WHAT WE'RE WRITING WEEK: Julia Reads and Edits

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As you may recall, last WWW Week, I announced I had (finally) finished and (thankfully) turned in the 9th Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel. Now - the edits. 

I've had very light editing with some books. I remember one where my then-editor - the legendary Ruth Cavin - gave me notes that were literally three paragraphs, each one focused on one strand of my writing. They boiled down to things like, "Cut the fat" and "Pick up the pace" and "Re-write the ending." I always have to re-write the ending, because I finish each book in a surge of unhinged energy not unlike that of a coke-and-caffeine addict on a bender. Have you ever primed a wall for painting? And at the start, you're all neat and careful about your brushwork, but by the end you just want to finish the damn thing and break for dinner, so you slap on the primer any which way? Yeah, like that.

So this book is NOT one of those less-than-one-page editorial letters. Friends, when you compose a book on and off for five years (really, more like three and a bit of actually working) it's ugly. Imagine sewing together a patchwork quilt, except every few months your old box of fabric is taken away and you get a new box with different shaped pieces for a different pattern. And you're sewing in the dark part of the time. 

So the editing process started with me giving my editor notes - a few things I knew I absolutely wanted to change, expand or refine. Then I got notes from my editor. Then I got notes from my agent. Then from a couple other editors. Don't get me wrong - these are all smart people who know good fiction. Everything they suggest or point out is something that will make my book better and stronger. But what it means is that right now, my quilt is lying all over the dining room table, the desk, and the kitchen, seams picked out, fabric in swatches and piles of shaped waiting to be sorted, reassembled, and restitched. 

So I'm not sharing yet another excerpt with you today. (If you have a hankering, just search for HID FROM OUR EYES in the blog search box. I've shared 857 prior excerpts over the past several years - although several of them are already out of the book at this point.)

What I am going to share is what I'm reading right now. I've mentioned before, I restrict my reading when I'm face-down in writing. Since finishing the book, I've been binging on mysteries, thrillers, horror, SF, nonfiction - everything really. So what aremy latest? I'll tell you.




THE MURDER LIST by Hank Phillippi Ryan (August 2019.) I'm not blowing smoke at you - we Reds tend to read each others books, as you might expect, and I got an ARC from Hank. I finally understand what psychological suspense means after reading this book - I was in psychological suspense the whole time. Who do you trust? Who's telling the truth? One of the things I like about stand-alones is that it takes everything off the table - anyone could be a bad guy, or not make it through to the end of the novel. Hank uses this to great effect. Also, shout-out to a protagonist who doesn't do dumb stuff just to advance the plot, which I've seen in other domestic/ psychological/ female-led thrillers.

THE WATER WILL COME by Jeff Goodell. This is my nonfiction read at the moment. I actually gave the book to the Sailor as a Christmas present, then took it back from him when I was visiting/ seeing him off in Norfolk. It's very well-written popular science that has one half of my brain screaming, "We're doomed!" and the other half thinking about what a riveting setting a post-sea-rise world would make for a near-future SF novel. Writers. We're a cold-blooded lot.

THE HUMAN DIVISION by John Scalzi. Speaking of science fiction... I'm re-reading Scalzi's Old Man's War novels (and short stories) and enjoying them just as much as I did the first time. If you're sci-fi-curious (see what I did there?) John Scalzi is my go-to recommendation. His books are accessible, funny, touching and there's always a special pleasure in putting yourself in the hands of an author at the top of his game.


MY BROTHER'S KEEPER by Vaughn C. Hardacker (July 2019.) Vaughn's been short-listed for Maine Literary Awards at least two times I know of, and it shows. He writes in lean, evocative prose that perfectly captures both the hard-eyed cops, PIs and criminals that populate his novels, and the forests, lakes and small New England towns where they circle and struggle against each other. If Raymond Chandler and Paul Doiron had a baby, it would be this book.

Okay, dear readers, your turn. What are you reading, or editing, or quilting?