Seven Sinister Sisters

 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a terrific group of guests we have today! Only at a place called Femmes Fatales would we be delighted to welcome Seven Sister Sisters, right?

But they are on tour, together--how cool is that?--and today are bringing their inimitable style and substance here to you! And what a fascinating idea--One Question, Seven Answers! Our own personal mystery author panel. 

 

  Thanks so much to the Fantastic Femme Fatales for hosting the Seven Sinister Sisters on our grand blog tour! We are seven mystery authors, all members of Sisters in Crime, with new books launching between now and April.

Our question today ... can you give us a peek inside the mind of a mystery writer?

Becky Clark jumps in first. "Most days my mind is somewhat alarming, but a peek is probably safe. I write cozy mysteries with some humor so I’m always on the lookout for stuff that makes me laugh. I figure if it makes me laugh, chances are good it will make others laugh too. I recently found out (fine, I was told right to my face) that I'm weird. Apparently not everyone reads the police blotter and immediately has 748 unanswered questions. Not everyone takes notes on overheard (fine, eavesdropped) conversations. Not everyone tries to figure out all the ways Thanksgiving dinner can kill somebody."

Like Becky, Edith Maxwell (AKA Maddie Day) has an overdeveloped eavesdropping muscle. "You see the cogs and wheels of an overactive imagination spinning overtime inside my mind. I overhear a conversation in a restaurant, see a man with a peculiar gait, or spy a lone teen with purple hair and earbuds, and my brain thinks, Ooh, suppose ... what if? When the imagination isn’t ruling supreme, my rational mind might caution, You’ll never finish this book. The story sucks. Nobody will ever read it. I tell that brain to shut up and get lost, then I go back to making things up."

What ifs are particularly important to Patricia Hale also. "A mystery writer’s mind works the same as any working woman/mother’s mind. What time do I need to pick up my daughter from dance class? What's for dinner? Do I have time to walk the dog? Are we out of milk (again)? But we add a twist. Like… what if my daughter isn’t at dance class and the teacher says she never arrived? How much arsenic would I need to add to the mashed potatoes to kiss my husband goodbye… forever? What if while walking the dog I find a body in the woods? What if I go to the grocery store, walk in on a robbery and get taken hostage? Mystery writers’ minds are much like everyone else’s, except we ask… what if?"

"Well, what’s likely to be at the forefront of any mystery writer’s mind is, of course, the hunt for new and creative ways to kill people off!" says Leslie Karst. "But ours brains are also consumed with the never-ending questions of how many clues and red herrings do we need and where can we best place them to make the mystery neither too difficult (i.e., unfair) nor too easy to solve? To my mind, that’s the hardest part of writing good crime fiction. Oh, and it’s a good bet that at any given time of day, this culinary mystery writer is also contemplating dinner."

Shawn McGuire admits, "Writing in the mystery genre has twisted my mind a little. I tend to see ways to kill people with common objects. Almost everywhere I go, I search out a place to hide the dead body! One day, my son was talking about the government watching us through our internet searches and commented that they might show up at out doorstep one day. I told him that if my search history – unusual poisons, cost of a fake ID and passport, how to escape police custody – hasn’t alerted them to stop by, we’re safe."

"That's true," Sue Star says. "We mystery writers sometimes make people around us a bit nervous. My husband, for one. He is (unreasonably) uncomfortable that my office bookshelves contain volumes about poisons, firearms, and unusual weapons. Fellow diners at restaurants, for another. When my writer friends and I go out to lunch to discuss our plots, we sometimes get carried away. The dead silence of our neighbors alerts us to tone it down. We’re used to such reactions, and so are our non-writing friends. They have to put up with our sometimes drifting attention when in the middle of their conversation we suddenly shout out, 'that’s whodunnit!'"

Real-life experiences filter through the mind of Cathy Perkins. "Authors are sponges, or at least I am. I soak up surroundings, conversations, and experiences and let them play in an overactive imagination. While I’m constantly pinging ideas for new stories, my imagination also percolates through life experiences. My years working in the financial industry serves as a framework for my Holly Price mysteries, but of course the stories are purely fiction. Because Holly works in a financial field, people ask how much of “me” she contains. I know many talented, hard-working women Holly's age and a few with her offbeat sense of humor, but she's a character who evolved as the story came together. I do wish I had Holly's quick wit. I always thinks of the perfect comeback...twenty minutes later…which is why I’m an author and not a stand up comic."

So, that's a tiny, perhaps horrifying peek inside the minds of the Seven Sinister Sisters. Let us peek inside your mind now!

Tell us some What Ifs from your real-life that would make a good premise, or the best real-life person you've seen who would make a great mystery suspect. And, of course, where would YOU hide the body?

To celebrate our new releases, the Seven Sinister Sisters are having a giveaway! Seven lucky winners will receive an ebook from one of us. One GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a signed copy from each of us! Enter to win by leaving a comment below.

Our tour runs from January 6th to April 30th and we’re answering a different question at each blog. Leave a comment at each blog for more entries! We’ll draw the winner from all the combined comments at the end of our tour.

If the grand prize winner is out of the United States, we'll send an Amazon gift card for the equivalent amount.

Watch our Facebook page <<http://www.facebook.com/sevensinistersisters >> for the next stop on the tour.

http://www.patriciahale.org

http://www.edithmaxwell.com

http://www.lesliekarstauthor.com/

http://www.cperkinswrites.com

http://www.shawn-mcguire.com

http://www.rebeccawriter.blogspot.com

http://www.BeckyClarkBooks.com

 

 

Comments

[Liz Milliron]

"Wow, the river at Fallingwater is really high. Say, what if a dead body got caught up on that platform, right as a group of tourists walked by?

Oh, and what the bleep are we going to have for dinner tonight?"

[catriona]

Welcome, Sisters. I remember once at a dinner party someone asking about the best way to kill a spouse. I answered - as you would: a walk on a quiet clifftop, a shove in the small of the back, convincing grief and don't add any details. Then there was this silence and a collective stare. No one else had actually thought about it and come prepared.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

This is such fun to read! Love hanging out with you all!

Jonathan and I were at dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant a wile ago, and just as the waiter approached, I was saying "Well you can't just push someone off a bridge, you know? You can't be sure they'd die."

And the waiter, trying to control his expression, says "Um, ma'am?"

[Becky Clark]

Liz ... I would read that. And it's leftover soup.

Catriona ... I'm stunned that nobody else would have thought it through. Although, somebody brought it up, so you know there is mischief afoot.

Hank ... that's hilarious. And absolutely true. It's never enough to try to kill someone. You gotta make sure you've deadified them!

[Edith Maxwell]

Thanks so much for having us, Hank! I love all these answers - how our brains work in similar ways.

[Wendy Dingwall]

What a fun read! I enjoyed relating to so many of the answers. I look forward to the next stop!

[Leslie Karst]

Interesting how many of these comments include shoving someone into a body of water to kill them. My writing desk here in Hilo looks out toward the Wailuku River where, for the past week, I've been watching the bright orange County helicopter search for the body of a woman who fell into the river and is presumed drowned. Creepy and real life. Wailuku, BTW, means "water of destruction."

[Lysa MacKeen]

I love this topic - and all the funny responses. I was sitting in my office a few months back and doing some background work for a field research plan. My co-worked walked in, looked at the screen and said, "Should I be worried?". The article onscreen was "Kidnapping: The Basics". If Shawn's son is right and anyone near me disappears - I'm in trouble!

[Mark]

It's all about the what ifs, isn't it?

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

"Fell," Leslie? Oh, RIGHT.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Lysa, that's hilarious! xoxo And we will vouch for you!

[Leslie Karst]

Yes, Hank, my thoughts, too. Which may be why they really want to find the body. Oy...

[Becky Clark]

Lysa ... we'll all hang together when they find our incriminating search history!

And does anyone else find it interesting that Leslie just "happens" to find herself at her "desk" "overlooking" the river where someone "fell"? I'm sure that's not at all "suspicious."

[Jana Leah]

I have no idea where to hide a dead body, so I just googled it. The amount of hits is amazing. At least you all have an excuse if the police come knocking at your door. Me, not so much.

[Cathy Perkins]

Whew! I'm so relieved to find Sisters who understand potential - really, it's all hypothetical! - situations!
I mean, really - our hike this weekend included a series of narrow footbridges (ahem, no handrails) over a creek in full early snow melt-off rampage. I offhandedly commented that if you fell, the water wasn't deep enough to drown you, but the drop to the basalt rocks would probably take care of it.
My husband wanted to know if he should be concerned. ;)

[Leslie Karst]

Shhhhhhh, Becky--you're supposed to be on my side!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Our poor spouses....xoxo

[Kara Vaughan Marks]

I tell you who I think is really suspicious. I'm from the south, but living in a small town in Michigan--everyone is usually very friendly, but every week day I'm sitting in the sunroom at the front of the house, watching for the school bus w/ my grandson to drop off. The mailman comes by every day and I wave and so does my baby grandson, who is adorable. And you know what? That mailman never waves back! I just think that's weird, lol.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Kara? That is the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard. Very astute observation!

[Frankie Bow]

We have an active lava flow on our island. It's a great way to dispose of evidence...

[Ellen Byron]

What a great idea! And fun post.