DARING TO DREAM…THEN LIVING THE DREAM with CATHY ACE

 HALLIE EPHRON: Today I'm thrilled to welcome back a longtime friend of Jungle Red, Cathy Ace. We first hosted her back in (gulp) 2014 with her (was it her first??) Cait Morgan mystery set in **Vegas** -- a gutsy move for a Welsh(!) writer who was living in Canada. She's been on a roll ever since.

Today Cathy is back with fabulous news. The kind of news we mystery writers would kill for.

I'll let her tell you...

CATHY ACE: I wonder if you recall that song in the musical South Pacific which includes the lines: “...you gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?”

It’s something I’ve been thinking about quite a lot recently, because the 14th Cait Morgan Mystery is set in Tahiti, in the south Pacific, where Cait can’t help but hum another song from the same musical while she’s in the shower washing her hair (I bet you know that song, right!?).

However, I think we have to admit that the extent to which our dreams become reality is often not something over which we have complete control. We can plan, we can do our best to make, and take, opportunities, we can act…but – sometimes – it seems as though Chance plays a part in our being able to take that final step and actually experience what was once no more than wishful thinking.

For example, as a bookish child growing up in a somewhat deprived area of a once-great Welsh port, I never thought I’d ever get to feel the sands of exotic Tahiti between my fingers, however much I dreamed and hoped I would.

But a chance to visit came along, and I took it…so I actually dipped my toes into the crystal waters of the south Pacific, and saw the stars in the southern skies. It was so much more than I had dreamed it would be…and that visit, and my subsequent ones, inspired me to write The Corpse with the Pearly Smile.

And now there’s another dream that’s starting to come to life for me.

I suspect that every author is asked the question: “Who would you choose to bring your characters to life on the screen?” It’s a question I know I’ve been asked ever since my first book was published in 2012…and this year it was announced that the talented Eve Myles (Keeping Faith, Torchwood, We Hunt Together) will be portraying Cait Morgan when Free@LastTV (Agatha Raisin) produces the TV adaptation of that first Cait Morgan Mystery, The Corpse with the Silver Tongue.

So how does it feel to live this dream?

Well, it hasn’t been a straightforward journey by any means: the books were optioned back in February 2020, and I think we all recall only too keenly what happened in March of that year. There were so many productions that had to be completed once TV shooting began again post-pandemic that our project was pushed back…and then there were a couple of strikes to contend with, so it wasn’t until May of 2024 that the official announcement about casting was made. I know everyone says that TV takes time, and now I understand what they mean.

This dream? Well, I’ve learned that getting excited about the prospect of something being “about to happen” can be draining…so I’m doing my best to only get excited when something has actually happened.

From the time of the initial discussions with the production company, I chose to be involved with the adaptation. I didn’t want to write the screenplay – it’s not something that’s within my realm of expertise, and I truly believed there’d be a better person to do the job. There was, and his name is Matthew Thomas (Marcella, Queens of Mystery, New Tricks). 

Now, obviously, this Welshwoman was delighted that a person with such a lovely, Welsh-sounding name was up for writing the screenplay, and you might imagine how thrilled I was to discover that Matthew is the son of the renowned Welsh author Leslie Thomas (The Virgin Soldiers, The Last Detective/Dangerous Davies) so the Welsh blood and the writing blood course through his veins. And I ADORE his screenplay – which excised all the right parts of the novel to create an adaptation that will run for two hours.

So we were off to a wonderful start. WOOT!

Then came the question of Cait. It was agreed that she’d be Welsh, because Cait is Welsh, and I am Welsh, and the casting of a Welshwoman was a hill upon which I was prepared to die…though I didn’t have to, because the wonderful producers completely agreed that Cait’s nationality would be honoured (with the extra vowel).

And Eve Myles is P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Not only is she an incredibly talented performer, but she’s also enthusiastic about the project. YAY! I’m thrilled, because there are relatively few working-class Welsh women portrayed on the screen (to be honest, almost none) and I wanted that to be the Cait that people “meet”, and Eve will do her proud.

As for Bud Anderson, Cait’s partner in life and crime? Well, the character is Canadian, he’s in his fifties, and he’s the person who keeps Cait tethered when she gets dangerously wrapped up in her own head, trying to work everything out. So…solid, dependable, and procedural (he’s a cop who’s recently moved up from overseeing a large homicide squad to a command role within an international gang-busting task force when we meet him in the first book).

Do I know who’ll portray him? Yes. But I’m sworn to secrecy until the papers are signed and The Announcement is made by those who are allowed to make it (the humble novel writer is not that person).

Then there are the locations: the book is set mainly in Nice, in the south of France, with a critical sub-plot running in British Columbia, Canada, and some Welsh asides. All three areas will be used for shooting the production, which is wonderful – the authenticity of the locations is critical in the books, and it will be in the TV adaptation – and I’m hoping I can snag a Hitchcockian appearance in at least one of the Canadian bits (I fear it’s unlikely I’ll be wafted away in a private jet to sip a glass of rosé in the background of a scene on the Cours Saleya in Nice…boo-hoo).

So living the dreams is…well, it’s wonderful, and I’m excited, and it all seems to be coming together (at last). I am determined to hang on for the entire ride…and I shall continue to dream, and take whatever opportunities arise. Because that sand in Tahiti feels wonderful, and the idea that my ninety-year-old mother might, after all, see her daughter’s characters on the screen is still there…still a hope, a dream, but now – more than ever – within grasp.

HALLIE: So Cathy leaves us with this question: What dreams have you seen come to fruition…and did they live up to your hopes?

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Cathy Ace FB: https://www.facebook.com/Cathy-Ace-Author-318388861616661 Cathy Ace website: http://www.cathyace.com/ Cathy Ace Twitter: https://twitter.com/AceCathy Cathy Ace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyace1/

Magnificent Mindblowing "Moonflower"

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m happy to report that I’ve just finished watching MOONFLOWER MURDERS. It’s absolutely magically mind-boggling, the way the author Anthony Horowitz (he wrote the novel, a sequel to his MAGPIE MURDER) and the screenplay, braids together two (or is it three?) different narratives – a murder in the past, a novel inspired by that murder, and a murder in the present.

The present day sleuth is the brilliant Lesley Manville, and her “guide” to solving the present-day murder is the sleuth from the *novel* Atticus Pund, played by Tim McMullan, with an assist from the dead author of the novel. With a great ensemble cast, some of whom show up in the multiple time streams.

For those of us who write murder mysteries, it's utterly engrossing. A tour de force. Not something I’d ever attempt but I enjoyed watching (and reading the novel) it. And CHEWING on it after.

So what’s the most complicated plot “braiding” you’ve ever attempted, and how did you keep track??

LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie, John and I have this on our list to watch! (So late to the party.)

I think A POISONOUS PALATE was the most complicated so far because it involved a disappearance/murder in the past, more murders in the present, and two points of view. My usual first person narrator Hayley Snow was there of course, but there was another voice from the past interwoven.

I knew Debs had done this so I asked her advice. And I kept thinking about how Rhys had described printing out the two pieces of a story and laying them out along her hallway to see how they fit together. I think I was trying to do that mentally! It was fun and I’m sure I’ll do something like that again.

RHYS BOWEN: I’ve done several novels that jump between past and present, requiring a lot of thought. But I think the most complicated was my new book, The Rose Arbor.

So many stories intertwined. A young g reporter in the trail of one missing girl finds links to other girls and to her own history. In the book every fact she finds about one missing girl has repercussions to other crimes and to her own life.

Plus I have scenes from WW2 and the voices of all the missing girls. It was like creating a jigsaw puzzle! But so worth it in the end

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I am so with you… I have loved Magpie Murders from moment one, I was just ecstatic over it, a relentless proselytizer, and could not wait for Moonflower. Which I love as well.

When I was in the UK some months ago, to be on a panel with Anthony Horowitz,(I know, swooning) I had a long talk with him, and his wonderful wife, Jill Green, the producer of the shows about it(also I am still swooning. ) Anthony credits her as the brains behind the production.

They were just in the planning stage for how to create Moonflower, and we had a long talk about how that would be presented – – Magpie was so gorgeous and innovative, and as we always say, they wanted to do the same thing, but differently. Which I think they wildly succeeded in!

As for me, I have done very complicated structures—well, let’s say complex, instead of complicated. It’s still very linear when I write it, it’s just that each timeline has its parallel events. The key, I think, is to decide whether you want the parallel points of view to be serial or simultaneous. In other words, does the next point of view continue the story, or show the story you've already heard at the same time.

And I always label the chapters with POV and time:
ELLIE
Now

Because the key is make sure readers are never confused, and that is much more complicated when you consider the limitations of audiobooks.

Hilariously, I have learned that it is much harder for me to write a single point of view with one timeline than it is to write multiple points of view with multiple timelines.

JENN McKINLAY: What a fabulous event, Hank! I’d swoon, too.

I’ve never done multiple timelines but I did braid all three of the ensemble casts from the Cupcake Bakery, London Hat Shop, and Library Lovers mysteries in DEATH IN THE STACKS. Never again. 

But I do remember reading SLEEPING MURDER by Christie (published posthumously) when I was just starting to read mysteries and Miss Marple solves a case from decades before and it made such an impression on me, I still remember the twist. I thought that was some very clever braiding. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am so behind on my watching! I started The Magpie Murders but got distracted--story of my life--and didn't finish it. So naturally I didn't want to start Moonflower until I've seen Magpie.

It's fascinating reading how others handle these braided plots. Hank, I don't think it ever occurred to me to differentiate between serial and simultaneous. On reflecting now, I'd say I use both, but lean towards serial as it moves the plot along. I've done more than a few multiple timeline novels, but I think the most complicated thing I've done is the continuation of a plot thread through four novels--No Mark Upon Her through Garden of Lamentations. That one nearly made me pull my hair out!

HALLIE: So anyone else out there watching MOONFLOWER MURDERS and have you been delighted or perhaps a bit befuddled? I found it a real hang-on-and-enjoy-the-ride.

Or do you have any favorite books that mash up timelines? In different genres, even, since our friends the fantasy writers excel at it.

WORKING TITLE: What We're Writing by Jenn McKinlay

 JENN McKINLAY: Ever since my first fantasy book was spawned out of a random department that I wrote into the Museum of Literature romcom novellas, the working title was BOOKS OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN -- named after that fictional department of oddball books. Well, as we get closer to the publication date (still a year out) in Oct of 2025, the title has been changed to WITCHES OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN. 

What do you, dear Readers, think of the change? Oh, wait, you probably want to know the premise so you can be better informed:

Zoe Ziakas enjoys a quiet life, working as a librarian in her small village. When a mysterious black book with an unbreakable latch is delivered to her library, Zoe consults the Books of Dubious Origin department at the Museum of Literature and discovers that she is the last descendant of a family of witches who specialize in raising the dead and this little black book is their grimoire. 

Pragmatic Zoe rejects this ridiculous narrative, but when an undead friend of her grandmother's shows up at her house and asks Zoe to help her, Zoe realizes she will never get her quiet life back until she decodes the family grimoire and solves the mystery of what happened to her grandmother and her mother.

The book's potential power draws all things magical to it, and Zoe finds herself under the constant watch of a pesky raven, while being chased by undead Vikings, ghost pirates, and assorted ghouls. With help from the strange and intimidating staff of the Books of Dubious Origin department, Zoe confronts her past and the legacy of her family, but will she embrace her destiny or return to the quiet life she held so dear?

As you can imagine, I have polled A LOT of people about the title change. And this is how it rolled out by preference:

Mystery Writers: BOOKS OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN

Romance Writers: WITCHES OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN

Fantasy Writers: WITCHES

Academic Librarians: BOOKS

Public Librarians: WITCHES

How do I feel about it? Undecided. I trust Sales and Marketing to know how to best represent the book, but I was partial to the original title, the manuscript of which I am revising right now. 

In fact, here's a snippet:

     I put down my novel and shoved my blanket aside. I glanced out the window beside the door. There was no one on the porch. I cautiously opened the door. I checked the walkway to the street. No one was there. I studied the wind chimes hanging on the corner of the porch. They weren’t moving, so it hadn’t been a breeze. I shifted my gaze to the two wicker chairs to the right. They were empty but perched on the back of one of them was the raven.

     “Ah!” I started. Had this uninvited guest been making all of that racket? He was the only one here so it had to have been him. I was equal parts relieved and annoyed. I walked toward the bird. He didn’t move. I raised my arms and waved my hands at him. “Shoo!”

     He turned his head to the side and stared at me with one pale blue beady eye as if assessing my threat level. It was going to be high if he pooped on my furniture. 

     “Party’s over!” I clapped my hands. The sound was loud in the evening quiet. He flapped his wings and flew from the chair to the porch railing. I clapped again. “You don’t have to go home, big guy, but you can’t stay here.”

     With a leap, he jumped off the railing and soared out into the darkness. I glanced at the houses on each side of mine. All was quiet. I turned and went back inside, assured that peace had been restored.

     I had just settled into my chair and started reading when there was a thumping sound on the porch. 

     “Oh, hell no,” I muttered. “We’re not doing this all night.”

     I tossed aside my blanket and crossed to the door. I unlocked it and yanked it open. “I said, ‘Shoo!’”

     But it wasn’t the raven. Instead, standing before me was a diminutive ash blonde, a pale woman of a certain age--I was guessing  mid to late fifties. She was wearing a beige wool coat and clutching a stylish handbag which matched her equally fashionable shoes.

     “Can I help you?” I asked.

     “I certainly hope so, dear,” she said. Her blue eyes crinkled in the corners when she smiled at me. “I’m Eloise Tate, a childhood friend of your grandmother’s.”

     “Excuse me?” I asked. The odds of Mamie coming up in conversation twice in one day had to be a million to one. Years of my life had passed without my grandmother being mentioned and now she’d been mentioned twice. My gut twisted. Something wasn’t right. 

     “Antoinette Donadieu, Toni, she was your grandmother, yes?” Eloise tipped her head to the side as she studied me. “Your resemblance to her is uncanny.”

     “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be rude, but Mamie would be in her eighties now. There’s no way you’re old enough to have been a childhood friend of hers.”

     “Oh, but I was,” Eloise said. “Sadly, I passed away when I was fifty-two.”

     “Passed away?” I choked out the words.

     “Yes, but dear Toni brought me back and I was her faithful companion right up until the day she died. Now I need you, Zoe, to send me on.”

     “Send you on?” I repeated. There was a buzzing in my ears, probably panic, that made it hard to hear her.

     “You have the grimoire from your mother, yes? Which means you have the spell to send me across the veil to the other side.” She beamed and I noticed a fleck of pink lipstick on her teeth.

     “You’re telling me you’re dead,” I said. My eyes ran over her. She was clearly not dead. So…what in hell was going on here?

     “Oh, I can assure you, I’m very much deceased.” She nodded. “Toni planned to return me before she passed away, but the grimoire was stolen and Toni was murdered before she had the chance.”

     “Murdered?” My chest felt tight. I couldn’t get enough air, everything went fuzzy and I started to see spots. I leaned heavily against the doorjamb. “Who exactly murdered Mamie? Do you know?”

     “Why it was your mother, dear.” 

Now my second question is: How much does a title weigh in on your decision to buy a book? And should I be concerned? LOL.

What We're Writing Week: Julia Snuggles and Listens to Podcasts

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Like Lucy's upcoming Key West mystery, the manuscript of AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY is also in the repair shop. (I love that metaphor and I'm going to use it for the rest of my life.) So how am I proceeding with the edits? Snuggling and listening to podcasts.

Wait - it's not quite what it sounds like. I kicked off the process at a mini-writing retreat with my friend Jessica Ellicott, who is a great person with whom to bounce questions and toss ideas back and forth. I came home with a good grasp of how I was going to address the trickier changes my editor had asked for in his letter. (Yes, I know they're all emails now, but I still call it a letter.)

I also came home with a post surgical cat with a plate in its femur. Not obtained at Jessica's place; I picked him up from the Portland Animal Hospital, where he'd been staying four the past four nights. And if you're thinking, Four nights in hospital and surgery... that sounds expensive! you have NO IDEA. (Not that the doctors and nurses don't deserve it. They're amazing.)

Dear readers, this isn't even my cat. You may recall my daughter Virginia, a/k/a Youngest, is off in the Netherlands getting a masters degree. Well, along with the entire contents of her apartment, she left me with her barely-two-year-old kitty, Walker. 

Yes, those are the remains of my Post-its outline!

For a month and a half, Walker was so awed by This Old House's 3,000 square feet, he didn't even look when the front or back doors were opened. Alas, as anyone who has had a cat knows, that didn't last. A tad over two weeks ago, he escaped while I was bringing the dogs in, and at some point, had a close encounter with a car. No, no one stopped. Ugh.

The good news is, after $10,000 skilled and attentive medical care, he's projected to make a full recovery... if he stays in the large dog crate I've erected next to the desk in my office for eight weeks. No jumping, climbing or excessive weight on that leg. 

So, we're in this together, Walker and I. (The dogs are scornful lookers-on.) The cat is a very cuddly fellow, who formerly spent evenings resting against my head as I read or watched TV, and who used to sprawl out next to my laptop as I worked. He needs highly supervised time out of kitty jail, without the Collar of Shame. (He also gets his litter changed twice daily and special treats following his gabapentin. I feel like a Victorian nurse caring for an invalid baron.)

Hanging on to that collar just in case

Which (finally!) leads to me snuggling and listening to podcasts. I try to sit with Walker on the loveseat in my office three times daily. The evening is easy - I'm often streaming a show. But morning and afternoon, I've taken to putting a writer-oriented podcast on my laptop or phone. Specifically, I'm listening to shows about editing, both to keep me in the groove and to give me ideas for making my stitched-together novel prettier. 

Some of what I've found useful: Fiction Writing Made Easy, The Creative Writer's Toolbelt, The Creative Penn Podcast, DIY MFA and Writing Excuses. I love learning from other authors. And I love feeling inspired to get back to my computer after re-inserting Walker's head in the Cone of Shame and gently laying him in his fluffy bed. Yes, I bought it new just for the recovery kennel. 

Dear readers, do you have podcasts you use for inspiration and education? Or, alternately, tell me tales of your pet's expensive medical treatment!

What We're Writing--Debs Does Interior Design

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Rhys's post this week on researching the details of her book-in-progress got me thinking about what I need to see in real life versus what I make up out of whole cloth, or a combination thereof. Since I write about actual places, I usually stick pretty close to the real thing when I'm describing exterior settings, and I do my best to see the settings in person. I'm a big proponent of boots-on-the-ground.

But interiors are a different story! There is so much freedom there! I love writing about rooms, and I've often said that my fantasy job is to be a set designer for films or TV--what fun to bring characters and time periods to life through their spaces and belongings. Think about the new version of All Creatures Great and Small, for instance--I would watch that just to see the rooms in Skeldale House. They are so perfect, and they tell us so much about the people living there. 

We had parts of a movie shot in our house once and that was such an interesting experience. The film was low budget so I'm not sure they had an actual set designer, but whoever was in charge of sets brought in odds and ends of things, which they mixed with our stuff. In one scene in our living room, the actors drink tea from our Blue Calico porcelain, which I thought rather an odd choice for these particular characters, and it was bizarre to see our living room not looking quite like our living room! Our guest room became a teenage boy's room--amazing the transformation wrought by a few bits of sports memorabilia.

Some of my interiors are based on places I have been in person. The B&B in Now May You Weep, for example, with its over abundance of purple tartans, was based on a place I stayed (alas, now closed) in the village of Boat of Garten in the Scottish Highlands.

I'm addicted to British home magazines and I get ideas for rooms and houses from the feature spreads and even the ads. I wish I could show you the room that served as the inspiration for the gorgeous blue and pink sitting room in A Bitter Feast's Beck House, but I'm afraid I might get us in trouble for copyright violation.  (Also, I can't find the magazine!)

Sometimes, there's a fun inspiration within an inspiration. This is the corner of our sunporch. The poster features artist Stephanie Woolley, whose lovely work I attributed (with her permission) to artist Julia Swann in Leave the Grave Green. But it's also a nod to the sucession of gray tabbies in our lives--we seem to be magnets for them. (And please excuse my sad plant--that one is not doing the poster justice!)

And sometimes I just have a room in my mind, a place I've never been or seen in a photo, but that seems so real I can't believe it doesn't exist. Here's a very rough snippet from a scene in the book-in-progress (Kincaid/James #20) where we find Melody Talbot waking from a sleep in Hazel Cavendish's sitting room.

Hours later, it was sound that began to filter into her awareness first. There was the soft murmur of a radio, BB4, she thought, which made her think of her dad. Was she in the Kensington townhouse? No, the gentle clink of crockery brought it back. She was in Hazel’s bungalow, and there was the scent of something delicious baking—was it bread? And beneath that, something savory, perhaps a soup or casserole, that smelled of garlic and unfamiliar spices.

Tendrils of some pleasant dream still flickered at the edge of her consciousness, and her body felt heavy and languorous in a way she had almost forgotten. With an effort, she forced her eyes to open a fraction. The light in the room had changed, golden now rather than green-tinted as it had been in the morning, when it had been filtered by the potted lemon trees in the courtyard.

God, how long had she slept? What time was it? Was that the evening news on the radio? As her heart began its familiar racing, she struggled to sit up. Hazel had covered her with a red tartan throw blanket and the black cat had moved to the far end of the rose-patterned sofa, where he slept half on her feet. Tentatively, Melody extricated her right foot and flexed it—numb. No wonder it had felt so odd.

Edging free of cat and blanket, she swung her legs down and felt the rough texture of sisal matting beneath her bare feet. When had she taken off her shoes? Blinking her sticky eyes, she took in more of her surroundings. She saw now that Hazel had placed large potted plants either side of the tiny blue-tiled fireplace, a touch that made the bungalow feel as if the garden had been transported inside.

As if alerted by some sixth sense, Hazel came into the room. “Ah, you’re awake. I’ve just put the kettle on.”

Hazel's rose-patterned sofa I saw ages ago in an Ikea catalogue (most of Hazel's furniture came from Ikea) but the rest is purely from the depths of my subconscious.

Fellow writers, where do you get the ideas for the interiors you describe?

Readers, do you pay attention to these details? Do you feel they give you a sense of the characters?

What We're Writing by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: First, I will say our hearts go out to every single one of you in the path of Milton. So much destruction and fear...we are with you in spirit.

My Key West #15 mystery is in the repair shop. That means the manuscript I blithely sent off in early September has been returned with my fabulous developmental editor’s suggestions. Actually, I didn’t blithely send it off; I knew perfectly well there were weak spots in the plot and a few character issues too. But I also knew all this could be fixed and that’s what I’m in the middle of. Meanwhile, over those two blessed break weeks, I caught up on lots of things that had been neglected, including reading some of my favorite writing and publishing blogs and newsletters like Jane Friedman’s. In a recent edition, I noticed the name Anne Dubuisson, who had written an article about the benefits of writing a book proposal.  (Another project I was tackling!) I recognized her as an editor I’d used before I was published. I named a character after her who became Miss Gloria’s Houseboat Row neighbor and best friend, somewhere along the 14 books in the series. I wrote the real Anne D. a note, thanking her for that long-ago help and telling her about the character, (whose name I had misspelled all these years.) Here’s her reply:

It’s so good to hear from you—thank you for taking note of the blog post. I recall our work well. You were one of my first freelance clients after I made the move from NYC publishing, and when I read your manuscript, I thought, wow, this gig is going to be great, such quality writing! Since then, I’ve been lucky to collaborate with numerous fine writers (and of course, many not as skilled), but your work is still a highlight.

Where might I find my namesake? So honored!

Isn’t that a lovely note? And surely exaggerated:). I wrote her my thanks in return, and sent a snippet about her character namesake in KW #15. 

Anyway, here she is in next year's release where Miss Gloria is taking her daughters in law on a small tour of Houseboat Row:

A few minutes later, she led her relatives back onto the finger of the dock. “Next up, Annie Dubisson’s home.”

This time I did troop along behind because it had been a minute since I’d seen the inside of her best friend’s place. Mrs. Dubisson appeared delighted to show us around. We toured the larger boxy living area, with a faded red Tibetan rug, a multitude of plants, and workmanlike kitchen. I knew the ladies liked playing mahjong here because it felt more spacious and lighter than Miss Gloria’s place.

“We love living here on the water,” Mrs. Dubisson told the guests. “That little bit of wave action at night always makes me feel like I’m being rocked to sleep in my mother’s arms.” She paused. “There are surely drawbacks—it’s damp out here and everything tends to rust, and it’s more trouble to schlep back groceries and what not. This life wouldn’t be for everyone. Maybe someday we’ll retire.” She glanced at Miss Gloria—two weathered old women who would be bored silly without something to do—and they howled with laughter.

Now I must return to the repair shop. But meanwhile, how important are characters’ names to you? Do you have an early mentor in whatever path you took that you remember with gratitude?

Rhys is Researching.

 RHYS BOWEN: This has been one of few occasions when I'm NOT writing. Clare and I are close to the end of the next Molly book and I'm leaving it to her to finish it (we know whodunit and why).

I am due to start on the next Spyness book, which I'm calling FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE.  AND, as many of you will know if you follow us or are a member of Reds and Readers, I have managed to sneak a quick trip to Europe spending a lovely week in the town of Cassis, in Southern France.  The reason for going there ( apart from fabulous views, sunshine and good food) is that I have used it as the basis for my next stand alone novel MRS ENDICOT'TS EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. I've talked about it here--middle aged British woman escapes to the South of France and starts and new and exciting life. 

The town I have set this in is fictitious but anybody who has been to Cassis will recognize it. I made it fictitious as bad things happen in my story an there is a villa on the cliffs that doesn't exist in real life. I had been through the area before so I had a general impression but I wanted the details that bring a story to life and make it real. So I made notes as we drove through the countryside--more pine trees than I had expected. I made notes as I walked thrugh the market and saw what was for sale. 

And when they landed the catch at the port and when the men assembled to play Petanque. Now I can go through my ms and fine tune all the descriptions, bringing my town of St Benet to life.

Cassis (and my St Benet) is a small harbor town set amid steep hillsides with a great cliff at one side.

The area is famous for the Calenques (inlets between steep sea cliffs). The hillsides are covered in vines.

At nighttime it's magical: 

And our apartment had this lookout from the grounds.

 Not bad, huh? Needless to say I didn't get any real writing done while we were there. Back to the grind later this week.

Writers, do you have to go to the place you are writing about? Readers, how important is the feel of the place in a book?

What We're Writing: Hank is SERIOUSLY wondering

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  WHY does it always happen? Here’s what I mean. 

I know I told you the good news about my book being finished… It is in, it is approved. It is exciting. And my editor says “pencils down”. Until the copy, edit, of course, but that’s all fine. I’m incredibly thrilled about it and more about that to come. 

And then, what do I see advertised somewhere? A new book. Coming soon.  That’s kind of like my new book. Kind of. Not exactly, and the main character s nothing like mine, nothing at all, but it is in the same universe.

 Why why why does that happen? So.  I did what I always do. When these things happen, I just… Ignore it. I ignored it! I pretended  that book does not exist. My book does not come out until next September, and, whatever.  Que sera, sera.

And if that wasn’t enough.  Seriously. Not 10 minutes after we got the email, accepting and approving the delivery of the manuscript for ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS,  my agent emailed me and said, “Can you real-fast send me a couple of paragraphs about your next book? I need it for foreign sales.”

“Sure!” I wrote back, but not after spewing out (to myself) some unintelligible gibberish along the lines of “how the heck can I send you two paragraphs about something I have no idea what it is, not to shred of an idea not a bit, not one tiny little morsel?“

Okay, tantrum over, and thing is,  that wasn’t entirely true. I do have one shred, one tiny little morsel, one element that I am clinging to like a barnacle on a… Whatever barnacles cling to.

And then what do I see? I am not kidding you, an advertisement for a thing that is in the same ballpark in the same room as that idea– not exactly the same idea but certainly close enough to make me gasp. 

What is going on in the universe? Is there a universal consciousness? Where some chunk of people think of the same thing at the same time? 

And again, I did what I had to do – – I just ignored it. I forgot about it. That thing does not exist in my mind, so don’t bring it up.

It’s frustrating, though, thinking of an idea for a new book. I banged out a two page synopsis, and it sounds really great!

But.  It’s just that if someone says: what? What did you mean by “if she doesn’t find out the truth “and “ when she realizes what really happened “and “she realizes that someone knows some thing that could change her  life” – – what do you actually mean by those things? 

For that –I have no answer.  I don’t know, something cool and interesting will happen, but how am I supposed to know what it is?

And if you think about it, musing now,  I write domestic psychological suspense, so how many things can happen?

Wife, wife, husband, husband, kids kids. Husband/wife. Husband/Wife/Paramour. Husband wife kids. Husband, wife, husband, kids. A nanny.  At house. Add an insurance plan. Addd  a secret baby.  A  secret past. A  treacherous and duplicitous relative/friend/boss/girlfriend/boyfriend/mysterious stranger.  Murder, murder murder. Or not.

Stranger comes to town. Someone goes on a journey.

And there you have it. All the plots. 

That said, there are an awful lot of books. And yes, some of them are similar, some of them are crazy-similar actually, which is a blog for another time. 

So, all the good news: I have a book in the works, which comes out next year. I have two pages, also, of an imaginary novel. And around this time next year, I will know what it is. That is a magic that never ceases to amaze me. 

What do you think Reds and Readers, is there a kind of zeitgeist collective thinking universal mind where there are ideas out there and it’s just a question of who takes them or recognizes them? 

Meanwhile, you will find me at the drawing board.

What IS Hallie Writing...

 

HALLIE EPHRON: It's WHAT WE'RE WRITING week... and my usual question: Am I writing? And if I am, then where is it?? 

The answer: ideas are swirling in my head. Which is a step forward.

I’m still disinterring and collecting the personal writing I’ve done over the decades and sorting. Since Jerry and I were married for more than 50 years, a lot of the writing is about him. I've been printing it all out, three-hole-punching, and putting the pages into a spiffy red 3-ring binder.

So it feels as if something is happening.

On a parallel track I’ve scanned the hundreds of cartoons he drew and saved, much of it from the cards he drew for me and capturing our family history. Every birthday, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Ground Hog Day, and once on Bastille Day I’d find a hand-drawn card in the bathroom in the morning when I groped my way to the toilet.

It started out with just us and two cats. Then us and a baby. Then us and another baby. The last cards include my daughter's handsome husband and their two delicious grandchildren. It was a sort of rite of passage when you assumed cartoon-character form in one of his drawings.

He was a lunatic who raised “silly” to a fine art. Who turned cartoon drawings into love letters.

Friends have urged me to use his drawings to tell a story.

I met Jerry in 1968. He was a graduate student in physics, living near Columbia, and I was a junior at Barnard. We were fixed up by one of his roommates. I’d just been dumped by Charlie; then, months later Charlie whistled and I dumped Jerry.

Jerry was persistent. He wooed me with cartoons. Here’s a postcard he sent me.

He’s Don Quixote and I’m one of the evil grimacing faces on the windmill along with Charlie. The text is from a poem by Frederico García Lorca. Jerry loved poetry and spoke pretty good Spanish.

When Charlie dumped me (again), it’s telling that I’d kept Jerry’s card. I must have known in my heart of hearts, that he was the one. And lucky for me, he thought I was, too. We got back together, and stayed that way happily (almost) ever after.

Here’s a picture of Jerry as he was when I first met him and again in 1990. Was he handsome or what?? I must have been out of my mind to dump him.

And here’s how he portrayed the change he’d undergone in those three decades. Cue: laughter.

Is your family history in photographs? Letters?? A recipe box?? A binder?? A book???

A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT: Releasing this week!

 

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JENN McKINLAY: There it is! My fifteenth Library Lover's Mystery. It is absolutely wild to me that it's been fourteen years since the release of the first book in the series BOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING. I was thinking about it the other day and I was trying to determine if I have changed as a writer during the thirteen years between these releases. 

My first thought was YES! I have changed but not in ways I would have expected. The first library mystery was my eighth published book. I'd written three romcoms for Harlequin, two writer for higher mysteries about decoupage, and two cupcake bakery mysteries. I had barely cut my teeth in the publishing world and, honestly, had no idea what I was doing. I like to think I know what I'm doing now but note the use of "think I know" just to be clear that I'm not completely certain...yet.

In the beginning, I said yes to everything. Every interview, every book tour, every signing opportunity, every request to speak, every guest blog post--I did them all. In retrospect, if I knew then what I know now, I would have been more respectful of my own time and turned down most of these "opportunities". Because the truth is, the writing is the most important part of the job and I let it fall behind promotion way too often at the start of my career. I don't do that anymore and even wrote "Say No!!!" in huge purple letters on my whiteboard to remind myself.

One change that didn't manifest like I thought it would is that the writing is just as hard now as it was then! Shocking, I know! You'd think word smithing would get easier but no! Frankly, I wonder if it's because I've murdered so many fictional people (forty-eight mysteries) that I've worked out all of my issues and now I'm dismissed from therapy, as it were. 

Lastly, the change in myself that I appreciate the most is a newfound calm. In the beginning, I remember always feeling frantic. I feared at any moment my publisher would dump me and I'd have to start all over again. In fact, I'm positive that's why I had five mystery series going at once, why I pivoted to romcoms, and why I took on another writer for hire project when I already had three series going. It was a decade of mayhem, I tell ya! I have slowly pulled away from that constant state of anxiety--after sixty books you just need to chill out-- and am living more in the present and embracing new writing challenges like my first fantasy WITCHES OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN slated to release in October of 2025. I have become very protective of my Zen so if ever you see me disappear from the socials for a day or two or more, that's why.

Tell us, Reds, how have you changed during your writing journey? And, Readers, when you've been with an author for a long time do you see their personal growth reflected in their work?

About A MERRY LITTLE MURDER PLOT:

‘Tis the season in Briar Creek, and this year festivities become fatalities in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Fatal First Edition.

During the most wonderful time of the year, famous author Helen Monroe arrives in Briar Creek to be the writer in residence, but her “bah humbug” attitude excludes her from the many holiday celebrations the town residents enjoy. To try to spread some Christmas cheer, library director Lindsey Norris invites the new writer in town to join her crafternoon club. Helen politely refuses and when an altercation happens between Helen and another patron, Lindsey begins to suspect the author has been keeping to herself for a reason.

Another newcomer, Jackie Lewis, reveals she’s visiting Briar Creek to be near Helen because she believes they are destined to meet. Having dealt with a stalker in the past, Lindsey feels compelled to tell Helen about Jackie, as she suspects that Helen is unaware her “number one” fan is in town.

When Jackie’s body is later discovered in the town park beneath the holiday-light display with a copy of Helen’s latest manuscript in her hand, the reclusive novelist becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her self-proclaimed mega-fan. Helen’s frosty demeanor melts when Lindsey offers her help, and now the librarian and her crafternoon pals must prove the author innocent before “The End” becomes Helen’s final sentence.

What Autumn Means to Me (a recipe) by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: What Autumn Means to Me!

I grew up in New England and autumn has been my favorite season all my life. There is just nothing like the feeling of crisp mornings after a long humid summer, or watching the leaves change into their gorgeous array of colors and then drop to the ground like nature's confetti. I just love love love it. 

Of course, this is also the season of apple picking, pumpkin patches, and trick o' treating. I mean, seriously, as a professional candy freak, what's not to love? 

Sadly, I live in AZ where the arrival of autumn is a bit subtler (it dropped under the triple digits for the September equinox and then shot right back up). So, what's an autumn loving gal to do when she can't force fall (see Julia's fabulous post on this topic: HERE).

She (i.e. me) makes salted caramel sauce! Caramel is synonymous with autumn for me - probably because of my deep and abiding love for caramel apples - way more than pumpkin spice ever could be.

RECIPE: 

1 cup granulated sugar

6 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

Heat granulated sugar in a medium stainless steel saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a amber-brown liquid as you continue to stir.  Be careful not to burn it.

Once sugar is completely melted, stir in the butter until melted and combined. If you notice the butter separating or if the sugar clumps, remove from heat and whisk to combine it again. Return to heat once it’s smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Then slowly add the heavy cream, stirring constantly. 

Once the heavy cream has been fully incorporated, stop stirring and allow to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils. 

Remove from heat and stir in the salt. The caramel will be a thin liquid at this point. Allow to cool, so it will thicken, before using. 

Leftover sauce can be stored for up to 1 month in the refrigerator. The sauce will solidify in the refrigerator. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove to desired consistency.

Reds and Readers, what recipe means autumn to you?