I Know I've Seen This Place Before

(Look above my head.)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: This photo certainly proves it. Location definitely matters. See? My husband insisted he did not place us in the bookstore like this on purpose, but I bet he did. Isn’t it hilarious?

This is John Lescroart with me, by the way. One of the most brilliant mystery writers anywhere. I interviewed him for this 20^th book—THE KEEPER--and he’s fantastic. If you don’t know him, he writes the Dismas Hardy books, and pretty much invented the sort of—domestic legal thriller/mystery. You know? Where the sleuth has a family that he loves,  a wonderful daughter and a wife he adores, and good dear friends--and problems. Not huge ones, but the day to day little things that can make our live misera—I mean, interesting.

His characters are real people, and the situations are realistic—and his setting—San Francisco—is just as much a part of the books as the people.

We talked about that in the interview (here I am describing the moment I had a good idea in my upcoming book TRUTH BE TOLD),  and about his relationship with San Francisco—he loves it (except for the weather) and lives there part of the time. But  he’s very careful to make sure that when he writes about “real” San Francisco, that it’s accurate. He says—if he made a mistake he’d be flooded with complaints. (The “that street isn’t one way!” type of thing.   (Do you see geographical mistakes in books? What do you do when you find one?)

In my books, set in Boston, I try for the same authenticity. If I had the Red Line trains going to Newton, or the Mass Turnpike going north and south, or –well you get the picture. Real Boston has to be accurate Boston.

And it’s easy for my brain to conflate reality with the books, sadly. My husband and I will be driving down the Mass Pike and I’ll say, oooh, exit 17! Here’s where Jane was chased by the bad guys! And then I realize, no—I made that up.

John described the exact same brainwaves in almost exactly the same ways—he says he’ll walk around SF and say oh, here’s where a certain character in THE KEEPER was killed!

And that’s great, right? Because it feels real.  I’m now writing WHAT YOU SEE, which is about  murder that takes place in a little park near Boston’s famous Quincy Market. And since it’s on a public street, I’ve used the exact real place. It’s creepy, now, for me to go by the Mayor Curley statue. I think—ooh, this is where my book begins! And I almost believe it’s true. 

When you write about a real place, does the reality of the place fade away, and be replaced by what happened in your fictional world?  

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate. She's won 30 EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. A bestselling author of six mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and for THE OTHER WOMAN, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews have called her a "master at crafting suspenseful mysteries" and "a superb and gifted storyteller." Her newest thriller, THE WRONG GIRL, has the extraordinary honor of winning the 2013 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel! A four-week Boston Globe bestseller, it was dubbed "Another winner" in a Booklist starred review and "Stellar" by Library Journal.  She's on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime. Watch for her next novel, TRUTH BE TOLD, on October 7, 2014.

 

Visit her online at HankPhillippiRyan.com, on Twitter @hank_phillippi and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage.

Ready! Set! Procrastinate?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:

I wish you could see my underwear drawer. It’s—pristine. All divided by color, and lined up in nice perfect rows. (I will spare you the photo, so just imagine.) I have organized the heck out of it.

You should also see my upstairs summer closet. It is fabulous. Every t-shirt and even slightly saggy or out of fashion item has been removed, cleaned and donated. There is actually room in the closet for what’s there, and even a little left over. I could close my eyes, and select something wearable and the right size. I have organized the heck out of it.

The reason I am on this organizational rampage is that I will do anything, anything to avoid starting my new book.  Girlfriends, I have actually considered changing the shelf paper in my kitchen cabinets.

 Do you realize what that would entail?

Taking out each and every canister, jar, and can, weird tubes of anchovy paste and  marginal cookies and packets of salad dressing, peeling away the tattersall-plaid paper lining, cleaning the wood underneath,  driving through the SNOW to the the hardware store, choosing the perfect new paper, making sure there’s enough in stock, driving home,  measuring, cutting, peeling, sticking, applying, and then REPLACING every canister, jar, can and tube of anchovy paste.

Do you REALIZE how long that would take, and what a PAIN that would be?

And yet, and yet, it is a walk in the park compared to sitting at my computer and starting my new book.

Now, truth be told, I do want to write it.  (And TRUTH BE TOLD  is an especially funny expression, since it it’s the title of my new book—my finished book!—the one which I had no idea how to write a exactly this time last year, and that is now about to be in galleys and is really really good if I do say so.)

 

So why am I contemplating actual housework instead of starting the new book? Why am I intimidated by myself? I have written SIX SUCCESSFUL NOVELS, (the most recent is THE WRONG GIRL)—I say to myself. Each time, (except the first time, which is an altogether different story because I had no idea) each time, I was apprehensive, and afraid, and each time I second-guessed my self.

“What if this is the time it isn’t going to work?” I wailed to my husband.

“That’s what you always say,” he replies,  “and then it always works.”

“But what if this is the time it DOESN’T work?”

"That’s what you always say, too,” he says.

And he is right right right.

I just gave a movie-book talk about To Kill A Mockingbird , one of my favorite books and movies, and learned in my research that Harper Lee tossed the manuscript of TKAM out the window and into the snow, because she was so frustrated with it. Her agent made her go out and pick it out.  You of course know Stephen King threw CARRIE into the trash—and his wife had to retrieve it.

It’s such a climb, isn’t it? Or like one hilarious and well-meaning pal of mine once described: “Like Godot pushing that boulder up the mountain. “

Yes, indeed. Or something like that.

So girlfriends, here’s the thing. I have a very good plot idea. And a title: WHAT YOU SEE. And I have—well, let’s call it faith in the universe. It has never failed me, not ever, that when it is really and truly time to start, the perfect words form in my brain, and there’s no force in the galaxy that can keep me from my desk.

Has that happened to you? It’s like some force says—okay, ready.

Peter DeVries famously say: “I write when I’m inspired, and I make sure I’m inspired very morning at 9 am.”

So today, as you are reading this, picture my house in Massachusetts. . My underwear drawer is perfect, my upstairs closet is perfect. My kitchen cabinets-- forget about that. I ‘ll do them next time. But  it’s time. Really and truly time. I will  be at my desk. 

And slowly and wonderfully, I have complete confidence, WHAT YOU SEE will come to life.

I don’t have to write a whole book today, I have to write one page, maybe two.  I’ll have great days, and I have horrible days. Ill have days when I’m in despair, and days when I secretly applaud myself.  Word by word, page by page.

And soon, well, not soon, but eventually, I’ll do what I always do. I’ll call my husband in the study and say, “Sweetheart, watch this.” And I’ll type: THE END.

And next year, about this time—I’ll be thinking Wow. I did it. And I can’t wait to start again!

I might have to alphabetize my spices first. But hey. We do it how we do it. (What have you ever done to procrastinate?)

Holiday Books! How do YOU Choose?

Hank PHILLIPPI RYAN: I was at the bookstore yesterday, signing THE WRONG GIRL (thank you!) and in between customers, and trying to spot what other books people were buying at the same time.

Research, right?

What I saw, over and over, was exactly the same thing.  For those who went to the big display of books in the middle of the store, their procedure became fascinatingly predictable.

1. Pick up book

2. Flip to back cover

3. Open to inside cover

4. Look at first page of book

And then, the critical moment 5: Sometimes they’d put he book down and try another.

Sometimes, they’d put the book into their basket. A sale.

It was all I could do not to say--excuse me? Could you tell me what just went through your mind? It'd be so fascinating to know.

What connects a potential reader with the story? What will clinch the deal?  It’s clear it so different for each individual, right?

When I saw the list of the Girlfriends new books, I had a bit of the same experience...there were some I instantly loved.

Because I am a hard-working novelist, I burst out laughing at:

PURSUING THE TIMES:

Lauren Baratz-Logsted

“All that popular Chick-Lit author Mercury Lauren wants is to have one of her books reviewed by the New York Times Book Review - just one - and she'll do almost anything to get it. In this contemporary romantic comedy, with a nod toward Pride and Prejudice she crosses swords and hearts with the Editor-in-Chief of the NYTBR in a madcap adventure that takes her from her home in Westport to a yoga retreat to a golf course in Florida. Will she get what she wants and will she finally be happy if she does? Only one thing's for certain: nothing will stop her from Pursuing the Times.”

And because I LOVE an original idea, I’m tempted to get this one by Lauren Baratz-Logsted for my grandson:

THE SISTERS 8: “A nine-book series about octuplets whose parents go missing on New Year's Eve leaving the Eights, as they are known, to solve the mystery of what happened to Mom and Dad while keeping the rest of the world from realizing that eight little girls are living home alone.”

Because I love the concept of The Daddy School”—rats, I wish I had thought of it, how about:

FATHER FOUND by Judith Arnold:  “Jamie McCoy's syndicated column, "Guy Stuff," keeps thousands of men in a macho frame of mind. But the day Jamie finds Samantha on his doorstep, his life changes drastically. Samantha is a baby. Jamie knows nothing about babies. He phones Allison Winslow, a nurse who runs the Daddy School, for advice. But when he actually meets Allison, he finds he wants much more than her assistance.”

And finally, because the synopsis tells the story instantly—and you can just picture the whole hilarious thing right?

SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA By Ellen Meister

“When a Hollywood location scout comes to Applewood, Long Island, and announces that the local elementary school might make the perfect backdrop for an upcoming George Clooney movie, the PTA's decorum crumbles like a cookie from last week's bake sale.”

So you can’t go wrong with the Gitlfriends’ books! Check them all out  (click to see a big list) for the ones perfect or you-and your gift recipients!  say it at every event—“A book makes a perfect gift!” 

Happy shopping all…and happy reading.

photo by Iden Ford HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate. She’s won 30 EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. A bestselling author of six mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and most recently, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award for THE OTHER WOMAN. National reviews have called her a "master at crafting suspenseful mysteries" and "a superb and gifted storyteller." Her newest thriller, THE WRONG GIRL, is a Boston Globe bestseller

and was dubbed "Another winner" in a Booklist starred review. She’s on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime. Visit her online at HankPhillippiRyan.com, on Twitter @hank_phillippi and Facebook/HankPhillippiRyanAuthorPage.

GOT HOLIDAYS? by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

For the next cycle here at GBC, we'll be mostly talking about gift-giving suggestions for the holidays and that always means one thing: books! My own household is a two-holiday one, meaning we celebrate both Hanukah and Christmas. This makes for a lot of shopping. This year, as some of you may be aware, Hanukah begins the night before Thanksgiving. (I'm aware there's a word going around to describe this rare holiday convergence but I refuse to use it.) So here are a few suggestions, for those like me who need to shop early, to get you started:

A Few Girlfriends:
SAFE HARBOR by Judith Arnold. Kip and Shelley spend their summers together on Block Island. A tragedy in Shelley's life ends their friendship. A tragedy in Kip's brings them back together. Can the magic of the island teach them how to trust and how to love? A finalist for Romance Writers of America's prestigious Rita ® Award.

BEAUTIFUL DISASTER by Laura Spinella.
As a college student, Mia Wells meets Flynn, an enigmatic stranger who pushes every boundary she knows. Their relationship is intense, passionate and, for Mia, life-changing, making it all the more painful when he vanishes. Twelve years later, Flynn mysteriously resurfaces, gravely injured.  Mia is terrified that he will die, awestruck at the prospect of his survival.  Flynn’s return ignites an achingly powerful tale, a story filled with sweetness and suspense.

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE by Brenda Janowitz.
It's about three generations of women with a culture all their own.  When Hannah finds herself spending the summer with her glamorous grandmother, a widow six times over, at her sprawling beach-front Hamptons estate, she learns that there’s more than one recipe for happiness. 

THE WRONG GIRL by Hank Phillippi Ryan. A reporter on the trail of an adoption agency that may be reuniting birth parents with the wrong children—and a Boston detective tracing down the killer of a young foster mother. There’s an empty crib in the mother’s back bedroom—where is the infant who should be sleeping there?

FIXER UPPER by Malena Lott. So this is what the last straw looks like. Macy Baxter hightails it to the heartland to heal her broken heart and search for the answers to fixing her life and saving her family’s vineyard, Dust Bowl Winery. With the hot pink tool belt her daddy gave her for her 35th birthday, Macy starts turning her life around, one makeover project at a time. Thanks to the presence other high school boyfriend-turned-carpenter and the computer nerd-turned-millionaire who hires her to turn the abandoned Art Deco hospital into a modern home, Macy finds it’s not too late for romance or a career of her own. But will her absence make her husband’s heart grow fonder? Will she cast a vote for the posh life or the pastures?

An Honorary Girlfriend:
DOLLFACE by Renee Rosen. America in the 1920s was alive with the wild fun of jazz, speakeasies and a new kind of woman - the flapper. Library Journal starred review.
Not a Girlfriend At All:

We all have them: that person on our list who, no matter what, won't read something written by a girl. Here's an ebook for that person: TONY PARTLY CLOUDY by Nick Rollins. A "literary equivalent of My Cousin Vinny," Tony Partly Cloudy is a fish-out-of-water comedic novel with a distinct Sopranos vibe to it. The guy's got a degree in meteorology. And he can predict the weather with a level of accuracy that's downright freakish. Still, Tony Bartolicotti - or, as his "connected" friends in Brooklyn call him, Tony Partly Cloudy - can't even get an audition to be a TV weatherman. The problem? He comes across like a Mafia goon: a hulking brute who dresses like a Blues Brother and freely uses "bada bing" as both a noun and an adverb. Not exactly the image most news stations are looking for. But all that changes when a distantly related mob boss steps in on Tony's behalf. Soon Tony's career starts to take off, as America falls in love with the only weather anchor on TV who would predict "a whole lotta freakin' snow." Then the mob decides to call in the favors they've done for Tony. That's when things get stormy...

And...that's all I've got for now! I hope you find some shopping joy here. As for me, I'm off to think about what to do about that rare holiday convergence - the one with the new name I refuse to use - so if you've got any shopping suggestions for me, feel free to leave them in the comments.

 Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of 32 books for adults, teens and children. Check out her website at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com or follow her on Twitter @LaurenBaratzL