Lori Rader-Day's Blog, page 8

Three Questions with…Catriona McPherson

True story. When I first met Catriona McPherson, I hadn’t read her work. But I liked her so much as a person that I decided, of course, that I would pick up the first in her Dandy Gilver mystery series. Until I did, I hoped hoped hoped that I would like her writing—it’s so much easier to be friends that way. And then the skies parted and the angels sang. Because I adored Catriona’s writing. By the time I saw her again a year later, I’d read every mystery she’d ever published (eight books, I think) and was clamoring for more.

And then she started publishing these dark contemporary suspense novels and my head promptly exploded.

Well, you’re in for a treat—and a trip to the bookstore—because today Catriona joins me to answer three nosy-cow questions from someone who really wants to know how she does it.

Three Questions with Catriona McPherson

The main character of The Child Garden, Gloria Harkness, is unglamorous and unapologetic—and I love her. Can you talk a little bit about where she came from and how she became the lens for readers for this story?

Actually, for once, I can. I’m towards the organic end of the spectrum and I do very little plotting and planning before I wade in. In the case of The Child Garden, though, I had to go looking for Gloria. When I started the first draft she was hiding behind some chick called Tash—short for Natasha—who was about thirty and rather dashing. Tash’s story, unfortunately, felt and smelled like dead meat. Then one night, I was driving home from a library-do in Scotland, back to my mum’s house, and suddenly the name “Gloria” popped into my head.

I knew immediately that “Gloria” was closer to forty and not at all dashing: she wore her hair in two plaits (US braids?) pinned to her head and made her own shirt-waister dresses. The funny thing was that Gloria, from the off, was a lot more confident than Tash—unapologetic is exactly right.

There was a bit of magic in this book—the eerie kind. What role did you want the rocking stone Gloria guards to play in the story? 

Ah, back to normal. I have no memory whatsoever of when or why the rocking stone came to be part of The Child Garden. I’m kind of fascinated by the ancient standing stones that are so common all over Scotland. (Funnily, enough, I’ve never been to Stonehenge, though.) They freak me out a bit but I’m drawn to them. And rocking stones—where a stone moves when you nudge it—are very rare. Oh wait, I remember! At first, the stone in the garden of Rough House only existed as a reason for Gloria to live there—as its custodian, like you say.

Then it turned out that the story of what went down in the woods around Rough House twenty years before the book opens included the Beltane rituals (May Day), a devil’s bridge, a consecrated chapel type thing and—as so often happens when I’m writing—it all got a bit Gothic. The rocking stone was right there and was swept up into the general tone.

You balance a delightfully charming historical mystery series and then a new line of stand-alones, all creepy as hell. How is that schizophrenia coming along and how do you make it all work, besides just being incredibly talented?

Oh now stop it, Lori. Truth is I’ve always done both. The first version of Come to Harm (May 2015) [editor’s note: Lori also loved this book] was the first novel I ever wrote, in 2001. Also, I think they’re more similar on the inside than the jackets would have you believe. The Dandy Gilver stories are not as light, bright and sparkling (if I can steal from the blessed Jane) as they could be given the butlers, Dalmatians, and fabulous clothes, and the standalones, while they’ve got dark elements, always have some laughs too.

As far as writing challenge goes, 1930s style is harder than contemporary—all those lurking anachronisms!—and writing from scratch is harder than settling back in for another adventure with my old pals. So the two strands come out even. The easy one is always “whatever I’m not writing” and the impossible one is always “this one right here today.” I do love it though. Even on the worst writing day, writing is still the best job in the world.

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Catriona McPherson writes the Agatha and Macavity award-winning Dandy Gilver detective series, set in her native Scotland in the 1920s. The latest, A DEADLY MEASURE OF BRIMSTONE, won a third consecutive Left Coast Crime award this year. In 2013 she started a strand of darker (that’s not difficult) standalones. The first, AS SHE LEFT IT, won an Anthony award and THE DAY SHE DIED was shortlisted for an Edgar award. THE CHILD GARDEN is just out from Mystery Ink.

Catriona immigrated to America in 2010, and lives in northern California with a black cat and a scientist. She is proud to be the 2015 president of Sisters in Crime. www.catrionamcpherson.com

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Three Questions with… Jenny Milchman

If you don’t know who Jenny Milchman is, then you haven’t been to a bookstore lately. I don’t just mean that her three novels, including the brand-new As Night Falls, are well-stocked in our nation’s book nooks. I mean Jenny herself is there. Known for her round-the-country family truckster bookstore tour, Jenny Milchman has the energy we all wish we had—and a story of perseverance to match. Aspiring writers, take note. This just might be how you conquer the world.

 

Three Questions with Jenny Milchman

I have to ask about the world’s longest book tour, because it’s so interesting and of course I’ve joined you for a date or two on it. Tell us a little about the how and, more importantly, the why—why are these tours so important to you?

After my first novel—which was really my eighth—came out following a thirteen year journey to publication—I’ll explain more below—I did the next logical thing. Rented out our house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, pulled the kids out of first and third grades to “car-school” them in the backseat, and hit the road with my husband on a 7 month, 35,000 mile book tour. Don’t worry if the whole “logical” part escapes you—my publisher thought I was nuts, too. In fact, they convened a conference call to tell me so. But here’s the thing…my debut novel went into six printings in hardcover. Not mega-sized printings, like everybody reading this now knows my name. Far from it. But still—Cover of Snow did better enough compared to expectations that once I returned from the world’s longest book tour (as Shelf Awareness called it), my publisher said, “Well, if you do want to go out again…we would understand.” Or words to that effect. And by the third time around, with As Night Falls recently released, my publisher is helping to set up the tour, and even paying for a portion of it.

I think it’s a real testimony. Not to me as an author, but to the power of the face-to-face. To the fact that in our increasingly virtual world, real life encounters become all the more valuable. Independent bookstore openings are up because we are learning the unique attributes they offer—their ability to draw together a community. As I say all over the country, an emoticon is not the same as a smile. And getting to pair with you, Lori, and other authors, while meeting readers and book lovers all over the country, is what makes the nights out here so magic.

Whenever I get the chance, I like to have you talk about your getting-published story, because it’s the best example of perseverance I’ve heard. Can you fill people in a bit and tell us all  about what it means to you to be on this side of that story?

Here are the numbers. In 11 years I wrote 8 novels, worked with 3 agents, got [politely] dumped by 2, and had a total of 15 almost-offers on my books. An almost-offer happens when an editor wishes to acquire your book, but can’t get consensus from the other editors, marketing department, or publicity. My seventh novel—and last submission before I finally broke through—was rejected by the publisher of a major house herself. It was a harrowing, degrading, desperate period of time. I tried to focus on the joys—my family, encouragement along the way, the stories themselves—but it was really, really hard. I almost gave up a million times.

How does it feel to be on this side? I am grateful every single day. I can’t believe I get to write books that people read, to make up stories for a living. I never thought this could happen.

The way it finally did was that an author whose work I loved read my unpublished manuscript and gave it to her editor. It was a match made in heaven…it just took a long time to reach it. And rather than have writers take away from my story a feeling like, Oh, well, you have to have connections in this business, or, Which author can I get to read my work? I’d like to point to an alternate interpretation.

This is a game of hanging in there. Fortune favors the prepared. Hone your craft—I thought I was publishable probably about six novels before I actually was—do good things for other writers, build relationships with book lovers of all sorts (readers, booksellers, librarians, book club leaders, teachers…the list could go on), go to conferences, submit short stories and non-fiction articles. The more ways you put yourself out there, the more chances you have for the right person to come along and fall in love with your work. And the more you support people even when you are feeling low, the more people will want to help you rise.

Your latest thriller, As Night Falls, had some eerie pre-publication assistance. How did real-life events help or hinder your chance to tell this harrowing story?

Well, I wasn’t aware of the real-life confluence to come at the time I was writing. In fact, when the news story broke, about three weeks before As Night Falls came out, my editor sent me an email that said, Best. Publicity. Stunt. Ever. And I wrote back, No power tools were sent in the making of this novel.

For those who don’t know what my third thriller is about—and there are surely a lot of them—the story concerns two convicts who escape from an Adirondack prison, one big and one wiry, and head north to the Canadian border.

And for those who don’t follow the news—and there are probably many fewer of them—in early June of 2015, two convicts escaped from an Adirondack prison, one big and one wiry, and headed north to the Canadian border.

It’s funny because each of my novels—and there are a fair number of them, as you know from answer # 2 above—have a genesis story. By which I mean, I’m aware of which character started speaking in my ear, or how the premise came to me. At an event in Surprise, AZ last year, I peered down the signing line and saw a sudden dip in the row of heads. There was a child on line, and she and I locked eyes. Boom, my next novel was born. I knew I was going to go home and write a book where the protagonist is a writer, encounters a kid at one of her book events, and something crazy happens. I didn’t even know what the something crazy would be.

But for As Night Falls…no genesis story. I have no idea why I sat down and began writing about convicts. Or even the woman who has to wrest her life, and the life of her family, back from them. Nor did I know that more than a year after I began writing, two men would decide to play out a similar story in real life.

There’s a mystery to what we do, isn’t there? Greater even than the ones in our stories.

Jenny Milchman is currently on the road for what Shelf Awareness calls the world’s longest book tour with her third novel, As Night Falls. Find her—literally—at http://jennymilchman.com/tour/bring-o...

About As Night Falls

Sandy Tremont has always tried to give her family everything. But as the sky darkens over the Adirondack mountains and the threat of a heavy snowfall looms, an escaped murderer named Nick Burgess has the power to take it all away.

Gazing outside at the shadowy woods, Sandy prepares dinner while upstairs, fifteen-year-old Ivy–smart, brave, and with every reason to be angry tonight–keeps her distance. Sandy’s husband Ben, a wilderness guide, arrives home to a mood simmering with unease.

Nearby, two desperate men on the run make their way through the fading light, the ground in their wake red with blood they’ve shed—there can be no loose ends or witnesses. Almost twenty years as prison cellmates have forged a deadly team: Harlan is the muscle and Nick, the mind and the will. As they approach a secluded house and look through its windows to see a couple eating dinner, Nick knows that here he will find what he’s looking for…before he disappears forever.

About Jenny Milchman

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New York State who lived for thirteen months on the road with her family on what Shelf Awareness called “the world’s longest book tour.”

Jenny’s debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, won the Mary Higgins Clark award for Best Suspense Novel of 2013, was praised by the New York Times, AP, and many other publications, and chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick. RUIN FALLS was also chosen as an Indie Next Pick and a Top Ten of 2014 by Suspense Magazine. Jenny’s third novel, AS NIGHT FALLS, an Indie Next Pick and one of PureWow’s Top 30, is a summer 2015 release.

Jenny speaks nationwide about the publishing industry and the importance of sticking to a dream. She is Vice President of Author Programming for International Thriller Writers, and the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which is celebrated in all 50 states and 6 foreign countries. Jenny teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop.

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Little pretty things I found while writing the book

One of the fun things I’m doing now that I have some time to think: gathering my thoughts on some new projects. I’ll be talking to my agent soon about what ideas I have and which ones might be the best way to spend the next few months. An exciting time around here.

To gather up the ideas, I started going through my Firefox bookmarks. Yes. I keep ideas in my Firefox bookmarks. Someone’s going to say that’s a crappy way to keep ideas, and they’re probably right.

What I found is lots of fun links I kept stored while I was writing Little Pretty Things. Thought you might like to see some of them before I clean them out.

For instance, here’s the image I had for helping me describe Juliet and Lu’s job tools. You, too, could have such an item about your house for $279. A steal.

Hoteliers are a strange sub-community. I learned a lot from this book. Enough, actually, that I should have thanked the author in my acknowledgements. Jacob Tomskey, thank you for writing this book. I also learned some things from staying in hotels, of course, including the existence of a thing called a “pillow menu.” When I got back from Mexico, I found this post to prove pillow menus existed. I took up the issue of hotel ratings with a quick research trip to Wikipedia.

These images pinged something in me about the story I wanted to tell in the book.

I tried to find some existence of “participation medals” from the Olympics, but in the end decided that Coach needed to have earned a real medal—because as a person who LOVES the Olympics, I’d never heard of participation medals. And if I hadn’t heard of them, they wouldn’t make sense to a more casual observer of the Olympics. Too hard to explain. And my friend who had been in the Olympics didn’t remember getting one. I also had this story saved, about people who have sold or tried to sell their medals. Didn’t use it, but still—you never know what might come in handy.

Here’s the image that convinced me that the tree on the cover of Little Pretty Things was indeed, as my friend Alan said, a PrairieFire Crabapple.

I found the links I was looking for, too, but this was a nice trip down memory lane. It’s really sort of satisfying to see all these pieces again—they all appear in some way in the book. Isn’t research the best?

 

 

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Little Pretty bookseller review

Molly, a bookseller at the awesome Book People bookstore in Austin, Texas, wrote up a great review of Little Pretty Things that pings ALL my happy. I would love for you to read the whole thing, but here’s the crush-worthy part, I think:

Little Pretty Things reads rather like a combination of Grosse Pointe Blank and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Or like a re-write of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion where Romy gets murdered in the first five minutes and Michele forgets all about blue binder guy and spends the whole movie solving Romy’s murder while reexamining every facet of her and Romy’s life. Readers of Megan Abbott, Tana French, Mette Ivie Harrison, and Jamie Mason should get plenty of enjoyment out of Lori Rader-Day’s work, but there’s a limit to any exact comparison – Lori Rader-Day’s got a style and sensibility all her own. But don’t take my word for it – thanks to Seventh Street Books and their affordable paperback releases, you can find out for yourself.

 

I mean… Grosse Pointe Blank AND Romy and Michele? Did I die? Is this heaven? She also gives me the Bechdel test, and I passed.

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Little Pretty world we live in

So the book has been out for more than a week now, and I’m happy with the reception, to say the least. Thank you for all your reviews and posts and Tweets and posts and, if you’re Instagramming something, great, I don’t even know about it.

Some of the highlights for this week:

• I was interviewed for The Rumpus. Yes THE Rumpus.

• The Examiner also ran a nice Q&A between Terry Ambrose and myself.

• I wrote a piece for Writer’s Digest on what running and writing have in common. Me? No, I don’t run unless I’m being chased, but still.

• Reviews from all over, and some of them so lovely. This one is the one that choked me up, though. According to Kristopher at BOLOBooks, I might have written the book I had hoped to. And this one from Bookpage ain’t bad, either.

• And if you want to try out Little Pretty Things for yourself, you can read about a day in the life of Juliet Townsend at Dru’s Book Musings or you can read the first two chapters over at Omnimystery News.

 

So. Whew. Good week. Off to two events in Wisconsin this week/weekend and then to Indiana. Check out the events page if you want to meet me or get your book signed!

 

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Happy Launch Day to MEEEEEEE!

Little Pretty Launch Day!!

What I’m doing today:

Talking to radio stations!

Living the Vida Social Media!

Having my picture taken for a Super Secret Thing I’ll Tell You About Later I Promise!

Writing? Maybe?

Having dinner out with my husband!

Feeling incredibly grateful for everyone who helped make this possible…

And being TOTALLY JAZZED to have a second book out!

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IF you want a signed copy of Little Pretty Things, here’s how you can make that happen…

If you want a signed copy shipped to you, order your copy from the Book Cellar, asking in the NOTES section for personalization and which name to sign the book to. I’ll be signing there on Thursday, so these copies won’t be delayed much.

If I’m coming to a city near you, buy the book AT the event. Support the booksellers who are supporting me! Plus, I’d love to see you! If I’m at a LIBRARY, you can certainly buy the book from me that day, or you can buy the book from any bookseller ahead of time and bring it to the library to have me sign.

If you bought an e-book, I’ll totally sign your Kindle or Nook. Bring it to an event! Sharpies rule!

If you bought your book some other way and really want a signature, contact me for a signed bookplate. I’m especially happy to send bookplates to book clubs! (I’m also happy to Skype into book club meetings! Contact me!)

 

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Little Pretty Eve

Tomorrow, Little Pretty Things is released.

A year ago, on the day before my first book came out, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I wrote about it on The Debutante Ball, about how I was getting everything I’d ever wanted, but you can read it there—I wasn’t sure it would be everything I’d ever dreamed it would be.

Well, I’m here to answer that question. Did getting published change my life?

In a word: yes.

I mean, I still don’t floss as often as I should and I still have to pump my own gas once in a while, but the last year has been rather amazing. All the people I’ve met. All the friends I’ve made. The moments where I remember to pinch myself awake and look around at how I spend my time these days. All of life’s little problems don’t go away, but there is a certain satisfaction to having a book on the shelf. My book is on the shelf, and no matter what happens in the future, I had that moment.

Luckily for me, that moment has stretched out into moments I couldn’t have imagined, couldn’t have known to hope for.

And now we do it again. Little Pretty Things releases tomorrow. I have a second book on the shelf. I have THAT moment, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

In preparation, spend a little time with the protagonist of Little Pretty Things, Juliet Townsend, at Dru’s Book Musings. And where do I get all this writing done, you ask? Check out my writing spot(s) on Shelf Pleasure!

 

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Interview in Gapers Block

This is a big deal for me: I’m in Gapers Block! Hello, Chicago! Hi!

It’s all getting-ready around here right now. The countdown says…gulp…10 days.

 

 

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The Black Hour is nominated for a Macavity Award!

The Black Hour is a nominee for the Macavity Award for Best First Novel!

What a year I’ve had.

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Goodreads #giveaway

If you’re a Goodreads user, getcherself over to the giveaway for an advanced reader copy of LITTLE PRETTY THINGS going on now, before the book is available in stores July 7. Three copies being given away!

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