To Cozy or Not to Cozy -- Aaron Elkins "Dying on the Vine"

    Was reading a perfectly good cozy mystery--by a new author, to me, which I eventually finished with enjoyment. But...the family book exchange interrupted that read. A recent paperback by Aaron Elkins, Dying on the Vine, landed on my dining room table/desk. Of course, I had to take a peek.

   Now, I think of Elkins as a forensics mystery writer, featuring one of my favorite disciplines--physical anthropology. But that isn't what hooked me. The depiction of an old Italian man facing a difficult decision about his four sons' inheriting the family winery did. Yeah, Dying on the Vine began like most cozies--with a description of a bunch of interesting characters. Only Elkins doesn't use first person viewpoint. He uses third, and his stories are based on science.

   Elkins' sleuth, Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective, doesn't appear until page 36 after the old man's body had been found along with the corpse of his missing wife. Voila! Two skeletons to puzzle over until the murder was solved with gobs of info on the tales a bunch of bones can tell. Plus the reader gets a nice tour of Florence, Italy and surroundings, especially the noshing possibilities.

   Then, for the heck of it, I did some research and discovered Elkins writes cozies, at least according to Wikipedia's definition: "Cozy mysteries, also referred to simply as cozies, are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community." Nothing like having your preconceptions knocked upside-down.

   How can you have a mystery without some violence? After all, most mysteries solve a murder or a conspiracy that includes a lot of deaths. Cozies merely shoved the violence off-screen or ends right after the victim is confronted by the perp, and death might be inevitable. Yeah, there are exceptions, but the generalization holds from my reading.

   Same goes for sex among the long-marrieds. It probably happens, but it's off-scene. The fire of anticipation common in many kick-ass mysteries/fantasies is also missing. There's not even any hand-holding, that I remember.

   Almost as absent as sex was the growth in the main and secondary characters. In fact, this depiction of Lau, Oliver's sidekick, often fell into caricature. I felt his purpose was to make some dumb, somewhat funny, comment to reduce the tension rather than offer a new insight to solving the puzzle. Actually, there wasn't that much tension in the book, even at the end--no showdown with the perp or bringing the suspects into the drawing room to nail down the guilty.

All that said, I recommend the book. It's a relaxing, light, well-paced, well-plotted puzzle. Elkins' skills as a writer keep the storyline moving. And, you'll learn more about bones than you ever thought you wanted to. 

You can read a sample and more reviews of Dying on the Vine

 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Interesting Links on the Importance of Storylines

 The Passive Guy, one of my gurus, pointed me to an interesting article in the New Statesman about the importance of story, a commentary on a book by Agatha Christie. You might check it out, especially if reading means you like to immerse yourself in a book.

What kind of experience do you look for from your reading experience?

What annoys you?
Me? I hate to read in dibbles and dabs, but it seems to be what I'm doing lately.

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Writing Accomplishments

   Think ignoring social media is paying off a bit. Got all the guest blogs and interviews done for a Blog Tour for The Ghostcrow. The e-story was published in March. What can I say but "I'm slow"?  I've gotten some nice reviews for my stories from other blog tours I tried. Hopefully, this one will provide the same. So far it's doing better than Doom Comes for a Sold Soul. Makes me wonder if longer stories get better reviews than short stories. Any one else have some experiences to share?

    More important, I got my revisions off to my critique group for On the Road. Not only am I transferring the already written story line to the new character, Pillar, but I'm seeing why the guys said it wasn't working. I've also shortened the chapters. Instead of running around 3000 words, they're coming in between 1500 and 2200 words.

   Translation: It means I'm avoiding one of my biggest complaints about reading late at night when I want to "read just one more chapter". I find myself reading for 45 minutes instead of 20. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

I may actually get back to Go Daddy and get my website mechanics fixed.
Wish me luck. You'll get a new snippet of my revisions of On the Road.

Deciding What to Write or Not-to-Write

The Read ...

Prologues seem to be out of favor.  The last two books I started off with two different characters than the main ones, both calling themselves chapter 1.  One didn't work.  The other did:  Aaron Elkin's Skull Duggery.  Elkins mysteries are more intellectual than gut-wrenching, but his characters pull you into the story for an enjoyable read while you puzzle out the connections to the clues he gives in abundance. 

He also makes your lips twitch frequently.  If you know the background, you often catch a wry little observation buried deep in the action.  For example, the setting for the story is Mexico more or less before the drug cartel mess, but Elkins several allusions to police corruption during the course of the story.

The opening of chapter 8 presents a good case example of a master writer setting the scene and transitioning into the action.  The first three paragraphs take up almost a full page describing the deteriorating elegance of a regional government building.  Then, Elkins yanks you back into the story with his transition:

"All this Gideon (mc) had to take in on the fly as he and the heavily perspiring Sandoval walked rapidly --  trotted, in the smaller Sandoval's case -- over the brick-paved front plaza and up the two flights of wide, curving stone steps to the entrance."

Web and Other Stuff ...

Since promoting your book(s) is a necessity after you're published, I thought I'd mention Maria Zannini's guest blog.  You can link to it from Tales of Otherworlds.  My position is every writer needs quickie promo tips whether they are published or not.

Even more important:  Being aware of how your body is responding to the hours you spend in front of the computer screens, especially if you're participating in NaNoMo or whatever they call it.  [Writer's Living Hell?].  Whatever, Sevvy of Fictionmagoria had a blog dedicated to Writerly Injuries.

With all this e-platform building running around the web, it behooves writers to know as much as possible about e-publishing.  Eric at Pimp My Novel   has a nice blog summarizing the history of e-books and how to make the trend work for you.

Agent Suzie Townsend recently blogged on the dastardly synopsis.  Most people obsess out on queries and pitches ... but synopsizes have their place in the marketing effort too.  Actually, she boils the process down to worthwhile fine point. 

My take?  Doing a synopsis might even  help you stay focus when you revise.

There was another blog about first lines.  Started with the first line of the book ... and then continued with the first lines of each chapter.  The hooks were sharp and deep enough to draw you into the story even if it was way past your bedtime ... but when I went back, I couldn't find the blog.  Wouldn't mention it, but I've been going back to the beginnings of my chapters and cringing.

Progress ...

Okay.  Writer's have ideas.  Only problem.  You have to decide what to do with those ideas.  For the last several years, I've had a nice easy pattern.  The first six months of the year, I wrote/drafted/created.  The last six months I revised.  Seemed to work.  I had four manuscripts with actual endings, critiqued, and ready for beta reading.  It was a pattern that worked well with the Christmas baking ... and my inclination to goof off.  This presents a couple problems.

One problem is what to do with those four manuscripts.  One is adult fantasy (the Half-Elven) and the others are tween/middle grade.  Worse the drafting season will soon be upon me, and I have three, maybe four ideas nagging me to be written ... at my slow pace of about 500 words a day.

Worser still ... I'm now writing new stuff [as I build my pretend platform].  Short stories, no less, of which I'm absolutely incompetent at.  I can never seem to narrow down to the point of action.  There are all those events that happened before ... and the events that happened afterwards.

My decision?  I must change the way I set my priorities.  Bummer.  Of course, I could always go back and write to amuse myself ... but that feels defeatist.  So, here I sit stewing.

Trivia ...

I think we are the only people in the block who rake up our leaves ... rather than letting them blow to Nebraska.  We use them to blanket the carrots, daikon, and turnips over the winter.  By spring, they're almost compost and get dug into the ground to grow other vegies.