Mystery Author LB Cobb | |
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Writers - Mystery Novels - Fiction - Fiction Writers Home Promises Splendor Author Events Contact Buy Books Blogs of Note Q&A Reader's Guide Writing Mysteries Translate
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? I don't know that you can call it working, but from time to time I pull out my now ancient and very first attempt at novel writing, dust it off, and scribble a few additions and corrections to the story. It's in about draft 27 and in the forth or fifth title change; I don't know if it will ever be ready for publication. There are a couple of other "unfinished" works -- novels that have beginnings, middles, and ends but need several more rewrites -- in the pile as well that get about the same amount of fiddling with from time to time. WHAT IS YOUR WRITING SCHEDULE? The honest answer is -- I don't have one, which probably explains the last answer. One really has to plant their fanny in a chair and their fingers on a keyboard if they expect their muse to accomplish any writing. Fanny in chair is a difficult position for me to hold very long. And my muse is prone to attention deficit disorder. As Robert Frost quipped, "The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office." WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS? Among contemporary writers, mystery authors James Lee Burke and Tony Hillerman for a start. Burke can drag you through a misty Louisiana swamp or a hardscrabble Texas town and make you forget you're reading a detective story. Hillerman saturates you in the scenic beauty of the American Southwest and the minds of his Navajo police character. Not so contemporary and not detective, but still my all-time favorite is Steinbeck. Who doesn't breathe the Oklahoma dust or feel the misery of the depression-era labor camps in Grapes of Wrath? For mystery books with a lighter tone, I love Lillian Jackson Baum's "Cat Who" mysteries. They're great "airplane" books -- just the right length for a 3-4 hour flight. Among other contemporary mystery authors, some of my favorites include: Mary V. Welk, who writes a Chicago nurse mystery novel series; Tony Fennelly, who writes a New Orleans stripper-turned-society columnist mystery series that keeps me laughing and guessing; Chris Rogers, who has a Houston-setting bounty-hunter mystery series -- start with BITCH FACTOR; and, of course, Sue Grafton, who has just about conquered the alphabet. I recently discovered Harry Kelmelman's "The Rabbi" paperbacks published in the 1960's and 70s. I've now found about a half-dozen of them in used bookstores; each of them as fresh as if they were written this year. For legal thrillers, I recommend Steve Martini and Richard North Patterson, and for people who collect books, I recommend John Dunning who writes mysteries centered on book-collecting. Writing Mysteries: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Home Promises Splendor Author Events Contact Buy Books Blogs of Note Q&A Reader's Guide Writing Mysteries Translate
Copyright L. B. Cobb. All rights reserved. This page last updated 04/21/2009 by Texas Web Houston.
Writers - Mystery Novels - Fiction - Fiction Writers |
"Promises Town is another witty, perplexing mystery from L.B. Cobb. Multi-faceted characters, biting humor and emotional discoveries pack the pages from beginning to end" - Mystery Corner, Romance Readers Connection
"Splendor Bay lands ex-attorney Bill Glasscock in... a whirlwind search for the women in his life, a murderer, and proof of his own innocence" -- Publishers Weekly |
