Thrillers and Romance-Oil and Water or Does Danger Add that Certain Something?

by Jamie Freveletti

The Romantic Times Convention is in Chicago this weekend and The Outfit members will be there enjoying every minute. I've never been to an RT Convention, and having it in Chicago is a wonderful opportunity to attend. Of course, I got to thinking, does a Thriller writer belong there? It seems as though thriller writers don't write romance and often, if they do, it just gets panned, or worse yet, nominated by The Literary Review for the "Bad Sex in Fiction" Award.

I'm not kidding, the award exists. Here are the 2011 nominees.

And can I tell you how I do NOT want to make this list?

Writing romance in a thriller comes with a certain set of logistical problems that are built into the genre. By definition, a thriller sets a protagonist against an antagonist that wants to kill or maim. When you're writing one you'd hate to have your protagonist do something silly rather than try their damndest to get to safety. That's a quick way to lose a reader. So, you try to imagine what a real person would do in the same circumstances. If someone was running toward me with murderous intent romance would be the last thing on my mind. I'd be running--as fast as I could run. Likewise, if cornered I'd be working out in my mind which aikido move I would use to disarm the assailant before--you guessed it-- running away.  I teach aikido and I always emphasize to my students the running away option as optimal in all circumstances. I tell them the best aikido move is the one that allows you to avoid doing any techniques.

But there is something interesting that occurs when one writes a thriller with a female and male character. There's always a question in the reader's mind whether they're going to stop running away or solving the mystery and take some time out to get it on. The best thrillers have sex scenes, both in the movies and in books. In one of my favorite books, The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne and Marie are in chased all over and hole up in a hotel alone, worried, and wired. They find the perfect way to address their surfeit of adrenaline. 

And in the movie North By Northwest the character played by Cary Grant gets chased, a lot, but somehow ends up romancing the woman who may or may not be a villain.

The romance in North By Northwest is handled well, though, and his concerns about her add to the suspense. I also liked the approach taken by the X-files throughout all the episodes until the very end. They were colleagues first, began to care about each other, and then became lovers.

Because I write a female protagonist who is action oriented, I don't have her worry too much about what the men are thinking or not thinking with regard to romance. The men hit on her a bit, but most need her unique knowledge and sharp brain to help them get out of dangerous circumstances and they focus on getting out of trouble first.

However, I do think that she'll have a free moment soon. Maybe on a train ride like the one above.

And when she does, let's just hope that the resulting scene doesn't get nominated for the bad sex in fiction award by the Literary Review!

I look forward to seeing everyone at the RT Convention!

Mysteries and Thrillers at the Beach

by Jamie Freveletti

I'm technically on vacation, (so writing this on the fly) but wanted to show everyone what Mysteries and Thrillers are traveling the world. Don't know if this image is clear enough, but the shelf that you see here is in the library of the Cuisinart Resort in Anguilla. Of course the minute we landed I headed into the library to get a look at the books. This picture shows only the Mystery and Thriller category and only those that I could manage to get into one photo.

They have other categories as well: Teen, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Romance and Self Help and Non Fiction. By far the most books were in the Mystery and Thriller category, which is not that surprising as the genre lends itself to a relaxing beach read.

The names are some of the best: Chandler, Slaughter, Cussler, Patterson, Grishom, Child, Coben, and Lescorat. By far the ones with the most on the shelf were Patterson, Cussler and, in the romance category, Nora Roberts with Harry Potter dominating the Fantasy section.

Patterson's teen series also were predominant on the Teen shelves with his Maximum Ride novels, which gives you an idea of the empire Mr. Patterson has created.

It's a lot of fun to see which novels the guests brought to their vacation, and the resort encourages everyone to feel free to leave the books behind for the next guest to enjoy. I picked up "As Husbands Go" by Susan Isaacs (still writing my own so avoiding thrillers) and am enjoying it immensely. My thanks to whatever guest left it behind!

Sex in Thrillers: Bad idea, or do you expect something-anything- in those 300+ pages?

by Jamie Freveletti

I just re-read Sara Paretsky’s post on bad sex in mysteries and am still laughing over it, so I thought to address the topic in thrillers. I don’t have sex in my novel, but one can always have an opinion, right?

Question 1: Am I the only one who reads a thriller and waits for the protagonist PI/FBI Agent/Crook/Amateur Sleuth/ Woman on the run from paramilitary guys that are trying to kill her (my novel) to meet up with the opposite sex? Doesn’t it add just that extra bit of interest?

Question 2: Can you think of a thriller where the protagonist doesn’t consider some extracurricular activity with the opposite sex? The rules here are simple: They don’t have to actually do the deed, they just have to think about doing it. I just ran a quick mental list and I can’t remember one without at least the hint of a possibility.

(Wait, here’s one: Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. But that’s a short story, so it doesn’t count. Likewise anything by Poe-clearly sex and opium don’t mix).

Question 3: If it’s a truth universally acknowledged that a protagonist in possession of a mystery must be in want of a hookup, then why do sex scenes in thrillers so often fall flat?

While I agree that it can be a bit absurd for the protagonist to take time out from a firefight to get it on with that good looking CIA agent (although there is the shark tank scene in “Beat the Reaper” to consider), I still think once the fight’s over it might be time for some witty repartee over a smoking gun, or even a celebratory "damn, we're still alive!" sex scene. Sadly, often these scenes just don't work. It might be because as thriller writers we immerse our characters in so much strife that to slow down for something like sex seems contrived.

Question 4: And how about the thrillers where the love scenes worked? More rules: it doesn’t count if the scene skips from the first kiss to the two of them lying in bed smoking cigarettes and discussing Proust.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts. And make no mistake, I’ll be adding the titles of “thrillers with scenes that work” to my reading list!

Writing Awards

By Barbara D’Amato

A couple of days ago I got home after attending the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards in New York and then the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Awards in Washington, D.C. The events were fun for attendees, rewarding to the nominees and winners, and in my opinion, good for the mystery/crime writing field.

There are always complaints. The wrong novel won. It’s just a popularity contest. Plenty of wonderful books didn’t make the list. Even “Why do we bother?” or “It’s fixed anyway.”

The Edgars and the Agathas represent two different types of awards. The Edgars, like the Shamus and Thrillerwriters, is a judged award. The Agathas slate, like the Bouchercon’s Anthony, is arrived at by nominations sent in by people who are registered to attend, and then after arriving the attendees vote for the final winner.

Over the years I’ve served on several Edgar Awards committees—the short story a couple of times and chaired it once, the best novel at least twice, best play, best fact crime a couple of times and chaired it once, best several others. The last time I served on the best novel committee, we received 554 books. Okay, I’m easily caught. But one thing I can tell you, and that is, it’s not fixed.

Sean Chercover’s good post “Confessions of an Edgar Judge . . .” got me thinking about the misunderstandings people have about these awards. Most judges are like Sean, earnest and fair. I haven’t run into any like the one Paul Guyot referred to in his comment, who said he knew what was good, so he didn’t need to read the books. People being people, there probably are a few like that, or at least some who don’t give a fair try to books of a type they don’t like. However, people are all we have available to use. One of the big boons of judged awards is that books that haven’t made bestseller lists are often nominated. This gives recognition to writers who get far too little. Check the lists of winners for the last few years and I think you will see that few big bestsellers are actually nominated. I just love it when a writer who has received little attention wins an award and proceeds dazed and delighted to the stage.

The convention-vote awards are criticized for being popularity contests. Well, duh. However, they are popularity contests in the sense that readers have actually enjoyed the books. Here again, the nominees and winners are usually not the big bestsellers, and aren’t the bestseller lists the real Big Popularity Contests? And frequently criticized for being fixed?

There are other awards arrived at somewhat differently, like the Macavity, or the Love Is Murder Lovie. But they all do one thing—give recognition to authors who might otherwise receive none. I don’t agree with the people who wish awards didn’t exist.

If you have suggestions about improving the processes, great. Let’s hear them.

And the Winner Is --

By Barbara D'Amato

There are a lot of awards given in the diverse world of mystery and crime writing, and getting to be more all the time. The most recent that I’m aware of is given by the Thrillerwriters, a relatively new organization, which is just now trying to come up with a name for their awards.

Crime writing awards fall into two main categories -- the peer-judged and the voted-on award.

The Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar award and the Shamus are two of the judged. For the Edgar, five writers judge the entries in a category, except the Best Novel category, which now uses eight judges, and for good reason. I served on the committee for best novel of 2006, and we received about 550 books. [Yes, five hundred and fifty!] Every entry was read by two judges, cutting down the number we each had to read initially to about a hundred and forty. If any judge recommended a book, it then was read by everybody. It’s a huge job. Also, where do you put more than five hundred books in an apartment? For the Shamus, three judges read in each category. I’ve read for the Shamus a couple of times, and for the Edgar the best first, best play, best short story, best paperback, best screenplay, best true crime, a couple of times each. In fact, the only ones I haven’t done are children’s and young adult. While this may show that I am a patsy, I do like to read, especially when I should be working. And there is something great about getting a one-year slice of what’s being written in a specific field.

How does it really work? Some judges use a five-page rule. If a book hasn’t engaged their attention by then, they sideline it. I tend to go for a fifty-page cutoff, but even so I usually finish the book. Somebody spent a year or more of his life on this. I can at least read it.

But have I learned anything about judging? We all wonder how fair, how accurate, how right the judging is. Is the winner really the best book of the year? Well, yes and no.

Committees I’ve served on have done one of two things. Frequently several of the judges strongly prefer different books. In these cases, it’s often everybody’s second or third choice that wins. The other case involves a book that blows away four of the five judges and is loathed by the fifth judge. It doesn’t even make his top twenty. I think that very unusual books tend to polarize people and quite often that results in one committee member just despising it. That book will win, with one very grumpy committee member left dissatisfied.

But I’ve never seen an incompetently written book win.

And what about the other kind of award? Bouchercon and Malice Domestic are two of several organizations that give out awards based on the votes of attendees at their convention. The typical method is to send a request to all people registered for the convention, asking them to nominate their favorites in several categories--best first, best novel, best short story, best critical/biographical, best children’s, and so on. The five [it’s usually five, but not always] that receive the most mentions go on a list that is sent to attendees well before they arrive for the convention. The hope is that they will have a chance to read most or all of the books. At the convention they are given ballots, they vote, the ballots are collected there, the votes are counted, and the winners announced, usually at a Saturday night banquet.

These are often somewhat disparagingly called popularity contests. But what is wrong with that? The voters are readers, readers who care enough to pay serious money to go to a writing convention.

The talk in the halls about why they voted as they did can leave you wondering, though. What have I heard? Well--

“Okay, this isn’t his best book, but his last one should have won the Edgar, so I’m voting for this one.”

“This isn’t her best book, but I’m voting for her whole body of work.”

“I like the title.”

“He won last year, so I’m not voting for him.”

One of the real drawbacks of the convention ballot is that very few people have read all the books in contention. I rarely vote in certain categories, like children’s and young adult, because I don’t read enough in those fields. For these convention ballots, generally, I’ve decided it’s okay to vote in a category if I’ve read three out of the five nominees. Otherwise I don’t vote.

Could we, meaning the mystery community, improve on these methods of generating awards?