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Mystery Editor at Romantic Times |
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| Romancing the Mystery: An Interview with Laurie Davie, Mystery Editor at Romantic Times By Susan McBride There’s something very intriguing going on these days at Romantic Times, a monthly magazine widely read and respected for its coverage of the romance market. Last year, the publication began covering mystery and suspense. You heard right. Not just romantic suspense either, but the whole spectrum of the genre: historical mysteries, cozies, private eyes, police procedurals, series and stand-alones, male and female authors, and more. Yep, it’s all in there. Romantic Times has even added the mystery category to their annual Reviewers’ Choice Awards with nominees selected by staff reviewers and editors. Most, if not all, of the authors and titles picked will be highly familiar to fans of whodunits. For example, the Best Contemporary Mystery category features this year’s Edgar Award winner for Best Novel, Jan Burke, not to mention perennial favorites, Janet Evanovich, Faye Kellerman and Dana Stabenow. Maybe romance and mystery don’t make such strange bedfellows after all. Still, I was curious about the reasoning behind the magazine’s decision to cover books with murder at heart, and I went after RT’s mystery editor, Laurie Davie, for some answers. SUSAN McBRIDE - When and how did the decision come up to add mystery books and authors to the magazine’s content? LAURIE DAVIE - Just before Romantic Times Magazine hired me, they’d done a poll asking what sorts of books (besides romances) readers would most like to see included in the reviews. To no one’s surprise, it was mysteries. I think that romance and mystery are similar in some ways - both very character-driven, plot-driven reads that reflect real fears, goals, desires as well as changes in society. How did a girl from Houston, Texas end up in New York City as mystery editor of Romantic Times magazine? Mysteries are a life-long obsession. But first, in terms of writing and editing, I was a poet, then an academic - I got an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Literature at the University of Virginia. I was working on my PhD when it occurred to me that the stuff I liked to read wasn’t literary criticism, it was novels (and poetry, of course). And what I was writing was essentially only being read by other academics - preaching to the choir, so to speak. So I moved to New York City to work in publishing. Working with a popular mass market genre - mysteries - was always my goal. I worked in a variety of publishing positions, learning the business: assistant editor and manuscript evaluator at W.W. Norton, reviewing books (usually mysteries, but some nonfiction as well) for Publisher’s Weekly, working for an agent who has many mystery authors in her list. Then, getting more hands on, I managed the mystery bookstores Whodunnit? and Murder Ink. Let me stress that I had no particular plan here, except doing interesting work, paying the rent in this fabulous city of New York, and hopefully working with books I liked. I was actually interviewing for a freelance job with RT when they told me they’d like to start a mystery section in the magazine. This was after polling their readers and finding that mystery was their second-favorite genre. I told them about my background, and Carol Stacy [the publisher] told me that Kathryn Falk [the CEO] had always been lucky in finding the people she needed exactly when she needed them. I signed on full-time to create the mystery section and I couldn’t be working with a nicer bunch of people. Are you a big mystery fan? Oh, yes. I like so many great authors that I’m hesitant to name anyone, because I’ll leave someone out. That said, my tastes run the gamut from traditional cozies - Dorothy L. Sayers of course, but especially those with dogs in them, such as the work of Laurien Berenson, Susan Conant, and Carol Lea Benjamin - to extremely hard-boiled: Hammett, Chandler, Dennis Lehane, Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder series, John Sanford’s "Prey" books, Andrew Vachss’ dark tales of vengeance on child abusers. Also, historicals: Margaret Lawrence’s brutal and lyrical stories set in post-revolutionary 18th century Maine, Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series, Bruce Alexander’s 18th century London. And all the amazing authors in the middle, not cozy or hard-boiled but simply fantastic -Thomas Perry, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, Donald Westlake, Laura Lippman, Janet Evanovich and many, many others - too plentiful to name. How many mystery reviews are included in each issue of Romantic Times? Are all genres fair game? Are there books the mystery staff won’t review? We review between 25-35 mysteries a month, more or less. It depends on how many pages we have for mysteries that month, which is partially dependent on advertising and how many pages are taken up in the issue (please tell me that no one is shocked by this!), and what comes in on time to review. All genres of mystery are fair game. However, since the majority of our readers are women - and women who read romance as well - they have to appeal to that audience. So generally, we really like female sleuths and dislike anything that’s hideously violent. Some writers that I like - Andrew Vachss, for instance - are considered too violent to review in the magazine. But still, we review (and our readers enjoy, as they’ve told us in letters and emails) all sorts of mysteries, from cozies to hard-boiled. They don’t have to have a romantic subplot, though some readers - not all, by any means - prefer that. Tell us about the Reviewers’ Choice Awards for mysteries and how these are selected. Basically, reviewers Toby Bromberg, Jill M. Smith and Melinda Helfer, CEO Kathryn Falk and I contributed names for the awards, then thrashed it out. We’ve always had awards for suspense and romantic suspense, but this is the first year that we’ve had a whole roster of mystery awards, and I’m so glad to be acknowledging these writers’ excellence. At the RT Booklovers Convention in Houston this November, there will be a mystery program with panels. Can you describe what your plans are? Can you name some of the mystery writers who’ve signed up? Will Sue Grafton be there? There’s a complete listing of panels and workshops in the July issue of Romantic Times, and we’ll do more in-depth descriptions of individual workshops in coming issues. Sue Grafton is definitely coming. I’m totally thrilled because I’m a huge fan. And Sue has been wonderful and generous with her time. Not only is she giving the keynote talk at Friday’s luncheon, but she’s also taking part in a panel: "Series Characters: Keeping Them Fresh and Alive," something she certainly knows at this point since she’s on her 15th best-selling Kinsey Milhone mystery, O IS FOR OUTLAW. She’ll be joined on the panel by Jan Burke, who just won the Edgar Award for Best Novel for BONES (her latest Irene Kelly mystery), and by Bill Crider, whose Sheriff Dan Rhodes series is a favorite of both Sue and Jan. The wonderful Gayle Lynds - who I think is redefining the espionage novel - will be joined by Tess Gerritsen and others for a panel on "Romancing the Thriller." We’ve also got a bunch of innovative writers - Laurien Berenson, Carole Nelson Douglas, Evan Marshall, and Rosemary Edghill among them - who’ll be talking about "Creating Unconventional Amateur Sleuths," and some of today’s best historical mystery writers - Sharan Newman, Miriam Grace Monfredo, Dianne Day and others - telling us how to research and write this popular subgenre. And of course, there will be a fantastic group of writers - including Karen Robards, Rosemary Stevens, and CJ Songer - on a panel called "Blending Mystery and Romance," plus a two-hour seminar on Saturday on writing romantic suspense. Donna Andrews, Chassie West, Katherine Neville, Nancy Bartholomew, L.C. Hayden, Chloe Green, Kathleen Kaska and Mimi Latt have signed up as well, and the list keeps growing. What are your hopes in terms of perception of Romantic Times magazine and its web site by the mystery community? What would you like mystery fans and authors to know about where RT is going with its mystery coverage? I would say to authors, if you have a mystery you think will appeal to a female audience of 50,000 readers, send it to us. I hope that authors will count on us to give fair reviews; and readers, to give accurate ones. Of course, I would like to make the mystery section bigger. I certainly want to review the most mysteries that we can and sometimes, unfortunately, that means the reviews have to be pretty short. Still, I hope that readers can tell from them whether or not it’s their kind of book. And I also hope readers will find lots of new mystery authors whom they’ll grow to love in our pages. What’s the best way to contact you with questions about submitting a book for review or attending the convention? Just email me at ldavie@romantictimes.com and I’ll try to answer all questions as quickly as possible. Authors should also know that the issue is produced about two months ahead of the issue date, so we need books to review - in any readable form, ARCs, galleys, even manuscripts - about that far in advance of their release date. As far as the convention, there’s a lot of material on the web site at http://www.romantictimes.com but I’ll answer questions or forward them to our convention director, Marilyn Campbell, if I don’t know the answer. * * * More About the Romantic Times 17th Annual Booklovers Convention "A Celebration for Readers and Writers" When: November 9-12, 2000 Where: The Radisson Hotel Astrodome Convention Center, Houston, Texas Who: Some of your favorite mystery authors, including Sue Grafton, the keynote speaker at Friday’s luncheon How: Go to www.romantictimes.com, write to Romantic Times, 55 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, or call (718) 237-1097. Gayle Lynds, best-selling author of the thrillers MOSAIC and MASQUERADE, happens to be organizing the mystery/suspense panels at the convention. I asked her briefly about her goals for the event. Gayle sees a "natural cross-over between romance and suspense readers who are searching for wonderful stories, and it’s time to celebrate that. The Booklovers Convention is the perfect setting in which to do this." SUSAN McBRIDE - Why do you think mystery fans and authors should be interested in attending? GAYLE LYNDS - Most authors seek publication because they believe they have something to say and they want to be read. It that’s an important goal for a writer, then it seems very short-sighted to ignore an audience of avid readers, particularly an audience such as romance aficionados who love books, are well-educated and loyally support authors through the ups and downs of their careers. I have tremendous respect for romance fans. Alas, romance has had a "bad" reputation for many years, so mystery fans have tended to be less interested in sampling romance. However, romance fans seem to harbor no ill will. Their second favorite source to satisfy their reading habits is crime novels. For mystery and romance readers alike, the Booklovers Convention will be a great place to address that passion for books. The Book Fair slated for Sunday, November 12 will feature some 300 authors of romance and mystery. Double the fun. |
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