Connie Johnson Hambley's Blog, page 20

Writing the Strong Woman Character by Katherine Silva

This  Friday Features  column is intended to generate discussion by shaking up preconceptions of who or what strong women are. My hope is to explore the concept in 360 degrees and my next guest, Katherine Silva, dives into the fray with her take on being and writing about strong women. 

Writing the Strong Woman Character by Katherine Silva
Author Katherine SilvaFive years ago, I decided I’d finally commit to writing and publishing a book. Writing had always been a precious escape, a place where I could leave the mundane behind and envision different worlds and inhabit numerous characters. I’d dropped out of college, was working full-time, and had just been dumped. I felt the need to take control of my life, to put it in the right direction. I spent the next five months craning over my laptop, sparks practically leaping from my fingers as I wrote and revised and wrote some more. This book became a series with an enormous range of characters from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and, yes, time periods.
In spite of the hordes of characters, very few of them are strong women. I have a ton of male characters and each is a pleasure to write. Only a few (three to be exact) are female. The reality of it is that I’ve surrounded these three characters, these unique, tested, and resolute women with men because I want them to stand out. I want to show that no matter what they go through, they are just as determined, just as bold, just as everlasting as the guys are.
Each of these characters is strong for their own reason. They’ve all had to overcome their own obstacles. No matter the type of suffering they’ve endured, they are all still survivors. And, I’ve put them through the wringer. One of my protagonists was housed in a mental institution for seven months following the death of her husband, a death that she witnessed. Another one spent her childhood bouncing in and out of foster care, never really finding a place to call home. Another grew up with absent parents, raising her little sister alone and now, that sister is dead. Because my series, The Monstrum Chronicles, is a mystery thriller fantasy series, they are all thrown into paranormal and supernatural tribulations. To make them who they are now, I’ve written them histories where they’ve waded through more lifelike trials, ones that we as readers can identify and empathize with. The Monstrum Chronicles by Katherine Silva
To me, strength is about endurance. It’s about taking the parts of you that are broken, sweeping them up, and trying to piece them back together. This is never an instant achievement and if it were, we wouldn’t care about it nearly as much. The journey towards that whole, that feeling of completion is what entangles us and inspires us to do it ourselves. Each of these female protagonists that I write about are crawling toward feelings of peace, safety, and overall harmony. These are the things they treasure above all else and are willing to do anything to reach them. Having that goal and surmounting those odds to reach it make for strong believable characters.
I’ve never had it as difficult as any of my characters. I’m lucky. But I know there are some who have. The feelings of abandonment, of loneliness, depression, heartbreak, and fear are ones that can be felt universally. Writing these women helps me to work through my own dark places and hopefully, for readers of my books, it’s a way to help work through theirs. 

BIO:

Katherine Silva is the Midcoast Maine author of the Monstrum Chronicles series, is a connoisseur of coffee, and victim of crazy cat shenanigans. Her second book in the series, Aequitas, was nominated for a 2013 Maine Literary award. She published her first comedy in November 2013. She is a member of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and the New England Horror Writers Association and founder of the Midcoast Maine Halloween Readings series. Currently she resides in Rockland, Maine working on the rest of the books in the Monstrum Chronicles as well as other projects.

Book 1 of the Monstrum Chronicles - Torrent is a lilitu, a race of creatures on which vampire myths are based. Cocky and defiant, he's on a hunt to alter the space-time continuum to change his fate, all the while trying to outrun his sire, who seeks to destroy him. Eileen is an Opera-soprano returning home after several months in a mental institution following the death of her husband. Secluded in a country estate, she soon realizes she isn't alone... Sean hears strange voices. In a desperate effort to save his life, he must discover what they are trying to tell him and why a shadowy corporation values his gift. As all of their paths interweave with twists of betrayal, sacrifice, and murder, each character will have to come to terms with what they are and what it truly means to live.
Website: www.monstrumchronicles.com
Email: info (at) voxthebook (dot) com


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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music: The Great Equalizer with Julie Scolnik

Posts on  Friday Features  are intended to generate discussion by shaking up preconceptions of who or what strong women are and exploring the concept from a variety of perspectives. My next guest broadens our spectrum. I met Julie Scolnik, Artistic Director of Mistral Chamber Ensemble, at a cocktail party on Beacon Hill and we clicked. Bright and charismatic, she broke the image of what I thought a world-class flutist was. Not only that, but I had an image of musical directors of classical music groups as pudgy guys with bald heads. Shame on me. Regardless of my preconceptions, I think you'll agree that Julie fits anyone's definition of an accomplished, capable, and strong woman.


Music: The Great Equalizer with Julie Scolnik

Many think of chamber music as something sedate and soothing. You are the energy and the power behind Mistral, praised by the Boston Globe for its energizing performances, innovative programs, and audience engagement. What are some of the challenges you face breaking preconceptions while building an audience?
This is a great question, and one I love to answer! It’s true that for some people, chamber music can connote some long-dead boring art form. When asked to define it, my elevator speech is to say chamber music is the most intimate and deepest expression of music that exists. Being a few feet away from world-class musicians engaged in fervent musical conversation is exhilarating and transporting! I’m dedicated to making people aware of the role music can play in reminding us what is beautiful in the world, and these days we’re in desperate need of reminding.


As far as building an audience is concerned, how much time do you have?
It’s all I live and breathe. I believe that part of our challenge is to make newcomers see how much fun a classical chamber music concert can be! Our motto is: “Unstuffy, unpredictable, unmatched.” We break down barriers between the audience and the performers by engaging in conversation about the pieces! We often hold a question and answer period just after intermission, which is invariably full of hilarity and good stories. ("What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?” or “How come women dress in revealing sparking dresses and men get away with boring button down shirts and oxfords?” The key is creating unique programs that find common threads in pieces that allow people to hear them in new ways. Mistral’s musicians are virtuosic and communicative, and above all, unstuffy!  
My instinct to keep the programming adventuresome appeals to some but not all our audience members. I try at all concerts to juxtapose beloved masterpieces with newly discovered or rarely performed gems. But many old-timers won’t come if they don’t recognize a composer. The key has always been to gain the trust of my audience members, and to present works- new and old-that I know they will love as much as I do.
Are the challenges different being a woman at the head of a classical music organization? 
I am not sure. I wish I could say that I have done something atypical for women, but I am afraid that’s not true. There are many women who run chamber music organizations. The first thing to remember is that classical music is merit-based, so it is essentially sex-blind, but I believe the role provides a different perspective as an impressario and not a performer. All I can really say with confidence is that the reason Mistral succeeds is because of my very strong vision of what I want it to be. Perhaps interpersonal qualities – i.e enjoying people, telling stories, creating a certain ambiance and setting, like inviting someone into one’s home – come into play in my particular case.

Obviously music was important, but who/what were the influences that gave you the confidence to create this group and move it in the directions you do?
I was a busy freelance musician in Boston playing with the Ballet and Opera orchestras and subbing with the Boston Symphony. Very good work, but I craved more control of my artistic life. Through my freelancing I developed a network of fabulous colleagues, and founded the concert series in 1997 to play the music I loved most with the greatest musicians in the world.
But founding my own chamber music series gave me more than this: it gave me a chance to connect with people and build a community through music. Audience members tell me how the music transports them, makes their lives richer, and reminds them what is important. This inspires and sustains me.


What would you say your core strengths are?
For as long as I can remember, I was peddling concerts — Not just playing them, but thinking up ways to fill the hall one person at a time!
When I started, I would bring huge art books to Kinko’s and use stencils to create hundreds of fliers that would I fold and hand-address. I’ve been collecting names and contact info over 30 years of performances! Seeing random people from my past–a cab driver, a person I met on a plane, a Trader Joe’s cashier – is very rewarding.
My artistic sensibility extends beyond the music. Behind the scenes, I create the promotional posters and flyers, write the Message from the Director, choose the players and the programs, and do much of the fund-raising. On concert nights, I want to people to feel as if they are stepping into my living room and share what is important to me in music and in life.
In preparing this interview, I learned you are a breast cancer survivor. How has your world view changed, if at all, as a result of that experience?
Aha! Another very good question that I am happy to talk about.
Naturally my diagnosis in 2005 was a shock. I spent long hours at Beth Israel Hospital, sitting in my chemo chair while red poison was pumped into my veins. I was
I endured over six months of treatment and emerged knowing there was more for me to do. I organized concerts in Boston and in Paris with full symphony orchestras to raise funds for women undergoing cancer treatments. I spoke to the audience about the role music played for me when I was battling cancer. I explained how life’s unexpected challenges spur people to find solace in different ways. Some turn to prayer or meditation. I can safely say that music saved me.   I hope that I am making a difference in people’s lives by bringing that transformative power of music to our communities.
BIO:

Flutist Julie Scolnik’s has enjoyed a diverse musical career as a soloist, orchestral flutist, and chamber musician. As a guest flutist at festivals across the U.S. and France, Ms. Scolnik has collaborated with countless world-class artists and chamber groups. She is an active soloist in the U.S., and in France she offers an annual fall recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris and in festivals of Provence during the summer.
In earlier years, Ms. Scolnik performed as principal flute with many of Boston's leading orchestras including Emmanuel Music, The Boston Ballet, and Lyric Opera. Ms. Scolnik is a frequent featured guest on Boston's WGBH radio, having made over three dozen radio appearances. Ms. Scolnik has released two commercial CDs, the latest, ‘Salut d’Amour & Other Songs of Love,’ with her daughter, pianist Sophie Scolnik-Brower. Since undergoing treatments for breast cancer in 2005, Ms. Scolnik has found ways to both organize and perform concerts which raise funds for cancer support and research, the most recent two with the world-renown conductor, Sir Simon Rattle in Boston’s Jordan Hall in 2010, and in Paris for the Ligue Contre le Cancer at the Hotel de Ville in 2014. Twice a year since 2009 she has been a guest speaker at Harvard Medical School. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with her husband, physicist Michael Brower, and has a daughter, Sophie and a son, Sasha, also musicians.



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Posted by Connie Hambley at 12:30 AM  

Music: The Great Equalizer by Julie Scolnik

Posts on  Friday Features  are intended to generate discussion by shaking up preconceptions of who or what strong women are and exploring the concept from a variety of perspectives. My next guest broadens our spectrum. I met Julie Scolnik, Musical Director of Mistral Chamber Orchestra, at a cocktail party on Beacon Hill and we clicked. Bright and charismatic, she broke the image of what I thought a world-class flutist was. Not only that, but I had an image of musical directors of classical music groups as pudgy guys with bald heads. Shame on me. Regardless of my preconceptions, I think you'll agreed that Julie fits anyone's definition of an accomplished, capable, and strong woman.


Music: The Great Equalizer by Julie Scolnik

Many think of chamber music as something sedate and soothing. You are the energy and the power behind Mistral, praised by the Boston Globe for its energizing performances, innovative programs, and audience engagement. What are some of the challenges you face breaking preconceptions while building an audience?
This is a great question, and one I love to answer! It’s true that for some people, chamber music can connote some long-dead boring art form. When asked to define it, my elevator speech is to say chamber music is the most intimate and deepest expression of music that exists. Being a few feet away from world-class musicians engaged in fervent musical conversation is exhilarating and transporting! I’m dedicated to making people aware of the role music can play in reminding us what is beautiful in the world, and these days we’re in desperate need of reminding.


As far as building an audience is concerned, how much time do you have?
It’s all I live and breathe. I believe that part of our challenge is to make newcomers see how much fun a classical chamber music concert can be! Our motto is: “Unstuffy, unpredictable, unmatched.” We break down barriers between the audience and the performers by engaging in conversation about the pieces! We often hold a question and answer period just after intermission, which is invariably full of hilarity and good stories. ("What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?” or “How come women dress in revealing sparking dresses and men get away with boring button down shirts and oxfords?” The key is creating unique programs that find common threads in pieces that allow people to hear them in new ways. Mistral’s musicians are virtuosic and communicative, and above all, unstuffy!  
My instinct to keep the programming adventuresome appeals to some but not all our audience members. I try at all concerts to juxtapose beloved masterpieces with newly discovered or rarely performed gems. But many old-timers won’t come if they don’t recognize a composer. The key has always been to gain the trust of my audience members, and to present works- new and old-that I know they will love as much as I do.
Are the challenges different being a woman at the head of a classical music organization? 
I am not sure. I wish I could say that I have done something atypical for women, but I am afraid that’s not true. There are many women who run chamber music organizations. The first thing to remember is that classical music is merit-based, so it is essentially sex-blind,  but I believe role provide a different perspective as an impressario and not a performer. All I can really say with confidence is that the reason Mistral succeeds is because of my very strong vision of what I want it to be. Perhaps interpersonal qualities – i.e enjoying people, telling stories, creating a certain ambiance and setting, like inviting someone into one’s home – come into play in my particular case.

Obviously music was important, but who/what were the influences that gave you the confidence to create this group and move it in the directions you do?
I was a busy freelance musician in Boston playing with the Ballet and Opera orchestras and subbing with the Boston Symphony. Very good work, but I craved more control of my artistic life. Through my freelancing I developed a network of fabulous colleagues, and founded the concert series in 1997 to play the music I loved most with the greatest musicians in the world.
But founding my own chamber music series gave me more than this: it gave me a chance to connect with people and build a community through music. Audience members tell me how the music transports them, makes their lives richer, and reminds them what is important. This inspires and sustains me.


What would you say your core strengths are?
For as long as I can remember, I was peddling concerts — Not just playing them, but thinking up ways to fill the hall one person at a time!
When I started, I would bring huge art books to Kinko’s and use stencils to create hundreds of fliers that would I fold and hand-address. I’ve been collecting names and contact info over 30 years of performances! Seeing random people from my past–a cab driver, a person I met on a plane, a Trader Joe’s cashier – is very rewarding.
My artistic sensibility extends beyond the music. Behind the scenes, I create the promotional posters and flyers, write the Message from the Director, choose the players and the programs, and do much of the fund-raising. On concert nights, I want to people to feel as if they are stepping into my living room and share what is important to me in music and in life.
In preparing this interview, I learned you are a breast cancer survivor. How has your world view changed, if at all, as a result of that experience?
Aha! Another very good question that I am happy to talk about.
Naturally my diagnosis in 2005 was a shock. I spent long hours at Beth Israel Hospital, sitting in my chemo chair while red poison was pumped into my veins. I was
I endured over six months of treatment and emerged knowing there was more for me to do. I organized concerts in Boston and in Paris with full symphony orchestras to raise funds for women undergoing cancer treatments. I spoke to the audience about the role music played for me when I was battling cancer. I explained how life’s unexpected challenges spur people to find solace in different ways. Some turn to prayer or meditation. I can safely say that music saved me.   I hope that I am making a difference in people’s lives by bringing that transformative power of music to our communities.
BIO:

 Flutist Julie Scolnik’s has enjoyed a diverse musical career as a soloist, orchestral flutist, and chamber musician. As a guest flutist at festivals across the U.S. and France, Ms. Scolnik has collaborated with countless world-class artists and chamber groups. She is an active soloist in the U.S., and in France she offers an annual fall recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris and in festivals of Provence during the summer.
In earlier years, Ms. Scolnik performed as principal flute with many of Boston's leading orchestras including Emmanuel Music, The Boston Ballet, and Lyric Opera. Ms. Scolnik is a frequent featured guest on Boston's WGBH radio, having made over three dozen radio appearances. Ms. Scolnik has released two commercial CDs, the latest, ‘Salut d’Amour & Other Songs of Love,’ with her daughter, pianist Sophie Scolnik-Brower. Since undergoing treatments for breast cancer in 2005, Ms. Scolnik has found ways to both organize and perform concerts which raise funds for cancer support and research, the most recent two with the world-renown conductor, Sir Simon Rattle in Boston’s Jordan Hall in 2010, and in Paris for the Ligue Contre le Cancer at the Hotel de Ville in 2014. Twice a year since 2009 she has been a guest speaker at Harvard Medical School. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with her husband, physicist Michael Brower, and has a daughter, Sophie and a son, Sasha, also musicians.



 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Posted by Connie Hambley at 12:30 AM  

Living the Clandestine Life While Wearing Jammies

If you're familiar with my books, you know that I do a deep dive into my research. I like to say that the stories' building blocks are real, but the way I toggle them together is all my own. I consider it a compliment when a reader accuses me of writing thinly veiled fact.

Unless, of course, they're accusing me of underworld ties.

When The Charity was first published, a reader sent me an email saying that although they enjoyed the book, they wished I had acknowledged the Clover Club of South Boston as the model for the organization I called the Charity. Huh?

Of course I had to learn more.

During the 1970's and 1980's, a group of Irish businessmen would gather in different pubs in South Boston, or "Southie" as it's known by locals. Their meetings were to raise money for different charities for the benefit of the Irish community both in Boston and in Ireland. (Note here: I mention one Ireland, not "the Irelands" nor "Ireland and Northern Ireland." I'll explain later.) It is very typical in tightly knit communities for folks who have experienced financial success to offer a helping hand to those in need. Providing money for starting a grocery store, soup kitchen, or other community enhancing activity is to be lauded. Nothing would be noteworthy except for the fact the Clover Club, as it was come to be called, was purported to be one of Whitey Bulger's favorite activities.

Email, in person, and social media pings inquiring how much my books are based on 'insider knowledge' increased with the publication of The Troubles. For those of you who are weak on Irish history, the Troubles speaks to the period of time in the late '60's to early '80's that riots erupted on the streets of Belfast and the Bogside (Londonderry or Derry) to demand reunification of the six counties of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. Splintering the island of Ireland into two countries is odious to many and having one country be a part of the United Kingdom is even stinkier. For folks still smarting over this century old division, they refer to "the north of Ireland" or"Ireland" as a whole. They NEVER refer to "the Irelands" or "Northern Ireland," even though the United Nations and the rest of the world do.

So, you can imagine the hornets nest I kicked during my signings in Dorchester and Southie. I had the audacity to refer to "the Irelands" and "Northern Ireland" in my books. That's a pretty big sin. What made me compulsively check my rear-view mirror when leaving these signings is the fact that I also use the word "terrorist" when referring to blokes who place bombs in public spaces. It seems that "freedom fighter" is the preferred term.

I learned that names and labels are important, so when the word "Valhalla" was whispered in my ear on several occasions, I paid attention. It seems this word was bandied about most often when they learned I live on the north shore of Boston, close to the coast and fishing ports. I was accustomed to my politics being tested, and the lawyer in me knew enough to nod knowingly and say nothing. All the while I noticed my hands grew a mite bit cold and shaky.

During my jammie-clad research for Book #3 (tentatively entitled The Wake), I came across an article by the BBC that talked about Bulger's gunrunning operation out of the Gloucester ports. In September of 1984, a fishing boat named Valhalla was loaded with ice and guns and rendezvoused with an Irish fishing vessel off the coast of Kerry. The authorities were tipped, the Valhalla was seized as it re-entered U.S. waters, and the method of using ships to move guns, drugs, and more was disrupted. The body of the alleged informant was identified using his mother's DNA in 2000.

My skin got a little crawly right about then. The Charity fabricated an organization readers believe to be true and The Troubles surrounds an actual IRA bombing of the Arndale shopping district in Manchester, England that remains unsolved. Mini spoiler alert, but The Troubles hints at explosives and other unsavory items being hidden in the gear and feed needed for international horse transports via--you guessed it--ships. It seems that my fiction, once again, was very close to truth.

I always say the meat of a great story hangs on the bones of fact. I just hope it's not my bones you find a few decades from now in a quarry near Southie.

Why I Write About Strong Women by Debbi Mack

Let's start this New Year off to a rollicking start. My resolution for Friday Features is to generate discussion by shaking up preconceptions of who or what strong women are and to explore the concept in 360 degrees. My next guest is New York Times best-selling author of the ebook Sam McRae series, Debbi Mack. She writes hardboiled crime and thrillers with strong women as main characters. Why? Read on and see...

Why I Write About Thanks, Connie, for the opportunity to post on your blog!
As the author of four hardboiled mysteries featuring a female protagonist, I’m so accustomed to writing about strong women that I hardly give a thought as to why I do it.
I suppose part of my preference for writing about strong women starts with my childhood. I grew up in a family of women who made unconventional choices and believed (contrary to the prevailing view of those times) that women could do whatever they wanted in life, or at least had the ability to make their own choices. I believed this to be true. I also knew that to prove their worth, women usually had to work ten times as hard to get acknowledgment equal to that bestowed upon their male peers. As a result, from an early age, I was raised to believe that women had to be strong in order to succeed in any endeavor.
Second, I grew up a big fan of the hardboiled mystery and thriller genres. Yet, to my dismay, few of the books, movies, or television shows I
enjoyed had strong female leads. If I was looking for role models in my various forms of entertainment, there were few that were female. I would even imagine playing the detective while watching shows like “Mannix” or “Rockford Files”. The only catch was I had no idea how to handle what Fred Savage in “The Princess Bride” called “the kissing parts”.
There were, thankfully, a few strong female characters that I absolutely loved. One was Anne Francis as Honey West, and another was the amazing Mrs. Peel of “The Avengers”. I wanted to write books that had women like these, so little girls could grow up with detective role models they could relate to easily.
Not only that, but I continued to be shocked at the low level of self-esteem many women have. My hope is writing about strong women is that they can provide inspiration to others, who may think they’re incapable of making tough choices and doing difficult things.
Finally, I write about strong women, because they are more interesting to me than weak ones. Ultimately, one writes the book that one would enjoy reading. I just don’t enjoy reading about women as victims and weaklings. I greatly prefer reading about those who are tough, funny, and independent. Not perfect, of course. How boring is perfect? Very. But, when it comes to solving crimes and kicking ass, why should men have all the fun?
*******Bio
Debbi Mack is the New York Times ebook bestselling author of the Sam McRae mystery series. The first book in the series Identity Crisis was re-released this year by WildBlue Press. She’s also published one young adult novel, Invisible Me, and Five Uneasy Pieces, a short story collection that includes her Derringer Award–nominated story “The Right to Remain Silent.” Her short stories have appeared in various other anthologies and publications. Her most recently published short stories are “Deadly Detour”, published as an ebook short, and “Jasmine”, which appears in Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays. Debbi is also a screenwriter and aspiring indie filmmaker. A former attorney, Debbi has also worked as a journalist, librarian, and freelance writer/researcher. She enjoys walking, cats, travel, movies, music, and espresso.
You can find Debbi online here:
http://www.debbimack.comTwitter: @debbimackYouTube: http://bit.ly/13AZEWTFacebook (author page): https://www.facebook.com/debbimackwriterFacebook (The Crime Cafe) https://www.facebook.com/The-Crime-Cafe-383760808486685/Instagram: https://instagram.com/debbimacktoo/Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DebbiMack

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Greatest Challenge by V.S. Kemanis

Happy Holidays to you!

A simple prompt to explore the concept and reality of strong women has brought about not-so-simple explorations of lives and perspectives. My next guest, V.S. Kemanis, is a lawyer-turned-author (sound familiar?) with a perspective that hit close to home. I often struggled with the 'opportunity' that women could have it all. What did that mean when our legal careers took us into world seemingly intent upon keeping us from exactly that?

The Greatest Challenge by V.S. Kemanis
For any woman juggling family responsibilities and intellectual pursuits, the greatest challenge in life is to effectively manage and harmonize the many worlds she inhabits. At least, this has been true for me. In my professional career as a lawyer, I’ve been a prosecutor, civil litigator, and court attorney, while never letting go of my artistic passions—fiction writing, dance, and choreography—which I crammed into little corners of “spare” time. During the early part of my legal career, I was also tackling the toughest job of all, raising two children, trying to keep my priorities straight.
I went to law school in the late seventies, a time when the male/female student ratio was finally getting close to 50/50. It was an era when a well-entrenched women’s movement had laid down some imperatives. As a young woman struggling to find myself, I perceived a twofold message:  (1) women are capable of doing anything they wish to pursue, and (2) not only are women capable, they should do it all (and do everything well). This was my understanding, whether accurate or distorted. Now that I’m older and wiser, I look back and see the enormous pressure exerted by a culture of “we can have it all.” Supermoms. Superwomen. I’m not so sure what the message is for young women today. Every day, I’m trying to learn what the message is for my daughters, who are now young adults. The world offers so many choices, it’s difficult to know which direction to take.
Certainly, everything is possible. I feel blessed to have had the freedom to use my intellect for a rewarding career outside the home. I can’t imagine living in a society in which such pursuits are denied to women as they are, even now, in many parts of the world. I never had to break new ground, to go where women had never gone before, but I rode in on the tidal wave of female entrance into the legal profession. Even so, it was not easy. I remember many occasions feeling like the fifth wheel or the unwanted interloper in the old boys’ club. A few bad feelings and uncomfortable situations from the early years of my career will never fade from memory. There was an appellate judge who told me during oral argument in open court that I sounded like a “schoolteacher.” A boss who made jokes about not being able to get around me in the hallway when I was pregnant. A roomful of seasoned investigators explicitly discussing a woman’s body, unmindful of my presence.
But these indignities were insignificant in comparison to the challenges I faced in the casework itself. Nothing is so sweet as the resolution of a thorny problem after an exercise of mind-bending, exasperating effort.Like every writer, my life experiences inform my prose. The women in my short stories have their own challenges to work through, and usually become stronger for it. If not stronger, enlightened, which is another form of strength. My collection Everyone But Us is devoted to tales of women from every walk of life.
My legal mystery series features a female prosecutor by the name of Dana Hargrove. The plan for the series is to take Dana through several stages of her life at six or seven-year intervals. In the first novel, Thursday’s List , Dana is a rookie prosecutor, and in the second, Homicide Chart , she is a young mother and an experienced trial attorney. In the third book, to be released in April 2016, Dana is a bureau chief at the DA’s office. An underlying theme in each story is the interplay between Dana’s professional and personal lives. She is a strong woman, but shows her vulnerabilities and internal dilemmas when her job conflicts with personal relationships. Apart from this theme, the novels are full of interesting legal conundrums, exciting courtroom scenes, details of police investigation, and all of the drama that crime stories evoke. For me, as a lawyer, criminal cases pose the most fascinating ethical and legal questions of the human condition.
Thank you, Connie, for inviting me to share these thoughts on strong women in everyday life and in the world of fiction!
Bio


V.S. Kemanis is the author of three award-winning story collections and the Dana Hargrove legal mystery novels, Thursday’s List and Homicide Chart. Her short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Crooked Road Vol. 3 anthology, and noted literary journals. She is an attorney with years of experience in criminal law.
You may find her on Facebook, Goodreads, and Amazon.


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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
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American Library Association - January 8 - 12, 2016

What do I have in common with Chelsea Clinton, Isaac Mizrahi, and Andres Dubus III? We are all going to be at the American Library Association's conference in Boston!

(I think the comparisons stop there.)

I'll be joining my other Sisters in Crime authors in the exhibit hall for a bit of murder chat, book signing, and telling everyone about what a great organization SinC is!

Sat 10-12: Sheila Connolly, Leslie Wheeler. Sat 12-2: Gin Jones, Arlene KaySat 2-5: Julie HennrikusSun 9-11: GM Malliet, Edith MaxwellSun 11-1: Barbara Struna, Marian Lanouette Sun 1-3: Peggy GaffneySun 2-4: Connie Hambley Mon 9-12: Joy Seymour
Mon 12-2: Clea Simon, Susan Fleet 
See you there!

The Irrepressible Vermont Woman by Nancy Means Wright

I met Nancy Means Wright when we were both panelists for a Sisters in Crime discussion at a library in Vermont. Maybe it was a shared love of the mountains that nudged me to take a shine to this blunt and eloquent woman. Once we started talking, my upbringing on a dairy farm sparked her interest to tell me about her mysteries set on a dairy farm in Vermont. Then the talk went on to burning barns, and, well, the rest is history. 
THE IRREPRESSIBLE VERMONT WOMAN by Nancy Means Wright    
Vermont has always seemed an Eden, a land of milk and honey, a place for healing and quiet meditation. A land that, early on called itself a Republic, a self-governed country that coined its own money and broke the rules it didn’t care for. Like the biblical Eden, there is always a snake in the garden. A decade ago I saw that small independent farmers were losing their farms, and that harmful drugs were infiltrating our paradise, poisoning our youth. I felt compelled to write in defense of those children and their parents.      When a pair of elderly famers were assaulted back in the ’90s, I began a novel, knowing only that I would set it on a hardscrabble farm run by a female farmer whom I’d call Ruth after a resourceful relative of mine. She would be tough and resilient, yet vulnerable as women often are, and angry at anyone who would harm her kids or do any kind of injustice to a neighbor. Since it was March and my driveway a mud bath, I would set the novel during mud season and call it MadSeason . A Boston Globe editor who’d liked one of my books said that locale should be “a reason, not merely setting” for a plot, so I tried to make the fictional town of “Branbury” a virtual character. Vermont is, after all, a land of extremes: ice, snow, heat, mud. In winter we huddle beside our woodstoves; when claustrophobia sets in, tempers might explode. The crime rate in Vermont is low, but when a murder occurs, it can be violent–and usually domestic.
My fictional Ruth Willmarth (a family surname) would have thirty cows on her farm, which she’d name after famous or literary women like Jane Eyre, Oprah. She’d be like myself as author, fumbling and bumbling and trying to find out whodunnit and why—especially why. Since I was going through a divorce at the time, I would make her a single mother of three whose husband has run off with another woman (that snake in the garden again). When Mad Season came out from St Martin’s Press (I lucked out, using my husband’s name as agent), The Philadelphia Inquirer called Ruth “earthy, funny, hot-tempered, and sexier than she knows—the glue for this admirably crafted first novel.”
I wrote four more before the series came to an end (Harvest of Bones, Poison Apples, Stolen Honey, Mad Cow Nightmare with Belgrave House).
By now I had a number of other published books, along with four grown children, and for their sake I began to research my forebears. At the turn of the 20th-century my Scottish grandmother took ship to NYC, alone, at the age of seventeen. Her half-sister had married an American, died in childbirth, and my granny had to give up a chance at university to be nanny to that sister’s brood of seven children. In time, she married her middle-aged uncle, gave him six more babies and ultimately moved to Vermont. I soon discovered in the Edinburgh, Scotland archives that she was illegitimate! It took a few scotches for me to digest this stunning news. But, I had to tell her story, along with the story of her oldest child, my mother Jessie.
I would put these women in a novel rather than memoir because in fiction one can make changes and write the story “slant.” After all, I had only the basic facts, along with family legends, doubtless altered with the telling, like the fictional tale of my grandmother’s journey to America, published in Seventeen Magazine. I would set the novel in the machine tool town of Springfield, Vermont, which was on Hitler’s list during World War II. I created a love affair between my heroine, Jessie, who teaches English to foreigners, and a young Polish poet, of whom her pious uncle bitterly disapproves. As far as I know, my grandmother was never in love with a young Pole, who despite his pacifism, fights for his new country in WW1, but like my proud mother Jessie, who never revealed her illegitimate origins (if indeed she knew) my granny stored her secrets deep inside.
Since my novel (Queens Never MakeBargains, published by Wind Ridge Books) tells the story of three passionate Vermont women who carry on their lives through two world wars, a pandemic and a Great Depression, I write from three different points of view. In Part 3, for instance, I’m in the head of rebel Victoria, the youngest of Jessie’s charges, who is hopelessly in love with a married professor and with the Spitfire airplane she ferries during WWII.
But, it’s Jessie who holds the family—and the book— together. Jessie, based on my own mother who nourished four children through two wars and endured the early loss of a husband with no money for health or life insurance. I was the youngest and she took me with her into a girl’s boarding school so I could have an education while she worked.
For me, Jessie is the quintessential tough, creative, irrepressible Vermont woman.                                                                                        


BIO:
Nancy Means Wright has published numerous books of fiction (mystery and mainstream), with St Martin’s Press, Perseverance Press & elsewhere, including two historical mysteries featuring 18th-century Mary Wollstonecraft.  Her most recent historicals are Walking into the Wild (Prince and Pauper Press), and the multi-generational novel, Queens Never Make Bargains (Wind Ridge Books).  Short stories appear in American Literary Review, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Level Best Books, et al. Her children’s mysteries have received an Agatha Award and Agatha nomination. Nancy lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with her spouse and two Maine Coon cats. 
www.nancymeanswright.com nancymeanswright@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/nancymwright.12
Next week my guest will be attorney and author V.S. Kemanis. If you are in New York on December 19, join V.S. and other mystery writers at the KBG Bar for the Mystery Writers of America Crime Fiction Reading. V.S. will be reading an excerpt from her upcoming novel, Forsaken Oath.



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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
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With a Heavy Heart

With a heavy heart, I learned that a great man died.
If you live outside of the north shore of Massachusetts, I doubt you ever heard his name. If you didn't have children in the schools here, you wouldn't have had a reason to seek him out. He was a school teacher, physical education instructor, and coach. Heavy set. Walrus mustache. Low key. 
Yet, if you had a child lucky enough to have him as a teacher or a coach, you'll know his name. You'll know the hole in the community his death creates. 
Were we lucky that we had time to say our thanks and good-byes? At the start of girl's basketball season -- a season he was slated to coach -- he met with team and told the girls of his diagnosis. Brain Cancer. Three months to live. We held our breath knowing January was too, too soon.
Maybe he was the lucky one. The community rallied. Appreciation was given in the form of private talks, choked-up thanks, and induction into the high school's sports hall of fame. People had time to share what so often remains unsaid when we believe we have nothing but time. He was incredibly courageous for being public. The public spoke their love. Bravely. With tears of laughter at his induction.
But it was only two months. This morning we heard the news. Quietly. With family. As he wanted it.
So why bother writing about a life well lived with time for good-byes? No unfinished business. All the cards were face up.
Because he will live on in our children who were lucky enough to have him in their lives. My daughter is one of many. She is stronger because of him even though his death made her shake with sorrow.
I think a great deal about strong women, who they are and how to raise one. During one particularly challenging time with my daughter, I sought him out. The advice he gave me that day helped me be a better parent. A little bit supportive. A little bit corrective. All of it insightful.
That is why I will miss Doug Woodworth, Ipswich High School's beloved teacher and coach. We all had the chance to be a little bit better under his gentle guidance. 

Women in the Law by Jerri Blair

Ever notice people who share interests seem to gravitate toward one another? My next guest is Jerri Blair, an attorney who turned to writing fiction. Her high profile cases have prompted her guest appearances on 20/20, Larry King, Good Morning America, and other shows. One case was even the basis for a movie. I know you'll find her perspective on strong women and the law interesting.

Q. Your first book, Justice for the Black Knight, won the 2015 Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Legal Thriller as well as receiving critical praise from Kirkusand others. You also received great success in your professional life by being counsel on several high profile cases. Your hard work earned you an appointment to the Florida Supreme Court Gender Bias Commission. Did being on that commission alter how you viewed the experiences of women in the law? Did it alter your perception of what a strong woman is?
A: When I first began practicing law, there were only a handful of women lawyers in the county where my firm was located. My first year, I was the only woman in attendance at the barbeques and fish fries, which were the only real meetings of the local bar, one woman in the midst of sixty or seventy male lawyers. I never felt anything but fully accepted as a top notch lawyer and friend by that group of men. Perhaps it was because I had grown up surrounded by athletes, coaches, and referees that it went so well for me. I think the acceptance was largely due to the fact that I was always myself. Whatever the cause, it gave me a view of women in the law that was ignorant of the impact gender was having on many women attorneys.
I am so grateful to have had the appointment to the Gender Bias Commission because it opened my eyes to the need for change in many areas of the judicial system. It wasn’t just the women who were lawyers that we reviewed, but the impact of gender on the judicial system at large. I talked to litigants, prisoners, judges, and lawyers from all walks of the law. We looked at the statutes and how they impacted differently based on gender. I believe the efforts of the commission helped to effectuate some very good change. However, it did not change my perception of what a strong woman is. Just like in every other walk of life, to be a strong person, woman or man, you must take your experiences, whether good or bad, and use them to make yourself a better person.

Q: Being a lawyer is not for the timid. Do you think you drew upon a reserve of strength to be effective in your profession that was different from other professions?

A: To be a good trial lawyer, you have to learn to think like a lawyer. You have to dissect the existing law and the facts of your case and weave an argument or a story that will win the day. I was a scientist before I went to law school. I believe the analytic skills I learned in the lab added greatly to my ability to do those things. I’ve always had a strong intuition, something frequently attributed to women, and I know that helped me immensely picking juries and more than that, just finding that little something-something that would take my case over the top. Only the strong survive in the courtroom. I’m sure that any profession requires strength of some type, but I know you have to have it in the courtroom. So it might be a little different than that required in other professions.

Q: A quick search of legal thrillers on Amazon shows six books in the top forty were written by women.            -Any thoughts on why?
A: I believe meaningful change takes time. It’s sometimes a bad thing for change to occur too rapidly. It makes the effect of the change less than it should be. For instance, in the legal arena, women were almost nonexistent a fairly short time ago, and obviously things had to change. Women needed the chance to move up the ladder in firms and as judges. However, we wouldn’t want a person to be chosen as a judge just because she’s a woman if she doesn’t have the skills necessary to make her a good judge. It would actually be bad for women in general if that happened. It’s the same with literature. Historically, there have been fewer women accepted as great writers. The feeling is obviously different today, but the change to equal numbers of women given star roles in the literary world will take time. With legal thrillers, the difference is not surprising because the number of women in the legal profession has changed so radically in such a short time. It will take time for more women attorneys to make their way from the courtroom to the pages of the legal thriller novel.
            -Do you think readers have an unconscious bias toward books written by men?A: I certainly wouldn’t say they don’t have a bias built on past experiences. By that I mean that there were fewer books written by women in the past, and certainly fewer that actually had the backing to make them widely read. Once those connections are made in the brain, it’s hard to change them for much of the world. It’s really the same phenomena of change. It will take time.
            -Do women authors of legal thrillers have to be ‘that much better’ than men in order to be considered good?
A: Maybe, at least for a few more years. I don’t think gender really enters into the question of whether an author is great or even good. There will always be great men and women authors, or at least I hope so as a reader, as well as good, mediocre, and bad men and women authors. At this point, the good, mediocre and bad women authors probably have a lower chance of making it than the good, mediocre and bad men authors. The great women authors perhaps have an advantage because they’re women.

Q: Is there a similarity between being a woman in a profession considered to be male dominated and being an indie published author in the traditionally published world?A: There are similarities because both involve a bias based on ignorance. There are many indie books that could be classics if issued from a traditional publishing house. No matter how good an indie book may be, it is not eligible for many of the literary prizes it might qualify for if issued by a traditional publishing house. There appears to be a “glass ceiling” that prevents an indie book from the same consideration by critics and those with the power to make it widely perceived as a truly great book. However, the tides of change may eventually catch up with this difference and dissolve the differences.

Q: In writing about strong women, are we unconsciously saying weak men?

A: I don’t think so. Men have always been perceived as the stronger sex, partially because physical strength played such a huge part in the survival game historically, partially because men have historically been the wielders of power in the political, business, and other public arenas. Women were perceived as the weaker sex, but over time, the term “strong women” became a sort of recognition that women had a different kind of strength, an emotional strength that was equal to or more powerful than physical strength. It was the power that came from standing tall through the greatest adversity. The same quality can be found in both genders.

BIO: JERRI A. BLAIR                       
Ms. Blair practiced for almost thirty years in state and federal trial and appellate courts. She was involved in many high profile cases involving different areas of the law from murder/death penalty to high stakes commercial and family law cases. She was very active in seeking to improve the legal system’s treatment of children’s relationships with those who make up their family and in redefining the concept of family to include those outside of the traditional biological parent/child relationship. Her best known cases involved Gregory K, a child the media dubbed as a boy divorcing his parents, and T.W., a case involving a teenager seeking an abortion without obtaining parental consent. Both cases involved serious constitutional issues as well as compelling life-changing factual situations.

Ms. Blair has appeared on many television and radio news shows including 20/20, Dateline, A Turning Point, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Discovery, PBS News, and many others. She has also been a guest as an expert on numerous television and radio talk shows. One of Ms. Blair’s cases was voted Court TV’s all-time most popular trial for many years and was one of the first cases ever to be telecast live on CNN. The case was also the subject of two television movies, one of which, “A Place to Be,” featured Rhea Perlman as Ms. Blair. Ms. Blair’s cases and her experiences as a trial attorney have been the subject of numerous published articles including articles in NewsWeek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, newspapers all over the world, and in numerous books and treatises.
Justice for the Black Knight , an explosive legal thriller, is a story of relationships wrapped in a dark mystery from the distant past that holds the key to the salvation of a man on trial for his life. As a child, Freddie Edwards created an alter-ego, the Black Knight, who vowed to fight injustice in all forms. Freddie attempted to live up to ideal all of his life, but he finds himself accused of the brutal murder of a well-respected elderly man, represented by an incompetent lawyer, and facing death in the electric chair. His sister Ruby and their childhood friend Annabelle are reunited at his trial where they begin an exploration into the past to find evidence that will prove Freddie to be a hero instead of a villain, his only chance to escape execution. Their journey brings to light the impact race may have on the system designed to provide justice, and a hopeful portrait of life free of the disease of racism.
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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here. 

If you have something to say about the topic of 
strong women, contact me on Twitter: 
@conniehambley.
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