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Sex of the sleuth, monetary rewards
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Lawliettine
Lawliettine
Trusted Informer

Nov-9-2012 23:26

1) Does the mystery have to be written in a gender neutral fashion such that both male & female sleuths can play & identify with the situations? All the little touches matter. Would any mystery be rejected on the grounds that the sleuth is very obviously female? For example, her handbag gets snatched by a strange thief. Or someone warns her that "that place is too dangerous for a woman to visit alone." Or her prime suspect (a straight male) asks her on a date.

2) Do the editors decide the monetary reward, or does the writer decide? And does the reward only have to be for solving a case? For example, the murder victim is a dear friend of the townie, and he in gratitude offers something as well for solving it.

Replies

Lawliettine
Lawliettine
Trusted Informer

Nov-11-2012 20:52

Thank you, then :)

Lawliettine
Lawliettine
Trusted Informer

Feb-14-2013 06:32

With all due respect, I just solved the mystery of Miss Village's Fate. And there were several very, very strong suggestions of the sleuth's attraction to Harriet, and it was mutual. Then there was Mr. Darcy referring to the sleuth as "man", and we all know that the colloquial lingo of exclaiming "Oh man!" wasn't there at the time.

So the writer clearly made specific assumptions about the sex of the sleuth.

Lawliettine
Lawliettine
Trusted Informer

Feb-24-2013 01:37

Aaand I'm currently working on the pirate mystery in Cairo, and it's clearly scripted for a man.

Rosamund Clifford
Rosamund Clifford
Tale Spinner

Feb-25-2013 11:35

No, it's not. I admit that I posslibly (and not quite unintentionally) created an atmosphere of "love lingering in the air", and possibly my editor (I prefer to call him my coauthor) Secret_Squirrel got a little "carried away" in some places, but there is nothing explicit, just a liking between two people.

"Miss Village's Fate" is the only SM where the detective's sex is obvious, along with one of the parts of Doomsayer, I don't remember which one, where the detective was called "boyo" by a suspect.

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