The weekend of August 10-12 I’ll be at the Deadly Ink mystery conference in New Jersey. I’m delighted, and excited, to be this year’s Guest of Honor.
I’ll be speaking on several panels, talking about thriller writing, and generally hanging out with folks who adore crime novels as much as I do. And I’ll be crossing my fingers for UNSUB, which is nominated for Deadly Ink’s David Award along with a host of wonderful novels.
I hope I’ll see some of you there.
I’m pretty excited — okay, very excited — to be included in the New York Times Book Review and Book Podcast this week. When I was in NYC for Thrillerfest, I was interviewed by Tina Jordan about writing thrillers. It’s a joy to be included in the podcast with Lee Child, Megan Abbott, Lisa Gardner, and Lisa Scottoline. Check it out:
Making a Killing: Top Thriller Writers Talk about Their Craft
And this weekend’s NYT Book Review includes Into the Black Nowhere in “It’s Thriller Time / Lights Out!”
The Times says: “We’re hereby calling the next title trend: thrillers that stoke our fear of the dark with titles that play on words like ‘black’ or ‘night.'”
Yeah, pretty excited.
Posted in Books, Into the Black Nowhere, Writing
Tagged Creative Writing, Into the Black Nowhere, Thrillers, Writing
Once, at a book event, a man asked me how long a novel takes to write.
I told him that for most of my career I’ve written one novel a year.
He stepped back like I’d hit him in the forehead with a spitball. “No way. A book every year? That’s impossible.”
I assured him it was extremely possible. “Deadlines are fantastically motivating.”
He frowned and shook his head. “You can’t write to a schedule.”
“Professional writers do it all the time.”
His expression shifted toward disdain. “But you can’t schedule inspiration.”
As I started to reply, he went on. Writing regularly? Ridiculous. “That’s not how inspiration works,” he said. The idea that I would deliberately sit down to write, when inspiration hadn’t driven me to the keyboard… His lips pursed.
I realized: He thinks I’m a hack.
He thought that to have imaginative value, every word an author writes must originate in an ineffable bolt of creative lightning. Unplanned. Uncontrollable. That crafting a piece of writing renders it crass and somehow inauthentic. He was a businessman, not a novelist; he admitted that the writing process was entirely foreign to him. But no matter how I explained it, he couldn’t abandon the idea that I was doing writing wrong.
I’d been invited to this event to give a speech. I’d been flown across half a continent, actually, to tell an audience of 500 people how I came to be an author with more than a dozen published novels to my credit. By pure coincidence my talk, which I gave shortly after this conversation, discussed the interplay between inspiration and craft. Inspiration is wonderful, I said. But when you’re in the trenches writing a novel, constant inspiration is neither necessary nor sufficient. Grab it when it strikes. But when it doesn’t? That’s when experience, and discipline, and a knowledge of dramatic structure, along with an understanding of plot and character and suspense — in other words, craft — will carry you across the finish line. Then you can recharge. And revise.
Inspiration, I said, looks a lot like work.
I don’t know if the man who challenged me heard the speech. Our conversation had wrapped up when he commented that he guessed publishing is a business, so he supposed that writers need to supply it with material. Then he shrugged.
“What do I know about it? I don’t read.”
Yesterday I did an Ask Me Anything event at AMAfeed.com. I answered questions about writing, writer’s block, story structure, characters, research, talent, and the worst review I ever received. Head on over and check it out.
Meg Gardiner — award winning thriller writer. Ask me anything!
Monday, May 21, I’ll be hosting an AMA event on AMAfeed.com. That means you can head over and ask me anything. You can even ask your question right now. When the event goes live, I’ll reply.
Meg Gardiner — Ask Me Anything
May 21, 2018
2 P.M. Eastern
Check it out!
In the next few months I have a number of events — a mix of talks, book signings, workshops, seminars, and conferences. Check ’em out.
David Ricciardi in conversation with Meg Gardiner
April 20, 2018
6:30 p.m.
Murder by the Book
2342 Bissonnet
Houston, Texas
Books on the Lake
In support of the Grosse Pointe Library Foundation
May 5, 2018
Noon – 3 PM
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Texas Writes at the Bonham, Texas, Public Library
May 19, 2018
10 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Writing seminar and panel discussion with Meg Gardiner and David Eric Tomlinson. Free and open to the public.
Thrillerfest
July 10-14, 2018
Grand Hyatt, New York City
I’ll be teaching at Master Craftfest and Craftfest, and speaking at Thrillerfest.
Bouchercon
September 6-9, 2018
St. Petersburg, Florida
I hope I’ll have a chance to see some of you along the way!
As part of the launch of Into the Black Nowhere, I did a bunch of talking. To readers, radio hosts, and magazines. Here’s a roundup. Just in case you want to know more about the novel, or my writing process, or which tunes I listen to when I write. Bonus: click through to enough articles, and you’ll see what I look like when I go axe throwing.
Meg Gardiner’s Dark Past — Texas Monthly
How Author Meg Gardiner Gets Into the Mind of a Killer — Austin Monthly
The Quintessential Interview: Meg Gardiner — Seattle Review of Books
Tracking the Darkness — The Big Thrill
Posted in Into the Black Nowhere, Writing
Out now
