Guardian Stones in the UK News.

by Eric

Our WWII era mystery The Guardian Stones just received a mention in The Shopshire Star! Our thanks to Kate Charles for drawing it to our attention.

Writers Who Kill

by Eric

No, Mary and I are not writers who kill. Nor am I going to say anything about writers who actually have killed, although I understand that there have been some. Okay. Yeah, I'm thinking of Benvenuto Cellini who brags in his autobiography about how many people he killed. Not to mention being escorted to Heaven to meet God personally. No, I'm referring to the interview at the blog "Writers Who Kill." We (on behalf of Eric Reed!) answer questions about The Guardian Stones, such as why we chose to set a book in WWII Shropshire of all places in the first place. And we also talk a little about how we got started with our writing.

An Interview With Eric Reed.

The Problem with Self Promotion

The Guardian Stones is an exciting departure for us. Set in the UK during WWII, a much different period than our Byzantine mysteries, it is also different in tone, darker perhaps, owing as much to the modern thriller as the Golden Age Detectives.

Naturally we want people to read the novel and so, already we have been dutifully attempting to bring it to people's attention. Unfortunately, although promotion is necessary, neither Mary nor I are very comfortable with it. If only Eric Reed were a real person who loved being a salesman.

In his memoir Self Consciousness John Updike described well the plight of diffident writers:

"...the price that we pay, we Americans who shyly wish to live by our eyes and wits, at our desks, away from the frightening tussle of human strength and appetite and intimidation and persuasiveness, is marginality: we live chancily, on society's crumbs in a sense, as an exchange for our exemption from the broad brawl of, to give it a name, salesmanship."

Ain't it the truth!

For most of us, although not, perhaps, for John Updike.

You're not exactly marginalized when you're on the cover of Time magazine, twice. But Updike's fame arrived in the early sixties and I would prefer to believe that back then success sought authors out because of their writing, that Updike had only sell stories and novels, and not himself. Or not to the extent that he would have had to sell himself were he beginning his career today.

How will literature change when an author cannot attain publication without without becoming a salesman? Surely our personalities are reflected in our books. A hard driving, competitive self promoter (the sort of person help wanted ads seek) perfectly at home in Updikes's "frightening tussle of human strength and appetite" is going to write a different kind of book than a person who is retiring and meditative.

Not that retiring and meditative writers have ever fared very well against the literary self-promoters but at least they were not entirely cut off from publication, which might soon be the case.

From a business point of view it isn't surprising. The financial returns from even a bestselling author like Updike amount to crumbs compared to the obscene mountains of money available from the more profitable businesses owned by the corporate conglomerates who control big publishing. Those who read books regularly have become a shrinking minority on the margins of society. Certainly not a market important enough to cultivate.

Nevertheless, some lesser-promoters will doubtless continue to write because for us there is almost no price too high for an exemption from salesmanship. Some of us still aspire to be Arthur Miller rather than Willy Loman.

Welcome to Our Blog

by Eric

It took more than one book to change our name to Eric Reed.

Well, okay, it only took one book, The Guardian Stones, out in January, and we'll still be Mary Reed and Eric Mayer on our Byzantine mysteries. Except for the Head of Zeus UK editions where we'll remain M.E. Mayer. I think that's it. Except in a few households where our name is Mud. Live long enough and your name is bound to be Mud someplace.

Live too long and you begin to have trouble remembering your pen names.

We all (for values of "we all" equaling the authors and editor Barbara Peters) figured it would be a good idea to differentiate our upcoming World War II historical from those set in the sixth century. We don't want to scare off readers who don't care for the Byzantine period. However, if you do read our Byzantine mysteries we'd love for you to check out our new effort.

Before Eric Reed debuts, however, Mary and Eric return in October with the eleventh John the Lord Chamberlain mystery, Murder in Megara. This time John finds himself and his family exiled to a rural estate near where he grew up. To solve a murder, the former Lord Chamberlain needs to venture into territory he usually avoids -- his own past. More about that in future posts.

This is going to be a joint blog. We're not sure exactly what we'll post aside from anything that strikes our fancy. Mary will be posting a review of an older mystery novel every week on Golden Age Sunday. If you like that sort of mystery -- and we consider our mysteries with their fairly clued puzzles as direct descendants --be sure to look for her posts.

I don't have any concrete plans right now but, hey, you will note that according to Hollywood poster conventions, Mary gets top billing here.