Stalking the Wild Muse: Where Does Inspiration Come From? by Carol Goodman

LUCY BURDETTE: Carol's wonderful book RETURN TO WYLDCLIFF HEIGHTS was on the short list for the Mary Higgins Clark award last year. When I noticed that she had a new book coming, I thought you'd love to hear about it. Welcome Carol!

CAROL GOODMAN: One of the most often asked questions any author gets at panels and book clubs and blog interviews is “Where do you get your ideas?” or, more ominously, “Do you ever worry about running out of ideas?”   It’s an age-old question.  I picture a Q&A after the first production of Oedipus Rex in 429 BCE at the Temple of Dionysus.  “Hey Sophocles!” a sandalled and bearded fan calls out.  “Are you worried about running out of ideas after such a big success?”

Sophocles might have quipped that the dysfunctional antics of the Oedipus clan would keep him busy for a while, or he could have appealed to the Muses.  The ancient Greeks regarded the inspiration of the artist as such a magical and mysterious event that it could only come from a divine source—or sources.  They needed nine to do the work of inspiring dull, lumpen-headed mortals.  But what if you don’t believe in divine inspiration?  Where do you find your ideas? 

The titular writers in my new book Writers and Liars think the answer is a retreat on a Greek island.  Is this the answer?  Do we need to travel afar or go to a writers retreat to find inspiration?  It’s certainly a tempting idea.  If only, we say to ourselves as we wrack our brains for the next book idea, I could go someplace free of the worries and interruptions of everyday life—no pinging phone, no household chores, no stacks of bills to pay or pile of papers to grade.  Shake off the coils of your everyday routine! sing the Sirens. Travel will yield inspiration and a retreat will offer the mental space to explore those ideas. 

And yet, in the end, the Muse can be a fickle travel companion.  She may join you for a bottle of Mythos at the local taverna—or she may have taken the last boat off the island and left you with a bunch of frustrated writers and a homicidal maniac.  Which, of course, is what happens in my book.  Because the other big idea the Greeks (i.e. Plato) had about inspiration was that it was a divine madness (theia mania) that possessed the artist, making a bunch of writers stranded on an island a volatile bunch.

So while inspiration may be found on the road, I have found it most often at home at my desk, on an ordinary weekday morning, after doing the Wordl and the crossword puzzle and making a second cup of coffee and indulging in just about every form of procrastination known to lumpen-headed mortals and feeling like I am scratching out my words on a stone tablet with a blunt rock … and then a word or an image—maybe a whole sentence!—will come to me that wasn’t there before.  And that feels like magic.  Picasso perhaps said it best:  Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

By all means, take the trip, go to the retreat if you can, but remember, inspiration is everywhere including (and perhaps especially) in your own backyard.  You just have to show up for it.  

So, tell me … where do you get your ideas? 

Carol Goodman is the New York Times Bestselling author of twenty-six novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, The Widow’s House, which won the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and The Night Visitors, which won the 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award.  For over twenty years, she has taught creative writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz and offered private classes, book coaching, and editorial services to writers in fiction and memoir.  She lives in the Hudson Valley.

In the latest thrilling suspense novel from Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, a group of mystery authors gathers on a secluded Greek island for a writers retreat, only to discover that their enigmatic host has been murdered and everyone present is a suspect.

They’ll kill for inspiration…

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious—and very exclusive—writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. It’s where she wrote her first book, the one that should have launched a brilliant career. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over Maia ever since.

Now, Maia finds a familiar envelope in the mail. It’s an invitation to return to Eris, and according to social media, she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. This could be the second chance Maia needs to jump-start her dreams. A chance for reconciliation… or revenge.

Almost all of the writers from fifteen years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. Soon, the guests learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a contest: whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But this is no harmless game—when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander, dead. 

Tensions simmer as the guests try to determine who’s capable of murder, not just on the page, but in real life. On an island full of mystery writers, anyone could be the killer—and anyone could be the next victim. Trapped together until the next boat arrives from the mainland, they must sort out old grievances and figure out how to trust one another... or die one by one.

And the Edgar Award Goes to...

Best Novel

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)

When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.

When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.  

Best First Novel by an American Author   

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper (HarperCollins – Ecco)

Eleven-year-old Polly is smart far beyond her years. But she's a loner. Her mother tells her she has 'gunfighter eyes', like the father she's never met. In prison, about to be released, Nate runs afoul of the powerful leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. Marked for death on his release, Nate soon realizes that everyone he has ever loved is a target - including his daughter, Polly. Now, forced into hiding by the greenlight placed upon them, Nate finds himself having to teach his estranged daughter how to survive in a kill-or-be-killed world, all the while observed by Polly's teddy bear, who is soon the only outlet for the little girl's emotions. Soon the two of them find themselves on a non-stop struggle for survival, and along the way, discover the bonds that eluded them for so many years... 

Best Paperback Original

The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Landmark) 

In 1837, a woman's dismembered body is found scattered across London. Sarah Gale, a seamstress and fallen woman, is sentenced to hang for her alleged role in the murder; although she professes her innocence, she is hiding darkness in her past.

Edmund Fleetwood is the young, idealistic lawyer tasked with Sarah's case. The stakes for both are high: Edmund has untold gambling debts he must urgently settle, and Sarah is desperate to escape the gallows. But as the two grow closer, the barriers between confessor and penitent start to blur, and Edward can't be sure if Sarah is a victim or a murderer.

Best Short Story

 “Spring Break” by John Crowley in New Haven Noir  (Akashic Books)

Best Fact Crime

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (Penguin Random House – Doubleday) 

 In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
            Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
            As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Best Critical/Biographical Work

Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson (W.W. Norton & Company) 

In this definitive biography of Chester B. Himes (1909–1984), Lawrence P. Jackson uses exclusive interviews and unrestricted access to Himes’s full archives to portray a controversial American writer whose novels unflinchingly confront sex, racism, and black identity. Himes brutally rendered racial politics in the best-selling novel If He Hollers Let Him Go, but he became famous for his Harlem detective series, including Cotton Comes to Harlem. A serious literary tastemaker in his day, Himes had friendships―sometimes uneasy―with such luminaries as Ralph Ellison, Carl Van Vechten, and Richard Wright.
Jackson’s scholarship and astute commentary illuminates Himes’s improbable life―his middle-class origins, his eight years in prison, his painful odyssey as a black World War II–era artist, and his escape to Europe for success. More than ten years in the writing, Jackson’s biography restores the legacy of a fascinating maverick caught between his aspirations for commercial success and his disturbing, vivid portraits of the United States.

Best Young Adult

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Simon & Schuster – Atheneum Books for Young Readers) 

A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.

Best Juvenile

Vanished! by James Ponti (Simon & Schuster – Aladdin)

Middle school is hard. Solving cases for the FBI is even harder. Doing both at the same time—well that’s just crazy. But that doesn’t stop Florian Bates!

After helping the FBI solve an art theft at the National Gallery and uncovering a DC spy ring, Florian’s finding life at Alice Deal Middle School a little boring. But that’s all about to change! His FBI handler, Marcus, has a job for him! Is it a bank robbery? Counterfeit ring? International espionage? Actually it’s middle school pranks…

Sounds pretty ordinary except that the pranks are happening at a prestigious private school attended by the President’s daughter who may—or may not—be involved. So Florian and Margaret are going undercover to see if they can use their TOAST skills to figure out what’s going on before the media gets hold of the story.

However, once the crime-solving pair arrive at the school, they discover that there’s a lot more than a few pranks going on and the conspiracy of silence reaches all the way to the top. Then a student vanishes in the middle of a concert at the Kennedy Center and things take a sinister turn!

Best Television Episode

"Somebody To Love" -Fargo by Noah Hawley 

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

“The Queen of Secrets” by by Lisa D. Gray in New Haven Noir  (Akashic Books) 

Mary Higgins Clark Award

The Widow's House by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow Paperbacks) 

When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation—of their marriage, their savings, and Jess's writing career.
They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. While Clare once had dreams of being a writer, those plans fell by the wayside when Jess made a big, splashy literary debut in their twenties. It's been years, now, since his first novel. The advance has long been spent. Clare's hope is that the pastoral beauty and nostalgia of the Hudson Valley will offer some inspiration.
But their new life isn't all quaint town libraries and fragrant apple orchards. There is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Something is just not right. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night, see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is—this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate—it seems to be after Clare next…

2018 Raven Award

Photo by Emily Giglierano

Kristopher Zigirski of BOLO Books!     

and The Raven Book Store of Lawrence, KS!

Ellery Queen Award
 

Michael Connelly presents the award to M. Pepin. Photo by Criminal Element @crimehq

Robert Pepin, translator, editor and publisher

We've all got a lot to add to our TBR piles! What winners pique your interest, dear readers?  What, if any, have you already read?

Mary Higgins Clark Award Hoopla!

HALLIE EPHRON: I'd never heard much about the Mary Higgins Clark Award until my first suspense standalone, Never Tell a Lie, was nominated for it. Then I read the qualifications:

• No on-scene violence, strong four-letter words, or explicit sex scenes.

The protagonist:

• Is a nice young woman whose life is suddenly invaded
• Is self-made and independent, with primarily good family relationships
• Has an interesting job
• Is not looking for trouble–she is doing exactly what she should be doing and something cuts across her bow
• Solves her problem by her own courage and intelligence

Check, check... And discovered this is (more or less) the kind of book I write. 

Hank won this award for The Other Woman (she's been nominated twice.)

I just received my FIFTH Mary Higgins Clark nomination. We have to wait until the Edgar Awards April 26 to find out who takes home the gorgeous glass doorstop. Maybe I'll win this time, but honestly it's okay if I lose because the other nominees are formidable. Really. Really. Really.

• Lori Rader-Day, who is up for the third time (she won once) with THE DAY I DIED
• Carol Goodman, up for the second time with THE WIDOW'S HOUSE

And first-time nominees who are both writing about wine!

• Ellen Crosby, THE VINEYARD VICTIMS
• Nadine Nettman, UNCORKING A LIE

I’m thrilled to welcome these authors to Jungle Red. Put their books in your queue! I'm putting them in mine.

I asked them each: tell us a little about your main character, and what is it that "cuts across her bow"? And, be honest now, did you think about this award category and go through and remove the swear words before you finalized it? 

NADINE NETTMANN: My character, Katie Stillwell, is a sommelier at a restaurant in San Francisco. She believes every bottle of wine has a story behind it and feels it’s the same with people, which is why she often refers to people in her life as wines. For example, her best friend is a Merlot because she has a tarnished reputation she didn’t deserve and her dad is a Barolo because he’s stoic and stern.

In UNCORKING A LIE, Katie is at a dinner party in Sonoma when she realizes an expensive bottle of wine is not the one on the label. She confides in a friend and he’s found at the bottom of the staircase a few minutes later. So really it’s a fraudulent wine with a side of murder that cuts across her bow.

As for the swear words, I’m generally not a person who swears a lot. I don’t mind reading it or hearing it, so don’t worry if you say it around me, but it’s just rare for me to swear so it doesn’t come out in my writing. So far I haven’t written a character that would be prone to swearing but if I did, I would probably remove the words as I want my books to be ones my mom can recommend to her friends without having to warn them about the language. 

ABOUT Nadine Nettman: A Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, Nadine is always on the lookout for great wines and the stories behind them. She has visited vineyards around the world and pairs wine with every chapter in her award-nominated Sommelier Mystery Series. 

CAROL GOODMAN: I’ve always been drawn to the narrative of a courageous, independent woman taking on whatever cuts across her bow.  I think of my protagonists as women who are leading their lives, struggling to keep work and family balanced, and then something throws the balance off.  

Clare Martin, the protagonist of The Widow’s House, is struggling with financial troubles since her husband Jess hasn’t been able to write his second novel.  When they’re offered a chance to live as caretakers at the estate of their former writing teacher, Clare thinks this is the perfect solution.  Soon she and Jess are living in Riven House and Clare finds the atmosphere inspiring to her own writing … but also disturbing.  

Diving into the history of the area, she discovers that inhabitants of Riven House are menaced by strange forces that now seem to be targeting her and Jess.  And yes, she has to save herself through her own courage and intelligence.  

So while I wasn’t thinking about this award while I was writing The Widow’s House, I’m always thinking about the many perils that may cut across our bows and what we need, as strong independent women, to survive them.

ABOUT Carol Goodman: The critically acclaimed author of twenty novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages and The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, her books have been translated into sixteen languages.  She lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, and teaches writing and literature at The New School and SUNY New Paltz.

LORI RADER-DAY: In The Day I died, Anna Winger is a handwriting analyst who is leading a quiet little life in a small town in Indiana that reminds her of her old hometown—the town she can't go back to, because she fears for her safety and the safety of her now-teen son. And then across her bow comes a handwriting assignment from the local sheriff's office to look at a note left behind in a kidnapping/murder case, a case that looks more and more like what might have happened to Anna if she hadn't run when she did. 

I *did* take out a certain four-letter word from this book, late in the game. There was only one, and even though I've been known to dabble in the four-letter arts myself, it felt OK to take it out and make it more palatable to readers. Watch out, though, because in the book I have coming out in August, Under a Dark Sky, I left that word in. 

About Lori Rader-Day: A three-time Mary Higgins Clark Award nominee, Lori won the award in 2016 for her second novel, Little Pretty Things. She is the author of The Black Hour, winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and The Day I Died, an Indie Next Pick. Lori’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, and Good Housekeeping. She lives in Chicago, where she is active in Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and co-chairs the mystery conference Murder and Mayhem in Chicago. Lori’s next novel, Under a Dark Sky, will be published by Harper Collins William Morrow in August.

ELLEN CROSBY: In The Vineyard Victims, Lucie Montgomery owns a vineyard on land that has been in her family for nearly 250 years so she has deep roots in small-town Atoka, Virginia. Family means everything, as do old and abiding friendships. So when former presidential candidate and beloved local philanthropist Jamie Vaughn extracts her promise to ask someone named Rick to forgive him just before Jamie dies in a fiery car crash at the entrance to her vineyard, Lucie intends to keep her word. 

What cuts across her bow is that her promise will alienate Jamie’s friends and family who don’t want Lucie asking questions asked about Jamie’s controversial past and a thirty-year-old murder. When her investigation unexpectedly leads to her own near-fatal accident ten years ago, Lucie is forced to face her own unresolved demons in a search for justice for a condemned man on Death Row.

While I didn’t consider the Mary Higgins Clark award as I was writing The Vineyard Victims, I would like to say for the record that I began writing this story before Donald Trump—who happens to own a vineyard in Charlottesville, Virginia—announced he would be a presidential candidate. Honest!

The death of a former presidential candidate in a fiery car crash at her Virginia vineyard has ties to a thirty-year-old murder as well as to Lucie Montgomery’s own near fatal accident ten years ago as she searches for a killer who now may be stalking her.

ABOUT Ellen Crosby: The author of the Virginia wine country mysteries, including The Vineyard Victims, her most recent book, featuring vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery, as well as Multiple Exposure and Ghost Image, which feature international photojournalist Sophie Medina, and Moscow Nights, a standalone mystery. Previously she worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC News Radio, and as an economist at the U.S. Senate. 

And finally, ME 

HALLIE EPHRON: In You'll Never Know, Dear, the sudden reappearance of a doll that belonged to a girl that went missing 40

years ago cuts across the bow of her mother, her sister, and her grown niece. It's about finding a lost child, survivor's guilt, and what our dreams can tell us. 

And yes, since this is my fifth time to the MHC altar, yes I do think about swear words in my books. Do I really need this one, or that one? More often than not, there's a better way to dramatize the situation. And that's just good writing.

So we're opening it up for a potpourri of questions and comments! About wine, handwriting analysis, creepy houses, doll-making... and the four-letter words we keep out of our books.