Art Taylor's Blog, page 68

Malice Domestic: April 27-29

Can April really be here? And Malice Domestic on the near horizon? And end of this semester’s teaching too?

Oh, wait—that’s a different subject.

Malice marks one of my favorite times of the year every year, and I’m especially looking forward to this year’s—this month’s!—conference, which features such a nice group of friends among the headliners and award winners: Guest of Honor Louise Penny, Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Nancy Pickard, Toastmaster Catriona McPherson, Amelia Award Winners Joan Hess (in memoriam) and David Suchet (Poirot!), Poirot Award Winner Brenda Blethyn, and Fan Guest of Honor Janet Blizard.

I’m honored myself that my story “A Necessary Ingredient” is in the running for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Short Story—such a terrific group of finalists in that category and throughout the slate of Agatha nominees.

Here’s my official schedule for the weekend:

“Make it Snappy: The Agatha Best Short Story Nominees,” with Gretchen Archer, Barb Goffman, Debra H. Goldstein, and Gigi Pandian, moderated by Michael Bracken • Friday, April 27, 2 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies • Friday, April 27, 5 p.m.
Author Signing • Saturday, April 28, 10 a.m.
Agatha Awards Banquet • Saturday, April 28, 7 p.m.
The Agatha Tea and Closing Ceremonies • Sunday, April 29, 1:30 p.m.

And I’ll be in attendance as a spectator at least at any number of extra events as well, including breakfast with Sisters in Crime and the New Authors breakfast and….. well, anything with breakfast, apparently. And then, of course, at the bar later in the day.

Looking forward to seeing many old friends there—and meeting new folks too!

 

 

 

The First Two Pages: Death in Disguise by Karen Neary Smithson

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Next week marks the release of Karen Neary Smithson’s first novel, Death in Disguise, from Touchpoint Press. Karen’s a friend in the DC area and a fellow member of our Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and in fact, it was at one of our SinC meetings toward the end of 2017 that Karen shared the news about her novel being accepted for publication! Shawn Reilly Simmons and I were  chatting about this with Karen before our November meeting, and Shawn ended up offering a cover blurb for the book!

Here’s Shawn’s praise for Karen’s “stunning” debut: “Death in Disguise had me hooked from the first page. When a young girl is murdered, who happens to work as a nanny for one of Hollywood’s most prominent couples, the police work to find out if her murder is connected to a series of deaths among teenage prostitutes, or if she fell victim to maybe knowing too much about her employers. With a varied cast of characters, and one twist after another, fasten your seat belts for a thrilling ride!”

Karen offers another preview of the novel in her “First Two Pages” essay, which focuses in part on her decision to start the book with the villain rather than the protagonist—good reasons here, as you’ll see.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.

Smithson Death in Disguise

The First Two Pages: Last Puffs by Harley Mazuk

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Harley Mazuk and I first met—and bonded quickly—at the series of monthly dinners hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Harley’s a charming conversationalist in person and a great storyteller on the page too, of course; his stories for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine are great fun, including a series featuring private eye Frank Swiver, and Swiver was the hero of Harley’s debut novel, White with Fish, Red with Murder.

In today’s First Two Pages, Harley offers reflections on the first section of his most recent novel, Last Puffs, charting its evolution over time as he crafted the full book, which I hope you’ll check out here.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.

Mazuk Last Puffs

WIROB: In Which I Give Up On Bleak House

I recognize that there’s likely some irony in the juxtaposition of my SleuthSayers post end of last week and my column for the Washington Independent Review of Books kicking off the new week: the first complaining about how some people can’t appreciate a masterpiece when they see it and the second talking about how I finally had to give up on reading Bleak House because….

Well, here’s a quick excerpt:

A couple of years ago, I made a New Year’s Resolution to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I’d tried and failed to read the novel before, but suddenly realizing that it had exactly 365 chapters, I planned this time to read one chapter a day — pacing myself toward the end….

At the start of this year, I made a similar resolution with Dickens’ Bleak House — in this case, breaking it down to a chapter every five days. Many great things are to be said for the novel: characters rich in detail, atmospheric settings, and plot aplenty. And, yet, by mid-March, I’d given it up completely.

I never found myself eager to return to each new chapter and always had to gear up every time with some review of what had happened in the previous chapters. As for the characters and their relationships? No matter how rich they were in individual scenes, I couldn’t keep track of them all.

(In Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist, Tim Federle proposes a drinking game: “Chug your ale each time Dickens introduces a new character…” Maybe that would’ve helped.)

The full column features insights from fellow writers Patricia Abbott and Steph Post—and thanks again to each of them for quick responses to my questions last week!

SleuthSayers: “Seriously, You Don’t Think It’s a Masterpiece Too?”

In one of my classes this week, a student commented on the level of detail in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood—and the number of commas too.

That sparked the idea for my post at SleuthSayers this week, which ultimately looks at how we bond with people over shared loves for this book or that film—specifically Vertigo in my case—or how differences of opinion might introduce small cracks in relationships.

Here’s a sample of the post—an interim passage about whether appreciation for art can or even should be taught:

Early on in my teaching career, a fellow professor mentioned to me that she would never again teach Austen in her classes. Because she didn’t care for Austen herself? That was my assumption and my question. But it was the opposite, in fact: This professor loved Austen so much that she couldn’t bear to hear her students react negatively to the novels one more time. It was too heartbreaking. Better just to teach something else.

Despite that advice, I’ve assigned texts to my syllabi that are among my own favorites—and, as predicted by that other professor, I’ve struggled more than once with students’ derision of them or dismissal of them. Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest comes to mind, and Stanley Ellin’s “The Moment of Decision,” and John McPhee’s “Search for Marvin Gardens,” and Nicholas Roeg’s film version of Don’t Look Now, and… There are many others—masterpieces all, I firmly believe this—but no matter how much I try to extol the virtues of each of them, endeavor to count out those virtues one by one, many students—too many—prove unmoved….

Read the full post here.

The First Two Pages: “Scrapping” by Patricia Abbott

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Try as I might, I can’t remember the first story I read by Patricia Abbott or our first interactions online—only that I seem to have always been a fan, both of Patti as a writer and Patti as a person.

I do recall the first time we appeared in print together. The Fall 2011 issue of Plots with Guns featured Patti’s story “The Proper Training” and my story “Locked Out.” After that issue appeared, Patti paid me a huge compliment—saying that my story had spurred her to write yet another story, “Eyes Open,” which subsequently appeared at Beat to a Pulp. (I’d link to the specific story but looks like the archive there is still in progress on an update; suffice it to say our two stories had little on the surface to suggest a connection—the beauty of seeing how inspiration can send authors in very different directions.)

Since then Patti has hosted me at her fine blog with a post about my bookshelves, and I hosted her at SleuthSayers for a chat on favorite first novels when our own debut books, Concrete Angel and On the Road with Del & Louise, were both finalists for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and beyond that it’s been a thrill to see Patti’s star continue to rise with her second novel, Shot in Detroit, earning both an Edgar nomination and an Anthony nomination for Best Paperback Original.

Earlier this month brought her short story collection I Bring Sorrow and Other Stories of Transgression. In addition to boasting one of the best titles ever, the collection has already garnered some rave reviews. Criminal Element praised it as “extraordinary, riveting, and thought-provoking stories that explore the dark side of human behavior,” and Publishers Weekly wrote, “This brilliant collection is sure to boost the author’s reputation as a gifted storyteller.”

Patti’s First Two Pages essay today focuses on one of the pieces from her new collection: “Scrapping.” I hope it’ll prompt you to read the full story—and the full collection as well.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.

Abbott Scrapping

Spring Newsletter: Now POST-Birthday Edition!

I sent out my Spring 2018 newsletter on Friday—my birthday!—and now belatedly posting here with news, some mini-reviews, an events preview, and the return of my trivia question!

Here’s the question—but you need to click through for context, directions, and subscription (required!) to enter.

“What 1952 noir novel introduced deputy sheriff Lou Ford?”

Hope you enjoy the rest of the newsletter too!

 

The First Two Pages: Mornings in London by Janice Law

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

My fellow SleuthSayer Janice Law joins us today to discuss her most recent novel, Mornings in London, the final novel of her Francis Bacon mystery series. Janice is also the author of the Anna Peters mystery series, and her recent books also include Homeward Dove. She’s a frequent author of short stories too, which have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and various anthologies. Learn more about her at www.janicelaw.com.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.

Law Mornings

Malice Domestic Schedule

The schedule for this year’s Malice Domestic was announced while I was en route to AWP in Tampa, so I’m late posting this—but so thrilled to be part of this year’s panel of Agatha finalists for Best Short Story and to be part of the program generally!

Malice Domestic takes place Friday, April 27, though Sunday, April 29 at the Bethesda North Marriott and Conference Center in Bethesda, MD. Here are the places I’ll be—from our Friday panel through Dame Agatha’s Tea on Sunday afternoon, always a fitting capstone event to a fun weekend.

“Make it Snappy: The Agatha Best Short Story Nominees,” with Gretchen Archer, Barb Goffman, Debra H. Goldstein, and Gigi Pandian, moderated by Michael Bracken • Friday, April 27, 2 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies • Friday, April 27, 5 p.m.
Author Signing • Saturday, April 28, 10 a.m.
Agatha Awards Banquet • Saturday, April 28, 7 p.m.
The Agatha Tea and Closing Ceremonies • Sunday, April 29, 1:30 p.m.

Look forward to seeing so many good friends soon—and meeting new folks too. And in the meantime, quick thanks to BOLOBooks for the picture I nabbed from your site for my own post here—that dessert was memorable indeed!

AWP: Tampa!

Looking forward to attending this year’s AWP Conference in Tampa, Florida—and not just because the weather’s better there than in DC this week!

George Mason University’s Creative Writing Program is one of this year’s sponsors, and I’ll be helping at our booths—1224 and 1226—along with Bill Miller, the current director of the program, and Gregg Wilhelm, just announced as the next director, and representatives from Fall for the Book, Stillhouse Press, Phoebe, So To Speak, and Gazing Grain Press.

Additionally, I’ll be helping to host and emcee Mason’s reception on Thursday, March 8, 5-7 p.m. at Bernini of Ybor, 1702 East 7th Street, in Tampa. In addition to good food and drink, the program will also include an introduction of Gregg Wilhelm as the new director and short readings from faculty member Kyoko Mori, alum John Copenhaver, current student Kristen Brida, and Stillhouse Press author Dan Tomasulo. Check the FB event page for more information.

And in between times, there’s coffee, cocktails, and plenty of opportunities to chat—see you there!