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Today, mystery authors, Peter McGinn, Marjorie Abrams, Susan Waller Miccio and I, Cheryl Hagedorn, will be discussing:

Susan: Both. I am aware of my readership and I think about what would appeal to them, but I have to appeal to myself as well. Why on earth would I spend all this time and effort on something I don’t like?

Fortunately, I had a ready-made readership of people who bought my non-fiction dog books. I know them pretty well. I’ve talked to them on the phone, emailed them, met them at dog shows, and so on, for years. If one of them sends me an email that says “I haven’t had a book hold my interest in years - not much of a reader at all - but I could not put this one down,” I’ve obviously done something that appealed to that person, but, good grief, what an ego trip for me, too!

People sometimes ask me, “Why do you write?” and I truthfully say something about needing a creative outlet. My work as a system administrator – I call my it my “day job” - offers some avenues of creativity, but somehow I don’t get the same intrinsic reward from crafting an elegant query in SQL code or from writing a precise system procedure as I do from writing a story that inspires that kind of remark from a reader.

I’m just a praise junkie. Truth be told, if I were writing entirely for myself, I’d probably write historical mystery because it would be more intellectually satisfying to me. Maybe I will someday, when I’m retired and can devote full time to research and writing.

Peter: Hmm, if I am envisioning an audience, it must be well hidden! For the most part I write for myself - after all, I do have to read it many many times during rewrites and proofreads. I am trying to think more like that elusive creature: the reader. I am planning to rewrite Gumby and Gumshoe, a book that is both a detective novel and a take-off on a detective novel, and I am going to put more action into it, liven it up a bit. So I am definitely thinking of the audience there. The best time for me to think of them is after the first draft is finished.

Cheryl: Peter, I suspect you’re being a little less than candid Your book has been advertised and/ or reviewed by national, international ostomy organizations, to say nothing of all the local chapters who have helped promote your book.

Peter: Gosh, I am never less than candid, Cheryl. I might exaggerate, make light of, be sarcastic about, and otherwise obfuscate (hold on, let me look that word up… yeah, that’s the one I want). Where was I? I might do all that, but candidity is my hallmark. When I say my audience is well hidden I am referring to my Herculean efforts in reaching the post-ostomy audience through hundreds of letters and receiving merely dozens of responses. I have speculated that since a high percentage of persons who have the surgery are elderly, a general lack of disposable income might have been a factor in keeping me from appearing on Oprah. Maybe if I had written it as non-fiction and titled it “Lose Weight Through Ostomy Surgery!”

Cheryl: I should have known better than to give you that opening!

Ahem, let me give you my two cents on audience. Since my novel, PARK RIDGE: A Senior Center Murder, is written about a real place (but fictitious murders), I assumed that folks at the senior center would want to read it. I also figured that it would have appeal for other senior citizens. But as for writing with them in mind, I don’t think I did. I wanted to be very careful with my characters so no one would think that I was writing about a real person, even accidentally! And there are minor characters, like Bert the janitor who is himself and Gloria. I was extrememly careful in portraying them so no one could criticize how I had portrayed them. But that was just the folks at the Park Ridge Senior Center.

I remember thinking that this might be the only mystery novel that some readers might read that portrayed a group of seniors — without the stereotypes, etc. — I wanted to be sure that I was accurate as well as steered clear of those stereotypes where possible.

Marjorie, who do you write for?

Marjorie: I write for myself.