  Mystery
This week: Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Mystery Newsletter. A mystery by nature is a question in search of an answer. The Mystery Writer poses the question in prose or poetry, and then proffers clues in the scenes, conversations and actions of believable characters. A microcosm of life and living, but one that the writer controls by taking pen or keyboard in hand and designing a world of solvable riddles and clues, perhaps by transporting them for a time to an ‘otherworld.’
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Greetings, fellow mystery writers and readers.
This week, I would like to present an interview with the famous (or infamous) Edgar Award Winner Charles Ardai, aka Richard Aleas on the resurgence of 'pulp mysteries.' His take on the mystery form that heralded and drove the 'golden age of mystery.' I wanted to discover why readers today still choose this type of literate mystery over cookie-cutter 'thrillers'; and fellow writers nominate and award the 'Edgar' (the annual 'Oscar' of the Mystery) to the stories they also delight in reading.
I am honored to present some answers perhaps to the above, and a discussion with Charles Ardai, Edgar Award-Winning Author; Publisher; founder of the Internet Provider, Juno; and venture capitalist spearheading technology ventures in computational chemistry and therapeutics for treatment of cancer. [My questions are in italics.]
Thank you for giving us a bit of your time, as your Richard Aleas is busy finishing up a third book. Why an alias? Is it wordplay? Mr. Aleas?
It's definitely wordplay, of a particularly self-indulgent sort: "Richard Aleas" is an anagram of "Charles Ardai," and of course it's irresistible to have an alias that's pronounced "alias." (Though some oblivious sorts insist on pronouncing it "uh-LEE-us.")
The reason for it is twofold: first, I wanted to draw a distinction between my role as editor of the Hard Case Crime series and my role as author of one of the first original novels for the series, LITTLE GIRL LOST; and second, I thought it would be fun to be part of the great pulp tradition of writing under fake names. Lawrence Block wrote as Paul Kavanagh and Chip Harrison and Sheldon Lord; Donald Westlake wrote as Alan Marshall and Richard Stark; Evan Hunter wrote as Curt Cannon and Richard Marsten and Ed McBain (and even "Evan Hunter" wasn't his real name at birth -- he started out as "Salvatore Lombino").
I have to say I found it liberating to write under another name. I felt less pressure, page by page, to make every sentence perfect. After all, it wasn't *my* name that was going on the book. And the result, I believe, is that LITTLE GIRL LOST turned out a lot better and less self-conscious than it would have had Ardai written it.
That said, I do plan to use my real name for my third book, which I'm writing now. That one's our big, commemorative 50th title and it's *about* the editor of Hard Case Crime, so using my real name seemed appropriate.
What drew you, the founder of Juno, an Internet Provider, to the hard-boiled golden age ‘pulp’ classics of mystery? To read it, and write it, and retrieve the ‘classics’ through your publishing company, Hard Case Crime, for today’s readers?
It might actually be better to ask what drew me, a lifelong reader of mystery novels and for years a writer for magazines like ELLERY QUEEN and ALFRED HITCHCOCK, to found an Internet company like Juno. I was a reader and a writer long before I was ever an entrepreneur or a businessperson.
As for what drew me to pulp mysteries in particular, I think like most people who love them I was drawn in first by the lurid and irresistible cover art -- you see those gorgeous dames and those scenes of menace and you say to yourself, "I want to know what that's all about." Of course, many of the books (and most of the pulp magazines) disappointed when you read them -- the covers were much more exciting than the stories. But once every fifty titles or so, the story was great, too -- the writing crackled with wit or gravity or suspense, the story carried you along at 90 miles per hour. And those great books were just as obscure and out of print as the lousy ones. Which didn't seem fair, either to the authors or to readers, who would have enjoyed reading them if only they were given the chance. So I set out to give them the chance -- and while I was at it, to give modern writers the chance to write books like these, which other modern publishers weren't giving them.
What inspired the creation of Juno? I’m asking what came first, the chicken or the egg? The Internet company or the literate creation of believable, riveting otherworlds. Which is the vocation and which the hobby?
As I say, I was a writer and reader long before I dreamt Juno up -- but both Juno and Hard Case Crime are serious business ventures, not hobbies. I also happen to enjoy both...but they both turned into profitable businesses because they met a need in the market that no one else was satisfying. In Juno's case, there was a need for an inexpensive and simple way to get on the Internet for people who weren't already technically sophisticated -- the brothers, sisters, parents, and grandparents of the high-tech mavens who were happy to pay $20 or $40 per month for fancy, high-end services.
In Hard Case Crime's case, there was a hunger for short, exciting, inexpensive crime stories that delivered an old-fashioned sort of reading experience, and other publishers weren't satisfying this hunger. When you see an unmet need, it's an opportunity. Now, in fairness I should acknowledge that Juno became a lot *more* profitable than Hard Case Crime has become or ever will; we make maybe 8 cents on each book we sell and no one can sell enough books to get rich 8 cents at a time. But I'm proud to say that Hard Case Crime is in the black rather than the red. It's a labor of love, true -- but a solid business at the same time.
Do you have any hobbies, a favorite sport perhaps – anything you do to decompress when deadlines loom, the hard drive crashes, or the experiment fails and it’s back to the drawing board?
Perversely, my chief hobby is reading -- and in that respect I suppose I'm always working, though I often read things other than mysteries. I've got a shameful soft spot in my heart for some bad TV shows -- reality shows and such -- but I try to keep that under control. No sports, nothing very physical...though living in New York you at least wind up walking a lot. That and typing are pretty much my only two forms of exercise.
The drawing board – what drives Charles Ardai/Richard Aleas’s Muse Creative? I’ve read both your books, set in New York of today, and although I’ve never been to Columbia (yes, I know you graduated summa cum laude), I walked in the buildings (and underneath them); and although I’ve yet to go to New York City, I walked at night along Broadway (page 29 of Songs of Innocence, a description Walt Whitman would have said was relayed ‘with poet’s eyes’). I read your short story, The Home Front, and although I wasn’t even a thought when World War II was being waged, I could embrace the simple physical joy of being alive despite the fear, resignation and the avarice that fed off of black marketing freedom. Do you do your own research, your own editing?
I was a Columbia grad, which is probably why I wound up setting large chunks of SONGS OF INNOCENCE on the Columbia campus. Write what you know, and all that. (I did take some liberties with the underground tunnels, but only small ones; the tunnels really do exist and you really can get lost in them.) New York is definitely a big part of what drives me -- I've lived in the city all my life and I love it, and I love that it excites and terrifies and compells other people. It's a fascinating place, backdrop for some of the greatest stories ever told, real or fictional, on the page or at the movies, and I love adding my little contribution to New York lore.
I do my own research, but I call it living. When it comes time to set a scene in a New York neighborhood, I can generally call it to mind from memory -- and in its deliciously seedy 1970s form, too, not just the squeaky-clean version you'd find today. Of course, I do go to Google and Wikipedia for details -- what's the deepest subway station in the city? that sort of thing -- but for general atmosphere I just rely on my existing knowledge.
As for editing, I get some help from trusted friends, such as Max Phillips, who wrote the Shamus Award-winning FADE TO BLONDE and was co-founder with me of Hard Case Crime. But the bulk of the line-by-line editing I do myself. It's dangerous for an author to edit his own work, of course, but we're a shoestring operation -- you can't pay a staff at 8 cents/book! In fact, we have a total full-time staff of zero: It's just me working part time, a couple of freelancers helping with typesetting and graphic design, and then a lot of support from the folks at Dorchester Publishing, who actually print and distribute our books. And it’s not just me, a reader, who gets it.
Your first book, in the style of ‘pulp’ fiction mysteries, Little Girl Lost, was nominated by your peers, mystery authors all, for both the Edgar Allen Poe Award and the Shamus Award, and your short story, The Home Front, won the Edgar in 2007. To what do you attribute this peer acclaim and recognition, as Hard Case Crime is not driven by the mass marketing engines of New York Times?
Apparently my stories have struck a chord with readers -- at least some readers -- and I am grateful and gratified that they have. You set out to write the best books you can and then all you can do is hope that someone will like them. You're right that we don't have the advantage of working with a huge company that has enormous marketing budgets or clout and reputation -- any attention we've been fortunate enough to get for Hard Case Crime we've had to drum up ourselves. Fortunately, we have the work of our great cover artists, which helps draw people's eyes, and the books we've published are actually good: they're fun, engaging reads.
So people who take a chance on them are generally glad they did. LITTLE GIRL LOST and SONGS OF INNOCENCE -- and "The Home Front," too, for that matter -- are very dark, almost tragic stories, so I wasn't sure how readers would feel about them. I think people generally want to read lighter fare. But I'm glad people have been willing to go along with me on my characters' dark journey. The next one will be a palate cleanser, though: For book #50 I'm writing something a lot lighter and funnier. (Though there still, as Paul Thomas Anderson would say, Will Be Blood.)
As a publisher, what is the most exciting trend you see in publishing today?
That even in this technological age, with plenty of distractions from Wii games and cell phone videos and blogs and so forth, people are still reading. Not as many as used to and not as much -- but the printed word hasn't gone away, and when we look at who is buying our books, it's not only old-timers who remember titles like these from the pulp days themselves.
All those kids who salivated at the arrival of each new Harry Potter title are going to college or will be soon; they're reading more adult fare. Each new book by Stephen King and John Grisham and Michael Crichton sells hundreds of thousands or millions of copies. It gives me hope that a well-told story, even if it's no more than ink on a page, can still grab the interest of a mass audience.
As a publisher, how do you see our community at Writing.Com, a gathering of writers and artists who read and critique, encourage and educate (via A-1 Academy), each other’s writing? Are there any precautions we should take with respect to publication and first rights?
Community is critical for writers. So much of what we do is private and solitary -- but it's not communication unless someone else sees it, and having fellow scribblers to bounce ideas off of before your work hits the public's eye is enormously helpful. Imagine if actors only got to practice in front of a mirror before making their debut on a Broadway stage!
Fellow writers can spot where you're going wrong and congratulate you when you're going right; they can goad you into writing every day rather than only when you feel inspired (the main mark, I believe, of a professional writer). What my wife, who is also a novelist, calls "beta readers" can let you know how your story is developing and whether you're holding or losing reader interest. It's like the Marx Brothers field testing "A Night At the Opera" by giving live performances on stage before committing it to film -- they knew which scenes got laughs and which ones fell dead, and could make the final product better as a result.
And I wouldn't worry about precautions regarding publication and first rights. I'm no lawyer, so no one should look to me for legal advice, but I see the benefits of sharing one's work as much greater than the risk that someone might rip it off in some way.
Do you personally allow anyone to read your work before your editors see it?
I generally do, though who it is depends on what sort of work it is. In some cases, I rope my wife in and ask for her input -- but a lot of what I write isn't the sort of thing she likes to read, so I don't torture her with it too often. Sometimes I bounce it off the folks at Dorchester for their input and approval. Sometimes I show Max or another writer friend. But I do like to get feedback about my work before it goes to press.
As a writer, what is the best thing for you about writing?
When you write a really good sentence or paragraph -- which doesn't happen all that often, but when it does -- it feels great. You feel like you finally, finally got one right. It's like hearing a tuning fork humming and then finally managing to make your voice produce the same note: You sense that you're resonating with something larger and better outside yourself.
And what’s the hardest part for you of writing?
Finding the time. It's great to talk about writing every day, but then there are checks to write and errands to run and there's business to take care of and family obligations and your tax return to prepare and on and on and on...and pretty soon it's midnight and you haven't written anything. That's the great danger. You have to make writing a priority if you're going to make it happen. But it can be hard to do that.
Is there anything you can tell our readers here about your upcoming book, "Fifty-To-One"?
As I say, FIFTY-TO-ONE is a comedy -- though not quite of the puppies-and-flowers variety. It's the story (fictitious, of course) of how Hard Case Crime was founded fifty years ago by a scoundrel out to make a quick buck off the then-still-novel popularity of pulp fiction; he publishes a book that purports to be the true story of a heist from a Mob-run nightclub only to discover a) that it's a fraud, and b) the Mob is coming after him for it anyway. It's a fun romp, intended to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary as a line: It's our fiftieth book. And who'd have ever thought we'd reach 50 books? Not me.
In parting, is there anything you’d like to say to our nascent writers, prosaic and poetic, of mystery?
Write. Keep writing. When you think you're all written out, write some more. It's the finest exercise of your highest gifts as a human being -- to think, to invent, and to commit those thoughts and inventions to writing so that other people can enjoy and appreciate them.
The written word is the closest any of us will ever come to a taste of immortality, and who doesn't want that?
Pen. Paper. Write. Now.
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FYI Hard Case Crime does accept manuscripts from emerging writers. Charles Ardai indicated HCC prefers submission by e-mail, in any format other than WordPerfect; length between 50,000 and 60,000 words. He does caution that with more than 1000 submissions coming in and only publishing 4 or 5 original novels each year, HCC must say 'no' to more than 99% of the books they see, "including some very good ones."
"But it never hurts to give it a shot!"
So here's the link to HCC's home page ~ I hope you delight in reading some of the classics of the past, and what will undoubtedly be classics of tomorrow ~ perhaps one of yours someday soon
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Some creative mysteries, prosaic and poetic, hard- and soft-boiled I've found for your reading (and reviewing) pleasure here at WDC.
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Want to try your hand writing a mystery with some innovative techniques ~ consider joining me as a fellow student in A-1 Academy's Mystery I starting Sunday. April the 6th,
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And/Or, check out the following if the Muse Creative seeks a challenge or some additional inspirationt this month?
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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I thank you for welcoming me to your home this week, and hope you've enjoyed the discourse with Charles Ardai on writing and publishing and peer review and reading and writing!
I'd like to share here some feedback from last month's Newsletter from our fellow writers:
Submitted By: wildbill 
Probably the most popular true crime mystery ever is the Jack the Ripper mystery which has had hundreds of articles, books and fictionalized stories and novels. Not to mention the TV and movie adaptations.
I agree, even if the mystery is solved (and perhaps it has been), it's too lucrative a subject to give up
Submitted By: StephBee - House Targaryen 
I love Ann Rule. Her stories add that extra emotional depth to them. The first true crime I read was about Jeffery McDonald by Joe McGinness. Excellent writing. Great topic to tackle!
Thanks for recalling Ann Rule and tipping me to Joe McGinness - one for my 'read soonest' shelf.
Submitted By: Cubby&Hubby~WeddingAnniversary 
Excellent newsletter, Kate! Mysteries are a popular genre in the library I work at, and my patrons are eager for well-written plots with new twists and turns. Weaving true facts into fiction will many times peak a reader's interest enough to dig deeper into the true topic itself. My recent article on Fictional Biographies in the For Authors newsletter states that many authors fictionalize true stories to draw in an bigger audience. I learn more about history through historical fiction than I ever did in high school text books! It amazes me how curious I become about something I had never thought twice about, thanks to an author who weaved true facts into his or her fiction. Jodi Pocult is a good one for this. She touches on controversial subjects, as in My Sister's Keeper and Second Glance, among others. I won't go into detail, as my feedback would turn into an article if I wrote much more, lol! I really enjoyed your newsletter. ~Cubby
Yes, to pique the curiosity, take our readers to the 'otherworld' created of fact and fiction, can lead them on a journey of continued discovery. Thank you for your encouragement.
Until we next meet, Keep Writing!
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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Mystery: April 02, 2008 Issue [#2311]
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