Did Factory's Fumes Make Her Write Crime Thrillers?

AnneMarble · Jan 25, 2008

According to this story in the Daily Mail, author Joan Brady (American-born but residing in England) claims that fumes from a nearby glue factory made her write thrillers. In the start of her career, she wrote "heavyweight bestsellers," was compared literary greats, and won the Whitbread award (in 1993). But she won a settlement involving her claims that the fumes from a nearby glue factory were so bad that she was "reduced to writing crime thrillers."
:Wha:

This sounds totally bizarre to me. I also resent the implication that because she had brain damage, she couldn't write literary novels, but she was able to write thrillers.

Writing crime thrillers is not that easy. If the fumes were that bad, she shouldn't have been able to write them, either.

To be fair, the fumes measured at high levels in the area, but that doesn't prove cause and effect. What do you think? Were the fumes really that bad? Or was this something else, such as writer's block preventing her from writing her next literay novel?

Calla Lily · Jan 25, 2008

I write thrillers. There are no fumes near my house, unless you count ChemLawn on the neighbors' grass in the summer. Does that mean I have brain issues?

LOL! My DH would agree.

Sunkissed27f · Jan 25, 2008

I think it's bologna!

That's a little absurd.

On a lighter note......I wonder what kind of novels I could write if I lived by the Meow Mix cat food factory that I smell all day long when I am at work.
Oh and don't forget I smell the "waste management" plant on especially ripe days or right before it rains.

AnneMarble · Jan 25, 2008

callalily61 said:
I write thrillers. There are no fumes near my house, unless you count ChemLawn on the neighbors' grass in the summer. Does that mean I have brain issues?

LOL! My DH would agree.

Sunkissed27f said:
I think it's bologna!

That's a little absurd.

Yeah, I agree -- although I wouldn't be surprised if she truly believes that the glue fumes are what caused her "problem." (Some problem! The ability to write crime thrillers. :ROFL:

)

Sunkissed27f said:
On a lighter note......I wonder what kind of novels I could write if I lived by the Meow Mix cat food factory that I smell all day long when I am at work.

Cat mysteries

Sunkissed27f said:
Oh and don't forget I smell the "waste management" plant on especially ripe days or right before it rains.

Press releases.

DaddyCat · Jan 25, 2008

Oh, I believe it. I used to write poetry, but now that I'm surrounded by ten litter boxes I'm lucky I can still post on AW.

Mel · Jan 25, 2008

She should be writing science fiction.

Will Lavender · Jan 25, 2008

A snippet from one of Ms. Brady's novels:

"The man in the black hat walked into the GLUE WHAT'S THAT FU room. He took out his gun, laid it on the table CKING SMELL IS THAT. The blonde eyed it, eyed him GLUE? IT'S ALL IN MY NOS, said, "Is that your way of telling me that you're happy TRILS IT CLINGS! to see me?" The man GLUE! shrugged, smoothed down the pleat of his paints, and said, "Darling, there are some bad men GLUEGLUEGLUEGLUEGLUE looking for you and the GLUEEEEEE! money, and I'm not one of them."

CaroGirl · Jan 25, 2008

I think the smell of hamster urine is making me want to write historical romance. What?!

AnneMarble · Jan 25, 2008

CaroGirl said:
I think the smell of hamster urine is making me want to write historical romance. What?!

That should be black-footed ferret urine, of course.

C.bronco · Jan 25, 2008

Will, that's priceless!

JJ Cooper · Jan 25, 2008

Will Lavender said:
A snippet from one of Ms. Brady's novels:

"The man in the black hat walked into the GLUE WHAT'S THAT FU room. He took out his gun, laid it on the table CKING SMELL IS THAT. The blonde eyed it, eyed him GLUE? IT'S ALL IN MY NOS, said, "Is that your way of telling me that you're happy TRILS IT CLINGS! to see me?" The man GLUE! shrugged, smoothed down the pleat of his paints, and said, "Darling, there are some bad men GLUEGLUEGLUEGLUEGLUE looking for you and the GLUEEEEEE! money, and I'm not one of them."

Makes more sense than my thriller. Best I get my Son's glue bottle and put it next to the computer.

JJ

HeronW · Jan 25, 2008

That explains the horror stories I get the itch to write when the flatulent frisky feline fandangos across my table.

J. Weiland · Jan 25, 2008

I need fumes, deperately.

chartreuse · Jan 25, 2008

It doesn't pass the smell test.

Probably she just ran out of ideas for "heavyweight bestsellers" and needed an excuse for why she turned to writing crime thrillers.

J. Weiland · Jan 25, 2008

Turned out there was more money in writing thrillers, anyway.

AnneMarble · Jan 25, 2008

chartreuse said:
It doesn't pass the smell test.

Probably she just ran out of ideas for "heavyweight bestsellers" and needed an excuse for why she turned to writing crime thrillers.

That's a good theory. I thought it might be some kind of writer's block or emotional thingie that she blamed on the glue fumes. But she could know damn well that the fumes aren't responsible.

J. Weiland said:
Turned out there was more money in writing thrillers, anyway.

Yeah, £115,000! Who knew?!

nevada · Jan 26, 2008

so did they lock her in her house? last i heard it was perfectly legal to move to anywhere you want. She could have just moved. If she wasnt smart enough to figure that out, maybe she wasnt smart enough to write literary tomes. smart enough to write thrillers though, which in my mind need way more planning than literary stuff. Silly woman.

Pantsonfire · Jan 26, 2008

That's hilarious. She is ashamed of her own writing so she is going to attribute it to fumes. If fumes will help you finish a novel I'll sublet her place.

aruna · Jan 26, 2008

nevada said:
so did they lock her in her house? last i heard it was perfectly legal to move to anywhere you want. She could have just moved. If she wasnt smart enough to figure that out, maybe she wasnt smart enough to write literary tomes. smart enough to write thrillers though, which in my mind need way more planning than literary stuff. Silly woman.

But then she'd have to admit that she just can't write the way she wants to. Nobody else to blame!

While I do believe that such fumes can make one physically sick, there's no way they can affect the type or quality of one's writing.

blacbird · Jan 27, 2008

Sunkissed27f said:
That's a little absurd.

A little?

caw

Williebee · Jan 27, 2008

But she handily turned the whole thing out in time for the case to be a nice PR effort for the new book, eh?

I thought it nice they made a point of pointing out that she was "American born".

Thrillride · Jan 27, 2008

Will Lavender said:
A snippet from one of Ms. Brady's novels:

"The man in the black hat walked into the GLUE WHAT'S THAT FU room. He took out his gun, laid it on the table CKING SMELL IS THAT. The blonde eyed it, eyed him GLUE? IT'S ALL IN MY NOS, said, "Is that your way of telling me that you're happy TRILS IT CLINGS! to see me?" The man GLUE! shrugged, smoothed down the pleat of his paints, and said, "Darling, there are some bad men GLUEGLUEGLUEGLUEGLUE looking for you and the GLUEEEEEE! money, and I'm not one of them."

LOLOLOLOL! You guys are on a roll today! I am so happy I stopped by!

Red-Green · Jan 27, 2008

All the sudden I'm worried. My office is only about twenty feet from the litter box. If glue fumes caused her to write crime thrillers, what will the fumes from cat poop do to me? :Wha:

AnneMarble · Jan 27, 2008

Redzilla said:
All the sudden I'm worried. My office is only about twenty feet from the litter box. If glue fumes caused her to write crime thrillers, what will the fumes from cat poop do to me?

They will make you write cat mysteries. And then there's cat science fiction, cat fantasy, cat romance, cat Regencies, cat Westerns, cat horror, cat diet books, cat humor books...
:e2cat:

Priene · Jan 29, 2008

Just a coda to this story - Joan Brady denies any suggestion that she turned to thriller writing because the fumes made her incapable of literary fiction. She says this was made up by journalists in search of a good headline.

She does say, however, that her anger she felt over the case made her want to write thrillers, as it gives her an opportunity to slice people up.

Did Factory's Fumes Make Her Write Crime Thrillers?

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