How to Talk to Your Children About War
How to Talk to Your Children About War; Fringe Press; book recs for your TBR; and cool stuff in crime fiction.
How to Talk to Your Children About War
You don’t tell children about beheadings, or people burned alive, or crowds cheering at pictures of the dead. You don’t tell them about the indiscriminate nature of bombs, how they’re supposed to be aimed at enemy soldiers but sometimes miss, and they sometimes kill civilians and people accept that pretty easily. You don’t tell them how some child’s parents promised to keep them safe when the war started, and then those parents were later stabbed or blown up or shot in the back of their heads while they wept.
You have that conversation – you know the conversation – where you tell your children that sometimes it’s okay to kill. This is the big one, since it goes against everything they’ve learned and been taught and instinctually feel. Of course, you tell them it’s wrong to kill women and children, and innocent men, and soldiers who are on the side of good, and doctors and nurses who are trying to help, and they ask that, if those people are killed, then isn’t war evil? And you realize they’re too young to understand how sometimes it’s okay to kill.
Because of that confusion, you don’t tell children how, in every war, each side thinks they’re good and God favors them. Children can’t understand that complexity.
You tell them about history but, as you do, it becomes painfully clear that every side – and every person – has their own history, and it’s as vivid as any other. So you only tell them a little about history, because you just realized you only know a little.
At this point, you realize your children are growing scared about the war and of how so many people will be killed, so you tell them war is far, far away. And that you’ll always keep them safe.
You tell them that there’s more good people than there are bad people.
You don’t tell them (you never tell them this) that every day that they go to school, you have a sudden striking moment of panic that this is your last memory of them. Because war is a word that can mean many things, but it always means unimaginable loss.
When they ask how they can help because, as children, they truly want to help, you tell them that being a good person is the most important work of all. You tell them that people are essentially soldiers or gardeners, and you like that analogy. Neither the gardener or soldier, you go on (even though you’re not entirely sure where this is going) can live without the other. The gardener gives sustenance to the soldier, the soldier gives protection to the gardener.
You tell your children to become gardeners because, even though you tried to establish that sometimes it’s okay to kill, you want them to cultivate and grow beautiful swaths of land. You tell them this even though you know some soldier someday will be duty-bound to turn their garden into a cemetery.
It’s getting late, and your children have to go to sleep. And this conversation has left them in an uncertain place, where they now know murder is out there, where they can vividly imagine boots rushing and bombs descending, and they know they can only be saved by you or the protections of society, and you know both of those are greatly flawed. And they’re starting to sense that as well.
So that night you fall asleep next to your child, because that makes them happy and this is all you can give them. And because you truly desperately love them.
And you hope children will always see the need for gardens.
EA
Let’s make things a little lighter and celebrate some cool stuff happening in crime fiction:
I wrote something (much less somber) for The Washington Post last month. If you missed it, you can check out my review of Ava Glass’s The Traitor here.
Jeff Circle was kind of enough to have me on his fun series, “The Dossier,” where I talked about the time I heard someone having sex in a serial killer’s hotel room. Read that story, and other fun happenings, here.
The writer Andrew Brandt is releasing FOUR novels over the next two years, which is a pace I cannot fathom. But it sounds like it was an exhilarating writing process, and you can watch a video about it here.
And anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Tara Laskowski’s writing and also free things. Well, you can win a free Kindle (stuffed with Tara’s other books) just by preordering her next novel, The Weekend Retreat! Click here to enter!
Want another cool thing in crime fiction? Look at the interview below.
The publishing landscape always seems near collapse, but one of the things I find reassuring are the number of emerging publishers willing to champion writer’ work. Lee Matthew Goldberg, a tireless figure in the crime fiction community and a wonderful writer, recently announced a venture he’s putting together (with Matthew J. Misetich of Book Pipeline) called Fringe Press, and it sounds like a terrific resource for both writers and readers. Check it out in this interview I did with Lee:
What's the mission plan for Fringe Press?
We’re looking to publish audacious fiction drifting somewhere beyond the boundaries of “mainstream.” We seek material showcasing universal yet unapologetically divergent narratives that transcend norms, promote timeless relevancy, and exist at the edge of storytelling.
We’re an A24 for publishing. A creative haven for the niche and high-concept. An IP development pipeline to Hollywood. A place for emerging and established authors.
Mostly, we just want to put out “cool shit.” That’s my two-word pitch that best sums it up.
What will make an attractive submission for a Fringe Press title? Are you planning to have open submissions, or will it be by request only?
An attractive submission is firstly a novel/novella/story that can be adaptable to film/TV. So we’re looking for high-concept but also unique. Thrillers/horror/sci-fi to the front of the line. If it works as a cool indie film, that’s the kind of work we want to publish. The idea for this press came when my novel The Ancestor wasn’t landing at a Big 5. It’s a thriller, but it’s also historical, and literary with some sci-fi aspects. They didn’t know what to do with it and how to market. Those are the books we want. Give me an historical thriller with a tinge of sci-fi, I’d read that all day!
We will have open submissions, but not all year round. Likely we’ll open up submissions for about a month and then close them. We also will open submissions for specific requests, like an idea for a Counting Crows anthology we are considering based on stories inspired by August and Everything After. Hi, Adam Durtiz!
You mentioned once that you like the idea of Fringe Press being "A24, but for books." Can you explain how you hope their model influences your own?
A24 has built a brand of films with original voices and outlandish stories that push the boundaries of what is expected. Films like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Midsommar, Uncut Gems, and Moonlight are not typical studio projects and “hard sells,” but became huge hits. You know what you are getting with an A24 film, that’s what we want to do for Fringe.
You've written screenplays as well as novels and, of course, your partner Matthew J. Misetich, has tons of familiarity with Hollywood through Book Pipeline. Are you expecting a similar background for Fringe authors?
I’m seeing Fringe as merging of publishing and Hollywood. We won’t require our authors to have written scripts, but certainly encourage. If they haven’t written a script, but have a great story or book, we can help them turn it into a script. Conversely, a lot of screenwriters have wonderful projects that have never seen the light of day. We want to encourage them to adapt their work into a story or film or pilot. Stories are hot in Hollywood right now, since it’s like a blueprint for a film. So, we’re looking for a lot of cool stories.
What's the most challenging aspect of launching a new press?
Ask me in a few months. Probably everything. Embarking on something I’ve never done before. Getting word out. Hoping I don’t fuck it up. I want this to be fun. And I want to put out really great work, so the challenge will also be discovering that talent.
How do you see your role in Fringe Press? Acquiring editor, development editor, sales and marketing, or all of the above? And are you concerned about how the demands of running a press will affect your own writing? Is The Great Gimmelmans the last Lee Matthew Goldberg we'll see?
I’m the face of Fringe. I’ll be the acquiring editor, oversight, communications, and a secondary developmental editor. I am concerned a little with how it will affect my writing, but my writing will always come first. I have three other business partners overseeing Fringe, so we plan to delegate it right. We will never do more than four books a year, one a season, so we can really focus on those titles, and get them in a pipeline to hopefully be optioned and green lit. The Great Gimmelmans will definitely not be the last LMG book you’ll see. In fact, I just finished a new one, Sublime Evil.
Fringe Press launches in 2024. What's the best way for readers to find out more information?
Right now, we’re working on getting the website up and running. So, find us on Twitter/X @fringebooks, Facebook at Fringe Publishing, and Instagram @fringelit with links to our subscriber list.
And your next novel, The Great Gimmelmans, is out November 14! Can you give a short synopsis of the novel?
Sure! Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks. But it wasn’t always like that. His father Barry made a killing as a stockbroker, his mother Judith loved her collection of expensive hats, his older sister Steph was obsessed with pop stars, and little sister Jenny loved her stuffed possum, Seymour.
After losing all their money in the Crash of 1987, the family starts stealing from convenience stores, but when they hit a bank, they realize the talent they possess. The money starts rolling in and brings the family closer together, whereas back at home, no one had any time for bonding due to their busy schedules. But Barry’s desire for more, more, more will take its toll on the Gimmelmans, and Aaron is forced into an impossible choice: turn against his father, or let his family fall apart.
From Jersey, down to an Orthodox Jewish community in Florida where they hide out, and up to California, The Great Gimmelmans goes on a madcap ride through the 1980s. Filled with greed and love and the meaning of religion and tradition until the walls of the RV and the feds start closing in on the family, this thrilling literary tale mixes Michael Chabon and the Coen Brothers with equal parts humor and pathos.
BUCKLE UP!
Thank you, Lee! To keep up-to-date with the latest from Fringe, do as Lee said and find Fringe on Twitter/X @fringebooks, Facebook at Fringe Publishing, and Instagram @fringelit.
And learn more about Lee and his writing here. And pre-order The Great Gimmelmans here.
All of these books were - in almost every case - published prior to this newsletter.
Best Be Prepared, Gwen Florio
Nora Best is enjoying the quiet life…finally. She's parked up the Airstream on a quiet stretch of beach and is now a seventh-grade teacher in a small peninsula town in the Pacific Northwest. Her biggest worry is keeping up with her quick-witted bunch of students. No drama. No danger. And most importantly – no one turning up dead.
Until they do, that is…
When a local environmental activist – and dad to one of her most troublesome students – is killed, Nora once again finds herself in the thick of an investigation that threatens her new-found peace. She soon uncovers that Ward's death is most likely linked to the building of the school's emergency tsunami tower – a project financed by Ward's ex-wife's new husband …and one that is testing the town's loyalty.
With emotions, and gossip, running high, in a community where everyone knows everyone else's secrets, Nora is in a race against time to get answers before fall storms slam their vulnerable Pacific Coast peninsula putting everyone's lives in danger.
Thicker Than Water, Liz Miliron
Pennsylvania State Trooper Jim Duncan responds to a call regarding a missing autistic young man. When the boy is quickly found, Jim thinks the case is closed…until the young man insists the police need to help a “sleeping blue lady” and leads them to a dead woman in an abandoned shack, clad in only her underwear.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Sally Castle is searching for a troubled young woman who wandered into her office wanting protection from an unnamed man…and disappeared before Sally could obtain any details. Sally is bothered by the incident and unnerved when she discovers that Jim’s dead body and her missing potential client are the same person.
Jim and Sally soon discover the young woman led a secret double life, with ties to the autistic boy who started it all. As Jim and Sally investigate, the case takes increasingly ominous turns, uncovering hidden money and a seamy underbelly of sex work, before turning into a desperate race to stop a killer. Can Jim and Sally solve the case in time to stop the murder of an innocent boy?
The Taken Ones, Jess Lourey
Summer 1980: Despite the local superstition that the Bendy Man haunts the woods, three girls go into a Minnesota forest. Only one comes out, dead silent, her memory gone. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.
Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. They’re both desperate to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.
As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
The Alchemist of Monsters and Mayhem, Gigi Pandian
Alchemist Zoe Faust is no stranger to magical mayhem, but when her boyfriend's new tea shop is vandalized and his special tea blends stolen, she plunges into a baffling mystery to save him. The clues lead Zoe and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian to an eerie mansion high in the Portland hills, filled with creeping carnivorous plants and enigmatic topiary monsters.
When they stumble across a corpse in the conservatory that appears to have been killed by sinister shrubbery, an estranged member of the family is implicated in the murder. Can Zoe use her alchemical skills to catch the real killer while navigating crafty alchemists and killer plants?
There are two winners of this newsletter! Thanks to the new subscribers who came via my newsletter contest! Welcome aboard and, jen_____llow@gmail.com, you’ve won a $50 Amazon gift card!
And the winner of my regular contest is bgarl___inbox.com! Congrats, and you’ve won a copy of Lee Matthew Goldberg’s The Great Gimmelmans! I’ll slide into your DMs (send you an email, so not exactly slide into your DMs) soon.
Until next time, much love and Happy Reading!