Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "popular"

Are you more of a city cat or a country cat when it comes to your selection of which novels you read? Or does the setting make any difference, at all? A cracking good story is a cracking good story, no matter where it might take place. Several large U.S. cities that have been used as settings make me think twice before I do any outlining for a new crime novel.

So many books I've read are set in NYC, for example. Now, I'll read any Matt Scudder title, even if it's cast in NYC, but that's because Lawrence Block can make me see something different about NYC. Boston also gets a pass from me. My wife's family is from Boston, and my sports hero Ted Williams played his baseball career there, so I love the city. I just can't write yet another novel placed there.

Lately, my crime novels have taken place in fictitious suburbs in Northern Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. I call them New Yvor City (the posh) and Old Yvor City (the gritty). There's something unique (to me, at least) about dwelling in a suburb. I just haven't been able to get a handle on what it is. Yet.

Happy reading to you and yours!

So, I've been itching to dive into this John D. McDonald Gold Medal title (Murder in the Wind) for weeks since I bought it from my favorite used bookstore. I knew I shouldn't have taken JDM with me to read at the dentist's office, but I did it anyway. I mean when I've got a few spare minutes, what better way is there to spend them than reading a good book?

Well, it's ten minutes before my appointment. I began reading JDM's vivid prose and marvelous sentence rhythms. Predictably, I'm hooked by page one. My heart is pepping up its beat, and I'm really digging JDM.

Then before I know it, I realize I'm on page 45, and nobody has called my name. I know I registered at the clipboard sign-in sheet. With a startle, I see I've been reading for a half-hour. Whoa! I've got to get back, so I'm in panic mode. Luckily, they hadn't forgotten me and took me right on when I inquired at the desk.

Lesson learned: If you take a book to occupy you while you're waiting at the dentist's office, make sure it's a boring book, not a JDM Gold Medal.

Happy reading to you and yours!

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"A curling and sparking electric wire of a read!"
Frank Wheeler, Crime Factory

Recently, on my Facebook wall, the question came up on how many new words I write per day for my novels. I tried to give a short answer, but then I thought the topic would make for a fun blog post to kick around some more in depth.

The words/day range has changed for me. I've published 10 novels and short story collections. For my first novels, I found 1,500 words made for a solid day's output. If I ever hit 2,500 words, I was in like paradise.

Right at the moment, I've passed the 40,000 word mark in my work-in-progress (WIP), a character-driven crime novel set in Florida. Beyond that much, I can't divulge more because I'm also superstitious to jinx the project. Anyway, I've been averaging about 4,000 works per day. That count comes to about 12 pages in the book.

That's at the top of the range for me. This project is trucking along fast now, and I already know the ending, so the work can progress faster than usual. On the other hand, I hasten to add I'm not running a race or in competition with anybody. So, that's where I am right now, and it feels good and controlled for me.

So, I'll stay the course until this Florida book is finished. Who knows? Maybe you'll want to find it and read it next year.

Happy reading to you and yours!

I'd started out the year with the ambitious goal in mind to read 100 books for fun this year. But, as with too many good things in life, I've had to realign my reading goals to fit with my schedule. So, I lowered my number from 100 to 50 books to read in 2012.

The time crunch stems a lot from my writing more of my own novels. That's a good thing, for me at least. The editing process I use takes up long blocks of time. I'm not bragging about how well my books are edited. I'm just saying that's how I write my books. Going through a recounting of what I'm working on is probably boring, so I'll skip it. My freelance work also takes up some time, but not as much as my own writing does.

Of course, I miss doing my leisure reading and haven't given it up. That'd never happen unless I was in a coma, or worse. Right now I'm reading Russell Atwood's EAST OF A and Robert Colby's THE CAPTAIN MUST DIE on my spiffy Kindle. Colby's book is a gem, too. The old Gold Medal authors had something special going on back in the day. So anyways, I'll keep on posting my read books and their comments on Goodreads, just not as many of them.

Happy reading to you and yours!

I'm not certain if my surname LYNSKEY sticks out in readers' minds. I do know it gets all variations of misspellings: LYNSKY, LINSKY, LINSKI, LYNSKI, etc. A few folk have difficulty in pronouncing Lynskey although it's spoken just as you see it: LYN-SKEY.

When I started out writing fiction, I toyed with the notion of using a jazzed up nom de plume. I drew up several short lists, but none of the choices sparked and caught fire in me. I pretty much decided changing my name wouldn't have too much impact on my sales. After all, readers pay for a well-told story, not a pen name.

When I brought out my small town cozy mystery Quiet Anchorage last year, I faced the quandary of whether to put my cosies under their own pen name. In the end, for better or worse, I opted to retain my own name. At this stage in the game, I rather like it.

Happy reading to you and yours!

In 2011, I published 4 novels (none of my novels have been self-published), and this year, 2012, I expect to see at least that many novels hit the street. During the course of a year, I try to write four new drafts of novels. I'm not sure if that literary output qualifies me as a "prolific author."

I'll also add that each of my novels go through rigorous edit cycles as well as beta reader(s). My latest novel, OUTSIDE THE WIRE, clocked in with 32 (yes, I'm anal enough to count them) revision cycles. I can honestly say I've never wrote a first draft of a novel and thought it was anywhere a finished product. So nothing gets rushed or pushed out the door too soon.

Where does all this leave me then? I can only suppose a happy medium has to be sought and found. Maybe "proficient author" is a better descriptor than "prolific author," although that call is really left up to my readers and the critics. All I know is, the Lord willing, I'll go on to write more and, hopefully, better novels.

Help.

I've drafted a short list of possible female names for the main character in the next new novel I'm writing. I don't have the premise developed yet, so I don't have the plot worked out. I know the narrative will take place in October 1974, and set in the rural Piedmont area of Virginia.

If you have any comments or inputs on the following list, I'd love to hear them. They'll help me in making the final choice.

1. Ginny Cobalt
2. Mickie Lancer
3. Lacy Iglesias
4. Opal Sweeney
5. Aimee Zoltowski

Thanks!

Prolific crime writer John D. MacDonald was born today 1n 1916. You can read his Wikipedia page here: http://is.gd/Rdpbqc. JDM, best known for his long-running Travis McGee series using different colors in their titles, is still popular after his death in 1986.

I count myself among his many fans. I remember reading the Travis McGee books as they were released. JDM's prose style was what--and still does--appeal to me. As I get older, the Travis McGree titles are less interesting. There's too much moralizing, and the attitudes toward women just don't apply anymore.

On the other hand, I can get excited by JDM's non-series titles, many published by Gold Medal Books. I still read them for keen fun. Cry Hard, Cry Fast is one of my favorites. The excellent Dead Low Tide almost reads like a pre-Travis McGee title. Slam the Big Door and A Key to the Suite also stand out in my recall as very good books.