A one man rant about novel writing, publishing, and other "artistic" pursuits.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

DEATH OF A MYSTERY NOVEL


So I'm reading the book section of The San Diego Union-Tribune last Sunday in the place where they review new mystery novels and I read about this new book called Killer Swell by Jeff Shelby about a San Diego detective that investigates the murder of a girl he was involved with in high school because he's asked for help by her mother. Hmmm, I thought. A nice little premise for a mystery novel.
At least I thought so when I WROTE THE FUCKING BOOK!!!!!
My wife was sitting there as I read and she saw me pound the table with my fist, yell "FUCK!" and clear the table of the books section of the newspaper in one swoop of my two arms.
I spent six years of my life working on Bad Moon Rising, a mystery novel that concerns a San Diego detective (in this case an investigative reporter for a local daily newspaper, but same thing, really) who is asked to look into the death of a girl he was obsessed with in high school because her mother suspects foul play. My support team at work said no harm, no foul, mystery premises are usually formulaic and generic enough that there's room for both books, but I downloaded the first scene from Chapter 1 of Mr. Shelby's book and it's like looking in the mirror. Same characters (essentially), same tone, rhythm, and writing style. It was like reading the opening to my novel.
My wife says I should take it as a sign that I was meant for other things. She's big on her gut reactions, and they're always right. She thinks I should cut my losses and stop sending out the submission packages for BMR to agents and get to work on other stuff (like the YA book), but I'm not sure what to do. I haven't gotten discouraged by fifteen years of rejections on poetry, stories, and novels. But this was discouraging. I have to clear my head and decide what to do.
I looked at the rest of Jeff Shelby's website and he seems like a really nice guy who worked really hard and got his break. I know--Karmically, anyway--I should be happy about that. And I know I have the YA novel over half done and two others on deck waiting to be written, but Bad Moon Rising was kind of my baby, my first ,etc.
And you never forget your first.


P.S. I do wish Jeff Shelby luck. As I said, he seems like a regular guy.

Labels: ,

1 Comments:

Blogger yournamehere said...

This is totally off subject, but my name is Todd and I write a humble little blog called viva las vegASS. I was just going through my archives and saw you left a comment on my Bill Hicks quote post. I have no idea when you left the comment, but I just saw it today.

I would like to thank you for your kind remarks. I never got the chance to see Bill Hicks in person but I watched his many TV appearances and thought he was very funny. Because of the under-the-radar nature of his career, Bill was dead for several months before I even knew about it.
A few years passed and rykodisc started re-releasing Bill's CD's. That's when I learned that the man I saw on Letterman, although very amusing, was a mere shadow of the complete Bill Hicks.

I'm sorry to clog up your comments section, but I didn't see an email address and wanted you to know, however late I may be, that I appreciated your comments.

5:38 PM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home