All About the Journey

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Doesn't it seem like everyone is taking photos of everything? It's almost as if it doesn't exist if there's no photo.  But the talented Wendy Tyson--and if you haven't read her marvelous books, you're in for a treat--uses those photos as an entree into her books.  What a great idea!

(Oh. Especially if the photos are in Italy.)

Welcome to my dear pal Wendy Tyson--who uses her photos to inspire her writing life. And, she's learned, it's all about the journey.

All About the Journey

  by Wendy Tyson

During my first fiction writing class in college, I wrote a short story titled “Transit.” It’s an admittedly somber story about a woman who becomes the family breadwinner when her husband is severely injured at his slaughterhouse job. The entire piece takes place during the protagonist’s bus ride to the slaughterhouse where she’s now going to work, and it focuses on her internal transformation as she comes to terms with what’s happened and how her life is about to change.

The summer before I wrote that story I joined two friends on a backpacking trip through parts of Spain and Portugal. We didn’t have much money, and the Eurail passes we’d purchased provided both transportation and an uncomfortable place to sleep. The trip made an impression on me, not only because of the people we met or the places we saw, but because of the opportunity for introspection that’s afforded the traveler.

Since then, my fiction has become decidedly lighter and more optimistic, but I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of the journey, however short or long. 

It’s a perfect vehicle for allowing our characters to grow or change. In FATAL FAÇADE, the fourth Allison Campbell mystery, which was released in June 2017, Philadelphia image consultant Allison Campbell travels to the Dolomite region of Italy to meet with a reclusive client. There, amongst the haunting mountain vistas and ancient castles, she finds murder—and acceptance. 

Likewise, SEEDS OF REVENGE, the third Greenhouse mystery, open with protagonist Megan Sawyer journeying home from Philadelphia during a snowstorm. She comes to the rescue of a stranded driver, and from that act mayhem and self-awareness ensue.

-->

But the journey isn’t an important tool only for the fictional beings among us; it can also be a source of inspiration for authors. The Greenhouse Series was born after witnessing the interactions of shop owners in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina during a book signing. 

The exchanges I witnessed were nothing unique or unusual, but the new setting, the hours I’d driven in unfamiliar terrain to get there, and the feeling of being out of my element, provided fresh perspective that triggered fresh ideas.

In fact, the act of traveling has become such an important source of ideas for my fiction that I’ve begun a photo journal to record moments that move me. Sometimes my subject is something grand that inspires a book, like an abandoned Italian castle (FATAL FAÇADE), a massive field of solar panels (BITTER HARVEST), or a walled convent (THE SEDUCTION OF MIRIAM CROSS). 

-->

Sometimes, though, it’s something subtle that I might revisit later. BITTER HARVEST, the second Greenhouse mystery, opens with Megan finding a red Adirondack chair that’s been left on a hiking trail, positioned so that it faces her house. That chair was real, only I came across it while hiking in Vermont (it wasn’t actually facing anyone’s house). At the time, the chair intrigued me so I snapped a photo. It wasn’t until later that I realized it would make a haunting opening to a novel.

My family recently moved from Pennsylvania to Vermont. I travel back and forth to Pennsylvania regularly now, a five-hour car ride that’s become second nature.

While I often find myself looking forward to the journey because it offers time in my head to explore ideas, there’s risk in retracing a well-worn path. To keep it fresh, I make a point of looking for something new every time I go.

A few weeks ago, during the leg of the drive that winds through upstate New York, I saw a man walking along a lake on a lonely stretch of road. Dusk was just beginning to fall, and he cast a long shadow on pitted pavement.  I couldn’t stop to take my customary photo, but the image stayed with me—and it’ll be the basis for Greenhouse Mystery number five.

HANK: Oh, I can’t wait to hear about it!

And you know, the say there are only two plots. One, a person goes on a journey. Two:  a stranger comes to town.  And, thinking about hat, that’s the same story. From different points of view. Hmm.

So Reds, if someone was walking down YOUR street, what interesting thing might they see? Hmm I see a big hedge that--overnight—was run into and smashed by…something. There’s a story, right?

-->

How about outside your window?  And—have you ever used a Eurail pass? I always thought that was the coolest thing.

And what's your favorite book about a journey?

Wendy Tyson's background in law and psychology has provided inspiration for her mysteries and thrillers. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Wendy has returned to her roots and lives there again on a micro-farm with her husband, three sons and three dogs. Wendy’s short fiction has appeared in literary journals, and she’s a contributing editor and columnist for The Big Thrill and The Thrill Begins, International Thriller Writers’ online magazines. Wendy is the author of the Allison Campbell Mystery Series and the Greenhouse Mystery Series.

 

SEEDS OF REVENGE

Megan Sawyer is determined to farm year-round. So much so that she braves a December snowstorm to pitch her fresh greenhouse greens to Philadelphia chefs. And then she sees a stranger stranded on the side of the road. But this woman is no stranger to Winsome. It’s Becca Fox. A love chemist (you read that right). She’s headed to her aunt’s house to sell her love potions at holiday events.  Or so Becca thinks.

Her sneaky aunt only invited Becca home to reunite her with her estranged father. It sounds noble and kind-hearted, until the man ends up dead.  Megan soon finds herself in the middle. She realizes Becca’s not the only one getting iced over. Megan’s own aunt, the famous mystery author, is dragged into the drama. Now it’s personal. Our Megan must follow a cryptic trail of literary clues, all while sifting through the victim’s sordid past. As she gets closer to the truth...the murderer gets closer to her.

--> --> -->

We Need Your Best Advice

HANK: Think of a farmer. Got a picture?

Okay. And because this is our dear Jungle Red, the image in your brain may not be a man.  But—it might be.

My wonderfully talented pal Wendy Tyson has been thinking about this. 

And of course, this is the perfect week for it. Then again, every week is the perfect week. Until the most perfect week, sometime which I hope is soon, when we never have to discuss it again.

Fighting Farmers and Other Ladies Who Launch

By Wendy Tyson

I just launched my second Greenhouse novel, BITTER HARVEST. The series, which lives on the cozier side of mystery, features environmental-lawyer-turned-organic-farmer Megan Sawyer.

Megan returns to her roots in the small, historic Eastern Pennsylvania town of Winsome to revive her family’s organic farm and turn an abandoned storefront into a natural foods shop and café. She’s joined in her quest by a motley crew of friends and family, including her spirited eighty-four-year-old grandmother, Bonnie “Bibi” Birch, who knows how to knead dough and shoot a gun. Farming is hard work, and getting not one but two businesses going takes all of Megan’s resources. She hits headwinds, of course—not the least of which involve murder.

Megan has pulled herself up by the bootstraps. She’s an Everywoman of sorts, a modern-day food warrior bent on showing the world what regenerative farming can do. To that end, she fights the good fight every day, struggling to keep the sign up and the doors open. Battling injustice? Simply part of the gig.

I recently engaged in a heated conversation with a man who was touting the attributes of “self-made men.” “They’re all across the country,” he said. “They started businesses, often from nothing. They’re what makes America great.”

His statements, made with the fervor of a true believer, gave me pause. Not because of the political nature of his responses (and no surprises, this was in the context of a political discussion), but because he made it quite clear by tone and intonation that he wasn’t using “men” as a gender catch-all. He meant Men.

“I agree that self-made men and women deserve recognition,” I said. “There are plenty of women who have sacrificed all to start a business or champion a cause.”

Crickets.

I was working on my third Greenhouse Mystery at the time, and the conversation stayed with me long after it should have. Perhaps because I’d seen some of this guy’s easy dismissal occur in my own books, in the townsfolk of Winsome: the zoning commissioner who refused Megan’s permits (he was bludgeoned to death in chapter three, by the way), long-time family friends who characterized Megan’s efforts as sweet or cute, and the young Chief of Police who felt Megan had set herself up to fail. But for Megan, as with so many real-life women, the threat of failure was never an excuse not to commit.

Eventually I realized that the conversation hit a nerve because the fictional backlash Megan encountered isn’t so fictional. I heard it in my counterpart’s condescending tone. I read it in the articles and opinion pieces condemning the peaceful women’s marches. I see it in the faces of people whose contempt for the opposite sex is thinly veiled beneath colloquial attitudes and old-fashioned platitudes. I, a lawyer and author who never saw gender as an impediment to success, was suddenly reminded of sexism’s insidious nature.

In many ways, Megan is fashioned after the strong women in my own life. Women who launched themselves at the world, often quietly succeeding in the face of great adversity. My great-grandmother was such a woman. She arrived in America from Italy at age eleven and found herself married to a practical stranger five years later. She didn’t speak English, was not wealthy, didn’t wear the right clothes, didn’t practice the right religion—and she had to feed a family of eight during the Great Depression. 

Nevertheless, she persisted in learning the language, understanding the culture well enough to buy and sell houses for a profit. She was a house “flipper” before it became fashionable. Self-made? Absolutely. Unsung? That, too.

Of course, strength is not confined to one gender. Nor is perseverance. Nor is the term “self-made.” There are amazing men out there doing amazing things. 

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recognize and celebrate the women who’ve sacrificed to better our world. Megan’s a fighter. She fights proudly alongside the other female sleuths of our time, outsmarting bad people and seeing to it that justice prevails. But like many of her fictional counterparts, she’s fashioned after real-life heroes.

HANK:  I think of all the new babies being born—my little nephew Silvio, just two weeks old. Debs and Hallie and Roberta have new members of their families. 

Dear Reds, who is the newest member of your family? Or the youngest person you know? What would you wish for them? What advice would you give them?

And a copy of BITTER HARVEST to one lucky commenter!

Wendy Tyson is an author, lawyer and former therapist whose background has inspired her mysteries and thrillers.   Wendy has written four published crime novels, including Dying Brand, the third novel in the Allison Campbell Mystery Series,which was released on May 5, 2015.  The first in the Campbell series, Killer Image, was named a best mystery for book clubs in 2014 by Examiner.com.  Wendy is also the author of the Greenhouse Mystery Series, the first of which, A Muddied Murder, is due to be released in spring 2016.  Wendy is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers, and she is a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, International Thriller Writers’ online magazine.  Wendy lives with her husband, three sons and three dogs on a micro-farm just outside of Philadelphia.