Aren’t familiar with mystery novels? Here’s how to read one

Posted on January 19, 2024 by Maureen Milliken

Sorry this is late. Hey! I’m busy writing! Seriously.

Anyway, because of that I’ve dug up one of my oldies, but goodies. This one from March 2016. I’ve edited the lead-in a little to remove references about “finishing up” my second Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novel, because right now I’m on the fourth.

Other than that, this is good to go. Enjoy!

One of the surprising things I’ve found since my first mystery novel was published is that there are people who don’t read mysteries.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. There are genres I don’t read. But I was surprised anyway.

I’ve been reading mystery novels as long as I’ve been reading books, so it never occurred to me that some of the things about mysteries that those of us who read and write them take for granted come as surprises to those who don’t.

Some of the comments I hear from non-mystery readers who have read my books remind me of the elements that we take for granted in mysteries. I’d like to add that most of the people who tell me they don’t read mysteries, but have read mine, have been  gracious. They all said they enjoyed [my books], so I’m hoping they are converts. There are always those, though, who have to march up to a mystery writer at an author event and announce the don’t like mysteries, with the implication they’re not going to read yours.

For those yet to see the light, I’ve put together this tip sheet.

CHARACTERS

I know. Every book has them. But their special role in a mystery novel is all-important. There will be at least one character, maybe more, who you care about enough that when they face danger (yes, they will, it’s a given), you get nervous and shaky. I love characters and they’re the most important thing to me in any book I read or write. Characters are plot — why people do what they do is the engine behind every good mystery.

INFERENCE GAPS

Ugh. I know! We’re back to college English class. I wish the term were catchier, but what this means is that there’s information that won’t be given to you right away. Things will be hinted at or referred to and you’ll wonder what it means. Don’t get frustrated and think the writer is leaving things out. Later, things may happen, both little and big, that will help fill in the gap. Oh! That’s why he said he’d never go to Rumford again! If the writer lays every detail out for you from the beginning, there’s really no reason to keep reading. You want to be curious enough about things that you’ll turn that page. The only exception to this is in a series, when things that happened in previous books are referred to. That may throw you off if you’re not starting with the first book, but hopefully it will intrigue you, too. My second book, No News is Bad News, started a few months after Cold Hard News ended. The third, Bad News Travels Fast, came about eight months after the second. It’d be nuts for some of the people in the book not to be affected by what happened previously. They keep saying they’ve moved on, but they haven’t and it shows. Written well, it shouldn’t have any impact on your understanding of the book you’re reading. Readers of mystery series are used to this, but you may not be. Solution? Go back and read the previous books!

RED HERRINGS

I’ve always loved this term. At least three people who read Cold Hard News remarked that they liked the fact there were clues that made them think someone else was the bad guy, or they were led for a while to believe a different motive. Red herrings! False clues. People who you think are the murderer, but turn out not to be. If you really want a full plate of red herring, I recommend Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Five Red Herrings. It’s got a train schedule time-table plot that I never could untangle, but the red herrings are delicious.

QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERING

Why is he acting like that? What did she take from the cupboard when Rupert left the room? Who killed that guy, anyway? Why? Things will happen and they won’t immediately be explained. This is different from the inference gap. These are BIG questions. As a reader, I’m not a plot person. When I read a mystery, I let the plot wash over me. If I figure it out before the end of the book, the writer didn’t work hard enough. But these questions are what builds the plot. I’ve probably read Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise seven or eight times, and I’m still not exactly sure how the plot does what it does. It’s not her, it’s me. I love it anyway. There’s one part involving an advertisement in a newspaper that could be interpreted as a double entendre, so someone at the advertising agency changes it, unwittingly throwing off the bad guys’ whole scheme. Like the red herrings, it’s delicious.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

There’s something most writers — the good ones anyway — do that’s called playing fair with the reader. That’s you! This means that there must be enough clues salted through the book that the average reader has a shot at figuring things out. The murderer, in other words, can’t be the uncle from Pittsburgh who’s been living at a downtown hotel killing off his family and the reader never sees or hears about him until the last page.

COINCIDENCE

Yeah, there’ll be some coincidences. Some crazy ones. It’s how mysteries roll. Unlike real life, the mystery has to get solved, and sometimes you need one or two good coincidences to tie things together. The best writers keep them to a minimum and there’s an unwritten rule that big ones that solve the crime are a no-no. The better the writer, the more the rule can be broken. For instance, Kate Atkinson’s books are loaded with coincidences and they are wonderful and fantastic. I recommend any of the Jackson Brodie series. My favorite is. When Will There be Good News? A title I’d steal if she didn’t already have it. I also love Started Early, Took My Dog. Not just for the great titles, but for the books themselves. I would marry those books if that were a thing. They’re not really plot-heavy, they’re character heavy. Good characters and what they do are what make the best plots.

‘THREE TIMES WE’VE CROSSED PATHS, MR. BOND’

While characters are important, there shouldn’t be any who don’t play a role in the book whether it’s plot, character development, tone. Extraneous characters are a distraction. They’re not red herrings (otherwise they’d have a plot role), they’re not inference gap tools (otherwise they’d turn out to not be extraneous). A friend of mine calls it the Goldfinger rule (I don’t know if he coined it or someone else did, but it’s genius.) From the James Bond movie Goldfinger: “Three times we’ve crossed paths, Mr. Bond. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action.” In mystery writing, it establishes the person. I like my friend’s rule so much I’m going to write a whole separate blog post about it soon. [Note from 2024: Another promise broken, dear reader. I never did. Maybe I will soon.] For now, I’ll say that every character in the book should mean something. In No News is Bad News I didn’t bring back some favorites from Cold Hard News because they didn’t have a role to play and there was no point in trotting them across the stage just so the audience could applaud with recognition. “Oh look! There’s Bev Dulac!” Then, 200 pages later, “Hey, what happened to Bev? She was there on page 27 and we haven’t seen her since.”

DANGER! DANGER!

You will like a character. That character will be put in jeopardy. If it’s a series and he or she is the protagonist, it’ll all end up okay (most of the time). You’ll be worried anyway, because that’s the fun of the mystery novel. This will happen, in a series, more to this beloved protagonist than will happen to the entire population of an average American city in a lifetime. A normal person would be dead or in a rubber room. But the plucky protagonist will keep bouncing along and you will accept it  because you are reading a mystery series.

YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION

This is important with any book, but this blog post is about mysteries. I’ve had people email me or accost me in parking lots (it’s true!) wanting to argue plot points. I know I’ve read my book a gazillion times and most others have only read them once, but most of their questions are answered in the book. They just missed it. Don’t speed read it, dear reader. Don’t surf your phone with one hand and read with the other. If the writer is going to make sure she adheres to the Goldfinger rule, the least you can do is pay attention. I don’t mean to sound snarky, I’m just asking you to hold up your end of the deal. [Another note from 2024: After three published books, this has become one of my biggest peeves when it comes to reader complaints. I can’t force you to pay attention to what you’re reading, but please do, since it’s a mystery with a lot of moving parts. #yourewelcome].

THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE TOO GRISLY, SCARY  OR [INSERT WORD HERE]

This is a new one for 2024. I’ve had many many people since my first mystery was published almost eight years ago tell me they don’t read mysteries because they’re too grisly. Or they’re too scary. Or they’re too something else. As I said at the beginning, everyone has their own tastes. One thing I will say about mysteries though, is they span a huge range, from cozy to hard-boiled to terrorific. Don’t lump us all into one category, because that’s not how we roll. If you’re mystery-curious, ask your librarian, local bookseller or the World Wide Web for recommendations of mysteries that aren’t the thing you don’t read mysteries because of. You will likely find one you like.

LACK OF SLEEP

You will vow before you go to bed to just read one chapter. Then you’ll look at the clock and it’s 3 a.m. and you’ve read 15 chapters because you just had to find out what was going to happen next.

And that, dear reader, is all you really need to know about how to read a mystery.

Posted in Maureen's Posts | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

While Waiting for Inspiration

Posted on January 18, 2024 by mainecrimewriters

Kate Flora: Sometimes I hit January 2nd raring to go, with a brain full of a story that demands to be written. One year, it was two stories, and I had to make one wait while I wrote the other. This year? Nada. The urge to write a new story hasn’t arrive yet. So what does a write do when she void in the inspiration suit? Pull old stories out of the drawer and fiddle with them.

Actually, when I wasn’t busy in December with all those holiday things we do, I was trying to cut five thousand words out of a manuscript so an editor would agree to read it. The book was too long, but there weren’t chapters or even scenes that we easy to cut, so instead I found myself going word by word, cutting single words or occasional sentences to reach a word count under 100,000. It was brutal, and very slow going, and spilled over into January, so I didn’t have to face the idea void until the second week.

But now I am facing it, and honestly, rereading and editing old books is kind of fun. The first week I spent rereading a book called Memorial Acts. In truth, the working title for the book which is about how the mother and daughter in a military family let the loss of two husbands and fathers shape their lives, was called Blow Jobs for America. Not a title that’s easy to send to an agent, though these days it just might sell. The book isn’t a murder, although someone is murdered in the book. It would probably be called women’s fiction, or women’s fiction with elements of romance. It was fun to go back and reread it and decide whether I still liked the story. I do. It was only after I’d finished reading and doing a little light editing that I woke up one morning thinking: But in the first chapter, Amy is too unpleasant. I need to have her “save the cat.”

Maybe some people are unfamiliar with the term, “save the cat.” It comes from a book on screenwriting by Blake Snyder, subtitled: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.

The “Save the Cat” scene is the scene where we meet the hero and the hero does something—like saving a cat—that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him. So in the book, Amy, who is tired and grungy after a long plane trip and a difficult business meeting, gets in a grubby cab and when the driver does something careless, she yells at him. And then, not liking herself for her attitude and behavior, apologies, the drive apologizes, and she learns that he’s distracted because he has to drive the cab to make money while his wife is in the hospital having their baby. Grumpy changes to compassionate, a connection is made, and Amy is revealed in a better light.

Amy actually saves a lot of cats in the course of the book.

Rereading the book also reminded me of this: I wanted the book to open with Amy discovering that she’s gotten the wrong the suitcase at the airport and the one she’s brought home holds some very odd items. Curious about what to put in that suitcase, I asked my FB friends for suggestions. What I ended up putting in that suitcase, instead of the cute flannel pjs with cats she expected to find, were a bloody clown suit large enough to fit a tall man, an old photograph, and a bundle of antique silver wrapped in a silk nightgown. That set the stage for the man who shows up with her suitcase, and what his story is.

Revisiting an old manuscript is rather like meeting friends I haven’t seen in a while. I’m reminded, as I read about Amy, and her mother, Angel, and Luke, the man with the peculiar items in his suitcase, what it was like to spend time with them. It was definitely a book where my characters took charge and told me how the story was going to go. That doesn’t always happen and when it does, it’s both scary and fascinating.

Books can begin in so many different ways. With a character. With an event. With a scene that makes me wonder why these people are in this situation. Sometimes with a character who raises the question: who is she and what’s her story? The whys are always a significant driver of story. Memorial Acts didn’t begin with Amy in her taxi. It began with a prologue about a cop holding a dying man in his arms on a rainy night in a filthy alley. That scene is still in the book but not until much later. But it was that scene—the feeling of the night, the power holding a dying man had over the cop who found him—and my immense curiosity about what the story was, that led to a novel.

I’ve moved on from Memorial Acts to a book that still needs a title, about a political campaign and a girl who discovers that one of the candidates for president is her father. One campaign wants her to disappear; the other to use her, so she’s on the run from both of them. This book started because I was thinking about the strengths that Title XI, and women being able to be tough and competitive, give to today’s female athletes. Then the rest of the story, in which she reads her mother’s diary and learns about her mother’s affair, and her mother’s life when her mother was her age, followed. Unfortunately, the book 116K and needs a serious pruning. We shall see how that goes.

Who knows. Maybe rereading these old books will spark something and a brand new book will emerge.

And yes, I need to reread Save the Cat and learn how to write a log line.

Posted in Kate's Posts | 9 Comments

Machine Guns and Typewriters

Posted on January 17, 2024 by mainecrimewriters

From time to time, we introduce new Maine writers to our readers. Today’s guest, with his debut crime novel, is Rob Wallace.

On a brisk February day in 1934, a stolen state police weapon is in the guile hands of an unstable criminal. From his perch inside the bank, he sees a policeman sprinting toward the front door. With the officer in his sights, the gunman steadies himself at the window and places his finger purposefully on the trigger.

 For the first time in Massachusetts history, a machine gun is used in a crime.

 “Machine Guns & Typewriters” is the story of heroism and sacrifice entangled with bureaucracy antiquated investigative tactics during a bloody spoor of sensational robbery and brazen murder. On the outside two of Boston’s top crime reporters form an unlikely alliance which places them directly in the machine gunner’s nest.

 _____________

The last time I sat for a professional photoshoot was for the yearbook in high school. I never imagined a photo of me was so important among the checklist items gathered for the cover layout for my first book, “Machine Guns & Typewriters.”

It turns out, a headshot is an essential part of the process as critical as the acts in the story arch. Well, not that dramatic of course, but along with the book cover and bio, my headshot is a standard request when pitching “MG&T” for distribution and marketing. In a way, it feels like those three items are “proof of authorship” where the 100,000 words I hammered into shape and fussed over for months could only be confirmed as my own when accompanied by a photo including my widow’s peak and the crow’s feet creasing around my eyes when I smile.

I decided to have my photo shoot at the Thos. Moser Furniture showroom in Boston. All the showrooms are beautiful, not just because of the craftsmanship of the handmade chairs and tables, but the walls are adorned with the beautiful art from local artists. It provided a variety of colorful backdrops.

I chose the Boston location partly because the Public Gardens across the street offered another unique locale in a tranquil park surrounded by old-time Boston buildings raised in the background.

I didn’t realize just how perfect this particular Moser showroom was until the photographer needed a moment to change lenses. Holding my posture for the next set of shots, my eyes wandered out the plate glass window at the front of the store. I describe the moment like in the movie, “The Usual Suspects” when the detective dropped his coffee mug realizing he had been duped by the criminal himself spinning lies inspired by objects around the office as he fabricated a spontaneous story about “whodunit.”  As I sat recalling chapters and scenes from “MG&T” the 1934 universe I have come to know clicked into place and I realized key story moments unfolded just outside the doors of the showroom proximity.

In 1934, the detective bureau for the Massachusetts State Police was stationed on the second floor of the state house which was a short walk away through Boston Common.

Around the corner at 135 Columbus Ave., a prime suspect owned a radio and electronics repair shop. This owner and operator, Abraham Faber, was a graduate of M.I.T. and the mastermind of the gang’s most daring and deadly heists. The Columbus Ave. location stands less than a mile from the Moser showroom.

The stolen Packard automobile turned murder car was hotwired outside the Statler Hotel (now the Hilton Boston Park Plaza) just around the block.

The gang’s leader and strongman, Murton Millen lived in two apartments less than two miles from the showroom.

Of course, a half mile beyond the state house was Newspaper Row. In 1934 everything printed was set in ink block along Washington Street. The Boston Globe and Boston Post operated here as two powerful papers in the city.  This is where hard-nosed crime reporters Joseph F. Dinneen and Lawrence Goldberg most likely punched typewriter keys writing weighty columns exposing the truth behind the murders and robberies of the Millen-Faber Gang.

Ninety years on, a Maine legacy brand sits upon the porch of history based on true crime which changed Boston forever.

Posted in Guest Blog | 8 Comments

Nostalgia for 1950s TV

Posted on January 16, 2024 by kaitlynkathy

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, off on a tangent sparked by musing about the effect TV shows have on kids. The argument that watching violence makes children into violent adults has been around for decades. I don’t know how valid it is, but I do remember a lot of gun and fist fights on the television shows I watched growing up. Futuristic weapons were also prevalent.

Return with me now, as The Lone Ranger would have it, to those thrilling days of yesteryear. As I recall, back then there were only three networks, although in some rural areas, viewers were only able to get one station, and that’s if the antenna on top of the television set was pointed in the right direction. I was lucky in that respect. We lived close enough to New York City to pick up all the available channels and we had an entrepreneur in our little rural town who pioneered the idea of using cable to improve reception. He also sold and repaired tv sets.

When the original live presentation of Peter Pan with Mary Martin ran in 1955, it caused a crisis at our house. Our tv died only a few minutes into the program. Fortunately, my parents rapidly came up with a save. I was bundled into the car and rushed to my best friend’s house to watch the rest of the show.

Not only did my parents have a tv set by the mid 1950s, but so did both sets of grandparents. I can remember watching the popular soap opera, The Edge of Night (1956-1984), with my maternal grandmother when I was eight or nine. On the paternal side, my grandfather was addicted to Queen for a Day (1956-1964). The contestant with the most heart-wrenching sob story was the one who won the crown.

I don’t remember watching “kid” shows like Howdy Doody (1947-1960) or The Mickey Mouse Club (1955+), but with two friends I was a proud charter member of our local Mighty Mouse (1955-1967) Fan Club. Cartoons were a Saturday morning staple—talk about violence on the small screen! Westerns were everywhere, too, from Roy Rogers (1951-1957) and The Lone Ranger (1949-1957) to Annie Oakley (1954-1956), to Sky King (1952-1956). I also loved what passed for science fiction—The Adventures of Superman (1953-1958), Flash Gordon (1954-1955), and my personal favorite, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954-1955). Walt Disney’s Disneyland (1954-1958)—renamed Walt Disney Presents for 1958-1961—was another staple, introducing mini-series like Davy Crockett (1954-1955) and Zorro (1957-1960).

My mother was a fan of Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason (1957+) and devoted to variety shows, not just Ed Sullivan (1948-1971) and Red Skelton (1951-1981) but also Mel Tormé (1951-1952). Somehow, there was also time to watch situation comedies. Everyone watched I Love Lucy (1951-1957) back in the day, but we also watched shows like The Gail Storm Show: Oh, Susanna 1956-1960). Way before The Love Boat, that one took place on a cruise ship. I don’t remember a lot about it but I do recall that the actress who played the star’s pal had an all-time great real name: Zasu Pitts.

Zasu Pitts

How did all those shows affect the adult I became? Darned if I know. I certainly didn’t grow up with a fifties view of what a woman’s place should be! On the other hand, my very first writing, aside from newspapers for my dolls, was what could loosely be called fan-fic. What show? you ask. Almost all of them. The cast of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger interacted just fine with the characters from Sky King and Roy Rogers, as well as with the regulars who appeared on Mel Tormé’s variety show. There were also two characters named Kathy in the story line. One was an eight-year-old girl. The other was the queen of the kingdom where they all lived.

cast of Sky King

What do you think, readers? Did your television viewing during your formative years have a lasting effect on you? Share, please!

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

 

Posted in Kaitlyn's Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod World

Posted on January 15, 2024 by maggierobinsonwriter

A couple of months ago, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed (always a mistake, but better than that hellscape which is now the ominous X), when I came across this painting. It engaged me immediately: the sheen on the jar and dish, the imperfect apples grown long before they got sprayed to waxy and bug-free oblivion. I looked at the caption and was stunned to see Mondrian was the artist.

Now, we all think of Mondrian as the line and primary color guy whose grid paintings sell for millions, even though any kid with a ruler and poster paint could replicate the same thing in about 15 minutes. (The painting below was sold for $51 million in 2022!!!) But he wasn’t always a “modern” artist. It made me wonder about his artistic journey, so I fell down the usual rabbit hole of research.

Mondrian eventually distilled everything down to what he considered the very basics, thinking his Neoplasticism created “universal beauty,” and that figurative reality wouldn’t lead to the true spiritual nature of art. His utopian philosophy is somewhat lost on me, since I much prefer his apples.

Times change. Rock, jazz, and rap are a far departure from classical music, and how did that happen? Architecture has swung from the magnificence of cathedrals to brutal glass and concrete blocks. Evolution (some would say devolution) of the visual and auditory arts is a fascinating thing if you think about it, but the written word stays relatively immutable. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We all learned that at bedtime many years ago. Words have meaning and weight, and most writers struggle to choose the right ones, even in a blog post.  (For example, I just changed “correct” to “right.”) We need to be truthful, though 1984 territory seems perilously close in the wider world.

Yes, James Joyce messed around with structure (confession: I have never read Ulysses and am unlikely to at this stage of my life), and Kate Atkinson did something groundbreaking in Life After Life. Poetry is more elastic yet. Writers can use flashbacks, multiple points of view, creative punctuation, and tenses all they want, but most readers want something they can make sense of. (Fun fact: according to an art historian, one of Mondrian’s paintings has been hanging upside-down for over 75 years.)

I’ve evolved only to the extent that I started off writing romances, though my first love was mysteries (Judy Bolton, anyone?). Because I am not much of a plotter, I thought mysteries were beyond my capabilities. Maybe they are, LOL. But I’m working on my seventh anyhow, leaving 20+ historical romances behind me.

I’ve usually alternated points of view with the main characters. This time, however, I’m writing first-person, and finding it challenging yet fun. I’m really in the head of my turn-of-the-20th-century heroine. She is very much younger than I am, so I’ve got to be careful I don’t make her too mature/contemporary/jaded. Although it seems to me people were “old-headed” and more responsible at young ages in the past. Do you know the average age of a World War II RAF pilot was 20? Of those killed in action, the average age was 22. The world was saved by college kids. Let’s hope they don’t have to do it again. “We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you care who’s “talking” in a book? Read or seen anything lately that made you say “Wow?” What’s hanging on your kitchen wall?

Posted in Maggie's Posts, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Weekend Update: January 13-14, 2024

Posted on January 13, 2024 by kaitlynkathy

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Maggie Robinson (Monday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Tuesday), special guest Rob Wallace (Wednesday), Kate Flora  (Thursday) and Maureen Milliken (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Through Saturday, this fun collection of stories by series writers, including Kate Flora, is free. Grab it while you can.

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

Posted in Sunday Updates | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Michael Avallone – one man idea machine – and WRITER. (Not James Patterson style)

Posted on January 11, 2024 by jselbo

posted by Jule Selbo

I got way behind in life this month, with the holiday traveling, with the publication of my latest Dee Rommel Book (8 DAYS), a persistent (obsessive?) re-work of chapter 12 and 13 in 7 DAYS and cooking for guests and zoning out in front of the plethora of end-of-the-year movies. Since I’m a member of the WGA, I get the DVD “screeners”.  For some reason, viewing the Oscar Contenders off the silver discs is more exciting that streaming them (for me) and “one does have to keep up”.   I had started a post about the Legal Thriller and never got to the polish stage (maybe because I was reading Kate Flora’s knuckle-whitening legal thriller TEACH HER A LESSON.) All to say – I am RE-POSTING this because I still get inspired by this bio. This man let nothing stop him (and he didn’t do it the James Patterson way, thanks Joe Souza for the insight in your post yesterday).

We gotta enjoy the process.  And Michael Avallone certainly did!

Michael Avallone was active in Mystery Writers of America. He left this earth in 1999. Who knew him?

For lovers of 1950s – 80s “pulp” mysteries, Michael Avallone might be a familiar name.  I, however, first came across his name when I was researching Maine spy/thriller writer Gayle Lynds’ work for a Crime Wave panel – and Gayle’s history writing for the Nick Carter series surfaced.  Avallone was a “regular” “co-writer” for the Killmaster books that used the long-running house name (Nick Carter). For some reason I clicked on his name – and found he was a guy who boasted of authoring 1,000 books. He said “(I’d) rather write than sleep or eat” and believed “…a professional writer should be able to write anything from the Bible to a garden seed catalog and everything there is that lies in between. . . ” More philosophically, he wrote: “…writing is the last frontier of individualism in the world – the one art a man can do alone that basically resists collaboration.”  (Take that, A.I.!)

The deeper dive in Avallone began.

I found out that in actuality Avallone, writing under 17 pseudonyms (male and female), and in multiple genres, has a book count closer to 223. (But, giving him a break, he may have included his novellas, articles and short stories in that 1000 work total.) 223 or 1000?  Choose one of the other, the output is amazing.

Avallone was born in 1924 in New York, he had 17 siblings, his dad was a stonemason, his formative years were spent during the Great Depression. He often talked about spending as much time as he could at the movies and reading pulp fiction as well as reading and re-reading Dumas’ D’Artagnan/Musketeers series. (Dumas wrote in lots of different genres too, I was reminded of that when I was making sure I spelled “D’Artagnan” correctly.) While in the Army (1943 – 1946), Avallone wrote a diary, penned love letters for his buddies, authored an Army News column. Post war, in 1953, he published his first novel, The Tall Dolores, starring private investigator Ed Noon.

“I’ve been writing since I discovered pencils,” Avallone explained. Genres he dabbled in: horror (his Satan Sleuth series I have to check out – it included The Werewolf Walks Tonight, and Devil Devil), westerns, gothic romances, soft-core porn, sci-fi.

He also wrote essays, short stories, liner notes for albums, poetry, movie reviews, mysteries for children and novelizations of television series like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Partridge Family, The New Adventures of Charlie Chan and of movies like Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Shock Corridor and Cannonball Run.

Under the pseudonym Troy Conway he wrote The Coxeman, spy/mysteries that parodied the Man from U.N.C.L.E tv show, using “tongue-in-cheek porn”.  Titles included: The Blow-Your-Mind Job, The Cunning Linguist and A Stiff Proposition. What were most publishers at the time paying for these novelizations? About $1,000 a book.

(Avallone also did a ‘higher-brow’ novelization: A Woman Called Golda.”, based on an 8 part mini-series on Golda Meir.)

But predominantly, Avallone stayed with his favorite protagonist, Ed Noon, in the crime/mystery genre. He even wrote radio serials based on his Ed Noon character – a series called The Wind Up.

Did the man ever sleep?

David Avallone, a filmmaker and one of the author’s two sons wrote in his blog:  My father got up every morning around seven a.m. He would walk to the local coffee shop and have a cup or two with the hoi polloi. He would return home before 9:30 a.m. and sit at “the machine.” The late industrial revolution sound effect of a manual typewriter would then start up. It would go, with very few pauses longer than a minute, until someone brought him a sandwich, or reminded him to eat. When I would come home from school, he would finish whatever sentence he was in the middle of, and we’d play catch for an hour. Then back at the machine. Until dinner. If he was enjoying himself a lot, or had a deadline, he would go back to the machine and write until nine, ten at night. He did this five or six days a week for something like fifty years. The result was not always literature, but sometimes it was.

If he didn’t have a book or a story to write, he’d knock out essays or spend the day writing letters. Hundreds of thousands of letters.

(Avallone had a reputation for being a tireless self -promoter and letter writer and being his own greatest fan.)

Avallone said he became a writer out of love of the English language – the ability to make people conjure images by mentioning single words and further holding their attention by stringing the words together into a sentence. He said he wrote for the pleasure, rather than the gain of fame or money. Asked if he ever considered writing to be a painful exercise, he said: “Writing is my religion.” He once completed a novel in a day and a half. Another time, he wrote a 1,500-word short story in 20 minutes while dining in a New York restaurant. In his all-time-record year, he churned out 27 books.

Avallone also liked to talk about writing, he lectured in high school and college writing classes – at places such as Columbia to Rutgers. His encouragement: “The best advice any writer can give to another writer or someone who wants to write, which cannot be taught, is to write, write, write.”

Certainly, he took his own advice. And, perhaps, in writing writing writing, he got a reputation for more than a few off/weird/not-thought-through turns of phrase. The Independent noted that Avallone caused “grievous bodily harm” to the English language; the magazine highlighted a few examples of “sketchy prose styling and mangled or downright weird metaphors”. From Avallone’s Assassins Don’t Die in Bed (1968): “His thin mustache was neatly placed between a peaked nose and two eyes like black marbles.” From The Horrible Man (1968): “She … unearthed one of her fantastic breasts from the folds of her sheath skirt.” The New York Times cited this gem: “The footsteps didn’t walk right in. They stopped outside the door and knocked…” as well as “The whites of his eyes came up in their sockets like moons over an oasis lined with palm trees.” (Not sure if the editors were top-notch.)

But he also got a few kudos (and a 1989 Anthony Award for his last Ed Noon novel, High Noon at Midnight.) Author Bill Pronzini, who reviewed a few of Avallone’s books, wrote “Ed Noon is the least sexually arrogant private eye in the mystery history. When the heroine tells him she finds him attractive, he is almost pathetically grateful. He goes on to share with the reader his almost unbearable loneliness… This human quality is extremely refreshing. It is part of the way Avallone’s characters talk about fundamental human needs.”

I’m sure there are people reading this blog who know Bill Pronzini, another author with a very large number of titles, (40+ Nameless Detective books, 300+ short stories, lots of crime/mystery awards, also the Carpenter and Quincannon Series written with Marcia Muller (his wife)). Who’s met him?

Pronzini also wrote this of Avallone’s work: “On the one hand, Noon is a standard tough, wisecracking op with a taste for copious bloodletting and a Spillane-type hatred of Communists, dissidents, hippies, pacifists, militant blacks, liberated women, and anyone or anything else of a liberal cant. On the other hand, he is a distinctly if eccentrically drawn character who loves baseball, old movies, and dumb jokes, and who gets himself mixed up with some of the most improbable individuals ever committed to paper.”

Despite Pronzini’s observations about Avallone’s ability to relay fundamental human needs, it’s clear (to me) Avallone often embraced a heightened, imaginative reality in choosing his characters and plots. The client Dolores, in The Tall Dolores, is the tallest burlesque queen in the world, the “shapeliest Amazon”, a regular Empire State Building of female feminine dame. Dolores hires Noon to find her missing lover, who is even taller than she is. He’s disappeared under mysterious circumstances and then he is found, dead, on the Museum of Natural History’s steps.

In The Case of the Bouncing Betty (1956) a 440-pound female mattress tester becomes Noon’s client. Private Investigator Noon was originally a rather straightforward variation on the classic pulp private eye. But as the series developed, it became increasingly original and eccentric, with unique characters and plot devices.

Noon even became an unlikely sometime-operative for the President of the United States and was sent off on top secret assignments (in The Hot Body (1973) Noon has to stop an ex-First Lady (a Jackie Kennedy-type) from defecting to Castro’s Cuba.

Supporters refer to Avallone as “a fertile pro who delivered a good read and never condescended to any assignment no matter how unpromising—in fact, Avallone’s vibrant self-regard tended to elevate all of his work, and in conversation he could discuss his artistic intentions in one of his Partridge Family novels with the detail and fervor of a Shakespeare scholar annotating Hamlet.”

Some point to Avallone’s sometimes hilarious prose style – and the “Noonisms” (similes, metaphors, and descriptive passages): “Her hips were beautifully arched and her breasts were like proud flags waving triumphantly. She carried them high and mighty.” And: “I flung a quick glance through the soot-stained windows. A mountain range and a dark night sky peppered with salty-looking stars winked at me.”

Since I’ve always enjoyed reading overly “pulpy” turns of phrase in 1940s, 50s 60s mysteries (but never try to emulate Spillane, Chandler, Woolrich, Frederik Brown etc.), I was interested to see how Avallone might have introduced the “beautiful African American Melissa Mercer” that Ed Noon hired as his secretary once he had gained some success and his bank account was flush.

She is introduced in Bedroom Bolero (1963); this was the 13th book in the Ed Noon series. I was surprised that he held back in this section, and chose to deal with a “social issue” (in a way)…

She was a slight, miniature doll of a girl, with large eyes and a mouth that didn’t need paint. Her clothes were plain but tasteful, fully advertising she knew what to do with her hard-earned money. But there was a flash of disbelief in her eyes when I told her the job was hers.

“Why are you giving me the job? Think I’ll be easy?”

“I don’t pinch, flirt or rub noses in the office.”

“Sorry, it’s just that I’ve been had by white men. I’ve worn myself out trying to convince them being a colored girl is not a cliché.”

“I’m enlightened, Miss Mercer.”

I’ve done some research on Avallone now, I’m ready to read a few of his Ed Noon books. Another Avallone book I’m ready to check out: 5 MINUTE MYSTERES.

It contains a group of small stories, written to be brain-teasers. Each is supposed to have an “aha” that the reader needs to pick up on to solve the mystery.  GoodReads reviewers find most of the stories successful.

Avallone was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame (Arts and Letters category) and was awarded a Literary Luminary of New Jersey in 1977. He was editor of the MWA newsletter for three years (1962-65) and also served on its board.

On February 26, 1999, the acclaimed “pulpmeister” suffered a heart attack. He’s probably on a typewriter – somewhere – typing away – if you believe there is a somewhere out there.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

The James Patterson Method

Posted on January 9, 2024 by joesouza


I can understand why James Patterson has a stable of writers writing his novels. He’s an idea guy and freely admits that he’s not the best stylist when it comes to putting words down on paper. Sixty Minutes did a story about him years back and asked him what he was working on. Patterson proceeded to open a file cabinet and pull out a drawer, showing the interviewer thirty to forty ideas he had come up with.

What do you think of this method? I have mixed feelings on account that Patterson is such a generous and giving author. Some may think that Patterson having a stable of authors pumping out his novels is abhorrent, and in some ways I agree. Yet on the other hand, look at the careers he’s nurtured and grown. I’m sure the authors working with Patterson are happy, both financially and professionally, after aligning themselves with him. Everyone is doing well and making money. And the readers are still lapping up his books and making Patterson one of the richest and most celebrated authors in the world.

On the other hand . . . It feels like a factory, pumping out formulaic novel after formulaic novel. It’s similar to the movie industry putting out sequels and those stupid superhero movies. Honestly, I can’t read a Patterson novel. They seem like fluff to me. It is a literary sweatshop run by a wealthy overlord.

And yet I too have many ideas that I’d love to get out in the world. But how can I possibly do this in one lifetime. I, too, feel that my ability to generate ideas sometimes outweighs my skills as a writer. Currently, I’m plodding along with my newest book while the ideas keep coming to me. What if I could hire some talented writers to take my ideas and run with them? Would I do it, especially if I knew that this would make me a lot of money? Sadly, I think I would. As it stands, most of these brilliant plots I’ve devised will never make it out into the world because of time constraints.

Also, it would be fun to branch off and write about different topics. A literary novel, maybe. I definitely would write more horror and sci-fi stories. Often in this business, writers get pigeonholed into a certain genre and find it hard to break out. Their fans expect it. The publishers expects it. Their literary agent works in a specific genre.

I’ve always been an idea guy. They come to me all the time. Sometimes it starts with a character I’ve thought about. Other times an interesting idea comes to mind that no one has explored. Or a clever ending. I recently discovered a bizarre and fascinating medical case that is little known, but would be an intriguing physical trait for one of my characters. If I see two people arguing on the street, I concoct dialogue in my head to set the scene. While driving, I provide names to the pedestrians walking along the sidewalk. Everything in life is a narrative, every interaction a potential storyline. A train coming out of a tunnel. A woman walking a dog and looking upset. Two people in front of me at a baseball game and taking about their marriages. As a writer, I see life that way. I see stories in everything and everybody, which is why my head is full of plot ideas.

Yes, the next step is AI writing novels, but that’s a subject for another day. I’m just interested where you guys stand on this. Are you an idea guy or a word stylist? Or maybe you‘re a combination of the two. In this regard, I think every writer is on the spectrum somewhere. Maybe for me it’s because the ideas come easy without the slog of having to sit down and put these ideas into paper with my words. Then creating sentences. Paragraphs then become chapters. Writing is hard. Very hard, my dudes. Editing is hard too. But let them ideas keep coming.

In any case, my new novel, THE ANCHORMAN’S WIFE, is on sale this week for .99 cents. Where can you get a deal that good? For one third the price of your coffee, you’ll be able to spend a few days with some backbiting and evil characters. https://www.amazon.com/Anchormans-Wife-Novel-Joseph-Souza-ebook/dp/B0CFX6C1VP?ref_=ast_author_mpb

Happy New Year and enjoy your reading and writing!

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Is That A Full Monty, Python?

Posted on January 8, 2024 by John Clark

 

John Clark musing on ‘stuff’. Real Mainers are often familiar with someone who ‘knows stuff’. They’re incredibly competent, often self-taught folks who seldom have to advertise to get customers. Such individuals’ services are worth more than they generally charge and their skill set is passed around like Grandma Crebb’s apple pie recipe at a grange supper.

In the literary world one such cadre is represented by librarians. Good ones ‘know stuff’. They know a lot, but more importantly, they have the sense to know what they don’t. Many times this is more valuable because they have the curiosity, research skills, and resources to get whatever answer a patron wants in a courteous and timely manner. That drive and skill doesn’t diminish in retirement. I must get at least one informal request a week, generally from one of my fellow ‘pooligans’ at the Alfond therapy pool. This week, it was from my buddy Dana who was lamenting the difficulty in finding real leather belts that last. This morning, I’ll give him a printout with three companies that sell exactly what he wants.

When I started writing this entry for MCW, I had no clue how it was going to start and that’s one of the aspects of writing I like best…going from ‘huh’ to an idea that takes off. My original plan was to share a new direction or two that my creativity is taking. It started when I got serious about looking at a blog that is shared frequently on the Short mystery group. https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/

It collects links to many writing contests/challenges that have opened up. While many aren’t applicable/open to me, there are some every month that intrigue me, so I’m gearing some of my creative energy and time toward them. Two I recently entered involved writing a poem relevant to a photo. The image showed an empty shopping cart in a vacant parking lot in winter with the sun setting beyond a railroad track. The other was one where I had to write a 53 word story using a prompt. (both are recurring monthly challenges).

I’m currently letting a story possibility for the annual Al Blanchard and Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024, contests germinate in my head. It got its start from something our late mother, A. Carman Clark told me about a many times great grandmother. I’ve never written a historical mystery short story, but this one is well along in being written in my subconscious.

My other new experiment is on Substack where I’m serializing a book I wrote when I first took the NANOWRIMO challenge years ago. It’s called Afternoon Break and is not behind a paywall. I will be curious to see what kind of response it will get. If you’re interested, here’s the link.

https://songthresher.substack.com/publish/posts

Here's lookin' at ya, kid.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Weekend Update: January 6-7, 2024

Posted on January 6, 2024 by kaitlynkathy

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by John Clark (Monday), Joe Souza (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Thursday) and Vaughn Hardacker (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

 

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business, along with the very popular “Making a Mystery” with audience participation, and “Casting Call: How We Staff Our Mysteries.” We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

Posted in Sunday Updates | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment