Tuesday, March 14, 2023

It's All in the Details. A post by Clare Broyles

  RHYS BOWEN: today my daughter Clare and I celebrate the launch of our second book together: ALL THAT IS HIDDEN. This book plunges Molly deep into Tammany Hall politics, intrigue and dirty dealings, while offering her a life she had never dreamed of. It is also a story of juggling motherhood and family life with her professional skills, something most of us can relate to!




As to the plot of this book, I have to thank co-writer Clare for that. It’s so interesting to me how the tiniest idea can blossom into a plot. Luckily Clare loves research. She has been mining the archives of the New York Times for the time we write about and she came up with not one, but two juicy stories that turned into our plot. So I’m handing over to Clare today, to tell us how this story came to be:

CLARE BROYLES: Thank you, Rhys/Mom. And hi Jungle Reds. It’s a privilege to be blogging here today. So…

While I was scanning through the New York Times for the month we were writing about, I came across a small interest article on a torn mail bag in the postal car of a train.It was supposed to be hooked on, but somehow missed. The letters that were on their way north of the city were scattered all over the tracks. I loved the imagery of the letters floating about. And it occurred to me, what if one of those letters somehow got into the wrong hands? Plot point number one!

Another article that caught my attention was about a ferry boat that caught fire on the Hudson River and had to try to dock at several places before it could finally make fast. The crew threw passengers off the boat to save their lives. And the small dock they moored to was completely engulfed in flames. That had to make it into the novel, with Molly on board!

Actually that ferry gave us the way to bring Molly’s family into the action and to have them on site when the murder occurs. And the mail bag? We feature it in the prologue, a lovely teaser, and it gives us the clever plot twist at the end.

(RHYS: Hooray for my daughter!)


CLARE: People accuse mystery novels of making use of strange coincidences and chance occurrences, but life is often stranger than fiction. We heard one such incident this weekend when we were speaking at the Poisoned Pen. Barbara Peters mentioned that her husband’s great grandmother had a ticket for the Titanic but fell ill and missed the boat! Without that coincidence there would be no Rob Rosenwald and no Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale. And now I come to think of it, my parents grew up 15 miles from one another in England but didn’t meet until they were both in Australia.

What about you? Have any chance occurrences or strange coincidences shaped your family’s lives? And Rhys and I will be happy to give away a copy of ALL THAT IS HIDDEN to one of today’s commenters!

70 comments:

  1. Happy Book Birthday, Rhys and Clare! I think it’s wonderful that you weave real life into Molly’s stories . . . I’m looking forward to reading ALL THAT IS HIDDEN.

    No chance occurrences or strange coincidences in our family [that I’m aware of] but these kinds of happenings have always intrigued me . . . .

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  2. So many congratulations on the new book to you both. I'm really looking forward to sinking into this story.

    Not quite as dramatic, perhaps, but my Maxwell grandfather was on the ship going over to fight in Europe in WWI when Armistice was declared. And my father's first cousin, the only other male Maxwell in our few-progeny family, was killed a week before the end of WWII when the puddle-jumper he was on crashed on the way to some R&R for the GIs off the coast of Britain.

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    1. I'm sure that was dramatic for him! My grandfather had some dramatic stories from WW1 himself.

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  3. Congratulations Rhys and Clare! What fun it is to read about the two of you working on this book--and all about Clare's amazing ideas...looking forward to reading this one! xox

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  4. Happy Book Birthday, Clare and Rhys. I will definitely be catching up with Molly and family soon. The plot sounds deliciously devious. I love how you have used real life incidents in this series!!

    There are no real coincidences such as Barbara related this past weekend in my family. However, my father's parents left eastern Europe in the early 1900's. Their families' decisions to come to the US meant survival. People left behind in both of their original home towns were wiped out in WWII. I think of that quite often.

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    1. That must be so bittersweet - celebrating their bravery and mourning the loss of their community. Thank you for sharing that. I hope you enjoy the book!

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  5. Congratulations, Rhys and Clare! Life is indeed stranger than fiction.

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  6. Congratulations to you both on your book release today! The research sounds fascinating and certainly proves that life can be stranger than fiction -- and that smart writers mine it for good stories.

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    1. Thank you! I am on the look out for interesting stories everywhere!

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  7. Congratulations on your book birthday! Love the story teasers. Can't wait to discover how the mailbag figures in.

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  8. Looking forward to reading this book--I love the stories of how you and your mom work together on the books. Research + rabbit holes = great stories when two imaginations join together to tell a story! Still befuddled by the time change--can't think of any coincidences in my family history this early.

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    1. Thank you! We are in Arizona, so no time change. My only difference is that my children in California are now in the same time one as me, which makes things easier. I'm looking forward to start going down rabbit holes for the research on the next book.

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  9. Congratulations to Rhys and Clare! the new books sounds irresistible. Yes, coincidence are often a question for writing fiction, especially where there is a mystery to be solved. How much is too much, considering the most unlikely things happen in real life? I don't know of any that were life changing in my family but I know a few there were surprising. Here's one: last night in Israel my husband and I were hading dinner in the very old city of Jaffa, at a rooftop terrace restaurant under the stars on the shores of the Mediterranean. We could hear the waves! And I hear a familiar voice behind me. It is dear friends/neighbors of my parents, from upstate NY on the Canadian border. Worlds colliding, in the nicest way.

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    1. What a great story! I am reminded of a similar incident when my husband & I were in Florence, Italy. He went to the laudromat across the road and as he was pulling clothes out of the dryer he heard a voice shout, "Howard!!" Turns out it was our dear friends' son from LA. doing his laundry too. He and his travel buddy were also staying across the street from our hotel.

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    2. Want to add to my comment above, congratulations Rhys and Claire on your new books! They sound intriguing.

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    3. Rhys: Clare had a similar happening. As a high schooler she did an exchange to Germany. She was standing at the Brandenburg Gate when she recognized the voice behind her. Turned around and it was our next door neighbor’s mother!

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    4. As Rhys says, sometimes you can't put real life into a novel or the reader wouldn't believe it. Would it believable if a sleuth came across their next door neighbors mother across the world? No, but it did happen to me!

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  10. I just finished Away in the Manger last night, and shivered at the premise in the prologue and first few pages of All That is Hidden. Congratulations, Clare and Rhys.

    The way Steve and I met, when we could do easily have missed one another, is just one of the many coincidences in our now lengthy relationship.

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    1. That is true for my husband, Tim, and me as well. We both came as volunteers to a homeless shelter in Mexico in 1991. I had never been to Arizona where he was from so we would never have met otherwise.

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  11. Clare, I meant to ask earlier - do you also have a day job you are fitting the fiction-writing around?

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    1. I am a full time teacher at a Montessori school in Phoenix. I teach music, math and a gifted class. So the summer is a really important time to get writing done. But I write before school during the school year too. Thanks for asking!

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    2. Hi Edith! I am a full time teacher at a Montessori school. I teach music, math and a gifted class. My summers are really important for me to get time to write, but I do write year round before school.

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    3. Hi Edith! Yes, I teach full time at a Montessori school. Summers are really important to my having time to write, but I do write before school each day during the year.

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    4. Glad you have your summers - and the mental space to write before school.

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  12. Congratulations on the new Molly - Clare! So good to have you here on Jungle Red.

    I agree, life is full of coincidences. I would have ended up in Africa one summer if it hadn't been for an overbooked flight -- I got bumped and ended up spending the summer in Manhattan and getting together with Jerry. Lucky lucky for me...

    But most mystery authors try to ration coincidences in our books. And best if it's in the first act.

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    1. Thank you! I agree, you could start the novel with a strange coincidence, but not solve the mystery with one. Which is why The Wizard of Oz is completely unfair. How is it that the witch melted with water but it was never mentioned before?

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    2. Thank you! I agree that for a mystery book you can start with a strange coincidence but not solve the mystery with one.

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    3. Thank you Hallie! I agree with you. It's fine if a mystery book starts with a strange coincidence, but not if one solves the mystery. That's why The Wizard of Oz is so unfair. No one ever mentioned that water would melt witches before it happens!

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    4. Excellent point! And one that had never occurred to me, though I often use the WofOz as the linchpin in classes I teach. And why didn't Glinda tell Dorothy that the ruby slippers would take her home. (Because then the book would only have been 30 pages long.)

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  13. Thanks so much for the chance to win this book. Here's my story. I joined a club back in my 20's to meet people. They played softball on Sundays for fun and then went out to a bar to socialize. I knew I was the worst player they had and mentioned to someone that I wished I could get better. She told me about a group who played on Monday nights and maybe playing more often would help me. So I signed up for that league and they put me on a team with the man who became my husband. It's almost 35 years since we met and I am still so glad I just happened to complain to the right person who just happened to mention that Monday night team.

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    1. I love that story! It reminds me of another coincidence. Back when my husband and I had only known each other a few months at that homeless shelter in Mexico, the city wanted all of the difference social service agencies to get to know each other. They scheduled a day long trip around the city for all of us to visit the different non profits and churches. My director was supposed to go but she had another appointment and sent me. I met some people who had a project going down in El Salvador and got to be friends with them. By the end of the year I was heading down to El Salvador. My husband to be joined me down there for the project. Because of that now more than 30 year relationship with people in El Salvador, he has a non-profit that has send hundreds of kids to school. Al least seventeen students wouldn't have graduated from college if my director hadn't been busy that day!

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  14. Does anyone else find their replies disappear? I have replied to a few of these posts and they just vanished after I thought they posted. I'll try again!

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  15. When I was a college freshman my dorm neighbor asked if I wanted a date to the football game. A guy in her math class had asked her and then requested two more girls for his roommates' dates. Her roommate volunteered and I said yes. My date called and we chatted and met several times before the game. In the meantime the other two girls bailed and cancelled their dates. I still went with Frank. We married several years later and celebrated 50 years of marriage back in August.

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    1. It's amazing how different life would be if one thing hadn't happened!

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  16. Does anyone else find their comments disappear? I have had multiple replies just vanish! I've switched to commenting as my url.

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    1. On occasion the disappearing of comments happens to us all! Blogger is a fickle devil! Unreliable at times and downright infuriating!

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    2. Clare, sometimes if Blogger thinks you are answering "too fast"--whatever that means in Bogger-mind--it decides you are a bot. And makes you spam. You can un-spam by going into the comments on Blogger itself. Rhys, can you show her? oxoxoo It happens to me ALL the time!

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  17. Congratulations on the new book, Clare and Rhys! I can't wait to read it!

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  18. Many years ago I met a young man whom I asked to a dance. When his father drove him to our house to pick me up apparently my father and grandmother recognized him as a relative. They never explained this to me and I felt that it was strange. Another instance from this encounter took place shortly after. I brought this young man to a friend's party and he was smitten with my friend. My friend was annoyed with him and told me in no uncertain terms that she never wanted to see him again as he was annoying her and phoning her. He dumped me but she was not in the least interested. Now I can laugh about this entire ancient history.

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  19. My father was in the US Navy aboard a ship sailing from LA.. to Oahu, HI in 1948. My dad's buddy shared a bunk/room with another young officer. Talk about coincidence...these two officers each unpacked their stuff and each put a framed photo of their fiance on their desks. Yikes! They (unknown to them) were dating the same young lady from L.A. Needless to say she got two Dear Jane letters on the same day!

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  20. Congrats to both of you. This is another great Molly book. (No need to enter me in the giveaway.)

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  21. Wonderful post and happy book birthday!

    Thinking about coincidences. Started using dating apps. I met a man online and we were talking about our colleges. Turned out that we both went to the same University and we even had the same professor!

    Diana

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  22. When I was growing up every so often an older man would visit our family. He probably lived near where we used to live and had to travel quite a distance on the bus to our new neighborhood. He was friendly and kind but I never knew the relationship. My younger sister at one time asked if he was going to marry our Bubbeh and everyone laughed. I still do ponder this as after a while he never returned nor visited. My Bubbeh moved out and he never visited again. I have an old black and white wedding photo with him celebrating my uncle's wedding. I wish I knew more. My uncle's marriage fizzled out and I never saw either of these men again.

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  23. It's a truism: coincidences happen in life you'd NEVER accept in fiction, so you have to use them very sparingly when you're an author!

    I'm just grateful there are amazing newspaper archives from all over the world available online these days for writers and researchers. I can remember the days when you had to go to the largest library in your area to be ushered into the lowest floor (why was it always in the basement?) where you would sit at an enormous microfiche machine, carefully scrolling through pages and pages. And of course, you couldn't make them larger or smaller; instead you had to move the film around to look at each part of the page! Thank you, anonymous archivists, for making all that information available at the click of a key, in the comfort of our own home offices.

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    1. I echo your appreciation, Julia!

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    2. Clare: U am old enough to remember those!

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  24. Oh, standing ovation! I love how your brain puts the pieces together--and you are such a brilliant team!

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    1. Clare: Thank you! That is praise indeed coming from you!

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  25. And coincidence--I was at an event for The House Guest in Washington DC recently, and mentioned in the Q and A that my father had been in the foreign service, USIA. A man in the audience emailed md afterward, saying he had been in USIA, too, and asked my Dad's name--maybe they knew each other? Well,,,what are the odds? It was decades ago. BUT. Turns out, not only did he and Dad know each other and my Dad's wife Juliet (also USIA), but he was at their WEDDING 35 years ago--and so was I!

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    1. Hmmm...my father served a stint in USIA, his in Athens. He was a WWII correspondent in Europe and the Pacific, which is how he became part of the group that later got similar posts.

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  26. So excited to read this book! Really enjoy the Molly Murphy Series. You can’t write fast enough to satisfy my reading appetite!!!

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  27. Congratulations, Rhys and Clare, on your new Molly book! I love reading how your research brought you to the stories, Clare. I, too, think researching is fun.

    I often ponder how chance encounters or coincidences in our lives have brought us to where we are. The one that has had the biggest impact on my life and with the resulting waves of more events is how I met my husband. We both were in our senior year of college, the beginning of the last semester. I knew a girl from some of my education classes, and we were both at the education building on the University of Kentucky campus trying to firm up our schedules for that semester. I had finished my business, but she asked me to wait for her to walk over to the student center. I really wanted to get on with it, but I told her I'd wait. So, we walked over together, passing the ROTC building on the way. Philip happened to be looking out the window when we passed, and he knew my friend. He later asked her to get the number of the girl in the maroon coat with whom she had been walking. So, she gave him my number and told me that he would be calling around a certain time. I was actually late coming back to my apartment and missed his first call, but he called back. I agreed to go out with him, going to a movie and out for a sandwich after. It wasn't love at first sight, but I do remember the moment, not long after, when Cupid's arrow struck. Philip was on the UK Rifle team, and I met him at the shooting range one day. He was wearing his leather shooting jacket and looked so handsome and, well, I was smitten. We married six months later. We now have two grown children and a teenage granddaughter. I shudder to think that if I hadn't waited for the friend to walk to the student center with, or Philip hadn't made a second call to ask me out, what I and the world would have missed. My daughter and my son and my granddaughter are the result of Philip looking out the window at the exact time that I walked by with a mutual friend I'd waited on. I am in awe of how life works.

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    1. Clare: Thank you for sharing. Life is amazing!

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  28. Congratulations on your new book release! Sounds like a great read. One concidence that happened to me was years ago. I lost my job when the company I worked for went out of business and after a few weeks I got a call from the manager of a company I used to work for when I lived in Michigan and asked me to fill in when needed and it worked into a full time job.

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  29. No coincidences that come to mind, but a very warm welcome to Clare and Rhys's new book.

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  30. My parents lived a dew blocks from each other, but were in different school districts so didn't go to high school together. They met when they both learned square dancing.

    Also, when my brother and I both worked for the State, a check meant for my division ended up in his area. The check would have been to the Commonwealth of PA so our last name wouldn't have come up.

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  31. Hi Clare and Rhys! what great source stories you found to get your creative minds in gear. Molly is lucky to have two good storytellers guiding her as she navigates old New York.

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