"Dead, brutalized women sell books"

One British author who is also a reviewer is speaking out about what she sees as the increasing violence against women in mysteries and thrillers. She says that an increasing number of books feature male villains hurting women. “"Each psychopath is more sadistic than the last and his victims' sufferings are described in detail that becomes ever more explicit, as young women are imprisoned, bound, gagged, strung up or tied down, raped, sliced, burned, blinded, beaten, eaten, starved, suffocated, stabbed, boiled or buried alive,” she said. “Natasha Cooper, former chair of the Crime Writers' Association, agreed with Mann. "There is a general feeling that women writers are less important than male writers and what can save and propel them on to the bestseller list is if they produce at least one novel with very graphic violence in it to establish their credibility and prove they are not girly," she said.” Full disclosure: I know a female writer who has enjoyed incredible success due in no small part to graphic, over-the-top violence. I'm thankful that the adult mysteries I'm writing with Lis Wiehl are pubbed by Thomas Nelson, where graphic depictions of violence are not part of the publisher's DNA. You can read the article about the reviewer by clicking here.

For this, Palin needed a co-author?

From the first paragraph of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. "I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier”

"rugged splashes"??? It sounds like it would hurt.

and can you even start to imagine smelling that? What does "everything small town American" smell like? How about "Last Frontier"?

So much for appealing to the senses.

Somehow this seems like cheating

Teen someone managed to persuade her lit teacher to let her choose Shock Point as a book for her "reading response journal." Of course, she has an advantage no one else does: she can ask me questions. The report begins: "This story is pretty good so far. I like the author’s (my mother) use of time." And beware how you dress your characters (the book was written when Teen was just Kid). Teen writes, "I don’t like the main character all too much though. I know it is kind of shallow of me to base it off the way she dresses, but really the way a person dresses can tell you a lot about them. For instance Cassie wears “[a] vintage black thrift store shirtdress, black fishnets, and pink Chuck Taylor All-Stars.” A person who dresses like this would generally be the kind of person who wants to be noticed but just doesn’t want to admit it. The kind of person who wants to seem all punk and tough but really isn’t. I asked April (my mother/the author) about it and she said she didn’t really think that much about, she just saw someone dressed like that on the bus and made Cassie dress like that. So I guess I shouldn’t read so far into the way she dresses." Ah, the language of clothes. I guess back then I wasn't speaking it very well.

Bad, bad blogger

I spent the last few eight or ten weeks in deadline hell. Now I plan on being better about posting at least some of my posts from my livejournal, www.aprilhenry.livejournal.com, here.

Contemplating a mercy killing

This weekend, I contemplated committing a mercy killing. I was running and could see something on the road up ahead. The crows were hopping around it, looking excited. It was a squirrel, lying on its chest. There was some blood on the road but no visible injuries. But it wasn’t moving, except every now and then its tail would lift. I stared at its unblinking black bead eyes and tried to believe it was dead and that only the wind was moving the tail. Then I saw the tiny thrum of its heart, very fast. Earlier this summer, I found a beetle in our driveway, lying on its back, legs waving in the air. I carefully turned it over. It flipped back. I carried it over to the grass and told myself it would recover. I found it there in the morning, dead. And knew I should have killed it earlier. Now here was this squirrel. And a non-native squirrel. Squirrels, alive and dead, are a dime a dozen in our neighborhood. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Western squirrels that should be here, all pushed out by Eastern squirrels. So Audubon wouldn’t care. And it was too early for a vet’s office to be open. That left me and the dying squirrel and an empty street. I thought about hitting it in the head with a rock. I thought about trying to move it off the road. But then I realized it might be better if another car came along and finished it off. There seemed nothing I could do, so I ran on. If the squirrel was still there after I came back from my five-mile run I decided I would do something about it. We have an old bucket and a shovel. I would drown it. I know I couldn’t really speak for the squirrel, but it seemed better to die fast than to die slow. But it would be about 50 minutes until I returned. And that seemed too long. So I turned around after two blocks. I had only been gone for a few minutes, but the squirrel was just - gone. I don’t think it ran off. It hadn’t looked capable of running off. A minute earlier, the crows had been competing to pluck out its eyes. I think another neighbor took it in or dealt with it. I’ve since heard from a vet that you should pick up an injured squirrel (with a towel) and put it in a box. In a couple of hours, you’ll know whether it will get better or not. And if not - well, the vet had the same answer. Drown it. Commit a mercy killing. I’ve been thinking how loaded the word commit is. You commit sins. Crimes. And when you are committed to something, there is no turning back.

I'm teaching again this fall in Portland

I'm going to be teaching mystery and thriller writing again this fall in Portland. With two books a year (one adult and one YA) for the foreseeable future, this will probably be the last time I do this for a while. I've got two spots left. The 10-week class will be begin Sunday, September 13, at Annie Blooms Books. Email me if you are interested in learning more. aprilhenrymysteries (at) yahoo (dot) com.

The mail I get

This week I got an email with an offer. Stripping out the contact info, it says: === I have written an action-adventure novel (complete at 206,000 words). The work has been has been edited, and it has undergone extensive rewriting. It should be awfully close to publish-ready! Due to a recent financial disaster, I’m forced to sell the manuscript outright as quickly as I possibly can. My goal was to have it published, but that is no longer an option. I need whatever money I can get from this work as quickly as I can possibly get it. Call it an emergency, and you won’t be wrong by much. The book offers plenty of action, drama, and intrigue; a touch of romance, a few near-disasters, and a number of scenes that will touch your heart. I know you’re a busy professional. I also know the book has the potential to become a serious “hit” for someone with foresight who has the ability to do something with it. === A. 206,000 is too long. At least twice too long. B. Why would an author buy someone else's book, when she could write her own? C. And why would a publisher buy a book from someone who hasn't authored the book? Pretty much every publisher right now wants an author who has a platform, or failing that, someone who is willing to promote, part of which involves telling about your relationship to the book you wrote. D. Nothing right now is a sure thing in the publishing world. E. And who says authors have a lot of money - money that they want to throw at something that is definitely less than a sure thing? F. I hope you have a back up plan.