Author events

I used to go to book readings. I stopped. With some exceptions, I felt most writers should hire an actor to read for them, or just skip the reading part and make the event a conversation. I still feel the same way. But I'm again lowering posterior to folding chair, hard cover in hand, eager to bask in the proximity of another writer's success. See if I learn anything.

Thus I attended readings by Donna Tartt, Sara Paretsky and Martin Cruz Smith. I'd call it a coincidence that three writers that particularly mark the passing of time for me had new books to read from so close to each other.

Donna Tartt - lovely, petite, funny, engaging - she read (well) from "The Goldfinch." That same night I read from my signed copy and continued to do so for a series of nights until I realized I didn't like it. Sorry. I read somewhere that an aspiring author should never give a bad review. But since chances that Miss Tartt would get between me and a publisher, would even care, are nil, I'll just say what I really think.

She has lived in a pedestal since she published "The Secret History" in 1992. I then fell for the noise in the press and rushed to buy the book with the special cover (why did this cover design matter so much, BTW?) The writing was great. The story did nothing for me. I gifted it to someone half way through. Not a mean gift. The book just got a better home. I missed her second one. And now I longed to read the third, with a particular wish to atone for my original dislike of "The Secret History," blaming myself for not getting it, and binge on her full oeuvre. Because, in spite of the lack of connection, I have still spent twenty years (the same twenty years during which I have written a total of zero books) envying her ability and her success.

But, again, except for the New York beginning of the boy and his mother, I failed to connect. Let's leave it there and call it a case of "to each his own." Not my own.

A little closer to my taste are the books of Sara Paretsky. Her first mystery about tough talking female detective V.I. Warshawski was published in 1982. I first heard of Ms. Paretsky and V.I. in the early nineties and felt that I, too, could write a mystery. I gave it a try, my first. I don't believe, though, that she would consider the line "I can crack peanuts with my vulva" an homage to her style. My boyfriend at the time definitely didn't think much of it and gave me a review not many writers have heard (one would hope) - "I wanted to throw your manuscript at the wall!"

Twenty or so years later the score is Sara Paretsky 18, me 0. And that's just the mysteries.

That same manuscript throwing boyfriend introduced me to the books of Martin Cruz Smith and I was hooked. I have loved Arkady Renko for as long as Mr. Smith has written about him. About ten years ago I had completed a finished draft for a mystery (no female genitalia involved), met Mr. Smith at a writers' conference, and he agreed to read my book and share his thoughts. I gave it to him in a moment of euphoria, convinced I had made my book the best it could be, expecting a reply with a back cover blurb. Instead, he recommended hard work and a full deep edit. I consoled myself from having disappointed my hero by thinking that at least I had not provoked a violent reaction this time. I called this progress.

Mr. Smith wrote his latest Arkady Renko mystery, "Tatiana," which I loved, while suffering from Parkinson's disease. I am (fingers crossed) perfectly healthy. The score, just to keep it going, is still 12 to 0.

But I am now determined and motivated to close a twenty year gap.

I first gave writing a try during a trip to Africa in 1993. The travel book exists, as gossip for friends and family.