Persia Walker's Blog, page 3

Book Giveaway: THE DAMAGE DONE

I'm actually beginning to enjoy these book giveaways. It's a nice way to share the wealth! The winner of last week's giveaway was Regina Mason. She'll be receiving a copy of Cara Black's MURDER IN PASSY.

This week's mystery book giveaway is my friend Hilary Davidson's The Damage Done. It was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel! See my contests page for more information.

Cara Black Book Giveaway

Hey,

I've got a great book to give away. It's Cara Black's latest mystery, Murder in Passy.
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Murder in Passy, by Cara Black

Book Description:

The village-like neighborhood of Passy, home to many of Paris's wealthiest residents, is the last place one would expect a murder. But when Aimée Leduc's godfather, Morbier, a police commissaire, asks her to check on his girlfriend at her home there, that's exactly what Aimée finds. Xavierre, a haut bourgeois matron of Basque origin, is strangled in her garden while Aimée waits inside. Circumstantial evidence makes Morbier the prime suspect, and to vindicate him, Aimée must identify the real killer. Her investigation leads her to police corruption; the radical Basque terrorist group, ETA; and a kidnapped Spanish princess.

Excerpt here.

Contest runs for one week, July 3-10, 2011. To enter, follow instructions of form below.

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Lanie Price: A Character Study (Part 3)

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"Lanie is a brilliantly drawn character." —Caribbean Life

This is the final installment of a three-part study on Lanie Price, the society columnist featured in Darkness and the Devil Behind Me and Black Orchid Blues. I'll discuss what makes Lanie tick, what drives her and why she does what she does.

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Lanie Price

We see that Lanie is drawn to the darker side of life, but not because of any morbid fascination with death. It has more to do with the grief she carries from the loss of her husband and the empathy and compassion she has for those who likewise suffer.

This sense of compassion compels Lanie's relentless pursuit for answers. She simply cannot give up. Her tendency to become emotionally invested is perhaps one reason why she became so burnt out before. In Black Orchid Blues,, her desperate effort to save the life of Queenie Lovetree, the kidnapped cabaret singer, is a direct result of her having known the victim and having been present at the crime. Later, more events construe to draw Lanie deeper and deeper into the web of intrigue surrounding Queenie's abduction. In short, Lanie couldn't stay away if she tried.

But others don't see it that way.

Take Sam Delaney, for example. He's her editor and lover, and her often impetuous willingness to risk life-and-limb is of constant concern to him. His is the voice of reason. In Black Orchid Blues, he vents his worry and frustration.

"You keep running off, taking chances that could get you killed. You act as though you don't matter to anyone but you. Well, you do. You matter to a whole lot of people."

Before I could answer, he held up an index finger. "That's number one. Number two is that I am your boss, Lanie. It is my job to know your whereabouts. Your welfare, the welfare of everyone in that newsroom––is my responsibility. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, but …"

"But nothing."

Lanie, however, will not be silenced. She responds with an answer that makes her position perfectly clear:

I could feel my temper rising. "Staying safe is not why I got into this business." I cocked my head. "I've told you how much it means to me to not just cover parties, but did I say why I wanted to be a reporter to begin with?"

"I assume it was because you wanted to help people."

"Yes! I wanted to tell the stories that no one else would tell. Ida B. Wells and Nellie Bly, they're my heroes. I wanted to be like them: do important stories, significant stories. But the fact is, I'm a coward. I don't have Ida's guts to fight lynching or Nellie's courage to go inside an insane asylum."

He narrowed his eyes. "But you do."

"No, I don't. But every now and then I find a story that I do have the guts to cover. A story that could make a difference."

"And you think this is one of them?"

"Yes, I do."

Ida B. Wells Barnett

Lanie is unapologetic about the risks she takes. She tells Sam straight out that "staying safe" is not her primary concern as a journalist. What is, is a burning desire to "tell the stories that no one else would."

Significantly, Lanie considers herself a "coward," because she doesn't believe she has the guts to do what Ida B. Wells and Nelly Bly did.

Most people would agree that both Wells and Bly were willing to risk their lives for causes they believed in.

Take Wells, for example. In 1884, a train conductor in Memphis ordered Wells to give up her seat. She refused to budge, 71 years before Rosa Parks. It took three men to drag Wells off that train. Then she sued the railroad company. She was not a woman to give up.

Wells took up the struggle against lynching after three of her friends were murdered by a mob. For the rest of her life, she would persevere against threats to her life in order to write and speak out against lynching and the cover-ups that kept killers free.

Bly was cut from the same determined and courageous cloth. She faked insanity in order to be committed and wrote an eye-opening first-hand expose on the now legendary horrors of 19th-century mental institutions. She wrote about the sufferings of the working poor, especially women, especially factory workers.

Nellie Bly (1890)

In short, the work done by Wells and Bly was both dangerous and of national social significance. In Lanie's time, their names were synonymous with investigative journalism. They're Lanie's heroes, two women whose courage and refusal to compromise both inspire and guide her.

But what about common sense you might ask.  Being an ardent admirer of Wells and Bly and determined to do good doesn't mean you have to give up common sense, does it?

I hear you. You're saying, "Like, let's keep it real. I mean, being brave is one thing, but getting in a car with a stone cold killer, that's something else, and doing so without telling anyone where you're going? I mean, is that necessary?"

I would say that yes, that act showed questionable judgment, but Lanie would say that she had a chance and she went for it. She would also say that under certain circumstances, common sense is a luxury one can't always afford.

I've seen male characters make extremely risky decisions and no one seems to bat an eyelash. No one talks about "common sense" or "being careful"; no one says "foolhardy" instead of "brave." As a matter of fact, we applaud them for their bravura, their willingness to forge ahead or take initiative even when faced with the risk of dire consequences. So I have to wonder. If Lanie were male, would people be so stunned at the risks she takes?

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Lanie Price: A Character Study (Part 2)

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"Lanie is a brilliantly drawn character." —Caribbean Life

This is the second of a three-part study on Lanie Price, the society columnist featured in Darkness and the Devil Behind Me and Black Orchid Blues. I'll discuss what makes Lanie tick, what drives her and why she does what she does.

Lanie Price

Let's bring out the details. Lanie is a society columnist for The Harlem Chronicle, the author of a weekly column called "Lanie's World." She spends most of her time writing about social and charitable club meetings, who attended what party, when, where and most importantly, with whom. At the beginning of Darkness and the Devil Behind Me, we see that she's bored to tears with this gig, but learn that years earlier she'd actually lobbied for it, because at the time she saw it as a welcome relief from her job as a crime reporter for The Harlem Age. Back then, she wrote only about brutality, tragedy and wasted human potential. She wanted a change. As she states in Darkness and the Devil Behind Me:

"When I joined the Chronicle, I was tired of reporting on death and misery. I believed I could achieve good by reporting inspiring, positive news about the doings of Harlem's upper crust.

However, in the intervening years, Lanie gained a new perspective:

"I'd consistently been reminded that the 'light' news often has its dark side, too, and I wasn't doing anyone a favor by ignoring it. My job in life was to tell both the good and the bad. I had no grand ideas about being the catalyst for lasting change, but I did want to be able to look back and say I'd done my bit to keep the record straight."

In Darkness and the Devil Behind Me, Ruth Todd begs Lanie to write about her sister, Esther's, unsolved disappearance. Concerned that she might disappoint Ruth, Lanie hesitates but finally agrees to help her. It is then she realizes that in helping Ruth, she is also helping herself. She sees that in abandoning crime reporting, she had abandoned a part of herself:

"For the first time, in a long time, I felt a tremor of excitement, one that went hand-in-glove with a sense of relief. … Somewhere deep down was a stirring of the hunter's instinct. It had been years since I'd walked the beat, but the drive was still there, the need to ask questions, track down answers and assemble the delicate human puzzle behind every crime. My mind missed the concentrated effort. My guts missed the thrill of the result, and my nature missed the communion with darkness."

In the third installment, we'll see how this insight propels Lanie forward.

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Lanie Price: A Character Study (Part 1)

"Lanie is a brilliantly drawn character." —Caribbean Life

This is the first of a three-part study on Lanie Price, the society columnist featured in Darkness and the Devil Behind Me and Black Orchid Blues. I'll discuss what makes Lanie tick, what drives her and why she does what she does.

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Lanie Price

I had a wonderful dinner meeting with a local book club on Wednesday evening and of course the topic of conversation was Black Orchid Blues. We not only discussed the story, but talked about Lanie Price, the lead character, and how she's such a risk-taker. For example, one woman brought up the instance in which Lanie has a face-to-face conversation with a violent high-profile criminal who has successfully eluded even the best New York City detectives. He contacts her and she agrees to meet with him — alone. One of the ladies from the meeting said, "I sure wouldn't have done that."

She had a point. I probably wouldn't have done it, either. Then again, maybe I would've. If I'd been Lanie, with her background, her innate skills at reading people, her professional experience in dealing with violent criminals; if I had her ambition and her dedication to the job, then yes, maybe if I had all that, I would've done just as she did.

Few of us are as heroic or daring as the heroes we read about. But isn't that difference what keeps us fascinated? Don't we all secretly wish we had the guts to step into the dark in order to find answers? Don't we all secretly wish we had the guts to stand up and speak our mind when someone tries to intimidate us? Yes, I think we do. At least, I do.

We want our heroes to be bigger than life. Still, they have to be "normal" enough for us to relate to them. What's normal about Lanie? And how does this very normalcy support her tendency to take risks?

Well, she is, first and foremost, a reporter. From this we deduce that she's highly inquisitive by nature. Second, she's a reporter. So we can deduce that she strongly believes in the power of information. Third, she's a former crime reporter, so we see that she also has the drive of a passionate advocate.

And last, but not least, she's a widow, a woman still living in the shadow of grief and all that this implies. She has no children and no close family. In other words, she's alone. We won't really discuss this factor, but surely it's in the mix. There's nothing like the death of a loved one to make you reconsider the worth of what you're doing with your own life – or make you wonder whether you want to live at all.

In the next installment, we'll discuss the details …

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Black Orchid Blues: Mystery of the Month

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Had a great morning at Book Expo America yesterday. Signed copies of Black Orchid Blues at the Mystery Writers of America booth (#4482).

This morning started off with a Google alert bringing my attention to this wonderful video by Scott Montgomery, the mystery coordinator at BookPeople, a fantastic independent store in Austin, Texas.

Thank you, Scott! Check out MysteryPeople's Facebook page.

Will be at MWA again today. Stop by if you can!

The Tippler: A Character Waiting For A Story

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Sometimes the characters come, but not their names or their stories. Do you know who she might be? Does she speak to you?

Harlem Confidential

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Sometimes writers come up with great book titles but no stories to go with them. Sometimes we come up with cover art, too — and no stories to go with it.

Here's the latest such creation. Hope you enjoy!

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Harlem Redux: Revisited

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[image error]To pick up on a thread that I haven't touched upon in a while, my first published book Harlem Redux. There's a new, slightly revised, version now available for sale. At the moment, it's available in Kindle only. And it has a snazzy new cover. Hope you like it!

Revised did you say? Yes, well, I went back and slightly retooled the ending. Some of my readers had mentioned that they wanted to know more of what was going on at the ending, so I added some scenes and (I hope) improved the dialogue.

The idea of reissuing a revised version of a book might seem odd. I think it was a fairly rare occurrence in the days preceding ebooks, but it's much more common now. People just don't announce it, perhaps.

Anyway, the new book is good. I'm very happy with it now. And I hope readers will be, too.

Edgars Week

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The Rich and the Dead

Last night, attended the book release party for the Mystery Writers of America's newest anthology, The Rich and the Dead.

The party was held at Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop, the perfect setting for such an event. Incredible talent in the crowd: Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, S.J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Reed Farrel Coleman, Laura Lippman, Roberta Isleib, Twist Phelan, Sara J. Henry, Alafair Burke and Laura King, to mention a few.

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Me signing for Michael ... Who'da thunk it?

Michael was kind enough to pick up a copy of Black Orchid Blues and have me sign it for him. Now anyone who knows me knows that I'm a total MC fan. Me signing for him? I couldn't believe it! I mentioned to Michael that I wished I'd brought my camera to catch the moment. So you know what he did? He took out his phone, held it up and took a picture for me!

Tonight's the Agents and Editors Reception, which follows the all-day symposium. I can't make the symposium, but I hope to attend the party. It's gonna be great to see friends who come in from out of town just for this week. I'm really looking forward to it.