A comment worthy of discussion

This comment from Larry S-
I bought a bunch of copies of the Deadly Ink Anthology to give to relatives and then got nervous because my language in my stories is so bad. Then I saw a bio of Stephen King and found out he was ashamed to show his mother he was successfully publishing work because all of his stories were being purchased by raunchy skin magazines. It made me feel better. Better enough to even send a copy to my spinster aunt. I guess one cannot spend one’s formative years in Hackensack and expect to emerge untarnished. I sure have enjoyed the Deadly Ink experience.
-end-

Larry, you bring up an important and seldom-mentioned point. Some crime writers have warm supportive friends, family and social groups that understand most writers’ interest in crime exists solely in the mind. They are not rendered suspicious of writers by reading a crime story, and they aren’t about to question their morals or motives.

Then we have the rest of us.

As an editor, I’ve heard some real doozy stories of paranoid friends, family and other readers giving major blowback to crime writers. So if you have slightly skittish relations, or friends who never read the genre, it can be a good idea to “spare them” the gory reading and limit discussion of your crime writing to those you absolutely know are going to be cool about it.

The way I look at it is, do you take friends and family with you to work? Do they get a chance to look over your shoulder and comment on how you’re balancing a column of numbers or soldering a piece of metal? No? Then why should they automatically have the right to judge or criticize you as a writer? Friends are friends, family is family, and what you write is your business.

2009 Crimebake–Al Tucher Reports

The 2009 Crimebake was my fourth, and it keeps the streak alive. There has never been a clunker among the presentations. The Crimebake’s reputation is getting around, and this conference was sold out. That made meals a little unwieldy, but such is the price of success.

I got the most out of two sessions. The first was by Hallie Ephron, who spoke about revising and rewriting a novel. She said that most authors finish a draft and plunge right into line editing, which should be the last step. She gave us some technique for looking first at the big picture. I can’t wait to start using what she called “leapfrog” reading, which involves skipping through the book and reading only one aspect of it, such as a particular character, the settings, or subplots. Whatever it is, decide whether it works, whether there’s too much of it, not enough, or whether the book works better without it.

Retired Boston detective John O’Shea spoke about handguns. After hearing his presentation, I feel less likely to make an embarrassing mistake, such as having a ballistics expert identify a bullet fired by a Glock semiautomatic, which does not have a rifled barrel like that of other handguns.(Markings on the cartridge casings are of more use.)

I often take home a one-line theme from these conferences. This year it came from Michael Palmer, who said, “Nobody succeeds in this business without help.”

The award for The Remark Most Likely To Lead A Desperate Writer Astray goes to cardiac surgeon and first-time novelist John Elefteriades, who told us that he connected with his agents “by operating on their relatives.”

Don’t try this at home.

Mystery Writers of America Report

Many, many thanks to intrepid reporter and novelist Albert Tucher at the “scene of the crime” in New Brunswick, NJ…

The MWA-New York Chapter held its second satellite meeting at Tumulty’s Pub in New Brunswick, NJ, on Wednesday evening the 21st. Returning to the scene of my graduate work in the late 70s made me feel young again.

Right.

I connected or reconnected with friends including Jeff Markowitz, Peter Quirk, and Bruce Conord.

Mona DiPasquale (dipasqualedesign.net) spoke about websites for authors. I still don’t have this essential author’s tool, and the presentation was a confidence-builder that helped me inch closer to the goal. Here is a grab-bag of insights that stand out in my frantically scribbled notes.

Most ISPs offer free web development software, which is guaranteed compatible. The author has complete control, but can’t take the site to another host.

If you hire a web designer, get everything in writing and assume nothing–not even that you own your domain. No one can guarantee a high ranking in the search engines, so don’t believe such claims.

The average web surfer will wait 4.5 seconds for a site to load before losing patience. Avoid content that takes a long time to load, such as flash. The human eye naturally moves in an “E” or “F” pattern–accross, down, accross, down. Effective web pages guide the eye the way it wants to go anyway.

Buy not just the domain name you plan to use, but also every possible variation or mistake or misspelling you can think of.

Mona DiPasquale does not think much of blogs, which in her opinion don’t repay the time invested in them. She recommended the website of Joyce Carol Oates as an example of a well-designed site.

A good site has clear statements of the genre of the book and what it’s about at the top of the home page, a memorable domain name, sample pages, a mix of text and images, and contact info and a prominent “buy this book” button on every page.

I’ll be back as more occurs to me!
– Albert Tucher

Note from Elaine Ash:
There is one more thing to consider before setting up your own author’s website…The question to ask yourself is “Do I have time for this?” If a website or blog is going to steal precious time away from writing, then that’s a big consideration. The best tool in an unpublished writer’s kit is a well-crafted manuscript. Without that, you have zip. However, once published, no author should be without their own site. So it’s a tradeoff. Make the best pick for you.

Deadly Ink anthology of short stories on sale now

Al Tucher keeps us posted!  The Deadly Ink collection of short stories is available on Amazon–seventeen short stories selected from entries submitted to the Deadly Ink 2009 Short Story Mystery Contest. Don’t forget to take a look at all the informative posts underneath the previous Deadly Ink update.

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-2006-Short-Story-Collection/dp/1411690605/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254776078&sr=1-2

Deadly Ink Conference–Questions Welcome

Albert gives us an overview of Saturday at Deadly Ink. Questions posed in the Comments section are welcomed.

Deadly Ink is primarily for mystery fans and writers. The conference offers no agent/editor appointments. At other conferences I always take the oppportunity to pitch an agent, but I have to admit that the Deadly Ink way is relaxing and enjoyable.
 
This year writers predominated. I reconnected with some friends, including Cheryl Solimini, Rosemary Harris, and Jeff Markowitz, and took in the Saturday panels and speakers. Most of the topics related to writing–creating villains, writing dialog, using New Jersey settings–but in the afternoon came three nuts-and-bolts presentations of the type that I prefer.
 
NYPD Lt. Bernard Whalen spoke about police procedures ca. 1940. One example he gave was a bomb that killed two detectives from the Forgery and Bomb Squad, so named because most bombs of the time were dummies, and the personnel spent most of their time investigating the extortion notes that came with the duds. The squad had absolutely no equipment for dealing with real bombs. The killer was never caught or identified.
 
Dr. Thomas A. Blumenfeld led us through a real autopsy, as opposed to the CSI Miami kind.
 
Finally, John Reisinger spoke about three unsolved murders from the early 20th century: the Hollywood directory William Desmond Taylor, the Florida real estate developer D.P. Davis, and the Bahamas businessman Sir Harry Oakes.
 
I was unable to stay for the Sunday presentations.
 
BLATANT SELF-PROMOTION ALERT: My story Religion appears in the Deadly Ink 2009 Short Story Collection, issued by the conference.

Albert Tucher reports from Deadly Ink

Albert Tucher, creator of the “Diana” character and series of short stories, reports that the bodycount is rising in Parsippany, New Jersey, where the Deadly Ink writer’s conference gets underway this weekend June 27-28th.
http://www.deadlyink.com/

Lincoln Childs is the Guest of Honor. http://www.prestonchild.com/
Jeff Cohen is Toastmaster.
http://www.jeffcohenbooks.com/index.html

Albert will be chacking in with more news of Deadly Ink for Ashedit.

An editor you should know – Anthony Neil Smith

Frank Bill profiles Anthony Neil Smith over at his blog:

http://frankbillshouseofgrit.blogspot.com/2009/05/hogdoggin.html#comment-form

ANS is the editor of Plots with Guns and someone every crime writer should know about. He has the respect of writers he works with, and walks the walk by regularly delivering his own brand of crime manuscript to his publishers. His latest is Hogdoggin’ pictured here. Order it on Amazon and tell your friends.  I think his next one should be non-fiction manual for writers on how to advance their careers. What do you think?

Anonymous-9 hits a win for Beat to a Pulp

David Cranmer just called with the happy news that BTAP’s second published story won the hearts and clicks of internet story readers around the globe.

“Hard Bite” went through strenuous rounds of polishing by the dedicated and perfectionistic Ms. A-9 before hitting BTAP’s inbox.

Our warmest congratulations, as we bask in the glow of publishing “Best Short Story on the Web.” The awards contest is sponsored by Spinetingler Magazine.

http://www.spinetinglermag.com/

Read Hard Bite here: http://www.beattoapulp.com/stor/2008/1221_a9_HardBite.cfm

American Tragical History Museum – Mike Sheeter Reports

And while we’re on the topic of sordid and morbid… Mike Sheeter sends this gem along…

In St. Augustine, around the corner from the Ripley’s Believe It or Not , there was a two story white clapboard house that billed itself as “The American Tragical History Museum.”  Vast swathes of American tragedy were omitted, but what they kept on display was fairly striking .
The lower floor featured the entire contents of Lee Harvey Oswald’s room at his Dallas boarding house. A fairly realistic mannequin of Oswald himself commanded the street outside, complete with his scoped Manlicher-Carcano. My first clue that the place existed was when I glimpsed the dummy sniper out of the corner of my eye, drawing a bead on me as I drove past. It alarmed me enough to stomp on the accelerator, in an instinctive attempt to get out of the line of fire.

The first floor was dominated by Oswald’s room, and by the same big gray Pontiac ambulance that fetched him to Parkland hospital after he was gut shot by Jack Ruby.  There was a small gift counter nearby, which sold souvenir calendars featuring grisly photographs of the dead, nude bodies of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.  They looked as thoroughly deckled as a pair of Spaulding Maxi-Flight golf balls.

The facing wall featured a selection of massive Calusa Indian skulls looted from one of the burial mounds that dot central Florida, and a huge salt water aquarium guarded by a couple of baby sand sharks, who glided over fifty years worth of straight razors, switchblades, and Saturday Night Specials dredged from bridge over the St. John’s river.

The real attraction was  in the back yard, where a glass fronted shed displayed the crumpled wreckage of a big gold Buick 225, the Jayne Mansfield death car. There was a letter under cellophane affixed to the shed, signed by one Anton Szandor LaVey, the high priest of the Church of Satan.  LaVey rather sheepishly admitted that Mansfield had briefly been one of his fellow diabolists, and that she had died because he had placed a death curse on her manager, with whom she had been riding.   St. Augustine is very much a tourist town, and the ATHM museum inspired the city fathers to whip up a municipal death curse of their own, much to the curator/owner’s indignation.

He was finally forced to close his doors, but not before auctioning off Jayne Mansfield’s Buick.  The death car was  purchased by some guy in North Carolina, a passionate Mansfield fan, and the last I heard, it was still sitting in his back yard, arguably the most macabre bird feeder in the U.S.

Mike Sheeter is the author of Preferred Customer, a short story thriller of international intrigue. Read it at Beat to a Pulp (link to the right).

A Visit to the Museum of Death

I’d been meaning to go for ages. A museum devoted to death is a must-see for a crime editor. As well, I reasoned, Buddhist monks often meditate in graveyards to attain spiritual clarity. An hour devoted to the subject of death might have more benefits than meet the eye. In retrospect, I’m glad I stopped for lunch beforehand.

The staff, all wearing Museum of Death t-shirts, were upbeat and friendly, with penetrating glances that directly met and held my eyes. Those folks can spot on sight the people destined for a “falling ovation,” which means you keel over, out cold, from viewing the contents of the museum. I was deemed a suitable candiate for viewing, and allowed to open the vintage jail-cell door that marks the entrance to a small vestibule. If you can handle the enormous, framed color photographs of dismembered hands and feet with chunks of flesh missing to partially expose bones, you’re probably good to go on inside.

From a tasteful exhibit of funereal fans, to complete crime scene photos of car accidents, murders and serial-killer rampages, the museum displays death and depravity in full color, full frontal detail. (Silly me, I wasn’t expecting so much nudity.) As well, original letters, drawings, painting and cards are on display, hand made by David Horowitz (the Son of Sam cannibal), John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson and others. Macabre but funny at the same time, Horowitz drew a picture of a meatball sandwich, with little human faces drawn on the meatballs.

I was getting dizzy after viewing an exceptionally clear and close-up video of an embalmer digging around for the carotid artery in a corpse, and decided perhaps I’d had enough. On the way out, the cheerful staff asked if I had any questions and  bid me, “Have a great life!” 

I sat in my car for at least 20 minutes, composing myself, reflecting on how fragile life is, and how happy I felt to be alive. I also wondered  if I was really living life to the fullest. I think the results of my visit bordered on the ”Buddhist monk” experience, a positive thing.

Can’t wait to go again in a few months, when some of the exhibits change. If you’re planning a trip to Hollywood, CA a stop here is recommended for crime writers. Eat lunch beforehand. Leave the sensitive and easily ill back at the hotel pool. $15. admission.

Read more about the museum here, scroll down for article: http://www.thecabinet.com/darkdestinations/location.php?sub_id=dark_destinations&letter=m&location_id=the_museum_of_death