Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: A Kind of Justice
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.reneejames-author.com/
CITY: Chicago
STATE: IL
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.reneejames-author.com/bio * http://www.thenovelapproachreviews.com/review-a-kind-of-justice-by-renee-james/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; has children.
EDUCATION:Drake University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Time-Life Books, former staff writer. Previously, worked as a hairdresser and as a magazine editor and owner.
MIILITARY:Served in the Vietnam War.
AVOCATIONS:Wilderness adventuring.
AWARDS:Indie book of the year, Chicago Writers Association, 2012, for Coming Out Can Be Murder. Has won awards for work as a journalist.
WRITINGS
Former editor of the newsletter for the Chicago Gender Society.
SIDELIGHTS
Renee James is the pseudonym of a transgender writer based in Chicago, Illinois. Before becoming a full-time writer, she served in the Vietnam War, studied to become a hairstylist, founded a special-interest magazine and edited it, and worked as a staff writer for Time-Life Books. James also holds a degree from Drake University.
Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder
In 2012 James released her first book, Coming Out Can Be Murder, whose protagonist is a transgender woman named Bobbi. In an interview with a contributor to the Oceanview Publishing Web site, James explained how she came to write the book. She stated: “By 2005 or so, I came out to my wife and she pushed me to explore my identity. One result of that exercise was thinking about how my life would have been if I had come to grips with my gender issues earlier in life and pursued gender reassignment.” James continued: “To fill time on my business trips, I began a fictional journal based on what it would have been like if, at the age of thirty-eight (when I was between marriages), I had become a transsexual woman instead of a single parent with bigger problems than my gender identity. That journal became a passion. Even though the character wasn’t me—that would have been too dull—I got really involved with her. So around 2008 I decided to write a book and over the course of many years and drafts, ended up with Coming Out Can Be Murder.” Regarding the similarities between herself and her protagonist, James told the same contributor: “I gave poor Bobbi my body to start with—tall, broad shouldered, athletic, and masculine—and the sensitivity and self-consciousness to go with it. … Bobbi gets my vocabulary and a lot of my feelings.” James told Dawn Ius, writer on the Big Thrill Web site: “Bobbi’s origins were really my own coming out story. … A way for me to process my feelings, and even imagine what life would be like for me as a woman.” She added: “I write in first person with the hope that the nontransgender community can identify with Bobbi, for at least as long as it takes to read the books. … She is intelligent and witty, someone you could respect.”
In an interview with Mitch Kellaway, a writer on the Lambda Literary Web site, James described her 2014 book, Transition to Murder. She stated: “It’s a new version of Coming Out Can Be Murder, a book that was originally published in 2012. Transition to Murder has a really significant plot change; it is a similar, but different, book.” She added: “In [both Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder], the narrator, Bobbi Logan—who is a trans woman going through transition—becomes the target of a psychopathic killer who wants to take her out. She’s faced with the prospect of either killing him or being killed by him.” In the same interview, James discussed the responses she has received from readers of the book. She stated: “What I have gotten is a lot of appreciation for creating a character who is authentic and that a reader could identify with. … Bobbi’s not a buffoon or for comedy.” Reviewing the book on the Crimespree Web site, Ava Black suggested: “Vivid imagery engrosses the reader, achieving a gripping story told by an urban professional navigating her way through transgender confusion.”
A Kind of Justice
Bobbi returns in James’s 2016 novel, A Kind of Justice. In this volume, she has bought the hair salon where she worked and is spending time with her ex-wife, who has recently lost her husband. Her life becomes more complicated when a police officer named Allan Wilkins becomes determined to pin a murder on Bobbi. Meanwhile, she develops a crush on another police officer named Phil.
A reviewer in Publishers Weekly suggested: “As a character study of the crime’s impact on Wilkins and Bobbi, this outing is effective.” A writer on the Novel Approach Web site commented: “When the book really clicked … was when another point-of-view character was introduced. A tough-as-nails detective is trying to convict Bobbi Logan of first-degree murder, and the emotional growth he experiences from inhabiting her world creates a poignant and beautiful truth.” John Copenhaver, a critic on the Lambda Literary Web site, asserted: “James’ triumph here—and it’s an important one—is writing a detailed, positive, and mature trans character. … James not only gives Bobbi many layers, but also in a gesture of empathy, she provides the transphobic Wilkins with a textured and multifaceted existence, making the conclusion of the novel incredibly human and poignant.” Writing on the Fredericksburg.com Web site, Emily Hollingsworth remarked: “The novel … gives needed insight into several generations of the transgender and LGBT communities.” Hollingsworth concluded: “A blend of thriller and first-person narrative, A Kind of Justice describes social and national issues through its open, warm and capable protagonist.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, August 1, 2016, review of A Kind of Justice, p. 49.
ONLINE
Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (September 30, 2016), Dawn Ius, author interview.
Boys in Our Books, https://boysinourbooks.com/ (May 17, 2017), review of Transition to Murder.
Crimespree, http://crimespreemag.com/ (June 1, 2016), Ava Black, review of Transition to Murder.
Fredericksburg.com, http://www.fredericksburg.com/ (October 8, 2016), Emily Hollingsworth, review of A Kind of Justice.
Lambda Literary, http://www.lambdaliterary.org/ (June 30, 2014), Mitch Kellaway, author interview; (March 8, 2017), John Copenhaver, review of A Kind of Justice.
Novel Approach, http://www.thenovelapproachreviews.com/ (January 18, 2017), review of A Kind of Justice.
Oceanview Publishing Web site, http://oceanviewpub.com/ (May 17, 2017), author interview.
Renee James Home Page, https://www.reneejames-author.com (May 17, 2017).*
ABOUT ME
Renee James is the pen name of a Chicago-area writer who lives in two genders.
In her male identity, James has been a full time free-lance writer for several years, following a long career as a magazine editor and owner. In her male life, James has won dozens of awards for journalistic excellence and authored a biography.
As Renee James, her first novel, Coming Out Can Be Murder, was the 2012 Chicago Writers Association Indie book of the year and a bronze medalist in ForeWord Reviews' LGBT book of the year competition.
Coming Out Can Be Murder was republished in March, 2014 by Magnus/Riverdale Books as Transition to Murder.
James is a spouse, parent and grandparent. She is a Vietnam veteran, licensed hairdresser, and wilderness adventurer. She has struggled with gender identity issues since childhood but never let her gender define her. Instead, she has worked to define herself according to her human values and what she does with her life.
She has been active in the Chicago transgender community. James edited the Chicago Gender Society newsletter for many years, and participated in many of the other groups and activities that make the Chicago transgender community one of the most vibrant in the world.
Coming Out Can Be Murder evolved from a fictional journal Ms. James wrote on business trips during her magazine editing years. The journal was a reflection on what her life might have been like if she had chosen to become a transsexual woman.
Transition to Murder, a revised version of James' first novel, was released in early 2014 Riverdale Avenue Books' Magnus imprint. It is the basis for the sequel, A Kind of Justice.
Renee James is lives her life in two genders. She is a parent, grandparent, and spouse, and a war veteran, award-winning writer and editor, a licensed hairdresser, and an active member of the Chicago-area transgender community.
Ms. James' first novel, 'Coming Out Can Be Murder' (Windy City Publishers, June, 2012), is the by-product of a fictional journal she wrote on business trips during her magazine editing years. The journal was a reflection on what her life might have been like if she had chosen to become a transsexual woman rather than marry and raise a family as a bi-gendered male.
“After a while, I realized that Bobbi Logan, the fictional character I created, was very interesting and much different than me or any character I had encountered in literature,” said Ms. James. “She was flawed and frightened and she had monumental body issues, but she also had a powerful inner resolve and good human qualities. These things made her a unique heroine, and she deserved her own story.”
'Coming Out Can Be Murder' won book-of-the-year honors from the Chicago Writers Association and Foreword Reviews. It was republished as 'Transition to Murder' with a plot change in 2014.
'A Kind of Justice', published in 2016, takes up Bobbi Logan's life five years after her transition and her conflict with a sexual predator in 'Transition to Murder'.
Read more about Renee James and the book at www.reneejames-author.com.
QUOTED: "By 2005 or so, I came out to my wife and she pushed me to explore my identity. One result of that exercise was thinking about how my life would have been if I had come to grips with my gender issues earlier in life and pursued gender reassignment."
"To fill time on my business trips, I began a fictional journal based on what it would have been like if, at the age of 38 (when I was between marriages), I had become a transsexual woman instead of a single parent with bigger problems than my gender identity.That journal became a passion. Even though the character wasn't me—that would have been too dull—I got really involved with her. So around 2008 I decided to write a book and over the course of many years and drafts, ended up with Coming Out Can Be Murder."
"I gave poor Bobbi my body to start with—tall, broad shouldered, athletic, and masculine—and the sensitivity and self-consciousness to go with it. ... Bobbi gets my vocabulary and a lot of my feelings."
A CONVERSATION WITH RENEE JAMES about A KIND OF JUSTICETELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, HOW AND WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING. My father was a high school English teacher who loved great literature, especially American literature. Other kids went to Sunday school, but I learned the Old Testament by reading Steinbeck and I learned about American culture and "voice" from Melville and Mark Twain. As a rebellious adolescent, I loved writing smart-ass essays and book reviews, and arguing with dictatorial teachers. I got crappy grades, but I got really good at writing material with more wit than substance. Smart-ass writing and independent thinking got me a BA from Drake (English Major). I took some journalism courses, but the required ones—basic newswriting in several variations—were incredibly dreary and inhumanly repetitious, so I skipped them and took what I wanted. By the time I graduated, I knew I wanted to be either a college English professor or a magazine writer. To get the required graduate degrees to be a professor, I would have had to learn how to use the library and I would have had to invest hundreds of hours reading the starched prose of literary critics, most of whom I found to be tedious. So I was thinking magazines when I graduated and entered the armed forces. In the army, I wrote profiles for the post newspaper in return for getting out of KP and guard duty. In Vietnam I tried everything to get assigned to a feature magazine published in-country. I wrote a piece for them and they offered me a position, but the Army, being the Army, decided it was more important that I remain in my clerical position. When I came home I pursued writing jobs and finally landed a decent one with a small, special-interest magazine in Chicago. A few years later, I scored a staff-writing position with Time-Life Books, and my writing career blossomed.The single drawback I found to a magazine writing and editing career was that most of the jobs were in New York, Chicago and LA, and I really wanted more variety than that in my life. So I had this vague dream all along that I'd love to be a novelist, so I could live anywhere. Of course, it took many decades before I ever felt like I had a story to tell...WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE YOUR NOVEL?Many things came together in the 2000s: through Internet searches, I finally established that I was transgender—before that, with little information to work with, I thought I was a gay man who wasn't
actually attracted to men, which, you know.... I also started up my own magazine company with three friends and started travelling frequently. By 2005 or so, I came out to my wife and she pushed me to explore my identity. One result of that exercise was thinking about how my life would have been if I had come to grips with my gender issues earlier in life and pursued gender reassignment. To fill time on my business trips, I began a fictional journal based on what it would have been like if, at the age of 38 (when I was between marriages), I had become a transsexual woman instead of a single parent with bigger problems than my gender identity.That journal became a passion. Even though the character wasn't me—that would have been too dull—I got really involved with her. So around 2008 I decided to write a book and over the course of many years and drafts, ended up with Coming Out Can Be Murder.Now I'm completely hooked. I have a third novel ready to market—an upmarket coming-of -age story about two Baby Boomers who broke up over the Vietnam war and decide to meet forty years later in the Canadian wilderness—and I'm hacking away at scripts for stage and screen.HOW DID YOU USE YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE OR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND TO ENRICH YOUR STORY?I gave poor Bobbi my body to start with—tall, broad shouldered, athletic, and masculine—and the sensitivity and self-consciousness to go with it. At the start of A Kind of Justice she's been on testosterone blockers and estrogen for many years, and had some surgery, so she's a lot prettier and more feminine than I—but she still has conspicuous size. I also made Bobbi a very artistic hairdresser, which had been my fantasy for years and years. I went to cosmetology school late in life, as a hobby, to fulfill part of my fantasy, and Bobbi did the rest. She's not just an artisan, she is an artist and, like me, she sees beauty in hair the way mainstream society sees beauty in oil paintings or nature. The book is also set in Chicago because I'm familiar with the city and especially with the transgender community in the area...it is among the most advanced in the country. Plus, Chicago just makes a great setting for a book. Some of the details in the book—such as, what it's like to enter a room and have many people gawk at you—come from personal experience....and actually helped me get over some of my self-consciousness, though I'm a little less willing to let Bobbi be comfortable because it makes a better story the other way.ANYTHING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL IN YOUR NOVEL?Bobbi gets my vocabulary and a lot of my feelings. I made her an atheist because I think she's too smart to believe in a God who "works in mysterious ways" and gets away with stuff not even the most popularpolitician in America could survive. I gave her my love of hair and makeup and clothing, probably so I could express my passion for these things. Bobbi has evolved far beyond me in this her second novel, but a lot of the fundamentals are still there....
The scenes in Northbrook are drawn from my experiences growing up in that upscale suburb.ARE ANY CHARACTERS BASED ON PEOPLE YOU KNOW?Betsy, the ex-wife, is drawn in part on my wife—from her features to her insecurities and especially her compassion.Cecelia, my favorite character, is drawn from two very different transwomen I know, both are statuesque, extremely extroverted and defiantly transsexual.Lisa, the young transwoman leader in TransRising, is based on a young woman I've encountered in the local transgender community.WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE OR MOST SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER? AND WHY?I love Bobbi's wit and soulfulness, and I love Cecelia's gay abandon, but when it comes to sympathetic characters, I love Betsy the most. We don't think about the spouses left behind when a transsexual transitions, but the heartbreak and stigma they face can be as great as what the transperson faces and there's no reward for them at the end of the process. Betsy is one of the few spouses who stays loyal and loving and sees through the clothing and body changes to the real person, the one she loved and married. Through all the stresses and heartbreak, she has maintained her humanity and compassion—even when she explodes and vents her deepest emotions, she comes back to Bobbi as a loving a supportive family member...and brings out the best in Bobbi by doing so.WHO IS YOUR LEAST SYMPATHIC CHARACTER? AND WHY?I have some minor characters I don't like, but because I don't like them, I don't develop them very much. The sneering ex-employee who hates Bobbi for firing her is an example...the beauty industry attracts some people like this, but they don't last very long—you have to work hard and be somewhat engaging to make a career as a stylist.Of the main characters, I suppose Phil is the easiest to criticize—he loves Bobbi but he's not sure how he feels about being a man who loves a transsexual, so he breaks her heart. On the other hand, I sympathize with him because I realize loving a transsexual isn't any easier than being one—it takes getting used to and finding a comfort zone when everyone wants to ask you what it's like and does this mean you're gay or half-gay.WHAT PART OF WRITING YOUR BOOK DID YOU FIND THE MOST CHALLENGING?I wanted to show Bobbi as an evolved woman under inhuman pressure, so I gave her the murder investigation, the difficult family relationship with Betsy, the up and down romance and all the other
stuff to create tension in her life....then I had to let her react emotionally, more like a woman than a man. The first draft was so dreadfully overwrought one of my beta readers said she only finished it because I was a dear friend. I had to take it way down. WHAT DO YOU HOPE THAT READERS WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR BOOK?Most of all, I hope they find it a fun and interesting read—time and money well spent. Beyond that, I would love it if readers came away with an understanding of transgender people that makes them open and friendly to us.WHAT WRITERS HAVE INSPIRED YOU?Steinbeck (especially the Cannery Row trilogy). Chaucer (The Wife of Bath is one my all-time favorite characters, and something of a role model). DeMille (Up Country). James Webb (Fields of Fire).John Grisham is a fabulous story teller and his book The Street Lawyer changed me in a way I hope my book changes other people—it made me look at street people as people and interact with them and care about them.I love the writers of genre fiction who give us deep, soulful characters to go with strong plots....people like Tony Hillerman, Scott Turow, Martin Cruz Smith, and James Lee Burke. WHAT IS THE WRITING PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU? The first draft is bliss. I write to entertain myself, first and foremost, and I get so into the book and the characters I find TV and most other books tedious to read. The second draft is much more sobering as I have to ferret out the horrid crap from the good stuff in the first draft, and there's plenty of the former to find. I go through a lot of editing after that, based on feedback from beta readers and editors as well as my own perspective. Some of the editing passes are a pleasure, some are complicated by a total loss of perspective because I've been over my own work so much I want to puke.WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE ABOUT WRITING THAT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?Sit your ass down and do it.WHAT IS THE WORST PIECE OF ADVICE ABOUT WRITING THAT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?"You have to open with the protagonist, otherwise the reader gets confused." College profs who teach creative writing have all kinds of rules like that and it drives me crazy.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE PIPELINE?My agent and I are querying publishers about my new upmarket fiction book, Alone on the Shield. It's about two Baby Boomers who broke up over the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they're meeting in a remote wilderness, trying to understand their lives and why they never got over each other.ANY FINAL WORDS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY ABOUT YOURSELF, YOUR NOVEL, OR LIFE IN GENERAL?Just a few bullet points that may or may not be of interest:▪ We tend to equate "transgender" with transsexuals like Bobbi, mainly because transsexuals are the ones who come out publically and field the questions. In fact, "transgender" is an umbrella term that covers a spectrum of gender-nonconforming identities, from cross dressing to gender queer to transsexual. I make this point because for every "out" transsexual, there are many transgender people who are not out or are out but not transitioning. My heroine is a transsexual woman, but I am a transgender person who lives in both genders.▪ The transgender experience is changing rapidly. In 2008, when I walked into a restaurant or coffee shop, heads turned, people stared. Today, hardly anyone notices—we've become a common sight in many places. Bobbi's transition occurred in 2003, when it was still difficult socially, and this book is set in 2008, when things were better but still far from the acceptance we have today.▪ Bobbi deals briefly with a truth in the Chicago trans community, and probably elsewhere: young trans people today often have a much different experience than trans people of my generation—especially white, middle-class trans people. They are better able to come out in school, many MtoFs never reach puberty as men and so become much more passable women than we...and we are different sub cultures as a result.▪ FYI—it is believed by people smarter than me that there are many more FtoM transsexuals than MtoF. You don't notice them because after about six to eight months of testosterone supplements, they look completely male
QUOTED: "It’s a new version of Coming Out Can Be Murder, a book that was originally published in 2012. Transition to Murder has a really significant plot change; it is a similar, but different, book."
"In [both Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder], the narrator, Bobbi Logan—who is a trans woman going through transition—becomes the target of a psychopathic killer who wants to take her out. She’s faced with the prospect of either killing him or being killed by him."
"What I have gotten is a lot of appreciation for creating a character who is authentic and that a reader could identify with…Bobbi’s not a buffoon or for comedy."
Renee James: On Writing a Trans Crime Novel
by Mitch Kellaway
June 30, 2014
Your novel has been self-published. It’s already won several indie awards. You tread new ground as a transgender author writing an authentic transgender heroine—one appreciative readers have both struggled with and adored. Your work is done now…right?
Actually, it could be just the beginning.
Meet Renee James, the Chicago-based writer of Coming Out Can Be Murder (2012), a quirky crime novel recently reworked into Transition to Murder (March 2014) and released by well-respected LGBT imprint Magnus Books. I talked to Renee about her experiences of taking a long look at a solid self-published novel and still wondering: How can I keep improving it? Her answer to that question brought her into a fruitful editing experience with Don Weise (Riverdale/Magnus Books), a radical update to her book’s ending, some food-for-thought for the transgender literary community, and insightful reflections on the do’s and don’ts of teaching yourself how to publish your first book.
Your new book Transition to Murder is actually not quite a new book—is that right?
It’s a new version of Coming Out Can Be Murder, a book that was originally published in 2012. Transition to Murder has a really significant plot change; it is a similar, but different, book.
Do you want to discuss what the plot change is?
I’ll tell you a bit about the plot, but I would prefer not to ruin the reading experience for somebody who hasn’t read either of them. In [both Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder], the narrator, Bobbi Logan—who is a trans woman going through transition—becomes the target of a psychopathic killer who wants to take her out. She’s faced with the prospect of either killing him or being killed by him…[spoilers removed].
When I went to [publish with] Magnus Books and started working with editor Don Weise, he suggested that we change the original plot. And I thought about it for a really long time, and decided “OK.” So in Transition to Murder [the ending changes]…It makes for a really good sequel. Which I’m rewriting for the third time now! [laughter]
I’ve read some reviews of Transition to Murder that call the book a murder mystery. Its new cover calls it a crime novel, which sounds more accurate to me. Readers actually know who the main murderer is from the very first page because you show him in the first scene committing the act. So to me, the story is not a mystery—it’s actually about Bobbi’s evolution as a person told through this language of a murder mystery.
Right, right.
Who was your publisher for the book’s first edition, Coming Out Can Be Murder (2012)?
I used a boutique publisher. In other words, I essentially self-published while using the services of a company called Windy City Publishers, located here in the Chicago area. Basically, they sell you any service you want. I bought a package that included editing, production, and marketing. The marketing, though, was really suggestions on what you can do to market your book.
My frustration with Coming Out Can Be Murder was that I could never get a mainstream reviewer to look at it—not even Publishers Weekly. And I couldn’t get bookstore distribution; I couldn’t get library distribution either. I really just didn’t know how. And I was hoping to get that with Riverdale/Magnus…but they’re actually going a different way. They’re marketing it online.
Sorry, I’m rambling on.
No, no—this is all really valuable. Because I see this interview as being partly about your book, but also partly about other trans writers who are hoping to get their books out there. They can learn from your experience.
So, what led to your original decision to self-publish?
I couldn’t get an agent to even tell me to “go to Hell!” [laughter]. I must have queried forty or fifty agents.
Whatever I am as a book writer, I really am a good journalist. I worked for over 30 years as a magazine editor and writer. I write a good query letter. So that [experience] was just very frustrating. Because I knew I had good material, and I knew my query letters were pretty decent. So anyway…I heard about Windy City Publishers and talked to them. I was still very naive about what a skilled marketer I was [laughter]. I thought they had everything else I needed, so I went with them.
Do you think the lack of agents interested in your material was related to the trans content?
I did at first, and I think that did eliminate some for sure. But the fact of it is: there’s over 10,000 books published [in the US] every month, and well over 120,000 a year. The logistics of it are just overwhelming.
Actually…having a transgender [main] character was a problem, but not, I think, because lots of agents have negative feelings about trans people (though that may be true). The problem was that I always wanted to market this book to the general public so we could get “straight” people to climb into our world and walk around in it. Thus, I was soliciting many agents who don’t handle LGBT books. And even among those who do, I don’t think trans literature plays to a very big market.
I also had another problem I didn’t really realize until I took an intensive seminar on plotting (and you also made this point initially): I wrote a book that didn’t have a genre. It’s a “crime novel,” but it’s not a mystery. It doesn’t fit into the jargon that agents and publishers have been using. So in that respect, I didn’t present it that well in my queries [when] I presented it as a murder mystery.
The last thing is that—and I’ve found out a lot since I went through this experience—much of this agent and publisher stuff gets done through networking. If you just try to write them a query letter, they’re “full.” But if you meet them at a convention or seminar and they see that you’re serious, you can get them to take a look at [your manuscript]. So I’ve done a lot of networking and gotten active in a couple writer’s groups in the Chicago area. I really need to do more. There’s a conference this summer in New York…where for three days all you learn is how to pitch your book, and then pitch it to agents and publishers. That’s the kind of thing you can do to get noticed and get your stuff read.
It sounds expensive to fund your own publishing bootcamp.
It absolutely is. I spent $10,000 to self-publish my first book, Coming Out Can Be Murder…Probably half or more of that sum total went to editing. I had three different editors: one for who looked at nothing but my content, characters and plot development; I had one who looked at all of the above plus my style; and I had a proofreader. And this investment produced a well-written book—my editor at Magnus Books kept commenting on that. Coming Out Can Be Murder was already a good book, in terms of craft, when Magnus started on it. And that was because of all the editing that went into it.
I make this point because [when] I was judging the self-published entries for the Chicago Writer’s Association Book of the Year competition, two books that I read probably could have won if they’d had the editing that I got. They were that close. The material was there, but the writer[s] were just new to writing books and had the same problems all writers do. But they didn’t have the safety net of that nasty editor saying, “This character is embarrassingly incomplete; you’ve got to do more here.” [laughter]
Oh those nasty editors!
So how did your book go from you self-publishing Coming Out Can Be Murder (2012) to Riverdale/Magnus publishing Transition to Murder (2014)?
Two things happened almost at the same time. [First], I reviewed a book for the Chicago Writers’ Association that was written by a local writer. She had self-published it about five or six years ago—a long time ago—and she’d sold a few copies, and all that. And just by circumstance, she sent a copy to a friend of hers who worked for one of the big New York publishers. Her friend wasn’t an editor, she was on a lower echelon—but she loved the book. She got the editors to read it and they republished it. It was a critical hit; I believe she sold quite a few copies too. Beautiful book. [That author] and I became friends, so I was aware that you could republish a self-published book. It’s something that’s done, and it’s done at the highest echelons.
At the same time, I read an article online about this new company called Magnus Books, and how Magnus and Riverdale Ave Books had combined forces. Magnus’ editor, Don Weise, is a gentleman who is well-respected in LGBT publishing circles, so I wrote him a query letter. They were interested—that’s how it happened!
So when Riverdale Ave Books and Magnus Books combined forces, Magnus became Riverdale’s LGBT imprint. Is Magnus actively interested in trans writers?
Don Weise told me on a couple different occasions—both at Magnus and previously as an editor at other houses—that he had published a number of trans novels, which had made him somewhat unique among LGBT presses. So yes: he will consider [trans-focused works]; he will look at them.
You’d had this prior experience of agents and publishers blocking you with Coming Out Can Be Murder, then two years later you have this experience of a green light with Magnus Books. What do you think was the difference?
I’m only guessing because I can’t really speak for Don or Lori Perkins, the president of Riverdale Ave Books. But I think one thing was that Coming Out Can Be Murder had won some awards. It wasn’t the New York Times Book of the Year-type awards, but [it was] the Chicago Writers’ Association Indie Book of the Year and a couple of awards from ForeWord Reviews. So that was reason to at least read the first 2,000 words.
Secondly, I had initially sent [the manuscript] to Lori Perkins at Riverdale, and she sent it to Don. They [explicitly] publish LGBT books, including the “T.” That opened the door to at least look at my book and see if they liked it.
The third thing—and I’ve heard agents say this too—was that my book was already edited. Of those 120,000-150,000 books that are published every year, I think it’s a safe bet to say that 90% are poorly written and not edited at all…That’s one of the barriers that you have when you’re trying to get an agent or publisher to look at your book. They’re just overwhelmed by books, and a lot of them are bad books. You have to somehow get through that clutter.
I think I’ve heard you say elsewhere that you had a positive experience with the editing process at Magnus Books. What did that look and feel like?
Not all writers like being edited; the struggles are notorious. But because I was an editor for so many years myself, I really appreciate the process. Especially in a book, where the logistics are so overwhelming, and where you’re writing and rewriting, then editing and more editing. I’ve already been through my book about 50 times, and it’s very hard to keep any kind of perspective on it. Is the plot good? Are the characters working? So you get this professional person who comes in with a third party point-of-view, very objective.
In Don Weise’s case, he made suggestions. He marked up the manuscript and made a lot of margin notes, but left it up to me what we would ultimately change. And I took almost all of his suggestions because, first of all, I could see that they were good.
And second: for me, if I’m working with someone and I can see that they’re professional, I give a lot of weight to the objectivity they bring to my work. That objectivity is something I can never accomplish again myself because I’ve read my own book so many times. The other part of the equation is that Don is a really good editor. He’s very respectful of the writer, but really good at craft. He’s got a strong sense of rhythm—which sounds funny, but even in long fiction writing, there is a rhythm that’s part of the style of each book. You don’t really notice it until you read a book that doesn’t have it.
Then there were Don’s comments on the plot. He made me think about things I hadn’t thought about before. He added a lot of weight in terms of the plot change [between Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder] that I ultimately did decide to do. There was a lot of weight in him saying it. This sounds awful, but when readers…were saying it—and they were all women, some genetic and some trans—I was thinking, “they just haven’t had the life experience I’ve had.” I came of age in [the Vietnam era]. But when Don said it, I really had to sit back and think, “This isn’t personal.” He’s talking about what would make a better story.
I think some trans writers worry that a non-trans editor just won’t get their trans characters and will try to edit in a way that isn’t true to the character’s experience as a trans person. Thoughts?
I think if you hook up with a professional, that’s not going to be a problem. If you’ve written a really good plot and sketched out one or more really good characters, people will identify with them. That’s what I’ve found with Transition to Murder. There are some flaws in my book—I know that—but 95% of my readers really identify with [the book’s narrator] Bobbi and get into her story.
A couple of the first reviews I got were from conservative Christian women, one who lived…in the Deep South and had never read any kind of LGBT book before. But they got into Bobbi. And [my editor] Don Weise got into Bobbi. So if you have a good character, you can overcome reservations people have about trans people.
I have to ask: why the title change between Coming Out Can Be Murder and Transition to Murder?
Because we changed the book. Don Weise thought we could give it a fresh start. There would have been a lot of confusion if we’d kept it the same name and changed the ending. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Do you like your new title, “Transition to Murder”?
I do. When it comes to titles, I learned as a magazine editor to give a lot of weight, again, to people who can bring objectivity to the subject. The titles I had conjured up [originally] were kind of literary—“The Transition,” and things like that. I’ve been told countless times by book publishing professionals “in today’s market, a book title has to get you into a niche.” Publishing, marketing, and buying are all genre.
I actually like “Transition to Murder” better than I like “Coming Out Can Be Murder.” Neither one was a title I suggested—which reflects on me, not the people who suggested the titles. [laughter]
When I was in at the Rainbow Book Fair (NYC) talking to of [Riverdale/Magnus owner] Lori Perkins and she was telling me about Transition to Murder—you know, trying to make the sale [laughter]–the first thing she said was, “This is a crime novel written by a trans woman with a trans woman as the hero.” That made the sale for me right there. I want to see trans characters written by trans people. We need more of that, and it’s one of the benefits of your book for the wider trans community.
Have you gotten a sense from any trans readers how important it is that you’re a trans person writing a trans character?
No, not specifically. What I have gotten is a lot of appreciation for creating a character who is authentic and that a reader could identify with…Bobbi’s not a buffoon or for comedy.
And perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but: while I share with many in the community a disappointment that television and movies have been so slow to come around to projecting positive transgender characters, and even while I hear leaders in the community lament this, I can’t help but think of the frustrations I had…getting visible trans women to read Transition to Murder and to—if they liked it—give me a sentence to use in promoting it. I couldn’t get any of them to read it, period.
I got as much rejection from them as from the New York Times reviewers or the Chicago Tribune reviewers. And I understand why; it’s the same problem: they’re called upon constantly to give of themselves, and they have a limited amount of time. But [lack of support to positive trans characterizations in novels] is part of the reason, I’m sure, that we don’t have lots of trans characters available for movie, TV scripts, and, indeed, for best sellers. It’s very hard [for trans writers] to get their books launched.
QUOTED: "as a character study of the crime's impact on Wilkins and Bobbi, this outing is effective."
A Kind of Justice
Publishers Weekly. 263.31 (Aug. 1, 2016): p49.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
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A Kind of Justice
Renee James. Oceanview (Midpoint, dist.), $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-60809-213-0
In James's solid second novel about hairdresser Bobbi Logan (after 2014's Transition to Murder), the murder of John Strand--a psychopath who preyed on trans women--comes back to haunt Bobbi. Bobbi, now the owner of the Chicago salon at which she was employed, tries to spend her life focusing on work and on helping her newly widowed ex-wife, who's in turn trying to raise a young daughter. Meanwhile, Allan Wilkins, a bigoted police detective, believes that Bobbi murdered Strand and is intent on doing whatever he can to prove it. Bobbi, who's innocent, wonders whether her friend Cecelia, a retired investment banker, might have been involved. She prefers to focus on her business woes in the down economy--and on her attraction to Phil, a Chicago PD officer who's tried to improve police relationships with the city's queer community. That no one is ever in any real peril may dismay some mystery fans, but as a character study of the crime's impact on Wilkins and Bobbi, this outing is effective. Agent: Tina Schwartz, Purcell Agency. (Oct.)
QUOTED: "When the book really clicked ... was when another point-of-view character was introduced. A tough-as-nails detective is trying to convict Bobbi Logan of first degree murder, and the emotional growth he experiences from inhabiting her world creates a poignant and beautiful truth."
Review: A Kind of Justice by Renee James
Amazon US
Title: A Kind of Justice
Author: Renee James
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Length: 320 Pages
Category: Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: Initially, this was a story about a transwoman hairdresser who fights crime, but it became something more.
Reviewed By: Ben
Blurb: Against all odds, Bobbi Logan, a statuesque transgender woman, has become one of Chicago’s most celebrated hair stylists and the owner of one of the city’s poshest salons. She is finally comfortable with who she is, widely admired in her community, about to enjoy the success she deserves.
Then her impossibly perfect life falls apart.
In the space of a few weeks, the Great Recession drags her business to the brink of failure, her beloved ex-wife needs help in facing a terrible tragedy, and a hateful police detective storms back into her life, determined to convict her of the five-year-old murder of John Strand—pillar of the community—and a sexual predator.
As the detective builds an ever more convincing case against her, both of them will be shaken by revelations—about themselves, about their own deeply held secrets, and about the bizarre ritual murder of John Strand.
Review: When I started this book, I thought it was about a transwoman hairdresser who solved crimes. I was wrong, but my mistake was understandable. Bobbi starts off as the point-of-view character. When I was in her head, the pacing was too slow, the present tense wasn’t working for me, and I didn’t feel close to her or any of her friends. I kept dropping the book mid-scene.
Beyond basic structure, there were also some moments from her perspective that grated on me. Betsy calls Bobbi her “ex-husband”, even though Bobbi is a woman. Betsy is, in general, pretty awful and ungrateful, but Bobbi keeps insisting to herself that she doesn’t deserve anything better than their friendship. There’s also a guy—of course, he’s gorgeous—that Bobbi’s interested in. He flat out tells her he’s worried he only likes her because he has a fetish for her because she’s a transwoman. Forbidden fruit. And she still wants to see him because she thinks he’s great and she can’t do better.
Admittedly, some of the dissonance I felt could be due to the fact that this is the second book in a series and I haven’t read the first; I didn’t have those previous opportunities to bond with Bobbi. Also, I’m not interested in fashion or the industry, and that was basically the setting of the world. Certainly not the gritty murder mystery I was hoping for.
When the book really clicked for me was when another point-of-view character was introduced. A tough-as-nails detective is trying to convict Bobbi Logan of first degree murder, and the emotional growth he experiences from inhabiting her world creates a poignant and beautiful truth.
In all honesty, I’m not certain if James intended for the detective to be the protagonist of her story. She mentions in her rating that she felt the character—Bobbi—was interesting, which to me signals that she feels Bobbi is the protagonist, but I can’t let go of my interpretation that easily.
The detective’s character undergoes the most transformation. Bobbi starts out in good circumstances, the detective brings her down, and she struggles to climb back up. But by the end of the book, she’s still her best self. Her character growth doesn’t compare to the detective’s, who starts out as a complete asshole and changes into… maybe not a butterfly, but I saw something beautiful in him.
I hate to say Bobbi’s story is better told through the eyes of a straight cis man, but there was some real brilliance in the detective’s character. Bobbi was too much of a Mary Sue—she did no wrong but everyone still hated her. Her ex treated her poorly when she offered nothing but love. Her dates treated her disrespectfully, and she stuck with them because she felt it was the best she could do. People accused her of being a slut when she wasn’t. People accused her of being a bitch when she went out of her way to be kind. People accused her of being shrewd, but she only took over her business because an older gay man needed to retire due to health reasons. People accused her of murder….
The detective was a minority, however, and I think that aided how he came to an eventual understanding and respect for Bobbi. Despite the circumstances, by the end of the novel I felt as if that respect was mutual. Bobbi may be an honest woman, but the detective is also an honest cop. And justice must be served. Unfortunately, according to the law, there’s only one kind.
QUOTED: "James’ triumph here—and it’s an important one—is writing a detailed, positive, and mature trans character. ... James not only gives Bobbi many layers, but also in a gesture of empathy, she provides the transphobic Wilkins with a textured and multifaceted existence, making the conclusion of the novel incredibly human and poignant."
REVIEWS : FICTION : ARTICLE
Blacklight: ‘A Kind of Justice’ by Renee James
Review by John Copenhaver
March 8, 2017
I hunger for more characters like Renee James’s Bobbi Logan in crime fiction. Bobbi is a 43-year-old trans woman who juggles the responsibility of being a small business owner, a friend to a grieving ex-wife, and the primary suspect in a renewed investigation into a cold-case murder. Although not a flawless creation by James, Bobbi is still remarkable—a rich blend of confidence, persistence, doubt, and darkness.
The novel alternates points-of-view between Bobbi and Detective Allan Wilkins, a cop who has decided Bobbi is guilty of the brutal murder of James Strand, a sadistic lawyer who beat trans women and was most likely responsible for murdering several of those women. Strand was killed execution-style, and Wilkins is committed to nailing Bobbi for it, in part because she had means and motive—one of Strand’s victims was a friend of Bobbi’s—and in part because of his own transphobia. As the story evolves, Bobbi’s and Wilkins’ paths draw closer; both characters are changed by one another in surprising ways.
James has given Bobbi many dimensions. After purchasing the hair salon where she works, Bobbi uses her marketing savvy and her relationships with her fellow employees to make the salon a success amid the recession of 2008. She also remains involved with an organization that supports dispossessed young trans people, even though its younger members often frustrate her. When her ex-wife loses her husband and her home, she invites her and her niece to live with her–not an uncomplicated living arrangement. She also begins to have feelings for the handsome cis-gendered police liaison to LGBT community. Looming in the background, Wilkins continues to interview potential witnesses and remind the reader (and Bobbi) that she may be charged with Strand’s murder. The degree to which Bobbi is involved in the crime remains unclear, adding yet another darker dimension to her personality.
Throughout the novel, we move between Bobbi’s and Wilkins’ points-of-view, both written in the present tense, but Bobbi’s narrative is written in first person and Wilkins’ is in third. The shifting of perspectives is thrilling, particularly as Wilkins closes in on Bobbi; however, the use of the present tense kept throwing me as I read, perhaps because of the strangeness of having a character reflect in the present tense. Aside from action-packed thrillers in which character development is somewhat beside the point, present tense is difficult to pull off in crime fiction because the genre often calls for the past to play a major role in troubling the present.
Perhaps connected to this issue is Bobbi’s own emotional detachment from her past. After her friend was murdered by Strand, she was targeted, and Strand had thugs beat her and raped her. Although according to Wilkins, this gave her motivation to retaliate and kill Strand, Bobbi displays little of the PTSD one would expect from someone who had been brutalized so terribly. We get details of her sexual yearnings and frustrations, but little of the anxiety that is bound to cloud or frustrate those feelings. We don’t feel the trauma of these past events impacting her everyday life, even in nuanced ways.
James’ triumph here—and it’s an important one—is writing a detailed, positive, and mature trans character into the pages of a crime novel, a genre that so often sacrifices character development for the sake of plot. That’s not the case here. In fact, James not only gives Bobbi many layers, but also in a gesture of empathy, she provides the transphobic Wilkins with a textured and multifaceted existence, making the conclusion of the novel incredibly human and poignant.
A Kind of Justice
By Renee James
Oceanview Publishing
Paperback, 9781608092131, 320 pp.
September 2016
- See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/mystery/03/08/a-kind-of-justice-by-renee-james/#sthash.E8upVlws.dpuf
QUOTED: "Bobbi’s origins were really my own coming out story. ... A way for me to process my feelings, and even imagine what life would be like for me as a woman."
"I write in first person with the hope that the non-transgender community can identify with Bobbi, for at least as long as it takes to read the books ... She is intelligent and witty, someone you could respect.”
A Kind of Justice by Renee James
SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 by DAWN IUS
9 0
justiceBy Dawn Ius
“Write what you know” and “begin with the character” are two common—perhaps clichéd—pieces of advice most writers hear throughout their career. For Renee James, those words of wisdom culminated at a crucial point in her personal life, a time when she had finally come to terms with her true identity and was struggling to decide whether she wanted to live the rest of her years as the man she was born as, or the woman she is.
Inspired by her wife’s sage advice, James ultimately decided to keep her true self private, instead exploring her emotions through a fictional journal that imagined what life could have been like if she’d made the decision to fully embrace the change.
That diary turned into a 50,000-word character study that became the back story of Bobbi Logan, one of the most successful transgender women in Chicago—and the protagonist of James’ Bobbi Logan Crime series.
“Bobbi’s origins were really my own coming out story,” James says. “A way for me to process my feelings, and even imagine what life would be like for me as a woman.”
That first book—originally published as Coming Out Can Be Murder in Chicago and then re-published as Transition to Murder—was admittedly light on plot, but achieved exactly what James intended from a character standpoint. For A KIND OF JUSTICE, James focused more on plot.
Within the space of a few weeks, Bobbi’s thriving salon goes bankrupt, her ex-wife is in dire need of her help, and a hateful police officer is hell bent on convicting her of a crime she didn’t commit—the murder of John Strand, a pillar of the community and a sexual predator.
“I write in first person with the hope that the non-transgender community can identify with Bobbi, for at least as long as it takes to read the books,” she says. “She is intelligent and witty, someone you could respect.”
Mission accomplished. New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult writes of A KIND OF JUSTICE, “You’ve most likely never met a narrator like Bobbi. Tough, tender, funny, full of heart—and a transgender woman—she is navigating not just a new life, but also an unsolved murder that a detective is trying to pin on her. Renee James takes the reader on whirlwind of a ride, while subtly revealing the honest heartbreaks and successes of the trans community.”
The quote strikes a chord with James, who wants to contribute to the LGBTQIA community in a meaningful way, keeping the momentum of acceptance striving forward. James is quick to acknowledge that recent coming out stories—such as that of the Wachowski sisters—has created a monumental awareness of transgender issues, but when she’s out in public, James is conscious of how people view her.
These observations—and the feelings and vulnerabilities that often come with them—are acutely described in James’ work, and in the very make-up of her protagonist.
“I cursed her with my sensitivities,” she says. So much so that her first draft of A KIND OF JUSTICE received a loving critique from her beta reader that resulted in lopping off 20,000 words of “overwrought” text.
Not surprising for someone who penned both novels with little knowledge about how to write a book. Unlike most journalists, James never seriously considered herself a writer of fiction.
“I wanted to have written a novel, but I never had a story to tell—until this came along,” she says.
Now the ideas won’t stop. She has already turned in a third Bobbi Logan manuscript, but perhaps even more interesting is that she’s sold an upmarket adventure story which she’ll publish in 2017 under her male pen name. While she prefers to keep that identity anonymous—for now—it’s clear the story is as, if not more, important to her than her Bobbi Logan Crime series.
“I’m not out to my family, other than my wife and a few select others,” she says. “But I do want to leave a legacy for my kids and grandkids. This book—the adventure—is the book I wrote for them.”
*****
Renee James is the pen name of a Chicago writer who lives in both genders. In her male persona, James had a long career as an award winning magazine editor and writer, and she once wrote about cowboys and Indians for the Time-Life Books Old West series. She became a partner in a small magazine publishing company, resurrecting failed magazines and selling on the eve of the Great Recession.
She developed the character of Bobbi Logan on airplanes and in airports, starting with a fictional memoir of the life she might have led if she had chosen to transition to female earlier in life. After becoming a fulltime freelance writer in 2010, she created a novel from that character sketch. Coming Out Can Be Murder was self published in 2012 and won the Chicago Writers Association Indy book-of-the-year award, and a bronze medal from ForeWord Reviews. The book was republished in 2014 by Magnus/Riverdale Avenue Books with a major plot change as Transition to Murder.
James is married, with three children, seven grandchildren, and a cocker spaniel who’s fine with having a best friend who loves dresses and makeup and wilderness camping with equal passion.
To learn more, please visit www.reneejames-author.com.
QUOTED: "The novel ... gives needed insight into several generations of the transgender and LGBT communities."
"A blend of thriller and first-person narrative, A Kind of Justice describes social and national issues through its open, warm and capable protagonist."
Book review: 'A Kind of Justice' is a thriller that provides needed insight
By EMILY HOLLINGSWORTH THE FREE LANCE–STAR Oct 8, 2016 (0)
A Kind of Justice
A Kind of Justice
“A Kind of Justice” by Renee James takes place over the span of a year, when the economic recession left the United States uncertain and afraid. Adding to the fear, particularly for Bobbi Logan, the novel’s protagonist, was the refusal of law enforcement to investigate and protect Chicago’s transgender community after a transgender woman was murdered.
When the perpetrator was then found dead, a detective takes interest in the case and seeks to indict Logan, the case’s main suspect.
Logan, who is also transgender and runs a successful beauty salon, struggles through her identity, reconciling debt and generating business as the recession threatens to close the salon.
When Logan’s ex-wife, Betsy, and her daughter re-enter Logan’s life in a dramatic way, Logan then balances her relationships and her place in the transgender and fashion community with the growing anxiety that the detective, determined to create a steel-tight case against Logan and has transphobic sentiments, may achieve his goal to indict her.
The novel, a continuation of James’ 2013 “Transition to Murder,” which won Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in Indie Fiction, gives needed insight into several generations of the transgender and LGBT communities, spanning from teenagers who have been left homeless and young adults who have become activists to older adults who have become mentors while still understanding their own place in society.
Most experience threats and make harrowing lengths to survive discrimination, rejection and success.
“A Kind of Justice” also follows the story of Detective Wilkins, who is set to make a case against Logan by interviewing members of the transgender community. Another compelling story arc, Wilkins reluctantly grows to learn more about the community through his interactions, which impacts him when he is struck by an unexpected life event.
The novel, switching between Logan’s and Wilkins’ perspectives, work to solve the question of the perpetrator’s murderer, even whether the murder was committed by Logan herself. It also takes on an urging dimension as the author is also transgender.
A blend of thriller and first-person narrative, “A Kind of Justice” describes social and national issues through its open, warm and capable protagonist.
Emily Hollingsworth
is on staff at The Free Lance–Star.
QUOTED: "Vivid imagery engrosses the reader, achieving a gripping story told by an urban professional navigating her way through transgender confusion."
RENEE JAMES’ TRANSITION TO MURDER REVEIWED
POSTED BY AVA BLACK ON JUN 1, 2016 IN BOOKS, REVIEWS
TRANSITION TO MURDER
Renee James
Magnus Books
2014
Bloodlust drives a psychopathic sadist to murder his transgender lover. But the murderer doesn’t count on the outraged Bobbi Logan, his lover’s hairdresser, seeking the ultimate revenge…and Bobbi doesn’t count on the murderer being one of Chicago’s most high-powered attorneys. She soon discovers stalking and killing him isn’t easy—especially when she becomes his next target.
Renee James creates a raw and graphic tale of murder, lust, and betrayal that poignantly portrays how fear and ignorance twist the psyche. Lifelike yet surreal, Transition to Murder unmasks the darky, dirty secrets everyone hides and hopes no one finds. Each character is richly written with a unique voice and sharp dialog. Vivid imagery engrosses the reader, achieving a gripping story told by an urban professional navigating her way through transgender confusion. Not for the faint of heart, this powerful page turner holds you in its grip form the first word to the last.
Renee James is an award-winning author and journalist, as well as an editor, licensed cosmetologist, and Vietnam veteran. Parent and grandparent, she has been an active advocate in the Chicago transgender community for many years. Transition to Murder won the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, Indie Fiction, and is Ms. James’s debut novel.
Ava Black
REVIEW: “Transition to Murder” by Renee James
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Winner of the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, Indie Fiction
“If he had killed me tonight, he’d be sleeping like a baby in an hour. I should be scared by that thought, but mostly I’m angry. Not stomp-your-foot angry. Get even angry. Put a knife in his gut and turn it angry.” A beautiful young transwoman is brutally murdered. The media looks on blindly, the police go through the motions, but the victim’s hairdresser goes ballistic. Bobbi Logan is so outraged by these events that she commits two bold and courageous acts: She comes out as a transwoman herself, sending her career as a hair stylist into a gut-wrenching tailspin, and she begins searching for her friend’s murderer, an investigation that brings her into the vicious web of a powerful, seductive predator who is as charming as he is ruthless.
Originally published under the title Coming Out Can Be Murder, the book tells the chilling story of revenge when a suspected killer lives beyond the reach of the law. Bobbi Logan’s bruising search for truth and justice takes her into the pulsating streets of Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, the colorful world of high-end hair styling, and the city’s vibrant transgender community. Fast-paced and unsparing in hard details, Transition to Murder is a fresh, original portrayal of the life of a transwoman who is searching to discover her own “self” even as she searches for a killer.
REVIEW:
I’m Bobbi Logan, transwoman, hairdresser, friend to any who will have me, enemy of none. I’m a good citizen and a good person and I’m a woman. All of you who disapprove can go fuck yourselves.
God damn I loved Bobbi Logan! That woman opened my blind eyes to the complete spectrum of life as a transwoman. This story brings to light the colorful transexual characters inhabiting Boystown Chicago and the dark demon who preys on them. But the focus for the most part is Bobbi’s ‘coming of woman’ which is so deeply and thoroughly explored through the first person POV, in so much that we are ‘told’ what happens and how Bobbi feels and a lot of that hits someone like me who is unaware/ignorant of the predjudice toward transexuals really hard. It’s a shocking account that draws attention to the misjustice of the trans society.
This topic is obviously a very personal one to this author and it almost eclipses the storyline of Bobbi’s quest for vengeance and justice against an untouchable, formidable psychopath who preys on transwoman. This element was very good, and especially fascinating from a psychological perspective. We get to crawl inside the mind of this man whose blind lust and vicious vitriol for trans women fuels his monster. The author doesn’t hide the violence and it is, very violent! Persons who cannot read about rape should not be reading this book.
Now I loved a lot of what this story is about, I got the message, I wanted to hug Bobbi, and infact, the next time a see a transwoman I’ll ask if I could hug her too. But from a readers perspective I feel the message was (at times) shoved down my throat. I wished Bobbi could have stepped of his soap box and held up the middle finger to the world instead of preaching to it. I wish the pacing had been better. Too much of this was plodding through Bobbi’s life as a hairdresser, like pages and pages of his passion for creating up-do’s? But I loved the vengeance play, I loved the mysterious ending, and being the blood thirsty dark hearted girl I am, I loved the violence and psychological play too. This is not a romance if that’s what you are looking for. This is original suspense exploring the life of a transexual woman. It’s good, fascinating,informative and quite heartbreaking too; but for me there was something missing from the writing, a special ingredient that I cannot pinpoint but it failed to make me love ALL of it.
I’ll recommend it though, I really do like it for it’s unique (to me) premise and the voice of Bobbi Logan and every transwoman he represents.
RATING: 3.5 STARS