Still Waters make Waves

Posted by Kate Flora

My habit, upon waking, is to throw back the blankets and stagger to my laptop. I flip open the cover, my eyes still at half-mast, the little square swims into view, and I click on it. Then I put on my glasses and start reading my mail. Many mornings, this ritual leaves me stuck at the computer for hours, as I segue directly from mail to mystery, breaking only to buzz through the kitchen to reheat yesterday’s coffee. I will usually have spent half an hour of storycrafting as I move to sleep to semiconsciousness. When I hit the keyboard, the story is already cooking and my characters are impatient to get to work.

Some days, when the writing is going well and producing my daily five pages is a pleasure and not a cursing struggle, I may stay at my desk and write for hours. This can be embarrassing, especially when the UPS man rings the bell at 1:00 or later, and I’m still sitting at my desk, still in my nightgown, typing away. (Please note, dear reader, that I am not going insert a photo here of me in my nightgown. The only entertainment value it might have is to send you rushing to the gym to avoid my fate. Then your muscles will ache and you will hate me.)

This morning, the mail was headed by a message from Ruth McCarty, one of my partners in Level Best Books. The subject of Ruth’s e-mail was the announcement of this year’s Derringer Awards by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Ruth informed me that we had two nominations, which thrilled me, especially since one of our nominees, master gardener and publicity pro Rosemary Harris, is just starting her fiction publishing career—her first gardening mystery, Pushing Up Daisies, was recently published by St. Martin’s. Rosemary’s nomination was for a tight, dark and gritty, and sadly-true-to-life story called, “Growing Up is for Losers,” which appeared in Level Best’s fifth crime story anthology, Still Waters.

It took two more readings of Ruth’s message before I realized that the other nominated story “Mr. McGregor’s Garden,” was my own. And I was—still am—flabbergasted. I’m also, in the interest of full disclosure, grinning and grateful. After nearly a quarter of a century in this chair, it gives me real pleasure to think that someone believes I can write well. 

Partly, I’m surprised because I don’t think of myself as a short story writer. Sure, I’m working at the craft, and yes, I wrote short stories before I started writing novels, as many of us do, but for the last twenty-four years, I’ve been working as a novelist. (For those who dream of being published—be warned: I spent the first ten years in the unpublished writer’s corner.) Although most readers have never heard of me, this year my list of published books will enter double digits. Book number ten, Stalking Death, my seventh Thea Kozak mystery will be published in May. Book eleven, my second Joe Burgess police procedural, is coming out in September. (My husband used to be sympathetic when I got discouraged and hand me the crying towel. Now, he says, “Buck up. You’ve already published more books than Herman Melville or Jane Austen.”)

But this blog is meant to be about editing and publishing short stories, not writing them. It is about getting out of my writer’s chair and stepping around to the other side of the desk and sitting in the editor’s chair. It is about is the amazing pleasure that comes from undertaking a venture like Level Best Books and how rewarding it is to add the joy and excitement of putting other writers into print to my own experience as a writer. What do I mean?

Ever since Susan Oleksiw, my other partner in Level Best, asked if I’d like to join her in editing a short story collection and I, curious about what that would be like, said yes, I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time reading short stories, thinking and reading about the craft of the short story, and looking at stories with an eye to how they might fit into a story collection. Now, part of the rhythm of my writing year includes a special period, March through June, when I will sit with the hundred or more stories writers have submitted to us, looking for stories with voices that jump off the page, or that have striking or surprising ideas, or end in such a perfectly satisfying way that I sit back and say, “aah!”

As I’m reading, I’m looking for great stories. I’m looking for the balance of long and short, light-hearted and dark, stories that stand out because of their characters, or some stunning sense of place, or something different and original a writer has done which will make the story linger in a reader’s mind long after the book is closed.

I’m also thinking about how wonderful it is to put writers into print so that readers can discover them. How good it feels to produce a quality book that they, and we, can be proud of.  I’m thinking about the faces of “my” writers when they first hold the book that contains their story. I’m thinking about the long signing line our authors will enjoy at the New England Crime Bake, about bookstore events and library panels and how rare all of these things are for most short story writers. I’m always thinking, as Susan and Ruth are, about how to be the kind of editors we’d like to have.                                                                                                                        

So what's my point here? Probably only this--that while I'm delighted to have the honor of this nomination, I also feel a little guilty. Writers, in the interest of self-promotion, must spend a lot of time talking about themselves and their work, but Level Best isn't supposed to be about me. It's about giving back to the writing community and promoting and showcasing the works of others. So I feel a bit guilty. Still, it's a nice moment for Level Best.

When one of our authors, Sharon Daynard, wrote Ruth this morning about the nominations, she gave us the phrase that heads this blog: Still Waters makes waves. Sometimes, when you’re a small press struggling to get into bookstores and to get noticed at all, it feels a little like David and Goliath. With our Fish Award winner and Edgar nominee, Mark Ammons, for “The Catch,” and now with our Derringers, it looks like our slingshot is working pretty well.

Comments

[Jacqueline Seewald]

Kate,

Congrats on your nomination. I know you deserve the recognition.

Fellow Five Star/Gale author
Jacqueline Seewald
THE INFERNO COLLECTION

[John Clark]

Neato, neato. I'm thrilled for you. I can also say that a ton of Maine librarians will be thrilled to know that Thea #7 is FINALLY on the way. I was asked on Monday at a library automation conference "When is Kate's next Thea going to be ready?" Now I can give them an answer.