Anthony Neil Smith: 2012

Why "Reasons To Quit" Hit a Nerve This Summer: Some Thoughts From a Crime Novelist

• Some background: I stumbled across the cover of this Haggard and Nelson tune "Reasons to Quit" by the group Phosphorescent, and I've now listened to both versions about eighty-nine times since last week. I mean, it's a gorgeous country song. Check out the original here.

 

• Now, I don't smoke and I'm a really light drinker, but this song gets to me on another level--as a novelist. Often, I'm thinking, "I should quit writing novels. Not worth it." And so yeah, the song is right in tune with my latest round of thinking that way. Why am I bothering?
• Let's try it from this angle: I play guitar. More often when I was a teenager because I was in the high school jazz band and I had some friends who wanted a band, too. Actually, my very first band was guys I played AD&D with, and I ended up pissing them off about rehearsing rather than going to play D&D in the woods, so they all pretty much dumped me. but later on, I found some more guys to play rock and roll with (and I also quit playing AD&D). And I played some in church for a while, but then, I didn't have a band anymore. I found out that I preferred playing with other people, for other people, rather than just for myself. Also, I sang like shit and I was kind of shy, too, so that didn't help me in front of crowds.
• Even more so than playing music in a band, I really really really enjoyed recording on my little 4-track home studio. I had a synth for drumbeats and basslines and other wild stuff, and I would double the guitars, try to make them sound unique, do vocal harmonies, all sorts of fun. And those recordings, I had no trouble playing those for people. I wanted them to hear the stuff I did in the studio even more than live. But, you know, I didn't get any interest from the music biz folks when I sent it around. And after a while I just, you know, got tired of doing all this cool stuff that only I was listening to.
• I've pretty much wanted to be a novelist from the moment I finished reading my first one. Apart from some side-trips here and there over the years (comic book writer, rock star, songwriter, I even took the LSAT test once), I stuck with it and eventually got there, about to publish my seventh novel next month.
• But holy shit, it was hard to get there. And in the writing world, I'm a real small-timer. Small presses, e-presses, one self-pubbed e-book. I never got that contract with one of the NYC big publishers like my writing heroes. I mean, I'm happy that I've got some readers and I've done okay, especially with e-books, but I wanted people to buy my books the way I bought James Lee Burke's books--in hardcover on publication day.
• And yes, I know the whole "James Lee Burke, 109 rejections, but it won the Pulitzer" story.
• So, considering all that, what are some reasons to quit writing novels?
• Doing so would make me stop feeling like I have two jobs. I love my day job--teaching at a university and currently being the Chair of the Department--and it takes up enormous amounts of time. And then on days off, I tell my wife I'll be up in the office writing for three hours. I could, you know, do other stuff.
• I would stop obsessing about Amazon numbers.
• Reading popular thrillers without being jealous or picking each sentence apart. Having fun reading without the added burden of writing.
• No more AWP conferences.
• There's no money, not for me, not yet. For the print books, I put the whole advances and then some back into "touring"--meaning, going to bookstores that, except for four or five of them, could give a shit that I was there. But now, at least, with the e-books I get to keep a lot more of the dough, but it's not really a life changing sort of number. It's more like a month-changing or week-changing number, but then a few weeks later, right back to where you were. And it's not a lust for money or riches I'm talking about. It's security. It's making sure the family is taken care of. It's about seeing something tangible that I can point to and say, "This means a lot of people really enjoyed that novel I wrote, and I now have the security and confidence to write more." 
• Fatigue.
• Really, you spend a year on the damn things when you add in revision. A whole year on a story I really want to share with as many people as possible.
• Numbers. Let's say, being generous, I've got between 5K and 10K readers. That's such a small fraction of the book buyers in this country, right? And consider those 5-10K are spread around the world, well...and that's being generous. How many books am I willing to buy retail because I really like an author and want them to be able to keep doing what they do? Not so much when I want a lot of books on a limited budget. So them how many of my 5-10K (again, being generous) are willing to do the same to keep me rolling? Of course, that's less of a concern if more than 10K people read your books. But what is the threshold for making a living at this? I don't need to make a living at it, since I like what I do, but just curious: what does it take to write novels full-time with a sense of security?
• You know, I came close a couple of times. An editor at one larger press really liked Yellow Medicine and had to take it to her bosses. But the bosses didn't like it. And then, it sounded like we had an offer from one solid press for All the Young Warriors if I was willing to make a few changes. Of course I was happy to make those changes. I would be willing, sure. And then it was quiet for three weeks...before the editor came back and said they'd changed their minds or some such. Yeah, that heartbreak is enough to make you want to quit. 
• I hear you saying, "Being that close would just make me want to try harder!" Yeah, well, tell that to the person who came in fourth at the Olympics. Twice.
• I also hear you saying, "A true novelist would never even consider quitting. A real writer wouldn't even think about it." Well, to you I say calm the fuck down and realize how wrong you are. Everyone who loves something like writing or golfing or playing in a band or painting or acting or growing flowers or inventing or cooking, everyone has considered just giving it the fuck up at one point.
• Also, the reasons to quit outnumber the reasons not to. 
• But I keep doing it. I keep writing novels. I want to, even when I don't.
• Hard to explain, and I don't have any real inspirational advice, nothing like that. Writing crime novels is hard. Trying to find people who want to read them is harder. I do it because I can't imagine not doing it anymore. That's about it.
• I'm waiting for The Baddest Ass to come out, my third Billy Lafitte novel. I'd like to write about him some more, maybe. I'd like more people to want to read about him.
• I just sent in a novel featuring some characters from All the Young Warriors. I don't know if anyone will want to read about them, but I wanted to write about them some more.
• I've got the next James Lee Burke novel on order from Amazon. I'm really looking forward to its arrival. I think I'll really enjoy reading it.
• I'll bet James Lee Burke wanted to quit writing novels a few times, too. If not, well, now I'm just ashamed.

 

Bullet Points (meaning: "I don't have to organize my thoughts")

• This is the time of year I like to read a James W. Hall book. Usually a Thorn novel. I mean, I can't imagine living in the Keys, but I can at least imagine spending a solid month down there, bonefishing and staring at the ocean and solving crimes (and by solving crimes, I mean staring at the ocean some more). I'm behind on my Hall reading, and I usually can absorb one of his a year, so I've got a decade of wonderful summer reading ahead of me.
• The closest thing I can think of (that's currently doable) to living in the Keys would be living by a lake in Minnesota. One day, I swear...
• The dry-erase board in my office has three projects on it. I need to get started. And there's a fourth one not on the board that's been occupying a lot of my thoughts. 
• And yet, I'm also kind of thinking, "Really? Does anyone really want to read this stuff?" And I mean on a more grandiose, tens of thousands of people sort of thing. Sigh.
• I love Minnesota. I can't imagine living anywhere else anymore. 
• Okay, maybe Colorado...but that's not on the menu.
• The garden this year: jalapenos, habaneros, orange tomatoes, Romas, some regular tomatoes, cucumbers (which I don't eat, but my wife does. Fun to grow, though), and...um...Brussels sprouts. Again, that's all her. Ew.
• I love my job.
• Onward. These novels aren't going to write themselves. Yet.

What's Wrong With Me? Nothing a Quiet Summer Can't Cure

• I still haven't seen Django Unchained. Not sure if I'm interested even though I like Tarantino and spaghetti Westerns and the actors look like they're doing a good job, and on and on. This is the longest (and most uninterested) I've been in Tarantino in a while. I waited a long time to see Inglorius Basterds, and I thought it was just...okay. So maybe I'm just tired of his style. Or maybe I just don't like three-hour long movies, even at home on DVD where I can stop and get ice cream.
• But I did see Zero Dark Thirty and liked it quite a bit. Good film.
• You know, I also haven't been reading all th small-press rough 'n raw noir books and stories lately either. I'm sure they're all fine. But I'm not in the mood. I'm more interested in series crime thrillers for the summer (again) than I am in anything else.
• What's wrong with me? Is it some sort of bug?
• Nah. Nothing like that. My tastes are changing, though. I think I'll always appreciate a good, dirty, neo-noir story, but I'm pretty sure it's not the first thing I'll pick up for something to read or watch any more. 
• I don't think "shock value" matters much to me in fiction any more. Maybe that's a natural thing when you set yourself up as an editor/writer for that certain type of crime drama. Dulls after a while. No, the bigger surprise that I want my students to reach for is the one where I care about the characters being written about in the story as much as I would people in real life. The shock comes when I realize how invested I am in what happens to them, what they do, say, and think. I think it's easier to make someone cringe than it is to make them care. 
• And of course, someone will write one that does both and make me retract all this soon...but it hasn't happened yet. 

 

On an unrelated note, I am now on Spotify. Let's trade song recs and shit. I guess you can find me on their via Facebook. 

Also, I realized (about ten years later than everyone else) that the "rap break" has almost completely taken over the "guitar solo" in pop-rock songs. Really. Lots of rap breaks, very few guitar solos. And that's not all that bad. Some rap breaks/guitar solos are great. Most are annoying (and I say that as a mediocre guitarist). I wonder what the next shake up in song structure will be...or have I already missed it because I find myself listening to new bands that try hard to sound like a drunk version of Crosby, Stills, and Nash?

Bouchercon Update: Well, Sitting Out Another Year

So I recently decided, after looking at the rest of my year and a bit into 2014, to cancel my trip to Bouchercon this year. It sounded like a lot of fun, and it would've have interesting as always, but it's just becoming more difficult to fit it in each year. Maybe another time, when it's closer to me and I don't have some other plans in the way.

And I tell you people because, you know, friendship and stuff.

Onward, folks

No More Snow

The thing about Spring here is that I usually don't look forward to it. It's never exactly warm enough, it makes me itchy and sneezy (allergies!), and the snow melt turns everything to mud for weeks. Ugh.

But this year I'm a little more excited. I open the curtains and listen the birds and think, "Shit, this isn't bad at all."

I'm looking forward to the end of the semester so I can spend the Summer doing the things I love most: hanging out with my wife and pets, grilling meat, writing novels, reading novels, and staring outside.

That last one is also why I love Winter, but staring at snow storms brings on the comfortable melancholy. Staring at vivid colors and blooming flowers brings on the comfortable bike rides and sitting on the back deck drinking wine.

Also, I guess I'm pretty excited that the third Lafitte novel, The Baddest Ass, will hit your e-readers this coming June. So there's that.

Maybe I should do another blog event thing like I did for the last two Lafitte books...but holy shit, those were exhausting. I should let the readers do the blog promos. Yeah, let you guys do all the shouting for me. Much more effective than if I do it. 

Anyway, I also want to apologize to John Sandford, who I made vicious fun of when I was a younger and snootier "literary noir" type who thought he must be lousy because all of his books were called Something Prey and had terrible covers.

Well, I finally read some Sandford...and he's fucking awesome. I repent of my earlier comments. I wish I could do what he does.

ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS now available on paper

Yep, my classic-in-my-own-mind thriller All the Young Warriors is now out on paper, if you're up for ordering it from Amazon. Thanks to the two guys at Blasted Heath who tell me what to do and when to do it, you can now get a pretty nifty paperback version to dog-ear and spill booze on. So you should try that.

Onward!

 

Some tweets I just tweeted...

I just tweeted a bunch of things concerning publishing, especially after one super rich thriller writer got in the New York Times talking about how bad everything was for writers. Whatever.

Anyway...

1) I always wanted to be a thriller/crime series writer on a bigger publisher. I came close, but never got all the way. So, small presses...

2) I got to write some books for small presses. Fun, but not very good on the money side of things. Small advances invested back into tours

3) Tours? What a waste. No one knew me, and they just returned the books after I signed them anyway. Also, finite amount of printed copies.

4) With the best book I've written, I had a pretty great larger indie say yes, and then say no two weeks later. Crushing.

5) You know what I did? I found out I had the e-rights to my print backlist. I got them up online, cheap. They found LOTS of new readers & $

6) I went with a small e-press that supports the hell out of its writers. I've got a nice cut. I'm going to do more books with them.

7) I imagine some crime writers who grew up with hardcover books never thought they would be writing paperback originals, either...

8) So now instead of paperbacks, I'm writing e-books. I'm of a split mind: I wish I could land a Big 6 deal, kind of, but...

9) ...I also hope to keep doing what I'm doing, working with a great small e-press and self-pubbing some other stuff. It's very satisfying.

10) What I mean to say: I want to go with the technology and publishing method that works to get me read the most.

11) Financial gains are much more modest than big (or even middling) advances, but they add up, they show up on time, and no tours.

Discuss.

Yep, Here's a Perfunctory Blog Update, Y'all

• Best thing I've seen moviewise in a while. This trailer is better than his last film. The entire film!
• I just finished another excellent Daniel Silva novel, and then dug right into one of Sandford's Virgil Flowers books. What impresses me most about it is how much Sandford packs into such short scenes. He makes it look easy. Really strong at showing character is quick strokes. I've noticed James Lee Burke's books over the past handful of years have been going to shorter scenes, too.
• I gorged myself on the first three Bourne movies recently (had seen the first two, but saw them again) so that I can get in the mood for the new one with Jeremy Renner. Crossing fingers. We'll see.
• Thanks, Soho Crime, for an advance peek at Fuminori Nakamura's Evil and the Mask. This looks cool as hell.
• I have to say that when I look at my overall reading patterns, my favorite type of book is the series mystery. In the best of them, you really get to dig deep into characters in a very richly imagined world. In the worst of them, you get a comfortable few days of pleasure. So, yeah.
• I need to read more authors from Iceland. Not just crime writers, either. 
• Have a bottle of wine on me...as long as you pay for it yourselves.

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Now that the Yellow Medicine free buffet is on, I can get back to other things. Like:

*First football, now NCAA. I like a good game every now and then, but I hate hate hate hate the fact that live sports coverage, even post-game bullshit, trumps regularly scheduled shows I want to watch. I missed Amazing Race last week because a fucking game ran 45-mins over, or they just kept showing games until the games were all done, or they talked to coaches about how they won, you know, because there's a science to it. Whatever. I missed Amazing Race and I didn't like any of the teams, so fuck that.

*Late March is the ugliest, shittiest, most nasty time of year in Southwest Minnesota. It feels shitty, it looks shitty, and it is shitty. The snow melts, leaving dark, itchy looking piles of half snow that then turn everything to mud, and it's not quite warm enough to dry it all up. Weeks and weeks of that ahead. So ugly, I'm not even taking a photo of it for you.

*Just found out, like, two seconds ago, that Plots with Guns got a Spinetingler nom for "Crooked Ladder" by Terry Butler. Awesome. Congrats to the author *and* the fine team of gentlemen who run my beautiful zine. Really, it's much more theirs than mine now. I just pay the bills. 

*How did Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series sneak a syringe into my vein and get me hooked on it so much???

*Finished first draft for next novel, now revising it. Then, onto Octavia #2 (novella) and, possibly, another one featuring that son-of-a-bastard you all love...but you have to read The Baddest Ass first to see if there's even a remote possibility of pulling that off. Not so sure. You folks will be the ultimate judges.

*There's a new Dead Man out. Lisa Klink's Evil to Burn is on the streets scaring your pets and neighbors. Get a dose. 

*I'm smoking another turkey today. Gots to go check on it. Take that, you fucking Marshall winds, howling like you know sinister shit. Not to cold to smoke a bird.

YELLOW MEDICINE free for Kindle: Done.

Got it done, folks. YELLOW MEDICINE is now free for your Kindle via Amazon. 

Now I can shut up about it and go back to normal broadcasting, like telling you why big dinners at Bouchercon suck and how shitty-looking the town of Marshall, MN can look at the end of March.

But melting snow also means it's nearly grilling season. Oh man oh man.

Anyway, get to work on the downloading of the free, would ya already?