I'm Going to Miss Pointing Out Your Flaws
But I'll still think them!
Is this about AI? I really hope it’s not about AI.
It is! I’m so sorry.
God. What now?
Well, it’s just recently I was asked to do this critique promotional thing, where you review the work of an aspiring writer who wins a contest, and I declined.
Because you don’t like helping people?
Eh, helping people is fine. And I’ve really enjoyed these opportunities in the past. I’ve edited a pair of anthologies, served as a guest editor for short story magazines, taught a ton of workshops and, my favorite experience of all, served as a PitchWars mentor for Sian Gilbert and her astonishing debut, She Started It. There’s not one of those experiences that I regret.
So why turn down this new gig?
There’s so much fake writing now! Like this and this and this and this. And it’s going to get increasingly more difficult to tell the difference. As I said in my other Q&A where I whined about AI, the technology really isn’t that far behind us.
And, look, I don’t mean to cast aspersions at every single writer in the world. I know this is an unfair stance. But I really don’t want to end up editing ChatGPT, or working with a writer who has fooled me (not difficult).
But, E.A., what will the world do without your wisdom? Will publishing fall?
Okay, see, now you’re just being mean and hurtful.
Publishing will trundle along just fine without my very infrequent anthology edits or mentorships. But I wouldn’t feel right working with a manuscript whose flaws, I suspect, aren’t rooted in humanity.
You, sir, are a dinosaur.
I always remember one of my writing professors, when I took an advanced writing class in college in 1997 (shut up), and how he bemoaned writers using computers. He hated that we were moving away from longhand and typewriters, particularly because he thought the speed that books could be written would reduce their quality. And he worried that the practice of reviewing early drafts to inform your later work would fall to the wayside.
None of that came to pass. Wonderful books are still being written. AI could very well be something that we use on a wide basis, and become a tool that is heavily - and fairly - employed in the construction of stories. In fact, that likely will be the case. The technology will improve, our misgivings will give way. This post could be outdated within a year. And ultimately, as with many things, the reticence of a current generation won’t resonate with the next one.
But that’s not the case in the current state of AI. The way many writers have used it, and the potential that Hollywood studios and publishing houses see in it, is detrimental to creation. I just don’t want any part in pushing that forward.
What if someone swears on their mother’s grave that they didn’t use ChatGPT?
I mean, it’s super flattering whenever I’m asked to give a blurb, and I love the idea of anthologies, and I really like working with aspiring writers. But I need to step away from that for now, and just work with the people who I know view craft and creation through the same lens I do.
It’s all about service, to your writing and to the writing world. And there’s no greater service than helping bring an urgent, necessary voice into the world.
But never when it’s to the disservice of writing.
EA
When She Left comes out in (counts fingers) SIX MONTHS. I love this book so much that my eyeballs vibrate whenever I look at the cover. I’m going to see a doctor about that but, in the meantime, I have an announcement. Everyone who preorders a copy wins a finished version on publication date! Sent right to your home! Or maybe that’s just how preorders work. I don’t know, seems cool.
If you want to learn more about a young couple on the run from killers, and the reluctant hitman/realtor hired to find them, click HERE.
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I was making some changes to the format, and one of those changes is the writer interview segment. I was doing “Two Writers You Should Read,” where one writer recommends another, but it didn’t give a lot of space for writers to discuss their own work…which is really why I invite someone to participate in Crime Fiction Works.
So this is the start of a new series, and it’s called “A Writer Kisses, Marries, and Kills.” Basically, I ask a writer who they would “kiss, marry, or kill” from their latest book. Cute, right?
The first participant is newly crowned USA TODAY BESTSELLER Halley Sutton, author of The Lady Upstairs and The Hurricane Blonde, which just came out and instantly hit the bestseller list! I loved Halley’s first book, can’t wait to read her second, and I’m excited that she agreed to participate. She also has a fantastic newsletter, Too Many Tabs, which I absolutely recommend.
And now I’ll turn it over to Halley!
The Hurricane Blonde: A former child starlet is plunged back into the dangerous glitter of Hollywood after discovering the body of a young actress.
Salma Lowe, progeny of Hollywood royalty and a once-promising child actor, now spends her days as a guide for the Stars Six Feet Under tour, leading tourists through Los Angeles’s star-studded avenues to haunting sites where actresses of the past met untimely ends. Salma knows better than anyone that a tragic death is the surest path to stardom. Her sister, Tawney, viciously dubbed the “Hurricane Blonde,” was murdered in the nineties, the case never solved and, to Salma’s ire, indefinitely closed . . . until she stumbles upon a dead body mid-tour, on the property where her sister once lived, at the precise scene of her sister’s demise. Even more uncanny: the deceased woman also looks like Tawney.
The police are convinced this woman’s death was an accident—but Salma is haunted by the investigation’s echoes of her own past. What if this woman’s murder points to Tawney’s killer? Desperate to track down the culprit once and for all, Salma launches her own investigation, plunging back into the salacious but seductive world of Hollywood. And what she’ll find is that old secrets may just be worth killing for.
Kiss: Emerald Majors. Salma Lowe's childhood pal, now turned executive producer and all-around boss bitch, is the coolest customer in Hollywood. She and Salma met as child actors on the set of the sitcom they starred in—but then their paths diverged, with Salma becoming more famous for being in the tabloids than her actual acting, and Emerald quietly transitioning to work as a producer. Emerald is the most competent character in the book, and the only one who has any real influence with Cal Turner (more on him, below), Salma's nemesis and a painfully exacting Method director.
Marry: Tawney Lowe, aka The Hurricane Blonde, and Salma's older sister. Tawney, like Salma, was Hollywood royalty—the daughter of two famous actors, who starred in Iron Prayer, a Chinatown-esque neo-noir. Tawney was also an actress in her own right, famous but never taken seriously due to her bombastic proportions, symmetrical features, and perception of being "difficult to work with." Briefly engaged to Cal Turner, she was murdered at 23, a crime that was never solved. She's Salma's favorite person in the book, the heart of the story—and, in my opinion, the moral compass of the story, too.
Kill: Cal Turner. When The Hurricane Blonde begins, Cal is already a famous director—known as a genius, he's also exacting, explosively angry and punishing towards his actors, and, in Salma's opinion, a strong contender for her sister's murderer. He has, as the kids say, very little chill—which isn't the reason I'm murdering him in this scenario. I'm electing to kill him because there are so many bad-behaving directors in real life (just about every incident with Cal in the book is based on a real life story from a film set) who didn't particularly receive their comeuppance. The great part of writing fiction is exorcising your frustrations on the page!
Thanks, Halley! You can learn more about Halley and her work here. And check out this amazing-sounding upcoming event with Halley, Andi Bartz and Angie Kim as they discuss "Feminist Thrillers.”
Part 2 of 2
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, there were so many books that I wanted to include that I couldn’t put the entire list in a single newsletter, so this is that second newsletter I promised.
HOWEVER, I have to mention one thing. Someone asked me how I have the time to read all these books, and I was like, “wait, is that what people think?” I used to call this section “New Releases (that I’m excited about)!” and I thought that sort of clarified that I WANTED to read these books. Not that I have. So I’ve changed the title to “Books I’m Adding To My TBR.” You all know how much I like receiving credit, but that felt wrong. Even to me.
All of these books were - in almost every case - published a month prior to this newsletter.
A Likeable Woman, May Cobb
After her troublemaker mother’s mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Now, decades later, Kira is invited to an old frenemy’s vow renewal celebration Though she is reluctant to go, there are things pulling her home. . . like chilled wine and days spent by the pool . . . like sexy Jack, her childhood crush. But more important are the urgent texts from her grandmother, who says she has something for Kira. Something related to her mother’s death, something that makes it look an awful lot like murder.
You Can Trust Me, Wendy Heard
Summer and Leo would do anything for each other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in a hostile and unforgiving world, and united by the call of the open road, they travel around sunny California in Summer’s tricked-out Land Cruiser. It’s not a glamorous life, but it gives them the freedom they crave from the painful pasts they’ve left behind. But even free spirits have bills to pay. Luckily, Summer is a skilled pickpocket, a small-time thief, and a con artist—and Leo, determined to pay her own way, has learned a trick or two. Eager for a big score, Leo catches in her crosshairs Michael Forrester, a self-made billionaire and philanthropist. When her charm wins him over, Leo is rewarded with an invitation to his private island off the California coastline for a night of fabulous excess. She eagerly anticipates returning with photos that can be sold to the paparazzi, jewelry that can be liquidated, and endless stories to share with Summer.
Instead, Leo disappears.
Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead
It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.
Never Back Down, Christopher Swann
For as long as she could remember, Susannah Faulkner knew that even though she lived a dangerous and violent life, she would try her best to do some good in the world. She’s hunted down evil men before, but the one man that puts fear into her heart, the one man who could destroy everything she loves, is the one man she cannot track down. And worst of all...she doesn’t know what will happen when she finds him. Or if he finds her first.
The Spread, Dana King
School is back in session in Penns River, which means it’s football season in Western Pennsylvania. The Penns River team is loaded after a few substandard campaigns and the town is so revved up a new gambling ring opens to allow PR supporters to put their money where their hearts are. The “entrepreneur” responsible has no idea how to set point spreads and nowhere to look for help; it’s not like Vegas handles small town high school football games. The vast majority of money put down is on the locals—who bets against their own kid, or the one next door?—and the team covers all the spreads; the cash paid to winners far exceeds what the operation takes in. Only organized crime offers loans to cover the shortfall, which opens the door to a whole new world of problems, including murder.
The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies and living off her parents’ generous allowance. Adding to her growing sense of inadequacy, her mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, has successfully leveraged his savant-level aptitude for languages into an enviable career. But when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.
The Hunt, Kelly J. Ford
For seventeen years, a serial murderer has used the Presley, Arkansas, Annual Hunt for the Golden Egg to find prey. Or at least that’s what some people believe. Others, like the town’s devoted “Eggheads,” relish the tradition and think the deaths are just unfortunate accidents. But for Nell Holcomb, the town’s annual Hunt dredges up a particularly painful memory: her brother’s death, long believed to be “the Hunter’s” first kill. Nell has been caring for her nephew since then, trying to keep him safe and trying to conceal the role she played in his father’s death. Most importantly, she’s been trying to avoid the Hunt—despite the clashes that erupt in town over the event and her best friend’s obsession with winning the big prize.
As Easter draws near and the town’s frenzy escalates, Nell must face her past and the Hunt as the danger once again veers close to home.
A Twisted Love Story, Samantha Downing
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They've never felt anything like it. It's the type of romance people write stories about. But what kind of story?
When it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears. When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants.
But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconciliations needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy--and she's a detective. There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about--in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead If they can stick together, they can survive anything--even the tightening net of a police investigation.
Because one more breakup might just be their last…
Death on the Beach, Steph Broadribb
The brand-new Shimmering Sands retirement community is a beachfront paradise—until realtor Jessie Beckton plunges to her death from the penthouse suite she’s selling. When the cops rule out foul play, the Retired Detectives agree to step in. They’re certain Jessie was murdered—but how can they prove it when the apartment was locked from the inside?
As the gang pursue their investigation, a host of potential suspects emerge who all have secrets to hide. But just as they seem to be closing in on a culprit, a shocking second murder sends them back to square one.
Here in the Dark, Meagan Lucas
A gritty genre blending collection of short stories, set mostly in Southern Appalachia, that explore the female experience of lawlessness. These sixteen stories encompass shame and forgiveness, loss and redemption, oppression and revolution, and signal a new way of thinking about power and trauma. In “Voluntary Action,” a sheriff’s deputy witnesses the overdose of a high school friend in her custody. In “Buttons,” a little girl, bullied by the neighbor boy, gets her revenge with a needle and thread. In “Sitting Ducks,” a hurricane bears down on mothers, daughters, and sisters in an un-evacuated women’s prison. In “Asylum” an immigrant woman, suffering a terrible loss, sees ghosts in the hotel and houses that she cleans. In “Hell, or High Water” a young woman with Stockholm syndrome is abandoned by her kidnapper deep in the woods of Western North Carolina. And in “Here in the Dark,” a newly clean addict is given the opportunity to start over with her son if only she’ll snitch on her former lover and pimp, but discovers, of course, it’s not that simple.
The winner of my monthly newsletter contest is jbm____@aol.com! Congrats, and you’ve won a copy of Halley Sutton’s The Hurricane Blonde! 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!