National Dewey Decimal Day! by Jenn McKinlay

 Jenn McKinlay: It's quite possible that only librarian nerds will appreciate this day in all its Dewey glory, but given that I am a recovering librarian, I am full on celebrating today, which is... 

Named after its inventor, the Dewey Decimal System came into being in 1876, developed by Melvil Dewey, who was just twenty-one years old at the time. It's now used in over 200,000 libraries in 135 countries around the world. 

How does it work? Well, Dewey's rage for order broke non-fiction down like this, leaving fiction to be filed by author's last name.

Of course, it's changed exponentially beyond its infancy but can you imagine how they were categorizing books before Dewey? By color? Height? Number of pages? 

Having sat on a reference desk for years where people come in asking for the "green book" or the "blue book", let me just say, I can not imagine my former profession without Dewey. 

Of course the library also makes a fabulous setting for...murder!

There are a host of library based mysteries sure to delight library lovers the world over. I would list them here, but it's a long list and it's already been done by the fabulous website Stop You're Killing Me! (click on their name to go to the full list) but I will highlight a few of my favorites:

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it’s still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden grew up there and knows more than enough about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature.

 
With those fellow crime buffs, Roe belongs to a club called Real Murders, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It’s a harmless pastime—until the night she finds a member dead, killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal “copycat” killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects—or potential victims...

The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda (Dean) James. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash.  He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller...
 
A famous author of gory bestsellers and a former classmate of Charlie’s, Godfrey Priest may be the pride of Athena, but Charlie remembers him as an arrogant, manipulative jerk—and he’s not the only one. Godfrey’s homecoming as a distinguished alumnus couldn’t possibly go worse: by lunch, he’s put a man in the hospital. By dinner, Godfrey’s dead.
 
Now it’s up to Charlie, with some help from Diesel, to paw through the town’s grudges and find the killer before an impatient deputy throws the book at the wrong person. But every last one of Charlie’s friends and co-workers had a score to settle with the nasty novelist. As if the murder wasn’t already purr-plexing enough...

 

The Library Lovers Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay (Hey, that's ME!!! Shocker, I know).      Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey’s friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children’s book, but Beth’s boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he’s found murdered—and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast—before they throw the book at the wrong person.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers? Do you enjoy a library based mystery? And do you love your local library? Give them a shout out if you do! Librarians need love!

The Reds Take Malice

LUCY BURDETTE: If you've been to a conference with Jungle Reds on the program, you'll know that we've moved away from traditional panels and toward--game shows! Family Feud several years ago was a huge hit, and even included our honorary Red, Julia's hub, Ross.  We've done Balderdash, and Jeopardy. We bring prizes and encourage silliness. This year at Malice Domestic on May 2 in Bethesda will be no exception!

The game this time around is called 50 SHADES OF RED--and we have the most adorable buttons to help celebrate. Only four of us are able to attend this time (Hallie, Hank, Rhys, and Lucy), but we've wrangled an amazing guest moderator: Charlaine Harris!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So, This year's game is called 50 Shades of Red because we thought it was funny. But here's the secret--it means nothing. And that's funnier, right? But we're basing or new (and original) game of on that 1970's game Fact in Five. Remember that? Where you have an infinitesimally short amount of time to name--five countries that begin with W. Five dogs with colors in their names. And on and on. Lots of competition, lots of suspense. And lots of bluffing.

But the Reds have tweaked and polished and this year at Malice, we're making it all about mysteries!  Two of us Reds versus the other two. We'll face off to name as many things as we can--in twenty seconds--in a category given by the amazing Charlaine.  And then the opposing team will try to do better.
We're still working on the rules--plenty of time!--but we know some audience members will definitely be involved. So come prepared to play--and win!
And now--even if you aren't attending Malice!--we need your help.

HALLIE EPHRON: First: WE NEED CHALLENGES! Submit them as comments. Remember, these are facts in fives...

So I'll start:
Name five mystery novels with RED in the title.
Name five mystery novels that involve trains.
Name five clues in Sherlock Holmes stories.
Name five sleuths with dogs (or dogs with sleuth.

Your turn!

HANK:  I'll say: Nancy Drew's dog Daisy.  Pause, pause.  Are you wondering: did Nancy Drew have a dog name Daisy.???  And the answer is no! Because I am bluffing. (Not very well, but it's just an example.) So in Fifty Shades of Red, a player can bluff. But the opponents can challenge!! Wen there's a challenge, the timer stops, and the audience votes on who is right. The loser forfeits three hard-won points.

So how about:

Mystery novels set in London.
Detectives with children.
Mysteries with animals in the title
Series with more than five installments
Actors who play detectives in the movies
Mysteries that have become TV series
RHYS BOWEN:What my fellow Reds didn't mention yet is that we'll be choosing audience members to join our teams. If you'd like to help us out with your superior knowledge (and you really do know the name of Nancy Drew's dog)--you need to be wearing a special limited edition Jungle Red "I READ RED" button. We'll be choosing our panel members from the audience from  those who are wearing the buttons..and we will be handing them out at Malice! So make sure your find one of us..and get your I READ RED button so you can participate.  It'll also make you eligible for wonderful prizes! 

LUCY: Okay red readers, we'd love your ideas now--tell us your category ideas! Just put them in the comments. 

And if you're coming to Malice, please come to the funny farm--errr, panel--at 12:30 on Saturday.

You're Writing About What?

RHYS BOWEN:Last year I had the fun experience of writing a short story for an anthology edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni LP Kelner. It was called AN APPLE FOR THE CREATURE and gave me a rare chance to write something deliciously dark and spooky. But these very successful anthologies have really given Toni a taste for the supernatural and the creepy, so much so that she has recently become a shape shifter and has morphed into a new person called Leigh Perry. I'm delighted to have LEIGH PERRY guest blogging for us today so take it away Toni--I mean Leigh Let me put this right out on the table. I’ve written a mystery about a skeleton. You may be thinking So what? There are plenty of mysteries with skeletons. For starters, there’s Aaron Elkins, who’s famed for his wonderful Gideon Oliver mysteries about a forensic anthropologist using his knowledge of skeletal remains to solve crimes. Charlotte McLeod’s The Family Plot starts out with finding a mysterious skeleton in the family tomb. In fact countless books include skeletal versions of the murder victims. But here’s the difference. In A Skeleton in the Family, the skeleton isn’t the victim--he’s a sleuth. You see, he’s a living skeleton. Named Sid. Sid walks, talks, and makes really bad bone jokes. And in the first Family Skeleton mystery, he helps solve his own murder.  Needless to say, the first question I’m usually asked about the book is how I came up with the idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer. Worse still, I don’t even have a funny answer. The fact is, I don’t remember. I do know that I’ve had the bare bones of the book planned since May of 2004, and have gone back to my earliest notes to see if I wrote down anything like, “I got this idea from...” But all I can find is references to noodling over the idea for a year, meaning that I first got the idea in 2003. That’s where the trail on my computer ends. From the very first, I recognized that it was a weird idea, but I just kept coming back to it. Like most writers, I’ve got tons of ideas I’ll never get around to writing, and most of the time, once I jot down an idea I forget about it until I look through my files. But Sid never left my skull. Flash forward to 2011. My “Where are the now?” series was ending, and Ginjer Buchanan, my editor at Berkley Prime Crime, asked me to pitch something new. I wrote up nine different ideas of various flavors: dark, light, straight mystery, paranormal mystery, a historical, urban fantasy. And Sid.  Ginjer went right to Sid. The ironic part is that I almost didn’t include the Family Skeleton series proposal at all. As much as I liked the premise, I still thought it was kind of weird. But my husband Steve said, “Why not?” so in it went. I never dreamed Ginjer would pick it, and I was flabbergasted when she did, though not so much that I turned down the offer. I didn’t know if anybody other than the two of us and my agent would want to read the finished book, but at the very least, I knew I’d have a great time writing it. And I really did. Now I could talk about the other characters in the book. Sid doesn’t work alone, after all. He lives with Georgia Thackery, who is technically the protagonist. Well, maybe not “lives” so much as “rattles around in the attic of.” At any rate, he’s been a part of her family since she was six, but the only other people who know about him are her parents and her older sister. Georgia has her own story. She’s an adjunct English professor who can’t seem to make tenure track, and is the single mother of a teenaged daughter. She and her sister have some sibling rivalry going on, and she doesn’t have the best luck with men. I like her a lot, and she’s also fun to write about. I think she’s a strong character. But I know darned well that it’s Sid who’s going to be remembered. There are so many mysteries with interesting, strong protagonists. (Including the books written by the Jungle Red authors.) Skeletons? Not so much. In fact, there really aren’t that many ambulatory skeletons in any kind of fiction. A talking skull which houses a demon features in Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books; Lord Shinigami in the Soul Eater anime and manga series is a skeletal death figure; and Ghost Rider looks like a skeleton, as do some other comic book characters. The most famous is Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas. But none of those are mysteries--I’ve got this particular sub-sub-sub genre all to myself. Of course, I realize that the whole ambulatory skeleton bit will lose me some readers even before they open the book. Some people aren’t going to be interested in this particular brand of whimsy, no matter how well written it might be. (I’ve already had one Goodreads review to that effect.) My sense of humor may very well turn off other readers. I can’t help that, and I can’t let myself worry about it. After all, there are readers who won’t pick up a cozy, an amateur sleuth, an academic setting, a single mother, and so on. Readers are entitled to their own preferences. I just hope there are enough people who share mine so I can keep the series going. You see, while I can’t really tell you where I came up with the idea for Sid the Skeleton, I can tell you why I want to keep writing about him: Because he tickles my funny bone. Though A Skeleton in the Family is Leigh Perry’s first book, she’s been publishing under her real name--Toni L.P. Kelner--for twenty years. She’s the author of the Laura Fleming Southern mystery novels, the “Where are they now?” mystery series, and a slew of short stories. It was while co-editing paranormal anthologies with Charlaine Harris, including the New York Times Bestselling Many Bloody Returns and Death’s Excellent Vacation, that she got her first taste of writing about the supernatural. Leigh and/or Toni lives north of Boston with her husband, two daughters, and two guinea pigs. Her personal philosophy is that we’re all skeletons under the skin. And meat, and organs, and stuff. RHYS:Leigh and I are attending Bouchercon, the big mystery convention in Albany NY today but she has promised to check in and answer comments and questions. Also she has generously agreed to give a copy of A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY to her favorite comment of the day.

The Bad News..and the Good news

HANK: Here's where I usually write the introduction to the day's blogger. But right now, I have tears in my eyes and the letters are blurring.

Let's just let our dear friend Toni Kelner talk.

When is Lung Cancer Good News? 

                  by Toni L.P. Kelner

My big sister Brenda has lung cancer.

And that’s good news.

Before you conclude that I am the worst baby sister in the history of sisterhood, let me give you the background. Some months back, after a particularly nasty case of pneumonia, Brenda was diagnosed with lung cancer.

I was terrified for her, and so very angry, but I refused to consider the possibility that she wouldn’t get better. She’s really ornery. She’s been known to break a stick over the head of a man hitting her husband, and to break the back windshield of a car swerving to purposely hit a cat. I couldn’t imagine that she couldn’t beat a puny ole’ tumor.

She went through a round of chemo, and responded very well to it. The tumor shrank quite a lot a lot, and the doctors were pretty sure they could avoid surgery.

Then, about a month ago, cancer was detected in her kidney, indicating that her cancer had spread. I hit the web for information, and what I found was devastating. Without going into the horrifying details, when lung cancer starts to spread, the prognosis is very bad. They start talking about months of life, not years. Also, once lung cancer spreads, it often heads for the brain. Brenda needed to have that checked, too. She was immediately put onto another course of chemo and scheduled for a brain scan.

I don’t think I need to tell you what my feelings were, especially not when it fell to me to tell my parents and my other sisters.

That’s where it stood as of August 24. Today I found out the latest test results, and I laughed and cried at the same time. Brenda’s cancer has not spread to her kidney. Nor does she have a second cancer developing. The cells found in her kidney are almost certainly leftovers as the cancer is being flushed from her system. As for the brain, she gave me the best straight line in the world when she said, “The brain scan? They didn’t find anything.” We laughed for five minutes straight.

Of course she still has lung cancer, which isn’t exactly a walk on the beach. She has some other health problems, too. But compared to what she could have had--what we thought she did have--they all seem minor. Like the tumor in her lung, they are shrinking in importance. 

It’s all a matter of perspective.

As a writer, I think that one of the best things we can do for our readers is give them a kind of perspective. As in, “Yes, my job was annoying today, but at least there wasn’t a serial killer lurking in my office building,” or “Maybe I wish my husband would trim his toenails before bed, but at least he’s not a werewolf.” 

In An Apple for the Creature, the latest anthology from editing team Charlaine Harris and me, we give readers all kinds of perspectives on the horrors of school days.

 Was your high school bad? At least your principal wasn’t a devil. Is that training seminar you have to attend for work a pain in the tail end? At least you don’t have to learn how to deal with vampires. Do you have to work with a total idiot for your college project? At least your idiot didn’t accidentally raise a demon. Have you lost touch with old friends? At least you’re not a new werewolf who doesn’t know any other werewolves.

Perspective is everything.

So my big sister has lung cancer. Just lung cancer. And that’s good news.

HANK: Toni, we love you. And much love to your dear sister. She's very lucky to have such a wonderful--and TALL!--baby sister. Right, gang?   

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.

Going supernatural wth Dana Cameron and Toni L. P. Kelner

Werewolves, vampires, and ghosts have become almost as common in mystery novels as PIs and cops. Mystery authors Toni L. P. Kelner and Dana Cameron are dipping their pens in the the supernatural and hitting it big with multi-award nominated short stories.

While Toni writes the delightful “Where Are We Now” series for Berkley Prime Crime, she also is writing short stories and co-editing urban fantasy anthologies, including "Death's Excellent Vacation" which debuted at #8 on the NY Times Bestseller list. Her multi-award nominated short stories feature pirates, werewolves, and vampires.

Dana, who wrote a great series of mysteries featuring archaeologist Emma Fielding, has been having a huge success with short stories, too, including her “urban ‘Fangborn’ fantasy” titled “The Night Things Changed” (in "Wolfsbane and Mistletoe") which won Agatha and Macavity Awards.

JRW: Toni, Dana, are you having fun with the supernatural and urban fantasy?

TONI: I really am, a lot more so than I expected. There seems to be more rip-roaring adventure in the paranormal stuff than I end up with in my mysteries, and maybe a bit more drama and emotion. It's refreshing.

DANA: I'm amazed at how much fun I'm having, and how much I'm learning about writing in general by doing it. I get to play with the conventions of the supernatural story, and it's also a chance to tackle huge issues (morality, justice, prejudice, faith, etc.) on an operatic scale. While my werewolves and vampires are basically folks trying to do the right thing, you can really amp up things by throwing them into conflict with pure evil. Emma Fielding never had to worry about the fate of humanity.

JRW: What do you think is it that makes urban fantasy and supernatural so appealing to mystery readers, and are they actually broadening the audience?

TONI: I think they like the sense of the stories being "larger than life," adding a bit of mythic power. But I'm not sure about broadening the audience, actually. The paranormal crowd will read paranormal romances, mysteries, or whatever, and of course people who are Charlaine Harris fans and Dana Cameron fans will follow them no matter what they write. But then there are plenty of hard-core mystery readers who won't touch anything where the paranormal is involved.

I am, I think, broadening my own audience. The paranormal stuff sells a whole lot better than my straight mysteries, and I think people who read the anthologies Charlaine and I do are sometimes convinced to try out my novels. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

DANA: Toni's right; some mystery readers wouldn't go near the supernatural, but à chacun son gôut. For those of us who read across subgenres, it's a great opportunity to have a mystery with a new sort of detective. Through the years, sleuths have had all sorts of skills and powers, from inquisitive old ladies and amateur sleuths to PIs and police detectives to superheroes like Batman or Superman. In that context, the introduction of vampires and werewolves doesn't seem so much a stretch. And I think it has the terrific side-effect of introducing supernatural readers to mystery writers they might not already know.

JRW: Vampires, werewolves, fairies... which most suit your fancy?

TONI: I'm a sucker for vampires. (Also for puns, needless to say.) I like werewolves, too, but they don't have the same mystique for me. Maybe it's because I'm a woman--a monthly change is no big deal for me. I've never done anything with fairies, though I do enjoy reading some of the fae books.

Vampires are just so darned useful as metaphors. Bram Stoker used them as a metaphor for sex in Dracula, Joss Whedon used them as a metaphor for the horrors of high school and fear of sex in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlaine uses them as a metaphors for gays and other so-called outsiders, romance writers use them as a metaphor for the demon lover... And of course I use them as an excuse to make puns.

DANA: I was waiting to see how long it would take Toni to make a pun.

As far as reading goes, I have no preference, it depends on the writer and the world. As far as writing them myself, I've been basing my supernatural world in science (admittedly, as-yet-unexplained science) and world mythologies (traditions of shape-changers are nearly universal). While there are plenty of mythologies about fairies, fae, and the like, I haven't found them in my Fangborn world, but I never say never, anymore.

JRW: Does it feel completely different from writing a ‘traditional’ mystery, or not so much?

TONI: Actually, it's not that different, at least not for me. A lot of what I do with mysteries, particularly with short stories, is explore different milieus. I've set mysteries in the rural South, in a carnival, on pirate ships, in a circus, at a science fiction convention, and around show business. Those may sound like a wide variety of settings, but what they have in common is the introduction of a new "world," often with unique word usage and slang. With the paranormal, I do the same thing.

It's just that instead of reading about circus lingo or consulting my mother about Southernisms, I'm making up the world and the language. It doesn't matter if the realm is real or imagined, the techniques for explaining them to the reader are pretty much the same.

One other thought. Whether or not I'm writing paranormal mysteries or straight ones, I try to make the story dependent on the setting--a crime that could only be committed and/or solved in that milieu. So the way my carney catches a murderer in "Sleeping With the Plush" would only work in a carnival, and the motive for murder in my forthcoming book Blast from the Past only applies to people in show business. So again, I do the same thing with paranormal mysteries. Only a werewolf could solve the crime in "Pirate Dave's Haunted Amusement Park" and only a vampire could commit the crime in "Taking the Long View."

DANA: I agree: writing supernatural is similar to traditional mysteries is a balance of the characters' skills and shortcomings against the conflicts they find themselves in. If you give them superpowers, you need to give them super conflict, and also, super disadvantages to trip them up. It's fun to figure out really cool ways (unexpected, at the same time, obvious) for them to use their powers to solve a seemingly impenetrable mystery.

So far, I've been lucky to write in a number of subgenres: amateur sleuth, historical, supernatural, noir. I suppose I could add "PI" because Gerry, in addition to being a werewolf, is a PI (though it's not the focus of the stories). In each case, there's a different set of conventions, so the idea of switching conventions is just the challenge of being a writer, not specific to writers of supernatural fiction.

What I have noticed is how much I relate to the characters (no, no, I'm not admitting to being a were or a vamp). Obviously, writing Emma Fielding drew a lot from my academic life. I relate strongly to Gerry and Claudia Steuben, because their background and attitudes are similar to mine. I have more in common with them, on some levels, than Anna Hoyt (from “Femme Sole” in "Boston Noir"), who is about as far from supernatural as you can get. So I guess I really don't see a major difference in the characters among subgenres.

JRW: Thank you so much! Toni and Dana will be checking in today so please welcome them and join the conversation!

Haunted...

HALLIE: After enjoying Charlaine Harris's visit to the New England Crime Bake, I've been thinking about the appeal of the paranormal, and how many otherwise perfectly normal people I've met are convinced that a house they lived in was haunted. A woman I used to work with told me how she could feel the cold air and many times saw the ghost of a woman in an upstairs bedroom. She and her family never used the bedroom, nor did the family that lived in the house before them.

So even though I've never put a vampire or a werewolf or a fairy into a novel, every once in a while I do put in a touch of woo-woo. Like when one my main character drank a glass of wine, imagined he was talking to his dead wife, fell asleep, and when he woke up there were two wine glasses beside him.

Have you toyed with the fantasy or paranormal in your fiction? What about in real life--anyone grow up in a house that felt haunted?

JAN: Well my new novel features an antagonist who may or may not be the devil, so I am definitely experimenting with Woo-woo (although I originally wrote this novel 21 years ago before I ever heard the term woo-woo)

About thirty years ago, my husband (then boyfriend) and I went to a bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia and we both woke up at four in the morning totally freaked out feeling weird energy in the room and convinced it was haunted. We gathered up our things, went out for breakfast and returned to check out by something like 6:30 a.m. We have never before or ever since felt that way or experienced anything like that, so we are not inclined to fantasize in that direction.

Not entirely sure about ghosts -- especially ones called up at seances - we believe what we want to believe -- BUT I'm a true believer in energy -- certainly the energy that we all project while we are alive. So its not that hard for me to believe that some energy lingers.

RHYS: I grew up in a haunted house. It was a big rambling old country house and my brother and I slept alone on the top floor with a long staircase between us and our parents. The mat outside my door used to flap even though no window was open and one night the window opened by itself in the middle of the night, causing me to freak out. I used to have a recurring dream of waking up and seeing a procession of hooded figures coming up the stairs toward me.

When I spoke to my brother about it recently and said I thought the house was haunted, he replied, "Of course it was." And he was only about eight when we moved away. I never saw an actual ghost and I suppose all the creaking and flapping could be attributed to drafts, but why would a little boy sense the presence of something paranormal?

And of course my latest book, Royal Blood, is a complete spoof on the whole vampire genre, but you never quite know in the end whether the vampire might have been real.

ROBERTA: Never lived in a haunted house--as far as I know! I did enjoy hearing about Charlaine's imaginative worlds this past weekend. I'm so stuck on reality! I guess the closest I'm coming is a tarot card reader in my new series. I'm going to have to trot down to the Mallory Square sunset celebration in Key West and get my cards read so I can write it realistically...

ROSEMARY: Uh...no. I'm a gardener. I compost. Nuff said.

HANK: Never lived in a haunted house. (That I know of, at least.) But ESP? yes, indeedy. There's more going on than we understand? Yes, indeedy. So who are we to dismiss things that happen as "coincidence"? I'm open to it.
HALLIE: I like it best in books, as in life, when there's something weird but you don't quite know what to make of it.

Please share with us your tales of ghost, visitations, or simply stuff you just can't explain.

AND COMING ATTRACTIONS: Tomorrow, Sarah Smith visits Jungle Red to talk about her new YA novel, "The Other Side of Dark," with a young girl who talks to ghosts and wonders if she's going crazy. It's a sweet and poignant.

Then, after Thanksgiving, Toni L. P. Kelner and Dana Cameron pay us a visit to talk about how their celebrated short stories are exploring the dark side. On Saturday Barbara Corrado Pope drops by to talk about her wonderful new historical mystery that only sounds like it's got vampires in it, "Blood of the Lorraine."

The Scene of the Crimebake

Five out of six Jungle Red Writers (we missed you Rhys!) attended the Crimebake in Dedham MA this weekend. The conference was a smashing success, with the lovely and generous Charlaine Harris as guest of honor, and many writers, agents, and readers in attendance. The highlight might possibly have been the Red and Black Vampire Ball...y'all come next year!

Trendspotting

ROBERTA: If anyone is worse than me at spotting trends early--fashion or otherwise--I'd like to know her. Even if I see a fashion trend coming, the wagon will have left the station by the time I considering piling on. Let's take leggings for example; I've waited so long to embrace this trend that I think it may be coming around for the third or fourth time before I ever try a pair on. Facebook? I protested this as a useless time sink for years before I finally signed up--one of the last holdouts I suspect. Trends in publishing? Don't I wish I'd thought of writing about vampires in the early days along with Charlaine Harris. Or at least piled on while the idea was still catching fire. But no, I study my daily Publishers Marketplace emails, in awe of all the high concepts that wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years.

So what's the secret to spotting trends Jungle Red Writers? Are you good at it? Can you give me some tips? If not, tell us a story about what you missed!

HALLIE: Don't ask me! Three years ago I was telling people to forget about writing vampire mysteries. It would be so passe a few years hence. Not.

RHYS: I think some people are born with the trend gene. My daughter was one step ahead of fashion all the way through high school. When I was in London in the swinging sixties (doesn't that date me?) I was right up there with Mary Quant--dress up to my thighs like a British flag and white plastic boots with windows in the side. Since I left the entertainment biz and got married I've never tried to keep up and frankly I don't miss it. I know what suits me and am content. Funnily enough my daughters look at pictures of me and can't believe that I threw away clothes that are now fashionable again!

ROBERTA: OH man, Rhys, wish we could have seen you in the British flag and those boots!

HANK: Pleeeze. In 1980, I got a phone call from a guy who was working on a start up company. At the time,I was the anchor of the weekend news for the NBC affiliate and thought I was hot stuff. This guy showed me the new offices, and told me he wanted me to be the Los Angeles bureau chief of this new news organization they were putting together. But I was truly a trendspotter,so I knew it was doomed to failure.
No thanks,I said. Miss Know It All.
Afterwards I said to a pal--can you imagine? They think they can show news for 24 hours a day? No way. They're nuts.
Yup, CNN.

ROBERTA: Ouch, that one hurts, Hank. But just think, maybe you wouldn't have met Jonathan, nor would you know all of us:).

HANK: Oh, exactly! NO regrets. More hilarious, I had a news director who came into the office in 1975 with a yellow plastic thing. I said--what's that? He said--"It's called a 'videocassette.' They say videotape is going to replace film. But don't worry. It'll never last."

JAN: I actually think I'm a pretty good trend spotter. I picked up that Financial News was going to become big, back in late 1970s. So I jumped in. The bad news was that I got bored and jumped out in 1986 (Okay to have a baby) just when financial news really took off.

I find that a lot. I spot a trend, but too early. And then if you want to jump back in, it's too late.

But I think all of us spot a trend from time to time, just not ALL the TIME, or the EXACT right trend that would profit us best at the moment.

RO: Clueless when it comes to trends, especially clothing. If I'm wearing something that's in fashion it's probably an accident. I realized in the fourth grade that I'd never be fast enough to keep up with them so I took a pass. I see pictures of myself from high school or my twenties and think...I would still wear that - and sometimes do! That doesn't keep me from buying InStyle magazine, my favorite guilty pleasure airport magazine to which I now subscribe. I like knowing what the trends are but rarely want to wear them myself.

My notable non-fashion, clueless moment was when my former boss told me he'd forged a relationship with the WWF, the World Wrestling Federation, to distribute their videos. I thought, jeez, wrestling? That'll last a year and he'll be stuck with videos of Hillbilly Jim and Junkyard Dog. He made a ton of dough, wrestling is still going strong, and Hillbilly Jim was one of the nicest guys I met in the video business. What do I know?

ROBERTA: Okay Jungle Red readers, do you have the trend-spotting gene? And what have you missed?

Don't forget to come back often this week--we'll have three visitors: a comic strip artist/writer, the author of TRUE CONFECTIONS, and advice for empowering creativity. And we'll be talking books, books, books...

Charlaine Harris reveals all

And finally, Charlaine, will you answer our Jungle Red questions?

JRW: Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot?

Oh, Miss Marple. I love her.

JRW: Sex or violence?

Now that’s difficult. Violence, I think.

JRW: Pizza or chocolate?

Chocolate.

JRW: Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? (We won't even include Sean Connery because we know the answer. Don't we?)
Daniel Craig.

JRW: Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn?
Audrey.

JRW: First person or Third person?
First.

JRW: Prologue or no prologue?
No prologue.

JRW: Your favorite book as a child?
“Jane Eyre.”

JRW: Making dinner or making reservations?
Making dinner. Though if there was anywhere here that took reservations, I’d vote the other way.


And also: the Jungle Red Quiz. Tell us four things about yourself. Only three can be true. We'll try to guess what's false.

1. My office décor includes headstone pictures.

2. I have skeleton flamingos in my front yard.

3. I set up a haunted house at Halloween.

4. I have a customized set of fangs.

Okay, Jungle Red readers...which one is false?

And thanks, Charlaine! And congratulations on a second season of True Blood.

(Tomorrow--come meet Lori Andrews! Her real life is right out of a thriller...and her new book IMMUNITY is--a real thriller.)

ON VAMPIRES

"Sookie Stackhouse, the series’ heroine, is just a hoot to write..."

*** Charlaine Harris in 2003

So. You've see it, right? True Blood on HBO? All of us who were fans of Charlaine Harris (and her Sookie Stackhouse, among all the other terrific characters she's created) are thrilled to see the "uniquely compelling" (as one glowing review put it) series on TV!

With Anna Pacquin as Sookie, and...well, if you haven't watched yet, do. Sunday at 9. You'll never look at a vampire the same way.

Well, you know what I mean.

And it's a true joy to read the books--she's on her eighth Sookie, with more to come next year. (Two are now on the New York Times Best seller list!)

Five Auroras--and more to come. Lily Bard. And some wonderful anthologies, including a new one for Christmas.

Charlaine was gracious enough to chat with us..probably trailing fans in her wake. She's hilarious and generous. And she says she's an overnight success--it just took 25 years. Congratulations.

HANK: You've created an amazing parallel universe in your Sookie Stackhouse world. It's so--consistent. And quite believable. Hilarious. Do hold the whole world in your head? Or are you creating it as you go?

CHARLAINE: My head's not big enough to hold the whole world, after nine books (the ninth will be out next May). I've got a contract employee who's working on the "bible" for the series, to help me keep track of what I've said. I do create as I go, which is the fun part.

HANK: But let me ask. The rules for vampires...and how they behave and what they can do. Did you think of it all at moment one? Or is that evolving? And do you have to keep track of it all, somehow?

CHARLAINE: Yes, it evolves all the time. There are some questions I'm still debating within myself, and if I can't come up with an answer that feels right, I skirt the issue in the books until I can be sure of having the right answer.

HANK: Oh, I wish I could get you to tell us about the questions. But I suppose that would ruin it. You're getting a raft of new attention now, because of the TV series, for Sookie. But many fans have been reading about your telepathic waitress for years. And before (and during) her, Lily Bard, and before (and during ) her, Aurora Teagarden. Your brain must be very crowded. How do you juggle your worlds and characters?

CHARLAINE: I have to get "into character" for each one. It can be jarring to switch from one protagonist to another. When I'm about to start a new book, very often I read the last book in that series again to get myself rolling. Since I most often write in the first person, I have to slip on a particular persona to see the action unfolding as the book progresses.

HANK: So one day, the phone rings. And it's--well, how did you learn HBO wanted to make a TV series about Sookie Stackhouse? (And by the way, how did you come up with her name? Was she ever named anything else?)

CHARLAINE: I'd had an option on the Sookie books before. When it was about to expire, there were three offers for the books. My agent described all three to me and I talked to the interested parties on the telephone before deciding Alan's was the best fit.

Sookie was the name of my grandmother's best friend. It's an old southern nickname. I found the surname "Stackhouse" in a phonebook, and it just seemed to fit.

HANK: The first time you saw the finished product of episode one, say. When was that? Where? What did you think? Can you tell us just one cool secret thing about the shooting writing editing or stars of the show? (And what book is Gran reading in episode 1? I squinted to see the cover, but couldn't make it out.)

CHARLAINE: HBO sent me a copy of the first two episodes when they were still a bit rough. I was riveted. It was so exciting seeing my characters on the screen, and every now and then there was some dialogue straight from the book! But there were enough things I HADN'T written to keep me on my toes, because I wouldn't be sure how Alan played it.

And the sex scene was startling, of course, because although I knew Jason's character, I'd never followed him into the bedroom before, since Sookie never did. Gran is reading "Last Scene Alive," one of my Aurora Teagarden books.

Secret things? I wouldn't tell secrets, but I can tell you that Anna is as lovely in person as she is on the screen, Stephen has wonderful manners, Sam is a true son of the south, Nelsan trained at Juillard, Rutina trained as a dancer and is married, and they are all happy to be working for Alan Ball.

HANK: Your family must be so proud of you--you've been such a mainstay in the mystery world. Now--is your life a lot different? What's next for you?

CHARLAINE: I don't know yet how my life will change as a result of the TV show. I hope it won't change much, because I'm very happy the way I am now. I think my family is proud of me, and I am of them. I am the most incredibly lucky person.What's next for me? Writing more books, I guess. The work is always there, just waiting to be done. I think I'm more nervous now about it than I was before. I never felt like anyone was looking, before!

(Charlaine blogs on Femmes Fatales http://femmesfatales.typepad.com)

Thanks, Charlaine! You're really quite amazing. And inspirational.Tomorrow--Charlaine agrees to take the Jungle Red quiz! And she'll let us decide which of four things about her is false! (And being a vampire is not one of them...)

ON ASSIGNMENTS

"Once upon a time, there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith..."

*** the first line of "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein

HANK: On the way to work this morning, I said to my husband--what books did you read in college? What books did you love?

You know Jonathan. He gave me that droll look. And he said: In college, I didn't read books for pleasure.

That's no doubt why he powered through law school, and my college career was spotty. At best.

I practically majored in a field the college did not know it was offering: listening to records and reading the books I wanted to.

Yes, I did devour some of the books that were assigned. Hemingway. Fitzgerald. Dickens. Austen. Tolkien's Ring books and CS Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet Trilogy were part of one course I took in my oh-so-liberal college. I think the class was called "Exploring Allegory." I also took the invitation-only "Seminar in Alice in Wonderland" which my mother still can't believe was an actual college course.

I was still devoted to Sherlock Holmes, of course. And all the Agatha Christie novels. But they weren't cool for school. So I was a closet mystery reader.

Was Catcher in the Rye college? I started talking and thinking like Holden the moment I met him--although my own language was carefully censored, I remember. (And I still think about him, every time I'm on the subway. Carrying the fencing equipment.) I forget who told me recently--the intial copies ofcatcher came out with the famously shy Salinger's photo on the back. He apparently freaked, and demanded all the copies be destroyed.

Stranger in a Strange Land. I just read something about that, how in revisionist criticism it's almost reviled as a screed against women, a pedantic rant. I don't remember that part. I remember "groking" and how that was one of them most evocative and descriptive made up words I'd ever heard. I still say--sometimes--yes, I grok that. And sometimes, people understand me.

I think Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was just after college. That has stuck with me, profoundly. As a writer, the search for the understanding of quality haunts me every day. I found this copy in Amazon, as you can tell by the 'look inside' gizmos, which won't work here. But I really think my copy was pink.

I was so taken with Hallie's topic on our favorite books as kids--now I wonder, what books did you love in college?

ROBERTA: Okay, I'm drawing a blank on this one. I was busy making trouble I guess. And after wandering through biochemistry and art history, I finally settled on Romance language and literature as my major. So I was plugging through light reading such as The Stranger--in French!

HALLIE: I confess, I'm with Jonathan. College was a black hole for me as far as reading for pleasure goes. I’d read all the time through high school, but in college it was as if I’d undergone aversive conditioning… all those dense history and political science texts I ploughed through made reading painful. In four years I might have made it through “Exodus” and “Hawaii” and “Dr. Zhivago” but that’s about it.

When I finished school and could read just for the fun of it, I ploughed through all of Agatha Christie’s and Dorothy Sayers’ novels and short stories. Graduated to P. D. James’ “An Unsuitable Job for a Woman” with the delightful Cordelia Grey, and read everything else James wrote the minute it came out. Re-read all of Sherlock Holmes. Then I wallowed in the library mystery stacks and indiscriminately grabbed books, some of which I made it through.

When I got back to ‘real’ literature it was to discover Amy Tan (“The Joy Luck Club”) and Dorothy Allison (“Bastard Out of Carolina”) and Barbara Kingsolver (“The Bean Trees”) and Carolyn Chute (“The Beans of Egypt Maine”) and John Irving (“A Song for Owen Meany”). And to re-read Alice in Wonderland and my favorite Sci-Fi novels (“Stranger in a Strange Land”, “A Wrinkle in Time”). And to rediscover the poems of e. e. cummings.

It should come as no surprise that I also got hooked on food writers—Calvin Trillin (“Alice, Let’s Eat) and Laurie Colwin (“Home Cooking”) and Ruth Reichel (“Tender at the Bone”), just for example.

JAN: During college, I think I was busy validating myself as a wild thing by reading books like: The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, On The Road by Jack Kerouac, The Electric Koolaid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, One Flew Over the Cuckoos by Ken Kesey, and Kurt Vonnegut's short story collections.

I shifted out of my hippy theme years into a literary phase. This involved reading everything by Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy and Somerset Maugham.

Then for a while there, I got into reading every single book by Barbara Pym. Her novels were always set around some sort of English vicarage. There was no real theme here, I just really enjoyed her books.

RO: I was about to say that I was with Roberta...having too much..uh, fun..in college to remember what I read. Then Jan reminded me of all the hippie-type books I read. Vonnegut must be like Disney. Every generation gets to discover - and claim - him.

The cobwebs have cleared a bit and I'm probably getting the decades confused (all that sangria, I guess..)but I remember loving Small Changes by Marge Piercy, Something Happened by Joseph Heller..everything by Richard Yates.

I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night and say something like..Birdy! I loved that!! And wisely, my husband will sleep through the outburst.

HANK: I'm going to ask my interns--all attending colleges across New England--what they're reading now. After you tell us what you read during those four (okay, or so) years, or if you read at all, care to predict what the students will say?

AND COMING UP LATER THIS WEEK! A visit from current double New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris, whose darkly hilarious novels are getting even more fans after the HBO blockbuster True Blood made Sookie Stackhouse a household name.

And that's not all--we'll chat with the new owners of Murder by the Book, the beloved bookstore--and how they stood up to Hurricane Ike.

But wait, there's more. Come chat with Lori Andrews, whose newest mystery Immunity is just out. Her real life? Is just as exciting than any fiction.