Paige Hawthorne: Blog

Most of you are readers … my specialty is mysteries. And I also like music.

So I combined the two, in a very small way. If I'm reading a book by an author I really like, I jot down the musical references in the novel. I've discovered a few artists and songs that I really dig that way. My thinking is, if I like the writing, I may like the music in the writing.

Jazz from Hieronymus Bosch. Cajun from Dave Robicheaux.

My second suggestion - - at no cost to you today only! - - is to consider signing up for your favorite authors' newsletters. Some of them are pretty interesting.

Finally, a speed-things-along idea. When I'm tap-tap-tapping away and I come to a specific word that doesn't feel right, I don't stop and fret. I simply underline it and return when I'm taking a break. Roget's Thesaurus is my friend, as is the Urban Dictionary.

Paige

An astute comment from a bartender at the original Strouds on 85th Street in Kansas City, MO. That old pan-fried chicken roadhouse with its sloping wooden floors and the old African-American gent pounding out stride piano is, alas, no longer with us.

The bartender was commenting on James Lee Burke's "Jolie Blon's Bounce." Well, actually he was referring to the Cajun protagonist, Dave Robicheaux.

I agreed, I liked Robicheaux better when he was even more flawed, deeply lost in the bottle.

As we talked, and I drank, I realized that the bartender's comment could also apply to Matt Scudder, created by Lawrence Block. Matt's a hardened, cynical New Yorker who used to fight off the drink demons himself.

I like a man with weaknesses.

Paige

That quote is from one of my favorite private dicks, Elvis Cole. It's from "Lullaby Town" by Robert Crais. At this point in the novel, Elvis has a mother crying in her bedroom, her son crying in his.

"You do what you can, but you can't do everything."

I guess that can apply to a lot of things. Like writing.

Paige

One of my favorite writers, Lee Child, said that in his Jack Reacher novels he has no idea what his characters will do, where they'll wander, where they'll end up.


For the start of one of his books, he wrote this sentence: "Moving a guy as big as Keever wasn't easy."


Andy Martin, who was observing Child's writing process at the time said this about the author, "When he sat down to write the first sentence, all he had in his head was a scene, a glimpse of a scene: a bunch of guys are burying someone, a big guy, using a backhoe (or JCB). He had no idea who they are, why they are doing this, or who the big guy is either, other than that his name is Keever."


Recently, I read an interview where Mr. Child said, "For me the end of a book is just as exciting as it is for a reader."


Of course when you have the talent that Mr. Child possesses, you can write any gosh darn way you want.


Damn it.


Paige.

One of my favorite writers, the late Robert B. Parker, from whose work I shamelessly crib, said that he wrote five pages a day. I don't have the discipline, nor the time, to write every day. And, once I start tapping keys, I don't have the self-control to stop at a specific spot.

Still, I found it interesting. Five pages isn't very much. A couple of months at that pace would result in a 300-page novel.

But I bet the relatively leisurely pace allowed him time to self-edit, to develop, to polish.

Hmm … mayhaps I should rethink my composition habits. Of course there's always that elusive talent thing.

Paige