Clea Simon's Blog, page 40
November 6, 2018
Noir at the Bar Boston
I may be best known for my cozies, but as those who came to know me through World Enough* know, I also write dark. Thanks, perhaps, in part to being named one of the writers “taking the Boston crime novel in new directions,” in the footsteps of George V. Higgins, I’ve been asked to be part of a Noir at the Bar event tomorrow (Thursday) at the Trident Booksellers Cafe on Newbury Street in Boston. Along with Ed Kurtz, doungjai gam, Rick Ollerman, E.F. Sweetman, and JM Taylor, I’ll be reading some of my darker stuff – maybe from my new WIP (think rock and roll, think “Behind the Music,” think #MeToo). The event is free and starts at 7 p.m. (not a.m., as the website says – noir is not an early morning genre). Hope to see you there!
*Named as one of “Five Reinventions of the Boston Crime Novel” by Strand Magazine.
November 4, 2018
FIVE QUESTIONS for Ronald Koltnow
How does a book start for you?
This is a daunting question for a novice writer. The ideas come to me while I am reading or watching something on television. Many years ago, a law school friend sent me an article that I thought would form the basis of my first novel. Forty years later, and after some preliminary research, the book remains unwritten. Time and tastes are not constant. I fear that the book could not be written in today’s climate. Once, I spotted a documentary on Yahoo News, a 20-minute piece on J. Edgar Hoover. I have been researching the Director ever since, and the book inspired by that video is in the outline stage. The book Barberton Fried Chicken: An Ohio Original came about in the most serendipitous of ways. I had always wanted to write a food book, especially one on the food of my youth. One day an ad appeared on Facebook. The History Press has an imprint called American Palate, dedicated to the history of regional foods. The ad was a call for books on regional food specialties. Within a matter of hours, the editor and I had agreed that the Serbian fried chicken of Barberton, Ohio deserved to have its history told.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most — and why?
The answer is a where, not a who. Barberton is a working class, highly ethnic, moribund industrial city a few miles to the southwest of my native Akron, Ohio. As had happened in may industrial cities, immigrants came from all over Europe to find jobs in the factories. There was a heavy Eastern European immigrant wave, among which were my grandparents. By the time I left Ohio in 1982, Barberton, once called the Magic City, was all but dead. As I read the history of the place, a planned community built by Ohio’s Match King O. C. Barber, the more fascinating the area became. It was an area inhabited first by the Lenape people, by European farmers, by early industries, and ultimately as Barber’s vision of the City of the Future. Barber was a Robber Baron, and, I always assumed, shady. He turned out to be a visionary, spearheading industry and farming in revolutionary ways. His was the first factory with a hospital, a workers’ restaurant, and some medical benefits. Barber had his hands in everything from landscaping to hospital building. He was a true hero.
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind the setting?
Barberton brought workers from all over the worlds. The largest immigrant groups were the Eastern Europeans (Hungarians and Czechs especially), Italians, and Germans. The first flag immigrants plant in their new cities is their native food. The men came to Barberton to work in the factories, while the women cooked. Specialty food shops began springing up in the downtown Barberton area– groceries, drug stores, and restaurants. In 1933, after losing the family farm to foreclosure, a Serbian woman named Smilka Topalsky opened a small restaurant, serving soups and sandwiches to workers. One day, she was cooking her familuy’s dinner, a Serbian recipe for fried chicken, cabbage slaw, and a rice and tomato based hot sauce called djuvece. The patrons of the restaurant wanted to try some of that exotic food. Belgrade Gardens opened in 1933 and is still serving the same food today. Within 20 years, there were five Serbian (and one Czech) fried chicken restaurant, all within a two-mile radius of each other. Four of those restaurants are still there.
What are you working on now?
There is a food myth that the hamburger was first invented by a cook from Akron. It is rumored that he invented the ice-cream cone as well. Should I continue in food writing mode, the next book will be THE HAMBURGER IN AKRON, Volume Two of what I call The Foods of My Youth. There will be a follow-up to the Chicken book, but it will probably be an article. The J. Edgar Hoover novel will occupy most of my time over the next few years. Unfortunately, the history of the witch-hunting 1950s hews too closely to our current political climate. Liberals were suspect if they read the wrong books, women would lose their jobs if they appeared mannish, and men had to be white-shirted and distinctly hetero or their lives were ruined. A moderate senator committed suicide rather than having his gay son exposed by his opponents. Those days were a nightmare, one that is on the verge of reappearing. It should be a pulpy thriller with a lot of action, but it is too serious a theme to be treated flippantly.
Which question[s] didn’t I ask you that I should have?
What did I have to leave out of my brief history that interested you? While reading of immigrant groups who came to Barberton for jobs, I learned about the initial African-American appearance in the area. The first black workers who came to Barberton were hired to be scabs at a nearby mine. When the trainload of men arrived, and they refused to cross the picket line, many stayed and open businesses of their own. The first black-owned business in the area was a barber shop that existed in the area called Snydertown for years. As my book tries to correct the assumption that fried chicken is purely a southern dish, I had to leave this part of the history out.
What was your biggest challenge?
This is a history not a memoir. Narrative non-fiction is best told without a first-person presence. It was tempting to tell a story as a memory, but the dictates of the form left me out of the story. I do get a personal history in the final section of the book.
What was the drawback to writing about fried chicken?
My wife made me go to the cardiologist after doing the research (most of which involved eating). The heart was fine, but the waistline needs fine tuning.
Ron Koltnow was a sales and marketing representative for Penguin Random House. He was Publishers’ Weekly‘s Rep of the Year in 2010. He has been a teacher, a bookseller, and a business writer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. His articles have appeared in Washington, D. C.’s City Paper, the ARSC Journal, Magill’s Survey of Foreign Language Films, and Magill’s Cinema Annual. Barberton Fried Chicken is his first book. He lives in Boston with a wife and two beloved cats.
November 2, 2018
Bunny of the day
Over on my Facebook page, I’ve developed a habit (perhaps it’s a meme) – a rabbit habit. I post photos of the bunnies I see in my yard and around the neighborhood. Although I don’t do one every day – I don’t see one every day – I call each one my Bunny of the Day. I started a few years ago, when rabbits were more of a curiosity. Now they’re quite common, but I still enjoy seeing these fluffy little creatures, as if a Beatrix Potter book had come to life in my little city yard. Yes, they’re destructive (I tell people we put our tomato plants in cages while the rabbits run free), but I still adore them.
Recently, I’ve not seen any. I don’t want to say they’ve disappeared, because i know they haven’t. I know from previous years that they’re around. When we get snow, I’ll see their double semi-colon prints. In spring, I’ll see the tiny baby bunnies. But right now, whether it’s the cold weather or the earlier sunset that has thrown our schedules off (bunnies are crepuscular – isn’t that a great word?), they’re not showing themselves. It’s getting dark too early.
It’s already a dark season. Two friends have lost their mothers in recent weeks, older women, for whom death was perhaps a blessing, but still a deep and abiding loss. A member of the larger writing community is coping with the unimaginable loss of a child. And behind it all, the violence and hatred of these divisive times just has me in a funk. I could use a bunny siting right around now. I think we all could.
But it’s windy and stormy today, and the weather is only supposed to get worse. So I think this is just one of those times when I’ve got to hunker down and do my work, and trust that sometime soon the bunnies will re-appear. I don’t believe in much, but I believe that to be true. The bunnies are out there. Have faith. And please, if you haven’t already, vote on Tuesday.
bunny in my yard, about a month ago
Thank you,
Clea
E-book sale!
Great news for e-readers! I knew that Severn House had partnered with the Open Road ebook initiative but I wasn’t sure what that meant till I got the notice that THE NINTH LIFE and INTO THE GREY were on sale for $1.99 each! I don’t know how long these sales will last or which of my books will go on sale next, but this is sweet! For those who don’t know, THE NINTH LIFE is the first in my dystopian black-cat Blackie & Care mystery series, featuring a homeless teen and the feline who loves her. INTO THE GREY is the most recent of my Dulcie Schwartz mysteries, but it works as a standalone, featuring a graduate student studying Gothic novels (and solving crime) with the aid of the ghost of her dear, departed cat, Mr. Grey.
October 28, 2018
FIVE QUESTIONS for Catriona McPherson
I first discovered Catriona McPherson through her cozy Dandy Gilver series – give me a light historical any day! But soon I was drawn into her dark and sinister standalone, books like the new Go To My Grave, out this month. It’s no secret that I admire her range – as well as her talent – and after this one, I’m looking forward to her second Scot-in-California book, Scot and Soda (following last year’s hilarious Scot Free).
How does a book start for you?
For me it starts with something like a pebble in my shoe. A tiny idea – place, name, quirk, face – that I can’t winkle out and can’t ignore. I hobble around on it until another little pip suddenly appears from somewhere else and they touch and spark. That metaphor is a mess but it’s the only way I can describe it. For instance, I was thinking about a trumpeter with pneumonia and how much he would hate another jazzman taking over his band and then I met a little old lady in the street in her slippers and apron, looking for a party. Bzzzt! AS SHE LEFT IT was born.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
Ha! In my next standalone GO TO MY GRAVE (out in October) I had a real gasper of a surprise. Two characters are walking across a beach to what they think is a corpse. They also think they know who it is. So did I. We were all wrong. I remember sitting typing and saying aloud “Aw, come on!”
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
GO TO MY GRAVE is set in Galloway, as many of my books are. I lived there for fifteen years before moving to the US and it’s where I became a writer. That landscape is where I started really drilling for stories as a daily habit. Also, it’s empty and has wild bits still. And – best of all – atrocious mobile phone reception, so people can be in peril. Mobile phones really suck for psychological thriller purposes.
What are you working on now?
I finished book fourteen in the historical Dandy Gilver series yesterday – it has no title; I sent it to my agent with this on the title page “Cramond Book. I don’t know what to call it. Rough Magic (????)” so there’s an outside chance it’s called Rough Magic but I doubt it. Today I’m having a day off and doing fun things like this questionnaire. Tomorrow I’ll start the edits that have come back from Minotaur in the US and Little,Brown in the UK for next year’s standalone THE CUTS. It was called that from the day the pips bzzzted and both editors are fine with it. Woot!Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?
What else do you write, Catriona? Why Clea, I’m so glad you asked. Earlier this year, I turned in the second book in a comic mystery series set in California, SCOT AND SODA. At some point I’ll have copy edits to do, but the structural edit note that came back (from Terri Bischoff at Midnight Ink) was “It’s perfect”. Do you hate me now? I still love you.
Thanks for this. It was fun.
Thank you, Catriona!Catriona McPherson is the multi-award-winning author of the Dandy Gilver novels, set in Scotland in the 1930s where but not when she was born. The series is currently in development at STV in the UK. She also writes darker (that’s not difficult) contemporary standalones, including HOUSE.TREE.PERSON and, which have been Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark finalists. Catriona immigrated in 2010 and her first US-set mystery, SCOT FREE (the lighter side of the dark underbelly of the California dream), came out earlier this year. LJ said “laugh-out out loud whodunit, comparable to early Janet Evanovich”. Catriona lives in northern CA with a black cat and a scientist, where she writes full-time. www.catrionamcpherson.com.
October 25, 2018
Worlds enough?
I’m going to Boskone!
Thanks to the readers who pointed out that my books – the Blackie & Care series, especially – count as speculative fiction, what with the magical cats, dystopian/futuristic worlds, and all,
“Cat-loving fans of grim post-apocalyptic tales will best appreciate Simon’s third Blackie and Care mystery … The disparate plot lines combine in a fiery finale.” – Publishers Weekly
I’ve reached out to the organizers of this science fiction convention and they’ve selected me to be a program participant. Not sure what role I’ll be playing, but look for me here Feb. 15–17! For years, other writers, gamers, and fans who’ve raved about this local (Boston) con to me, so I am thrilled beyond belief!
October 21, 2018
FIVE QUESTIONS with Kellye Garrett
Like so many others, I discovered Kellye Garrett because of the buzz about her debut: Hollywood Homicide. Once I read the fast, funny adventures of semi-failed actress Dayna Anderson, and her new passion for detecting, I wasn’t surprised when her debut outing won the Agatha, Lefty and Barry awards (among others). This fall, Dayna and her crew returned with Hollywood Ending and the fun goes on. If you don’t know Dayna (and Kellye), you’ve got to catch up – and here’s a chance to hear the story behind the limelight.
How does a book start for you?
It usually starts with an idea for a mystery. For Hollywood Homicide, it 
started with someone trying to solve a murder for the reward money. The Hollywood aspects and making it a hit-and-run my main character Dayna drove past came later.
For Hollywood Ending, it started with my obsession with gossip bloggers and Blind Items, which are tidbits of gossip so scandalous they can’t use real names. They just use clues of the person’s identity.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
Definitely the character of Aubrey S. Adams-Parker, who is a former Sheriff’s deputy turned private investigator. Day meets him in book one and she’s his apprentice in Hollywood Ending. I’ve had his backstory of why he’s no longer a Sheriff’s Deputy from before the first book so Hollywood Ending delves into that. I was surprised about Aubrey’s feelings on his new career choice and how that affects Day.
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
It’s set in Hollywood during Awards season, which is a three month stretch at the beginning of the year where it feels like there is a new awards show every weekend. You have the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards and more. It’s a fun time because everyone is dressing up and getting free SWAG at tall the parties.
What are you working on now?
The third book in the Detective by Day series!
Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?
What’s your least favorite thing to write? I suck at writing description. You will never see an entire page in one of my books describing a room. I actually skim past that stuff in books as well. My mom is the same way so when she read Hollywood Ending, she thought it was perfect!
Her review of my book: “Started your book and now can’t put it down!…As your mom, I was scared to death I would not like it.”
So I am happy to say that Hollywood Ending is Mom-approved!
Kellye Garrett writes the Detective by Day mysteries about a semi-famous, mega-broke black actress who takes on the deadliest role of her life: Homicide Detective. The first, Hollywood Homicide, won the Agatha, Lefty and Independent Publisher “IPPY” awards for best first novel and is nominated for Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards. The second, Hollywood Ending, will be released on August 8, 2018 from Midnight Ink. Prior to writing novels, Kellye spent eight years working in Hollywood, including a stint writing for Cold Case. She now works for a leading media company and serves on the Board of Directors for Sisters in Crime as the organization’s Publicity Liaison. You can learn more at KellyeGarrett.com.
PS – Please don’t let my earlier typo stop you from finding Kellye – she’s GARRETT not GARRETTE!
FIVE QUESTIONS with Kellye Garrette
Like so many others, I discovered Kellye Garrett because of the buzz about her debut: Hollywood Homicide. Once I read the fast, funny adventures of semi-failed actress Dayna Anderson, and her new passion for detecting, I wasn’t surprised when her debut outing won the Agatha, Lefty and Barry awards (among others). This fall, Dayna and her crew returned with Hollywood Ending and the fun goes on. If you don’t know Dayna (and Kellye), you’ve got to catch up – and here’s a chance to hear the story behind the limelight.
How does a book start for you?
It usually starts with an idea for a mystery. For Hollywood Homicide, it started with someone trying to solve a murder for the reward money. The Hollywood aspects and making it a hit-and-run my main character Dayna drove past came later.
For Hollywood Ending, it started with my obsession with gossip bloggers and Blind Items, which are tidbits of gossip so scandalous they can’t use real names. They just use clues of the person’s identity.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
Definitely the character of Aubrey S. Adams-Parker, who is a former Sheriff’s deputy turned private investigator. Day meets him in book one and she’s his apprentice in Hollywood Ending. I’ve had his backstory of why he’s no longer a Sheriff’s Deputy from before the first book so Hollywood Ending delves into that. I was surprised about Aubrey’s feelings on his new career choice and how that affects Day.
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
It’s set in Hollywood during Awards season, which is a three month stretch at the beginning of the year where it feels like there is a new awards show every weekend. You have the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards and more. It’s a fun time because everyone is dressing up and getting free SWAG at tall the parties.
What are you working on now?
The third book in the Detective by Day series!
Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?
What’s your least favorite thing to write? I suck at writing description. You will never see an entire page in one of my books describing a room. I actually skim past that stuff in books as well. My mom is the same way so when she read Hollywood Ending, she thought it was perfect!
Her review of my book: “Started your book and now can’t put it down!…As your mom, I was scared to death I would not like it.”
So I am happy to say that Hollywood Ending is Mom-approved!
Kellye Garrett writes the Detective by Day mysteries about a semi-famous, mega-broke black actress who takes on the deadliest role of her life: Homicide Detective. The first, Hollywood Homicide, won the Agatha, Lefty and Independent Publisher “IPPY” awards for best first novel and is nominated for Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards. The second, Hollywood Ending, will be released on August 8, 2018 from Midnight Ink. Prior to writing novels, Kellye spent eight years working in Hollywood, including a stint writing for Cold Case. She now works for a leading media company and serves on the Board of Directors for Sisters in Crime as the organization’s Publicity Liaison. You can learn more at KellyeGarrett.com.
October 14, 2018
FIVE QUESTIONS with Susan Oleksiw
Susan and I have been Sisters in Crime on the New England mystery scene for years, but I first really got to spend time with Susan at Bouchercon 2016, in New Orleans. Maybe it was the heat and the humidity. Maybe it was the panels… maybe it was the beignets. Whatever, I’m so thrilled to be able to host her here today as she launches a new book and a new series with Below the Tree Line (Midnight Ink).
How does a book start for you?
My first impressions are usually hazy, but I let the images get sharper until I see a character doing something and then I have a feeling about the entire thing. Of course what I end up with when I start writing could be something entirely different, but I begin with a sense that I already know the story and just start writing.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
The protagonist, Felicity O’Brien, has been seeing a man for about twenty years, and is close to his family. I wasn’t expecting much but her putative mother-in-law turned out to be the one character ready to take on anyone. She drank, smoked, swore, and argued about everything. I loved writing about her.
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
The series is set in the Pioneer Valley, which is central Massachusetts, near where my parents had a farm. They bought this for their retirement, and loved returning to the countryside. There wasn’t much farming going on, but living in a farm community again made them both very happy.
What are you working on now?
I’ve been working on a series of short stories set in rural areas where I’ve lived or worked, and will now turn to reviewing the Beta reader’s comments on the second in the Pioneer Valley series.
Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?
You didn’t ask what makes my protagonist special. Felicity O’Brien has inherited her family farm now that her father is too ill to manage, but she is also a healer, the most recent daughter in a long line of what we now call faith healers stretching back centuries. This wasn’t something I’d planned originally but the idea grew and developed and now it’s one of the most fun features of the stories.
Susan Oleksiw is the author of three series, beginning with the Mellingham series featuring Chief of Police Joe Silva followed by the Anita Ray series set in South India. BELOW THE TREE LINE, the first in the new Pioneer Valley series, brings readers back to central Massachusetts and the world of crime in rural America.
October 12, 2018
“An excellent series… Thank you, Bristol Public Library
The Book Blog of the Bristol (VA) Public Library weighs in on Fear On Four Paws:
” It’s an excellent series and comes highly recommended,” writes blogger/librarian Jeanne. “This series is often called a cozy, though that’s not the label I would give it. It’s a bit darker and grittier, not to mention that Pru is no chaste virgin maid. I think of it more as a straightforward mystery with a light dose of social commentary and a dollop of supernatural.” Of course, there’s more:
I always look forward to a new entry in the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series. For the uninitiated, Pru works as a dog walker, animal behaviorist, trainer, and—more often than her on again, off again police officer lover Creighton would like—detective. Pru has a bit of an advantage in some cases: she can communicate with animals psychically, an ability whose sudden and confusing onset caused her to check herself into a mental hospital. It’s fear of being considered mentally unstable that causes Pru to keep her talent to herself, though Creighton has begun to suspect.
And while she can understand animal thoughts, the communication tend to be somewhat chaotic, to say the least, except from Wallis, Pru’s sardonic feline companion.
This time around, Pru has been searching for Albert, the local animal control officer, who is not the most diligent public servant (to put it mildly). She finds him passed out cold and an illegally trapped bear near by. She doesn’t figure Albert has the gumption to be the brains behind such an operation, but a new complication swiftly arises in the form of a dead human in the same vicinity. Albert’s pet ferret, Frank, is a probable witness but Frank isn’t talking.
Angered by the thoughts of what was probably in store for the bruin, Pru starts to investigate but she soon has more than one complication on her hands: pets are disappearing from an upscale neighborhood, and Greg the local game warden is interested in offering her a job—and maybe something more.
As usual, the animals take center stage. I always enjoy Wallis, whose observations on human life in general and Pru’s in particular, give the books some zest. Pru is a complex character who is suspicious of most of the human race and especially wary of emotional entanglements. She is more attuned and compassionate toward animals, who suffer not only physical hurt from humans but indignities: Growler, a bichon she walks on a regular basis, is called Bitsy by his human and treated more like a stuffed toy than a living creature. Despite being confined most of the day, Growler knows most of what goes on in the neighborhood and is a good source of information for Pru though he, like Wallis, is disdainful of Pru’s lack of awareness of all the things that go on around her.
However, I have to say that Bunbury Bandersnatch stole the show this time.
This series is often called a cozy, though that’s not the label I would give it. It’s a bit darker and grittier, not to mention that Pru is no chaste virgin maid. I think of it more as a straightforward mystery with a light dose of social commentary and a dollop of supernatural. It’s an excellent series and comes highly recommended.
While I think any of the books in this series could be read as a stand alone, I am one of those people who likes to start at the first and read in order. The other books are:
Panthers Play for Keeps (2014)
All are available from the library.
Full disclosure: I am acquainted with the author, but that did not influence my review.
(You can also see the original post here)
