Would You Want to Know... You?

by Peg Brantley
Evocative Characters. Intriguing Crime. Compelling Stories
(Who is happily meeting readers and writers at Left Coast Crime in Monterey!)




I recently saw a chart for Successful versus Unsuccessful People. I think it could also have been for Happy versus Unhappy People, or even... drumroll... Writers You Want to Know versus Writers You Don't Want to Know.

We hear things all the time about how gracious Laura Lippman and Lee Child are. They come across to readers as generous and kind and well... writers as people who readers want in their lives. Writers as people who readers want to cheer for.

Other than the obvious—that writers write stories readers enjoy reading—here's what I've come up with:

Writers You Want to Know	Writers You Don’t Want to Know
Have a sense of gratitude	Have a sense of entitlement
Make decisions out of love (there's passion in every story)	Make decisions out of fear (they write to formula)
Take the high road	Take the expedient road
Exercise forgiveness	Hold grudges
Want others to succeed and be happy	Secretly want others to fail and be miserable
Share information and data	Horde information and data
Understand they owe their readers	Believe their readers owe them
Operate from a transformational perspective	Operate from a transactional perspective
Understand it takes a village	Believe they are the village
Trust others	Doubt others
Continuously seek to improve	Believe they’ve got everything covered
Believe in others	Believe only in themselves
Set goals	Have that sense of entitlement thing going on again
Are honest in their assessment of how hard they work	Either say they slave away 24/7 or that they simply have the magic touch
Accept responsibility for their failures	Blame others for their failures
Include as many as possible in as many ways as possible	With each ladder rung achieved, they pull the steps up behind them

Do you have issues with any of these? Disagreements are fine with me. I'm not a politician.

What would you add?

And before anyone says it, I have some friends who say they could care less about getting to know any authors. All they want is a good book. And yes, I still love them.

How (Not?) to Disappear

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (William Morrow hardcover, 11 February 2014).

The story begins on Independence Day, 1976.  Felix Brewer kissed his wife and daughters goodbye and crawled into the back of a horse trailer.  The driver of the truck pulling it was the sister of his mistress, Julie, and its destination was a small airfield near Philadelphia.  Running away to avoid a charge of racketeering, Felix told no one his final destination.

Thirty-six years later, Roberto (Sandy) Sanchez, a semi-retired Baltimore policeman pulls a file off the pile of cold cases on his desk.  The unsolved case is the murder of Julie Saxony; the same Julie who had been Felix Brewer's mistress.  She disappeared ten years after Felix did, and her remains had been discovered in a Baltimore park in 2001.

The story flashes back and forth between the incidents that led to Felix's flight, beginning with his first encounter with his wife Bambi in 1959 and the details of Sandy's investigation in 2012 as Sandy soon realizes that Julie's death is very likely related to Felix Brewer.

The details of Sandy's investigation are fascinating and along with the flashbacks, will completely engross the reader.

Laura Lippman has an amazing way with words, and whether you've read her work before or not, this book will draw you in and hook you.




Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. 





FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the e-galley.

Do You Stand Alone?

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

Sandra Parshall, who happens to be a terrific blogger, posted yesterday about standalone suspense fiction and how she likes it better than crime fiction series, but that few authors are writing it. I'm not sure that's technically true. Many of us are writing it, but often, one of two things happen. Either the standalone doesn't sell as well as our series books, or it's so popular that readers want more, and it ends up launching a new series.

There are exceptions of course. Gillian Flynn writes popular standalone thrillers and grows her readership with each one. And some series writers have expanded their readerships by writing standalone thrillers (Laura Lippman, Harlan Coben). That's what I hope to do with my new thriller.

Yet, I love the character, and I know I'll bring her back for more stories. Her setup as an FBI agent who specializes in undercover work is perfect for a series that has a lot of flexibility.

I introduced Agent Dallas in Jackson #8, Crimes of Memory (which will release Oct. 15!). I had so much fun writing her part that I knew she needed her own story. And I had an idea that I really wanted to write about and she was perfect for it. My beta readers loved the story, and I'm still waiting to see if my publisher does too.

More important though will be if readers like it. Especially new readers. I know some of my Jackson fans will pass, just because it's not a Jackson story. But I hope enough new readers will be interested in the novel to justify the five months I put into researching and writing it.

Here's a quick description: Agent Dallas goes undercover to find a missing woman who is likely being held captive in an isolated prepper community. What she finds is a lot more terrifying.

Readers: Do you read the standalones of your favorite series authors?

Writers: Do you write series, standalones or both? And what is your experience?