My Weblog

History: Delicious, Juicy, Quirky, Funny, Touching and Scandalous. Or, How I Became A History Buff (And You Can Too!)

Our guest today is Sharon Short, author of MY ONE SQUARE INCH OF ALASKA, a coming-of-age novel (with a mystery subplot!) set in 1953 Ohio and the Alaskan Territory. This novel, released earlier in 2013 by Penguin Plume, was a reader pick for several libraries and contests, including BookBundlz, Salt Lake City Public Library, and Virginia Beach Public Library. About a young woman who reconnects with her own dreams while helping her little brother fulfill his, this novel also earned Sharon an Ohio Arts Council Literary Artist Award, a Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts and Cultural District Literary Fellowship, and selection as a 2013 Featured Author for the Ohioana Book Festival. Sharon is also the author of two mystery series, the Josie Toadfern humorous mystery series (Avon Books) and the Patricia Delaney PI series (Fawcett Books), both of which are currently being re-issued in e-book format. 

Sharon is now hard at work on a literary suspense novel, combining the techniques she learned from writing ALASKA and her mystery series into a compelling tale set in rural Ohio in 1925, so I just had to ask her how she managed the transition from writing contemporary mysteries to an historical coming-of-age tale (with a mystery subplot!)… especially when she didn’t (until recently) think of herself as loving history? 

Over to you, Sharon.

For too long, I thought of history (particularly the study of it) in the same way that many people automatically think of it: dry, dull, tedious, and fact after fact after fact. I believe this is because in high school and college, the required history courses focused only on specific wars… what led to them, battles during them, and political decisions made after them. Nothing about the daily lives of people, or social context, or domestic realities. And definitely no specific stories of everyday people for me to relate to. How would, for example, a young woman living in, say, rural Virginia have had her life shaken up by the Civil War? What about a young man in New Orleans?  

Story is my way of understanding human experience and heart: a story well told—one that touches my heart, helps me understand human nature, and catches my attention in a fresh way—has my enthusiastic appreciation, no matter the time or place or genre.

But because my particular experience in formally learning history was to memorize fact after fact, outside of any context of story—or how these facts would have impacted everyday people and their choices, freedoms, and prospects—I thought I didn’t like history.

Looking back, I realize that’s not true. I’ve always loved history… even as a kid. I just didn’t think of it as “learning history” when I read books published long before me, or read novels set in past times. Or when I spent many study hall breaks in Junior High pouring over the school library’s collection of Time Life books about history, the photos and stories about fascinating individuals catching my imagination. Or when on holiday visits, I wasn’t interested in playing outside because I was busy interviewing my grandmothers and my great-grandmother about what it was like for them in their childhood years and as young women.

Later, at Wright State University, I majored in English literature, and loved those classes. Each term, my professors started the course with lectures on the social, domestic, and political events that took place at the time the writers created the novels, poems, stories and plays that we were reading and analyzing decades—or centuries—later. My professors thought it was important that we understand the context in which the literature was created; because I could imagine the impact on the author of these historical influences, I often found studying them as fascinating as the literature itself. Of course, my English professors didn’t call this “studying history.” If they had…

Not only that, but as an adult I quickly became a woman who always asks people about the history of their house or place of business—who owned it before? When was it built? Who was the builder? What brought people to settle a particular neighborhood or area? I constantly grill people with these questions about their homes… and can tell you the history of our neighborhood and house. 

And as a mom, I took our children when they were younger on many a trip to living history museums (Sunwatch Indians and settlers in our area) as well as to homes of and museums about important regional and state inventors and literary figures (Paul Laurence Dunbar, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison…) I was always excited and eager to visit, not just for the edification of our daughters, but to satisfy my own curiosity. Our daughters are grown up now, but I still love to visit Carillon Historical Park  all on my own… just for fun.

 

 

 

 

 

However, I never envisioned myself writing historical novels. But one day, I learned of a tiny bit of historical trivia: in the 1950s, a rather Mad Man-esque advertising fellow came up with a promotional campaign to include deeds to one square inch of the Yukon territory in boxes of Quaker Puffed Rice to both promote the cereal and the radio (and later TV) show, “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,” which featured the brave sergeant and his Alaskan husky, Yukon King. However, everyone from that era remembered the promotion and deeds as being for one square inch of Alaska.  

The moment I heard this trivia, I was fascinated about what one tiny square inch in a vast territory like Alaska could represent to young people. And then the characters Donna and Will showed up in my imagination, begging: please tell OUR story of our one square inch of Alaska…

Well, how could I turn down a plea like that? Especially since I was a writer in search of a new story (my Josie series had wrapped up the year before)? Especially since one of the final scenes ‘downloaded’ itself in my imagination with such force that I was impelled to write it in my journal? (That scene, nearly exactly as I wrote it, remains intact in the novel.)

Thus began my quest to figure out and write Donna’s and Will’s story.

Funny thing, though. Since the novel would need to be set in 1953… and I was born a decade later… I’d have to, gulp, research history.

I admit, the idea of “researching history” threw me off course for a little while. And then I started thinking about all the ways in which I really always have loved learning about history. Those Time-Life books. Stories from people (or from their diaries from long ago.) Visiting museums. Looking at vintage ads. Looking at paintings and sculptures. Visiting old houses. Looking at old post cards. Watching vintage movies or TV shows and studying what people wore. Going to antique shops and poking around, not because I’m an antiques collector or expert. I just love to look at and (when appropriate) touch artifacts from times gone by.

At long last, I realized that it wasn’t that I didn’t love history. I just didn’t love memorizing historical facts focused on one aspect of history—battles and wars--without a social or personal context. With that epiphany, I finally got it—researching the social and political context for my characters, as well as understanding the news events of their time would be anything but dry.  I thought it would be exciting, my own version of sleuthing and digging up the past (just like my previous detective heroines, Josie and Patricia.)

And… it was! I started by getting copies of, yes, those old Time Life books about the 1940s and 1950s. I interviewed a doctor who’d practiced medicine in the 1950s. I interviewed my dad about union practices. I lurked on eBay until I could purchase a vintage 1953 road atlas that was exactly like one Donna would have easily gotten at a gas station. I looked up vintage ads and found sewing pattern books and went to open houses for homes (albeit modernized) similar to the one I envisioned for Donna. I researched music (and listened to it) that would have been popular with teens of the era; likewise I found (and watched) movies from the time period.

I researched everything I could about tear-drop campers; I watched videos and read books about the Alaskan Territory in the 1950s (everyone called it Alaska although it wasn’t a state until 1959.) I found vintage cookbooks and comic books. I went to vintage clothing shops to look at items from the era.

My goal was to bring the era to life as a natural part of the story, to weave fibers of history into the story fabric, without lecturing. I also wanted to be as accurate as possible. The 1950s were not the “Happy Days” of the 1970s sitcom. I wanted to understand how people then saw things, not judge them through the lens of how we see things now.

It was challenging… and fascinating.

So much so, that when the inspiration came along for my current work-in-progress, a literary suspense novel set in rural Ohio in 1925, I didn’t hesitate for a moment about embracing it. Will the project have challenges? Of course!

But at least this time around I know that I love researching and learning history, and letting what I learn become a part of the story’s fabric.

After all, when experienced as a story, history is delicious, juicy, quirky, funny, touching and scandalous!

Learn more about Sharon and her work at www.sharonshort.com You can also connect with her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SharonShortAuthor) and on Twitter (@SharonGShort) or via email, sharonshort@sharonshort.com Sharon loves to hear from and chat with readers!

 

 

 

 

Carolyn Hart talks classic mysteries

Today's guest is Carolyn Hart, who has won so many awards and accolades I could fill a whole blog post listing them. Long known as a proponent of the traditional mystery, Carolyn has won thousands upon thousands of fans around the world for her various series which fit into the mold popular for over a century. She believes -- and I heartily agree -- that the writers of today can learn a lot from our forerunners in the genre. I asked her to talk about the classics and some of her favorites. WARNING: there might be a spoiler or two!

CLASSIC AND BRILLIANT By Carolyn Hart

Classic mysteries are more than icons in a pantheon. Classic mysteries were - and remain - original, captivating, and, for us, instructive.

These books excite my admiration and emulation:

            THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie

Christie is, was, and will always be the world’s greatest mystery author . The denouement was utterly unexpected. From that time forward, she was the reigning queen of taking the reader’s preconceptions and casual acceptance of what is presented and using those blinders to fool the reader and ultimately present an ending that scarcely any of them could foretell. For those who protest at the novel’s conclusion, go back to the passage where Dr. Sheppard stands at the study door and wonders if there was anything he had left undone. The genius of that paragraph should inform all of our work.                

TEN LITTLE INDIANS (aka AND THEN THERE WERE NONE) by Agatha Christie

In her autobiography, Christie said she was pleased with this book and that only she understood how difficult it had been to write. Her amazing accomplishment here was to create the perfect characters to exemplify their counterparts in the nursery rhyme. The entire book would have collapsed upon itself if she had not succeeded in bringing to life the particular persons who would behave in just the right way for her plot to succeed. Everything that happens in a mystery depends upon the character of those involved. This is a simple concept. It is a hugely difficult challenge. In a manuscript I just completed, I struggled early on because I couldn’t get the theme to mesh with the action. I realized I had miscast a main character. I went back to the first and Lorraine became the woman she needed to be for the book to work. 

            THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE by Mary Roberts Rinehart

An instantaneous success, Mary Roberts Rinehart was the first author to write a humorous mystery with a female protagonist. Life is real, life is earnest, but a great deal of good fun can be had in a mystery. The woman in jeopardy became a staple of crime fiction from then to now. Rinehart’s wry observations entertain. Engaging readers in a character’s survival and knowing when to entertain readers are lessons we can learn from her.

            THE CASE IS CLOSED  by Patricia Wentworth.

Patricia Wentworth combined romance and mystery with a series sleuth, Miss Maud Silver, whose ability to engage anyone and everyone in conversation helped her ultimately to sift from casual comments revelations that reveal a villain. In this particular book, she also put appealing people in devastating circumstances and the reader roots for them to prevail.             

          CAUSE FOR ALARM by Eric Ambler

Ambler excelled in authenticity. He knew the background, he knew the terrain, he knew what he was talking about. To experience immediacy with the events that led up to WWII, Ambler provides not only first rate excitement, he gives today’s readers a view of how those involved in the run up to war understood the world around them.

            THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey

Two women are accused of a crime. The accusations are damming, the evidence presented apparently incontrovertible. Tey creates an oppressive atmosphere, pulls us ever deeper into the despair of the accused women. The characterizations are compelling; the resolution riveting. Making a mystery intensely personal is one of Tey’s great achievements. Her gift to us is the realization that the homeliest background can be spellbinding if we care about the characters.

These authors have in common the ability to create intriguing puzzles and authentic characters. We can read them not only to learn, but to enjoy how well they played the fascinating game of the Mystery.

           

             

 

 

DANDY GILVER OUT TODAY!

Happy bookday to me (and Dandy)!

Happy bookday to me (and Dandy)!

Happy US publication day

To Dandy Gilver and me!

 (Can you tell I’m baking, and that I’ve already been eating butter icing off the mixer whisks? )

Anyway, I’m thrilled to announce that today sees the US publication of DANDY GILVER AND A BOTHERSOME NUMBER OF CORPSES.  In celebration, I’ll be giving away a signed hardback copy.  Just leave a comment to have your name put in the hat.

 

I loved writing this book, fell in love with the new characters even more than usual and had a harder than ever time leaving them behind when I was done.  It feels like a proper treat to get to visit them all again in readings and Q&As for the launch.  And it fells like sheer indulgence to revisit the world I made-up.  It’s a very particular little world - St Columba’s College for Young Ladies, Portpatrick, Scotland - where Dandy goes undercover as an English mistress and causes havoc in the classroom.

I did a fair bit of stealing as well as inventing because although St C.’s is an imaginary school, Portpatrick is a real place and the school building is actually the Portpatrick Hotel.

Here are Dandy and Alec rolling up there for the first time.

“Do you know where St Columba’s is?’ I asked the coachman.  This innocent question set him off worse than ever, a torrent delivered at top speed and high volume of which I understood not a word.  He shook his fists and jabbed the air and, as our gaze followed the way he was so emphatically pointing, up above the roofs of the cottages, up the face of the cliff, all the way up to the headland, we saw a squat grey building, hunched above the village glaring down. I could not believe – once it was noticed – that it had gone unnoticed before.  Almost it seemed to be looming as though with a gust of wind it might topple from its perch and flatten us.

‘I take it they don’t start with a kindergarten,’ Alec said.  ‘I shouldn’t want my precious tot running around up there.’

‘Twelve and up,’ I said.  ‘What a supremely unwelcoming facade.’

Poor hotel!  It’s nothing like as gothic and gloomy in real life as in the story.  And believe me when I say that no school in any century in any country would stay in business if a fraction of the St Columba’s shenanigans was really going on there.  Mistresses are vanishing (five so far) and corpses are piling up (four and counting) but the numbers don’t tally.  Most bothersome

I don’t want to go into any more detail about the plot.  For one thing - S-P-O-I-L-E-R  - and for another the memory of the trouble it gave me is still too fresh and painful.  But writing the setting?  Writing a 1920s girls boarding school?  That was almost too easy to be fun.

To  dream up St Columba's, I drew deeply on my own childhood.  “Wait a minute!”  I hear you cry.  “You’ve always made out you were a working-class kid.”  Well, yes, I was and I went to a  comprehensive school (= US public school (= UK private school (argh!))) of no poshness whatsoever, in a building that says all there is to say about the municipal architecture of the 1970s.

That was by day.  But by night, oh by night, I entertained myself as did many of us (including JK Rowling, I’m willing to bet) with the school stories of Enid Blyton.  

 

In which fearless (ie nutjob) Darrell Rivers and her loyal (ie boring) friend Sally Hope triumphed over disasters, bullies and passive-aggressive mistresses for six years at Mallory Towers.  

These books were so successful that - I don’t think I’m being cynical here – Enid Blyton followed them up with another, unrelated series concerning Pat and Isobel, the O’Sullivan twins (Irish! Diversity!) who triumphed over disasters, bullies and passive-aggressive mistresses for six years at the entirely different St Clare’s.

 

How I loved that world.  The girls had a stately old school on a clifftop, with a swimming pool carved into the rock that was filled with saltwater at high tide.  They had an airy dorm with billowing white curtains and gaily-coloured eiderdowns.  They had midnight feasts out of the tuck boxes their doting parents and jolly cooks sent from home.

Ah yes, the food.   It was the descriptions of boarding-school meals in the vast, echoing dining-room  where the girls sat at four long tables (JK Rowling definitely read these books!) that made me most envious of all.  The steaming, creamy porridge, the vats of stew and mountains of mash, the tall jugs of cocoa at suppertime.

Meanwhile, I lived one fifth of a mile from my high school and one fifth of a mile from my primary school and ate a home-cooked lunch every schoolday for twelve years.  Poor me, I thought then.  Mum: you’re a marvel, I think now.  Home-made soup from home-made stock, home-made bread, home-made cakes . . . I can’t believe I was pining for institutional (not to mention fictional) stew.

So with hindsight, I’m very glad that I went home to my family every night (and lunchtime too) and that those boarding schools were all in my mind.  What bit of your schooldays have you changed your view of with a bit of distance? 

 

 

 

An Interview with Medicolegal Death Investigtor Loan Tran

by Charlaine Harris

Loan Tran, whom I met a few months ago, works at (take a deep breath) the Dallas County Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, Office of the Medical Examiner. She's a Medicolegal Death Investigator, a job commonly mistaken for "CSI." However, in Loan's location (Dallas, TX) Crime Scene Investigators work for the police department and are responsible for the crime scene, while Loan's county job is to process the body of any individual who has died in questionable circumstances. Loan is part of a hard-working team which has handled over 300 bodies this year. Amazingly, after four years on the job, Loan still has a sense of humor. Loan agreed to answer questions posed by the Femmes Fatales, and if readers have questions for her, too, maybe she'll visit again.

1. What's the biggest difference between TV csi's and real csi's? Besides the ridiculous clothes? I've seen you at work, and you don't wear heels and low-cut knit tops.

With Death Investigators, our dress code is business casual with a white laboratory coat. The white laboratory coat is to reduce the risk of exposure to bodily fluids or other hazards we might come across on scene. No way are we allowed to wear high heels, short skirts or low-cut knit tops. I recently saw a show where a Death Investigator and Medical Examiner arrived to scene in trendy trench coats and knee high boots…and I have to say…that is not at all how we dress. I don’t really watch too many shows like CSI. The biggest difference is the technology. In these shows fingerprinting takes one minute but in reality it’s a bit of a process to make a positive ID based on fingerprints. Shows like CSI have really skewed the public’s view on how crime scene and death investigations really work. It’s not as “high tech” as it appears on TV.

2. What is the most difficult case you've ever had?

When dealing with death, all cases are difficult whether or not it’s traumatic or natural. However, there are cases that do stand out and are more difficult than others. I’ve had two cases that were very difficult. Both were young children involved in “freak accidents.” In one case a young boy ran through a screen door, puncturing his colon. In the second, an elementary school girl fell onto a handle bar during a bicycle accident and lacerated her liver. (I can only discuss these cases because the cause and manner have been made public and their stories were on the news.) When I interacted with the parents in these particular cases, I was deeply saddened that their children were taken away unexpectedly and so suddenly. They will not celebrate any more holidays or birthdays with their children.

3. Do you find juries have different expectations of your evidence now that TV shows about csi's are so popular?

Death Investigators do testify on occasion but it’s rare. Medical Examiners (medical doctors that are specialized in forensic pathology who perform the autopsies) testify in court. TV shows such as “CSI” have caused juries have different expectations on evidence. On television, difficult homicides or unexplained cases are solved within a couple days. I have worked cases that took months and almost years to solve due to lack of evidence. Television makes it seem very easy to “stumble” upon evidence.

Also, certain cause and manner of death determinations pend for 8-12 weeks for further testing. We can’t spit out evidence in an hour.

Another thing I noticed about TV shows is DNA analysis. It is not as easy and quick to build a profile to “catch the bad guy.” There are many factors that come with DNA profiling and the process could take months. It all depends on the samples that are available and their condition. Not everyone’s DNA is in the “system.” We don’t always get a “hit” on DNA like they do in TV shows.

4. Has something you found ever made the critical difference in solving a case?

Since a large number of my cases are still pending court trials or have not closed yet, I’ll mention past cases. Yes, there have been cases where the Medical Examiner’s findings have lead the arrest of a suspect. There was a case of an elderly gentleman who lived alone. He was murdered in his house. The decedent also had a pet bird that was killed as well. The Death Investigator made the decision to have the bird transported along with the decedent to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy. During the exam it was discovered that the bird had bitten the finger of the suspect and there was fragment of it in the bird’s mouth. The suspect was identified by DNA from that fragment. Another interesting case was a small piece of a glove that was identified on the body by the medical examiner. That fragment was traced back and the suspect was located. DNA is so very important and it can make or break the case.

5. What do you find most satisfying about your job?

The most satisfying part of my job is helping to bring closure to families. When a person dies suddenly and unexpectedly, families really have a difficult time obtaining closure until the cause of death is released. Also, this is a career that extremely unique and difficult to come by. There is something different and new almost every day.

6. What's the biggest challenge you face in your day-to-day work?

The biggest challenge is not being able to provide answers for cause and manner of death. This includes sudden unexplained infant deaths or sudden deaths of people of any age where autopsy findings yielded no results pointing to the definite cause of death. Cases like this pose a challenge. Also, I do have to make death notifications on occasion and sometimes over the phone. It’s really difficult and emotionally challenging to notify a family member that their loved one passed away.

 

 

 

Murder and Mayhem in Muskego 2013!

by Dana

The Muskego (WI) Public Library hosts one of my favorite events in the writing community.  Murder and Mayhem in Muskego is an annual event with twenty-odd writers doing panels all day on a Saturday in early November.  Organized by the volunteers at the library (notably the wonderful Penny Halle) with the good folks at Crimespree Magazine (especially Jon and Ruth Jordan), the eclectic nature of the event is part of the attraction:  There are crime writers of every stripe, working in subgenres ranging from the traditional mystery to grittiest noir.  More than that, a number of the panelists also work in more than one genre (like yours truly, mixing up the urban fantasy with crime and thriller components) and even in more than one medium, especially comics. 

It is, quite simply, one of the best places to get your geek on, not only about fiction, but non-fiction, and writing in general, and popular culture. 

This year, I was on two panels; the Friday night “Liars” panel moderated by the magnificent Jen Forbus with  Marcia Clark, Sean Doolittle, Chris Holm, Julie Hyzy, and me.  We gave Jen our best anecdotes and she spun them into believable lies, and audience members had to be brave enough to figure out which was the truth, and which was the lies.  For the record:  Yes, I got married with a knife strapped to my thigh.  You can check out video of this panel on Jen's website. 

The second panel I participated on was called  “Riff Raff” (all the panels were named for AC/DC songs).  The most excellent Kate Malmon (you know her from her work at Crimespree Magazine, particularly "Crimepsree on Comics," which she does with the equally excellent Dan Malmon) moderated her first panel—and did a fabulous job of it.  She chose to focus on characters and writing them, which Howard Chaykin, Chris Holm (it's now a rule that Chris and I will always be on panels together), Harry Hunsicker, and Duane Swierczynski.  (Right, you can see that you can get coffee with an axe, or Regular.)

There were some great one-on-ones as well:  Jen interviewed Gregg Hurwitz.  Marcia Clark interviewed Michael Koryta (and vice versa) and (below), there was a terrfic discussion between Kent Krueger and Libby Hellmann.

I can't tell you about the party after the panels—what happens in Muskego stays in Muskego—but I will say that often as not, you will see the other panelists gathering to hear what everyone has to say.  That's how good it is.

In the Pink

By Elaine Viets

Embarrassed by your old pink bathroom? Wish you could make it stylish without ripping it out?

I’ve got good news: The pink bathroom is once more enthroned as a style icon.

I discovered this when I wrote "Fixing to Die," my new Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper mystery. In "Fixing to Die," newlyweds Ted and Josie renovate their first home.

 

Amelia, Josie’s tween daughter, insists they save the historic pink bathroom. Here’s the scene:

"Pink and black bathrooms are so old fashioned," Josie said.

"No, Mom, they’re retro," Amelia said. "Do you know there’s a Website called Save the Pink Bathrooms?"

"There’s a Website for everything," Josie said.

"It says Mamie Eisenhower made pink bathrooms popular."

An old photo of the 1950s First Lady flashed in Josie’s mind. "You’re not convincing me," she said. "I’ve seen the pictures of Mamie. She was a good woman, but no fashion icon. She also wore flat hats, shapeless coats, and fur stoles with the animal’s head biting its own tail."

"Ew," Amelia said. "Fur is just wrong. But she loved pink. She painted all the private parts of the White House pink."

"Private quarters is a better word choice," Josie said.

Amelia turned her own shade of deep pink. "You know what I mean, Mom."

Josie was ashamed. "Yes, I do," she said. "I apologize for embarrassing you."

"Save the Pink Bathrooms says we’re tearing out part of our home design heritage."

"We can’t have that, can we?" Josie said.

"There are lots of reasons to keep it," Amelia said. "Pink bathrooms make you look younger because the pink light reflects off your skin." Her impassioned pro pink speech skidded to a stop. "Not that you need to look younger, Mom."

"Okay, enough with the soft soap," Josie said. "We’ll leave our historic pink bathroom alone."

"Will you take the pledge?" Amelia asked."The Website wants a gazillion people to promise to preserve vintage pink bathrooms."

"Don’t press your luck," Josie said. "I’ll save our pink bathroom, but I’m not ready to put it in writing."

 

Take the pledge to Save the Pink Bathrooms here:

http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/

(Some illustrations courtesy of savethepinkbathrooms.com)

Trying Something Different

by Toni L.P.Kelner

 

One of the best parts about the writing business is that there's always something different to try, and I'm in the middle of a different kind of project right now and I'm having a great time.

At the Cleveland Bouchercon 2012, the folks at Audible Frontiers approached Femme Charlaine Harris about putting together an anthology of short stories set in the world of Sookie Stackhouse. Of course, Charlaine has already written a bunch of great Sookie short stories, but here were the three big differences:

• The anthology would appear in audio form, rather than in print.
• The stories wouldn't be about Sookie.
• The stories would not be written by Charlaine.

The idea was for Charlaine to recruit a bunch of other writers and get their takes on some of the other marvelous characters from Bon Temps and beyond. Oh, and there was one other difference.

• The anthology would not be edited by Charlaine, either. Instead they enlisted me.

In a burst of synchronicity, I wandered past the table where Charlaine and Audible were meeting just as they got to they, "Hey, why don't we got Toni L.P. Kelner to edit this?" part. Yes, I know that sounds far too pat, but that's the way it happened.

I loved the idea immediately. How could I resist something that was so different from anything I'd done before? Being the sole editor of an anthology rather than a co-editor? Working with a new publisher? Being an audio anthology, and with stories written about characters that belong to somebody else?

It's not that I don't like writing my own novels and short stories, and goodness knows I love co-editing anthologies with Charlaine and working with my editor at Penguin. But variety is, as they say, the spice of life, and this sounded pretty darned spicy to me.

We decided to call the project Dead But Not Forgotten, and Charlaine and I put together a roster of amazing authors who are also Sookie fans. The full list hasn't been announced yet--Audible loves playing things close to the vest--but I can say that we've got stories from MaryJanice Davidson and Seanan McGuire. And for the first time, I can here reveal that my alter ego Leigh Perry will have her very first short story in the anthology. I can't say who else is involved, but I will say that some of the following fan favorites will be showing up as protagonists in their very own stories: Eric, Pam, Quinn, Ameila, Bubba, Alcide, and Andy Bellefleur. And though I haven't read all the stories yet, the one's I've seen are just delightful.

Our publication date is May 13, 2014, and print and ebook versions will follow from Ace Books six months or so afterward. That's about all I can tell you so far.

Just remember Sookie fans,  while Charlaine will be vetting all the stories and they will be edited for continuity to make sure they conform to the Sookie stories, these will not be Charlaine's stories. They'll be something different.

And as the French say, vivé la différence!

Recalculating--GPS for LIfe

 

By Hank Phillippi Ryan

 

In the car these days , we always use a GPS. When we make a wrong turn, the GPS voice doesn’t criticize, it just says "Recalculating..." I love that—it means, okay, you’ve decided to do something other than what I initially suggested. Okay. Let me figure out how to go from there.

And we don’t worry, we aren’t frightened, GPS knows there’s another way, another path, and another idea.

Recalculating. 

There’s a wonderful quote from Thomas Edison I sometimes use in my speeches: Edison (one of my heroes, and if my step-children had listened to me, my grandson Elijah would have been Edison, but no, they had to make their own decision) (and I adore Eli, so maybe next time).

ANYWAY. Thomas Edison is quoted as saying:  "When you think you’ve exhausted all possibilities, you haven’t.’

 Isn’t that the best?

So when we come to a bump in the plot road (continuing the car metaphor, I’m a writer after all) instead ripping our hair out or threatening to give the advance back or deciding this whole book thing was a mistake, from moment one a MISTAKE and who’s idea was this anyway--instead we realize we can think: oh, there’s a solution. I just haven’t thought of it yet. Recalculating.

As an author who works without an outline, I’ve certainly been at those forks in the road (see?) that feel more like a dead end. (good, huh?)

When I was writing my new book—which I finished the first draft of last week, YAY—I came to a point where all my lovely clues and red herrings (or not) and twists and turns had culminated to the moment where I had to figure out what happened.

I said to Jonathan—“I don’t know how to solve this mystery. It’s not solving.”

“You’ll think of something,” he said.

I thought.

I tried way number one. How would it work if…. Nope.

Recalculating.

Way number two. Thinking again. What if she…nope. Won’t work. Recalculating.

I will spare you the ways 3 through what seemed like infinity. Recalculating, recalculating recalculating...

And then, finally, --ah HA. Ah-freaking-HA! I was so happy when I came up with the solution, I will confess to you I stood up from my chair and applauded myself. Happily, I was alone.

And such is the way of the author. Recalculating and recalculating until you find the correct route. And remembering, just because you haven’t found the right solution—doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It just means you haven’t thought of it yet.

Which should be the end of the blog, but it reminds me now of another of my favorite quotes. From  another of my favorite guys, Pogo, via Walt Kelly.

Pogo was asked--what do you do when there's no where to turn?

And Pogo says: "I don't turn."

 

A salute to the veterans in my family

by Donna Andrews

In case the fading certificate above is hard to read, it says:

"In memory of Private Luther C. Hornsby, Co. "A," 9th Infantry, who died November 13rh, 1918.  He bravely laid down his life for the cause of his county. His name will ever remain fresh in the hearts of his friends and comrades.  The record of his honorable service will be preserved in the achives of the American Expeditionary Forces."

Ironically, the certificate doesn't preserve the name everyone called him. The C stood for Coleman, and that's the name everyone in the family used. He was my great-unclle, my grandfather's brother--born in 1892 and thus older by four years. In another sad irony, according to the family lore, he was wounded on Armistice Day, possibly after the peace had been signed but before word had reached all the troops in the trenches, and died of his wounds two days later.  I sometimes try to imagine how it must have felt for his family, taking part in the general rejoicing over the Armistice, thinking that now their boy was safe, and then who knows how many days later finding out the bitter truth.

Every Veteran's Day I find myself wishing that I'd done more research on Coleman and the other veterans in my family.  And as I gradually sort through the papers retrieved from my mother's house when she moved to smaller quarters, I'm finding more and more tidbits.  I didn't know until I found this certificate that he was in the 9th Infantry, which a little online research suggests is the "Fighting Ninth" or "Manchu Regiment."  According to the history page on the regiment's website:

Upon the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, the Regiment was again called to battle on foreign soil. It arrived in France in 1917 as part of the famous "Indianhead" Second Infantry Division. In early October 1917, the Manchus moved to the front. The Regiment first became involved in the then static warfare in the Sous Reuvrois Sector. When subsequently moved to Chateau-Thierry, it met and stalled the Boche Purge on Paris. Later during the involved campaign in the Meuse-Argonne Sector, and in one of the final campaigns of the war, the 9th Infantry successfully spearheaded one of the most reckless and daring moves in the history of modern warfare.

After capturing the edge of the Belval forest on the afternoon of 03 November 1918, the Regiment immediately prepared to continue the surge into the enemy lines. At 1630 hours, during an intense rainstorm and under cover of darkness, the forward movement was begun with columns on either side of the only passable road through the wooded terrain. The movement necessitated passage through the main line of enemy resistance, carried within 100 yards of artillery engaged in firing upon their recently abandoned positions. Without disturbing those units, the Regiment proceeded silently, intercepting and capturing enemy patrols and outposts, as well as defensive positions without firing a shot. At 2330 hours the movement was completed and a perimeter was established more than five miles to the rear of the defending Germans.

 The German's attempt to make the Bevel Forest one of the fierce, slow defensive maneuvers was thwarted and their lines became utterly disorganized. This was one of three successful night moves or raids made by the Manchu Regiment within a period of days that aided considerably in dealing a death blow to the bewildered Germans.

I wonder if it was any comfort to his grieving family that at least he seems to have died in the course of an action that contributed decisively to bringing the Great War to an end.

I only know a few other things about Coleman.  Some of the old timers in the family were known to remark, "He'd have broken his mother's heart." I never quite understood why.  From the stories they told, he was a bit of a prankster, and possibly a ladies' man. Two of his brothers were out driving the family wagon one day and decided to give the horse free rein.  Sure enough, it turned down the lane of the farm where they had begun to suspect he was courting one of the daughters. Famously, he went out one December to get chop down a Christmas tree and took a shortcut--he harvested the top half of a tree from a matched lane of trees leading to a nearby farm. Not long after that, his father bought the farm and never stopped cursing the miscreant who had spoiled that beautiful matched lane of evergreens.  We don't think his brothers ever told their father that Coleman was to blame.

That's about all I know about Coleman, but I'm hoping eventually more papers will turn up.

A generation later, Coleman's older brother, Stanley (1888-1951) lost his only child, Stanley, Jr. in World War II. I know even less about Stanley, Jr., my first cousin once removed. His birth and death dates--June 7, 1925 to November 23, 1944. Still hoping for more information as I sift through the paper trove, and maybe a picture.

The paper trove has yielded a fat, crumbling file with some of my father's military records, too.   But I'll save that for another time.

Meanwhile, here's to Coleman and Stanley Junior and my dad.

 

Ghosts and Ancient Celtic Things

 

from Mary

 

 

There's nothing better on a cool November night than cuddling up with good mystery. As cold weather comes on, I especially love to read books with ghosts or spirits. They can be anywhere on the spooky scale from hell demons to Casper. Makes no difference. Love that extra dimension that the supernatural adds to a story.

Anything about the ancient world, particularly Celtic folklore or treasure, is also a major button-pusher. So when a comment on Marcia's blog yesterday mentioned author Phil Rickman, master of literary spiriting and the weaving of ancient scary folklore, I immediately went to my bookshelves.

One of his standalones, THE MAN IN THE MOSS, came out in 1994. Since it had been a good while since I read it, that's the one I chose. 

 

 

 

The "moss" here refers to a huge peat bog. Oooh. Lovely. :) Oh yeah, we know what that means. It won't be long before a perfectly preserved centuries-old body turns up, and if not a body, at least an appendage or two. :) 

What's so wonderful about Rickman's writing is his way of setting a beautiful scene. He gives readers what they want and beyond in capturing the feel of a place. Great descriptions and spot-on characters make all of his books so enjoyable.

I do love his Merrily Watkins series. Merrily is a village priest who also serves on the Deliverance council, a tiny Church of England department that deals with the strange, spiritually speaking. I'd recommend starting with the first book, THE WINE OF ANGELS. It would be a sin to miss out on any of the story. :)

The new installment is #12 in the series. THE MAGUS OF HAY will be of particular interest to booklovers. It's about a couple who buy a book shop in wonderful Hay-On-Wye, the town of book shops on the border of England and Wales.

It's out in the UK, but not here in the US yet. Yeeks, not sure I can wait! Any other Celtic, ancient history or folklore, or spiritual-type mysteries that you've enjoyed?