Peg Herring's Blog, page 48
March 30, 2010
What Was It Like in the '60s?
My new release, GO HOME AND DIE, takes place in 1969, a time that seems to many people younger than I to have been tumultuous, shocking, and downright odd. My students used to ask if I burned my bra (with snickering) and if I went to Woodstock, apparently believing that anyone under the magic age of thirty was a rebel, an anti-war activist, and, if female, a women's libber.
For the people living through it, however, the 60s were was like all other times. People do what they do. Activists speak out, and other people listen, vote, and act as if the rest of it is none of their business. No one knows what changes will come in the long run and what will remain the same.
For people living day-to-day lives, there was the stuff on TV and then there was reality. I was in college, but I never saw any policemen beating students. There was an anti-war rally on campus once, but no one I knew even noticed it. We had tests to study for.
In my hometown there was angst over who would have to go to Vietnam, but there wasn't a lot of discussion of whether it was "right" or not. Men might not relish going to war, but they understand that if there is one, they can be called upon to fight in it.
In the book, Jack represents what I saw at the time: men who did as they were asked, trusting that someone wiser than they had made a right decision. Carrie represents the average citizen, who recognizes what the war cost the men who fought, no matter who was wrong and who was right.
Carrie and Jack have lives to lead and a murder to solve. Vietnam is a reality to them, but it is not
an "issue". Their main issues are staying alive and dealing with the feelings they have for each other, and that's why GO HOME AND DIE is a Vietnam-era book but not a book about the Vietnam era.
Buy GO HOME AND DIE at http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstor...
For the people living through it, however, the 60s were was like all other times. People do what they do. Activists speak out, and other people listen, vote, and act as if the rest of it is none of their business. No one knows what changes will come in the long run and what will remain the same.
For people living day-to-day lives, there was the stuff on TV and then there was reality. I was in college, but I never saw any policemen beating students. There was an anti-war rally on campus once, but no one I knew even noticed it. We had tests to study for.
In my hometown there was angst over who would have to go to Vietnam, but there wasn't a lot of discussion of whether it was "right" or not. Men might not relish going to war, but they understand that if there is one, they can be called upon to fight in it.
In the book, Jack represents what I saw at the time: men who did as they were asked, trusting that someone wiser than they had made a right decision. Carrie represents the average citizen, who recognizes what the war cost the men who fought, no matter who was wrong and who was right.
Carrie and Jack have lives to lead and a murder to solve. Vietnam is a reality to them, but it is not
an "issue". Their main issues are staying alive and dealing with the feelings they have for each other, and that's why GO HOME AND DIE is a Vietnam-era book but not a book about the Vietnam era.
Buy GO HOME AND DIE at http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstor...
March 29, 2010
GO HOME AND DIE
My "vintage" mystery concerns a prim young woman of the '60s, Carrie, who meets a recently-returned Vietnam vet, Jack. Their first meeting is a bit rocky, but they soon learn to appreciate each other's good points. Carrie admires Jack's courage in facing the problems life has thrown at him. Jack admires Carrie's ability to see the good in the world and help him see it as well.
I chose not to dwell on the politics of the Vietnam war. If you're looking for a commentary on why we were there or how people dealt with PTSD, this is not your book. It's simply a mystery that draws some of its plot from the fact that Jack was in Vietnam.
Of course, the pathway in a mystery is filled with bombs and booby traps. Jack has secrets
that Carrie has to deal with. Carrie has hang-ups that Jack can't understand. Their romance seems unlikely at first, then on, then off, permanently. Despite that, they come to trust each other and depend on each other's strengths.
I like characters with obstacles to overcome. While the mystery part of the story demands careful attention, and while the 1960's setting requires detail to recall and/or recreate for readers, it is the characters we care about. Will they survive? Will they grow? Will they find some sort of peace? And, of course, will they somehow, some way, end up together?
Buy GO HOME AND DIE here: http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstor...
I chose not to dwell on the politics of the Vietnam war. If you're looking for a commentary on why we were there or how people dealt with PTSD, this is not your book. It's simply a mystery that draws some of its plot from the fact that Jack was in Vietnam.
Of course, the pathway in a mystery is filled with bombs and booby traps. Jack has secrets
that Carrie has to deal with. Carrie has hang-ups that Jack can't understand. Their romance seems unlikely at first, then on, then off, permanently. Despite that, they come to trust each other and depend on each other's strengths.
I like characters with obstacles to overcome. While the mystery part of the story demands careful attention, and while the 1960's setting requires detail to recall and/or recreate for readers, it is the characters we care about. Will they survive? Will they grow? Will they find some sort of peace? And, of course, will they somehow, some way, end up together?
Buy GO HOME AND DIE here: http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstor...
March 26, 2010
Where Does a Book Idea Come From?
Short answer: I don't know.
Longer answer: GO HOME AND DIE is, I will admit, "a little bit me, a little bit you". I lived in Flint, Michigan in 1969. I was out of the women's lib loop, skinny, and unsure of what I wanted to make of myself. I wore glasses that I hated. So Carrie started with some of my hang-ups. But she became her own person so quickly that soon I hardly recognized her.
Jack Porter, Vietnam vet, is an amalgam of several people I knew back then. A friend at college had stepped on a land mine and was struggling to rebuild his life with a ruined leg. My husband (then boyfriend) returned in January of 1969. He and other friends told me little anecdotes about daily life that made their way into the book. They would talk about the food, the weather, the card games; they didn't talk about the war.
Somehow, forty years later, my brain concocted a mystery in which a prim young woman meets an embittered but decent (and hunky) vet. She learns from him about the way the world operates. He gets from her a reconnection with the goodness in life.
Of course, I had to throw in some problems along the way: a few murders and a very beautiful woman whose hold on Jack threatens everything: their budding relationship, their business partnership, and even their lives.
Comment on this blog and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of this e-book, GO HOME AND DIE.
Longer answer: GO HOME AND DIE is, I will admit, "a little bit me, a little bit you". I lived in Flint, Michigan in 1969. I was out of the women's lib loop, skinny, and unsure of what I wanted to make of myself. I wore glasses that I hated. So Carrie started with some of my hang-ups. But she became her own person so quickly that soon I hardly recognized her.
Jack Porter, Vietnam vet, is an amalgam of several people I knew back then. A friend at college had stepped on a land mine and was struggling to rebuild his life with a ruined leg. My husband (then boyfriend) returned in January of 1969. He and other friends told me little anecdotes about daily life that made their way into the book. They would talk about the food, the weather, the card games; they didn't talk about the war.
Somehow, forty years later, my brain concocted a mystery in which a prim young woman meets an embittered but decent (and hunky) vet. She learns from him about the way the world operates. He gets from her a reconnection with the goodness in life.
Of course, I had to throw in some problems along the way: a few murders and a very beautiful woman whose hold on Jack threatens everything: their budding relationship, their business partnership, and even their lives.
Comment on this blog and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free copy of this e-book, GO HOME AND DIE.
March 25, 2010
GO HOME AND DIE
"Sounds kind of mean," someone said of my April 1, 2010, release title, but it fits. Jack Porter's friend and business partner is only home from Vietnam a short while before he's stabbed to death in an alley. Other vets suffer the same fate: they "go home" from the war "and die" soon afterward. Jack wants to know who killed his only friend, and why.
Enter Carrie Walsh, a prim young woman who knows that her life is in need of change. She hates her job, her mother suffocates her with criticism, and she feels she's missing the liberation that other women in the late 1960s have demanded. To the dismay of her mother and her former bosses, she decides to help Jack open the private detection firm he and his fellow vet had planned.
Carrie and Jack sense a chemistry between them, but events intervene. Jack has secrets that shock and hurt Carrie, and soon those same secrets put her in danger. She has taken a step toward a more exciting life, but that step could be one too far. Carrie, too, may go home and die.
Tomorrow, I'll explain the inspiration for GO HOME AND DIE. Leave a blog comment any day between now and April 1 and get a chance at a free copy of this e-book!
Enter Carrie Walsh, a prim young woman who knows that her life is in need of change. She hates her job, her mother suffocates her with criticism, and she feels she's missing the liberation that other women in the late 1960s have demanded. To the dismay of her mother and her former bosses, she decides to help Jack open the private detection firm he and his fellow vet had planned.
Carrie and Jack sense a chemistry between them, but events intervene. Jack has secrets that shock and hurt Carrie, and soon those same secrets put her in danger. She has taken a step toward a more exciting life, but that step could be one too far. Carrie, too, may go home and die.
Tomorrow, I'll explain the inspiration for GO HOME AND DIE. Leave a blog comment any day between now and April 1 and get a chance at a free copy of this e-book!
March 24, 2010
Explaining the Concept of Laundry to Geniuses
I suppose this is going to sound like an old-person rant, but it really isn't. I wonder why things that we use every day have become so complicated to operate. I don't mean difficult; I can do what needs to be done. I mean complicated, as in taking ten steps to do what once took two.
My new washing machine has an array of buttons worthy of a space capsule, so I can choose dozens of combinations for optimal results. Guess what. I want to put my clothes in the washer and have them come out clean. Nine times out of ten, I want the same water temperature, like the same spin speed, have the same clothing type. On my old machine, I set those things and left them, changing only when something special was being washed. With this machine, I have to set them every time, pushing little buttons multiple times to reach the same settings. Here's the sequence: Push ON button. Turn dial three clicks, so light indicates NORMAL wash load (nothing else works until I do that). Push WATER TEMP button four times to get the setting I use. Push RINSE SPEED button three times to get my usual choice. Push START button. That's 13 clicks and pushes to get going, where I once simply turned a dial and pushed a button.
My new microwave is much the same. Old one: two dials and a button. We left the POWER button the same for most things. To heat something, we turned the timer to our estimated cook time and pushed the START button. Voila. New one: Push POWER LEVEL button 3 or 4 times to lower the power to a level that doesn't result in charred ash. Push the little NUMBER pad to set the timer. Push START. Score: old appliance two; new appliance 7, minimum.
I fear that engineers (the geniuses in the title) are so enamored of what they can do, how cool the "dashboard" can look, that they forget that people just want the stupid thing to do what it does. I wrote to the washer manufacturer, suggesting a simpler operating procedure. I got back a form-type email that said they're sorry I'm unhappy but they have a multitude of models to choose from.
That missed my point: ALL the models have gone techno, except the stripped down, mini-models designed for dormitories, laundromats, and skin-flints. I asked for (and supposedly got) the simplest washer in the upper-mid-price range. Why not quality AND functionality?
And don't even get me started on cell phones.
My new washing machine has an array of buttons worthy of a space capsule, so I can choose dozens of combinations for optimal results. Guess what. I want to put my clothes in the washer and have them come out clean. Nine times out of ten, I want the same water temperature, like the same spin speed, have the same clothing type. On my old machine, I set those things and left them, changing only when something special was being washed. With this machine, I have to set them every time, pushing little buttons multiple times to reach the same settings. Here's the sequence: Push ON button. Turn dial three clicks, so light indicates NORMAL wash load (nothing else works until I do that). Push WATER TEMP button four times to get the setting I use. Push RINSE SPEED button three times to get my usual choice. Push START button. That's 13 clicks and pushes to get going, where I once simply turned a dial and pushed a button.
My new microwave is much the same. Old one: two dials and a button. We left the POWER button the same for most things. To heat something, we turned the timer to our estimated cook time and pushed the START button. Voila. New one: Push POWER LEVEL button 3 or 4 times to lower the power to a level that doesn't result in charred ash. Push the little NUMBER pad to set the timer. Push START. Score: old appliance two; new appliance 7, minimum.
I fear that engineers (the geniuses in the title) are so enamored of what they can do, how cool the "dashboard" can look, that they forget that people just want the stupid thing to do what it does. I wrote to the washer manufacturer, suggesting a simpler operating procedure. I got back a form-type email that said they're sorry I'm unhappy but they have a multitude of models to choose from.
That missed my point: ALL the models have gone techno, except the stripped down, mini-models designed for dormitories, laundromats, and skin-flints. I asked for (and supposedly got) the simplest washer in the upper-mid-price range. Why not quality AND functionality?
And don't even get me started on cell phones.
March 23, 2010
What Are You Reading?
I'm usually reading three books at a time. It's just how I do it.
First is Terry Pratchett's EQUAL RITES,which is a delight. His casual allusions slay me.
Second is TO PERISH IN PENZANCE by Jeanne Dams, an old-fashioned husband and wife mystery that's fun and relaxing.
And I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's THE LACUNA. The woman is a witch, I swear, because her writing casts a spell on me. I tell myself it's not the type of thing I'm interested in (being used to a dead body every few chapters) but I keep reading, keep going back, because I HAVE to know what's going to happen to the protag. Toward the end I knew it couldn't be good, but I STILL had to know. And I have to admit, she pulled it off: if not a happy ending, at least a very satisfying one.
First is Terry Pratchett's EQUAL RITES,which is a delight. His casual allusions slay me.
Second is TO PERISH IN PENZANCE by Jeanne Dams, an old-fashioned husband and wife mystery that's fun and relaxing.
And I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's THE LACUNA. The woman is a witch, I swear, because her writing casts a spell on me. I tell myself it's not the type of thing I'm interested in (being used to a dead body every few chapters) but I keep reading, keep going back, because I HAVE to know what's going to happen to the protag. Toward the end I knew it couldn't be good, but I STILL had to know. And I have to admit, she pulled it off: if not a happy ending, at least a very satisfying one.
March 22, 2010
A Challenge for Your Brain
1. Start a song. Any song.
2. Sing it until you either finish or can't remember the next word.
3. Now find another song that starts with the last word you sang. (You can skip a, an, and the to start the next song)
4. Continue, to infinity and beyond.
2. Sing it until you either finish or can't remember the next word.
3. Now find another song that starts with the last word you sang. (You can skip a, an, and the to start the next song)
4. Continue, to infinity and beyond.
March 19, 2010
Guest Blogger: Gerrie Finger, THE END GAME
Thanks, Peg, for inviting me to talk about my book, THE END GAME.
Whenever I meet a book lover, his or her first question is: what's your book about? The second question is: where did you come up with the idea?
The End Game is a mystery about two young Atlanta girls who are kidnapped for the overseas sex trade. Heroine Moriah Dru established Child Trace, Inc. after leaving the Atlanta Police Department. She'll find lost children for anyone, but most of her work originates with the juvenile court system. With the help of Detective Lieutenant Richard Lake, Dru sets out to find the Rose girls after their house burns down. and their foster parents are dead inside.
Robin Agnew, of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, reviewed my novel. I'll let her tell a little about the book. "Ferris’ ethos isn’t cozy, it’s fairly hard boiled, and so is the topic she’s chosen to write about: missing children. Her spare prose and unsentimental writing style get you through some of the hard stuff in the story. … Like a runaway freight train, this novel is all about narrative drive."
Robin says other good stuff about my novel – although there are certain aspects I didn't realize I'd accomplished. As I intended, Robin nails the style and purpose of the narrative. I believe the spare prose and unsentimental writing style come from my journalism background. I worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for nearly twenty years.
In those first years, I edited the columns of nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist Lewis Grizzard. As his popularity grew, he compiled his writings – which exemplified his beloved South – into books that landed on the New York Times Best Seller List year after year. Lewis became my mentor, and I learned to edit as sparsely as he did. One caveat though, writing novels isn't like writing for a newspaper. You've got to put a little more flesh on the skeleton.
That brings me to the second question asked about my book: where did you come up with the story idea? Lewis died in 1994, and I joined the National Desk, where I traveled and wrote for a section of the newspaper called, Around the South. My last assignment was on the City Desk, and then I retired.
A sensational case in Atlanta became the genesis of my novel. A child went missing. He was four or five years old, and they couldn't find him in the foster care system. He'd been passed from family to family and then lost. How can you lose a child in the system? As far as I know, he was never found.
About that time, the APD was busting massage parlors and finding ten-to-twelve-year-old foreign girls working in the back rooms, giving more than a traditional massage.
The lost child and the young girls imported by real slavers inspired The End Game. There is a third question I'm asked: what does the title mean? Overseas slave rings have names; one of the most infamous is called Snakehead. I named my fictional human traffickers after chess pieces. Dru and Lake will do anything to keep the Rose girls from becoming part of The End Game.
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Whenever I meet a book lover, his or her first question is: what's your book about? The second question is: where did you come up with the idea?
The End Game is a mystery about two young Atlanta girls who are kidnapped for the overseas sex trade. Heroine Moriah Dru established Child Trace, Inc. after leaving the Atlanta Police Department. She'll find lost children for anyone, but most of her work originates with the juvenile court system. With the help of Detective Lieutenant Richard Lake, Dru sets out to find the Rose girls after their house burns down. and their foster parents are dead inside.
Robin Agnew, of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, reviewed my novel. I'll let her tell a little about the book. "Ferris’ ethos isn’t cozy, it’s fairly hard boiled, and so is the topic she’s chosen to write about: missing children. Her spare prose and unsentimental writing style get you through some of the hard stuff in the story. … Like a runaway freight train, this novel is all about narrative drive."
Robin says other good stuff about my novel – although there are certain aspects I didn't realize I'd accomplished. As I intended, Robin nails the style and purpose of the narrative. I believe the spare prose and unsentimental writing style come from my journalism background. I worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for nearly twenty years.
In those first years, I edited the columns of nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist Lewis Grizzard. As his popularity grew, he compiled his writings – which exemplified his beloved South – into books that landed on the New York Times Best Seller List year after year. Lewis became my mentor, and I learned to edit as sparsely as he did. One caveat though, writing novels isn't like writing for a newspaper. You've got to put a little more flesh on the skeleton.
That brings me to the second question asked about my book: where did you come up with the story idea? Lewis died in 1994, and I joined the National Desk, where I traveled and wrote for a section of the newspaper called, Around the South. My last assignment was on the City Desk, and then I retired.
A sensational case in Atlanta became the genesis of my novel. A child went missing. He was four or five years old, and they couldn't find him in the foster care system. He'd been passed from family to family and then lost. How can you lose a child in the system? As far as I know, he was never found.
About that time, the APD was busting massage parlors and finding ten-to-twelve-year-old foreign girls working in the back rooms, giving more than a traditional massage.
The lost child and the young girls imported by real slavers inspired The End Game. There is a third question I'm asked: what does the title mean? Overseas slave rings have names; one of the most infamous is called Snakehead. I named my fictional human traffickers after chess pieces. Dru and Lake will do anything to keep the Rose girls from becoming part of The End Game.
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How Dare You?
Heard on the news about a guy who was texting, crossed the centerline, and hit a truck head-on. He's dead. Okay. He did a dumb thing and died for it.
But what about the poor truck driver? Imagine what he's going through today, what he will live with from now on. Somebody died because he was on that road, that day.
Sure, he'll tell himself, and others will reiterate, that there was nothing he could have done. Big trucks don't manuever nimbly out of the way, don't stop on a dime. But he will always have those images: the moment of knowing a crash is inevitable, the impact, the realization that the other driver is dead.
Next time you're thinking of doing something stupid while you're driving, remind yourself that you might die. And if you won't think of your own life, think about the people who might live on, knowing they were part of it, even if they were doing everything right.
But what about the poor truck driver? Imagine what he's going through today, what he will live with from now on. Somebody died because he was on that road, that day.
Sure, he'll tell himself, and others will reiterate, that there was nothing he could have done. Big trucks don't manuever nimbly out of the way, don't stop on a dime. But he will always have those images: the moment of knowing a crash is inevitable, the impact, the realization that the other driver is dead.
Next time you're thinking of doing something stupid while you're driving, remind yourself that you might die. And if you won't think of your own life, think about the people who might live on, knowing they were part of it, even if they were doing everything right.
