The Truth About Fashion Bites

by Ellen Byerrum

Thank you, Stiletto Gang, for inviting me here today!

For those of you who may not know, I write the Crime of Fashion mystery series featuring Lacey Smithsonian, a fashion reporter who solves crimes with fashion clues, and also comments on the daily fashion contretemps of Our Nation’s Capital. I am thrilled that readers have stayed with me through the latest in the series, Death on Heels, which is the eighth book.

But today I want to talk about the Fashion Bites, which are included in my books, as well as snippets of Lacey’s newspaper columns, and why they are there. The truth is they were not my idea. But this is how it happened. In my original manuscript, I had included a paragraph or two of Lacey’s articles, just to give a flavor of her writing. I thought a little taste of her fashion sensibility would suffice. And that’s when it happened.

 My first editor said, “You know what would really be fun?” (I have learned to be skeptical when someone, anyone—particularly an editor—suggests to a writer that something would be really fun. Fun = a lot of extra work. For the writer, not the editor.) “I think it would be fun to include the actual columns in the books,” she said, and she proposed that said fashion columns (which turned into Lacey Smithsonian’s “Fashion Bites”) should do three things: advance the story, be humorous, and actually offer real fashion advice. My editor said, “That’s not too much to ask, is it?”

It IS too much to ask, I said!

Fashion truly BITES! I bled!

It is not fun! I pled and pled.

I will not write them in my head,

I will not write them in my bed,

I will not write those Bites, I said!

I won’t, I won’t! I’ll cry, I’ll crawl

I will not write them on the wall,  

I will not write them in a shawl,

I will not write them playing ball,

I will not write them in the fall.

They are not fun to write at all.

I lost, of course, as writers will.

They are a sweet and bitter pill.

I slay my victims with my quill,

Dispatch my villains with a thrill,

And spill their blood in dishabille.

But Fashion Bites? I cannot kill.

My Fashion Bites: I love them and I hate them.

In agreeing to write the Fashion Bites, I gave myself a conundrum, eerily like Lacey Smithsonian’s own. She gets no respect on the fashion beat at her paper because she writes about fashion, and because of the Fashion Bites and my books’ allusions to fashion, I also get no respect, from some people. They do not believe my books are serious, and that there is subtext and social commentary and nuances of character. But I am also a playwright, therefore there is always subtext. Even in the Fashion Bites.

Some mystery readers have even informed me, to my face, no less, “I’m never going to read you! I don’t like fashion, I don’t care about clothes, and I wouldn’t open a fashion mystery if you paid me.”

And before I can say, “My, those are lovely sweatpants you’re wearing. . .” they’ve high-stepped away on their orthopedic athletic shoes. Before I can explain that my books are not about supermodels and catwalks, they are simply about the stories we tell with the clothes we wear.

On the other hand, there are other readers, who tell me the Fashion Bites are their favorite parts of the books.  Really, but what about the cool mystery and the gruesome murder? But no, they would like to see more Bites.

So far, I have written 37 of Lacey’s Fashion Bites for my books and included a few other snippets from her “Crime of Fashion” columns. I try to make them funny, and useful, and they usually advance the plot. They are written in first person, from Lacey’s point of view, and ultimately, they work to give more insight to her character and her voice. They’re hard to write, but I have learned to live with them, because they’re part of Lacey, and part of my Crimes of Fashion series. And some people seem to love them.

I’d love to know what you think.

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Ellen Byerrum writes the popular Crime of Fashion mysteries, set in bustling Washington, D.C., The City That Fashion Forgot. While researching fashion, Byerrum has collected her own assortment of 1940s styles, but laments her lack of closet space. She has been a D.C. news reporter in Washington, a playwright, and even though she has moved to Colorado, she holds a Virginia P.I. registration.She is currently at work on the ninth book in the Crime of Fashion series. Visit her web site at EllenByerrum.com.

In Death on Heels, Lacey Smithsonian is forced out of her comfort zone and into the Wild West when her ex-boyfriend is accused of murdering three women, all found barefoot on lonely country roads. Lacey travels back to Sagebrush, Colorado, where she cut her teeth as a reporter. Caught between two men, with a vicious killer on her trail, Death on Heels is a whole new—and potentially fatal—frontier for this fashion reporter. 

ENTER TO WIN A SIGNED COPY OF DEATH ON HEELS!!!  Ellen Byerrum has generously agreed to give away one autographed copy of her latest Crime of Fashion Mystery. Just leave a comment with your first name and email address on Ellen's guest post by midnight tonight.  The winner will be randomly drawn from all entries, and we'll announce the lucky Stiletto reader once we've made contact.  Happy commenting and good luck!!!