{"id":8836,"date":"2021-02-15T08:04:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T13:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8836"},"modified":"2021-02-15T08:04:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T13:04:50","slug":"the-state-im-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8836","title":{"rendered":"The State I’m In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last week the New York chapter of  Mystery Writers of America sponsored a Facebook panel on \u201cNew Jersey writers.\u201d It was a lot of fun, at least for me. On the panel, which was led by RG Belsky<\/a>, whose books I\u2019ve reviewed here<\/a>, were Mally Becker<\/a>, whose new historical mystery, The Turncoat\u2019s Widow<\/em>, is set in the Revolutionary War, Jeff Markowitz<\/a>, past chapter president, also with a recent book, Hit or Miss<\/em>, and me, who will<\/em> have a book out later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first issue we dispensed with was \u201cwho IS a New Jersey writer\u201d? There are people who live in and write about New Jersey (at least sometimes). There are people who live her but write about other places. And there are people who live somewhere else and write about New Jersey–wannabees. We can usually identify them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panel members agreed there\u2019s a New Jersey sensibility\u2014a bit of a chip on the shoulder, being constantly looked down upon by our near-neighbors across the Hudson, a lot of attitude, and a lack of shrinking violets. I complained (again, but I live in New Jersey, so why not?) about the Akashic book of short stories, New Jersey Noir<\/em>, many of which for my money could have been written about almost anyplace. I didn\u2019t get a chance to plug Bill Baer\u2019s new book New Jersey Noir: Cape May<\/em><\/a>, which hilariously captures several perfect specimens from the New Jersey ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the well-known crime\/mystery writers who call New Jersey home are Harlan Coben, Joyce Carol Oates, and Janet Evanovich, whose protagonist, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, works out of Trenton. Equally witty is Brad Parks, whose early books drew on his experience as a reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger<\/em>. A newspaperman like Belsky, he\u2019s deserted the Garden State for Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diversity of New Jersey crime writers is reflected in the day jobs they\u2019ve held: Joe Hefferon<\/a> (law enforcement), Steven Max Russo<\/a> (advertising executive), N. Lombardi, Jr.<\/a> (groundwater geologist, who has decamped to Cambodia), Nikki Stern (professional musician), Al Tucher<\/a> (librarian), the aforementioned Baer (college professor and award-winning poet), and Sergio de la Pava<\/a> (public defender). Their books are just as diverse! Me, I gave away money. Don\u2019t call. That was a long time ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if these writers all chose New Jersey as the setting for their books, they still have a lot of choices\u2014New Jersey Transit (a world unto itself), the notable universities scattered across the state, the honky-tonk and environmental treasures of the Jersey Shore, the densely populated north, self-contained communities of myriad ethnic groups, the Pine Barrens (where Markowitz likes to set stories. It\u2019s the big green area in the southern half of the state), and the rural western and southern counties. No matter where you are, though, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to escape the heavy Italian influence: pizza, pasta, and Sinatra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the New York chapter of  Mystery Writers of America sponsored a Facebook panel on \u201cNew Jersey writers.\u201d It was a lot of fun, at least for me. On the panel, which was led by RG Belsky, whose books … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The State I'm In - four New Jersey crime writers talk about working in the Garden State. Squished between NYC and Philadelphia, it's the crossroads of crime!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1288,174,60,29],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-8836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-culture","category-first-draft-blog","category-storytelling","category-writing","tag-new-jersey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2iw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8838,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836\/revisions\/8838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}