Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

Looking Ahead to 2008

I realized a couple of days ago that I couldn't remember the last time I took a blog hiatus longer than a day or two. A telling sign that it's time for a virtual vacation. So I'm shutting Confessions down until New Year's - and any new reviews and articles of mine will be updated over here - and this post is a way for me to look back and ahead.

Suffice to say, 2007 was a workaholic's delight, filled with new markets, wing-stretching and many, many words written in the name of freelancing to pay the bills. I didn't write as much fiction as I would have liked, but there was my first (and hopefully, not last) appearance in EQMM, a couple of excellent anthologies I was proud to be part of, and a couple of stories I've begun to or hope to shop around. And if there's one piece I'm most proud of, this is it.

Then there was the reading. A lot of mediocre books, some outright bad ones, but so much good. 2007 was especially good on the international crime fiction front, for books hard to pigeonhole and for writers stretching beyond series comforts. There are enough lists and favorites to go around, which is why I'm looking ahead to next year - or more accurately, that my head's been in 2008 for a good five months now.

But just because I've already read a number of good books published after the new year, there are tons more to look forward to. One in particular entered my mind after an out of the blue phone call Monday night. It was Ali Karim, around midnight his time, sounding passionate and evangelical about a book he was reading that he called "the best book he'd read since SILENCE OF THE LAMBS." When Ali talks like this, I listen. Our tastes don't always match up, but I suspect in this case, it will.

So what are you looking forward most to reading in 2008? Backblog away - and until then, happiest of holidays, whatever you're celebrating, to all.

This Wasn't What People Meant by Repeat Business

Gothamist points to the story of a bank robber so compulsive he robbed the same banks over and over again:

A man held up two banks on a street near his home four times in the last week, including one of the banks twice in one day, before he was arrested on Tuesday apparently while on his way to make another illegal withdrawal, police said.

Orlando Taylor, 26, was facing multiple robbery charges, police said. The name of his attorney was not immediately available Tuesday evening, and a telephone at his Brooklyn address was disconnected.The spree began at 10:30 a.m. Friday, when the bandit used a threatening note to rob an HSBC branch about 12 blocks from his home, police said. Using the same method the next day, he ripped off a Bank of America branch down the block, they said.

On Monday at 10 a.m., the robber hit Bank of America again, police said. After changing his clothes, he returned at about 2:20 p.m. and took more money, they said.With uniformed and plainclothes officers swarming on Tuesday, Taylor was spotted headed toward the HSBC branch again and was arrested, police said.

I guess "spread the wealth" wasn't a phrase this guy knew too well...

Of Lists and Books Not Read

On the list front, we have January Magazine's best crime fiction of 2007, and Oline Cogdill's 20 mystery picks.

Cogdill is also blogging this week about notable crime novels she hasn't had a chance to read yet. My vote goes to James Lee Burke's THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, but the gaps are more evident on literary fiction and pretty much every other category, especially non-fiction. That's where I want to make up the difference in 2008.

What the Jackal Says

I have my issues with Portfolio, Conde Nast's business mag, for all the usual reasons, mostly wondering if it will actually survive beyond a year. But then it publishes pieces like Lloyd Grove's lengthy Q&A with literary agent Andrew Wylie and I'm left to wonder what other rabbits will emerge from the magazine's hat. Here's a small sample:

L.G.: Who's giving you, at this point, the greater cash flow—your dead authors or your live ones?

A.W.: Probably live—yeah, I'm sure it's live. But there are some considerable estates that we represent. Our business, the best piece of it, is all about figuring out—when a writer is young—whether they will, in the course of time, write many books which will remain in print, in many languages. And then to get those writers into the right hands, internationally, country by country, so that their revenues and their presentation internationally will be maximized. In the case of older, more established writers, who come to us later in their careers, what we find is that usually agencies in this country have not a very thorough knowledge of foreign markets and don't have a lot of access to those markets directly. They operate as subagents. So they don't really understand the difference between one house and another. And furthermore, they don't really know the people involved. So, because I have traveled so much, and concentrated so much on this aspect of the business, I can pick up the phone and tell [leading French publisher] Antoine Gallimard that I think this writer is very important, and because we know each other and he knows that for 20 years, I haven't done this every few months, that there must be a reason for it, then it's probably worth paying attention to. And so we also look at getting a writer's rights renewed on a regular basis-redesigned, re-presented, so we're quite a lot more diligent at that side of the business than I think all of our competitors are. Because I think their focus is more national. So our bet, financially speaking, is that if you are going to represent quality, you must do so internationally, and it must be a long-term bet. So all our representations are representations made in the belief that the people we represent will last and will be published internationally.

Read the rest, especially about how repackaging Philip Roth's backlist made him a star internationally.

Overstuffed Smatterings

The National Post caught up with Sleuth of Baker Street co-owner J.D. Singh to talk about the bookstore and the 25th anniversary of its current ownership.

Margaret Cannon reviews new crime novels from Ruth Rendell, Robert B. Parker, Jon Redfern, Suzanne Brockmann, Caro Soles, M.C. Beaton and Anne Perry.

Janet Maslin's review of MATALA enables me to ask this question: what the heck happened to Craig Holden? His early books were wonderful, but with this and the earlier (and just as short) book THE NARCISSIST'S DAUGHTER, I can't help but think something's gone wrong though I can't quite pinpoint it.

Patrick Anderson admires the passion inherent to Thomas Lakeman in CHILLWATER COVE.

The Scotsman's Gerald Kaufman looks at recent mysteries by Matt Rees, Marshall Karp and Michael Gregorio.

Adam Woog picks his favorite crime fiction titles of 2007.

Was it a dismal year for books? That's the thrust of Scott Timberg's piece in the LA Times.

Guy Gavriel Kay wonders how technology is changing the way we read and write.

The Chicago Sun-Times talks with Theresa Schwegel, who recently moved back to her hometown after a decade in LA.

It took a while to see print but Mia Geiger's profile of Otto Penzler appears in the Denver Post.

It's being linked everywhere, but James Meek's Guardian piece on looking up words he didn't know is well worth reading.

The New Yorker weighs in on the whole Gordon Lish/Raymond Carver controversy.

And finally, am I the only one who read this, made an acronym out of the amalgamated name and realized it's the parent company of PLAYBOY? Of course I am. Moving right along...

Weekend Update Delayed

Till tomorrow, or never, but in the meantime, a big thank-you to Paul Goat Allen for his lovely comments on A HELL OF A WOMAN and EXPLETIVE DELETED in his newest Chicago Tribune column.

Sleuthing for Books in Vermont

The Brattleboro Reformer profiles Mystery on Main Street, a new independent mystery bookshop that opened in the city just over a month ago after the owner, David Lampe-Wilson, moved to town:

Lampe-Wilson and his family recently moved to Saxtons River from Connecticut and within weeks the store was open for business. "We made the full move and got the store opened in a three-week period," Lampe-Wilson said. "People are finding us. There's interest once they know we're here." The family moved to Saxtons River because they were ready for a quieter, more relaxing life. Lampe-Wilson said he would sit in more than an hour of traffic each day to get to work in Connecticut. And worst of all, he would brave the same amount to get to his favorite mystery book store. "I look around for mysteries because that's what I read," Lampe-Wilson said. "I couldn't find enough."

And so the shop was born.

More on DNA Ethics

NPR's Ari Shapiro continues his weeklong series on DNA, its forensic applications and ethical concerns. Check out:

• Legal limits on discarded DNA
• Using DNA to track suspects through family
• The backlog of DNA samples in crime labs

Siler Tries Nonfiction

One of my favorite crime writers, Jenny Siler, is going in a different direction for her newest project:

Myles J. Connor, Jr., and novelist Jenny Siler's HONOR AMONG THIEVES, pitched as a Catch Me If You Can-style memoir by the Boston criminal mastermind long assumed to be responsible for the biggest art theft in American history, the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, to Bruce Nichols at Collins, in a good deal, for publication in 2009, by Dan Conaway at Writers House (NA).

Just how involved Connor may have been in that heist is in dispute - especially as he was in prison at the time it took place - but this promises to be a fascinating book no matter how much (or little) it reveals.

Further Smatterings

Oline Cogdill picks her top mysteries of 2007, with Laura Lippman's WHAT THE DEAD KNOW heading up the list.

Lippman also cracks the Baltimore City Paper's top 10 of 2007.

AMNewYork on the rise and fall of blogger book deals. (via)

Reuters talks with Miyuki Miyabe on how she plans to conquer overseas markets after being Japan's bestselling mystery writer.

More Ian Rankin filler from the Scotsman, this time about his "struggle" to follow up Rebus.

Otto Penzler is reading debut novels by women. Is this a major development or an anomaly?

Lily Allen will be a judge for the Orange Broadband Prize. Some folks are not thrilled about this news.

Jim Fusilli got to see the Led Zeppelin reunion, the lucky bastard.

And finally, NPR begins a three part series on the legal limits of discarded DNA.