Author Archives: Murderati

Exorcism, Escape, and the Book That Wants to Be Written

One of the questions I get asked a lot these days is, "Why a standalone?" That is, why did I break from the Jack Keller books and write an entirely different set of characters in a different fictional setting?
I have a lot of comebacks, some serious, some not so much.

The fact is, though, this was just the book that wanted to be written.

People often look strangely at me when I say mystical stuff like that, which is why I have all the other responses. But it’s true. I’ll spend some time kicking around ideas, writing the beginnings of several projects, sometimes even doing two at a time, going back on forth between them, a process a friend of mine once dubbed "book adultery."

Eventually, though, one story will start to break through.That’s the one I start seeing scenes from in my head. That’s the one whose characters I hear whispering in my ear. That’s the one I have to write, whether I’d really planned to or not. I wrote BREAKING COVER as a standalone because the voices I was hearing this time weren’t those of Jack Keller and Marie Jones. They were the voices of Tony Wolf and Tim Buckthorn and Gaby Torrijos and Johnny Trent (and let me tell you, that last one is a voice you don’t want to hear in your head for an extended period of time).

As I think I’ve said here before, when people ask me why I write, the answer I often give is "mental illness." I write, I often say, because if I write down the movies I see playing on the inside of my skull, I can tell people it’s because I’m creative and not having a psychotic break.

I’m only partially joking.

Writing for me sometimes is like exorcism, because the stories and the voices are often the embodiment of topics that nag at me, sometimes to the point of obsession. Topics like: the different faces, sometimes even different names we wear with each other; the randomness and futility of violence; the emotional damage that violence does to both the victim and the perpetrator; crimes against children.

Which leads us, at long last, to the question for discussion today. I’ve talked to writers who’ve told me that not everybody sees writing the way I do. Some time back, I was talking with a friend who was going through a particularly harrowing personal crisis and was having trouble working. "Write it out," I said. "Put the pain onto the page." No, my friend said, it doesn’t work that way. For my friend, writing is a means of escape, not catharsis, and the events in the work in progress cut a little too close to that particular bone.

I have to confess, that one rocked me back a little. Not having the solace, however slight, of being able to put what’s riding you you onto the page and thus achieve some measure of control over it? Man, I thought, that’s got to be hard.

Then I started thinking about the divide between the readers who like their crime fiction dark, violent, maybe even grim, and the people who won’t even look at a murder mystery with too much blood and violence. "I read to escape," this second kind of reader tells us, "and all that dark stuff just depresses me." I, on the other hand, and I suspect people like me, find some comfort even in the darkest, grimmest stories.

The Greeks, as they say, had a word for it. Aristotle wrote that the purpose of tragedy was to provide catharsis (literally "purging") through the evocation of "horror, pity and fear." I suspect that Aristotle would not have been a fan of cat mysteries, but he would have loved him some Ken Bruen.

So how about it, writers and readers? Do you write what you write, do you read what you read, for exorcism or for escape, or for something completely different?

Half an Acre of Thanks

By Louise Ure

Maybe you’ve seen those recent TV spots from Liberty Mutual insurance that feature ordinary folks helping those around them by performing small good deeds – picking up a dropped baby rattle, letting someone cut in during gridlocked traffic.

The song in the commercials is “Half an Acre”, sung by Sally Elllyson of the Brooklyn band, Hem.

I am holding half an acre
torn from the map of Michigan
and folded in this scrap of paper
is a land I grew up in

Think of every town you’ve lived in
every room you lay your head
and what is it that you remember?

Do you carry every sadness with you
every hour your heart was broken
every night the fear and darkness
lay down with you?

A man is walking on the highway
A woman stares out at the sea
and light is only now just breaking

So we carry every sadness with us
every hour our hearts were broken
every night the fear and darkness
lay down with us

But I am holding half an acre
torn from the map of Michigan
I am carrying this scrap of paper
that can crack the darkest sky wide open
every burden taken from me
every night my heart unfolding
my home

Both the good deeds-visuals of the commercial and the heart-carried sadness-of-home from the song merged together for me this week.

My heart’s “half acre” lies in Tucson, just south of a dry arroyo that dares to call itself the Rillito River, bordered by tamarisk trees on one side and the fragrance of honeysuckle vines on the other.

It is my mother’s house.

The half acre where all my hopes were born and some died. Where I was both shaped and shriven. Where love still lives in my mother’s gauzy memory. This is soft focus love in a harsh land – as blurred as a Vaseline- coated lens, as ephemeral as the sound of a wind chime.

The half acre where my mother now settles into her soft decline. (You might remember this post I wrote about her advancing Alzheimer’s. Or this one.

Now to the good deeds part of the story.

My brother went over to my mother’s house one afternoon last week and found a strange man in the living room with her, patting her hand and giving her little sips of water from a plastic glass.

He was the garbage man.

He’d been driving his massive truck down the street, stopping at each house to position the steel arms that would lift the big plastic garbage and recycling bins into the appropriate caverns on the truck. The sun was hot. He was in a hurry. He put the truck into gear and moved on past the house.

That’s when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was an elderly woman’s form, unmoving, perched on the edge of a wooden bench on the front porch.

He idled there for a moment, already behind schedule and closing in on late. Should he disturb her? She had probably just settled there for a moment in the sun – he’d seen her basking there before.

But it was over a hundred degrees out, and the sun was fierce.

And the bathrobe she was wearing had come open and she was naked underneath.

Sweet man — this garbage man whose name I do not know — said to himself, “What if she was my mother?” He stopped, woke her gently from her deep sleep, tied the robe’s sash securely at her waist, and guided her inside.

Thank you, Mr. Garbage Man, not simply for the preservation of her modesty, but for caring. For noticing that someone might need help and then taking action.

He tended my half acre when I wasn’t there, and I’m deeply grateful for that. I hope that I can return the favor some day. In the meantime, I now carry him in my heart, as well.

And Happy Birthday, mom.

Tell me, my ‘Rati friends, have you seen one of those gracious moments of unsolicited caring recently? And where is your half-acre of the heart?

From Black to Pink

NAOMI HIRAHARA

After crafting three noir short stories in between novels, I’ve now really wandered into the dark side. I’ve come out with a children’s book and not one of those edgy YA ones, but a heart-wrenching middle-grade one with a pink cover.

I’ve already discussed here a couple of years ago of why I’ve entered this territory. As often is with the case with me, the story—not the genre—pulls me like a magnetic attraction. As the story emerges then I usually try to push it into the form I THINK that it should take before I finally SURRENDER (hopefully sooner than later) and follow it towards its natural inclinations, voice, and rhythm.

Actually I thought I had embarked on a women’s novel until my agent and her agency intern at the time informed me that the voice of the tween was stronger than the thirtysomething-year-old looking back on her life. “You mean I have a YA novel,” I said weakly. I didn’t have anything against YA novels, but I just didn’t picture myself as writing one. So I returned to the desk and the computer and started deconstructing and reconstructing and yes, they were right—I had a book for younger readers on my hands, but I learned later that it wasn’t YA. It was an age category younger than that—middle grade, which in the case of my book means 10 years of age and up. (Here’s not a fast and firm rule, but a guideline—usually your core youth readership skews two years younger than the age of your protagonist.)

Since my published fiction up to this time has been geared towards adults, I’ve faced a steep learning curve. Writing is writing, but publishing is always another matter.

Myths About Getting a Children’s Book Published

1) It’s easier to sell a book for children than for adults.

We’ve all witnessed the Harry Potter and Twilight series phenomena. Young people are finally crazy about books. So that must mean that means publishers are on the hunt for children’s book writers and stories, right? While that may be true, it’s also true that many, many people—perhaps more than any other genre—want to write children’s books. Many editors (mine, in fact) even write themselves for this market. As a greater number of people are competing for limited slots, competition is pretty fierce. Once I got a literary agent, my first mystery sold in a manner of weeks. In contrast, the sale for my middle-grade book took a number of months.

2) It’s easier to write a book for children than for adults.

What can be so hard about writing a book for children? There are not many words, especially in picture books. If we are used to writing 1,000 words a day, than a book that totals 1,000 words shouldn’t be that difficult, right? I have never attempting to write a picture book because of one word—poetry. I’m convinced that you need to be a poet to write picture books, and I’m definitely not one.

In terms of middle-grade literature, the standard word count is 40,000, but I hit 50,000. It’s not difficult for us established mystery writers to reach our word quota. But with children’s book, it’s not about volume, but about each scenario and point of view on the page. My observation is children’s books are much more heavily edited than mystery books for adults. Anyone else have an opinion about this?

3) You need to have children to write a book for them.

I know that some of my girlfriends furrowed their brows when they heard that I was writing a book for middle-grade children. I don’t have kids, after all. So what would I know about being a kid in this day and age? But the thing is, we were all children at one time. We often talk about the good ole days, how we were different when we were young than “this generation,” but the truth of the matter is deep down inside there is not much which separates “them” from “us.”

Technology is, of course, the great divider, but it’s actually not that difficult to learn how tweens and teens communicate this days. If you’re reading this blog and you’re over forty, you’re more with it than most people of your generation. Being a mystery writer and engaging in blatant self-promotion through websites, blogging, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc., is actually a training ground in learning new ways to communicate. And what are we communicating? Love, lust, anger, information, selling and buying—the same old stuff.

And ironically, as a children’s book writer, you need to always take the viewpoint of the child. That may mean the parents are not seen in a favorable light. The writer has to literally stop thinking like a parent or teacher, but literally like a child.

So, What’s the Payoff?

I’m still not clear how average advances for children’s books compare against ones for adult books (for picture books, the author and illustrator split royalties 50-50), but I’m told that children’s book deals tend to be lower. I’m sure that this differs from case to case, but in general don’t be chasing a children’s series because you expect the same riches bestowed on J.K. Rowling.

My children’s writer colleague said it best: “When you receive that letter, e-mail from a kid saying how much your book means to them, it’s all worth it.”

Juvenile Mystery Series Recommendations

I had the great opportunity to serve under Sujata Massey in judging the Edgars in the YA category last year. It was wonderful to get acquainted with the work of some great mystery writers for the children’s market. I’m also always on the lookout for good mystery books for my friends’ children. Encyclopedia Brown, Harriet the Spy, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys are all classics from my era, but there are some newer series for younger readers:

CLASSIC P.I. a la Raymond Chandler: My favorite current mystery series is NATE THE GREAT by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. These are easy readers (meaning that children 4 to 8 can read them themselves). The child sleuth, Nate, of course, has a dry wit and cool detachment that makes his adventures a delight to read. The plots and puzzles are very well constructed. The CHET GECKO series by Bruce Hale for middle-grade children is also popular. Here a gecko plays Sam Spade with plenty of references to noir movies (titles include FAREWELL, MY LUNCHBAG, THE BIG NAP, MALTED FALCON, and THIS GUM FOR HIRE). Adults will get the references better than children themselves.

CALIFORNIA FEMALE a la Sue Grafton: Wendelin Van Draanen, the author of the SAMMY KEYES series, incorporates a literary device used by Sue Grafton and Jan Burke. She’s made up a California coastal city, but modeled it after a real town. Grafton has Santa Teresa (Santa Barbara) and Burke, Las Piernas (Long Beach and its environs). Well, Van Draanen offers Santa Martina, which is actually Santa Maria, a city which I have come to love. SAMMY, like Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, is full of pep and vinegar. Grafton even states in her blurb for SAMMY KEYES: “If Kinsey Millhone ever hires a junior partner, Sammy Keyes will be the first candidate on the list.”

SCI-FI MEETS THRILLER a la Dean Koontz: I heard Margaret Peterson Haddix speak at this year’s Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and I knew that I’d have to run out and read her books. Her popular SHADOW CHILDREN series deals with overpopulation of the earth and how “shadow children,” born after a family’s second child, are either executed or imprisoned. Her series centers predominantly on a shadow child, Luke. Her new series involving time travel, THE HIDDEN, deals with how a set of adopted children discover their true historic identities.

JAMES BOND or SPY THRILLER a la Robert Ludlum: “Foyle’s War” is hands-down my favorite current PBS Masterpiece series. Its writer, Anthony Horowitz, also behind a very popular spy series for children, I just learned from Barry Martin, the proprietor of Book’em Mysteries in South Pasadena. It’s the Alex Rider series and you can read more here.

SHERLOCK HOLMES PASTICHE a la Laurie King: Laurie King has Holmes’ wife, but Nancy Springer has Holmes’ younger teenage sister, Enola, as her star protagonist in her award-winning series.

JAPANESE HISTORICAL a la Laura Joh Rowland and I.J. Parker: There’s a samurai apprentice boy sleuth in Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler’s series set in Japan in the 1700s.

There are a number of standalones, especially for YA readers—dark stuff that would make some hardboiled mysteries for adults look light weight. Have you come across an interesting mystery for younger readers? Have you thought about writing a book for the middle-grade or YA market? If so, please comment. If you would never consider writing for children, we’d like to hear from you, too.

I also want to make note of my mystery colleagues who have recently published books for the youth market: Susan McBride (her DEBS series debuts this week and it’s listed on Kid’s Indie Next List [formerly Booksense Picks]—congrats, Susan!) and Lauren Henderson. Susan, Lauren and I all have the same editor at Delacorte. And Chris Grabenstein has his hands full with a launch of a children’s book, THE CROSSROADS (been getting great reviews) and his next installment in his John Ceepak mystery series for adults.

I’ve asked Susan to stop by here today so if you have any questions or comments for her, please leave her a note and she may reply. And thanks, Murderati, and specifically Pari Noskin Taichert for having me here. Happy last days of summer or back to school!

JAPANESE WORDS OF THE WEEK: kurai and pinku.

Kurai means dark, not only visually but emotionally/spiritually. In terms of noir, it’s usually phoeneticized as “nowaru.” There’s even an anime series with two female assassins by that same name.

One guess what pinku means—the Japanese love their gairaigo, their transliterated words from foreign languages (most often English). For those who haven’t waken up yet, pinku is pink. Remember the Pink Ladies, a Japanese girl band from the 1980s? I guess pinku also refers to Japanese soft-porn movies from the Sixties to the Eighties. Learn something every day from Google.

Need, Desire and Motivation

by Alexandra Sokoloff

The first thing any acting student learns in terms of creating a character and building a scene is to ask the question: “What do I WANT?” – n every scene, and in the story overall. When I was directing plays (yeah, in one of my mutiple past lives) and a scene was just lying dead on the stage, I could always get the actors to breathe life into it by getting them to clarify what they wanted in the scene and simply playing that want.
This is something that starts in the writing, obviously, and should always be on the author’s mind, too: Who wants what in the scene, and how do those desires conflict? Who WINS in the scene?

But even before all that, one of the most important steps of creating a story, from the very beginning, is identifying the protagonist overall desire and need in the story. You also hear this called “internal” and “external” desire, and “want” and “deep need”, but it’s all the same thing. A strong main character will want something immediately, like to get that promotion, or to have sex with the love interest. But there’s something underneath that surface want that is really driving the character, and in good characters, those inner and outer desires are in conflict. Also, the character will KNOW that s/he wants that outer desire, but probably have very little idea that what she really needs is the inner desire.

One of the great examples of inner and outer desire in conflict is in the George Bailey character in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. From the very beginning George wants to see the world, to do big things, design big buildings – all very male, external, explosive goals. But his deep need is to become a good man and community leader like his father, who does big things and fights big battles – but on a microcosm, in their tiny, “boring” little community of Bedford Falls, which George can’t wait to escape.

But every choice he actually makes in the story defers his external need to escape, and ties him closer to the community that he becomes the moral leader of, as he takes on his late father’s role and battles the town’s would-be dictator, Mr. Potter. George does not take on that role happily – he fights it every single step of the way, and resents it a good bit of the time. But it’s that conflict which makes George such a great character whom we emphasize with – it’s a story of how an ordinary man becomes a true hero.

In SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Clarice’s outer desire is for advancement in the FBI. And Harris conveys this desire in what is a brilliant storytelling trick: He has Dr. Lecter tell her so. “You’re sooooo ambitious, aren’t you?” He purrs. And “I’ll give you what you most desire, Clarice. Advancement.”

It’s brilliant because it makes Lecter all-knowing, but it also clearly spells out Clarice’s desire, which the audience/reader really does need to know to commit to the character and relax into the story. I’m a big believer in just spelling it out.

But what Clarice REALLY needs is not advancement. What she needs to save a lamb – the lamb that haunts her dreams, the lamb she hears screaming. In the story, the kidnapped senator’s daughter Catherine is the lamb, and Harris uses animal imagery to subtly evoke a lamb and the scene of the slaughter of the lambs that haunts Clarice.

And again, Lecter is the one who draws this deep need out of Clarice.

Also Clarice’s need and desire come into conflict: what she WANTS is advancement, but in order to save Catherine, she has to defy her superiors and jeopardize her graduation from the academy.

It’s usually true that the external desire will be a selfish want – something the protagonist wants for him or herself, and the inner need will be unselfish – something the protagonst comes to want for other people. This is a useful guideline because it clearly shows character growth.

So I bring all this up this morning because I’m looking for good examples of inner and outer desire, especially inner and outer desire in conflict, and I wanted to throw that out to the collective brain, here.

On another topic entirely, the lovely and talented Michelle Gagnon made a comment a few days ago that I thought was worth following up on.

She said that she wasn’t convinced of the usefulness of drop-in book signings – and cited that clerk we all have met – young and clueless, who couldn’t care less that a real live author is standing in front of her, offering to sign books.

Well, it so happens I’m on a mini tour, yesterday and today – my friend, paranormal author Jenna Black and I drove from Raleigh to Virginia Beach yesterday to do a signing at the grand opening of the Virginia Beach Books-a-Million. We hit four other area bookstores on the way yesterday and are doing another eight today. Is it useful? Oh, hell, yeah.

Even though the very best time to do this is when you have a book just out and the stores are more likely to have a number of your book in stock, this trip has been gold for me. Virginia Beach turns out to be a very bookstore-heavy town, they love the supernatural and paranormal, and our reception has been fantastic. The stores that didn’t have the books ordered them in on the spot, and we’ve had multiple requests for signings when our next books come out in December.

I feel like I’ve cracked another market that wasn’t particularly aware of me (I’ve never done any events in Virginia before) and I have a new buddy to make these drop-in trips with.

I do want to say that the key is NOT to rely on the first clerk you talk to but to ask to speak to a manager or CRM. Most will be thrilled to see you, really.

So my other question of the day is – do you do bookstore drop-ins, and do you have helpful tips for those on the fence about it?

We’re off on the rounds now, but I’ll check in later today.

– Alex

A Murderati Interview with Red Room Founder Ivory Madison

J.T. Ellison

I am honored to have Red Room founder Ivory Madison here today. If you’re not familiar with Red Room, click on this link and check it out. (After you read the interview, mind you.) I’ve been a Red Room author for many months now, and I’ve found it to be incredibly easy to use, and chock full of fascinating people. I love how I can upload my reviews, my media, my interviews, book covers, tour schedule, book synopses, blog entries… you get the idea. It’s a clearing house for some of the most influential and interesting authors of our time — Amy Tan, Salman Rushdie, Po Bronson, John Stewart and Peter Coyote are just a few of the contributing members. I was entranced by their idea of a writer’s society, a network of authors, readers, editors, publishers and agents who all come together in a single clearinghouse to share their lives, books and ideas. It’s taking the blog concept and turning it into a vital resource for the writing community. Red Room celebrates their authors, shows a new respect for the literary world, and manages to have a healthy sense of humor. All wonderful reasons to join the community.

And not only is a cool place to hang out, the site itself is a masterpiece. The dedicated staff of Red Room maintains an ever-changing site which not only looks beautiful, but is functional and easy to use. It’s especially good for people who don’t like technology, because it is simple and straightforward. They take the guesswork out of having a web presence.

Ivory Madison is the architect of this online world. She is an eclectic, fascinating woman with the drive and vision only seen in few people. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming the ultimate Renaissance woman, Ivory Madison, to Murderati. And now, on to the show!

____________________________

Tell us a secret about Ivory Madison that no one knows.

I realized recently that most of my fiction is about ineffective female assassins.

What is Red Room all about?

We call redroom.com “the online home of the world’s greatest writers.” It’s an online community created by writers for writers, and it grew organically out of our real-life writers community, the Red Room Writers Society.

Redroom.com, as you know since you’re very active on the site, lets you quickly set up a free, elegant website even if you don’t know anything about computers, and once you’re in, you reach new readers, colleagues, and friends. Some writers are already getting more than a hundred times the traffic they got on their freestanding websites. We like to say, “You take care of the writing, we’ll take care of the technology.” We’re rolling out new features every day to help you manage your life, your writing, and your media. I want writers to have all the tools they need in one place.

Beyond the technology aspect, it’s a great place to share useful information and to learn, to get educated about the writing world, to make connections, to have fun. And most importantly, once the website has paid advertising, we’ll be giving a portion of the proceeds to the causes each and every author supports.

How does Red Room differ from the Red Room Writers Society?

I founded the Red Room Writers Society six years ago to help writers, including me, finish their books. I created what I called my “Writers Studio” program, where writers met at a beautiful mansion and sat quietly and finished their books. It was a supportive community and it was a practical framework for achieving your goals. But community support and a practical framework for writing and promoting your career should be free and easy for everyone in the world, not just a few lucky people in San Francisco.

Redroom.com is the natural extension of the Red Room Writers Society. It’s a beautiful mansion for writers, online, where we can provide all this to everyone, for free. We’re aiming to build an international cultural institution for writers and readers. The internet makes the concept scalable and the time is right.

Every time I look at the author listings on Red Room, they’ve grown exponentially. Are you looking for more authors to join, and what’s your criteria?

Yes, after just six months live, we’ve got over a thousand authors and ten thousand members, many of whom are readers, aspiring writers, and industry professionals including literary agents and editors.

We want everyone in our community to join as a member, and some can apply to become Red Room Authors. The criteria is more of an art than a science. In general, a book published by a reputable publisher will do it, but there are always exceptions, like an extraordinarily successful self-published author, a distinguished journalist with no book, or a prize-winning screenwriter. We’re planning to launch other designations to recognize all different kinds of writers, not just book authors.

Why invite-only?

Our community is for everyone, the aspiring writers, self-published writers, and published authors, but we only allow the published authors to have the designation “Red Room Author.” That part is invitation-only, that’s true. Here’s why: Finding an editor at a publishing house who supports your work by publishing it, rather than self-publishing, is a process that creates a filter. It’s not a perfect system, but it helps readers distinguish the level of quality of the work. When you look through the “Red Room Authors” in our community, you know you’re looking at writers who have achieved something. We go through a process evaluating every single author. You know we created a filter to help you find writers who have achieved something, either because of their writing talent, market success, or some other way that they contribute to the diversity or value of our community as a whole.

Red Room is staffed by an incredibly talented group of people, all of whom are twenty-nine. Something significant in that number? And do you fire them when they turn thirty?

Ah, you’ve read the “About Us” page. Well, there are a few reasons we say everyone on staff is twenty-nine. First of all, most writers hope to publish their first novel before they’re thirty…so I’ve told the entire staff they’re not allowed to turn thirty until they finish their first book. And another reason is that I’m a comic book writer, and in comics, superheroes never age beyond twenty-nine. I like everyone at Red Room to feel like a superhero. Also, I think I can still just barely pass for twenty-nine, so I am going to keep saying it until people make me stop.

You have an exceptionally eclectic background. What’s the favorite hat you wear – singer, entrepreneur, writing coach, graphic novelist, literati, screenwriter, lawyer, spirited teacher of billiards???

You have no idea how eclectic my background is, JT. But we don’t have time here to get into it. I love doing all the things you mentioned, and in one way it can hold you back to have too many interests, to be a dilettante, but in another way, everything I’ve ever done has prepared me for this job—building Red Room. But at heart, more than anything, I’m a writer. Gloria Steinem, one of my heroes, at the end of the day, says she’s “a writer.”

And where do you find the time to do all that you do? What’s your secret? Can we buy some?

Sure, send me a check and then I’ll call you with the secret.

Okay, it’s ruthless prioritizing and logical next action steps. Every day, every hour. I’ve put many things on hold in order to build my dream. The secret to success is focusing on the next immediate action step in the right direction, at all times. That’s all. What will give you the highest ROI [Return on Investment] on your next five minutes? Your next hour? Your next year? Your most ambitious dreams are possible if you take a pragmatic approach to making them happen, and if you’re willing to accept the trade-offs.

In the past two years, I had to give up two other businesses in order to make this one a success. I had to work a hundred hours a week for a year to get redroom.com off the ground. But I made the right decisions for me, and took small action steps every day towards the highest priority goals I had committed to achieving. I’ve achieved more in the last two years on my list of life goals than in the past twenty, so I know it’s under our control if we move like a snail or at the speed of light. There’s nothing holding us back.

What’s your typical day like?

This is going to be so boring. Okay, I get up at 6AM, work from home on email and phone (focusing on East Coast contacts), and sometimes catching up on business reading, until 9:30AM. Then I get dressed and I walk the five blocks to work, with my fiancé, Abe, stopping for a quick breakfast somewhere, and we’re usually in the office by 10AM. I’m there until 10PM or later probably six nights a week, working closely with every department. I only go to lunch or dinner if it’s business. Then once everyone else has gone home, I flip a switch on the bookcase and go down a secret passageway built underneath my office, and follow a secret staircase down to my compound, where I change into my costume, jump on my motorcycle, and fight crime all night.

You’re currently recording an album with pianist Richard Hall – a compilation of jazz standards. Do you think it’s easier to record an album or write a graphic novel?

Richard and I were almost ready to record the album, had done all the arrangements and rehearsals, and then I realized—due to my ruthless prioritizing—that it would have to wait until the graphic novel was finished. So I took a year off of singing. The graphic novel just got wrapped up, was released in serial comic book form, and the book version is slated for release in January 2009. I have one other personal project in line and then I’m going to get back to the album. To answer your question, I am going to assume recording an album is easier because I haven’t done it yet and don’t know any better.

What’s the literary scene like in San Francisco?

It’s amazing. Wonderful. Best in the world, I think, other than New York. I’m from here, so I’m biased in our favor, but I had been living in New Orleans for many years, and so the city’s literary scene was new to me when I returned ten years ago.

Several pillars of the local literary community here were crucial to the creation and success of redroom.com. When I founded the Red Room Writers Society back in 2002, I met many writers who wound up becoming friends and the inspiration for what was possible on a global scale for writers. Jane Ganahl, an author, friend, and the first person I hired to help me invite authors to redroom.com, cofounded Litquake, the city’s premier literary festival—through Litquake, I met hundreds of authors who eventually helped me build redroom.com. Also, my friend, Po Bronson, is not only a successful author, but also famous for his community-building in the writing world, helped me from day one with great advice about what writers wanted and needed online.

The downside of any literary “scene” is that it means readings and parties and events and classes, which means you’re at the party, not writing. Writers have to find time to finish what matters most to them, which for most writers means writing projects, not dinner party projects. Unless supporting other people’s writing is your top priority, your writing has to come first sometimes. I strongly believe you can write anywhere if you just do the writing and forget about the penumbra around writing. Moving to San Francisco or New York will not make you a novelist any more than moving to Hollywood automatically makes you a screenwriter. Marketing is different from writing.

Where do you see the future of the book heading?

Let me begin by saying that books are magical objects of art that change lives and aren’t getting phased out by any technology, ever. Take a subway ride in New York. Everyone from every walk of life has a book with them (and last month when I was in New York, half the books I noticed on the subway were written by Red Room Authors!).

I think most of the predictions I read regarding the trends, many driven by technology, of where publishing is headed are generally correct (we did one ourselves called The Future of the Book). But they are wrong if they say people are reading less—they aren’t—and when they say the physical book will be entirely replaced by ebooks—it won’t. Each market has micro-markets within it, too, so while new book sales might be down, used book sales are up, and while independent bookstore sales are down, online book sales are up. So the trends are complex and sometimes can both advantage and disadvantage a player at the same time.

What’s your favorite author story?

Bill Hayes, one of our authors, came over to our office with a signed book and a bottle of good French pink champagne to thank us for creating the website because he loved it and appreciated us so much. I don’t think that happens at Facebook or LinkedIn.

Outside of the writing world, what captures your interest?

Well, everything I love has to do with writing. My biggest loves are history and philosophy and feminism and lexicography and I discovered them all through books and authors, and I think of them in terms of books and authors. I’m very nostalgic, too, and for fun I love old music, film, and comic books, mostly from the forties. I like documentaries and weird antique books. I love old architecture—Abe and I have an 1887 Victorian. Our Red Room offices are in an old Victorian, too.

When you were a little girl, what did you think you’d be when you grew up?

Ivory Madison.

You want more details…okay. When I was about seven years old, I thought I would be the first female president and an architect and a film director and a lounge singer and Batman. I drew pictures of my headquarters, which was a large building with gargoyles on it. So, if I define those dreams very loosely I can say I sort of made it. I’m president of redroom.com, I designed the website architecture, I was the art director for my graphic novel, I did get to sing at the Plush Room, and I wrote Batman for DC Comics. I have some bookends that look like gargoyles reading books, perched up on top of the bookcases in my living room.

What books are on your nightstand?

Abe and I have towering stacks on each nightstand of at least forty interesting books and we should just admit we won’t have time to read them. The only books I wind up reading these days are business books. Books with titles like Structuring Mergers and Acquisitions, Execution, Wikinomics, Getting Things Done, Marketing Metrics, Traction. And when I get exhausted, I remember that “the antidote to exhaustion is whole-heartedness,” and I take an hour with a pop philosophy book, books on Toltec wisdom and Buddhist philosophy. The only fiction I make time to read these days is when my friends write books and I’ll get in a lot of trouble if I don’t read them. I don’t want to name names—we have a thousand authors!

What’s your favorite line that you’ve ever written? Read?

That I’ve ever written? Maybe this one from my short story, The Time I Tried to Kill the Poet Laureate of the United States:

On day seven of my trial, the judge said that he would put me away for life if I used the term Kafkaesque “even one more time!” (His anti-Semitism was transparent, so I took to wearing a gold felt star on my jacket to underscore it.)

The story is still unpublished, although I’ve read it at Litquake and other venues. The protagonist is a self-righteous pseudo-intellectual, kind of an Ignatius O’Reilly [from A Confederacy of Dunces] crossed with one of the more innocuous Edgar Allan Poe narrators. I keep thinking I should submit it to Story, but due to my ruthless prioritizing, I haven’t even found out yet if anyone thinks it’s publishable.

My favorite line I’ve ever read? Well, that’s an impossible thing to choose, but the first thing that comes to mind at this moment is the poem “Modern Declaration” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem begins with, “I, having loved ever since I was a child a few things/Never having wavered in these affections,” she declares, “…that I shall love you always/No matter what party is in power/No matter what temporarily expedient combination of allied interests wins the war/Shall love you always.”

And finally, tell us honestly… Are you big in Japan?

No. But there were 564 visits to redroom.com from Japan last month. My goal is to help you find your readers, colleagues, and friends wherever they are in world, and so maybe next year I won’t be kidding when I say we’re “big in Japan.”

____________________________

Founder and CEO Ivory Madison is a writer, editor, and entrepreneur living in her hometown of San Francisco. A former management consultant to startups and the Fortune 500, Madison has finally combined her love of writing with her business acumen. Before launching redroom.com, she founded the Red Room Writers Society in 2002, where she personally helped hundreds of aspiring and professional writers complete their books. As a result, Madison was named Best Writing Coach by San Francisco magazine. Trained as an attorney, Madison was Editor in Chief of her Law Review, interned at the California Supreme Court, and served as a Law Fellow at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Her adventures have also included episodes as a New Orleans, restaurateur, radical feminist politico, and torch singer at the Plush Room. Her noir graphic novel, Huntress: Year One, will be published by DC Comics in January 2009, but is now available in its six-issue serialized form. It tells the origin story of a strong female superhero. Madison is twenty-nine.

The Story Behind the Photo – “Ivory Madison steals away from her duties as founder and CEO of redroom.com with fellow writer Robert Mailer Anderson. Actually, this photo by David Allen became the poster for The San Francisco Film Noir Festival in February 2007. Ivory and Robert have a platonic relationship, they are acting in this photo.”

Interlude

By Brett Battles

It’s been a pretty interesting several days here at Murderati, what with Toni’s post about how controversy is handled, Naomi’s entry about change, Tess’ post about keeping or firing agents, and Rob’s bit yesterday about book trailers. Not only were the great posts themselves interesting, but the discussions that occurred in the comments sections were fantastic!

So I was faced with a problem. How in God’s name was I going to keep up the string of great topics. My answer? I decided I wouldn’t. It just seemed like too much…well…work. And, honestly, perhaps what we really need today is an interlude – a day when we can all just sit back and not strain our brains.

So I thought we could talk about creativity. Not necessarily written creativity, but creativity as it’s expressed by people who aren’t necessarily writers. And when I say talk about creativity, what I really mean is showing.

Okay with you? Hope so, because it sure as hell sounds like a good idea to me. Just to focus myself a little bit, I decided on the subtopic of creative interpretation. So let’s have at it.

This is very cool. A lot of you might remember the movie TRON from back in the early 80s. I actually have a personal story about the movie that involves a friend who to this day has not fully forgiven me for taking him to see it. But I don’t really care, I enjoyed it. And, apparently, so did these guys. In fact, they liked it so much they decided to recreate one of the chase scenes…only instead of computer graphics and special effects, they decided to use…wait for it…cardboard:

Tron
by freres-hueon

Pretty amazing. Talk about a creative use of everyday materials!

Our next creative endeavor is by artist Michel de Broin, who re-envisions an ’86 Buick by removing all the “superfluous devices”:

From those ultra cool folks who brought us the animated videos by the Gorillaz – designer Jamie Hewlett and musician Damon Albran – here’s a piece they did for BBC Sports. They’re vision of the Olympics:

And finally, a little music. Not an original piece by the artist, but like all the above, an interpretation.

Sometimes it’s nice to look at other methods people use to be creative. I don’t know about you, but I feed off of creativity whether it’s a story I’m reading, a painting I’m viewing, or a song I’m listening to. It can be almost anything. The creativity of others is inspiring and energizing.

Honestly, I could have posted hundreds of more visuals, but thought I’d give you a chance to jump in. Tells us about creative works that have inspired you, include links if you can but it’s not necessary.

And remember, today is a relaxed day at Murderati. No formal attire necessary.

Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You

by Robert Gregory Browne

I spent most of Saturday working on a book trailer.

For the record, I have certain reservations about them. First, I think they can be misleading in a way. And by misleading, I mean to the average YouTube viewer who stumbles across your trailer and thinks WTF is this? Is it a movie? Ooooh, it’s a BOOK.

Then he clicks away, wishing it were a movie instead, because a movie gets him excited, but a book — eh, not so much. Books require work.

Second, for those who actually like to read books and are excited by a book trailer, I think the reading experience can be ruined if the trailer in question uses faces. Once you use a face in a trailer, you take the risk that the reader has a preconceived notion of what your characters look like. Since I generally like to leave that up to the reader, showing faces — for me, at least — is a no-no.

That said, here’s a trailer that I think is VERY WELL PRODUCED, shows faces, yet makes me want to go out and buy the book:

The above trailer works very well, in my estimation. It tells the premise in a dramatic way, is fast, constantly moving, and actually gets me excited about the book.

I have seen trailers out there that are long and boring and look like they were made by someone’s twelve-year-old stepson with the beginner’s version of Flash. And authors paid money to get them made.

And that’s another reservation I have about book trailers. Many of them are poorly produced and do not reflect well on the craft. Even bad movies tend to have good trailers, and I’d say there are lot more good books than movies, so why so many bad book trailers?

Now, the following is NOT a badly produced book trailer. And I have to say the book sounds like it could be a good one. But my problem with it is that it just gives WAY too much detail. Instead of getting straight to the point, it spends too much time explaining what the story is about:

Again, WELL produced, but do I really need to know all that going in? Why not simply tease me? Yes, the artwork is nice — and apparently comes straight from the books — but, again, less is more, folks.

Finally, here’s the trailer that I made for my own book. No, it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s what I think of more as a TEASER than a trailer. No faces. A quick idea of what the book is about, a few blurbs and I’m outta there:

Now, I have no objectivity here, so I can’t say whether this is a good trailer or bad. But my publisher’s marketing people like it enough to use it, so I’m happy about that.

But then comes the next question. What do you do with a trailer once it’s done? Put it up on YouTube and its clones in hopes that someone will stumble across it? Had I not gone looking specifically for trailers, I never would have known about the above examples or the books they promote.

Do you put it up on Amazon? That’s probably a good place for it, but again, the problem is HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE TO WATCH IT? Once they get to your Amazon page, yes, they might watch the trailer and even be compelled to buy the book, but if they’ve already gone there, they obviously already know about your book.

So, unless you can come up with some super viral gimmick, I doubt that many people WILL watch it.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from making one. Because it’s the thing to do. And it COULD help. It hopefully won’t hurt.

Because, hey — what the hell do I know?

I just work here.

“Should I Fire My Agent?”

by Tess Gerritsen

Recently, several different writers seeking my advice have asked me this very question. It’s a question that makes me squirm, because there’s no easy answer.It’s like being asked, “Should I divorce my wife?” The wrong advice could be disastrous. And the problems these writers told me about weren’t clear cut enough for me to comfortably give a firm answer one way or the other.
They complained that the agent wasn’t selling their work fast enough. Or the agent wasn’t communicating often enough. Or the agent no longer sounded enthusiastic about the manuscript. These writers were growing more and more uneasy with the relationship, but they didn’t know if things were bad enough yet to call it quits.

The indecision was driving them crazy, and they wanted me to tell them what to do.

Which of course I can’t, because I’m not in their shoes. But I can tell them my experiences with agents during my career.

I’ve been published for twenty-one years, and I’m on my third literary agent. I think that’s probably about average for a veteran author, although I have no firm data on that; it’s just what I hear from talking to other authors.

My first agent came highly recommended to me by an editor. He had a big name in the business, and I was overjoyed when he took me on as a client. He sold my first book (to Harlequin) and I assumed we’d have a long and happy association. The book was published, had good reviews, and I sat back and waited for sales figures.

And waited and waited.

A year and a half went by. I received no royalty checks or royalty statements. I was a meek and extremely naïve young author, so I assumed this was simply business as usual. I wanted to know what was happening, but I was terrified of offending this high-powered agent, so I was hesitant to even call him and ask him point-blank what was happening. Instead I wrote a polite letter or two (this was before the age of email), asking him how the book was selling. His replies were something along the lines of, “there are no royalties because the book didn’t sell all that well.”

Finally, at a conference, I met another Harlequin author whose book had come out the same month mine did, and she said that she’d already received several royalty statements and checks. Even if I wasn’t receiving checks, she said, I should be getting royalty statements.

It was now two years since my book had come out and at last I was starting to get suspicious. You probably think I sound terribly dense, but at the time I didn’t know any other writers. There was no online network, no easy way to ask for advice. And the last thing I wanted to do was challenge my agent because I was afraid of losing him. I was like an abused wife in a bad marriage, desperate to stay married, unwilling to even admit that I was being abused.

Finally, I got up the courage to call Harlequin directly and ask if they had, just by chance, issued any royalty statements. Oh yes, they said. And they’d sent my agent two thousand dollars in royalty checks as well – money that my agent had been pocketing for two years.

When confronted with the facts, my agent told me that there’d simply been a clerical error in his office – that for two years, his staff had sent my royalty statements and checks to another client with a similar name. Ha ha, what a careless mistake, but these things happen. At last, he mailed me the money he owed me.

That’s when I fired him. But it had taken me two years to do it, two years of agonizing over my decision. Only later did I learn that this same agent did the same thing to a far more prominent, internationally bestselling author – to the tune of millions of dollars. So as a victim, I was in good company.

For a few years, I went unagented. Since I was still writing romance for Harlequin, I was able to sell my next few books directly to the publisher, without having to pay a commission to any agent. The arrangement made sense, as long as I kept writing category romance. But as the years went by, my aspirations grew. I wanted to write bigger books, mainstream books, and I knew I needed an agent to make that move.

So I signed on with Agent #2.

She was prompt and professional, and we had a good working relationship. But her health was a problem, and within a few years, she retired. Before she left the business, she recommended a number of agents whom she admired and she suggested I query them.

That’s how I ended up with Agent #3, who has been my agent for thirteen years and has guided me and helped build my career into what it is today.

Every writer’s career runs along its own individual trajectory, but I think there are a few lessons one can take away from my own experiences with agents.

The first lesson is obvious: fiscal dishonesty is an immediate firing offense. If you have proof that your agent is fooling around with the books, or withholding money, you must end the relationship. This decision is an easy one.

Lack of communication is another one that ranks high on my list of unacceptability. If you must call or write repeatedly before your agent responds, then something is seriously wrong. I’m not talking about the weeks when she’s on vacation or in the hospital; I’m talking about times when she’s in the office and simply avoiding you for days on end. This is not the kind of agent you can work with.

Dishonesty about submission information would also be a reason to fire an agent. If she refuses to tell you where she’s sent the manuscript, if at all, then how do you know if she’s doing her job? How do you know if she’s gotten offers and turned them down? Agents need to be frank with you about the progress they’ve made with selling or not selling your manuscript. If she’s not circulating your work, if it’s just sitting on her desk, then what’s the point of having her as your agent?

Finally, there’s the matter of enthusiasm. Sometimes, an agent may take on a client with great excitement, and then fail to sell the manuscript. Over time, she may lose faith in the story, or in the client. And that loss of faith may come through in her voice when you talk to her. This might be remedied if you then deliver a second manuscript that’s terrific – and get her excited again. Or her disillusionment may grow to the point where she’s just going through the motions of sending out the book. Or she starts to hunt for ways to gently tell you she no longer wants to represent you. This break-up is one of the hard decisions, because there’s nothing inherently wrong between you. It’s like a marriage between two people who have simply drifted apart, and it may take months or years for it to finally end.

And yet, end it probably will. Whether sooner or later is the question.

Now, I’ve written this entirely from the writer’s perspective. I’m sure agents have their own stories to tell about nightmarish writers or difficult breakups. I do hope they’ll write me with their stories (yes, anonymously if you’d like). I’d love to hear an agent’s point of view on this topic.

May the Change Be with You

NAOMI HIRAHARA

As Murderati contributors Alexandra Sokoloff, Toni McGee Causey, and Robert Gregory Browne were dancing the night away with romance readers in San Francisco in the beginning of August, I was in Los Angeles’ Century City with 900 children’s storytellers at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators national conference.

I left one day with a wheelbarrow full of ideas, but probably the biggest epiphany I had was when Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of the Shadow Children and Missing series, explained why she gravitates towards writing about and for young people. “They’re always experiencing changes; they are always evolving,” she said. That’s true, I thought. That’s why they make such dynamic characters—they can be unpredictable, their emotions can suddenly lead them in harm’s way or perhaps a light-bulb moment.

I think we adults can sometimes benefit from being more childlike—in exposing ourselves to changes and risks that may not make sense to people around us. For most of my early career, I seemed to always have to make changes in increments of three.

For example, after working at a small community newspaper for three years, I quit and looked for work in public relations after hearing from other writer friends who felt that work less taxing and more financial rewarding than journalism. (I was working on my first novel at the time.) One of the jobs I interviewed for was to be a technical writer at a public relations agency. The job involved interviewing engineers about digital technology, high-definition television and computer graphic effects. What did I know about those areas—zilch. So I felt ill-prepared before speaking with the agency’s partner. It turned out, however, he was a former journalist as well.

“If you’re a good writer,” he told me, “you can write about anything.” He then offered me the job. His confidence in me was shocking at times—about three months into my new position I was sent solo to Auckland, New Zealand, to cover a turnkey operation of a new television station. (Yes, I learned what “turnkey” meant in the engineering world. As well as “beta test site” and how many lines were on a typical analog television screen.)

Change then came another three years later. I returned to the newspaper as its editor and after six years left for a writing fellowship in Wichita, Kansas. My native Angeleno friends were in a state of disbelief. Going to Wichita from Los Angeles was apparently the equivalent of voluntarily entering a Siberian jail. But those nine months were incredibly fruitful, both personally and professionally. And during my last month of the fellowship, I got a call from a museum in Los Angeles. They wanted to commission me to write a biography on a businessman. What did I know of this businessman, who at the time was in his eighties? Just surface information. Was this to be a hagiography, a “biography of saints”? Or a real representation of a man’s life?

At least I’d be hired to write, I told myself. That was better than other options, which included possibly teaching or returning to public relations. It turned out that was a splendid decision, eventually leading to the writing and publication of multiple of nonfiction books which has helped in my mystery writing career.

The point I’m making is as writers we need to keep our options open. We may think that we are either above or uncomfortable writing in a certain genre or subgenre, but what are your presuppositions based on? Stereotypes or ignorance? Open the door to change. You can always choose to close the door, but you need to at least see clearly what’s on the other side.

If you’ve ever said “yes” to a new professional or writing experience, let us know in the comment section.

Thanks to Pari’s hospitality, I’m going to be at Murderati next Monday as well to follow up on this theme of “change.” Please come back!

JAPANESE WORD OF THE WEEK: honki de (displayed during the “I Survived a Japanese Game Show”)

Seriously? Seriously! Just like the mantra of Meredith Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy” during its disastrous third season. Like you’ve got to be freakin’ kiddin’ me. Another similar word is maji de, a shortened version of majime de (you can’t be serious!).

controversy sells

by Toni McGee Causey

Or does it?

You may not have seen the discussion of a publisher pulling the book, The Jewel of Medina, off the publication track in May due to a potential backlash. Author Sherry Jones wrote a fictionalized version about Aisha, the young wife of prophet Muhammad. According to The Wall Street Journal article four days ago, an extreme controversy arose once the ARCs went out for blurbs, and one particular person whom the author had hoped would give it a positive spin, Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin… hated it.

Ironically, the author of the Journal article is Muslim, and laments the fact that the book was pulled, saying, "This saga upsets me as a Muslim — and as a writer who believes that
fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and
humanizing way."

Ms. Spellberg, an American, said:

the novel is a "very ugly, stupid piece of work… I walked through a metal detector to see ‘Last
Temptation of Christ,’" the controversial 1980s film adaptation of a
novel that depicted a relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I
don’t have a problem with historical fiction. I do have a problem with
the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a
sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography."

There are quite a lot of Christians who would say that the latter description is exactly how they perceive that adaptation, and there were protests, far and wide.

Ms. Spellberg alerted the head of a popular Muslim site about her concerns about the Jewel of Medina, who posted about the book without having read it. It snowballed from there within just a few days, if not hours, to the point where editors and publishers felt there was a very real threat of potential retaliation if the book went out into the public. In a letter to the editor
of The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Spellberg denies having been the sole
responsibility for the novel being pulled and says she felt "[i]t was
in that same professional capacity that I felt it my duty to
warn the press of the novel’s potential to provoke anger among some
Muslims." (I’d be very curious to know what other press she notified.)

Also from the WSJ article:

Meanwhile back in New York City, Jane Garrett, an
editor at Random House’s Knopf imprint, dispatched an email on May 1 to
Knopf executives, telling them she got a phone call the evening before
from Ms. Spellberg (who happens to be under contract with Knopf to
write "Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an.")

"She thinks there is a very real possibility of major
danger for the building and staff and widespread violence," Ms. Garrett
wrote. "Denise says it is ‘a declaration of war . . . explosive stuff .
. . a national security issue.’

The book was pulled from the marketplace.

I have to say that the part about all of this that surprises me the most is the surprise over the fact that there would be potential retaliation. There are extremist groups in many religions. Hello? Crusades? KKK? The death threats made over The Da Vinci Code?

So if you "can’t play with a sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography," that begs the question, what exactly can you do? And who’s sacred history is fair game?

The globalization of communication (i.e., the internet) has not only changed how fast we can communicate about a controversy, but just how much information is available out there. Within a very short time, Sarah over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books had been emailed a copy of the prologue by the author and then Sarah led a very interesting discussion of the work on her blog–where readers of Muslim faith felt (I believe) a welcome spirit to comment, pro or con. That same globalization, however, allows for rumor, gossip, ridicule, lies and threats to be circulated with equal abandon–and that latter aspect is a threat to any sort of real learning we might have of others.

In a day when a cooking show star, Rachel Ray, can have a commercial pulled because she wore a scarf that someone then tagged with negative comments, we have to wonder: where are we going from here? I don’t think anyone in their right mind, if they were speaking to Rachel Ray directly, would have had the thought that she was pimping for murderous extremism–yet, they felt safe enough implying that (or, in some cases, outright accusing it) of the star while "reporting" on the internet. Michelle Malkin, who started the insanity, said:

Ray hawked Urban Outfitters scarves on her website before appearing in
the Dunkin’ Donuts ad. If she (or whichever stylist is dressing her)
wasn’t aware of the jihad scarf controversy before she posed for the
Dunkin’ campaign, she should have been. [italics mine]

Because absolutely everyone should investigate the background of every item of clothing they wear in public, lest there be some sort of potential negative association?

And every book ever published ought not offend anyone.

This is not a case of censorship (the publisher was free to publish, they chose not to), nor is it a case of oppression (the threats had not been made yet), nor is it a case in the Ray example of actual promotion of a violent act (seriously, like I need an example here?). This is a case of fear.

We’ve managed to become a country who feeds and chokes on fear.

The thing is, where art goes, so goes a culture. Art leads the way. Art–writing, pushing those boundaries, painting, photography–informs, questions, makes us think. Are we becoming a nation who feels that our side–and only our side [whatever that side is]–is right and there’s no room for allowing for the fact that the other side just might have some intelligence and be willing to have an open discourse? Are we becoming a culture where art is only commerce?

Art is a dialog.

And we’ve pretty much stopped talking and started shouting and ridiculing.

I don’t know of a single person who really had a change of heart because they were shouted at and ridiculed, and I don’t know of a single side who made themselves look better by being a bully. I also don’t think we learn anything by agreeing with each other and portraying everything down party lines. Where’s the individuality in that? Where’s the humanity? We’re not a homogeneous blob of people–we’re each unique, with unique experiences, both with our own religions and politics, as well as experiences with others. Do we all really want to be a big homogeneous blob? Do we think the rest of the world really ought to pick up and think exactly the way we do? How interesting is that?

So where are the lines drawn? Is it right to publish a book which possibly disrespects a religion? Do we say it’s okay to target one, but not another? Have discourse about one, but protect the other? Is it wrong to have a text which fictionalizes that religion? Or does it open a dialog? Do we really want other people vetting what we read and see and deciding if we’re smart enough to understand it and whether or not it’s accurate? Where do we draw the line between freedom of speech and inciting to riot?

Murky, sure.

But as artists, I think we’d better figure it out and start leading the way, because otherwise, the fractionalization of this country into sides incapable of progress because the whole is broken into pieces is just going to increase.

Where do you think the lines in the sand should be drawn?

How brave should artists be?

-toni