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Watch the Quiet Ones -- with guest Kay Finch

Our guest today is Kay Finch, who has recently published her fourth novel, but the first in a delightful new series featuring an aspiring mystery writer and a mysterious black cat named Hitchcock. Black Cat Crossing (Berkley Prime Crime) hit the shelves earlier this month, and readers everywhere are already eager for the next in the series. I invited Kay to tell us about her new series and her life as a writer.
 

Mystery writers have a unique way of looking at the world to say the least. Since I'm wrapping up book two in my Bad Luck Cat series, I'm looking at everything around me as fodder for the yet-to-be-decided-plot of book number three in the series.  For example, the other day our unsuspecting exterminator walked into the house. I took one look at his spray rig and said, "I could probably kill my next victim with pesticides." My husband was nearby, and he piped up, "Being married to a mystery writer, I have to sleep with one eye open."

It's a good thing no one knows all the strange thoughts that run through my head, such as:  "Could a small woman swing that golf club hard enough to kill if she hit the victim in the right spot?  or "How much insulin would it take to kill a non-diabetic person if injected while the victim is in a deep sleep?" or  "If my life depended on it, could I grab that butcher knife and slit an intruder's throat before he strangled me?" 

Ideas for mysteries are everywhere. Our neighbors are clearing some previously-wooded land on the other side of our back yard fence.  I looked over there to see how far they'd gotten and thought "what if I saw a dead body in that pile of brush?"  We attended a city council meeting where a discussion was held about whether some folks in our neighborhood should be allowed to open an elder-care facility in spite of the residential-only zoning. During the mundane talks about square footage and providing ample parking for visitors, my brain went straight to a plot where these elderly people are held against their will and one of them ends up killing the caretaker. I probably shouldn't even get started on the things in my head when my paralegal job has me dealing with a likable client trying to divorce the spouse-from-hell. I can't help but think the only good way to get out of some situations is to hire a hit man. That happened for real in one of the first cases I ever worked on in a law office, but it was not because I made the suggestion. Honest.

There's one thing I don't usually do when speculating about a new mystery idea and that's to insinuate an animal could cause bad luck. Yet here I am, writing a Bad Luck Cat series. No, I don't believe black cats cause bad luck. To my knowledge, there is no real legend about a bad luck cat. I'm not superstitious. My protagonist, Sabrina Tate, and I see eye-to-eye on matters of cats and luck, and she spends a good amount of time trying to convince the townspeople that Hitchcock, the black cat who befriended her, is good luck, not bad.

I've encountered people who want to hear all about the writing life. Others seem to doubt my sanity when I begin spouting murderous plot ideas. The grandkids, now that they can read, are asking "Grandma Kay, why do all of your books have kill and murder in the title?" I've always been (or maybe I should say 'I used to be') a relatively quiet and introverted person. Comments from me about killing or finding bodies often take people by surprise, but don't they always say it's the quiet ones you have to watch?

Herding kittens? Folding gravy? Well, editing an anthology . . .

Catriona writes: I hardly ever do this - but I couldn't resist it today. One: it's a fifth Tuesday and Hank and I usually take the four Tuesdays in a month turn-by-turn. Two: it's my last Tuesday as serving president of Sisters in Crime and so, even if this is unseemly, there's no time for a recall, impeachment or court-martial. Three: I don't want to let this year go by without a rousing cheer plus high kicks and pom-poms for a very special book.

Writes of Passage is the third Sisters in Crime anthology and it's a belter. Edited by Hank and Elaine Will Sparber, published by Henery Press, Agatha-winning and now Anthony-nominated (everything is crossed) it's like a cup of tea and a scone (or a margarita and chilli dip?) with more Sisters in Crime than you can shake a stick at.

So today . . . I'm asking three questions of our very own Hank Phillippi Ryan. Over to Hank:

Q1 - (seriously) where did you get this idea? It's an unusual format/concept and yet it works so well I can't believe it hasn't been done before

HANK: It's a funny thing about ideas. Sometimes you can go back and remember the moment of the light bulb going on in your head. Oh, you think, it's when I saw that person on the subway. Or when I read that newspaper headline. But a tiny bit of backstory on this one…

I had wanted to leave some sort of the legacy as President of national sisters in crime. The time went by so quickly, and it felt so powerfully meaningful. So I had some ideas, and Beth Wasson cheerfully agreed to the mall, but it was clear she did not think they were..exactly the right thing.

Finally she said: why don't you edit a book? That had never crossed my mind. I knew Sisters in Crime had produced two other books, fabulous books, one on promotion and one called breaking and entering (which I think is the best title of all times.)

So what could I do, I wondered, that would matter? And that led me to examine what has changed me as I have grown through this world of writing and publishing. And I thought, well, it's a journey, and even though I feel it's just me, alone, on the journey, that's not true.  Even one of the seminars I give is called "what I wish someone had told me. "

I mulled that over. What could I do that would illustrate and illuminate the journey, and make it easier – – if that's possible – – for others on the road. The more I thought about it, the more it was perfect for Sisters in Crime, since we are sisters after all, and part of the joy is being in this together.

So sitting around a little table in the hallway at Malice, Beth and  soon-to-be-administrative-editor Elaine Will Sparber and I discussed this. Because the key was, how to organize it, right?

And it just occurred to me, somehow, to organize it by… Time. By phase of the writer's moon, maybe. Roadmap for the journey. Of course, to me at least, that journey starts with thinking.

Q2 – what’s your favourite thing about the anthology?

HANK: I had asked each contributor to tell me a real, individual, special, personal thing. Not just yammer yammer yammer about writing or inspiration or some instructive lesson.  But a moment, an incident, a fulcrum of change that made a difference in their life. It could be a wonderful thing,  or a big disappointment, or just some sort of burst of revelation  or a dawning reality .

So what I go back to, each time, is how honest all of the essays are. Some authors who we think as multi million selling New York Times best-selling successes—well,  we figure they must be happy all the time, and it must've always been so. And it is so reassuring, frankly, to see that is wrong.

And there is something like that for everyone, every step of the way.  It’s even helpful for non-writers, people who are (thank you!) readers--because it is so full of insights no matter what our goals in life.

We all have our ups and downs, and you never know what wonderful thing is around the next corner. And that is what shines out to me in every essay of this book:  The authentic and loving generosity of each author, and the brave willingness to reveal the moments that changed their lives. 

Q3 - what's the biggest surprise that came out of editing this collection?

Well, I was not surprised at how well written they all are, and I was not surprised at how funny some of them are, or how telling all of them are.

On an administrative note, Elaine Will Sparber and I had a journey of our own putting this together… It was a rocky road, with some pretty bad weather along the way, but we were joined at the hip, with Beth, and powered through.

It was quite a moment, seeing that first book from Henery. (Henery Press has been such an amazing partner in all this! What a group of savvy, brilliant professionals.)

I guess what continues to surprise me is how Writes is fresh and new every time I look at it, and I check in with it all the time! It is still such source of inspiration to me, and I often feel my eyes welling with tears as I read these lovely words, and think of the sisters who wrote them.

GOOD DOGS

We’ve had Rocky for at least fifteen years now. My middle son needed a new dog when his other one had to be put down for biting (and other extreme anti-social behavior). We wanted a gentle dog, but that’s really hard to guarantee.

We hit the jackpot with Rocky. He counts as a rescue, since the woman who advertised that she had free puppies brought them over to meet us in her car trunk. Right. To be fair, she also had a carload of kids. Maybe it was the only way she could cope. Rocky had several siblings, and they were the result of the family cocker spaniel getting out and visiting with the family boxer. We had no idea what he’d look like when he grew up, but he was fuzzy and golden and interested in our son.

He stayed that way. Rocky has been the mildest, softest, sweetest dog we’ve ever had. He’s still golden, but the years have not been kind to Rocky. He’s gaunt, and has arthritis in his rear legs, and he has kidney issues. He has a tumor on his eyelid, and another between his toes on a front paw, and we can’t have them removed because of his advanced age and his kidneys.

We have three dogs, Rocky, Scrunch, and Colt. (Oscar passed last year.) Colt is very lovable, but he’s the low man on the dog totem pole. Scrunch has a terrier personality, and has always been Rocky’s boon companion. Sadly, Scrunch seems to smell the illness in Rocky, and she has begun to growl at him when he draws close. But she still doesn’t want to go outside without his company.

Rocky will not be around much longer, and that grieves us. But at risk of sounding maudlin, I wanted to give tribute to A Good Dog while he is still around. Rocky has had a long life and a lot of adventures. He’s been hit by a car, and he’s been bitten by a snake. He’s gotten out of the fence, and he’s roamed free. We hope we have given him good care and a lot of love.

God bless Rocky.

Charlaine Harris

Conjuror Of Cherokee Stories

 

 

So excited to have special guest, author Holly Sullivan McClure, today on the Femmes blog! I've just finished reading her new book, CONJUROR, which has three of my favorite things - Cherokee life, legends and a supernatural element. Fantastic! I really loved being in that world. 

 

 

Welcome, Holly!

 

 

Why I Write

by Holly McClure

 

Most writers can attest that reviewers, whatever the media, have a stock list of questions they ask us. One I've heard several times is a variation on the theme, ‘when did you know you were a writer.’ It’s an easy one for me to answer. 

I was five years old, and worshiped the ground my Cherokee grandpa walked on. He loved stories and riddles, so I wrote one as a gift to him. I’m sure my block print was illegible, mostly symbols I invented, but Grandpa kept that lined sheet of notebook paper from my brother’s ring binder in his pocket for years. He knew every word of that story and repeated it to anyone who would listen. Looking back, I realize he knew what it said because he asked me to read it to him before he folded it and put it in his pocket.  The story was about a little girl who had an amazing adventure. 
     

The Magic Girl

Without a ladder, and without climbing, Magic Girl went to the top of an apple tree and picked an apple. 
Then she walked across the creek without a bridge and didn't get wet. 
She went under the roots of the apple tree and saw where the roots became the tree. 
She looked inside an ant’s town and saw where they kept their babies. 
Then she climbed up through the roots of the tree, and walked all the way to the top. 
She jumped down to the ground and didn't get hurt. 
The end.

I was proud of that story, but even prouder that my grandpa, the champion riddle solver of the world, couldn't figure out how Magic Girl did all those wonderful things. He didn't believe it was possible.

Of course it was possible, because I was Magic Girl and this was my adventure, and my apple tree. A storm blew it over, it fell across the creek, and I played on it until it was added to the pile of fireplace wood.  

What a magical experience to explore the roots of a tree and see a hidden, underground world I never imagined before. It whetted my appetite for more. I turned over rocks and wrote about the little creatures living there, creating tunnels and roadways, scurrying away from the light. How dark it must have been under there before I exposed them. I put the rock back just the way I found it, and made up stories about the mysterious denizens of the dark. 

Earthworms had a story, imagined as builders, the makers of caves and tunnels for other creatures to live in. Ants were easy. They had a plan to bring in their big relatives, the huge orange striped cow ants, and the big red ants with nasty stings, and take over the territory under the willow tree. I worried about that. 

With an imagination like that, I had to write. The alternative was to admit that my world view was so strange, and my version of reality so warped, I might have a problem. So, I’m still writing, making up stories that sound totally outlandish to the uninitiated. With so many mysteries, so many things beyond our mortal understanding, it’s my way of explaining the universe to myself. It might be true, or it might not. I live by the law of the storyteller. 

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

With that in mind, I set to work immortalizing my storytelling- riddle solving grandfather, my family in the Smokey Mountains, and me as that little girl believing in magic. I took one of Grandpa’s scariest stories and inserted in in the middle of that little girl’s world and watched it come to life in a way that still scares me. Conjuror, from Mercer University Press is as close as I will ever come to an autobiography, even though I took a few liberties with actual facts. As a writer, it’s what I do. Isn’t that why we write?

 

I believe you're right. Taking liberties is the fun part. :) 

 

Readers and writers, were you also inspired by grandparents' stories? They have a special tug on our hearts, don't you think? Feel free to share a favorite saying or thought, something your old ones said that makes you smile.

 

 

The Beginning of the Femmes - Part 2

by Toni L.P. Kelner / Leigh Perry

Here's the second half of the content of that first issue of Femmes Fatales from Fall of 1995. (I posted the first one yesterday.)

Just to give this context, the start of the first issue had Editor Megan Bladen-Blinkoff asking each of the femmes to write a short piece about living with their fictional characters. The italicized paragraphs at the beginning of each section are Megan's introductions.
 

Elizabeth Daniels Squire

Both Elizabeth Daniels Squire and her series character Peaches Dann live in the Southern Appalachians. Sense of place is such an important part of Liz’s writing that The Wall Street Journal’s Southern travel guide listed Memory Can Be Murder as the novel to take on vacation. Since Peaches is “memory challenged,” Liz titled her piece “What’s-Her-Name Improves My Mind.”

How did I get the idea for my absent-minded sleuth, Peaches Dann? I’m a reporter by background. I welcome a good story when it volunteers.

I was speaking about my book Kill The Messenger. I dropped my notes and couldn’t remember what to say next. So I joked, “My next book will be How To Survive Without A Memory.” Afterward, five people came up and said, “When you write that book, let me know—I want to buy one.”

Peaches is writing that book. With my help, she began in Who Killed What’s-Her-Name? Naturally, she used memory tricks to solve murders. When they heard, friends began to give me mnemonic tricks, memory jokes and even books about the history of memory and what’s up in memory research. Soon readers gave me even more amazing tricks. I tried them. They work! They helped inspire Remember the Alibi and, most recently, Memory Can be Murder.

For instance, call yourself and leave a message on your answering machine. Or make up a shocking image, as they did in the Middle Ages. Once I had to get somewhere at a quarter of one. Well, in the Middle Ages they’d draw and quarter criminals and boil them in oil. I thought of a quarter of one of those criminals. I have never forgotten “a quarter of one.”

From Peaches I learned that memory touches everything: history, science, criminal justice, even the funny bone. Laughter improves memory. Honest.

 

MIgnon Ballard

Mignon Ballard has written several non-series mysteries and has just completed the first of what she hopes will be a series featuring Augusta Goodnight, Guardian Angel Temp. After reading her piece, I want to read more about life with a guardian angel.

“Pretty is as pretty does,” advises Augusta Goodnight as she admires herself in the mirror. Of course she won’t admit it, but she really is quite vain. Who wouldn’t be with that nutmeg-colored hair and heavenly complexion?

Most of us wish for a guardian angel. I created my own. It’s never boring living with someone who has been around as long as Augusta—although she never mentions her age. But I know she learned horticulture from Luther Burbank and first aid from Florence Nightingale. And since she’s a temp, she sometimes gets confused about the decade. Augusta’s last assignment was during the 40’s and it took a while to convince her that sugar wasn’t rationed and she didn’t have to stand in line at the butcher’s.

I do have to watch my language. “Profanity makes you sound so coarse,” Augusta says.

“It can really be a pain in the ass having somebody around who is always right,” to quote my protagonist, Mary George Murphy, in my manuscript, Angel at Troublesome Creek. (This is the working title and it could change.) But Augusta rarely makes an issue of it. Still, I try not to ruffle her feathers.

Like her creator, Augusta hankers for Hershey and could stand to miss a meal. And she never seems to tire. (“Angels don’t wilt,” she says). If Augusta isn’t swirling to music, her foot is keeping time. Sometimes, though, I do wish she’d quit humming those old songs. I get awfully tired of Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer!

 

Susan Rogers Cooper

Susan Rogers Cooper is the author of nine mysteries in three different series: the Milt Kovac mysteries, the E.J. Pugh mysteries and the Kimmie Kruse mysteries. Even though Susan claims to be half Yankee and half Texan, the Yankee side seems not to exist. All three series characters are distinctly Texans. Further her daughter is not only a native Texan but is off to a college in, of course, Texas.

For several years Milt Kovak and I had a very harmonious existence. He’d talk and I’d write. He’d elaborate and I’d write. He’d pontificate and I’d write. To say that I did as I was told is not exaggerating. Then along came E.J. Pugh. The entire time I was writing One, Two, What Did Daddy Do?, Milt sat on my shoulder wondering when I might be getting back to him. He’d tell me of great and wondrous things happening in Prophesy County. He’d cuss. He’d get angry. He would cajole. Unfortunately, he never gave me the silent treatment. I’m afraid he must have realized how much I might enjoy that.

Milt is very much a part of my family and “living with my character” is exactly what I do. He doesn’t have his own room yet, but we’re working on it. Maybe because he’s my “first-born,” Milt is around all the time. E.J. and Kimmey move in when I’m writing their books, but go on to their own business when I’m through. Milt never does. He stays. He’s not a bad house guest. He never has laundry and he doesn’t leave the seat up. He never makes long distance calls and he exists on leftovers. All in all, I believe he’s someone I can spend my life with for quite a while to come—especially if he ever learns to share.

 

Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris is the author of six mysteries, the last four of them featuring Aurora Teagarden. The first Aurora Teagarden mystery was Agatha nominee Real Murders and used Charlaine’s interest in true crime, one of Charlaine’s varied interests.  She is also a novice weight lifter and can bench-press ninety pounds. Her goal is one hundred. I am always careful to be very pleasant to Charlaine!

I’ve been living with Aurora “Roe” Teagarden (a short, chesty, thirtyish Georgia librarian) for several years now, and I’m quite fond of her. Roe is like many of my friends: intelligent, well-read, thoughtful. She’s luckier than most of my friends in that she inherited a lot of money.

I do find myself in the ridiculous predicament of feeling sorry for Roe—so many bad things happen to her! And then I remember that I am the dastardly person who causes all these things to happen to Roe, who is at heart a good and harmless person.

I recently suggested to fellow writer Jeff Abbott that my librarian call his librarian in the course of one of my books, and was amazed when Jeff hinted that this might be carrying alternate reality a bit too far! On consideration, maybe he was right... But it seemed so natural to me.

The new series I’m starting with St. Martin—at least, my editor and I hope we’re starting a new series—has a far different protagonist: tough, anti-social Lily Bard. Lily is more difficult for me, because Lily’s reactions are so at variance with Roe’s. She has different values and goals, and a very different life experience. Lily can make even her possible love interest, martial arts expert Marshall Sedaka, look like a pussycat.

Maybe by the time I’ve written as many books “with” Lily as I’ve written “with” Roe, Lily too will be a second skin I can slip into.

* * *

Each issue of the paper version of the Femmes Fatales ended with a section on the latest news, and I'll omit most of it because it's way out of date. Still, two items make me snicker. In my news section, I refer to giving birth the month before. That "baby" is now twenty years old and a junior in college. Charlaine's then-news was downright prophetic. At that point, she'd recently negotiated a deal for at TV series based on the Aurora Teagarden books. It took a long time for that to become a reality, but the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. I should remind her that back in the day, it was suggested that she use Femmes as extras...

 

The Beginning of the Femmes - Part 1

by Toni L.P. Kelner / Leigh Perry

In 1995, I fell in with a group of writers with crime on their mind. Well, fictional crime, anyway. I was at Malice Domestic, and Deborah Adams came up with the idea of a shared author newsletter. She drafted a bunch of us, and like Power Rangers combining powers, we became the Femmes Fatales. The membership has changed over the years -- Charlaine and I are the only two of the Founding Femmes still involved, and at the beginning we had editor Megan Bladen-Blinkoff to provide introductions to the topic and keep us in line. We actually printed and mailed copies of the newsletter, and I doubt there are many of the issues we produced still in existence. However I am a magpie and still have copies, so I thought it might be fun to bring those old newsletters back to life here. (This is not just because I couldn't think of a blog topic for today, but you know, that was a consideration.)

Since issue was basically eight blog posts, I'm going to break the issue down into two posts: one for today and I'll post the other one tomorrow.

So behold the first part of the first issue of Femmes Fatales, Volume 1, Number 1, dated Fall 1995.

 

Welcome to Femmes Fatales
by Megan Bladen-Blinkoff, Editor

It was late. A group of us were gathered in a hotel room giggling, gossiping and rehashing the long but fun day at a mystery fan convention. We were a mix of folks: published authors, aspiring authors and just plain old readers and fans. Our common thread was our love of mysteries and the friendships we had built around them.

Someone (I forget who) mentioned a friend who wasn't able to attend. Another sympathized with all those who couldn't make it. Another person giggled, “Yeah, if my readers could see me now.” Through this sleep deprived haze of enthusiasm and fun, an idea was born-a party on paper, disguised as a newsletter.

I am proud to introduce the Femmes Fatales, a diverse group of very talented authors who welcome you to that party: Deborah Adams, Mignon Ballard, Susan Rogers Cooper, Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner, D.R. (Doris) Meredith, Marlys Millhiser and Elizabeth Daniels Squire. I asked each of them to write a short piece about what it is like to live with their fictional characters, and the following are their witty and often insightful responses. I hope you have as much fun reading them as I did.

 

D.R. Meredith

D.R. Meredith (known as Doris to her family, friends and fans) is the author of two series:  the Sheriff Charles Matthews mysteries and the lawyer John Lloyd Branson mysteries. Both series take place in the Texas Panhandle, which Doris vividly captures. When Doris sent me the following, I got a nice chuckle. She had titled it “Imaginary Friends, or How I Live With People Who Don’t Exist.”

When my son was small—before he grew a goatee and took up with girls—he had an imaginary friend named Freddy who lived with us. I didn’t worry about multiple personalities or mental instability; I just assumed my son was emulating his mother. We both created imaginary friends whose stories we told.

The difference between my son and me is that he grew up and I never have. Freddy is now a childhood memory while Lydia, Schroder, the Sheriff, and Mattie Hunter are still very much present, apt to lean over my shoulder while I’m working to tell me what I'm doing wrong. John Lloyd, who barely acknowledges that computers exist, never mind their superiority to typewriters—or quill pens—peruses a hard copy, pointing out dialogue or action which he finds objectionable. “I am hardly likely to be so careless with the King’s English, or respond in such a manner as you have described, Mrs. Meredith,” he says in that slow Texas drawl. (John Lloyd never addresses me as “Doris.”)

Arguing with John Lloyd Branson is futile, so I rewrite the scene. I created these imaginary friends, gave them personalities, histories, attitudes, and beliefs independent of my own, so I shouldn't be surprised if one of them insists on being true to himself even when it plays havoc with my plot. Still, I wonder if my son ever had this trouble with Freddy.

 

Deborah Adams

Deborah Adams is a seventh generation Tennessean, so it’s no surprise that her series is set in a small Tennessee town. Jesus Creek is the fixed point of her series—each book is narrated by a different resident. While this allows Deb enormous flexibility in point of view, voice and perspective, it did make my question about living with one’s character a challenge.

Hey, living with a single character would be a breeze. I have the entire town of Jesus Creek in my office and it is getting darned crowded.

Not only are my fictional characters always trying to tell me how to write them, I also have to attend to flesh-and-blood characters who are convinced they’re in my books, even when there’s absolutely no evidence to back up their claims.

The most determined of them is the local assistant librarian. In Jesus Creek, the fictional assistant librarian is named Pam. In my real life library, the assistant librarian is named Pam also. (My oldest friend, my husband’s cousin’s wife, and my former hair stylist are all named Pam, and none of them are in my books, either!)

Just after All The Crazy Winters came out, the real Pam called to say how much she enjoyed reading about herself in my book. Naturally I explained that the fictional Pam wasn’t her at all.

“Oh, but of course she is,” Real Pam said. “We both knit. Why, she even has that very sweater that I made last winter.”

“No, no,” I continued. “The fictional Pam is nothing like you. Why, that woman’s a witch with a capital B.”

“Yes,” said Real Pam, “and so am I.”

Jesus Creek: the town that proves truth is no stranger than fiction.

 

Marlys Millhiser

Before Marlys Millhiser started her Charlie Green series, she was known for writing such classics as The Mirror and Michael’s Wife. Marlys has always proclaimed that she loves to do research. I never quite understood why she felt that way until recently. Seems she will spend a week at the Las Vegas Hilton to research her new Charlie Greene mystery. Tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Charlemagne Catherine Greene is my first series character. And, while living with her for the last four books (the last not yet published), I have discovered something readers probably figured out long ago.

I am not my female hero. She is not my alter ego. I am jealous that she’s young and blonde and more successful than I am but I’ve been happily married for 35 years. She isn’t even 35 and considers eligible males walking disasters except for one or two magic days a month. (Possibly because she’s an unwed mother with a teenage daughter.) I don’t like to gamble and she does.

In Charlie #5 the dead bodies will be arranged in Las Vegas. Instead of sleeping in at the Las Vegas Hilton, I’ll have to get up and take gambling lessons downstairs. She did take me to the lovely Oregon coast for Murder At Moot Point. But then to the freeways of L.A. for Death Of The Office Witch. And to the depths of the Canyonlands of Utah for Murder In A Hot Flash.

The manuscript just off to New York takes place in Boulder where both of us live. So Charlie didn't take me anywhere this time. That’s another thing—she stumbles over dead bodies everywhere we go. I can’t remember the last time I did.

We are similar in one way, we love our jobs. Charlie’s a Hollywood literary agent and I’m a mystery writer and, traveling with Charlie, I’ve grown to admire her energy, sense of humor, tolerance, and zest for life in the 90’s despite the dead bodies.

 

Toni L.P. Kelner

Toni L.P. Kelner is the author of three mysteries and several short stories featuring Laura Fleming, a transplanted Southerner. While Toni has admitted that she bases her characters on family members, giving her folks endless amusement trying to figure out who is who, she also titled her piece “Living Without My Characters.” Need I say more?

Live with my characters? Not hardly! They’re all fine folks, but I’m not about to invite them to my house.

Take Laura Fleming, my protagonist. I think we’d get along, what with her being a North Carolinian living in Massachusetts, just like I am. But every time she shows up, somebody ends up dead. I’ve got a new baby—I wouldn’t want her around.

As for Laura’s husband Richard, I’d go crazy if I had to listen to anybody quote Shakespeare all day long. It’s cute in a book, but not in real life.

Then there’s Laura’s family. Aunt Maggie is fun to read about, but I don;t know that I want to go to dinner with a woman wearing a T-shirt that says, “Leave me alone!” with purple-and-orange sneakers. Cousin Vasti is great for plot complications, because we writers like to annoy our characters, but I’ve got enough annoyances without having somebody tell me my shoes don’t look good and I need to lose weight.

Even being around Laura’s nicest cousins would get old after a while. Thaddeous is as sweet as he can be, but I couldn’t handle comforting him every time he gets his heart broken. And the triplets dressing alike would make it nigh onto impossible to keep them straight whenever they showed up on my door step.

So all in all, I’m just as glad to leave my characters right where they are: in my books.

* * *

Come back tomorrow for the second half of the issue!

 

What if . . .

Catriona writes: At one of the first US writer conventions I ever attended - Bouchercon St Louis? - I was introduced to Laura Disilverio and told that she was a retired air force colonel. I chatted but, honestly, I decided to myself that her books would be far too butch and technical for me. Since that con was my first experience of trying to get my Bouchercon purchases into my carry-on, I had to do a bit of weaning in my bookbag freebies. I only kept  one: a gorgeous-looking, ballroom-dancing-themed cozy by someone called Ella Barrick. Halfway through the very enjoyable flight, I took a peek at the author photo and thought "Hey! That's that military lady!"

"That military lady" is now a firm friend. And as well as the ballroom dancing series, she wrote a delightful mall-cop series, and a charming readaholics series . . . each one less butch and technical than the last.

Then came The Reckoning Stones. Laura's first standalone is still a world away from  her past in uniform but it's a world away from ballroom dancing too. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy and I'm thrilled to have Laura here today sharing news of this wonderful and thought-provoking book (and giving a copy away to a lucky commenter - see below.)

Femmes et frères: Laura Disilverio

"Where do you get your ideas?"

That's such a common question at book events, that you'd think I'd have a pat answer. Truth is, though, that I mostly gesture vaguely to the room at large as if conjuring the Idea Genie, and mumble something about "They just come to me," or "Ideas are everywhere." Lame, right?

With The Reckoning Stones, I'm happy to report, that's not the case. I know exactly where the idea came from. The newspaper. I read a story years ago about how the police were searching for a woman who had run away as a teenager. She left her community after reporting to her parents and the police that her pastor was molesting her. Her parents forced her to apologize publicly, and the police apparently didn't find any corroboration so they dropped the case. The article came about because they were looking for her years later . . . now that several other women had come forward with similar accusations against the pastor.

My mind has a little game it plays, even when I'm trying to concentrate on something else, called, "What If?" and the article prompted a particularly lively round. What if the girl was dead? What if she was now someone famous? What if she was a criminal? How would being disbelieved about such a monumental happening change the girl? (I didn't think it would enhance the parent-child bond.) Since the police were having trouble finding her, she must have become someone new. Who? What if she wanted revenge?

Out of all those what ifs and wonderings, Iris Dashwood (the former Mercy Asher) was born. After some of the grim situations you'd expect a young runaway to encounter, she washed up in Portland, Oregon, and eventually became a renowned jewelry designer. The Reckoning Stones open twenty-three years after she ran away. I decided she has issues with men, especially older men--duh--and is in the habit of one night stands with young twenty-somethings when she feels the itch. She also likes to beat up men who prey on young runaways, and occasionally hangs around the bus station, waiting to exact retribution if a pimp tries to pick up a young girl.

Her new sense of self explodes when national news carries a story about the pastor awakening from his two decades plus coma. Unlike the girl in the original news story, she elects to return home, confront the pastor, her family, and the community, and find out what really happened the night she left.

I never saw a follow-up article, so I have no idea what happened to the "real" Mercy/Iris and the pastor. It's probably better that I could write The Reckoning Stones unfettered by too many facts. I'll bet the real life story didn't have gems, and murder, and old secrets waiting to be exposed . . .

Library Journal made The Reckoning Stones its September Pick of the Month and calls it an "outstanding, dark stand-alone  that twists and turns . . . When all the secrets come to the surface, no one will be left undamaged" (starred review).

Thanks very much to the talented and delightful Femmes for having me. I'll be around today to respond to question or comments, and I'd love to give one commenter a signed copy of The Reckoning Stones.

 

A Witch, A Divining Mage and a Geologist Walk Into A Bar ....

 

by Mary Saums

 

This month, I've got reviews of three excellent books I'd like to share. Two fiction, one non-fiction. All three stories take place in unique, compelling worlds of magic, mystery, violence and wonder.

 

 

WITCHES OF LYCHFORD, a novella by Paul Cornell, has a modern-day setting with hints of ancient scary fairy tale in it. Lychford is an old village in rural England. Among the small population is Judith, a strange angry-at-the-world old lady.

When a supermarket chain wants to build a store in Lychford, Judith, of course, objects. She knows the village could use the new jobs the store would provide. However, she insists all the digging and building would destroy certain safeguards that have kept evil spirits at bay for centuries.

The new vicar and the magic store owner had once been close friends. When they moved away from the village, each suffered traumatic events that still haunt them years later.

These three ladies have to put their inner demons on hold and join forces to do what's right for Lychford.

Paul Cornell is also the author of LONDON FALLING, a crime novel with supernatural elements, as well as episodes for the new DOCTOR WHO series, three of which were nominated for Hugo Awards.

 

 

 

VEILED by Benedict Jacka is the 6th book in his Alex Verus series. I love these books. Set in London. (ahem) When Alex was young, he trained under and worked for a shady dark mage named Richard. Alex escaped that life and now works as a free-lancer using his skills as a Diviner. This special talent allows him to look into the future and see all possible outcomes of an action, thus avoiding bad and sometimes deadly situations.

When he hears Richard may be back in town, Alex worries. He thinks it might be a good idea to offer his services to the Council of White Mages, try to ally more closely with the "legit" magics people. That way, it would be harder for Richard to lure him back to his old life.

The Council agrees to take him on, on a trial basis, to check out a secret sleazy brothel-type outfit called White Rose. He discovers connections to the Council itself and is determined to right the wrongs done to the slaves of White Rose.

I think this is the best book so far in the series. It has great action scenes, tons of firepower, uber-bad guys, giant evil killing machines. Treachery at every turn. His understudy, Luna, has matured well through her studies and I liked her much better. Don't know why, but I picture the actor Martin Freeman as Alex. Maybe because he does frustrating situations well. 

I recommend the audiobook, beautifully read by Gildart Jackson, which I enjoyed listening to so much.

 

 

 

THE STORY OF EARTH: THE FIRST 4.5 BILLION YEARS, FROM STARDUST TO LIVING PLANET by Robert M. Hazen 

The title says it all!

I'm going to go ahead and award this book my #1 Best of The Year. No matter what else I read the next few months, I'm confident nothing can equal or beat it.

From Library Journal: "Hazen has a gift for explaining science in lay terms, and even readers with a minimal understanding of geology, chemistry and physics will find this book riveting."

Yes! I listened to the audiobook version which was fantastic. 

Most reviews are similar to the one above. The only thing I can think of to add is that listening to it made me feel buoyant and joyful. 

Highly recommended!

 

What have you been reading lately? Leave us a note if you have a special "joyful" or otherwise special book you enjoy re-reading.

 

 

 

Meet Angela Richman

 

By Elaine Viets

Angela Richman, the star of my new Death Investigator series, makes her debut in the new Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. "Gotta Go," a short story, opens in mythical Chouteau County, a "ten square mile pocket of white privilege" thirty miles west of St. Louis, Missouri.

Angela says her job is to "investigate all unexpected and unexplained deaths in the county that don’t happen under a doctor’s care: accidents, murders, suicides. I work for the Chouteau County medical examiner. I’m responsible for the dead person. The police handle the scene – everything but the body."

Angela is called to the estate of society beauty Cookie Cabanne, who "died in style inside her black Bentley, wrapped in a thousand-dollar cashmere sweater with an empty bottle of Grey Goose at her feet." The police detective who’s "gotta go" says Cookie’s death is a suicide, and wants Angela to hurry because he doesn’t get overtime. But the death investigator is not sure about this death.

Angela Richman marks my return to the dark side: I started writing hardboiled mysteries for Dell with the Francesca Vierling newspaper series, set in St. Louis.

 

I’ve written 14 traditional mysteries in my Dead-End Job series.

("The Art of Murder," my 15th, will be out in May 2015). There are ten cozies in the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series.

I’ve loved writing all three series, but I began to hanker for darker novels, and the idea for the Angela Richman Death Investigator series was born. I wanted Angela to have cutting edge forensics, so in January 2015, I took the MedicoLegal Death Investigator Course for forensic professionals at St. Louis University and started writing the first novel in the new series, "Brain Storm."

This Death Investigator series is unique: Janet Rudolph of Mystery Lovers International believes it’s the only series of its kind.

My agent, Jill Marr at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, has been shopping the series to publishers. And I wrote this short story for AHMM.

Enjoy Angela’s first adventure. You can even win an autographed copy of the new Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, before it hits the stores. If this new series takes off, that signed copy could be your retirement plan.

Did the Death Investigator series sell to a publisher? That mystery will soon be solved. Stay turned.

                                         ****

To win the November Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine with Angela Richman’s debut, click Contests at www.elaineviets.com

Remembering the American Women of World War I

Our guest today is Elizabeth Foxwell, Managing Editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection and editor of the critically acclaimed series, McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction. She has recently published an anthology of the writings of American women who served in various capacities in World War I, In Their Own Words, published by Oconee Spirit Press as both an e-book and in trade paperback. I asked her for a short description of this project, the first of its kind to focus on American women in World War I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their work carried them up to the front, and they were subjected to shellfire, bombs and poison gas. Many of them were wounded, many of them were gassed.

 Now, unprovided for in many cases, aging and faltering under aggravation of old wounds and mental shock, and lacking the organizational punch to carry through a program which would aid them, this little band of women is calling for help.

 A recent call for the VA to assist women vets? No, these words were written by then-newspaperman Bruce Catton in 1937, long before he published his Pulitzer Prize-winning A Stillness at Appomattox. Yet his concerns about meeting the needs of the female U.S. veterans of World War I have a contemporary ring in highlighting these women’s service under combat conditions, the toll on them (some 200 American women died in the line of duty), and the nation with a short memory.

The absence of a collection reflecting the varied war work of thousands of U.S. women motivated me to compile In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I. Seeking to reach beyond the typical image of U.S. woman as war nurse, the book encompasses roles such as canteen staffer, dietician, entertainer, fingerprint expert, librarian, physician, Red Cross searcher, refugee advocate, reporter, stenographer, and telephone operator. It includes annotated, first-person accounts from the different theaters of the war, biographical information on each woman, and photographs. The accounts range from librarian Katherine Tappert’s description of reading tastes of Camp Upton (NY) patrons, official “song leader” Estelle Pearl Cushman’s activities with Southern troops, and Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore’s account of Japanese-German conflict to author-war correspondent Mary Roberts Rinehart’s apprehension about spies, pilot Ruth Bancroft Law’s campaign for admittance of women into the Army Air Corps, and black YMCA canteen worker Addie Hunton’s narrative of black soldiers burying the dead in France. I hope In Their Own Words will lead to renewed appreciation for the contributions and sacrifices of these women and so many others, and perhaps lead readers to learn further about the experiences that have real relevance to today’s women addressing the effects of war around the globe. The achievements of other American women in the war are featured on my blog American Women in World War I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “fingerprint girls” of U.S. naval intelligence, 1918. From left: Blanche Donahue, Marie S. Dahm, Blanche Stansbury, and Julia G. Boswell, with fellow fingerprint clerk James A. Noonan.