I read a post Neil Gaiman wrote on his blog answering this question: What was the best advice he’d received from another author. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. When you have something to say, speak quietly.
People will listen.
There is a certain amount of shouting in the mystery genre: big books, quick hooks and first person narratives that grab a reader for the ride of their life. That’s good stuff, I’m not denying.
But what about the story that comes in waves, like the tide, reaching higher and higher onto the shore. Sometimes I cannot help but think that those mysteries, those stories peeled back like layers of an onion, are on equal footing with all the twisting and shouting.
At some point in the future I hope to launch the mystery I’ve written. It may or may not be a quiet book. It may or may not be anything like what I’ve tried to describe. But somewhere in the world, there are books a reader wears like a comfortable old coat, and is pleasantly surprised by what’s in a forgotten pocket.
I think it’s better than shouting.
Brave New Deadline 