Lea Wait's Blog, page 93

A Day in Thea Kozak’s Life

Kate Flora: My day got stolen by writing and my evening by a neighborhood annual meeting and suddenly it was: Oh No!! Blog post due. What shall I write about? Well, I’m deep into my 11th Thea Kozak mystery, which means from time to time I go back and reread parts of earlier books to be sure I’m still writing the same Thea. It looks like I am, so I thought I’d share a bit from an earlier book so you can hear Thea’s voice and her attitude and why even though I’m the writer and supposedly in charge, I keep coming back to Thea to see what she’s up to next. Hope you enjoy it.

My immediate crisis was a humongous black Suburban driving too fast in the slow lane by a driver obviously too young, and too stupid, to have been allowed out on a day like this. She’d gone whipping past me moments earlier, cell phone to her ear, and now, having come upon a driver driving slowly and carefully in the slow and careful lane, had discovered she couldn’t shove herself into my lane because it was already occupied by a truck. She’d stomped on her brakes and the resulting chaos was ensuing.

Ah. ABS brakes. The responsive shudder, the car’s pulsing attempts to stop. Good, but not miraculous. The black babe-mobile fishtailed, swung into the breakdown lane, caught a wheel in a wave of slush, and flew back across the lane, heading straight toward me.

Luckily the lane to my left was open, and I steered carefully over the slush ridge and into it, while she squiggled and swirled, missing me by inches and sending drivers careening in all directions. It happened with stunning speed and passed just as quickly when the SUV flew across two lanes and spun out in the snow beyond. The rest of us, grateful to be alive and undamaged, were not minded to stop and help.

There was a rest area ahead. I pulled in and stopped to let my heart rate slow and to unclench my poor burned hands from the steering wheel, thinking I’d sooth myself with a nice café mocha. I noticed other cars from the same almost pile-up pulling in to decompress. I was getting out to get my coffee when the black SUV pulled into the parking space beside me. The stupid young driver got out of the car, still on her phone, laughing as she said, “And I like, spun out and almost ran into like six cars. It was so funny!”

It wasn’t funny. She’d caused fear and misery and put a blight on many people’s days. I very ostentatiously pulled out my phone and snapped a photo of her—yoga pants, Uggs, elaborate model hair that she must have gotten up at four a.m. to style, and a wholly impractical puffy white jacket—and then of her license plate. To the person on the other end, she said, “Hold on,” and to me, “Hey, like what do you think you’re doing?”

She couldn’t, like, tell?

“Taking a picture of your license, and of you. To go with my report to the state police about your reckless driving.”

“Oh, right. Sure you will. Like you really think they’ll care?”

She said into her bejeweled pink phone, “Hey, Shy, I gotta go. Some old bitch is giving me a hard time about my driving.”

Old bitch? I knew this job was aging me, but was it really that bad?

She shoved the phone into an oversized red purse. “Look, lady,” she said, all chin-jutting, butt-twitching attitude, “what’s your problem?”

“My problem? I like people to pay attention when they’re driving. You could have killed someone. You should be ashamed and apologetic, not proud of yourself.”

She waggled her yoga-panted butt and tossed her hair. “You’re like not really going to tell the police, are you?”

“I absolutely am.” I like, really already had.

People had gotten out of their cars and were standing behind me. One said, “Honey, you nearly ran me off the road, and I’ve got a baby in the back.” There was a tremble in her voice. The terror of the experience hadn’t left her. “And I did call the police.”

An older man said, “Girlie, don’t you get it? You can’t drive like that on winter roads.”

“Honestly.” She drew the word out to about six syllables. “It’s no big deal.” A flounce of her hips. Another toss of her hair. “The cops aren’t going to care.”

“I think they might,” I said. “My husband is a state trooper.”

But that wasn’t why I thought the police might take an interest. I’d spotted one of those stealth unmarkeds the police were using. A gray Camaro. The staties were already here.

I gave up on coffee. I walked away from her sputtering, got in my car, and headed back to the turnpike, my fog lights painting the tunnel made by my headlights an eerie yellow. Proving what an old fart I was becoming by wondering how we could turn the world over to her generation, to a kid without the decency to apologize to the woman who’d experienced terrible fear for her baby’s life. Before I got to the exit, the ignorant babe sped by me like she was being chased. And behind her, poised for the right moment to stop her, was a state trooper in a mean gray muscle car.

Sometimes the gods are good.

 

And the best book adaptation for TV, hands down, EVER, is…

Sometime in the last couple of years — it’s hard to say when, it all blurs together now — I joked on this blog that I’m a “social distancing hobbiest.” Oh ha ha. So funny. Since then, whenever that was, I have become a serious social distancing professional.

Memo to New Yorkers thinking of moving to my idyllic town: No one delivers food here. No kind of food delivered anywhere in this village from any place at any time of day or night. Yes, I’m aware that Oakland pizza place delivers, but if you live beyond the intersection of  routes 8 and 11, you have to meet them at the intresection to pick it up. Might as well drive to Augusta. Still want to move here? No, I didn’t think so.

Do I sound cranky? You bet I am. That’s what a diet of Cheerios, tomato sandwiches and triscuits with cheese will do to you. The tomatos, of course, slightly soft and shriveled from sitting on the counter in a kitchen that won’t go above 58 degrees, no matter how high I turn up the thermostat. Because apparently people who built houses 100 years ago liked to make them crooked, so there are a lot of gaps to let the winter come in and make itself at home.

And yes, part of that is that I now hate going to the grocery store. It used to be my one exciting social event, but now it entails changing into real clothes and all that other stuff. And rather than running into people I know and like, it’s just strangers with their eyes darting furtively above their masks as they try to get through as fast as they can, or the smug unmasked swaggering down the middle of the aisles, leaning in to you to get something out of the dairy case and talking loudly to their unmasked family who all inexplicably had to join them shopping.

So,  yeah, I like it here at home. Aside from the lack of food. I have plenty of paying work, I have the neverending writing of my book, books to read and the TV. My schedule includes a nightly wind-down of TV watching. I don’t have cable, I do the streaming shuffle. [Pro tip: Spring for a $35 Google chromecast, Roku or some other device that plugs into your TV and allows you to stream to that nice big screen. I have a seven-year old Chromecast device plugged into my 12-year old TV and it’s TV heaven.] I watch a lot of junk, because, like food, sometimes you just have to watch comfort TV. It astounds me how many “Seinfeld” plots wouldn’t work now in the cellphone era. Still though, so funny. gress.

Bertie Clavell IS Adam Dalgliesh in the best-ever adaption of a mystery series to the screen in the history of adapting beloved mystery series. Seriously. (Photo courtesy Acorn TV)

Yes, I’m getting to the point, which is the best TV discovery of the past few months, or actually in a long time. The British TV show “Dalgliesh,” which can be found on Acorn streaming service, is hands-down the best adaption of book series by a favorite mystery author I’ve ever seen on TV. Seriously. Ever.

I was part of a brief Twitter conversation with some authors a few weeks ago where we mused about how we’d feel about our books being made into TV shows or movies. There’s a general feeling that you have to accept that it’ll likely suck and wreck your vision and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Though, I admit, it’s a problem I’d like to have.

“Dalgliesh” bucks that trend, big time. The creators are true-blue to the P.D. James Adam Dalgliesh series despite condensing three books into six one-hour episodes. The shows are not only are faithful to the stories, but the creators also made a huge and succesful effort to maintain tone and spirit, even when they change things around. This includes updating for race and gender awareness in an organic way that doesn’t feel as though 2021 is awkwardly elbowing its way into these mid-1970s stories. That’s a hell of a tightrope to walk, and I’ve yet to see it done effectively anywhere else [listening “Endeavour”?]

The biggest example is two female characters who were white in the original books, but are played by women of color in the series. The change enhances each character in ways that highlight the challenges they have in the books without changing their who the characters are. The change adds a new and genuine layer to the stories without deviating from what P.D. James intended.

And in a huge departure from every TV and movie adaption I’ve ever seen in my life of any mystery book I loved, casting of the lead character is perfect. The actor who plays Adam Dalgliesh, Bertie Cavell, captures him perfectly. He also looks eactly like he’s supposed to look, acts like he’s supposed to and reacts like he is. It almost makes me want to cry.

Even plot and story changes that weren’t for the purpose of compressing for the short time period work, rather than being the random Hollywood changes for no good reason we’re so used to. One good example is that in the TV show, Dalgliesh’s wife and baby recently died before the first episode. In the books, they died 13 years before the first book. Rather than being a gratuitous change to up the drama, the change allows the tone of the books to come through without a lot of exposition, which would be weird coming from the stoic, taciturn and melancholy Dalgiesh. It’s a change with a purpose that circles back to the writing — a way to make things that are hard to transfer from book to the screen work.

The two middle episodes take place at a home for adults who use wheelchairs. I didn’t realize until watching the “making of” doc after the last episode that all of them were played by actors who use wheelchairs in real life.

The shows are compelling — you won’t be scrolling your phone while you watch and if you are, what the hell is your problem — but they aren’t frenetic. They demand attention in a quiet way. There are no car chases, no groups of cops standing around a big white board expositing on the case in that staged and awkward way that’s the hallmark of modern cop shows. OK, there is a scene with some stuff tacked up to a wall, but there are no stagey speeches about it.

The series is filmed beautifully both in the English countryside and in London, looking every bit the 1970s that it’s supposed to. All of the acting, down to the most minor character, is spot-on. I defy you to not be transfixed by the young boy in the final two episodes. The series has a grown-up sense of humor, subtle and dry, that you’ll also find in James’ books.

“Dalgliesh” should give mystery writers something to feel good about. It means that there are dedicated TV producers, directors and writers making shows who care as much about the books they’re adapting as the people who’ve read and loved them. They are willing to take care to get it right. They understand that a writer, even one of mystery novels, may have a vision that deserves to be honored. If my books are ever adapted, I want someone like these people to do it.

On a more basic level, that attention also makes for better TV. So do yourself a favor and pour a bowl of Cheerios, pull the fuzzy blanket around tight,  spend $6.99 for a month of Acorn and watch “Dalgliesh.”

Brain Fog Is Most Likely A Real Thing

Sandra Neily here:

Yes. I wore a mask the whole time. This is my PA daughter telling us, with her eyes, to do just that.

I can’t believe I left my novel’s plot map in the Maine Medical Center. But there it is. Or was.

I have a distinct memory of sticking my notes and plot map into my bag. I knew I wouldn’t be alert for a while (understatement for open-heart surgery), but I thought after a few days I could reread the notes and refresh my brain. I’d done some good imaginary work about how to grow chapters I’d written into the rest of the mystery. I took notes on my ideas. I made a map of the up and down rhythms I hoped to create on the way to the story’s climax.

I thought I could outwit the legendary brain fog that hangs around for a few months after major surgery.

Silly me. Clearly, I was not alert enough to make sure my notes didn’t get cleared away with the day’s buildup of food trays on my window sill. (That’s just a guess, but it makes sense.)

Raven is modeling how once the stuffing has been kicked out of you … you deserve a fresh start. (After a nap.)

Maybe the loss is an exacting muse telling me I should reimagine lots of the book anyway. Kind of a fresh start.

I took inventory. I had six chapters I liked. I had a short summary I liked. (Unfinished … but it was a start.) I had old chapter notes with margins full of details that I’d saved for later use: floating details that I trusted to find a home as I typed. Details like a freezer full of beef bones my narrator begged for her dog but intended for soup during unemployment.

I already knew I was a blend of both pantser and plotter: a writer who plans out plot directions but who also just lets the story and characters careen away into unexpected directions that feel so good, my fingers aren’t fast enough on the keys. I figure the pantser part of me will come in handy going forward.

Here’s a good way to think about these two strategies. J.K.Rowling is a plotter; Stephen King is a pantser.

In the spirit of the struggle to give birth to our books, I’m sharing other authors’ strategies as well as the ones I am recreating … now that my brain is feeling great again.

**********

I wrote it a few days before surgery, after a fall walk with someone who’d still be squirrel-staring if I didn’t have biscuits.

Here’s my draft plot summary for the next “Deadly” story.

Cassandra Patton Conover, weak from a six-month recuperation in Portland, arrives home at her woods cabin only to fall through melting spring ice with her dog Pock. Life gets complicated when her snowshoes snag a body under the water, she finds her backyard woods littered with No Trespassing signs and surveillance cameras, and bewildered wildlife seeks safety near her camp. Squinting in disgust, she realizes her neighbor’s billboard advertising sprawling lot development actually resembles the spidery X-rays that mapped her out-of-control cancer cells. She plots a woods cure against impossible odds. With the help of her dog, wild creatures of all sizes, and a game warden who cannot turn away from Patton or the looming loss of his ancestral lands, she … (well, I haven’t written the end yet …)

**********

I recently mapped the story’s geography; what people want rubs up against each other.

 

J. K. Rowling organizes a “Harry Potter” story

William Faulker used his wall.

Norman Mailer was a Plotter? Unexpected….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found lots of ideas in my notes from completed chapters.

And now that the fog’s outside my brain and the lake is skiable …. onward!

(I am so grateful to the amazing Maine Medical team who, despite the pandemic, offered so many of us stunning and generous care.)

Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly” is due out in 2022. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.

Weekend Update: January 22-23, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Sandra Neily (Monday), Maureen Milliken (Tuesday), Kate Flora (Thursday) and Dick Cass (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Kate Flora: In case anyone is looking for a basic writing crime fiction class, I’ll be teaching one in April for Maine Media Workshops. More information here: https://www.mainemedia.edu/workshops/item/crime-fiction-101/

Looking for something sooner and shorter:

Writing with a Sense of Place workshop with Kate Flora
Explore the techniques writers use to create a powerful sense of place through exercises and discussion. Spend two sessions learning about craft and observational strategies, along with a reading list of writers whose work might be inspiring. Some assignments in advance.

Saturdays, February 5 & 12
9:30 am – 12:00 pm
On Zoom; links sent after registration.
Tuition: $175
Limited to 10 participants.

https://thoreaufarm.org/the-write-connection/

The winner of a copy of Clea Simon’s book, Hold Me Down, is Julianne Spreng. We’ll need your snail mail address to mail it. Send to: writingaboutcrime@gmail.com

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

 And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

Write on

I’m often asked what the most difficult part of the writing process is and what pieces of it that I like and dislike. For a time, I fumbled around with my answer to this until I realized that, in reality, there is no part of it that I find difficult or dislike. I enjoy every facet of writing and today I will be sharing with you why. It might also amaze the non-writers out there how many aspects that there actually are to the writing process.

Not every good story necessarily starts at the beginning, but I will do so here. Writing commences with an idea. My Clay Wolfe/Port Essex series begins with Wolfe Trap and the notion tinkling around in the recesses of my brain was what if heroin was being smuggled through lobster traps? Hm. That was the very beginning of not just a new book, but a new series. As I began to look into that topic, I came across a news blip of a woman who’d rubbed the residue from her heroin baggie on her baby infant’s gums to stop the child from crying. Repeatedly. Until the baby died. Terrible. But that had to find its way into the book. Most ideas come from something real.

I write histories and mysteries. In both cases, once the basic concept of the new novel is born, research must follow. For my histories, this usually means preloading by reading multiple books about the time and place. For Love in the Time of Hate, I read five books about New Orleans after the Civil War before I wrote a word. I’ve also found it an incredible experience to visit, and my wife and I spent a fabulous week in New Orleans doing ‘research’. I read more books and internet searches continued after I began writing. With the mysteries, there is not so much preloading. I often just do internet searches and reading to acquaint myself with the topic. These have included nuclear power plants, powerful lobbyists, cults, genome editing, and much more. All great fun to delve into.

Once a degree of research has been done, then the writer will sit down to write. This is a fantastic experience. My current work in progress is about a quarter of the way in and chugging along. The idea for Mainely Wicked was the prevalence of witches in the world today. Many of these witches, or wiccans, are good and believe in healing and magic, but like most religions, what if there is a twisted sect of wiccans out there who have radical belief’s. Around that, I’m creating an entire novel that each and every day I toil around in my mind trying to figure out the age-old question: What’s next?

[image error]The idea, the research, and the writing are only the tip of the iceberg. Then begins the editing process which takes on many different hats. The first level begins with myself as I try to clean up the mess I’ve made before sending it off to the housecleaner, in this case, my own editor, Michael Sanders, who has worked with me on all of my books. I usually do two passes before it goes off to him for three more rounds. I’m currently following his advice (mostly) on what we call the global edits, for my most recently completed book, Velma Gone Awry, set for release in December of 2022. This might be my very favorite part of the process. Here, I build scenes stronger, thread in plot pieces, build characters, and overall make the book much better. When I’ve finished with doing this, I’ll send it back for structural editing, and finally line editing, or the spit shine that makes it glow!

Those five edits take place before it even goes on to the publisher. But it is far from the last edits that will take place. Currently, the editor for Encircle Publications, Cynthia Bracket-Vincent, is doing her edits on my fourth Clay Wolfe/Port Essex mystery, Cosmic Trap, due out in September. She’ll convey these to me soon and I’ll go through to see if there is anything that I disagree with. There usually is not as I’ve found disagreeing with my wife or publishing editor to be a bad idea, and authors have a hard time running with bad ideas. At this point it will move onto the line editor who will clean up any items that have slipped through the first six edits. This is currently being done on my book for release in April, Mouse Trap. This generally is down to tiny miscues such as writing form instead of from. Easy to overlook, unless, of course, you are a reader who loves to find mistakes by an author and call them on it. And now, after an idea, research, writing, and seven edits, my baby is born novel is just about ready to enter the world.

One part that I have little to do with, but do get to review, is the cover art. The fabulous Deirdre Wait of Encircle Publications gathers from me the essence of the story and brainstorms some ideas and then comes up with fantastically creative covers, bringing to life my books. And then, let the promotion begin! I currently have over twenty bloggers who review my books and I will have sent ARCs off to them in advance of pub day. This stable was created by sending out hundreds of queries, a process that I try and build larger with every release. A new level of success was achieved recently when Al Warren of NBC Radio’s House of Mystery reached out to me to do an interview in February. For paid advertising, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, and paid for blog tours are all parts of the process.

Coming April 2022

Pub day! The idea has germinated with research into a written novel and has been carefully worked and reworked as if genome editing were taking place. The book has been set and the cover made and then it is born into the world. I just had the pleasure of welcoming a new book into the world with Mainely Angst. I further had the pleasure of launching and celebrating this new life at Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshop in Topsham and was honored to have a good crowd come and support me. Friends, family, readers, fellow authors, and those I bribed with the offer of buying them a beer afterward all came together to celebrate the birth of my baby.

Write on.

Today We Interview Romantic Suspense Writer Susan Vaughan

As part of our continuing series of interview our MCW bloggers, today’s interviewee is Susan Vaughan. We hope you find this interview as fascinating as we did.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in West Virginia in a family of teachers and became one, although I really wanted to write. Had to get a “real job,” you know. I studied French literature, because I love languages. A perpetual student, I have two advance degrees, one in that college major, and the other in reading education. Most of my teaching career was as an elementary reading specialist, a very rewarding and challenging job.

Are you one of those writers who has wanted to write since you were a child?

Guilty as charged. I’ve always had a bit of insomnia, and even before I learned to read and write, I made up stories in the dark as I waited for sleep to overtake me. When my first-grade teacher read us a story, she told us about the author, something my parents hadn’t done, maybe because they taught at higher levels. I was instantly fascinated that “real people” wrote those books, so I wanted to do that too. Once I learned to read and write a bit, I started creating stories, printed carefully on folded paper. Then in high school, I wrote a terrible gothic romance that was about three chapters. Hey, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end! I did write a few short stories at that time as well. None of those early efforts exist today, which is probably just as well.

When and how did you start writing again?

I didn’t consider writing seriously for a long time. When my husband and I moved to the coast of Maine, my goal of writing fiction resurfaced. Something about meeting artists and published authors, who were “thick on the ground,” as it were, in this state, made me think I could/should try. I was teaching in a middle school, and that influenced me to write a young adult novel. When I told my husband, he said, “Do it. You’ve been talking about this for years.” I used the summer vacation to write. I completed that story, a mystery, and a second, which was published by an online press, now defunct.

Tell us more about your journey to publication.

I grew up reading mysteries, first Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, and later whatever mysteries my mother read, along with the mystery/romance novels written by Mary Stewart and Phyllis Whitney. Later, a friend introduced me to romance novels, and then I discovered romantic suspense by reading Nora Roberts’s Genuine Lies and Honest Illusions and Sandra Brown’s early novels. Tess Gerritsen, who was then writing for Harlequin Intrigue, invited me to join the nascent Maine chapter of Romance Writers of America, and that set my path.

When I began reading romantic suspense, I knew that was what I really wanted to write. I didn’t want to write just for myself; I wanted to be published and have people want to read what I wrote. I subscribed to Harlequin’s Silhouette Intimate Moments (now defunct) because most were romantic suspense. Lisa Gardner got her start writing for that line. Not only did I devour the stories, I studied them—the characters’ conflicts, the plot structure, the romance development, everything. I had no luck finding an agent, but that imprint didn’t require agented submissions, so eventually I had my first sale, published in 2001 as Dangerous Attraction. I went on to sell four more to that line before moving on. I then had a standalone novel, Primal Obsession, published by The Wild Rose Press. And by the way, those two and six more are set in my adopted state of Maine.

How would you define romantic suspense? What’s the balance between the romance and the suspense?

Romantic suspense combines mystery and romance, along with elements of thrillers. Generally, in a romantic suspense novel, the protagonists, that is the hero and heroine, are trying to prevent a crime (disaster, deaths, destruction, etc.) rather than solve one that has already occurred. Most often, the heroine is the one in danger, along with a more high-stakes disaster plotted by the villain, antagonist if you will. Sometimes the villain’s identity is even known to the reader, and the mystery aspect may be unearthing his goal or what is planned.

The balance can be fifty-fifty or sixty romance and forty suspense or sixty suspense and forty romance. Of most importance in a romantic suspense, is to never separate the romance from the suspense. In these stories, you have two of the most powerful human emotions: love and danger. The writer must use one to drive the other and to create conflict and move the story forward.

I enjoy the way the romance and the suspense plot are intertwined, or at least ought to be in a well-written RS. And I enjoy the process of creating that connection, so that the characters’ goals, internal conflicts, and their romantic attraction are impacted by the suspense plot. I do love a puzzle. I have to confess that my readers and my author friends tell me I really write romantic adventures that blend suspense and thriller.

I do this and have always wondered if other writers do, too. Do you find yourself working on your stories while you’re going to sleep or waking up?

Here’s where my insomnia comes in. Yes, while I’m trying to go to sleep, I’m plotting or developing a character and thinking about what other characters are needed for the story. I’m going through this right now.

Tell us about your books. You have several series, right?

Yes, I have four series. Each book stands alone, but is connected to the others in the series in some way. Task Force Eagle has four books centered around different government agencies stopping a Central American smuggling gang. I have the rights back to my first Intimate Moments book and the rest. An updated version of one is the first in that series. Updated because technology changed dramatically in the interim. I’ve published it and the others independently. What was Dangerous Attraction is now Always a Suspect.

A reader favorite is my Devlin Security series, which as of 2021 comprises five books. “Protecting Priceless Treasures” is the security company’s charge. What do I mean by priceless treasures? In On Deadly Ground, for example, the characters must return a figure of the Mayan earthquake god to its temple, and of course various bad guys want the artifact for their own reasons. Cleopatra’s Necklace focuses on, well, you can guess. The newest one, Genuine Fake, has an art forgery plot.

The DARK Files also has five books. DARK is an acronym for a government agency, the Domestic Antiterrorism Risk Corps. The first one, Dark Memories, was first published by Silhouette Intimate Moments as Guarding Laura. In it I used the small Maine resort setting and a couple of secondary characters from that first young adult mystery written long ago. With the exception of Dark Vision, the rest are also former Intimate Moments novels.

I also have the rights back to Primal Obsession, mentioned above. It now has a companion novel, Hidden Obsession, making that a two-book set. Hidden Obsession gives the detective from the previous book his own story. Both Obsession books are set in Maine. The series involves, as you might guess, an obsession of some sort. I’m pondering a third book, but we’ll see.

Over the course of your career, you’ve gone from having a publisher to being your own publisher. Isn’t that a lot of work? 

It is a lot of work. Absolutely. There’s a saying about self-publishing: “The advantage is that the author is in charge of everything—the story, the editing, the formatting, the cover art, the advertising—and the disadvantage is that the author is in charge of everything. I do like being able to have a say in how the book will look, that is, the cover design. I pay a cover designer and for formatting the digital version. The royalties are greater than when I was published by publishers, which helps. The entire process is time consuming and sometimes tedious. But I wouldn’t go back now.

Where can we find your books? Do you have physical books? E-books? Audio books?

Currently, my books are published only on Amazon as both e-books for Kindle and in trade paperbacks. In Maine, Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops carry several of my books. Readers everywhere can find them all on my Amazon Author Page, http://viewAuthor.at/SusanVaughan or on my website, www.susanvaughan.com.

Dare I ask: Do you have a favorite book, or is it always the book you’re working on?

You guessed it, the book I’m working on.

Thank you for this interview. Your questions have encouraged me to revisit how and why I’m in this crazy world of writing novels.

One lucky commenter to this post will will a copy of Primal Obsession. (Digital version if you live in Hawaii or outside the US)

 

Fan Girl

fledgling writer, 1987

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. The other day I was going through some old scrapbooks, looking for photos, etc. I could scan and use on Facebook for #ThrowbackThursday, when I came across a letter written to me by Phyllis A. Whitney. When I reread it, I couldn’t help wishing I’d also saved the letter she was responding to. In this case, my wish was granted, because I’d cleverly folded that first letter in half and tucked it in behind Ms. Whitney’s response.

reissue of the book I was asking her to blurb

A lot has changed since the late 1980s. Back then I was still incredibly naive about the publishing business. I’d had all of two books published, one by a small, scholarly press and one by a regional press. I had yet to venture out to my first writers’ conference or become active in any writers’ organization. I had joined Mystery Writers of America, and probably the Society of Children’s Book Writers, but Sisters in Crime didn’t yet exist, nor did Novelists, Inc. When it came to meeting other writers at local signings, I was still acutely shy and apt to become tongue-tied.

Ms. Whitney, along with Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt, was a huge part of the reason why I later wrote several romantic suspense novels. Unfortunately, I was never able to follow her principal piece of writing advice. She advocated producing a long, detailed outline (forty or more pages) before starting to write a book. I frequently have no idea who dunnit or why before I begin to put words on a page.

Anyway, for those who are interested in my past as a newbie, here is our correspondence:

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others, including several children’s books. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her most recent publications are The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries (a collection of three short stories and a novella, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries (written as Kathy). She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com. A third, at A Who’s Who of Tudor Women, is the gateway to over 2300 mini-biographies of sixteenth-century Englishwomen.

 

Authors & Scientists Are Writers

The Shark, The Girl & The Sea, Oceanographer Mara Tusconi mystery number five, has recently been published. Yes, the story features sharks (Great Whites) plus sea kayaking, oceanographic research ships, a bloody death, ups and downs of Mara’s love life, and what some marine researchers do. Shark Cage Diving, The Mexican state of Baja California, and Maine’s magnificent coast add spice.

Mara’s life comes together at the end of the book. Spoiler alert – she finds deep love, a shark scientist, and marries him in the Maine backyard of Angelo, Mara’s godfather.

Given all this, I believe “The Shark” is the last book in the Mara Tusconi series. So, now is a good time to think about my journey to this point.

Like every author I know, I had a professional life before I became a mystery writer. Looking back, that work and my preparation for it set me up well for this new endeavor.

As a marine scientist I wrote a lot of grant proposals plus my and others’ research papers were an everyday business. The content was very different from what I read and write now, of course, but there’s also a lot of overlap. Good writing should be clear, to the point, and deliver a coherent message no matter the focus.

Successful writers, like scientists, are professionals committed to their vocation and career. That takes discipline and follow-through – things like dedicated writing time, facing that blank page, and getting down to the real work of revision, revision, revision. Humility helps a lot. Reworking a favorite chapter because your editor couldn’t make sense of it can make a dent on the ego.

In addition, published authors don’t just write books. They communicate orally to other people be that hundreds in an auditorium, small reading groups, and one-on-one at book-signing events. Most scientists I know give pretty decent talks about their work and many can explain what they do and why to their Aunt Judy or Jane. We’ve all been doing that since we were graduate students.

In my experience, many scientists, like authors, are a patient lot. Scientists who spend countless hours in the field might endure nasty weather – freezing rain, violent seas, extreme heat, never mind critters from snakes to bears. As a marine ecologist I was especially wary of stinging jellyfish and several weeks at sea on a research ship nicknamed “the vomiting Verrill” (no kidding) convinced me that open-ocean research wasn’t for me.

I’ll end with the statement that writing is not necessarily an occupation per se. By this I mean writing need not be a job, although it certainly is work. According to one thesaurus a job is “a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation or for an agreed price”. While some of my writing is financially rewarding, other efforts (like this piece) are not.

Note: all the Mara Tusconi books are listed on my website (charlenedavanzo.com) with information how to purchase them.

Weekend Update: January 15-16, 2022

Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Charlene D’Avanzo (Monday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Tuesday), Matt Cost (Thursday) and Susan Vaughan (Friday). On Wednesday we’ll post the second in our series of interviews with MCW regulars, this time with Susan Vaughan

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

From Kathy Lynn Emerson: Two bits of e-book reprint news from me.

First, I was able to have the e-book of the 2008 version of How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries taken down on Kindle (this was the overpriced one I for which I would no longer receive royalties because the original publisher has gone out of business). However, Amazon promptly blocked the 2022 edition AGAIN, probably because there’s a free bootleg version of the 2008 e-book floating around somewhere in cyberspace. For the moment, I’m giving up on having a Kindle edition. My self-published 2022 e-book edition is readily available from all other e-book sellers at $4.99. If you already have the 2008 edition, there isn’t enough that’s different in this one to make purchasing it worthwhile.

Second, in happier news, Volume Two of The Face Down Collection is now available in e-book only for $9.99. This one contains books four through seven of the Face Down novels plus three short stories connected to the series. I’m proofreading the third and final volume right now, aiming for February or early March publication.

 

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

 And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora

“Lizzie Borden Took An Axe…”

Vaughn C. Hardacker

Vaughn Hardacker here: Do you have a famous or infamous ancestor in your family tree? A few years back, I set out to do my family’s genealogy. I had always told people that the only thing that kept my family from being trailer park trash was that we were too poor to own a trailer. I was shocked to learn the opposite. My great-grandmother on my father’s side was a Borden. There are among the Bordens some people who achieved a great deal. Among them is Gail Borden (4th cousin four times removed): who invented condensed milk and founded Borden Foods. Robert Laird Borden (1st cousin four times removed): the eighth prime minister of Canada and the last Canadian prime minister to be knighted by the King of England. Sir Winston Churchill (9th cousin): Nuff said. Norma Jean Baker aka Marilyn Monroe (7th cousin): Who’d a thought!

However, only one of my predecessors ever had a poem written about her: Lizzie Andrew Borden:

 

Lizzie Borden took an ax

And gave her mother forty whacks

When she saw what she had done

She gave her father forty-one

The poem has kept Lizzie Borden (my 5th cousin, twice removed) a part of Americana since the murders of her father and her stepmother on August 4th, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The poem is inaccurate: she was found not guilty, only nineteen blows were counted, the murder weapon was not an ax but a hatchet, and Abby Borden was her stepmother. But few know little more than the poem or the movies that have been made about the crime. So who was Lizzie Borden, and why she was considered the prime suspect in a crime for which she was found not guilty on June 20th, 1893? Here is what I have learned.

Lizzie Andrew Borden

Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860 – 1927) was the youngest of three daughters of Andrew Jackson Borden and Sarah Anthony Morse. Her mother died shortly after Lizzie’s birth. Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray, a local widow. She took over raising his two daughters (Lizzie had an older sister Emma Lenora Borden, a middle sister who died at two) and running the household. The Bordens were solid upper-middle-class and nowhere near the wealthiest family in Fall River, as is generally thought. Lizzie grew up in an atmosphere of idle, not gentile living. She was never to hold a job, although she did volunteer work for church missions, temperance unions, and various charities. She had a reputation for thievery. Andrew was miserly and seldom gave his daughters money. Lizzie was well known to the various shopkeepers in Fall River and when she shop lifted, they would contact her father. Andrew would then go to the shop and pay for the item(s).

Andrew Borden was known to be stingy with a Scrooge-like attitude toward his customers, tenants, and those who borrowed money from him. During her trial, the prosecution attempted to depict Lizzie as a person. She would not only kill for an inheritance. Still, she would do so to avenge years of deprivation (both material and psychological) she had endured in her father’s household. There was evidence of friction between the sisters and their father over how he catered to Abby’s relatives (or so the girls believed). During this time, Lizzie stopped calling Abby mother and began calling her “Mrs. Borden.”

Lizzie was considered a suspect in the killings by several police officers when they were notified. At the time of the murders, only Lizzie, Bridget Sullivan (the Borden’s domestic servant), and the victims were home. It has been thought that Lizzie murdered her stepmother while Bridget was outside the house washing windows. She later told her father that Abby had received a note about a sick friend and was out of the house. She then encouraged her father to take a nap. Bridget finished with her chores, went to her room to take a nap. Lizzie said that she then went out to the barn on an errand. She returned to the house after hearing a groan, a scraping noise, or a call of distress. (she related several contradictory stories to the police). Eventually, she settled on the story that she checked on her father and found him slain, his head mutilated.

On August 11th, after appearing before an inquest, she was arrested for the murders. In December, a Grand Jury handed down three indictments against Lizzie Borden: one for the murder of her father, one for the murder of her stepmother, and one for the murder of both. She was removed to a Taunton jail, where she remained until her trial in June 1893.

A jury of twelve men, average age fifty-three, found her not guilty on all counts.

At first public opinion about the verdict was favorable. It was generally believed that Lizzie would leave Fall River and live somewhere less known. She did not. She returned to her home and remained in the city. The absence of closure about the murders caused Lizzie’s and Emma’s social positions to fall. The sisters had become wealthy women because Abby died before Andrew. The stepmother’s family was deprived of her estate and, as a legal matter, it fell into the sisters’ possession. The final blow to her status came when Lizzie was accused of shoplifting two paintings from a Providence, Rhode Island company. A warrant was never served, and the matter was settled privately. Lizzie’s reputation was diminished, and she became more isolated.

In 1905, Emma moved out with no public explanation. There is speculation that Emma learned something about the 1892 murders. The sisters never saw nor spoke with each other again.

Lizzie Andrew Borden spent the last twenty-two years of her life an aging spinster surrounded by faithful servants who have never broken their silence. She was generous with their salaries and even purchased a house as a residence for some of them.

On June 1st, 1947, Lizzie died after suffering complications after a gall bladder operation. Emma died nine days later in Newmarket, New Hampshire. Neither sister had begotten children, and the Andrew Borden branch of the family (the Borden family includes such well-known people as Sir Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe) ended.

Lizzie’s infamous name has endured and become iconic. The murders have spawned numerous books and at least two movies (one movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery and another with Christina Ricci as Lizzie—I believe the latter was closer to the facts as they are known.). Whether or not she committed the murders or not the unanswered questions continue to fascinate mystery lovers throughout the world.

As a member of the Borden line, here’s what I think: Did Lizzie murder her stepmother and father? Undoubtedly, yes. Why do I believe this? Andrew Borden, as stated, was well-to-do but not wealthy. However, Abby did have a sizeable estate (and children) from her first marriage. The sequence of the murders says a lot. Abby was killed first. Her husband, Andrew, was bequeathed all of her assets and possessions. When Andrew was murdered several hours later, his estate went to his daughters. This cut Abby’s children out of any inheritance. Shortly after the crime, a neighbor observed Lizzie burning a dress she believed was worn during the killings. What about the murder weapon? It was never found. My theory: The Bordens did not have an outhouse. Instead, they had a privy in the cellar of the house. In 1892, no companies pumped out the privy, as is done to modern-day septic systems. The hatchet was thrown into the privy. I, for one, would not go down there feeling around for it!

For more information about Lizzie, visit http://www.thelizziebordencollection.com