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Sunday, February 15, 2004
Debut Mystery Receives Plenty of Pre-Publication Comment
By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
Pari Noskin Taichert has produced four manuscripts, two children and, as of this month, one book, the newly released mystery "The Clovis Incident."
Taichert's manuscripts have experienced much more than a nine-month gestation period. And she has learned that manuscripts, like children, need nurturing.
"It takes quite a while to edit and market them," said Taichert, an Albuquerque resident.
She has acquaintances who help with the editing. One is Michael White, who is in a writing critique group with her.
"Michael reads quickly and reads a lot of mysteries, way more than I do. He is very good at looking at story plot line, good at finding flaws. He is also kind but brutally honest," Taichert said appreciatively.
She has let several people who are in public relations and marketing fields also read the manuscript for what has grown up to be "The Clovis Incident." That's because the novel's protagonist, Sasha Solomon, is a PR consultant.
The set-up for the story is that Sasha heads for Clovis to bid on a Chamber of Commerce project. While there she visits her widowed diary farmer-friend Mae King. Mae is quite upset: There's a human body in one of her stock tanks.
The manuscript also came under the careful eye of Sara Ann Freed, a freelance editor whom UNM Press had given it to for an independent review. She recommended that the press publish it, but Freed had her own suggested plot changes.
"I ended up almost taking out a prominent character and creating a whole new character," Taichert recalled.
(Years before that review, Taichert had met Freed, already a veteran editor, at a SouthWest Writers conference in Albuquerque, where Freed had read some of Taichert's earlier manuscripts.
("She told me that I may not be a mystery writer but, 'You will be published. You're a wonderful writer,' '' Taichert remembered Freed saying.
("Coming from somebody with that much knowledge of writing, it was tremendously encouraging.")
After Freed's recommendation to UNM Press, the "Clovis Incident" manuscript still had to pass muster of the press' faculty review committee.
But not everyone who had read the manuscript liked it. A friend of Taichert's in San Francisco told her she hated the story. The friend's pronouncement came in an e-mail the same week that the press informed her that it was buying the manuscript.
"One thing I can say, this book has been vetted. I'm so tickled UNM Press took a chance on me," Taichert said.
Having worked at writing four manuscripts, she knows how tough the business of getting published (not self-published) can be. And she thinks she now knows what it takes.
"So many aspiring and so many struggling writers are out there," Taichert said. "I am a living example of how absolute determination and persistence works. This has not been an easy or swift road for me."
Determination certainly isn't her only strong suit. Writing is, too.
"The Clovis Incident, A Mystery"
By Pari Noskin Taichert
University of New Mexico Press, $24.95, 221 pp.
-- Pari Noskin Taichert signs, discusses "The Clovis Incident" 3 p.m. today at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW, Flying Star Plaza, and 2 p.m. Feb. 29 at Page One, 11018 Montgomery NE. Taichert will also give a free talk on "Writing Good Dialogue" at 7 p.m. March 16 at New Life Presbyterian Church, 5540 Eubank NE.