Reflecting on The LA Times Festival of Books

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and thrillers

As the Murder We Wrote team gathered bright and early last Saturday morning, we anticipated a fun-filled weekend on our booth at the LA Times Festival Of Books. We weren't disappointed.

First, if you've not yet attended the LA Times Festival Of Books, it's an exciting annual event and probably the largest congregation of authors and readers in the western US. The event attracts somewhere around 150,000 visitors each year. Live music, food, all kinds of books and all kinds of people can be found here. Famous authors and celebrity speakers meet and entertain their fans every year.

This year, TV crews were wandering the campus, interviewing authors on their booths. Perhaps that's happened before, but I hadn't noticed. Murder We Wrote attracted the attention of an interviewer from KPCC radio, Pasadena, who questioned Gayle Carline and me about our books, about the event, and asked about our concerns regarding safety in light of the tragedy in Boston. The presence of additional campus security helped put our minds at rest, so we could place our focus on enjoying the event and meeting our readers.

Murder We Wrote is a team of about ten mystery/thriller authors who gather several times a year at different book festivals and events in Southern California. Now in our 3rd year at the LA Times Festival Of Books - our biggest event - we've become great friends and we are becoming more well-known on the campus. We have our own growing fan base of readers who seek us out, compliment us on the books they purchased from us the previous year, and ask us about our new releases. It's a wonderful feeling, and a real pleasure to chat with these people who come back each year to see and support us.

Our team name attracts a lot of attention, and an interesting moment on our booth this year came when we met Tom B Sawyer. He'd noticed our banner and strode over to introduce himself. Turns out Tom is a novelist, screenwriter, and playright. As the Head Writer/Showrunner, he wrote 24 episodes for the TV mystery series Murder, She Wrote. He enjoyed the twist on the name and it was our pleasure to meet him.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Kate Yackley, Vice President of Advertising for the Los Angeles Times. As a fellow Brit, she and I enjoyed reminiscing a little about our homeland, before she purchased a copy of my latest release, STONE COLD; a Brit thriller she said she was looking forward to reading. My thanks again to Linda Boulanger, owner of TreasureLine Publishing, for such a great cover. Stone Cold was my biggest seller at the festival and the cover drew many compliments.

Murder We Wrote offers a varied selection of mysteries and thrillers, including humor from Gayle Carline, Terry Ambrose, and Jim Stevens; my own psychological and suspense; legal by Teresa Burrell; romantic suspense by Anne Carter (aka Pam Ripling), noir by Paul D Marks, and paranormal romance by Susan Griscom. We had a lot to offer and we encouraged readers to browse.

For 2 days talked about books with thousands of readers who wanted to hear all about them...or so we thought. One of the funnier things we heard came from one or two visitors to our booth who, when prompted: "what kind of mysteries do you like to read?" responded with: "Oh, I don't read books." Yes, it left us without a response and wondering why they were at the book festival.

Another cute visitor was a gorgeous little 11 year-old girl who tried her hardest to convince us she was "quite mature" and ready to read our dark and gritty thrillers. We gave her a lollipop instead and she went away contented.

Not everyone at the festival is a reader. Our booth attracts its fair share of authors looking for advice on how to get started, how to find an agent, a cover designer, editor and so on. We especially loved it when young people told us they write. We attracted other sorts, too...and certain types of behavior we don't encourage at a book festival (which Gayle Carline will cover in a later post).

We all worked hard in the heat, sold lots of books, and still found the time for a good laugh. Here's Gayle Carline to prove it. I have no idea what she's laughing at, but this was the mood on our booth for the whole weekend.

As 5 o'clock rolled around on Sunday, we sat back for a few minutes to reflect, made plans for other events, then packed up our booth, said our goodbyes, and headed out in 8 or 9 opposite directions.

I know we'd all like to send our huge thanks to the thousands and thousands of readers who attended the festival. Once again, you made this such a fun event for all of us authors, and we look forward to seeing you again next year. 

Below is editor Jodie Renner's very helpful link to a list of other book festivals across North America for 3013-2014 http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.ca/2013/04/book-festivals-in-north-america-2013.html

With all the crime.....

By Jenny Hilborne, Author of mysteries and thrillers

I've noticed a lot of recent discussion about fictional crime compared to real life crime, with plenty of focus on the negative aspects of fictional crime, especially in the face of the horrific shooting events in the US. The fictional violence and brutality sometimes bothers me, too, if I think about it too much, so I wanted to concentrate for a few minutes on the positive, fun aspects of fictional crime.  

Mystery writers must consider many things in their stories: plot, subplot, motive, setting, logic, alibi, clues, evidence, witnesses, and conclusion, with explanation. It must all make sense. Different types of mysteries include a variation of these elements: a cozy is a more peaceful mystery with lots of clues, less action, and less danger to the main character; a hard-boiled mystery includes a lot of action and rough realism; procedurals draw the reader's attention to the rules of law enforcement; an amateur sleuth stumbles into the mystery by accident and helps the detective solve the crime.

All good mysteries contain secrets, riddles, and clues to solve the puzzle. What makes a mystery or a thriller spectacular, for me anyway, is the element of surprise, the perplexity of the plot, the probing questions that draw me deep into the story, and the fact it is fiction and not real life - a world I can visit, without participating in any of the crimes, except trying to catch the killer. After watching a couple of Agatha Christie episodes last week, I realized I mostly enjoy the red herring. It's a mind game using clues to capture and evade, rather than coincidence. The villain matches wits with the detective, the reader matches wits with the author to crack the case. The reader wants to work out the author's plot and the author tries to prevent it, until he/she is ready for the big reveal. We are testing each other.

Red herrings are the false clues that throw off the investigator, increase the challenge and make the mystery so much fun. Skillful mystery writers like Agathie Christie make the guilty appear innocent, turn the innocent into suspects and do so convincingly, sending us looking the wrong way. It's like finding our way out of a maze and we learn from our mistakes, sharpening our skills each time, both as readers and writers. 

Another spectacular part of the fictional mystery is the shock - finding out the guilty person is the one we trusted, realizing the flaws in our own judgement. This is another opportunity to learn about ourselves and improve our analytical skills.

Fictional mysteries bring readers together to discuss, imagine, compare, and to recommend. I hang out in various online mystery groups to share my thoughts and look for suggested great reads. Fictional mysteries become more and more sophisticated and the challenges get harder. Techno thrillers give us a glimpse into a possible future world and stretch our imaginations.

To finish, here are a couple of my favorite mystery reads from 2012:

Chalk Valley by D.L. Johnstone: Excellent suspense told from several viewpoints.
The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch: Well plotted with a maze of riddles and clues
Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham: harrowing story of corruption, perversion, abuse of power, and murder.