February 25, 2024

Bouchercon and Otto: A Breakdown

So how are things in crime fiction?

Well…

Oh no.

Yep. There was this whole thing a week or so ago with Otto Penzler and his appearance at this year’s Bouchercon, the biggest conference of the year for crime fiction. For those familiar, you’ll know that Bouchercon often has a moment of controversy at the conference but, in heady ambition, Bouchercon actually had this year's annual controversy before the conference even happened! Game changed!

Sorry, what is an “Otto Penzler?”

Otto Penzler was, arguably, one of the most important figures in crime fiction for decades. He owns a NYT-reporting bookstore in New York City (the Mysterious Bookshop), runs Penzler Publishers, used to edit the Best American Mystery Stories series, co-edited other prestigious anthologies, and much more. For years, it seemed like every top writer, editor, and agent in crime fiction had a necessary relationship with him.

But Penzler was also often marred by controversy. He heatedly opposed Sisters in Crime (making several derogatory comments about women writers along the way), clumsily sided with Linda Fairstein in the Central Park Five debate, and angrily went after Steph Cha, who subsequently replaced him as editor of the Best American Mystery Stories series (and Cha coolly destroyed him in a scathing interview).

There are whispers of worse, but only whispers.

Anyway, Penzler was invited by Anthony Horowitz, one of Bouchercon’s Guests of Honor in 2024, to interview him at this year’s conference.

How did people take the news that Otto would be center stage?

Not well! Social media was upset. Letters were written to Bouchercon, both privately and publicly. Teeth were gnashed.

In response, Bouchercon made a few tepid announcements, acknowledging the concerns that had been raised, and promising that the matter was being reviewed.

Was it resolved?

Sort of. Apparently, Horowitz decided he would not attend the event and instead receive his award in the comforts of his home. And, with that huffy decision, his interview with Otto was no longer necessary. Bouchercon breathed a sigh of relief. Problem solved!

Good work everybody!

 

So this is all Bouchercon’s fault? They suck!

I don’t think that’s fair or true. Running a conference is, frankly, a terrible job, and crises are inconveniently unpredictable. I have friends on Bouchercon’s board, and they’re good and hardworking and are doing this work solely for the benefit of the crime fiction community. And things are always more complicated behind-the-scenes.

And they were in an unenviable position. Frankly, it would be weird to let someone attend a conference, yet prohibit that person from taking full advantage of the conference. You either ban the person from attending, or allow them to attend as a full participant. And Bouchercon wasn’t willing, or didn’t have enough evidence, to do one or the other.

Then this is all Otto’s fault. He sucks!

Maybe! But Penzler did a lot for writers he supported, both men and women. Members of his staff at the Mysterious Bookshop have told me about his kind regard for them. Despite his contempt for Sisters in Crime, one of his co-editors in a recent edition of the BAMS series was Sara Paretsky, the founder of Sisters in Crime. I think he devoutly loves crime fiction and cares greatly for its future. This sympathetic essay by Kat Rosenfield addresses the complications.

And yet, everything I’ve heard about Penzler, and what I’ve read from him, is indicative of someone with rather generally gross beliefs, and I’ve never heard him walk those beliefs back. Rosenfield’s essay hints (albeit unwittingly) that those beliefs have yet to change:

Penzler told me he doesn’t remember this incident, but admits that it’s in the realm of possibility. “Did I possibly call her a bitch, yes. Because she was.”

That was (checks watch) maybe three weeks ago?

Regardless, examples of his most grievous behaviors have likely been both downplayed and exaggerated…and it’s probable we’ll never know the full truth of those actions.

Should he have been allowed to participate?

I suppose there’s something positive that we’re even having this discussion. As crime fiction – and society – evolve into something better, it’s important that change happens with a serious degree of examination.

But?

But standards have to be set. And the basic standard we need to uphold (particularly as it’s currently, bitterly being challenged across America) is that anyone’s gender, race, or identity is acceptable. Without exception. If someone (particularly someone in a position of power) states, as Otto Penzler did, “Men take writing more seriously as art. Men labor over a book to make it literature,” and refuses to eventually acknowledge, “You know, that was actually pretty stupid of me to say, sorry,” then do we need that person’s perspective at the most influential writing conference in the country?

But should one disparaging statement, said years ago, define someone? Particularly someone who’s done so much?

Success often excuses all failure. This has led to many blind eyes, to teaching perversions of history, to the inconvenience of allowing a giant baleful elephant to uncomfortably peer at everyone from the corner of the room. We are told to separate the art from the artist, and there is an artistic necessity for that belief…but, often, that separation comes rushing to the aid of otherwise vile men (it’s almost always men who need this saving).

Which isn’t to say someone should forever be consigned to the mistakes of their past. Contrition is important, a necessary foundation for growth and education. Refusing to allow contrition reflects a lack of growth in the accuser. Of course, whether that apology is sincere or believed…that’s a subjective matter.

But trust is the child of courage and hope, and we should keep both well in stock.

So should he have been welcome to participate? You’re avoiding the question.

I know! And I can’t honestly answer that question because, as I said, I don’t know all the details. I wasn’t in the room when decisions were debated.

What I can say is this:

We’re trying to lay basic groundwork (and this groundwork is never permanently placed, but maybe someday) that if you’re a woman, queer, trans, elderly, disabled, neurodiverse, a person of color, or anything different than what’s been the accepted norm for so long, you matter. Your voice matters. Your life matters. Bigots are wrong, and your existence is right. This is the single most important change we can make as people, one fundamental to the American contract, and only from that absolute acknowledgement can true democracy, which is to say democratic equity, be realized.

But to eventually get there, we need to make the occasional, and uncomfortable, public stand.

If not, then writers will eventually and deservingly be nothing more than tour guides, passively showing the remains of a ravaged land and decimated people, pretending not to hear the persistent questions about how such a wasteland could have been allowed to happen.

EA

I should probably talk about my latest novel, When She Left, right, since it came out three weeks ago? I was so excited to receive these new reviews.

In addition to the kind words from Booklist, When She Left received praise from the Midwest Book Review, and AudioFile Magazine offered a lovely review of the audiobook and its terrific narrator, Janine Granda.

And this one really grabbed my heart. Oline Cogdill has been one of the most important voices in crime fiction for years, one of those reviewers readers trust because she’s so well-read and has a clear, discerning eye. And her review in the Sun-Sentinel meant so much to me: “Aymar’s fourth novel channels vintage Elmore Leonard with its sharp dialogue and tight plot that veers into believable tendrils. When She Left is an unconventional love story and the tale of a mother who has lost all sense of morals…Readers may find their allegiance to characters shifting throughout When She Left as Aymar continues his affinity for depicting characters with acute empathy.”

I’m beyond grateful, and I hope you’ll enjoy When She Left too. You can check it out at the links below:

Amazon

Audiobook

Bookshop

I’ve talked about Lisa Regan in this newsletter before, and I’ll probably talk about her again. I just admire her so much, both as a writer and a person. Here’s part of the reason why:

I spoke at a book club this past week and one of the readers in attendance asked why I don’t write a series. And I told the truth, which I rarely recommend. Creatively, it’s challenging, although I think those challenges would be fun to overcome. But commercially, writing a series is a huge risk. The interest in your books can wane and, if they do, the publisher’s enthusiasm (and support) will follow. It’s not uncommon to see the sales funnel for a series shrink instead of grow.

And then you have what Lisa Regan’s done with her Josie Quinn series. Now in her nineteenth book, Josie Quinn (and her Denton friends and colleagues) continue to delight Regan’s regular readers and attract new ones. A regular on the WSJ bestseller list, Regan seems to ignore so many of the trappings of success that so many others fall into. Instead, she puts her head down and simply continues writing wonderful books. And there’s nothing in a writer I admire more than that.

I asked Regan who, from the most recent Josie Quinn book (Face Her Fear, more on that below), she would kiss, marry, or kill:

Kiss: Josie Quinn

Josie is the protagonist not just of this book but of the entire series. In that sense, it probably seems like I should marry her and not just kiss her but Josie's got a lot of baggage. Like enough to fill a dozen large cargo planes. In this book, she's working hard to unpack all of that baggage in a way that she hasn't in the past. She's come to this retreat to learn more about herself and work through not just her childhood trauma but her grief over the recent loss of a colleague. She is vulnerable and open in this book in an entirely new way. The tough exterior she wears like armor is gone and she's just a woman trying to figure out how to navigate the aftereffects of years of unprocessed trauma. Of course, when she finds a dead body, she's got to turn back to her investigative skills. Being alone and isolated from the team of colleagues she normally relies on for help forces her to grow in new ways, which I think is really cool. On the whole, I adore Josie as a character because she is constantly growing as a person. 

Marry: Noah Fraley

Josie married this guy and honestly, I would, too! Noah is not just Josie's husband but he's one of her colleagues at their police department. They investigate a lot of crimes together. Noah is patient, sweet, and even-tempered. It takes a whole lot to make him angry. While he is also very analytical, his signature line in the series is: "Plans are stupid." When it counts, he is impulsive in all the best ways. When he realizes a blizzard is bearing down on Josie's retreat, he jumps in the car and drives there to make sure she's safe and also to apologize for the fight they had before she left. Of course, all kinds of terrible things happen to get in his way but he's not about to let any of that stop him. Above all else, Noah is devoted to Josie. He's always loved her unconditionally. He also respects and admires her personally and professionally. He doesn't try to change her, he just tries to add to her life. His wedding vow to Josie was that he will always run toward danger with her and in this book, he makes good on that promise. 

Kill: Nicola Davies

Josie is stuck on the mountain with six other people and the most annoying of them all, for me, is Nicola. You should know that almost every person on this retreat is lying about something and like most everyone else, Nicola's told some whoppers. What makes her particularly unlikeable is the nature of the lies she tells in order to manipulate the situation and people around her. She's also kind of petulant and rude. She doesn't do much heavy lifting on the retreat in terms of learning to cope with her trauma mostly because she is too concerned about what everyone else is doing. She likes to stir the pot and that's kind of a turn-off in an environment where you're supposed to be learning healthy coping skills. 

Thank you, Lisa! And make sure you check out Face Her Fear:

Detective Josie Quinn is still recovering from the killing of a beloved member of her team when she and her husband Noah receive yet more devastating news. Close to her breaking point, Josie heads to a specialist trauma retreat, set in an isolated group of log cabins in the mountains of Pennsylvania. But fear is not far behind her. Josie’s five fellow patients all seem to be hiding secrets darker than just the problems that brought them there and a storm is gathering, with thick snow coming down fast, isolating the cabins from the world below.

Then one morning, Meg Cleary disappears. Having spent years living in terror of a stalker, Meg had come to the retreat to try to piece her life back together. But now, her cabin is empty, no logs are burning in her fireplace, no tracks in the snow lead to or from her door. Quickly organizing a search, Josie’s worst fear is realized when she finds Meg’s body lying in the snow, the marks around her neck revealing that her death was no accident.

And this is no normal case, as Josie is stranded without her team, a phone signal or any legal authority to investigate. When she discovers that someone has placed hidden cameras inside the retreat buildings, Josie’s terror grows with the knowledge that the murderer is among them.

Then another patient goes missing. With their food supplies running low and no chance of escape, Josie knows that she is in the greatest danger of her life, and that she alone has a chance to identify the killer and save the rest of the group before it’s too late…

It's giveaway time! The winner of a copy of Face Her Fear is

w**ts.v***ie@gmail.com

Congrats, and I'll send you an email soon!

Regular readers know that my newsletters aren't normally this long, but I wanted to be as fair and clear as possible about the Otto/Bouchercon situation. Usually I just talk about myself, Doritos, go-karts, stuff like that.

But I should also mention two exciting upcoming events. In March, I'll be at the Tucson Festival of Books and the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival (not simultaneously, that'd be hard). If you're near either event, I'd love to see you! Unless you're weird. But even if you are, that's probably fine. I really just like attention.