Theodore Jerome Cohen's Blog, page 15
May 15, 2015
Write What You Know
Write what you know . . . arguably the most important lesson in writing I ever learned! It was my mother who taught me this lesson. She did so when I was nine. How it came about is an interesting story (well, I think it’s interesting or I wouldn’t be telling it to you). But more than that, from an historical perspective, I think you might get a kick out of seeing the first eleven words of what was destined to be an 1100 word ‘opus’.
My story begins in 1871. No, that’s not the year of my birth…that came a few years later. But if you live in Chicago, have relatives who live in Chicago, or ever traveled to Chicago, you might recognize the scene below.
Yes, of course, it’s Catherine O’Leary and her infamous cow, the one who kicked over a lantern on October 8, 1871, starting a three-day conflagration that reduced the Windy City to ashes. Among other things, the city went ‘dry,’ which is to say, there wasn’t a drop of beer to be had within 100 miles.
But fear not. Into the breach stepped Joseph Schlitz. Now, this wasn’t the first time Mr. Schlitz had taken advantage of a tragedy. A lowly accountant at the August Krug Brewery in the 1850s, he was in the rather fortunate position of being in the right place at the right time when old man Krug departed this Earth in 1856. Within a few years, Schlitz changed both Krug’s widow’s name and the brewery’s name to his. It was in early October, 1871, then, that the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company started shipping beer to Chicago like it was going out of style. The result, of course, was, it made Milwaukee—and Schlitz—famous!
So it was that in 1944, just before the end of World War II, the Family Cohen found itself in Milwaukee. By 1947, at age nine, we were living near 17th and Lloyd Streets on Milwaukee’s West Side, where my younger brother and I attended the Lloyd Street Elementary School. The school was located about one-half mile from the house. We left each weekday for classes at exactly '9-9'—quarter to nine in the morning—with me responsible for getting my brother to school (and, of course, home again). This was necessitated by the fact my father had already left for work while my mother was busy with my baby sister.
Having to shepherd my brother to and from school didn’t leave much time to explore the neighborhood in the morning, of course, so days on which he stayed home for one reason or another were to be coveted. Why? Because on those days, it meant by leaving slightly earlier, I was free, for example, to stop at Pete’s Tavern, which was located a block from the house. My intent was always to learn whether or not he had any empty cigar boxes into which I could put my ‘stuff'…baseball cards, marbles, a stray ball and jack, my Duncan Yo-Yo, chalk...whathaveyou! Stuff!
What? You’re surprised a nine-year-old could boldly walk into a tavern on his way to school without anyone batting an eye. Hey! This was Milwaukee!! And this wasn’t the only tavern on my route to school, by the way. Sooner or later I hit them all during the school year.
And when I left Pete’s, say, I’d move on to the back of the slaughterhouse down the street where, after climbing the back stairs, it was possible by peering into the windows to determine whether cattle or sheep were being processed on any given day.
Frankly, on the days I was alone, it’s a wonder I made it to school at all.
But it was after school that the real fun began. By accident one day I found a garage in an alley several blocks from my house that contained a stable with four ponies. Shetland mares all, they were owned by the father of a boy who became a good friend of mine. His name was Stefan. His father used to give children rides on Sundays at local parks on the north and west sides of the city. The ponies fascinated me, and I never passed up an opportunity to sneak over to visit them and Stefan after school before running home to practice the piano. Occasionally, when no one else was around, Stefan would let me sit on one of the gentler ones, easily distinguished from the others by her shiny black coat and a white star under her forelock.
“Come on, Stefan, let’s play some stickball in the alley before I have to go home,” I’d often would call after school when I got within earshot of the little stable.
“Can’t, Teddy,” was Stefan’s forlorn reply more often than not. “Must do stable.” Stefan did not speak English well. His family, like several others in his neighborhood, immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe following World War II with the help of the Roman Catholic Church. Still, he and his little sister, Kasienka, were the only two in their family who spoke much English, and only then because of having attended public school. His father, a janitor, worked at two jobs during the week while his mother cleaned houses for women on Milwaukee’s east side. Stefan and Kasienka attended Brown Street Grade School, so at least during the day, their parents did not have to worry about them. But after school, it was Stefan’s job to muck out the stable as soon as he got home.
The alley behind our house was quite interesting as well. Among other attractions was a man who garaged his midget racer several garages to the north of where my father stored his Packard.
And not too much farther up the alley was where Old Ned was stabled.
Remember, the war had only ended two years earlier…the American truck and automobile industries were still getting back on their feet. In Milwaukee, horses still were used to help deliver milk, pull trash and garbage wagons, pull snow plows, and even deliver ice (yes, not everyone had an electric refrigerator in 1947).
But back to my writing lesson and to the incident that triggered my first introduction to prose, as it were. Enter ‘Jimmy’.
Anyone who knows dogs will recognize this little guy as a rat terrier. I knew two of them. Jimmy and his partner used to come down our alley every evening just after the sun set with their owner, a grizzled old man with five-days stubble on his face. Carrying a long stick, he would poke around the garbage cans in the alley, the intent being to scare rats into the open for Jimmy and his partner to dispatch. For me it was great sport just to walk with them. And so, whenever possible, while my father was at work and my mother was busy with my younger brother and sister, I snuck out to walk the alley with Jimmy & Company.
Until one night I got caught. And therein hangs the tale of my first lesson in writing from my mother. It comprised writing eleven words one-hundred times each, in order, before I would be allowed to play outside again after school. Here's the first page of my tome:
Despite getting dispensation to listen to 'The Lone Ranger' on the radio while serving my sentence, this exercise, excruciating as it was, demonstrated unequivocally how important it is to write about the things you know. It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten and is something you might want to keep in mind as you sit down to write your Great American Novel.
My story begins in 1871. No, that’s not the year of my birth…that came a few years later. But if you live in Chicago, have relatives who live in Chicago, or ever traveled to Chicago, you might recognize the scene below.
Yes, of course, it’s Catherine O’Leary and her infamous cow, the one who kicked over a lantern on October 8, 1871, starting a three-day conflagration that reduced the Windy City to ashes. Among other things, the city went ‘dry,’ which is to say, there wasn’t a drop of beer to be had within 100 miles.
But fear not. Into the breach stepped Joseph Schlitz. Now, this wasn’t the first time Mr. Schlitz had taken advantage of a tragedy. A lowly accountant at the August Krug Brewery in the 1850s, he was in the rather fortunate position of being in the right place at the right time when old man Krug departed this Earth in 1856. Within a few years, Schlitz changed both Krug’s widow’s name and the brewery’s name to his. It was in early October, 1871, then, that the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company started shipping beer to Chicago like it was going out of style. The result, of course, was, it made Milwaukee—and Schlitz—famous!
So it was that in 1944, just before the end of World War II, the Family Cohen found itself in Milwaukee. By 1947, at age nine, we were living near 17th and Lloyd Streets on Milwaukee’s West Side, where my younger brother and I attended the Lloyd Street Elementary School. The school was located about one-half mile from the house. We left each weekday for classes at exactly '9-9'—quarter to nine in the morning—with me responsible for getting my brother to school (and, of course, home again). This was necessitated by the fact my father had already left for work while my mother was busy with my baby sister.
Having to shepherd my brother to and from school didn’t leave much time to explore the neighborhood in the morning, of course, so days on which he stayed home for one reason or another were to be coveted. Why? Because on those days, it meant by leaving slightly earlier, I was free, for example, to stop at Pete’s Tavern, which was located a block from the house. My intent was always to learn whether or not he had any empty cigar boxes into which I could put my ‘stuff'…baseball cards, marbles, a stray ball and jack, my Duncan Yo-Yo, chalk...whathaveyou! Stuff!
What? You’re surprised a nine-year-old could boldly walk into a tavern on his way to school without anyone batting an eye. Hey! This was Milwaukee!! And this wasn’t the only tavern on my route to school, by the way. Sooner or later I hit them all during the school year.
And when I left Pete’s, say, I’d move on to the back of the slaughterhouse down the street where, after climbing the back stairs, it was possible by peering into the windows to determine whether cattle or sheep were being processed on any given day.
Frankly, on the days I was alone, it’s a wonder I made it to school at all.
But it was after school that the real fun began. By accident one day I found a garage in an alley several blocks from my house that contained a stable with four ponies. Shetland mares all, they were owned by the father of a boy who became a good friend of mine. His name was Stefan. His father used to give children rides on Sundays at local parks on the north and west sides of the city. The ponies fascinated me, and I never passed up an opportunity to sneak over to visit them and Stefan after school before running home to practice the piano. Occasionally, when no one else was around, Stefan would let me sit on one of the gentler ones, easily distinguished from the others by her shiny black coat and a white star under her forelock.
“Come on, Stefan, let’s play some stickball in the alley before I have to go home,” I’d often would call after school when I got within earshot of the little stable.
“Can’t, Teddy,” was Stefan’s forlorn reply more often than not. “Must do stable.” Stefan did not speak English well. His family, like several others in his neighborhood, immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe following World War II with the help of the Roman Catholic Church. Still, he and his little sister, Kasienka, were the only two in their family who spoke much English, and only then because of having attended public school. His father, a janitor, worked at two jobs during the week while his mother cleaned houses for women on Milwaukee’s east side. Stefan and Kasienka attended Brown Street Grade School, so at least during the day, their parents did not have to worry about them. But after school, it was Stefan’s job to muck out the stable as soon as he got home.
The alley behind our house was quite interesting as well. Among other attractions was a man who garaged his midget racer several garages to the north of where my father stored his Packard.
And not too much farther up the alley was where Old Ned was stabled.
Remember, the war had only ended two years earlier…the American truck and automobile industries were still getting back on their feet. In Milwaukee, horses still were used to help deliver milk, pull trash and garbage wagons, pull snow plows, and even deliver ice (yes, not everyone had an electric refrigerator in 1947).
But back to my writing lesson and to the incident that triggered my first introduction to prose, as it were. Enter ‘Jimmy’.
Anyone who knows dogs will recognize this little guy as a rat terrier. I knew two of them. Jimmy and his partner used to come down our alley every evening just after the sun set with their owner, a grizzled old man with five-days stubble on his face. Carrying a long stick, he would poke around the garbage cans in the alley, the intent being to scare rats into the open for Jimmy and his partner to dispatch. For me it was great sport just to walk with them. And so, whenever possible, while my father was at work and my mother was busy with my younger brother and sister, I snuck out to walk the alley with Jimmy & Company.
Until one night I got caught. And therein hangs the tale of my first lesson in writing from my mother. It comprised writing eleven words one-hundred times each, in order, before I would be allowed to play outside again after school. Here's the first page of my tome:
Despite getting dispensation to listen to 'The Lone Ranger' on the radio while serving my sentence, this exercise, excruciating as it was, demonstrated unequivocally how important it is to write about the things you know. It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten and is something you might want to keep in mind as you sit down to write your Great American Novel.
April 25, 2015
Beware the ‘Intentional' Fallacy
Whiling away a few hours the other night on the Internet I chanced upon a review of one of my mystery/thrillers that gave me a pause. The reviewer had missed what I had in mind when I set pen to paper, as it were, and so, off in her own world, shrugged and gave the book Three Stars, citing what she had hoped to find but indeed, did not. Alas, what we have here is the bane of all authors…an example of the 'intentional’ fallacy.
Let’s go to the literature for a good definition of the term. “The 'intentional' fallacy is a term used in 20th-century literary criticism to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist who created it.
“Introduced by W.K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Monroe C. Beardsley in The Verbal Icon (1954), the approach was a reaction to the popular belief that to know what the author intended—what he had in mind at the time of writing—was to know the correct interpretation of the work. Although a seductive topic for conjecture and frequently a valid appraisal of a work of art, the intentional fallacy forces the literary critic to assume the role of cultural historian or that of a psychologist who must define the growth of a particular artist’s vision in terms of his mental and physical state at the time of his creative act.”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
I first ran into the intentional fallacy when seeking professional reviews for my second novel, Frozen in Time: Murder at the Bottom of the World. Based loosely upon my participation in the 16th Chilean Expedition to Antarctica in 1961-62, this post-modern mystery/thriller (which subsequently became Book I of Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy) is a tale told by my fictionalized stand-in, grad student Ted Stone. The story is a tale of greed, betrayal, danger, and murder—one in which the reader is given a window into the frozen world at the bottom of the Earth that few people ever will read about, much less experience. Among other things, it explores why, though seemingly unfair, bad things happen to good people; how the battle between good and evil can change forever even the most innocent person; and most of all, the role deception plays in Nature, Man, and Life. And those who have read Milton’s Paradise Lost will even be surprised to find elements of that famous poem in the pages of this novel.
Grad student ‘Ted Stone’, Chilean Army Base Bernado O’Higgins, January, 1962 (Photo: Dr. Martin Halpern)
Kirkus called the story “[A] nasty little piece of skullduggery.” Reviewers at Reader Views, Pacific Book Reviews, and Feathered Quill, among others, made similar statements. , http://www.theodore-cohen-novels.com/... But only one reviewer, who shall remain unnamed, viewed the book as a coming of age story, something I certainly had not intended it to be (there’s that word again). At least the thought had never crossed my mind.
Here’s the thing. Each reader is an individual who brings to a book their unique ‘history’ based on who they are, where they live, what they’ve read, how they woke up that morning, and myriad other things that go into one’s state of mind at the instant they flip the pages of the book they’re reading. What they perceive may no more be what the author had in mind when he or she penned the chapter being read than an artist might have seen in their mind’s eye when they laid down the paint on the canvas at which the critic is staring in the Louvre.
I’m sure the authors among us can cite examples of the intentional fallacy from their own book reviews. Readers may even have looked at someone’s review in the past and asked “How in the world did they come to that conclusion?!” Encounters with the fallacy are part and parcel of the writing trade . . . they are something that will always be with us. The key is to recognize them for what they are and to know they are not failings on our part but rather, they are a part of life. For as individuals, we all see things through our own life’s filters.
Let’s go to the literature for a good definition of the term. “The 'intentional' fallacy is a term used in 20th-century literary criticism to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist who created it.
“Introduced by W.K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Monroe C. Beardsley in The Verbal Icon (1954), the approach was a reaction to the popular belief that to know what the author intended—what he had in mind at the time of writing—was to know the correct interpretation of the work. Although a seductive topic for conjecture and frequently a valid appraisal of a work of art, the intentional fallacy forces the literary critic to assume the role of cultural historian or that of a psychologist who must define the growth of a particular artist’s vision in terms of his mental and physical state at the time of his creative act.”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
I first ran into the intentional fallacy when seeking professional reviews for my second novel, Frozen in Time: Murder at the Bottom of the World. Based loosely upon my participation in the 16th Chilean Expedition to Antarctica in 1961-62, this post-modern mystery/thriller (which subsequently became Book I of Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy) is a tale told by my fictionalized stand-in, grad student Ted Stone. The story is a tale of greed, betrayal, danger, and murder—one in which the reader is given a window into the frozen world at the bottom of the Earth that few people ever will read about, much less experience. Among other things, it explores why, though seemingly unfair, bad things happen to good people; how the battle between good and evil can change forever even the most innocent person; and most of all, the role deception plays in Nature, Man, and Life. And those who have read Milton’s Paradise Lost will even be surprised to find elements of that famous poem in the pages of this novel.
Grad student ‘Ted Stone’, Chilean Army Base Bernado O’Higgins, January, 1962 (Photo: Dr. Martin Halpern)
Kirkus called the story “[A] nasty little piece of skullduggery.” Reviewers at Reader Views, Pacific Book Reviews, and Feathered Quill, among others, made similar statements. , http://www.theodore-cohen-novels.com/... But only one reviewer, who shall remain unnamed, viewed the book as a coming of age story, something I certainly had not intended it to be (there’s that word again). At least the thought had never crossed my mind.
Here’s the thing. Each reader is an individual who brings to a book their unique ‘history’ based on who they are, where they live, what they’ve read, how they woke up that morning, and myriad other things that go into one’s state of mind at the instant they flip the pages of the book they’re reading. What they perceive may no more be what the author had in mind when he or she penned the chapter being read than an artist might have seen in their mind’s eye when they laid down the paint on the canvas at which the critic is staring in the Louvre.
I’m sure the authors among us can cite examples of the intentional fallacy from their own book reviews. Readers may even have looked at someone’s review in the past and asked “How in the world did they come to that conclusion?!” Encounters with the fallacy are part and parcel of the writing trade . . . they are something that will always be with us. The key is to recognize them for what they are and to know they are not failings on our part but rather, they are a part of life. For as individuals, we all see things through our own life’s filters.
April 13, 2015
What’s in a Name?
William Shakespeare penned these classic lines for his play Romeo and Juliet,
“What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”.
So, what is in a name? And how difficult can it be to name our characters?
Consider the problem facing crime writer Anthony Bruno (1952-2014), author of The Iceman and co-producer of the film by the same name, as he pondered various names for the hero in a new mystery series he was about to write: “If the name doesn’t feel right, it becomes a speed bump in the writing process. It slows me down and makes me think about it every time I see it. I become like the guy who bought a metallic orange car because the price was right. Every time he looks at it, he feels a ping of regret.”
Names matter, and everyone who ever put pen to paper writing genre fiction, I dare say, at one time or another has been faced with a problem naming his or her characters. In some cases, perhaps, the answers came easy. In my first mystery/thriller, Frozen in Time, a post-modern novel loosely based on research I performed in Antarctica in 1961-62, I simply changed my name from Cohen to Stone and inserted myself as one of the characters. As well, I picked some common names out of the air for the other two graduate students on the expedition, Grant Morris and David Green. And with a bow to a former professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M), I searched a database of Irish surnames for the last name of the UW-M professor who accompanied us, finally settling on (Ethan) O’Mhaille. Not too strenuous.
But then things got a little more difficult. The novel, which takes place largely in Chile and the Chilean Antarctic, would involve a host of characters needing Spanish/Chilean names. And beyond that, given that some of the themes I wanted to inject involved elements from Milton’s Paradise Lost as well as the Catholic Church, things suddenly became more complicated. Problems related to the Church were solved, in part, my naming one of the characters Lieutenant-Commander Christian Barbudo, the last name being my wife’s high school Spanish teacher. However, finding names for some of the characters with which to bring elements of Paradise Lost into the book was a bit more difficult. Lucifer was among the ‘characters’ for which I sought representation, so it took some searching of various databases before I finally felt comfortable naming one of the antagonists, a Chilean Navy Chief Warrant Officer (CWO), Raul Lucero. His ‘lieutenant’ is Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Eduardo Bellolio, named after the fallen angel Belial (a deceitful, lustful and lewd god). Also looming large in the story is CWO Gabriel Osorio, ‘Gabriel’, of course, being the messenger angel. This is just a sampling of the thought processes that guided my name selections.
Frozen in Time, however, was only Book I of what eventually became my Antarctic Murders Trilogy. So other—many other—Chilean names were needed as I went forward. What to do? And then I hit pay dirt…pure gold (or, oro puro, you would say in Spanish!). I stumbled upon a Website that listed the names of the graduates from the Chilean Military Academy in Santiago. Using that resource alone, and by simply combining, at random, first and last names from the various columns on the Website (but never using the actual first and last names of any given person), I readily ‘populated’ the book with the names I needed. These included such characters as Admiral Don Marcelo Altamirano, Vice Admiral Víctor Madariaga, Ship-of-the-Line Captain Gustavo Palazuelos, and Corvette Captain Daniel Troncoso . . . all legitimate-sounding names, to be sure, but all totally fictitious, I assure you. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, as we say, is purely coincidental.
I took a slightly different tact when it came to writing the first book in my Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller series, Death by Wall Street. Here I needed a strong protagonist . . . someone who was cool, cocky, and flippant, came down hard on the murderers, rapists, and arsonists I would throw in his path, and when necessary, operated on the shady side of integrity. ‘Martelli’, in Italian, means ‘hammers’, and it didn’t take too many tries to match the first name Louis with the surname I had selected. As for his wife, I simply used the name of my younger daughter while Missy Dugan, NYPD’s principal IT specialist, bears a strong resemblance, in name, looks, and skills, to my eldest. What can I say? In many respects, it made writing the books simpler, given I knew the two women in Martelli’s life quite well. And that being the case, I often found myself laughing out loud at the exchanges between Martelli and his wife and between Martelli and Missy . . . especially the latter, when Dugan reaches out and busts the detective’s chops.
Other than these acknowledged exceptions in using characters who closely resemble real people (all done with permission, I should add), I assiduously avoid doing this in my writings. So, I was somewhat startled over lunch some months ago with a long-time friend and editor of my books when one of his other guests, a woman in her early 80s mentioned, “I was reading your book Eighth Circle the other day and was amused by the fact Martelli’s captain in the First Precinct is named Hanlon.”
“Why is that?” I asked, putting down my fork and taking a sip of water.
“Well,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, “because my maiden name is Hanlon, and my father was a police captain in the Philadelphia Police Department.”
I laughed. “You’re kidding!”
“No,” she said, “it’s the God’s truth. And even more interesting, you’ll be surprised to know that just like Martelli’s captain, my father used to call my mother ‘the War Department’.
What’s in a name, indeed?
Captain John Hanlon, Philadelphia Police Department, and Leona Gast Hanlon, ‘The War Department’
October 21, 1950
(Photo courtesy Mrs. Leona Hanlon Smith)
“What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”.
So, what is in a name? And how difficult can it be to name our characters?
Consider the problem facing crime writer Anthony Bruno (1952-2014), author of The Iceman and co-producer of the film by the same name, as he pondered various names for the hero in a new mystery series he was about to write: “If the name doesn’t feel right, it becomes a speed bump in the writing process. It slows me down and makes me think about it every time I see it. I become like the guy who bought a metallic orange car because the price was right. Every time he looks at it, he feels a ping of regret.”
Names matter, and everyone who ever put pen to paper writing genre fiction, I dare say, at one time or another has been faced with a problem naming his or her characters. In some cases, perhaps, the answers came easy. In my first mystery/thriller, Frozen in Time, a post-modern novel loosely based on research I performed in Antarctica in 1961-62, I simply changed my name from Cohen to Stone and inserted myself as one of the characters. As well, I picked some common names out of the air for the other two graduate students on the expedition, Grant Morris and David Green. And with a bow to a former professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M), I searched a database of Irish surnames for the last name of the UW-M professor who accompanied us, finally settling on (Ethan) O’Mhaille. Not too strenuous.
But then things got a little more difficult. The novel, which takes place largely in Chile and the Chilean Antarctic, would involve a host of characters needing Spanish/Chilean names. And beyond that, given that some of the themes I wanted to inject involved elements from Milton’s Paradise Lost as well as the Catholic Church, things suddenly became more complicated. Problems related to the Church were solved, in part, my naming one of the characters Lieutenant-Commander Christian Barbudo, the last name being my wife’s high school Spanish teacher. However, finding names for some of the characters with which to bring elements of Paradise Lost into the book was a bit more difficult. Lucifer was among the ‘characters’ for which I sought representation, so it took some searching of various databases before I finally felt comfortable naming one of the antagonists, a Chilean Navy Chief Warrant Officer (CWO), Raul Lucero. His ‘lieutenant’ is Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Eduardo Bellolio, named after the fallen angel Belial (a deceitful, lustful and lewd god). Also looming large in the story is CWO Gabriel Osorio, ‘Gabriel’, of course, being the messenger angel. This is just a sampling of the thought processes that guided my name selections.
Frozen in Time, however, was only Book I of what eventually became my Antarctic Murders Trilogy. So other—many other—Chilean names were needed as I went forward. What to do? And then I hit pay dirt…pure gold (or, oro puro, you would say in Spanish!). I stumbled upon a Website that listed the names of the graduates from the Chilean Military Academy in Santiago. Using that resource alone, and by simply combining, at random, first and last names from the various columns on the Website (but never using the actual first and last names of any given person), I readily ‘populated’ the book with the names I needed. These included such characters as Admiral Don Marcelo Altamirano, Vice Admiral Víctor Madariaga, Ship-of-the-Line Captain Gustavo Palazuelos, and Corvette Captain Daniel Troncoso . . . all legitimate-sounding names, to be sure, but all totally fictitious, I assure you. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, as we say, is purely coincidental.
I took a slightly different tact when it came to writing the first book in my Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller series, Death by Wall Street. Here I needed a strong protagonist . . . someone who was cool, cocky, and flippant, came down hard on the murderers, rapists, and arsonists I would throw in his path, and when necessary, operated on the shady side of integrity. ‘Martelli’, in Italian, means ‘hammers’, and it didn’t take too many tries to match the first name Louis with the surname I had selected. As for his wife, I simply used the name of my younger daughter while Missy Dugan, NYPD’s principal IT specialist, bears a strong resemblance, in name, looks, and skills, to my eldest. What can I say? In many respects, it made writing the books simpler, given I knew the two women in Martelli’s life quite well. And that being the case, I often found myself laughing out loud at the exchanges between Martelli and his wife and between Martelli and Missy . . . especially the latter, when Dugan reaches out and busts the detective’s chops.
Other than these acknowledged exceptions in using characters who closely resemble real people (all done with permission, I should add), I assiduously avoid doing this in my writings. So, I was somewhat startled over lunch some months ago with a long-time friend and editor of my books when one of his other guests, a woman in her early 80s mentioned, “I was reading your book Eighth Circle the other day and was amused by the fact Martelli’s captain in the First Precinct is named Hanlon.”
“Why is that?” I asked, putting down my fork and taking a sip of water.
“Well,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, “because my maiden name is Hanlon, and my father was a police captain in the Philadelphia Police Department.”
I laughed. “You’re kidding!”
“No,” she said, “it’s the God’s truth. And even more interesting, you’ll be surprised to know that just like Martelli’s captain, my father used to call my mother ‘the War Department’.
What’s in a name, indeed?
Captain John Hanlon, Philadelphia Police Department, and Leona Gast Hanlon, ‘The War Department’
October 21, 1950
(Photo courtesy Mrs. Leona Hanlon Smith)
March 26, 2015
The Inspiration for Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD
Anyone who has read the Afterword to my novel Eighth Circle--the Dedication of which read 'For Jimmy'--would have seen the text below. It explains what inspired me to create the character of Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD.
Afterword
I have always been puzzled by the dedications found in novels and other forms of literature, small but important ‘honors’ paid to friends or family members, mentors perhaps, or a person who played an important role in the author’s life or the birth of the literary piece that now carries the honoree’s name. For most of us—dare I say all?—the dedication often is viewed as a private matter between the author and the person honored, something to which we are not privy. It’s a communication within a society of the chosen, if you will. We don’t know the secret handshake.
You may have felt the same as you read the dedication in this book. There you saw the words ‘For Jimmy’. Perhaps you simply shrugged, guessed it was a friend of mine, someone I knew and respected, and then you moved on and (I hope) enjoyed the novel.
But there is more to this dedication than that. ‘Jimmy’ was James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army, a friend of my wife Susan’s and mine, and son of our good friends, Judy and Lt. Col. Frank Adamouski, US Army (ret.). Frank and I worked together for many years, traveling occasionally from Washington, DC, to Ft. Monmouth, NJ, for our work. When in New Jersey, we took time and headed north to visit Jimmy, who was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. There, he not only excelled academically but in sports as well, soccer being his game of choice. We had many a good meal together at The Thayer Hotel, something to which I always looked forward. And what an honor it was for those who attended Jimmy and Meighan’s wedding in Savannah, GA, after his graduation to witness the solemn ceremony with its military formality and to attend the beautiful reception that followed.
Upon graduation, Jimmy attended flight school at Ft. Rutger, AL, where he learned to fly Black Hawk helicopters. His first overseas deployment was in support of the US efforts to quell the Kosovo conflict, where as a lay Eucharist minister in the Catholic Church, the troops took to calling him “Father Jimmy” because he conducted prayer services for his fellow soldiers.
Jimmy, who was to enter Harvard Business School in the fall of 2003, was killed in action when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq on April 2, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His remains were buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and West Point Cemetery.
If someone were to conclude Jimmy was the inspiration for the character Louis Martelli in my NYPD mystery/thriller novels, they would be correct.
Rest in peace, Jimmy. Thank you for your service to our country.
[Photo courtesy of the Adamouski Family: Judy, Frank, Karen, Laura, Jaclyn, and Meighan (Jimmy's wife)]
James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia
Died in Central Iraq, April 2, 2003, at the age of 29
Theodore Jerome Cohen
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Veterans Day
November 11, 2014
Afterword
I have always been puzzled by the dedications found in novels and other forms of literature, small but important ‘honors’ paid to friends or family members, mentors perhaps, or a person who played an important role in the author’s life or the birth of the literary piece that now carries the honoree’s name. For most of us—dare I say all?—the dedication often is viewed as a private matter between the author and the person honored, something to which we are not privy. It’s a communication within a society of the chosen, if you will. We don’t know the secret handshake.
You may have felt the same as you read the dedication in this book. There you saw the words ‘For Jimmy’. Perhaps you simply shrugged, guessed it was a friend of mine, someone I knew and respected, and then you moved on and (I hope) enjoyed the novel.
But there is more to this dedication than that. ‘Jimmy’ was James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army, a friend of my wife Susan’s and mine, and son of our good friends, Judy and Lt. Col. Frank Adamouski, US Army (ret.). Frank and I worked together for many years, traveling occasionally from Washington, DC, to Ft. Monmouth, NJ, for our work. When in New Jersey, we took time and headed north to visit Jimmy, who was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. There, he not only excelled academically but in sports as well, soccer being his game of choice. We had many a good meal together at The Thayer Hotel, something to which I always looked forward. And what an honor it was for those who attended Jimmy and Meighan’s wedding in Savannah, GA, after his graduation to witness the solemn ceremony with its military formality and to attend the beautiful reception that followed.
Upon graduation, Jimmy attended flight school at Ft. Rutger, AL, where he learned to fly Black Hawk helicopters. His first overseas deployment was in support of the US efforts to quell the Kosovo conflict, where as a lay Eucharist minister in the Catholic Church, the troops took to calling him “Father Jimmy” because he conducted prayer services for his fellow soldiers.
Jimmy, who was to enter Harvard Business School in the fall of 2003, was killed in action when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed in central Iraq on April 2, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His remains were buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and West Point Cemetery.
If someone were to conclude Jimmy was the inspiration for the character Louis Martelli in my NYPD mystery/thriller novels, they would be correct.
Rest in peace, Jimmy. Thank you for your service to our country.
[Photo courtesy of the Adamouski Family: Judy, Frank, Karen, Laura, Jaclyn, and Meighan (Jimmy's wife)]
James Francis Adamouski, Captain, United States Army
2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia
Died in Central Iraq, April 2, 2003, at the age of 29
Theodore Jerome Cohen
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Veterans Day
November 11, 2014
March 16, 2015
Finding a Literary Agent…the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
My Guest Editorial from Reader Views
March 16, 2015
It’s probably a given that most indie authors, at one time or another, dream of someday finding an agent to represent them in the literary world. Whether the reason for seeking representation is to find validation for their work or to achieve fame and fortune (spoiler alert: don’t quit your day job just yet!), the quest for an agent is a daunting one. Developing a credible literary product—be it a book, screenplay, or whatever—is only the first step. Creating and disseminating a catchy query letter and associated material is where the rubber hits the road, and continuing the analogy, where the wheel often comes off the wagon.
But even assuming you have, arguably, the next Great American Novel, an eye-catching query letter, a great biography, and a stunning synopsis, and leaving aside for a moment the lack of a personal reference from someone in the field (an English professor already represented by an agent, another novelist, and so forth . . . that is, someone with an inside track), what can you expect from the various literary agents to whom you send your material?
That’s the question this Guest Editorial will try to answer. I hope the answers you find below not only will give you some insights into the query process, but also, save you time pursuing agents and agencies that more likely than not, will prove frustrating.
Since the summer of 2014, I have attempted—and failed—to find an agent for three novels: Eighth Circle: A Special Place in Hell, Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy, and The Hypnotist. All are mystery/thrillers, the last being a Young Adult novel written under the pseudonym Alyssa Devine. In each case, query letters and associated material—each letter and set of material tailored to the specific agency, per the agency’s instructions—were sent to an agent whose specific, stated quest for stories matched the genre of my books.
If you’re just starting the query process, you’re probably wondering where you can find a list of potential agents to query. The ‘bible’, in this case, is the Guide to Literary Agents edited by Chuck Sambuchino and published by Writer’s Digest Books. You also would do well to follow Chuck’s Blog on Writer’s Digest’s Site, Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog. Here’s where you’ll find information on new agents seeking to establish themselves in the literary world. Armed with these and other sources, there’s no limit to the number of agents you can query, though for starters, it might be a good idea to begin with something on the order of ten or 20, just to get your feet wet. In all cases, go to an agent’s Website, look at the page marked Submissions, and be sure to follow the directions to the letter. Query letters should be no longer than one page, by the way. It’s an unwritten if not explicitly stated law! Don’t violate it. It would be a good idea to read several ‘good’ letters to get the gist of what a winner looks like before writing your own.
One question you’ll have to answer for yourself is: do I want to do an exclusive query? That is, do I want to give one agent, and only one agent, my material for a given amount of time, or do I want to broadcast my query to multiple agents at the same time. Unless you have an ‘in’ with an agent—that is, unless someone has recommended you to an agent or you have met an agent at a conference and he or she has invited you to send them your material—I think much time will be wasted in using exclusive queries. That’s been my experience, albeit limited.
So, what exactly has been my experience? Below, by book, are the results of my efforts, all of which have not, sad to say, produced the desired result…i.e., an agent. Nevertheless, the three books have all been published in the Kindle and/or paperback formats, where they have achieved a modicum of success. (Last week, for example, Eighth Circle, at one point, ranked #814 Paid in the Kindle Store.)
Agents and agencies are listed in the chronological order queried. Those for which no response was received are highlighted in pink. (I’d use red, but it makes the text more difficult to read.) To be blunt, there is NO excuse, in my opinion, for an agent not to respond to a query! I’m not the only one who feels this way. (Read more here.) To me, it’s just bad business. And besides, it’s not courteous!
Now for the data. If you decide to send a query to a given literary agency, be sure to check all the entries for that agency among the three books (if applicable) to determine what response, if any, you might expect. Speaking of responses, they were, for the most part, somewhat limited in scope. Many could be boiled down to something like “not on my list” or “I’m not the right agent.” Some said they weren’t taking on new clients while others begged off, saying they only had time for current clients. Clearly, agent access in some cases is limited, so check each prospective agent’s Website so as to ensure the agent/agency currently is open to submissions. And then, there’s always the one response that makes you shake your head, squint at the screen for a few seconds, and chuckle: “While I was intrigued by [the] premise of the book, I ultimately didn't respond with the rare enthusiasm that tells me I can champion the book wholeheartedly and I’m afraid it’s not quite right for my list.”
Whatever the reason for an agent’s rejection, don’t attempt to argue with the agent or discuss the situation. Cross them off your list (you will be keeping a list similar to the ones below, won’t you?), and move on. And by the way, do not under any circumstances, query more than one agent at an agency at any given time.
Eighth Circle: A Special Place in Hell (available in Kindle and paperback)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press (my imprint)
Number of Queries Sent: 42
Number of Responses: 23
Percentage of Responses: 55
No. Agent Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Brooks Sherman http://www.thebentagency.com/intro2.php
7/12/2014 7/14/2014 Not right agent
2 Nicole James http://www.chalbergsussman.com/
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014 Assumed to have passed
3 Katie Kotchman http://www.doncongdon.com/
7/11/2014 10/6/2014 Not on her list.
4 Stacia Decker http://maassagency.com/
7/10/2014 7/16/2014 Didn't connect with the narrative strongly enough
5 Dirk Devlin http://www.maxgartenberg.com/
7/10/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
6 Rachel Ekstrom http://www.irenegoodman.com/
7/10/2014 9/10/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
7 Steve Kasdin http://www.curtisbrown.com/
6/9/2014 7/10/2014 Not right agent
8 Gina Maccoby http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
9 Elizabeth Winick Rubinstein http://mcintoshandotis.com/
7/11/2014 10/11/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
10 Liza Fleissig http://lizaroyce.com/
7/10/2014 7/13/2014 Not right for current list
11 Online submission http://www.serendipitylit.com/
7/11/2014 Sent follow-up e-mail 8/15/2014 Assumed to have passed
12 Paula Munier http://www.talcottnotch.net/
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
13 Uwe Stender http://www.triadaus.com/
7/11/2014 7/11/2014 Not right agent
14 Online submission http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
7/11/2014 8/11/2014 No response
15 Shelby Sampsel http://www.vickybijuragency.com/
7/11/2014 9/10/2014 Not on their list
16 Pamela Ahearn http://www.ahearnagency.com/
7/13/2014 10/13/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
17 Jill Grosjean http://www.agentquery.com/agent.aspx?...
7/13/2014 7/13/2014 Not right agent
18 Bob Mecoy http://bobmecoy.com/
7/13/2014 Nothing (8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
19 Liza Dawson http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/
7/13/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
20 Jim McCarthy http://www.dystel.com/
7/13/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
21 Faye Bender http://www.fbliterary.com/
7/14/2014 Nothing (8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
22 Michael Burke http://www.barbarabovaliteraryagency....
7/14/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
23 Laura Bradford http://www.bradfordlit.com/
7/14/2014 8/21/2014 Not the right agency
24 Win Golden http://www.castigliaagency.com/
7/14/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
25 Jane Chelius http://janechelius.com/
7/14/2014 8/25/2014 Not taking new clients
26 Doreen MacDonald http://www.corvisieroagency.com/
7/15/2014 10/15/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
27 Jim Donovan http://www.1000literaryagents.com/lit...
7/15/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
28 Yishai Seidman http://dclagency.com/
7/15/2014 8/25/2014 Not taking new clients
29 Verna Dreisbach http://www.dreisbachliterary.com/
7/15/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
30 Ethan Ellenberg http://ethanellenberg.com/
7/16/2014 Wait 2 weeks; drop if nothing Not on their list
31 Michael Sterling http://www.foliolit.com/
7/16/2014 7/20/2014 Not on their list
32 Jeff Gerecke http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...
7/16/2014 7/24/2014
10/23/2014* Not right agent
33 Barry Goldblatt http://www.bgliterary.com/
7/16/2014 7/19/2014 Not right agent
34 Susan Golomb http://www.sgolombagency.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
35 Doug Grad http://www.dgliterary.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
36 Kathryn Green http://www.kathryngreenliteraryagency...
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
37 Richard Henshaw http://richardhenshawgroup.com/
7/16/2014 7/17/2014 No time except for current clients
38 Carolyn Jenks http://www.carolynjenksagency.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
39 Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli https://jetliterary.wordpress.com/
7/16/2014 7/21/2014 Illness in family has curtailed activities
40 Mackenzie Brady http://www.newleafliterary.com/
7/17/2014 8/12/2014 Not on her list.
41 Michelle Richter http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspo...
8/22/2014 8/25/2014 Takes a pass
42 Barbara Lowenstein http://www.lowensteinassociates.com/
7/16/2014 9/12/2014 Not on their list
*Called for the full manuscript
Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy (available in Kindle only; individual books of the Trilogy are available in Kindle and paperback)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press
Number of Queries Sent: 12
Number of Responses: 6
Percentage of Responses: 50
No. Representative Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Katherine Flynn http://www.kwblit.com/
7/21/2014 None Withdrawn – 9/18/2014
2 Margaret Bail http://www.inklingsliterary.com/
7/22/2014 9/4/20143 Not what they are looking for
3 Rachel Vogel http://www.waxmanleavell.com/
7/22/2014 If nothing by end of August, expect nothing Assumed to have passed
4 Russell Galen http://www.sgglit.com/
7/22/2014 None Withdrawn -9/18/2014
5 Richard Henshaw http://richardhenshawgroup.com/
7/22/2014 7/24/2014 No time for new clients
6 Will Devlin http://www.maxgartenberg.com/
7/22/2014 7/25/2014 Cannot take on
7 Ian Kleinert http://www.objectiveent.com/
7/22/2014 None Withdrawn-9/18/2014
8 Andrea Somberg http://www.harveyklinger.com/
7/23/2014 8/15/2014 Not what they are looking for
9 William Reiss http://www.jhalit.com/#Home
7/23/2014 7/23/2014 Not what they are looking for
10 Liz Darhansoff http://dvagency.com/
7/23/2014 If nothing by end of August, expect nothing Assumed to have passed
11 Tamar Ellman Rydzinski http://ldlainc.com/
7/23/2014 8/22/2014 Not what they are looking for
12 Theresa Park http://www.parkliterary.com/
7/23/2014 If no answer, then nothing Assumed to have passed
The Hypnotist (now available in paperback; the Kindle version will be available by end of March, 2015)
Genre: Young Adult (YA), Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press
Number of Queries Sent: 43
Number of Responses: 20
Percentage of Responses: 47
No. Representative Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Sara Crowe
http://www.harveyklinger.com/agents.html
11/16/2014 11/16/2014 Not a good fit.
2 Sarah Davies http://www.greenhouseliterary.com/
11/16/2014 11/19/2014 Not confident
3 Kevan Lyon http://www.marsallyonliteraryagency.com/
11/16/2014 None Assumed to have passed
4 Caryn Wiseman http://www.andreabrownlit.com/
11/16/2014 None Assumed to have passed
5 Jim McCarthy http://www.dystel.com/
11/16/2014 11/17/2014 Not a good fit.
6 Linda Scalissi queries@threeseaslit.com
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
7 Genevieve Nine http://www.andreahurst.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
8 Holly Root http://www.waxmanleavell.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
9 Barbara Poelle http://www.irenegoodman.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
10 Peter Knapp http://parkliterary.com/
11/17/2014 1/4/2015 Pass
11 Katie Kotchman http://www.doncongdon.com/
11/18/2014 12/22/2014 Pass
12 Rebecca Podos http://reesagency.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
13 Carlie Webber http://ckwebber.com/submissions.html
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
14 Beth Phelan http://www.thebentagency.com/intro2.php
11/18/2014 12/24/2014 Not ‘connecting’
15 Ella Kennen http://www.corvisieroagency.com/
11/18/2014 11/18/2014 Did not like the way the story was presented
16 Thao Le http://www.dijkstraagency.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
17 Kimberly Brower http://rfliterary.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
18 Maria Vicente http://www.psliterary.com/
11/19/2014 12/13/2014 Not a fit
19 Christina Hogrebe http://www.janerotrosen.com/
11/19/2014 None Assumed to have passed
20 Adriann Ranta http://wolflit.com/
11/19/2014 12/15/2014 Not a fit
21 Linda Pratt http://www.wernickpratt.com/
11/20/2014 None Assumed to have passed
22 Melissa Edwards http://www.aaronpriest.com/
11/24/2014 None Assumed to have passed
23 Jennifer De Chiara http://www.jdlit.com/
11/24/2014 None Assumed to have passed
24 Nephele Tempest http://knightagency.net/
11/28/2014 12/2/2014 Not a fit
25 Miriam Altshuler http://www.miriamaltshulerliteraryage...
11/28/2014 None Assumed to have passed
26 Amanda Panitch http://www.lmqlit.com/contact.html
11/28/2014 12/1/2014 Not a fit
27 Bill Contardi http://brandthochman.com/
11/28/2014 None Assumed to have passed
28 Caitlin Blasdell http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/s...
11/28/2014 12/3/2014 Not for her
29 Alyssa Henkin http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
11/28/2014 1/9/2015 Not for her
30 Sara Megibow http://nelsonagency.com/submission-gu...
11/28/2014 None No answer
31 Jody Albert http://www.thebookeralbertagency.com/
11/29/2014 None Assumed to have passed
32 Michael Carlisle http://inkwellmanagement.com/
12/1/2014 None Assumed to have passed
33 Jessica Faust http://www.bookends-inc.com/
12/1/2014 1/2/2014 “Not hooked”
34 Rachael Dugas http://www.talcottnotch.net/home
12/1/2014 None Assumed to have passed
35 Sarah LaPolla www.bradfordlit.com/
12/1/2014 12/9/2014 Not a fit
36 Kaylee Davis http://deemuraliterary.squarespace.com/
12/5/2014 1/8/2015 Not a fit
37 Heather Alexander http://www.pippinproperties.com/
12/15/2014 None Assumed to have passed
38 Leon Husick http://www.lperkinsagency.com/
12/22/2014 None Assumed to have passed
39 Sandra Bond www.bondliteraryagency.com
12/27/2014 1/17/2015 “Not hooked”
40 Cynthia Kane http://capitaltalentagency.com/
12/29/2014 None Assumed to have passed
41 Caitie Flum http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/
1/19/2015 1/26/2015 Not for her
42 Sarah Nagel http://writershouse.com/
2/2/2015 2/17/2015 Not for her
43 Heather Flaherty http://www.thebentagency.com/
2/9/2015 None Assumed to have passed
Several comments of note. First, the response percentages for the three books during the relatively short periods of time shown in the tables cluster around 50%. A similar study conducted by Ben Woods over a longer period of time and reported in 2010 (http://benwoods.com/news/literary-age...) showed a response rate closer to 80%. The difference may, in part, result for the length of the response periods discussed (clearly, his ‘response window’ was open for a longer period of time and he was more persistent than I was). The lower response rate I experienced also may have been a function of the surge in submissions that agents appear to be receiving (at least that’s the chatter I read on the Internet) and the fact (?) that submissions may be overwhelming many agencies, especially the smaller ones. You may want to read the spirited discussion of agents and the responses received (or not received) by Woods. Though somewhat dated, I think you’ll find the information interesting (and the presentation enjoyable).
Second, kudos to Uwe Stender of TriadaUS Literary, Jill Grosjean of Jill Grosjean Literary, William Reiss of John Hawkins and Associates, Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, and Ella Kennen of the Corvisiero Agency for responding to me on the same day as my query was submitted! That’s responsiveness. But remember, as they say in the financial industry, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Still, you’ll have to agree, such turnaround is truly impressive.
I also want to issue a special thanks to Jeff Gerecke (The G Agency, LLC; http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...), the only agent who called for the full manuscript of Eighth Circle. Though he chose not to represent me, I sincerely appreciated his taking the time to read and consider the book.
Finally, you may find the following articles relevant and of interest:
http://www.alythiabrown.com/anybody-r...
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2...
(I cited this one above, but just to be sure you don’t miss it, I’m repeating the full URL here.)
http://dankoboldt.com/querying-litera...
http://writeitsideways.com/will-liter...
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-b...
What’s the bottom line? This quote, from the ‘dankoboldt’ reference above, probably sums it up the best: “Success can be found, but it lies at the end of a long, slow road pock-marked with frequent rejections. If you can handle that, you’ll be just fine.”
Good hunting!
Theodore Jerome Cohen
Readers and authors wishing to contact me can do so through my Website: http://www.theodore-cohen-novels.com
March 16, 2015
It’s probably a given that most indie authors, at one time or another, dream of someday finding an agent to represent them in the literary world. Whether the reason for seeking representation is to find validation for their work or to achieve fame and fortune (spoiler alert: don’t quit your day job just yet!), the quest for an agent is a daunting one. Developing a credible literary product—be it a book, screenplay, or whatever—is only the first step. Creating and disseminating a catchy query letter and associated material is where the rubber hits the road, and continuing the analogy, where the wheel often comes off the wagon.
But even assuming you have, arguably, the next Great American Novel, an eye-catching query letter, a great biography, and a stunning synopsis, and leaving aside for a moment the lack of a personal reference from someone in the field (an English professor already represented by an agent, another novelist, and so forth . . . that is, someone with an inside track), what can you expect from the various literary agents to whom you send your material?
That’s the question this Guest Editorial will try to answer. I hope the answers you find below not only will give you some insights into the query process, but also, save you time pursuing agents and agencies that more likely than not, will prove frustrating.
Since the summer of 2014, I have attempted—and failed—to find an agent for three novels: Eighth Circle: A Special Place in Hell, Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy, and The Hypnotist. All are mystery/thrillers, the last being a Young Adult novel written under the pseudonym Alyssa Devine. In each case, query letters and associated material—each letter and set of material tailored to the specific agency, per the agency’s instructions—were sent to an agent whose specific, stated quest for stories matched the genre of my books.
If you’re just starting the query process, you’re probably wondering where you can find a list of potential agents to query. The ‘bible’, in this case, is the Guide to Literary Agents edited by Chuck Sambuchino and published by Writer’s Digest Books. You also would do well to follow Chuck’s Blog on Writer’s Digest’s Site, Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog. Here’s where you’ll find information on new agents seeking to establish themselves in the literary world. Armed with these and other sources, there’s no limit to the number of agents you can query, though for starters, it might be a good idea to begin with something on the order of ten or 20, just to get your feet wet. In all cases, go to an agent’s Website, look at the page marked Submissions, and be sure to follow the directions to the letter. Query letters should be no longer than one page, by the way. It’s an unwritten if not explicitly stated law! Don’t violate it. It would be a good idea to read several ‘good’ letters to get the gist of what a winner looks like before writing your own.
One question you’ll have to answer for yourself is: do I want to do an exclusive query? That is, do I want to give one agent, and only one agent, my material for a given amount of time, or do I want to broadcast my query to multiple agents at the same time. Unless you have an ‘in’ with an agent—that is, unless someone has recommended you to an agent or you have met an agent at a conference and he or she has invited you to send them your material—I think much time will be wasted in using exclusive queries. That’s been my experience, albeit limited.
So, what exactly has been my experience? Below, by book, are the results of my efforts, all of which have not, sad to say, produced the desired result…i.e., an agent. Nevertheless, the three books have all been published in the Kindle and/or paperback formats, where they have achieved a modicum of success. (Last week, for example, Eighth Circle, at one point, ranked #814 Paid in the Kindle Store.)
Agents and agencies are listed in the chronological order queried. Those for which no response was received are highlighted in pink. (I’d use red, but it makes the text more difficult to read.) To be blunt, there is NO excuse, in my opinion, for an agent not to respond to a query! I’m not the only one who feels this way. (Read more here.) To me, it’s just bad business. And besides, it’s not courteous!
Now for the data. If you decide to send a query to a given literary agency, be sure to check all the entries for that agency among the three books (if applicable) to determine what response, if any, you might expect. Speaking of responses, they were, for the most part, somewhat limited in scope. Many could be boiled down to something like “not on my list” or “I’m not the right agent.” Some said they weren’t taking on new clients while others begged off, saying they only had time for current clients. Clearly, agent access in some cases is limited, so check each prospective agent’s Website so as to ensure the agent/agency currently is open to submissions. And then, there’s always the one response that makes you shake your head, squint at the screen for a few seconds, and chuckle: “While I was intrigued by [the] premise of the book, I ultimately didn't respond with the rare enthusiasm that tells me I can champion the book wholeheartedly and I’m afraid it’s not quite right for my list.”
Whatever the reason for an agent’s rejection, don’t attempt to argue with the agent or discuss the situation. Cross them off your list (you will be keeping a list similar to the ones below, won’t you?), and move on. And by the way, do not under any circumstances, query more than one agent at an agency at any given time.
Eighth Circle: A Special Place in Hell (available in Kindle and paperback)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press (my imprint)
Number of Queries Sent: 42
Number of Responses: 23
Percentage of Responses: 55
No. Agent Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Brooks Sherman http://www.thebentagency.com/intro2.php
7/12/2014 7/14/2014 Not right agent
2 Nicole James http://www.chalbergsussman.com/
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014 Assumed to have passed
3 Katie Kotchman http://www.doncongdon.com/
7/11/2014 10/6/2014 Not on her list.
4 Stacia Decker http://maassagency.com/
7/10/2014 7/16/2014 Didn't connect with the narrative strongly enough
5 Dirk Devlin http://www.maxgartenberg.com/
7/10/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
6 Rachel Ekstrom http://www.irenegoodman.com/
7/10/2014 9/10/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
7 Steve Kasdin http://www.curtisbrown.com/
6/9/2014 7/10/2014 Not right agent
8 Gina Maccoby http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
9 Elizabeth Winick Rubinstein http://mcintoshandotis.com/
7/11/2014 10/11/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
10 Liza Fleissig http://lizaroyce.com/
7/10/2014 7/13/2014 Not right for current list
11 Online submission http://www.serendipitylit.com/
7/11/2014 Sent follow-up e-mail 8/15/2014 Assumed to have passed
12 Paula Munier http://www.talcottnotch.net/
7/11/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
13 Uwe Stender http://www.triadaus.com/
7/11/2014 7/11/2014 Not right agent
14 Online submission http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
7/11/2014 8/11/2014 No response
15 Shelby Sampsel http://www.vickybijuragency.com/
7/11/2014 9/10/2014 Not on their list
16 Pamela Ahearn http://www.ahearnagency.com/
7/13/2014 10/13/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
17 Jill Grosjean http://www.agentquery.com/agent.aspx?...
7/13/2014 7/13/2014 Not right agent
18 Bob Mecoy http://bobmecoy.com/
7/13/2014 Nothing (8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
19 Liza Dawson http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/
7/13/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
20 Jim McCarthy http://www.dystel.com/
7/13/2014 7/14/2014 Not on their list
21 Faye Bender http://www.fbliterary.com/
7/14/2014 Nothing (8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
22 Michael Burke http://www.barbarabovaliteraryagency....
7/14/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
23 Laura Bradford http://www.bradfordlit.com/
7/14/2014 8/21/2014 Not the right agency
24 Win Golden http://www.castigliaagency.com/
7/14/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
25 Jane Chelius http://janechelius.com/
7/14/2014 8/25/2014 Not taking new clients
26 Doreen MacDonald http://www.corvisieroagency.com/
7/15/2014 10/15/2014 limit Assumed to have passed
27 Jim Donovan http://www.1000literaryagents.com/lit...
7/15/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
28 Yishai Seidman http://dclagency.com/
7/15/2014 8/25/2014 Not taking new clients
29 Verna Dreisbach http://www.dreisbachliterary.com/
7/15/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
30 Ethan Ellenberg http://ethanellenberg.com/
7/16/2014 Wait 2 weeks; drop if nothing Not on their list
31 Michael Sterling http://www.foliolit.com/
7/16/2014 7/20/2014 Not on their list
32 Jeff Gerecke http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...
7/16/2014 7/24/2014
10/23/2014* Not right agent
33 Barry Goldblatt http://www.bgliterary.com/
7/16/2014 7/19/2014 Not right agent
34 Susan Golomb http://www.sgolombagency.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
35 Doug Grad http://www.dgliterary.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
36 Kathryn Green http://www.kathryngreenliteraryagency...
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
37 Richard Henshaw http://richardhenshawgroup.com/
7/16/2014 7/17/2014 No time except for current clients
38 Carolyn Jenks http://www.carolynjenksagency.com/
7/16/2014 Nothing 8/25/2014) Assumed to have passed
39 Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli https://jetliterary.wordpress.com/
7/16/2014 7/21/2014 Illness in family has curtailed activities
40 Mackenzie Brady http://www.newleafliterary.com/
7/17/2014 8/12/2014 Not on her list.
41 Michelle Richter http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspo...
8/22/2014 8/25/2014 Takes a pass
42 Barbara Lowenstein http://www.lowensteinassociates.com/
7/16/2014 9/12/2014 Not on their list
*Called for the full manuscript
Cold Blood: The Antarctic Murders Trilogy (available in Kindle only; individual books of the Trilogy are available in Kindle and paperback)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press
Number of Queries Sent: 12
Number of Responses: 6
Percentage of Responses: 50
No. Representative Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Katherine Flynn http://www.kwblit.com/
7/21/2014 None Withdrawn – 9/18/2014
2 Margaret Bail http://www.inklingsliterary.com/
7/22/2014 9/4/20143 Not what they are looking for
3 Rachel Vogel http://www.waxmanleavell.com/
7/22/2014 If nothing by end of August, expect nothing Assumed to have passed
4 Russell Galen http://www.sgglit.com/
7/22/2014 None Withdrawn -9/18/2014
5 Richard Henshaw http://richardhenshawgroup.com/
7/22/2014 7/24/2014 No time for new clients
6 Will Devlin http://www.maxgartenberg.com/
7/22/2014 7/25/2014 Cannot take on
7 Ian Kleinert http://www.objectiveent.com/
7/22/2014 None Withdrawn-9/18/2014
8 Andrea Somberg http://www.harveyklinger.com/
7/23/2014 8/15/2014 Not what they are looking for
9 William Reiss http://www.jhalit.com/#Home
7/23/2014 7/23/2014 Not what they are looking for
10 Liz Darhansoff http://dvagency.com/
7/23/2014 If nothing by end of August, expect nothing Assumed to have passed
11 Tamar Ellman Rydzinski http://ldlainc.com/
7/23/2014 8/22/2014 Not what they are looking for
12 Theresa Park http://www.parkliterary.com/
7/23/2014 If no answer, then nothing Assumed to have passed
The Hypnotist (now available in paperback; the Kindle version will be available by end of March, 2015)
Genre: Young Adult (YA), Mystery/Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: TJC Press
Number of Queries Sent: 43
Number of Responses: 20
Percentage of Responses: 47
No. Representative Agency Date Contacted Date of Response Response
1 Sara Crowe
http://www.harveyklinger.com/agents.html
11/16/2014 11/16/2014 Not a good fit.
2 Sarah Davies http://www.greenhouseliterary.com/
11/16/2014 11/19/2014 Not confident
3 Kevan Lyon http://www.marsallyonliteraryagency.com/
11/16/2014 None Assumed to have passed
4 Caryn Wiseman http://www.andreabrownlit.com/
11/16/2014 None Assumed to have passed
5 Jim McCarthy http://www.dystel.com/
11/16/2014 11/17/2014 Not a good fit.
6 Linda Scalissi queries@threeseaslit.com
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
7 Genevieve Nine http://www.andreahurst.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
8 Holly Root http://www.waxmanleavell.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
9 Barbara Poelle http://www.irenegoodman.com/
11/17/2014 None Assumed to have passed
10 Peter Knapp http://parkliterary.com/
11/17/2014 1/4/2015 Pass
11 Katie Kotchman http://www.doncongdon.com/
11/18/2014 12/22/2014 Pass
12 Rebecca Podos http://reesagency.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
13 Carlie Webber http://ckwebber.com/submissions.html
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
14 Beth Phelan http://www.thebentagency.com/intro2.php
11/18/2014 12/24/2014 Not ‘connecting’
15 Ella Kennen http://www.corvisieroagency.com/
11/18/2014 11/18/2014 Did not like the way the story was presented
16 Thao Le http://www.dijkstraagency.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
17 Kimberly Brower http://rfliterary.com/
11/18/2014 None Assumed to have passed
18 Maria Vicente http://www.psliterary.com/
11/19/2014 12/13/2014 Not a fit
19 Christina Hogrebe http://www.janerotrosen.com/
11/19/2014 None Assumed to have passed
20 Adriann Ranta http://wolflit.com/
11/19/2014 12/15/2014 Not a fit
21 Linda Pratt http://www.wernickpratt.com/
11/20/2014 None Assumed to have passed
22 Melissa Edwards http://www.aaronpriest.com/
11/24/2014 None Assumed to have passed
23 Jennifer De Chiara http://www.jdlit.com/
11/24/2014 None Assumed to have passed
24 Nephele Tempest http://knightagency.net/
11/28/2014 12/2/2014 Not a fit
25 Miriam Altshuler http://www.miriamaltshulerliteraryage...
11/28/2014 None Assumed to have passed
26 Amanda Panitch http://www.lmqlit.com/contact.html
11/28/2014 12/1/2014 Not a fit
27 Bill Contardi http://brandthochman.com/
11/28/2014 None Assumed to have passed
28 Caitlin Blasdell http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/s...
11/28/2014 12/3/2014 Not for her
29 Alyssa Henkin http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
11/28/2014 1/9/2015 Not for her
30 Sara Megibow http://nelsonagency.com/submission-gu...
11/28/2014 None No answer
31 Jody Albert http://www.thebookeralbertagency.com/
11/29/2014 None Assumed to have passed
32 Michael Carlisle http://inkwellmanagement.com/
12/1/2014 None Assumed to have passed
33 Jessica Faust http://www.bookends-inc.com/
12/1/2014 1/2/2014 “Not hooked”
34 Rachael Dugas http://www.talcottnotch.net/home
12/1/2014 None Assumed to have passed
35 Sarah LaPolla www.bradfordlit.com/
12/1/2014 12/9/2014 Not a fit
36 Kaylee Davis http://deemuraliterary.squarespace.com/
12/5/2014 1/8/2015 Not a fit
37 Heather Alexander http://www.pippinproperties.com/
12/15/2014 None Assumed to have passed
38 Leon Husick http://www.lperkinsagency.com/
12/22/2014 None Assumed to have passed
39 Sandra Bond www.bondliteraryagency.com
12/27/2014 1/17/2015 “Not hooked”
40 Cynthia Kane http://capitaltalentagency.com/
12/29/2014 None Assumed to have passed
41 Caitie Flum http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/
1/19/2015 1/26/2015 Not for her
42 Sarah Nagel http://writershouse.com/
2/2/2015 2/17/2015 Not for her
43 Heather Flaherty http://www.thebentagency.com/
2/9/2015 None Assumed to have passed
Several comments of note. First, the response percentages for the three books during the relatively short periods of time shown in the tables cluster around 50%. A similar study conducted by Ben Woods over a longer period of time and reported in 2010 (http://benwoods.com/news/literary-age...) showed a response rate closer to 80%. The difference may, in part, result for the length of the response periods discussed (clearly, his ‘response window’ was open for a longer period of time and he was more persistent than I was). The lower response rate I experienced also may have been a function of the surge in submissions that agents appear to be receiving (at least that’s the chatter I read on the Internet) and the fact (?) that submissions may be overwhelming many agencies, especially the smaller ones. You may want to read the spirited discussion of agents and the responses received (or not received) by Woods. Though somewhat dated, I think you’ll find the information interesting (and the presentation enjoyable).
Second, kudos to Uwe Stender of TriadaUS Literary, Jill Grosjean of Jill Grosjean Literary, William Reiss of John Hawkins and Associates, Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, and Ella Kennen of the Corvisiero Agency for responding to me on the same day as my query was submitted! That’s responsiveness. But remember, as they say in the financial industry, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Still, you’ll have to agree, such turnaround is truly impressive.
I also want to issue a special thanks to Jeff Gerecke (The G Agency, LLC; http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/...), the only agent who called for the full manuscript of Eighth Circle. Though he chose not to represent me, I sincerely appreciated his taking the time to read and consider the book.
Finally, you may find the following articles relevant and of interest:
http://www.alythiabrown.com/anybody-r...
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2...
(I cited this one above, but just to be sure you don’t miss it, I’m repeating the full URL here.)
http://dankoboldt.com/querying-litera...
http://writeitsideways.com/will-liter...
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-b...
What’s the bottom line? This quote, from the ‘dankoboldt’ reference above, probably sums it up the best: “Success can be found, but it lies at the end of a long, slow road pock-marked with frequent rejections. If you can handle that, you’ll be just fine.”
Good hunting!
Theodore Jerome Cohen
Readers and authors wishing to contact me can do so through my Website: http://www.theodore-cohen-novels.com
February 16, 2015
My Guest Editorial on Reader Views' Website
For Monday, February 16, 2015
The (Agenting) Times They Are A-changin’ - Guest Editorial
Last week, Susan Violante, in her piece on the “Book Industry Gone Hybrid!”, made the following observations: “Traditional Publishers will publish Indie as well as we see some of them buying out some Print On Demand groups, and some Indies and small presses are venturing with traditional and indie publishing as well. Authors are not only going Indie, but they are also using their Indie product to market themselves to Traditional publishing. Even Agents are taking the Hybrid plunge by representing Indie Authors!”
Observers of the publishing scene know this is just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to agents, the tsunami resulting from a new initiative created by Amazon is about to change their world as well.
Called Kindle Scout (KS), the program ingests books submitted for consideration by the KS staff which, upon acceptance, are posted for 30 days on the KS Website. You’ll find the books here. Readers with Amazon accounts are then able to nominate the books they’d like to see published. You can nominate up to three books at any one time, and as books drop off the site after their 30-day nomination period, you are free to nominate others. In a way, you can think of it Amazon’s way of crowd-sourcing the review of their ‘agent’s’ slush pile. Books that make it through the selection process—and a good indication of prime candidates are the ones that are Hot and Trending—have the potential to being awarded a publishing contract, which includes a $1,500 advance, what many would consider ‘generous royalties’, and perhaps most important, a huge marketing push from Amazon. (I’ve always said, compared to marketing and selling your book, writing is the easy part!).
From a reader’s standpoint, the benefit of the KS program is you will receive a free Kindle edition of any book you nominate that is selected for publication by Amazon.
I already have submitted one book—my 6th Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller—to the KS program, but alas, there was no joy in Mudville. Perhaps my second try, a YA novel titled The Hypnotist, which I penned using my pseudonym, Alyssa Devine, will meet with success. You can find that novel here. Any and all nominations are gratefully accepted. But unlike Chicago, you only can vote once.
If you an aspiring author and have had more than your fair share of rejection letters from agents, think about giving Kindle Scout a try. It represents an entirely new paradigm in the rapidly evolving world of indie publishing.
Theodore Jerome Cohen
www.theodore-cohen-novels.com / www.alyssadevinenovels.com
For more helpful publication- and author-related material from the Reader Views Blog, go to http://readerviews.com/blog/
The (Agenting) Times They Are A-changin’ - Guest Editorial
Last week, Susan Violante, in her piece on the “Book Industry Gone Hybrid!”, made the following observations: “Traditional Publishers will publish Indie as well as we see some of them buying out some Print On Demand groups, and some Indies and small presses are venturing with traditional and indie publishing as well. Authors are not only going Indie, but they are also using their Indie product to market themselves to Traditional publishing. Even Agents are taking the Hybrid plunge by representing Indie Authors!”
Observers of the publishing scene know this is just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to agents, the tsunami resulting from a new initiative created by Amazon is about to change their world as well.
Called Kindle Scout (KS), the program ingests books submitted for consideration by the KS staff which, upon acceptance, are posted for 30 days on the KS Website. You’ll find the books here. Readers with Amazon accounts are then able to nominate the books they’d like to see published. You can nominate up to three books at any one time, and as books drop off the site after their 30-day nomination period, you are free to nominate others. In a way, you can think of it Amazon’s way of crowd-sourcing the review of their ‘agent’s’ slush pile. Books that make it through the selection process—and a good indication of prime candidates are the ones that are Hot and Trending—have the potential to being awarded a publishing contract, which includes a $1,500 advance, what many would consider ‘generous royalties’, and perhaps most important, a huge marketing push from Amazon. (I’ve always said, compared to marketing and selling your book, writing is the easy part!).
From a reader’s standpoint, the benefit of the KS program is you will receive a free Kindle edition of any book you nominate that is selected for publication by Amazon.
I already have submitted one book—my 6th Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller—to the KS program, but alas, there was no joy in Mudville. Perhaps my second try, a YA novel titled The Hypnotist, which I penned using my pseudonym, Alyssa Devine, will meet with success. You can find that novel here. Any and all nominations are gratefully accepted. But unlike Chicago, you only can vote once.
If you an aspiring author and have had more than your fair share of rejection letters from agents, think about giving Kindle Scout a try. It represents an entirely new paradigm in the rapidly evolving world of indie publishing.
Theodore Jerome Cohen
www.theodore-cohen-novels.com / www.alyssadevinenovels.com
For more helpful publication- and author-related material from the Reader Views Blog, go to http://readerviews.com/blog/
January 13, 2015
Why I wrote Night Shadows
For a modern society, the statistics on child sexual abuse in the United States not only are staggering but also abhorrent. According to the US Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), 33% of sexual assaults occur when the victim is between the ages of 12 and 17. Importantly, 82% of all juvenile victims of sexual abuse are female, with about one in five female high school students reporting physical and/or sexual abuse by a dating partner. Even more distressing is the fact that teens 16 to 19 years of age were three-and-one-half times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
Anyone who has followed the day-to-day news in the US and Canada should not be surprised by these statistics. The media has put real names to the numbers . . . names such as Daisy Colemen of Maryville, Missouri, who, after accusing a high school senior of sexual assault and was bullied, was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. Or Rehtaeh Parsons from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who after allegedly being gang-raped and bullied, was hospitalized after she tried to hang herself on April 4, 2013. She was taken off life support three days later. Colman and Parsons were not alone. According to Suicide.org, numerous rape victims have suicidal thoughts; many die by suicide.
Nor do the living escape their tormenters. With 90% of teens and young adults online, the potential for abuse is significant, especially with the greater majority of those having a profile on a social network. In fact, nearly 80% of teens send and receive photos and videos online, some almost certainly pornographic. Nude selfies are not uncommon, with revenge porn—defined as sexually explicit media that are publicly shared online without the consent of the pictured individual —becoming increasingly common. The Internet always was a dangerous neighborhood; with time it has become more so, and more toxic, as well.
I don’t know if child sexual abuse has yet reached what the US and other health authorities might consider ‘epidemic proportions.’ But I do know I am seeing an increasing number of cases in the newspapers, on television, and on the Internet, among other media, where young women are assaulted and raped, subsequently harassed and bullied by their attackers and/or peers, and in some cases, driven to suicide. And the pity of it is, for many of these victims, there is no justice.
This novel is an attempt to shine a spotlight on the problem of teen rape. Though many may see it as another Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD ‘ripped from the headlines’ mystery/thriller, know it is fiction through and through . . . the characters, the crimes, the dialogue, everything. It’s a fabrication. But still, this is an important story if for no other reason than to raise awareness of a scourge that is harming our children, the most precious part of our lives.
Anyone who has followed the day-to-day news in the US and Canada should not be surprised by these statistics. The media has put real names to the numbers . . . names such as Daisy Colemen of Maryville, Missouri, who, after accusing a high school senior of sexual assault and was bullied, was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. Or Rehtaeh Parsons from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who after allegedly being gang-raped and bullied, was hospitalized after she tried to hang herself on April 4, 2013. She was taken off life support three days later. Colman and Parsons were not alone. According to Suicide.org, numerous rape victims have suicidal thoughts; many die by suicide.
Nor do the living escape their tormenters. With 90% of teens and young adults online, the potential for abuse is significant, especially with the greater majority of those having a profile on a social network. In fact, nearly 80% of teens send and receive photos and videos online, some almost certainly pornographic. Nude selfies are not uncommon, with revenge porn—defined as sexually explicit media that are publicly shared online without the consent of the pictured individual —becoming increasingly common. The Internet always was a dangerous neighborhood; with time it has become more so, and more toxic, as well.
I don’t know if child sexual abuse has yet reached what the US and other health authorities might consider ‘epidemic proportions.’ But I do know I am seeing an increasing number of cases in the newspapers, on television, and on the Internet, among other media, where young women are assaulted and raped, subsequently harassed and bullied by their attackers and/or peers, and in some cases, driven to suicide. And the pity of it is, for many of these victims, there is no justice.
This novel is an attempt to shine a spotlight on the problem of teen rape. Though many may see it as another Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD ‘ripped from the headlines’ mystery/thriller, know it is fiction through and through . . . the characters, the crimes, the dialogue, everything. It’s a fabrication. But still, this is an important story if for no other reason than to raise awareness of a scourge that is harming our children, the most precious part of our lives.
January 8, 2015
The Inspirations for the Martelli novels
I have often been asked from where I get the inspirations for my Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller novels, so to answer the question, I penned the preface below for Eighth Circle: A Special Place in Hell.
Among the questions readers ask me upon finishing a Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller is: where did you get the idea for this book? Alas, the media provides more than enough grist for my mill, so the stories are indeed ‘ripped from the headlines’ or at least in some way tied to real life. The first novel in the series, Death by Wall Street, actually tells the Dendreon story in fictionalized form, substituting the imaginary HerDeciMax treatment for breast cancer for Dendreon’s Provenge for end stage prostate cancer. Those who are interested in reading the true story of corruption within the FDA surrounding the delayed approval of this treatment should take the time to study the work of my friend Mark Mitchell, who wrote the seminal piece on the subject: The Dendreon Effect: How Felons, Con-Men and Wall Street Insiders Manipulate High-Tech Stocks. You will never look at Wall Street or our government in the same way again.
I was fortunate, indeed, that Mark, a former editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal, agreed to write the Forward for the second book in the Martelli series, House of Cards. This tale focused on the financial collapse of 2008, a subject for which there continues to be a growing wealth of story ideas and books, both fiction and non-fiction alike. Unfortunately, the banks and the banksters that run them, which have been considered too big to fail, are apparently too big to jail as well, given that the federal government has yet to bring them to task. If there’s a silver lining here it’s that the Street’s greed, graft, and corruption continue to provide a plentiful source of material to writers of all genres.
Lilith, Demon of the Night, the third book in the Martelli series, is a bit of an outlier, a brief ‘intermezzo,’ if you will. It was, in truth, written on a dare issued by my dear friend and mentor (now, unfortunately, deceased), Irene Watson, founder and then-president of Reader Views. She said, “Ted, you need to get with the times. I dare you to write a vampire story.” Thus, Lilith was born. I would assert this story is, arguably, unlike any vampire story you’ve read. And true to my ‘ripped from the headlines’ promise, some real-life vampires did find their way into its pages.
Ties to real life, unfortunately, were easier to make in Night Shadows, a story some may find both unsettling and upsetting because it deals with child abuse, teenage rape, teen suicide, and other such ills of society today. I make no excuses. What happened to Daisy Colemen of Maryville, Missouri and to Rehtaeh Parsons of Halifax, Nova Scotia should never have occurred, and the crimes against them could not go unanswered. I wrote this novel to express my revulsion at the fate of these young women and thousands like them. As one reader remarked upon finishing the book, “[M]ay justice save victims and find its defilers.”
Which brings us to Eighth Circle, named for the Eighth Circle of Hell in Dante’s epic poem Inferno. This novel, the fifth in the Martelli series, is a tale of political corruption and intrigue that could be set in virtually any large US city today. Here the story must be told in New York, Martelli’s stomping grounds and a city with a rich history of political corruption. The fact is, one out of every 11 lawmakers to leave office in New York City since 1999 has done so after being investigated for ethical or criminal violations. In the case of Eighth Circle, it’s the mayor of whom Martelli is suspicious. But what did he do, or not do, as the case may be? Certainly no more and no less than many who had gone before him. Here, however, the results were catastrophic.
Among the questions readers ask me upon finishing a Detective Louis Martelli, NYPD, mystery/thriller is: where did you get the idea for this book? Alas, the media provides more than enough grist for my mill, so the stories are indeed ‘ripped from the headlines’ or at least in some way tied to real life. The first novel in the series, Death by Wall Street, actually tells the Dendreon story in fictionalized form, substituting the imaginary HerDeciMax treatment for breast cancer for Dendreon’s Provenge for end stage prostate cancer. Those who are interested in reading the true story of corruption within the FDA surrounding the delayed approval of this treatment should take the time to study the work of my friend Mark Mitchell, who wrote the seminal piece on the subject: The Dendreon Effect: How Felons, Con-Men and Wall Street Insiders Manipulate High-Tech Stocks. You will never look at Wall Street or our government in the same way again.
I was fortunate, indeed, that Mark, a former editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal, agreed to write the Forward for the second book in the Martelli series, House of Cards. This tale focused on the financial collapse of 2008, a subject for which there continues to be a growing wealth of story ideas and books, both fiction and non-fiction alike. Unfortunately, the banks and the banksters that run them, which have been considered too big to fail, are apparently too big to jail as well, given that the federal government has yet to bring them to task. If there’s a silver lining here it’s that the Street’s greed, graft, and corruption continue to provide a plentiful source of material to writers of all genres.
Lilith, Demon of the Night, the third book in the Martelli series, is a bit of an outlier, a brief ‘intermezzo,’ if you will. It was, in truth, written on a dare issued by my dear friend and mentor (now, unfortunately, deceased), Irene Watson, founder and then-president of Reader Views. She said, “Ted, you need to get with the times. I dare you to write a vampire story.” Thus, Lilith was born. I would assert this story is, arguably, unlike any vampire story you’ve read. And true to my ‘ripped from the headlines’ promise, some real-life vampires did find their way into its pages.
Ties to real life, unfortunately, were easier to make in Night Shadows, a story some may find both unsettling and upsetting because it deals with child abuse, teenage rape, teen suicide, and other such ills of society today. I make no excuses. What happened to Daisy Colemen of Maryville, Missouri and to Rehtaeh Parsons of Halifax, Nova Scotia should never have occurred, and the crimes against them could not go unanswered. I wrote this novel to express my revulsion at the fate of these young women and thousands like them. As one reader remarked upon finishing the book, “[M]ay justice save victims and find its defilers.”
Which brings us to Eighth Circle, named for the Eighth Circle of Hell in Dante’s epic poem Inferno. This novel, the fifth in the Martelli series, is a tale of political corruption and intrigue that could be set in virtually any large US city today. Here the story must be told in New York, Martelli’s stomping grounds and a city with a rich history of political corruption. The fact is, one out of every 11 lawmakers to leave office in New York City since 1999 has done so after being investigated for ethical or criminal violations. In the case of Eighth Circle, it’s the mayor of whom Martelli is suspicious. But what did he do, or not do, as the case may be? Certainly no more and no less than many who had gone before him. Here, however, the results were catastrophic.
