Introduction to my life as a crime editor

[Lisa]

This is an introductory post starting this blog. I love the idea of CrimeSpace, of having an international, blog-based community to share our thoughts and love for crime fiction. Thus I joined. Having said that, I won't have much time ... you are likely to find here once-in-a-while posts relating to my professional life mostly. And perhaps rants about the German crime scene ;-).

This is what made my life hell put bread on my table since January 1st:

- The translation of Barbara Pope's historical novel Cézanne's Quarry. The German Im hellen Licht des Todes will come out June 2008.
Barbara was my professor in Women's Studies and History at the University of Oregon, back when I was studying in Eugene. She has since become a good friend. This woman is awesome! An American socialist who - seriously - bought a Ford to "support the American workers", a French History and History of Sexuality expert, an ardent feminist, a passionate fan of The Sopranos, and the most knowledgeable guide through the City of Siena. If your get a chance, read her book! I - declared franco-phobe - fell in love with the Provence reading/translating it.

This Spring Rotbuch Verlag, the publishing house I mostly work for, is launching the German edition of the US hard-boiled, pulp-noir Hard Case Crime-series. My job was to edit the translations of our first three titles. Do check out the covers - they are spectacular.

- Lawrence Block's Abzocker, a reprint of Grifter's Game which was first published in 1962 (then titled Mona). Lawrence Block, of course, is the indisputable God of US Crime Fiction. If you never read a novel by him, stop reading this and go get one of his books - now. Grifter's Game blew me away. I won't say a word but the ending is nothing like what you would expect from an early 60ties mystery. We bought the old translation which was decidedly seventy-ish, down to the heroine's outfits. In the HCC edition Mona is wearing the obligatory tight red dress, in the translation from the early 1970ties she suddenly was moving around in a green mini and thigh-length boots.


- Allan Guthrie's Abschied ohne Küsse, the original was published as Kiss Her Goodbye. Allan Guthrie is one of the most celebrated new UK hard-boiled writers living and writing in and about Edingburgh. Contemporary hard-boiled at its finest! Rotbuch Verlag recently bought German-language rights to all of his books.

- Ken Bruen and Jason Starr's Flop, originally published as Bust. The tag line is: When you hire someone to kill your wife, don’t hire a psychopath, and that sums up the book quite nicely. It is my favourite of the three. Ken Bruen is Irish, Jason Starr from New York, the mix is just out of this world altogether. The translator Richard Betzenbichler, with a sheer stroke of genius, introduced Bavarian idiom to get the Irish slang across. You have to read it to believe it :-).

Rotbuch Verlag also publishes German mysteries.
- This Spring Rob Alef's Das magische Jahr is going to come out. And although the book is not really situated in the real world of crime and mystery, it's not fantasy, either. "The magical year" is the year of 1968. This book brings together the legendary Beatles concert in Hamburg in the summer of 1968, snow in July, loads of German 1968-related events, and penguin paramedics who speak a language reminiscent of Scottish whiskey labels. It's set in a Berlin as it might be if the 1968-generation had truly gone through with their revolution. Or not. It's Rotbuch's crime contribution to the 40th anniversary of 1968. I did the editing of the book. I might mention that I received the ending fresh from the author's computer 36 hours before the entire manuscript needed to go to the type-setters. Meaning, needless to say, all-night shifts.

- Also in January author Carlo Feber and me conducted a creative writing on-line seminar, a "Novel and Mystery Writing Workshop". The workshop was dedicated to working solely on the participants' projects. All of them had already participated in our other workshops, Creative Writing: Mehr Spaß und Erfolg beim Schreiben (Introduction... and Krimi schreiben (Writing Mysteries). We gave them three "milestones" to work on during these three weeks, then commented and discussed their texts in the group. It might not sound like much, but this is incredible hard work. Each of the nine participants handed in 5 pages of text each Sunday evening, and Carlo and I wrote up detailed comments on plot, language, pov and whatever specific topic we had asked them to work on. This is how I spent my Mondays and part of the Tuesdays during the workshop.

Now, back to work :-).

[Lisa]

Hi Carole, thanks for friending and your wonderful comment to my post. I can't tell you how much I enjoy HardCaseCrime and how delighted I was when Rotbuch Verlag followed my suggestion to publish the German-language editions. Good luck on your 50's New York novel! It sounds fascinating.
Lisa

[carole gill]

Such an interesting post! I love the hard case novels. I am working on an historical crime piece set in 1950's New York. i agree with what you said about Lawrence Block. At the moment I am avidly reading all the Ed McBain 87th pct. Series--starting with his earliest.
i love the harkening back to that sort of writing.
So delighted to read that hard case is published and enjoyed in Germany!
i dream of finishing my book and getting the most lurid cover! wow. heaven. i can dream, can't i?
That workshop sounds fantastic. Wish I was closer!
Pleasure to read your blog post. so interesting and informative!