Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, November 15, 2011,
I had great good fun Saturday at the Somerville Public Library speaking on a panel about getting published. I promised several people that I'd try to organize the information in a series of blog posts this week. Anyway, I started writing and rather than a series of short posts on the subject, it seems to have turned into one long post. This post. I hope it's helpful.
On Getting Published
"When you die, I believe, God isn't going to ask you what you published. God's going to ask you w...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, October 20, 2011,
Last night, at the Somerville Library, I was discussing how to develop
fictional characters that readers will care about and I was reminded of
this scene from the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper.
"What
you have here... I diagnosed the entire situation, and I think what
we've got, what we're dealing with basically is a nose. I think we're
all in aggreance on that. I have the little beggar right here. And
what you want basically is a whole entire person connected to that nose,
right? Other... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, October 5, 2011,
The appeal of a traditional amateur sleuth mystery is that the crime is
solved by an everyman (or an everywoman) rather than by a professional
detective. The amateur sleuth relies on old-fashioned detection to
solve the crime, rather than modern forensics. I was asked one time at a
conference, how I deal with forensics in my stories. And I explained
that I deal with forensics in much the same way that I deal with sex and
violence. I know it happens, but in my books, it happens offst... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, July 27, 2011,
My first book was published in June 2004. In November of that same year, I began blogging on xanga. Other writers find it odd that I blog on xanga, that I still blog on xanga, rather than someplace more writerly. But the simple truth is I like blogging here.
Folks on xanga have been extraordinarily supportive of my writing. So now, with the recent release of a new ebook edition of A Minor Case of Murder, I want to offer something extra to the people who read my blog. If you purchase th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, July 19, 2011,
There are few things more enjoyable for an author than the moment you
first see your cover art. Apparently that's true even when the book is
nearly five years old.
Like most authors, I'm busy trying to
catch up with changes in the publishing industry. Today, it would be
almost unimaginable for a traditional publisher to purchase book
rights without including ebook rights in the contract. But that's a
very recent change. Publishing contracts for books that were published
in hardcove... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, July 15, 2011,
So by now, most of you know that I write an amateur sleuth mystery series.
Amateur sleuth mysteries are a popular subgenre, fun for both the
author and the reader, but they hinge on a remarkable bit of "suspension
of disbelief". Because the crime solver is neither a police officer
nor a private detective. Recently, I did an interview with my amateur
sleuth, Cassie O'Malley. Cassie remarked:
"You
know, I used to watch that TV show, I forget the title, you know, the
one with Angela La... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, July 11, 2011,
I've done my share of book signings, with modest success, which is to
say, I've sold some books and met some readers. I've had events when I
sat alone at a table, wondering if I had inadvertently swallowed an
invisibility potion, but I've also had lively events, at venues like
Book Expo America and the American Library Association, with long lines
of appreciative readers.
But
I've never had a book signing where "nervous bookstore employees
pleaded with eager female fans n... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 14, 2011,
Something special happens every time I spend a few minutes sitting in Fred Leyland's dining room.
Frederick
R. Leyland was a wealthy British gentleman, an owner of ships in an era
when ships were the only means of global travel and commerce. Which is
to say that Frederick Leyland had money and knew how to use it. Among
other things, Leyland was the patron of the painter James McNeil
Whistler. He wanted the dining room of his London home to be a suitable
setting to display his collecti... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, May 10, 2011,
Unable to rely on bookstores as the focus for their promotional efforts, unable to attract readers in large enough numbers to their own company websites and unwilling to cede the digital marketplace to amazon, the big New York publishing houses are joining forces to launch bookish, the "new digital destination for readers". Bookish will be financed by Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group, until the company becomes profitable. Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon... Continue reading ...
As a young actress, Yvette Vickers appeared in the 1958 B movie cult classic, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. She played the part of Honey Parker, the "other woman" who seduces the 50 foot woman's husband. ("When she's in the booby hatch, throw the key away. That'll put you in the driver's seat. You'd make a wild driver, Harry... with fifty million bucks.")
But her credits go well beyond Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. She was Roxy in Reform School Girl and Daisy in Shortcut to Hell. She was ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, April 27, 2011,
“I’m going home,” I said, surprised to realize after so many years, that I still thought of Jalapeno Flats as home.Not quite a town, Jalapeno Flats was nevertheless a pleasantly stagnant cluster of homes built along a dried-up lake at the edge of the desert. My grandfather, Emmanuel Silver, was one of Jalapeno Flats’ founding fathers.Born on New Years Day in the year 1900, the first member of the family to be born in the USA, Manny was the son of a Russian draft dodger.... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, April 25, 2011,
...and eat two or three times every day, there's only one way to do it - marry money."
Two minutes of cautionary advice to aspiring authors, courtesy of The Waltons, from the episode The Prophecy, which first aired in 1975. The scene starts at 1:27 and continues until 3:24.
To read the comments or to add a comment of your own, please use this link.
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, April 15, 2011,
The Chinese government has banned time travel as a plot device in movies and TV shows. (And here I've been working on a television treatment for Chinese TV about the 9th Century hermit poet, Han Shan, who steps out of his cave one day and is sucked into a vortex that deposits him in an apartment building in modern Beijing, where he is beset by a host of wacky neighbors and a landlord who never knocks before entering the apartment. I've even had preliminary discussions with his people, abo...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, April 13, 2011,
On Saturday, when I was presenting my workshop at AuthorFest about
developing characters that readers will care about (before I was
detained by the Air Marshals at O'Hare on suspicion of murder) I found
myself spending quite a bit of time talking about writing the minor
characters. If you want your main characters to be three-dimensional,
you can't have them interacting with cardboard cut-outs. So it's just
as important to flesh out your minor characters as it is to develop your
prot... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, April 10, 2011,
"Are you killing time?" she asked. "Yes," I said, "and I've got the bar tab to prove it." "Would you like some company?" She sat down on the stool to my right without waiting for an answer. She
was not what you would call a pretty woman, but sitting in the bar at
O'Hare, two hours to kill until boarding, she was pretty enough. "What
are you drinking?' I asked. "Vodka martini." I don't normally
drink martinis, but what the hell, I figured, how often does a
middle-aged man, balding and sligh... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, March 30, 2011,
I don't tweet. I love to blog; I tolerate facebook; I draw the line
when it comes to twitter. But I'm sure that many of you have active
twitter accounts, so I figured I'd pass this one along. I received an
email from my friends at Magna cum Murder.
Apparently one of their interns, a student at Ball State University,
has "decided to craft a murder mystery that will take place entirely
through a real time twitter feed."
In classic mystery fashion,
seven characters go to dinner at a ma... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, March 22, 2011,
Yesterday, at Mike Manno's blog,
Mike asked me about spare time and I said "In my spare time, I drink
scotch and complain that I don't have time to write." No one has spare
time these days. We are all far too busy for that. But every now and
then life conspires to give us time. Yesterday, was one of those days.
I
found myself in need of a quick trip to Washington DC yesterday. An
errand of sorts. A conversation. But it's nearly 400 miles round-trip
to run that errand, to have tha... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, March 14, 2011,
Once upon a time, I had a chance to listen to best-selling author Anne
Perry talk about research. She said, and I'm paraphrasing here, If
you're writing a story set in a sewer, you can do your research on the
internet, but if you're writing a story set in Venice, you can fly to
Italy and claim it on your taxes as a business expense.
So
I've been looking for a location somewhere in the northwest corner of
New Jersey to use as the setting for a certain short story. In this
context, I'm ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, March 4, 2011,
When I need a good quote about writing (or, for that matter, about
religion) I often turn to "God made man because he loves stories."
It's from a Hasidic parable that Elie Wiesel recounts as a preface of
sorts to his book, The Gates of the Forest. I posted the parable once
before, nearly two years ago, but blog years are even longer than dog
years, so I figure there's only a few of you who've seen this.
When
the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the
...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, March 3, 2011,
When my short story, The Sound Bite, was first published by woman's corner magazine (when was that anyway? 2006?), the editors wrote the following, by way of introduction -
Author Jeff Markowitz writes, "I've always wanted to write a story about the early 70s, about the blending of anti-war politics, eastern spirituality, sex, drugs and music that we once called the counter-culture and about the underlying innocence of those turbulent years."
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, March 3, 2011,
Here's an announcement from the Watchung Booksellers website
about the upcoming Writing Matters panel, March 25 in Montclair, NJ.
If you're in the area, I hope you'll come by and join the conversation.
OUR TWO PART WRITING MATTERS PANEL CONCLUDES WITH: GENRE VERSUS LITERARY FICTION: MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE OR FALSE DISTINCTION? In January over sixty Writing Matters guests joined a panel of novelists to discuss the question of what makes a novel literary...or not. Now, we flip flop th...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, February 23, 2011,
It was my first shift as night watchman at the top secret government laboratory.
The earnest young scientist who ran the lab left me with explicit instructions.
One, he said, don't touch any of the experiments. And, two, and he was quite emphatic here, don't let anyone gain access to the lab.
It
was a quiet night, boring, to be honest. I made my rounds. I didn't
understand any of it, especially the part about how scientists at the
lab could use the tiniest of bugs to conduct important gene... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, February 21, 2011,
So here's one for movie buffs to kick around.
With the Oscars a week away, I noticed today on msn, a list of the 10 worst movies to actually win the Oscar for Best Picture.
10. The Hurt Locker 9. A Beautiful Mind 8. Driving Miss Daisy 7. Rain Man 6. Out of Africa 5. Oliver 4. No Country for Old Men 3. Chicago 2. The English Patient 1. Shakespeare in Love
So
what do you think? Were these movies deserving of their Oscars? Or
were they bad movies that won the Oscar for all... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, February 14, 2011,
Sy looked up from his linguini and white clam sauce and asked, "So
ladies, vhat do you t'ink?" His aging fingers fumbled at his jacket
pocket, revealing a bottle of little blue pills. Avoiding his lecherous gaze, the twins giggled and continued eating their lobsters. "But don'tchou never t'ink you vould vant to try somet'ing just a little different?"
The twins hid behind their lobster tails, giggling with restraint.
Helen, the older of the two, dressed in a conservative ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, February 6, 2011,
Some people tell me it's crazy to travel to Chicago the first week-end
in February, that the city is too damn cold this time of year. But I
can't imagine anyplace warmer and more hospitable. I first started
coming to Love is Murder in 2005. I was a brand-new author then,
knowing little about the craft, and even less about the business of
writing. I came because a friend told me If you want to be a writer, you have to start going to the places that the real writers go.
And I've been... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, January 13, 2011,
Words have power. No. Words ARE power. As writers, and as bloggers, we know that to be true. Our style may be informal, we may dash off a blog now and then, but even in the most random of blog entries (perhaps especially in our most random of blog entries), we choose our words with care. Because words have meaning. Denotative and connotative. Literal and symbolic.
And if we know that to be true, surely, our politicians and political speech writers, our media spokesmen and their staff, o... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, January 11, 2011,
The National Geographic Society has just announced the discovery of a six thousand year old winery in an Armenian cave. It is not the earliest archaeological evidence of wine, but it is the earliest, most complete example of the production of wine. And it just happens to be located in the same area where the earliest leather shoe was previously unearthed.
There is a bon mot buried somewhere in that archaeological dig, to be found in the juxtaposition of leather shoe and grape-stained foo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, January 5, 2011,
A few of my favorite quotes on writing, from one of my favorite books about writing - Rules of Thumb: 73 authors reveal their fiction writing fixations (edited by Michael Martone and Susan Neville).
"Write before you wake. Write as you sleep, if at all possible." Heid E. Erdich, Sleep On It
"Regularity is as helpful with the muse as with the bowels." John Barth, The Ink-Stained Thumb
"You can start a story with a coincidence, but you cannot end with one." Michael Martone, Prescriptions/Proscript... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, January 2, 2011,
If you're an aspiring writer and you live in the New York/New Jersey
area, you should know about the bi-monthly Writing Matters Series
hosted by Watchung Booksellers in Montclair NJ.
"Writing Matters
is a series of informal panel talks about the craft and business of
writing. Moving beyond a reading or book signing, our purpose is to
facilitate a discussion among readers and writers, and to explore the
rapidly changing landscape of contemporary publishing."
(http://www.watchungbooksellers.com... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, December 27, 2010,
We got two feet of snow overnight, so today has been a good day for
reading. Actually, first it was a good day for digging out from under
two feet of snow, but once that was finished, it has been a good day
for reading. I've been exploring two books, similar in many ways, both
collections of biographical essays and drawings, of wondrous men (and
perhaps, an occasional woman).
After a while though (that is to
say, after I poured the first whiskey) I am finding it hard to keep the
two books st... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, December 15, 2010,
There have been many books that have captured the angst of adolescence,
the horror of high school, but Larry Doyle truly puts the alien in
alienation in his new book Go, Mutants!
Go,
Mutants! is set in the early 1970s, in Manhattan High School. Imagine
your typical high school, with a twist. You see, Larry Doyle has
imagined an earth with a very different history (and yet somehow, an
earth that seems oh so familiar) an earth that was set on an altogether
different path on October 3, 1951. ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, December 1, 2010,
I've already blogged about the "best" books published in 2010, but with
all the book lists popping up online, I'm inclined to broaden my list
to include books that I've read this year (regardless of when the books
were originally published). This is certainly not a complete list, but
here are a few titles that provided some of my favorite reads this year.
Manhood for Amateurs (2009) by Michael Chabon Chabon
examines "the pleasures and regrets of a husband, father, and son."
These are wonderfu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, November 22, 2010,
I have spent quite a bit of time this week thinking about my visit this
past Wednesday to the Barnes & Noble in Ithaca NY. It was a
different sort of book event for me. I spent well over two hours at
the store Wednesday evening talking to some twenty men and women from
the Killer Coffee Club.
Unlike many of my book events, most of the people who turned out had already bought and read It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Murder
in the weeks leading up to my visit. Which resulted in a very
d... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, November 15, 2010,
Generally, at this time of year, I start to think about my list of the
best books of the year, the best books published in 2010. I'm not sure
if it says something about the publishing industry, or about my reading
habits, but I don't have much of a list this year. Was 2010 a bad year
for new books? To be honest, I'm not sure.
On Friday, I blogged about The Poisoner's Handbook and that is certainly on my list. But beyond that, it's slim pickings. I'm inclined to put Hereville,
by Barry Deu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, November 11, 2010,
Earlier this year, I looked into a mystery conference cruise to take
place later this month. I'm not a cruise ship kinda guy, so after some
back-and-forth, I said no. Today I learned, as a result of the
recently stranded cruise ship, the mystery cruise has been canceled.
All
those passengers stranded on that cruise ship with no power, no
services, limited supplies, nothing to do. If that had been the
mystery cruise, I told my wife, at least the authors would sell a lot
of books. And she res... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Saturday, October 30, 2010,
And then, one of the women leaned across the table and asked, Do you know about the murders?
It
was September 16, 1922. A young couple strolled down Easton Avenue,
along the border of New Brunswick and Somerset. Even today, as I drive
the road, if I look past the strip malls and the housing, the hospital,
the Dunkin Donuts, the massage parlors, I can find brief glimpses of
the countryside. Eighty-eight years ago, the young couple turned off
Easton, down DeRussey Lane, heading toward an aba... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, October 28, 2010,
Last night, at dinner, a beauty pageant queen, dressed in her sash and crown... I should probably clarify that... She was wearing more than just her sash and crown. It would be oh so wrong, if she were wearing only a sash and crown... So anyway, last night at dinner at the Dean's house, a beauty pageant queen, a truly delightful young woman, complete with her sash and crown, taught us how to fold our napkin to look like a turkey.
Some writers say they like to let the story develop organically, but I don't know how to write a traditional mystery without a certain amount of planning. Readers of traditional mysteries want to match wits with the author. If the story's going to work, I need to know, in advance, which are the important clues, and which the red herrings. I need you to be surpris...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, October 19, 2010,
"You must know the rules. You must be
on friendly, even intimate, terms with them. That way you can take one
aside some evening, slip away for a few drinks, invite the rule back to
your place, and then gently and with great tenderness violate the hell
out of it." (Jay Brandon, Don’t Break that POV, Hand Me the Pliers, in Rules of Thumb, Martone and Neville, editors)
"When you die, I believe, God isn't going to ask you what you published. God's going to ask you what you wrote." (T.M. McNal... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, October 12, 2010,
On Sunday, at a rally in Philadelphia, someone threw a book at the
President. The Secret Service investigated, coming to the conclusion
that the man meant no harm. It seems the man was simply an author,
hoping to bring the book to the President's attention. No charges have
been filed. But neither has the Secret Service released the author's
name or the book's title. Presumably they don't want the author to get
the promotional benefit of the stunt, nor do they want to encourage
other woul... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, October 4, 2010,
It was an ordinary day at the top secret government laboratory. The earnest young scientist and his ingenue assistant knew they were close to unlocking the secrets of the alien spacecraft.
Dr. Nelson worked all day and into the night without taking a break, determined to decipher the alien code while there was still time, eating lunch and dinner at his desk, leaving only a cup of jello uneaten, before locking up the lab and heading for home.
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, September 24, 2010,
As a reader, I am not ready to make the switch to ebooks. I have an emotional attachment to books, to the thing itself. I wrote about that attachment last year. New books, like a brand-new automobile before the first ding, pristine, with that new car smell and that shiny new body, practically begging you to take it out for a spin. And old books, especially old books, worn and tattered like a favorite pair of blue jeans.
But as a writer, I have to remember that different readers like to ac... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, September 21, 2010,
In honor of Banned Book Week (September 25 - October 1) I am updating and reposting this blog entry from 3/31/09 -
The world may be moving in a digital direction, but it’s obvious that we’re not quite ready to give up the intimate relationship with our books.Trulyepic summed it up nicely – “Curling up in the corner with a book in my hands, turning the pages and getting lost in the words - there is no other feeling like it.”As an author, there are few things I love more than ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, September 20, 2010,
Saturday 5 a.m.and I was already in my car, heading for Harrisburg PA.
It's been nearly six years since I last had cause to go to Harrisburg.
It's a nice little town (the locals remind me it's a nice little
city). I remember an annoying drive from here to there, but at 5 in
the morning, an empty road, a cool breeze, pop some blues in the CD
player, and at 7:15, I'm parking my car at the State Museum of
Pennsylvania.
I love when I get to spend a day surrounded by
books, by writers and reader... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, September 14, 2010,
Summer is gone. Time is accelerating. I need to catch up.
The
fall book tour starts on Saturday. I'll be exhibiting at a variety of
book fairs and street festivals over the next few weeks.
Saturday, September 18 from 10:00 am - 6:00 pm I'll be exhibiting at the Capital Bookfest
at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg PA. (To find me at
the Capital Bookfest, look for the Five Star Authors listing).
Saturday, September 25 from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm I'll be one of many local authors f...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, September 12, 2010,
I haven't thought about this for many years, but when saintvi announced her “Pirate” themed contest, it all came back to me like it was just yesterday. I was eight at the time.And so, I offer up this reminiscence as my entry in her contest.
As I say, I was eight.I had, at that time, and still to this day have, no particular talents that might be useful in the musical theatre.I can't carry a tune.Also, I have no grasp of acting.And
so, when my third grade teacher, Mrs. Locast ann...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, August 6, 2010,
If you could live in any book world, which one would it be? The Featured Grownups
question has been tugging at a corner of my brain for a couple of days
now. You see, in a very real sense, I already live in a book world.
As the author of the Cassie O'Malley Mysteries, I have lived in
Cassie's fictional world for nearly a decade now. I've had breakfast
with her at The Eggery, ordering my eggs and potatoes from Greta, the
Eggery's popular waitress with Tourette's. I've spent the night wit... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, August 5, 2010,
A very small number of authors generate a very large percentage of all
book sales. The rest of us comprise what is known as the long tail of
the publishing industry. When the google book settlement was hot news,
there was an effort to quantify just how long that tail might really
be. Some of the data that I've seen suggests that there are
approximately 4 million unique authors of print books published in the
United States. And there are probably millions more professional
writers who are ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, July 29, 2010,
Everybody's familiar with Mark Twain, right? The quintessential American author and humorist. But the Twain we know has been "scrubbed and sanitized" according to Ron Powers, author of Mark Twain: a Life. Twain is about to be unscrubbed and unsanitized and I'm curious to see how this new, old Twain will be received. You see, the University of California Press is getting ready to publish Twain's unexpurgated autobiography. His autobiography has certainly been available for many years; it ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Saturday, July 17, 2010,
It has been nearly 40 years since the last time I watched the movie,
Freaks and nearly that long since I last thought about the remarkable
movie. Made in 1932, Freaks tells the story of a group of sideshow
performers. "In the film, the physically deformed 'freaks' are
inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are
two of the 'normal' members of the circus who conspire to murder one of
the performers to obtain his large inheritance." (from the film's
Wikipedia entry).
"...it
has always struck me how so many of the people on xanga that indicate
they would like to be a professional writer of some sort, will tend to
act as if they don't care if people read them. I would think that it
would be the goal of the professional writer to be read. I would
assume that professional writers need to sell books."
As a
professional writer who needs to sell books and who blogs here on
xanga, I think I'd like... Continue reading ...
Basketball fans are consumed with the free-agent machinations of LeBron
James, but the New York Times is reporting on a much bigger free-agent
controversy in the world of sport. Takeru Kobayashi will not be
competing in Nathan's hot-dog-eating contest today on Coney Island.
Kobayashi won the contest for six straight years (2001 - 2006) and is
clearly one of the top two competitive eaters in the world today (the
other being the reigning Nathan's champion, Joey Chestnut). Although
Kobayashi... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, July 1, 2010,
A woman, observing the uncharacteristically longer line outside the men's room last night, pointed out to my wife, "At their age, they have to use the bathroom every ten minutes." This morning, I imagine twenty thousand stock brokers and ad execs, bankers, doctors and lawyers, butchers, bakers and very upscale candlestick makers (and a certain mystery writer as well), all smiling the same tired smile, all struggling to get to work on time. We stayed up late last night, twenty thousand of us... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
Analyzing book sales is like reading tea leaves... you can fool
yourself into believing you know something, but, in truth, you've just
got a pile of damp darjeeling.
Still, that's what writers do.
In the absence of real data (my royalty statements run nearly a year
behind actual sales), we pore over what little data we can find and
pretend to know what it means. Anyone who has watched amazon rankings
jump a million spots in an hour (based on perhaps as few as two or
three book sales) will un... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 22, 2010,
I'd like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Alice Duncan. That's Alice, hiding behind the funny papers.
When I asked Alice for a brief bio to use with today's post, this is what she sent me -
Award-winning
author Alice Duncan lives with a herd of wild dachshunds (enriched from
time to time with fosterees from New Mexico Dachshund Rescue) in
Roswell, New Mexico. She's not a UFO enthusiast; she's in Roswell
because her mother's family settled there fifty years before the aliens
cra...
"I
wonder if you take requests on blogs about writing professionally,
haha. I'm currently stuck on the editing process, and you seem to know
what you're talking about, so I was wondering if you could give some
advice in that regard?"
I can do better than that. So watch this space.
And
amesouer is certainly not the only writer on xanga struggling to edit a
manuscript. You know who you are. So ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 15, 2010,
Yesterday, I suggested that if you live in California, Nevada, or Utah, in Wyoming, Nebraska or Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Jersey, you should get yourself to Route 80, and point your car east, in time for Deadly Ink. Of course, not everyone who reads my blog lives near Interstate 80. Some of you live near an airport. So, if you prefer air travel to long-distance car trips, you should know that it's National Crime Fiction Week in the United Kingdom, "a nationwide cel... Continue reading ...
starts in San Francisco and runs east through California, Nevada, Utah,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania
before coming to an end in Ridgefield Park NJ, at the intersection of
Interstate 95, as it approaches the Hudson River, the George Washington
Bridge and NYC, nearly 3000 miles of transcontinental highway, America
on wheels.
In my twenties, I could hitchhike the full length of
Interstate 80 in 4 days, although, to be honest, I preferred the
south... Continue reading ...
has 760,000 square feet of exhibition space,
and yesterday, every bit of that space was filled to overflowing with
books, books of every imaginable type, from every imaginable publisher,
from Abbeville Press to Zondervan, from American Girl Publishing to
Zhejiang Guanbo Group. It is a humbling experience to realize just how
large and how varied is the universe of books. And it is great good
fun playing a part, however small.
we recognize that our state has a certain reputation. And we wear that reputation proudly. I've told you before how in 2005, the governor invited citizens to suggest a new slogan. Results poured in.
Three quarters of the state is really nice. Great place to visit. You just can't afford to live here. The traffic will kill you. Have a nice day.
And my personal favorite -
Most of our elected officials have not been indicted.
3D was little more than a gimmick. Then Avatar changed everything. Avatar demonstrated that 3D was a viable art form, in creative as well as financial terms. In the last few months, there have been approximately a dozen new 3D releases (including, for example, Alice in Wonderland, Shrek Forever After and How to Train Your Dragon) with plenty more still to be released in 2010. Television has also joined the 3D world. Most televison manufacturers (including Philips, Samsu...
that my publisher's business plan is primarily focused
on the library markets. It's especially important that I build a
presence in the library world. Which gives me an excuse to spend a lot
of time in libraries, which I love to do anyway. But it's nice when I
start to make inroads into new library markets. So I was pleased to
see some promising library data yesterday.
Looking at the
library catalogs in the 50 largest cities in the U.S. (that is, largest
in terms of popula... Continue reading ...
the Ginsberg exhibition at the National Gallery and about the Peacock Room at the Freer. I'm tempted to tell you today about the bouillabaisse at Tony & Joe's or about the Thai marinated flank steak with jasmine sticky rice in papaya leaves at Bangkok Joes. But I didn't go to Washington DC for the museums or for the restaurants. I went for Malice Domestic. Malice is a "fun fan convention". Which is to say that the focus of the convention is not on the business of wri...
every time I spend a few minutes sitting in Fred Leyland's dining room.
Frederick
R. Leyland was a wealthy British gentleman, an owner of ships in an era
when ships were the only means of global travel and commerce. Which is
to say that Frederick Leyland had money and knew how to use it. Among
other things, Leyland was the patron of the painter James McNeil
Whistler. He wanted the dining room of his London home to be a
suitable setting to display his collection of ... Continue reading ...
before digital technology, before 35 mm SLR, most Americans used simple Kodak cameras to capture moments, at once special and and mundane, with family and friends. These cameras were pretty basic, no focus mechanism, no range finder, no light meter, just a simple camera with which to build a visual history in black-and-white. To this day, somewhere in your attic, there's probably a box of old black-and-white family photos, America in the 1950s. And though these... Continue reading ...
the week when mystery writers celebrate the best
mystery writing. Every mystery writer pays homage to Edgar Allan Poe,
so it's fitting that the MWA Awards are known as the Edgars and the
week that the awards are announced, as Edgar Week. And the nominees
for Best Novel are:
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books) The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books) Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Hus... Continue reading ...
men and women have looked toward the heavens
and been inspired to write poetry. I'm no poet, but even in my own
case, I managed to scratch out this haiku -
I stare at the stars counting the syllables in Cassiopeia.
But today's post isn't about me. It's about B. Kliban.
When people remember Kliban (if they remember him at all) they think of
him as the guy who drew all those cat cartoons. But a closer look at
his cartoon collections reveals that B. Kliban, at heart, w...
of my day yesterday at the Philadelphia Book Festival (the Free Library Festival), but when I checked my camera at the end of the day, I realized that I had only snapped one pic, early in the morning, before the book festival began, before even most of the set-up had begun. So here's a look at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Vine Street early yesterday morning.
What did I do all day, instead of snapping pics? What I always do at street festivals. Br...
the "Meet the Authors" event last night in
Gloucester County. The event, which was a collaborative effort of nine
small libraries was a huge success. The community turned out in large
numbers for a chance to chat informally with the 41 authors who agreed
to participate. I shared a table with author Tom Wilk, who I had not
met before last night.
Tom is a journalist by profession and is the co-author of two wonderful books about New Jersey - New Jersey Firsts: The Famo... Continue reading ...
Times are tough for the airline industry. I've gotten used to airlines that charge a fee for checked bags. I don't like the idea, but I've grown accustomed to the practice. So it's not really surprising that Spirit Air recently announced plans to charge a fee for certain carry-on luggage as well. Normally I would call that an unreasonable fee, but then I read about Ryanair.
Ryanair (a European discount airline) intends to start charging a fee to use the lavatory. Th...
Big Jim ran his wife a bath. While the tub
filled, Rocki subjected herself to examination in the harsh bathroom
light, the two mirrors positioned to permit her to check herself from
every unflattering angle. Rocki had warm green eyes and red hair
falling like eternal summer waves on her beachfront shoulders. Now
that she was in her forties, Rocki knew, if she was not ever-vigilant,
things would start to sag. Big Jim didn't seem to notice, but Rocki
couldn't ignor... Continue reading ...
When I was a little kid, I don't remember
going to book stores, but I do remember going to libraries. Every
week, without fail, browsing the shelves, borrowing books, discovering
new worlds. I never gave much thought to how such a place could exist,
why such a place would exist. It was just the library. Of course it
was there. It even had a great theme song.
This
year, National Library Week (April 11-17) celebrates the theme
"Communities thrive @ your library." I've ha... Continue reading ...
"how do you 'network' specifically, are you blunt with them? Do you explain what you are planning on doing while making small talk? Are they essentially cold calls?"
Writing is a solitary activity. It takes me approximately five months to write a first draft (well, it did for the first three books, the next one, that's another tale for another day). During that five month period, I pretty much live inside my head, in a fictional world, kn...
"you seem to handle the promotional stuff so well." I don't think I'm especially good at promotion. What I am good at, to be honest, is learning from my mistakes. So I thought it might be interesting to devote a couple of blog posts to deconstructing my book promotion, to discussing what worked and what didn't. Perhaps some of the other authors on xanga will jump in with promotional stories of their own.
for hosting Friday night's event at
the Springfield NJ Barnes & Noble. And special thanks to the two
authors who were also there signing books, Marco Conelli and Ralph
Raab. I had great fun chatting with customers and swapping stories
with my fellow authors.
At
some point during the signing, Neal showed up. I haven't seen Neal in
approximately 35 years. But through the magic that is social
networking, we reconnected recently and he decided to make ... Continue reading ...
after a winter of heavy snowstorms, we all said, well, at least it's not snow.
By Saturday evening, we had withstood the brunt of the nor'easter. Our
back yard was a veritable swamp, but at least the water stayed in the
yard and (mostly) out of the house. We only lost one tree, a
crabapple, thirty foot tall, literally yanked out of the wet ground by
heavy winds. But the row of pines withstood the storm. And he who I do not blog about, coming home for sp... Continue reading ...
Books next to your bed right now: Britten and Brulightly, Hannah Berry; Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon; Talk Dirty Yiddish, Ilene Schneider Favorite series: My favorite series hasn't been written yet. But it's in the works. Favorite book: Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins The one book you would have with you if stranded on a desert island: And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, Dr... Continue reading ...
You have heard part of this story before, but through the miracle of
the internet I stumbled on a whole lot more of the story today.
I
grew up in a small suburban community (a former potato farm) on Long
Island (New York) graduating from high school in 1970. Even then, the
universe was conspiring to make me a mystery writer. Those of you who
are old enough to remember 1970 or young enough to have studied it in
school will know that 1970 was not an easy year to l...
Folks tell me that my blog address is cumbersome, that it's hard to spell and even harder to remember. They may very well be right. Although it's derived from the title of my first mystery, even I can recognize that it's not a user-friendly address. So this page will contain selected entries from that blog. Each entry will include a link back to the original post. Use the link to read comments about the post and to add your own.
Folks tell me that my blog address is cumbersome, that it's hard to spell and even harder to remember. They may very well be right. Although it's derived from the title of my first mystery, even I can recognize that it's not a user-friendly address. So this page will contain selected entries from that blog. Each entry will include a link back to the original post. Use the link to read comments about the post and to add your own.
