An unexpected community
at the scene of the crime
On a Sunday afternoon thirteen years ago, I walked into what was then the Mysterious Bookshop on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, up the block from Jerry’s Famous Deli and just east of Robertson. A week earlier at a PTA conference, the mother of one of my high school students had mentioned that she’d heard I was writing a mystery. Her close friend was president of the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime, and did I want to attend a meeting at the Mysterious Bookshop? I did. I’d never heard of Sisters in Crime, but the name was intriguing, and I relished the opportunity to talk mysteries with fellow writers and fans of the genre. I didn’t know any of the people crowded into the long, narrow, book-lined room, so I took a seat at the back, under a large cardboard cutout in the shape of a gun. I listened to a LAPD detective describe step–by–step procedure at a crime scene, then to a bookseller who revealed the how–to of setting up a book signing on your own, and finally to a Sisters in Crime board member, who gave registration information for Bouchercon. What was Bouchercon? I wondered. Like Alice falling through the looking glass, I’d discovered the California wonderland of mystery. There are hundreds of us in this “wonderland” — published writers and those who have aspirations to become published; fans; booksellers; librarians; agents; film producers; private and police detectives; forensic experts. We gather at mystery conventions like Left Coast Crime, which made its debut eleven years ago in San Francisco, followed by repeat engagements in San Diego and Anaheim. Many of us belong to local chapters of Sisters in Crime (L.A., San Diego, or San Francisco) and the Mystery Writers of America (Southern or Northern California). At conventions and monthly organization meetings, we gain valuable information and insight from writers, DAs, coroners, graphologists, editors, agents, reviewers, to name but a few. We meet and are energized by the fans that invite our characters into their homes. We network and schmooze in hotel lobbies and bars and restrooms and elevators, where we complain about the state of publishing and celebrate when one of us makes it. We really do. If you raised an eyebrow, I don’t blame you. I was pleasantly surprised when I first entered this community of mystery writers — so many writers, so few (and dwindling) slots on the publishers’ lists. I’d expected guardedness, an understandable protection of turf, a closing of ranks against the interloper. I found generosity and camaraderie and friendship. Our tastes are varied. We write historicals, thrillers, amateur sleuths, police procedurals, and suspense novels — with or without romance. We write about characters whose professions bring them in touch with crime: PIs, homicide detectives, investigative reporters, prosecutors, defense attorneys, forensic experts. We write about ordinary people who find themselves involved with mayhem or murder: housewives, caterers, child psychologists, computer analysts, botanists, and teachers. We like our bodies offed off–stage in traditional cozies, skewered with humorous ripostes almost as deadly as a blade or a bullet, or grittily executed in elegant mansions or on dismal streets no less mean than those Raymond Chandler made so memorably real. A few of us take our readers to faraway places — England, Japan, France — but for the most part we mine the wealth of California, its evocative past and provocative present, and our protagonists — white, black, Latino, Asian — make their homes in cities from San Diego to Sacramento. So do the mystery bookstores that serve as our willing accomplices. There are quite a few in California, owned or managed by people passionately dedicated to the genre and eminently knowledgeable about it. Like detectives working with a paucity of clues, they can identify a book whose author or title you can’t recall but are anxiously seeking. They also take great satisfaction in discovering and hand–selling new voices in the genre. Thirteen years ago I was one of those new voices. I was teaching English at a private Los Angeles high school and raising six children and fantasizing about becoming published. I talked about it so much that my husband finally said, “Stop kvetching about it and do it.” So I did. My road to publication was paved with numerous rejections buffered by encouragement from my mystery community. Then I sold my first suspense novel — Where's Mommy Now? — which is what my husband and kids had begun to ask. Juggling a large family and two careers wasn’t easy. At one point the hems of my daughters’ uniform skirts were being held up by more than a dozen safety pins, and I was serving way too much macaroni and cheese. Since then I’ve published ten other books and several short stories, and with each new book I look forward to visiting the California mystery bookstores that have played no small part in my success. They’re my extended family. In San Diego there’s the Mysterious Galaxy, where you can indulge your taste in mystery and science fiction, and, a few stores down, your sweet tooth in Entenmann’s day-old doughnuts at reduced prices. At Coffee, Tea & Mystery in Garden Grove you’ll probably be interviewed by “Mystery Maven” Beth Caswell, and in Orange you can spend a wonderful hour at Book Carnival, one of the first California mystery bookstores. South Pasadena has BOOK ’Em, Redondo Beach has Accessories To Murder. Glendale has the Mystery and Imagination Bookshop, Thousand Oaks is home to Mysteries To Die For, and if you’re in Sacramento, you can investigate Capital Crimes. Just last week, near the end of a twelve–city book tour, I visited M is for Mystery in San Mateo and the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore. Throughout the tour I felt like a runner in a marathon (okay, I’m guessing here, because I’ve never run in one), stopping for water and encouragement on each leg of the race, and being waved on to the finish line. Sadly, some stores have closed their doors: The Mystery Annex of Small World Books in Venice, where I had my debut signing for my first suspense novel, Where’s Mommy Now?, and which I used in a scene in one of my novels. Scene of the Crime in the San Fernando Valley. Sherlock’s Home in Long Beach. Crime Time Books in Pasadena. Some of them still do on-line or mail-order sales. The Mysterious Bookshop, by the way, has changed its name to the Mystery Bookstore and its location to Westwood. The store is larger, but no less warm and inviting, and you’ll get the same warm welcome I did when I signed there a few days before Halloween. And in case you’re wondering as I did, Bouchercon is an annual mystery convention named for the late mystery reviewer and fan, Anthony Boucher. Unlike Left Coast Crime, which stays on the west coast (though not necessarily in California), Bouchercon rotates venues from the Pacific to the Atlantic and sometimes beyond, but in 1991 it was held in Pasadena, and it was here that Where’s Mommy Now? won for Best Paperback Original of 1990. I’m kind of fond of Pasadena. The city will be the scene of the crime again — Left Coast Crime, which will be held during the last weekend in February 2003. And in 2004, Left Coast attendees will converge on Monterrey. You’ll know us when you see us. We’re the ones having an unreasonably good time, and prepared with alibis. The writer: Rochelle Krich is the national best-selling author of eleven mystery novels, including the Jessie Drake series (Blood Money, Dead Air, and Shadows of Sin). Her latest book is Blues in the Night, introducing true crime writer/freelance journalist Molly Blume. She lives in Los Angeles. On the web: Visit Rochelle at www.rochellekrich.com. What I’m reading right now: I just finished Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley, and am about to begin A Fearsome Doubt by Charles Todd (the name of a mother-son writing team). Favorite authors: John D. MacDonald (the Travis McGee series); Richard Lockridge; Susan Isaacs; Alice Hoffman, Thomas Cook. The list is endless! Favorite books: Little Women (Jo inspired me to become a writer); Gone with the Wind; Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier inspired me to write suspense. Favorite websites: I use Google to find information on the web, mostly when I'm researching for a book, but I'm not a website surfer. I do spend way too much time online. Daily reads: The L.A. Times, and, online, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Publishers Lunch. I also read online daily digests from Murder Must Advertise, the American Crime Writers League, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and DorothyL (named for Dorothy L. Sayers). Weekly reads include the L.A. Crime Blotter, People, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, and occasionally the New Yorker. I have several months of unread New Yorker issues, which makes me wonder why I keep renewing my subscription. Advice to aspiring mystery writers: Join mystery organizations, attend mystery conventions where you can network with writers, agents, and editors. Find a writing critique group and leave your defensiveness on the doorstep. Be prepared for rejection. Write about characters and subjects that engage your mind and heart — you’ll be spending months and months together.
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David Ulin admits to a fascination with seismicity. Penelope Moffet shares memories of Dorland Arts Colony. Wil Wheaton feels the love at his first reading. Kat Meads finds she is a California author afterall. Dayna Dunbar on the road from screenwriting to novels. Pamela Ribon on an unexpected outpouring for Oakland libraries. Gayle Brandeis on the dreaded author photo. Mark Lee tells us what it was like to ride with the Pulpwood Queens. Aimee Liu on the renewed interest in the international novel. | ||
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