Box Turtle Arts Journal

On Monday, November 18, writers gathered to celebrate the launch of the holiday crime book, Eight Very Bad Nights published by Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press. The book is a fictional, short story anthology of crime stories all centering on the crimes taking place on the jewish holiday of Hanukkah. One story in particular features work from J.R. Angelella, professor and director of the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House at the University of Maryland.

The book is a follow up collection to a previous book called The Usual Santas, published in 2017, which author Tod Goldberg wrote a short story for. After its publication, Tod Goldberg joked that they should do a Hanukkah book, at which point they called his agent and gave the green light. In the words of Tod Goldberg, “The simple assignment that I gave every writer was give me something badass, and have it take place at Hanukkah.” Tod Goldberg brought together numerous writers for the anthology, including Ivy Pochoda, David L. Ulin, James D.F. Hannah, Lee Goldberg, Nikki Dolson, J.R. Angelella, Liska Jacobs, Gabino Iglesias, Stefanie Leder, and Jim Ruland, Tod Goldberg.

The book launch was hosted by Soho Crime and the independent bookstore, Mystery to Me, with four of the authors who spoke about their experiences writing the short stories for the anthology. The group gathered were full of personality, brothers Tod and Lee Goldberg, Nikki Dolson, and J.R. Angelella all spoke about how they write. Hearing about their processes in writing proved to be very insightful. Lee Goldberg, writer for series such as Monk, mentions that he writes all of his books first as a screenplay just to get the story out of his system and to see if it works. The purpose for this is due to how screenwriting as a medium is structured, every scene and line of dialogue must have a purpose. It’s also written in such a way that descriptions are brief, making it suitable for first drafts of stories. “If it works as a script, then it will work as a book.” 

I had the opportunity to ask the group one question in specific, how they manage to balance their lives as writers between work and family. For Dolson it’s full of sacrifices and staying consistent with the work you do, she felt a need to write, constantly taking notes of her ideas. Lee Goldberg says the needs of his family drive the need to write since he’s made a full career out of his writing. He made the change from writing for T.V. to novels because it was much more flexible, and as he says, “Family always comes first, but at the same time, my family falls apart if I don’t keep writing.” Angelella agreed with Lee Goldeberg, saying he could leave writing if his family needed him. Tod Goldberg mentions some advice that Lee Goldberg gave him when he was starting out. “I said I want to be an author, he said don’t be an author, be a writer.” He continued to explain, “A writer can do more than one thing, and you want to make sure you always have different ways to earn a living.” He made the choice then to become a professor while also writing his books. Being a professor provided security while he was still able to write the stories he loved. “What this has allowed me, was the freedom to say no to things.” Tod Goldberg says, “Having a job that you actually love allows you to only do the projects that you care about. I think that’s really an important thing.”

If you are interested in reading any of the stories, the book is available for purchase online here. The book launch is recorded and available online here.