Enough traveling! I just returned from Florida (think boiling water hot outside and meat locker cold in restaurants and stores). Time to get back to work, and what better spur than the dinner party for a room full of amazingly good and successful crime fiction writers that I attended the night before I left town?

There were best-selling authors there, and several who have multiple series they have labored over for decades, and a couple of newly published like myself, and more than one who had been languishing after brilliant starts but have recently been picked up by new editors.

The talk was as varied as the people, but all about their work in one way or another: the editor from hell, the book event that didn’t happen, the surprise bump in sales that put them in the top 50 on the NYTimes list, the need to travel to some delightful spot for research or a lament about their shortsightedness in choosing a protagonist who works only in seamy corners of dark cities….I listened and realized once again that the writer’s life is not the way it looks to outsiders. Every book is as hard to write as the one before it.  The uncertainties, the exposure to possible failure, the battering to one’s ego when the editor or the public doesn’t respond the way one would like, or the thrill when they do – it’s a bit of a roller coaster and disposes us to cling to each other at protected moments like this.

What hit me most clearly as I nibbled roasted veggies and chocolate-covered strawberries with my colleagues was the same thing that always warms my heart. It’s a tight community, and as far as I can tell every person in that room genuinely wished every other person success. People shared strategies, commiserated on lack of sales, and bolstered each others’ confidence all evening long.

The author blogs I’ve checked in on recently seem to be focused on topics like writer’s block, dead ends in their work, editing and rewriting problems, missed deadlines for new manuscripts, and so on. A lot of whimpering and gloom. I think I know what’s underneath it all: summertime.

Most of us have spouses, kids, grandkids, other family members, childhood friends, best fishing buddies…you name it. We’re geared toward summer as vacation time. That means the rigorous writing schedule that works most of the year comes under pressure from all sides to come out and play. And why not? It’s warm, festive, the days are long and the pied piper Fun calls to us to take advantage of this season. It WILL get cold and dark again, he says, whispering in our ear as we sit, stymied, in front of the computer screen.

I’ve been grumbling about my own lack of progress even as I enjoy trips to the beach and the city and museums in the company of people I relish. I read an interview with a romance writer the other day. She writes 5,000 words a day, publishes 4-5 books a year, and makes a pile of money (e-books are massively important to her success these days). She has a plan and, judging by her comments in the piece, sticks to it. Admirable. But I’ve decided to stop beating myself up. I have a plan and it’s to take things slower for the next month, listen to Fun, and stop beating myself up. Last summer, MURDER IN THE ABSTRACT debuted and I did author events for six weeks – a different kind of fun, one I wouldn’t have missed for anything. For the next couple of weeks, I will write when I can, make lots of notes when I think of plot or character points, and flip open the computer whenever I have an hour or two.

But no more self-flagellation. It’s summer, and Fun calls!

Okay, I confess. After writing blog posts this week for The LadyKillers, where I blog every Tuesday as part of a killer group of crime writers, and a guest post for Pens Fatales, another smashing group of women who write mysteries and thrillers and paranormals, I slipped. Forgot I had a post due on my own Friday blog. But it’s summer and so I’m substituting a photo from my recent vacation in Hanalei, Kauai. I hope it relaxes you as much as it does me to see one of the world’s most beautiful spots, replete with taro fields, decayed volcanic mountains, and the historic Hanalei River valley. Did you know that the highest mountain here is the wettest (measured) place on earth?

Enjoy!

Good news from Publishers Marketplace today: “Mystery and detective fiction became the top-selling genre in 2010, up from fifth place in 2009, according to Simba Information, which tracks the publishing industry.”

I have heard, however, that publishers are so scared of losing money in this crazy new world that they’re sticking with proven authors – writers whose series track records pretty much insure a waiting readership to buy their books. Newcomers have it harder. Remember the first job conundrum: You couldn’t get that first job in high school or college because you didn’t have experience, and you couldn’t get experience because you didn’t have that first job? Well, getting in the door at a traditional imprint is a bit like that these days.

I’ve been watching a couple of authors I know who are in their second, third, or fourth books, and I’m happy to say they are good at what they do, and have publishers that are sticking with them. Talent, a distinctive ‘hook’ in their work, and hard work paying off.

I have other friends who are fine writers but who can’t break into this market. (I’m somewhere in between, having done rather well with my debut novel, but being unable to show a longer or bigger history of sales yet.) Some are considering self publishing for e-book readers, most likely on Smashwords, an innovative new company and concept. But new technology attracts spammers and crooks like honey does flies, and there are some nasty people out there taking advantage of ‘free’ content and the lack of gatekeepers to put out fake or pirated books cheap, collect credit card payments, and vanish into the internet mists. Anyone scammed that way is likely to be shy about doing it a second time. what will that do to the e-book ‘revolution’ in the short term?

The good news is there are plenty of crime fiction readers waiting for new content. Readers, keep reading, keep looking for/asking for new authors to investigate. My hope is the publishers will feel the demand and open the gates a bit more, and that the e-book market will mature quickly so we can all enhance our reading options.