Most folks love a good mystery, a good Agatha Christie or Carolyn Keene or Robert Parker. I don’t read a lot of mysteries, myself. Not that I don’t respect the craft or that I haven’t enjoyed some I’ve read, it’s just not the first thing I grab for when picking a book. In addition to reading just a few of them, I don’t write them. “Mystery” is its own genre with its own rules and expectations. There is a puzzle or a crime of some sort. There are clues. Then the characters, along with the readers, figure it out somehow.
Horror, on the other hand, is not so much about following clues but is about scaring the reader. Yes, there are some scary mysteries, and yes, horror might attach a mystery of some sort. Also yes, we could get into a debate over what horror is and what it isn’t. But let me get to the point of this post: I don’t write mysteries.
Last spring I was contacted via phone by the president of the local Art Club to see if I could do a presentation at one of their meetings. These folks aren’t artists; they admit that cheerfully. They are a collection of retired folks – mostly ladies – who enjoy art. And drama. And music. And literature. The president said, “I understand you write mysteries. We’d love to have you talk to our group.” I sweetly and clearly explained to the Art Club president that I write horror…scary books and short stories, not mysteries, but that I would be happy to a talk on how I write what I write, and then talk on writing fiction in general. She said that sounded wonderful, and I was booked.
So, the Art Club newsletter came out about a month and a half prior to my visit. I was advertised as “Elizabeth Massie, writer of mystery stories.” I e-mailed the president and said I was afraid I’d been misrepresented; I didn’t want members coming to the meeting expecting a talk on mysteries. I told her again…I write horror. Could she please let the membership know that? She wrote back: Ooops, yes, she’d make that clear. Thank you for the reminder.
Two weeks later an announcement came out in the newspaper about the upcoming meeting. “Elizabeth Massie, mystery author, will talk to the group about writing.” AURGH!!!!! I e-mailed the president again, not at all happy but still putting on my “happy e-mail face” to say I didn’t write mysteries, I wrote horror fiction and it wasn’t the same thing. I asked her to please let the membership know. She didn’t reply.
So I go to the meeting. I am ready for people to ask how they can become the next Arthur Conan Doyle. I began the meeting by saying, “Just to clarify, I don’t write mysteries, I write horror fiction. Scary fiction. Ghost stories, monster stories, weird people stories, and other stories that are bizarre or frightening.” I got some blank looks, but I immediately launched into my talk about how regardless of genre, the basic goal of fiction is to tell a good story. I talked a little about why I was intrigued by scary books and then did some activities that help anybody touch base with their innate ability to create elements of fiction. When all was said and done, we had fun.
But, in all honesty, that’s really not the first time the “mystery” issue has come up. Maybe it’s just that where I live, in a small Virginia town, people (and most often people of a certain age) find the word “horror” distasteful. They can’t really imagine that someone would actually write things with blood and guts and gore, and/or they imagine that blood and guts and gore are the only things you’ll find in a horror novel. Mysteries, on the other hand, are fun! They are adventurous! They are little Miss Marple with a magnifying glass! They are the Hardy Boys running around in a cave! They are fictional adventure rides with a bit of a thrill but not too much, with maybe a murder but not too bloody a murder.
I’ll admit that there have been plenty of times when local people, on meeting me, will say, “Oh, you’re that mystery writer.” They’ve seen something in the newspaper, or a book on the stands, or have heard I write scary stuff and they tuck the concept into the safer “mystery” category. After all, mystery writers are clever and fun, like Rita Mae Brown. Horror writers, on the other hand, are certainly depraved. And since I have been one of them all my life – my family has lived within 20 miles of where I now live since the year 1747 – I certainly couldn’t be depraved. And so, they try to force fit me into something that I’m not because it makes what I do more palatable. They make me a “mystery writer” because mysteries, while they may have some spookiness to them, are fun and safe.
Back to the Art Club. Thinking the person they’ve invited to speak at their meeting writes mysteries is much more comforting that thinking the person they’ve invited writes bloody screaming freaks or zombies or dangerous crazy people.
A couple weeks ago, my sister Barb and I took my mother to Richmond to visit a friend of hers. We dropped Mom off at her friend’s house, then spent the day checking out shops, cruising through the park, and having lunch. When we picked Mom that afternoon, my Mom’s friend said, “I hear you have a new mystery novel out.” I kid you not. Mom had told her friend I write mysteries. I should have let it go, I guess. But I said, “Oh, no, I don’t write mysteries.” My mother, a little sheepishly, said, “Oh, that’s right. You write horror.” It seems that even my Mom, after all these years, is still…embarrassed? uncomfortable? creeped out? that I write horror. Sigh.
Okay. Bye.
11 Comments, Comment or Ping
RCJ
Another fine example of persons hearing and saying what is more comfortable for them. Your piece will have readers nodding their heads in associative agreement as they read it.
RCJ
Nov 2nd, 2007
Dave Wilson
I kept laughing as I read this, because I’ve seen Beth get irritated before, and I could imagine the exasperation…and at the same time the sweet “for public consumption” smile (heh). This sort of thing is typical, I’m afraid, of public appearances for me. People have their own comfortable misconceptions and little you can do will sway them.
The last signing I went to I signed with a college professor from a local college. Another local author showed up as well. The professor had published his own book with a horrible cover — he and his wife seemed genuinely baffled that the world had not turned out to buy it. He actually asked me, after seeing the pile of novels and anthologies in front of me, if I actually got paid for my writing.
That is how far out of touch most of my local writing community is. It usually takes me several minutes of conversation with people before lights come on and they realize I did not publish my own book, it isn’t about the fruitfly population in the garden in back of my quaint retirement home, and yes - occasionally - people from other places buy and read my work.
Maybe I should write mysteries (heh).
Great piece Beth, I’ll be chuckling all day.
D
Nov 2nd, 2007
admin
Nov 2nd, 2007
Frank Wydra
On the other hand, maybe it’s that most people don’t read much fiction. Or, even if they do read fiction, they are not as concerned with genre as we are. I find that to most people there are at most five kinds of fictions: classics and mainstream (classic wanabees), westerns, romance, humor and everything else–which generally tends to have some kind of crime associated with it. These things we call mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, historical, etc get lumped into one big category they generalize into a thing called mystery. So, I think what these folks you are talking about (Mom included) are saying is “she’s one of those everything-else writers.”
Now, being a crime writer (both thrillers and mysteries) I admit that there are as many sub-genres in what is called mystery as there are genres outside of it. What you’ve been calling a mystery is a cozy, y’know, where the nice little old lady solves a puzzle involving a crime. But there are also police procedurals, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, cop books, psychological thrillers, PI books, capers, killer POV books, and so on. They all get lumped together as “mysteries.” Is that fair? Of course not, but the reading public doesn’t care about the little labels we paste on ourselves. As you said, all they want is a good read.
Frank
Nov 2nd, 2007
Teresa
It’s a good thing you weren’t asked to do a reading!
what the heck is this about answering the challenge?
It’s not that I mind but the challenge seems rather odd:
2+3+? how does one ‘answer’ that?
I presume it’s meant to be 2+3=? so that’s what i shall answer. I hope my post doesn’t fly off into the ether.
Nov 2nd, 2007
John B. Rosenman
Beth, you write <<>>? Gawd, I thought you were a nice girl, not a . . . Seriously, much of your essay I personalized, relating it to my first essay on this site, which deals with Literary Racism. In it, I said that there’s a strong bias against genre writing such as SF, horror, and fantasy. Folks’ attempts to clean up your act and airbrush you into respectability bear that out. Instead of a horror slut, make her a Mystery writer!
Of course, if what Frank says his true, maybe at least part of the bias is related to the fact that most folks only know about five different genres or kinds of writing. Hmm, not convinced it applies, but you never know.
Nice essay, by the way. I grok your frustration. But you know, your life might be easier if you wrote something more . . . uh, appropriate.
Nov 3rd, 2007
Fran Friel
This leaves me kind of speechless, Beth, with a vision of your bewildered then frustrated face in my mind. I think you’re living in a Twilight Zone episode, but soon control of your TV set will be returned to you…or maybe not.
Does this mean I write mysteries?
Your Disreputable Writing Friend,
Fran
Nov 3rd, 2007
Fran Friel
Hmm…or was that the Outer Limits? Oh gawd, now I’m feeling dopey AND disreputable.
~Fran
Nov 3rd, 2007
Elizabeth Massie
Thanks for the comments, folks.
I know that this is something facing more than just me…another horror author said he was called a “science fiction” writer…I believe that title, like mystery writer, makes us seemingly tamer and more approachable.
Dave, most of the folks in my community who write seem to be out of touch with writing as a business, as well. Where I live most folks think that if you have a book out, it certainly must have been self-published!
Frank, I hadn’t considered the idea that my situation could have something to do with people not reading much fiction. But I don’t think it has to do with people not caring about genre; my experience is that most people (those I’ve personally encountered, that is) seem very concerned with genre, with those little labels. They would not read a horror novel but would read a mystery novel. They would not read erotica but would read a romance novel. They want to know what they’re getting in to (or they want to *think* they know what they’re getting in to!)
As to the different types of mysteries, I think it’s okay to clump them together under the bigger “mystery umbrella” (cozies and hard-boiled and the others) because, unless I’m totally mistaken here, mysteries are about a crime or puzzle and the search for the solution, by either the sweet little Jessica Fletcher-types or the Andrew Vachss’ gritty Burke-types and all those in between. Horror, on the other hand, are all about the scare.
Fran..you, disreputable? Never!
Nov 4th, 2007
Gregory Fisher
Elizabeth,
Not just horror writers but even avid readers of horror have problems with the public being comfortable with what they read.
Everybody at the library where I work knows me and my love of the horror genre. But library patrons either mistake me for a mystery genre specialist or give me that wary look . . . that look like they’ve just noticed flecks of foam in the corners of my mouth.
And my in-laws . . . We don’t even talk about what I read to them.
–Greg Fisher
Nov 7th, 2007
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