Read...while you still can!

Sound like something out of Orwell's "1984"? It's not. If some folks have their way, a huge range of books – covering everything from health (including our reproductive systems) to fiction (including Phillip Pullman, Mark Twain, and that great, terrifying Orwell novel) – will not be available in our public libraries or schools.

Does this matter? Of course it does! Especially as the economy worsens, more and more of us will be looking to read, and to educate our children, using public resources – resources our tax dollars have paid for.

Today marks the beginning of the Banned Book Week, a time when we should celebrate our freedom to read – while we still have it! Read one of the most frequently challenged books of last year. Support your local library. And make sure you know which candidates support our continued intellectual freedom.

And what radicals are behind this? Well, the American Library Association is one co-sponsor. Their literature points out the importance, saying:

“Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.”

Tricks and treats

Wow, summer is just barely over and already there's a chill in the air. The trees are beginning to blaze orange and red. And for anyone who loves cats - or a slightly scary bit of woo-woo, that can only mean one thing: Halloween is on the way!
One of the groups I chat with was looking for Halloween read so I'm going to blow my own horn and remind you all that my Cattery Row works as a Halloween-themed mystery. As it opens, it's early October in New England. The leaves are changing and Violet's shelter is preparing to host a Halloween party that will have games and prizes centered on cat-themed myths and legends. But someone is stealing cats...

In terms of other spooky/scary fun: I confess, I've been totally won over by the very real-seeming Southern Gothic of "True Blood" on HBO. I wanted to like them because I'd read so much about how Charlaine Harris, once a midlist author (like me), trusted her muse and came up with the idea of telepathic waittress Sookie Stackhouse and a near-future in which vampires would be campaigning for their rights - and I love them! So, tell me, do you have a favorite Halloween story or show? Something spooky for the season?

(and yeah, the new Worldwide Mystery edition of Cattery Row is less than $5, too.)

Books for Barack!

Man, most of the writers I know are broke. No exaggeration. And yet check this out: Author Ayelet Waldman sent out an email asking authors to donate books for a Barack Obama fund drive and she's gotten more than a thousand donations. She's gotten so many books that instead of trying to auction them all off, she's started "Books for Barack." The idea is that anyone who donates $250 will get a package of ten books, chosen at random, from the hundreds of signed, often rare first editions that she has received. And she continues to get more books! (That's her up top, surrounded.)

Writers are the coolest people – tied only by people who read. So check it out. Put your money where your heart is. Donate a book (or three) or send a donation and get the best surprise package in the world: Ten books ... and change!

Respect for the reader

I am not a master of mysteries. With each book, I learn more about plotting, characterization, spinning out the strands that will keep readers involved. But I love mysteries, and I am grateful for the interest and support of the readers who have encouraged and maybe even enjoyed my fledgling efforts.

That's why I was so ticked off when I opened Entertainment Weekly and read the following from Dennis Lehane, talking about mysteries: ''I was never comfortable with them anyway. I'd be writing these friggin' whodunits,'' he laughs, getting excited, ''and I could care less. I wanna tell everybody on page 2, he killed so-and-so, he done it! If you look at my books in that regard — and I'll be 100 percent honest about my flaws — you can see how I was whipping out the kitchen sink just to obscure s---, like the identity of the serial killer or whatever, and that's why the books got so labyrinthian in the last 100 pages.''

Lehane, for those who don't know, just published a non-mystery, an E.L. Doctorow-style historical epic called "The Given Day." I'm happy for him. But to launch his new venture, he has stirred up the whole genre war issue (are mysteries literature?, etc.) and it has given me a headache. I understand trying to drum up attention, but this simply shows a lack of respect for the reader (never mind the genre). I've never been a fan of Lehane, and after reading this I'm even less inclined to try his so-called "serious" fiction. If you don't love the genre – and respect the readers – you shouldn't have been writing mysteries. Shame on you, Dennis.

First, you get the rust...

As you've heard me complain, getting back into the writing discipline is hard, hard, hard. But I've been making myself churn out some words every day - knowing that they maybe total trash - following the theory that you let the tape run and eventually clean water comes out. Well, it's not exactly gushing yet. But I did wake up last night thinking, "Of course! she doesn't understand!" (which makes sense in the context of my work in progress). Very refreshing.

In case you missed it.

If only this were a little further from the truth.

please vote.

More than 140,000 responses...

from women of all ages, religions, and ethnicities. Read some of them here. And please do what you can: donate your money, your time, get a friend registered. Wear a button.

And vote.

The book is dead

The book is dead!

Long live the book!

In other words, kiddos, there's been yet another high profile story on why publishing is a dying industry, focusing on the multi-million dollar deals that don't pan out. Sure, it's hard. But guess what? We midlist authors keep on publishing. So if you all will just keep on reading, I think we'll be okay.

Christie speaks!

Wow! Today's New York Times reveals that a box containing 27 audiotapes of Agatha Christie talking about her life has been discovered!

The reels contain dictation, seemingly done in preparation for writing her autobiography. And what does Dame Agatha, grand mistress of the mystery, have to say? Well, Poirot – her first and most famous detective – was "a complete egoist." Miss Marple, another of her beloved creations, was "puffy and spinsterish."

My pride (Cat Lovers for Obama)

In the lioness sense, that is. Just bought this here. But, hey, if you order the button for fun, you should also go here and make a real donation, too. Every little bit helps!

Cats against Palin ...

Thank you, Paul Krugman for this link and quote (in yesterday's NYT blog):

We already had Dogs Against Romney. Now we need Cats Against Palin:

When asked to reveal something about Palin that no one knows, one woman offered, “She doesn’t care for cats very much,” and another chimed in, “Oh, yes, she’s afraid of my cat.”

... the king is dead, long live...

What's in a name? If you're Dr. Hector Carpentier, an impoverished young physician in 1818 Paris, everything....
(my review of Louis Bayard's The Black Tower in today's Boston Globe).

... and finally

Let's not forget those who died seven years ago today. And, let's face it, how the Bush Administration could have averted these attacks.
The warnings were going straight to President Bush each morning in his briefings by the CIA director, George Tenet, and in the presidential daily briefings. It would later be revealed by the 9/11 commission into the September 11 attacks that more than 40 presidential briefings presented to Bush from January 2001 through to September 10, 2001, included references to
bin Laden.

How We Write: Getting Started with Caroline Leavitt

Caroline Leavitt is the kind of friend a writer needs. Highly accomplished (eight novels - see her home page) and unfailingly generous with her time and good thoughts, she's also about 100 pages into her latest novel. But when she and I sat down to discuss writing, "how we get started" came up. So here are Caroline's thoughts on the subject. Mine are running today on her blog.

I’m really honored Clea asked me to guest on her blog. Part of my writing day is always checking in with her. How’s the work going? What are you having problems with? That constant support and connection keeps me going. The lucky thing is we are both starting new novels now, so we’re going through this whole process together and every once in a while, we are going to guest on each other’s blogs to talk about our writing progress. (So be sure to check my blog today for Clea’s entry!)

How do I work? Slowly---I’m in the honeymoon phase right now, where I have about 100 pages that work. The beginning of a novel is always wonderful because you are newly obsessed with the idea, you have a passion for the characters and the first chapter seems great every time you have read it (which at this count, for me, is about ten thousand times.)

But now, today, I’m venturing a little deeper into my novel, and the ground is giving way a bit. I set up my premise, but now what? (You should know I’m deeply superstitious, and while I can talk about the writing process forever, the thought of talking about the actual characters and plot gives me brain panic) So I gather my courage. I always start by rewriting a little of what I did the day before—say a page—the way you warm up your muscles with stretches before really getting into the exercise. Then I line up music that I know takes about three to four hours to finish. And I work. Today, I’m obsessed with my character Simon’s past and how it impacts his present, so I get to weave in some back-story.

Wish me luck.

Sarah Palin does not represent us

On Wednesday, Sept. 3, two concerned women sent an email to 40 of their friends and colleagues, asking them to respond to Sarah Palin's candidacy as vice president of the United States. These 40 friends and colleagues forwarded the letter to others. By Sunday, the bloggers had received more than 6,000 responses. Here are those responses.

"Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Eight months to go...

Big shout-out thanks to designer Geoffrey Boyarsky for this excellent cover!

Oh, and here's a cheering story: It takes a village to save a cat.

research...

Okay, I'm not sure exactly who did the murder, but if it turns out to be who I think, then I have my murder weapon. I also have a ton more information on the fall guy (or fall dog, to be specific), thanks to a long and very fun conversation with Eddie Ramos, the Duxbury Animal Control Officer (thanks, Eddie!). And I'm facing the hard truth.

It's hard to write. Damned hard.

Especially after a summer of revision and smaller projects, of cleaning up and paring down. It. Is. Difficult. To. Sit. Down. And. Write.

But, you know, after a while research can just be a way of avoiding the necessary. So... I'm doing it. (My current policy is to tell myself that if I can just bash out a rough draft before the new year, I can always trash it and start a new book in January. Reduces the fear element.)

Thought for the day, courtesy of W.B. Yeats:

'A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'

Looking for a murder weapon

So after much back and forth and the kind of agony that involves getting a cup of tea. Putting it down. Walking around the house. Checking your email. Putting a load of laundry in. Making another cup of tea, and then realizing you already had one cooling. Checking on the laundry, which hasn't yet reached rinse cycle. Checking your email. Pouring out the tea because it has gone bitter. Checking your email. Finally putting laundry in the drier .... I think I've finally started writing again.

At any rate, today I am going to a nursery/garden supplies store. I'm getting ahead of myself, but if I can find what I hope to find, some of the crucial pieces may just fall into place. I'm looking for a murder weapon!

Back to ... school?

The air is crisper, the brain a bit more alert. Time for new projects. And since I'm hard at work, please let me direct you to the guest blog I wrote on just this topic for Musings of a Bookish Kitty.

Jumping the gun....

OK, more on this when Banned Book Week starts on Sept. 27. But why not start early? After all, it seems quite possible that we may end up with a book banner in the White House if we don't keep on this.

(ADDED LATER: I am, of course, referring to Sarah Palin. And while there has been some question about whether she actually went forward with her plans to ban books from the Wassilla library or what books she wanted banned, the New York Times has reported - after talking to multiple sources - that she "approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books." When the town librarian vowed to resist censorship, she fired her. That's enough for me. More than enough.)

Celebrate your freedom while you still have it. Read a frequently banned book and pass one along to a friend. I'm going to start by re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's wonderful A Wrinkle in Time. Dangerous stuff, ideas.

Happy Labor Day

Enjoying the last days of summer..
.
Hope you are, too!

Friday's Forgotten Books: "Those Who Hunt the Night"

Picking up the thread started by Patti Abbott a few months back, I'd like to use today to draw attention to a really fun book, Barbara Hambly's "Those Who Hunt the Night."

I first became aware of Hambly's work through her Benjamin January series, a wonderful mystery series set in New Orleans before the Civil War. Her hero, Benjamin January, is a free person of color whose mother is a placeé and whose sister is a voodoienne. Trained as a physician in Paris, Benjamin has returned to his native city to find an influx of Americans, who don't understand the complex race relations in a city where African American citizens may own slaves. It's a great series, and I recommend it highly.

But while I was on vacation, I stumbled across another Hambly title in a used bookstore. I'd heard that Hambly had written fantasy before she turned to mysteries, but this lovely, fun adventure/mystery is well grounded in historical reality. Well, sort of... The period is early 1900, the dawning of a new "modern" age. Her hero, James Asher, is an Oxford professor, and his wife, Lydia, is a researcher. They are both so well grounded in science that you can imagine their skepticism when they are confronted by a vampire who claims to have been "turned" in the 16th Century. He needs their help to find out who is killing his undead colleagues – and he's willing to hold humanity hostage. By the time Ysidro wins over James and Lydia, I was totally won over as well. I'm not usually a reader of fantasy or "woo woo," but this engaging novel worked. Let's revive it from the dead!

PS. Check out Patti's blog for more forgotten books.

Falling forward

Well, I guess I'm starting my next book on Tuesday. After a long weekend filled with friends and family and maybe one more beach trip. It's Thursday already, so it's not going to happen now. I can't say this week has been a waste. The weather has been gorgeous, just a hint of fall in the air. And I've caught up on some outstanding freelance work – and on some old friends.

But one of those friends is a working artist, a musician and a painter. And when I told her about my dilemma – not sure which project to start on, not sure if I should apply myself or wait for inspiration – she put it quite succinctly. "When I make myself paint, something happens. It may be good, it may very well be bad. But something happens. When I don't make myself paint..."

Point taken. On Tuesday, I'm going to start my real writing again (the freelance is work-for-hire, so that doesn't count). I may have to flush the rust out of the pipes, but at least I'll make something happen.

Do you have any resolutions for the new season?

Guest Blogger: Peggy Ehrhart

Peggy Ehrhart is a writer after my own heart. An English professor turned musician, Ehrhart (pictured above with Homer the cat) penned a smart, stylish first mystery featuring... you guessed it, a blues woman, "Maxx" Maxwell, who sings, leads the band, and also solves crime. Sweet Man is Gone is just out now, and to celebrate, Peggy posed the question...

Why don’t more women play the electric guitar?

I’m the proud owner--and player--of several Strats, but female electric guitarists are such a rarity that when it came time to create my heroine in Sweet Man Is Gone, I went with the stereotype and made her a singer.

But why is the chick always the singer, never the lead guitarist? I’ve decided it’s rooted in profound differences between men and women--a topic for the sociobiologists. But I’m going to take a stab at it.

Most people who play the electric guitar start in their teens. The electric guitar has everything to recommend it to teenage boys and almost nothing to recommend it to teenage girls. And by the time the teen years are past, it’s hard to catch up. I started playing as an adult. I’ve now been at it for fifteen years and play like a fair-to-middling teenage boy.

Guys love gear and girls don’t. Girls are put off by an instrument that seems to require a mastery of electronics.

Playing the electric guitar requires physical exertion, speed, dexterity, and endurance—the very qualities teenage boys would cultivate whether electric guitars existed or not.

Most styles played on the electric guitar require loads of time to master, much of it spent in solitude. It’s a stereotype that women talk more than men and depend on verbal interaction to relate to those around them. But stereotypes are based on fact. I’m not sure most women can cut themselves off from society and devote themselves to hours and hours of practice the way guys do. And women who are introspective loners are more likely to spend their time reading--immersing themselves in words rather than sounds. That’s certainly what I did as a teenager.

And finally, most styles played on the electric guitar stem ultimately from the blues. The archetypal blues guitarist is male. His persona is that of a virile seducer who can get any woman he wants, a virtuosic player who can outplay any other guitarist. I had a lot of tongue-in-cheek fun with that in Sweet Man Is Gone.

But it’s significant that males start playing the guitar at puberty. It’s a great way to celebrate their developing manhood, and the competitive factor dovetails nicely with the way teenage boys interact with their peers. They compete with each other in everything, and they admire the guys who star—whether at skateboarding, on the football field, or in the band.

Teenage girls interact with each other not by competing, but by cooperating and sharing. Teenage girls who take up the guitar could of course find boys to compete with, but the last thing most girls that age want to do is scare boys away.

Furthermore, for all that teenage girls want to attract the opposite sex, they want to be courted. With rare exceptions they’d be uncomfortable displaying themselves as the blatantly sexual aggressor that the guitar hero tradition demands.

So it’s not surprising that so few women play the electric guitar. The wonder is that any do.

Clearing the deck

So after a week on the beach and more lobster than should be legal, I'm back here at my newly clean desk, thinking about what comes next. Before I left, a friend asked me if I knew which project I wanted to tackle: the grumpy pet psychic detective (based on my "pet noir" short story) or "World Enough," the bigger, possibly darker rock and roll mystery I've been toying with for over a year. Or something completely different. I told her that I didn't know, that I planned on not thinking about it over vacation and letting my subconscious make its own moves. That was easier than I expected. Sitting on the beach reading (Barry Unsworth, Barbara Hambly, Louis Bayard, and – my favorite new discovery – D.J. Taylor, whose Victorian mystery Kept kept me enthralled), swimming, staring at the horizon... it was easy to forget my own projects.

Even the one afternoon when it rained, when we ended up blowing off a lunch date with friends to sit on our tiny porch and watch the lightening recede over Cape Cod Bay, I found myself totally occupied by the present, rather than thoughts of the upcoming or the planned. The one flicker I had was in a dream, in which I was working on a book and was just delirious with glee because I'd just figured out some incredibly clever clue or plot twist. I think it was "World Enough," but all I really recall is that feeling of satisfaction. And then I woke to another breezy, sun-drenched day, water warm enough to swim in, and a great blue heron fishing in the salt marsh.

All in all, quite nice.

But now I'm back, catching up on freelance, and looking ahead and still feeling rather blank. It's the week before Labor Day, so maybe my mind is still on summer break. And I am thinking of that dream and wondering when I'll get back to work. If nothing happens by next Tuesday, I'll make myself write – just to get the muscles moving again. Until then, I'm hoping for another dream...

What makes a great catsitter

It's not just the security of knowing that our great friend Naomi (of the band Damon and Naomi) would feed and care for Musetta during our absence. It was also receiving this snapshot, from her cell phone, of Musetta waking from a nap "fine and fluffy."

Thank you, Naomi!

Gone fishin'

With Probable Claws in the can (or, at least, in the capable hands of the Poisoned Pen Press production crew), now's a perfect time to go on vacation, don't you think?

Back soon!

Spring ahead... to Probable Claws

Just got the word: Probable Claws, my fourth Theda Krakow mystery, will be published next April by Poisoned Pen Press! More info as I get it, and an excerpt will go up on my site soon. But in the meantime: someone is trying to poison shelter cats, and when Theda investigates she finds herself arrested for murder!

Colin Cotterill: Among the Hmong

In his latest Dr. Siri mystery, The Curse of the Pogo Stick, (which I review in today's Boston Globe) author Colin Cotterill has his Lao hero spend time with the Hmong hill tribes. Although he's taken against his will, Dr. Siri finds himself thoroughly enjoying his time with a people who are victimized by all, but who remain a spiritual and fun-loving people. A really lovely book.

PS. Check out Colin's website. It's fun, too.

Guest Blogger: Lauren Baratz-Losted

My guest today is author Lauren Baratz-Logsted, a multi-talented writer who has authored books in a variety of styles. Her latest, which looks like great fun, is The Sisters Eight a children's series about eight strong girls (sisters, no less) who find themselves and solve a mystery... with the help of their cats. (Here's a link to the first book.) Take it away, Lauren!

We all know the world can be divided into two groups. No, I’m not talking about Democrats and Republicans. I’m talking about Cat People and Dog People; and, since I’m here, I think we all know where my party allegiance lies. In fact, that allegiance is so strong, when I set out to write my first (unsold) book back in 1994, I had my heroine comment on the preference for feline help when solving mysteries, “Ever here that phrase ‘you sly dog’? As if!”

Twelve years later, in December 2006, having been stranded in Colorado by a blizzard, my family embarked on an exciting project: We decided to write a series of books together that would be suitable to the youngest of we three, “we three” meaning me, my husband Greg Logsted (whose YA debut, Something Happened, comes out in November) and our now eight-year-old daughter Jackie. The series, titled The Sisters Eight, would be about octuplets, born on 8/8/2000, whose lives change forever on New Year’s Eve 2007 when Mom goes out to the kitchen for eggnog, Dad goes out to the woodshed for firewood…and neither come back. Now the Eights, as they are known, must endeavor to solve the mystery of what happened to their parents while keeping the wider world from realizing that eight little girls are living home alone.

Jackie named the sisters: Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia. Even if it’s her mom saying so, I think there are some pretty original names in there and I really like the metafictional hubris of naming a character after herself – the nicest character, of course.

Me, I got to name the eight gray-and-white puffball cats that play an important role in the series: Anthrax, Dandruff, Greatorex, Jaguar, Minx, Precious, Rambunctious, and Zither. I think I did a pretty good job of naming too.

As I say, the cats do have an important role. In order to solve the mystery, each sister must discover her own power, and as the sisters receive their powers, the cats do as well. So that when Annie learns she can _____, Anthrax similarly learns she can…

Well, I guess you’ll just have to start reading the series when it pubs on December 29 in order to find out. Oh, and series publisher Houghton Mifflin has kindly created a website for people to keep up with the Eights.

So you want to be a writer...

Very smart essay by novelist Allegra Goodman from the Boston Globe.

Chatting with Tana French

Two weeks ago, I got to interview Tana French for the Boston Phoenix. The Edgar-winning author of In the Woods was in town promoting The Likeness, her second smart psychological mystery, and we had a good chat over coffee in the elegant Oak Room. I got to pick the choice bits of our conversation for the Phoenix, which you can read here. But, space being what it is, I couldn't fit everything in. So here are some bonus bits:

You've been successful as an actress, so why start writing?
Everyone else in my family is a writer, but usually nonfiction. I think it's only me and a cousin who write fiction.

I've always written. I used to write short stories,and then some godawful poetry when I was a teenager. I never decided to go back to writing, I just had the idea [for In the Woods] and I really wanted to see how it would turn out. I really didn’t think I could write a book, but I figured I could write a scene, and then another scene, and the next thing I knew I had a chapter.

Does your acting background influence your writing?
Yes, because for me, what the character would do shapes the plot, not vice versa.

There’s a little bombshell dropped at the end of The Likeness that refers back to something in In the Woods. Had you planned this all along?
No, I didn’t have a clue. That showed up halfway through The Likeness when I was starting to write -- it was sort of back engineered. What happens in real life is that you’re wandering around the house daydreamign and you go, "Oh! I know!” ... Your subconscious does stuff that you weren’t planning on, and it seemed obvious, like I’d been planning it all the time.

Thank you, Worldwide!

Oh, my! I just heard from my editor at Worldwide Mysteries, which publishes mass market paperbacks of previously published mysteries - and he told me that their edition of Mew is for Murder sold 17,232 copies! I don't think I've sold that many of anything ever. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but it's true. Now Worldwide is offering a lovely mass market edition of Cattery Row, so here's hoping this is a trend!

Agatha, libraries, pet psychics, and...

It's official! The new Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading edition of Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary, with my introduction, will be published next March, same month as Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles, also with a new intro by moi. Right around then, Cambridge Voices should also be coming out (see below), with my short story, "Lady in Waiting." Plus, the next Level Best anthology, Deadfall, will have my short mystery, "Dumb Beasts" in it. So the next eight months should be pretty busy. As for Probable Claws? I'll let you know when I do!

Cattery Row in paperback!

Mass market paperback, that is (i.e., smaller – and significantly cheaper). Worldwide Mystery has just published this new edition of my second mystery, Cattery Row, available only online (to check it out, click here) and with an absolutely wonderful new cover. Don't you think so?

Cattery Row Worldwide Mystery edition.

Coincidence?

Do you think it was just coincidence that the second season of HBO's "Mad Men" started on July 27, my birthday? After all, I am a redhead ... though probably more Peggy (on the left) than Joan

If you have questions you'd like answered, check out the wonderful, inevitable "What Would Don Draper Do?"