And the winners are....

... for the "Women in a Man's World" guest post by author Camille Minichino:

• Susan S
• Jan L
• Patty A

Thank you all for stopping in and reading Camille's "stage stop" here at the Silver Rush Mysteries blogsite!

Women in a Man's World

Please welcome my special guest today: Author Camille Minichino, talented mystery writer, who goes by many names. Camille Minichino is the author of three mystery series, beginning with her Periodic Table Mysteries. Her akas are Margaret Grace (The Miniature Mysteries) and Ada Madison (The Professor Sophie Knowles Mysteries). The first chapter of 'The Square Root of Murder," debuting July 5, is on her website: http://www.minichino.com

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I seem to be turning all phases of my life into mystery series. My husband is worried that he'll be featured (or fictitiously murdered) soon.

My newest protagonist, Professor Sophie St. Germain Knowles, teaches math at a small New England college, eerily similar to my own alma mater and former place of employment. When she's not helping the local police solve murders, she creates puzzles and brainteasers for magazines and hangs out with her medevac pilot boyfriend and an offbeat beading friend, Ariana.

The setting is contemporary, but Sophie has a two hundred year history, you might say. I named her after the great Sophie St. Germain (1776-1831), who made breakthrough contributions to mathematics in the form of number theory and the theory of elasticity.

Fifty years before Ann Parker's Inez Stannert became a businesswoman and took her place among the saloon owners and poker players in Leadville, Colorado, Sophie St. Germain was trying to make her own way in a man's world.

Women were not admitted to the schools and studies Sophie craved, so she created a new identity. Just as Inez sometimes resorts to wearing men's clothing to better accomplish her mission, Sophie used a man's name on her technical papers and letters. As Monsieur LeBlanc, Sophie corresponded with the great male mathematicians of the time, including Lagrange, Legendre, and Gauss.

Some continued to admire her work even after learning that M. LeBlanc was a woman; others were not so enlightened.

In spite of her widely known achievements, Sophie St. Germain's death certificate lists her not as mathematician or scientist, but as a rentier (property holder).

Maybe that was high praise for a woman 180 years ago.

There's no indication that "the ridicule attached to a female scientist" (Sophie St. Germain's own words) has completely passed, as we know from the failure of the ERA and the data on gender and salary.

What's a girl to do?

One idea: continue to write strong, intelligent female protagonists, like Inez Stannert, and, I hope, Gloria Lamerino, Geraldine Porter, and Sophie Knowles.

Many years ago I read a mystery series that featured a female English professor at a major university. I loved it. I reread one of the books as I prepared to write my new series.

Much to my surprise, the book that I'd remembered so fondly was merely a blatant protest against the sexist workings of the university faculty, thinly disguised as a mystery. The protagonist stands up at meeting after meeting and rants about her treatment and the discriminatory practices at the university. Her monologues go on for three or four pages at a time, without interruption, throughout the "novel."

I put the book down and could hardly believe I'd once loved it. But it was a different era. That very successful, groundbreaking series would never fly today.

Now it seems best to try to bring about awareness of women's place in the world in a way that's not heavy-handed.

Professor Sophie Knowles is my most recent attempt to portray a normal, likeable woman who also happens to be a mathematician, as Inez is a likeable woman and also a strong and clever businessperson.

In fact, Sophie is such fun, she's offering a math-related prize to three readers of The Silver Rush Mysteries blog. Send an email to camille@minichino.com by midnight July 10, with SILVERMATH in the subject line, and be entered into the drawing.

Thanks for letting me visit, Ann! It's an honor to hang out with the award-winning Inez!

Here, there, everywhere ...

Although this title could refer to my state of mind these days, I intend it to refer to signing and event venues.

This topic is on my mind because of
1) the cold calls I've been doing
2) Jane Kennedy Sutton's recent blog on book signing venues
3) a library event I did just the other day with a panel of mystery authors (that's Dana Fredsti sitting next to me in the photo below. The other panelists were Mark Coggins and Margaret Grace)

Libraries and bookstores are, of course, the obvious venues. Sometimes it's difficult (at least for me) to think outside the box on all this, particularly when there's a new release approaching like a freight train. But I do believe it's good to be open to the possibilities that come one's way and check out what other venues folks find. In addition to Jane's excellent blog post about this, check out Susan Wittig Alberts' post on "Finding Your Niche and Filling It: Tips for Marketing Your Mystery."

I'm also going to recommend the book Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel by Jeffrey Marks. He has a chapter on "Finding Your Niche" that has some great suggestions. In addition, Marks' Murder Must Advertise website also has a page called Fresh Ideas where authors offer marketing suggestions from booksigning tips to podcasting and an entire little subsection on Twittering.

So, cozy "craft" mystery authors frequent craft shows. Authors of mysteries featuring canines "dog" specialty magazines and dog shows. Historical authors might consider historical societies and genealogy groups. Personally, I've often thought I should check out the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), what with the "Old West" aspects of my mystery series.

Others thoughts? Anything that you've tried that's worked well for you? Venues are only limited by your imagination!

Of baggage, books, editors, and agents

I sat down to write this evening's blog, glanced over towards the living room, and despaired. There sat my suitcase, still waiting to be unpacked from my Malice Domestic trip. And I got home late Sunday night.

Eeeuw.

I decided I'd open 'er up, pull out the books I brought home with me, and say a word or two about some of them before moving on to the conference's "Editors and Agents" panel.

Okay, books first. For those who haven't attended mystery cons such as Malice, one of the major joys is receiving the "bag o' books" that seems to be requisite perk of attending. (?Is this a common practice for conferences of other genres? Romance readers: Do you get a big bag of freebie books at romance conferences?) In any case, after receiving the bag, I hurried up to my hotel room and sorted through the books within (feeling like a small child at Christmas). Four days later, I lugged them home along with the few that I had bought (very few, as I'm on a budget these days) from the conference booksellers. In no particular order, here are a few of the volumes that make the cross-country trek in the belly of JetBlue:

• Deadlier than the Pen by Kathy Lynn Emerson, #1 in the Diana Spaulding series —Oh boy! Big score here! I've read #2 and #3 in this historical mystery series, but not this one. Can't wait to dive in.
• Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand—A complete unknown, but it was in the bag, and I was intrigued by this Publishers Weekly blurb on the back: "Hand explores the narrow boundary between artistic genius and madness in this gritty, proundly unsettling literary thriller...."
• Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey—Another freebie from the bag. I was won over by the Author's Note at the start, which says, "... Six day 'Go As You Please Contests'—or 'Wobbles'—were instituted by Sir John Astley in March 1878, and became very popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the eighties. An Englishman, George Littlewood, set the record of 623-3/4 miles in New York in 1888, in spite of his foot being burned during the race, when his alcohol bath caught fire..." Wow! How can I resist???
• Still Life by Louise Penny—I bought this paperback. Louise Penny is one of those "genuine" authors who is a pleasure to talk with and listen to. I haven't read anything by her yet, so was resolved to buy the first in her series and give it a shot.
• The Sex Club by L.J. Sellers—There was a stack of these on the giveaway table with the invitation to "take one." I've heard some buzz about this book (and a friend recommended it), so I grabbed a copy.
• Night Kill by Ann Littlewood—Ann L. is a fellow Poisoned Pen Press author. We had a grea time chatting at the conference. I bought Night Kill and got Ann to sign it. :-)
• In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff—Bought this as a result of the Malice-Go-Round mentioned in my previous post. It's an historical set in 1904 New York and is compared to early Caleb Carr (think: The Alienist). Stefanie was one of those "genuine" low-key people. That, along with the subject matter, convinced me to plunk down my hard-earned change on a hardback by an "unknown."
• The Cat, the Quilt, and the Corpse by Leann Sweeney—Boy, does the cover look cozy, never mind the references to cats and quilts! Still, it was "in the bag," and I know Leann is an accomplished writer, so why not?

... And I'll stop there!

Now, for those of you who patiently persevered through this post to find out about the "editors and agents" panel, I'm going to pull a fast one and point you to a great post by Sandra Parshall on Poe's Deadly Daughters right here. She says it all, and very well, so go read it. In fact, I'm going to go Twitter about her post right now! :-)

What's in a word?

My tidbit from Malice Domestic today is really more "food for thought" than anything else. At the conference, there was a survey being handed out, asking folks if "cozy" should be replaced by some other term. For those not familiar with the term, a "cozy mystery" usually has an amateur sleuth (often female), no "on screen" or graphic blood, gore, or sex, and no (or very little) profanity. For further discussion of what goes into a cozy mystery check out Definition of a Cozy Mystery here or Writing the Cozy Mystery here.

Anyhow, there is a general feeling I've sensed (and heard expressed) that cozy mysteries do not get their due. That, in the world of crime fiction, "big thrillers," "literary mysteries," and so on are better respected, more heavily promoted, get the bigger bucks (in advances), and are higher on the review chain.

I'm not going to dive into that kettle of fish (or mangle any other idioms), but I do find it interesting that there's a belief that, by changing whatever you call this genre, you can somehow change how people view it. If we were to call cozy mysteries something else, they would still be what they are. If we labeled such mysteries as, oh, I don't know, "extreme mysteries" would it make a difference, do you think? Can you come up with another label for these sorts of cat-and-teapot traditional mysteries? (If you are still not sure what constitutes "cozy," think Jessica Fletcher and Cabot Cove).