I was invited to contribute an essay to the Washington Post’s The Writing Life series and <a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/08/12/ST2009081202447.html”>here</a> it is.
This same week, I received a copy of The Lineup, a book in which crime novelists write about their characters’ origins. Most of the pieces in the book are straight-forward; writers such as Lee Chil, Michael Connelly and John Connolly explain when they found their character/calling. Mine is a mock profile of Tess Monaghan, as it might have been written by “Laura Lippman” in her feature-writing days. Look for it this fall.
Meanwhile. I was struck by something Lee wrote about his decision to eschew the bandwagon of PI fiction. Lee and I published our first books in the same year, 1997; twelve years later, he is a #1 bestseller and I am . . . not. Lee wrote against the trends, as he saw them; I cheerfully joined in, creating a PI character that fit within the prevailing traditions. Lee observes that most crime series were “soap operas,” and then hastens to add that he has no problem with soap operas. But, again, he chose to challenge the trend, writing about a rootless character with no ongoing relationships. It’s a good essay, as are all the ones I’ve read so far. My only quibble is that Lee makes it look like anyone could be Lee, if one would just sit down and noodle through a few things. My hunch is that for every Lee Child who analyzes the current crop of fiction and decides to strike off in a new direction and achieves amazing success, there are 1,000 others who attempt to do the same thing without the same results.
So, to recap: Tess, not dead. Me, on the mend. Lee Child, makes it look easy. What else has everyone been up to?
Great essay, and good advice to hear (and be reminded of).
Me, I’ve been recovering from the DC theatre adventures, gearing up for more theatre this fall and wondering when we’re ever going to hear about our state arts grant. (Long, horrible story about why it’s delayed this year, but the delay is beginning to affect our planning.)
I LOVE your essay! You wonderfully articulate your attachment to Tess as well as your feelings that you will know when the time is right to part company with the fetching gumshoe who is herself from the Baltimore ‘burbs.
I am in no hurry to say farewell to her and I agree that you have struck a delightfully inspired balance between penning the chapters of Tess’ story and your sojourns to Charm City’s periphery for the telling of a darker tale.
I am pleased to see that you have the confidence to come to that decision on your own and not be unduly influenced by critics or individuals who do not share your perspective or that of some of your more loyal fans.
You will probably stop writing about Tess someday but the decision to do that should truly be yours and yours alone. I, for one, hope that she sticks around for awhile as I am a bit smitten with the rowing private eye from Ten Hills.
I do enjoy your stand alone novels a great deal also and, more than anything, I hope quite simply that you continue writing and publishing books for many years to come. I promise to continue buying and reading them if you will merely continue plying your trade.
I was delighted with your interview with Marie Arana. Having only heard you speak about two times, I enjoyed the tenor/quality of your voice and the stories you had to tell. Thanks.
Great essay, Laura. I see some themes you’ve toched on when I’ve interviewed you, and it’s nice to see them coalesce here. You also make a good point about Lee Child. Without having read the essay (though greatly looking forward to the book – what a great idea), could it be that there is some modesty (false or otherwise) at play?
“What else has everyone been up to?”
Well, at the end of July and beginning of August, the young folks and I spent a week in Michigan, with a couple of days at the immensely enjoyable and engaging Henry Ford Museum and then Greenfield Village at Dearborn, and a day at the kitschy Dutch Village, and finally a couple of days on the sunny, sandy beach at (the surprisingly wavey) Lake Michigan (near Holland).
Currently, I’m beginning to brace for my fast approaching 30 year high school class reunionat the end of this month. I think the way to approach it is sort of the opposite of, for example, going to Greenfield Village. In this case, instead of going to see relics and restored old machinery in motion, your role is to BE a relic or old machine – in whatever state of repair or disrepair!
Anyway – indeed, the essay on TM’s fate was muscular and succinct; not slashing, but instead purposeful and focused (as any good rower would be).
I’ve been massively side-tracked in my reading (nonfiction detours including Mellon, The Strongest Tribe, and Giants all conspired against me), and as a result I STILL have What the Dead Know on the “to read” pile.
The truth, I suppose, is I’ve been saving it. Once I read the first page or two, then all too quickly its delights will be expended and its surprises will be sprung, and then what?
Have spent the hot days in a/c, eating frozen yogurt, drinking iced coffee and tea, and reading–what else–mysteries.
Discovered L.R. Wright aka Laurali Wright, a Canadian author who passed away in 2001 from breast cancer. Read about her at a Canadian mystery authors’ website, got intrigued, then went to her website.
Her first book in the Karl Alberg series was “The Suspect,” which beat out Ruth Rendell in 1985 for the Edgar. She was the first Canadian to win it.
That book and one other by her have been re-published by Felony and Mayhem Press.
The local library has very few of her books so it’s time to buy used paperbacks from Amazon.com to read her complete series.
This was quite a find. Great character development, descriptions of Western British Columbia, and quite a motive for murder which slowly unfolds.
This is a way to spend the summer: discovering new authors and books while staying cool.
Hope you all have such “adventures.”
I first met Tess in Baltimore Blues, the book sitting on a table in the middle of the aisle at Greetings and Readings (Loch Raven and Taylor Ave). I am one fan who appreciates Tess and hope to read more about her adventures in and around Baltimore.
Lee is very modest, I think. One of the more striking encounters I’ve had with him was last January, when he arrived at a group book-signing unshaven and tired-looking. He was on deadline, he told me and S.J. Rozan. It then came up that the Reacher books are actually quite long, about 120,000 words IIRC. S.J. and I were both struck that his books read much shorter than they are. But it was also the only time I’ve ever seen Lee looking harried or less than impeccable. Of course, I like him even more for that!
The thing is, people do sit down and try to think about what it will take to write a break-out bestseller. But 999,999 of them will fail. Most of them will fail because they will be doing something derivative, trying to write the next Dan Brown/Elizabeth Gilbert. Lisa Gallagher, my former publisher at Morrow, had an interesting insight into that: “Nothing is as ever as big as the mother ship.” True, one can ride coattails, but if you’re only along for the ride — that is, if you don’t genuinely enjoy writing what you write — it’s going to be a long trip, staring at someone’s ass.
…which, depending on whose ass it is, ain’t necessarily ALL bad
“What else has everyone been up to?”
I am very happy to report that I am typing this in a coffeeshop in Balti. and antipating having steamed crabs tonight for the first time in 11 years!!
Hi Laura,
So I have been a fan of yours since last summer. Ironically, I found you in a book. I am into books about Maryland, and read Madison Smartt Bell’s book, “Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore,” where he details a walk through Guilford with you. After I finished, I went out to the library and picked up “Baltimore Blues.” I find it funny you aren’t a best seller, or at least a Baltimore best seller. Each time I read one your books, I find a new place I didn’t know about, and I am from Baltimore; or I remember a place I knew about and cherish it more (The Owl Bar for instance!). Anyways, I just wanted you to know I really enjoy reading your books, and they are my summer time escape, as for the rest of the year I am preoccupied by my teaching job. I still need to catch up with Tess though, as I am reading the books as a series and I only on “The Last Place.” Thanks again for enlightening people about Baltimore, and I look forward to reading “The Lineup.”
What have I been up to: Reading, and trying to keep my sanity until the first day of school (Ugh).
Brian,
Even if the ass is as nice as one described by Philip Roth (a detail referenced in LIFE SENTENCES, fyi), I think the view has to grow tiresome.
Diane, I hope those crabs were good. And DeAnna, welcome!
The steamed crabs were awesome! They were also expensive but were absolutely worth it.
I’m back in Colorado now and missing the humidity and oxygen.
I would be happy to send you some humidity.
I’m back. And thanks for the tip, Laura. Duh!
It merits TMP secret handshake!
Haven’t had crabs yet but I have 2 Nats games in September, so it will happen. Hard to find crabs here in the great midwest.
Jack Reacher rocks, but not as well as Tesser.
“Even if the ass is as nice as one described by Philip Roth”
I am intrigued by this remark; I don’t recall the reference in LS….but maybe it was when Cassandra assesses (so to speak) Reg?
See – now this is going to bug me!
So, just for the record – I began reading “What the Dead Know” just before this wrenching (and sure to become more wrenching) story out of California hit the front pages.
In many ways, it seems to really highlight how much detailed, nuanced work went into WTDK.
We live in a strange world, indeed
I’ve been traveling and reading very little online, so I’m late to this. IIRC — I won’t even claim to remember my own book with any clarity* — Cassandra remembers how her father, while often late on child support, never deprived himself of hardcover books, including Portnoy’s Complaint, which her father later explained to her had a passage in which a woman’s ass was compared to a plum. Or was it a peach? Some ripe fruit with a cleft.
Meanwhile, because I was on a mini-vacation, I turned down a chance to write about the Garrido case, which, in some ways, is even more relevant to the book-in-progress to WTDK. Suffice to say, I’ve done a bit of reading about Stockholm Syndrome and the Colleen Stan case. I urge Googling her name because she was an adult when she was taken and had to endure a trial in which the defense attorney insisted her relationship with her captor was consensual. There are some really odd things in the Stan case, but I still believe that her will was completely broken by her captor. My hunch is that Jaycee, taken at age 11, may face slightly less scrutiny. My hunch and my hope.
*I recently had to respond to a proofreader’s (excellent) queries on IN BIG TROUBLE, a book I wrote 11 years ago. The note with the queries said: “Most of these involve the nickname ‘Dutch.’” And my first thought was: “There’s a character nicknamed Dutch?”