The Sisters in Crime Newsletter Volume XX • Number 4 December 2007 Bring on the Buffalo by Kate White Eye
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InSinC The Sisters in Crime Newsletter Volume XX • Number 4 December 2007 Bring on the Buffalo By Kate White eye. Once I was out of college and working in in Cosmo History: You’ll Want to Bitch Slap Some things just seem to go together natu- New York City as an editorial assistant, I found These Jerks.” rally: good books and rainy afternoons; popcorn a short item in Esquire magazine titled “The The mantra has been a godsend for my writ- and movies; cold steak in a salad with a tart Ten Best Mysteries Ever Written.” It listed books ing too. I have a tendency to hold back with vinaigrette (that’s an old Rex Stout recipe, by like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and The my writing, be a little tentative about going big the way). Franchise Affair. Inspired, I read them all in a and bold (I doubt I’m the only one) and this And then there are the combos that fall month and became hooked. Not only was I a mantra always encourages me to ask myself: Is completely flator seem to make no sense what- mystery junkie, though. I decided that some day this first sentence or chapter ending or charac- soever — like the two things I do for a living: I would have to write my own. ter as exciting or scintillating or compelling as run Cosmopolitan magazine and write murder When I was the editor of Redbook and my possible? Lately I’ve become addicted to the mysteries. On weekdays I stay busy composing kids were sleeping a little later on weekend morn- Inspector Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd. cover lines like “Mat- ings, I finally decided to try my hand at it. I had It’s set in the period right after World War I. tress Moves So Hot completed four chapters of If Looks Could Kill, Nothing so special about a period mystery. But His Thighs Will Burst about a dead nanny and a crime writer named this Scotland Yard detective is haunted by the Into Flames” or host- Bailey Weggins, when I was called in on a Sun- ghost of someone he executed during the war. ing dinners for the day and told I was the next editor of Cosmo. As That’s going big. cast of Grey’s Anatomy. thrilling as that was, a little part of me groaned: The Best Ideas Often Come from the Out- On weekends I re- with such a monumental job, there’d be no time side In: I think many of us have a romantic search subjects like for finishing my mystery. I had no choice but to notion of a writer’s life: It means be tucked away how you can burn stuff the chapters in a drawer. in a snug, comfy home office, sipping coffee, lis- a corpse in a bath- But a funny thing happened. About six tening to classical music, and not venturing out tub without setting months later, over the Christmas holidays, I into the world unless absolutely necessary. After the entire house on pulled out the four chapters just to reread them, all, that’s the kind of nurturing environment that fire or how to poison and I was startled by a particular passage I’d encourages ideas to burst forth. someone with the root composed. When Bailey Weggins discovers the I don’t have much of that in my life. As the Kate White of a foxglove flower. body of the nanny, the girl is lying on a copy of editor of Cosmo I’m so often in cars and trains I’ve been at this crazy Cosmopolitan. I had no recollection of having and planes, at meetings, conferences, galleries combo for the past nine years. added the Cosmo reference. I took it as a sign I and fashion shows. And interestingly, what I’ve When people discover I do both, they tend had to write the book while I was at Cosmo. learned is that the best ideas — for both my to pepper me with a bunch of comments and Since If Looks Could Kill, I’ve written five more job and my fiction — often arrive when I’m in questions — such as “Really? “Why in the world Bailey Weggins. Here are a few of the lessons my those places, not on the limited occasions I’m would you do that?” and “How in god’s name Cosmo job has taught me along the way. ensconced in my home office with a legal pad do you find thetime ?” Go Big or Go Home: I overheard one of my and number two pencil. My ideas are sparked I don’t blame them for being baffled. There young staffers use this expression one day several by things going on around me. are moments when it seems insane to me, too, years ago and when I asked her what it meant, A fashion editor once put it very poetically to and I wonder if I might just have to chuck one she explained that it was the mantra of a party me. I asked her how she chose her career, half of the two (since the Cosmo job pays a lot bet- animal friend of hers. The idea is that if you’re expecting her to say she’d always loved clothes, ter, it probably would have to be the mystery going out at night and expend a certain amount etc. But she told me she hadn’t known what writing). But I love doing both. And here’s the of time in trying to have a good time, you ought she wanted to do after college and followed a funny thing: Not only do I pick up great ideas to expend the energy as well — to guarantee just boyfriend to Africa. While they were traveling for my books on the job, but being the editor how good the evening will be. by bus through Egypt they spotted a European in chief of Cosmo has taught me a ton about I fell in love with that phrase and thought it magazine conducting a fashion shoot. Watching writing books. would be a great mantra for me at Cosmo. We’re the editors work, she decided that’s what she Just a little background. I never planned to a bold, gutsy magazine and though my instinct wanted to do. “I guess there’s a moral to that make my life this nutty. It just kind of evolved on the job is to go for the burn, sometimes it story,” she told me. “Sometimes you have to be in a freaky way. Like many people I grew up with pays to remind myself of the necessity of doing on a bus to Cairo to figure out what you want.” a couple of passions. I had this fantasy about that. Case in point: once when my executive Buy a bus ticket, get out, experience the new becoming the editor of a magazine — I put out editor and I were crafting cover lines, we came and the different. my own corny little neighborhood and school up with the following: ‘Heinous Breakups: You’ll Just Do It: When I first started dabbling in magazines — but I also had a secret fascination Want to Slap These Jerks.” Not too bad. But fiction years ago, I was cursed with frequent with the macabre and use to walk around my then I considered my mantra and we kept push- writer’s block. Not any more. Because at Cosmo hometown at 13 in a trench coat with a fake ing. We ended up with one of my favorite cover revolver in my pocket, pretending to be a private lines of all time: “The Most Heinous Breakups Continued on Page 3 Get a Clue Sisters in Crime Newsletter Purpose: The purpose of Sisters in Crime shall be to: combat dis- crimination against women in the mystery field, educate publishers Bring on the Buffalo… . 1 and the general public as to the inequities in the treatment of female authors, raise the level of awareness of their contributions to the field, and promote the professional advancement of women who President’s Message . 3 write mysteries. 2007 Membership Directory . 3 Roberta Isleib, President Jim Huang, Bookstore Liaison Judy Clemens, Vice President Mary Boone, Library Liaison Marcia Talley, Secretary Margaret Coel, At Large Time to Renew . 3 Kathryn R. Wall, Treasurer Nancy Martin, At Large Donna Andrews, Chapter Liaison Mary Saums, Monitoring Liaison Crossword Puzzle . 4 Bonnie J. Cardone, InSinC Editor Vicki Cameron, Books in Print Editor Gavin Faulkner, Newsletter Graphic Designer Peggy Moody, Web Maven SinC Publishers’ Summit . 5 Beth Wasson, Executive Secretary; P.O. Box 442124; Lawrence KS 66044-8933; Phone: (785) 842-1325; Fax: (785) 856-6314; E-mail: <[email protected]> Presidents of Sisters in Crime To Shoot or Not to Shoot . 6 1987–88 Sara Paretsky; 1988 –89 Nancy Pickard; 1989–90 Margaret Maron; 1990–91 Susan Dunlap; 1991–92 Carolyn G. Hart; 1992–93 P.M. Carlson; 1993–94 Linda Grant; Swim with the Guppies . 6 1994–95 Barbara D’Amato; 1995–96 Elaine Raco Chase; 1996–97 Annette Meyers; 1997–98 Sue Henry; 1998–99 Medora Sale; 1999–2000 Barbara Burnett Smith; 2000–2001 Claire Carmichael McNab; 2001–2002 Eve K. Sandstrom; 2002–2003 Kate Chapter News . 6 Flora; 2003–2004 Kate Grilley; 2004–2005 Patricia Sprinkle; 2005–2006 Libby Hellmann; 2006–2007 Rochelle Krich; 2007–2008 Roberta Isleib. BIP . 7 DEADLINES AND GUIDELINES Crossword Solution . 7 The next InSinC Newsletter will be out in Send columns, articles, ideas and praise via e- March.