Mary Riley
asked
Neal Sanders:
I just want to tell you that I missed your talk in Lynnfield. But, when I found out you wrote mysteries, I was intrigued. Absolutely LOVED "The Garden Club Gang"! Hope you bring those ladies back. Have since read "A Murder in the Garden Club" and didn't figure it out. Perfect. Just started "Murder for a Worthy Cause". Look forward to reading and enjoying your other titles. How do you get these ideas?
Neal Sanders
Hi, Mary,
First, if you live in Lynnfield, I’ll be next door in Danvers at the Maple Street Congregational Church on Wednesday, October 19, at 7:30. That talk is very much open to the public and is sponsored by the church’s Women’s Group.
Now, to your questions. If you loved ‘The Garden Club Gang’ and want to see the ladies come back, you need to read ‘Deadly Deeds’. In that book, ‘the ladies’ definitely come back. They want to atone for robbing the Brookfield Fair by doing a couple of good deeds. The first is to help Samantha Ayers (the insurance investigator) expose a fraud at an auto dealership. The second is to determine whether the death of a 94-year-old member of the club was of natural causes or she was ‘helped along’ by a person or persons unknown. As in ‘The Garden Club Gang’, those two actions will cause unintended consequences.
Chronologically, ‘Murder for a Worthy Cause’ follows ‘A Murder in the Garden Club’, so you’re reading those two books in order (though I make certain all stories stand alone). Liz Phillips and Detective John Flynn also appear in two books set earlier that ‘A Murder in the Garden Club’: ‘A Murder at the Flower Show’ and ‘Murder in Negative Space’. The two characters cross paths in those two books, but do not meet.
Where do I get the ideas? From listening to what people around me are saying, and by observing what people do. Every book starts with an ‘aha’ moment when I see or hear something that I think might be the central nugget of a story. For ‘The Garden Club Gang’, it was hearing of a story (related in the opening pages of the book) about an elderly woman who cannot get attention of two teenaged boys at the counter of a drugstore when she wants to pick up the prints her daughter has emailed her.
I hope you can come to the Danvers presentation later this month. If you can, please introduce yourself!
Neal Sanders
First, if you live in Lynnfield, I’ll be next door in Danvers at the Maple Street Congregational Church on Wednesday, October 19, at 7:30. That talk is very much open to the public and is sponsored by the church’s Women’s Group.
Now, to your questions. If you loved ‘The Garden Club Gang’ and want to see the ladies come back, you need to read ‘Deadly Deeds’. In that book, ‘the ladies’ definitely come back. They want to atone for robbing the Brookfield Fair by doing a couple of good deeds. The first is to help Samantha Ayers (the insurance investigator) expose a fraud at an auto dealership. The second is to determine whether the death of a 94-year-old member of the club was of natural causes or she was ‘helped along’ by a person or persons unknown. As in ‘The Garden Club Gang’, those two actions will cause unintended consequences.
Chronologically, ‘Murder for a Worthy Cause’ follows ‘A Murder in the Garden Club’, so you’re reading those two books in order (though I make certain all stories stand alone). Liz Phillips and Detective John Flynn also appear in two books set earlier that ‘A Murder in the Garden Club’: ‘A Murder at the Flower Show’ and ‘Murder in Negative Space’. The two characters cross paths in those two books, but do not meet.
Where do I get the ideas? From listening to what people around me are saying, and by observing what people do. Every book starts with an ‘aha’ moment when I see or hear something that I think might be the central nugget of a story. For ‘The Garden Club Gang’, it was hearing of a story (related in the opening pages of the book) about an elderly woman who cannot get attention of two teenaged boys at the counter of a drugstore when she wants to pick up the prints her daughter has emailed her.
I hope you can come to the Danvers presentation later this month. If you can, please introduce yourself!
Neal Sanders
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