November 8, 2024

It's Going to be Okay

On Wednesday of this week, at five in the morning, our ten-year-old son quickly padded down the hall from his bedroom to ours and climbed into bed between me and my wife.

She and I were already awake, quietly talking about the election.

“Who won?” he asked.

We told him that Trump had won. He knew we had voted for Kamala Harris, and he knew the reasons why. And, that morning, we talked a little about the election results and what they might mean. And I could see that he was growing worried.

“But it’s going to be okay,” we lied. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

Writers lie to protect our stories. To make sure an important message is heard, we often only tell part of the truth, because the entire truth is unpalatable. For example, I remember once telling a book club that, as graphic and upsetting as my novel The Unrepentant was, I’d still held a lot of my research back. When they asked what I hadn’t written about, given that my novel dealt with the realities of the sex trafficking industry, I told them that the victims I’d researched were often children.

But I’d chosen not to write about the pipelines that deliver scared children into the arms of naked men. At that time, I couldn’t tell those stories. I also heeded the advice from the publishing industry and readers. Don’t hurt children or dogs.

I often wonder if my decision was a mistake.

“Most of the stuff that a president does,” my wife lied to our son, “isn’t something people really notice.”

There was a time, in my teens and twenties, when it seemed that was true, that the actions of the two major political parties were identical, and it didn’t really matter much whom you voted for. I don’t think that was a political moment as much as naive youth, both on a personal and societal level. Our world has expanded, and no longer are we limited to three news networks and a handful of newspapers, generally telling slight variations of the same national story. Now we have information (sometimes occasionally reliable) from people we’ve never met and places we’ve never been. Our data is limitless. During the gulf war, we admired black-and-white videos of bombs dropping.

Now we see the dead children.

This is a good thing, I suppose, to see the effects of what we have done. Perhaps witnessing cruelty may, eventually, end it.

“We’ll always keep you safe,” I told our son. “No matter what happens.”

But I only feel he’s safe in moments like that, lying between us, when someone who wants to hurt him would literally have to kill us. But those moments are rare, and a Trump presidency means that my son, mixed of Panamanian and Vietnamese genes, is a target for bigots (more than usual). And Trump’s election means that bigotry is going to be celebrated, and never condemned or punished. It has already started, from the celebratory signs at a Texas university stating “homo sex is a sin” and “women are property,” to the texts received by Black people informing them that they are now required to pick cotton, to the tweet by an influential Republican commentator telling women “your body, our choice” - all in the wake of Tuesday’s result. Like Charlottesville in 2017, Trump will never condemn this hate, but instead, blame those who fight against it. It will be our fault, he will imply. Bigots, of course, rarely see themselves as bigoted, and are often offended to be called so. They simply believe they are honest.

No one truly believes they are evil.

“There are more good people than bad in the world,” I said, “and they stop the bad people.”

But they didn’t in this election, and they don’t always, and the long arc of justice is so long that, like the horizon, the ending seems a mirage. As a writer, I try to honestly understand the motivations of those I disagree with, often to a fault. This is as we were taught to do.

Prior to the social awakenings of the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter, I accepted the casual racism of jokes and stereotypes, ascribed my hurt feelings to my own weakness, my inability to accept insults as my own failure to accept the lofty principals of freedom of speech. Once that changed, I discovered (shamefully) how much abuse I’d accepted over the years, the times friends or family members expected me to understand their bigotry, to ascribe their hate to misunderstandings or jokes or locker room talk. Because, to do otherwise, would mean those people had to accept what they had said and done. It was easier to break me than it was to break that thing in themselves.

And with Trump’s election, that thing in themselves, that little knot of hate, is glorified and celebrated. They feel it was proven right.

The longer we spoke to our son, the more my wife and I felt the weight of our lies.

And I guess we realized, in one of those moments where parents understand something at the same time, that we weren’t helping him.

“Here’s the truth,” I told him. “It’s not going to be easy. But we’ll always love you, and the three of us will always have each other. The important thing is love. If you base what you do off that, off of someone being equal no matter who they are or how they’re different from you, you’ll always find love. That’s the one thing I can promise you, because it’s always been true for me, and it’s the only thing we can control. We have faith, and we have hope, and we have love. And when faith and hope depart from us, as they do, only love can bring them back. And so the greatest of these is love."

He was getting sleepy, and I’m not sure he heard us, as we lay on either side of our son, as the world began to burn, as my wife and I talked about the importance of love.

EA

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Weird graphic break, right? But this is a crime fiction newsletter, and some of you are in desperate need of distraction from the election.

I’m a fan of people trying new, exciting ideas in crime fiction and publishing, and I was fascinated by a project announced last year by the writer Steph Broadribb. She was going to take part in a collaborative project with the writer M.J. Alridge, where Alridge would work with a series of writers on different novels.

I love the idea of collaborating and have pursued it several times, always to immediate and abject failure. So I’m interested in success stories and asked to interview both Steph and M.J. (Matt) about the project. They graciously agreed and openly discussed their collaborative process and the resulting novel, The Reunion, which is available now.

How did you get hooked up with this project?

M.J: I have a morbid fear of dropping dead with loads of fun ideas left unexplored on my hard drive! So I suggested to Sam Eades at Orion that it might be interesting/fun to launch a series of co-written novels, partnering with some of the best crime writers in the business to bring them to life. And, so, the project was born….

Steph: Leodora Darlington - one of the editors I worked with on the Retired Detectives Club series es at Thomas & Mercer - moved a role at Orion and suggested me as a potential co-writer to Matt. We met for a chemistry lunch to see if we got on and if our writing processes were compatible, and it all went well (although my extensive list of food allergies might have rather shocked him!) so the deal was done and we got to work on The Reunion.

I remember when this project was announced, and it was listed as a "writers' room project." What does that mean? Did the process take place like a Hollywood writers' room, where everyone gets together and brainstorms?

M.J.: Yes, we were trying to mimic TV processes. Normally novel writing is a solitary process, but this was different. For each co-written novel, I locked myself away in a room at Orion HQ with my co-writer and together we ranged the territory on premise, setting, character and plot, throwing endless “What Ifs” into the air. Whenever we both instinctively liked an idea, we knew we’d hit on a good one.

What was co-writing the book like? I know some writers work together sentence-by-sentence (which sounds excruciating), others alternate chapters, and there are hundreds of other approaches. Which approach did you take, and is that same approach being used with the other four writers?

Steph: It was great fun! There was a lot of brainstorming sessions at the beginning as we worked out the characters, locations and plot elements and then once we’d got an outline down we batted that back and forth adjusting and refining it until both of us and our editor were happy. After that, I sat down and wrote the first draft using the outline as a blueprint. It was the longest and most detailed outline I’ve used – around 30 pages – so the actual writing was really fast compared to the planning stage.

M.J.: As you can see from the above, Steph did most of the work on The Reunion. It was my job effectively to edit the novel, making suggestions for cuts and tweaks where necessary. But, honestly, I didn’t have to do much, as Steph did such brilliant work!

Steph, you've mentioned this is your tenth novel (congrats!) but your first standalone, and Matt you’ve written a few standalones as well as your best-selling DI Helen Grace series. Was it tough writing something where you're not allowed loose ends (or, at least, too loose)?

Steph: I actually really enjoyed it. With a series you never fully end things (unless you write a very intentional last book where you kill off the main character or something) whereas because this was always going to be a standalone we got to give the main character closure on the things that haunted her. I did feel sad though when it was finished. I think when you spend that much time with a character there’s always the temptation to write more with them rather than say goodbye – I grew very fond of DI Jennie Whitmore.

M.J.: I think writing standalones is quite liberating. It means you can go anywhere with the story, do anything and, if necessary, kill everyone. The satisfaction of a series is having your favourite protagonist win the day again. Not so with a standalone, which can be much more unpredictable and dangerous!

M.J., along with your novels, you’re known for your TV-writing, and, Steph, your blogging background must give you a near-encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary crime fiction. Did those strengths complement each other? Or were there other strengths you each brought?

M.J.: I think Steph and I write in different ways, but the combination really worked. For me, the speed, the aggression, of the narrative is everything. Steph’s novels are ripping yarns too, but her characterisation is what really stands out for me. The combination of a really tight, surprising plot and rich, layered characterisation made The Reunion what it was.

Steph: I think our strengths did complement each other. Matt is an amazing plotter and has such a strong sense of story it was great to throw ideas around together and develop the story and characters. I was able to bring some of my own experiences into the novel – moving school from Birmingham (via Bristol in my case) to Buckinghamshire, and also bringing some of the local landmarks where I live into the fictious town of White Cross, including the huge white chalk cross on the hillside above the town and the spooky, atmospheric forest.

Would you be open to co-writing again, or are you dunzo with collaborating? Is there another type of collaborative book, or even another medium (like TV), in which you'd like to write?

Steph: Yes, I’d totally be up for more co-written novels, it was a lot of fun. The creative dynamism in a writers room is really energising. I’d love to write for tv as well.

M.J.: Totally! Collaboration is always more fun than writing alone. Hopefully we can adapt The Reunion for TV.

What do you have coming up next?

Steph: I’ve just finished writing a novel that’s now with my agent so, alongside promoting The Reunion at various festivals and events, I’m now playing around with a few ideas I have for the next novel and also working on a tv pilot script.

M.J.: - Helen Grace 13 is due out June 2025, but before that we have two more co-written novels coming out. Your Child Next, written with Andy Maslen, is published Jan ’25. And The Mistake, written with Lisa Hall, is out May ’25!

Thanks to both Steph and Matt for their time! The Reunion is out now, and you can click HERE to learn more about it.

It's giveaway time! The winner of a copy of The Reunion is:

beatrice_________@yahoo.com

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

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Thanks to everyone for reading. You’re a good circle to turn to, and there’s no one I’d rather be going through this with than the friends I have.

Not that I want you to suffer, but you get what I mean.

Love ya.

EA