Bruce DeSilva, Don Dahler, Wallace Stroby, Mary Jane Clark, moderator Larry Light. Photo: Darleen Rubin
More than 60 Deadline Club members and their guests packed the main art gallery of the Salmagundi Club on January 11 to hear our distinguished panel of journalists who have made the leap to published mystery novelists. The event was co-hosted by the Mystery Writers of America and the Salmagundi Club.
The five panelists have all been highly successful in both of their careers. They told the audience that their experience as journalists fostered traits that were also valuable to novelists, such as the ability to make deadlines, accept criticism and keep up a sense of humor.
Another advantage: They understand that writer’s block isn’t an option, says Bruce DeSilva, one of the panelists, who is also a former Associated Press editor. According to him, “journalists know that writer’s block is for sissies.”
All five panelists found inspiration in the stories they’ve covered. “My novels tend not to be nearly as bloody and grotesque as the stories I have covered in real life,” says Don Dahler, who anchors the weekend morning and evening CBS 2 newscasts, and is the author of “A Tight Lie” and “Water Hazard,” which are both mystery novels. “You cannot ever overestimate the brutality that one person can force on another.”
Apparently, the old saw that authors “write what they know” is true of mystery novelists, too. Mary Jane Clark, a former CBS news producer who is the New York Times bestselling author of the “Wedding Cake” series of mystery novels, was the daughter of an FBI agent. DeSilva worked for 13 years as a newsman in Rhode Island, which he calls “an amazingly corrupt, wonderful little place.” That was the premise for his book “Rogue Island,” which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2010.
Like many novelists, some of the panelists base their characters on real-life people. The moderator of the evening, Larry Light, a veteran business editor for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and BusinessWeek, says that readers could easily recognize a character in his novel “Fear and Greed,” which is centered on an egotistical Manhattan real estate mogul and casino owner. “To this day, Donald Trump loathes me,” Light says. “Donald Trump never sued, but maybe he should have because that would have helped sales.”
Many of the questions from the audience focused on the process of becoming a published novelist. That took Clark six years from when she began writing her first novel, “Do You Want to Know A Secret?” which was inspired by her coverage of Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs for CBS television news. Finally, the book sold in two weeks after she signed with an agent in 1998. “It was an overnight success six years in the making,” she says.
As journalists, “you learn to have a thick skin,” says Wallace Stroby, who worked for New Jersey daily newspapers for 23 years and is the author of “The Barbed-Wire Kiss,” which was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel. He says that helps journalists write novels without worrying about failure.
Of course, journalists need to make adjustments to fiction writing. Light, who in addition to his other accomplishments is executive vice president of the Mystery Writers of America, says that this is particularly true when it comes to crafting mysteries. “In a mystery novel,” Light says, “you bury the lede, literally.”