Dot Dead Diary

Trading Places

When I was a boy, my grandfather distributed Topps baseball cards. (Pez, too, but that's another story.) As you can imagine, I had quite a collection. I traded them with my chums and even clothespinned a couple of duplicates to the spokes on my bike to get just the right sound as I pedaled around the 'hood.

I was eight when we moved from Chicago to Palo Alto. My cards disappeared. My mom probably saw no reason to keep them. I guess the reason old cards are worth so much now is lots of moms saw no reason to keep them. (That one Willie Mays card on the left lists at $400; his 1952 rookie card lists at $3000.) I had some autographs, too, including one of Dale Long who hit a home run in eight straight games.

A baseball fan I remain, and my friends and colleagues know it. At the instant my Giants won the World Series last fall, I received a text from my literary agent that said, "Now you can die in peace." Thanks, Josh.

Nowadays there are shows where cards are sold and where all-stars sell their autographs, but I'm not interested in baseball cards and autographs anymore.

Two weeks ago, on March 26, I spoke at TEDx in San Jose. All attendees were given a pack of cards, one for each speaker. (That's the front and back of mine below.) People brought up my card for me to sign. For a moment - at least in my head - I was an all-star. And heck, don't we writers deserve the recognition that ballplayers get? Why doesn't someone start producing writer cards anyway? What would I give for a Malliet or Jaffarian? I'd buy one at any price. How about trading? Would anyone take 10 Raffels for one Hank Phillippi Ryan or Karen Olson or Cara Black? No? Okay. I'll give up a damaged Raffel for five Orloffs. (If he wins the Agatha, though, it will only take two.)

Let's deal!

Musings About Speaking at TEDx This Coming Saturday

It's so peculiar. I was invited to speak at TEDxSanJoseCA. What is that? Well, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The TED Conference is held in Long Beach, CA each year. (It used to be held in Monterey, closer to Silicon Valley, but it just got too big.) Even though the conference costs $7500, you have to apply to go and hang out with the band of digital glitterati from politics, show business, and high tech the conference attracts. That's a little pricey, but TED streams all its presentations live and then posts them on YouTube for free. Speakers have included Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bill Gates, and Al Gore, as well as less famous people who just have something to say like a volunteer firefighter and a campaigner against sex slavery.

In keeping with its mantra of "ideas worth spreading," TED licenses local groups to do their own conferences. This Saturday is the first TEDxSanJoseCA whose theme is "People, Passion, and Possibilities." Other speakers (besides me) include a Grammy-nominated rock violinist, neuroscientist, founder of a girls' school in Kenya, principal research scientist at Apple, and more. (We'll all be up on the stage at the auditorium you can see up above.)

Why was I invited? Why did I say yes? What the heck am I supposed to talk about? It's been strongly recommended that whatever I prattle on about be done without notes. But I have photos that go with what I'm saying. That means I can't really prattle, because I have to go in the order of the slides. Gives me a great chance to foul up in front of the 400 people in the audience and, I'm told, tens of thousands more watching the live stream.

How bad can it be? My talk, like everyone else's, will be less than 18 minutes. I guess I'll say something about living in two worlds, this one where a crazy dictator tries to slaughter his compatirots with supersonic aircraft and the fictional one inside my head where good has at least a shot at triumphing over evil.

Ah well, no matter how my talk goes, I'm looking forward to hearing what the other speakers have to say. Information on how to watch the streaming live should show up at TEDxSanJoseCA.com before the event.

High Tech to the Rescue of Independent Bookstores?

Of the 200 Borders stores across the company that are closing, I’ve done signings in half a dozen. That makes the chain's bankruptcy just a little more personal. I recently spoke to the proprietor of a large independent bookstore near where I live in Palo Alto. I suggested that there was some consolation -- at least Borders’ problems would be good for his store. He disabused me of that notion, saying that after getting stiffed for tens of millions of dollars by Borders, publishers are tightening up on credit with his store and other independents. He doesn’t need another problem given the threat posed by e-books to his book-and-mortar store.

So is there any future at all for the independent bookstore? Today, the independents, along with Borders and Barnes & Noble, are becoming less booksellers and more book showrooms. People wander through these brick-and-mortar stores, look around, and then go home to buy print-and-ink copies of their choices from Amazon or, alternatively, they buy downloads from Amazon or another e-book retailer. This is no secret. Booksellers at brick-and-mortar stores tell me looky-loos in their store shamelessly admit they are looking to find a good book so they can go home and purchase it over the Web. But here’s the critical point: these looky-loos prefer seeing books on shelves and talking to booksellers who know their stuff as compared to trolling through websites to look for a book to read. The problem with their preference, of course, is that there will be no book-and-mortar stores to shop at if people just come to bookstore to look without buying.

Google is making a first effort at addressing this problem. Google eBooks permits independent bookstores to offer their e-books on their websites today. (See here for example.) The store then gets a cut of the sale. Of course, buyers can also download books directly from Google’s own site. The portent may be promising, but even here in Silicon Valley not too many people are bothering to go through the bookstore sites. Still, here’s what I suspect is coming and, if it’s not, it should be. People who are checking out the shelves in an independent store will just point their iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android phone, e-book reading device at the book they want and have it instantly downloaded. The device will interpret the new generation barcode with the squiggly lines that’s already being used on billboards and magazines to send potential customers to websites, maps, videos, and such. (It's just to the left of the bottom of the Mountain Dew bottle in the ad to the right.) The e-book will be downloaded right then and there.

And guess what? Most of those devices have GPS software built in. That means Google eBooks or other e-book suppliers will know exactly what bookstore the purchaser is standing in and can pay a commission to the store. This way the store is compensated for acting as a showroom staffed with bibliophiles. By the way, with this approach, a user of Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader can just point it at a book on the shelf at a B&N and have the book ready to read, too. The model doesn’t work for the leading e-reader, Amazon’s Kindle, because Amazon doesn’t want you buying a book or e-book from anybody but them. On the other hand, a model where readers can download an e-book instantly while holding the print-and-ink version in their hands will begin to give Amazon a run for its money.

So, here’s the future. You'll go to your independent bookstore and point and click. Poof. An e-book is on your reading device even before you leave the store. Instant gratification. Rumor has it that the American Booksellers Association is working to make this all a reality. I can’t wait.

 

 

 

 

 

Left: That's #3 ready to download Marcus Sakey's latest.

Anglophilia Attack

It’s happened again. Like recurrent malaria, I’ve just suffered another attack of Anglophilia.

I’m not sure what brought it on, but it became particularly acute this week as I watched the six hour English-made miniseries Downton Abbey on PBS. There’s a beautiful estate, a righteous nobleman, a couple of headstrong daughters, a rich American wife, a downstairs filled with servants who have intrigues and loves of their own, and an acerbic harridan of a mother (played by the inimitable Dame Maggie Smith!).

I cannot pinpoint precisely when the mosquito-vector carrying Anglophilia bit me for the first time. I did love Sherlock Holmes as a boy. The first time I went to England I stayed a block from 221B Baker Street (or at least where it should be). After college, I studied English history over there along with cricket and lawn tennis and pubs and garden parties. What a life.

I remember Blackwell’s, my favorite bookstore in the world, located on Broad Street in Oxford. I know women who go shopping for shoes to cheer themselves up. Me? During my two years in England, when the least bit bored or out of sorts, I’d just drop by Blackwell’s and leave in the best of spirits. Back then, you didn’t even have to worry about paying for your books. On the way out of the store, I’d just wave a volume and call out my name. At the end of the quarter, a bill would show up. When it came time to move back to the States, I dropped off all my books at Blackwell's and they packed and shipped them to me. (My memory says there were four dozen cartons, but reason tells me there could not have been that many.)

In the last month or so I’ve read memoirs by Ivana Lowell about her privileged (and crazy) upbringing as granddaughter of a marquess and by Dame Antonia Fraser, historian, mystery novelist, daughter of an earl, and widow of Harold Pinter. I’ve also knocked off The Lessons by Naomi Alderman, which is set against a background in Oxford, and Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question, the Man Booker Prize winner that explores being a Jew in England – which I was, at least for two years.

The United States has a population over 300 million compared to England’s 51 million, but do we write six times more novels worth reading? And why do the English do television so much better than we do? In addition to Downton Abbey, thanks to Netflix, I’ve recently watched the fabulous mini-series The Politician’s Wife and State of Play; the movie version of the latter with Russell Crowe couldn’t hold a candle to the original.

I wish I could say the books I write have been influenced by my Anglophilia. Nope, not that I can tell. My two published books are set right smack dab in Silicon Valley where I grew up and live now. The action in my latest manuscript is centered in Washington, D.C. I think I’d better start following the example of pal and fellow Inkster G.M. Malliett, who is setting another series in England. (Her Wicked Autumn featuring an MI5 agent who has retired as an English vicar will be out, when else, this autumn.) Ah, her research trips must be wonderful. Maybe I should take a chance and get myself over there and wait for inspiration to overtake me. But in the meantime, I’ll just keep reading those English novels and watching those English TV programmes until this latest bout of Anglophilia subsides.

Cheers!

Interview with Lois Winston, Creator of A Hero "As Deadpan Droll as Tina Fey's Liz Lemon"

Rollicking craft mysteries don't often get rave reviews from jaded critics, but my pal Lois Winston's new Assault with A Deadly Glue gun hit the exacta -- stars from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly.  The former raves, "Winston has hit a home run with this hilarious, laugh-until-your-sides-hurt tale," while PW finds the protagonist Anastasia Pollack "as deadpan droll as Tina Fey's Liz Lemon."  So it's a real treat to have an interview with Lois right here at Dot Dead Diary.

Keith

Q: Please state your name, aliases, and regional dialect.

LW: Name: Lois Winston; Alias: Telemarketers think I’m a guy named Louis; Regional dialect: Bridge and Tunnel (It’s a Jersey thing!)

Q: How and why did you decide you had to be a writer?

LW: The voices in my head made me do it.

Q: Tell us about your most vivid book-related memory.

LW: The summer I was eleven or twelve I surreptitiously snatched copies of Marjorie Morningstar and Peyton Place off the shelf and read them in secret. Up till then, I thought sex was something you did once when you wanted to have a baby, and you did it standing up. (Yeah, I was a really naïve kid up to that point!)

Q: What’s the biggest idiot mistake you’ve made while writing?

LW: One? Jeez! There are dozens I could rattle off. I suppose the one I regret the most is sinking so much time and money into promo for my first two books. Authors are being pressured by their publishers to do the publisher’s job. That’s so wrong. And at this point, I’m not convinced that any author promo really helps your numbers. Have you ever bought a book because someone handed you a pen or bookmark? I haven’t, even though I have drawers full of promo pens and bookmarks from other authors. What makes for sell-thru is publisher support and buzz, both of which are beyond an author’s control.

Publishers have to have enough faith in their authors to give them good store placement. If your book is buried spine out at the back of the store, no one is ever going to find it. Without co-op dollars from the publisher, your only other hope is buzz, and that’s reader driven. All an author can do is write the best books possible. So after spending thousands of dollars to promote my first two books, this time around I’m concentrating on writing the next book in the series and directing my promo efforts toward blogging, not buying.

Q: What’s your biggest writing peeve?

LW: Sitting for hours on end. And because I have to in order to write, I try to get to the gym five mornings a week. I was the girl who came up with every excuse in the book (hey, a pun!) to get out of gym class while in school, but at this point in my life, it’s either exercise or wind up unable to move because I get so stiff from sitting for hours. And let’s not even discuss all those calories that wouldn’t get burned up if I didn’t exercise.

Q: What story would you write if you didn't have to worry about making money?
  
LW: I wrote a proposal for a story based on a real-life serial killer here in New Jersey. I have a personal connection. One of his victims was a high school friend of mine. It certainly wouldn’t be a humorous mystery like my current series.

Q: What would you like to conquer next in writing and in life?

In writing, I’d like to make the New York Times list. (Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?) In life, I’d like to win Power Ball or MegaMillions, but I rarely remember to buy a ticket, and when I do, I’ve never won more than $3 -- which is why I rarely buy tickets.

Q: You created a character blog. What made you think of doing this instead of an author blog? 

LW: My heroine is the crafts editor at a woman’s magazine. It seemed only logical to have the various editors of the magazine blog. Mondays through Thursdays feature topics you’d find in any woman’s magazine -- crafts, recipes, health, fashion, beauty, travel, etc. On Fridays, which I call Book Club Fridays, I have guest authors, most of whom have been kind enough to offer books as giveaways. The blog is called Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers, and you can find it at http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com.

Q: Please spill the beans about your new release.

LW: Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series, was released this month from Midnight Ink.  Kirkus Reviews called it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Here’s a quick blurb:
When Anastasia Pollack's husband permanently cashes in his chips at a roulette table in Las Vegas, her comfortable middle-class life craps out. Suddenly, she’s juggling two teenage sons, a mountain of debt, a communist mother-in-law, AND her dead husband’s loan shark. And that’s before she becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a coworker she discovers hot glued to her office chair. 

You can read the first chapter at my website, http://www.loiswinston.com. The second book in the series, Mop Doll Murders, will be released in January 2012. The third book (no title yet) will come out in January 2013. With luck the series will do well enough that there will be more books after that.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell us?

LW: First, Keith, I’d like to thank you for inviting me to guest here at Dot Dead Diary today. Also, in celebration of the release of Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, I’m giving away 5 copies of the book. Anyone who posts a comment on any of the blogs where I’m guesting throughout the month will be entered to win. You can find the schedule at my website, http://www.loiswinston.com and at Anastasia’s blog, http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. (If your email isn’t included in your blog post, email me privately at [email protected] to let me know you’ve entered.)

What's Coming? Something Real?

In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, I started a new book in January. Each year I finished that manuscript by December. About three weeks ago, I sent off my latest to my agent. What does that mean? I reckon that I should get started on something new. Right?

Like most writers, the most common question I'm asked is "Where do you get your ideas from?" I do have an idea for a book and like my Dot Dead and Smasher, it's set against a Silicon Valley background. Weirdly though, this time it's non-fiction. Here in the Valley, history is written and rewritten every day. Way back before I was a software guy, I was a history grad student. Maybe I can combine both those earlier callings with my current one as a writer. I'm going to call an editor friend of mine who specializes in business books and see if my idea makes sense to him. Wish me luck.

My Favorite Book of 2010

The book that had the greatest impact on me in 2010 was written in 1943-1944. A posthumously published journal, Serenade to the Big Bird, reminded me of Anne Frank's Diary. The author, Bert Stiles, was a B-17 co-pilot in his early twenties during World War II. As with Anne Frank, you know before starting to read the book that he didn't live to see the end of the war. His language is stark and moving and cynical. He gets a medal and reports:

"The citation was mimeographed, with my name typed in. The mimeograph was just about out of ink when it got to mine. The exceptional gallantry part was pretty thin.... We were late for chow and all the seats were taken."

But like all the best American heroes, under the cynicism runs a streak of old-fashioned idealism:

"There are all kinds of people: senators and whores and barristers and bankers and dishwashers. There are Chinamen and Cockneys and Gypsies and Negroes. There are Lesbians and and cornhuskers and longshoremen.... And some day we are going to catch on that no matter where people are born, or how their eyes slant, and what their blood type, they are just people.... They are not masses.... And until we call them people, and know they are people, all of them, we are going to have a sick world on our hands."

Tweeting Away -- Literarily

I’ve been having a great old time on Twitter. Each weekday morning I tweet a Literary Quote of the Day (LQOD). I find the quotes in books on my shelves at home and in resources online.

Sometimes I post one that makes me laugh aloud. Like this one from Norman Mailer: “It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel – not your latest wife anyway.” Or this one from Benjamin Disraeli, author of Henrietta Temple, Coningsby, and Tancred, which I posted on Thanksgiving Day: “I feel a very unusual sensation – if it's not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.” And finally, literary agent H.N. Swanson says, “Whenever I am asked what kind of writing is the most lucrative, I have to say ransom notes.”

Others include a gem of advice like this one from literary agent Donald Maass: “If there is one single principle that is central to making any story more powerful, it is simply this: Raise the stakes.”

I like being reminded that there’s more to being a writer than just tapping away on my laptop keys. As Stephen King says, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Mr. King then gives me permission to read and count it as work! Disappointment is part of the job as 19th century author Christian N. Bovee’s witticism conveys: “There is probably no hell for authors in the next world – they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this.”

Some get into the craft of writing like yesterday’s tweet, a quote from Mark Twain: “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Occasionally there's a quote that reminds me what a crazy profession I’m in. As E.L. Doctorow diagnoses, “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” And Philip Roth complains, “I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography, I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction.” Larry Vincent, mystery writer and radiologist, observes, “The instant my first book was accepted for publication, I switched from being delusional to being tenacious.”

Why do I post a daily lit quote? Is it because I just plain like looking for them? That's some of it. And part of the explanation must be the hope that fellow tweeters are amused, too.

If you’d like to get your Lit Quote of the Day, you can follow WriterKeith on Twitter. Please let me know what you think.

Keith

P.S. Today is the first day of Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates dispelling the darkness. I’m for that. Happy Hanukkah everyone.  Here's a video to enjoy during the holiday.

In Touch With Reality -- Maybe

As an author I spend an awful lot of time in Fantasyland. When I’m writing, that world seems just about as real this one. Remembering which world I’m in is important, but sometimes I get confused. Driving past Arastradero Road in the foothills above Palo Alto, I can say to someone, “Oh, this is where Rowena got run down.” And that someone can reply, “Oh, how sad, but, um, who’s Rowena?” And then I remember she’s a character in that other world which exists only in my mind and in the mind of readers of Smasher.

Now, though, I am really confused.

I’ve told friends that I just wanted the Giants to win the World Series before I die. Monday night I think I saw them win their fourth game on TV. Did I really? Am I still in Fantasyland?  I've never written anything so unlikely in one of my novels.

I grew up watching the Giants finish in 2nd place five straight seasons despite the presence of such baseball deities as Willie Mays and Juan Marichal. I was in the stands at Candlestick just before game 3 of the World Series when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck. In 2002 I was not surprised when the Giants were up five runs only six outs away from winning the Series and still managed to lose to the Angels.

This lifelong experience with the Giants has colored my outlook on life. Something bad is always ready to snatch away consummation of your dream. This world-view might be what drove me to writing fiction. In Fantasyland I can control what happens.

So now I am still dazed. Did the Giants win or have I turned even more delusional?  Didn't I see Brian Sabean holding the World Series Trophy at the parade yesterday?  (See left.)

If this is a delusion, don’t wake me up!

Fiction Ideas Are Death

What does it say about me that when my college alumni magazine arrived today, I turned first to the obituaries?

Good news. No one from my own class died. But then I read all the obits. Compelling reading.

Since I've been reading up on World War II and the Cold War, I read the obit of Robert Charles Tucker, class of '39, several times.  He served in the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) in World War II and then joined the Foreign Service. Stationed in Moscow, he married a Russian woman whom he met at the opera.  She was refused an exit visa.  He stayed in Russia till Stalin's death eight years after the war when the visa came through.  (Shades of Casablanca!)  He became a professor and founded Princeton's Russian studies program.

I don't want to exploit the dead.  But I can't help thinking that the next time I'm casting about ideas for crime fiction, I'll spend a few days checking out the obituaries in newspapers and alumni magazines.