or at least the books) have not entirely vanished, after all.

I actually wrote a novel in between those two -- a 600-page mystery (not suspense) novel that every editor in New York claimed to love, although they all rejected it because it was so different from TLM. SOME SURVIVE began as an expansion of one of the subplots in that book (which was entitled THE NATURAL FATHER), and evolved into a completely different novel, more in the vein of TLM. But editors were convinced that it was no more than a revision of the book they'd already rejected, so most of them didn't read it. I think the editor who purchased it only did so because he wanted to market it as "by the author of THE LATE MAN." Once he read it (after buying it, I think) he asked for some revisions that he thought would make it more "cinematic." By the time those were done, he'd left editing to write his own book, and SOME SURVIVE was inherited by an editor who didn't like it much (I think it offended her), and wound up being put out as a paperback, which meant it didn't get reviewed.

Fit to an NFT

The National Film Theatre's annual Crime Scene Festival makes its return to the South Bank, and for whatever reason, the literary content has dropped considerably since the time I went. But no matter, as there's still lots of good stuff like:

• Anthony Horowitz in conversation with Charlie Higson about writing thrillers for teenage boys
• Maxim "I'm the Literary Director and I'll tell you this every time I introduce a panel" Jakubowski in conversation with Ian Rankin
• Spy thrillers post-9/11 with Robert Littell, Henry Porter and John Lawton
• Film noir with Max Allan Collins, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Simon Kernick, Stephen Leather & Nicholas Royle

The film portion is of higher star wattage:

• Quentin Tarantino talking about directing the final episode of CSI
• Mark Billingham, Martyn Waites and Kim Newman talking with Michael Carlson about Dashiell Hammett & THE MALTESE FALCON's 75th anniversary
• John Harvey & Teddy Hayes dissecting the work and life of Robert Mitchum
• and lots and lots and lots about Donald Westlake, his work, his screenplays and the new French/Spain coproduction based on his novel THE AX

And no doubt in a few days' time we'll be seeing pictorial coverage by intrepid photog Mary Reagan, who'll be covering Crime Scene for Crime Spree.

UPDATE, 6/30: Ayo Onatade has informed me that Quentin Tarantino has dropped out of Crime Scene, which will no doubt disappoint all those who bought enough tickets to sell out his appearance.

Around the world for links

For whatever reason, the train wreck that is the dissolution of Terry McMillan's marriage fascinates me greatly. Oh my lord. And you know the soap opera's going to continue for months to come. But in the meantime, join Ed Champion in coming up with titles for Terry's next book -- which is the one after the one just out now...

So let me get this straight: John Carey, Man Booker International Chairman,is bitching that the UK literary world doesn't pay enough attention to world literature. Uh, they're still doing way better than the US is, from what I can see. Relativity. It's all about relativity...

What do you get when you mix together Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and Irvine Welsh? An interlinking work of fiction due out by year's end, that's what. (thanks to AC for the link.)

Jane Stanton Hitchcock is a former NY society lady turned novelist who chronicles...NY society ladies. Her latest book is ONE DANGEROUS LADY, and she talks about it to the NY Daily News.

Vote rigging in awards? In Paris? Um, why should I be surprised? Or am I too cynical?

Speaking of the French, how did they not realize that when they moved the National Library of France to a new location nine years ago, up to 30,000 books mysteriously went missing? Well actually, I know how -- they only inventoried the place recently...

The debate of the week: Elizabeth Clemenson proclaimed "down with MFAs!" Steve Almond countered. And the letters just keep on pouring in...

Steven Hayward's debut THE SECRET MITZVAH OF LUCIO BURKE is about an Irish-Italian kid -- like the author -- who is fascinated by Jewish culture and ritual. So is it appropriation or admiration? The Globe and Mail's Simon Houpt tries to find out.

And finally, lord knows I should just stay the hell away from any and all mentions of THE TRAVELER (lest I trumpet the same cry over and over again) but after reading Carol Memmott's breathless piece for USA Today, a simple thought came to mind: John Twelve Hawks is Jack Reacher.