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Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "mysteries"
Help: Left High and Dry (i.e., No Books to Read)
Mercy. Somehow I got the days this week mixed up, and the library has shorter hours, and I didn't pick up my fix, er, I mean my books being held on reserve. So there you go. If I had made it to the library in time, I'd be reading IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT this holiday weekend. As it is, I'll substitute a book title I've already read. Tomorrow we may go see TRUE GRIT, so at least I read that Western this summer.
Anyway, here's wishing the best reads for all in '12.
Anyway, here's wishing the best reads for all in '12.
Our Changing Reading Tastes
I started out to reorganize my Good Reads list of books, and I realized how my fiction reading tastes have almost run full cycle. When I was a kid, I liked mysteries and Westerns with a dash of horror. Sometime early on in college, my choices ran to the more literary genre (probably driven by the required reading lists from the profs' classes). Now I'm back to reading crime fiction though I can see Westerns, literary, and some speculative fiction titles. I guess that shoots down my full cycle theory. I probably read whatever title strikes my whim at the time. "Ecelectic" might be a more accurate way of describing it.
Have You Ever Used A Pawnshop?
A show of hands, please. Mine is staying down (even if I have done so in a pinch). Something is seedy (or is it "skeevy"?) about a pawnshop. Maybe it's because there's a perception the proprietors are buying stolen goods. Fair or not, maybe the movies and TV have put the bad image out there. Or maybe not.
We sometimes tune in PAWN STARS, the reality television show on the History Channel about a pawn business located in Las Vegas. Corey, Rick, Old Man and Chumlee are the colorful, often amusing characters featured. Patrons drop by to pawn or sell an odd assortment of things. On a recent episode, a guy had a replica of the Batmobile for sale (trivia: remember the droll Adam West in the role?). It ran fine for Chumley.
A lady recently back from a Las Vegas trip told my wife how the pawnshop is found in the less desirable part of Las Vegas. There's also a line of curiosity-seekers and tourists snaking out of its doors now. Business is booming, the lady reports.
The small town where I grew up had a small pawnshop. Driving by, I used to see mostly musical instruments set up in the front window display. The shop might be still there. I understand they do well in a bad economy.
Of course, crime fiction writers love to use pawnshops in their dark tales. I did it so much that I had to slap a moratorium on anymore pawnshops for the next three fiction projects. My new book Lake Charles doesn't have one. Where else might have such a seedy reputation? At an abandoned warehouse? Or a truck stop?
We sometimes tune in PAWN STARS, the reality television show on the History Channel about a pawn business located in Las Vegas. Corey, Rick, Old Man and Chumlee are the colorful, often amusing characters featured. Patrons drop by to pawn or sell an odd assortment of things. On a recent episode, a guy had a replica of the Batmobile for sale (trivia: remember the droll Adam West in the role?). It ran fine for Chumley.
A lady recently back from a Las Vegas trip told my wife how the pawnshop is found in the less desirable part of Las Vegas. There's also a line of curiosity-seekers and tourists snaking out of its doors now. Business is booming, the lady reports.
The small town where I grew up had a small pawnshop. Driving by, I used to see mostly musical instruments set up in the front window display. The shop might be still there. I understand they do well in a bad economy.
Of course, crime fiction writers love to use pawnshops in their dark tales. I did it so much that I had to slap a moratorium on anymore pawnshops for the next three fiction projects. My new book Lake Charles doesn't have one. Where else might have such a seedy reputation? At an abandoned warehouse? Or a truck stop?
You Got Voice?
I can't define a writer's "voice." Maybe it's like pornography: you know it when you see it, or in the case of novels, when you read it.
For instance, I just finished up reading a Declan Hughes PI Ed Loy series title. Mr. Hughes projects a great voice. So does Daniel Woodrell, James Crumley, Walter Mosley, Megan Abbott...okay, you get the gist of my point.
It seems a writer's "voice" either hits or misses in its appeal to any reader. In other words, you're either hot or cold but rarely indifferent to writer's style of telling the story at hand.
From a personal standpoint, I can say reviewers and readers have either gone thumbs up and thumbs down with gusto on my novels. Fortunely, more have been the thumbs up. But it's (voice, I'm saying) mine. It's my distinctive brand, how I can stand out from other authors.
I don't lay claim to flying as high as the aforementioned writers. Not in a hundred years. But I can claim I like reading their books because their "voice" strikes a clear bell to chime inside me. It's one of the pleasures I get from engaging the printed page.
Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
For instance, I just finished up reading a Declan Hughes PI Ed Loy series title. Mr. Hughes projects a great voice. So does Daniel Woodrell, James Crumley, Walter Mosley, Megan Abbott...okay, you get the gist of my point.
It seems a writer's "voice" either hits or misses in its appeal to any reader. In other words, you're either hot or cold but rarely indifferent to writer's style of telling the story at hand.
From a personal standpoint, I can say reviewers and readers have either gone thumbs up and thumbs down with gusto on my novels. Fortunely, more have been the thumbs up. But it's (voice, I'm saying) mine. It's my distinctive brand, how I can stand out from other authors.
I don't lay claim to flying as high as the aforementioned writers. Not in a hundred years. But I can claim I like reading their books because their "voice" strikes a clear bell to chime inside me. It's one of the pleasures I get from engaging the printed page.
Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
Embracing the Busy Days Prior to Christmas
My blog posts have thinned out during the days leading up to Christmas. My work-in-progress has been my second small town cozy mystery, this one titled Bermuda Canard, due to appear in 2012. I'm doing the final edits for Bermuda Canard. Readers liked the debut title in the series, Quiet Anchorage.
A cozy mystery is a change of gears for me. The writing style more closely follows the stories I wrote and sold to the Dorchester TRUE ladies magazines a couple of years ago. I like the two senior lady sleuths, Alma and Isabel Trumbo, who're based on my late aunts. It's been fun for me, and I hope that fun comes through in the writing and storyline.
Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)
The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)
A cozy mystery is a change of gears for me. The writing style more closely follows the stories I wrote and sold to the Dorchester TRUE ladies magazines a couple of years ago. I like the two senior lady sleuths, Alma and Isabel Trumbo, who're based on my late aunts. It's been fun for me, and I hope that fun comes through in the writing and storyline.
Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)
The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)
Meet the NEW Snoop Sisters
The Snoop sisters were a short-lived TV mystery program that ran as part of the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movies during 1973-74. I have a vague memory of the show and, maybe I watched it a time or two. This video clip shows Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as the two elderly sisters, Ernesta Snoop and Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson. Check out the books, including Chandler's Phillip Marlowe titles, panned over in the opening credits. Jill Clayburgh and Paulette Goddard (her last performance) appear in the clip. I also see Art Carney guest stars. That's good enough reason right there to watch it. Here is a link to the YouTube streamed version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhXPR...
The sisters idea is similar to my cozy mystery series featuring my two senior snoops, Isabel and Alma Trump. They are based on my late aunts who lived in a small town. They were born there, moved away to work at better jobs, and then moved back after their retirement. Keeping the interplay between Isabel and Alma interesting and fresh is important. Readers and reviewers have said they enjoy the characters, and I believe that is one big reason why. Humor and charm are the qualities I'm aiming for while delivering an entertaining story in my cozy mystery series. Give them and their capers a try, if you like.
Quiet Anchorage
The Cashmere Shroud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhXPR...
The sisters idea is similar to my cozy mystery series featuring my two senior snoops, Isabel and Alma Trump. They are based on my late aunts who lived in a small town. They were born there, moved away to work at better jobs, and then moved back after their retirement. Keeping the interplay between Isabel and Alma interesting and fresh is important. Readers and reviewers have said they enjoy the characters, and I believe that is one big reason why. Humor and charm are the qualities I'm aiming for while delivering an entertaining story in my cozy mystery series. Give them and their capers a try, if you like.
Quiet Anchorage
The Cashmere Shroud
My New Cozy Mystery Series Is Cooking
I write a new cozy mystery series featuring a pair of senior sisters, Isabel and Alma Trumbo, who are amateur sleuths residing in the small Virginia hamlet of Quiet Anchorage, which only exists in my imagination. I intentionally made it a nice place to both to live and visit.
Creating vivid settings is something I work hard on. I like to leave enough leeway to mix in the quirks and distinctions that make Quiet Anchorage not just another Mayberry. Still, Quiet Anchorage has to include enough recognizable features that readers associate with a small town.
Isabel and Alma's novels are the traditional, fair-play-with-the-reader mysteries, so the expected clues and red herrings are found in their story. So, I hope you'll try out an Isabel and Alma Trumbo mystery and stay along for the ride with them, and me. Thanks for your reader's curiosity and continued happy reading.
Click to add Quiet Anchorage to your book shelf.
Click to add The Cashmere Shroud to your book shelf.
Creating vivid settings is something I work hard on. I like to leave enough leeway to mix in the quirks and distinctions that make Quiet Anchorage not just another Mayberry. Still, Quiet Anchorage has to include enough recognizable features that readers associate with a small town.
Isabel and Alma's novels are the traditional, fair-play-with-the-reader mysteries, so the expected clues and red herrings are found in their story. So, I hope you'll try out an Isabel and Alma Trumbo mystery and stay along for the ride with them, and me. Thanks for your reader's curiosity and continued happy reading.
Click to add Quiet Anchorage to your book shelf.
Click to add The Cashmere Shroud to your book shelf.
Cracked Rearview Mirror
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