by Anora McGaha, @anorawrites
Mysteries scare me.
As a girl, I started with Nancy Drew. Loved her curiosity. Her intelligence. Her courage.
But I would get scared and have to close the book. Wait until another time.
Read in the living room when others were around.
Couldn’t stay away long though. Always wanted to know what happened next.
Balancing fear and curiosity. Curiosity and fear.
Before grade school was done, I put mysteries aside. For decades. Just didn’t need to risk the tension of fear.
Then my aunt wrote a mystery. Her first book. And another, and another. She found what she called a “sleezy” publisher who paid mere pennies a sale, but it was a start. The Trouble With… series was launched.
A novelist in my own family. Leading the way. I had to pick up a copy and risk the fear.
Murder always gave me the creeps. It’s horrific. In the news every day. Why would anyone want to take it on for leisure?
C. Crespi, as she called herself at the time, wrote light mysteries. She named her characters after her pets. She drew from experiences in the big Apple. Wove her sweetheart into the tales.
They were filled with fascinating details about life in the city, a quirky detective, with an international background like her own. Yes there was always a murder, but most of them weren’t scary. The stories were delightful.
Getting an agent was awful though. So many unanswered letters and emails.
Disappointments. Until the one acceptance that made it all worthwhile.
I was grateful to hear the reality of being a writer. Not sure I’d have the stomach for it.
Camilla broke into the big time – selling a few books to a major publisher, Harper Collins. Hardbacks. Book tours. Publicist. The works.
I was so proud. Excited too because she was paving the way for my own writing. Not by opening doors, but by doing it, simply showing it could be done.
Her writing stepped up. She wrote a psychological thriller. The Price of Silence was literary fiction. A gripping story. Stirring. Questions that beg an answer from the first page. Catch a reader by the first paragraph and keep us wanting answers until the end, and, beyond.
Having an agent for one book doesn’t mean an agent for every book. The agony of the search. Finally one. A sale to Soho Press. Now publishing under her own name, Camilla Trinchieri.
Then presto. Price sold across the ocean. In Italy, where her father, my grandfather was from. Where she had lived for years, and I too, for a few.
Il prezzo del silenzio. A direct translation of her title. Marcos and Marcos press.
Completely different cover. Picking up on the Chinese thread. A launch in Rome, Florence. Sardinia. Radio interviews. Magazine interviews.
An American. A New Yorker. Translated into Italian. Fluent in Italian, half Italian really. Welcomed. Celebrated. A prodigal daughter.
I had just discovered the power of blogging in 2008. Excited about what was possible, I launched a publicity blog for her.
She wasn’t into blogging. She stays focused on writing books. (A good focus for a writer, one I should take a lesson from.) But I scoured the Internet for everything I could find about her American edition, and then scoured the Italian Internet for everything in Italian about her. Google.it shows different results than Google.com.
Hours and hours of wonderful work, researching every result of thousands month after month. Discovering all kinds of reviews and comments. Discovering that her books were sold online in dozens of countries around the world. South Africa. India. England. Australia. Germany. France.
After adding a Feedjit widget on the sidebar, we could see that visitors were landing on the blog from all over the world. Whether or not any books were sold, people were visiting, and the posts were a wonderful public record of all her events and all the reviews she’d received.
Mysteries are still not my cup of tea. Too scary, still. But I know this much. Every book could take a lesson from the genre. Hook your reader with intrigue from the start, tantalize with unanswered questions, leave subtle clues that sneak up and surprise us, and leave us dying to know more.
Anora McGaha is a poet, non-fiction writer, author of Social Media for Business and personal essays in three anthologies. She is the editor of Women Writers, Women Books at www.booksbywomen.org. @anorawrites is her writing handle on Twitter, and @womenwriters is the handle for her online literary magazine for women writers.
Thank you so much for inviting a guest post Elizabeth. So many stories would never come out if not for kind invitations like yours. And every new invitation inspires a fresh angle and synthesis on things.
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Anora.
Anora – Thanks for sharing your journey and Camilla’s. Using social media as you did is such a powerful way to connect people, and it’s exciting to hear the way it worked in this case.
Hi Elizabeth and Anora .. what an intersting blog post – and Anora how enterprising of you .. sounds fascinating and as you say we can look at things from a new angle ..
Great guest blogger – cheers Hilary
Thanks so much for coming by today, Anora! It’s a pleasure to have you here. Blogging *is* powerful, isn’t it? And what an amazing time that we live in that we can affect and connect with readers all over the world.
And I totally agree with you about mysteries–there are so many elements to the books that work well with any genre!
Hilary, Margot and Stephen, thank you so much for reading it and sharing your response. I really appreciate it. I see Elizabeth’s guests get their twitter handles posted prominently, now I’m looking for each of yours. #metElizabethonTwitter
Its great to meet Anora, a most interesting person with an interesting journey.
Hi Anora .. don’t get excited about finding mine – I’m there .. but don’t use it!! One less to worry about ..
Have a great weekend though .. cheers Hilary
Hilary – (What you don’t use Twitter? That’s where I met Elizabeth!)
Cold as Heaven – Hardy Boys. I remember those too. Neat that your grandmother and father were/are poets, and your father wrote a memoir. (If your grandmother your father’s mother?)
Go for it on being the first to publish. Wish book selling happened as easily as lottery ticket sales. But however they sell, it’s a writer’s work to put their writing into a book for posterity, (and it looks so nice at readings!).
Thanks for taking a moment to comment.
Thanks Alison. Delighted to hear you read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys from across the Atlantic. A sack full of Agatha Christie? What fun. And congratulations on your new book, Media Ready, Media Savvy. It’s been an honor to be associated with it. Can’t wait until you have your first novel published next.
I guess the girls started with Nancy Drew. I started with the Hardy Boys.
I’ve got some artists in the family too. My grandmother was a poet, my father is a poet and memoir writer and Christmas-song writer. None of them published though. I can still be the first >:)
Cold As Heaven
What a wonderful post! I also grew up reading Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and of course, Agatha Christie. I remember one Christmas in my teens getting a sack full of used Agatha Christie novels, one of my favorite gifts! Thank you for sharing Anora, I love to hear stories about your life, it’s so interesting! Please keep writing.
Your post made me smile Anora! Because I LOVE mysteries – and solving them – as you know.
As a matter of fact I’ve developed a sudden obsession to the Michael Connelly detective stories. I find the way he lays out the plot and develops character – is like a pencil sharpener for my mind.
I’m planning to go into it more on blog talk radio.
Anyway, the beauty of mystery stories is usually how they get solved in the end – unlike much of life!
She may not like mysteries, but sounds like it will forever be a part of her!
Interesting – this distinction between story and reality. I love a good murder mystery, can cope with the blood and gore when it’s limited to the page.
But could never write it myself – the son of a friend was murdered, and trying to recapture those terrible days for the sake of a story is just too painful.
So – I’m inconsistent. And that’s fine!
Social media is incredible when you have someone who knows how to do it right! Always love to hear a success story, gives me hope. Thanks!
I agree, social media is a great way to get your novel out to readers. However, there are some skills involved in managing social media that I need to learn and practice.
Heya Elizabeth and Anora. Interesting take on ye olde writing world. I was a Nancy Drew-ite as well. I still have a tub of all the books.
What are comments worth? I’d put likes on FB at about a dime. We’d easily lend a person a dime if they needed it. But comments? Those take time and effort. I’d put their value up in the price of a fancy coffee range. Thank you each for writing. You honor me and help me repay Elizabeth for sharing her forum!
@NancyWait – Thanks for reading. Your memoir knows what I’m discovering, that writing mystery into every story makes it more intriguing. Nancy has recently published her memoir, The Nancy who Drew. Neat comment about the Connelly detective stories being pencil sharpeners for your mind. I want to catch more of your Blog Talk Radio show.
Alex J. – You’re right about that! Thanks for reading.
Jo – Thank you for weighing in, sharing the stark contrast of murder in books and in life. Love your affirmation of inconsistency. Consistency is over-rated in my book.
Emily – Social media is so valuable for exposure and research, networking and building important life friendships among peers. I’m still, maybe always will be, trying to uncode the mystery of what motivates a person to buy a book.
Nancy – skills, knowledge, tips, tools… and it’s always changing online, too fast in my opinion. Elizabeth’s resources posted through her Twitter feed are wonderful to have. (I also teach and train on this.)
Leslie – thank you for commenting. Fun to see you coin “Nancy Drew-ite”. The sound of it made me think of luddites. I saw a bunch of her books in a store recently and a whole swarm of memories rose up. Would love to see a picture of your tub of books. Are you on Twitter? If so, maybe you’d tweet a pic.
I’m @anorawrites and editor on @womenwriters I’d be happy to follow the women on @womenwriters, and everyone on @anorawrites.