Rob Kelley here, and I was talking to one of my editors, Scott Wolven, after he and his partner-in-crime at High Frequency Press, Shanna McNair, did a joint reading of their two new books at Portland’s Print Bookstore in late June. Over drinks we talked about a technique he shares with writers striving to be published.
Go to your local bookstore (this photo is from one of mine, Arctic Tern in Rockland, ME), find where your book would be on the shelves and make room for it (I put it all back, I promise!). It’s a form of manifesting, I guess (anyone who knows me I’m the least woo-woo person on the planet), but it does create a powerful image.
The idea of being a writer has been in my head since I was a little kid reading and dreaming of creating worlds like the ones I was discovering. I tried my hand at stories, but I was missing a critical ingredient that would let me go the distance: space. Space in my brain to let out my wild, creative self (not super easy for me . . . see woo-woo, above) and space in my life to take the time to do it right. To write, revise, incubate, revise and repeat. To go to classes and conferences and become a student again.
More than a student, a practitioner of shoshin, the Zen Buddhist concept of “beginner’s mind.” As a type-A kind of guy, I really hate being bad at something, being a beginner. And while, yes, I had an exceptionally busy professional career, I wrote a very early precursor to Raven (forthcoming 2025, High Frequency Press) in the 1990s! But it wasn’t very good, and I knew it. I chipped away at it over the next few years but didn’t really make any progress on it until around ten years ago when I picked it back up and started doing real work.
I started attending writing conferences and getting serious about working explicitly on my craft. I took a Stanford Continuing Studies class online, then started going to the Muse and the Marketplace conferences that Grub Street puts on in Boston. Then came Maine Writers and Publishers Crime Wave here in Portland, ME and Crime Bake in Boston. I took masters classes at Thriller Fest in NYC as well as here in Maine with our fabulous thriller writer colleagues Gayle Lynds and Chris Holm.
The point of all that is that I needed to create the mental space to be a beginner, a state I worked hard to rediscover, and one I keep fresh by always trying to be humble in my writing (funny how the work seems to do that for me!), while also trying new things to challenge myself, most recently taking up the cello!
What keeps you fresh, keeps you a beginner?
Also, beginning this month I’m adding a new feature to my monthly blog post: currently reading and next in the TBR list!
Currently reading: Agents of Innocence, David Ignatius, 1987.
Next from the TBR list: King of Ashes, SA Cosby, 2025.
Just finished “King of Ashes”. Cosby has a way with words for sure!
They are devastatingly good!
I just finished binging Jordan Harper – his short stories, The Last King of CA, and She Rides Shotgun. I especially liked Last King of CA. She Rides Shotgun has been made into a film and is coming out soon. Listened to Harper on a podcast the other day and he mentioned an affinity for Japanese crime cinema and it totally makes sense with the way he writes. I have 40 pages left on the latest Megan Abbott – El Dorado Drive. It is VERY, VERY good. Can’t just sprint through it because it’s heavy. And I just started William Boyle’s Saint of the Narrow Street – I’m 4 chapters in and I love what he’s doing. Both Abbott and Boyle are writing about the near past – the 80s and 90s – this time period that I remember but vaguely. It’s odd to think about this stuff as historical but I guess that’s what happens when you get older? SA Cosby is up next for me. I would totally be down to meet up and chat about any and all of these books! I know Brenda and Dick are working their way through SA and maybe Megan Abbott, too.
I love the idea of a Maine Crime Readers group! Pick a book and meet monthly to chat, maybe Zoom, maybe in person?
I love this idea!
I like this visualization idea, woo-woo as it may sound. And yes to a Maine Crime Readers group! Congratulations to you on the impending publication of RAVEN – cannot wait!
Thanks Brenda! I’ll noodle on the Maine Crime Reader’s group more. Could be fun.
Just finishing up Knife Creek by Paul Doiron. Love his books, always learn something, too. Yes to a Maine Crime Readers group. What fun.
Right? I’m sure we all have great books and insights to share!
Great question, Rob. What keeps me fresh/a beginner, is to work in a new, unfamiliar, scary sphere. I did it when I went from writing a strong woman in my Thea Kozak series to trying to write a trio of male cops in the Burgess series. I did it when I stepped behind the editorial desk in the early Level Best crime story collections. I did it again when I agreed to co-write a true crime in Finding Amy, and I’ve never stopped. Memoir? Check. Non-fiction about police shootings? Check. Romantic suspense? Yup, that too. I’m curious about what my next adventure will be.
Kate
It’s that beginner’s mind, taking all the skills you already have and applying them in new ways and new contexts. It’s why I say I want to write a series, but my first four planned books are stand-alone thrillers. I want a new adventure each time!
p.s. A reader’s group? What an excellent idea.
Absolutely!