Sweet Mysteries


I've been reading mysteries for a very long time. Black Widow by Patrick Quentin was the first adult mystery novel I ever read. I think I was nine at the time. I discovered Agatha Christie and her books when I was in my teens and I've been hooked ever since. Then my Uncle Cam brought home a Perry Mason mystery by Erle Stanley Gardner. Here's an item (in a gif file) I wrote for Writer's Digest in September 1992. It gives hope to all aspiring writers.

If the gif file is too slow, here's the text of that article:

 As Bad as He Can Be

Erle Stanley Gardner was referred to as the Fiction Factory at the height of his Career. Gardner worked toward a goal of 1.2 million words a year (25,000 a week) -- and his effort paid off in more than 135 million books sold (all of his novels have sold at least 2 million copies). 

But, as Dorothy B. Hughes reveals in The Case of the Real Perry Mason (William Morrow), rejection slips came to Gardner in his early years as fast as he could write. He'd never rewrite those rejected stories. He just kept writing. 

One of his stories was so bad it caught the eye of an editor at Black Mask. For amusement, he showed it to the other editors. 
 

As a joke, they sent the story to the circulation manager and asked him to create a special publicity campaign for the story, which would be their lead in the next issue.

As they expected, the circulation manager returned the story with a lengthy and scathing review and begged them not to use it. The editors admitted it had been a joke, and returned the manuscript to Gardner - inadvertently leaving the circulation manager's critique attached. 

It was the first critical assessment of his writing that Gardner had ever seen. He took it to heart and rewrote the story. 

The revision was accepted by Black Mask, and Gardner was on his way.

Then I discovered John D. MacDonald. At the John D. MacDonald Quotes Page, you'll find wonderful quotes from the Travis McGee series. (Special treat - His last Travis McGee book, Lonely Silver Rain is available to read online in its entirety.

The Gumshoe Site is admirably maintained by Jiro Kimura with up-to-the-latest minute information on happenings in the industry and who's up for what award.

Check out the ClueLass HomePage to see what's new. A delightful site.

Preview mystery novels at Mystery

The copyright of the article Sweet Mysteries in Book Publishing is owned by Joanne Reid. Permission to republish Sweet Mysteries in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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