Mslexia & Writing Magazine comparing Crime Fiction

Still keeping up with my reading of writing materials and I found it quite weird that in both magazines this month there was an analysis of crime writing. In Writing Magazine (July 09) Linda Castillo compares crime writing with romantic suspense - emphasising the need for strong characters and high stakes, and in Mslexia (Apr/May/Jun 09) Sophie Hannah compares crime fiction to poetry. She writes: "In a crime novel events need to be spaced in the right way. Several min-revelations are necessary in a detective story, prior to the big revelation at the end, and gaps of appropriate sizes must be present between these gasp-inducing moments."

They say that crime fiction can never be seen as literary fiction, but I for one feel that there are so many levels in a good crime novel that crime fiction really should be taken more seriously!!

Quotes for the Day (Thanks Shad)

You pile up enough tomorrows and you’ll be left with nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make today worth remembering.
Meredith Willson, The Music Man

What you will do matters. All you need is to do it.
Judy Grahan, Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds, 1984

It’s the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you.
Tony Benn