Suspense Your Disbelief

I heard about Erica’s wonderful, original, well nigh unique book in the thorny jungle of a writing contest. (The book was already published. Had already Made It.) Erica stood out amongst all of us clamoring souls because of that book. This Moment contains a hefty spoonful of the writing life, a dab of kids–in short, everything that makes this blog what it is. And read her bio. It’s a story–if not a Moment–in of itself.

My novel, The Wet Nurse’s Tale, was published by Putnam in August of 2009. I’m a bookseller by trade and the news of my contract—which I received over the phone behind the bookstore counter—so stunned me that my colleague had to practically administer smelling salts to restart my breathing. I remember riding my bike home from work that day: it was summer, I was flying along, and for a moment I was filled with a gasp of total joy. I’ve never skied, but I figure that’s what it feels like.

But maybe it’s because I am a bookseller that, soon enough, I found the grain of salt in the good news. My office, after all, is paved with publishers’ catalogues, each describing hundreds of new books. I see thousands of books arrive at the store and then (alas) get returned to the publisher when they haven’t sold.

I know all too well the odds against which my book stands. To wit: will my readers see what it was I meant to do? (Yes! They’ve understood that my novel’s no romance, but rather is about class and gender and a whole lot of bodily fluids!) Will the publisher spend the bucks to send me on a tour? (No, dang it.) Will my book get reviewed happily? (Yes! The Washington Post liked it! New York Magazine likes it!) Will I shrivel at the less than happy reviews? (Apparently not. Thick skin, I guess. ) Will I be totally frustrated that the local B&Ns keeps selling out (despite the fact that people KEEP going in and asking about it)? (Uh, yeah. Totally frustrated. Dumb chains. )

In the end, I guess my Made It Moments are just exactly those: instants which flare up and then die away again. What’s important is to find them in the work, of course, as you put two words together to say exactly what it is you’ve meant to say.

Erica Eisdorfer, born in Durham, North Carolina, was the first of the three children born to her parents, who had moved down south from the great city of New York and lived for some years in culture shock. The family rented a wonderful house edged by forest and she and her two younger brothers spent a great deal of time playing in the trees where she, due to her birth order and general bossiness, was constantly the admiral of the ship, the mayor of the town, the principal of the school. This sort of innocent play lasted only until her brothers, in what must have been a co-epiphany, realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore and went off by themselves to play with their trucks, leaving her alone forever. This is when she discovered reading.

After having graduated from Duke University, she considered, then rejected the idea of further schooling and went to work at the Bull’s Head Bookshop, where she has found gainful employment for the last thirty years as buyer and manager.

I am proud to present Ken Kuhlken’s Moment, or Moments–they range from A to, well, W–including one that will give all us emerging writers reason to never say die. There are some biggies here, some even touching ones, but in the end this Moment is about there never really being an end.

A couple years after college, I entered an MA program in Creative Writing at San Diego State University, and the program helped me
persevere and actually finish a novel. When I typed The End, that was a made it moment.

A professor sent my novel to some contest. An agent with William Morris asked to represent me. When I found myself talking to this agent in a New York highrise office building, that felt like a made it moment. But it came to nothing.

A few years later, a Viking Press editor called me, a year after I had submitted a manuscript of Midheaven. That was a made it moment.

And there was the time my mother told me about calling a certain school administrator who had prophesied I might end up as “a bum in the gutter,” and telling him about my new novel and an award it won.

I’ve won several awards. But I never got the rush I knew would come with the made it moment. The one that assures I had picked the right career. The one that would free me from day jobs, debts, and budgeting, give my family a swell vacation, and might even allow me to believe that after I died my stories would remain.

I have at times made my living writing stories. I have friends who’ve struck it rich. But from things they say I infer that they still feel just short of their true made it moment, because other people have struck it richer.

So I have adjusted my attitude.

For a dozen years or so, I have worked on a series about a detective. The series has gradually morphed into a rather epic tale of Tom Hickey’s journey from beginning to end. I call it the California Century novels, because it chronicles the transformation of the state through the 20th century, from latter day promised land into a prototype for the rest of the world, largely through the power of Hollywood.

My new book, The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, is number one chronologically, though it’s the sixth in the series. I mean to wrap up the series after nine or ten novels and a collection of short stories.

The made it moment will come when I type the final The End.

Ken’s stories have appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He has been a frequent contributor and a columnist for the San Diego Reader.

Ken’s novel Midheaven was chosen as finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for best first novel and the sixth in his series, The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, comes out this May.

I’ve been lucky enough to get to know author Peggy Ehrhart in a few ways, which might be why I hear her writer’s voice in every word of this Moment. But I don’t think that’s the only reason. I relate very deeply to Peggy’s prime reason for writing–and for knowing she made it. Stephen King (my all time Master, at least in terms of things writing, as some of you already know) would too. Read this and see if you agree.

I was bringing in the paper. My neighbor, Mitchell, was hurrying toward his car. But he stopped when he saw me.

“I finished your book,” he said. “It was great. Now my girlfriend is reading it. But she doesn’t like to pick it up at night because once she starts she can’t stop—and then she’s tired all the next day.”

Bingo! That was when I knew I’d made it.

Was it my goal to keep people up past their bedtimes? Unashamedly—yes.

I was a mystery addict for years before I started writing them. All my friends read mysteries too. We were graduate students in the English Department at the University of Illinois, and mysteries offered the perfect diversion after a day spent poring over Beowulf or Paradise Lost.

I still remember a magazine article about the lure of mysteries one of my friends passed along to me back then, particularly this one line: “Here I am, with several advanced degrees and a professional career, and yet I’m up at two a.m. because I can’t put down The Corpse Wore a Puce Peignoir.”

That’s power, I said to myself, and I want it.

Of course I also wanted to tell stories. And bring readers into a world I found utterly fascinating—that of a struggling blues band. And introduce quirky characters that were amalgams of quirky people I’d known.

And if there’s an overarching theme to my work, it’s that creative people create because they’re driven to create—and they’re willing to sacrifice a lot to pursue their dreams. Yes, there’s quite a bit of me in my amateur sleuth Elizabeth “Maxx” Maxwell, though she’s a blues singer and I’m a writer.

But I also really really wanted to keep readers up past their bedtimes.

Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor who now writes mysteries and plays blues guitar. She holds a doctorate in Medieval Literature, and her publications include a prize-winning nonfiction book.
Her stories have appeared in FMAM, Crime and Suspense, Flashing in the Gutters, Spinetingler, Crime Scene: New Jersey 2, Murder New York Style, and several other venues. As a guitar player, she has performed with numerous bands in the New York City area.

Her blues mystery, Sweet Man Is Gone, was published by Five Star/Gale/Cengage in 2008. The sequel, Got No Friend Anyhow, will appear in January 2011. Visit her on the web at www.PeggyEhrhart.com.

This Moment, the first ever penned by a writing team, has one of the best analogies for success in publishing that I’ve ever read. Take one graphic artist, and a piece of household hardware…OK, I won’t spoil things by saying anything more, but if Mary and Eric’s books are anywhere near as clever and well written, we’re all in for some wonderful reads, as well as some insight into this wonderful, crazy business.

As writers, how did we know we made it? A difficult question. Are we even sure we have made it? It depends on one’s definitions. If “making it” means sitting atop the New York Times bestseller lists, we have a long way to go.

It might be best to think of a writing career as a series of steps on a ladder, though sometimes one that must surely have been made by Escher. A ladder without any obvious beginning or end, where you can be going up from one perspective and down from another. At this point we can with all modesty say that we are climbing the ladder, or at least clinging to the rungs.

We knew we had got our collaborative feet on the fiction writing ladder when we sent “An Obo Mystery” to Ellery Queen Mystery magazine and rather than the usual standard rejection slip there arrived in our mailbox an acceptance.

We reached another rung in 1998 with the sale of our first novel, One For Sorrow, to Poisoned Pen Press. Having an actual book published seemed so astonishing that we’re not sure we actually knew for certain we had made it there until we had the hard cover copy in our hands, or perhaps it was on Christmas Eve, the year before publication, when our publisher emailed us a .jpg of the cover.

Now we are a few steps from our beginning and hoping to sell a new mystery series set in Victorian London. Poisoned Pen Press, with typical generosity, encourages us in this new endeavor, so perhaps we shall go up another rung soon. But as for the top of the ladder….who can say where that might be?

And what if we were selling millions of books? Maybe we still wouldn’t have reached critical acclaim, or won the Pulitzer, or if we had won the Pulitzer, the Nobel. Or maybe if we’d have won over the critics and prize judges but hadn’t made the bestseller lists, we’d be wishing we could sell more. But, of course, the Nobel comes with a cash prize. But then again, have you really made it, in any field, if you don’t have your own reality television show?

The husband and wife team of Mary Reed and Eric Mayer began writing together in 1992. After publishing several short stories in anthologies and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, their first full length novel featuring John, the Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian appeared in 1999. The American Library Association’s Booklist Magazine has named the novels as one of its four Best Little Known Series.

I didn’t know about Douglas Corleone’s prize-winning debut until I was contacted by his wife. Now that its release day has come, I am planning a stop by my local independent today to buy a copy. Another voice in the legal thriller genre! I can’t wait. Once you read this Moment, you might be pretty psyched yourself.

My “Made It” moment occurred when John Grisham accepted my Friendship Request on Facebook.

Sure, John probably accepts every Friendship Request he receives. We are, after all, his fans. And John doesn’t share anything on his Facebook page about himself or his career that you can’t quickly discover yourself by running a simple Google or Wikipedia search. But still. I like to think John sat at his computer one evening, heard my name calling out to him from his Inbox, and said, “Yes, I would very much like Douglas Corleone to be my Facebook Friend.”

Seriously though, there are all kinds of “Made It” moments on the road to publication, and each one seems shorter than the last. There was the brief thrill of finishing the first draft of the novel that would come to be known as ONE MAN’S PARADISE. That brief thrill was followed by another, even briefer thrill, when I thought the novel was actually completed. Then came the thrill of signing with a reputable New York agent, of having copies of my manuscript sent out to some of the most celebrated editors in Manhattan. Of having those editors actually praise my work. I made it!

Until the first rejections started rolling in. Oh, each of them were kind in their own way, admitting “a unique voice,” even conceding “an extraordinary talent.” But each, of course, ended with some variation of the words, “We’ll have to pass.”

Then, one day, well after I’d already begun to hate my protagonist Kevin Corvelli for failing me, an email arrived. The Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Minotaur wanted to speak to me regarding my submission to the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition. I had since moved from Florida back to Hawaii, and so they didn’t have my current telephone number or mailing address.

I returned the email immediately but it was well past 7 p.m. in New York and I didn’t expect to hear back from her that night. So, wondering what this was all about, I started drinking. A few beers, then a few more. Then my cell phone rang.

A month later I was back in New York City, where I’d practiced law for several years, to attend the Edgar Awards. There I received from the Publisher a small Lucite trophy with my name engraved on it, and more importantly, a promise that my novel would be published approximately a year from that day. I made it!

Well, not quite. As I write this I am but a week away from the release of my debut novel. It’s received some great reviews. Library Journal, in fact, states that “Fans of John Grisham…will enjoy [ONE MAN'S PARADISE] for the sheer pleasure of seeing a master defense attorney at work in the courtroom.” I can now, whenever I want to, hold my very own book in my hand. But I don’t feel as though I made it.

No, maybe someday I’ll be able to look back and define my “Made It” moment, but I hope that’s decades and dozens of books away. Because what comes after you’ve made it? Can you make it again? Or is it more like your first weeks in college, where now all you can do is look back upon them with fondness and wish you could live those days over and over and over again. I prefer to look forward. So as soon as I make it, you’ll be the first to know. After I Instant Message John Grisham, of course.

Douglas Corleone’s debut novel ONE MAN’S PARADISE is the winner of the 2009 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. A former New York City criminal defense attorney, Corleone now resides in the Hawaiian Islands where he is at work on his next novel. Visit the author online at douglascorleone.com.

Although I have not yet had the opportunity to read Gerrie’s work, her literary mystery is high on my TBR pile. (Well, it’s pre-ordered anyway. Call it my cyber TBR pile.) I am excited enough about it that I figured I’d post this today and perhaps re-post it on release day. Below read about the many moments that led to Gerrie’s Moment.

I’ve had a few “Made it Moments” in my writing life.

When my middle school English teacher told me I was going to be a writer. When I went to work for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and beheld my first byline and got a column with my name at the head of it.

After twenty years, I retired to write novels. I could have written true crime books given my background, but real-life good guys don’t always win. Like my heroine, Dru in The End Game, I want justice for the good and the evil. It would be my love of crime fiction that dictated my genre.

My first effort was a romance with some mystery, the genre called romantic suspense. Like all writers, I had my eye on a New York publisher, but that didn’t happen right away. Not even with an agent. Instead, I signed with an e-book company for four books in the romance series. I felt I’d kind of made it.

I wanted to do a who-done-it mystery with a thriller aspect, so I created Moriah Dru, a former cop turned child finder. Already in love with a detective, Dru wouldn’t be drifting into romance. My agent didn’t like the Dru series and we parted ways. I sent the first book out to large independent publishers, got requests for the “full” manuscript, but no offers.

I entered The End Game into the Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Minotaur competition for Best First Traditional Mystery novel and started another mystery series. I’d forgotten about the Minotaur contest. Who wins contests anyway? Then my contest reader called to tell me she’d sent the novel on to St. Martin’s.

A couple months went by, and I “got the call” from Ruth Cavin. I was working on a straight romance and almost let the phone ring. Instead, I said “Hello”. While my heart raced, Ruth gave me my biggest Made It Moment.

In 2009, Gerrie won The Malice Domestic/St. Martin’s Minotaur Best First Traditional Novel Competition for THE END GAME, to be released by St. Martin’s Minotaur on April 27, 2010.

The second I read a little snippet of Stacy’s inspiring story–and I’m not talking about her fictional one, at least not at this point–I knew I had to ask her to write a Moment. Here it is without any further ado! PS: Her novel is worth checking out, too.

I knew I’d “made it” when I attended a Book Club meeting as the guest of honor, listening to members discuss my debut mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. As a first-time author, I wasn’t famous, but while I sipped ice water in the bookstore and enjoyed the animated talk about my novel’s twist ending, I felt deep satisfaction that, finally, my books were where they belonged – in the hands of readers. After 17 years of rejection, I had nearly given up hope that this moment would arrive.

Ironically, I had my first novel published by Avon when I was a teenager. I never anticipated that it would take almost two decades to publish a second book. I came close, with editors championing my novels before Publishing Committees, however their efforts always failed. An agency represented my work for a couple years, but eventually they gave up and I wondered whether I should quit, too.

Then, my novel-in-progress won the $1,000 William F. Deeck Malice Domestic Grant, and I couldn’t quit, not after the grant committee recognized potential in my work. I plugged away and for two years in a row, my novels finaled in the St. Martin’s Press Malice Domestic Contest for the Best First Traditional Mystery. Frustrated at coming so close, I read inspirational books and created a vision board showcasing my goals.

When I heard that an exciting new independent publisher called Mainly Murder Press was seeking mystery novels set in New England, I sent off Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. A couple months later, the acceptance letter arrived and that one magic moment made all the rejections worthwhile. I’m equally thrilled that in December 2010, Mainly Murder Press will publish my second mystery novel, Sink or Swim.

That title also describes my path to publication. I could have let my dreams sink, but I managed to keep them afloat even in rough waters. I’m so glad the voyage led me to this point and I look forward to many more inspiring interactions with readers.

Award-winning writer Stacy Juba is the author of the mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today (Mainly Murder Press.) Her second mystery suspense novel, Sink or Swim, is scheduled for release by Mainly Murder Press in December 2010.

Her young adult novel Face-Off, about twin brothers competing on the hockey rink for their father’s approval, was published by Avon Books when she was 18 years old under her maiden name, Stacy Drumtra.

I first encountered Debbi’s work when she sent me a copy of her snappy mystery, IDENTITY CRISIS. And I’ve gotten to know her further by reading about her publishing experiences in the brave new world of media. I’m very excited she brought some of her thoughts here to suspenseyourdisbelief in this Made It Moment.

It’s a Journey Not a Destination

Yes, that headline may be more than a little cliched, but the thing is, there’s a reason for cliches (just like there’s one for stereotypes). So often, cliches express truths so well that people often simply fall back on them. That’s how they get to be cliches.

In any case, when I think in terms of “making it” as an author, I think it can mean different things to different people. My notion of “making it” may have absolutely nothing to do with Dan Brown’s. But even Dan Brown was once where I am now. So, depending on what stage you’re at as a writer, “making it” can be represented by any number of moments.

For me, initially, “making it” was getting my book, IDENTITY CRISIS, published by a small press. Unfortunately, the press went under. So that was one step forward, two steps back.

But I resolved not to let that deter me from my goal of being an author. So, I not only reissued the novel through Lulu.com, the print-on-demand publisher, but I made it available as an e-book through Amazon, Smashwords and other sites.

The latter decision turned out to be critical, because I’ve been able to sell far more downloads of my book than print copies.

After June 2, 2009, when I first put the book up on Amazon (where I get the bulk of my e-book sales), I started marketing and promoting it through e-mail lists, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Then, I hit the Kindle and e-reader forums, and my sales started to take off.

By early December, I was selling anywhere from 40 to 70 downloads per month. That seemed good, but I knew of authors who claimed to sell hundreds of downloads a month.

It seemed like as good a time as any for an experiment. I reduced the price per download from $1.59 to $.99. You wouldn’t think $.60 would make such a huge difference, would you? Well, it did.

After I reduced the price, my download count shot through the roof! Suddenly, I was selling 20 or more downloads a day. By the end of December, I’d sold almost 400 downloads for Kindle alone (more than 400, when you count in Smashwords and other sites). And I was well on my way to selling 1,000 downloads total (a benchmark I never expected to hit in less than a year).

At the time that I write this (Jan. 14, 2010), I’ve sold more than 1,100 downloads. All because I’ve marketed and promoted the book and found a good price point.

And would you believe that, with as little money as the author gets from Kindle sales (30% of the price, if memory serves), I’m still making more money based on volume than I was when the price was higher? Now, that’s an eye-opening statistic.

And here’s another eye-opener. Would you believe my e-book has ranked in the Top 10 for sales of hardboiled mysteries in the Kindle store? I’ve been keeping track and it’s been hitting the Top 10 (with few exceptions, when it falls into the Top 15) for that category since December 22, 2009.

Not only that, but my Kindle sales rank overall has risen to three figures on several occasions. Most recently (Jan. 10, 2010), my e-book ranked at #878, my highest ranking to date.

Now, I may not be on the New York Times bestseller list, but these numbers are darned encouraging. And while I may not have actually “made it” in a Dan Brown sense of the word, I’d like to think my journey has taken a substantial turn in the right direction.

Debbi Mack has published one novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, a hardboiled mystery featuring female lawyer Sam McRae in a complex case of murder and identity theft. Her short stories have appeared in the CHESAPEAKE CRIMES mystery anthology and an online magazine called The Back Alley. Debbi will have another short story published in the anthology, CHESAPEAKE CRIMES: THEY HAD IT COMIN’, to be published by Wildside Press in March 2010. After nine years of practicing law, Debbi quit in 1996 to become a freelance and fiction writer. Since then, Debbi has also worked as a news wire reporter covering the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, earned a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland and served as a reference librarian at the Federal Trade Commission. In May 2009, she organized a fundraiser for dystonia, a rare movement disorder. A native of Queens, New York, Debbi and her husband live in Columbia, Maryland with their three cats.

Marilyn Meredith wrote a novel that has a particularly unusual twist on one of my favorite themes in literature–the evil child, or bad seed–and I just had to ask her to write a Moment for my blog. Here it is below–and may many more readers find something in Marilyn’s impressive canon to get hooked on!

To tell you the truth, I’m not sure I have “made it.” What I do know is that I am content with the fact that I’ve had nearly thirty of my books published and many have received great reviews and a few even earned an award. I love being an author and that has to count for a lot in the “made it” equation.

Because I write two mystery series, both about law enforcement, I often have people ask what my connection to law enforcement is. No, I’ve never been a cop, not even close, but my fascination started early in my life because of an uncle who was a motorcycle cop. The first home we owned was in a neighborhood full of policemen and their families and we “coffee-ed” and partied together. When my son-in-law became a police officer he further piqued my interest with all of his stories. I went on a ride-along with him, and later on with others, including a female officer, single mom who shared many of her problems.

From all this came the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series with Dispel the Mist being the latest. In the Rocky Bluff P.D. series my goal has been to show how the job affects the family and what is going on with the family affects the job. An Axe to Grind will be out toward the end of January. For those who have been following Stacey Wilbur’s romance with Detective Doug Milligan should enjoy this story though I do want to point out, that I write each book as a stand-alone even though the characters are on-going so it doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the previous one.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of two mystery series. She has been one of the first authors to embrace e-publishing and has several books that are available in both e-format and trade paperback.

As a writing teacher, Marilyn has been a featured speaker at several writers’ conferences, including the Public Safety Writers Conference. Please contact her and learn more at her website.

I am new to Don Bruns’ work, but I can never resist a reference to the Hardy Boys (or any of the kid sleuths that made it feel possible not just to stumble across a mystery, but to solve it). Here Don discusses a very personal way to know you’ve made it.

By the way, Don’s story of how he came to be as an author is almost another Made It Moment in itself. I post some of it in his bio below, but please visit his website to learn the thrilling ending!

“How did you know you’d made it” is a very personal observation. Did I get a million dollar contract? Did I sign a major deal? Did Sony option the book for a movie? I knew I’d made it when a librarian approached me at a signing. She said she’d read the “Stuff” series and felt like she knew my characters. (STUFF TO SPY FOR was released on Nov. 2nd, 2009, the third in the series.)

“Oh?” I said. “You think you know Skip and James?” The two twenty four year old boys who resemble the Hardy Boys, all grown up.

“I do.” She almost blushed. “James is a playboy. He thinks he knows everything and he’s witty, gritty and smug. Skip on the other hand is in love with his girlfriend, he’s somewhat insecure and he’s always trying to do what’s right.”

“I agree,” I said. “You seem to know my ‘Stuff’ guys well.”

“I do. You see, I dated James.”

“Really?”

“I did. But I married Skip.”

She gave me a big smile and walked away. I think when you make an emotional connection with a reader, you’ve really made it.

Don’s first novel, JAMAICA BLUE, was published in 2002. But as is true for most authors, it didn’t have the most straightforward path to discovery. In fact, when renowned mystery novelist Sue Grafton read Don Bruns’ first manuscript, she fired off eight pages of criticism, pointing out numerous structural problems, plot problems and character problems. Sometimes sarcastic, sometimes caustic, her comments stung the fledgling writer. After reading her remarks, Bruns told his wife Linda that he may as well give up on any attempt to get published. Two days later Grafton called and asked if he was ready to shoot himself or her…