Dear Reader,
The days are growing longer, and the weather is getting warmer. No doubt, if you live in this hemisphere, you’re looking forward to relaxing days at the beach with a bag full of great books. And, as always, I have plenty of recommendations for you. But for my part, I am already looking ahead to the holiday season — because I have a special present for you! Keep reading to find out what it is.
Don’t expect something sweet, cozy, and sentimental.
Christmas Presents
Not long ago, I was visiting with Otto Penzler of Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press fame, and he asked me “have you ever thought about writing a Christmas novella?” I had, in fact. You know me. I’m always looking for the shadow side of a beautiful thing, and Christmas with all its glitter and high expectations has been on my mind for a while now. So, I started writing, and the result is a novella that will be released on October 24th entitled CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!
Look at this gorgeous cover:
What’s it about?
Don’t expect something sweet, cozy, and sentimental — well, maybe it’s a little sentimental in the darkest possible way. My unofficial tagline for the book is: Lisa Unger Ruins Christmas!
Bookseller Madeline Martin has white-knuckled her way from tragedy to a near normal existence. Though she’s running ragged caring for her ill father and running The Next Chapter, her independent bookshop, she’s found a way forward after surviving a serial killer. When a true crime writer and podcaster visits her shop just before Christmas, he’s not just there to buy a book. He wants to unearth things that Madeline has worked hard to bury. As podcaster Harley Granger digs deeper, Madeline and her best friend Badger get drawn back into a darkness they worked hard to escape and find that answers to questions they never wanted to ask are closer than they think.
Here’s some early praise from one of my favorite authors:
“The perfect mix of thrills and chills to delight any suspense reader.” —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Stay tuned for your early chance to read!
Where I’ve been:
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been head down, working on my 22nd novel that will release in 2025. I’m getting to know my characters better every day, and seeing the story emerge on the page in front of me. This is the honeymoon phase, when everything is fresh and new, and the story is evolving and the characters are speaking to me. If you’re seeing less of me on social media, this is why. It’s an important balance because, for me, creativity and social media do not mix. Writing, I’m in my happy place. Social media is a different head space.
Anyway, as I forge into the middle third of the book, there will be good days and bad. A novel is a long relationship with lots of highs and lows. So, we’ll see how happy I am in the next newsletter!
It was fun to relive that time when I was just a young writer, wondering if I had what it took to make my dreams come true.
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to speak to the creative writing students at Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate division of The New School for Social Research in New York City and my alma mater where I have had the honor of being named one of 100 New School Alumni: Celebrating 100 years of bold, change-making leaders in culture, commerce, and civic life along with Tom Ford, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Dr. Ruth and more. I talked to the students about my journey from aspiring writer at Lang, where I started my first novel, to published writer ten years later. Then I answered questions about creativity, process, balancing my writing and the work of marketing and more. It was fun to relive that time when I was just a young writer, wondering if I had what it took to make my dreams come true.
What I’m wrestling with:
A friend of mine texted a couple of weeks ago, wondering what we writers are meant to take away from negative reviews. I know! Hard to believe everyone doesn’t love us! When your books reach a certain number of readers, there are lots of opinions floating around. Good, bad, and meh. It used to be that only book reviewers got to weigh in on whether you had done a good job or not — and trust me, that wasn’t always pretty either. These days, everyone has a forum to voice his or her thoughts for other people to read. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a thing that authors have to accept, not everyone is going to be a fan. You’d be hard pressed to find one book that hasn’t earned a broad range of reader reviews.
I have a stickie note on my desk that reads: Don’t focus on the critics. Focus on the people who receive you with love. I shared that with my friend, and I’m sharing it with you, because we all need to hear it when we’re trying to do big, risky things.
All the writers I know spend a lot of time trying to make their work the very best it can be. It takes years and multiple drafts. We agonize over character, suspense, story, word choice, pacing. We revise and revise and revise some more. And as much as we try to stay away from our reviews, it’s nearly impossible these days.
So, for my reader pals, the next time you sit down to write a negative review remember that authors are people who work hard, and are often painfully sensitive. If you write something mean, they’ll probably see it. And it will hurt.
And for my writer pals, remember that the only thing you can control is what you do at the keyboard. Do your best work, every day. And when your book goes out into the world, and people start weighing in, good, bad, or meh, just get to work on the next one!
What I’m reading:
I just finished WINDFALL by one of my brilliantly talented pals Wendi Corsi Staub. A winning lottery ticket, a haunted California mansion, and raging wildfires provide the tense and atmospheric backdrop for this riveting and engrossing new thriller. I devoured this novel about the price of friendship and the things we’ll do for love and money in one breathless sitting. Rocket-paced and full of unexpected twists, WINDFALL is a knockout! A summer must-read.
You’ll be waiting a while for DARK RIDE the stellar new outing by bestselling and award- winning Lou Berney. But it will be worth the wait. Hardly is working in at a dilapidated amusement park and drifting through life on bong hits when by chance he encounters two kids he suspects of being abused. He becomes oddly obsessed with helping them. His evolution from stoner to sleuth in this emotional, deep and riveting mystery is one of my favorite character evolutions. Hapless, funny, kind, smarter-than-he-thinks, braver-than-he-knows Hardly is someone I really hope to see again.
It’s too smart and — ahem — well-done to binge, so we’ve been limiting ourselves to one episode at time.
What I’m watching:
Succession is back on HBO Max for its third season. And it’s every bit as depraved and soul-sucking as I expected. (Episode 3!) This show is the ultimate in family dysfunction with all its layers and complexities, riveting performances, and ultra-wealthy eye candy. It’s also darkly, uncomfortably funny. Don’t watch it if you hate the rich. You’ll only hate them more.
At first, I wasn’t interested in Shrinking on Apple TV, but then I felt like I needed some therapy after watching Succession, so we took a chance. This funny, sad, sweet show is beautifully written, and populated by an immensely likeable cast of characters. Harrison Ford is a life-long favorite. But Jessica Williams and Lukita Maxwell are real scene stealers. It's not easy for a show to be wise, deep, human, and still light. Though it shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Shrinking is from the producers of Ted Lasso, another favorite now in its fourth season. Why did Roy break up with up with Keeley??? Why???
Beef starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun was a huge surprise. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but we took a chance because we have loved Steven Yeun since The Walking Dead. Holy wow, this show grabs you by the throat in scene one with an incident of shocking road rage. Complex character studies, dark humor, twisting, surprising plot, deep, insightful social commentary. It’s too smart and — ahem — well-done to binge, so we’ve been limiting ourselves to one episode at time. Don’t miss this powerful, engrossing series about the toxic, destructive path of revenge. And so much more.
What I’m researching:
This CrimeReads article by the great Thomas Perry about manuscript mistakes made me laugh. I’ve been gnashing my teeth over a mistake in one of my recent novels that somehow managed to make it past me countless times, my editor, the copy editor, and every single person who read an early draft or ARC, and find it’s way into the printed book. And, after twenty novels, this is not the first time. It’s impossible to understand how these things happen, but they do!
Patricia Highsmith was one of the greatest crime fiction writers of all times, and certainly an important influence for many of our best mystery and thriller writers. Like most geniuses, she was also a complicated person. In The New York Times, the superbly talented author and New York Times book critic Sarah Weinman offers readers this primer to discovering Highsmith’s work and life. I’d also suggest "This Sweet Sickness," one of my all-time favorite novels.
I have long been fascinated by Hart Island, the strip of land in the Long Island Sound just past City Island where New York has long buried its unclaimed dead. Even though it was off-limits to visitors until 2021, I set a portion of my 2007 novel SLIVER OF TRUTH on a fictional version of the potter’s field (using news articles, photos, and my writerly imagination). There are over a million graves on this 131-acre property owned by the New York jail system. With the demolition of fifteen abandoned buildings, there is now room for many more. Now the island will have a new life as a park open to the public. This is a fascinating article about the past and future of “New York’s most forbidden place for public access.”
Where to find me:
May 5, 2023 at 7pm ET
Ozark Dogs: A Conversation with Eli Cranor and Lisa Unger at Tombolo Books
St. Petersburg, FL
Register now
May 30 - June 4, 2023
ThrillerFest
New York, NY
Register now
Until next month…
Hope your spring is full of sunshine and flowers, and of course, lots of good books! Leave a comment below about what you’re reading and loving (no spoilers, please.) And let me know what you think about the newsletter. I write this, like everything, for you.
Thanks for reading!
I'm watching season 2 Yellowjackets loving it so far and next week season 2 of FROM starts I'm reading an advanced copy of The Wolves Come At Night by J.T. Ellison it's a Taylor Jackson novel she's my favorite female detective happy Spring
Just finished Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman. I’ve read four of his novels previously, and this is my favorite.