Kendall & Cooper v. Siger

Jeff—Saturday

Today I’m blogging about a topic somewhat off my usual Saturday beat.  It’s all about the craft of writing, and is triggered by a good time experience I had on Thursday.  I don’t know how many of you are aware the Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries podcast series, co-hosted by writers Julie Cooper and Wendy Kendall. I met Julie last January at a book signing in Seattle, and she kindly asked if I’d be willing to participate in one of their podcasts. Having heard good things about the dynamic duo, I immediately said yes. 

The earliest date we could schedule was April 12^th and so I put it out of my mind and went off to the land of shoulder surgery.  A week ago I received their proposed questions.

Little had I realized how thorough would be the grilling I’d receive at their hands.:) Or how I’d best be prepared to bring my A-game to the party.  Kendall & Cooper had thoroughly prepared, and their attention to detail made me do the same, leading me to think about our craft in a way I hadn’t since my “teaching days.”

Though much of our interview focused on my books I shall spare you those portions, and only repeat what I think would be of more general interest.  But for those of you interested in hearing the podcast, or any of their many others, here are links:  YOUTUBE,

SOUNDCLOUD, ITUNES

Now on to Showtime.

K&C QUESTION: You’ve also taught mystery writing, a topic near and dear to both Wendy and my hearts, at Washington & Jefferson College. Any tips you’d offer to listeners who want to get started on mystery writing?

JMS ANSWER:  There are technical elements to mystery writing, such as creating an inciting incident that grabs the reader early on, and there are many fine texts out there touching on those points.  But to me, above all else, success depends on one thing: sitting in the chair and doing the writing day in and day out. Period. It doesn’t matter if it’s a carefully thought out email, a blog or a letter, but it has to be something that gets your creative juices flowing. 

You’re not going to write the Great American novel in one sitting, not in a week, a month or even a year. You’re most likely not to even going to do it in one book or two. But if you sit down every day and write, you’ll find your unique voice, and once you do, a bit of alchemy takes over and you’ll magically find words turning into stories, and you into a mystery writer.   As to whether you’ll make a living at it, that’s another story.

K & C QUESTION: Your villainous characters live their lives through their own sort of moral code that they’ve twisted from their personal histories.  Often their thoughts on their moral codes sound so innocent, but when their correlating actions are shown, the reader sees a darker side…What is your purpose as an author in showing the inner thoughts that make up a villain?

JMS ANSWER:  People aren’t ciphers, one interchangeable with another.  They have mindsets and reasoning which may make no sense to us, but makes absolute sense to them. Decades ago I served as special counsel to the New York City Board of Correction, and in that capacity I interacted with a host of inmates accused of horrific crimes, of which many seemed perfectly logical and reasonable people. I also have a friend who was essentially in charge of psychiatric services for a major US state, and he once told me that 30% of the people out there walking the streets should be institutionalized, another 30% are in need of serious medication, and of the remaining 40%, half of them aren’t going to like you anyway. 

Even assuming my friend’s figures are somewhat overstated, you still have a world filled with minds thinking in ways foreign to what we consider societal norms, and getting into their heads I see as far more interesting and instructive than simply offering an empirical presentation of their observable conduct. 

K & C QUESTION: You write your mysteries through several different characters’ points of view. What are the challenges of switching points of view through your books, and what are the advantages?

JMS ANSWER:  The obvious cop-out answer is that it’s all a matter of what you’re trying to achieve. If it’s a full-fledged, first person, one character point of view, everything must be experienced directly by that character in real time.  That heightens immediacy, but limits perspective. If several characters get into the act with their points of view, you broaden the base of the story and increase the complexities, but run the risk of distracting the reader from the primary plot line.

Capable writers can handle both scenarios quite well, and I frankly see no real downside to either method—with one exception: It drives me crazy when points of view shift within the same scene.  To me that’s a no-no. It simply puts readers off their game. 

K & C QUESTION: Portraying a diversity of families without confusing the reader and without weakening the pacing of the story is a real strength in writing.  Can you talk a little about how you reveal in your writing the strengths and weaknesses in different family relationships?

JMS ANSWER:  I’m tempted to say it’s simply a matter of accepting Tolstoy’s observation that, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” but I shall resist that temptation.  Frankly, I think writing about familial strengths and weaknesses—something I consider very important in my work—is actually a matter of allowing your characters to express themselves about their relationships. After all, they write my books, I’m just along for the typing. Yes, they surely know I have some broad concept in mind for how I’d like them to behave, but often they just push my thoughts aside and take charge of their own lives.  For sure, what develops comes from some deep dark mysterious part of my own being, but my characters are the ones tapping into that place, not me. 

Now for the big finish…

K & C QUESTION:  Jeff, can you tell us about the “Murder is Everywhere” blogsite that you share with 9 other diverse mystery writers spread across the world?

JMS ANSWER: Murder is Everywhere came into existence out of Bouchercon 2009, when the late great Leighton Gage brought together six renowned mystery writers from around the world in a blog site dedicated to international mystery writing. I later joined as the seventh member.  Every day MIE offers fresh, thoughtful, eclectic, posts—often with insider info—about the international venues where we place our work. Rarely, though, do we write about our books. That would get very old very quickly. Our current crew includes original MIE members Cara Black (Paris) and Michael Stanley (Michael Sears and Stan Trollip—Southern Africa), plus Leye Adenle (Nigeria and London), Annamaria Alfieri (South America and Southern Africa), Sujata Massey (India and Japan), Caro Ramsay (Scotland), Zoë Sharp (no fixed abode), and Susan Spann (Japan).

That’s all folks!

—Jeff