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A Good Girl By Any Other Name
Hello, Girl Detective fans. Mr. Thrilling here, speaking on behalf of
the Unsinkable Ms. Browne, who’s hunkered down in her Fortess of
Solitude, slaving away on Poetic Death #4, or whatever the official
sequel to Poetic Death #3 will be titled.
Of course, those of you who just came in are probably scratching their
heads. Girl Detective? Mr. Thrilling? And who on earth is the
Unsinkable Ms. Browne?
Well, it’s all very simple, really, but if you came in after the
opening credits, please feel free to take notes.
Diana Killian’s official web site is Girl Detective which is administered by her husband, Kevin Burton Smith who is also the editor and founder of the Thrilling Detective Web Site, a site which has been dishing up the dirt on private eyes and detective fiction for almost ten years now. The “Mr. Thrilling” sobriquet (believe me, I’ve been called much worse) was bestowed upon me by Diana in the throes of passion (unfortunately, I think it was after I cooked a particularly tasty meal). And the Ms. Browne tag is pretty easy to explain as well – Diane’s real name is Diane Browne, although it took me a few years of marriage to stop thinking of her as “D.L. Browne” (yet another of her pen names).
As for the “unsinkable,” suffice it to say that Diana/Diane/D.L.
etc., etc. is one mighty writing machine, a literary force of nature. She could write through a hurricane, an earthquake, or even supper. She’s not only unsinkable; she may just be unstoppable.
As a writer myself, I’m constantly in awe of her dedication. And
still very, very much in love with that crazy lady (Folks, you have no
idea…)
Which is why I’m guest-blogging. And using the opportunity to plug an
upcoming joint project. The title’s still sorta tentative, but right
now the working title is Stand-Up Dames. The sub-title’s even more
tentative, but it’ll be something like “Hard-boiled Women Writers
of the Pulp Era” or something like that. It’ll be heading your way
probably sometime in 2009, courtesy of Vince Emery Productions, the
publishers of several books on crime fiction.
It’s going to be an anthology of short stories and excerpts from and
biographical and bibliographical info on some of the women who worked
the hard-boiled vein of the pulp era, which we’ve taken to stretch
from about 1925 to about 1959.
Yeah, I know it flies in the face of the alleged “common knowledge”
so popular in certain circles that Marcia Muller (or maybe Sara Paretsky or Sue Grafton) were the first women to ever write hard-boiled crime fiction, a bogus claim that insults the memories of some fine writers (and a claim that Muller, Paretsky and Grafton would be quick to denounce).
Sure, too many of these early women writers are now forgotten, but in
many cases they’re no more forgotten than their male contemporaries.
And in most cases it’s not a matter of gender at all but the
transcient nature of pulp that’s the culprit.
Anyway, trust me, we’ve rounded up plenty of women we think deserve
to be rediscovered and, copyrights permitting, plenty of their wares to
show you. Some of the names you’ll recognize, some of them you’ll
have never heard of, and some of them you may just get you scratching your
head.
Some of them were undeniably great writers; some of them were merely
good, and a few may make you cringe. Some of them were subversive,
some of them “transcended” the genre, and a few were gloriously and
surprisingly politically incorrect. Some were glib; some were dark;
and some were both at the same time. Some of them wrote for the pulps,
some wrote for the slicks; some of them wrote in hardcover; a few of
them rode the paperback boom of the late forties and fifties. But they
were all pros who knew how to spin a yarn and make their mark in a
genre that was supposedly written exclusively for and read by men.
And that’s another bit of “common knowledge” we hope to blow out of
the water.
Anyway, we’re currently finalizing our roster, reading stories and
novels and researching the lives of some very fascinating women. Once
the roster’s finished, we’ll be divvying it up between us. D.L. has
already called dibs on a few of them, and I’ve got my own favorites,
but I think this is going to be one hell of a lot of fun. And I think
readers – both male and female — will be having a lot of fun as
well, when this puppy finally hits the streets.
Well, that’s it for now. Maybe next time, I’ll tell you what The
Divine Ms. Browne is really like…
xoxo
