Denver's largest indie magazine interviewed me about Trigger Point and you can read it here. One of the things I managed to get highlighted was how the novel intersects with my work as a librarian. The work of librarianship, at least in a public library, has changed an awful lot since I entered the profession 15 years ago. I sought out the career primarily because I like research and helping people conduct research. That's what you think of when you imagine a "reference librarian." But that's such a tiny part of my job now. I can go weeks without having anyone ask a question that requires more than a cursory glance through a database or print reference book. My work largely consists of planning public programs and helping people with their technology problems.
Readers Advisory is one of the few "traditional" public librarian roles that's managed to survive the profession's tectonic changes. It also remains among the most challenging and rewarding. From the standpoint of a writer, there's no better way to get inside a reader's mind than to interview them about their tastes. It's also a terrific way to acquaint yourself with publishing trends.
In the lead-up to writing Trigger Point, I was thinking of two patrons who used to come into the library very often asking for book recommendations. They both liked mysteries, but one liked cozies and the other favored titles along the lines of Kiss the Girls. I thought it'd be interesting to try a book that could blend both elements. So Trigger Point was in part an experiment in threading the needle of two vastly different tastes in mystery fiction. There are some fairly graphic sequences bookended by the sensibilities of a cozy. As a genre experiment, I was thinking of a book that I could give to both my patrons and have them walk away happy.
The risk, of course, is that Trigger Point is a novel that manages to completely annoy both patrons. Hopefully I haven't done that. Time will tell . . .
Readers Advisory is one of the few "traditional" public librarian roles that's managed to survive the profession's tectonic changes. It also remains among the most challenging and rewarding. From the standpoint of a writer, there's no better way to get inside a reader's mind than to interview them about their tastes. It's also a terrific way to acquaint yourself with publishing trends.
In the lead-up to writing Trigger Point, I was thinking of two patrons who used to come into the library very often asking for book recommendations. They both liked mysteries, but one liked cozies and the other favored titles along the lines of Kiss the Girls. I thought it'd be interesting to try a book that could blend both elements. So Trigger Point was in part an experiment in threading the needle of two vastly different tastes in mystery fiction. There are some fairly graphic sequences bookended by the sensibilities of a cozy. As a genre experiment, I was thinking of a book that I could give to both my patrons and have them walk away happy.
The risk, of course, is that Trigger Point is a novel that manages to completely annoy both patrons. Hopefully I haven't done that. Time will tell . . .
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