"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Tuesday, May 10
'Tis The Season
...for trash-talking. The inimitable (thank God!) James R. Winter has challenged me to a steel-cage writing match - specifically, he claims that he can have a novel done by the time Bouchercon rolls around in October. I just finished reading his first novel, Northcoast Shakedown*, and based on that he's probably right. In fact, he'll probably be done by the end of the week!
I'll take the high road and avoid personal insults, and just point out that they don't call him "Old Man" Winter for nothing. Sometimes they call him "Big Jim" Winter, occasionally "Really Big Jim" Winter - and I'm not speaking of his sexual capacity (or else he'd be called "Tiny").
In all seriousness, I needed a shove. I've been planning a novel for some time but have never taken the plunge and gotten started. How long? I lost all my notes for the book when we moved to Dallas - three years ago. And lately, when people ask me what I've written, I hand them a stack of excuses instead of a story.
So thanks Jim! I'm still gonna kick your ass.
Bete Noir
As usual, there's an interesting discussion over at Sarah Weinman's place - this time on noir and where it comes from. I agree with the people who say that you don't plan on being a "noir writer". You can plan on writing something dark, but noir just sort of happens.
In most of my crime stories, I tend to focus not on good and evil, but on strong and weak. The weak characters cause most of the trouble, especially when they try to get out of the consequences of their actions, but the strong ones can be worse. I just finished a story about a hit man who's forced to kill a roomful of innocent people to live up to the choices he's made. He's sorry about it, but he still does it.
I think there's room for more depth, as a good weak person can cause a lot of havoc.
