Miranda James on Finding the Right Title

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Miranda James is here today to talk about how writers come up with titles for their books, but first I have to say I was absolutely captivated by the cover of the new Cat in the Stacks novel, REQUIEM FOR A MOUSE, featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel. So captivated, in fact, that when I saw it I immediated emailed Miranda (which is, as you may know, the pen name of my longtime friend Dean James) and said, "Come do a blog for us!

I'm not sure which I love more, Diesel, or that strawberry cheese cake, but the title is wonderful, too. Here's Dean to tell us how it came about!

Finding a Title That Works

By Miranda James

All writers have their own particular, not to say peculiar, quirks. One of mine is that I don’t start writing a book until I know what the title is. Sometimes the publisher likes the titles I come up with, sometimes my editor comes up with a good title, or my agent does. For my latest book, I came up with the title, Requiem for a Mouse. The phrase popped into my head, and fortunately everyone loved it.

I had the title, but then I had to figure out the story. I usually want the plot of the book to have some connection to the title. I had no plans to have murdered, four-legged mice in this book. I’m not sure that Diesel or Ramses actually cares for the taste of mice. They’re more interested in bacon and chicken and roast beef, frankly.

Thus I had to figure out the character of a “human” mouse for this story. Everyone is probably familiar with the mousy person character. In this book, Tara Martin is the mouse. She’s a part-time student at Athena College, and she has a work-study job with Charlie in the archive and rare book room. He finds no fault with her work, but she has no social skills whatsoever. She blurts out things and insults people without realizing what she’s done. She also has a part-time job working at the bistro, where she mostly works behind the scenes and doesn’t deal directly with the customers.

Her appearance is non-descript. Shabby clothes, no sense of style, and so on. When something happens to Tara, Charlie begins to wonder whether Tara was deliberately trying to keep anyone from getting to know her. What was she protecting herself from?

That was the idea behind the title. As usual, I had to let the characters tell me the story as I wrote. I don’t do much advance plotting, but somehow it seems to work for me. I can’t outline. I can sometimes see scenes that will happen at some point in the book, but mostly it’s just me sitting at the keyboard and staring at the screen waiting for the characters to tell me what’s going on.

I know that must sound crazy to people who don’t write fiction. I used to think it was crazy, too, when I would hear writers at conferences say that their characters talked to them. Mine don’t actually talk to me, but somehow they let me know what’s going on. I’m no longer a skeptic. I know it’s my subconscious working things out, and that’s fine with me.

DEBS: It's so interesting how we all have different processes. I like to have a title while I'm writing, too, but while in some way they make sense to me, a connection may not be obvious to the reader. 

Readers, I'm curious--do you try to figure out how books' titles fit with the story?

Miranda James is the pen name of retired medical librarian Dean James, who lives in the Jackson, MS, area with four cats and thousands of books. He grew up on a farm in Mississippi, and, after degrees in history, he moved to Houston, TX, to pursue a Ph.D. He also eventually earned a master's degree in library science. Along the way, he worked for thirty years at Murder by the Book, one of the oldest and largest independent mystery bookstores in the country. His first novel was published in 2000, and since then he has published thirty-one more. Requiem for a Mouse is the latest.

And here's more about Requiem for a Mouse!

At last, Charlie and Helen Louise’s wedding is only a month away. They’re busy preparing for the big day, and the last thing Charlie needs is a new mystery to solve. Enter Tara Martin, a shy, peculiar woman who has recently started working part-time at Helen Louise’s bistro and helping Charlie in the archive. Tara isn’t exactly friendly, and she has an angry outburst at the library that leaves Charlie baffled. And then she abruptly leaves a catered housewarming party Charlie’s son Sean is throwing to celebrate his new home in the middle of her work shift. Before ducking out of the party, Tara looked terrified and Charlie wonders if she’s deliberately trying to escape notice. Is she hiding from someone?

When Tara is viciously attacked and lands in the hospital, Charlie knows his instincts were correct: Tara was in trouble, and someone was after her. With the help of his much beloved cat, Diesel, Charlie digs deeper, and discovers shocking glimpses into Tara’s past that they could never have predicted. Will they catch the villain before Charlie’s own happily ever after with Helen Louise is ruined?

All I Ever Wanted Was a Turret by Miranda James

JENN McKINLAY: I was fortunate enough to meet Dean (Miranda) James at my first book signing at Houston's renown Murder By The Book mystery bookstore back in 2010. We had an instant bond as we're both librarians and it's been a real joy to watch both of Dean's fabulous series, the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries and the Southern Ladies Mysteries, do so well in the world of traditional mysteries. It's my pleasure to invite him here today. Take it, Dean!

MIRANDA (DEAN) JAMES: Ever since I discovered Nancy Drew and immersed myself in her adventures, I have been fascinated by hidden rooms and secret passages. Ditto with old houses, especially multi-storied ones. When I was eighteen months old, my parents and I moved into a newly-constructed house, built by father’s cousin. Our house had only the one floor, alas, so I had to get my old-house fix through reading. I think this probably helps explain why I got hooked on romantic suspense novels when I was thirteen. Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, and Barbara Michaels often had mysterious mansions full of secrets in their books, and I read blissfully through them all.

Later on I became fascinated with English history – all those kings and queens and castles. Those castles had towers and turrets and all manner of secret spaces with them. I also remember a Judy Bolton book with a turret, probably the first time I ever encountered the word. After that I desperately wanted a turret of my own. I’m not sure why the notion appealed to me so much, but I was never a terribly practical child.

Then of course there are the classic English mystery novels set in villages and mansions in the countryside. I discovered those around the time I went to college, and though there weren’t as many turrets or hidden rooms, there was enough aura of mystery to keep me intrigued.

I suppose it’s no wonder, then, that I have included old houses in a number of my books – particularly in the Southern Ladies series. The heroines, Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce Ducote, live in the ancestral antebellum home, Riverhill. They and their home first appeared in Out of Circulation, the fourth Cat in the Stacks book. When I put them into their own series, I set the book almost entirely at Riverhill. Subsequent books have also featured antebellum homes, and in the latest, Fixing to Die, the house is in Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez is a town with a fascinating history, and some say it is one of the most haunted towns in America (the other being Savannah, Georgia).

Old houses and spirits – an irresistible combination, at least to me – and that was the beginning of the story. Now, the spirits in this book are not the murderous kind you’ll find in other types of books. This is a cozy, after all, but not all spirits are malicious. I had great fun with this story, and I believe readers will be able to detect the influences of my early loves, like Nancy Drew and Barbara Michaels. I couldn’t put in a turret, though, because antebellum homes in the South don’t have them. The architectural style doesn’t permit.

So I’ll have to find my turret somewhere else.

Fixing to Die: Available Oct 3rd!!!

The New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries and Digging Up the Dirt returns with the latest Southern Ladies Mystery...

It’s autumn down south, and An'gel and Dickce Ducote are in Natchez, Mississippi, at the request of Mary Turner Catlin, the granddaughter of an old friend. Mary and her husband, Henry Howard, live in Cliffwood, one of the beautiful antebellum homes for which Natchez is famous.

Odd things have been happening in the house for years, and the French Room in particular has become the focal point for spooky sensations. The Ducotes suspect the ghostly goings-on are caused by the living, but when a relative of the Catlins is found dead in the room, An'gel and Dickce must sift through a haunted family history to catch a killer.

What about you, Readers? What's fascinating feature do you most long for in a house? 

Mississippi Memories--Miranda James

DEBORAH CROMBIE:   Dean James, who writes as Miranda James, is one of my oldest and dearest

friends in the mystery world. Dean, a professional librarian who fed his love of mysteries by working part time at Murder By the Book in Houston (one of my very favorite bookstores) championed my books from day one. Since then, Dean has published twenty novels! (Boy, do I feel like a slacker!) and won readers' hearts with his Cat in the Stacks books featuring widower Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, set in the fictional small town of Athena, Mississippi. Charlie's world is so appealing (murders aside) that you want to go and live in Athena, and adopt Diesel--at least if Charlie hadn't gotten to him first...

I always looked forward to seeing Dean when I passed through Houston on book tours, so it was with mixed feelings that I heard he was leaving Houston to return to his native Mississippi. When we chatted, I asked him how he thought living again in the landscape of his youth would affect his writing. And this is what he said:      

MIRANDA (DEAN) JAMES: Since 2000 I have published twenty novels, thirteen of which are set in Mississippi where I was born and reared. During the writing of those novels I lived in Texas, and the

Mississippi that I was writing about was a Mississippi of memories. Memories refreshed by periodic visits with family who still live here, of course.

One of the thirteen books, Cruel as the Grave, is set in Jackson where I'm now living. The rest are set in north Mississippi where I grew up, in fictionalized versions of towns. I didn't use the real towns because I didn't want to be tied to exact geography and having to worry about what was on a particular corner and other such details. Besides, the Mississippi I have been writing about is as much impressionistic as it is real.

Mississippi is a state of mostly small towns and lots of rural areas still. The small-town aspect of my home state is what I want to capture, because that's what I grew up with. Now that I'm back and living here in the state's largest city, I wonder how what I observe and experience in Jackson might color my writing going forward.

For one thing, I hear more often than I have in three decades that soft and slow Mississippi cadence, with emphasis on syllables one doesn't except. Case in point, DEE-cem-ber, rather than De-CEM-ber. I heard that several times at the public library when I checked out books that were due in that month. Hearing these speech patterns makes me realize how different my own became over the years I lived in Texas. I also know how easy it is to slip back to that earlier cadence, the one so familiar from childhood.

The best thing about being home again is that I am able to spend time with family members more frequently. Thanksgiving Day was a wonderful experience this year, because I gathered with family on the paternal side at the home where my father and his siblings grew up. My grandparents have been gone for four decades, and getting together again in the house that holds so many memories of love, laughter, and holidays was truly special. It was also bittersweet as I looked around the room and noted the absences -- of my parents and grandparents, particularly. But I also felt a deep connection to the house and the land on which it stands because my roots grow deep there.

Now that I am "on the spot," so to speak, will it affect my writing? Interesting to speculate, to me at least, how -- and if -- my writing might change. At a recent virtual meeting with my critique group in Houston, one of my critique partners made an interesting comment on the chapter I’d read of the work-in-progress. She thought my chapter seemed even more steeped in the Deep South than the previous book, written when I was in Houston. Perhaps I’ve been subliminally affected by the less hectic pace of life in Jackson, the general politeness and friendliness of people, and the language I hear around me. Or it might be because the book I’m writing is set on a Louisiana plantation near the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge…

DEBS: Dean, do you know how much your grandparents' house looks like ours? Do you know when

it was built? Ours was built in 1905, and must have looked almost as rural in its early days.

I am fascinated by your family connections, and because I have really never left home, in a way I envy you going back to yours with a fresh perspective. And I can't wait to read the Louisiana plantation book! You are such a tease. Hopefully you will tell us more in the comments.

Readers, have you ever gone home to a place you thought well-remembered and found it changed?

ARSENIC AND OLD BOOKS, the 6th Cat in the Stacks mystery, debuted on national hardcover bestseller lists! Huge congrats, Dean!

PS: There is a bonus short story in ARSENIC AND OLD BOOKS! You'll learn just exactly how Diesel came to live with Charlie.

How to Build a Mystery Writer--Miranda (aka Dean) James

DEBORAH CROMBIE: One of the best things about being a mystery writer is the wonderful people you meet in the this astonishingly generous community (astonishingly because I don't know of another group of writers--and readers--who are so supportive of one another's work and success--and Dean James was one of the first friends I made as published mystery writer. I've been lucky to call him a friend in the years since, and I am now a huge fan as well.

I adore the series Dean writes as Miranda James, featuring Charlie Harris, a librarian in a small southern town, and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel. In THE SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY, the fifth book in the Cat in the Stacks series, when Electra Barnes Cartwright, centenarian and the reclusive author of a beloved juvenile mystery series, agrees to appear at the Athena Public Library, book collectors come out of the woodwork to meet her. The last thing Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon companion Diesel expect is to find themselves in the middle of another murder investigation.

Here's reviewer Lesa Holstine on why we love these books: "As intriguing as the mystery is, it's still James' characters that bring readers back. Who can resist Charlie Harris, a kind, Southern gentleman, a family man who loves his adult children, his boarders, and his friends? And, as much as we love Charlie, it's even harder to resist Diesel, the Maine Coon cat who warbles and chirps his way into hearts while keeping his eye out for killers. Charlie and Diesel are in fine form in The Silence of the Library as they find their way through the maze of crazed book collectors."

And here's Dean on why he started down the road to (fictional) murder:

DEAN JAMES:  The summer I was eight my father took me to the public library in Grenada,

Mississippi, where I got my first library card. I still remember the first book I checked out, a juvenile biography of Abraham Lincoln. Decades later, I have no idea why I chose that book among the hundreds of others in the children’s section at the Elizabeth Jones Library. I do remember that, after my first visit, I worked my way through the many juvenile biographies on the shelves. I also strayed away from non-fiction with titles like Miss Minerva and William Green Hill by Frances Boyd Calhoun (I had to look up the author because I had no memory of who wrote it). I also vaguely remember a character named “Danny Dunn” – according to Wikipedia, the main character in a series of science fiction/adventure books. Somewhere in there I also discovered Edith Hamilton and her books on Greek and Roman mythology. Again, I have no idea what attracted me to these books, but I do know that I found them fascinating.

Looking back I can see that most of this early reading eventually led me to major in history in college and even to go on to graduate school and an eventual Ph.D. in medieval history. I don’t recall reading anything about the Middle Ages in my younger years, but as a teenager I read Anya Seton’s Green Darkness and Katherine and Roberta Gellis’ Bond of Blood. Those books ignited my interest in medieval England and an important part of my life.

Around the age of ten I also discovered mysteries, in the form of Nancy Drew. My cousin Terry had a few of the books, and during a summer visit I picked up The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I was immediately hooked on mysteries, and along with other reading I sought out as many of the juvenile mysteries as I could find. There were many: Trixie Belden, the Hardy Boys, the Dana Girls, Cherry Ames, Ken Holt, Rick Brant, the Three Investigators, and Judy Bolton, among others. 

Later on I graduated to more adult fare, with the romantic suspense novels of Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. The 1960s and 1970s were the heyday of the so-called “Gothic” novel, and I read every one the library had, by writers like Mary Stewart, Velda Johnston, Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels, Anne Maybury, Jane Aiken Hodge, and the inimitable Madeleine Brent, who turned out to be Peter O’Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise. As an adult I discovered more traditional mystery writers, like Agatha Christie and Sue Grafton. I read more and more and in the past forty years, I estimate that I must have read more than four thousand mysteries.
 

When aspiring fiction writers ask for advice, the first thing I tell them is Read. Read and read and read. Good books and bad ones. Then analyze what makes the good ones good and the bad ones bad. Particularly if you’re interested in writing genre fiction, you need to know the history of the genre, how it developed, and what came before. Learn who the towering figures are, read them, and learn from them. There are good reasons that Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dashiell Hammett, Georges Simenon, and Raymond Chandler are still in print. After you’ve sampled the giants, move on to their successors. Crime fiction has a long and distinguished history, and you can only benefit from knowing it.

DEBS: I read so many of the same books! (Although Dean seems to have missed out on the "horsey mysteries"--was anyone else addicted to the Walter Farley Black Stallion series?) And even though I doubt we were consciously analyzing what made these books work when we were eight or ten, I'm sure they influenced us as adult writers.

Readers, do you remember your first library book?

Dean will be giving away a signed copy of THE SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY, so tell us and get your name in the hat!

Dean (aka Miranda) James is the New York Times and USA Today
best-selling author of the "Cat in the Stacks" series. A librarian and
bookseller, Dean lives with two cats, Pippa and Toby, and thousands of books
in Houston, Texas.

DEAN JAMES--FILE M FOR MURDER

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Dean James is the author of over twenty books, both mystery fiction and non-fiction. He has won the Agatha and Macavity Awards for his non-fiction and has twice been nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical work. Formerly the general manager of Murder by the Book in Houston, he is currently a librarian in the Texas Medical Center. Writing as Miranda James, he is the New York Times bestselling author of the "Cat in the Stacks" mysteries, as well as mysteries under his own name and the pseudonyms Jimmie Ruth Evans and Honor Hartman.

Dean is also one of my oldest friends in the book business. I'm thrilled with the success of his new series, AND with the newest installment featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, FILE M FOR MURDER, which publishes January 31st.

When I asked Dean about the pseudonym, he told me that "Dean James" was very hard to find on the web, thanks to the dead movie star. He chose "Miranda" because she's the heroine of his favorite Shakespeare play, The Tempest. But here's our proper interview--

DEBS: Dean, you've written a very well-received series featuring Simon Kirby-Jones, a delightful Southern gentlemen transplanted to a fictional English village--a delightful Southern gentleman who is gay, and a vampire.

Now, in the Cat in the Stacks series, you've done a bit of gender bending. Writing as Miranda James, you've given us a male protagonist, a Southerner, Charlie Harris, who has gone home. A librarian who lived and worked in Houston for many years, Charlie, now widowed, has gone back to his home town of Athena, Mississippi, where he works part time in the college library and volunteers in the public library.

Is Athena a fictional town? Is it like the town you grew up in?

DEAN: Athena is mostly fictional, though it is based -- very, very loosely -- on Oxford, Mississippi, which is about 80 miles northeast of where I grew up on a farm in Grenada County. I've tried to imbue it with the kind of feeling that I remember from my youth in Mississippi, a small -- but not too small -- town where long-time residents know one another, where there's a strong sense of community and a sense of history.

DEBS: Athena is not idyllic--there are secrets and grudges and politics--but you've written about this small Mississippi town with such affection that I feel I want to go there for a visit. Has there been a sense of homecoming for you?

DEAN: Yes, there is a strong sense of homecoming for me. I've lived away from Mississippi for a little over three decades now. I do manage to get back occasionally to visit family there, but writing about Mississippi allows me to go home again in a special way. I can write about the good things I remember about growing up there. Mississippi has often been the butt of jokes and cynosure in the national consciousness, but despite its problems, it is a beautiful place full of some amazing people. With the kind of books I write I try to focus as much as possible on the positive.

DEBS: While I don't envy Charlie the loss of his wife to cancer, I am smitten with Charlie's new life in Athena. Living in the big, charming, old house he inherited from his Aunt Dottie, he takes in very civilized boarders. There's such a sense of this house as a welcoming place, with a kitchen where there is always iced tea and friends are always welcome at the table. Were you drawing on your own memories?

DEAN: The house I grew up in was much smaller than Charlie's house in Athena, but in my imagination, Aunt Dottie's house is one I would love to have lived in as a child and even now. I love the sense of history that a house like that possesses. Built solid and strong, meant to last for generations, where family traditions are kept up, where memories of loved ones never fade.

DEBS: A research librarian makes a very natural detective--Charlie has spent his career finding things out and he's very good at it, although that doesn't always please Sheriff's Deputy Kanesha Berry, Charlie's housekeeper's daughter. Charlie doesn't seek out murders. He's a decent man who simply wants to help people he cares about. But in writing an amateur sleuth in a small town, how do you avoid Cabot's Cove syndrome? (And I certainly hope to see many more books about Charlie.)

DEAN: I hope to see many more about Charlie myself! An amateur sleuth always faces the problem of stumbling over dead bodies, and we all know that isn't truly realistic outside the realms of fiction. I try to give Charlie a logical reason to be involved in the situation which brings the murder about, but eventually that becomes difficult to maintain for any writer. The authorities will certainly begin to look askance at anyone who's involved in that many homicides, albeit as mostly a bystander! But I tend to rely on what the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called "the willing suspension of disbelief." Readers of amateur sleuth stories are willing to grant this, I think, because they often find it easier to imagine themselves in the shoes of an amateur detective, rather than those of an official detective, i.e., a homicide cop. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and I've never lost that sense of vicarious pleasure that I gained from following in the footsteps of Nancy, Frank and Joe as they solved one baffling mystery after another.

DEBS: I've left the best for last. The series isn't called The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries without good reason. When Charlie moved back to Athena, he adopted an abandoned Maine Coon kitten whom he named Diesel, because of his loud purr. Diesel is now full grown and weighs thirty-six pounds! (My own boy kitties weigh around twelve to fourteen pounds, and I can't imagine having a thirty-six pound cat jump in my lap!) Diesel is a wonderful cat. He's intelligent, loyal, and a very good judge of human character. He also wears a leash and harness and goes everywhere with Charlie. (I asked Dean to choose a picture of a Maine Coon that looked like Diesel as he imagines him.)

Why did you choose that particular breed of cat? Do you have personal experience with Maine Coons?

And will Charlie someday find out who abandoned Diesel, and why?

DEAN: When I knew I was going to write a series about a librarian and his cat, I simply knew that the cat would be a Maine Coon and that his name would be Diesel. The Diesel in my books is actually based on the first Maine Coon I ever saw in the flesh, and he was a big kitty, close to forty pounds. That is atypical of the breed, because most male Maine Coons are on average about twenty-two to twenty-five pounds. But I was so taken with the gentle giant that I met, I knew I had to "borrow" him for my series. I have a cat that I think may be at least part Maine Coon, but I didn't realize that until I started writing the series.

Reader response to Diesel has been amazing, and he even has his own page on FaceBook, as Diesel Harris. As for Charlie finding out who abandoned Diesel, the answer is "maybe." I might write that story one of these days, but until then, I think it's okay simply to think of Diesel as a special gift to Charlie from the universe at a time when he needed a friend like Diesel the most.

DEBS: Oh, and one more thing--is Charlie Harris by any chance named after your good friend Charlaine Harris?

DEAN: Yes, he is. He's also named for two other "CH" friends: Carolyn Haines and Carolyn Hart. Not only are these three women among my favorite writers, they're also dear friends who have been unfailing in their support and encouragement. Naming my hero as a I did is a small way of saying thanks to them for all they've done for me.

DEBS: I'm sure all the CHs love Charlie as much as I do. And Dean, if Diesel were real, I have to confess I'd be tempted to steal him.

Readers, you can say "hi" to Diesel here.

And Dean will be dropping in on Jungle Red today to chat and answer questions, and will have a copy of File M for Murder to give away to one of our commentors.