Art Taylor's Blog, page 86

Writing/Publishing Panel at Burke Centre Library

Laura Ellen Scott, Steve Weddle, and I will be talking about writing and publishing across various genres and diverse forms in an event Thursday, March 10, at the Burke Centre Library, 5935 Freds Oak Road, Burke, VA. The event begins at 7 p.m.

Here’s the event write-up from the Facebook invitation:

Publishers, marketers, booksellers, critics, and even readers often rely on categories to sort their way through the wide world of fiction. Genre fiction and literary fiction—never the two shall meet, right? A short story and a novel—two completely different animals, aren’t they? And the writers—they find themselves not just defined but confined by these genres and forms, yes?

Three area writers—Laura Ellen Scott, Art Taylor, and Steve Weddle—challenge conventional wisdom in their works and offer fresh perspectives on both the craft and the business of writing fiction that blurs boundaries in several directions.

Laura Ellen Scott is the author of the novel Death Wishing, a comic fantasy set in post-Katrina New Orleans, and Curio, a collection of 21 very short, creepy stories with illustrations by Mike Meginnis. Her latest novel, The Juliet, is forthcoming from Pandamoon Publishing. http://lauraellenscott.com/

Art Taylor’s debut book, On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories, is currently a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. His short fiction has won two Agatha Awards, the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and three consecutive Derringer Awards. http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/

Steve Weddle’s debut novel, Country Hardball, was called “downright dazzling” by the New York Times. He is the co-founder of DoSomeDamage.com and edits Needle: A Magazine of Noir. https://steveweddle.com/

Books will be for sale by Scrawl Books!

 

Mystery Scene: Fave Raves

The latest issue of Mystery Scene invites the magazine’s regular critics and contributors to celebrate some of their favorite reads of last year—and I’m grateful for another chance to champion four books that stood out to me, including Christopher Irvin’s Safe Inside the Violence, Dean Jobb’s Empire of Deception, Margaret Maron’s Long Upon the Land, and Olen Steinhauer’s All the Old Knives (and turns out I wasn’t the only person to include that last one in his listings—Jim Huang was with me as well).

The new issue has plenty more to recommend it, including Tom Nolan’s essay on Margaret Millar, Kevin Burton Smith’s article on the TV show Jessica Jones, and Oline Cogdill’s interview with Alison Gaylin. As always, a terrific issue. Pick it up now!

“The Blanketing Snow” in Shotgun Honey

Shotgun Honey has published my very short story “The Blanketing Snow”—a story which first appeared in the anthology One Paycheck Away (Main Street Rag Press, 2003) and that I’m glad has now found second life online. Here’s the opening paragraphs of the story:

After midnight, the snow began to fall more heavily—puffs of white wonder, glistening in the bright, night sky.

Lying awake in the bed beside him, she couldn’t see the snow, but she could imagine it clinging fast to the roof, burrowing into the shingles’ cracks, weighing down the tender branches of the sapling just off the front steps, smothering the yard. The weatherman on the news had promised six to nine inches by morning, nine to twelve by early afternoon, and the drifts, she knew, would be even deeper in the woods surrounding the house. No, she couldn’t see the snow, but from the cold air straining through the caulking around the windowsills, she felt certain it was falling faster and that the wind had grown more brisk. Their home was no longer tight.

I originally wrote this story as an exercise for a class with Angela Davis-Gardner at N.C. State University. The assignment was to rework a classic fairy tale, and I don’t think anyone who reads it will have any trouble figuring out which fairy tale, at least by the story’s end.

I’ll admit I’d mostly forgotten this story until I was looking for something short and seasonal to read at the recent Noir on the Air program hosted by Ed Aymar and Pam Stack (I was the final reader of the bunch). I hope that listeners there and now readers at Shotgun Honey will appreciate the story as much I enjoyed rediscovering it myself. It’s an odd feeling rereading something you’d written many years before—almost like it came from another person—and I’m glad that this one held up a little over that time.

Read “The Blanketing Snow” here.

Loudoun County Book Club Conference • Saturday, March 5

The Loudoun County Public Library hosts “Book Club Conference: Building a Community of Readers” on Saturday, March 5, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. I’m very happy to be a featured speaker for the event, offering tips and tactics for running a successful book club conference with a focus on Gabrielle Zevin’s bestselling novel The Stories Life of A.J Fikry.

The full schedule follows. For information, visit the webpage here.

1:30–2:00 P.M. • WELCOME BY LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF

2–3:15 P.M. • RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BOOK CLUB

WITH NORTHERN VIRGINIA AUTHOR AND PROFESSOR ART TAYLOR

Discover how to run a successful book club or improve your current club. Learn the best way to moderate, establish ground rules, and choose the right titles. Taylor will use The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin as a sample title for discussion. This is not required reading, but will help you get more out of the workshop.

3:30–4:30 P.M. • CONNECT WITH BOOK CLUBS

Discover how the library can enhance your community book club. Library staff will share information on on book kits, online resources, and favorite titles. Community book club leaders and members are invited to tell others about their own meetings.

4:30 P.M. • DOOR PRIZE DRAWING FOR KINDLE FIRE

Sponsored by the Loudoun Library Foundation, Inc.

Criminal Minds: Tears, Fears, and Cheers

In this week’s post at Criminal Minds, I answer the question: “What’s the last book that made you cry? Laugh out loud? Quiver with fear?”

Here’s the paragraph specifically addressing that last item:

It’s not often that I encounter books or stories that leave me truly frightened—though even reading a review of Sue Klebold’s recently released memoir A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy brought back some pretty intense memories of Dave Cullen’s brilliant Columbine several years ago, a book which left me with fears and anxieties that have proven deep, pervasive, and unshakeable. (And having a son myself now has only intensified some of those emotions.) Given that qualification, however, several scenes in a novel I read recently did leave me with a sense of creepiness and unease: Ripley Under Water, the final book in Patricia Highsmith’s five-novel Ripliad (which I finished as part of last year’s New Year’s Resolutions). It wasn’t the violence in that book (or really any of those books) that affected me, though Highsmith’s coldness does work its unsettling charms in such scenes; instead, it was the simple conversations over cocktails between Tom Ripley and his new neighbors, David and Janice Pritchard, that left me edgy and uncomfortable. Those chats always seemed to have some menace coursing beneath them—with sudden, unexpected twists, giddy accusations and defenses, and always, always an escalating politeness that made it all the more unbearable. Do I really need to say it? Highly recommended.

Check out the full post here, where I also talk about Arnold Lobel (again!), Louise Penny, and work by one of my own students!

SleuthSayers: Appreciating Arnold Lobel

In my SleuthSayers column this week, I try to express my sense of wonder about and my appreciation of the work of children’s book author and illustrator Arnold Lobel. I didn’t discover his books until I was an adult myself, but sharing them with my son now has been eye-opening—both as a parent and as a writer.

Here’s an excerpt from my post:

The stories recognize too the capriciousness of the world, maybe even the indifference of the universe. I adore the story “The Surprise” in which Frog and Toad each sneak over to the other’s yard to rake October’s messy fallen leaves—such generosity!—but then, as each of them are returning home, a wind comes up and the piles of leaves that each of them have raked blow everywhere. With this twist, each of them get home to find not a freshly raked yard but the same old mess they’d left. As Frog says, “Tomorrow I will clean up the leaves that are all over my own lawn. How surprised Toad must be!” And in perfect balance, over at his own house, Toad says, “Tomorrow I will get to work and rake all of my own leaves. How surprised Frog must be!” The story ends with the sentence, “That night Frog and Toad were both happy when they each turned out the light and went to bed.” O. Henry couldn’t have done it better.

Read the full post here.

Writing/Publishing Panel, February 20, Baltimore

This Saturday, February 20, four crime fiction writers and one of the genre’s leading agents will take part in a writing and publishing panel at Baltimore’s Ivy Bookshop. The bookstore is located at 6080 Falls Road in Baltimore, Maryland, and the program begins at 6 p.m.

Here are bios on the list of participants—and pleased to be included on the program myself!

E.A. Aymar is the author of I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead and You’re As Good As Dead, both from Black Opal Books. He also writes a monthly column for the Washington Independent Review of Books, and is the Managing Editor of The Thrill Begins (for the International Thriller Writers). His short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of top crime fiction publications. He holds a Masters in Literature and lives outside of Washington, D.C.

Stacia Decker has been agenting since 2009. Previously, she worked at the Donald Maass Literary Agency and, as an editor, at Harcourt and Otto Penzler Books. She began her career as an intern and then editorial assistant at Farrar, Straus & Giroux after earning an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University and an AB in Government and English from Georgetown University. She represents high-concept literary and speculative fiction, commercial thrillers, crime/mystery fiction and sci-fi fantasy. She is partial to strong voices, fast-paced plotting and near-future or cross-genre elements.

Nik Korpon is the author of several books, including Soul Standard, coming in 2016, and Stay God, Sweet Angel. His short fiction can be found in the collections Bar Scars; Hoods, Hot Rods, and Hellcats; Dark Corners; Crime Factory and The New Black. He lives in Baltimore.

Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany and grew up mostly in St. Paul, Minnesota. She holds a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and started her working life as a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun. After leaving the newspaper, she moved to Japan, where she studied Japanese, taught English and began writing her first novel, The Salaryman’s Wife. This novel became the first of many in the Rei Shimura mystery series, which has won Agatha and Macavity awards and been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark awards. She’s currently based near Washington, D.C.

Art Taylor has won two Agatha Awards, the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award and three consecutive Derringer Awards for his short fiction. His stories have appeared frequently in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and his novel in stories On the Road With Del & Louise was published last fall by Henery Press. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University, and he contributes frequently to The Washington Post, the Washington Independent Review of Books and Mystery Scene Magazine.

 

N.C. State University Reading Series

This week, I’ll be joining novelist Jamie Mason on Wednesday, February 10, as part of NC State University’s Literary Reading Series. Our event, which includes both readings and a discussion of today’s crime fiction market, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Caldwell Hall Lounge.

My own time at State stands as a pivotal one in my career; it was in these workshops with John Kessel, Angela Davis Gardner, Wilton Barnhardt, and John Balaban that I first began to think more seriously of myself as a writer, and the lessons I learned in those classes still guide me in all my work today.

Looking forward to coming home for an event here. Remember attending similar events as a student and can’t believe I’ll be on the other side of the podium this week myself!

On the Road Named An Agatha Finalist

On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories has been named a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best First Novel—such a thrill and an honor! I’m pleased to be in fine company with fellow Best First Novel finalists Tessa Arlen, Cindy Brown, Ellen Byron, and Julianne Holmes—and couldn’t be more excited to see so many friends in other categories as well!

The full list of finalists follows—and look forward to seeing everyone at Malice Domestic in late April!

Best Contemporary Novel

Annette Dashofy, Burned Bridges (Henery Press)

Margaret Maron, Long Upon the Land (Grand Central Publishing)

Catriona McPherson, The Child Garden (Midnight Ink)

Louise Penny, Nature of the Beast (Minotaur Books)

Hank Phillipi Ryan, What You See (Forge Books)

Best Historical Novel

Rhys Bowen, Malice at the Palace (Berkley)

Susanna Calkins, The Masque of a Murderer (Minotaur Books)

Laurie R. King, Dreaming Spies (Bantam)

Susan Elia Macneal, Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante (Banntam)

Victoria Thompson, Murder on Amsterdam Avenue (Berkley)

Best First Novel

Tessa Arlen, Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman (Minotaur Books)

Cindy Brown, Macdeath (Henery Press)

Ellen Byron, Plantation Shudders (Crooked Lane Books)

Julianne Holmes, Just Killing Time (Berkley)

Art Taylor, On the Road with Del and Louise (Henery Press)

Best Non-Fiction

Zack Dundas, The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Martin Edwards, The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story (HarperCollins)

Kathryn Harkup, A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie (Bloomsbury USA)

Jane Ann Turzillo, Unsolved Murders and Disappearances in Northeast Ohio (Arcadia Publishing)

Kate White (Editor), Harlan Coben (Contributor) and Gillian Flynn (Contributor), The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For (Quirk Books)

Best Short Story

Barb Goffman, “A Year Without Santa Claus?” (AHMM)

Edith Maxwell, “A Questionable Death” History& Mystery, Oh My (Mystery & Horror, LLC)

Terri Farley Moran, “A Killing at the Beausoleil” (EQMM)

Harriette Sackler, “Suffer the Poor” History& Mystery, Oh My (Mystery & Horror, LLC)

B.K. Stevens, “A Joy Forever” (AHMM)

Best Children’s/Young Adult

Blue Balliett, Pieces and Players (Scholastic Press)

Joelle Charbonneau, Need (HMH Books for Young Readers)

Amanda Flower, Andi Unstoppable (Zonderkidz)

Spencer Quinn, Woof (Scholastic Press)

B.K. Stevens, Fighting Chance: A Martial Arts Mystery (Poisoned Pen Press)

Raleigh Big Read Kickoff, Sunday, January 31

The Wake County Public Libraries are kicking off their Big Read Program on Sunday, January 31, and I’m pleased to be part of the festivities!

The Big Read, sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts, seeks to broaden “our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book”—in this case Dashiell Hammett’s classic 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon.

As part of the January 31 event, I’ll be discussing Hammett’s central importance to the development of American crime fiction and the enduring appeal of this particular book and its now-iconic main character, private detective Sam Spade. In addition to the lecture, the event includes a performance by Sidecar Social Club, featuring speakeasy-era jazz, and a reception—likely not with speakeasy-era cocktails (fair warning). The program runs 2-4 p.m. at the Cameron Village Regional Library, 1930 Clark Ave., Raleigh, NC.

In addition to the kickoff event, the libraries have planned more than 70 other events continuing through February and March, and including book discussions, film screenings, lectures and workshops.

Check out the full list of events here—and get your copy of The Maltese Falcon soon! It’s a not just a Big Read, it’s a great one.