| by
Laura Alden
Fourteen
years.
Okay,
not really, but yeah, sort of. A more accurate title for this
post would probably be “It Took You HOW Long to Get
That Great Idea You Heard at a Conference Into a Published
Novel?!” with an alternate title of “It Took You
HOW Long to Name a Book?”
To fully
explain, I’ll have to go back, well, about fourteen
years. In the fall of 2000 gasoline cost under $2 a gallon,
Bill Clinton was president, the internet was just getting
big, and most importantly to yours truly, I’d just finished
writing my first mystery. Hooray for me!
I was
eager to jump into the world of writers and editors and agents
and the whole complicated business of publishing. I wanted
to learn everything…but how? And where? And from whom?
Ahk!
Happily,
Magna cum Murder, at that time held in Muncie, Indiana, was
recommended to me as a wonderful conference. Perfect, I thought.
This will be where I meet other writers. This will be where
I meet people with connections. Where I meet the people who
speak the same language that I do, the language of books.
So I made my reservations, packed my bags, and headed off
to my first ever mystery crime writing festival.
Since
it was fourteen years ago, many of the memories have faded,
but I remember hearing talks by Parnell Hall, by Carolyn Hart,
and by Luci Zahray, known throughout the mystery community
as the Poison Lady. Luci is a pharmacist has an amazingly
deep knowledge of poisons, something that is often of great
interest to mystery fans and writers. Luci can talk for hours
about plant poisons, poisons in household cleaning products,
and – wait for it – over the counter medications.
In this particular case, acetaminophen.
Luci
said that while acetaminophen isn’t the most toxic thing
people usually have in their homes, it can be the most dangerous.
Why? Because although people consider it a “safe”
medication, it doesn’t take a large amount to cause
serious harm or even death. Plus, it’s a hidden ingredient
in many other medications so there’s a cumulative effect.
Hmm,
my writer’s brain thought as I scribbled note after
note. I’ll have to put that in a book someday.
Fast
forward ten years. My first mystery, Murder at the PTA
has just been released. No acetaminophen in the story
at all. I’m starting to write the second book, and my
editor is asking me for title ideas. “How about Poison
at the PTA? Wouldn’t it be fun to use that title?”
Sure,
but there was no poison anywhere in the story. The poor victim
had died by strangulation, no acetaminophen in sight.
My editor
sighed, and the book was eventually titled Foul Play at
the PTA.
The third
book in the series featured two deaths, one years earlier
from drowning, the second from insect stings. “That’s
kind of like poison, isn’t it?” my editor asked.
Kind of, but not really. That one became Plotting at the
PTA.
Book
four’s death was via gunshot. My editor didn’t
even try with that one.
Book
five? Yes! Book five does, in fact, have a poor woman who
dies from acetaminophen poisoning. Fourteen years after hearing
Luci’s talk, and after four years of editor naming efforts,
Poison at the PTA was scheduled to be released on
February 4, 2014.
So. How
long did it take me to write this book? You be the judge
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