Mystery Writers on Thin Ice

Mystery writers say that even a promising story is dead on arrival without a strong opening.

It might be a tray of brownies offered to a traumatized neighbor through a closed door, an elderly woman worrying that an intruder is breaking into her house, or a man announcing to his family that he is going to ask for the newly available shoes of a dead friend.

For Cheshire's Alan McWhirter, it's sharing a cab with a knockout blonde, who hands the cabbie a crisp fifty for a trip to Murphy's bar on a rainswept night in Waterbury.

McWhirter, Prospect native Ruth McCarty, Newington's Steve Liskow, and Boston-based writer/editor Leslie Wheeler offered their insights about the world of mystery writing at a panel discussion and book signing on Thursday March 3 at the Cheshire Public Library. New short stories by all four authors appear in Thin Ice: Crime Stories by New England Writers, the eighth crime fiction anthology published by Level Best Books.

The presentation was sponsored by the writers organization Sisters In Crime and moderated by Wheeler, whose novels have been set in fictionalized versions of Connecticut landmarks like Foxwoods and Mystic Seaport. Warding off the winter chill with a scarf resembling yellow "CRIME SCENE" tape, she agreed with Liskow’s premise that a mystery story starts with a problem that a reader wants to see solved.

“You’ve said the magic words – ‘what if,’” she said. “You can get a lot of mileage out of those two words.”

The writers discussed the advantages and problems of writing short stories, which are typically no more than 10,000 words long. Less time spent on revisions and better chances of the finished work seeing print in a difficult fiction marketplace are among the aspects the writers find appealing.

Liskow, a former English teacher and the author of Who Wrote the Book of Death, also offered that short stories are good vehicles for trying new writing techniques. Writers can experiment without investing heavily in the time it might take to write a full novel, only to find out that an experiment does not work. Unlike novels, which can involve many characters and plotlines, most short stories have few characters, take place over a short time span, and concentrate on a compact single plot. McCarty takes the miniaturization a step further by writing "flash fiction," a genre of short pieces limited to fewer than 1,000 words.

By profession, McWhirter is a criminal defense attorney who sets his stories in Waterbury, much as Robert B. Parker did in Boston with his popular Spenser For Hire detective novels. McWhirter’s years of experience working as an attorney aid his writing. Years of "prepping" witnesses for criminal trials has helped him whittle plotlines and dialogue to their essentials. He agreed with the other panelists that dialogue can communicate details better than writing long explanatory passages. "No matter what I did, it was too heavy," he explained. "With dialogue, I can slip in pieces of backstory. It's all there, but the reader isn't labored."

McCarty agreed. "Details are what really matter."

Mystery writing is a competitive publishing world, full of contests, prizes, organizations, listserves, and classes for both budding and practicing authors. The panelists agreed that it is also surprisingly collegial. McWhirter told of turning to fellow panelist Liskow for advice on one story. Each year the Mystery Writers of America sponsor the "New England Crime Bake," a conference in Dedham, Massachusetts. Past guests have included Charlaine Harris, whose mystery novel series inspired the HBO “True Blood” television series, Mystic River author Dennis Lehane, and batteries of forensic scientists and literary agents offering advice on everything from merchandising to blood spatter patterns.

Despite all of the advice now available to writers, however, Wheeler reminded the audience to seek encouragement only from knowledgeable and fair-minded sources.

"You need to find the right critic," she said "You need to be careful."

Here are links to the authors' works:

• Level Best Books

http://levelbestbooks.com/

• Leslie Wheeler

http://www.lesliewheeler.com/

• Ruth McCarty

http://www.ruthmmccarty.com/index.html

• Steve Liskow

http://www.steveliskow.com/

• Sisters In Crime

http://www.sistersincrime.org