Thursday, April 14, 2022

Pesticide--Kim Hays

DEBORAH CROMBIE: One of the most fun things we get to do here on Jungle Red is to introduce debut authors. I was lucky enough to read Kim Hays' novel, PESTICIDE, pre-pub--here's what I had to say about it!

“Kim Hays brings a sparkling new voice to police procedurals, giving us engaging and realistically drawn detectives who struggle to balance their personal lives with the demands of a gripping investigation. Set against the fascinating backdrop of modern Switzerland, Pesticide will delight crime fiction fans--a standout debut for 2022!” Deborah Crombie, New York Times-bestselling author of the award-winning Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novels 

And how cool is it that PESTICIDE was shortlisted for the 2020 Debut Dagger award by the Crime Writers’ Association!!

It's also a very special treat to host Kim today as she's a regular JRW commenter!

Here's Kim to tell us more about the challenges of writing from a cross-cultural perspective. Welcome and congratulations, Kim!


Conveying Swissness

Kim Hays

Last year I read a five-minute excerpt from one of my mysteries at a writing workshop for English-language authors living in Switzerland.  By coincidence, I was the only American—everyone else was British, and we’d never met before. The fictional scene I shared was a confrontation between two young Swiss men at a dance club: description, dialogue, action. When I finished, after a few polite mumbles, someone in the audience announced, “It just doesn’t work.” “No, it doesn’t,” someone else agreed. “But why?” There was a moment of silence, and then the first speaker said, “I know what it is. It sounds too American.”

Now, if I’d had one of my Swiss say, “He really threw me a curve ball,” or “You’re way out in left field, buddy,” I’d have understood the criticism. Putting baseball slang into the mouths of Swiss is truly odd. But since I hadn’t done anything like that, I couldn’t grasp why my audience was so upset—until I realized what the problem must be. To my listeners, British English wasn’t “British”—it was neutral, so it was what Swiss characters had to speak to be acceptable. My English, being American, called attention to itself, so it sounded bizarre.

This is just a small pitfall among the many traps waiting for authors who, like me, write novels about people who speak a language and inhabit a culture different from their own. I speak Swiss-German, I have Swiss citizenship along with American, and I’ve lived in Bern, the city where Pesticide takes place, for thirty-three years; my husband is a Swiss-German, and so are most of my friends. But I didn’t grow up here. So now and then, I find myself having to think hard about how to convey the Swissness of my characters to my American readers. (My British ones clearly raise different problems, but Pesticide is about to be published in the US, not the UK, so I don’t have to cross that bridge yet.)

Swissness is a familiar concept to me. Before I started writing novels, I worked fifteen years as a cross-cultural trainer for an international relocation company. My job was to provide a cultural orientation to non-Swiss employees who’d moved to Switzerland to work for multinational companies like Kraft Foods or Johnson & Johnson. Whether my clients were Columbians, Danes, or Indians, I spenT one or two days with them and their spouses, sharing advice about living, working, and raising a family comfortably among the Swiss.

Because of this background in cross-cultural work, I had no trouble coming up with generalizations about the Bernese when I decided to write a book set in Bern. I’m aware that most Swiss-Germans truly are exceptionally punctual; that they rarely take a stand on anything controversial right away, because they need to consider all the possible consequences and get everything right the first time; that they are often uncomfortable with conflict; that they are very egalitarian but still formal (at least by US standards) with people they don’t know well. Something else I have always respected is how the Swiss cherish the magnificence of their landscapes—they never take Switzerland’s natural beauty for granted.

But generalizations aren’t enough. The trick to portraying appealing Swiss in a novel written for Americans is to give the characters a certain amount of Swissness but not enough to keep them from being interesting and distinctive individuals. This is easier said than done, and, whereas I believe I’ve managed it, it’s my readers who’ll get to decide whether I’ve succeeded. If I have, it’s probably with the help of one character in particular: Renzo Donatelli.

Renzo is what we call a Secondo—someone perhaps born and certainly raised in Switzerland but with parents who emigrated here as adults. The word originally referred only to Italians (Switzerland’s biggest immigrant group in the 1960s and 1970s), but now it’s used for anyone in that second generation of immigrants. Secondos are assimilated. Most are bilingual, many are double citizens, and quite a few, like Renzo in my Polizei Bern series, marry Swiss spouses and feel at home with Swiss colleagues. But every once in a while, they see a friend do something that strikes them as so quintessentially Swiss and so completely not what they themselves would do that they have to laugh or roll their eyes, even if it’s only afterwards, in private.

So in Pesticide, I use Renzo as a foil to convey the attitude and behavior of a typical Swiss-German man. Most of them don’t consider it second nature to be carefully turned out and fashionably dressed; nor do they flirt good-naturedly with any woman who gives them the slightest signal of interest. Swiss-German men are also unlikely to feel so attached to their parents and siblings that they see their families often, not dutifully but with pleasure. Renzo, by contrast, does all these things.

In other words, by presenting one character who embodies a number of typical Italian values, I’m better able to highlight what makes another character Swiss-German—without having to hammer anything about Swissness into my readers’ heads.

So what about you, fellow writers? What goes through your minds while you’re creating non-American characters (something Rhys and Debs do all the time)? And you, readers? Do any examples occur to you of fictional characters who appear to represent another culture particularly well? Or badly? (They don’t have to be foreign—think of Jim Chee in Tony Hillerman’s books.)

DEBS:  This was so interesting to me. I've deliberately never used a non-British character as a foil for my British characters, although I did have a Texan play a very minor part once. Of course, the British tend to be quite culturally self-reflective, so it's not that unusual for a Brit to think about the idiosyncrasies of the British. I think what Kim has done with her Renzo is brilliant!



Kim Hays lives in Bern with her Swiss husband, but she grew up in San Juan, Vancouver, and Stockholm as well as in the States. She’s worked at a variety of jobs, including forewoman in a truck-engine factory, freelance journalist, and lecturer in sociology. Pesticide is the first mystery in her Polizei Bern series; it was shortlisted for the 2020 Debut Dagger award by the Crime Writers’ Association. You can learn more about Kim, Bern, and Pesticide at www.kimhaysbern.com.  

Here's more about PESTICIDE:

After a rave in medieval Bern morphs into a brutal riot, a young man is found beaten to death with a policeman’s club. Twenty miles away, an organic farmer turns up dead on his land, drenched in pesticide. Assigned to these two different cases, Swiss homicide detective Giuliana Linder and fellow cop Renzo Donatelli uncover unexpected connections between the two corpses; soon they’re looking for a killer together while dealing with their attraction to one another.

DEBS: REDS and readers, Kim will be here to chat throughout the day! Kim will also be signing books in person at the Mysterious Book Shop in New York City on April 19th!






64 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Kim, on your debut novel. “Pesticide” sounds quite intriguing and I’m looking forward to meeting Renzo . . . .

    I’m curious to know what you found most difficult in writing characters from a different culture . . . it sounds as if your real-life work experience would be a tremendous asset, but what do you see as issues or pitfalls for a writer developing such a character?

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    1. Hi Joan, and thanks very much. My answer to your question is that even when writing about the Swiss whom I've lived among for so long, I have to be careful not to fall into clichés. I think this is true even when we write about New Yorkers (pushy?), Californians (laidback?), Texans (BIG personalities?), etc, and not just about other nationalities. There's often some truth in clichés, which is why they exist, so they are very easy to fall back on if we writers aren't careful. I know I had to watch for this, but I think/hope I avoided it.

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  2. So many things to think about when writing a novel. I never would have considered any of that.

    Congrats not only on your debut, but on the award nomination as well!

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  3. So interesting! I am outlining a novel set during the American Revolution, in New York and New England (Connecticut). New England mores and manners at the time were considered so different -- by the British but also by the other colonies -- that they were regularly remarked upon in letters and diaries. New Englanders were considered religious fanatics and also vulgarly inquisitive (asking questions of their "betters"), underbred, and "leveling" -- they didn't respect rank and considered one man as good as another. (What nerve!) There is a great story of a New England loyalist in NY inquiring for "Mr. So and So," the commander, and the British military secretary correcting, "Lord So and So." Whereupon the New Englander drew himself up and replied grandly, "I know no Lord but the Lord Jehovah!" The great diarist Joseph Plumb Martin, from Connecticut, wrote of his loneliness when he found himself among "foreigners" (men from Pennsylvania). My heroine refugees from New York City to Connecticut in late 1775. So the idea of writing about different cultures, and how to show that without being too obtrusive, is very much in my mind.

    Congratulations on your novel and I will look for it.

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    1. That is so interesting about New England. The regional differences in the colonies was strongly connected to the different groups that settled them. I read a book about it recently. I'll try to find the title and author and post it here later.

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    2. I think people who write historical novels confront a much harder task than getting national or regional qualities right--they have to get inside people from the past. I know I'm stating the obvious, but think about how difficult that is! I know historical novelists read letters and diaries, as you are doing, adkmilmaid, to get the "voice" right, but creating characters who sound and act authentic BUT appeal to modern readers is an extraordinary balancing act.

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  4. So many congratulations, Kim! What a great way to show what a Swiss person is and isn't.

    I have lived abroad quite a bit, but so far I've only put those experiences into short stories. My 1880s historical mysteries, as admilkman points out, are a kind of separate culture, and especially with the Quaker subculture that plays a prominent role in the stories. Quakers were very much still outsiders at that time.

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    1. Thank you, Edith. I was just thinking about Quaker culture when adkmilkmaid talked about the New Englander who wouldn't recognize a lord's title. That sounds very Quaker-like to me.

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  5. KIM: Congratulations on your debut mystery novel!

    I have not read many mysteries set in Switzerland. Tracee de Hahn is an American who has written a police procedural series featuring Swiss-American detective Inspector Agnes Luthi. Tracee lives in the US but has lived in Switzerland and has a Swiss husband.

    As a Japanese-Canadian, I really enjoy Naomi Hirahara's Mas Arai series, as well as her historical stand-alone, Clark and Division, which was set in 1944 Chicago. Her portrayals of issei and nisei (First and second-generation Amwricans) are authentic.

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    1. Hello, Grace, and thanks for your kind words. I know about Tracee de Hahn's work but not Naomi Hirahara's, which sounds interesting. Thanks for introducing me to her. Always glad to have something to add to the to-be-read list.

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  6. Oh this is so fascinating! What was that “too American “ dialogue?

    And wow—congratulations! Whatever you did must have worked!

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    1. Thanks, Hank. I'm in New York right now for my book launch on April 19, so I won't dig into my files and find the dialogue for you, but I'm sure it used some American slang, just as the boys would have been using Swiss slang in a real-life confrontation. I've tried translating Swiss-German idioms into English to make things more "real," but it just sounds silly. Part of the authenticity challenge!

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    2. Oh, so exciting! Congratulations! xxxx

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    3. And say hello to the outside world for us! We want a full report!

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  7. Welcome, Kim! Susan Spann (who lives in Japan) uses a Portuguese priest new to Japan to highlight Japanese culture of the times in her historical Hiro Hattori novels.

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    1. I'm so glad you're writing about Susan Spann here, Liz. I'm ashamed not to have read any of her books, because she's also published by my publisher, Seventh Street Books. Now I'm very intrigued. Thanks!

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  8. Congratulations on your debut! Excited to read it. Yes, I'm writing about young women from Eastern Europe, but from the perspective of an American amateur sleuth. Lots of background reading and interviews.

    I'm curious how you did your "boots on the ground" research with the Bern police. Were they open to your questions?

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    1. Hi Margaret--I hope you'll enjoy Pesticide. As for the Swiss police, I'm very lucky that I have a neighbor who is a high-ranking policewoman and a very nice person, and we get together periodically for a coffee or a glass of wine so she can answer my questions. And she reads my draft novels. I've also talked to a homicide detective and have met several times with two prosecutors. Everyone so far has been helpful and intrigued by the idea of contributing to a mystery. I hope it stays that way.

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  9. Kim, best of luck with your new book, and congratulations! And now we have a face to go with your posts.

    Would you call the situation you describe as a fish out of water scenario? Or is that too drastic a description?

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    1. Hi Karen, and thanks. If you mean my situation with the people at the writing workshop, I'd say that we started out all being writers together, so I thought I was in a comfortable environment, but we ended up being American versus British, which was very UNcomfortable. So, yes, you could say I went from being a fish in the water to a fish in the desert!

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  10. Kim, your book sounds fascinating and I definitely want to read it! After all, Debs really is my guru when it comes to new-to-me-authors!

    Did you ever see the movie "Bread and Chocolate?" It made a big impression on me many years ago. More recently, I have read several books about the role of Switzerland in WWII. James R. Benn's Billy Boyle goes to Switzerland in The Devouring.

    I lived in Israel for two years in the 1970's. Even someone who is welcomed can feel culture shock. Israel was then, and still is, a melting pot of cultures, all trying to hold on to traditions from their Middle Eastern, European, African, Asian or American backgrounds.

    My son spent a year in Japan. Studying Japanese, he knew that the women on the very crowded train did not want to touch him from the highly insulting things they said. Sometimes you need to have a thick skin to live in another culture.

    I going to look for your book now.

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    1. I lived for two years in Japan, Judy. I recognized the rude looks the men on the subway were giving me but I hadn't learned to swear in the language. So I just told them "f**k you" in English. They understood the tone quite well and would shut up and look away!

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    2. Thanks, Judy. I remember the movie "Bread and Chocolate" very well. For those who never saw it, it's a 1974 film about an Italian "guest" worker in Switzerland, and, even though it's a comedy, the movie shows how awful life was for seasonal workers in Switzerland then. Sadly, it's probably only slightly exaggerated for comic effect. Since then, the Italians have been more or less assimilated, and the rightists among the Swiss have found other foreigners to object to. Still, in "Pesticide," Renzo is called by the pejorative word that the Swiss use for Italians, left over from those guest-worker days: Tschingg, pronounced more or less "Chink"

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  11. Congratulations on your publishing success and being on the Dagger short list; wow: what a great debut to have!

    Culture and language use are all fascinating and fraught; anyone who rises to the challenge of tackling all that in a book -- well, I take my hat off to them!

    Question from this reader: How can a 2020 debut novel not be released (for my Kindle) until April 19, 2022.

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    1. Good question about the release date. The editorial director accepted the book for publication in November 2020. What happened after that was more or less out of my hands. I'm just glad it's being published, so I don't want to complain.

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    2. Ah, I understand now. Thanks for the explanation, Kim!

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  12. I've never been brave enough to tackle characters out of my firsthand experience, so my hat off to you, Kim. I'm curious about the title and the cover - very arresting. Could put me off cabbage for a bit.

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    1. Hi, Hallie. Wouldn't want to put you off cabbage! Glad you asked about the title and the picture. One good friend who likes the book thought the cabbage looked like an eyeball and hated the cover, but I and most of the people I've talked to like it a lot. The artist is Jennifer Do. As for the title "Pesticide," the use of synthetic chemicals in farming is very controversial in Switzerland; we recently had a national vote about banning pesticides completely in all farming, which failed (but the issue will be back, I'm sure). Plus, most murders are ultimately about people deciding to squash whatever pest is in the way of their plans, so I thought it was an appropriate title, especially since one of the murder victims is an organic farmer.

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    2. The cabbage looks intimidating but I thought it was appropriate. In 1981 I spent a year of college touring the U.S. with the Audubon Society and I have never forgotten telling a farmer that I loved cabbage. He replied, "And every time you eat one, you're eating a pesticide sandwich."

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    3. Eeek! Buying organic cabbage for sure!

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    4. Ouch, me too! So much pesticide in farming!

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  13. Welcome and congratulations! Sounds like you have certainly worked hard and have come up with a winner. I look forward to reading it.

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  14. It turns out that Kim is actually in New York today, not in Switzerland! She's running around doing book-y things and will pop in as she can. AND she'll be doing a launch at The Mysterious Bookshop on April 19th!

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    1. Hi Debs, and thanks for mentioning that. Yes, I'm writing these replies from my hotel room in downtown Manhattan, and soon I'm going to have to leave to go meet my husband and my godson (whom I haven't seen in three years!) for lunch. May have to add more replies quite a bit later. As for my book launch, if any of you live in or near New York City, I'm having a launch party, 6-7 pm on Tuesday, April 19, at the Mysterious Book Shop at 58 Warren Street (near the World Trade Center), where I'll talk briefly, read a bit from the book, sign any copies people bring me, and generally have fun! You are all very welcome.

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    2. That sounds like fun, Kim. Enjoy!

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  15. The book sounds fascinating! Looking forward to reading it. I have created second generation Latinas for my Catherine Swope mysteries. I've found the key to authenticity is to have someone read a cultural proof. Much to my surprise, after nearly 30 years in South Florida with friends of all cultures, I still needed guidance to navigate the differences between Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Columbian cultures. As one friend said, "Chica, I would never say this. So Cuban."

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    1. Kait, that's so interesting about the different Latina women. I lived in Puerto Rico as a child, and I know Puerto Ricans then were very aware of their differences from the Cubans, who were mainly families who's escaped the Castro regime. You're so right about having someone from the culture you're dealing with "proof" the manuscript. I had a number of Swiss read my book before it was published, and that was very helpful.

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  16. KIM:

    Welcome to Jungle Reds! And congratulations on your debut novel!

    Question about Bern: When a relative visited Bern with their tour group, some of them were playing the guitar at night and the police in Bern told them that it was against the law to play the guitar ? music ? at night in Bern because of the noise. Is that true?

    DEBORAH:
    This post brought back memories of when I lived in the UK for a few months. Before I studied abroad, I grew up reading many novels by British authors and watching British shows on PBS (public television channel in the USA). I remember that some people thought that I was English because of my mannerisms and also my fashion style. I loved the style that Princess Diana wore. Yes, she was still alive at the time I was in the UK. Now that I am writing a historical mystery set in the UK, I find myself researching background information for my novel. And I am looking at my British Sign Language dictionary, which I bought in the UK while I was there. When I came home from the UK, I remember talking to a friend on the phone (actually a teletype device for the deaf) "I am ringing off" and she said that I sounded very English. LOL

    Question: Do you find yourself speaking the Queen's English when you return home to the USA from England?

    Wonderful post this morning! I hope that I was not too late making a comment here on Jungle Reds this morning. It's 7:45 am California time, though it is later in other parts of the USA.

    Diana

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    1. Hi Diana/Bibliophile. Yes, some stereotypes about the Swiss are true. Although rules about noise at night are no longer as strict as they were, and more downtown restaurants in Bern are allowed to have tables outside in the summer, anyone has the right to call the police after 10 pm if they are bothered by noise, and the police have the duty to come, although in some cases reluctantly. I don't know the exactly situation your relative was in, but a tour group can be pretty noisy, so I imagine they were disturbing the Nachtruhe or "night's calm. I don't think the problem is guitars or music, just bothering people who are trying to sleep in their apartments over the street.

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  17. Congratulations Kim. Just pre-ordered the Kindle version. I enjoy learning about other cultures while reading a good mystery, thanks for making that available.

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  18. Congratulations on the book! I think it takes courage and a kind of expertise in cultural sensitivity (if you'll excuse the cliche) to successfully write characters outside one's own culture. I look forward to reading this one as it sounds like you have both of those.

    I wrote a dissertation in American Political Thought using Post-colonial theory as a methodology so I'm a bit sensitive to how dominate cultures appropriate others. This is probably not the place to delve into the criticisms, but I would say that S.J. Rozan gets it right and, though I am amazed at this, I think Chee, Leaphorn and Manuelita and well drawn. (I'm less convinced about the anthropologist, though.) One I find less compelling is Alexander McCall Smiths' Patience Ramotse, but don't get me started on that.....

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    1. Thanks for using Chee, Leaphorn and Manuelita in your reply, since I brought them up! Of course there are a lot of cultures I'm not familiar with, so I wouldn't know if someone's portrayal of, say, Navajo or New York Chinatown culture (S J Rozan) is truly authentic, but those books certainly ring true to me. You're so right that writers have to be especially sensitive if they belong to a dominant culture and are writing about one that has traditionally been put down. Since Switzerland is the richest country in the world (!), that's one problem I don't have to worry about.

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  19. You know, I find it interesting that Switzerland has been the setting for so FEW English language mysteries. Or thrillers - can anyone think of one that doesn't take place during WWII? I wonder if that's because Americans run down a list: cuckoo clocks, watches, bank accounts and are oblivious to the amazing history and complexities of the country?

    At any rate, I think it's a fabulous setting, and I'm glad you're able to convey "Swissness," Kim!

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    1. I'm glad you're interesting in my Bernese setting, Julia. I agree it's odd that more mysteries aren't set in Switzerland, but I think it's because the country and the people are considered boring, which they certainly are not. Well, more space for me to write in this niche, so I'm not complaining.

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    2. So true, Kim! And I'm already look forward to the next one!

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    3. Julia, don't forget Tracee de Hahn's Swiss Vendetta and A Well-Timed Murder.

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  20. I'm signing off, dear Reds and JRW fans, so i can go out and enjoy New York and meet up with my 27-year-old godson. Will check in with you all and write more replies to you later in the day. Thanks so much for your very supportive and interesting reception of my new book.

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    1. Enjoy your day in NY, Kim, and a good lunch! Have a martini at the oyster house in Grand Central Station for my daughter and me! We love that place.

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    2. Thanks, Debs. I changed subway lines in Grand Central Station twice today, but didn't make it to the oyster house. But I have been there, years ago. From now on, when I go there, I'll think of you and your daughter.

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  21. Very interesting, Kim! I have ancestors from Bern, also. The Kistlers. Supposedly, one of them, Peter Kistler, was president of the Republic of Bern at one time. My g.grandmother was Harriet Kistler. Your mystery sounds fascinating! Must read!

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    1. Hope you'll enjoy reading about Bern, where your ancestor Peter Kistler was the head of the Butcher's Guild (all the heads of the trade guilds in Bern's early days became the equivalent of nobility, even though they started "in trade") and later, as you say, he became the mayor (Schultheiss) starting in 1470. Bern wasn't just a city then, but a city state, much larger and more important than it is now. An illustrious historical figure!

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  22. Oh, this is fantastic! I love that the setting is fresh for a mystery. I am adding it to my list of books to scoop up at the Poisoned Pen!

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    1. Thanks very much, Jenn. I'm delighted to be on your reading list.

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  23. Isn't it funny how the written words can be so right but the "wrong" person reading them out loud can throw everything off? I won't name names but I've watched a series set in the South and cringe every time one actor says his lines. Never have I ever heard an accent like his.

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  24. You're saying something that's very much in my mind, Pat, because I'm worried about my audiobook. The publisher just sold the rights, and I'm concerned about who'll be chosen to read my book. I just have to have someone who can pronounce German words. Okay, it's too much to expect a native English speaker to read German with a Bernese-German accent! But there are so many place names, street names, and just plain first and last names in Pesticide that are in German, and it would be a disaster if they weren't said properly. Officially, I don't get any say about this, but I'm trying to figure out a way to have some influence! Any advice from other writers out there who've had audiobooks produced? As for Southern accents, my father was from Louisiana, so I also cringe at fake ones.

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  25. It's almost midnight, dear folks, which means almost time for tomorrow's Jungle Red post. It has been lots of fun to read and answer your questions and comments today. Thanks again to you all, and good night!

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  26. The characters and story sound intriguing. I’ll look forward to reading “Pesticcide.”

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  27. Opening the email, I was met with one of the most terrifying covers EVER! Now I am intrigued! Without reading the summary, I started imagining immediately that there was either an eye or a heart inside that cabbage, and it was hidden in a field as the only clue... Now to discover whether my first impression was correct! Congratulations!

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    1. Hello, B. Butler. My lips are sealed, but I will say that I think your imagination is more vivid than mine. I'm just glad that my cabbage got your attention!

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