Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Danielle Arceneaux, author of the award-winning Glory Broussard series!

---

I recently attended the New Orleans Book Festival and the panelist asked a question to me and the other writers.  He asked if we had noticed that podcasts used to focus on one crime and one killer, but now, most podcasts are dedicated to one episode per crime. 

At the time, my response focused on the popularity of the genre and how quickly listeners consume these recordings.  There seems to be a never-ending appetite for true crime stories. 

Now that I’ve had more time to think about it, I think there’s more behind it. Producing a season-long podcast on a single crime requires deep knowledge.. It requires relationships with sources that may give interviews. It would require skill at pacing–ending each episode with something that keeps listeners hungry for more, and building an arc that creates suspense.  In short, a great podcast requires an editorial mind.  It requires writers.  That’s why true crime writers get booked on these shows.  It’s easier to invite a writer than to be a storyteller.

True crime is more popular than ever, and more non-writers are dabbling in the genre. Take TikTok, where there is no shortage of content creators jabbering about whatever crime is in the headlines, whether it’s Karen Read or Rex Heuerman. And that’s not even counting the possibilities of what AI could produce. Elliot Wolf, crime nepo baby and heir to the Law & Order dynasty, is set to introduce an online game called Public Eye that is set in a dystopian future where law enforcement can’t keep up with crime, so the public is called to help. The narratives and storytelling featured on the site will be developed with AI, which is a whole other kind of dystopian reality, especially for authors.

Where does this leave us actual writers? Anyone can repeat details of a crime using their iPhone and post it on the Internet. And the AI that  Elliot Wolf is using to train its soon-to-launch game? That AI may be trained using our labor and words. The Atlantic, BBC, and others have reported on Meta using AI tools to scrape and steal fiction works of all kinds, all under the auspices of fair use.

The good news is that our words are more in demand than ever. That great twist, or the character jumps off the page, is unlikely to be created by AI. These platforms can come up with a structure, but they can’t come up with a voice that crackles and characters that sing.

Take Glory Broussard, the main characters of my novels. She’s older, has plantar fasciitis, and wears sequins and supportive shoes. She listens to Patti LaBelle, is an inveterate liar and is extremely petty.  Glory is also charming and funny without telling a single joke. Maybe it’s my ego, but I find it hard to believe AI could come up with a creation as vivid as her. 

So where does this all take us?  Crime stories are more in-demand as ever. I hope authors can thrive by continuing to embrace new forms.  For example, authors of non-fiction crime (or true crime) can harness their considerable knowledge, relationships and storytelling skill to do podcasts of their own – not in place of their books, but as a companion piece. Fiction writers with distinctive characters, elegant writing and surprising plots will always garner attention. We are in tumultuous times but we must never lose faith in our words, or ourselves, as the world changes. 

---

Danielle Arceneaux is the author of the Glory Broussard series. Her first novel, Glory Be, won the Edgar’s Lillian Jackson Braun award and was selected one of the best mysteries of 2023 by The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Her latest book, Glory Daze, was released in March.