In this publicity shot for Country Weekly Magazine, new author Stuart Dill on the set with his client, singer Laura Bell Bundy and crew -- all reading 'Murder on Music Row'

Stuart Dill at Sunday's Festival of Books
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
There’s something about not sleeping between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. If you’re not careful, you may just write a novel. And if you are a well-known Country Music artist manager, you shouldn’t be surprised if that novel turns out to be Murder on Music Row: A Music Industry Thriller.

That’s exactly what happened to Stuart Dill, a 26-year veteran of the music business whose first book has just been published. Not only has Murder on Music Row received favorable reviews from those inside the music industry who vouch for its authenticity, it has garnered positive reviews from industry standards like Publisher’s Weekly, Book Page, the Literary Journal and Forward Review.

Those reviews had a little something to do with Dill's invitation to participate at the prestigious Southern Festival of Books in downtown Nashville on Oct. 16.

Stuart Dill and Maral Missirian-Dill in their Brentwood home

Dill has called Middle Tennessee home for 25 years, and specificially Brentwood for the past 16. Dill, whose client list has included Jo Dee Messina, Billy Ray Cyrus, SheDaisy, Laura Bell Bundy, Dwight Yoakam, Michael Martin Murphy and Minnie Pearl among others, drew upon his quarter century in the business to write the first of what he hopes will begin a new genre of novel, the music industry thriller.

“I kept thinking someone else would write it, but no one has,” he said over tea earlier this week at First Watch restaurant.

A fan of best-selling authors John Grisham and the late Michael Crichton, Dill knew their success came largely from being engaged in the same profession as their characters. Legal thrillers were a natural for Grisham, a lawyer. Crichton wrote his first science-fiction bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, while still in medical school at Harvard.

Dill followed suit. His main characters -- music agent Simon Stills, 23-year-old intern Judd Nix, and the hottest young star in country music star in the world Ripley Graham -- are “surrounded by a supporting cast of real people” and the story is set in Nashville, London and Los Angeles, cities Dill knows well.

Stuart's wife, Maral Missirian-Dill, who also met for tea, said the book is “dead on” in its descriptions of the music industry.

Asked if he had had any repercussions from the industry since Murder hit book stores, the new author said, “Not yet. I keep waiting! But it’s not a kiss and tell book at all.”

The son of a minister who grew up on Mobile, Stuart said he loved the idea of making an intern a central character because interns are “the most innocent of sorts.”

After graduating from American University where he studied international relations and an eight-month stint in London, he headed to Nashville after he caught the show business bug. Dill talked himself into a Music Row internship after he registered and paid for “one class to legitimize myself as a Belmont student.” Even then attending Belmont was the benchmark to gain credibility in the music business profession.

Dill began writing Murder on Music Row almost a decade ago. It soon became a family affair.

“It was a fun dance we did for a long time” before it came to fruition, Stuart said. He would write late at night and early in the morning and Maral would read it out loud over breakfast and then give him feedback. Their two children, Ani, now a first-year divinity student at Vanderbilt, and Ohan, a freshman soccer player at Centre College, also got in on the act.

Last year, Dill began sharing his book with trusted friends in the publishing world. The feedback was consistent. “It’s really good until the last 75 pages and then it falls apart,” he heard more than once.

Several rewrites of the ending later, he was finally happy with the way it ended – and where.

Because of the “amazing eyes on the book early” from those acquaintances at major publishing houses, Stuart opted to market the book himself rather than engage an agent. Blair Publishing in North Carolina was recommended as a “very reputable” publisher that’s “very Southern centric.” He sent a transcript to Winston-Salem for consideration.

Editors at Blair told him they were interested, but wanted Dill to make it “more current.” So he began “one more rewrite” last Christmas and had it to Blair by March. Murder on Music Row was released on Oct. 2.

The dedication reads: “To Maral Missirian-Dill, my devoted Armenian hokijan, in this, our twenty-fifth year of marital bliss.”

The Dills hope it sells well but know the odds of a first book becoming a bestseller are slim. But they are encouraged.

A star-studded book launch party on Sept. 29 brought 200 people to ASCAP headquarters on Music Row. The “who’s who” of music industry insiders and entertainers attending included ASCAP head Tim Dubois who introduced the book to the crowd.

Maral joked that it was “one of the first music business parties without liquor.” Instead, Humphreys Street Coffee roasted and marketed by Harvest Hands, a south Nashville community ministry the Dills’ are passionate about, and Ivey Cakes cupcakes filled the refreshment stations.

“The reviews have been surprisingly good,” Stuart said of his novel. “I knew people who knew me and knew us would want to read it but there have been legitimate positive reviews too.”

Might Murder make its way to the big screen, just like The Firm, The Pelican Brief, Jurassic Park and other Grisham and Crichton novels have?

“That would be an ultimate goal. We have a major agency who has asked to review it for film rights … but that’s a long process,” Stuart said.

And might there be a cameo role for a certain hometown reporter? “Definitely,” he said.