Lise McClendon's Blog, page 13

Hey, Wait a Minute.

Today we have a fun guest post from kick-ass novelist Pepper O’Neal about clues and fair play in mysteries

 • • • • •

How did that get here?

I think one of the hardest parts of writing a novel is knowing when and how to put in clues. They have to be introduced long before you need them, and they have to appear innocent and innocuous. I know a lot of authors who spend a lot of time agonizing over how to do this. However, I have discovered that, if you let them, your characters can be a lot of help in this and sometimes they can turn innocuous items into important clues or important props that you hadn’t really intended.

For example, when I was writing the first book in my Black Ops Chronicles series, Dead Run, I wanted to give my readers a feel for what it was like to live in a foreign country. (Tess, my female lead, is on the run from the mob and is hiding in Mexico.) And when I was living and working in third world countries, one of the things that frustrated me most was the coins. Foreign coins, especially those from third-world countries, tend to be heavy and hard to tell apart. I, personally, hated to spend them. It seemed they were more trouble than they were worth, since most of them had very little value. However, they did have other uses. They were perfect for leveling a chair or table. We also used them to patch holes in the screens on the ancient motorhomes we used on occasion. And they made excellent poker chips on a rainy afternoon when we were all bored out of our minds and decided to play poker for lack of anything better to do.

So when I was writing Dead Run, I had Tess receive coins in change after she made a purchase. As Tess hated to spend the coins—she couldn’t tell them apart either—she’d accumulated quite a pile. When I wrote them in, I hadn’t expected them to do anything more than suggest a certain flavor of foreign places. However, Tess decided to put her mountain of coins in a sock and take them to the bank to exchange for paper money. As it happened, Tess never did get to the bank, but she used the sock of coins as a self-defense weapon and it saved her life on more than one occasion. Of course, taking a sock of coins to a gunfight isn’t the smartest idea, as one of my male leads was only too happy to point out, but she made it work for her.

Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Men Don't">

 

In the second book in the series, Dead Men Don’t, which came out on June 28, 2014, it was an opal necklace. I wrote it in for Andi, my female lead, initially for something to think about as a distraction when she was kidnapped. Andi’s the daughter of a mob underboss and the necklace was a gift to her from her new boyfriend, who unbeknownst to her, is an undercover FBI agent using her to get to her father. But as the story unfolded, it became clear that both the necklace, and the man’s reasons for giving it to her, were much more sinister than I had originally planned.

I often find that when I need to insert some kind of prop in order to move the plot along, it usually works best if I can make something I have already inserted innocuously fit the bill. If not, I usually have to go back and insert it in innocently before I get to the part where it becomes important. I recently discovered that the same thing can happen with villains. In Dead Men Don’t, there is a mole in the crime family that Levi, my male lead, works for. When I started the book, I had originally planned for it to be one person, but as it turned out, that person was not the mole after all. I love it when that happens. As an author I am often surprised by what my characters do. Even when they refuse to do what I want them to, I find that if I follow their lead, the story always turns out better than it would if I tried to force the characters to follow the plot I had outlined in my head. It always makes a better fit when something I introduced as a whim or an afterthought becomes an important plot point.

I find the same thing is true when I read another author’s work. I’m a voracious reader and often read four of five books a week. And I am always disappointed when the author springs something important on me that hasn’t been mentioned in the story before, be it a prop or a villain. I have never felt that I’m being fair to my readers if I solve a character’s problem by inserting something or someone the reader hasn’t seen before. It’s like, “Oh, she needs a weapon here, so there will just happen to be a gun in the desk.” I don’t know about you, but I always feel cheated when an author does that. So I try not to do it. Because if my readers are anything like me, their response is bound to be, “Hey, wait a minute. How did that get there? You never said there was a gun in the desk. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

I always find myself going back through the whole book before that point to see if I missed the gun in the desk, or whatever it might be. And it often lessens my enjoyment of a story. And for you authors out there, yes, I know it’s more work to show us how and why the gun got in the desk long before it’s needed but I, for one, think it’s worth the effort. I don’t have any problem with the heroine finding a gun in the desk as long as I have been shown that the gun is there and why. In real life, when I come out my writing trance long enough to notice it, I’m always suspicious of coincidences. And even more so in my writing. If I needed a weapon in real life, I couldn’t expect to suddenly find a gun in the desk, so why should my characters have it that easy. After all, if I don’t torture and torment them, who will?

Award-winning author Pepper O’Neal is a researcher, a writer, and an adrenalin junkie. She has a doctorate in education and spent several years in Mexico and the Caribbean working as researcher for an educational resource firm based out of Mexico City. During that time, she met and befriended many adventurers like herself, including former CIA officers and members of organized crime. Her fiction is heavily influenced by the stories they shared with her, as well her own experiences abroad.

 

Epistolary, anyone?

When the novel was dreamed up several hundred years ago, it was very “nouvelle,” a shocking way to tell a story. It started life as a series of letters between people, stitched together. Aphra Behn‘s Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister is an early example, published in several volumes in the 1680s. Another is Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, published in 1741 by the author, a printer, and often referred to as the first modern novel. Novels containing letters are now called epistolary novels.

Today we have evolved. No longer are we a bunch of well-educated but ‘middling’ women, sitting around writing letters to each other to improve our characters. Nor do we need to be preached at about morality, as many early novels did. Jane Austen cured of us of all that. Her novels told complete stories, sometimes including letters but mostly in a modern prose narrative that still seems fresh. The French, Spanish, and Germans also had epistolary novels in the 1700s, like Les Liaisons Dangereuses, but by the 19th Century the pure epistolary novel of letters was on its way out.

I loved writing letters to my friends when I was in high school but sadly we don’t write many letters any more. (When was the last time you got a handwritten anything in the mailbox?)

In modern novels there can be other sorts of documents though: emails, texts, newspaper articles, and even blog posts like this one. I am, I guess, a throwback in that I love these “auxiliary documents” that shine a light on some aspect of a character or situation. The police report can be a concise way to deliver the goods about a crime or criminal. A news report or article can offer different aspects of the public interest in an event in the story. Bridget Jones’ Diary entries were hilarious. These elements are economical and get straight to the point. And they can be very fun.

In my new suspense novel, The Girl in the Empty Dress, I use blog posts from one of the Bennett sisters to set the stage and further the story. All five sisters are lawyers. The blog is called Lawyrr Grrls so any of the sisters could have written it; figuring out which one is doing the deed is part of the fun. The five sisters go on a walking tour of France with one friend along. That friend, Gillian, the titular “Girl,” causes trouble from the start. The problems snowball after she insists on keeping an injured dog they find along a road.

The main character is the middle sister, Merle, so much of the story is told from her perspective. The blog offers another sister’s thoughts in a catty, humorous way. There are also text messages back and forth between the sisters and their parents. This is my favorite, from a sister obsessed with French cheese:

• M&D: Why didn’t you tell me about Camembert? You’ve been holding out on me! Thinking of cheese biz. My friend Gillian is driving us crazier than we are already. Must drink wine to hold tongues! Sisters having fun!

• Remember, dear, cheese is very binding. Mother.

 

I think epistolary elements add spice to the modern novel, keeping it fresh and accessible to readers. I hope I’m not alone. :-)

________

Lise McClendon’s new suspense novel, The Girl in the Empty Dress, is available now from Thalia Press. It’s a sequel to Blackbird Fly, her bestselling novel set in France. Check out her other books at her website and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Tagged: Aphra Behn, auxiliary documents, blog entries, blogging, Bridget Jones, epistolary, epistolary novels, Jane Austen, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, modern novel, novels, Samuel Richardson, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, suspense novel, texts, women lawyers, writing

Happy Father’s Day

My grandfather and my father as a baby

This post about my father, written on his birthday in 2012, seems to have disappeared from this blog. It is still on Goodreads though so for father’s day I am sending you there. My father has been gone ten years this month and I still miss him so much.                Love you, Pops, always and forever.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1980216-what-happens-after

Tagged: dad, dads, daughters, family, father's day, fathers

Puppy love

Truffle dog in action in France.

Thanks to Jacqui at French Village Diaries for this action shot of a truffle dog digging out a truffle (or maybe a truffle-scented tennis ball, hard to say) in France. This looks like a poodle. Aurore in The Girl in the Empty Dress is a poodle/wire-haired fox terrier cross so similar, a bit! 

After writing about Aurore I am feeling a ripe old doggie-desire. It’s been six years since I had a dog, and two years since my cat passed on to the big mouse heaven. What’s your take? Are pets worth the inconvenience of travel, home messes, vet bills, and all? Or are you into simplifying your life without pets? Got a turtle, a goldfish, a cockatiel?

Best pet story gets a free e-copy of The Girl in the Empty Dress!

Tagged: are pets worth it, cats, dog, France, French Village Diaries, Lise McClendon, pets, poodle, terrier, truffle dog, turtle, wire-haired fox terrier

Book review, interview and giveaway: The Girl in the Empty Dress – I love France #96

Lise McClendon:

The blog tour winds down with a review, interview, and giveaway over at the Words and Peace blog, organizers of the tour.

Originally posted on Words And Peace:

I LOVE FRANCE!

I plan to publish this meme every week.

You can share here about any book

or anything cultural you just discovered related to France, Paris, etc.

Please spread the news on Twitter, Facebook, etc !

Feel free to grab my button,

and link your own post through Mister Linky,

at the bottom of this post.

*******

The Girl in the Empty Dress

In full compliance with FTC Guidelines,
I received this ebook for free

in exchange

for a fair and honest review.
I was in no way compensated

for this post as a reviewer,

and the thoughts are my own.




The Girl in the Empty Dress
byLie McClendon
Publisher: Thalia Press
Release Date: May 2, 2014

ISBN:  978-0981944203
Pages: 257

Genre:
Romantic Suspense

Source: Received
from the author for a
virtual book tour on France Book Tours

Goodreads

Buy the book:

View original 1,220 more words

Catch that “Girl”

Thanks to France Book Tours, I’m blog-hopping around to book blogger sites for a couple weeks. Check the schedule because there are free copies of The Girl in the Empty Dress to be won!

 

 

I’ve met many interesting book bloggers, tour organizers, and avid readers setting up this tour. It’s been so much fun. Thanks to Emma at France Book Tours especially.

Some of the sites do just giveaways, some do reviews. Here is today’s review from French Village Diaries. Jacqui, a Brit living in Poitou-Charentes, is an avid reader and devoted gardener. Check out her blog for your “other life” living in the French countryside.

We join Merle back in the old stone cottage in the Dordogne that she rescued and restored in Blackbird Fly and that kind of rescued her too from a difficult emotional time. This visit her four sisters, her son and a friend are with her to enjoy a summer holiday eating al fresco, walking in the French countryside and filling the old house with life and laughter. However their plans are thrown awry when they find an injured dog by the roadside and things soon get complicated, tempers rise and sibling bickering rears it’s head. There is a mystery to the dog’s past and a situation arises that leads them to question the friend’s past too and puts them in a dangerous position.

To distract Merle from the craziness, the lovely Pascal with his sexy French accent who brought love back to her life in book one makes a reappearance. There is the passion that she needs but it is a complicated romance, with many interruptions, so can she rely on him to be there for her when it matters or should she take charge and go it alone?

I liked Lise’s writing style, loved that little old ladies came out with the word ‘shit’ and her brilliant descriptions like this one “He had the face of an ice block hardened by many winters”, brought her characters alive. The situations they found themselves in often made me laugh and there was just the right amount of ooh-ing and aah-ing over the tasty French cheeses, truffles and wine to remember they were in France and loving it.

I can recommend both Blackbird Fly and The Girl in the Empty Dress (Bennett Sisters Novels) as perfect summer holiday reads. I will be looking out for more Bennett Sisters Novels.

Thanks, Jacqui. Isn’t it interesting that she can “hear” Pascal’s sexy French accent? In my real life little old ladies say a lot of naughty things… :-)

Stay tuned with the book tour and get signed up to win a copy of the new book at lots of great blogs.

 
Tagged: Bennett Sisters Novels, France, France Book Tours, French Village Diaries

Here There and Everywhere

I’ve been writing articles around the Net recently, to help promote The Girl in the Empty Dress, and to support people who have helped me. Here’s a wrap-up and where to read more.

Over at DV Berkom’s cool blog I discuss music and writing, how they inform each other.

Songwriters and literary writers have much in common, the creative use of words, imagery and emotion conveyed in a stylized manner, and often the subject matter itself. The love song and the love story have provided endless twists on the human need for affection and belonging. Whether a poet or a novelist, a folk singer or a classically trained violinist, a writer of haiku or 150,000-word novels, the muse flows through her, in word or song.

Read more

At Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare we chat about the French setting of the new book. Is a setting a “character” in the book?

Does setting matter? Yes, very much to me as reader and writer. Although both books feature five American sisters, the novels rely as much on their setting as almost anything else. My “other” France, the Dordogne region of southwest France, originally called the Perigord, is a fertile region known for its foie gras, duck confit, and black truffles. 

Read more

At Lois Winston’s blog, Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers, there’s more Frenchness.

History really comes alive in these old places where the ‘bastide’ walls are still solid after 800 years. But the delicacies of this area are the real delights. Black Perigord truffles are famous around the world. Difficult to harvest, they are becoming scarcer as climate change alters their natural habitat in these sunny hills and valleys.

Read more

Thanks to all these bloggers for hosting me.

Reviews for The Girl in the Empty Dress are coming in!

Lots of intrigue, romance, French countryside, wine and cheese, and it is a real page turner.

Very fun read. Enjoyed the glimpses of rural France and the character development along with the mystery.

Have you read it? Please write a short review on the website where you bought it. Readers love to hear what you think!

 

Tagged: DV Berkom, fiction, France, French, Janet Rudolph, Lois Winston, music, mystery, romantic suspense, songs, songwriting, suspense, thriller, writing

Et Voilà!

The new book is here, there, and everywhere!

The Girl in the Empty Dress is the sequel to Blackbird Fly, my 2009 novel about New York lawyer Merle Bennett. When Merle’s husband dies suddenly he leaves behind a lot of troubles, financial and emotional, plus one ancient stone house in France. Workaholic lawyer Merle decides to take the summer off and go to France and fix up the house to sell it. But her plans go awry almost immediately. Along the way she meets many interesting villagers and grows to love the Dordogne, a province in Southwest France.

Now, she’s back a year later, celebrating her 50th birthday with all four of her lawyer/sisters, plus one sister’s friend. Gillian Sargent is moody and aloof and when she wants to keep an injured dog she finds by the side of the road, the vacation takes a turn. Truffles, intrigue, wine, and romance await the Bennett Sisters, and you, dear reader.

The book is available at Amazon   Barnes & Noble   KOBO as e-books and paperbacks.

Can’t get enough France? I know what you mean. So I’ve created a new place to hang out called France Sisterhood. We’re just getting started over there. I’d love to have you write something for me that’s French-related, like your favorite wine or cheese, memories of a trip, that amazing chocolate shop, or your favorite macarones. Check it out and follow your sisters (brothers are also welcome!) to France Sisterhood. We’re also on Facebook.

Stop by my Facebook page this weekend and comment on the virtual wine and cheese party we’re having. You’ll be entered to win some cool prizes including free e-books!

 

Tagged: Blackbird Fly, book launch, dogs, ebook, fox terrier, France, French, lawyers, Lise McClendon, mystery, suspense, truffle dog, truffles, wine, women attorneys, women lawyers, women's suspense

Road Trip ‘Reads’

A sure sign of the end of winter out here in the west is the itch to hit the road. Travel during the snow months is sketchy but often necessary. Putting the pedal down and heading out in warmer months can be much different: fun for it’s own sake.

Last week we took a road trip to the west coast to visit son, mother, sister, and friends. There was a short debate about the pros and cons of taking the Porsche. (Pros: driving fun factor and radar detector. Cons: possible snow on roads and although she could, wife does not drive it.) The SUV won. The other main argument for the much newer SUV is that it plays the ipod through the stereo system so you can control audiobooks on the fly. And what is a road trip without an audiobook?

Tatiana: An Arkady Renko Novel">Our first book was Tatiana:%20An Arkady Renko Novel" target="_blank">Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith, featuring the redoubtable Arkady Renko, still slogging through Moscow after all these years. (His debut, Gorky%20Park: A Novel (William Monk)" target="_blank">Gorky Park, came out over 30 years ago.) In this story Renko is off his regular beat, poking around in a corrupt seaside town where amber is mined. (One of the joys of Smith is learning about interesting things like expensive bikes, amber, chess, and Chechen rappers.) Ripped from the headlines is the murder of a crusading journalist. What secrets were she killed for? A gravelly-voiced narrator did yeoman’s work. Not the greatest but fitting for the story.

After listening to Tatiana:%20An Arkady Renko Novel" target="_blank">Tatiana I decided to re-read Rose" target="_blank">my favorite MCSmith book, Rose. Years ago I headed a reading committee for the International Association of Crime Writers who picked it as our Hammett Award winner. Not a Russian book but about Victorian pit girls in the coal mines of England, great stuff.

The return trip featured something a little different. Mysteries and thrillers, always a good read in print or digital, are de After I'm Gone: A Novel">rigueur for a road trip audiobook. Something to keep you wondering, guessing, and basically awake. I wasn’t sure if Laura Lippmann’s newest, After%20I'm Gone: A Novel" target="_blank">After I’m Gone, was mysterious enough as it’s a stand alone novel and I didn’t have time to research the plot. But download away and I’m so glad I did. Rich with characters and secrets, it’s about a family who’s left behind when a father/husband/gambler runs from the law. There’s a murder in there, and a sly peek at Laura’s other characters in her Tess Monaghan mysteries, and it’s set in Baltimore that she knows so well. Fabulous narrator in Linda Emond.

The only issue with audiobooks is finishing them when the road trip is done. (I remember one road trip where the book ended just as I was pulling into the driveway: nirvana!) Books come in all sorts of lengths, just like highways. I’m still listening to After%20I'm Gone: A Novel" target="_blank">After I’m Gone, rather obsessively actually. I’m going on a long walk today just so I can find out what’s happening with Bambi and Tubby and Michelle, who killed Julie and other juicy questions.

What are you listening to? Do you have a road trip planned for spring or summer?

 

Tagged: Arkady Renko, audiobook, car trip, digital book, Laura Lippmann, listening to books, Martin Cruz Smith, mystery, narration, narrators, reading, road trip, thriller

Top 10 Kick-Ass Women in Movies

You may have noticed my tagline for the website is “telling stories with heart, and a little kick-ass.” My guest this week is DV Berkom who writes thrillers with strong women protagonists  – not unlike my Rory Tate thrillers. (Hey when are they going to make *that* movie? ;-) ) DV aka Daphne likes kick-ass chick flicks too and offers up her favorite ladies who make men cry for all the right reasons.

• • • • • •

 I love to watch strong female characters in movies and read about them in books. When I was growing up, I read spy novels and watched a lot of James Bond movies. The Bond women were stunning but one-dimensional. I wanted to be the female equivalent of James Bond. I searched, but couldn’t find much in the way of this kind of female character, so I contented myself with made-up stories of women pirates and spies. Fast-forward to 2014. Everywhere you look, there are more and more strong, capable and kick-ass women.

I am so stoked.

When I wrote the first novella in my bestselling Kate Jones thriller series, Bad Spirits, I wanted to be sure to make the heroine tough, but I also wanted her to be flawed. She gains in her understanding of herself throughout the series and learns to trust, as well as take care of herself in dangerous situations. In the latest novel, A One Way Ticket to Dead, Kate joins forces with a group of commandos to save the children of her ex-lover from a vicious enemy. Definitely kick-ass. I have heard from as many male readers of the series as I have female, and consider that a compliment in so many ways. The fact that men enjoy a strong woman protagonist as much as women do speaks volumes about the shift in our society and the acceptance of strong, capable women.

In my other thriller series I consciously chose to make the heroine as capable and badass as possible, and she has a ton of flaws. I’d always wanted to write a book about a female assassin, and chose to have Leine Basso, the heroine, opt-out of the business by choice and ‘retire’. In the first book, Serial Date, her estranged daughter is abducted by a man claiming to be a serial killer. Leine’s forced to rely on old skills to find her, and must come to terms with who she really is. The second novel in the series, Bad Traffick, shows more of her badassity when she races to rescue twelve-year-old Mara from the hands of ruthless sex traffickers.

Below is a list of my Top 10 Kick-Ass Women in Movies. The list is by no means exhaustive—in fact, I came up with 25 off the top of my head, but this is a blog post, not an epic :-). I also didn’t include the many television characters who have contributed so much to female kick-assity.

And now, for the Top 10 Kick-Ass Women in Movies (In alphabetical order)

Captain Niobe – The Matrix Reloaded (Jada Pinkett-Smith) Awesome, competent, resilient and fierce. I definitely want her in my corner.
Captain Trudy Chacon – Avatar (Michelle Rodriguez) I totally love Michelle Rodriguez and the women she portrays. Captain Trudy Chacon is one of the many characters she plays so well with a gnarly kick-butt attitude.
Carolina – Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Salma Hayek) If Salma Hayek isn’t the whole package, I don’t know who is. She’s gorgeous-sexy, intelligent and can wield a machine gun like a pro.
Evelyn Salt – Salt (Angelina Jolie) Say what you like about Angelina Jolie– I adore her willingness to take on the roles she does. She takes her image seriously when it comes to the message being sent to young women and I applaud her. Go, Angelina!
Katniss Everdeen – The Hunger Games (Jennifer Lawrence) The character of Katniss tapped into the powerful belief that a person can win through effort, perseverance and ability. The awesomeness of this story is that she’s also a young woman.
Mallory Kane – Haywire (Gina Carano) When I watched this movie I was struck by the pure physicality of Gina Carano in the lead role of Mallory. She’s all woman with sex appeal to burn, knows her way around a firearm and totally owns her power. So refreshing.
Ripley – Alien (Sigourney Weaver) What can I say? Sigourney Weaver is a total badass when she comes up against a freaking alien! Scifi/Fantasy delivers its share of kick-butt women, and Ripley’s an all-time favorite.
The Bride – Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2 (Uma Thurman) OMG. I love these movies. Uma’s character has more determination than an army of Visigoths.
Tina Turner – What’s Love Got to Do with It? (Angela Bassett) Yes, Ms. Turner is a real person, not a character, but her tenacity and grace are inspiring, I think she’s a kick-ass woman bar none and I had to include her. (Besides, Angela Bassett was amazing in the movie!)
Trinity – The Matrix Reloaded (Carrie-Anne Moss) How can you have a top list of kick-ass women without Trinity? Great emotional control and she knows her weaponry.

How about you? Which strong women characters do you love to see on the screen?

  • • • • • •

DV Berkom is a slave to the voices in her head. As the author of two bestselling thriller series (Leine Basso and Kate Jones), her love of creating resilient, kick-ass female characters stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.

Raised in the Midwest, she received her BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. She now lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with the love of her life, Mark, an ex-chef-turned contractor, and writes every chance she gets.

For more information, you can find her at www.dvberkom.com, or at http://dvberkom.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tagged: Angelina Jolie, Captain Trudy Chacon, James Bond, kick-ass, Michelle Rodriguez