Escape or Staycation?

 RHYS BOWEN: When you read this I’ll be on my way to the airport, flying today to Canada. My son Dominic, his wife Meredith and I have rented an AirB&B on Vancouver Island–actually on a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island. It’s on a beach, surrounded by trees.  The perfect escape, actually.  It’s what we all needed… to be in the middle of nature with time to decompress, to think, to journal and for me to adjust to a new way of life. 

A vacation with them will be perfect. They like to experience everything… so they’ll find the best artisan bakery in the area, fresh seafood, craft shops, farms where you can pick your own blueberries and with plenty of down time too.  This will be quite different from vacations with John, who would have planned out in advance what we were going to see every day. His idea of Vancouver Island would be driving several hours up the coast until we had circumnavigated the whole thing.  And if I saw a sign to a craft fair along the way it would be ignored because it interrupted his plans and we had to reach the motel he had booked by four PM check in.

So one of the things I’ll be learning to do is to go with the flow–to sit and do watercolor if I feel like it, to realize I have nobody to please but myself. Dom and Mer are so easy-going and get delight from the smallest things. They are definitely foodies so there will be a lot of trying nearby restaurants ( poutine at least once).  I can’t wait.

So how about you, dear Reds? Any plans for this summer? What is your ideal way to decompress?

LUCY BURDETTE: we will be spending lots of time with the grandchildren over the next two weeks! The family has already been to New York City (with three kids under 10 in tow) and then to Montauk to visit relatives, and next stop Connecticut. It is always a busy and fun time to have them here. After that, I can’t think of any trips on the docket this summer. So I should be able to get my work done and also do some relaxing and I hope extra reading!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m glad you’re finding a new rhythm, Rhys, and doubly glad you have Dom and Mer to ease you into it.

I just got back from a trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts and South Carolina. The trip broke down into a book thing in CT, a family barbecue in MA, and checking out my college roommate’s new home in SC–hard to believe we’ve known each other for 40 years! We spent hours on the beach in SC and I am ready to move. Seriously! 

I’ll be headed to Canada in a few weeks to our summer place in Nova Scotia and I’m looking forward to that. More beach time! But in the meantime, I have loads of work to do–revisions and proposals and promoting the streaming series based on my book Paris is Always a Good Idea, the first two episodes of which air on Hallmark Plus on July 30th! Yay!

HALLIE EPHRON: July 30 for PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA! Hallmark Plus… We’re all writing it down. 

I’m just back from teaching in Paris… there for 10 days and could easily have spent another ten. And I’m missing my Jerry who, like Rhys’s John, did the trip planning so I could just relax and be surprised. We shared the same priorities (he traveled with a little pad filled with menu translations, along with a list of where we were going and the culinary specialties in each place.)

The summer will be quieter than usual. 

Mid-June I’ll be teaching a master class on harnessing voice and viewpoint at Book Passage’s Mystery Writer’s Conference in Corte Madera, CA. Hobnobbing with Cara Black, Tim Maleeny, Elizabeth George, Lisa Scottoline, Rachel Howzell Hall, and more! I love this conference. So much heart and professionalism. 

For any aspiring mystery writer who’s never been there, write it down!! 

Then things slow down for some medical procedures (ick) and visits from my daughters and grands (yay!) Hoping I’ll be able to take a low-key week with my family on Peak’s Island in Maine. Beach. Hiking (flat!) Lobsters!

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Absolutely, on July 30 I will be at my TV, cheering! This summer is wild–no vacations, because Jonathan has a murder trial (he’s the lawyer, come on!) so he’s preparing But my days are super-full, because  I have a book DUE August 1, AHHHHH because then the paperback of ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out  August 11, so I will be on a mini-tour …in preparation for the launch of MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER  in September! When I will be on the road again.

So it’s interesting–I have cut way back on events for the next two months to be able to focus on the writing. It’s terrific to be able to really buckle down.Okay, well,  I am interviewing some fabulous authors in person at local bookstores though–Hannah Selinger, and then Robyn Gigl, and then Riley Sager! Very exciting.

Rhys, your escape plans are perfection. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, Riley Sager is going to be signing here in McKinney, and Kayti and I have tickets! CJ Box was here, too, a couple of months ago–maybe McKinney, Texas is becoming a literary destination! We also have a great indy bookstore, so if anyone wants to come here and do an event… Kayti and I are also seeing Jo Piazza at the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) Arts and Letters Live–has anyone read her? And then, I think, Karin Slaughter, so sometime between now and mid-August I need to read some of her books!

Those are my big summer events. Otherwise I am doing loads of catch up and edits, which is all fine. Oh, and watching Jenn's Hallmark movie! So exciting! Do we have to sign up for the Hallmark Channel streaming, Jenn, since we don't have cable or satellite?

RHYS: Now it's your turn, Reddies. Who has exciting plans this summer? Who is planning on a relaxing time at home?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I also want to know how to watch PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA while streaming! Jenn, you have to do an announcement for all of us who are your fans.

My summer plans were ALL stacked up in June: the visit from Youngest and VOC, my son flying in, two weeks of non-stop activities, several professional events and then a five-day writing retreat. Now I have nothing on my calendar until the end of August, when a dear friend’s daughter is getting married. I’m actually thrilled - this is the least scheduled summer I think I’ve ever had, giving me lots of time to enjoy Maine in its best season and get a whole bunch of writing done for my next book!

Are You A Lark or A Nightingale?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: The other morning I woke up at 6:30 AM. Just–bang. Awake.

Go to sleep, I told myself. But my brain said no.

Finally, I just got up and started working, and when it got to be 8:30, the time I usually get up, I had gotten SO much done!

Whoa, I thought, this is a genius thing. I should get up earlier!

Thing is, we usually go to sleep at about midnight. So long term, this getting up early thing is not going to work.

In fact, I am happiest writing late at night. I really fly through the pages! It might be because of all those years as a reporter, working for the 11 PM news–my brain's metabolism has gotten very comfortable with that rhythm.

Still though, I am working on getting up a bit earlier. I am really delighted to have that extra time.

How about you, Reds and readers? What time is your wakeup call? And has it always been that way?


RHYS BOWEN: I’m an early bird. I usually wake around 6:30 and I like working in the morning. I’m also asleep by 10 to 10:30. I think having to get 4 kids off to school or to swim practice at 6 am has conditioned me to wake early. The only problem has been if I wake at 4 or. 5 I can’t get back to sleep.

LUCY BURDETTE:  Pretty early here too! I’m usually up by 6:30 or seven, and if I sleep until eight for some unknown reason, I feel like I’ve missed half the day. I like to be asleep by 10 or 1030. My brain is much fresher for working in the morning, although lately I’ve been getting a surge at 5 o’clock. Which is no use to me because that’s when I make dinner and we eat supper and watch the news and sometimes a show. By then it’s too late to work! Plus, I do need time to read for fun…

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m an up-with-the-sun person. Which is very inconvenient when sunrise is before 5 AM. Like Rhys, once I’m awake I cannot get back to sleep. I suppose it would help if I went to sleep later, but when you get up at five you’re pretty tired by ten. It’s a vicious cycle.

I wish I could say I do something useful with those early hours, but no. I read the day’s papers and start on a crossword puzzle or two.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, I’m on your schedule. I’m doing well if I get to bed by midnight, and am usually up around 7:30 or 8:00. I like being up in the mornings, but I have a really hard time getting to bed. Partly this is because I live with the Uber Night Owl–when Rick worked dispatch for the police department, he preferred the 11 pm to 7 am shift– and partly because my brain just seems more active in the late afternoon/evening. I’m actually doing better at morning writing than I used to, though.

JENN McKINLAY: Up at 6 in bed by 11. I try to sleep more than seven hours but I just can’t. I’m always eager to start a new day. Every now and then I’ll sleep 8 hours and I’m so refreshed I don’t know what to do with myself! It’s a wonderful thing to have a comfortable bed, a roof over your head, and plenty to eat. I try to be grateful every day.

HANK: And here we will pause for applause. Exactly, Jenn. Exactly.

How about you, Reds and readers? Lark or nightingale? And have you changed over the years?

Which is More Difficult: Truth or Fiction?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Weird question for you. I was talking to someone at an event recently, and they asked if my new book was based on a true story.

When I said "no, I made the whole thing up," there was a look of...disappointment.

"Oh," this person said, "I always love when books are based on true stories."

Well, yeah, sometimes I do too, and real life is always an inspiration for everything I write, of course, my books can only be my books because they come from my experience and my curiosity, and my adventures and my hopes and dreams and my way of looking at the world. And coincidence, you know, what I happen to see and when I happen to see it.

And of course people think my books are based on my television stories. And when I say “well, of course my experience in being an investigative true crime reporter certainly is reflected in my novels, but my novels are not my television stories disguised into fiction” –Again, disappointment. Or maybe surprise.

Why is this, Reds and Readers? Do you think a novel is more interesting if it’s based on specifically and solely real life? 

I always think, I have to say, doesn't it take more brain power to actually make something up? Yes yes yes, our imagination is inspired by real life, there’s no question about that. But are you disappointed when something is not based on precisely something that happened in real life? What do you think about this?

I mean, Lee Child was once asked how he knew that the ignition switch of a certain kind of tank was red. “Wow.”  the person said, “you must’ve done a lot of research.” And Lee said “well no, I just made that up.”

 And the person was–you guessed it– very disappointed. 

Really?  Doesn’t it take an equal amount of talent to create a story so realistic that it feels real? I mean that’s what we’re going for, right?

Or–what?

HALLIE EPHRON: The trick is knowing what you can make up and doing enough research to make it believable. I think people ask the question because they are fascinated by the answer to: Where did you get your idea. For me, at least, there’s *always* an answer that involves some experience I had or a friend had or something I read about that piqued my interest (or horror) or made me laugh.

Sometimes I have to do a ton of research to be sure that I get the details right. Some books require it more than others. Writing a mystery set in Hollywood in the 60s, I drew a lot on experience, growing up with screenwriters as parents. A murder in a present-day MRI lab required much more research. 

And woe be to the mystery writer who gets her ballistics/gun details wrong. 

But to beg the question, I think all of our books grow out of some kind of personal experience, if only emotionally. Which is pretty glorious.

HANK: Oh, sure, research is different from experience. SO agree. But I keep finding that people want a one-on-one on-the-nose THING that happened to you or someone, and then that we took that incident and fictionalized it. 

RHYS BOWEN: I’m always bemused that a person wants to read fiction but wants it all to be true. That’s why you read true crime.  Having said that I am meticulous in research for my historical novels. If they are set in a real time and place then everything has to be correct  apart from fictional characters I have planted there. I can’t tell you how much time I spend staring at Google Earth, old maps, old newspapers etc. But the reward is when someone says I grew up in Greenwich Village, so did my mother and grandmother and you have taken me back to my childhood. Then I know I have done it right. 

Sometimes I have to create a fictitious place because bad things happen in my story that didn’t happen in the real place.  So Cassis becomes St Benet in Mrs Endicott. 

But the actual plots? Sometimes there is a seed of inspiration based on something I heard, read or observed but the story has to come out of my head! We are creators not reproducers!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This is a really curious thing, readers’ desire for a  novel to be “true.” In which case it wouldn’t be fiction, would it? My agent has been known to say, “Just because something really happened doesn’t make it good fiction,” and I’ve tried to adopt that as my motto. That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes use things that really happened as a jumping off point, the beginning of many rounds of “what ifs.” I’m sure we all do that–something has to jumpstart that creative spark, and maybe that’s where the fascination comes from, people wanting to know where ideas come from. I do try to be meticulous in my research and details, however, as that’s what makes stories feel real.

LUCY BURDETTE: I too find it curious that a reader would be disappointed if a book isn’t based on something real. I agree, Hank, that making something up completely is the hardest! That said, most of my book ideas come from a little snippet of life. In my upcoming A DELICIOUS DECEPTION, the idea was sparked for me by a newspaper article talking about a place for safe custody exchange now required for all Sheriff’s departments. That got my writer brain whirling…

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I suspect the “is it true” folks have fallen down the True Crime book/ podcast/documentary hole and now expect every mystery to be based in fact. My motto is “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” With a story, you can shape events and characters to embody truths you sometimes can’t get to when you stick to facts. The greatest thing about fiction is that, when done well, the reader is emotionally transported into someone else’s experience. Walking the proverbial mile in another’s shoes. You certainly can’t get that with true crime, because half the pleasure of reading those stories is assuring yourself you NEVER would have done a, b, or c and thus gotten scammed or murdered.

JENN McKINLAY: This reminds me of the years I dated an artist and he would tell me how people only thought he was talented when he did drawings or paintings that looked “real” or “like a photograph” and he would sigh. Because, of course, art like writing takes what we see or feel or think and turns it into so much more, giving us new and different ways to process and navigate this journey called life. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Yes Jenn, exactly.

And I do think this is all so interesting because  research is a different thing, and of course we want to get it right.

And being inspired by our own  lives or a random thing we read or see–sure,that’s devoutly to be wished. And that’s why our books are so different from anyone else’s.

But it’s a totally different thing to take an event that has already happened and change the names and potentially the outcome. It's a different thing to say: oh, is this based on the –what, the murder of x person on their honeymoon in the Alps? Or Natalee Holloway or the Louvre robbery or –you pick a true crime. Those would be terrific books. And I am sure they already are.

(And sure, Casey Anthony and my book Trust Me? Are definitely sisters in crime.)  

But what about something that never really happened? Something we have to think of out of nothing but our own imaginations?

Because some things are just imagined.  MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER?  Yup. Fiction. (Far as I know there are not two sisters who survived the suspicious small plane crash that killed their parents. Let me know if you’ve heard of that.)

What do you think, Reds and Readers? Do you need your fiction to be connected to a true story?