December 8, 2014

The Kickstarter Campaign Reached Its Goal--Thank You!

I'm taking a detour from my promised genre posts to share breaking news: Sunday night, thanks to the generosity of readers, writers, family, friends, and strangers all over the world, my Kickstarter campaign reached its $12,056 goal four days early! When I found out, I cried.

I never cry.

For some perspective, I have thrown up more times in the last ten years than I have cried. (Apparently, I don't like liquid to come out of my head.) My point is that I am a bit of a stoic, but I was so humbled by this experience, so pushed to a new level of vulnerability and evolution, so caught by the hands of many that I turned into a squishy mess.

Thank you all for your kindness! Now begins the next level of this crazy-thrilling ride: fine-tuning the marketing campaign for The Catalain Book of Secrets so I can spend wisely and account for every penny that has been pledged, and beginning to organize the Kickstarter pledge rewards (see photo for a sample). The Kickstarter campaign is live through the witching hour of Halloween, and there are still gifts to pledge for (books, candy, book club kits including a Skype from me, and at the $25 level or higher, the most amazing surprise gift EVER--it's got magic). You can find out the details here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675834533/the-catalain-book-of-secrets

Or, you can simply accept my sincere thanks for joining me on this journey, and my wish that only good things come to you today and every day. Big love to you!

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November 5, 2014

Fiction Genres, Part I: Transcending the Genre

If you walk into a bookstore, you'll see genre fiction separate from literary fiction. Genre fiction (also called commercial and mainstream fiction) is comprised of these subcategories: mystery/thriller, romance, westerns, horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and young adult. It is generally viewed as books for the masses, while literary fiction is considered more highbrow.

Can we stop with that?

I'm gonna call this elevation of literary fiction "genreism," an elitist holdover dictating that a certain class of books (one that can be largely inaccessible because of subject matter, or because its pacing makes it difficult to read them between shifts, or for a host of other reasons) is better than another. I'm not knocking literary fiction. There's some truly awesome lit fiction books out there (I just read Adiche's Americanah and highly recommend it). What I am doing is taking the idea that any single genre is better than another, hitting it over the head with a shovel, and burying it.

Because here's the deal: literary fiction IS just another genre.

It is a genre that relies more on character than plot, that includes themes and symbolism and speaks to the human condition, but that is mostly defined more by what it isn't than what it is. Literary fiction is not horror, though what is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein without a monster? Literary fiction is not romance, but what is Jane Eyre without passionate love? Literary fiction is not science fiction, but how else would you describe Orwell's 1984? Literary fiction is not mystery, but The Big Sleep without murder and blackmail really would be sleep-inducing.

Some might argue that these examples "transcended their genre," as if the authors set out to write a horror/romance/sci fi/mystery novel and accidentally wrote a really good book instead. I would argue that every novelist tries to write the best book they can, and that genres--including the genre of "literary fiction"--are useful for organizing conversations, catering to moods (sometimes you just wanna read a romance), selling books, and nothing else.

Because I'm teaching a class on genres in Boston in February, and because I write across genres (mystery, fantasy, young adult, and lit fiction) and am trying to figure out what exactly that means, and because this is important (genreism stifles reading and writing), I'm going to break it all down.

My next post will provide a definition and examples of literary fiction, romance, westerns,

horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and young adult, and the post after that will break the mystery/thriller category (near and dear to my heart) into its sub-categories. If you would like subcategories for the other genres, you can find a great list here.

The lists will not be definitive, and feedback (as well as reading recommendations in each category) is welcome!

(And I have to sing this from the rooftops--my Kickstarter campaign to publish my magical realism novel The Catalain Book of Secrets has met its funding goal! Thank you thank you thank you! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675834533/the-catalain-book-of-secrets)

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October 23, 2014

TBTB (Throwback Thursday Blog)--My First Bouchercon

This blog post was originally written on September 26, 2006, the year my first book came out and in the midst of attending my first Bouchercon. I am pleased to say I am older but no more mature than when I originally wrote it. Enjoy!

And the Beat Goes on...

9/26/2006

It's true. No one is rude at Bouchercon. The one Rudinator from Love Is Murder has been surprisingly sober every time I see him, so who's left? Oh wait, there was that one guy, the smirking-laugh-at-you-corrector-of-everything-you-say, but I needed a new villain to kill off in the next mystery, and he was a great prototype. So thank you, Mr. New Rudinator.

Otherwise, all good. Sandra Ruttan, despite her offer, would be hard pressed to pull off rude with any believability (although I bet she does pissed off pretty well if you give her a reason), Tim Maleeny is not only an interesting storyteller but a charming person, Bill Cameron is a little bit meaner than Santa Claus and not quite as nice as Mister Rogers, and I'm pretty sure Julia Buckley is nice, too, but she was too busy being clever and funny for me to be sure. By the way, check out her blog. It's fabulous.

Today, I got Kent Krueger and Laura Lippmann to sign their new mysteries for me, so yay! I also accidentally sat next to a crazy man who writes short stories but wouldn't tell me what they were about because they're private and only his publisher can see them (and I couldn't help noticing his age spots were the same color as his eyes). Ah, the tales from Bouchercon. Tomorrow, my goal is to meet reviewers, but the deal is that somehow you can't tell them apart from the rest of us regular folk. I hear they float when you drop them in water, though.

What I've learned so far at Bouchercon:

1. How to take a shoe imprint out of snow (hot sulfur, interestingly enough).

2. Paint chips are used in identifying criminals, but there needs to be at least eight layers of paint in the chip for it to be admissible. (Got both those tips from Jerry Geurts, Director of the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. You know, the real CSI guy for Wisconson.)

3. I never want to read a medieval mystery. It's just me, and I think it has more to do with the disappointment at finding out there are not automatically wenches and swords in them as much as anything.

4. Midnight Ink has a great line-up of authors, and a fantastic team all around (everyone I meet loves the covers!).

5. I automatically take people with British accents more seriously because they're smarter.

6. According to mystery writer Barb D'Amato, death is not funny, but people are funny. I would like to add to that that sex is funny, but dead people having sex isn't.

7. All mystery writers are nice, except for the three assholes, and everyone knows who they are. I stole that from Tim Maleeny, who heard it in a presentation yesterday. It's true and brings this post full circle.

More to come tomorrow!

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