Writing Mystery Novels

(Page 4)

"Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions." --Mark Twain

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; I don't know if it will ever be ready for publication.

WHAT IS YOUR WRITING SCHEDULE? The short and 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. 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 can saturate 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; and Chris Rogers, who has a Houston-setting bounty-hunter mystery series -- start with BITCH FACTOR.

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

splendor bay promises town buy books translate page

Writers - Mystery Novels - Fiction - Fiction Writers

L.B. Cobb

"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