Criminal Intent in Culver City

Last weekend I attended the California Crime Writers Conference, a biennial event put on by Sisters in Crime Los Angeles and the SoCal Mystery Writers of America. (See here for my blog about the 2013 CCWC in Pasadena.)

Pinch Me, Am I Dreaming?

Today—after years of writing; rewriting and revising; querying literary agents; and then more revising once I found the agent of my dreams—I signed a publishing contract. It’s a two-book deal with Crooked Lane Books, a brand new crime fiction imprint out of New York City.

Yes, I am thrilled to death—an apt euphemism for a mystery writer, no? But I’m still having a hard time believing it’s all real.

Crooked Lane Books was started last year with former Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press editor Matthew Martz as editorial director and former St. Martin’s publisher-at-large Dan Weiss as chief publishing consultant. Nike Power, who has interned at St. Martin’s, as well as Knopf/Doubleday and Lippincott Massie McQuilkin, is my new editor at CLB.

As noted on their website, Crooked Lane Books is

a crime fiction imprint that publishes today’s most gripping mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels. From high-concept thrillers and white-knuckled suspense to traditional mysteries and literary crime, our titles consistently deliver driving plots, engaging characters, and stunning twists from the most talented authors on the scene.

Their initial list of titles will be released starting this coming August, and my book, Dying For a Taste (previously known as A Matter of Taste), the first of my Five Senses mystery series, is set to be published in the spring of 2016 and its sequel the following year.

I’ve already been working with my new editor (!), Nike, and I think we are going to get along swimmingly as a team. Her ideas for tweaks/additions/revisions have been terrific and she is wonderfully enthusiastic about my manuscript.

So here’s a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me reach this point, especially to my agent at Folio Literary, Erin Niumata, who truly believed in me and got me the deal!

Check here for updates as I navigate my way through the revisions, design, printing, and publishing of my very first novel!

An American Composer and English Tea Sandwiches

Robin and I have now returned to California, and one of the reasons we left Hawai‘i earlier than usual was so I could participate in a very exciting musical event: The preeminent American choral composer Morten Lauridesen would be composer-in-residence for a week in mid-February at Cabrillo College. 

During this time he’d attend music classes and chorus rehearsals and do a Q&A session, with the week culminating in a concert of his music under the baton of the talented and tireless Cheryl Anderson.

Dr. Lauridsen at our rehearsal

(with Cheryl at left)

Letters to Santa From the Keiki of Hilo

Yes, it’s that time of year again—letters from the children of Hilo, Hawai‘i to Santa Claus. These are from the annual “Holiday Aloha” special insert to the Hawai‘i Tribune Herald (whose editor-in-chief, by the way, is the son of Santa Cruz dentist, Paul Bock). Here are some of my favorites from this year’s edition (they all start out “Dear Santa,” so I’ve omitted the salutations):

What I would like for Christmas is some money. It doesn’t matter how much you are giving me but it has to be above $5 and I also want a new video game.

Your friend, 

Kupono, Age 12

I wanted to ask you how Rudolph is because I heard that right before Christmas he was sad. My mom wants a new living room floor so we can have peace and relax. We just finished the hallway and dining room floor. Please help us Santa. May I also have a deck of Pokemon cards because I love to collect them? Thank you for your support,

Sincerely,

Daycen, Age 9

Mario’s Linguine With Clam Sauce

Time for another recipe from my protagonist Sally Solari’s family. Up today is her dad Mario's famous linguine with clam sauce. 

The flat shape of linguine (“little tongues,” in Italian) provides the perfect vehicle to soak up this luscious sauce. Served with a tossed green salad and crunchy francese bread, the dish makes for a surprisingly easy meal. All you need is clams, clam juice, white wine, garlic (certo!), olive oil, butter, flat leaf (aka Italian) parsley, and of course linguine. Chili pepper flakes are optional. (The amounts specified below should serve four hungry people.)

Nonna’s Sunday Gravy

The trend these days is for mystery novels—particularly if they involve food—to have recipes printed at the end. I’ve therefore been pondering over the past few weeks what dishes from my manuscript, A Matter of Taste, would be good to include as recipes in the published book.

One of the obvious choices is Nonna’s Sunday Gravy, which the Italian grandmother of my protagonist, Sally, cooks up every week for a family dinner. This hearty, tomato-based stew is called “gravy” by many Italian-American families, as it’s traditionally eaten as two separate courses. The sauce (i.e., “gravy”) is served over pasta as the primo, or first course:

my gravy, over penne and rigatoni

Does This Make Me an “Author”?

To celebrate having acquired representation for my mystery novel, A Matter of Taste, Robin and I went to dinner a few weeks ago at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Avanti. Over an apéritif of sparking rosé, Robin confessed something to me:

“I know I’m the one who’s been telling you all along to skip the whole agent thing and just self-publish,” she said. “But now that you’ve gotten one, I’ve gotta say it does change how I think about you and your book. All of a sudden it’s like you’re a ‘real author’ now.”

real authors on my bookshelf

This had been an point of contention between us. When I’d bemoan the frustration and disappointment that went along with the search for a literary agent, Robin would ask why I even needed one, when I could simply publish the book on my own and omit the middleman altogether.