Vinnie Hansen's Blog, page 2
February 28, 2020
5 Ways to Coax Me to Your Cozy
On my last post, I pointed out that my books are not cozies, and that I’m not particularly fond of cozies. Yet, I read a lot of them.
My own series starts with a murder in the kitchen of a restaurant, so one might think I’d be drawn to culinary cozies. Nope.
I created baker amateur sleuth Carol Sabala because I didn’t want my protagonist to be a teacher like myself. My husband at the time was a sous chef in a fancy Santa Cruz restaurant so I had a direct conduit for information about the workings of a kitchen.
Then we got divorced. I wanted my character to evolve, anyway. Carol Sabala’s arc includes a movement toward more professional investigation, taking the series into the P.I. tradition and nearer to my influences of Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller.
So what does draw me to a cozy?
(Read more at https://vinniehansen.com.)
My own series starts with a murder in the kitchen of a restaurant, so one might think I’d be drawn to culinary cozies. Nope.
I created baker amateur sleuth Carol Sabala because I didn’t want my protagonist to be a teacher like myself. My husband at the time was a sous chef in a fancy Santa Cruz restaurant so I had a direct conduit for information about the workings of a kitchen.
Then we got divorced. I wanted my character to evolve, anyway. Carol Sabala’s arc includes a movement toward more professional investigation, taking the series into the P.I. tradition and nearer to my influences of Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller.
So what does draw me to a cozy?
(Read more at https://vinniehansen.com.)
December 21, 2019
My Books Are Not Cozies
I’m not a fan of cozy mysteries.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a cozy is a mystery with an amateur sleuth, no foul language, the sex and violence off the page. As my friend and cozy-mystery writer Mary Feliz puts it, “There’s a murder, but no one gets hurt.” In my world, it means the good bits have been left on the editing-room floor.
This may seem an odd attitude when some people have slapped the cozy label on my Carol Sabala Mystery series. However, as author Cara Black once noted, “Carol Sabala has a mouth on her.” One of my readers once suggested maybe we need a category called “Cussy Cozies.” But even then, the Carol Sabala series would be stretching the label due to . . . .
Read more: https://vinniehansen.com/2019/12/my-b...
For those unfamiliar with the term, a cozy is a mystery with an amateur sleuth, no foul language, the sex and violence off the page. As my friend and cozy-mystery writer Mary Feliz puts it, “There’s a murder, but no one gets hurt.” In my world, it means the good bits have been left on the editing-room floor.
This may seem an odd attitude when some people have slapped the cozy label on my Carol Sabala Mystery series. However, as author Cara Black once noted, “Carol Sabala has a mouth on her.” One of my readers once suggested maybe we need a category called “Cussy Cozies.” But even then, the Carol Sabala series would be stretching the label due to . . . .
Read more: https://vinniehansen.com/2019/12/my-b...
October 9, 2019
Killer Nashville
I'd been to two conferences this year and wasn't about to attend another. Then I learned I was a finalist for the Claymore (again).
Since I last attended, Killer Nashville has moved from Nashville proper to a hotel in an industrial park in nearby Franklin. No pedal pubs hooting by on the street! No sneaking out to hear music! I also found this new hotel/motel disconcerting with elevators where you're on display like a bug. No fluffing your hair or wriggling in your dress to prepare for a grand entrance.
Read more:
https://misteriopress.com/2019/09/kil...
Since I last attended, Killer Nashville has moved from Nashville proper to a hotel in an industrial park in nearby Franklin. No pedal pubs hooting by on the street! No sneaking out to hear music! I also found this new hotel/motel disconcerting with elevators where you're on display like a bug. No fluffing your hair or wriggling in your dress to prepare for a grand entrance.
Read more:
https://misteriopress.com/2019/09/kil...
September 2, 2018
10 Tips for Author Readings
After a NorCal Sisters in Crime Showcase, an audience member came up to me and asked, “Why are authors such bad readers of their works?”
Since I’d been one of the readers, I was mightily offended.
The man, however, seemed genuinely curious, and with a little reflection, I realized the comment was not personal. He may even have felt safe asking me the question because generally I am a good reader.
Performance anxiety was part of my answer to the gentleman. Seinfeld once noted that public speaking is our number one fear, meaning at a funeral we’d rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy.
I’ve certainly given some disastrous performances in my day, once reading . . . .
For more, please click www.vinniehansen.com
Since I’d been one of the readers, I was mightily offended.
The man, however, seemed genuinely curious, and with a little reflection, I realized the comment was not personal. He may even have felt safe asking me the question because generally I am a good reader.
Performance anxiety was part of my answer to the gentleman. Seinfeld once noted that public speaking is our number one fear, meaning at a funeral we’d rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy.
I’ve certainly given some disastrous performances in my day, once reading . . . .
For more, please click www.vinniehansen.com
July 27, 2018
Black, Black Heart
When Andrew MacRae put out a call for submissions to his noir anthology Black Coffee, he included a link to Peggy Lee’s eponymous song. Up comes a sexy black and white headshot of Peggy Lee circa 1953. Sultry sax plays.
Yes, my heart says, this is noir.
But what is this?
Otto Penzler, in his foreword to The Best American Noir of the Century, writes “noir is not unlike pornography, in the sense that it is virtually impossible to define, but everyone thinks they know it when they see it.”
You know—fedoras, smoky bars, whiskey. Characters who say, “Dollface.” Dark alleys. Brick.
Yet,
(To read more please follow this link to Mysteristas.) https://mysteristas.wordpress.com/201...
Yes, my heart says, this is noir.
But what is this?
Otto Penzler, in his foreword to The Best American Noir of the Century, writes “noir is not unlike pornography, in the sense that it is virtually impossible to define, but everyone thinks they know it when they see it.”
You know—fedoras, smoky bars, whiskey. Characters who say, “Dollface.” Dark alleys. Brick.
Yet,
(To read more please follow this link to Mysteristas.) https://mysteristas.wordpress.com/201...
June 19, 2018
Going Short
Way back, when I was in the graduate writing program at San Francisco State, I had short stories published in the campus literary magazines every semester. This instilled confidence in my writing, but also inflated my ego. I launched into the world thinking I might set the literary world on fire. Instead, after a few years, I realized I needed to eat and went back to school for a teaching credential.
While I still aspired to write books, short stories buoyed me during my teaching career. I could squeeze these manageable bits into my holidays and summers. The manuscripts found homes, won contests, and kept my writing dream . . . .
(To read more, please follow the link to misterio press. See a photo of me circa 1979. Check out the OPI nail polish color Short's Story.)
http://misteriopress.com
While I still aspired to write books, short stories buoyed me during my teaching career. I could squeeze these manageable bits into my holidays and summers. The manuscripts found homes, won contests, and kept my writing dream . . . .
(To read more, please follow the link to misterio press. See a photo of me circa 1979. Check out the OPI nail polish color Short's Story.)
http://misteriopress.com
September 27, 2017
Easy Reviewer?
Scanning my reviews and noting the lack of one and two-star ratings, a person might conclude I'm an easy touch. That would no doubt shock my former English students.
But it's true that I give 3-5 ratings, or in the school world, C's, B's and A's. Why don't I fail books?
When I was a teacher, it was my job to read all papers, even the most paltry and pathetic. I also used to be compulsive about finishing books. But now I'm retired and life is short. If a book doesn't capture my interest, I abandon it, which means I don't read D or F books. A book may not fulfill the promise of its hook, but that doesn't negate that it had something going for it. It got me to read it. So how could I give it a bad mark?
This soft spot results partly from being a writer myself. I appreciate how hard it is to produce a full-length manuscript. It requires a greater time commitment and effort than any assignment I ever meted out to my students. So even if a book collapses at the end, giving it a failing mark is like saying a marathon runner failed because he stumbled across the finish line in last place.
Finally, I try to evaluate a book based on what it attempts. If we watch a romantic comedy, we don't expect it to be Citizen Kane. We expect a boy and girl to meet, seem insurmountably mismatched, but after some entertaining and perhaps amusing incidents, to end up together. Similarly, I don't approach a cozy mystery expecting it to soar into the literary heights and gravitas of Snow Falling on Cedars.
Like a romcom, the cozy has fairly specific parameters. When it succeeds within those parameters, it deserves 5 stars. After all, if I assigned students to write a limerick, I wouldn't dock their grades because their poem didn't have the qualities of a sonnet!
So there you have it--the reasons I'm a big softy.
But it's true that I give 3-5 ratings, or in the school world, C's, B's and A's. Why don't I fail books?
When I was a teacher, it was my job to read all papers, even the most paltry and pathetic. I also used to be compulsive about finishing books. But now I'm retired and life is short. If a book doesn't capture my interest, I abandon it, which means I don't read D or F books. A book may not fulfill the promise of its hook, but that doesn't negate that it had something going for it. It got me to read it. So how could I give it a bad mark?
This soft spot results partly from being a writer myself. I appreciate how hard it is to produce a full-length manuscript. It requires a greater time commitment and effort than any assignment I ever meted out to my students. So even if a book collapses at the end, giving it a failing mark is like saying a marathon runner failed because he stumbled across the finish line in last place.
Finally, I try to evaluate a book based on what it attempts. If we watch a romantic comedy, we don't expect it to be Citizen Kane. We expect a boy and girl to meet, seem insurmountably mismatched, but after some entertaining and perhaps amusing incidents, to end up together. Similarly, I don't approach a cozy mystery expecting it to soar into the literary heights and gravitas of Snow Falling on Cedars.
Like a romcom, the cozy has fairly specific parameters. When it succeeds within those parameters, it deserves 5 stars. After all, if I assigned students to write a limerick, I wouldn't dock their grades because their poem didn't have the qualities of a sonnet!
So there you have it--the reasons I'm a big softy.
July 17, 2017
San Quentin Tour
On July 6th, 17 intrepid Sisters in Crime joined Lieutenant Sam Robinson for a five-hour tour of San Quentin.
After we showed our IDs, signed in, got wanded and wrist-stamped, we squeezed into a space between two sets of bars where we showed our IDs again. Then Sam lead us into a surprisingly beautiful plaza landscaped with flowers, a memorial to officers who lost their lives at the prison.
Above us loomed guard towers and razor wire.
To the lieutenant, the courtyard represents the ground between the best and worst of the prison—the Adjustment Center on one side, housing the most difficult criminals, and two chapels on the other side, one for Catholics and the other serving a multitude of faiths.
Before Lt. Robinson became a public information officer, he worked in the Adjustment Center, a place rife with prison gang members where the cells require concrete doors fitted with only slots. It’s a place where two officers are required to move an inmate, and the inmate must undress and submit to a cavity search first. The officers wear headgear with shields to protect against “gassing,” prisoners throwing collected feces and urine . . .. (To continue follow this link to my website.) my link text<.a>
After we showed our IDs, signed in, got wanded and wrist-stamped, we squeezed into a space between two sets of bars where we showed our IDs again. Then Sam lead us into a surprisingly beautiful plaza landscaped with flowers, a memorial to officers who lost their lives at the prison.
Above us loomed guard towers and razor wire.
To the lieutenant, the courtyard represents the ground between the best and worst of the prison—the Adjustment Center on one side, housing the most difficult criminals, and two chapels on the other side, one for Catholics and the other serving a multitude of faiths.
Before Lt. Robinson became a public information officer, he worked in the Adjustment Center, a place rife with prison gang members where the cells require concrete doors fitted with only slots. It’s a place where two officers are required to move an inmate, and the inmate must undress and submit to a cavity search first. The officers wear headgear with shields to protect against “gassing,” prisoners throwing collected feces and urine . . .. (To continue follow this link to my website.) my link text<.a>
October 4, 2016
First Impression & Second Chances
You never have a second chance to make a first impression. This advertising slogan for Head & Shoulders shampoo wormed its way into our consciousness. Because it’s a catchy way to state a truth. In life there are no do-overs.
My good friend Christine recalls when she first met me. She was a teacher visiting my classroom to see if she wanted to make the shift to a high-school setting. She thought I was . . . .
Please visit http://misteriopress.com to continue and to see my latest release.
My good friend Christine recalls when she first met me. She was a teacher visiting my classroom to see if she wanted to make the shift to a high-school setting. She thought I was . . . .
Please visit http://misteriopress.com to continue and to see my latest release.
June 28, 2016
Margaritas and Mysteries
When I started writing my Carol Sabala mystery series, I was married to Mr. Wrong. I’d made Carol Sabala, my protagonist, a baker in an upscale restaurant, modeled on the place where my husband worked as a sous chef.
My husband was a treasure trove of inside information. Until we got divorced.
What might have been a stumbling block proved to be a step up.
Read more at http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
My husband was a treasure trove of inside information. Until we got divorced.
What might have been a stumbling block proved to be a step up.
Read more at http://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
