Tipping my hat to Mr. Mosley by Cathy Ace

Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours?

I only had to think about my answer to this question for a millisecond – the answer is:

WHO? Walter Mosley

WHAT? Well, quite a lot, actually!

I think the first Mosley book I ever read was Devil in a Blue Dress…though I might have come to that one later, via a route I set off on because of another of his Easy Rawlins books. 

The most recent was Down the River Unto the Sea. In between I have a read not all of his books, but quite a few (he’s written dozens, as well as short fiction, non-fiction, plays etc. etc. too...so talented!). 

He’s recognized as a master of his craft, and a voice that speaks for many who cannot speak for themselves…at least, they can speak, but might not be heard as readily as he is.

Click here to access his website, and find out about the astonishing breadth and depth of his work.

I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop organised by Sisters in Crime at Bouchercon 2016, in New Orleans, where he spoke as one of a number of authors tackling the topic of “Writing Our Differences--Doing Diversity Right”. He did a great job – laconic, informative, laser-sharp, and offering truly practical tips, as well as sharing his views in a more general way. It was an honor to meet him. (Yes, I was all tongue-tied and flapping about…and a bit jet-lagged 😉 )

If you haven’t read his work, dive in! Even though I’m no purist when it comes to reading the first in a series first, I do generally enjoy reading authors’ works in order because I can see them develop as a writer (which I believe we all hope we do/will). In the case of Mr. Mosley, the development is evident, and (to me) is expressed in the way in which his writing becomes more layered, and tackles ever-more-challenging and complex topics, as the years pass...yet he seems to make it look easier to do with each volume. Incredible.

That being said, this week’s question is direct – how has his work affected me? Well, overall it made me realize that I need to work at my writing (because he’s very good, and I have a long way to go!) which is a critical inspiration for any author. 

But, beyond that, my response to today’s question can be distilled into one thing: I recognized in his writing that it’s important to write relatable characters, rather than likeable ones, and that relatability doesn’t rely on race or ethnicity…it exists beyond those markers, because we are all human beings, with the same basic needs and desires. The way those play out differs dramatically in his work, of course, but they are at the core of who we all are, and that’s where the focus should be to allow a reader into a character’s mind, rather than building barriers to the reader’s understanding. Walter Mosley is a great writer, regardless of the color of his skin. 

I tried to learn from him - I continue to try to do that – and I try to create relatable characters. If I manage to achieve that, I have to thank Mr. Mosley, in part, for the inspiration to do so. Thank you, Mr. Mosley. 

To reach my website where you can find out more about my work, click here. 

Something old, something new... by Cathy Ace

Life: You’ve just read Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” and you’re getting ready to clean up your writing space/office. What things “spark joy” and what would you get rid of? Do you keep old drafts of stories/novels, e-versions, paper? Copies of your books, others’ books? Knickknacks? Etc.

OK, I’ll be open here – I haven’t read Marie Kondo’s book, nor shall I ever. Tidying up is anathema to me. The photo of my office below was taken when it was tidy (ie: when I’d just finished decorating it!) and I dare not show you what it looks like now. I use the “stratification” method of filing – and I really do know where, in the layers that confront me every day, I have put just what I need. And can always find it…given long enough! So – I am not a “less is more” person. At. All. 

Neat and tidy. The lamp's name is "Constance" - she's a 1970s plaster version of a 1930s gal!

If I were to set about tidying up my office, I know I would end up getting rid of very little – I’d be more likely to move piles around the house, tucking them into corners where they can wait until I need them again. I keep every printed draft of every book, in a labelled bag for each book, in a huge cupboard. I also pop in all the reference materials I collected for that book, as well as odd notes I made etc. They will remain where they are until…well, I’m not sure when, but certainly for years. I still have the first draft copy of the first book I ever wrote – a textbook about marketing communications planning I wrote back in 1994, as well as floppy disks (yes, I KNOW!!) containing all the files for every training course I ever wrote (and there were a LOT of those) and every training manual I ever wrote (ditto) when I ran my training company through the 1980s and 1990s. I even have hard copies of the brochures I wrote when I worked at an advertising and PR agency in the 1980s. It all gives me joy when I come upon it – because that was such a big part of my life at the time.

As for the décor in my office? The walls are covered with prints, some of which have been hanging on my various walls since the 1970s, and have followed me from Swansea, to Cardiff, to London, to Canada. 

The shelves? Well, I have a collection of mementos I bought myself as each of my novels was published. 

July 2011 (in my tidy office!), with the contract for my 1st book, and my 1st "book memento"...a cast iron snail. You'll have to read The Corpse with the Silver Tongue to find out why that's a good memento for the book!

They all stay…as will the statue of Hotei, the god of happiness, which was a gift I requested for my seventeenth birthday, and was given by my parents. He's joined by a piece of granite from the quarry where they created the obelisk for Queen Hatshepsut that's in the temple complex at Karnak, Luxor...I picked it up and brought it home with me on one of my many trips to Egypt.

 

Buddhist god, and Egyptian granite

He’ll always be with me, as will the mask of a young Dionysus…given to me by friends when I left Nice after a three-month sojourn in 1994…I don’t know why they thought this would be something close to my heart. LOL!

My little Dionysus, with some of my paternal grandmother's china

The paintings my late-father did of our home, and special places in Wales will also not be moved.

All painted by Dad, of places that mean a great deal to me...the Brecon Beacons (just where we used to camp in tiny little pup-tents), the alley at our house in Swansea and Three Cliffs Bay in Gower, Wales

Nor will the china my paternal grandmother had on her shelves back in the 1930s and 1940s – including the Clarice Cliff coffee service she gave to Mum and Dad (previously loved!) for their wedding in the 1950s, and the Clarice Cliff jug my other grandmother had on her sideboard for decades. 

Both of my late grandmothers had a thing for Clarice Cliff china - thank goodness! Must be where I get it from!

 

As you can see, I’m certainly not going to end up with a sterile space. I like to be surrounded by mementos from my life, and all the living I have done. They spur me on to dream for the future – because there’s a lot more living yet to come, and new challenges around every corner. 

The paperwork can be stored out of site, to clear my two desks, I suppose, but the rest? Let me look at it, and keep being inspired by it. Thank you. 

If you'd like to find out a bit more about me, and my work, you can do so by clicking here.  

 

Dreams of Bunker Hill and John Lennon

Do you have writing tics? Words you over-use, things every single last character in a book does, moves you love to make . . .? Do you edit them out or embrace them?

by Paul D. Marks

Since we pretty much had this same question last August (you can see my responses here: Writing Tics: The ‘Comfort Food’ of Writing http://7criminalminds.blogspot.com/2016/08/writing-tics-comfort-food-of-writing.html), and I don’t think I have much new to add, I’ll let that answer stand. Instead I thought I’d talk about a couple of things close to me: John Lennon and Bunker Hill. Both in the context of writing or at least my writing. I usually try to stick to pretty close to the week’s question, so I hope nobody minds.


John Lennon

Yesterday, December 8th, was the 36th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination. As I’d mentioned here last time, my first paid writing assignment was for a piece about him on the one-year anniversary of his death for one of the LA papers. I’m not going to comment so much here about the tragedy of his death, but about how he and his three partners in crime inspired me to want to be a writer.

Before I wanted to be a prose writer, The Beatles inspired me to want to be a song writer and rock star. (I don’t think I was alone in this…) When my brothers and I were kids we cut out cardboard “electric” guitars and sang along to records. When I got a little older I wanted a real guitar and eventually got one and then focused on the bass. (Hey, it was good enough for Paul McCartney.) And I was in some bands in high school. (See the very professional card we had made up for one of those bands.)

Then, one day I was talking to a counselor and he asked me something like what I wanted to be. I said “I want to be the Beatles.” I didn’t mean it literally, but I did mean that I wanted to be the best in my field. Hey, dream big, shoot for the stars, right? But I knew that I didn’t have the talent to really make it in rock. Of course, you say, neither do a lot of the people who have made it…but that’s another story. So where to then?

Besides rock ‘n’ roll, I’ve always loved movies. And that was something I thought I might actually be able to succeed at in the writing arena. So I gave it a shot. And did have some success as a rewriter/script doctor, though frustrated by the lack of screen credits. And worked at that for many years. But there’s something exasperating about Hollywood and that is, among other things, too many chefs spoiling the stew. Too many people at too many different levels giving input on screenplays and not necessarily making them better – ask me about it some time. So at some point I decided to try my hand at prose writing. I’d always done it to some extent but not as a primary form of writing. Though, even when I went to USC grad school in cinema I took an advanced story writing class from T. Coraghessan Boyle. So my interests always lay there too.

I learned a lot from him and his class, but I also learned a lot about writing and structure from screenwriting. So I started writing short stories and even a novel. And I placed that novel with a major publisher. Boy, was I excited! And guess what it was about – a screenwriter trying to make it in Hollywood. And aside from a little murder thrown in for fun pretty much everything in it was true. All the absurdities and farce. It was a satire. So everything’s humming along fine and then the whole editorial staff at the publisher gets let go…and my novel gets swept out the door with them. And because a lot of the humor in it was topical it would have needed a rewrite before sending it out again. Something I didn’t have the time or maybe the desire to do then. So back to the drawing board, though one day I might bring it out of retirement and polish it up and give it another shot.

But eventually I did start placing short stories here and there and returned to novels. And though I’m still striving to get where I want to be, I’m having fun and getting some recognition and getting to do what I want. Sometimes I bitch that things aren’t always what I’d like them to be, but overall I know I have it pretty good.

So the Beatles inspired me to want to do something creative and not have a 9-5 job, something that would have strangled me and did on the rare occasions when I had to do it. And whenever I hear a Beatles song it brings back memories of my early days as a writer and writing that John Lennon article where I found I had a voice and things I wanted to share. And I feel like I owe the Beatles for that creative inspiration that got me started on this path. Would life have been easier if I didn’t have this need to write? Probably. But it would also be a hell of a lot less interesting.

How about you? What has your journey been like?

***

Bunker Hill – Los Angeles
(not that ‘other’ one on the East Coast near where the shot heard round the world happened)

My story Ghosts of Bunker Hill is now out in the current/December issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It’s a little bit different; I think you might enjoy it.

That said, Bunker Hill was L.A.’s first wealthy residential neighborhood, right near downtown. It was filled with glorious Victorian mansions and other cool buildings. If you’re into film noir you’ve “been” to Bunker Hill. Many times. Lots of film noirs – as well as movies in other genres – were shot there (Criss Cross, Cry Danger, Kiss Me Deadly, The Brasher Doubloon, Backfire, the Judy Garland version of A Star is Born, and many others).

But in the late 60s it was all torn down and redeveloped. They even flattened the hills and demolished or moved many of the gorgeous Victorian houses (as you’ll see in the story). If you’ve been to the Music Center you’ve “been” to Bunker Hill. It’s where John Fante lived when he wrote Ask the Dust (and other books like Dreams from Bunker Hill), which is largely set there. But it got run down after WWI and became housing for poor people and the Powers That Be wanted to build up downtown, so off with its head, so to speak.

I love the old Bunker Hill and was lucky enough to explore it with a friend before it was totally razed. We did our own little archaeological expedition of several of the houses and I even “borrowed” the top of a newel post from the long and winding interior stairway in one of those houses (see pic). A true relic of L.A.’s past. It’s a prized possession.

So Bunker Hill and its ghosts were the inspiration for the story. It’s a fascinating place and I’m hooked on it. I’ll be writing more about it at SleuthSayers (www.SleuthSayers.org), the other blog I write for, on Tuesday, December 20th, if you’re into it too.

***

And now for the usual BSP:

Also, I’ll be interviewed on Writer’s Block Radio on December 15th at 7pm PST. Hope you can check it out. Find it here: www.latalkradio.com/content/writers-block 

And I have a couple of appearances in January.

Cerritos Library, where I’ll be moderating a panel:
Saturday, January 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
18025 Bloomfield Avenue, Cerritos, CA  90703

Santa Clarita: The Old Town Newhall Library
Saturday, January 14, 2017, from 10:00 AM-3:00 PM.
24500 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA  91321

www.PaulDMarks.com

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