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| 82 days until Hanukkah begins! |
But how much crime? If you follow Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog, www.mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com, you'll have an inkling. Janet loves holidays, and on every one, she posts a list of mystery books/stories she knows about that are set on that day. But reading these lists piecemeal won't give you the full picture. That's why I've reviewed all her lists from the past year (you're welcome!) and learned that the most dangerous holiday is ...
Drum roll ...
What was the next most-dangerous holiday? Take a guess. It's kind of tricky. Ha! It's ... Halloween. The holiday of ghosts and goblins and children begging for candy is perfect for moody, scary stories. Janet's list last year had nearly 200 Halloween mysteries.
Indeed, knowing how ripe holidays can be for inducing murderous thoughts, a few years ago, authors Donna Andrews, Marcia Talley, and I decided that it would be fun to make holidays the theme for the seventh volume of the Chesapeake Crimes series (which we edit). We envisioned an anthology with short stories set on the standard big holidays, but we also hoped for stories set ones used less often in crime fiction. Our authors came through. The resulting book, Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays, has stories set on Groundhog Day (my story), Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Christmas, and (out of chronological order), Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrr. Author Cathy Wiley gets mad props for coming up with a story set on this fabulous holiday, which occurs annually on September 19th. That's this Saturday, folks.
And in honor of this holiday, on this Saturday afternoon, five authors with stories in Homicidal Holidays--Donna Andrews, Clyde Linsley, Shari Randall, Cathy Wiley, and I--are scheduled to appear on a panel at Kingstowne Library in Alexandria, Virginia, to talk about using holidays in crime stories. The free event is open to the public. If you're in the Washington, DC, area, we hope you'll attend. You can get more details and register here: http://tinyurl.com/oh2h2kv. (The link will take you to the Fairfax County library website. The link was super long, so I shortened it.)
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| Cathy Wiley at our launch party. |
So if you like holidays--and who doesn't?--I hope you'll attend this Saturday's panel to learn about using holidays in mysteries. It will be fun for readers and writers. And word has it that Cathy Wiley will be dressed as a pirate. Shiver me timbers, you can't get more fun than that.
Do you like reading mysteries set on holidays? If so, which is your favorite and why?
I hope someone gives me some of these stories in my Purim stocking.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought the food was bad for my health on the holidays. Who knew they were just bad for your health in general :)
ReplyDeleteAbout twenty years ago, I was working as a reporter. It was Christmas night. The police scanner was on in the newsroom, and at one point, a cop's voice came through loud and clear: "Looks like everybody got knives for Christmas." That really just says it all, doesn't it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Leigh and Paul!
I enjoy holiday homicides - from Christmas to Valentine's Day to Rosh Hashanah to Halloween. I think the most under-represented is Thanksgiving Day, and I can't think why, because really, all people do on Thanksgiving is eat, drink, and watch football -
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, I have to get writing!
Enjoyed the column, Barb, as usual.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I don't write many holiday-themed stories. I've done some, mostly for anthologies, but that subject just doesn't seem to come to mind during my (probably scary) creative process. On the other hand, I like reading/watching holiday-themed stories and movies. I remember once being asked, at a family gathering, to name my favorite Christmas movie. I said Die Hard. My wife just rolled her eyes.
Ahh, Thanksgiving. I have enjoyed writing Thanksgiving crime stories, Eve. Thanksgiving is the type of day people have expectations for. The turkey will be perfect. The children will act perfectly. We'll have picture-perfect memories. And we all know how expectations of perfection tend to turn out. My first Thanksgiving story had a food fight. The second one had someone die at the table. The third involved stolen food, and the fourth had more flying good. (Flying food is always fun.) I have to give credit to one of my publishers, Untreed Reads, for putting out the four Thanksgiving anthologies. Here's hoping for a fifth one next year.
ReplyDeleteAnd John, Die Hard is a great holiday movie. Perhaps not touching in the same way as It's a Wonderful Life, but when that TV reporter gets punched out toward the end, well, that does make the heart sing, doesn't it?
What a fun post. Thanks for including me.. and special thanks for photos of animals in costume!
ReplyDeleteI'm having loads of trouble posting a comment.
ReplyDeleteNow that I got that off my chest, I'll try again! (By the way, the problem was while posting from my phone. The successful message above (and hopefully this one) is from a computer.
ReplyDeleteEmotions and booze run high during holidays. But as always, the key to a good story are good characters and plot.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the post, Barb. Leigh, I've actually written a Purim story--"Death on a Diet," which appeared in AHMM back in 2006. And I'm revising a Sukkot mystery now.
ReplyDeleteJohn, at least your wife can be glad you didn't say Gremlins or The Ref.
Love holiday stories! My "Santa Baby" was published in Alfred Hitchcock a few years ago, and it's still one of my faves. Holidays are emotional, and fiction is about emotion - crime fiction even more so. What a delicious fit. Great post, Barb!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Janet. I love reading your blog. Wags and woofs from Jingle and me (and Scout too) to you and Topper and Rosie and the rest of your clan.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Anonymous, Bonnie, and Melodie. Yes, a good character and plot are essential to a good story. The beauty of holidays is that they often can provide the source of the conflict that is the base of a story (people bumping up against each other, emotions running high, expectations running high). Characters then react to the conflict and the plot unfolds.