Lisa Alber--The Dad Theme, in Life and My Novels

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Welcome back, Lisa Alber! I love that JUNGLE RED has a special place in your writing history, and we are always thrilled to have you!

But I do want to know how time--and books!--go by so fast... Has it really been four years?

LISA ALBER: Thanks for inviting me today, Debs! A funny thing happened on the way to writing this blog post. I decided to refresh my memory about my previous guest posts here on Jungle Reds and came upon a post that I’d forgotten I’d written. My very first guest post anywhere, as a matter of fact, back in 2013. It’s a post about Coffee Toffee Pie (+recipe!) and my deceased dad—a kind of loaded topic. Not the pie, which was the reason Lucy asked me to post in the first place (everyone loves pie, am I right or am I wrong?), but the dad bits.

Fast forward four years, and I can’t help but think about how father-daughter (and some son) relationships figure big in my novels. It’s a theme I keep mining, keep wanting to explore.

In Path Into Darkness, my third novel set in Ireland, one of my two main series characters, DS Danny Ahern, balances being a single father, managing his comatose wife’s medical ups-and-downs, and investigating the murder of one of his pub mates, Elder Joe. Meanwhile, my other protagonist, Californian Merrit, is still trying to maneuver around her relationship with her father, Liam, at the same time she gets pulled into Danny’s investigation.

Danny and Merrit find themselves circling ever closer to the darkness at the heart of the ultimate father-daughter relationship: mentally fragile Nathan Tate and beautiful, buoyant Zoe. This relationship is a doozy! And it could be that Nathan is somehow implicated in Elder Joe’s murder, or it could be that something else is going on altogether. (I hope you’re intrigued!)

So, fathers and their children—the theme that keeps on giving!

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately because I visited with his sisters in Chicago at the beginning of the month. I hadn’t seen them in decades. At one point, Aunt Bernie was preparing appetizers while I drank wine (what’s new?), and I had this moment of dislocation. Her mannerisms, her gestures, her expressions, even the way her mouth hung open when she wasn’t talking, was my dad all over again. For a few moments there, Dad was alive again. 

When I expressed my verklempted-ness, Aunt Bernie treated me to a Princess Di glance and a little smile (so like dad!), and said, “We did come out of the same gene pool, after all.”

And that was so dad too—using logic to veer away from emotion. I just had to laugh, but I didn’t let her Alber-ness daunt me. I was feeling emotional, and I was going to express it!

“I’m getting teary,” I said. “It’s like seeing dad again.”

“Well, that’s OK then,” she said, which makes me smile even now. So effusive, we Albers!

It might be a truism that our themes pick us rather than the other way around. If that’s so, I wonder when I’m going to start delving into mother-child dynamics?

DEBS: Well, if you do, Lisa, I can't wait to read the result. Here's what the reviewers have to say about PATH INTO DARKNESS:

“Alber’s third series outing is an atmospheric story of Ireland, filled with myth and darkness. The characters are as hard and mysterious as the land itself. Fans of Erin Hart’s dark Irish crime novels should welcome this series.” —Library Journal (starred review)

"A dark, compelling mystery with numerous plot twists and well-drawn characters interwoven with an involving portrait of life in a small insular Irish village." —Booklist

"Heartwrenching ... engaging ... A haunting tale rife with gruesome murders and secrets, Path into Darkness shines." —Foreword Reviews

“Lisa Alber’s new mystery is like a BBC drama—an Irish small town with far too many secrets. Every character's motivations seem utterly different after one more turn of the screw. And there is always one more turn of the screw.”
—Willamette Week

I can echo all that and add that I LOVED PATH INTO DARKNESS and so did my mystery fan daughter.

Lisa Alber’s debut novel, Kilmoon, was nominated for the Rosebud Award of Best First Novel. Kirkus calls her second novel, Whispers in the Mist, a “worthy successor to Kilmoon in tone, mood, complexity, and keen insight into human failures and triumphs.” She balances writing her next novel with gardening, dog-walking, and goofing off. She lives in Portland, OR. You can find Lisa online at lisaalber.com, Facebook and Twitter.

Lisa will be dropping in to chat, and will give away a copy of PATH INTO DARKNESS AND an Irish trinket to a lucky commenter.

READERS, do you enjoy books that explore complicated family relationships?

Lisa Alber, WHISPERS IN THE MIST—and Meeting her Matchmaker

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Today I'm delighted to introduce Lisa Alber, author of Kilmoon and her just-published Whispers in the Mist.

LISA ALBER: Thanks for having me, Susan! I always enjoy joining the Jungle Reds gang for a day.

In my relatively short time as a novelist (my second novel, WHISPERS IN THE MIST, came out a few weeks ago—woohoo!), I’ve come to the conclusion that reading is a conversation we have with ourselves; how we react to what we read isn’t so much about the story as about ourselves.

I hadn’t thought about this until I went to Ireland this past spring for novel research. One day to my delight I happened on a big horse fair and got to talking to the owner of a Connemara pony. He was charming fellow, one of the loquacious Irish. I wasn’t expecting anything out of the conversation, but then he asked my name, and I asked his name, and then my mind got blown.

“Wait,” I said, “you’re W—D—, the matchmaker?” I couldn’t believe it. Of all the horse owners in all of Ireland, I happened to be talking to the man who was one of the inspirations for my first novel (and thus the series). Oh. My. God. I immediately fell into a flurry of words, telling him about the County Clare mysteries and assuring him that my rendition of matchmaking had nothing to do with reality.

I pulled out a copy of KILMOON that I carried with me everywhere. He seemed a little—bemused? Wary? Skeptical? But, also curious. Maybe a smidgen impressed. So, feeling a tad foolish, I signed over the copy to him. He asked for my phone number. 

Sure, why not? I thought.  

I walked away thoroughly tickled by the encounter, so tickled that I had to tell Lou the owner of my favorite café, Ginger Lou’s, and later Kevin the barman at my favorite pub, Cooley’s. I got an earful about the matchmaker along the lines of:

“He’d buy and sell you as soon as look at you.” “He’s a pretty tricky character.” “An old gigolo.” “You couldn’t be matchmaker without doing a bit of quality control.”

Fascinating, I thought. W—D—, matchmaker, was or is a total player. Huh.

Fast forward a week. I received a text message: You said i may not like the book i said i might so when good to meet up w--

Whoa! I hadn’t expected to hear from W—, and here he’d read the bbook surprisingly fast. The next day we met up at Ginger Lou’s. Only now I was unaccountably nervous. My matchmaker is the only character I’ve written who is remotely based on reality, and however remotely, the fact remained that I’d gotten the idea for him from W—D—. If W— was a tricky character, did he want money? If he was an old gigolo, did he want—something?

WHAT DID HE WANT?

The suspense about killed me, and Lou was nothing but laughing at me. “Oh ay, he probably just wants to get the leg over.” (“The leg over” – I love the Irish!)

The next day, W— was charming as could be as we sipped tea and ate dessert (with Lou smirking in the background). He didn’t say much about the novel, only that I certainly “can write.” We chatted about all kinds of things, including his large extended family, many kids, and grandchildren. I couldn’t figure him out.

Toward the end of the conversation, he finally said, “There’s one thing I want to ask you though.” Uh-oh, here we go. “Your character, Merrit—is she based on anyone?”

Merrit is one of my series protagonists. She’s from California and is the illegitimate daughter of the local matchmaker. It took me a second to realize what W— was asking: Was Merrit based on ME? Was I his daughter? Whoa! Without letting on that I understood what he was really asking, I assured him that she’s not based on anyone real.

You can see why I got to reflecting about the meanings our stories can have for people, meanings that we could never in a million years predict, meanings that don’t reflect the stories themselves, meanings that have nothing to do with us, the authors. It’s an amazing thing, not to mention a little mind-boggling.

Ultimately, I suppose that’s why storytelling is so powerful. Stories have their own lives. I just hadn’t considered this for the stories I write. I mean, I’m just doing my thing—having my own conversation with myself as I write.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Lisa, wow, what an amazing story. He must have been completely freaked out that you might be his real-life daughter, based on Merrit!


Reds and lovely readers, when you read, how much of yourselves to you bring to the book? Do you think novels are a collaboration between writer and reader? Tell us in the comments!



ABOUT WHISPERS IN THE MIST:

There’s a whisper in the mists

In Lisfenora, Ireland, a strange fog has rolled in off the Atlantic. Along with the fog comes tales of the Grey Man, a predatory faery of local lore who snatches innocent souls into his deadly gloom.

And with the mists come murder

When a teenage boy dies in Detective Sergeant Danny Ahern’s arms, Danny finds himself pursuing his own grey man, a killer who becomes more elusive the closer Danny gets to the truth. A mute woman may be the key to solving the murder and helping Danny heal his own broken life, but first she must unlock the memories from her past.

ABOUT LISA:

Lisa Alber writes the County Clare mysteries. Her debut novel, Kilmoon, was nominated for the Rosebud Award of Best First Novel. Kirkus calls her second novel, Whispers in the Mist, a “worthy successor to Kilmoon in tone, mood, complexity, and keen insight into human failures and triumphs.” She balances writing her third novel (Midnight Ink, August 2017) with gardening, dog-walking, and goofing off. She lives in Portland, OR. You can find Lisa online at lisaalber.com, Facebook and Twitter.

WHISPERS link: https://www.amazon.com/Whispers-Mist-County-Clare-Mystery/dp/073874896X

KILMOON link: https://www.amazon.com/Kilmoon-County-Clare-Mystery-Alber/dp/0989544605