There’s a new website, shepherd.com, where authors are encouraged to post about their favorite books in categories of their own choosing. Some choose books by topic, others by author. There’s a page, for instance, for the best five books with quirky detectives from around the world, and another for novels that get you inside the minds of historical figures. How about a page for books on good and evil? Or the best books for yoga teachers who feel stuck in a rut? Something for everyone, and a great site for browsing.
I
submitted a page (five books plus one of my own, per the rules) on outrageous
cozies, and it went live this week. Traditional mysteries have many sub-genres--the
sci-fi mystery, the thriller, the hard-boiled/noir, the police procedural, the
historical, and of course the cozy. Even within the cozy, there are
subdivisions, like the noir cozy which is a real contradiction in terms. So why
now the outrageous cozy? I don’t know
that it is yet a recognized sub-genre, but I’m working to make it so. The
graphic above is for my page, and the link is https://shepherd.com/best-books/outrageous-cozy-mysteries.
I hope you find some outrageously good reading in those books. Of course, I
included the first of my own outrageous series, Saving Irene.
A friend in a small, online writer’s group recently commented
that it amused her that I speak of my characters are though they are real people—sort
of like they’re in the same room with me. It’s true, I feel that way about
them. Irene and Henny, the narrator, live with me all the time when I’m working
on one of their books.
Currently, Irene and her French entourage—Chance, Jean Claude,
and daughter Gabrielle—are in Fort Worth for Christmas, visiting Henny’s
family. The mere idea of putting the diva chef, with her faux French ways, in
the middle of Cowtown is alive with possibilities, and I’m having fun. In line
with my political beliefs, I supported a fund-raising campaign titled, “Mystery
Loves Democracy.” (Two years ago, “Mystery Loves Georgia” contributed a hefty amount
to the campaigns of senators Joel Osoff and Raphael Warnock.) As part of my commitment,
I auctioned the right to name a character in my work-in-progress. The woman who
bought the right chose to name the character after a friend, and so Kathy
Fenton entered my story.
I was about to introduce Kathy as a character when I realized her
backstory had already been told. All I had to do was go back and change her
name. Once that was done, Kathy added yet another complication to the plot and another
name on the list of possible murder suspects. (For me, that’s sort of how
writing goes--as I write, ideas pop into my head, and they generally work
better than if I had planned them ahead.)
But honest to gosh, when I renamed that earlier character, I
thought to myself, “I must remember to tell Henny that I’ve made that change.”
I had to slap myself upside the head to remember Henny is a fictional character
and only knows what’s on the page. She won’t remember that first name at all.
But that’s how real Henny had become to me.
This morning Jean sent me a link to an article about the reading
habits of Ken Burns. His reading is so wide and so deep that it’s humbling. I
realized once again it’s a tiny, tiny corner of the book world that I inhabit. Burns
has a great familiarity with the Russian writers, refers casually to people I’ve
never heard of, and cited a long list of those that I have never read but
should have, such as Gabriel García Márquez. I was more comfortable with his admiration
for Mark Twain and Willa Cather—he was getting closer to my comfort
zone. I can’t help recalling that my first adult novel, Mattie, was
panned by one reviewer because Cather had told the story better. I didn’t know
enough to know my work was derivative, but I still think any comparison to
Cather is a compliment.
And speaking of American greats in the literary field, this is a
bonus week, with new books due from Cormac McCarthy (The Border Trilogy, No
Country for Old Men--it’s been a long time since he had a new book),
mystery writer Lee Child (the Jack Reacher books), Jude Deveraux (historical
romance, including the many volumes about the Montgomery/Taggert family), and
Patricia Cornwell (crime writer best known for books featuring medical examiner Kay
Scarpetta). Surely something for every taste from these literary lions.
