Connie Archer's Blog, page 5

All Hallows Eve

I’m visiting Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers today to talk about Halloween and its fascinating pagan origins.

Goin’ to the Chapel . . .

Sophie Colgan is at Killer Characters today, chatting about her upcoming wedding to the chef at the By the Spoonful Soup Shop!

Who Should I Kill Next?

Lisa K has invited me to her blog today to talk about my next victim(s).  Hope you’ll stop by Lisa’s Book Thoughts to leave a comment and be entered in the giveaway.

 

What books are on your nightstand right now?

I’ve been tagged for the Sisters in Crime SinC Up – September Blog Hop by Laurie Stevens, author of the fantastic Gabriel McRay thriller series — The Dark Before Dawn and Deep into Dusk.  Can’t wait for her next book!

The question that caught my eye on the Sisters in Crime list was “What books are on your nightstand right now?”  Okay, I thought, that’s easy.  I like that question.  Then I hesitated . . . wait just a minute . . . this is really much more personal that I had at first thought.  This is kind of like putting the contents of my underwear drawer out on the web.

I mean what would other people think of this very personal pile of books?  I finally took a deep breath and decided to be completely honest.  So, here’s my list:

Dante’s Wood by Lynne Raimondo is on top of the pile because I’m reading it now. Lynne and I, even though we didn’t have a chance to really chat, were both debut authors at Thrillerfest in 2013 and I’m slowly working my way through all the debut books from our year It’s terrific by the way and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. More twists and turns than I can keep track of.

World’s End, a translated collection of the poetry of Pablo Neruda. Maybe it’s the translation or maybe it’s me, but it’s not really grabbing me. I’ll continue to try. Sorry, Mr. Neruda.

The Brim Reaper by Diane Vallere, the second book in the Style and Error Mystery series. I love Diane’s style and I’m looking forward to reading her fast-paced cozy set in the fashion industry.

The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery by Bruce F. Murphy, published by St. Martin’s in 1962. A gift from my husband who loves to peruse the back shelves of old bookstores. This unbelievable compilation offers definitions of everything and everybody ever related to murder and mystery – from Aarons, Edward Sidney to Zubro, Mark Richard and lots in between. A magnum opus to be sure.

Charlotte au Chocolat, Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood by Charlotte Silver.  This was a gift from my daughter.  It’s a heartwarming and delightful book and I keep it by the bed so I can read it again.

Poisons and Poisoners by C.J. S. Thompson, with “Historical Accounts of Some Famous Mysteries in Ancient and Modern Times.”  Another gift from my husband. I guess he knows what makes my sox go up and down.

Murder on Sunset Boulevard, a Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles Chapter anthology edited by Rochelle Krich, Michael Mallory and Lisa Seidman. Wonderful short stories and I want to read them all again.

Women on the Edge – Forty-three monologues by Monique Carmona. I found this little book at the West Hollywood Book Fair a couple of years ago. It’s full of drama, comedy and serio-comedy.  I picked it up from the table that day and the first page I read grabbed me completely.  I just had to bring this book home.

Images of America – Larz Anderson Park.  Another sentimental find on a recent trip to Boston with pictures of a long-gone estate, now a park in which I played as a little girl.

Russian Roulette – A One Eyed Jack novel by Christopher J Lynch. Just bought this one and haven’t read it yet, but the first book about a blackmailing PI was a great read! I’ll get to it very soon.

The Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley. This one actually belongs to my daughter but I’ve promised myself for years that I would read this beautifully written book.  I’ve always been a fan of Mary Stewart too and loved The Crystal Cave. The Arthurian legend is a lot to digest but the writing simply flows beautifully. Problem is, it weighs a ton!

And last but not least: An Exaltation of Soups by Patricia Solley, a woman who must love soups as much as I do, with recipes from many cultures and countries.  How could I resist this book?  After all, I’m writing a mystery series set in a soup shop, but this author is a goddess of soups. Chapter One is called “The Origins and History of Soup.”

So that’s it.  I’ve been totally honest.  I thought perhaps I’d fib a little and list a whole bunch of erudite tomes, but that wouldn’t be fair, would it? Looking at my list, I guess it’s safe to say it’s heavily weighted in favor of murder, mayhem and crime. No high falutin’ literary fiction for me.  Nope.  There’s gotta be a body!

I’m tagging Sister in Crime Molly MacRae for the next stop on the blog hop. You’ll love her Haunted Yarn Mysteries.  And her next book, Plagued by Quilt, is out next month, November 2014.

Take it away, Molly!

Eight Bells and All’s Well

Stop by Killer Characters today – September 15th where Jack Jamieson is talking about his life.

Captured

Today, August 28th, is the birthday of John Stark (August 28, 1728 – May 8, 1822).  In an earlier Facebook posting, I touched upon his exploits in the Battle of Bennington in 1777.  Those exploits and many others earned him legendary fame, but there’s another John Stark story that, in my opinion, is far more interesting.

In April of 1752, at the age of 24, John, along with his brother William and two other men traveled deep into New Hampshire on a fur trapping expedition. John and one of the men, Amos Eastman, were captured by Abenaki warriors. The Abenaki spotted John’s brother William and the other hunter, David Stinson, in their canoe on the river. John was ordered by his captors to call the two men to the other side of the river where they in turn would also be captured.

Since the Abenaki understood very little English, John was able to warn his brother that he and Eastman had been captured and they should do their best to escape. When the Abenaki saw the canoe heading in the wrong direction, they opened fire. Stark leaped up and struck the Abenaki muskets to throw off their aim. William Stark managed to escape but David Stinson was killed.

The Abenaki warriors took the two captives and their furs to French territory in Canada, intending to sell the men as servants to the French as punishment for trapping on their land without permission. John Stark however was a very uncooperative prisoner and his captors got much more than they had bargained for. 

It was the custom of the Abenakis to welcome captives with a ceremony similar to a running of the gauntlet. The young men of the village, armed with sticks and clubs, stood facing each other in two lines. The captives were given a long pole and made to run between the rows of young braves. As the captives ran, the Abenaki men would beat them with their clubs. When it was Stark’s turn, he instead ran straight at the men, yelling “I’ll kiss all your women!” and proceeded to attack them with his thin pole. The chief of the Abenaki tribe was so impressed by Stark’s bravery, he “adopted” Stark into the tribe as one of their own while his companion, Eastman, was sold to the French.

All was not lost however. The following spring a government agent from the Province of Massachusetts Bay paid a ransom to the Abenaki for Stark and Eastman. Both men were eventually able to return safely to New Hampshire.

[image error]Stark developed great respect for the Abenaki during his captivity. He stated he had been treated more kindly by the Abenaki than prisoners of war were treated by so-called civilized nations. During his months of captivity, Stark learned a great deal about the Abenaki culture, language and military tactics, which he would find very useful in the coming war.

But here’s the part of the story I find most interesting. In 1759, seven years after his ordeal, Stark, a lieutenant in Rogers’ Rangers, an elite special force, was ordered to attack an Abenaki village in Quebec. As chance would have it, this was the same village in which he had been held captive.

In defiance of his oath to the Rangers and the orders of his superiors, Stark refused to accompany the attacking force out of respect for his Indian foster parents. John Stark was truly a man who marched to the beat of his own drummer, no matter the consequences.

 

 

 

Meet My Character Blog Hop

Sheila Lowe has graciously invited me to the “Meet My Character” blog hop today.  Like her fictional character, Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting Mysteries series, Sheila Lowe is a real-life forensic handwriting expert who testifies in handwriting-related cases.  Her latest release is Inkslingers Ball.   She also authored the internationally acclaimed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous.  You can learn even more about her at www.claudiarose series.com and at www.superceu.com.

My character, Miram Leonard, was created for the third book in the Soup Lovers Mystery series, A Roux of Revenge.  Miriam is a completely fictional woman, but there are elements of her personality and her life that are universal to all women, especially women who have struggled merely to survive.

Miriam first visited me as a little voice whispering in my head, just as I was starting to plan A Roux of Revenge.  The voice whispered, “Janie and her mother . . . Janie and her mother.”  Well, Janie already existed in Snowflake, Vermont.   She is one of the young waitresses at the By the Spoonful Soup Shop, and to be honest, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to Janie’s background or her family.

So I had no idea why my muse, if you will, was sending me messages. I wasn’t at all sure what “Janie and her mother,” meant, but I’m awfully glad I listened.   Maybe some idea was percolating just below the level of consciousness, or maybe this was true inspiration from the universe, I didn’t know, but I really had no choice.   I had to pay attention.   These were characters who obviously needed to tell their stories.   So I set aside the plot I had been planning, and decided to give these people some room.

Miriam spent all of her adult life in the village of Snowflake, Vermont. Twenty years earlier, she had been on the run, abandoned by the man she loved and forced to escape her family. Starving and destitute, it was a chance encounter with Doug Leonard, a man from the village, that offered Miriam a new identity and a new life.

Janie, Miriam’s daughter, now grown, has appeared in all three books of the series, but in A Roux of Revenge, Janie takes center stage when a stranger arrives in town and begins to follow her.  Janie sees him every place she goes. When Janie tells her mother about the strange man she suspects is stalking her, Miriam realizes with horror that her former life, her life before marrying Doug Leonard, will be revealed. She has no choice but to finally tell the truth about her past and confess her lies to her daughter.

There is no more important person in Miriam’s life than her daughter Janie. Miriam had hoped to protect her from the past and the people who might be searching for them. Now, all she can do is hope and pray that Janie will forgive all the lies and find some compassion in her heart for the things her mother was forced to do to survive.

I hope you’ll read all about Miriam’s fascinating story in A Roux of Revenge.   And then be sure to check out the following fabulous authors joining in next week, August 28th, in the “Meet My Character” Blog Hop:

 Sparkle Abbey is the nom de plume of Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter who together write the Pampered Pets Mystery series:  Desperate Housedogs, Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Yip/Tuck , Project Dogway in the Here We Go Again Collection, and Fifty Shades of Greyhound (Out now!)   Their pen name combines the names of their rescued pets (Sparkle is Mary Lee’s cat and Abbey is Anita’s dog).

Diann Adamson is an award-winning author with a mystery-Midwest Noir novel Admit to Mayhem, the first in the Lillian Dove series, coming out in September 2014 and another novella Jake’s Story coming out as a four-part serial December 2014.  Diann teaching writing at two Los Angeles Colleges.  Along with her husband and two Welsh Terriers, she makes her home in Southern California.

Maria Alexander‘s stories have appeared in publications such as Chiaroscuro Magazine, Gothic.net and Paradox, as well as numerous acclaimed anthologies. Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, comes out September 16, 2014 from Raw Dog Screaming Press.

Sally Carpenter is the author of the Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series about a former pop star who finds that making a comeback can be murder.  The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper was a Eureka! Award finalist for best first mystery novel.  Cozy Cat Press released  The Sinister Sitcom Caper and will soon publish The Cunning Cruise Ship Caper.  Sally is a former Hoosier now living in Southern California.  She blogs at Sandy Fairfax  and can be found on Facebook.

 

Killer Characters

Arnie Hicks manages to get in trouble every year on his August birthday.  You can read more about Arnie today on Killer Characters.

Secrets and Lies

My character Miriam is talking about her life today at Killer Characters.  Leave a comment by midnight to enter the summer giveaway.

Killer Characters

My character Meg is complaining!  Again!  But at least now she has a last name.  Read all about it at Killer Characters.