I Write Dead People

Congratulations to ALL!

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Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce its Nominees for the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2006. The Edgar Awards will be presented to the winners at our 61st Gala Banquet, April 26, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard (HarperCollins)
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Dead Hour by Denise Mina (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)
The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (Random House – Ballantine Books)
The Liberation Movements by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin's Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Random House)
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Crown - Shaye Areheart Books)
King of Lies by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur – Thomas Dunne Books)
Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith (St. Martin's Minotaur)
A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read (Warner Books – Mysterious Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Goodbye Kiss by Massimo Carlotto (Europa Editions)
The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara (Bantam Dell Publishing – Delta Books)
The Deep Blue Alibi by Paul Levine (Bantam Dell Publishing – Bantam Books)
City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate (Penguin Group – Riverhead Books)

BEST FACT CRIME

Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger (W.W. Norton and Co.)
Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine by Capt. Joseph K. Loughlin & Kate Clark Flora (University Press of New England)
Ripperology: A Study of the World's First Serial Killer by Robin Odell (The Kent State University Press)
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower (Dutton)
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir by John T. Irwin (Johns Hopkins University Press)
The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear by E.J. Wagner (John Wiley & Sons)

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Home Front" – Death Do Us Part by Charles Ardai (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company)
"Rain" – Manhattan Noir by Thomas H. Cook (Akashic Books)
"Cranked" – Damn Near Dead by Bill Crider (Busted Flush Press)
"White Trash Noir" – Murder at the Foul Line by Michael Malone (Hachette Book Group – Mysterious Press)
"Building" – Manhattan Noir by S.J. Rozan (Akashic Books)

BEST JUVENILE

Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison (Penguin Young Readers – Sleuth/Dutton)
The Stolen Sapphire: A Samantha Mystery by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl Publishing)
Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Bloodwater Mysteries: Snatched by Pete Hautman & Mary Logue (Penguin Young Readers – Sleuth/Putnam)
The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers – Philomel/Sleuth)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks (Scholastic – The Chicken House)
The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson (Penguin YR – Sleuth/Viking)
Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks (Simon & Schuster – Richard Jackson Books/Atheneum)
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready (Penguin YR – Dutton Children's Books)
The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci (Harcourt Children's Books)

BEST PLAY

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure by Steven Dietz (Arizona Theatre Company)
Curtains by Rupert Holmes (Ahmanson Theatre)
Ghosts of Ocean House by Michael Kimball (The Players' Ring)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

The Closer – "Blue Blood", Teleplay by James Duff & Mike Berchem (Turner Network Television)
Dexter – "Crocodile", Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)
House – "Clueless", Teleplay by Thomas L. Moran (Fox/NBC Universal)
Life on Mars – Episode 1, Teleplay by Matthew Graham (BBC America)
Monk – "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", Teleplay by Hy Conrad (USA Network/NBC Universal)

BEST TELEVISION FEATURE/MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY

Conviction, Teleplay by Bill Gallagher (BBC America)
Cracker: A New Terror, Teleplay by Jimmy McGovern (BBC America)
Messiah: The Harrowing, Teleplay by Terry Cafolla (BBC America)
Secret Smile, Teleplay by Kate Brooke, based on the book by Nicci French (BBC America)
The Wire, Season 4, Teleplays by Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon & William F. Zorzi (Home Box Office)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

Casino Royale, Screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis, based on novel by Ian Fleming (MGM)
Children of Men, Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, based on a novel by P.D. James (Universal Pictures
The Departed, Screenplay by William Monahan (Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Good Shepherd, Teleplay by Eric Roth (Universal Pictures)
Notes on a Scandal, Screenplay by Patrick Marber (Scott Rudin Productions)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

William Dylan Powell
"Evening Gold" – EQMM November 2006 (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

Stephen King

RAVEN AWARDS

Books & Books (Mitchell Kaplan, owner)
Mystery Loves Company Bookstore (Kathy & Tom Harig, owners)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER-MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Bloodline by Fiona Mountain (St. Martin's Minotaur)

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Wowza - has it really been that long since I posted?

This is what happens when you have a demanding day job - that I love, mind you, but yet, still quite demanding.

George Guthridge over at Storytellers Unplugged talks about writing what you don't know about. In writing classes, we are often told to write what you do know about. Tony Hillerman talks about writing about what you want to know about.

Like any writing "rules", I think there's a truth in each of those positions.

When I first started the novel that became Matters of the Blood, my protagonist, then named Kate, was a freelance geek. I picked this because it's something I know about...uhm, am, actually (the geek part, not the freelance). As I began to create Kate's world, I realized two things:

1. Any computer technology I'd mention would be woefully out of date in a year, not to mention by publication date.


2. I really, really, really did not want to write about work-related stuff.

After that revelation, I knew I had to do something else, because for the purposes of the story I wanted to tell, I didn't want Kate to be tied down to a regular job.

In the drafts that followed, Kate became Keira, supernatural scion of a large powerful and equally supernatural family, with a trust fund, a house and way too much time on her hands. Suddenly, it worked.

Now, I have no earthly clue what having a trust fund is like, but I'm sure I can imagine some of it. Besides, that was 100% a plot device to remove an obstacle that had no part in the narrative. That said, her financial situation as contrasted with Marty's lack of finances did create for some tension. And as we all know, tension is what makes for good story.

I also wrote what I knew: a small Texas Hill Country town, where the value of town is more loose settlement than actual buildings, roads and people. Rio Seco, Texas is a thinly veiled Lago Vista, Texas as it was in the mid-to-late seventies, when I lived and went to high school there. It was the perfect setting for my characters, and I utterly know the parts of Lago that are still nestled in my heart and memories...which is exactly what I wanted. The then version, colored and shaded by my own interpretation, not the now version, easily searched for on Google and Google Earth. (Although, I do admit to finding Lago on Google Earth, but that was quite recently, long after MoB was completed).

In the creation of the story, I made Marty the local funeral home director/mortician. Did I know about this? Only in the sense that once upon a brief time I worked for a software company that was developing funeral home management software. I knew enough to whet my interest. I knew enough to know that I wanted certain aspects of the funeral industry to peek through. However, MoB is not about the industry. I just needed to research enough for verisimilitude. Enough so that casual readers, even those familiar with funeral homes would accept what I wrote without being jarred out of the narrative. I think I succeeded. And yes, I did some research. Google is a wonderful place and can lead you to such fabulous resources such as product catalogs, photos of actual embalming rooms, and industry trade magazines.

In essence, in my writing, I tend to combine all of the what you know, what you don't know and what you'd like to know in some mashup that seems to work for me. After all, it's just about telling the story that's in your head in a way that others enjoy it, too.

-30-

Yeah - "fall back" is supposed to gain you an hour. I'm not really sure where it went, though. ::g::

The Dying to Write conference was a huge success. I attended/volunteered at 2 morning panels, then spoke at an afternoon panel.

Got to hang out with Jon Betancourt, publisher extraordinaire. John informed me that he'd love to see short stories set in my universe. Eep! That means more writing, right?

Although I've written an award-nominated short story, I'm totally not much of a short story writer. At least I don't think I am. But, I could be proven wrong. ::g::

In other news, Blood Bargain (which would be book 2 in the Matters universe) is coming along. I had a bit of an epiphany - or perhaps, just a realization - that one of the plot threads that had been a part of the overall book from day one, was just extraneous and needed to be removed. Ouch, that hurt, but actually, makes things easier. I realized that it was one of the major reasons I'd been having so much trouble. This means that I have to do a lot of rethinking, but that's what writing's all about.

I love making up things. :)

Wow - so, I haven't really fallen off the face of the earth. Instead, I've been inundated at my day job, working on multiple projects, all due sometime this month (October).

A recent post by my buddy Donna Andrews got me thinking. What are the tools of a writer's trade? Until a few years ago, many writers swore by their favorite pens, a specific type of paper, lined/unlined, padded, loose-leaf. But the advent of the personal computer pushed much of that to the side.

For sure, there are writers who still compose longhand, then transcribe, but I'm not one of them. As a born geek, I took to the computer without looking back. Starting with WordStar, then WordPerfect (DOS), then upgrading to the GUI version when it became available, I've never looked back.

Now, I write on a brand new G5 20" iMac, using a wireless keyboard. If I travel, I use either my iBook (which is soon to go the way of eBay) or my work laptop, an IBM T41. I love laptops: the versatility, the portability, but I have to give major kudos to the iMac. The huge screen and brilliant resolution are a balm to these older eyes.

In any case, I cannot write longhand. Oh, I do have scribbles and thoughts and even dialogue/scenes written out in a notebook I carry, but the way my brain works, I'm liable to forget about it once it's written. Once a scene or whatever leaves my thoughts and is committed to paper or pixels, it's gone. A hazard of the profession, to be sure. I need to be more disciplined and transcribe these scribbligns as soon as possible. Plus, there's the fact that my handwriting now sucks beyond the telling of it. (I used to write quite nicely - no more). Then there's the brain to hand speed ratio. In longhand, it's more like a crippled tortoise. On the keyboard, it's the hare crossed with the Flash. I'm a brilliant typist: there is no slowdown from brain to keys, like there is when I have to write something out.

I think the worst part about bonding so well with the computer world is that no matter how portable, setting up a computer to type out random thoughts is just not feasible. At least, not until the Star Trek voice activation comes into being. (Voice programs are all fine and good, but they really don't do well for writing novels...at least not for me).

I've tried digital voice recorders, but it's the same thing as handwritten notes: they have to be transcribed. One day...one day...thought will become words on a screen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but one can hope.

October 28, 2006

Dying To Write
MWA-MA’s First Annual Writer’s Conference
Saturday, October 28, 2006  -  9:00 a.m. –  4:30 p.m.  

Gawler’s Sons, Inc. Funeral Home
5130 Wisconsin Ave., NW,  Washington, D.C.   20016

I'll be moderating a panel entitled (what else?): We Write Dead People
My co-panelists include:

• Baltimore CSI John French
• Forensic taphonomist Allison Wilcox
• Randy Weagley, vice president of Joseph Gawler’s Sons.

That's pretty much it for 2006, but I've just registered for Bouchercon 2008: Charmed to Death, to be held in our own corner of the world, in Charm City, a.k.a. Baltimore. I'm also hoping to attend Balticon in 2007 and will be attending Malice Domestic in May.

I should've known that I couldn't stay away.

Some time ago (last fall, I think), I set up this blog, then because of a variety of reasons, I deleted it.

Well, I'm back. This time, the blog is replacing my old, but cool, Web site. TheLima.com now points to my Typepad blog...a.k.a., I Write Dead People.

Although I'm a fairly decent HTML coder, it's really silly to spend the time doing so, when everything I need could be acccomplished in blog format. Thus, the new me. Ta da!!

This is a work in progress, as my subtitle proclaims.

What you'll see here:

Information about book publication.
Information about places I'll be (cons, booksignings, etc.)
Occasional ramblings about life, the universe and everything.

If you want to read about all the rest of my life. I'll be over here...at my Live Journal.

What's coming up?

Nothing much for 2006, but keep an eye out for the official publication date for the re-birth of Matters of the Blood, soon to be re-issued by Juno Books. (March 2007)