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![[IMAGE]](images/newsltr8.jpg) Fall, 2004 - Vol. 3, Number 2
ALL POINTS BULLETIN
By Ellen Hart
Let's talk about short stories. As a distinct literary genre, most authorities trace the short story's modern popularity to the writings of Edgar Alan Poe, although the form has certainly manifested itself in lots of different ways for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
I love short stories. I started reading the Sherlock Holmes tales as a kid and graduated to Poe, O. Henry, H.G. Wells, and many others. I've often heard writers lament that writing a short story is much harder than writing a novel. Having written a few of both, I'd have to say I agree. The short story's difficulty has to do with the economy of words and the clarity of thought/description/emotion/action necessary to give a short piece of fiction impact.
Okay, so why am I bringing up the topic? Well, the fall of 2004 marks the beginning of the Minnesota Crime Wave's fourth year together. In the last three years, we've done two national tours and tons of regional events, built a newsletter, and established a website. We have plans in the works for a number of new projects, but the one I want to tell you about here is our next big endeavor—a Minnesota mystery anthology featuring stories by not only members of the Wave, but also some of the biggest names in Minnesota crime fiction.
A Despite the fact that our working title is Silence of the Loons, the anthology will run the gamut from the dark and serious to the light and humorous. Each author will choose from a group of established clues and center the story around them. The anthology will be published sometime in late 2005, so stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on our progress.
DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT
Interviewed by Kent Krueger
Minnesotan David Housewright hit the ground running with his debut novel Penance, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Since then, he's produced three additional novels across two different series. Of his most recent, A Hard Ticket Home, the hard-to-please Kirkus Review says, "Millionaire ex-cop rights wrongs pro-bono in an amiable throwback to Marlowe/Archer. Housewright has a keeper in McKenzie—tough, smart and sufficiently flawed to be entirely likable." House—as he is known to his close associates—agreed to talk to us about his work and the genre.
Kent: Tell us what compelled you to write fiction in the first place, and specifically what influenced your decision to write in the crime genre.
House: From the sixth grade on, I've always wanted to be a writer. And I've written everything—news and sports stories as a journalist, magazine articles, TV and radio spots, print ads, press releases, newsletters, direct mail, brochures, catalogues, outdoor boards, CD-ROM programs, flash emails, you name it. Yet I somehow convinced myself that a "true" writer writes books. Only all my attempts at writing the Great American Novel failed. They always ended up reading like glorified essays filled with my take on the world at large and little else. So I decided to hell with it and tried instead to write a story. Turns out I'm a much better storyteller than novelist, although if you look close, you'll notice that I do manage to slip in a few small truths along the way.
![[cover]](images/housewright_hard.jpg) Kent: Your debut novel Penance won an Edgar for best first novel. How did that feel, and how did it affect your career?
House: Professionally, the Edgar gave me instant credibility as a write as well as a certain cachet. Because of it I'm asked to do interviews for newsletters like this one, certain people are more apt to take my calls, my books are more likely to be reviewed, and you sure can't beat having "Edgar Award-winning author" on my dust jackets. That's a lot for a rather ugly ceramic bust to do. But probably it's had a greater effect on me personally. Before the award, I'd meet writers like Walter Mosley, Dick Francis, Mary Higgins Clark, Tami Hoag, Steve Thayer and John Sandford and wonder what the hell I was doing standing in the same room with these guys. After the award all my insecurity went away. It was like I had been initiated into the club, I suddenly belonged.
Kent: After three well-received Holland Taylor mysteries, you've launched a new series with the novel A Hard Ticket Home, featuring ex-cop Rushmore McKenzie. How does Rushmore differ from Holland, and how will this series differ from the first?
House: McKenzie comes partly from my own middle-class background. I tap my own life and experiences much more extensively here than in the Holland Taylor novels. What's more, unlike Taylor, McKenzie isn't a traditional P.I. Hell, he isn't a P.I. at all. He's a professional kibitzer. He does "favors" for people. McKenzie was a cop and he enjoyed the work. He liked helping people—as he says in A Hard Ticket Home, "it got to be a habit with me." Then he becomes filthy, stinking rich and quits the force. But he hadn't lost his desire to be helpful. "Living well, being useful." That's an actual line from the book. McKenzie is my response to what I perceive as a growing darkness in the mystery genre. Protagonists have become tormented souls wrestling with personal demons and often seeking redemption for past sins. But you know what? Sometimes, there are happy endings. And that's what I want to give my readers. Terrible and disturbing things happen in the Rushmore McKenzie novels and sometimes McKenzie is the one doing those terrible and disturbing things. These affect him—how could they not? But at the end of the day, he's able to justify the mayhem by reminding himself that he's helping people, that what he does is actually making the world a better place. McKenzie is an optimist. So am I.
Kent: Where do you go from here?
House: The next book, Tin City, comes out in April 2005. After that, who knows? I've been taking notes for a stand-alone thriller involving a homicidal TV cameraman and a disgraced journalist.
Kent: Your novels have all been set in or around the Twin Cities. Is this simply convenient because you live here, or is there something about the area that inspires you?
House: The Twin Cities are my home. It's the place I know best, and yes, it does inspire me. Just look around. It's such a rich community with great diversity and loads of eccentricities. And don't forget the weather. There are few locations that offer as much to a writer.
HOW TO WRITE A STELLAR BOOK SYNOPSIS
By Deborah Woodworth
Back when I was trying to find an agent to represent Death of a Winter Shaker, I knew it wouldn't be easy to leap out of that wretched slush pile. I'd been advised to include a brief yet stunning synopsis of my book. No sweat, I figured. Just go through the manuscript, hit the high points, done. Yeah, right. The product that emerged was certainly stunning, but only as a soporific. What I needed was something short and perky, and what is perkier, I decided, than a book dust jacket? So I went to the public library, gathered a stack of hard-back mysteries, and read through all the dust jackets until the style began to imprint itself on my brain. Thirty-seven revisions later, I had a synopsis that might just do the trick. In fact, it did. In my next mailing to agents, two out of four asked to see the manuscript, and one signed me while the other was still reading. Along the way, I learned some lessons about writing a book synopsis, and I'll be glad to pass along a few hints.
- Think about telling a ghost story to a group gathered around a campfire. You won't have much time before your tired audience drifts off to sleep, and you need to grab them immediately with a first sentence that yanks them into the story. Set the mood and atmosphere with a powerful image or two, and build tension quickly and persistently. And leave them hanging.
- The synopsis does not have to be written in the same voice as the manuscript. However, if you have a particular writing strength—such as a humorous or poetic style—weave it into your synopsis, just to show you can do it.
- A synopsis, unlike a traditional outline, does not have to be linear. Please, I beg of you, do not just list what happens in the book. Tell it as a story. Leave out any elements, such as minor characters, that don't weave smoothly into the story.
- Limit the synopsis to a few paragraphs—or no more than one typed page. Busy agents won't turn pages unless they are thoroughly, hopelessly hooked.
- Use the present tense to give the synopsis a feeling of immediacy.
- During revision, work to tighten the writing and spice it up with strong verbs. The query letter and book synopsis is your one chance to wow 'em with your writing prowess. Good luck, and may your pen be mighty!
JUDGING THE EDGARS
By Carl Brookins
Best Novel
Best First Novel
Best Paperback Original (PBO)
Best Critical/Biographical
Best Fact Crime
Best Short Story
Best Children's Mystery
Best Young Adult Mystery
Best TV Series Episode Teleplay
Best Television Series Episode
Best Television Feature or Miniseries Teleplay
Best Motion Picture
Best Motion Picture Screenplay
Best Play
Mary Higgins Clark Award
Last year I was a judge for one category of the Edgars, the annual awards presented in New York by the Mystery Writers of America. Read the above list of categories in order, and you don't see the word "mystery" until the seventh line. "Crime" appears in one heading and "mystery" in two. In the language of the awards, and in our general understanding, this is clear, and anyway, we all know what we are talking about... Don't we? Do we?
There are concerns in some circles that the traditional mystery, popularly referred to as the cozy, is ignored or at best given short shrift. If, in fact the Edgars are ignoring the traditional mystery novel, something needs to change. If the Edgars are truly prestigious and important awards in the reading community, and they certainly should be, something else needs to change.
Start with the rules, the language of eligibility. Make it clear that we're talking about crime or mystery fiction here, not some other kind of book. An immediate benefit of tightening the rules would mean fewer books to handle. Too many submitted books contain only a nod to the mystery element. I have no quarrel with romance novels, science fiction novels, fantasy and speculative fiction novels, nor with their authors or publishers. However, if a crime or mystery is not central to the story, the work ought not be submitted.
I believe no author should be allowed to submit more than a single entry in each category. MWA ought to encourage closer communication between authors and publishers to prevent so many duplicate submissions.
I want to point out that books which are not submitted cannot be judged. I suspect that one of the reasons more cozies do not make the cut is because for several years there has been this troubling attitude that traditional mysteries aren't as important.
Writers of traditional mysteries appear to focus on Malice Domestic and the Agathas, rather than the Edgars, inevitably making the Edgars poorer. I was surprised at the relatively small percentage of traditional mystery novels submitted in the category for which I was a judge.
All judging processes are flawed to some degree. But we certainly should strive to examine and improve those which are important to us. If MWA wants to enhance the Edgars' reputation, as I believe it does, I hope members will revisit and make the rules, and thus the results, more precise and more beneficial.
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 |
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