Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Double header: Rhys Bowen's and Hallie Ephron's BOOK LAUNCHES!

TODAY is the book launch for both Hallie and Rhys! 

Lady Georgie goes to Kenya in Rhys’s Love and Death Among the Cheetahs.

Emily Harlow goes to the storage unit in Hallie's Careful What You Wish For


So as we both prepared to hit the road and sign a zillion books we took a moment to have a telephone chats and compare notes:

HALLIE EPHRON: Love and Death Among the Cheetahsgreat title, and quite a departure for Lady Georgie, isn’t it?

RHYS BOWENThis is book thirteen and in the Royal Spyness series I wanted Lady Georgie to have an exciting honeymoon somewhere. So I put it to my fans, where should she go? Suggestions ranged from Minneapolis to India. 

I decided that Kenya would be a great setting. I’ve always been fascinated by the “Happy Valley” set, and I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if Georgie, who is the most naïve of people, finds herself among these aristocrats who live the most dissolute lifestyle. That set all had farm properties in Kenya and lots of Kikuyu tribesmen working for them. The way the British spoke about the natives was so offensive, even toning it down I had to put in a forward apologizing and explaining.

HALLIE: So Georgie goes there on her honeymoon?”

RHYS: Georgie can’t believe her luck, that Darcy is taking her to Kenya on honeymoon. But as soon as she gets there she realizes he may have had an ulterior motive. He might be on some kind of undercover assignment

Georgie’s lived a very sheltered life, and at the start of the series she doesn’t have much self confidence. In this book she’s starting to feel her value as an equal. At the end of the book she doesn’t wait to consult anybody, she makes a decision that shows that she has guts.


HALLIE: This novel really emphasizes the whole British class differences that you like to feature, doesn’t it?

RHYS: It does. This is aristocrats behaving badly! One of the reasons I write the series is to satirize the British class system. 

(We’re talking on the phone and Rhys’s husband chimes in from the other room, “Nothing wrong with the British class system!”). Sorry. He’s a left-over from the glory days of British aristocrats!

But let’s talk about Careful What You Wish For.  (I love your titles, by the way, because they say suspense and creepy from the outset!).  Your novel is scary in part because the setting is so unexotic

HALLIE: Unexotic in the extreme! I try to write books with situations that seem utterly believable. Yes, this could happen to me, I want the reader to think. And shudder. 

My new book’s setting is more Minneapolis than Kenya--a Boston suburb that feels an awful lot like where I actually live. And “Minneapolis” can be pretty scary.

Though we don’t have ‘class’ differences the way the Brits do, we certainly have economic differences that are just as telling. The action takes places in two ordinary houses, one over-the-top mansion, and a storage unit. What professional organizer Emily Harlow is hired to sort out in that storage unit drives the story. Stuff my husband would die for: old books, prints, doorknobs.

Like me, professional organizer, Emily Harlow, is married to a packrat. She’s come to terms with it and knows he’s unlikely to change.

RHYS: The person I’m married to saves everything because we might need it some day. You’re married to the person who’s still looking for that wonderful bargain or that special thing at garage sales and always brings home stuff you don’t need.

Did you find writing a professional organizer made you more conscious of your own organization. Did you find yourself folding your socks?

HALLIE: I did. My socks. My T-shirts. My underwear. And it is very pleasing to open that drawer and find all my things neatly rolled and standing at attention. Not so much fun, putting the laundry away

RHYS: It hasn’t spread to this house yet. Probably never will. Do you find when you’re writing you take on the characteristics you’re writing about?

HALLIE: I don’t think so. But I test the believability of whatever I’m having the character do. I don’t become them, but I do try them on. Don’t you do that?

RHYS: Sometimes I even get involved in their lives. For example if I’m writing a scene in the middle of winter, I feel really cold. Even if it’s summer. There are times when I’ve snapped at John and then realized I’m not angry at him, it’s Molly Murphy who’s angry with Daniel.

HALLIE: When we started talking I was thinking how different our books are. You write wonderful, tongue-in-cheek, British flavored historical mysteries. I write domestic suspense set in any-suburb USA. 

But this time out I realize we’re both writing about marriage, and the kinds of compromises and tradeoffs that ensue. 

RHYS: You’re right. It’s interesting that settings can be so different but human problems and dilemmas have always been so much the same. So wishing you every success with the new book, that has already garnered such great reviews. I’ll raise a glass to you at my own launch party tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera and look forward to seeing some friendly faces as I set out around the country this week.

HALLIE: Toasting you back! And hoping to see some friendly faces from Jungle Red at my book launch events: 
Wednesday August 7 @7PM at Brookline Booksmith in conversation with professional organizer Kathy Vines
and
Thursday August 8 at RJ Julia @7PM in conversation with Lucy Burdette.

Where to find us... 

Read excerpts from CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Read Chapter 1
Read Chapter 2
Read Chapter 3

Read an excerpt from LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS
Read Chapter 1 

Talking about fictional couples whose differences were a driving force in the story, what books, TV shows, movies come to mind? Rhett and Scarlet. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Jim and Pam. And...

57 comments:

  1. Happy Book Birthday, Hallie and Rhys . . .

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  2. Hooray you two dear friends--love both of these books and hope they make a big splash out in the reading world!

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  3. You too are just amazing… Proud and honored to know you and love you!
    Nick and Nora? And I just wrote an article which included the couple Adam and Amanda, in the movie Adam’s Rib!
    But congratulations, you two, on two fabulous books!

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    1. Ah yes, Nick and Nora (drunk and sober)
      Adam and Amanda (Katharine and Spencer)
      Jane and Jake?

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  4. Yay to both of you! I can't wait to get my hands on these books (although, Hallie, sob, I am not going to make it to Brookline, as I'm in Vermont...). I know they'll both make a huge splash.

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    1. Thanks, Edith - I'll miss you! But Vermont is the better place to be in August.

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  5. Today:
    Deb goes to the bank to get money to buy books!

    If I can’t get to RJ Julia on Thursday, know I will be with you in spirit.

    DebRo

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  6. Here's a toast to two of our own: Rhys and Hallie! Talented, hardworking, generous souls, you give us a gift over and over that brings so much pleasure into our lives!

    In a whimisical mood this morning--how about Mork and Mindy?

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    1. Toasting you back, Flora!
      Yes, indeed, M&M. Which somehow brought me to Lucy and Desi.

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    2. Thank you, Flora.
      I liked the Moonlighting duo

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  7. Happy book birthday to both of you! I can't get to Boston or California, but I'm celebrating with you in spirit.

    The couples that come to my mind have already been mentioned.

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    1. Check out Rhys's schedule - she might end up near you.

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  8. Yes to the toast, indeed. Hallie's book has been read and on our shelf for a couple of months, and now I can go to Amazon and review it. Great read. Congratulations my friend. And happy launch day.

    Rhys's book landed in Julie's Kindle this morning. She's going to whoop with delight when she wakes up. Rhys is a favorite of hers, particular the little Easter eggs that appear in the Royal Spyness novels. And Georgie in Kenya? What a great idea!

    I'm wracking my already wracked brain for couple of characters that drive a story, and all the usual suspects come to mind: Gemma and Duncan without doubt, Holmes and Watson, Tommy and Tuppence, Lynley and Havers, Ruth and Nelson, and two of my favorites, because of the humor that is inextricable from their relationship, Richard Jury and Malcolm Plant.

    I know I'll think of more as the day goes on.

    Bonne chance, Hallie and Rhys

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  9. Congrats, ladies! Hope to be reading your books soon.

    How about Lucy and Ricky?

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    1. Perfect! Scary, though, that they really were married. Guessing that in real life she wasn't a ditz. Reminding me of Edith and Archie.

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    2. Odd, but I thought of Lucy and Ethel.

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    3. Yes, Hallie, I have read that she was actually the brains behind their business empire. But given the era, no one would take her seriously in business, so she had to use him as a front.

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  10. I love waking up to find new books on my Kindle. It's like the book fairy stopped by while I was sleeping.

    Rhys, I've already started reading. Hallie, you're up next! Happy book release day to you both. I hope you have fun book tours.

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  11. Happy duo book birthday, darling friends! And to us readers--what a great day.

    And may I say, the photo of the two of you is awesome, one of the best ever of you both.

    Couples? From TV: Hart to Hart, Maddie and David from Moonlighting, and Remington and Laura (Remington Steele). Why don't they make TV shows like these any more?

    Books, not already mentioned: Nero and Archie, Rizzoli and Isles, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, and Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear.

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  12. Hallie and Rhys, congratulations on your dual book launches today!

    Hallie, your sister mentioned your book was coming out and your blog reminded me that your book was coming out. Since your book is spooky, I am waiting until Halloween to read your book. I usually reserve the spooky books for Halloween reading :-)

    Rhys, I am so excited about your Lady Georgie novel. Are the aristocrats like the characters from P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster stories?

    Thinking of fictional couples that I love. I loved Anne and Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables stories. Jennifer Hart and Jonathan Hart were a detective couple from a television show Hart to Hart. The movies with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas as a couple were wonderful! Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson were a good couple. Eliza Bennett's Aunt Gardiner and her husband Uncle Gardiner from Pride and Prejudice seemed to be a good match. Constable Evans and Bronwen Price was another favorite couple from the Constable Evans mysteries. I loved Alex Plumtree and his girlfriend (I forgot her name) from the Alex Plumtree mystery series by Julie Kaewert. I am still discovering new to me authors and new to me novels.

    Diana

    Diana

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    1. My sister Amy? Going to check now... thanks for the heads-up.

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  13. Happy pub day to you both, Hallie and Rhys!!

    Let’s not forget Clare and Russ as a couple that drives the story and moves the depths of an evolving relationship.

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    1. Mines the depths not moves. Although, they certainly do have some good moves, too...

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  14. I plan to be at R Julie on Thursday. Can’t wait.

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  15. Happy books day Rhys and Hallie. Downloading both today, can't wait to read them.
    Maria and Captain Von Trapp, Ralph de Bricassart and Maggie, Vincent and Catherine, Clair and Jamie Fraser
    As Karen, I love the photo of both of you.

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  16. I'm sure there are other couples but everyone seems to be listing those I thought of easily and others I had forgotten or not heard of. Hallie, I've looked for your books in two different, unfortunately without success. Now I have to go to Kindle. And Rhys, I'll see at Copperfields tomorrow. Have great launch days, ladies.

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  17. I put both books on hold at the library months ago and am so looking forward to reading them. Rhys, I hope to make your event in Palo Alto on August 29. Continued success to both of you!

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  18. Happy book birthday to both of you!

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  19. Happy pub day, you two, and what a terrific interview!! And agreeing with Karen, that is fabulous photo of both of you. Where was it taken?

    I'm so excited about these books, going to spread the word now!!!

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  20. BIG Congratulations to you both. Hallie, many, many thanks for sending me THE book. I am only sorry that I can't get down to Brookline tomorrow and ask awkward questions of the other organizer, he, he! Apologies. You really should come up here and stay with Julia so we can meet. Rhys, I loved my visit to Kenya, makes me think of 'Out of Africa', I loved Karen Blixen's book. I really want to return but I do know only too well what the Brits were like, and some still are. I was an imperialist / colonialist child, though my parents were very strict as to have we behaved to those working for us. Still in Ceylon there was a complete caste for the servants, with their own very strict rules. In our house my parents employed a cook, Joseph, a second servant, Sinniah, who cleaned the house, waited at table etc. and a kitchen 'boy', there were a series of boys and they stayed in the kitchen under Joseph! Joseph was old school and a wonderful cook. Then my brother and sister had a Nanny, Violet, who came from a very high caste family, and finally a dhoby, who did the laundry and ironed on our back verandah with an old fashioned iron filled with coals, and of course a gardener. This was the post war 1950's.

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  21. What a glorious day for the Reds! Fabulous interview and I adore the photo, too! Congratulations on your releases! To the top of the bestseller's list you go!!!

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  22. A happy day for both of you! I can't wait to read your new books! Couples not mentioned yet... Hester and William Monk. Andrea Penrose's Wrexford and Sloane. Lane Winslow and Inspector Darling. Tina Whittle's Tai and Trey. Amory and Milo Ames. Sebastian and Hero. Anna Lee Huber's two duos: Lady Darby and Gage, and Verity and Sidney Kent.

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  23. Happy Book Birthday to Hallie and Rhys! I loved Careful What You Wish For and will be posting my review today. I should have Love and Death Among the Cheetahs in my mail box today. It's so wonderful when my favorite authors have books out, as I know I will always love them. I so wish that I could zip around the country to catch both of your book release celebrations. Enjoy!

    I just returned from the funeral of one of my best friends (yes, another one) in my hometown. This year has been a right challenge for me with losing friends and family and some health issues. But, I have just one more health issue to get under control, and then I hope to be getting back to a more regular routine. Just when I planned to get my review up on my blog of your book, Hallie, my dear friend died, and I had to go out of town for the services. Some years are tough, but I know that mine could have been a whole lot tougher, so I'm grateful that I can do some reading and reviewing on my way back to whatever normal is.

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  24. So sorry Kathy. We've been in a similar pattern here and I just want it to be over and "normal" again.

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    1. Pat, I hope you get your normal back soon, too.

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  25. I don't think I saw Peter Whimsey and Harriet yet by Dorothy L Sayers. Most of the sitcoms like Dick Van Dyke and Laura, Samantha and Darren from Bewitched, Thee Big Bang Theory couples, etc. Congratulations on your book birthdays.

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  26. Will Love and Death Among the Cheetahs be getting an audiobook edition?

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