Write About Now

Write About Now ... And Not a Moment Too Soon

Welcome to Write About Now. I'm J. Mark Bertrand, and this is my new blog about writing and publishing. Since 2005, I've been writing about craft in fiction at a blog called, unimaginatively enough, Notes on Craft, but here I'm opening the topic up to include more than craft. What you need to know about me: I write non-fiction, but my real love is fiction ... and I'm an editor, too. Thanks to my MFA in Creative Writing, I have literary ambitions, but these days what I'm really interested in is crime fiction. Read as much as you like, push back and let me know what you think. With no further ado, here goes ...

Back on Murder: Cover Released

Now that it's on Amazon, I can show you the cover of my crime novel Back on Murder, the first in a series about Houston homicide detective Roland March. The book comes out July 2010, and is available for pre-order now. Here's the cover:

I'll be creating a site dedicated to the book at www.backonmurder.com, and sharing more about the novel (and the series) in days to come. For now, enjoy your first look!

My Kind of Store

People often ask writers where their ideas come from. I don't know about everybody else, but I buy mine at the New Idea Store, pictured above. Sadly, prices have gone up since the photograph was taken.

The World of a Series Detective

There's always much more to the story than ever reaches the page -- or at least, there ought to be. Part of what gives a novel its reality is the reader's sense that things are being left out, that much more could be said than ever will be, that the imaginary world keeps ticking once the book's cover is closed. While I learned this a long time ago, I'm appreciating it in a whole new way now. 

Back on Murder, the first of my crime novels set in Houston, is more or less written, and now I have two more to go. The sequel is very much in process, and will be done before the first hits the shelves next summer. Because all three of the contracted books will feature the same hero, I'm living with him in a way I normally wouldn't. One thing I'm beginning to realize is that, in just three books, there's no way I'll manage to tell all his stories.

Already, I have a file full of them. Various cases and incidents, some full-blown in my mind, others fragmentary, some connected to what happens in Back on Murder, some not. Over the weekend, I tried organizing them all, asking myself which episodes were the most promising, the most telling, and it quickly became clear that I have four of five novels worth of material. 

So this must be how a series develops. The character's world expands, and the only challenge is to figure out which places are worth going, and for how long. Because like I said, you can't use everything, or even most of it. The lion's share needs to be left out to give what's left a sense of compressed urgency. The trick is knowing what to keep.

Two Bits of Official News

If you take a look at the sidebar, you'll see I've updated my bio and book list. That's because the novel I co-authored with Deeanne Gist, Beguiled, is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. The release date is February 2010. This is from the official description:

When novelists Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand first met in a Houston critique group, they never expected where friendship would take them. She wrote romance; he wrote crime novels. But growing respect for each other's work culminated in the decision to try blending their talents into this wonderfully engaging story merging romance and mystery. 

Rylee Monroe walks dogs in old-money Charleston, a part of the city recently targeted by a daring thief. Logan Woods works the crime beat for the local paper but dreams of a life as a nonfiction writer. When the string of robberies takes a strange twist, Logan sees the making of a once-in-a-lifetime book that seems to circle around this charming, eye-catching dogwalker. But pursuing the truth means ignoring that he seems to be falling for her. And what is she hiding in her past that could crack the story wide open?

I know a lot of writers day dream about co-authoring with their critique partners ... Dee and I actually did it. It's been great fun, and I'll chat more about the process (and the project) as the publication date gets closer.

Above: Along the harbor in Charleston, the exotic setting of Beguiled.

Another bit of news: my debut crime novel, the first in a series featuring Houston homicide detective Roland March, will be called Back on Murder. My working title was The Suicide Cop, and "Back on Murder" was the name of one of the book's two sections. After much deliberation, a swap was made, so now novel is called Back on Murder and the first section is called The Suicide Cop. There you go ... 

Back on Murder will be out next summer. It introduces Roland March, the detective who will star in the three-book series, at a time when his once-promising career hangs in the balance. I'll have plenty more to say about it between now and then.

"Of Deerstalkers and Labcoats" in Comment

Fans of the popular CSI franchise are going to hate me, but I've contributed a piece to Comment about my antipathy toward the forensic thriller. Here's a taste:

While science fiction these days offers one dystopian vision after another, forensic science fiction posits a world of certainty, where reasonable doubt is banished by means of Luminol and DNA swabs. Perhaps the appeal to the reader is the same as the appeal to the juror. It isn't a religious certainty he's after, not these days, but a scientific one. When the hidden blood patterns glow under black light or the tell-tale DNA markers match up, we are suffused by a frisson of objectivity. Thanks to science, here's one thing we can know. If true, this might explain the sterility of the form—it's been morally neutered. Test results might bring closure to a victim's suffering loved ones, but there is no larger order to re-establish. Evil doesn't disrupt the scientific order. It doesn't even register.

You can read the entire article here: "Of Deerstalkers and Labcoats." Enjoy!

White Whales and Cat Detectives

Deborah Solomon interviews Joyce Carol Oates, and one response in particular catches my eye:

Q. ... Why do you find violence so alluring as a literary subject? 
A. If you’re going to spend the next year of your life writing, you would probably rather write “Moby Dick” than a little household mystery with cat detectives. I consider tragedy the highest form of art. 

Define Concentration

My definition of concentration? When you type the last word on the last page of the last draft of the manuscript you have to turn in tomorrow, and finally put your feet up only to discover you're wearing mismatched shoes ... that's concentration. Nothing else comes close. The funny thing is, when I took off the suede shoe in deference to the snow outside and put on the other brown leather one, it wasn't as comfortable. Either I'd hit upon the perfect mismatch, or my feet had grown accustomed to the confusion.

But the point is, I'm good to go on the manuscript front. I turned in one novel, co-written with Deeanne Gist and now titled Beguiled, on February 1, then went back to my debut crime thriller, the working title of which is The Suicide Cop. Tomorrow, I'll turn that one in, too. It's been quite a year, and it's not over yet. Next come the editorial revisions. The books will come out in Spring and Summer of 2010. Plenty still to do before then.

God Preserve Us! Chekhov on Writing

From an 1886 letter written by Anton Chekhov:

"In the sphere of psychology, details are also the thing. God preserve us from commonplaces. Best of all is it to avoid depicting the hero's state of mind; you ought to try to make it clear from the hero's actions. It is not necessary to portray many characters. The center of gravity should be in two persons: him and her." 

Flipping through a notebook from 1999, my last year in grad school, I discovered this passage from Chekhov. The advice strikes me as excellent -- he's Chekhov, after all -- and I only wish I'd paid more attention to it over the past ten years. It's funny how, the more you learn, the more that's left to learn -- and most of it is quite simple, and you knew it all along.

Are Artists Special?

"Once the artistic element has been separated out from any area of human activity, whatever remains risks being devalued as mechanical and even contemptible. Once religious paintings were made into works of art, then any church decoration that did not bear the mark of a master was of little interest; any building not designed by a known architect was 'vernacular'; any anonymous folk song might be charming but could only become real art when arranged by a serious composer. Low art disappeared below the horizon of history until its rediscovery by social (but not art) historians.

"This legacy has not simply divided 'low art' from 'high art', but has decreased the possibility of artistic achievement in everyday life. Once the decoration of churches or the painting of icons on the design of cathedrals and guild-halls was taken out of the hands of wood-carvers and masons and journeymen and given to artists, then the role of the artisan was decisively degraded. Artisans may take pride in their work but they must know that it is always somehow second-rate. When the artist is removed from society and made into a special person, then the artist within each of us begins to die."

ROGER OSBORNE

Civilization: A New History of the Western World, p. 212

Thanks to Myron Glaser for pointing me to the passage.

Letting Voices Be Heard

My Orr Street Studio reading from February has made the news -- or at least, a photo of it has. Vox Magazine did a profile on Orr Street's "Hearing Voices" reading series, which was started by my friend Anthony Connolly (quoted in the piece) with another friend, Allison Smythe. It's interesting to see that our little group in Houston, now split by diaspora, has had such a wonderful afterlife. If you're ever in Columbia, MO, Orr Street should be on your agenda. Here's the article:

Letting voices be heard: reading series offers local literary hub

My wife was particularly charmed by the juxtaposition of the opening line -- "Drawings of muscular, nude figures ... " -- with my lamentably unmuscular and gratefully unnude photo.