tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post7062992608245688905..comments2024-03-28T02:36:30.029-04:00Comments on Jungle Red Writers: Kate Flora writes... because we NEED heroesJungle Red Writershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16646429819267618412noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-24281840663405302042018-11-07T12:58:21.540-05:002018-11-07T12:58:21.540-05:00Thank you! I just realized that there is only one...Thank you! I just realized that there is only one more Joe Burgess book after AND GRANT YOU PEACE, so I'm relieved that there's a new collection coming. No pressure, but . . . I need the BOOKS, the heroes, the escape. <br />“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” ― G.K. ChestertonMary Garretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00952344253284240716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-59078693977573976242018-11-03T14:31:34.650-04:002018-11-03T14:31:34.650-04:00I read to be captivated--by a story, by character,...I read to be captivated--by a story, by character, by setting, and, yes, by a satisfactory ending that brings about justice or change for the better. Characters are, like their human counterparts, flawed, and some characters, again like people, aren't redeemable. But, if you give me a book where no one learns anything from their flaws or mistakes, then I am most disappointed by the book. For a story to be worthwhile to me, the main character needs to show that he or she has been through the darkness and gained something from it. Kathy Reelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17004247271452356577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-51288839694477843452018-11-03T14:17:05.972-04:002018-11-03T14:17:05.972-04:00I think reading and writing crime fiction can make...I think reading and writing crime fiction can make you braver. You can read examples (or write them) of characters standing up for what is just and right, especially when standing up for those things isn't easy. When we can't find examples of leadership and courage in the real world, sometimes we can find in the fictional world and be inspired to act or think differently. Welcome, Kate! Thanks for your thought-provoking essay!Ingrid Thofthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04063912686011336076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-10989109189773792032018-11-03T12:15:14.636-04:002018-11-03T12:15:14.636-04:00I sure am glad you encouraged me to keep writing!I sure am glad you encouraged me to keep writing!Edith Maxwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01388006370860482509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-41541281499857659702018-11-03T12:03:53.078-04:002018-11-03T12:03:53.078-04:00Brilliant.
A touch of the sordid reality of everyd...Brilliant.<br />A touch of the sordid reality of everyday life with the seasoning of right prevailing!<br />Libby DoddUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03967590242114956411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-70981559793756547762018-11-03T11:26:39.352-04:002018-11-03T11:26:39.352-04:00We probably need a Joe Burgess, too. But of course...We probably need a Joe Burgess, too. But of course I am prejudiced, since he's my character. But yes...we want/need to see good guys and good gals. We wouldn't want them perfect, but we do want them to be stand up guys and gals.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-23464733886605569262018-11-03T11:23:13.546-04:002018-11-03T11:23:13.546-04:00Hank...I definitely want that tiara. You are now c...Hank...I definitely want that tiara. You are now charged with bringing one...do Goddesses wear tiaras? Stunned by the honor, and thrilled by it, of course. I tend to be a bit like Eeyore, as in "thanks for noticing me."<br /><br />Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-19524216528764828912018-11-03T11:21:37.565-04:002018-11-03T11:21:37.565-04:00Lyda...see my answer to Lucy, above. Obviously, on...Lyda...see my answer to Lucy, above. Obviously, one challenge with writing nonfiction is being faithful to the facts. And yes, I do my own research, although with a co-written book like Shots Fired: The misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths about police shootings, my cowriter did the interviews, while I edited them, sent him back for clarification and more diversity of interview subjects, and then did the research for the narrative--statistics, criminal law, constitutional law, etc. Some of the "hands on" research was fascination. For A Good Man with a Dog, it involved going on cadaver dog, and search and rescue dog trainings, for Death Dealer, the true crime that takes place in Canada, it was riding an ATV through the Canadian woods, and once going on a stakeout and spotting the bad guy. All these police contacts are so valuable when I need to know how my cops will respond in the fiction.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-21631414006236104692018-11-03T11:20:14.934-04:002018-11-03T11:20:14.934-04:00Congrats on the new books, Kate! And I agree 100% ...Congrats on the new books, Kate! And I agree 100% with having a solid resolution at the end. Life is murky enough as it is! Jenn McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13589365995413467367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-866795215097734682018-11-03T11:19:58.905-04:002018-11-03T11:19:58.905-04:00When I was a teenager, someone gave me a gift of T...When I was a teenager, someone gave me a gift of The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett. I probably had seen The Maltese Falcon and many other noir films by that time. I liked the fact that you couldn’t always tell who were the good guys or the bad guys. I also like the spoofing of the genre by Garrison Keillor when he plays Guy Noir “searching for answers to life’s persistent questions.” I will stop reading a book if it’s not “entertaining”. That is true for me either in fiction or non-fiction and it happens sometimes with perfectly well-written books. Sometimes I need to put a book down and return to it later. I like learning about the interior life of a character; whether this comes from a first-person narrative or if it comes by way of being shown by the actions of characters over the course of the novel. All that being said, I do like a good read where the hero is vindicated in the end and all is set right in the world.David Squireshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17144607647071920674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-45431286186886702142018-11-03T11:16:37.251-04:002018-11-03T11:16:37.251-04:00Amanda, I hope you'll enjoy meeting Thea. I th...Amanda, I hope you'll enjoy meeting Thea. I think most of us, with series women, are watching them grow and change, while still keeping the characters our readers love. Since I write two series, when I move from one to the other to write a new book, it's like getting together with old friends and catching up on what is happening is their lives.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-88623587969820405542018-11-03T11:14:29.198-04:002018-11-03T11:14:29.198-04:00Hooray, Margaret. Hooray, Margaret. Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-4390403472111787582018-11-03T11:12:59.551-04:002018-11-03T11:12:59.551-04:00My go-to was early Dick Francis. Loved his brave, ...My go-to was early Dick Francis. Loved his brave, unselfaware heroes. I made his Thea's literary godfather when I started writing.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-72920368994857125902018-11-03T11:11:31.878-04:002018-11-03T11:11:31.878-04:00Judi, my brother John was a librarian for many yea...Judi, my brother John was a librarian for many years, and one of his focuses was finding books that YA readers, particularly boys, would relate to. He built a fabulous collection and a great community of readers. As a mom, I was sometimes horrified by what the boys chose, but again, if the books kept their noses glued to the page and sent them on to other books, the writer had done his or her job. And to Hallie's point, Judy Green, a wonderful Maine write, wrote something like 26 books for adult beginning readers--much better than Dick and Jane.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-62120429977221689372018-11-03T11:08:33.684-04:002018-11-03T11:08:33.684-04:00Lucy...I never meant to write nonfiction. I was dr...Lucy...I never meant to write nonfiction. I was dragged into it kicking and screaming by the public safety officers I was relying on to get the fiction right. Writing true crime and other nonfiction has been tough, but it has also been very effective in illuminating the police officers lives and work so that the fiction has gotten deeper, darker, and more real. The converse is that when I started helping public safety officers tell their stories--in Finding Amy and Death Dealer--I could bring storytelling skills and what I knew about organizing a story--the arc, the drama, the need to attach readers to the characters--to bear on the real stories.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-68242431389409291242018-11-03T11:08:08.081-04:002018-11-03T11:08:08.081-04:00I did that with Louise, Ann Cleeves, and our own D...I did that with Louise, Ann Cleeves, and our own Deb a few years ago. Now I’ve read them all twice. It’s like snuggling in with old friends Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14187856103924954287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-40260295277332152702018-11-03T11:04:52.036-04:002018-11-03T11:04:52.036-04:00I started reading mysteries "for fun" wh...I started reading mysteries "for fun" when I was in law school. A good antidote to the seriousness of everything. But when I contemplated what I wanted to write, it was the contest between good and evil, fueled by years in the practice and observing human behavior and people's belief that it was okay for them to deviate from the social contract not to do harm, that inspired me to choose to write mysteries.Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-28165376467455014742018-11-03T11:04:03.280-04:002018-11-03T11:04:03.280-04:00Reading mystery fiction is not only entertaining, ...Reading mystery fiction is not only entertaining, it’s also educational. I love to read mysteries set in places I will never be able to visit or revisit, or set in another era, or about a profession I know nothing about, and most of all because in most mysteries justice prevails. I need to see that. With the way things are going in the world, too many people’s lives are being changed forever by some sort of violence. Reading about a fictional world in which someone takes charge and tries to right the wrongs or bring the guilty to justice is my respite from what I hear or read in the news. (We all need an Armand Gamache in our lives.)<br /><br />DebRo Deb Romanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01650858888197217258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-81829269622597188812018-11-03T11:02:14.978-04:002018-11-03T11:02:14.978-04:00Wasn't I clever to recognize your talent, Edit...Wasn't I clever to recognize your talent, Edith <br />Kate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-38428593761334160762018-11-03T11:00:59.632-04:002018-11-03T11:00:59.632-04:00I know that sometimes the endings can be mixed, bu...I know that sometimes the endings can be mixed, but there is justice. I also try, in my books, to create an understanding of the ripple effects of crime. The victims aren't only the person who is killed, but family and friends, sometimes society, and those who have to investigate the crime.<br /><br />KateKate Florahttp://www.kateclarkflora.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-43091212822670638712018-11-03T10:55:53.959-04:002018-11-03T10:55:53.959-04:00Thanks, Hank!
Thanks, Hank!<br />Edith Maxwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01388006370860482509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-24098204006462308432018-11-03T10:20:03.840-04:002018-11-03T10:20:03.840-04:00Congratulations on the new books, Kate.
For me it...Congratulations on the new books, Kate.<br /><br />For me it's a bit of both. Yes, entertainment - but also a gratifying sense of "this is how the story SHOULD end." All too often we see the opposite in the real world - the "bad guys" get off (or get off lightly) and the victims are left to pick up the pieces by themselves.<br /><br />Mary/LizLiz Millironhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04919409969263609919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-8453766304422434122018-11-03T10:02:41.600-04:002018-11-03T10:02:41.600-04:00It certainly is nice!It certainly is nice!Joan Emersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06810313925049108163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-15559371029099008192018-11-03T09:56:28.036-04:002018-11-03T09:56:28.036-04:00 Congratulations on your fabulous honor at Crime B... Congratulations on your fabulous honor at Crime BAC, Kate! I will shower you with rose petals and place a tiara on your head… Well, metaphorically. But you are fabulous! Thank you so much for all you have done for me, and for everyone… You are a true icon. Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07630366214207785339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-80042680807645317952018-11-03T09:55:20.682-04:002018-11-03T09:55:20.682-04:00Happy birthday Edith!Happy birthday Edith!Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07630366214207785339noreply@blogger.com