Vicki's Bouchercon Adventure

[vicki]

Hi, all! <Waves>

I'm off to B'con 2007 (http://www.bouchercon2007.com/) day after tomorrow--wheee! I thought I'd document the trip so y'all can vicariously enjoy the event. And since LRK will be blogging from the perspective of a B'con veteran, it might be interesting to get a newbie's point of view at the same time. I should say "relative newbie," as I did attend a few hours of the Las Vegas B'con several years ago. But since that was only two panels and a swing through the dealer room, it's pretty much a blur in my memory now.

Okay, I'm from Alabama, where we very comfortably wear shorts from March to November. So Alaska conjures up images of death-defying polar exploration in my little warm-weather-loving brain. But the Anchorage weather forecast (http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/) sounds like our version of January (high 30s to low 50s), so I evidently won't need to dress up like the kid from A Christmas Story who couldn't put his arms down, thanks be.

Off to do some packing and trip preparation! More later...

[vicki]

Arrrghh! I didn't actually pull the trigger on my cafepress shopping cart last week, which is why my t-shirts and totebag haven't arrived. :( Thought I did, but I didn't. Waaah! So I'm having to overnight the package to the hotel (checked with bell captain, who said that's cool). Sometimes me very stoopid. :o

But I'll still have LRK swag to wear at the con. So all is cool. :cool: </emoticon overload>

[nkk1969]

I thought I'd document the trip so y'all can vicariously enjoy the event.


Yes, vicarious enjoyment is the cheapest way for all of us to be there. :D I want to hear everything.


Have a safe trip!

Nikki

[vicki]

Thankee, Nikki! I'll mention you to Diana G if I get to see her. :) I'll try to include everything I can.

Needed a little of this n' that for the trip, so I went to the mall and scored most of what I needed in under an hour--wooohooo! Still need those long-johns, however. Brrr! Even the 40s is cold to me. I'll pop out for a while tomorrow and pick up the rest.

[nkk1969]

Heehee. I sent Diana a message saying random strangers may hug her and buy her Diet Cokes and/or glasses of white wine, telling her they are from me, or at least I told them to do it.

We (online friends from the Books and Writers Community on Compuserve) try to look out for her when she's touring. She does seem to have more rigorous touring schedules than other authors for some reason. Once she goes on the road, it seems she's there for months. We try to have goody bags filled with her favorite things waiting for her in each city where there is a forum member attending the signing/workshop/lecture. One time, in Kentucky, we gave her chocolate, whiskey, Diet Coke, a UK Wildcats t-shirt, and a picture of a remote mountain cabin. We told her it was her touring survival kit--alcohol, food and drink, clean clothes, and inspiration for her writing. ;)

How does it go at B'con? I went to the website to see what the workshop schedules were like, but I couldn't find anything specific about what author was speaking at which time. Do you just sign up for specific things once you get there on a first-come basis? I would love to go to Baltimore next year, and was hoping to get more info on the way things worked.

Long johns, with temps in the 40s? You are a Southern Girl. Unless there is massive wind involved, 40s are a comfy temperature in the fall and winter months. I hope you find the thermals anyway. I'd hate to have you being so cold you couldn't post updates about the trip. (evil grin)

Nikki

P.S. A productive trip to the mall in under an hour? You are my new hero! I hate the mall and only go there in cases of emergency or to go to the bookstore.

[vicki]

I'll make sure to mention your name in connection with any beverage-plying. :D That's great that the Compuserve group acts as a tour-care network for DG. BTW--how long has that group been going? It seems like I've heard about it forever--I know she's been on it a long time.

IIRC from my brief experience at the Las Vegas B'con, they generally have several panels of speakers (often but not always writers) going on in each session, and you can just pick which one you want to attend, pop into the room and alight in the best chair you can manage. There's a dealer room where you can buy books, including rare editions and a signing room where authors rotate in different time slots to autograph books for their fans. So it's structured but also somewhat free-wheeling at the same time, which is pretty cool.

I'll write all I can about the whole thing, so y'all can get a feel for it. This is all supposing, however, that I don't come down with a stomach virus and end up holed up in my hotel room the entire time. <Knocks on wood>

Thanks for the speed-shopping kudos--I can haul some serious rear when I'm on a deadline. Today, however, I passed on getting the long johns (and several other things). I didn't have the energy for it, as I had to deal with a hysterical 9yo, who evidently thinks going to Alaska is the functional equivalent to a rocket-trip to the moon. <Sigh> She finally calmed down when we discussed potential souvenirs and gifts I might be able to bring her. She placed an order for frosted lip-gloss. Hardy-har-har. My little boy hasn't been anxious about me leaving, although he did ask me why I was going to the Yuck-on. :)

[nkk1969]

BTW--how long has that group been going? It seems like I've heard about it forever--I know she's been on it a long time.

I'm not sure exactly how long the forum has been around, but I do know Diana was a member when she wrote OUTLANDER and she says she remembers logging on while writing and nursing her youngest daughter. Said daughter is now in college. No, wait, I think she graduated last year. Anyway, it's been there at least 20 years, maybe more. There used to be a blurb on the homepage stating the Compuserve Literary Forum (the original name of the place) was the oldest book-related forum on the web.

I've been a member there for 6 or 7 years. It's a great community. Even though it's much bigger, it has the same sense of online family that this place has.

Your kids are that young? Don't know why, but I pictured your kids being older. Maybe I just picture all kids the same age as my own 2 unless otherwise corrected. ;) My baby boy will be driving in about 3 months. Only with his learner's permit, so I have over a year to adjust to the idea of him driving alone, but still....

May your flight to Yuck-On be smooth and B'Con be all that you hope and more!

[vicki]

I'll have to trot over and take a look at the place when I get back. It sounds like a great group.

Yep, the kids are still pretty young. We don't have to worry about the driving thing for a few years, thank goodness.

Okay, I'm signing off. Need to go throw the last few bits in the suitcase. I'll see y'all online after I get to Anchorage!

[KarenB]

Happy flight, Vicki!

[vicki]

Thankee, Karen!

Am currently in layover hell at Dallas airport. The flight here was excellent. It's been so long since I've flown anything but Southwest, I forgot how nice it is to have an assigned seat (fortunately said seat was on the aisle, which I like). Across the aisle from me was a man from my hometown who knows everyone in my family and a lady whose daughter went to my college. To my right was a man reading The World Without Us (ie. what would happen to the planet if humans went extinct, which is a little depressing to think about, but he said it was good). Before we got on the plane, a lady at the Birmingham airport told me my crochet form was not correct and she showed me the proper form. It feels very weird, so I think I'll try and phase it in over time.

I will have to say that the vendor Au Bon Pain at the Dallas airport makes a very tasty Thai chicken peanut salad. Oh, they're lining up! More in Anchorage...

[nkk1969]

Am currently in layover hell at Dallas airport.

Poor baby! I feel your pain and avoid Dallas if at all possible. Houston is only marginally better, but any better is better.

Maybe you can sleep on the flight to Anchorage and arrive there rested and ready to post more messages. ;)

[vicki]

Am here! I tried to post last night but I must have done something to anger the vBulletin gods--they wouldn't let me sign in and kept asking whether I'd forgotten my password. Grrr.

Well, I got here very late, and didn't get a chance to see much of the city, but the hotel is lovely and the staff is great. So far, so good. And I'll have to give the Stevens airport major snaps--it's hugely attractive, with the most wonderful granite floor--half pink, half green, divided by this fabulous undulating pattern of black and gray granite --it curves back and forth in big swoops all the way down the concourse between the pink and green granite fields

Looks to be some good panels today. I'll probably forgo taking the computer with me this morning, so I can easily get the lay of the land. If taking the puter looks doable, I'll post from the B'con floor tomorrow. Either way, I'll do a long post about today's events this evening.

[vicki]

<Whispering> Hi! I'm posting from a B'con panel called "My name is Sherlock Holmes." Laurie is moderating/participating, and joining in are fellow authors Les Klinger (one of the Baker Street Irregulars), Michael Kurland (he does a Prof. Moriarty series and is reportedly putting together a Holmes anthology) and librarian Michael Masliah. Note--I'm typing this as the panel goes, so excuse any typos or cryptic stuff.

LRK notes that she first came across Holmes as an adult. Klinger became interested in Holmes when he got the Baring-Gould annotated version, and it fascinated him that a group had grown up around them, which cared enough to annotate them. Kurland got interested when a SF reader group he was in all loved Holmes and they started playing Holmes games. Masliah--introduced through the Basil Rathbone movies.

They talk about how why we like Sherlock Holmes. Klinger--each era has its own answer to this. At one time, he seemed a hero, a perfect Victorian gentleman. Today, we see him as almost noir--the outsider. There is also the buddy element--the importance of the friendship between Holmes and Watson.

LRK--when ACD was *not* writing about Holmes and Watson, his prose seems empty, and the stories never resonated with the public. Klinger--at the time, the Holmes stories were breakthrough, revolutionary, ripping detective yarns--very original. ACD invented a lot of the things we think of as cliches today. Kurland--some writers stumble on a world and characters in it that they are *so* comfortable with, we can really step into that world. Masliah--also, the many adaptations of Holmes stories in various media have helped sustain their popularity.

LRK - ACD thought Holmes was an inferior creation of his, and finally even killed him off to get out from under him. Maybe this was helpful--in rewriting Touchstone, my editor told me I needed to be harder on my characters because I my affection for them was causing me to go too easy on them. Klinger--Challenger series went down as ACD used it to bring up serious issues. They note the outcry when Holmes was killed off--the Strand magazine subscriptions plummeted overnight and even ACD's mother reportedly fussed at him about it. Klinger--compares it to the furor over Harry Potter reportedly dying. He's worried that this is the McDonaldization of fiction. Readers want the same thing over and over again. He asks LRK if that creates pressure. She says, yes--if you want to write anything other than a series. Much feedback from readers saying I don't read anything but your X series. And the publisher does listen to this. I understand the Reichenbach Falls impulse. Klinger--but characters do change--Holmes and Watson do--not as much as Mary Russell, maybe, but they do.

LRK reads a section by John D. McDonald from the Mystery Writer's Handbook of 19?? (didn't hear the whole date)--series becomes a complication of props rather than characters--based on a misunderstanding of Holmes--looking at the character's eccentricities, rather than the spirit [will try to get this quote from LRK later]. ACD was able to talk about a very troubled man working in detection. Asks others how this affects later detectives. Kurland--need to let the character develop a personality, but publishers seem to demand a quirk to draw readers in. Klinger--one of my favorite characters is Harry Bosch, who is a troubled person but has no props---you have to be a good writer to pull that off. Masliah--many detectives are variations on a theme--readers want order. LRK--a detective does resolve a problem or crime and restoring order to the universe. Klinger--isn't that true of any fiction? Fiction takes a section from the tapestry of life and makes sense of it. Mysteries do it about crime--other genres do it about other issues. Kurland--we always want to know what causes death--want answers to our questions--want to find structure and meaning in our existence.

Audience question: Appeal of Holmes for me was his hyper-logicial side--like Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Kurland--Victorians thought of themselves as very logical. House on TV is based on Holmes. Klinger--I think this is overstated. There are plenty of other super-rational detectives who haven't succeeded like this. ACD went to great pains to show he wasn't *just* that--emphasized the "great heart with the great mind." LRK--you think of him as being rational and cold, but then he'd have outbursts of passion where you get clear picture of someone keeping himself tightly restrained and repressed. This probably fuels some of the Holmes erotica. Klinger--Holmes was a drug user! What kind of rational people use drugs? Kurland--rational people might use drugs to escape this irrational world. Kurland--ACD worked on eyes and they used cocaine to freeze the eyeball, so he may have experimented with it. Klinger--ACD experiemented with opium and wrote a paper about it.

Audience question about authors who use Holmes as a jumping-off point. LRK--many of us are intruigued with the limitations ACD put on Holmes. I wanted to see what Holmes looked at after the Great War. Holmes didn't survive the War--ACD lost family in that war and never got over it, turned to spiritualism. I wanted to unlock him from that pre-war time frame and see what he looked like after it. Klinger--but 60 was pretty old at that time--for most people, your life would have been over.

Audience comment--when worked as library page in my teens, the "autobiography" of Holmes was shelved in the biography section. Klinger says he gets questions about whether Holmes was a real person. Masliah notes that when Nicholas Meyer's Seven Percent Solution came out, it was supposed to be a ms by Watson, and it was often shelved under the Ws.

Klinger notes that HOUND didn't start as a Holmes book but as a real creeper, but his publisher offered him twice the money if he'd put Holmes in it. ACD used the Holmes stories after that to make money for the spiritualist cause. He was the highest paid writer in England at one time. Klinger--I'm not sure the Great War affected how ACD approached the Holmes stories, but they affected Holmes as a character.

What would Holmes look like today? Klinger talks about a film where a 21st century Holmes-like figure looks like a techie. [Will try to get this title]

[jtb1951]

Wow! Good stuff; thanks vicki! I don't know how you manage to listen, integrate, and type out what you're hearing; I'm impressed!!:). Thanks for the peek!

John.

[Strawberry Curls]

Wow! Good stuff; thanks vicki! I don't know how you manage to listen, integrate, and type out what you're hearing; I'm impressed!!:). Thanks for the peek!

John.

I agree, it is almost like being there, and that discussion would be worth the whole trip if I could have swung it. Those people talking about Holmes, I almost wept that I couldn't attend. Your play by play had allowed me to feel that I was there. Thanks, Vicki.

[vicki]

I'm glad y'all liked it! I'll try to do a similar thing with Laurie's other events.

I got to attend a few other panels today that were also very good. Three folks from Poisoned Pen Press (http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/) (Laurie's UK publishers) did one on building a small press, and it was interesting to hear how technology facilitated their getting the press off the ground. Co-founder Robert Rosenwald (also known as Mr. Barbara Peters (http://www.poisonedpen.com/html/profiles.html)) said that being ahead of the curve in technology helped PPP accomplish the same work with 3 people that the big boys in NYC needed 40 people to accomplish. He also said that libraries are a huge part of their market, along with independents, although amazon is becoming a bigger customer. He said their print runs are generally small, and that they aren't looking to do huge blockbusters. He said that a blockbuster can actually wreak havoc on a small press--as an example, he cited The Time-Traveler's Wife, the huge success of which caused a lot of difficulty for MacAdam/Cage for a time. The other panelists also talked about how little the cover artist and catalog copy-writer have to go on (often just a bit of book-description by the author) in doing their work before the book is published. So the next time I see a cover that seems inappropriate for a book or bewildering copy in a book-catalog, I'll be a little more understanding.

I also went to a panel on "How far will they go?" The participating authors, including Thomas Perry and Harley Jane Kozak, talked about where they draw the line at sex and violence. And there was a good one on the adaptation of books for the large or small screen. I was interested in that one, as I really need a Mary Russell movie. Unfortunately, the general consensus was that it's nearly impossible and that, even if it gets optioned, they don't want the author's input. At all. They want to imagine it all themselves. Blech. One thing they discussed that I found interesting was that short stories and novellas tend to translate much more easily to the screen than novels, as it's easier to fill in than it is to take out.

I found the whole film adaptation thing to be extremely depressing, but Laurie suggested an interesting consolation project--to do a VBC screenplay wiki, building a Russell screenplay as a group, just for fun. It's an idea for the percolator, anyway--y'all think about it.

I met an incredibly nice author today who's from near my hometown, although she lives in Nashville now--Mary Saums (http://marysaums.com/), who has a new series coming out with St. Martin's. I told her about the VBC, so if you see her, offer her some virtual coffee, a comfy chair and a warm VBC welcome! :)

More soon--

[Elizabeth]

Vicki,

Thanks SO much for this!!! I've never been able to get to one of these and love being updated like this. You are an excellent reporter. :)

Have you seen much of Anchorage yet?

[vicki]

You're welcome! I'm enjoying the whole reportage thing. My grandad was a TV reporter, so maybe I got some latent journalism gene that's finally expressing itself!

And yes, I've seen a bit of Anchorage and it's lovely, with all the beautiful mountains so close it looks like you could reach out and touch them. And wonder of wonders, the lovely weather! I went up high in the hotel and one of the staff pointed out and named all the mountain ranges within sight. And as it was a clear day, you could see Mount McKinley--very awesome and impressive in the distance. My favorite is the sleeping lady--a range that looks like a lady lying down with her face turned to the side.

The people I've met here in Anchorage have all been very friendly--their love for this area is both apparent and infectious. If I hadn't met so many such people across all the shops and venues I've visited, I'd almost think they were all Chamber of Commerce agents or something. :) But their enthusiasm is the real deal. I'm glad B'con was here, because I might never have visited otherwise. I look foward to coming back in the future!

I'll also have to give the Anchorage Hilton some big snaps--it's a nice place with a good staff. More reportage to follow...

[vicki]

<Whispering> I’m in a panel called “Witchy Women.” Included are Charlaine Harris (wooohooo! Sookie Stackhouse—one of my favorite series!) and Kelly Armstrong, author of the women of the otherworld series. (Haven’t read it but have heard great things.) Moderator is Donna Andrews.

Mod: How did you get involved in paranormal? KA—Too much Scooby Doo? I was a big reader—a little odd. CH—I was an odd child too—I liked the dark, evil-looking Barbie dolls—they looked like they were more courageous. I always felt like there was someone in the shadows watching me.

Mod: my Barbie dolls solved mysteries—no fashion shows. Can we trace the paranormal trend to an Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton? CH: no, I think it’s because of the greater stress and sense of imminent danger we have in the world now. KA—maybe feels safer to feel danger of vampires. It’s escapism in a way—I fashion these bits of escapism and then go back to my normal life. CH—people are disappointed when they meet me—I’m so normal. No black nail polish, etc.

Mod: Do you have an issue with fans who are *too* into your world? CH—it makes me feel a little cautious. When they get too invested, it worries me. You really need something more in your life than what my books are giving you. Although it’s a thrill to know that your books can have a big impact. KA—after I started writing, I got a letter from a werewolf who said I did a good job! CH—my mother in law kept asking me how I knew about all this vampire stuff. She had trouble accepting fact that CH just made it up.

Mod: the world—creating a supernatural world with consistency—talk about this.

KH: I started off with only werewolves, which made the world-building easier. I’m a computer programmer by trade, so I may be a little too logical. I started off writing when I disagreed with the view of a werewolf on an X-Files episode. I was able to build the world the way I wanted to after researching various issues—wolf issues, etc. Then added other supernatural creatures. CH: I love KA’s Bitten –one of best books in the last 6 years. My werewolfs are different. Some genetic, some bitten, with conflict between the two. True of all my were communities. My vamps have different rules from KH’s In my world, the vamps had to mainstream. But they’re incredibly powerful, so I kept the can’t-go-out-in-daylight rule, although that wasn’t a Stoker rule. Not sure about the vamps can’t cross running water thing. Tanya Huff came up with the best explanation, and I couldn’t top it or steal it, so I’ve avoided the issue.

Mod: CH strikes a good balance of humor and fright. CH: they do have that air because I usually don’t know where I’m going. The idea of planning out a series arc is alien to me. I do know the end—but I’ll take a long time getting there (got a 3rd child to put through college—hahahaha). I started off with some stand-alones, then did the Teagarden cozies. Then did Lily Bard—to show I can do a kick-ass detective, then wanted to do something different. It took my agent 2 years to sell the first Sookie. In 14th printing. I’ve been doing 2 books/year for three years and I’m tired and need to slow down. I’m not happy with the increasing number of mistakes that have popped up with the increased speed. I had to hire someone to help me with continuity.

Mod: KA—your last book isn’t paranormal. I change my narrators and type of creatures—need to do that to keep things fresh. I love my paranormals, my first love—but I need to mix it up, so I’m doing the straight crime series, and I’m contracted to do an adult urban fantasy series next year. I need to keep fascinated and change it up. My weakest book was one where I returned to a character because the fans wanted me to. I still love writing, though.

KH—talk about Exit Strategy about female hit-woman. Lost this thread.

Mod: CH helped edit a paranormal anthology--harder to do short stories? CH – they’re harder to do for me—not my first form and I’m learning a lot about it. \We drew up our ideal list—including KA—and they all said yes! And when the stories started coming in, it was like Christmas everyday—result was an anthology about Vamps and birthdays. It all went very smoothly and we have another coming out –Moonlight and Mistletoe (werewolves at Christmas—I *need* this, btw). KA—I did short stories as a kid, but did novels later—so it’s like going back. I have ideas for shorts and ideas for novels. CH – horror writers wanted a story from me (I don’t’ think of myself as a horror writer)—it’s called “An Evening with Al Gore.” Hahahaha!

Mod: it doesn’t get easier to send a story or novel in. Do you ever have anything you’re thankful you editor stopped me from doing. CH – no—my editor did make me take out something really icky one (it was really disgusting, I have to admit), but I sort of resented it. KA: they have caught mistakes. Mod: do you feel like you need to top yourself? CH—yeah, and they expect that from you too. I do look back and find some mistakes I can’t believe I made—usually because I’m writing at breakneck speed without an outline.

Mod: Any book suggestions for people who like your books? CH Shirley Jackson—one of the great American writers. The Haunting of Hill House still makes my hair stand on end after 20 readings. She’s such a master. I wish I’d gotten to meet her when she was living.

Mod: What are you writing now? TV series: CH last I’ve heard—they’ve shot the pilot, the network accepted—they start shooting back next week. They did have to replace an actress so they’re having to refilm her pilot scenes. I did visit the set and got to meet the dog that Sam turns into (actually 2 brother dogs), and met the cat that gets to be Sookie’s cat—looks like an owl w/fur. KH—writing book 9, book 8 coming out. Second book in the Exit Strategy series has been delivered. I’m writing young adult, and it was scary to turn that in, but they like it. Title: The Summoning. I only have kept one of my own titles—Dime Store Magic. CH: my next title I wanted to be Deadicated, but the publisher said no one could spell it.

Mod’s next book is Cockatiels at Seven.

Many questions:

CH: Sookie-series name is True Blood. Q—ever been tracked by a vamp? J CH: Romantic Times is doing a vamp tour of Romania, and I may go. KA: I saw that—it does look fun!

Q: how are paranormal sales? CH: I don’t pay any attention to it. KA—romance outsells most genres but don’t know how paranormal romance does specifically. They all agree that they try not to focus on the market—agent handles it.

Q: asks CH about psychic investigator. CH: researched lighning and what happens to people when they’re struck—wide range of effects and severity. A lot of people die by lightning—others often not like to talk about it. There’s a list for lightning strike survivors—they let me be a listener on the list. It evolved from that. Harper blossomed from the lightning strike, and what it left her with –then came the brother and how they used her gift to make a living.

Q: writing schedule? CH—I do have hours—morning with a tv break and in afternoon. Then do personal stuff and errands. As deadline approaches, my personal life disappears. I do have an office separate from my house. KA – I have to have regular hours—I have kids. My youngest just started school, so that doubled my work-time—I work from when they get on the bus until they get home. So I don’t need to work weekends or evenings as much anymore. Mod: also keeps regular schedule—you get used to it if you do it every day.

End

[vicki]

<Typing quietly>

I'm here again in the Egan Conference Center for a B'con panel called "Setting the Scene." It's moderated by our own LRK and features authors Charles Benoit (http://www.charlesbenoit.com/), Stephen Booth (http://www.stephen-booth.com/), Sharan Newm (http://www.sharannewman.com/)an (http://www.sharannewman.com/) (the Catherine La Vendeur series—fabu!), and Ruth Dudley Edwards (http://www.ruthdudleyedwards.co.uk/).

LRK: when Dana Stabenow (http://www.stabenow.com/) asked me for what we wanted to talk about – gave me exactly what/who I wanted. We’re talking about setting the scene. Charles’s latest novel was just launched here at B’con. His second one was called the kind of book Alfred Hitchcock would have filmed (Charles wants this engraved on his tombstone)—his books have great exotic settings. Ruth comes from an academic and civil service background and writes on civil service, politics. Sharan is also a recovering academic who has relapsed recently. The LaVendeur series and some non-fiction. She’s got one coming out set in 1860s Portland, OR. Stephen Booth—8 police procedurals set in England’s Peak District. Won lots of awards. LRK mentions her own books' in terms of setting.

LRK: What are the places/times you write? CB: I write about places people think are exotic—but they aren’t that 1920’s exotic as people think—or it is, but in a different, cool way (oooh—they spell McDonald’s differently! Hehehe). Ruth: I don’t do place—I do the ethos of institutions—make fun of the academic setting of Cambridge, the House of Lords—nothing to do with the building, but with how they work. Sharan—I set books in place and in time. There is a lot of extra baggage concerning the time. Stephen—I do contemporary—historical is difficult. All books set in Peak district – small, but very atmospheric and full of history, and has a national park—now the 2d most visited nat’l park after Mt. Fuji in Japan.

LRK- book on writing by Carolyn See says—your geography cradles your work and brings it to life. I tend to use place as a very strong character in my books. In The Moor—she meets the moor as a presence looking over her shoulder. The Moor becomes a character and acts toward the solution of the crime. Charles: you can tell a lot about a character by how they act in the environment I put them in—organized guy thrown into India—the location becomes a character—more than a character, really. Ruth—one of my characters is focused on food and wine—I sent her to Indiana. I go to Muncie, Indiana for a conference sometimes, and the food is dreadful. I wanted to make my characters suffer, and she did. Sharan—place is important—affects how the characters cope with their lives. I’m very affected by the environment around me—natural environment, especially. Imagining Portland, where I grew up, as much smaller, and how it fit into the mtns. at that time, etc. Stephen—not sure you can separate character and environment that helps shape them. Two of my characters are from very different locations/communities (one from Peak district--one from the city--Birmingham)—that draws out the characters in different ways. The landscape is also a character in its own right in my books. It takes an active role in the story. Charles: do you work for the tourism board? J Stephen—the tourism board actually loves it—there are guides to where to find locations where my fictional dead bodies were found.

LRK – rural areas usually had cozies. Still incongruous to have a small-town noir or big-city cozy. Stephen—I did set out to confound the expectations. Take the chocolate-box exterior and see what’s underneath. Small-town crimes are often more interesting because of the background and history—mentions Holmes quote about more menace in the beautiful countryside, etc. Sharan—my settings don't include many mean streets—maybe in Rome. LRK—some parts of modern life don’t translate into medieval life. Ruth—technnolgy is going to date our books so terribly—I don’t know how we’re going to deal with that. Charles: Oh great--another thing to worry about! :D LRK—true—new Martinelli—I had to get her, after 6 years, to start using technology. Before, she just did it in the background.

LRK: familiarity and research. If you write a place that is familiar to you—why? And how much research do you do, and how much research goes into the final product. Sharan—you need an Alice, someone who doesn’t know about the place and time, so you can explain it to the audience through their experience. 95 % of my research makes it in. Charles—I have to go to the places I write about. I used to take notes, but they turned out to be incomprensibly cryptic when I got back, so I quit doing that—just absorb and do impressionistic scene, with some specific details. Ruth—I researched a lot for last book on Midwestern campuses—so I think I understand it – I think I convey well the farcical aspects of that culture I was writing about. Stephen—I’m always describing a real place I’ve been to—I want to be able to know what my characters see, hear and smell. I had a vision of a derelict farmhouse as a setting—I drove around to find the exact one I needed—I take pictures and make notes. Sometimes I stumble across a location and it gives me an idea for a story and I can see characters moving around the landscape, LRK—in historical stuff, I tend to make stuff up—eg the park where Billy was kidnapped. It’s representative of a small London park, but not a specific park. Sometimes I do have specific place. Stephen—I live in the next county, and hour away from the Peak district—helps me look on it with fresh eyes to live away from it.

LRK—is there a way to look on a familiar place with strange eyes. It’s easier for me to write about places I don’t know—it helps me see it as a stranger and write about it without assumptions. Charles—I start out more with a personality—then fit him into a good spot for him—don’t’ make it too easy for him. Ruth—I *like* my characters. Probably need to kill a few of them. I know what I’m writing about but I write as an outsider. Sharan – I seem to be drawn back to Paris. I go places where I want to go—I wanted to go on a pilgrimage to Compestela (sp?), so I figured out how to get the characters there. With the Portland book, I had to go back and look at my hometown with new eyes and the culture back then—boy was that an eye-opener—they didn’t teach us a lot of the *real* city history. I need to be in a place to write about it. Stephen – I sometimes have an idea generated by a place, and sometimes other way around. A lot of local stories to draw on, including a story of a student in 1950’s who fell in a cleft in the local cave system—they couldn’t rescue him even after days of trying so they just walled him in. Raised the hair on the back of my neck—I knew there was a novel there.

LRK: some stories talk about setting/environment a lot—some setting seem to disappear. Charles: I talk about location a lot, but it’s the unexpected things—the Starbucks on the beach in Thailand. Most of my characters don’t want to be in the location but grow to love it. Ruth—I like to bring out weird aspects of the places I write about—it was America’s turn. I have a hate-love relationship with America—started hating it, ended up loving it. Same with many institutions I write about—that comes through. Sharan—remind people of the practicalities of life in medieval times. Stephen—most effective is to describe a place through a character—particularly the way a place smells like. Very important and evocative. Often, too, that’s a clue. Also, if you can describe the sound of a place—makes people feel like they’re there.

Questions from audience. For Stephen—you ever thought of taking the Peak district local boy having to go to the visitor’s home turf. Stephen—yes—I’m exploring that . The big city is Birmingham.

Question. Danger of turning into a travelogue—how do you avoid that sound? Charles—I got a review that said it read like a travelogue with a plot, but it was a compliment. LRK—if I need to show something, rather than talk about the mud, I’ll have her stumble into it and curse.

Question: have any of you wanted to go on vacation to a place where a book you were reading was set? Sharan—Ngaio Marsh setting in N.Z.—I’d love to see those hot springs. Ruth—Golden Age books make me yearn for a country house. Stephen—never thought of going to Italy until I read Donna Leon’s stuff. LRK—most good indy booksellers can direct you too books/series that will give you a sense of a location where you’re headed.

Question: Isn’t location important to plot points—chases, hiding bodies? Location can limit you on those kinds of plot points. Stephen—Peak district is a great corpse-dropping location—lots of reservoirs. Charles—I look for good chase locations—helps me solve the problem to go and see the place.

Question for Charles: what sort of character would do poorly in Alaska? A person who has a passing relationship with nature—prefers to stay at a waving distance. Sharan—planning short story about an Alaskan locale I visited.

[jtb1951]

Absolutely awesome reportage; you have a terrific gift for this sort of thing!:). Thanks for being our eyes and ears! I've been to Anchorage and other parts of Alaska before so I can at least envision your setting, but I envy being at the panels. Thanks, vicki!

John.

[KarenB]

I'm so torn between gratitude for your awesome reporting and envy for you being there when I'm not! Oh, well, vicarious enjoyment is better than none at all and you are certainly providing that!

[Kerry]

Wow, Vicki -- this is awesome! Your synopses of the panels are brilliant. I definitely need to figure out how to get to B'more next year!

[Carlina]

Vicki...you totally rock....I shan't say more. I believe that covers it all...ah and yes...I cannot thank you enough for being the VBC writer on the spot!

[vicki]

I'm glad y'all are enjoying them--I like spreading all this great info to friends who weren't able to be there. More of the same to come in Baltimore next year--<dangle, dangle> :D

Okay--here is the transcription of a fun panel I attended Friday afternoon, which may be of interest to a lot of our writers who are interested in getting published:

<Sotto voce> Here we are in the La Perouse Room at the Egan Conference Center. At the head table, behind the microphones are editors Andrew Gulli, Sarah Durand, Kelley Ragland, Kristen Weber and Barbara Peters, preparing to speak on a panel called, appropriately enough, “Editors.” J

Gulli (moderator) is the editor of The Strand agazine
Durand is a Sr. Editor with William Morrow – does ficfion and non-fic, specializing in mystery/suspense on the fic. side; lots of NY Times best-sellers.
Ragland – Exec. Ed. of St. Martin’s/Minotaur
Weber – started Obsidian imprint – light and dark crime fiction
Peters – Poisoned Pen Press editor / bookstore owner. (B’con fan Guest of Honor)

Mod: How can an author sell more books?
Weber: Much falls to the author—make polished website, update as often as you can, talk to editor, publicist.
Ragland: promotion is important in publishing your novel. Writing is more important—must have something good to sell, but then must promote.

Mod: Should authors hire a PR firm?
Durand: No. We have publicists and a PR firm will often just duplicate what our PR people do. Your best friend is the local bookseller—they help connect to your core group—take them galleys, sign copies, etc.
Peters—keep librarians as contact—lots of niche marketing—ex: if book concerns quilting, make pitch to quilters. If there are authors whose work is connected to yours in some way, think about doing a road show-tour where you both appear—much more efficient. We rarely book one-author appearances at the store anymore.

Mod: Why do bad books get published?
Weber: We usually think it’s good when we buy it.
Ragland: May not love something, but know it will sell. It’s *hard* to buy a book, and you work on it a long time—have to sell it over and over again over the long term. If I don’t believe in it or love it on some level, I can’t do that.
Durand: I’m just glad they’re reading *something*!

Mod: If a book is popular, does that mean it’s good? Have you ever been surprised by a book’s success?
Durand: Yes—it’s very exciting to have something exceed expectations.
Mod: What causes that?
Peters: Luck? Read The Tipping Point for the long answer to that [vicki aside: most excellent book, that]. Maybe a better question is – why are books published where the quality falters? Tastes are different. But sometimes quality falters for no reason of the authors. Dan Brown wanted a blurb for Angels and Demons and I said no, not unless you fix lie and lay—you messed it up the whole way through. He said I’m a high school English teacher—who’s responsible for this—me or copy editor—he honestly didn’t know.
Durand: if you write what you know—helps make your work stand out if you have a passion—helps give you a hook, a built-in platform.
Weber: that’s a bonus—but not necessary

Mod: problems with fact-checking – sometimes research is not great.
Durand: Sometimes, yes. But we are dependent on authors to be correct with research.
Peters: helps if you have more eyes looking at it. But I tell my authors that if google can be my best friend, it can be yours, too. And the things you *think* you know can trip you up the worst. I had to check to see if McDonalds had an apostrophe. Sometimes it’s as good to convince me to you know what you’re doing.

Ragland: No time to check every little thing. It falls to author and copy editor more. We do have nets, but if you don’t do a lot up front, it’ll be a big mess later.
Peteres: if you miss anything, hordes of readers will catch it and email you.

Audience question re: whether they look at any unagented stuff.
Weber: No
Ragland: No—impossible to get iit done, from a tractical perspective. Your time would be better spent talking to agents rather than trying to get an editor.
Durand: Agrees—you really need an agent to advocate for you. Trying to negotiate a publishing contract without an agent is like trying to get divorced without a lawyer. You need someone to watch out for you.
Peters: we *do* accept unagented authors. In fact, that’s easier for us to deal with. We have only one contract and one deal. We treat all authors the same. But pay attention to our submission guidelines.

Audience question: is it a disadvantage if your agent lives outside of NYC?
All the editors agree that it isn’t. Weber: we do most things by email anyway and don’t have any idea of where the people we’re dealing with actually are.

Question: does a good review in the trade magazines (ie, Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly) help sell a book?
Ragland: the public doesn’t read the trades, but this can help sell the book to bookstores.
Peters: very important to library sales

Question: do negative reviews make a difference?
Weber: bad reviews not hurt as much as good reviews help. Some things you can predict, like PW doesn’t like cozies, Kirkus does, etc.

Question: why are print runs so low?
Durand: not every bookstore can take every book.
Peters: publisher tend to do print runs for pre-orders. A bestseller can hurt a small press. Only reason MacAdam/Cage could handle the success of the Time-Traveler’s Wife was because a big publisher came in and bought the paperback rights, which helped them.

Question: how do tie-ins with movies affect book sales?
Durand: I work on a lot of tie-ins, but they tend to come out before the movie does. [Got behind on note-taking here].

Question: can you talk about the research on the drop in reading and book sales?
Durand. I did see a study saying people read less now. Publishers aren’t losing money, but…
Weber: I think it’s a hard time economically.
Ragland: I think it goes up and down. I think people get hysterical about this.

Question: Are e-books changing things?
Peters: changes the *delivery* but we’re still talking about storytelling. And stories are still in demand.
Durand: however people are reading is good.
Peters: Ebooks still a small market, but growing, and will continue to grow.

Mod: Will piracy be a problem?
Peters: I just went to a digital right smanagements conference and will discuss this further at a panel tomorrow. [aside—I missed that, so if anyone has a summary, please post it down-thread].

Question (from bookseller): trade paperbacks are hurting our sales – people don’t want to risk $15 on a new author.
Weber: we don’t do many trade paperbacks.
?: mass-market paperbacks in flux—as price goes up to 7.99. 8.99, etc—they seem to be moving toward Trade pbs in price—less distinction between the two. [Lost some of this]

Question: what’s the best thing about being an editor?
Weber: they pay me to read all day.
Durand: I love my authors, love collaborating, the give and take, helping make people’s dreams come true.
Aside--Peters notes that she’s annoyed with how far in advance everything is now in the book industry. She’s having to book authors now for book tours in the spring, and readers are ordering books that an author might mention as a future project, or that might be a future project, but it’s not started and sometimes not even thought of yet.
Peters: there is a mom-factor—it’s almost like attending a birth to edit a book.
Ragland: the relationships with the authors and the actual work on the book are the rewards.

Peters asks a question: any of you editors ever want to write a book? I have zero interest. I can give suggestions, help design the book. Maybe editors like the creative process but not necessarily the writing process itself.
Mod: I’d love to be able to write, to be able to have the time for it.
Durand: I might like to try it, but now I know how intimidating it is to publish a book.
Peters: Million Little pIeces. It wan’st a big secret that it was fiction, and they tried to sell it as fiction, but the publisher marketed it as a memoir.
Durand: I didn’t think it was as big a deal as they made out of it.
One of them mentions that Augusten Burroughs’s family members have sued him saying that a lot of it was made up. A lot of this is point of view.

[jtb1951]

Thanks once more, vicki; your descriptions/transcriptions/observations have been stellar! You have certainly made the prospect of BoucherCon Baltimore very enticing. Great job!

John.

[mamaocllo]

Yes, many thanks, Vicki. Your excellent coverage might persuade me to go to a future Bouchercon or other conference.

[vicki]

I hope so, Mamaocllo! I'd love to see you in Baltimore or Indianapolis (B'con 2009).

Here's a fun blog entry (http://bbryson.com/mom/?p=549) about LRK's participation in program for arranging author visits to schools in far-flung parts of Alaska. Dana Stabenow talked about it at the B'con opening ceremonies--she lived in an Alaska town that wasn't even on a road, and said it would have meant a lot to her to meet an author back then. So it was part of the B'con program this year, and a lot of the authors took part in it, which is very cool.

[Younger Son]

I have never heard "Bouchercon" pronounced. Is it "baow-chur-konn," or "boo-shay-konn?"

[jtb1951]

Boucher rhymes with voucher.

John.

[vicki]

Yup, that's right. It's not a French-type pronounciation. I wondered about that, too, when I first read about Bouchercon.

[Younger Son]

I knew how to say "rhymes with." That would have been better than toiling several minutes over phonetics.

Can I say how impressed I am that LRK extended her stay in Alaska, and made correcting page-proofs harder for herself, so schoolchildren in Valdez could meet a Real Author? That's just so nice.

People whose work I admire are not necessarily generous of themselves otherwise. They don't have to be. It turns out she is.

[SaraB]

Thanks once more, vicki; your descriptions/transcriptions/observations have been stellar! You have certainly made the prospect of BoucherCon Baltimore very enticing. Great job!

John.

I went to some of the same panels as Vicki did, and her descriptions are excellent. Idon't know if I could do it as well with pen and paper as she did with her laptop. I know she did it! I saw her!:o

SaraB

[vicki]

Hi, Sara! :) I hope you and Sy enjoyed the rest of your trip to AK and had a nice, uneventful trip back home! It was great to see you both at B'con and the VBC g2g.

My memory stick was being weird at the g2g and would only record one picture of the gang--waaaah! And of course, now I can't find my cord to plug it into the computer and retreive even that one </technodunce>. That's why I haven't posted it yet. So if you have some nice pix you can post (or I can post them if you can send them to me), that would be great! I'll eventually get my one photo posted, but I'll just need to get to the photo place to get it pulled off of my memory-stick manually.

And if you have some B'con impressions you want to post, that would be great--post away! And tell Sy I said hello. <Waves to Sy>

[Andrew_strand]

That was a good job with transcribing the panel. Thanks for editing the controversial parts :-)
Actually being a moderator was more difficult than I thought. All the best,
Andrew F. Gulli
Managing Editor

[vicki]

Hi, Andrew! I think it can be tricky moderating a panel full of chiefs, but you did an excellent job. Audience note--the "controversial" bits were a few instances where Andrew humorously asserted his moderator-authority. 'Twas all in good-natured fun, as is so much of B'con.

By the way, as his screen-name and signature indicate, Andrew is managing editor of The Strand Magazine (http://www.strandmag.com/), an excellent resource for the mystery fan. There is, in fact, an issue among the B'con swag that I sent home via UPS. When it gets here, I'll offer the issue up in The Book Exchange for some of y'all to take a look at, in case you might be interested in a subscription for yourself and/or a reading-buddy.

[vicki]

I do have two more event-reports to add, but they were each with a single speaker, which requires much faster typing (fewer pauses and halts as where speakers do the back-and-forth thing). As a result I'm having to do much more deciphering and typo-fixing on these two. But I should have those up by Monday, if not tomorrow.

[sherrie221]

For being such a great reporter, since people like me only get the con experience vicariously - I'm passing on the following I recently received from Borders. The caption at the end is my contribution, so don't blame the cartoonists! :D

You can see the original at http://www.bordersmedia.com/features/pages/brevity.asp#

Sherrie

[vicki]

Hehehehe! Thank you, Sherrie!! I've had a lot of fun with it. I do have two more events to add--these both just required lots more clean-up, as they featured just one speaker and that goes faster than a multi-speaker presentation.

See the first of these in the next post--

[vicki]

<Typing quietly> Here we are in the Egan Conference Center for the “State of the State of Publishing” address by Barbara Peters, editor of Poisoned Pen Press and B’con Guest of Honor. The subtitle of this session is called “Are the book and the bookstore as we know and love them on their way out?”

Dana Stabenow (B’con 2007 High Priestess and Edgar-winning mystery-author) introduces Barbara Peters and gives her many accolades for her work as a bookseller, editor and patron-saint of the mystery genre, and for her willingness to share her immense knowledge of the field.

When Rob [Rosenwald, aka Mr. Barbara Peters] and I founded PPP, a question came up I referred to Jim Wan?? How many mystery books published in ‘90. About 1500. Last week—question as to how many mystery books published in ‘06 . Harder to answer—why? Need to define what’s a book, what’s a mystery, what’s “published.”

When we started, as a mystery bookstore, we specialized. Haven’t been strictly a mystery store for 10 years because not enough of them and because they’re hard to categorize

All categorization is inclusive and exclusive.

Genre publishing is about 20 percent of publishing -- half of this is romance – rest is shared by genre fiction. There are cycles – almost no historicals when we opened, but there is now more historical mystery

Chicklit moving out, paranormal romance moving in. Fantasy is hot now.

Charlaine Harris—we couldn’t have predicted her career.

Mystery is as far down in the market as you can get – more thrillers and romance knockoffs now. Will change, can’t predict what will be hot, so just write what you love, and it’ll cycle back into style. Publishing houses don’t have personalities as much anymore.

What’s a book? Very interesting question. Most convenient delivery system for storytelling ever invented. This may change. Reading books has become more interactive. All the kids we had at the Eoin Colfer appearance had been to the website, knew all the sound, visiuals on it. Questions now are who’s going to play in the movie, whose voice is on the audiobook? [Missed a bit here]

Readers are necessarily loners—reading requires someone to sit in a room by himself. BUT reading is moving to be an interactive experience. How is that going to affect how we read, and authors.

What is reading? What’s going on in publishing—conglomerates have many component parts. The communications within them is not terrific—as I see it from bookseller view—we had three authors trying to appear on one night—publicists insisted on their author appearing on their own—but they were all from the same house! I asked publicists if they didn’t talk to one another. They said no. One department can sabotage another’s work. They’re all working on their own deals.

The more things are computerized, the more people are prisoners of their software. Potential for mistakes is more catastrophic. The most difficult part of the process is supply—getting the books into the store—their condition, getting them in. I had to advise a publisher how to free some of their stock to fix a supply problem we had. I could tell him how because I’d just done the same thing around the corner at Costco. You do have to stay on top of it.

I come back to the question--how many books were published in 06?

What are we calling a publisher? My definition – (1) someone who pays their authors for their work, (2) it follows accepted industry practices, (3) it has some kind of distribution and (4) key—publishers publish at least five titles from people not related to the publisher.

The answered to the question – about 2,000 books

In an interview w/ Reuters - reporter asked if I’d heard of a multi-author audiobook available on audible.com, The Chopin Manuscript (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=87484&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1055044&highlight=) --I sent him a copy of our newsletter, which linked to it.

He asked—this is only available at audible.com—why are you pushing this if it’s not making you any money? Answer:
--our authors wrote to us about it
—it’s a good cause, supported by good people
—these authors’ fans are in our base, and won’t be happy if they miss this
-- if a fan goes to this book, and has to read chapters by 14 other authors—they might buy those other authors’ books from us.
Reporter said, “You’re taking a really long view here.” True!

It’s a big honor to be fan GOH, but it’s really an award to the group from PP Bookstore and Press – she introduces the staff of both.

Staff of PPP -- takes 8 to run a successful pub co. – will produce 2x the gross of the bookstore.

Future—I’d like to see pricing taken off books—hitch—the only price variation you can make is down. Very pernicious. Also bookstores have to figure out how to make money of of stuff off things other than books. They sometimes get paid a placement allowance to get display up front.

I think our bookstore is half store, half theater – why would they come in to buy sonething they could get cheaper elsewhere? Must give added value. Our events calendar is 250-300 events a year--attract lots of big authors, which pays bills for the new authors who will become big. When we have an event, I hold up the book and tell people that this is the price of the theater event. To keep this going, you have to buy books.

We may also develop a mobile bookstore. This year I wrote a real proposal. Why not take events to Phoenix—big city. But need more staff to do this. Related idea -- writers need to form road shows, do appearances together.

Some tours are without rhyme or reason. Doug Preston is big success at PPP. He said my publisher and agent are sending me on tour but I cant come to your store. It’s an exclusive Sam’s Club tour. We sent someone to his local Sam’s appearance and she, Doug and the driver were only ones there.

Doug says it was the worst thing that ever happened to me –only 3 people ever showed up. Sam’s provided jet, etc. So Doug went around the U.S. and talked to himself.

We started off with what we thought was the common intent, get books into hands of readers—but not necessarily intent of all. Individual intent sometimes trumps.

Etailing important -- we’re about to to start an etailing site—you don’t need to know how to do everything—you need to know what needs to be done and how to make it work and that you can hire someone to do it.

Small businesses fail most often for 3 reasons:
--commercial real estate factors
-- the owner retires/dies/runs out of gas
--economic factors

Chain stores—their model was great in 90s but is faltering. Borders sold off stores in firesale in UK recently. I spend time in B&N and they’re cooperative with us. One of things they’re talking about is that they’re getting squeezed by Walmarts and Costcos, but they can’t do cool events like we do. But their strengths are breathdth, real estate, non-fiction.

Information age – we used to be the info gate-keepers – you were the info conduit. Not like that anyway. More sales now customer-driven. A lot of our requests are for books that haven’t been written or even thought of. An author might mention it once, and readers think it’s a done deal.

We’re also being forced to work farther and farther ahead. Random is sending out it’s tour grid for next spring and I’m having to figure out who I want in the store then. I don’t know that yet, but you have to play in or get left behind.

So by the time things get to the store, it’s so old for me, I can’t even remember what’s it’s about. I’m thinking months away.

What’s a good book? There are three books—the one the author meant to write, the one that’s written and the one that the reader read—their own iteration. This is what readers want to come in and talk about. It’s rare to live with someone else who loves books. I do see, looking ahead, that books will become more products than literary works. More and more publishing is preemptive. James Patterson says he does four a year to keep three books by other authors off the shelves.

Branding--the title disappears and the author’s name becomes the brand. Some dead authors still going strong—ghost writers going strong.

Most 1st novels sold by title

Pseudonyums—authors often reinvent themselves with another name, but the publisher often unmasks them. Often good market reasons for this. But I don’t like buying into a culture of deceit where the publisher actively lies to me. When they do this, it’s unfortunate when they also lie ot the sales people, who may later be embarrassed when a first author turns out not to actually be a first author.

Random House – once put out that an editor only worked w/ author “off the grid” -- over scrambler phone—I decided to take some of that book, but copies didn’t arrive. So I called in and the employee said they’d shipped them to the author—“he’s right here in New Jersey. I thought – what is this ploy? If it works in the marketplace, anything apparently goes.

Frey—his agent tried to sell book as fiction to lots of publishing houses – but the publisher that bought it decided to call it memoir. Memoir was hot, but the Frey incident that stopped it in its tracks. Frey was not the bad guy here.

The joy of reading---however the story is delivered to you –the vehicle, method of it not matter—the storytelling is important.

Why have we [at PP] done well? WE READ. We’ve read the books. The saddest part for the publishing industry people is that they don’t have time to read. So try to find time to sit down and read.

[vicki]

FYI--here's a good blog entry (http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/670000267/post/310015231.html) on The Chopin Manuscript, which Barbara Peters mentioned in her "State of the State of Publishing" talk.

[vicki]

Here is a photo of the VBC gang, courtesy of Sara Berger (http://www.sarapublishing.com/) (thanks, Sara!)--from left to right, Carolyn Bright, LRK, Vicki VanV., Sara and Sy Berger. BTW--the picture was taken by the lovely Mary Saums (http://www.marysaums.com/).

[nkk1969]

Nice picture. Did you notice the guy in the back? He seems happy to be in the shot. ;)

[vicki]

Hehehe--I didn't even notice him until you pointed him out.

[vicki]

At long last, here's the report from LRK's "Author's Choice" session at B'con, which is about a very cool-sounding new project that we may see in stores within a year or two--wooohooo! <Throws confetti>

(Sorry for the delay, btw--in addition to RL distractions, this one took me a while to transcribe, as my notes were very cryptic, and I had to look up many of the name-spellings, etc.)


LRK – Author’s Choice talk

My background is theology. I have a degree in comparative religion from Univ. of California Santa Cruz, Master’s in Old Test. Theology--thesis on Role of Holy Fool in Western Culture.

I'm interested in idea of threads of images of ideas and figures you can trace with the benefit of archaeological discovery. A goddess figure--her attributes later become part of hymns to god and Jesus in New Testament.

This background was helpful in fiction writing I look at threads that connect different groups of people I’m writing about re: crimes. Nothing like Old Testament for studying storytelling.

I had to do a couple of talks for serious groups who know how to do footnotes. It was intimidating. I was asked by local seminary to do contribution to a series on the Business of God. So I decided if you’re asking a novelist to talk about theology, you won’t get theology but fiction.

I’m working on a collection that will eventually come out as Ladies of Spirit. Couldn’t be Women of Spirit because some of the figures are not corporeal, but rather spiritual.

The two I’ve done have been on Jephthah’s daughter and a woman named Beruria. I'm looking at a very limited piece of writing in the Old Testament, in the Book of Judges. The man Jephtha was a military leader -- was chosen as leader because he was strong, but he was obviously a thug. He was son of prostitute, gathered worthless men around him.

He goes and was filled with the spirit of God and goes into battle. But he doesn’t trust the spirit. He makes deal—if I win, I’ll sacrifice first thing to come out of my house when I get back. First thing that comes out of his house afterwards is his daughter. He says to her “what have you done to me.” (not “I’m sorry!”) So she asks for two months to mourn her virginitiy. Today, they’d rather have a cash settlement.

There are some things about stories that will bug you. I couldn’t leave it alone as a storyteller. I couldn’t leave it alone. Why does she just want a couple of months? Is ther no way to get around this? I think she knew what he was and I wrote a short story about it. It was a midrash (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Midrash/PrimerMidrash.htm), I realized. You take something from the Old Testament and take a thread and develop it and illuminate it. In this, a woman who’s in Kosovo, her dad is a gangster—she steps in front of a sniper’s bullet. Consequences she could not have foreseen. I like idea of writing a story from a story.

Second one concerns Beruria – daughter and wife of prominent rabbis – she’d been through rabbinical training, although not called rabbi because of custom, but she was one for all practical puposes. There are seven or eight tiny snippets of story about her. After all this time, she was so vibrant, she’s still there.

It wasn't until the 11th century that the Talmudic scholar called Rashi discovered this story about her—says that the reason that she disappeared and did not become mother of the synagogue was because she tempted a student of her husband’s and hung herself. Doesn’t fit anywhere. He seemed to need to control her because she was threatening. Weaving bits together of these snippets. These bits about Beruria are like sparkles on a cliffside where they’re not supposed to be. Bits about how brilliant she is—what a great scholar. She insults a pompous ass using her knowledge of scripture.

This was during the revolt, the great exodus into Babylon. Great upheaval, many villages emptied by Romans, many rabbis killed in gruesome ways. Beruria’s sister was taken to Rome and locked in a brothel. Her husband goes to rescue her. Found her and “tested her purity.” What would happen to such a woman coming back into a damaged community? As a novelist, I’m interested in how Beruria would support her sister and defend her from criticism.

One of most moving settings in Beruria’s story – sickness comes through villages. One Sabbath afternoon, Beruria’s sons both died while their dad was teaching. He asks where are the boys? She says they’ve gone to the house of study… Two more responses.

Then they eat and she asks him a question. A long time ago someone gave me something to keep and now he wants it back. Should I give it back to him? He says if someone is given something in trust, they must give it back to him. So she shows him the dead sons and he weeps. But she says—did you not tell me that someone given something in trust must give it back? Then he realizes that the Lord gives/takes away. Very moving. Can’t resist this as a storyteller.

Next one is about the goddesss Anat—consort of the storm god – look at the environment—long, hot time in spring and summer-- dry. By fall, you’re on edge, wanting it to rain—if not, you’re going to die – all depends on the rain coming. Storm god is very wild and uncontrollable, symbolic of fertility. In one story, he insults Anat – she gets mad and fights him. She's still mad when she gets home, so she turns all the stools and furniture into soldiers and fights and kills them too and feels much better. The idea of this woman as a loose cannon, but necessary for continuation of life.

To make the story—the midrash—the interpretive version of the story.

I’ll put these together as a book.

I want to put these in w/original text AND the setting—that’s the weakness with a lot of these stories. I want to give the story AND the context AND how it speaks to one modern novelist.

[Kerry]

Wow -- this sounds awesome! And great "food" for VBC discussions, no?

[KarenB]

Please, please write that! At the risk of incurring wrath from everyone here, I'd even say take time from Mary Russell and Kate Martinelli to write that!
(ducking from objects thrown across forum. . .)

[jtb1951]

No ducking necessary on my account, Karen B!:). This sounds like a collection that I would gladly postpone new Russell's and Martinelli's for <also staying on the move to avoid thrown, sharp objects> and it certainly appeals to me since I find a dearth of intelligent spiritually-oriented fiction available out there. It gets my vote, Laurie!

John.

[vicki]

It really does sound like a cool collection, doesn't it?

She's so right that a lot of the Old Testament stories lose a lot of their impact because of a sheer lack of context. My lower-elementary Sunday School students tend to get the glazed-eye look when we study some of these older stories, and I can't blame them. Unless there's a great contextual explanation in the lesson, I find that some of these stories make about as much sense as a particularly deranged Benny Hill episode.

This collection will present a great opportunity to get not only the original stories, but also contextual explanations from a scholar in the field, along with new interpretive stories derived from the originals from that same scholar, who is also an accomplished novelist and storyteller. If anything like that's been done before, I haven't heard of it.

Hmmm--I could actually see doing a series of lessons based on that for my adult Sunday School class. Cool!! Maybe some of us could even collaborate on developing a lesson plan for such a series. Hmmm.

[mamaocllo]

I will await that collection most eagerly. The vision of Anat being so mad that she breaks up the household contents, then feels better - that really resonates. I suppose we all have days like that, but without the supernatural powers to turn the furniture into something we can really use to take out our aggression. ;-}