Write About Now

Houston Noir?

If you read crime fiction, you probably already know about the series of noir anthologies Akashic Books has been putting out. Each volume includes a group of stories set in a particular location -- Brooklyn Noir, Baltimore Noir, Chicago Noir, and so on -- and there's even a city map up front showing where the bodies drop in each piece. New installments seem to be coming out all the time, with places like Brooklyn, Washington DC, and Manhattan already doubling up. Some exotic locales are on offer -- Moscow, Barcelona, Rome and Istanbul are all forthcoming -- and even some more obscure locales have made the cut. I picked up a copy of Twin Cities Noir last weekend (in Minneapolis, naturally) and according to the Akashic site Richmond Noir, Portland Noir, and even Trinidad Noir are on the way.

The question is, where's Houston? It's the fourth largest city in the nation, currently enjoying a post-Katrina crime spike and a crime lab scandal that refused to die, but it doesn't seem to be on the fictional map.

Which is interesting to me, because I'm writing a crime novel set in Houston. Naturally, I've been interested in how the city has been portrayed in the past -- but I've had a hard time tracking down novels set in H-Town. They exist (they have to) but I can't find them. I can't help wondering if this is a sign: perhaps the marshy ground isn't firm enough to support a detective series? Hard to believe. I'm hoping to find evidence to the contrary. If you know of any, drop me a line.

Scare Tactics

I've only written one horror story, a piece called "Gargoyle" that's coming out in Coach's Midnight Diner, and even that was an ironic homage to Lovecraft and M. R. James. Horror is one of those genres I enjoy, but probably couldn't write. There was a time last winter, after I read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars -- which combines horror with a favorite genre of mine, faux historiography -- that I thought it would be cool to write a zombie novel. But that was a brief bout of insanity and after enough people looked at me like I was crazy when I so much as mentioned Necropolis -- get it? "City of the Dead"? -- I discreetly tucked the notion away in the file folder between my ears.

The ghost story, like the detective story, has evolved over time. Read the classics -- like the aforementioned M. R. James -- and they have a lot in common with the puzzle stories of Golden Era mysteries. Today, though, characterization is more important, and so is atmosphere. In fact, I'm tempted to say that horror depends on atmosphere above all. More important than the gore is the threat, and that takes real skill to communicate.