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Comment from the book world in January 2024

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On literary snobbery

15 April 2024

‘I always quote Kurt Vonnegut. He said in the early part of his career he was dismissed as a science fiction writer and that critics tend to put genre books, including sci-fi, in the bottom drawer of their desk... It's true. I get the New York Times every Sunday. In 37 novels, I've never had a stand-alone review. I'm always in the crime round-up. But I don't really mind because on the back pages in the bestseller lists, I'm always very well represented. I've had editors and publicists say, "Sorry about the New York Times" but I've gotta be honest: I don't care...

The crime novel is just a framework to tell any story you want to tell and the reason you're in the bestseller list is the readers know that. There's aways the thing about, "When will the next Great American Novel be published?' Well, there won't be a next Great American Novel that does not have a crime in it" ...

I've sat next to people on planes reading my books and I learnt early on not to say anything. I once said to this lady, ‘How do you like that book?" and she said. "It's just something to pass the time." Now I keep my mouth shut.'

Michael Connelly, author of 40 novels, many featuring his character Harry Bosch, which have sold over 84 million copies worldwide, and also executive producer of the Bosch & Bosch: Legacy, Lincoln Lawyer and Ballard tv series, in The Times.

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'I recommend you know where you're going'

1 April 2024

'Some writers start with a sentence and have no idea where it's going. Others know every character's biography. I'm in between. I know the beginning and the end before I start. I recommend you know where you're going. You're a lot freer to twist and turn if you know your destination.

Always ask "What if?" What if you put spyware on your kid's computer, discover something and then your kid disappears? What if you saw your dead husband cuddling your child on your nannycam?'

Harlan Coben has over 80 million books in print. He has written 35 novels including Win, The Boy from the Woods, Tell No One and a young adult series, and is the creator and producer of several Netflix tv dramas and two French mini-series. This excerpt is from the Sunday Times' Culture.

https://www.harlancoben.com/

 

 

Children's creativity

18 March 2024

'The creative process is open to all. I don't believe in some magical creative gift, the exclusive possession of a few, nor need it concern big or sophisticated ideas. On the contrary, creativity may depend upon the recognition that our own thoughts and ideas are as valid as anyone else's; something which we knew as children, and which we were taught to unlearn. Our confidence in our ability to create is thus often undermined in our early lives, when we tend to believe what we are told...

If you teach children creatively in all subjects, instead of telling them that if they don't learn all those things then they have failed, then you nurture a delight, and a slightly more rambling, incidental learning...

When I go into schools, you can tell that inhibitions are just beginning at around seven. We start to edit ourselves. A lot of people say, 'Well, I'm not a creative person.' That's nonsense. We all are. Take the fact that you want to look at things and listen to things means you are a creative person. You can use those things to build a sort of inner store that you can use in your own creativity as well...

A book that gets backed is one that sells a lot. As publishers get bigger and more powerful, they become more like supermarkets, and are much more interested in a lot of books by one person. It totally makes sense. But the problem is that our children are all different, so they're not all going to like the same kind of book. Maybe they'd be brave enough to try something else if only they knew about it. Books are not only there to entertain - they're to help us feel understood, and to help us understand other people, and to stand in their shoes. You can do that very safely in a book...'

Lauren Child, prolific children's author and former UK Children's Laureate, and the author of 12 Charlie and Lola books, 6 Clarence Bean books, 6 Ruby Redfort books, 6 Hubert Horatio books and 10 other children's books, in Bookbrunch

Lauren Child's website https://milkmonitor.me/

 

Writing a book a year

4 March 2024

'You want to write the twist so that it doesn't suddenly come out of nowhere. I tried to see a few things so that (the reader) thinks, of course! But it is hard to get that balance I think, of trying to get a twist in that is unguessable but not too "out there". My editor doesn't know what the story is about, she knows roughly, but she doesn't know the twists, so it's good to have a fresh pair of eyes...

To be honest, I didn't even know what the term psychological thriller was, it was only what the publishers called it...

Writing in lockdown, 'So that was a bit of freedom in a way, I didn't have any expectations almost. Now there's a bit more pressure because you want to keep writing books that people are going to like. But I try not to think too much about it because otherwise I don't think I'd write anything!'

Claire Douglas, author of 8 books, including The Girls Who Disappeared (a Richard and Judy Book Club choice), The Couple at No 9 and The Wrong Sister (to be published in March) in The Boookseller

‘I didn't set out to write a novel about the future...'

12 February 2024

‘I didn't set out to write a novel about the future. Most of my novels have been set in the past, which for me is the space of the greatest mystery and enlightenment. The future, if I thought about it, seemed by contrast thin and predictable. We know that people will be hotter, more opinionated and less well-informed; but in 30 years' time, I thought, they're also likely to still be preoccupied by money, sex and how their football team is getting on.

So my new novel, The Seventh Son, didn't start out as "future-fi" or "near-fi", let alone as sci-fi. But the future crept up on me as I wrote, in terms intriguing, and sometimes more comic, than I'd imagined...

The challenges of this new book lay ultimately not in understanding "the science" or picturing what life will feel like 30 years from now, enjoyable though this was. The hardest thing was trying to imagine the inner life of a young man who is human, but in a different way from the rest of us...'

Sebastian Faulks, author of his new book The Seventh Sun, Birdsong, Charlotte Gray and 17 other novels and anthologies, in the Sunday Times

https://www.sebastianfaulks.com/

 

'Something that would be fun to write and make me smile while doing so'

29 January 2024

I've always read (and watched) classic and cosy murder mysteries, but I'd never written one before, being known primarily as a thriller author. But then Covid happened, and during the first lockdown in 2020 everything felt rather bleak and uncertain. I decided to cheer myself up by writing a modern cosy mystery, something that would be fun to write and make me smile while doing so...

As for a tip, the one I always recommend is to set yourself a daily word count quota - mine is 1,000 words - and hit it every day you're writing.

You can always write more, of course. But extra words don't count against tomorrow's quota; you have to hit it afresh every day. For example, just this morning I wrote 1,500 words, which is great. But tomorrow I'll write at least another 1,000.

While it sounds simple and obvious, it takes discipline to put this into practice day after day, month after month, year after year. But if you do the results can be extraordinary...'

Anthony Johnston, author of The Dogsitter Detective series, Atomic Blonde (a graphic novel), The Explosion Code and three other thrillers and The Organised Writer

https://antonyjohnston.com/

 

'My plan was always to write novels'

15 January 2024

‘I enjoyed being a journalist. It was fun and my press pass got me into police departments, which was invaluable as a crime writer. But my plan was always to write novels...

I'm way beyond just writing a good tight plot puzzle whodunnit. You've got to have something that makes you feel like there's a higher game to it. It almost feels like a duty, with this amazing life I've been given, not to mail it in.'

Michael Connelly, author of 38 novels, including The Black Echo and Resurrection Walk, which have sold 85 million copies worldwide, in The Times

https://www.michaelconnelly.com/

 

'Writing is sort of revenge for me'

1 January 2024

‘When the first books came out, I loved them. They were so different and they had Lisbeth Salander - a character that I, and a lot of women, could really relate to. I said yes straight away (to the offer), no hesitation. I appreciate that so many people are involved across the world and want to sell a lot of books. But it's still just a book...

The first three books were fantastic but with the others you started having the same plots, the same boring Lisbeth Salander in a way. She comes in, solves everything. Where's the vulnerability? How do I humanise her but still keep her a hero?

My take is not less violent than the others - maybe it's even more violent, because I use violence differently. I have the female eye on it. And writing is sort of revenge for me, to dig into what happens to people who are exposed to violence. I'm angry when it comes to men's violence against women, and I think you have to be a woman to really understand the depth of that anger.'

Karin Smirnoff, who has picked up the reins from Lagercrantz for the next Scandi-noir instalment of the era-defining Millennium series, The Girl in the Eagle's Talons in the Bookseller.