SECRET COMPARTMENTS, TUNNELS, AND HISTORY, OH MY

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you have a hollowed-out book that’s really a secret cache? A whipped cream canister that actually holds jewelry? Even a fake rock that hides your housekeys? A stuffed animal with a zippery tummy?

Things that hide other things, that’s our topic for the day. And the fab Nadine Nettmann (who is EXACTLY the person you want with you at the wine store, and more about that below) has been looking into how even cities and geography can hide things.

It’s all a result of her (gorgeous! Look at that cover!) new book called THE BOOTLEGGER’S DAUGHTER. 

And one hidden thing she uncovered absolutely made me gasp. See if you’re surprised, too.

Read on.

SECRET COMPARTMENTS, TUNNELS, AND HISTORY, OH MY

     By Nadine Nettmann

Thank you, Hank, and all of the Jungle Red Writers for having me here!

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been captivated by things hidden in plain sight. From clues in mysteries to doors concealed behind bookcases to books that are hollowed out to hide keys. When I was little, I had a pencil box that had a secret compartment and while I only kept my eraser in there, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Hidden elements are one of the main reasons I’ve had a decades-long fascination with Prohibition. From 1920-1933, alcohol was hidden in plain sight: boots and heels were filled with liquor, long coats had bottles of booze sewn into the linings, suitcases had secondary compartments, and cars had false floor boards.

Not to mention the aspects a little more out of sight, such as boats pulling up to beaches in the middle of the night, tunnels to transport the illicit alcohol, and of course, speakeasies that could only be entered with the right password.

Histories of cities and towns can also be hidden and I love looking at old photos to see how things used to be. Not just the cars or the streets (sometimes dirt roads), but how the different parts of the city used to look and if the buildings in the photos still remain today. Change, after all, is constant.


This was part of the reason I wanted to write about Los Angeles in The Bootlegger’s Daughter. Not only was I born and raised here, I find it fascinating how a city can go through so many changes and yet some parts will remain unchanged, especially from the 1920s. 

This decade was a key moment in the city of LA and it gave us many iconic monuments, including the Hollywood Sign (which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1923), the Hollywood Bowl, the LA Coliseum, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Roosevelt, the Rose Bowl, and much more.

Los Angeles also has a hidden history: winemaking. While not a well-known wine region these days, winemaking here dates back to the 1700s and was so key that the city seal from 1854-1905 was a cluster of grapes on the vine. In the 1850s, Los Angeles had more than 100 wineries producing millions of gallons of wine. What happened? Well, a few things and Prohibition was one of them.

While winemaking in Los Angeles still exists, most of the land that once held vines now holds buildings and homes. But the history remains and in a way, is hidden in plain sight. In fact, you might have seen and heard it for years without realizing the connection. From now on, it'll cross your mind the next time someone mentions the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

HANK: Oh, I just gasped! I NEVER thought about that. Hilarious.

I adore secret hiding places too, and always wished our house had one. A revolving bookcase, or a hidden panel in the pantry. Reds and readers, do you have any secret hiding place in your house—or in your life? I guess once you tell us, it’s not secret any more….but hey, it's just between us!

And what questions do you have for Nadine about bootlegging—or wine?

The Bootlegger’s Daughter

In Prohibition-era Los Angeles, two women on opposite sides of the law must take control of their lives, make their marks, and try to survive. Even if it means crossing the line.

It’s 1927. Letty Hart’s father is long gone, but his old winery provides a meager wage and a legal livelihood for selling sacramental wine. But when that contract goes bust, Letty stumbles upon a desperate option: her father’s hidden cellar—and enough liquor to tempt Letty to bootleg the secret stash. In an underworld dominated by merciless men, Letty is building an empire.

Officer Annabel Forman deserves to be the first female detective in the LAPD. But after two years on the force, she’s still consigned to clerical work and policing dance halls. When Annabel connects a series of unsolved murders to bootlegging, it’s a chance at a real investigation. Under the thumb of dismissive male superiors, Annabel is building her case.

As their formerly uncompromised morals erode, Letty and Annabel are on a collision course—and determined to prove they’re every bit as ruthless and strong-willed as the powers that be who want to take them down.

 

 

Nadine Nettmann is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and the author of the Agatha Award–nominated Sommelier Mystery series, which includes Decanting a Murder, Uncorking a Lie, and Pairing a Deception. Born in Los Angeles, she works full-time in the wine industry and enjoys discovering the history of the city she still calls home. For more information, visit www.nadinenettmann.com

THE MYSTERIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF THE PAST

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you know the fabulous Katherine Reay? She has a brilliant new book out right now called THE BERLIN LETTERS— which was recently picked as an NPR “Must Read.” Whoa.


And quickly, here’s the scoop: Uncovering a startling family secret sets CIA cryptographer Luisa Voekler on the journey of a life-time from Washington DC to East Berlin, during the tumultuous first week in November 1989, and deep into Berlin’s divided history in an effort to understand her past, change her future, and rescue her father from a Stasi prison.

Whoa. The Booklist starred review says 'Fans of codebreakers, spies, and Cold War dramas will be entrapped by Reay's tale of courage, love, and honor set against the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.'

(And oh, yes. Katherine is giving a paperback book to one super-lucky commenter—US only please, the international postage is monstrous.)

 

But THE BERLIN LETTERS is all about startling family secrets. We’ve talked about them here before, but today Katherine has a fascinating new way to look at them.

First, I cannot resist showing you this photo of Katherine's grandmother, the far left, with her two sisters in Miami, taken sometime in the late 1930s.

Can’t you instantly tell there are stories here? You'll hear about it below.

THE MYSTERIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF THE PAST
By Katherine Reay

 

I’m continually astounded at how much fiction not only illuminates the human experience, but teaches me something new about it as well. I find it in the books I read, and I find it in the books I write.


Several years ago, I wrote a fun contemporary novel titled The Printed Letter Bookshop and, within that tiny store, three women work out love and life. Through mishaps, mayhem, and misunderstandings, they may also save the bookstore.

But what struck me while writing that story was not the misunderstandings that happen within the shop, but the misunderstandings within each character’s life before she stepped onto the page. I don’t know if I had the intention as I began writing, but The Printed Letter Bookshop is as much about the present and a charming bookstore as it is about each woman’s past, whether she truly understands that past or not.

As I wrapped up that novel and began imagining a new one, I learned a family story — about my own past.

It’s always been known in my family that back in the 1920s my grandmother and her two sisters were sent from their home in Charleston, South Carolina, to live with their aunt in Miami, Florida. Family-lore attributed the move to my grandmother’s allergies.

However, about four years ago, my grandmother’s younger sister was nearing the end of her life and began sharing childhood stories with her own children. She told them that she and her sisters were not sent away because of my grandmother’s allergies, but because their father had remarried after their mother’s death and their new stepmother wanted them out of the house. Their aunt in Miami, thankfully, took the three young girls in.

And here they all are.

Now, the reason I opened this story stating it was about “my past” is because that’s what the past does — it trickles down generations. I will never know, especially because my grandmother never mentioned this chapter in her life, how she felt about it or how it formed her.

But there is no way it didn’t carry consequences.

Such a water-shed moment had to have influenced the way she thought about love, unconditional and conditional, family, fathers, marriage, loyalty, and, without doubt, stepmothers. I would bet there wasn’t an aspect of her inner-world that did not change in that moment. And, if that’s true, there’s no way it didn’t shape how she raised her own four children, and, perhaps, the way my own father parented his three kids.

 

I hold no assumptions, by the way. I do not assume the consequences were all or in part negative. She may not have known herself — or it may have been obvious to her every day of her life. As she never talked about it, there will never be answers to those questions. But that’s part of life, too, isn’t it? We more often live without answers than we rest in confident knowledge and clarity.

After all, while I might assume such an event would make a person more circumspect and wary, perhaps it made my grandmother more open, loyal, loving, and devoted. I have wonderful memories of her, despite the fact she cooked green beans from morning to dinnertime. She was involved, interested, and very present to all her grandchildren. We lived in the same city during my elementary school years and enjoyed dinners at my grandparents’ home almost every Sunday.

The point is — this is what I love about fiction. Through novels, we get to explore the past, its implications and its consequences, in varied and nuanced ways. We, as readers, get to dip our toes into those experiences, try them on, see how they fit, and learn new tidbits about life and the human experience from them — all from the safety of our armchairs.

And I’m not maligning those armchairs either. That’s a vital part of this incredibly vulnerable experience because, I suspect, without that safety-net we would instinctively put our defenses and keep ourselves from venturing so far. Fiction sneaks into our souls because it wraps us in an “illusion” and, wrapped in that fictional dream, we often forget it often presents a reality more solid than the most trusted fact.

 

Are there family stories that have surprised and shaped you? And what are some of your favorite novels that shaped your thinking? 

 

HANK: Oh, this has really got me thinking. Well, my step-father's mother had a club of her friends, back in the say, forties. They were extremely excruciatingly careful about who they would allow to join. They were so picky and persnickety that they could never find anyone good enough to keep the club alive, so it just...died along with them. I think that is incredibly powerful. And ridiculous. And sad. I think about it all the time. It was called The Tuesday Club, I just remembered. SO funny.

And how about you, Reds and Readers?

Don’t forget to comment to enter to win THE BERLIN LETTERS!

 

 

Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author of several novels, including A SHADOW IN MOSCOW and her recent release, THE BERLIN LETTERS, a Cold War spy novel, inspired by the Berlin Wall and the women who served in the CIA’s Venona Project, which was recently picked as a NPR “Must Read.” When not writing, Katherine hosts the What the Dickens Book Club on Facebook and weekly chats with authors and booksellers at The 10 Minute Book Talk on Instagram. But if she’s really lucky, you’ll find her fly fishing and hiking in Montana. You can meet Katherine at www.katherinereay.com or on Facebook: KatherineReayBooks, Twitter: @katherine_reay and Instagram: @katherinereay

The Monsters Made Her Do It

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Pop the champagne, toss the rose petals, and give a standing ovation! It is debut day here on Jungle Red. We love love love debut authors, and we are so pleased to welcome Sarah Reida today!

 

She describes her new book, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH as “an adult debut dark comedy thriller.” SO great! Adult, check. Debut, love. Dark, perfect. Comedy? Yes, I read it, and it is hilarious. (Darkly hilarious.) Thriller. Yes, indeed. And it just got a STAR from Kirkus!

 

(Oh we interrupt this program for  BREAKING NEWS: Don’t forget the Reds and Readers Happy Hour Facebook LIVE at 5PM ET today! Join us on the Red and Readers page—and remember you have to join the group to join the fun. So click here.  And I will approve you instantly. Then come to Reds and Readers Facebook Page at 5PM Tuesday! ANd yesterdays winners from the Reds and Readers tests are Laurie Hernandez and Janice Harris. Message me!)

But right now, let's get the scoop from Sarah! And she reveals she had some unusual help for her wonderful debut novel. Monsters.

 

My Monsters Wrote My Book For Me

by Sarah Reida

 

As many writers know, it’s rough to write when the process is protracted. If you’re constantly pulled away to deal with something (like, I don’t know, literally wiping someone’s behind), the issue isn’t simply that it takes longer. The time you’re actually spending isn’t being spent well. You have to re-read what you’ve written before starting again. Get back into the flow.

 

No one knows this better than a mother. Gawd, I love my little monsters, but they sure are a demanding handful. (In fact, as I write this–at 9:22 PM on a Friday night–I’m ignoring thumps and screams from the floor above. Apparently, our nightly exorcism was unsuccessful).

 

Interestingly, however, my children are the reason my adult debut dark comedy thriller, Neighborhood Watch, came to be. I had this great idea–Desperate Housewives, only more stabby (which is totally a legitimate verb)­–but I only had a grand total of four and a half hours every day to write. And this is assuming that I could let my house go to filth and also put off my work duties.

 

Then, there was my attention span. This was a get-er-done-or-it’s-not-happening kind of situation. I felt that in my bones.

 

I’ve never written for grownups before. Before I had kids, I spent ten years on agented submissions to publishers with a series of middle grade books that didn’t sell. This was my first foray into this area, which was probably why I was able to write Neighborhood Watch without second-guessing myself. I didn’t expect too much of myself. I just had fun with it (and the awful, awful characters I created and then murdered).

 

So, by writing two short chapters a day–and by always having a definite stopping point–I finished a 320-page novel in two months. And, seven months after beginning the book, I had a traditional publishing deal.

 

It’s all because of the monsters. I never would have approached a project this way if not for them. I molded my writing process to fit into my schedule as a mother, and miracle of miracles, that’s how I finally got my traditional deal.

 

The best part is that now I can share this publishing experience with them. I can show them what it’s like to not give up on a dream. To have proof that something can come through when you least expect it.

 

This leads me to the question I have for the writing community of ladies: how do you balance it? Everyone has to, and everyone does it differently. They say there’s no wrong way–though the mommy guilt is real, and constant–so share your story in the comments!

 

FYI, a monster has wandered downstairs. Rather than lead him back to bed, I’ll take the photo op:

 

HANK: Awww.... Great question, Sarah! Not only how do you all balance, but what are the monsters that interrupt YOUR day?

And a copy of NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH to one lucky commenter!

 

Sarah Reida is an attorney who works with veteran businesses performing contracts with the federal government. While she was traditionally published once in the middle grade genre, Neighborhood Watch is her debut in the adult thriller genre. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews referred to this dark comedy thriller as “immersive and compelling.” Sarah and her husband Scott live in the Atlanta area with their small children and many rescue cats. Follow Sarah on Instagram here.

About Neighborhood Watch

 

A killer terrorizes the morally bankrupt residents of an upscale neighborhood, leading them to turn to—and on—one another to survive.

The neighborhood of Oleander Court is the poster child for suburban bliss. The residents compare lawns beautified by hired help. They monitor home values. They toss perfect furniture because they wanted tapioca, not beige.

But when a string of murders rips through the neighborhood, suspicions abound as new secrets come to light. And as more and more bodies are taken away, it becomes clear that the killer is strategically selecting each and every victim, picking off the shallowest, most wasteful of the lot in spectacular fashion and leaving everyone in the neighborhood to wonder: Who’s next?

While most of their neighbors scatter like well-dressed cockroaches, a small group of the neighborhood ladies team up to solve their local mystery and restore their once-peaceful lives. But is this ragtag collection of amateur sleuths truly a united front? With reputations, freedom, and personal sanity on the line, the ladies must unmask the killer . . . even if the killer is among them.

Links to Buy:

Amazon

 Barnes and Noble

In A Pickle over the Game

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am about to write about something about which I know nothing.

Which is exactly the point. And here I go.

Pickleball.

If you showed me three rackets, and asked: which of these is the pickleball racket? I might be able to choose, but only by process of elimination.

Same with pickleball balls. I have no idea what they look like. (Well, now I've seen the photos. Okay, wiffleballs.)

Reds and readers, many of my friends are enthralled with pickleball. Enthralled! Two, at least, cannot stop talking about it. How much fun it is, how competitive, or not competitive, and how easy it is, and how congenial, and all the cute, cute clothes you must have.

In fact, Pickleball is such a phenomenon that shopping malls are now being converted into Pickleball courts.

Neighbors are turning against neighbors, because the Pickleball players are swarming over the tennis courts.

I don’t know about this, Reds and Readers. I just don’t know. I know I am so behind the curve on this. 

I am tennis impaired, you all are aware of that, since you’ve known near-sighted contact-lens-losing lack-of depth-perception me for so long, but perhaps the rest of you could add more light to this.

I hesitate to say I am in a pickle about it, but I am. Looking up now why it’s called pickleball.

Okay, here’s the scoop.

One website says that some people believe the game was named after the inventor's family dog Pickles. But apparently the truth is that the inventor’s wife named it after the pickle boats in crew. The pickle boat would be the least competitive one in the race, with a crew that was thrown together at random.

Oh, now I get it. Sure.

So. I just served the question. Who wants to hit it back? (But don’t ask me to keep score.)

JENN McKINLAY: Hub and I have tried pickleball and it is fun but there seems to be a lot of rules. We play in a rec volleyball league every week (which I’ve mentioned before) and I fear we are just volleyballers at heart. Falling in sand is just a softer landing for my fifty-something bones. Also, I have discovered a certain oppositional defiance about myself. I generally dislike things that “everyone” else likes or that I’m told I “must love”. It makes me think of Groucho Marx’s quote “I do not care to belong to a club that accepts members like me” (paraphrasing). LOL.

I did recently read a romcom entitled Pickleballers by Ilana Long and it was an fun read and definitely explained the game. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more while enjoying a romcom at the same time!

RHYS BOWEN: I’ve tried pickleball and it’s fun, although noisy in an indoor court as the ball is hard plastic, bat is solid. I know various neighborhoods have complained about the loud thwack, clunk noise of the courts.

I went to a beginners class at my gym. I started hitting with the instructor. He said “you’ve played this before “

“ I really haven’t” I replied. Just played tennis and ping pong my whole life. So it’s really easy to pick up. I watch professional games on TV and think I could do that!

The problem is that it’s so popular the courts are always full.

LUCY BURDETTE: I took a set of pickleball lessons last fall. Everyone else was probably 30 years younger than me. Still, I picked it up pretty well and enjoyed playing. There are a lot of rules, and Rhys is right, it’s too popular for its own good. In CT the former Walmart has been converted to a pickleball center. I may go over and check it out… But ps I did not wear special clothes:)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I claim total pickleball ignorance! I’ve never been able to hit a moving object. No tennis, and playing baseball with cousins as a kid I got hit full-on in the eye with a hardball. (I couldn’t even hit stationary objects, like a golf ball on a tee…sigh.) But I love the pickle boat explanation, and pickleball is all the rage here, too. The defunct Bed, Bath and Beyond by my Trader Joe’s is being converted to a pickleball court as we speak!

And now I have to look up pickleball clothes. I had no idea.

HALLIE EPHRON: I claim complete AND TOTAL pickleball ignorance. Though I’ve read about malls being converted (along with climbing walls which I also prefer to remain ignorant of) for playing it and neighbors up in arms because of the noise. I’m a lousy tennis player and MEH at ping pong, so I think I have to pass even though my eyesight is aces.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm also in the non-pickleball side of the court. 1) My knees snap, crackle and pop more than a bowl of Rice Krispies, 2) my peculiar blend of one eye nearsighted, one eye farsighted gives me terrible depth perception, as the many, many scratches on my front bumper can attest and 3) as far as I can tell, it hasn't reached my town yet, and if I'm going to drive a half hour to enjoy a sport and socialize, the "sport" is going to be Scrabble.

I'm not sure the appeal isn't just from the fact the word "pickleball" is fun to say. Pickleball, pickleball, pickleball.

HANK: So how about you, Reds and Readers? can you enlighten us, guide us, explain it all to us?

Tale of two kitties

 

HALLIE EPHRON: My daughter has two cats who often stay with me. Both are all black, each utterly distinct in size and personality.

Squid is a male, large and muscular. Pluto is female, lithe and quicksilver.

Soon they will be visiting again and I need advice.

Squid is full of mischief. He'll jump up to the fireplace mantle or a bookshelf, cruise along is and methodically paw every item on it, nudging it to the floor. He climbs into plant pots and digs out the soil. He thinks my leather armchair is a scratching post.

They are coming to visit me again later this week, so I need advice. What can I do discourage Squid... beyond putting every tchotchke that I care about to the basement and moving my many plants into my office and barricading the door.

Any cat owners out there who've broken a cat of a bad habit without killing themselves (or that cat)? These guys are smart sneaky and determined. Also sweet as can be.

Keepiing track of characters: A writer's (and reader's) challenge

 HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this week, we talked about a doctor’s advice for keeping your memory sharp: read fiction!

I happen to be reading Chuck Hogan’s GANGLAND and I’d just been marveling at its intricate plot is and huge number of characters, most of them gangsters, each with two or more names (Nicholas “Nicky Pins” Passero. Anthony “Joe Batters” Accardo, aka Big Tuna.) 

It’s a terrific book, and a nice change for me. The most gruesome parts are left to the imagination.

Hogan he blew me away years ago with PRINCE OF THIEVES (which was made into the movie THE TOWN) and, true to form, the characters in GANGLAND are brilliantly drawn.

I can only imagine what he must have had to do to keep those characters straight when he was writing them.

So that’s my question for today: Do you have a bookkeeping strategy for keeping your characters straight every time you put them on the page? And what about in a series where every book introduces a new character (or five) and reprises many from earlier books. What’s your trick?

LUCY BURDETTE: If I’m reading a book with too many characters, I tend to skim. Especially at night, when I am reading for entertainment, not work. At an event last week, someone asked me if I’d kept a character bible for the Key West mysteries.. Oh how I wish I had!

I envy those writers who keep track of physical and psychological attributes and plot points as they write along in their series. I wasn’t organized enough to do this, so now I rely heavily on the style sheets the publisher supplies along with copyedits. These list the characters, and some of their relationships–this is so helpful when I can’t remember someone’s name etc!

If all else fails, I use the search bar liberally.

RHYS BOWEN: I do not like books with too many characters. All those Russian novels with Alexander Ivanovitch sometimes called Sasha sometimes some other nickname. I confess I give up.

And I’ve had to give feedback on books that introduce a Bob s Bill and. Phil in the first page and expect me to remember them.

With one series of 20 books and one of 18 I should keep perfect bibles. But I don’t. Then I have to delve into back numbers to find out what someone’s maid was called. Oh, and use the style sheets, Lucy I thought of paying a grandchild to read all the books and create bibles for both series

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well in other people’s books, if I get confused about who is who, I just keep reading and figure it will become clear soon enough. If I start saying, who is that guy? too much, I just stop reading the book. The author has not done their job.

If the names are weird or otherworldly, or impossible to pronounce, I just decide how they sound, and say it mentally that way. And wonder why people just don’t give characters names you can say.

In my own books, gosh, I don’t have to keep track of anyone. I suppose that’s because the past six books I’ve written have been standalones. So I only have to keep track within the book, and I have to say that, so far, that has been no problem.

Sometimes I spell names differently within, Callaway or Calloway, Linney or Lonny, and then change it when I figure out what I’m doing. And in one book, Patience became Patricia in the manuscript, but luckily I caught it.

For my two series, I did not keep a Bible, though I know I should have. I remember Charlaine Harris saying she had hired someone to write her series Bible, and that turned out to be so fascinating that she published it as a book!

Maybe that is an incentive for you series writers!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I wish I had kept a bible from the very first book in my series, but of course it never occurred to me that there would be so many books and that I would have any trouble remembering my characters… Oops.

I do make a list of the characters for each new book, with some description, and usually there is a lot of crossing out and changing. I don’t want names that sound too alike, or are too hard to pronounce, and of course I have to check previous books to see if I’ve used a name before.

When we are• watching TV, especially a series, my husband always asks me how I can possibly remember the names of all the different characters. Practice, I say!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Well, I seem to be the exception to the rule, here, because I keep a name bible, and have since the 3rd book in my series. The hero’s sister was Janet, then Janice, the Janet again, and I decided I really didn’t want to go down that road any further…

I have a list of names used in all the books, divided into sections: In town, From away, Bad Guys, 1920s to 1950s, and The Honored Dead. Any names in use during the current work in progress are bolded. I have birthdates and ages of all my main characters, and a brief line of how they’re connected or what they do, Ex. Barbara LeBlanc, manager at the Algonquin Waters, dating pathologist Dan Scheeler.

I also have a list of street/road names and highways numbers and roughly where they begin and end, or the important places they lead to - I added those when I realized I was making up new state highways in every book and Millers Kill now had more roadways than New York City. I killed off most of them by never using them after the first three books.

I also - and this is important to avoid the Bill, Bob and Phil problem Rhys mentions - have an a-through-z chart for both first and last names. I don’t list the names themselves, but how many times I use a name beginning with that letter.

For some reason, I have a real tendency toward J and K names and I have to rein it back. That way, when considering a new character name, I can see I only have a few O names, for instance, so the heroine’s new dog becomes Oscar and the young former Marine’s friend in ONE WAS A SOLDIER is Olivia.

JENN McKINLAY: I should keep track of my characters' names, but other than my outline, I don't have a method. I remember hearing Barbara Michaels laugh at herself when her readers called her out for making Amelia Peabody tall in one book and less tall in following books. That resonated, especially when I can't remember a character's name from a previous book in a series or their height, hair, or eye color. Probably, I should work on this. LOL.

HALLIE: So what's your take on character names? Are you willing to stick with a book with a lot of characters and what makes you bail?

Classics that define the genre...

HALLIE EPHRON: In WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL: HOW TO KNOCK 'EM DEAD WITH STYLE, I wrote an introduction with my take on what IS a mystery novel.

At the heart of a mystery novel (according to me) is at least one puzzle, if not several. Something bad happens--often (but not always) a murder. And the novel takes the reader and the protagonist on a journey to discover the answers to questions like What's really going on? Who did it? How? And Why?

At the end, the reader should be surprised... not in a "that's unbelievable-surprised" way. Instead, gobsmacked and realizing that they should have seen it coming. The clues were all in plain sight (the writer "played fair).

I recommended some more modern books for the budding mystery writer. For instance GONE GIRL (Gillian Flynn) and DEVIL IN THE BLUE DRESS (Walter Mosley) for writing character. THE HARD WAY (Lee Child) and THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (Frederick Forsyth) for writing action. For writing suspense, WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN (May Higgins Clark) and TELL NO ONE (Harlan Coben.)

I also put together a list of "classics" that define the genre.

HALLIE'S LST OF CLASSICS THAT DEFINE THE MYSTERY GENRE
The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Roman Hat Mystery (1929) by Ellery Queen
The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett
The Nine Tailors (1934) by Dorothy L. Sayers
Fer-de-Lance (1934) by Rex Stout
Death in Ecstasy (1936) by Ngaio Marsh
The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) by Agatha Christie
I the Jury (1947) by Mickey Spillane
Brat Farrar (1949) by Josephine Tey
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith
The Laughing Policeman (1968) by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Indemnity Only (1982) by Sara Paretsky
Twice Shy (1982) by Dick Francis

So my question today is what "classics" got you hooked on reading mystery (suspense... thriller... crime...) novels?

BOINK!

 HALLIE EPHRON: Here in New England it's a gorgeous spring. We've had so much rain and no unseasonably warm days, the flowering trees and bushes are spectacular. The forsythia is starting to fade but lilacs are about to burst. Cardinals are loudly claiming their territory, robins are hopping around in search of worms. My garden is full of baby bunnies. And the lawn needs to be mowed.

I've started doing the NY Times crossword puzzles M-T-W (after that they get too hard and I get cranky) and a clue in a recent puzzle was "Sound of spring" - four letters starting with B.

The Times thinks the correct answer is BOING but I know it should be BOINK.

The stone bench that marks my husband's grave says BOINK, and I he'd approve, though I imagine it's a head-scratcher to strangers spotting the engraved word.

Our BOINK goes back to many years ago when we were living in a 9th-floor apartment on Manhattan's upper west side (West End Ave and 98th St., if you know the city). Our wonderful neighbors, Eve and Joe Cimmet lived on the 4th floor. I was teaching 3rd grade in a public school and Jerry was finishing on his doctorate in physics when we both came down with the flu. I remember our double bed was drifting across the room because we were both coughing (and for some reason, hiccupping) so much. We were miserable, and hadn't been able to shop for food in days.

It was Groundhog Day and our doorbell rang. I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door and there, on the floor just outside in the hall, was a pot roast, still warm and in its cooking pot.

But between me and the pot roast, in the doorway suspended in mid air on transparent fishing line, were massive cutout letters B-O-I- N-K.

Of course we both collapsed laughing. We had to cut the fishing line to reach the pot roast, which was delicious and therapeutic, even before we'd taken our first bite.

Ever since then, Jerry drew groundhogs in his cartoon cards. Groundhogs popping up out of the ground on groundhog day, out of birthday cakes, out of Santa's bag. Every holiday and event was an opportunity to reprise groundhogs and BOINK.

Is there a made-up word that your family has as its touchstone.

Memories... holding onto them

First off - Yesterday's winner of a copy of Diane Kelly's FOUR ALARM HOMICIDE is Julie Bush! Congratulations, Julie! Contact Diane via her website contact link: https://www.dianekelly.com/contact/ 

HALLIE EPHRON: Dual factor identification is a scourge. You type in your user name and password and instead of opening sesame, back comes a message that you’re about to receive a text with a security code.

Now this security code is often 6 characters long, sometimes more, and it appears on your screen (heaven help you if it’s a cell phone screen because you have to know how to switch around among your apps) for about 4 seconds. Barely long enough to scratch an itch. Definitely not long enough for me to memorize a 6-8 digit code.

But, I’ve discovered that if I say the number (out loud) when it flashes, it seeds itself in my brain long enough that I can type it into the waiting prompt.

I was pleased to see similar advice in a New York Times review (“A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory” ) of a book (“The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind,”) by neurologist Dr. Richard Restak.

Memory decline, according to Dr. Restake, is not inevitable.

The review praises the book’s abundance of tips to protect your memory. These include VISUALIZE. For instance, when you meet someone new and want to remember their name, visualize it.

I once met a doctor named Gabriel something. I can’t remember his last name but his first name pops right into my head because when I was introduced to him, I visualized him as an angel wearing a doctor’s head mirror.

I've used a similar strategy to remember a shopping list. Suppose I need to buy hamburger, toilet paper, milk, a cucumber, and raspberry soda. I imagine them in band of colors: two reds, two whites, and a green. Easier to hold that picture in my brain rather than the list itself.

Another piece of advice: Turn off your GPS. I can testify to the way relying on it to get me everywhere has clouded the maps in brain.

My favorite of his advice (I'm not making this up): read novels!

Dr. Restak claims that when people begin to have memory difficulties, they switch to reading nonfiction. Reading a novel keeps your brain agile -- you have to keep track of the characters, plot lines, and most especially with MYSTERY novels, there are the clues red herrings that often start dropping in Chapter 1 and don’t get resolved until the end.

So I hope I've given you more incentive to buy more mystery novels. What are your strategies for keeping your memory sharp and remembering those 8-digit codes?