It's a......Character!!

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Yes, most birth announcements generally specify gender, but today's guest is Anthony-Award winning novelist Hilary Davidson and she tells us how she, um...gave birth to her main character..


HILARY DAVIDSON: Recently, someone asked me where I’d gotten the idea for the character of Lily Moore, and I was stuck for an answer. It’s not that she’s an obscure character. Lily is at the center of my first novel, The Damage Done, and of my new book, The Next One to Fall, which will be out on Valentine’s Day. Part of me wanted to admit that she’s my imaginary friend, but I always worry that answers like that will just be fodder for the men in white coats with butterfly nets who will lock me up one day

The truth is, I have a really hard time explaining where characters come from — even Lily, with whom I have a lot in common. We’re both travel writers, and we’ve visited many of the same places, so that’s an obvious parallel. We both love vintage clothes and movies and music, though with Lily, it’s a bit more like an obsession.
She’s originally from New York, and while the city isn’t my hometown (that would be Toronto), I’ve lived here for more than a decade, long enough to feel that it’s mine. There are some notable ways that Lily and I are different, though. For starters, she’s single, and I’m married. Her family relationships are the source of a lot of pain for her; mine have been a source of strength for me. When she travels, it’s an escape from so many things that she dreads, and she hates going home. As much as I love exploring new places, I’m always so grateful to return home after a trip.
That last difference is one of the things that really made Lily come into focus in my mind. I remember being on a press trip a few years ago with a small group of female journalists. There were only five of us, and one night while we were up late, drinking in the hotel’s lounge, someone started talking about the real reason she’d become a travel writer, which was to escape her family life, which she hated but felt she couldn’t break free of. I was riveted by what she said. There was something incredibly compelling and yet very sad about having a family life that you couldn’t cope with and creating this professional escape hatch so you could survive it. Lily had been hanging out at the edges of my brain, and when I heard this story, I realized that Lily was doing exactly what this journalist was doing.

There are so many things that go into creating a fully fleshed-out character, and so many of them are found by accident — at least, that’s been true in my case with Lily. Even her affinity for Ava Gardner was something that I discovered along the way, while I was in the middle of writing the first book. I pictured her looking a bit like Ava — or Vivien Leigh, or Gene Tierney (not that those actresses are interchangeable, but they have certain similarities). It was only when I read about the actresses and discovered an eerie parallel with Ava — her father died when she was 13, as Lily’s had — that I started to connect the two of them more closely.

I’m fascinated when other writers tell me that they knew their main character from the start. With Lily, it’s been more of a gradual reveal. In some ways, she’s a different person in The Next One to Fall than she was in the first book — and the fact that she’s still evolving is one of the reasons she still fascinates me.

Hilary Davidson won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel for The Damage Done. That book also earned a Crimespree Award and was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis and Macavity awards. Her second novel, The Next One to Fall, is a mystery set in Peru (Forge Feb. 14, 2012.) Hilary has also written 18 nonfiction books as well as short stories for Ellery Queen, Beat to a Pulp, and Thuglit.
Find Hilary here...
Website: http://www.hilarydavidson.com
Blog: http://blog.hilarydavidson.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/hilarydavidson
The Next One to Fall: http://blog.hilarydavidson.com/the-next-one-to-fall/

Groundhog Day!!

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I never thought much about GroundHog day until I saw the movie (yikes it was 1993) with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Still hysterical and at the risk of sounding like a goody-goody - which we all know I'm not - it still has some lessons which every year I get a huge kick out of watching Bill Murray learn.

So.. the deal is if he sees his shadow, he's afraid and runs back into his whatever and we have another six weeks of winter. But - uh - isn't it a good thing if it's sunny instead of cloudy?

Today it was sunny and 60 degrees in New York. I intend to not see my shadow tomorrow - even if it's there. It hasn't been a horrible winter but I wouldn't mind if it ended soon. Anyone else feeling the rumblings of spring?

I can't wait to move all of my container plants back outside. And I won't mind not having to remember where I put my gloves.

What will you do first and what will you miss the least when winter finally ends?

Under the sheets...???

ROSEMARY HARRIS:  No, this is not really a naughty post. And it's not about bridal shower or sweet sixteen minutes or saying the words "under the sheets" after you read your fortune cookie fortune. (Haven't done that? It's fun.)

Last month, while on vacation in a tiny cabin, horizontal, next to my happily snoring husband - I desperately wanted to keep reading. I fumbled around, found the flashlight (it was that kind of trip) and finished my book by flashlight, Under the Sheets. Like a kid, sneaking a few more minutes after lights out.  The book in question was Lee Child's The Affair. Get your guffaws out now..Lee Child ... Under the Sheets.
The Affair..Under the sheets. I'm with you. Pretty funny. But seriously, the book was just too good to put down.
So - What was the last book that was so good you would have read it with a flashlight under the sheets?
And, okay, let's be a little naughty - add the words Under the Sheets to some book titles. Hallie's are perfect - Never tell a lie under the sheets and Come and find me under the sheets!

JAN BROGAN:  I hate to admit this, in part because I was totally  manipulated by my Kindle and the author, who didn't completely wrap up the story but left it hanging. But I actually finished book II on night at about 1 in the morning, ordered the third and final book in the series, and kept reading until three a.m.   My husband was away on business, but really..... I am not proud of my behavior. I mean, I might as well be staying up late shooting heroin because that's a little what it felt like.
Teaser ...under the sheets?

RHYS BOWEN: I've finished re-reading Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book and you'd think that because I'd read it before I wouldn't be so caught up in the story. But I was. I knew, in theory that the heroine would be rescued and wouldn't die of plague but I had to keep clicking that Kindle page turner, eating up large chunks of valuable time when I should have been writing or eating or cleaning house. And when it ended I found I was crying. Good book if it can do that to a reader twice!
And I should just mention that my next Molly book, due out in March, is called Hush Now, Don't You Cry..... under the sheets!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I can't tell you, because its going to win the Edgar. And it'll be pretty funny to add under the sheets after the title.  I'm now reading Val McDermid's The Retribution (under the sheets) and Charles Todd's The Confession (under the sheets). Hooked, absolutely, on both!  (And I agree about The Affair!)
(My new book is The Other Woman. The Other Woman Under the Sheets is a MUCH better title...) Ro, you are too funny...xoox

LUCY BURDETTE: Can't wait for HUSH NOW, DON'T YOU CRY, and THE OTHER WOMAN, and NO MARK UPON HER--which is on my nightstand. I know I'll be under the sheets with those! But I'm reading a lot of novels with food and cooking in them--loved loved Barbara O'Neal's HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE and Julie Hyzy's White House chef series and Meredith Mileti's AFTERTASTE. And THE HELP rates right up there with GONE WITH THE WIND in my life list.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I stayed up WAY too late the other night reading a very advanced copy (as in PDF of typeset pages) of Marcia Talley's new book, The Last Refuge (under the sheets.) That's a good one! As is the book! And we Reds who were at ALA in Dallas scored big. Although I didn't have a chance to get a copy of Val McDermid's Retribution, I've got Charles Todd's Confession, Cara Black's Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, and Denise Hamilton's Damage Control. Temptation under the sheets! I think Hank and Hallie are tied for the best "Under the Sheets" titles, but No Mark Upon Her (under the sheets) isn't bad, either.
(Rhys, all my Brit friends keep telling me I must read Connie Willis. Now I really MUST read Connie Willis...)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ro, one summer when I was doing a massive multi-week book tour with Denise Hamilton, I picked up Lee Child's THE PERSUADER (under the sheets!) I got so wrapped up in it, that I couldn't stop reading when it was time for lights out (Denise and I were sharing a hotel room.) I took the book into the bathroom, threw a towel against the door to keep the light from spilling into the room, and stayed up 'til 3 finishing it - sitting on the john! Obviously, Lee knows how to keep a reader under the sheets...Recently? I read Linda Rodriguez's upcoming
EVERY LAST SECRET (under the sheets) in order to blurb it, and it kept me up way too late in bed, despite being in an unwieldy manuscript form. I think some of my titles would work.
I SHALL NOT WANT..under the sheets. ALL MORTAL FLESH...under the sheets. Which reminds me of the way I learned to play the game: with hymn titles!

HALLIE EPHRON: Hey, we can take all of Ro's mysteries and have a little DIRTY BUSINESS under the sheets. Hmmm. Sounds like fun. I couldn't put down Sara Henry's Learning to Swim ... I would have taken it under the sheets except I go to bed WAY earlier than my husband. And some of Deborah's titles are so perfect: Now May You Weep under the sheets, Dreaming of the Bones under the sheets, Mourn Not Your Dead under the sheets
And what about Prime Time Under the Sheets.

ROSEMARY: Or..(she blushes)..Face Time under the sheets? What's YOUR favorite...under the sheets?

How Ya Doin'?

ROSEMARY HARRIS:

Holy cow - one month down and eleven to go. Where did the month go?? I'm still putting Christmas back in the closet and we're already looking at February. I don't usually make a big deal out of  New Year's resolutions - I make them every week, every morning really. No matter what I've done that day I go to bed every night thinking that tomorrow will be another opportunity to do better. However I define that.

This year I did have a few specific goals. I'd been dragging my feet on my work in progress and was determined to

push that Send button by January 31.

 

Did it on January 27. YAY!

 

 

I keep promising myself that I won't overcommit this year and so far so good.

 

I want to write a short story - and Reine has given me my first line!

 

I did not lose the five pounds I hoped to this month, but I lost two and that was pretty good considering skinny margaritas, beer and nachos were on the menu in Dallas.

So how are the rest of you doing? Don't worry if it's not so great...tomorrow's the first and that's another clean slate.

 

 

PS(Come back tomorrow for Under the Sheets....and aren't you curious to know what THAT means?)

Mama Said

ROSEMARY HARRIS: "Mama said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this, my mama said!" The Shirelles

My mother, who would have been 80 this year, said lots of other useful things, too like - "If all of your friends were jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you jump too?" (This, needless to say, in response to any statement from me about something my pals were doing.) Was this just a Brooklyn thing? Did mothers in New Jersey substitute the Trenton Makes Bridge? In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge?

She would occasionally break into the song "Sisters" from White Christmas when my sister and I got into an argument.

And she was right - I never did get another pair of eyes! (My eyeglasses in the fourth grade were particularly hideous. Think Lina Wertmuller. But powder blue.)
My all-time favorite mom-ism - she didn't know about the cucumbers, like Hank's mom - is one I think of often, and in retrospect, I should have appreciated her more for it.
"I can't put my head on your shoulders." As in, I can advise you, but you have to make up your mind. Oy! I wish she was still around to see how that turned out. Mostly wonderful, mom.
What were your mom's catch phrases?

RHYS BOWEN: My father was the one with all the catch phrases, his favorites being "Don't count your chickens..."  Before they are hatched being implied. "Eyes too big for your belly" when we left food on our plates, or sometimes "You must be twins, one couldn't be so daft." He had also been stationed in Egypt for four years during the war and frequently barked commands at us in Arabic, all of which we came to understand.
My mom has been dead for 13 years now and I'm trying to remember if she ever used catch phrases. She was a very modern woman, very trendy and would pick up the latest phrase from popular culture but no words of folk wisdom that I can think of.
Pity. I'd like to be able to hear her voice in my head, giving me the perennial warning.

HALLIE EPHRON: Lina Wertmuller's glasses?? Now that is a reference only Ro would make -- I had to Google images to find out we're talking white, not-quite cats eyes. A rather startling effect with LW's short white-white hair and black-black eyebrows. Funny thing, when my mother died, I somehow ended up with her reading glasses (black, same shape as LW's) and I couldn't throw them away.
Catch phrase. My mother went in for bits of verse. Like she'd narrow her eyes at me and say, "There was a little girl and she had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid."

She also told me "Don't cut of your nose to spite your face" (even now I'm not sure what that means) and "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water." Spilled salt immediately got thrown over her right (left?) shoulder.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I got the bridge thing, big time. It was just generic bridge.  But used often.
Let's see--she also announced, when we cleaned the kitchen, that one must "wipe off all horizontal surfaces." Oh, and--"thoughtful consideration of others is the sign of a true lady."
Also--"Get off your duff and get out there. No cute boys are going to come knocking at your door asking if you're available. You have to get out here." And "if you put it away in the proper place, you'll know where ti is the next time."
And "What happens to you in high school has no bearing on the rest of your life. Get over it. Those girls are peaking too soon."
Oh, and--"Hold your stomach in." And the classic "Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?" I think that had to do with dating, but since I never had dates, it didn't matter.

Huh. Apparently I was actually listening. She would have been happy to know that.

ROSEMARY: OMG, Why buy the cow! Obviously - um - I forgot that one!

LUCY BURDETTE:  You are so right Rhys, how sad it is when their voices fade from our heads...
Hallie, definitely got the little girl with the little curl poem too. Hank, your mother was so smart about high school!
And others my mother said: "A new broom sweeps clean." "Don't lie down on a blanket with a boy." (This is after she discovered me and my older sister in the sand dunes with some boys.) And my favorite: "Some day you'll feel about a man the way you do about the cat." Obviously she was totally bonkers for animals. My husband is still waiting for that day:).

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  You all make me laugh!  And miss my mom . . . Although she's still with us, she has advanced Alzheimer's, so when I can get her to smile at me and say, "I love you," it's a good day.  Hank, your mom was so wise. 
I did get the curl thing.  And "Your face will freeze like that."  Don't remember being warned about bridges, but maybe because we don't have many in our part of Texas.  Two things I remember very well--my mom would always tell me I was beautiful, and that I could do anything I wanted with my life.  Hard to beat that.

JAN BROGAN: Ro, over in New Jersey, we still used the Brooklyn Bridge as the reference.  And yes, Debs is so right, this is making me miss my mother. 

In fact, the hard thing about this question was whittling it down.  I have a saying that my mother turned out to be right about EVERYTHING.  At least, partly. The weirdest thing, though, was that she was a nurse, so she was always making medical pronouncements that seemed outlandish at the time but many years later turned out to have at least some truth in them.  She distrusted margarine long before they discovered transfats. She was certain that all her friends were having unnecessary  hysterectomies (turns out that statistically, at least, they were) and that doctors always proscribed too much medication - especially antibiotics. She even used to predict that we'd become immune to the antibiotics - I mean DECADES before the official warnings.

She always told me to "save more than you spend"  and "stop negotiating with your children," and to travel a lot.  "Travel is the world's best education." was one of her favorite expressions.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  My mother is still very much alive and still dispensing useful information like, "Mix the flour and cold water first, THEN add it to the gravy," and "Sometimes, you'll arrive at a college and your teen won't even want to get out of the car and take the tour. Don't make him take the tour. He won't change his mind."

Growing up? I also heard about jumping off bridges, and not buying the cow when the milk was free, and "Soap's cheap," which was a hand-me-down from HER mother. "It's better to be stylish than fashionable." "Don't date a man you wouldn't be willing to marry." "Don't worry about the mess - you'll have time to clean house when your children are grown."
Probably most importantly, my mother told me I should be a writer years before I ever considered trying my hand at fiction. She saved everything I wrote, critiqued it mercilessly, praised it sparingly and urged me to follow my heart and my talents even if it meant giving up lawyering. I probably wouldn't be here today if it weren't for her. Thanks, Mom!

ROSEMARY: So tell us, what was it your mama said?
..and click on the link below to see a cute video of Dionne Bromfield's version of Mama Said.
    
http://youtu.be/umpV2oWoY34