Chapter Member
Spotlight Profile
September, 1997
Spotlight Profile
September, 1997
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Barbara Paul, author
and founder of Genie Chapter
This month's spotlight interview is with Barbara Paul, author of seventeen mystery novels and founder of the Genie Chapter of SinC that subsequently grew into our own Internet Chapter here at Lit-Arts. The Genie chapter was Sisters in Crime's first online presence. Barbara continues to add innovations and monitor the health of our organization. The Internet Chapter interview was done on July 13, 1997 by Louise Guardino, AKA " IC " below. First, let's talk a bit with Barbara about her work, then about her SinC innovations. I'd asked for Barbara's favorite passage from her own work and here it is:
Sylvia was swaying on her feet; I didn't feel any too steady myself. A whispered Jesus Christ floated from behind me. I snatched Ian Cavanaugh's make-up towel away from him and wrapped up the cat's head, handed the mess to Leo Gunn, the stage manager.
IC
And you selected this because...?
Barbara
That's the opening of The Fourth Wall. I like it because it does three things. First, it establishes the setting (without using the word "theater" -- "make-up towel" and "stage manager" take care of that). Second, it introduces four characters, three of them by name. Third, it presents the initiating incident of the plot (the beheading of the cat).All that in just four sentences and a fragment. That's the only time I've been able to pack so much into so few words. I'm rather proud of that.
It's also an opening that takes a big risk, because cat-lovers could be turned off by the beheading and read no further. Shoot, I'm a cat-lover myself; I've got five of the critters. Lay a finger on one of my cats and you're dead meat. But that's precisely why I chose that incident: it's such a godawful thing to happen. The Fourth Wall is a grim story and I needed a grim incident to kick it off. That act of inexcusable cruelty set exactly the right tone.
IC
Was The Fourth Wall your first mystery?
Barbara
Yep. I was writing science fiction at the time when I got the itch to tell a story that could be told only as a mystery.
IC
It seems as if you must like the form because you've stuck with it.
Barbara
Well, yes, I like it; but also I could earn a living writing mystery; not true of science fiction. Only one of the SF novels is still in print, the Star Trek book.
IC
Really! (earn living in mystery vs science-fiction): I thought there were more markets for science fiction...or so it seems in the short story world.
Barbara
I was writing science fiction back before it joined the mainstream. A lot of markets exist now that didn't then (but a lot of them are poor markets).
IC
Have you tried mixed genre: science fiction-mystery?
Barbara
Mixed genre in short stories. Not in novels. I haven't written a science fiction novel since the mid-80s.
IC
BTW, your latest story in the August 1997 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (EQMM), "Sic Transit Gloria", was quite a strong story: tough subject.
Barbara
I meant "Sic Transit Gloria" to be a stomach-turner. :)
IC
The stomach turners are sometimes the more effective ones. Certainly, one that will be remembered.When The Fourth Wall came out, SinC did not exist, did it? Did your experiences in having your first few mysteries published set you up for SinC?
Barbara
Set me up...how? Do you mean, make me ripe for the pickings? :)
IC
Yes, exactly.
Barbara
Actually, I was only just becoming aware of the inequities between the way women's books and men's were treated -- when I got the first letter Sara Paretsky sent out asking if I'd be interested in forming a group called Sisters in Crime.You see, the first editor who read The Fourth Wall, bought it. That easy entry into the field made me ignore the fact that I was writing for peanuts. But after a few more books, I left that publisher for a new one. However, at that stage I was still tickled at being in the game at all, and it was just beginning to dawn on me that I was perhaps being shortchanged in a number of ways. So the timing was perfect for me; I'd not known, for instance, of the discrepancy in the number of reviews alloted to men's and women's books.
IC
So you jumped right in, eh? Then you are one of the original founders?
Barbara
No, I was sort of the second wave in SinC. The original founders got together at a Bouchercon, and one of the things they decided was to poll other women mystery writers to see if there was any interest in such an organization. I was one of that group that they contacted.
IC
How effective do you think SinC has been in changing the visibility of books by women mystery writers?
Barbara
Completely effective. It caused a big enough turnaround that a backlash among the men started building several years ago. I'm convinced there wouldn't be nearly so many new women writers in the field if it weren't for SinC.
IC
Yes, I saw some of that backlash about four years ago.Do you think the public , the readers, care about SinC's goals or are they more interested in the individual author and her work?
Barbara
The latter, I'm afraid. I'm speaking of now. SinC's goals were what attracted the first members, but now a lot of people join because they think SinC can provide help in getting published.But that's not really what you asked me, is it? On the whole, I don't think the reading public much cares. Mystery readers as a group, though, are generally pretty curious about anything that goes on in the field. I think mystery fans are interested in what SinC does.
IC
How did SinC actually achieve its goals, as it seems to have done? You didn't negotiate as a group did you? Did having an organization just make the members stand firm when dealing with a publishing company?
Barbara
It seems to have achieved its goals mostly through polite pushing. For instance, when the New York Times was informed that only 25% of its reviews were of women's mysteries although women wrote 43% (not sure of that figure) of the mysteries published, the Times listened and changed its reviews to reflect more work by women.
IC
How did agents first react to SinC?
Barbara
I don't know.
IC
What does SinC do now that would be of interest to the average reader?
Barbara
Right now, SinC is at a crossroads. The national Board is meeting in October to decide on which direction the organization is to take in the future. So, I don't know the answer to your question (yet).
IC
Knowledge is power, then. I see that most reviews these days are of mysteries by women. With the industry becoming tighter now, I imagine this visibility is all the more important.Barbara, you were the first to initiate an online SinC group. What prompted that?
Barbara
Frustration. Here we had this nice set-up at Genie, a place to talk about SinC, but National wouldn't let us become a chapter. So I called Pat Carlson, who was president at the time, and asked why not?Pat said that since we were online, we couldn't have guest speakers. Whereupon I promptly invited her to be a guest speaker at a Genie Real-Time Conference. Once she saw how it worked, Pat told her Board that that objection no longer held water. We owe a lot to Pat; she did much to clear the way.
IC
Well, I'm glad that you got the okay. It was indeed a wonderful set-up. A place where we could keep in touch and chat about the serious, the weird, and the funny.You've been the driving force on most of the online aspects. How do you do it? Write, read, and take charge when needed to keep the chapter going (and making sure the Genie/Internet voice is heard by National)?
Barbara
I've been cheating on the writing part of what I do -- and that's going to stop. What I want to see more than anything is an active, livewire chapter that doesn't need anyone coming along to prod them now and then. But I don't think we've reached that point yet.
IC
I think you are right: it isn't there yet. I'm not sure if it is the new medium or what. I do think the medium may have much to do with it (online real-time vs offline reading/commenting.)Was The Renewable Virgin [ Aside:: "...she had a gray potato face and was tired and fed-up looking." What a description! "gray potato face"!] the first Larch book (had to be...with a "potato face, she could only improve, right?)
Barbara
The Renewable Virgin was the first Larch book, yes. Full Frontal Murder is the seventh.I wish now I'd used that phrase "potato-faced" in the last book. I don't want readers thinking Marian has suddenly become a looker.
IC
Which three of your books are the ones you most enjoyed writing and are these the same three that would be your three favorites?
Barbara
Kill Fee, You Have the Right To Remain Silent, and I have to include The Three-Minute Universe for sheer fun. Oh shoot -- But He Was Already Dead When I Got There was fun too. I'd say I'd have to include Fare Play as one of the better ones, going by final results only; but it wasn't the lark to write that the humorous ones were.
IC
Can you say why these three were fun to write?
Barbara
I've reconsidered; I'd like to substitute Prima Donna at Large for, um, Kill Fee? Oh, hell, Louise -- that's an impossible question! I enjoyed writing all of them; in different ways, they all gave me pleasure.
IC
See, when one must choose between one's children, the agony is endless.I love your titles. On their own they are enough to pick up the book.
When you wrote The Renewable Virgin, did you have it in mind that it would be the first of a series or did you decide that afterwards?
Barbara
No, a series was the farthest thing from my mind. Marian Larch is only one of three characters who take turns telling the story in The Renewable Virgin and I had no further plans for any of the three after that one book. I was just beginning to feel the market pressures to write a series, but I hadn't given up on my standalones yet. The next book, He Huffed and He Puffed, concentrated on a murder victim and three suspects. The police appear only in the final third of the book, so I thought I'd be oh-so-clever and bring Marian Larch in to do the investigating. Something like that happened in Good King Sauerkraut. In that one I stuck very close to the POV of the title character, and how he sees Marian is the only way the reader sees her.Then it was time to do some stock-taking. Here I'd used the same investigator in three books, and I was still pretending I wasn't writing a series? Well, now. So I took the plunge: You Have the Right To Remain Silent is all Marian, up close and personal. In that one, Marian might as well wear a sign saying "I Am A Series Character." But I was pleased with the results, and the subsequent Marian books flowed as naturally as water running downhill. I ended up liking the very thing I'd been resisting.
IC
To go along with the "Holland-Avon" conjectures concerning the archetype for the Curt Holland character in your Marian Larch NYPD detective series, is there an archetype for Marian herself? [See Barbara Paul's Holland and Avon page for more on the "Curt Holland vs Kerr Avon" discussion.]
Barbara
No, no archetype for Marian. More of an anti-archetype, in fact: I wanted a plain woman, a pragmatically competent woman, not a beautiful superwoman who can do all sorts of marvelous (and unrealistic) things. And I wanted an ethical heroine who would never use her looks to get what she wanted even if she could. (Liza Cody went me one better in that regard; her Eva Wylie deliberately breaks every time-honored rule of what a fictional heroine should be.)But Marian never flirts or plays any kind of sex games; she doesn't have to do that in order to be a "complete" woman. That's why her liaison with Holland is never idyllic. They are not two halves of the same person, to borrow a romantic cliché; they're two strongly individualistic people who are drawn to each other like magnets. They're well-matched.
IC
Would you like the freedom to step out of a series book every once in awhile? I ask after noticing your selections for fun writing.
Barbara
Absolutely. I like standalones -- I still have a slight preference for them, as a matter of fact.
IC
With standalones one can explore more, perhaps. Certainly, it must open up all sorts of possibilities for voice, etc.? What about it?
Barbara
I simply like the variety they permit. And you can tell a story and be done with it...no planting of hints for something coming up in the next book. Of course, that's kind of fun too, but once in a while I yearn for immediate closure.
IC
Will there be another Larch, in some form or another? Could you do an EQMM thing if the issue about changing publishers is a problem?
Barbara
I think Full Frontal Murder is the last Larch; which is a pity, because I had at least two more books in mind before I could think of wrapping up the series.Do an EQMM thing? Do you mean continue the series as short stories? That's a possibility.
IC
Yes, I meant getting the closure via EQMM or similar medium. So Larch admirers can have a sense that Larch goes on even though she may not return to our lives.As a last question, if there is anything additional you wish to say to the visitors to the Spotlight Profile, feel free.
Barbara
I'd like to invite everyone to drop by my message board -- just to chat or ask questions; I'll answer everything the best I can, even what my favorite color is. (Yes, that's been asked.) And we have a hot game of Botticelli going. :)
IC
Well, Barbara, I'd like to do more on you as an author and the books, but if this is to be SinC mission oriented, shucks, I'm out of Qs!
The credit for getting the Spotlight Profile going here in the SinC Internet Chapter belongs to who else but Barbara Paul. My thanks to her for her help in testing and putting together the Profile and for graciously submitting to an interview sneaked in while we were in test mode.
For more of Barbara Paul's thoughts and works, just click here to enter into her world. And thanks for stopping by.
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The Renewable |
A Cadenza for |
The Fourth Wall |
An Exercise for |
Louise Guardino
To see previous Spotlight Profiles, click here.
Questions about the chapter? Write to Prez@sinc-ic.org .
Questions about the web site? Write to WebSister@sinc-ic.org .Unless otherwise specified, all content is copyright © 2002 Sisters in Crime, Internet Chapter.