Just ask, why don't you?

Catriona writes: It's my great pleasure today to welcome Terry Shames to Fatal Acres to talk about some of the eyebrow-raising questions she's had on her debut book tour (and some of the quick thinking she's needed to do to answer them!)  Terry's book THE LAST DEATH OF JACK HARBIN is newly out (and getting rave reviews) and she's giving away a signed copy to one lucky commenter today.

It's the second outing for retired small-town sherrif Samuel (not Sam) Craddock, from Jarrett Creek in Terry's native Texas and he is - as P.G. Wodehouse would say - an utter bah-lamb.  A good man, well up in years, craggy as an outcrop of granite, still devoted to his late wife - a true original, like the gal who created him. 

Welcome, Terry! 

"Thank you to the fabulous Femme Fatales for having me as a guest. I’ll be telling you about some of my favorite author questions. Most of the questions I get when I do readings at bookstores, in libraries or with book clubs are in the same vein—people want to know how you write, how you get ideas, what your plans are for the next book.

I’m not shy [couldn't possibly comment - CMcP] and I can be quick on my feet, but a few of the questions I’ve been asked have challenged me to speed up my tap dance. I don’t think people who ask them are trying to trip me up—I think they genuinely want to know. But sometimes I’m not sure what to say.

At one of my bookstore readings a man sitting at the back of the room looking amused during my whole talk. When I called for questions, he raised his hand and said, “Do you write mysteries because you think you can’t write mainstream novels?” Several people gasped. Luckily, it’s a question I had thought about myself. I replied that I think there is a mystery at the heart of every good piece of writing. Not necessarily a whodunit, but for sure the mystery of the human heart, as Carolyn Hart so succinctly put it. I am a fan of Eudora Welty’s short stories. She is not a crime writer, but in every one of her stories, there is a core of mystery about what created the situation in the story and what the characters will do to resolve things. A good writer, mainstream or genre, will create tension and mystery through the use of atmosphere.

Also, I told him, these days bookstore owners have told me they often have trouble deciding whether to shelve a book in mainstream fiction or in genre fiction because so much genre fiction is written with depth and fine writing. By the time I answered, fully and seriously, the man said, “Good reply.” 

 A bookseller recently said he thought my second book had a lot about guilt in it. What was my intention? I think that crime fiction asks and answers the question of guilt. I’m always interested when a crime writer makes his or her villain sympathetic. The killer is guilty, but by letting the reader know why the killer was desperate enough to think of murder as the only option, the writer shows the villain’s human side—unless of course the villain isa sociopath. Although I can enjoy reading a well-written book about a sociopathic person who isn’t capable of feeling guilt, what I prefer is to read about normal humans pushed to their limit—and who feel some measure of guilt about their actions. In my latest book some of the non-criminal characters also struggle with guilt. 

 My favorite question, though, was a lighter one. “Is Samuel going to, uh…get any?” The audience roared. Whooo boy, what a question! Noir fiction is full of romance and sex. Traditionally, in novels on the cozier side, the door closed firmly as soon as sex was introduced. That has changed a lot. I recently wandered into a bookstore, opened what was touted to be a “cozy”…and read one of the steamiest sex scenes I’ve ever read. Well, I’m not ready to go there—and neither is Samuel. His wife just died, for heaven’s sake. But I did tell the questioner that I would at some point introduce romance into Samuel’s life. Which, of course, immediately sparked another questioner to say, “Who? Who?”

[There is no illustration of this topic; we're not like that here -CMcP]

My last question is one I got recently at a library reading. A man came up to my signing table, picked up my book and started looking through it. He would look at a page, look at me very seriously, thumb through to another page, and then look at me again. This went on for several minutes while people came and went. Eventually everyone was gone and he said, “Can I ask you a question?” Sure, I said, bracing myself. “How do you decide how many chapters are going to be in your books?” Talk about anti-climax! I told him gently that I went to a new chapter when there was a break and a new scene started. He shrugged and wandered away.

I’d like to hear some examples from other writers of questions—serious or not serious--that made you blink. And for non-writers, I’d like to know what you might have been too shy to ask your favorite writer. You can ask here—we promise we won’t tell.

 

 

Comments

[Dana Cameron]

Thanks for blogging with the Femmes Fatales, Terry! One of my favorite questions came at the holidays, in the post office. The bloke behind the counter noticed my envelope was to my agent. He then asked, with a line of at least twenty people behind me, how he should successfully write his book and publish it. A question worth a lifetime of pondering! I said (feeling the daggers being sharpened behind me): finish writing it, get increasingly tough criticism, and write lots of different stuff. I slid my card over the counter and said to check out my website for more tips and slinked away as quickly as I could.

[James Ziskin]

Great post, Terry. I especially like your thoughts on villains and sympathy.

[Terry Shames]

Dana, that's hilarious. I can imagine the daggers--especially since probably 10% of the people in line also had a work in progress.

Had a similar (but, really, really different) experience at the grocery store last night. I was in the "9 or fewer" items line, in a hurry with one item. The woman in front of me said to the checker, "Ooo, love your lipstick." Whereupon the checker took out her purse, rummaged through it for her lipstick and proceeded to have a nice long chat about it. Daggers!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Yeah, the "how can I do what you seem to have done, just tell me while you sign my book" ploy seems to be a nationwide thing.

As a reporter, I smetiemsget teh reporter questions in my book talks: like "Do you think the public has the right to know everything?"

Tip toe tip toe tap dance tap dance..

Terry, congratulations on your WILD success!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

With typos fixed...sigh

Yeah, the "how can I do what you seem to have done, just tell me while you sign my book" ploy seems to be a nationwide thing.

As a reporter, I sometimes get the reporter questions in my book talks: like "Do you think the public has the right to know everything?"

Tip toe tip toe tap dance tap dance..

Terry, congratulations on your WILD success!

[R Szostak]

So far I've authored three non-fiction (technical) tomes in an obscure field and the most common question that I get (from graduate and post-doctoral students) when asked to sign a copy of one of my books is: "Oh wow, YOU wrote that book? I thought you were dead!" Apparently most technical books are written by dead professors ...and I'm not even 'old'...yet! HA!

[Terry Shames]

Oh, dear, R. Szostak, that's an unfortunate line. Glad you are alive and well and writing!

Hank, this is so strange...I saw the typo and knew exactly what it said. "Typewriter think." By the way, I challenge you to an arm-wrestling contest at Left Coast Crime.

[R Szostak]

Terry,
I'm Rosemarie. I logged in via my Google account which apparently doesn't give my first name.

It's amazing the questions people ask authors. The fact that someone asked about what your character was planning in the future says volumes about their believability and likability.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

"I thought you were dead!" Rosemarie, that is...weil, I guess it is hilarious. xoo

[Cindy Sample]

Hank, I'm challenging you to a tap dance off! Terry, this was great. Since there is PG romance in my series, people always want to know when my protagonist and her detective boyfriend will actually succeed in getting behind closed doors! I'm still waiting to find out myself. But the weirdest question was having an attendee ask me if I'd go out with him! And he wasn't kidding!

[Malena E.]

The funniest question I heard at a reading was for Elizabeth George, who had just killed off her Helen Linley character and someone in the audience asked, "But don't you miss Helen?" Her answer was something along the lines of no, but if I did I'd just have to think about her since I made her up in the first place.
Congratulations on the book, Terry!

[catriona]

Malena - you have won the giveaway! Can you email me at [email protected] with your address? Cx