Charlotte Elkins

eBOOKS AND BOOK REVIEWERS

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:03:08 -0700

For all of my enthusiasm for the digital book, I'm aware that there are going to be problems. No surprise. And one of the biggest problem is going to be with book reviews. Many newspapers are on shaky ground--if they haven't already gone under--and many have devoted less space to book reviews. I don't think the ever-shrinking number of newspaper book reviewers review books just for a monetary reward (which I'm sure isn't generous), but, at least, they receive a galley (or ARC--advanced readers copy) of the book from the publishing house for their personal library. Sometimes they even receive a new, first-edition copy of the book. If a book is published only digitally, there isn't going to be a hard copy for the reviewer to keep. And, even if the digital book was reviewed in a newspaper or magazine, would the people who are attracted to the new media going to look to the old media for reviews? My guess is that they aren't. So as the world of digital books explodes, how are readers going to find the books they want to read?

Word-of-mouth is certainly one way that comes to mind, but I don't know about you, but many of my friends have very different tastes than I have. Reading every book written by an known author will be more possible since an author's books will always stay "in print," but what about the good authors whose books were shut out by the mainstream press? In a bits.blogs post by Craig Mod in the NY Times yesterday, Mod writes, "For too long, the act of printing something in and of itself has been placed on too high a pedestal. The true value of an object lies in what it says, not its mere existence." Anyone who has been in publishing the last ten years or so, knows of good authors (usually mid-list writers) who were dropped by publishing houses busily searching for the bestseller. Who knows how many books were rejected by the same publishers because they didn't fit in their lists for reasons beyond the quality of the writing or the size of the potential market? These books can now see the light of day digitally, but how can a reader find them?

Although Amazon allows readers to post reviews, who is reviewing the reviewers? Is the good review written by the author's friend...the bad one by an enemy? Will there no longer be professional reviewers? How will they be compensated for their time and knowledge? Will subject search engines be the most important tool? I don't have any quick answers to my questions.....Okay, to be honest, I don't have any answers. So far, the best review tool I've discovered, as a digital reader, is the free, first chapter download, so I can decide for myself if I want to keep reading. It's a start, but first I need to find the book. My head aches. I feel like I've just come full circle.

On the Nile with Gideon Oliver and Amelia Peabody

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:05:37 -0700

The winter pansies on the terrace are perking up and I’m beginning to imagine one of the pleasures of spring—gin-and-tonics and grilled hamburgers. But the thought of a gin-and-tonic always brings back memories of my all-time-favorite winter warm up—our “Great Egyptian Tour” with Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters, Barbara Michaels). Aaron calls it the most expensive gin-and-tonic he’s ever drunk. He’s not referring to what we drank every night watching Egypt float by (had to keep those malaria buggies at bay—that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), but the ones we had in Barbara’s gazebo back in 1990, when I inadvertently hatched the idea by asking Barbara when was the last time she’d traveled to Egypt, not in her wonderful Amelia Peabody books set in Egypt, but in person.

“Years,” she said. “Way too long.”

“Why don’t we go,” I said, or something like that. “Let’s go toast Agatha Christie on the terrace of the Cataract Hotel in Aswan. Isn’t that where she wrote part of DEATH ON THE NILE?”

Aaron is hard pressed to complain too much, since out of the trip came his book, DEAD MEN’S HEARTS. Barbara’s THE SNAKE, THE CROCODILE AND THE DOG was inspired to a large extent by the adventure. And it was truly the dream trip of a lifetime, because little did we know that the water level of the Nile was so low, that we ended up taking one of the last cruises of the whole 600 miles from Cairo to Aswan.

Few but the most adventurous travelers are now able to see the whole of Middle Egypt. Sites like Meydum, where we slithered down a robber’s tunnel to the tomb. Okay, I only partly slithered down…I balked at the crawling backwards through a hole, where supposedly there was going to be a ladder, where I was then going to have to crawl through another hole…..However, I’m here to report that Barbara is as intrepid as her character Amelia and it didn’t slow her down in the slightest. I’d like to think it was just because she had a Ph.D. in Egyptology and had always wanted to see Meydum, but I suspect it was because she’s braver than I am. Luckily, that section of the Nile is full of step pyramids, easier-to-reach tombs with vivid paintings, temples and palaces, so I didn’t miss much.

Best of all, though, were the moments on the boat where we felt like we were right there in Christie’s DEATH ON THE NILE, without a murder. Aaron was in the role of Gideon Oliver, Barbara was Amelia Peabody, and as Lee Ofsted, who is not an academic, I enjoyed sort of a Watson role. Great fun! I’ll always be grateful for the romance of the mystery world as it was then, and that our friendship with Barbara Mertz (who I like to think of as America’s Agatha Christie) was as strong at the end of the trip as it was at the beginning.

MYSTERY READERS' CAFE: Come on in and join the conversation.

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:16:52 -0700

I'm back home to my river-formed plain (although I sit up on a glacier moraine) with its backdrop of glacier-covered mountains. The flip flops and Hawaiian shorts are consigned to the back of the closet and won't be brought out until next year. (Even summers here are frequently too cool for wearing shorts.) It will take me a little while to adjust to the temperature change, so it's a great time to curl up with a mystery. While I was in Maui I was hanging out in Amazon's mystery community called Mystery Readers' Cafe, where some extremely knowledgeable mystery readers are hanging out and discussing the field, the books, writing...and occasionally diversions like barking dogs, cats, yummy-sounding recipes, etc.

This week they are going to start reading a classic mystery and discuss it on a separate thread: GREEN FOR DANGER, by Christianna Brand. I'm looking forward to seeing how these readers tackle the book and to participating myself. I've been in a book club or two in the last few years. I usually don't last a year, because I can't stop letting a few cynical thoughts slip out about publishing. (Who isn't a bit cynical about any field they've been in for 30 years?) There aren't enough readers as it is, and why should I rain on their parade? Publishing still has at least a little romance left in it. If you don't look too closely. Those clubs were always reading "serious" books, and so it will be refreshing to read a mystery book.

Two of the big topics of the last week or two, were book reviews and whether books had to grab a reader quickly or lose them. These are two questions I'm fascinated with so I'm going to add my thoughts in a later post. So, come over to the cafe (you need to register on Amazon but don't need to buy anything). I'm having Americanos right now, because my blood needs warming up. After 5pm the wine comes out, and it's worth visiting the cafe just to read "Reads to Sleep's" wine descriptions!

HOUSE WITHOUT A KEY

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:38:02 -0700

The days are short and cold up here in the far Northwest and my mind is thinking of winter warm-up time. My all-time favorite place is Hawaii, and no trip there is half as much pleasure, if I don't have at least a couple of days in Waikiki. Okay, okay, if you live in a big city, perhaps it wouldn't appeal to you, but if you've bought the argument that no sophisticate person would be caught dead there, think again--especially if you are a mystery fan.

First, it's important not to have a car (too much traffic and you don't need one), and second it's important to get up before sunrise and walk to the beach and watch the sun come up over Diamond Head. Once I went on one of those excursions where they pick you up at your hotel, drive you to the foot of the crater, hand you a flashlight, and lead you up to the rim so you can see the sun come up over the ocean. Magnificent! Then you can do whatever amuses you until the cocktail hour, which is the next high point.

We always stroll down the beach beyond the famed hotels like the Sheraton Moana Surfrider and the Royal Hawaiian (The Pink Palace) to Halekulani Hotel. It's important to arrive just before sunset. The bar at the Halekulani isn't just any bar. It's The House Without a Key bar--the name Earl Derr Biggers used as the title to his first Charlie Chan mystery novel, which was set in Waikiki. For mystery lovers it's on par with the Sherlock Holmes Pub in London. So, sit under the ancient kiawe tree, watching the sun go down, listening to the musicians, watching the hula dancer, sipping mai tais, eating Maui chips, and toast one of the classic mystery detectives.

I'd have no objections to a toast to me for inspiring you to go. See you there. Aloha!

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES AND LEARNING TO BACKUP

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:39:03 -0700

My blog was in transition to a new, underlying software program, and several of my blogs got vaporized. Unfortunately, I didn't back them up. Oh well, another lesson learned. At least I now have a dedicated URL.

New New Year's Resolution: Always backup!

THE DIGITAL WORLD RIDES TO THE RESCUE

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Just about the time when the publishing world couldn't get any nuttier,
the digital world of the internet has presented it with some unique
opportunities. (And, yes, and some scary downsides, but let's leave
them aside for the moment.) And one of those opportunities is to allow
a return to a love of literature, without all of the heavy financial
pressures.

Without the mainstream publishing world, I think that it would be hard
for an established writer to actually make a living writing. However,
helping a writer get started, is a whole other story. The days are long
gone when wealthy individuals started publishing houses because they
loved books. The days of: How do you make a small fortune in
publishing? Start with a large one. It seems to me, that since the
publishing houses have been forced to look at the bottom line first,
and the down-the-road potential of a writer last, the digital book
marketplace is coming to the rescue. It's going to provide writers with
a venue in which to get started.

CRUISING WITHOUT A NETBOOK

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Well, it's fortunate that I'm still blogging in obscurity, because we took a vacation cruise around the Greek Isles and I didn't have one of those new netbooks. Hence the delay in answering my own question. I did, however, do a lot of delicious reading.....This blog is already inspiring me to return to my old love of reading mysteries!

One of the books I took along was Sarah Caudwell's THE SHORTEST WAY TO HADES, set in Corfu. We were lucky to know Sarah. Sharing an apartment in Florence for two weeks with her and Barbara Mertz (aka Elizableth Peters) in the mid-90s was one of our most memorable experiences. She was a true British eccentric. Walking by one of the waterside cafes in Corfu, I could picture her happily sitting there, smoking her pipe and drinking Scotch. She is missed! And she wrote too few books before her untimely death.

MY BLOG'S ARRIVED

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Aaron is in Houston. He's one of the speakers involved in the Charles Darwin celebration. During the question and answer session after his lecture, he got kidded about the 19 holes in the closet walls. Fortunately he's still speaking to me. He was a bit puzzled by another reference...the spaghetti, so he hasn't read it for awhile. Clearly, he now needs to read my blog before venturing out.

Dorothy Sayers on Canoe Island

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:26:00 -0700

I had a short, end-of-summer outing to Canoe Island in the San Juan Islands where I had ample time to read Sayer's CLOUDS OF WITNESS. The whole island is a French summer camp for kids which my nephew, Alex, has been attending for the last three years. The camp is the high point of his year, and I wanted to get a glimpse of what he was experiencing, so I joined my sister and him for the weekend family camp. (If you've ever read one of Aaron's books, you'll know why he didn't go along. Gideon Oliver is very much like his creator--he's not into roughing it.) The camp was wonderful. When I wasn't kayaking, beach combing, swimming or taking French cooking lessons, I was reading.

As I mentioned before, it had been a long time since I'd read Sayers, and I had never read WHOSE BODY?, her first book published in 1923. In it, the character of Lord Peter Wimsey was only half-baked and the story was close to being a parody. Nevertheless, even half-baked, he was an intriguing protagonist. There were also interesting touches in the book, enough to bring a reader back, but barely. The second, CLOUDS OF WITNESS was a much stronger book. Sayers went on to become one of the greatest mystery writers of the 20th century. Which brings up a question. Do writers have to have stronger first books now than they used to?

Chaos on the Blog Front

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:59:00 -0700

Last Saturday, we had Larry St John over for dinner. Larry has several web sites--from the respected freshnews.com (tech world news) to new ones in progress. He's currently working on one called freshvino.com about wines. I mentioned to him, that when I search for my blog using google blog search, it doesn't come up. He kindly informed me (without laughing at my naivete) that it was going to take months for the search engines to find me, especially since I didn't have a dedicated URL. His comment wasn't completely Greek to me since I'm making some progress. I now know what a URL is. Anyway, he gave me a few sites that I could go to and register the blog, so that I would be found sooner.

Since then, I've been trying to register my blog on these various sites, and have become quickly frustrated. I am so over my head. I'm going to keep at it, though, but it looks like obscurity is my likely situation for some time to come. Speaking of dinners--and totally off the subject of writing and the tech world--dinners at the Elkins' house have gone full circle.

I have many fond memories of entertaining during graduate school. Aaron or I would make the spaghetti and guests would bring salad and bread. We'd drink lots of cheap red wine--Gallo's Red Mountain usually, which came in a huge jug--and we'd talk art, or politics, or philosophy (these were the days before writing) until late at night. Then came the years of learning to cook (thanks to Julia Child) and spending the day before, the day of the dinner party, and the day after--preparing, having, and then cleaning. Well, dinner on Saturday night was a wonderful return to the good old days--spaghetti, salad, bread (freshly made by Larry--for someone in the tech world, he sure has an amazing ability to step back to the past and make the most wonder bread), and wine. Dessert was a fresh berry pie bought from a local farm. The biggest difference was the wine. It wasn't jug. I have a new resolution. Nothing's wrong with going full circle...simple is good.

Back at the ranch, I've finished WHOSE BODY? by Dorothy Sayers and before commenting, I've decided to read her second, CLOUDS OF WITNESS.

THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE OF MYSTERY FICTION

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

First, I should point out that I'm not an historian of mystery fiction, and I'm referring to my personal view of what constitutes the golden age of reading mysteries. I grew up loving mystery fiction (yes, I was a huge fan of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys) and spent a lot of time in my youth curled up with an Agatha Christie, Michael Innes, or Dorothy Sayers. I wish I could say, I was smart enough to only read them before and after school, but more than once I got into big time trouble when a teacher discovered that I was using my textbook to hide my Agatha Christie.

Oddly enough, when Aaron and I started going to mystery writers' conferences like Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, and Malice Domestic, where we could meet and social with other mystery writers, my reading for pleasure slowly dropped off. Partly because, in the process of learning to write fiction, I began to see its structure and to learn some of the techniques authors used to tell the story. I quickly learned that for me, if a writer wasn't a wonderful stylist (Sarah Caudwell was one of my favorites), my knowledge began to interfere with my pleasure of getting lost in a book. It was hard to get lost, when one part of me is thinking: "You've got to be kidding me? The author isn't really going to have their character meet someone in the graveyard at midnight (without telling anyone, of course). Give me a break!"

The other reason was that I quickly learned that there were many types of mystery and suspense fiction and that the kind I liked was just a small part of the field. At first I made the resolution to read one book of every person I met, but I quickly ran into trouble. Sometimes, the writer was interesting and entertaining and I'd be disappointed to discover that their work was slow and boring. Other times, the writer was so nice and pleasant, and their work was so violent and creepy you didn't want to be in the same room with the book much less the writer. On the whole, I found that it was more fun and relaxing to know the writers rather than their books.

Unfortunately, I know I've missed out on good books that didn't fall into either of those categories. However, there is a silver lining. As time has passed, I'm ready to tackle the field again, and this time for fun. So, I've decided to start from the beginning, to see if my favorite writers of long ago, stack up. I've decided to start with Dorothy Sayers first book: WHOSE BODY

CHAOS ON THE CLOSET FRONT

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I'm afraid I still like to start learning about new subjects the old-fashioned way--reading books. However, with my Kindle, I can, at least, say I'm not reading DTBs (Last week, found out that means "dead tree books.") First, I read THE CHAOS SCENARIO by Bob Garfield. What an eye-opener about what's happening in the media world. Now, I'm reading FREE by Chris Anderson, which I find down right scary. I'm not quite sure how any of us are going to make a living, but I'm only 1/4 done.

Have made a little progress in the on-line world. I've started my Facebook page..."start" used loosely. At least I have a password and know how to get in. Aaron's expressed a little interest in what I'm doing. With his new Gideon Oliver book, SKULL DUGGERY, coming out in a couple of weeks, he knows there's lots of potential in the on-line world for alerting fans about it, but he's so busy writing, he has little time for anything else.

I made the mistake this weekend of suggesting he help me do a little work in one of the closets. I wanted to put up two new clothes-hanging rods. I know he's a wonderful craftsman when it comes to writing. (Don't have to take my word for it: "Elkins writing skills are superb, his research impeccable, and his plots intriguing. He has established himself as a master craftsman."--BOOKLIST) However, a master handyman he is not. A good forty-eight hours later, after three trips to the hardware store, and, I kid you not, 19 extra holes in the wall, I have two new rods. Next time I have a project, I'm going to wait until he's on a business trip and hire someone. Because, it sure wasn't a productive use of his time. He'd have been better off putting up his feet and relaxing over a DTB--his favorite way of reading.

WHY BOTHER?

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

When I realized my husband, mystery writer Aaron Elkins, was never going to retire but was going to keep writing his book a year, I figured someone had to sacrifice and join the retirement class, and so I did. Finding a group of like-minded women, I thoroughly enjoyed myself hiking the wonderful trails of the Olympic National Park, golfing, and having adventures. And then after a few years, like many other early retirees, I started to miss working. I also started to get restless...and when I do, I like to move. Unfortunately both my husband and my dog have decided that they have moved enough--I've dragged them from the West coast to the East coast to the West coast again--so getting back into the publishing fray was my only option since I would miss them.

There was another reason, too. Main characters that I've created in our Lee Ofsted mystery series, still seem very alive to me. I feel like they are somewhere still living their lives, and they'd appreciate it, if I'd check in on them once and awhile. Actually it's true of Aaron's main characters, as well. One of my all-time favorite birthday cards from Aaron, was one where he wrote birthday wishes from all of them (in their own "voices") and then added his own.

I decided to check in on Lee, Peg, Graham, and Lou just about the time that the ebook finally arrived, thanks in large part to Amazon's Kindle. I have been able to give them a chance to be re-discovered by new readers by getting them into electronic format and getting them into the Kindle catalog. Down the road, I hope to get them into other electronic catalogs as well.

Happily, the Lee Ofsted series is going to have another new lease of life. Shuei-sha, a large publishing house in Japan, has bought the Japanese translation rights and they will be publishing them in Japan over the next few years.

While I've been out playing, readers have developed whole new ways of finding out about authors and books. I've gotten out-of-touch with both readers and the new mystery writers, and that's why I'm bothering. I'm intrigued with the new technologies for getting exposure for books that I've written with my husband, as well as exposure for his books. (I confess--he's my all-time favorite mystery writer, with our friend, Elizabeth Peters, a very close second.) Also, I'd like to find new mystery writers I would enjoy reading.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

nospam@example.com (Charlotte Elkins) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"I'm barely started, and my brain's already 'fragged,'" I said yesterday, to my friend Dianna, when we met for lunch in Silverdale, WA, which was a half-way point, in time, from her home on Vashon Island and mine on the North Olympic Peninsula. "Facebook, twitter, blogs--I barely know where to start."

"Just hearing those words," she said, "makes me want to lie down in a Victorian swoon." Dianna had arrived a bit frazzled. She'd gotten into the wrong ferry line that morning, the one heading towards Seattle instead of the one she wanted, which headed towards Port Orchard. Consequently, she ended up paying for her car on four different ferries to make our lunch date. A pricey thing to do and I was flattered.

"You and me both," I said, neglecting to mention that while driving there, I'd missed my exit and had driven halfway to the next town before I could turn around.

Before you come to the conclusion we were, not just having lunch, but were "out to lunch," let me explain that both of us are educated (Dianna has a law degree and I'm an ex-librarian turned mystery writer) and although we are getting up there, we're not that old. Like a lot of people, we are rushing around with too much on our minds. Which brings me back to the word "fragged." I recently read an editorial in the WSJ: "The Ten-Year Century," by Tom Hayes and Michael S. Malone. It was about the speed of change, particularly in how the network culture is changing business, and how it's causing our brains (like hard drives) to become overwhelmed with too much information...and to become fragmented or fragged.

Actually, I've been using computers all a long for writing, emailing, and research, but the whole networking world is totally foreign to me. In fact, I've been ignoring it since 2002, when we moved back to the peninsula and I took up hiking, sea kayaking, and more recently, geocaching. So I'm getting close to being a ten-year century behind the times. However, it's wonderfully reassuring to know there's a word for my condition. So fragged or not, I want to get started. Hence this blog. I'm jumping in with both feet.