Mysteries of Writing

From the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley comes a how-to manual on her craft. In Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, the late Patricia Highsmith gives advice on generating ideas ("It is amusing to let the imagination play with such incidents as a faintly heard song and an invaded apartment, and to see what evolves from them"), helpful practices (keep a notebook), overarching philosophies ("The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself") and specific craft issues ("where should one place the climax in a book?"). The advice is all sound (particularly her ideas on "almost incredible" coincidences), and her status as a suspense heavyweight and a commercial success make her book eminently credible. (St. Martin's, $12.95 paper 160p ISBN 0-312-28666-X; Sept.)

"Keep your mouth shut as tight as possible.... Because anything you leak can become less strong for you," advises G. Miki Hayden (Pacific Empire) in Writing the Mystery: A Start-to-Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional. With writing exercises, classic wisdom of the genre ("Hitchcock dubbed a sought-after article the McGuffin.... In the traditional mystery, the McGuffin is... the knowledge of who committed the murder and why. In plotting your story, keep your protagonist's eye directly, at all times, on the McGuffin"), market savvy ("the short story... can be a pathway in your career"), submission protocol ("The cover letter conveys the mystery's 'hook' ") and so on, the book will benefit beginning writers as well as writers ready to make the next career move. It concludes with interviews with six mystery authors, including Elmore Leonard (Cuba Libre), Sujata Massey (The Salaryman's Wife) and Laura Lippman (Baltimore Blues). (Intrigue [P.O. Box 27553, Philadelphia, Pa. 19118], $18.95 paper 252p ISBN 1-890768-36-7; Sept.)

"Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved," writes novelist and poet Marge Piercy in the poem that prefaces her and novelist Ira Wood's (The Kitchen Man) guide for careerist writers, So You Want to Write: How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and the Personal Narrative. "This book is a product of workshops we have given for many years," write the authors, and those not lucky enough to have participated in the workshops can now benefit from their no-nonsense wisdom. Eschewing the current trend in process-based writing classes and guides, Piercy and Wood urge writers to read critically and often; to ask themselves specific, exacting questions about their characters and plots; to complete the book's writing exercises; to do research in order to make a piece of writing believable; to participate in some kind of community of writers; and numerous other practical steps. Readers will appreciate the hardcore approach of these two dedicated writers. (Leapfrog [Consortium, dist.], $14.95 paper 224p ISBN 0-9679520-2-6; Aug.)

Therapist, writer and creativity expert Mark Waldman (Love Games) offers The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life, including five dozen pieces by luminaries like Joseph Conrad, Erica Jong, Sylvia Plath, Henry Miller and Octavio Paz. In "Man Eats Car," Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) declares, "Writing is everything, unconditional.... If you think big enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women." Pierre Joris (Poasis) poeticizes the "interface between language and the world": "it becomes clear that this letter fell off on its own accord somehow & that it is in the gap between mother-tongue/other-tongue that I am written. This gap, this emptiness, is liable to take my breath away." This anthology will provide writers of all stripes with guidance and inspiration for their psyche and their craft. (Putnam/Tarcher, $15.95 paper 336p ISBN 1-58542-127-8; Aug. 27)

August Publication

Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity, edited by anthropologist Levon Abrahamian and artist and art historian Nancy Sweezy, traces this ancient culture from the end of the fourth millennium B.C., when the Kura-Arakses civilization occupied the Armenian highland, to contemporary Armenian wedding ceremonies (wherein "the bridegroom, in his role as king during the wedding ritual" becomes "transformed miraculously, once in his lifetime, into the symbolic defender of the Armenian people"). Color images of ruins, landscapes, artifacts, art, households, businesses and people, as well as maps, manuscripts and paintings, appear on every page, accompanying the essays by assorted scholars. This comprehensive scholarly and pictorial history will make anyone of Armenian descent proud. (Indiana Univ., $49.95 300p ISBN 0-253-33704-6)

The original Planet of the Apes was weird enough—now, as "reimagined" by Tim Burton in a new movie, it promises even more oddness. Planet of the Apes: A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook Including the Screenplay features Burton's screenplay, an introduction by the filmmaker, pictures from the set and the film and quotes from the cast. Excellent photographs, detailed sketches and drawings both from the movie and behind the scenes provide extensive information, each page grabbing the reader's attention with entertaining visuals. (Newmarket, $22.95 176p ISBN 1-55704-486-4)