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Fall, 2003 - Vol. 2, Number 3

ALL POINTS BULLETIN

By Deborah Woodworth

After more than thirty years of living in Minnesota, I've nearly absorbed all the nuances of the "Minnesota Nice" philosophy. I try to live according to its principles, I really do, but there's something about the holiday season that brings out my inner pig. I want cookies and presents and lots of them. I want to see my next book hit the New York Times Bestseller List. I want that million-dollar movie deal with Susan Sarandon playing Sister Rose. Pretty soon I'm wishing writer's blocks on other mystery authors, or even forgetting to smile at strangers in the mall. The rules of Niceness loosen their grip on my soul and—Yes, that's right, I become Minnesota Scrooge.

At that point, I find it helpful to dust off the Dickens, who, though a better writer than I, is dead and therefore no competition. Rereading Dickens, any Dickens, helps restore my humanity and reminds me that we're all in this together.

Under non-holiday conditions, mystery writers are pretty good at remembering that we help ourselves by helping rather than hurting each other. For instance, it's rare for us to poison one another.

So here is a holiday wish from all of us: We wish you peace and health, good reading and good writing, and maybe even a movie deal. However, Sister Rose has first dibs on Susan Sarandon.

COMING HOME

By William Kent Krueger

One bleak November morning a few years ago, I thought seriously about killing a man. His name is Cork O'Connor, a guy I genuinely like but who was becoming a pain in the ass. He was everywhere, in all my waking thoughts, in my dreams. Which would have been all right if I'd had something for him to do. The problem was, he was a character without a tale. I'd written about Cork and the fictional town in which he lives, Aurora, Minnesota, for eight years solid. I was tired of the company I'd been keeping. And scared, because I had a book to write but no story in sight, and neither the energy or desire to force something to happen in Aurora, which had come to feel like my hometown, a place I loved but couldn't wait to leave. In my desperation, I considered writing a book in which I would kill Cork, get him off my back and out of my mind for good. I would leave Aurora forever.

Fortunately, I did something else instead. I wrote a stand-alone thriller, The Devil's Bed. Most of the action took place around the Twin Cities or in Washington, D.C. It was a pleasant change of scene and companionship, a new protagonist, a different kind of book.

I'd hoped that in turning my creative eye away from Cork and Aurora, I might free up the unconscious part of my brain, whatever mysterious area it is that conjures stories, and that when a new Cork O'Connor tale was ready, it would present itself to me. In fact, that's exactly what happened.

In the middle of writing The Devil's Bed, one February morning as I stared out the window of the local coffee shop where I do all my writing, it came to me, the next Cork book. It came suddenly and as a whole piece. I knew the beginning, the end, who dunnit, and why. I knew many of the twists and turns that would occur along the way. The only thing the experience lacked was the voice of angels singing everything to me.

Blood Hollow is a homecoming. It's a return to a place that feels comfortable and welcoming. Of course, people continue to die there. After all, that's what the genre is about. But Cork O'Connor is back on the scene, his amiable presence and dogged sense of justice assuring that most things will come out right in the end.

Damn, it feels good to be back in Aurora. If Thomas Wolfe had lived there, he'd never have been foolish enough to believe you can't go home again.

Blood Hollow will be available from Atria Books in February, 2004.

RULES OF MYSTERY FICTION

By Carl Brookins

At the height of the first British Golden Age of mystery fiction, between the world wars, a converted Catholic priest, Monsignor Ronald Knox, wrote extensively in the mystery genre. As a keen observer of the literature and an author in his own right, he articulated a set of ten rules of mystery fiction known as the Decalogue. They were published in 1928, something to remember when you read them. Do they still apply? What do you think?

1. Introduce the criminal early, but don't allow the reader into the criminal's thoughts.
2. The detective may use no supernatural means to solve the case.
3. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are disallowed.
4. Only one secret passageway is allowed.
5. No Chinaman may figure in the story.
6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor is he allowed an unaccountable intuition.
7. Never make the detective the killer.
8. All clues must be shown as they occur.
9. No undiscovered poisons, nor any appliance which will require a long scientific explanation, shall be used.
10. No unprepared-for twins shall be permitted.

I would add a few rules which seem to be frequently ignored in the modern era of crime fiction.

• Avoid badly-punning titles.
• Obscurity and disorganization are the hobgoblins of effective storytelling.
• Do not use titles which have no relevancy to the story in question.
• Shorter is usually better.
• Long-winded agenda-driven diatribes impede plot movement.

There's Life in Dem Der Bones!

By Ellen Hart

One of the hardest things a writer ever has to live with is watching his or her books go out of print. Sometimes it's a slow attrition. Other times, should you change from one press to another, or if a publisher is bought out, it can happen all at once. If you've written 19 books, as I have, you should expect that some of them will be unavailable, possibly for years, sometimes forever. But when you've worked hard on a novel, grown to care about the characters, been charmed or appalled by what those characters do to each other, it's frustrating indeed to watch that book enter the publishing "Dead Zone."

Drum roll please: Thanks to St. Martin's, all of the novels in the Jane Lawless series will once again be available. In fact, St. Martin's has already bought the first three books in the series—Hallowed Murder, Vital Lies, and Stage Fright. Hallowed Murder is slated for release as a trade paperback this December. In the next few years, the rest of the books St. Martin's didn't initially publish—A Killing Cure, A Small Sacrifice, Faint Praise, and Robber's Wine—will also be available once again. For those of you who started reading the mysteries midway in the series and haven't been able to find the backlist, you'll be able to do so soon.

So three cheers for Kelley Raglan, my editor, and for St. Martin's Press. Not only have they made my day, they made my entire year!

Read back issues:
Winter, 2002 - Vol. 1, Number 1
Spring, 2002 - Vol. 1, Number 2
Fall, 2002 - Vol. 1, Number 3
Winter, 2003 - Vol. 2, Number 1
Spring, 2003 - Vol. 2, Number 2
Fall, 2003 - Vol. 2, Number 3
Spring, 2004 - Vol. 3, Number 1
Fall, 2004 - Vol. 3, Number 2
Spring, 2005 - Vol. 3, Number 3
Fall, 2005 - Vol. 3, Number 4
Spring, 2006 - Vol. 4, Number 1
Fall, 2006 - Vol. 4, Number 2
Spring, 2007 - Vol. 5, Number 1

© 2002-08 by Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart and William Kent Krueger.
Permission is hereby granted for reproduction of any material contained in this web site for purposes of publicity and promotion related to the sale of our books and/or appearances by members of the Minnesota Crime Wave.

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