Not So Cozy

I just finished reading Stalking The Angel by Robert Crais. Great book. Even more, great second book. There appears to be no Sophomore Slump here. The pacing, characters, dialogue, plot and humor of The Monkey's Raincoat did not fade.

At the Pirate meeting on Monday, I talked about the book. That I really enjoyed it. And I talked about finding a series of cozies called the Home Improvement Can Be Murder series. That's right. A series of mysteries centered around a woman who is renovating a Victorian house. I have to admit being taken aback. But Shane said, "Write yours better." Then Jenny said, "Yours isn't really cozy anyway. And you can go less cozy."

Good points. My protagonist is a man who does this as a job. It is a cozy, by broad definition. But it certainly isn't what most people think of when you say cozy. Surprise, right? That someone with my personality isn't writing about a wooly-headed old woman who busybodies her way into solving a murder?

I think that this revelation will help with my own renovations of my book. That's the great thing about the Pirates.

Genres & Subgenres & Sub-subgenres

A lot of writers have trouble categorizing their work. Is it dark fantasy? Urban fantasy? Cyber-punk? I thought I had it easy with mysteries. Either you have a professional detective or not. But then I started reading more. I knew about the craft subgenre. That's where Bennie will fit eventually. But within the craft group there are the knitting mysteries, needlework (other than knitting) mysteries, scrapbooking, etc. By the time I finish Bennie, there may be dozens of jewelry series, but I hope not.

The cat mysteries are everywhere. I have asked the Pirates to shoot me if a talking cat ever shows up in one of my books.

Last week, I happened to pick up the first book in Charlaine Harris' vampire mysteries, Dead Until Dark. Geoff recommended them years ago, but I just got around to it during my reading break. It's a very good read. Sexy, smart, funny and scary with an interesting mystery at the center. Nice. I have since picked up the next two books. I mentioned to Fleur that I read a vampire cozy mystery. She named an author (I can't remember the name right now) who was not Charlaine Harris. I started searching online.

We have a paranormal mystery subgenre. Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity, a ghost who solves crimes, would fit there. But within that subgenre, there are werewolf mysteries and vampire mysteries and who knows what else.

What accounts for these clumps of books with similar storylines? Is it just something that's in the air? Does a writer see that one-legged female hairdressers seem to be hot and jump on the bandwagon?

Here's the big question: If you read a werewolf mystery and like it, will you look for other author's who write about werewolves?

A Rest or A Block

I have been finding it harder and harder to get motivated to write this summer. I'm certainly not ready yet to rewrite HM, and D&D needs much more research before I can continue. I think I may need to take a break. Read a lot. Maybe look at taking a class or two.

Being part of a critique group may help, too. Just listening to the comments last month gave me a lot to think about. I'm sure when I've read the submissions first, they'll make even more sense. I'm just glad it's not a group like the CWC. Deb's been in a tizzy all day, and I'm not ready to deal with that kind of pressure.

I'll continue to post. Mostly about what I'm reading. And about the Pirates, I'm sure.

Not Too Bad

I received the last of my verbal critiques on Sunday. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. That's not to say that all the feedback was positive. Far from it. But with each negative comment came a good suggestion on how to fix it. There were differences of opinion. Pretty typical.

My next step is to read through the written comments on the pages. I may have time this weekend. Then I'll digest everything, decide what I'm going to change and what to leave alone then start revisions next month.

Thank you to Ali, Deb, Fleur, Jenny, John, Mary and Nicole for their time and comments. You do rock.

Letting Go

I'm a bit surprised at how hard it was to let go of HM. The Pirates were great and seemed happy to have it. I still had a nagging feeling as I handed over the copies. I knew more description is needed. I knew I needed another subplot. But it was time to let other eyes see it.

Part of it may be how invested I got in the characters. A good thing. But I also want others to like "the guys" as much as I do. I guess we'll see.

One more week to go on The Artist's Way. I don't have much to add about the experience. I'm glad I did it. Even though I went in pretty much kicking and screaming. That tends to be the way with things that are good for us.

Which brings me full circle on this post. I didn't want to let go of HM. But it's probably a very good thing for me to step away for a while.

Pirate Name

I haven't been updating because I have been covering for Deb at work while she's on jury duty. I can't remember if we've talked about the fact that we work at the same place. We do. That's how we met. So I've been extra busy this week, which is fine. She did the right thing by serving. What it means is I just found out about the pirate names. Mine is:

Dread Pirate Rackham

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

I sort of like it.