Keep It Spare and Lean: An Interview with Chris Grabenstein

Note: Chris Grabenstein will be one of the Guests of Honor at Sleuthfest, March 1 - 3, 2012. He's the author of the John Ceepak series, for which he won the Anthony Award for "Best First Mystery."

JCS:  Chris, I know that unlike most authors, you didn’t just get a wild idea and start writing. Before you started your Cepak series, you studied James Patterson’s success. What sorts of decisions did you make? How have they worked for you? (I recall you talking about the titles that were all of the same ilk.)

CG: Well, sometimes, I just get a wild idea and start writing. However, when I first contemplated writing a mystery, I did approach the task the same way we used to go after a new campaign in advertising. What could I do that would be different in a world cluttered with seemingly millions of sleuths? How could I make a character stand out? This was the same exercise we always went through when developing a new TV spot -- how do I break through the clutter? How do I make someone not click the remote and zap my commercial?

Having worked with James Patterson at J. Walter Thompson advertising, I remembered his breakthrough coming with the creation of Alex Cross and a series of books titled after lines from nursery rhymes. ("Kiss The Girls," "Along Came A Spider," etc.) I set out to attempt to do the same thing. I had the title TILT A WHIRL before I had anything else. I knew the second book could be called MAD MOUSE or MIND SCRAMBLER. The books would all be named after amusement park rides...and the title rides would act as metaphors for what happened in the stories. To avoid the Cabot Cove syndrome ("Murder She Wrote") I set my series in a tourist town that could easily have a transient population and a new cast of victims and killers every week of the summer.

Then I needed to create a sleuth unlike any the world had seen. That's when I came up with the notion of an overgrown Eagle Boy Scout who will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do. He seemed to be the polar opposite of the boozing, depressed, divorced, no-code-but-my-own, noirish heroes populating so many mystery stories -- the dark knights I still love. I created John Ceepak to be different.


JCS: How did you come up with the name “Cepak”?

CG: I came up with Ceepak after going to a wedding where one of the groomsmen, a former soldier, was named Ceepak. And all of his buddies called him by his last name. If you hang with a group of guys, there is usually one who doesn't seem to have a first name. I was always "Grabber" in high school; never "Hey, Chris," always "Hey, Grabber." You'll notice that very few characters in the stories ever call John Ceepak "John." And Danny Boyle is always "Danny." It wasn't until the third book that someone pointed out to me that Ceepak's initials were "J.C." Cue the Twilight Zone music...


JCS: Your books are a bit unusual because like the Sherlock Holmes stories, they are told in first person by a secondary character who admires the protagonist. How’s this working for you? Why did you choose to do this? What are the drawbacks and the strengths of this approach?

CG: I tell the stories in Danny's voice for the same reason I think Doyle tells the Holmes stories in Watson's voice: First person narration by our sleuths would have readers throwing the books against the wall in anger. Can you imagine a tale told by the arrogant, conceited, but brilliant Holmes? His brain would move far too swiftly to fill us in on all the little details he'd already deciphered and moved on from. The same with Ceepak. His by the book, just the facts, code-following ways may smack of a goody-two-shoes and Dudley Do-Right if he did the narration. So, I gave the story telling chores to a 24 year old part time cop who, like Watson, admires the master sleuth he is working with. Danny is also a lot funnier than Ceepak...although Ceepak is attempting to develop a sense of humor as the books progress.

I think the device works for this particular pairing -- because of the "lead" sleuth's personality.

The stories are also told in first person present tense...which drives some people batty. I think the present tense helps the action clip along and is how cops tell stories. "We go into a bar. There's this guy with a gun who has his paws all over a waitress. We pull out our service revolvers..."

JCS: Your background is in advertising. What did you learn from advertising that you apply to your work in novels? Your writing is very spare, with no wasted words or overlong descriptions. Has the art of brevity, which is key to advertising, ever been a problem when working on books?

CG: Yes. Right. We ad folks write tight. They used to tell us to keep a copy of a Hemingway book in our desks. Keep it spare and lean and don't waste time on the stuff nobody wants to read anyway, to paraphrase Elmore Leonard who, I think, also has a background in advertising. The biggest thing I learned in advertising came from James Patterson, who was my creative director: Hit 'em with a pie in the face and once you have their attention say something smart. Remember, nobody wants to watch TV commercials or stop listening to music on the radio to hear your ad or quit flipping through Kardashian Wedding updates in People magazine to gaze upon your glorious print ad. We learned to give readers/viewers a reward for their attention. Interestingly, when I was published by Carroll & Graf, the publisher told me, "I like advertising writers. You don't waste people's time." I guess that's because we only had thirty seconds (70 words max) to grab someone's attention and then convince them to go buy whatever Whopper we were selling that month.

Has it ever been a problem? I hope not. But, I try to write the kind of books I love to read: page turners that can make a transcontinental flight seem like it lasted three minutes instead of six hours.

JCS: Your plots hustle right along. What’s your process? Are you an outliner?

CG: I'll talk more about this at Sleuthfest on the plotting panel. I am a hybrid, I think. I stake out four key plot points, as if I were scripting a two hour, two-act movie. I then know where I have to be at a certain word count and work toward that goal. It help keeps things focused...but I make up what happens in between the plot points on a day-to-day basis. I also overwrite like crazy. My 75,000 word Ceepak novels tend to have first drafts that are 90,000 words long. Then I go back and chop and prune.

JCS: You’ve had such a successful career as a writer. What sort of advice could you share with others just getting started?

CG: First of all, that's very kind of you to say. My advice is probably the same as everyone else's: Read a lot. Write every day. I heard somewhere that it takes 20 minutes to drift off into that "awake dreaming" zone where the real magic starts happening. So, try to sit down for an hour everyday and get 40 minutes of dream time in. Also, and I learned this writing 500 TV commercials for every one that ever got produced, I think you have to LOVE the writing. Not the riches (well, there aren't any of those anyhow), fame, acclaim, awards, snazzy author photo, or cocktail parties with publishers (do they still have those? If so, how come I'm never invited?). The only part of this business you have control over is the words and the process of writing. I absolutely love sitting down every day and getting lost in whatever story I am weaving. I always have, I think. No one can take that feeling away. Everything else? It may never come or it might all disappear. Love the writing...not being "a writer."

JCS: You learned a technique in improv classes that you use with your writing. Would you share it?

CG: Yes, I will. In fact, my afternoon talk on Craftfest Thursday will be an improvisational workshop where I will teach everybody the "Yes, and..." rule of improv. It is a rule I use every day and will help writers get beyond the blank page and into places they never could've dreamed they'd be going. (Okay, that was a thirty second ad for Craftfest. Once an adman, always an adman...)

JCS: You live in New York City. Make us all jealous. Tell us if that has been a boon or a bane to your career.

CG: I think New York is a great place to live as a writer. If I need a crazy character, I go out and walk around the block. I found a major character for my new middle grades caper series on a bus ride uptown one morning. It is nice to be able to go to an MWA meeting in New York and rub elbows with superstars like Lee Child. However, I think writers can live anywhere.

I really think having an agent in New York has been a boon to my career. They go to cocktail parties. They schmooze with editors. They do a lot of lunches. That's how we got the idea to turn THE CROSSROADS from a 120,000 word adult ghost story into a 50,000 word middle grade mystery. My agent bumped into an editor at a party who was looking for ghost stories for middle grade readers!

JCS: Anything you want to tell me?

CG: I'm looking forward to Sleuthfest. I've always heard it's the best "writers" conference. And I can thank Charlaine in person for making me a New York Times best seller (because she and Toni Kellner asked me to do a short story in DEATH'S EXCELLENT VACATION which made the top ten..and not because MY name was on the book cover!)

Visit Chris at http://www.chrisgrabenstein.com/

How to Protect Your Library--Books Are Meant to be Loved

Reading to my dogs. Note the "red eyes." Sigh. Am I really demonic?

In this Sunday's New York Times, someone wrote into the Social Q's column with a question that illustrates life as we know it. Seems that "Anonymous in Vermont" had a calamity during the annual Christmas party. Thirty adults and 30 kids were in attendance. Unfortunately, one of the kids puked on Anonymous's e-reader--and ruined it. Now Anonymous wants to know, should he/she ask the parents of Up-Chuck to replace the e-reader?

Since our world seems to be dividing into two camps, those who love e-readers and those who abhor e-readers, I could almost hear the anti-e-reader camp cheering and shouting, "Boo-ya! If it had been a paperback, all would have been fine."

But that's not really true. Without getting too graphic, trust me when I say that if someone pukes on a paper product, it's ruined.

So what's the point here?

I Have Two Great Loves

I love paper and I love my e-reader. They both have their strong points and their weaknesses.

I like traditional books for research because I like to mark them up, use a highlighter and stick Post-It notes inside the book to mark passages I want to revisit. (I know that some of you are shuddering at the thought of marking up a book. My dear friend Chris Clark-Epstein taught me that a book is a resource. She suggested creating my own index in the front of a book so I could quickly find pertinent facts. It was one of those timely suggestions that really transformed my daily life.)

I love my e-reader because it holds so many books, it's easy to read at night (the light that's attached to the cover functions almost like a night light), and books are delivered immediately to me. (Which I admit is my idea of heaven--books that appear magically on request.)

Books Are Made to be Eaten

I once heard an interview with the son of the woman who wrote Pat the Bunny. He suggested that that his mother's book was a mega-seller because...kids ate it. Yes, he admitted that kids loved chewing on Pat the Bunny almost as much as they liked having it read to them.

I've kept all my son's books, and I can tell  you that many of them have been masticated. And yes, one was even puked on. Some have ripped pages. Some are discolored. All have been loved.

Solutions?

Keeping kids away from books is not a solution. Having a library of indestructible kids' books is.

Books are meant to be loved, and handled, and enjoyed. And occasionally...puked on.

To properly protect a kid's book, cover the pages with clear Contact paper. Then you can wipe them clean. Better yet, buy two copies. One for "loving" and one for the future.

I started to write: "Don't give them your e-reader without supervision." But after watching my grand-nephew toggle through my sister's iPhone, I can't suggest that. The next generation won't waste time thinking of books as "either/or." They'll simply accept that books will come in paper or in new formats.

After all, it's the content that counts.

An Interview with Julie James: 'My Writing Process Is My Own'

My guest--Julie James.

Note: Each year I conduct interviews with famous authors who will be guests at various conferences. Julie will be appearing at Love Is Murder, Feb. 3-5, 2011, in Chicago.)
1. Julie, you were an attorney before you went into writing novels full-time. What is it about training as an attorney that seems to make for such fantastic authors? What did you learn in your work as a lawyer that you still use when you write today?


A. Maybe all us lawyers write simply to escape our day jobs? Kidding! (Mostly.) I think it’s a couple things. First, as a lawyer, you write a lot. Second, as a trial lawyer, your job in many ways is to tell a story—to take the facts and present them in a way that hooks the reader or listener (i.e., the judge or the jury) and convinces them to accept the story as you tell it. Plus, being a lawyer involves many hours sitting in front of a computer. Good training for a full-time career as a writer.










2. In the “traditional” romance novel, the hero and the heroine must be kept apart, usually by misunderstandings. You, however, do a fabulous job of throwing in one crisis after another that keeps your characters apart. Do you plot all this out in advance? How do you keep coming up with believable interruptions rather than the trite “misunderstandings” that blemish a lot of romance novels?

A. I actually find that the Big Misunderstanding isn’t used all that much in romance—at least not the ones I’ve read. From time to time, I’ll see a review of a book that uses the Big Mis as a device, and if it’s not done well readers will call an author out on that fast. That’s not to say you can’t have misunderstandings in a story—of course you can, we have misunderstandings in real life. But if your characters are smart, rational people, you can’t drag out a misunderstanding for too long that could be cleared up by one simple conversation.



In answer to your other question, yes, I do plot out my books in advance. I generally put together about a fifteen to twenty page outline of the book, which I use when writing a synopsis for my editor. But when I’m actually writing the book, I rarely look back at the outline. By that point, the book is developed enough in my head, and I want the freedom to deviate from the outline if that’s where the story takes me.

3. You say you think of your voice as “smart, sexy and sophisticated.” Your characters banter, and they crack jokes in such a way that the dialog reveals a unique voice. How did you find your voice? Do you ever have days when it doesn’t show up for work? If so, how do you reclaim it?

A. LOL, is that what I said about my voice? Apparently, my voice also includes being a little full of myself. : ) I actually wrote screenplays before I began writing novels, and my books certainly tend to be dialogue-focused. My characters are usually somewhat on the sarcastic side. Perhaps a lot on the sarcastic side. And typically there’s a lot of back-and-forth banter between the hero and heroine.

Do I ever have days where my voice doesn’t show up for work? Hmm. . . I’d say not really. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get stumped. Sometimes I’m trying to do something with a scene that just isn’t working, sometimes a plot point isn’t developing the way I want, or sometimes I struggle with getting the tone of a scene right. But my voice, so to speak, is typically there.

4. You went to your first RWA convention prior to becoming a published author. Most folks won’t “pop” for a conference until they have a book. What was your thinking? Was it of value to you? Would you recommend other pre-published authors attend conferences before they have a book in hand?

A. I was pretty unfamiliar with the romance genre until I’d learned from my editor, after selling my first book, that I had, in fact, written a romance. (I’d called the book a “romantic comedy” when we sold it.) So for me, it was valuable to attend the conference simply to familiarize myself with the genre. Also, I think conferences offer great networking opportunities—I met several authors at that first conference with whom I continue to be friends. And there are a lot of helpful workshops at these conferences for both published and unpublished authors—I still attend workshops, even though I’ve written five books and now present workshops myself. There’s always room to learn more.

So bottom line, I think attending conferences can be very valuable, and I do recommend them to pre-published authors—IF it’s financially feasible. Let’s be honest, these conferences often aren’t cheap!

5. You are a big believer that “action speaks louder than words.” How do you come up with the right actions to reveal your character’s inner worlds?

A. Hmm, did I say that somewhere? I mean, sure, I believe that—particularly with my characters, who often use sarcasm to deflect their deeper emotions. I’ll give you an example—in my most recent book, A Lot Like Love, the hero (an FBI agent) and the heroine (a billionaire heiress who owns a wine store) have to pretend to be a couple as part of an undercover sting operation. Now, they say they don’t like each other— and there’s a lot of back and forth banter and sarcasm between them. But the hero stops by the heroine’s wine store one night, and sees that her store is so crowded she hasn’t had time to take a break and eat dinner. So he leaves and comes back with a Portillo’s burger and cheese fries for her. And sure, he grumbles through the whole thing and makes all sorts of wry comments about how billionaire heiresses probably don’t eat cheese fries, and how she’s too thin already, but regardless, the actions speak for themselves—she was having a rough day at work so he went out and got her dinner. Even if he’s sort of cranky about it, it’s still romantic.

6. I think you write the BEST sex scenes of any author I’ve ever read. They are hot without being gross. Care to share tips on how to do a scene that sets the reader’s pulse racing without grossing her out?

A. Thank you! And… I’m kind of wondering what books you’re reading where the sex scenes are gross. Because that’s not good for anyone. : )

Honestly, one way I think you can make a scene instantly hotter is with dialogue. A few good old-fashioned dirty words, when well-timed, can get the pulse racing. Also, one of the key things is that the sex scenes need to be a continuation of the characters’ relationship. Meaning, if the hero and heroine have been trading all sorts of quips and banter throughout the book, well, they should continue that playfulness, that teasing, in the bedroom as well. No matter how descriptive, those scenes should be about the emotions the characters are feeling. Heck, even if it’s a one-night stand, and all the guy is thinking is “Oh my god, yes—I’m getting laid!!, well, that’s the emotion you need to convey in the scene. Sex is intimate, and people are (literally) exposing themselves and making themselves vulnerable to another person, so there needs to be some sense of what’s going on in the characters’ heads.

7. Please talk about the differences between the romance market and the mystery market. Is one more important to you than the other? How are the fans different?

A. Candidly, I’m not that familiar with the mystery market. But I’ve written two romantic suspense novels, and I’m sure there is some crossover. What I can say is that romance readers tend to be extremely voracious readers, and I’m truly appreciative that my books have been so well-received by fans of the genre.

8. Go back in time and talk to Julie before her first book was published. What would you say to her?

A. Oh gosh, this is like the, “What would you say to yourself if you could go back to high school” question. I’m always terrible at these types of questions. I don’t know that I have some great, deep answer so instead I’ll give a practical response. One thing I wished I had known before I was published was how much promotion authors need to do themselves. That would not have changed my decision to write—not at all—but I was pretty clueless after selling my first book when it came to marketing. So writers should be aware that this job does, in fact, involve more than actually writing.

And here’s something perhaps a little deeper: I think I would tell myself that my writing process is my own, and not to worry about how other authors write, or—more specifically, how fast they write. I tend to be a slow writer—I do a book a year in a genre in which many authors write two or more books a year. So I’m constantly reminding myself that it doesn’t matter how fast I go—what’s most important is that I’m pleased with the outcome, regardless of how long it took me to get there.

Learn more about Julie by visiting her website: http://juliejames.com/

Why Electricians Should Not HONK OFF Their Mystery Writer Clients

Excerpt from my note to my contractor, Rob:

It was a dark and stormy day when they found a body washed up on shore. “Oh, my god, it’s that dreadful electrician,” she thought as she stared down into his white and bloated face with the black electrical tape wrapped around his neck. The fish had eaten his eyeballs out. He lay there half in and half out of the water but he was wearing his gray shirt with his name embroidered happily in red. That—and the fact he wasn’t all the way in or out of the surf--was how she recognized him. He always did things halfway. Two of her driveway lights, the outlets in her garage, and the fixture in her laundry room were all non-functional after his last visit. Of course, his bill was complete. He’d seen to that.


Watching him move back and forth with the force of the tide, she wondered: What happened to him? Could it be another homeowner tired of his complacency and threw him to the sharks off the coast of Jupiter Island? Or had the contractor grown tired of apologizing for the man’s ineptitude and decided to throw in the towel…and the electrician along with it? Was there a more sinister reckoning behind his demise? Perhaps he’d played with the wrong light switch, confused the wires, tripped the circuit breaker one too many times, and POOF!

A crab scuttled up, picked at his flesh and raced back to its hole. A seabird swooped down, landed on the man’s boot, hopped along his leg and pecked at the hairs in his nose.

With a shrug, the woman kicked sand in the corpse’s face and walked on, picking up shells, and thinking, “Hmm. Karma is a booger.”