David Denby: Snark
This slim volume doesn't always succeed with its argument against the virtues of snark, but I definitely see where Denby is coming from. He wants a world where people think before they speak, where insults hit their target with wit, a sense of context and forethought. I know I thought more about how to temper my own snarky tendencies after reading this long essay, and at the very least, Denby's tome should spark necessary - and maybe even snark-free - discussion.
Hallie Ephron: Never Tell a Lie: A Novel of Suspense
Ephron's first solo fiction outing finds suspense in seemingly unlikely territory, but the suburban town where heavily pregnant Ivy and her husband David live proves to be most dangerous after a chance run-in with Melinda, an old high school acquaintance - and pregnant as well. Then she goes missing. And then the book becomes awfully hard to stop reading because Ephron is a page-turning expert who has plenty to say about the joys and pain of impending motherhood.
Ilana Stanger-Ross: Sima's Undergarments for Women
How could I not adore this? It's a debut novel set in Boro Park and features a mature woman who owns an undergarment shop that caters to those of all ages and ethnicities, but really shines an inward light upon her secret shame and empty marriage when a young Israeli girl, brimming with life, arrives to turn everything upside down. The conflicts are meted out in fine detail, and Sima - the aforementioned propreitor - is all too believable in what she holds back, how she feels and what she does, no matter how wrong-headed those actions might be. This book is a rare little bird that should have a chance to spread its wings widely and at great distance.
Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo: Roseanna (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
The first of Sjowall/Wahloo's legendary series featuring Swedish police detective Martin Beck was recently reissued, giving me good reason to finally read what I'd meant to for years. It's astounding and a classic, as is the follow up THE MAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE, because the authors do not waste a single word. Economy and subtlety, not to mention a methodical approach to detection and clear opinions on the state of Swedish society, is on fine display. I'd read the other eight books now but I'm trying to pace myself.
Tanguy Viel: Beyond Suspicion: A Novel
This is a hard-bitten, unnerving piece of work, largely and unjustly overlooked by me until I stumbled across it in a bookstore and, thinking I'd read a few pages, finished most of it standing up and the rest in a nearby chair. There are two couples, a brother and a sister with respective partners. There are weddings and love affairs, secret schemes and violent twists. And there is betrayal, oh so much betrayal. Viel's writing is so crisp it practically singes with blackness, and his outlook is arch and bleak. I do like discovering new authors, don't you?
Thanks to Sarah for giving me this chance to chat with you.
I am taking a train to Bouchercon in Madison. Which of the following shoud I read?
1. The Sleeping Car Murders (Japrisot)
2. The Lady Vanishes (Ethel White)
3. Strangers on a Train (Highsmith)
4. Murder on the Orient Express (Christie)
5. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (Simenon)
Hope to meet some of you there. And thanks for being here today. Patti
George Easter has posted his report of the convention on the Deadly Pleasures website, warning all that he will drop many names -- and quite cheerfully, at that. Although I must say that I like to think I hang with an all-ages crowd, being more of an old soul than a lot of my peers...
Carole Barrowman, a regular contributor to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was also at the convention and files her amusing take on the proceedings.
Then there's Selina Walker, known to many as the publishing director of crime and thrillers at Transworld, who has contributed her first report to the Bookseller (with one due out soon in the Guardian.) She talks to many of the genre's leading lights, and even offers up her take on the names to watch:
So now follow my tips for 2006. The coolest cats--the writers other crime writers want to be--are Harlan Coben and Dennis Lehane. The young guns with the most committed fans are Ken Bruen, Simon Kernick and Jason Starr. The new kid on the block is Harley Jane Kozak. And the crime-writing stars of tomorrow? Step up Lee Child, Barry Eisler and Laura Lippman.
Now, this may be an age or track record related thing, but dontcha think the whole idea of "crime writing stars of tomorrow" is that, um, they are actually still new at this? Or have just begun their careers? Eisler I agree with, but my shortlist of up-and-comers is probably waaaaay different. It's the same criticism I leveled at Kate Miciak during BEA when she spent her allotted time during the Editors Buzz Forum on Child and Karin Slaughter instead of on the dozens of Bantam Dell authors who aren't getting seven-figure deals and massive marketing campaigns. Which isn't to say they aren't deserved or necessary -- they are -- but a little perspective never hurts.
This may well be my favorite BCon related exchange ever, as taken from the blog of Michael Simon, author of DIRTY SALLY and BODY SCISSORS:
On arrival back home [from Bouchercon], I got an email from a buddy:
"Sorry we only got to see each other for a second at Bouchercon -- I looked for you afterward, but couldn't seem to find you. Were you avoiding the bar?"
I wrote back:
"There was a bar?"
Yes. Yes there was:
Apparently the panels were only a small part of the camaraderie and exchange of information. I imagined a crime fiction bar, filled with tough dames and hard-punching mugs, the grumbled chatter broken only occasionally by the crack of a pool cue over someone's head.
Another prominent player in the field explained it to me this way:
"I've been to thirty of these conferences. The panels aren't going to tell me anything I don't know. I show up at the bar at eleven AM and stay till closing.
"How else am I supposed to see everybody?"
Indeed. Because, as we all know from before, the three rules of BCon are:
Hang out in the bar.
Hang out in the bar.
Hang out in the bar.
The rest are details.
So every year, the Private Eye Writers of America, in tandem with St. Martin's Press, runs a contest for the best unpublished PI manuscript. The winner gets his or her work published and a $10,000 boilerplate contract.
Except that this year, no winner will be given. Only the third time in the contest's history that this has happened (the other two were in 1996 and 2001.)
And frankly, I never got why there were no winners those other years.
Oh, I know the reasons, official or otherwise: the entries weren't publishable; the writers weren't good enough. And I know the contest rules stipulate that the judges reserve the right not to choose a winner if in their opinions, "none of the manuscripts are of publishable quality."
Except why bother going through the motions if ultimately, no winner will be chosen?
Why has this happened three times in the last ten years?
And why is it that a contest like the Debut Dagger -- which only wants the first 3000 words and a synopsis from each entrant -- has managed not only to pick a winner each time around, but led to more lucrative publishing contracts for each of those winners?
Come to think of it, has there been a year in the history of the Malice Domestic contest -- which is also run by SMP -- when no winner was chosen?*
It probably means nothing at all except that in the minds of St. Martin's Press, there was no unpublished PI novel in their pool they wanted to affix with the Minotaur designation. But it would also kind of suck if it also meant that they'd lost confidence in the PI subgenre as a whole.
Because if there isn't new blood to write these books, then what? Should we invert the acronym and stick a big fat "R" in front of it?
Because I'm sure there are other folks who would beg to differ.
*Unfortunately, backdated history on this contest is not as readily available as for the PWA's. Which is why I'm asking the question.
But these things were just too good not to share.
On the serious front, Duane Swierczynski uses his recent BCon experience as a jumping off point for a very important topic: how to balance marriage and parenthood with the whole writing gig?
One recurring theme from this past weekend at Bouchercon: spouses.
It came up at the panel I moderated, even though the topic was "Crime Pays in Many Ways." How do you make a living as a writer? someone asked. Panelist James Lincoln Warren replied: "Marry rich. And marry often." He was kidding (I think), but his comment prompted some talk about marriage and the writing life -- two great tastes that don't often go great together. Let's face it: writing can be an extremely selfish pursuit. Marriage, by definition, is often about being selfless. You do the math.Why this fixation with spouses this past weekend?
Well, because the Bride wasn't there. And I very much wanted her to be.
Go read the rest. I'm single and childless but it's making me think seriously about personal responsibility, because there will come a time when I'll have to make far harder choices than what occurred last weekend.
And on a more light-hearted front, Charlie Huston attended his first Bouchercon and learned some very important lessons about drinking with crime writers -- and what to do if you just can't anymore:
Worse fates there are than to be asked repeatedly, “What are you drinking?” Indeed, for that first day it was something of a fantasy come to life. Not only were drinks being purchased for me, but they were being purchased by people who had read my books, people who had read them and took occasion from time to time to mumble a word of praise. As I drank deep, my ego drank deeper.
The only fault with the scenario being on the second day when I realized I was supposed to repeat my performance as sloshed-youngish-writer-with-an-attitude, found that I was in far over my head, and tried to cry uncle.
You’d think I had squatted in the middle of the carpet and shat upon it.
There is, I promise you, no gracious way to bow out of a round that has been offered by a far more experienced writer than yourself who has just told you he likes your work. If you ever have the good fortune to stumble into this situation, humbly nod your head and repeat after me, “Hell, yeah, I’ll have another fuckin’ Bud, just let me take a quick puke in this potted palm here, HHrrrruuuuPPP, whew that’s better, now where was I? Cheers!”
Ah yes, matching rounds -- the quickest way to oblivion....
And if there's any report I missed, this tracks them best, and of course, there's lots more of these.
Paul Guyot asked, Lee Goldberg concurred, and so must I: where does all the money that attendees pay into each and every Bouchercon actually go? Do they, as allegedly they are supposed to, get passed on to the next organizing committee, or do they line the pockets of the current organizers?
David Montgomery adds that his wife -- who is a CPA -- wonders why no one's demanded an audit. Well, count this post as an official demand. Because when people seem to go out of their way to keep things murky and hidden, that says an awful lot about what's being done as opposed to what's promised.
Granted, I have a personal interest, if only to find out why it would have been so difficult to transfer my registration to someone else -- because every time I tried to ask the Chicago organizers why this was a problem, I never got an answer. And if the money I paid will be used to fund next year's convention (or one thereafter), well, fine. But if it's been funnelled away for some other purpose that isn't being made public, that's a whole other story.
So in the midst of getting caught up with what happened over the weekend, there's one thing that either I completely missed noticing, or people aren't talking about it as much in the circles I run:
What were the hot books at BCon? What books were getting word of mouth and buzz and that people were telling other people to read?
Which of the books included in the freebie bag were actually taken home, and which were left behind?
And why is it that I can't seem to focus on books written before 2006 now? OK, that's not BCon-related, but it's still a burning question.
So please, share responses in the backblog.
(This post will stay at the top of the blog through the end of Monday. Check back on Labor Day for new posts, including the Weekend Update, which appear below this one.)
So first, to those who took pity on a girl marooned in the suburbs all weekend gorging on too much food and trying to decide which family member would best be served by being immortalized in a short story to be written later, thank you for the phone calls, updates and bizarre messages (since when did Ken Bruen sound so high-pitched?) They did warm the cockles of my diseased heart.
And now that I have returned to the safe confines of my lovely apartment (note to self: I shall NEVER EVER EVER drive along the NJ Turnpike. Ever. Not unless I want to award myself the gift that truly keeps on giving, a coronary) it's time to look around and see how BCon was blogged:
First out with a short report is Dave White, who sadly had to leave the premises early but not without hanging out with all sorts of cool folks and shamelessly namedropping. But trust me, Mr. White is allowed to do so.
Duane Swierczynski tried to blog, but couldn't, so instead he's offered up apologies that he couldn't. Will there be a post later in the day as promised? Only the shadow knows...
Russel McLean was far more successful in providing a mid-con report, although you know, I heard that rumor about the publishing deal, also -- what do you mean it's not true? And I was so close in posting the PM deal report, too...
And speaking of rumored book deals, Polly PI checked in with her own reports and pictures from BCon, stirring up a storm for what promises to be a very good book indeed someday.
The photoblog's getting more pictures, although not too many folks seemed to be able to upload directly into the one I set up, alas. Still, no doubt as the week and month goes on there will be more to come.
Harry Hunsicker did a great job covering what he could, and I agree with the commenter who said that the dark, grainy photos were great -- it's a mystery convention, do we really want bright neon colors?
Speaking of photos, Jim Winter's opened up his gallery of BCon snaps to the public.
Paul Guyot lists many of the things he learned at Bouchercon.
So you want to know who won all those awards? Well, I stole the lists from Jiro Kimura, but what the hell:
Best Novel: William Kent Krueger, Blood Hollow (Atria/S&S)
Best First Novel: Harley Jane Kozak, Dating Dead Men (Doubleday)
Best PBO: Jason Starr, Twisted City (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Best Non-Fiction: Max Allan Collins et al., Men's Adventure Magazines (Taschen)
Best Short Story: Elaine Viets, "Wedding Knife" (Chesapeake Crimes, Quiet Storm)
Best Cover Art: Brooklyn Noir (Akashic)
Best Novel: Edward Wright, While I Disappear (Putnam)
Best First Novel: Ingrid Black, The Dead (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Best PBO: Max Phillips, Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime)
Best Short Story: Pearl Abraham, "Hasidic Noir" (Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books)
Lifetime Achievement: Sara Paretsky
Best Novel: Ken Bruen, The Killing of the Tinkers (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Best First Novel: Harley Jane Kozak, Dating Dead Men (Doubleday)
Best Nonfiction: D.P. Lyle, Forensics for Dummies (Wiley & Sons)
Best Short Story: Terence Faherty, "Widow of Slane" (EQMM, March/April 2004)
Best Novel: Lee Child, The Enemy (Delacorte)
Best First Novel: Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (Penguin Press)
Best British Crime Novel: John Harvey, Flesh and Blood (Heinemann)
Best PBO: Elaine Flinn, Tagged for Murder (Avon)
Best Thriller: Barry Eisler, Rain Storm (Putnam)
Best Short Story: Edward Hoch, "The War in Wonderland" (Criminal Appetites, Silver Dagger Mysteries)
As always, huge congratulations to all the winners. Further thoughts after the jump.
Continue reading "BCon Hangovers, Part II: the Awards tally" »
Nothing from me till Labor Day but not surprisingly, Jiro Kimura is first out of the gate to report that the Hammett Prize, given by the IACW for the Best Crime Novel in 2004, was won by Chuck Hogan for PRINCE OF THIEVES (Scribner). He beat out T Jefferson Parker, John Katzenbach, Peter Robinson and Colin Harrison -- who also just happens to be Hogan's editor over at Scribner.
Congrats to Chuck, and also to Colin.
