The Ubiquity of JCO

I finished a story last month and decided to start sending it around in search of a publisher.  It's a private dick story, like most of my work, but I'd like to see it in one or another of the mainstream journals.  I often look in the back of Best American Mysteries of 20nn to see where they get their stuff.  

So, The Atlantic.  A long shot but fine, they have an Elmore Leonard story in their current issue.  The Missouri Review—an online note, "What people say about us:  'I’ve admired The Missouri Review for years. . . . It’s one of a half-dozen literary magazines I always read.' —Joyce Carol Oates.  Good.  Send a copy off to TMR.  After all, one or two issues before my first story appeared in the Black Mask section of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Joyce Carol Oates had the Black Mask slot. 

How about McSweeney's?  Edgy, picky, but my story's in S.F. and McSweeney's seems tied to the community.  Sure enough:  "McSweeney’s has attracted work from some of the finest writers in the country, including Denis Johnson, Jonathan Franzen, William T. Vollmann, Rick Moody, Joyce Carol Oates, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Lethem, Michael…"

Prairie Schooner:  "we have printed the work of Eudora Welty, Octavio Paz, Tennessee Williams, Weldon Kees, Joyce Carol Oates, and Rita Dove, Richard Russo, Reynolds Price, Julia Alvarez …"

Well, let's see, close to home, just up U.S. 15, there's the Gettysburg Review.  Yup, there she is again—"Since its debut in 1988, work by such luminaries as E. L. Doctorow, Rita Dove, James Tate, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Wilbur, and Donald…"

Fiction Magazine?  "In the past we have featured work by such prize-winning authors as John Ashbery, Joyce Carol Oates, Heinrich Böll, Yasunari Kawabata, Camilo José Cela, Günter Grass, and John …."

Joyce, sweetheart, I love you but take a break, please!  You're 74.  You deserve a little rest. 

Or maybe I should start using three names in my byline.  

P.S.  Today I pick up The New York Times Style Magazine--"Fall Fashion starring Amber Heard, Andrew McCarthy, Diane Kruger, Hannelore Knuts, Joyce Carol Oates,"  

Ice

Readers often wonder "Where do you get your ideas for stories?"  I assume they wonder that.  None of them have asked me yet.  But if they ever do…

In late winter 2010, I was taking an "Online Fiction Workshop" led by Hildie Block.  Hildie would start out each week with some writing prompts—"short cuts to the good stuff stored deep in your brain."  Pick one of the prompts, set a timer for 10 to 15 min., and write.  One of the prompts the first week was, "Muse on the ideas of ice.  Frozen water?  Hockey? Ice in the veins? Melting polar ice caps?  Space ice?  Ice in a drink? Blue ice from a plane?  Smoking dry ice? Diamonds?"  

I picked ice for my prompt.  About the only other things in my head were that I wanted to write a second short story about my P.I., Frank Swiver, and that I'd heard an old time radio show during the previous few months in which some diamonds were stolen at a party.  It was fun and I didn't want to stop.

But I did after about 20 min. that evening.  I had a page or 300 words.  I really liked it, and kept coming back to it.  With careful work, it became the beginning of my story.  I stuck with it after the eight week class was over, and eventually had a finished story that I submitted to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.    The editor, Janet Hutchings (see her blog at:  http://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/), who has been great to work with, wrote in Nov. 2010:  "I like the writing and atmosphere in this story but the plot doesn’t actually work.  If you can resolve these problems, I’ll be happy to see the story again."  

As a huge Raymond Chandler fan, I never knew the plot should actually work.  ;^)   But I revised and resubmitted.  In Jan. 2011, Ms. Hutchings wrote again:  "I think you've come close to fixing the problems and I'd like to be able to use the story, but I need you to resolve (plausibly) three more things."

As a student of Aristotle on plot, I thought, "that which is possible is plausible."  <:-|  But I set to work again, and the third time, in March 2011, EQMM bought "Ice." 

 

And 17 months later, here it is, in the Sept./Oct. 2012 issue, which should be at your local cigar stand, bus terminal, or truck stop now.  

I feel I owe a debt to Hildie Block for "Ice," and I'm going to invite her to do a guest appearance on this blog. 

If you're ever in Philadelphia….

You might want to stop in at the Whodunit? bookstore.  It's at 1931 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.  Inside in tight, somewhat haphazard-looking shelves, you'll find an assortment of mostly used books, mostly paperback.  I'd say mostly mystery or crime fiction—they were specialists when they started—but now I'd say half-and-half, half mystery, half general interest.

The great strength of stores like this is they have a broad selection for the aficionado of hard-to-find, out-of-print, and even rare books.  Let's face it, no matter what my tastes are, the world of popular books is more aligned to Fifty Shades of Harry Potter than to David Goodis.  (I bought his classic, Black Friday.)  Or more comfortable with werewolves, vampire hunters, ghost walkers, and horse whisperers than with Seven Slayers (I also picked up the Paul Cain collection by that name.)

  

A weakness is that at any given time, stock is more hit and miss than Amazon.  For example, I'm looking for The Chill by Ross MacDonald, but I settled for The Far Side of the Dollar, the most interesting-looking Ross MacD. on the shelves.  (I suppose a wag might argue all Ross MacDonald novels are the same anyhow.)

 

Another nice thing about this store is that you might meet one of the principals and share a few minutes of conversation about a common interest.  I met Henry Reifsnyder, as nice a fellow as you're liable to run into in Philly, and we talked a little about P.I. novels, and mid-century American noir.  Henry was great, steered me to a couple titles I might have overlooked, and gave me a tip on an agent. 

If you're ever in Philadelphia, stop in at Whodunit?  Online at http://www.mysteryloverscompanion.com/ or www.whodunitphilly.com 

Nuts and Bolts

Writing consists of words and every writer has to commit words to either paper or a word processor.  I love the anecdote I read once about James Joyce.  He was struggling daily with his current project and a friend dropped by his garret. 

                "How's the writing, James?"

                "Terrible," said Joyce.  "I worked all day and I only have seven words to show for it."

                "Seven," said the friend.  "Well, you've always worked at a deliberate pace.  That's not bad for you."

                "Yes," said Joyce, "but I don't know what order they go in."   

I have read that Graham Greene wrote 500 words a day, and I think that's a reasonable target for me.  Jack London wrote 1,000 a day.  I'm not that prolific.  I decided in June it was time to write a new story.  I sat down to it June 19, and finished a first draft July 3.  That was 8,392 words, and I worked ten days, 839 words per day.  Fifteen days elapsed, five of which, for one reason or another, I didn't write.  So one could argue my daily output for the period was really only 559 words per day. 

I went back through the work this week and finished the second draft.  "Joe's Last Scratch" (working title) is now 8,607 words, and I've invested 22 days, so I'm down to 391 words per day.  A short story in three weeks.  Not bad at all. 

   

Now I need someone who is not family, and ideally, not even a mystery fan, to read it and tell me what he or she thinks.   

Going to Bouchercon 2012?

The folks at Bouchercon 2012 have asked me to mention the conference on my blog.  I don't have too much to say about it--it's my first Bouchercon, which is a conference of mystery and crime writers.  I'm looking forward to it.  Seems like the place to be for P.I. novelists.  And, it's in my home town of Cleveland!  Bouchercon:  www.bouchercon2012.com

Girls from Nanking on Sale--FREE!

My Amazon Kindle story, "The Girls from Nanking," (regularly 99 cents) is now on sale free  Tues.--Thurs., June 26-28 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0080IVMBA     

While I eventually hope to supplement my retirement income with my fiction, I don't expect to make a living selling 99 cent singles through Amazon.  But I am trying to get my work out there and "build my author brand."  Towards that, every download counts, so please give "Girls from Nanking" a look.  If you read it and enjoy it, please post a review on Amazon, or share the link with your friends.  And of course, I'm always glad to hear from you by e-mail too.

"Girls from Nanking" is my third Frank Swiver story, and takes place in Dec. 1948.  I think it's a swell read, and I hope you enjoy it.

Best First P.I. Novel

I sent my entry, White with Fish, Red with Murder, off to the Minotaur "Best First P.I. Novel Contest" today.  I set out to give the novel a once over before submitting it and ended up doing a re-write the last six weeks or so, and there was a contest deadline of July 2, so I've let other things slip a bit. 

I cut more than 3,000 words from book.  What I ended up with was much better than what I started with.  Why?  Well, despite the fact that this story has been with me for more years than I care to admit, I think I came at it with a new mind.  I recognize it as the same old story, but in working through it again, I believe that I found a better way to tell it.  Perhaps the right way to tell the story, the way I've been struggling for all along.  

How did I do that?  Part of it is experience as a writer.  When I first put this story down on paper, it was the first detective story or novel I'd attempted.  Now I've sold three short stories and published another for the Kindle, and I've written a novel and two-thirds of another. 

Part of it is learning.  I took a Stanford class last year, and four of us have continued for some 12-14 months to exchange and critique our work.  My online pals don't write detective fiction, but they seem to have a commitment to read mind with an open mind and respond to it with more seriousness than it deserves.  I learn from their feedback and from reading their work.  

 

I also took a class at the Writers' Center in Bethesda this spring led by Jim Matthews.  I believe that class showed me how to cut 17 pages from the beginning of my book, without losing anything the reader needs.  

  

So, look out First P.I. Novel contest entrants.  Here comes White with Fish, Red with Murder.